Lititz Record Express

              THE RESS
SERVING THE WARWICK AREA FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY
102nd Year ESTA BLISH ED APRIL. 1877. AS THE SU N B EAM
[CO NSOLIDATED WITH THE LITITZ RECORD. 19371 Lititz, Lancaster County, PA. 17543, Thursday, March 15,1979 15 CENTS A COPY; S5.00 PER YEAR BY MAIL
WITHIN LANCASTER COUNTY 28 Pages-No. 49
Ex i 5TIMi? NJ e W
• >'
School District Agrees
On Settlement For
Age Discrimination
LITITZ MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY
Artist's conception of the proposed home office addition to the
Lititz Mutual Insurance Company building. The view above is
shown from the corner of North Broad Street and North Lane
(behind the banks) looking southwest. The existing structure is
the portion on the left with the steeple. The new addition begins
with the central portion (with arched windows) and includes the
three story building at right.
Lititz Mutual Insurance Company Unveils
Plans for Addition to Offices on Square Lititz Mutual Insurance
Company, located on the
square in Lititz, has an­nounced
plans for the con­struction
of an addition to
double the size of its home
office building.
The Lancaster firm of
David Lynch and Associates
has been retained as ar­chitects
for a 15,000 square-foot,
two and three story
addition.
The facility, which will be
T-shaped, will be ap­proximately
76 by 90 feet.
The architectural features
will be compatible and
building, a modern adap­tation
of the old Moravian
architural mode.
Henry H. G ib b e l,
executive vice president,
said the present building was
dedicated August 4,1941, and
has served the company well
for the past 38 years.
However, he added, with
the expanding needs of the
company, the addition is
necessary to meet both the
present and future needs of
Lititz Mutual.
Gibbel said that the
sandstone used in the com
struction of the original
similar to the existing building is still available
Battle Looms Over Merger
Of Brownstown Bank The threat of a fight for
control of the Brownstown
National Bank, with a
branch in Rothsville, arose
this week. The question of a
merger of the rural bank
with a larger area institution
The possibility of a battle
arose in a letter to
stockholders asking for
proxies to be voted at the
an n u a l s to c k h o ld e r s ’
meeting March 27.
The letter, which is signed
by Wendell Shiffer and
Joanne M. Poole, solicits the
proxies to “elect such
directors as will be for the
best interest of all the
stockholders of the bank.”
According to reports, the
present management is
opposed to a merger and the
proxie hunters are trying to
seat members who are in
favor of it.
The letter states, “There
are presently not less than
three offers from larger
institutions to merge with
the Brownstown Bank, and it
is our belief that the ac­ceptance
of one of these
offers would be to the best
in t e r e s t of e v e r y
stockholder.
The letter also states that
the last reported per share
sales price of the bank stock
was $80. It also says that one
area bank has offered better
than five and one-half shares
of its stock for stock of the
Brownstown bank at about
$20 per share. This would
give Brownstown share­holders
about $120 and more
per share for their present
_stock.
It also points out that the
offering bank pays dividends
of $1 per share, which would
mean the equivalent of $5.50
per share for that those who
traded their Brownstown
stock for that of the larger
bank. This is considerably
more than the present
dividend payment.
The o f f ic ia l bank
notification of the annual
stockholders’ meeting is in
the stockholder’s hands. It
made no mention of any
expected departure from the
normal procedure expected
as such a meeting.
from a q u a r ry in
southeastern Pennsylvania.
He noted that bidding will
take place in May following
finalization of the working
drawings and, he said,
construction is scheduled to
begin in June.
The anticipated com­pletion
date for the new
addition is the fall of 1980.
Company History
In the spring of 1888, 25
local citizens met at the
Lititz Springs Hotel to draw
up guidelines for a mutual
fire insurance company to
protect county farmers.
By September of the same
year, the young insurance
company was in operation
and based in the home of
Johnson Miller.
By the turn of the century,
the Agricultural Mutual fire
Insurance Company of
Lancaster County had
evolved into the Lititz
Agricultural Fire Insurance
Company.
