Lititz Record Express

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S E RUM, THE WARWICK-AREA VOR MORE //MY i CE S TI R Y
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CONSOLIDATED WÍTKTHE LITITZ RECORD 1937 " Ljtitz, Lancaster County, PA. 17543,Thiirsday, June 30,1983 ■25 CENTS A COPY: $7.00 PER YEAR'BY MAIL
. . ' WITHIN LANCASTER COUNTY 20 Pages-No. 15
A s s i g n m e n t : U n d e r c o v e r A d d i c t
Joyce Blatt
Recalls Role In Spring Drug Bust
By Julia Marshall
She’s petite and pert and
darn appealing.She!s pretty, ;
with the clean-scrubbed
good looks that remind you
of your kid sister before she
started trying to look like a
co v e r g ir l from
Cosmopolitan.
But Joyee Blatt, who
appears much younger than
her 26 years, has said and
done and seen things in a
sleazy side of life you
“L i v i n g t h e l i f e s o m e o f t h o s e p e o p l e
l i v e i s r e a l l y t e r r i b l e , b e i n g s o
a d d i c t e d t o t h a t n e e d l e i . . . .
S e e i n g l i t t l e k i d s w a t c h t h e w h o l e
a c t i v i t y , w a t c h i n g s o m e b o d y
s h o o t u p . «
wouldn’t want little sis to
even know about; let alone
work in. r
Working in it, though, is
part of Joyce,Blatt’s job, and
she does it well. So well, in
fact, that in March her work
resulted in 15 persons being
charged with selling heroin
and cocaine on the streets of
Lancaster. Preliminary
hearings have been held and
those charged have been
ordered to return to court,
Miss Bigtt, who graduated
first in her police academy
class of 22 men and 2 women,
has been a policewoman for
two years and has been with
Warwick Township _ Police
D e p a rtm e n t sin c e
December) She was for­merly
with a police force in
Pittsburgh) The March
assignment, for which she
was "loaned’’ to Lancaster's
police department, was her
fust undercover operation.
Lancaster police, officials
felt, that some of their own
officers might be easily
recognized, while a female
officer might arouse less
suspicion.
Her role as a streetwise,
umkempt addict took officer
Blatt to the southeastern
section of Lancaster where,
after some initial suspicion
on thè’part of the suspected
dealers, she became an
accepted part of the drug
culture.
As a backup officer
watched and waited in, an
unmarked vehicle, Miss
Blatt met with suspects and
, easily bought the drugs that
: wpidfi, her jóùke-,
,, believe h lb itin d èvéritumV
lead to the dealers’ arrests. I
D e sp ite c a r e fu l
preparation, the undercover
role a difficult one, Miss
Blatt said. City detectives
coached her on the street
language and mannerisms
that would make her seem a
With Over 70 Dealers
Annual
Show To Be Held July 9
More than 70 antique
dealers from at least five
states have already signed
up for Lititz’ Annual
Sidewalk Antique Show to be
held throughout the Lititz
business section Saturday,
July 9, officers of the Lititz
Rotary Club announced this
week.
Displays which will be
placed along the sidewalks
for several blocks of Main
and Broad Streets will
feature fine music boxes,
decorated stoneware, tex- 1
tiles, redware pottery,
primitives, early glassware,
toys, country and oak fur­niture
plus a widé variety of
Unusual antiques and
desireable collectibles in
various price ranges.
Dealers who to-date have
reserved spaces include
several from as distant
points as Washington, D.C.,
New York, Philadelphia, and
Pittsburgh along with
dealers from various points
of Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland,, and Ne w J ersey.
Dealers anxious to obtain
sidewalk space should
contact William Bell at the
Lititz Book Store, 27-31 E.
Main St., Lititz, PA 17543, or
by' calling 626-7755. Each
vendor must provide his own
display tables, etc.
Proceeds from the
sidewalk antiques show will
be added to the club’s
student loan fund which has
been assisting college
students of this area for
many years past.
part of the lifestyle she was
trying to infiltrate, and
made sure she was as
knowledgable about the
drugs, their uses, and effects
on the taker as an actual
user would.be.
The study, however, didn’t
fully prepare her for the
conflicts she felt as a police
officer leading a double life.
Although she jokingly said
the hardest part of the
assignment was “probably v
not taking a bath for
awhile,” she admitted that
the adjustment to a lifestyle
foreign to all she was
familiar with was tough.
“it was,strange, going into
a building and seeing a
cockroach run . by and
pretending if didn’t bother
m e ,’shesaid. V
The key tu her successful
role playing, she said, was
; learning to step thinkirigius a
police officer and fully
assume the identity of an
addict.
