Lititz Record Express

              THURSDAY, July 10, 1997
L m tz R e c o r d E x p r e s s
[1 2 1 S T Y EAR 26 Pages- No. 13 L IT IT Z , PENNSYLVANIA Two sections 30 cents
A NOMENAL FOURTH
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A ‘FRENCH’ REVOLUTION— Hayden, Beverly, and Nadine French (from left to right) display
prize-winning floatfrom the annual Fourth of July Baby Parade. With an idea sparked from their r" ■
trip to Williamsburg, the youngsters decided to dress in traditional Colonial American clothing.
Crowd tops 35,000
Lititz Springs Park
at larg r
4th ever
RICHARD REITZ
AND STEPHEN SEEBER
Record Express Staff
) LITITZ SPRINGS PARK — A
record number of people came to the
park last Friday for $50,000 worth of
INSIDE
‘Boots’ to kick off
First Stage Theatre in Lititz
will feature the family musical
Boots: A Western Tale” now
through July 20, featuring
Jeremiah Miller as Puss (pic­tured
above with Mark Calkins
of Lititz. Page 21.
: Parly in Park re tu rn s
: Party in the Park will soon
mark its fifth year of Christian
entertainment in Lititz. See
more in this week’s Religion
section on Page 20.
Lititz man wins 10,000
meters at nationals
Michael Mykytok of Lititz
won a thrilling 10,000 meter
race at the U.S. Track and
Field Championships in
Indianapolis in June. Is this a
step toward the 2000
Olympics? Page 8.
m u s ic a l a n d p y r o t e c h n i c
entertainment.
E. Ronald Reedy, chairman of the
Fourth of July Committee, estimated
that about 35,000 people flocked to
this yea'Y re^braho*: frr eTceedinp
any figures ever recorded for the
event that on a good day could attract
an estimated 15,000-20,000.
“We can now claim that this year
was the greatest day in local history
for celebrating Independence Day,”
Reedy wrote following the event.
Fourth of July on the Springs
Grounds has served as the main fund­raiser
for the park’s upkeep over the
past 180 years, making it the longest-running
celebration of our nation’s
birth in the county. And the extrava­ganza
seems to get bigger and better
each year.
The annual parade on East Main
Street jump started the community’s
patriotic motor July 3, providing the
perfect warm-up for a full slate of
July 4 events.
Appropriately enough, Harold
Bortz, “Mr. Park” himself, led the
way as the parade’s grand marshal.
Made up of nearly 60 groups and
individual participants, the marching
line of celebrants included Lititz
police, the American Legion and
Car wash w ill
pay for murder
victim’s stone
MAMHEIM — Timal Automo­tive
is sponsoring a benefit car wash
to help pay for a headstone for April
Smith.
Smith, 22, was strangled to death
in a Lititz garage on June 1. Her ex­boyfriend,
Larry Mowrer, reported­ly
confessed to the crime in front of
borough police just hours after the
incident
The benefit will be held at
Longenecker’s Hardware, Doe Run
Road, this Saturday, July 12, from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m.
Money collected will also benefit
the trust fund set up at Farmers First
Bank for Smith’s three young
children.
VFW color guard, Mayor Russell
Pettyjohn, area fire companies,
Dixieland Express, Lititz High’s
Class of 1947, Revolutionary and
Civil War re-enactors, Vietnam vet­erans,
Uncle Sam, the Vision Quest
drill team, the community center’s
For additional
coverage, s e e p a g e s
16 and 26... and
photos throughout
this issue!
New Line Review, Boy Scouts, the
Lititz Sportsmen’s Association, a
steel orchestra, the Rajah Temple
String Band, junior high cheerlead­ers,
Warwick Community Ambu­lance,
and, of course, the Queen of
Candles candidates.
Traveling in the luxurious escort
of the Lancaster County Corvette
Club, fifteen young women did their
fair share of waving and smiling.
Local rock and blues from the
Curtis Earth band and Blue Attitude
set the pace Friday morning.
Earth, bassist and lead singèr for
Curtis Earth, and Blue Attitude
drummer Dave HofTer are both from
Warwick Township. In fact, they are
next door neighbors in the Brook­field
Estates, just off of Market
Street. Earth said that both were
wins Fourth Baby Parade
RICHARD REITZ
Photo by Stephen Seeber
QUR FAVORITE UNCLE •— Sporting his red, white and blue smile the whole way down Main Street, Ger­ald
Treadway of Parksburg represented the American people as Uncle Sam in the annual Lititz Lions Club
Fourth o f July parade. >7 ’ ? .
excited about the chance to play for 1 T lu lltC lO S d T l y p C tu lO tS
such a large crowd in their own
backyard.
More traditional music was pre­sented
by the Lititz Community
Band, the historic Ringgold Band of
Reading.
Throughout the day, park-goers
enjoyed a slew of children’s events
like the peanut scramble and panning
for gold in the cool ripples of Lititz
Run. The big winner in the peanut
scramble was 4-year-old Spencer
Reynolds of Lititz. Assistant for the
peanut scramble was Angela Enck, 8,
from Ephrata.
Straddled between musical fea-
(See Fourth, Page 16)
Record Express Editor
LITITZ SPRINGS' PARK —
This year’s winner in the annual
Fourth of July Baby Parade was
Eight hurt in 501 crash
ELIZABETH TWP. — Eight
people were rushed to Lancaster
General Hospital July 3, following a
two-vehicle collision at Brubaker
Valley Road and Route 501.
