Lititz Record Express

              THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER IQ, 1998
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122ND YEAR
IN S ID E
□Back Page
Teddy Bear Day
returns to Lititz
A day of family fun in the
park returns to Lititz as the
annual Teddy Bear Day, spon­sored
by the Lititz Women of
Today, will be held in Lititz
Springs Park on Saturday. For
all the details on how to enter
the contests and join in the
fun, see Page 28.
□ Entertainment
Dancers will perform
at First Stage
Next month, First Stage
Theatre in Lititz will host a
nodern dance performance
by the newly-formed Grant
Street Dance Company For
more on the show, plus com­ments
from some of the danc­ers
in the ensemble, see
Page 22.
□ Editorial
Joint Strategic
Planning
Next week, three very
important public meetings for
the Lititz-Warwick Joint Stra­tegic
Planning Committee will
be held, and they are hopeful
a number of people will offer
input at the meetings. A col
umn by the group’s consultant
appears on the Editorial page,
and this week’s “For the
Record” and “Our Viewpoint”
examine the importance of
public participation into these
meetings. Page 4.
□ Church
Appalachian mis­sionaries
return
Recently, a group of local
lissionaries took a trip to a
small town in southwestern
Virginia as part of a week-long
mission as part of the
Appalachian Service Project.
Their impression of the trip is
on Page 17.
□ School
Homeschoolers study
in outdoor classroom
Last week, several home-schooled
children were given
a closer look into the world of
butterflies and other insects at
a recent program held in Penn
Township. Pages 6.
□ Manheim
4-H girls win state
honors for horses
A team of local girls com­peted
at the 4-H state horse
judging competition in State
College recently, and came
home with some top honors.
Page 20.
□ Sports
Girls topple mighty
Council Rock
The Warwick varsity field
hockey team took on last
year’s state semifinalist,
Council Rock, and emerged
with a hard-fought 1-0 victory.
For more on the team’s per­formance
during the past
week, see Page 9.
□Meetings
Monday, S e p t. 14, 7 p.m.
— Penn Twp, supervisors, 97
N. Penryn Road.
Monday, S ep t.. 14, 7 p.m.
— Elizabeth Township super­visors,
423 South View Drive.
□ Index
Births............................ 15
Business.........................18-19
Church............................16-17
Classified....................... 24-27
Editorial / Letters............ 4
Entertainment..................... 22
Manheim News................ .....20
Obituaries....................2-3. 21
Out of the Past................... 23
Police Log............................19
School News......................6-7
Social..................... 14-15
Sports...............................8-12
28 Pages - No. 22 LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA 30 Cents
T w p . O K s l i b r a r y p l a n
Groundbreaking is set for Sept. 19
Photo by Stephen Seeber
Lititz firefighter, and local business owner, Tom Benjamin packs his
gearforatrip out west, where wildfires have swept through the moun­tains
of California and Oregon all summer.
B u r n i n g d e s i r e
Adventurous fire fighter packed
and ready for western blazes
RICHARD REITZ_____________
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — The Lititz
RICHARD REITZ______________
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — The 13th
Bicycle Safety Rodeo sponsored by
the Warwick Township Police
Department looks to be the biggest
and most exciting rodeo yet.
The rodeo begins at 9:30 a.m. on
Strategic
RICHARD REITZ______________
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — It is being
called one of the most important pro­jects
yet in the ongoing effort to pro­tect
and preserve the delicate Lititz
Run Watershed.
Stretching along the Santo Dom­ingo
Creek near the Warwick Linear
Park lies a 2.6 acre triangle of land
that is about to play an important role
in reducing the amount of sediment
and nutrients that flows into Lititz
Run.
Base work on the project will
begin this week, but organizers are
hoping that from 8 a.m.-noon on
Saturday, Sept. 19, people will come
out for Community Planting Day, as
there are nearly 4,000 different
plants that will become a part of this
natural water quality management
facility.
“This is an opportunity for people
to contribute,” said Mark Gutshall of
Land water Studies, who is spear-
This sign marks the site where
the facility will be established.
Public Library has closed a big chap­ter
in its ongoing quest for a new and
larger building.