The act was, easier “once 1
got it out of my mind thát 1
was a police officer and
really started playing the
role. 1 had to think how an '
addict would feel tin a
particular situation), I
played my role to the hilt,
and acted real tough and
brassy,” she said.
Even after altering her
“mind set” from pólice
officer to drug addict, there
were still instances when she
felt her truer emotions
surfacing, Miss Blatt said.
“I’d see tham hassling
. someone - may be a little old
lady walking down the street „
’ - just for fun, and my first
instinct, as a police officer,
was to say ‘Hey, stop that! ’
but 1 couldn’t.”
It was equally tough for
her to keep quiet as she
watched/young people ac­tually
taking the drugs that
she knew could lead to their ;
addiction. "You know, kids
in their late teens) 1 just,,
wanted to go up to them and
say '"Hey, you doii’t know
what you’re, doing to your
life,” ’she said. )
It was imperative that she
resist such impulsés,^
however, both for the suc­cess
of the operation and her
! own safety. One of .those
eventually arrested as a
result of Miss Blatt’s work
was a convicted murderer
out on parole, and several of
her newfound acquaintances ,
Were armed.
Officer Blatt also was
(Turn to Page 12)
I n T h i s I s s u e
Editorial 4
Sports Section 6,7,8
Social 13,14
Classified 10 ,11
Church 16,17
Business Directory 18
iNeighbors say this property at 420 N. Water St.
is a safety and heajth hazard and want Borough
Council to do something to* clean it up. A group
- i t
Record Express Photo/Kathleen King
appeared before Council Tuesday night to present
a petition on thé matter.
Council Hears Complaints
out Water Street Property
unoccupied property on,
North Water Street that
neighbors say is overrun by ;
cits, rats, weeds, and junk was
tp e \ c e n te r ' of a
discussion between Lititz
Borough Council and about
t^h citizens who front council
tb "take imjnediate ac­tion,.,
to correct a very
serious health and safety
problem.” |
William Seace, 316 N.
Water St., presented a
petition signed by 38
neighbors of Charles
, Kissinger, 420 N. Water St.,
asking the council to do
something concrete about
the property.
Kissinger is currently in a
^nursing home in Columbia,
Borough' Council President
C. Wendell Hower told the
petitioners.
Seace cited a number of
sections of the Borough Code
which he saidthe council Had
failed to enforce. These
sections include ordinances
concerning weeds,
animals funding at large,
building inspection code, and
the borough’s health and
sanitation committee. Seace
said the problem at this
property has been going on
for years and the borough
council has been ignoring it. ,
Hower said that "every
council member agrees with
the description of the
property.” He added that he
was not sure that all the
problems at the property
tititz Police News
No Injuries In Three-Car Collision
A thréé-car collision on
North Broad Street near
Rodney Lane \ last Wed
nesday resulted in no in­juries
but moderate damáge
to altthree vehicles.
According to Lititz Pólice
Chief George Hicks, a car
driven by Patrick W. Shay,
P.O. Box 98, Lititz, had
stopped behind traffic
waiting for the light to
change.
A second vehicle, drive by
Rudolph J . Hartman,
Schaefferstown, had come to
almost a full stop, Hicks
said, when it was struck
from behind by a third
vehicle, drive by Ethél M.
Wifcer, 2054 Lititz Pike,
Lancaster.
The Hartman car was then
pushed into the Shay vehicle,
Hickssaid.
Wiker was charged with
following too closely.
/There were no injuries in a
two-car collision, which
occurred on June 24 at 5:03
p.m. at Front Street near
Locust.
According to police, a
vehicle driven by Rachel J.
Lutz, Lookout Road; /and
another vehicle driven by
Scott C. Newcomer, 550
Golden St., were both
travelling east on Front
Street.
Hicks said Newcomer
slowed to make a left turn,
but Lutz who thought he was
going to make a right turn,
tried to pass on the left and
the collision resulted.
Lutz was cited for a
violation of limitations on
passing.
An accident occurred on
June 26 at 7 p.m. on Hensley
Street near West Marion
when a lfryear-old, Lititz
youth operating a motor­cycle
ran into a parked car
belonging to Charles
Conoscenti, 2101 Main St.,
Rothsville.
The youth was charged
with operating a motor
vehicle without a licence,
Hicks said, and the owner of
thè motorcycle, also a 16-
year-old youth, was charged
fpr permitting a rion-lieensed
driver to operate his
motorcycle.
Thefts
Lititz police are currently
investigating a theft which
occurred sometime between
June 18 and 21 at Keller
Brothers, 730 ,S. Broad St.
