Lititz Record Express

              T H U R S D A Y , N O V E M B E R 4 , 1 9 9 9
L i t i t z R e c o r d E x p r e s s
^ j a r d - W i n ^
^W i c a t i oW
123RDYEAR 30 Pages - No. 30 LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA Two sections 30 Cents
IN BRIEF
Blocks and crafts
When the Lititz Women of
Today host their annual craft fair
at the Lititz Community Center
on Saturday, Nov. 13, among the
many items available for pur­chase
will be a commemorative
Hometowne Collectible of the
new Lititz Public Library. The
blocks are limited to 250 copies,
and are available for purchase for
$12 each. Library officials said
the blocks are selling fast.
Proceeds benefit the Lititz Public
Library. For information about the
blocks, call 626-2255. More
about the Craft Fair is on Page
24.
INSIDE
□ Sports
Warwick advances
The Warwick field hockey
team advanced to the District
3 finals with a 3-0 win over
Central Dauphin on Tuesday
at Messiah College. Also,
three Warrior runners ad­vanced
to the state cross
country championship race,
following impressive finishes
last weekend at Districts.
Page 8.
□ Also Inside
f
m m
New ambulance
Warwick Ambulance wel­comed
a brand new emer­gency
vehicle, valued at about
$100yS00, to serve the Lititz/
Warwick commuptyviPage/lS.
□ Social
Tour of Homes
The Lititz Woman’s "Club is
hosting its 15th annual
Christmas Tour of Homes in
December, which is also hon­oring
the 250th anniversary
celebration of the Lititz
Moravian Congregation. This
week, the first in a series of
looks at the homes on the tour
appears on Page 22.
□ Entertainment
Rocky Mountains
This Saturday, the Lititz
Rotary Club’s travelogue will
take audiences on an adven­ture
through the Rocky
Mountains. Page 18.
□ School
Band tunes up
The Warwick High School
Marching Band continues to
improve its performance
scores, as they scored their
highest points yet at a compe­tition
Saturday at Lebanon
High School. Page 6.
G a r re tt w in s Garrett endures
wild ride from
May to Nov.
STEPHEN SEEBER
AND RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Staff
WARWICK TWP. — Dan Gar­rett
was elected district justice by a
margin of 500 votes on Tuesday,
bringing closure to the hottest race in
the county.
That’s right, a county GOP com­mittee
executive described the DJ
race in the Warwick School District
as the “hottest” ticket around. David
Morrison posed a legitimate threat to
the Republican-endorsed candidate,
which attracted an unprecidented
amount of media attention for a dis­trict
justice race. In the end, the GOP
rose to the occasion.
Voters in Lititz, Warwick and Eli­zabeth
townships gave Garrett a total
of 2,503 to David Morrison’s 2,008.
“It was a political experience I’ll
never forget,” Garrett said during the
post-result celebration at his Owl
Hill Road home. “I had a fantastic
committee, the best group of people
working for me.”
A much closer race was expected
based on a May primary that separ­ated
both candidates by about one
percent of the vote. Though Morri­son
carried several precincts, the gap
cm Nov. 2 was more than 10 percent.
The winning candidate felt the dif­ference
between May and November
had a lot to do with voter education.
“There was a lot more coverage of
the race since the primary, and more
opportunity for voters to take a close
look at both candidates,” Garrett
said.W
hile Garrett said he was sur­prised
by the lopsided outcome,
many of his supporters were not.
“I wasn’t surprised, Dan was,”
said Jesse Blankenship, chairman of
the Warwick Area Republican Com­mittee.
“But Dave ran a good, hard
campaign.”
The strength of party affiliation
and Dan’s ability to get his message
out to voters apparently kept it from
getting too close.
(Sec Garrett, Page 20)
Photo by Stephen Seeber
Dan and Mary Ann Garrett celebrate a district justice victory late T uesday night Friends and family joined
them at campaign headquarters (their Owl Hill Road home). Dan beat his opponent David Morrison by about
500 votes in what was described as the ‘hottest1 race in the county.
Many voters
STEPHEN SEEBER___________
Record Express Staff
LITITZ — Judges of Elections
here reported average to poor turn­outs
on Election Day, once again
indicating that apathy is alive and
well.