On Sept. 2, Warwick Township
Saturday, Sept. 12, rain or shine, and
will be held at the Warwick Town­ship
police station, 315 Clay Road.
Officer Bill Fasnacht, known to
local youngsters as the department’s
DARE officer, is organizing the
event. In addition to the challenging
bicycle course for riders aged 4-12,
there will also be more emphasis
planting
heading this project with the support
of Warwick Township officials.
He is hoping that somewhere
between 50-100 people will come
out that day to help plant everything
from duck potato and sweet flag to
pickrel weed, just a few of the 10-20
varieties of herbatious and aquatic
plants, as well as trees that will be
planted during Community Planting
Day.
The plants were purchased for
about $15,000 from Octorara Plant
Nurseiy in Kirkwood, which sup­plies
plants for restoration projects
like this. He said the plants are
expected to arrive next week.
Over the next several days, Gut­shall
said an excavating firm will be
planning and shaping the wetlands
area, which will include the creation
of two ponds. Though it may at first
look like more development is under­way
on this site, he said by the end of
next week, the site will begin to take
shape.
Although it may take a year or lon­ger
before this natural filter reaches
its full capabilities, volunteers will
have a pretty good idea of what it will
look like by the end of the day on
Sept. 19.
The main goal of the project is to
slow down the nutrients and sedi­ment
that are flowing down the Santo
Domingo Creek and damaging the
ecosystem in the Lititz Run.
“When you have too much nutri­ent
in a stream, it changes the chemi­cal
balance and it degrades the aqua­tic
life,” Gutshall said. The sediment
can smother the bottom of the creek,
making it difficult for fish to spawn,
and can damage or eliminate other
aquatic habitats.
When this facility is fully grown, it
will reduce the amount of sediment
that flows down the Santo Domingo
(See Planting, Page 28)
supervisors granted final approal for
the subdivision and land develop­ment
plan submitted by library offi­cials,
bringing the planning stage of
the project to an end.
With support of the community
bringing the library close to its finan­cial
goal, all that is left is the actual
construction of the facility along Kis­sel
Hill Road near Sixth Street.
And now that phase of the project
is about to begin.
On Saturday, Sept. 19, a special
groundbreaking ceremony will be
held on the section of the Siegrist
farm where the new library will soon
stand.
Beginning at 10 a.m., Librarian
Donna Hammond hopes they will be
able to draw a nice crowd of suppor­ters
to the site for the ceremony.
“We are inviting kids to bring
Mom’s garden trowel or their own
shovel in order to participate in this
groundbreaking,” Hammond said.
There will be guest speakers,
which have not been determined as
of presstime, as well as refreshments
and special bookmarks for particip­ants.
A lot of the construction vehi­cles
and machinery should be on site
the day of the groundbreaking.
Two days after the ceremony, site
work is set to begin on the $1.5 mil­lion
project to build a 15,000 square
foot library for the community.
Ned Pelger of Lititz, who has been
a supporter of the library project
since the early days of the campaign,
is serving as construction manager
for the project.
They have already selected Fly­way
Excavating, Inc. of Lititz for the
initial excavation work at the new
site, Pelger said. Fly way was cho-
(See Library, Page 28)
placed on safety this year.
Due to renovations at the police
station last year, the bike rodeo was
not held. But last year’s loss is this
year’s gain, as Fasnacht said that a
new course has been created, and
there is now more space for the event.
One of this year’s featured attrac­tion
will be several community dis­plays,
emphasising safety awareness.
Among those planning to participate
and bringing their equipment are
Brunnerville, Lititz and Rothsville
fire companies; Warwick and Roths­ville
ambulances; the Army National
Guard; a McGruff robot from Penn
Township police; the K-9 police dog
from the Shillington Police Depart­ment;
a helicopter from Pennsylvani-a
State Police; and displays spon­sored
by AAA and the Highway
Safety Commission. There will be
about nine officers from the War­wick
P o lic e D ep artm en t in
attendance.
“It’s a way for the kids to bond
(See Bike Rodeo, Page 28)
STEPHEN SEEBER
Record Express Staff
BRUNNERVILLE — Lititz fire
fighter, and thrill seeker, Tom Benja­min
is ready to save the west, again.
