Lititz Record Express

              ÎSDAY, July 17, 1997
m m m m am m m m m n . um a am m m m
L ï î -V" - a - u r d E x p r e s s
121 ST YEAR 2 4 P a g e s - N o . 1 4 LSTITZ, PENNSYLVANIA T w o s e c t i o n s 3 0 c e n t s
m m m s& vm m
INS'
ju g g lin g t o B a ltim o r e
Chris Ivey of Lititz has
become known around town
for his juggling skills, and now
he is taking them to a new
audience down at Baltimore’s
Inner Harbor for several
shows this summer. Page 6.
□ Sports
Berkey advances as
East-West All-Star
Lititz Legion outfielder
Steve Berkey qualified to play
in the Pennsylvania American
Legion All-East All-Star game
at Veteran’s Stadium in
Philadelphia on Tuesday.
While he was inere. -’is per­formance
quaiinsd rum' to
advance to the highest i^ve in
Legion baseba'C the East-
West AT-Star game. Pags y.
Business...................... o- i 9
Churcn................................ ; n
Classified...................,.,.21-23
Editoria: / Lot ■.am........ .. a
Entertainrnen............... 12, ¿.0
Manheim News...................17
Obituaries / Births..............2-3
Out of the Past............ 17, 19
Police Log............................7
School News......... .............. 6
Social............................14-15
Sports.............. ............... 8-11
' s
: A u d i i
agreeme -
Union wo
Villa retirem-
Lititz have a r
lowing near1
ongoing ne
18.
Also, loc
Brent and 1.
opened their
Keath’s Fan
along Doe Rv
Renaissance Fa»re
returns wnn a oang
The Pa. Renaissance Faire
at Mount Hope Estate and
Winery is returning on Aug. 2
for another season of merri­ment
and royal entertainment.
This year’s Faire also has an
exciting new addition. For a
preview, see Page 12.
Pleasant View
proposes expansion
The Pleasant View
Retirement Community in
Penn Township is looking to
expand its present facility by
adding 125 apartments and
36 cottage units. Page 17.
V
¡#Hv
Parents cautious
after explosion
STEPHEN SEEBER
?..
Ï
mm l ljt*r
-
■*- 'V. "Ef,-
SM I P
Photo b y StephertSeeber
Trisha Panos (left) and Kaitlin Brophy have little time to worry about bombs as they play in Lititz Run, but
many parents plan to stay a little closer to their kids during visits to local parks.
Action lik e ly at
bad in tersection
Record Express Staff
LITITZ — Even though police
claim all six pipe bombs made by a
group of local teens are accounted
for, residents continue to use the bor­ough’s
parks with caution.
One of the bombs, made with gun­powder
and a four-inch steel pipe,
exploded at the public park along
New Street last Friday evening. No
one was hurt, but the blast did consid­erable
damage to the park pavilion
and neighbors were startled.
Lititz police quickly arrested two
15-year-old boys and later found out
that four other teens were involved.
Federal ATF agents were brought in
for the investigation, and because the
boys in custody would not cooperate
in disclosing the locations of the
other bombs, an alert was issued to
the press on Monday that warned
residents to be on the lookout for the
missing explosives.
It was later learned that the boys
pulled instructions on how to build a
bomb from the Internet. Testimony
from the oihev teens led police to the
remaining bombs, one of which was
reportedly set off behind the CVS
Pharmacy on South Broad Street.
An Army bomb squad from Fort
Indaintown Gap detonated the last of
the bombs Monday night, and on
Tuesday Lititz Mayor Russell Petty­john
said the borough was again safe
for recreational use.
Still, the thought of homemade
bombs randomly placed around town
had people on the edge.
“Maybe I should take them (the
kids) out of here,” said Anne Quat-trone,
who was watching her grand­children
play in Lititz Springs Park.
Quattrone said that she heard
about the bombs, but was unaware
that one exploded at the New Street
Park.
“That’s frightening,” she said. “I
did tell (the kids) not to touch
anything.”
Activity appeared to be normal in
the public parks around town on
Tuesday. People were walking dogs,
boys played basketball at the New
Street park, and children were using
(S;s Pine Bomb, Page 24)
■ ■ H i
STEPHEN SEEBER
Record Express Staff
BRICKERVILLE Hie recent
collision at Brubaker Valley Road
' and Route 501, which sent eight peo­ple
to the hospital, sparked more con­cern
from Elizabeth Township’s
supervisors during their monthly
meeting Monday night
Although rnosl of the accidents
have beers attributed to human error
and a 1996 PennDOT traffic study
determined that traffic lights were
not warranted, Supervisor Chairman
Larry Wiker stressed that some­thing
needs to be done before there is
a fatal accident.
The intersection has consistently
been referred to as one of the most
dangerous in the township. So far
none of the accidents have taken a
human life, but many of the neigh­bors
and some of the supervisors feel
that day may just be a matter of time.
“I’d like to start pushing for a red
light again,” said Wiker. “I don’t
want to approve a light after a death
and then feel we’ve done a good
thing.”
When the township inquired about
a traffic signal last October, Pen-nDOT’s
district engineer, Barry
Hoffman, responded with, an in-depth
traffic study at the intersection.
In a Dec. 17 letter to the supervi­sors,
Hoffman wrote that an analysis
was done on 16 reportable accidents
at that location. Drivers and/or wit­nesses
interviewed stated that they
did stop and then pulled into oncom­ing
traffic.
PennDOT did agree to widen the
stop bars on the roadway, but that in
(See Accident, Page 24) Water gar den Tour
runs through boro
JILL IVEY
Record Express Staff
LITITZ —- Once again Stauffers
of Kissel Hill is presenting a free
watergardening tour throughout Lan­caster
County.