It could have been much worse,
however, according to Bob Derr,
judge of elections for Lititz’s second
ward, second precinct.
According to Derr, the excitement
over the district justice race probably
saved the day.
“We’re a little bit behind other
years,” he said around 1:30 p.m. on
Tuesday. “The district justice race
gives us a better turnout. It’s quite a
contest and I think it’s going to be
close. That’s my opinion.”
stayed home
At that time 111 voters had visited
Derr’s polling site at S t Luke’s
United Church of Christ on North
Broad Street By day’s end another
150 showed up.
Mildred Price, the majority
inspector for the second ward for the
past 20 years, said that the best elec­tion
turnout she can recall was fall
1998.
Good day or bad day, it’s a long
day for folks like Derr and Price.
They don’t get paid much, about $60
for the day, and it’s a 6:30 am. to 9
p.m. shift
“We do it because we think it’s
very necessary,” said Norma Eich-holtz,
second ward clerk.
Derr, a veteran and member of
both the American Legion and VFW,
calls these small government jobs
on Tuesday
true patriotism.
“These people are dedicated to the
community and to the United States
of America, that’s why they do it,” he
said. “They're excellent,” he added
about his co-workers. “If they every
■quit, I ’ll quit.” / ■ ..
Garrett and Morrison supporters
out in Brickerville also said that it
was a slow day. Fred and Ann Grice,
and Sue Vogel, spent much of the day
standing in the wind and rain handing
out literature to voters.
The Grices are Republican com­mittee
representatives for Elizabeth
Township and Vogel is a good friend
of the Morrison’s and a volunteer for
their campaign. Despite the weather,
they said that they had a good time,
chatting with voters.
(See Locals, Page 20)
Morrison hangs
tough without
endorsement
STEPHEN SEEBER
AND RICHARD REITZ________
Record Express Staff
LITITZ — When the Warwick
GOP committee decided not to
endorse David Morrison for district
justice in February, he was expected
to throw in the towel. When he
decided to run against Dan Garrett,
the endorsed Republican, he was told
he was wasting his time.
Morrison didn’t win on Tuesday,
and the vote wasn’t really that close,
but he is satisfied in knowing that his
time was not wasted in campaigning
as a Republican on a Democratic
ticket for the last six months.
“We came close for someone who
was ‘unknown’ in the community,”
Morrison said. “We’re disappointed,
but in the same respect we consider
ourselves a winner. We had a great
group of people working for us.”
“I think we gave the Republican
Committee the biggest challenge
they’ve seen in a number of
decades,” said Scott Althouse, Mor­rison’s
stepson and campaign mana­ger.
“I think this race opened up a
healthy dialogue for Lititz. It was
better than just giving the nod to the
endorsed candidate. People learned a
great deal from this.”
Early in the day, Morrison volun­teers
reported back with some good
numbers from Lititz’s second ward,
second precinct — where Morrison
beat Garrett 170 to 92 — and a few
other polling sites. Preliminary indi­cations
were that the race was close,
maybe even working in. Morrison’s
favor, and that many voters were
crossing “party lines” tovotc for him,
But the tides changed quickly and
within an hour of the closing of the
polls the outcome was fairly clear.
“We thought we had it,” said Alt-house.
“But we were happy with the
support we got and the people we met
during the process.”
Morrison’s wife Judy, who was
extremely active in her husband’s
campaign, said that win or lose she is
(See Morrison, Page 20)
i- 4 . 4
, i 'W • >
Boro hall on course
for 2000 completion
STEPHEN SEEBER___________
Record Express Staff
LITITZ — The borough has had
to leap a few hurdles to keep con­struction
for the new $1.5 million
municipal complex running smooth­ly.
Despite a few setbacks, the pro­ject
should still be complete by Janu­ary
as expected.
A few of those difficulties, includ­ing
problems with police showers
and a misplaced pipe that forced
Council to grant itself a building
code waiver, were discussed at the
Oct. 26 meeting of borough council.
Municipal meetings continue to be
held at the Lititz Fire Company on
West Main Street, but local govern­ment
is looking forward to moving
into the new facility on time.