Waiting for the inevitable call
from the U.S. Forest Service, Benja­min
has had his bags packed and
loaded on the back of his truck since
last week.
“The waiting is the worst,” he said.
“I’m ready to get out there.”
The destination that this veteran
wildfire fighter has his sights set on is
not that specific, actually. At a
moment’s notice he could be on a
plane to one of several raging fires
anywhere from Washington to
Texas.
Dry lightening, combined with
severe winds and low relative humid­ity,
have created the adverse condi­tions
upon which serious forest fires
thrive.
Twenty-two large fires have been
ravaging Western states all summer,
and while fire fighters on the scene in
Montana and Arkansas have con­tained
23,900 acres of damage, new
fires have been reported in Idaho,
Oregon, Washington, Texas and
Virginia.
The National Interagency Fire
Center in Boise, Idaho, the nation’s
primary logistical support when it
comes to wildfire suppresssion,
expects an incoming cold front to aid
fire fighters this week. High winds
could be a problem, though, and
assistance from Pennsylvania’s Dis­trict
17 may still be needed.
Since Jan. 1, NIFC has reported
64,800 fires and 2,133,474 acres
burned nationwide.
The locations where Benjamin’s
aid might be needed include the
Pocatello Valley near Malad City,
Idaho. This is a new fire in which
changing winds have created control
problems in the steep, inaccessible
terrain.
Lowe Creek is a new lightening
fire in Oregon, 20 miles east of Baker
City. And in Turtle Hole, Texas, a
fast grass fire is currently threatening
nearby homes.
While Benjamin enjoys the adven­ture
aspect of battling Western
blazes, he is serious about his work.
Included in his long resume of wild­fire
experiences is the 1992 Foothills
Fire in Idaho, a devastating 300,000
acre fire. His most recent outing was
earlier this year in Florida, when he
joined feliow Lititz fire fighter P.J.
Whiskeyman for a 10-day jungle fire
experience. Whiskeyman is not on
the current list of standby fire
fighters.
The essential gear for mountain­ous
fire fighting out west, according
to Benjamin, includes both summer
and winter clothes (temperatures
fluctuate between 30 and 80 degrees
between dusk and dawn), reading
material for down time, a Walkman
and a phone card.
“You have to find some way to
stay attached to civilization,” he said.
That’s not to say that fire fighters
from all over the country are just sit­ting
around listening to the radio for
$10 an hour. Benjamin has been
reading the same Tom Clancy novel
for three yearn. It’s not because the
man is illiterate, he owns a successful
sign business. It means that there is
enough fire and danger in these deep
forest regions to keep everyone busy.
And speaking of business, Benja­min
has found an interesting way to
advertise his professional services
while digging trenches and mopping
up. His fire fighting hat is covered
with logos and stickers that he
created in his Lititz sign workshop.
His customized hat has been a hit on
the fire fighting circuit ever since
(See Firefighter, Page 28)
Returning c h am p s
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Photo by Preston Whitcraft
WARRIORS CHARGE INTO BATTLE — The ’98 high school football season officially kicked off last
Friday, and Lititz fans were treated to a great opener, with defending Section One co-champion Warwick
welcoming long-time arch rival Ephrata to Joseph W. Grosh Field. Shown here, Warwick seniors Pat
Cummins (8), Ryan Zimmerman (17), and Nick Watt (55) lead their teammates through a victory line and
onto the field to begin the new season. Unfortunately for the Warriors, a valiant comeback fell just a little
short, as Ephrata stopped a two-point conversion in the final seconds and held on to win, 20-19. For more
photos and details on this exciting opener for new Warwick Coach Mark Snyder, turn to page 8 in sports.
Photo by Richard Reitz
With final approval received for the new Lititz Library building, plan­ners
are now ready to begin construction. On Sept. 4, Bradford Clubb
(center), president of Flyway Excavating, signed the agreement to
begin the site work. He was joined by Ned Pelger (left), construction
manager; and Donna Hammond (right), librarian.
Pun and safety go hand-in-hand
at Warwick Police Bike Rodeo
Volunteers sought for major
Lititz Run Watershed project