The event will take place Satur­day,
July 19 from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Bro­chures
with directions and descrip­tions
of all the homes are available at
any Stauffers of Kissel Hill.
Several Lititz homes are included
in the tour. One of those homes
belongs to Kerry and Missy Felty,
937 May Road'
The Felty home features two
smaller ponds and one large pond off
the back patio of the home. Kerry
said that loves walking through the
forest and coming across a hidden
stream or pond. It was that feeling
which Felty tried to capture.
“I like subtlety,” said Kerry. “I’m
not into' grandios. I like little
surprises.”
He said his wife wanted nothing to
do with watergardens in the back­yard,
but now he said she even feeds
the more than 18 fish which reside in
the pond.
Kerry said that he and his son
Chad dug out the pond in an after­noon
four years ago. He said that
after three months they thought it
was mature.
“It’s never really mature,” said
Kerry. “There are always spaces to
fill in.”
The yard also features a stone
walkway, which with some imagina-
• fion resembles a tulip. The walkway
leads to a veranda. The roof of the
veranda is a crabapple tree entwined
with a grape vine.
Kerry said he tried to relate diffe­rent
areas of the yard to each other.
He strived for a park-like setting with
the pond as the focal point
“We needed to accent and soften
the yard,” he said. “I like to have
things flowing.”
Kerry said the garden is a lot of
busywork, but it is always fun. He
said that once the pond is established
it is low maintenar.ce. Perfection is
not something Kerry is interested in.
“You never get (the watergardens)
perfect, but perfection’s boring any­way,”
he said.
(See Watergarden, Page 24)
Photo b y Richard Reitz
Ian Ross, 4, of Lititz was visibly disappointed about the loss of the playground he used to play on at St.
Paul’s Nursery School. Still, he was as optimistic as he could be, saying that he and the other kids could still
play on some of the other pieces behind the church.
Dream playground goes up in flames
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
LIT ITZ—In a flash, an unknown vandal has destroy­ed
something that has brought enjoyment to preschoolers
over the past two years.
Shortly after the July 3 Independence Day Parade, at
around 8:30 p.m., a night custodian at St. Paul’s Lutheran
Church on Orange Street noticed flames on the play­ground
equipment in the area behind the church where
the nursery school students often play.
He used a fire extingusher and called the Lititz Fire
Company for assistance to put out the blaze, but not
before the fire irreparably damaged the $3,500 plastic
apparatus.
Today, the multi-colored playground that inspired
excitement in the eyes of young children sits covered in a
solid blue tarp with a yellow caution banner draped
around it
“It’s just really disappointing,” said Carol Ross of
Lititz, whose 4-year-old son Ian attends the nursery
school. “Because of some unsupervised children, these
children here will have nowhere to play.”
Apparently a fire was started by one or more people in
a part of the playground equipment that resembled a
U ------- -------— - — — — — -----------------
“Those children are probably w on ­dering,
sWhy did somebody do th is to
as? W e ’re ju s t k id s.’”
Denise Bedger, director
St. Paul’s Nursery School
— — — -----— -----— ------— 99
house. It appears to have started in a pretend fireplace.
The piece also featurlii three sliding boards and dome
windows for the children. Although the entire structure
was not burned, the flames caused enough damaged to
the core of the structure to damage the overall integrity of
the support and render it a total loss.
“We contacted the company, and determined that it is
safer to just replace the whole thing,” Ross said. She
added that they are still unsure of how to dispose of it
Parents, kids, and staff at the nursery school are left
flabergasted by this act of vandalism.
Even young Ian offered his thoughts on what the kids
can do now in the playground.
(See Playground, Page 24) Bonfield marks 2 decades at Warwick
RICHARD REITZ
Bonfield
Record Express Editor
LITITZ— On his second full day
on the job, Warwick School District
superintendent Dr. John R. Bonfield
was faced with a controversial
situation.
Twenty years ago this week, resi­dents
in Rothsviile were upset at a
school board decision to close the
Rothsviile Elementary School, and
submitted a petition with the signa­tures
of 612 people who felt the same
way.
The decision to close the wooden
building for one year had already
been made before Bonfield officially
became superintendent on July 18,
1977, and following that meeting,
those residents left disappointed that
their last ditch effort failed.
“The building did not meet fire
codes, and would have cost $1 mil­lion
to renovate,” Bonfield said in an
interview with the Record Express
on Monday. ‘The general feeling
was that it was best to close i t ”
Bonfield was a new name and face
for the people of Lititz and Warwick
in 1977. Two decades later, Bonfield
and Warwick School District are vir­tually
synonymous.
Friday marks his official 20th
anniversary with Warwick, which is
quite an accomplishment, consider-ing
the average school district super­intendent
tenure in Pennsylvania is
3.2 years.
“We are kind of like baseball man­agers,”
Bonfield joked.
Even Bonfield, 60, admits that
when he first arrived at Warwick, he
did not expect to remain this long.
“I came here expecting I would be
around for seven or eight years,” the
longtime educator said. “I figured
that every year you make 10 percent
of the people unhappy, so at that
point it might be a good time to move
on.”
But he never reached that level,
and despite receiving several lucra­tive
offers to become superintendent
for other school districts, he has
turned down each one.
The reason was simple. He and his
family moved into the Lititz com­munity,
and like so many others, fell
in love with it.
“You get to meet a lot of great peo­ple,”
he said. “It is truly a wonderful
small town atmosphere. It was a
wonderful move for us; a change that
was all for the best.”
He said in a recent offer, they
wanted him to move out of this com­munity.
“I just didn’t want to do
that.”
Never was the support of this com­munity
so important to him than in
(See Bonfield, Page 24)