Council is now dealing with lost
signs, the prospect of expensive new
signs, a contract hole that could leave
scratched up old doors in place, and
an architectua! error that set a plastic
drainage pipe in a stairwell instead of
cm the other side of the wall. While
such snafus would appear to be frus­trating
for Council, these are minor
snags that the borough was not only
prepared for, but also expecting.
“I think these are just the normal
things that happen on a project of this
size,” said council president Dennis
Stuckey. “Overall we’ve been happy
with the contractor and the architect.
You always run into adjustments,
particularly when your renovating a
building."
(See Council, Page 19)
i
_ . „ , Photo by Richard Reitz
Betsy Kemper launches a pumpkin into the sky as students at Warwick Middle School watch from a safe
distance on the ground below the school’s roof.
A sm a sh in g p e r fo rm a n c e
WMS pumpkin toss culminates Red Cross project
Lititz Springs Park
earns national honor
□ Out of the Past
Election memories
From a write-in campaign to
a surprising victory by a
Democrat, this week’s Out of
the Past features several elec­tion
stories from over the
years, as reported in the Lititz
Record and Lititz Express.
Page 25-26.
□ Index
Births..... .............................22
Business........................ 16-17
Church.................... 14-15, 17
Classified.......................26-29
Editorial / Letters................. 4
Entertainment............ ........ 18
Obituaries......................... 2-3
Out of the Past..............25-26
Police/Fire Log.................... 13
School News.....................6-7
Social............................ 22-24
Sports.............................. 8-11
RICHARD REITZ ____________
Record Express Editor
LITITZ — Kids, don’t try this at
home.
Smashing pumpkins is a juvenile
Halloween prank rightfully discour­aged
by adults, but on one particular
morning at Warwick Middle School,
destroying a few pumpkins was fun,
thrilling, faculty-endorsed... and
done for a very good cause.
When Julie Meiskey first enter­tained
the idea of a school-wide fun­draiser
to support the Red Cross and
its relief fund for victims of Hurri­cane
Floyd in the Carolinas, chuck­ing
a few pumpkins had nothing to do
with it.
The impact of the hurricane hit
close to Meiskey and fellow-organizer
Sally McGeehan, who
both have daughters attending col­lege
in North Carolina. Though their
children weren’t affected directly by
the storm, the two teachers still felt a
strong desire to help. So when they
learned about WGAL’s Red Cross
Disaster Relief Fund, they decided to
get the entire middle school
involved.
“It started as ‘Dimes for Donuts,’”
Mrs. Meiskey said. “The homerooms
were trying to raise the most money
for some donuts.”
When the drive kicked off on Oct.
18, Mrs. Meiskey said their goal was
to raise about $500. Then, a new
(See Pumpkins, Page 20)
MARYANNE LAAGER
Special to the Record
LITITZ — For over 200 years,
Lititz Springs Park has been a trea­sured
asset of the community, with
generations of Lititz residents enjoy­ing
and cherishing this beautiful sec­tion
of nature in the center of town.
The park has always won the acco­lades
of local residents, and now it
has also received national recogni­tion.
And with this recognition com­es
a feeling of pride in a town’s past
history, current achievement, and
promise for the future.
On Friday, Oct. 29, Park Superin­tendent
Jim Nuss accepted the presti­gious
medallion award from the
American Society of Landscape
Architects, based in Washington,
D.C.
The 362 medallion awards have
been given in honor of the Society’s
100th birthday. The Medallion Prog­ram
was designed by the Society to
draw public attention to landscapes
that contribute to the quality of
everyday life.
Park Historian and former Park
Board member Ron Reedy explained
that the “park is rich in history dating
back to the 1700s.” For over 200
years, the Lititz Moravian Church
kept the park open to the public. On
Oct. 19, 1956, the maintenence and
operation of the park was turned over
to the community of Lititz and
12-member board of trustees.
In 1957, the master plan for the
park was designed by the Landscape
Architecture firm of McCloud and
Scatchard, now Derek and Ed son
Associates, LLP of Liti tz. Derek and
Edson submitted those pians to the
American Society of Landscape
(See Park, Page 19)