In 1941, the company
became the Lititz Mutual
Insurance Company and has
so remained since that date.
Originally limited to the
insuring of farm buildings,
the company soon extended
its coverage. By 1940, Lititz
Mutual had received the
authority to operate in West
Virginia, Ohio, Maryland
and Delaware and later
Indiana, Washington D.C.,
North Carolina and Virginia.
Also in 1940, the company
purchased the building site
at the northwest corner of
Broad and Main streets,
where the Keystone Knitting
Mills had been. The knitting
Moravian Manor Adds
To Health Care Center
Moravian Manor is well on
its way to realizing a project
started a year ago to add 58
extended care beds to its
existing 52-bed health care
center.
A c c o rd in g to Ad­ministrator
Burr Beard, the
board’s consideration of
financing, with respect to
construction costs, kept the
project from getting un­d
e rw a y im m e d ia te ly
following approval by a state
review board in March of
1978.
Consequently, in Sep­tember
Beard applied for a
six-month extension as well
as a “no-doubt” inflation-spurred
cost increase,
raising the original estimate
from $1,250,000 to $1,500,00.
Both requests were ten­tatively
approved and Beard
has reported that con­struction
on the new addition
should begin by June 1, with
completion anticipated by
August of 1980.
In addition to the 52 beds
now available in the health
care center, and the 58 being
readied for future use,
Moravian Manor has 50
residential living units and
16 cottages along Moravian
Manor, all “flourishing,”
according to the ad­ministrator.
Beard said the next
project will be the planning
and construction of an
apartment complex for the
Manor. He noted that
already calls are coming in
from people interested in
retirement apartment
living. He said at last count,
the list of persons wanting
apartments at Moravian
Manor had grown to 134.
mill was razed and in its
place the new Lititz Mutual
building was constructed.
When the company’s
employees moved into their
new offices, they numbered
six. The company’s annual
premium volume was
$300,000.
Today there are more than
70 employees of the com­pany,
and what the company
was writing in yearly
premium volume in 1974 is
now written every 15 days.
Sound Growth
Tlse Lititz Mutual In­surance
Company rounded
out its ninetieth consecutive
year of operation with a net
operating profit of $1,224,000.
This record 11.8 percent
return on net premiums
written of $10,397,000 in­cluded
an underwriting
profit of $433,000. The net
premiums written showed a
7.9 percent increase over the
prior year’s $9,634,000 and
net operating profit was up
an impressive 86.3 percent
over 1977’s $657,000.
The excellent results for
1978 enabled the company to
increase its assets to a
record $21,415,000 and
(Turn to Page 13)
Agreement has been
reached between the United
States Department of Labor
and the Warwick School
District on the settlement of
a three-year-old age
discrimination situation
which could have led to
litigation and possibly the
payment of up to $150,000 in
back pay and legal fees for
the district.
After months of consulta­tion
with representatives of
the federal Department of
Labor, the district ad­ministration
and the school
board have agreed to a final
settlement of $14,600 plus
security the district’s share
of social security payments
to be distributed among six
individuals listed in the
Department of Labor
charges.
Dr. John Bonfield,
superintendent of Warwick
School District, explained
that the charges were made
following investigation of the
district’s 1976-77 school year
records documenting the
hiring and rejecting of
teaching applicants.
The original investigation
was initiated by an ap­plicant’s
age-discrimination
charge, which was later
found to be invalid by a
Department of Labor in­vestigator;
nevertheless,
Dr. Bonfield continued, the
investigator . discovered
other possible instances of
discrimination on file.
The original charges
named 16 applicants as
possible victims of age
discrimination practices in
hiring withing the district
that year, but following
study of documented in­terviews
with those persons,
only six names remained in
the final se ttlem en t
agreement.
in This Issue
Editorial 4
Sports Section 6,7,8,9
Social 10,11
Church News 24
Business Directory 26
Classified 13,14,15
Dr. Bonfield said that
inadequate records formed
the basis on which the
Department of Labor made
its charges adding that since
that time, new procedures
have been instituted wherein
every interview with a
teaching applicant is carried
out under a standard
screening process and is
carefully documented.