Stolen from a van parked in
the Keller Brothers lot were
a radio cassette player with
four Alpine speakers, a
stereo equalizer, an AM-FM
(Turn to Page 12)
Seace listed were cause for a
citation. “It’s judgmental,” ,
\ Hower said.,
Hower told the petitioners
that the council was working
with an agent of the Lan­caster
County Office of the
Aging to obtain written
permission from Kissinger
to remove all but one of the
cats and to clean up the
property. Once permission is
obtairted, Council will then
have a work crew cutting,
down weeds, securing the
building and cleaning up the , ^
•’^fa rM h ^ e r-W id : He-hotepÿif
that council had gleaned up.
the property once before m
the past.
• “That’s as far as we can go
at this time.” he said, m
answer to Seace’s statement
that the place should be
"completely razed.” Hower
said the council was not in a
positton to tear down
anybody’s property.
One member of the
audience asked Hower about
the rumor that Kissinger is
willing his property over to
) trie borough for use as a
park. Hower replied that he
wasn’t even sure the
(Turn to Page 12)
Record Express Office
Closed On Monday
The Record Express
Officei will be closed
Monday in observance
of the Fourth of July
holiday.
News for next week’s
p a p e r sh o u ld be
received by Tuesday at
10 a.m.
News releases may be
dropped in the mail slot
at the Record Express
building, 22 E. Main St.,
anytime over the
i weekend.
The deadline for
display advertising is
Tuesday at 3 p.m.
Classified ads will be
received until 5 p.m.
Tuesday.
July 4, 1983 will mark thé
141st observance of thé
Pageant of Candles m the
Lititz Springs P ark .
Obviously, celebrating July
Fourth is something Lititz
has done for a long, long
time.
Although th e c a n ­delighting
ceremony is quite
old, a lot of the other
features of the July Fourth
celebration have come and
gone over the years, some
becoming a part of the
traditional ceremony, others
fading into vague memory)
The firs t recorded
célébration of Independence
Day was in 1811. The village
band played in the newly laid
out park, along the “ Big
Spring” much to the disfavor
of the Moravian town fathers
who disapproved of the
musicians "making merry”
and "disturbing the village
late into the night.” The
town fathers were especially
displeased with the fact that
thé residents of Lititz were
associating ! with a neigh­boring
. military company
that paraded through the
park as part of the day’s
' celebrations.
But apparently the idea of
marking July Fourth with
special events soon caught
on m Lititz, and in 1822 the
first planned observance, a
program arranged by a
group of young men in the
community, made its ap-pearance
on the scene.
That was followed 21 years
later in 1843 with the, first
candle illumination in the
park, the, first of 141 years of
tradition.
At the 1843 candle
illumination 400 candles
were used and admission
was charged. Proceeds,
amounting to $12 , went to
help defray the costs of
1983 Flower Girl
ElizabethAnn Caskey
1983 Crown Bearer
John William Lutz
improvements to the
growing park.
First Fireworks
In 1846 the first fireworks
were set off on the Fourth of
July by Charles Getz of the
Lancaster Museum. Getz
made some rockets and
"other pieces” and from
then on fireworks became an
important part of the
celebration. Only for several
years during the Second
World War were fireworks
eliminated because of a need
to conserve gunpowder and
other incendiary materials
for the war effort.
Throughout the 19th
Century the celebrations in
the park continued to grow,,
attracting more and more
people. With the event of the
railroad station in 1884 and
the trolley line in 1899, the
crowds grew even larger. A
great variety of programs
and people were part of the
festivities in those years.
And many unusual incidents
were recorded by the press, )
1887
In 1887 “Lowande’s
Mexican Show” gave
morning, afternoon and
evening performances. The
' show boasted 90 men, 50
horses and1 mules, and a
large number of dogs. The
afternoon show was well-attended,,
but thé morning
and evening shows had poor
turnouts, the "Lititz Ex­press”
noted.
During the fireworks
display that year one of the
rockets flew horizontally
into the crowd, glanced off a
man’s hat brim, and struck
thé head of a young lady,
who was "surprised and
stunned,” but later turned
out. to be without injury.
Thére was apparently a lot
of refinement still needed on
the fireworks. ,
The police had their
headaches in 1887, to°-
A man described as
"absent-minded” by the
newspaper had a ring stolen
.■ (Turn to Page 12) ^ ^
r-t
m ' ; J -
Ew I
i t I B S
.. :: > (Old EhtrtosCourtesyolSketch Mearigj
Band concerts have always been a traditional part of the Fourth of July in
Lititz, with an ample supply of local musicians like these from Beck’s Constat
Band providing entertainment. The photo was taken in 1911.