State police said that a minivan,
driven by a New Holland woman,
pulled into southbound traffic from
West Brubaker Valley Road around
2 p.m. She reportedly hit a car full of
German tourists, spun clockwise,
went over an embankment, and came
to rest in a field.
The four tourists, driving a 1992
Cadillac, were forced across the
roadway and into a sign outside of
Ober Performance.
Emergency personnel on the scene
said that Christine Reifsnyder, 33, of
New Holland, did not yield at the
intersection’s stop sign. Firemen had
to extract her three children —• Brad­ley,
Emily and Amy—from the van.
Two state troopers from the
Ephrata station were interviewing
passengers and witnesses. Both
troopers said that finding out exactly
what happened was difficult because
none of the tourists spoke English.
(See Accident, Page 7)
simply Revolutionary.
Lititz youngsters Beverly, Hayden
and Nadine French, ages 8,4, and 18
months, were this year’s grand prize
winner in the popular event. The
children of Kevin and Kimberly
French, 234 Spruce S t, were clothed
in young Colonial Patriot’s costumes
created by their mother.
“We were just in Williamsburg,
Virginia,” Mrs. French said. “Hay­den
loved seeing all of the patriots
down there.”
She said they decided there that
this would be the perfect theme for
the parade.
It took her a few weeks to sew the
three outfits to resemble clothing
worn by those early Americans that
were instrumental in gaining our
country’s freedom.
“It was fun,” she said of the prepa­ration,
adding that putting together
the float — a patriotically-decorated
wagon, was a family project the day
before the big parade for the little
ones.
Mrs. French said they were pleas­antly
surprised at being declared the
best in the show. It was their first top
honor, although two years ago the
family won a first place for the best
use of red, white and blue.
The grand prize winner received a
$50 savings bond in addition to the
ribbon. Participants in the parade,
sponsored by the Lititz Women of
Today, each received a small prize
and a participant ribbon.
This year’s collection of 21 cute
and patriotic entries provided quite a
challenge for the four judges, pro­vided
by the American Business
Women’s Association, Penn Valley
Charter Chapter.
First, second, and third place
awards were presented in four
categories: Prettiest, most humorous,
best representation of the theme, and
best use of red, white and blue.
Three-year-old Mackenzie Oettel,
daughter of Kevin and Janet Oettel,
1539 Willoughby Circle, Lancaster,
was the first place winner in the
prettiest category. She won for her
Victorian dress made by her mother
and grandmother, together with a
patriotic baby carriage.
(See Baby Parade, Page 26)
State helps Audubon Villa reach agreement with union
STEPHEN SEEBER
Business............................12 -1 3 Record Express Staff
Church............................... ...,,.20 L IT IT Z — Despite reports that
Classified.......................... ..22-25 unionized nursing home workers for
Editorial / Letters 4 BeverJy Enterprises signed a new
Entertainment..................... 21 four"year cm* act’ £ udubon
Manheim N ew s.................„,.14 ^ o ^ e iv e d c o n f irm a tto n o f th e
Obituaries / Births.................2-3 Gov. Tom Ridge committed the
Out Of the Past....................1 7 State’s Bureau of Mediation to
Police Log.................... 7 intervene in the negotiation process
School News............................. 6 18 months ago, and a statewide com-
Social.............. ,.................. .18-19 promise on wages and health benefits
Sports.............. .....................8-11 that affected a total of 19 nursing
homes was reached last Tuesday.
Still, ratification by individual facili­ties
has yet to be completed.
Karenlee Graver-Potter, direc­tor
of nursing at Audubon Villa, said
that an agreement was reached on
table last Tuesday, but Audubon Vil­la
has not gotten anything in writing.
“We’re just waiting for official
word,” said Graver-Potter. “At this
point, nothing has been presented to
us by either side.”
Beverly’s corporate management,
based in Allentown, and the Service
Employees International Union have
been negotiating since the last con
tract expired in November of 1995.
These negotiations have directly
affected 37 workers at Audubon Vil­la,
who during the nearlv two vears of
uncertainty said it uh m r y <. a ,
the residents of th c r l i i
home.
The one thing th veyc
seemed to have in c orr r it *
desire to bring then ^ o c a
end.
“This has been a long and arduous
time,” said Potter-Graver on Tues­day.
“We all want this over and done
with so that we can move on to the
most important issue — resident
care.”
The past two years at Audubon
Villa has been bumpy at best.
Negotiations began in the fall of
1995 and a few months later Audu­bon
Villa underwent an administra­tive
face-lift
Although upper management said
the ongoing negotiations had nothing
to do with changes at Audubon Villa,
Head Administrator Susan Hostet­ler
and Director of Nursing Helen
Zohn were released in December of
’95 to make way for the teamwork-promoting
duo of Cindy Walter and
Joy Payne.
Payne is no longer a part of this
team, but Walter has remained opti­mistic
throughout the negotiation
process, constantly reminding the
press that the facility would always
put residents first.
Heated debate over issues such as
pay increases and medical benefits
seemed to subside once Walter
assumed the reigns in Lititz, but
wounds reopened in March of 1996
(See Contract, Page 13)