He emphasized that the
district’s sole reason for
entering into this agreement
to pay the settlement is to
avoid costly and time-con­suming
litigation.
The informal stipulation of
settlement between the
agreeing parties also notes
that any money not
distributed to the six persons
named, because of an
inability to locate them or
because of a refusal to ac­cept
the sum, would be
returned to the school
district.
Each person receiving a
portion of the settlement will
be required to sign a liability
release as pari of the
agreement.
(Turn to Page 2)
Lititz Girl Reported Runaway
A 15-year old Lititz girl
was reported runaway by
her mother as of 6 p.m.
March 5, Lititz police said.
The girl is Cindy Scar­borough,
daughter of
C h a r le s and B e tty
Scraborough, 314 N. Broad
St. She is 5’2” tall, weighs 114
pounds, has fair complexion,
brown hair and brown eyes.
Police said she was last
seen wearing brown
coroduroy pants, a flowered
blouse and a Warwick High
School jacket.
Rothsville School Sale
Tempts More Buyers
An offer to purchase the
v a c a n t R o th s v ille
Elementary School by Bruce
Jackson, 116 N. Cedar St.,
was shelved following a
decision in Lancaster County
Court Tuesday morning.
According to Dr. John
Bonfield, superintendent of
Warwick School District, the
school board was prepared
to accept Jackson’s offer,
which had been the only one
presented previous to
Tuesday’s hearing.
The hearing was man­dated
because the property
is in the public domain and
because an earlier call for
sealed bids in November
1978 netted no offers.
Two counter offers were
presented orally Tuesday
during the hearing.
Robert Redman, Lititz, in
partnership with Ronald
Cook, Cape May, NJ, made
one offer. A second offer was
presented by the private,
n o n -p r o fit Housing
Development Corporation,
under contract to the Lan­caster
County Board of
Commissioners to provide
low cost housihg for low to
moderate income families.
Since both offers were
reportedly higher than the
original offer made by
Jackson, Judge Paul
Mueller ruled that the school
district could not accept the
lower offer.
Dr. Bonfield said that the
Legal and Finance Com­mittee
of the school board
met Tuesday evening and
has decided to recommend
that the board call for sealed
bids again.
He said the committee
would like to have the bids in
and open in time for the
April board meeting.
Firefighters from Lititz, Brunnerville and Neff-sville
battle a blaze at the barn of Henry Eshelman,
Owl Hill and Cinder Hill Roads, Lititz, Monday. The
building was completely destroyed, with damages
totalling over $100,000.
Fire Destroys Cattle Barn Fire broke out and com­pletely
destroyed a large
cattle bam on the property
of Henry Eshelman, Owl Hill
and Cinder Roads, Lititz,
late Monday morning.
Lititz Fire Chief Howard
Mowrer said the damage
from the 11:15 a.m. fire at
Eshelman’s bam totalled
over $100,000.
Mowrer said that a spark
from a tractor which had
been driven from the bam
about an hour earlier, had
apparently started the blaze.
Eshelman was in the field
with the tractor when he
spotted smoke and went to
investigate, fire officials
said.
High winds blew burning
embers one-fourth to one-half
mile east of the bam,
starting a grass fire which
threatened homes in the
Appaloosa Drive area,
Mowrer said. He added that
the grass fire reached the
backyards of several houses
and a number of acres were
burned off.
Fire officials stated that
three tractors, a com har­v
e ste r , a truck and
numerous other equipment
was destroyed in the blaze. A
car parked near the bam
was scorched. Mowrer said
that Eshelman’s cattle
(about 20 head) were not in
the bam at the time of the
fire and were not destroyed.
Lititz, Neffsville and
Brunnerville Fire Com­panies
fought the blaze for
much of the day. They were
later assisted by Rothsville
Fire Company which had
been fighting a fire in Akron
earlier that morning.
Warwick Ambulance stood
by, but its services were not
needed.
Manheim Fire Company
stood by for Lititz, until the
Company returned to the
station around 4 p.m.