Lititz Record Express

              THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1998
Lititz Record Express ^ a r d -W i « ^
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P u b l i c a t i o n
122ND YEAR 30 Pages - No. 34 LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA Two sections 30 Cents
inside $ 9 5 m i l l i o n u p g r a d e i s u n d e r w a y □□
Lititz Christmas
Hometown Christmas
Lititz will celebrate a
Hometown Christmas this
Friday, Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in
Lititz Springs Park for the
Community Tree Lighting and
Candlelight Carol Sing, and
special events on Saturday.
Plus, be sure to “Shop Lititz
First” and check out all of the
shops in Lititz that are fea­tured
in this week’s special
Hometown Christmas Section
of the Lititz Record Express
on Pag es 21-23.
□ Post Office
Holiday hours
The Lititz Post Office has
announced that for the next
three Sundays, Dec. 6, 13
and 20, the office will open
from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. to help
holiday shoppers meet their
postal needs.
□ School Meeting
Expansion meetings
The Warwick School
District will hold two communi­ty
meetings to share district
enrollment projections and
review options related to the
educational facilities needed
to accommodate expected
increases. The first meeting
will be held tonight in the Lititz
Elementary School library,
and the second will be on
Monday at the Warwick
Middle School auditorium.
Both meetings will be held
from 7-9 p.m. Potential chang­es
to Lititz El and other
schools will be discussed.
□ Business
Disaster aid
Mudryk Chiropractic Group
is collecting hygiene items
from the community to create
comfort kits for the American
Red Cross. Page 16.
□ School
Asbestos money
Warwick School District is
one of many that must decide
the fate of a nearly $2 million
award from an asbestos law­suit,
which is currently in the
hands of the Career and
Technology Center. Page 6.
□ Out of the Past
Thanksgiving
Local historian Sketch
Mearig shares a bittersweet
memory of a Thanksgiving
meal he served to fellow sol­diers
in Germany during
World War II. Page 26.
□ Manheim
‘New Odd Couple’
The Baron Stage will pres­ent
“The New Odd Couple”
this weekend, putting a femi­nine
twist on this popular
comedy. Page 18.
□Entertainment
‘Wizard of Oz’
Some local performers are
appearing the Fulton Opera
production of “The Wizard of
Oz.” More is on Page 13.
□ Sports
Thunders to victory
Kevin Booth of Lititz, a driv­er
in the Thundercar class at
Linda’s Speedway, finished
second for the season in his
class, also earning a sports­manship
honor, Page 11.
□ Index
Births.......................................24
Business............................16-17
Church............................... 14-15
Classified.......................... 26-29
Editorial / Letters.................... 4
Entertainment........................ 13
Manheim News......................18
Obituaries....................... 2-3, 15
Out of the Past............... 19, 26
Police Log........................ 23, 30
School News........................6-7
Social................................24-25
Sports..................................8-11
Local Warner Lambert will supply the world STEPHEN SEEBER
Record E xp ress S ta ff
LITITZ — By 2004, the local
Warner Lambert plant should be on
the tip of every tongue from here to
Beijing.
Last week, the makers of Listerine
mouthwash and Lubraderm skin
cream revealed a $95 million, five-year
plan which will modernize the
43-year-old plant and make Lititz a
household name around the globe.
“We’re going to go with it, there’s
no two ways about it,” said Joe Rihn,
Warner Lambert’s senior project
engineer. He told Borough Council
that when all is said and done, “Lititz
will supply the world” with some of
the most recognized personal care
items.
He explained the bold plan on
Nov. 24. He was also at borough hall
to request a land development waiver
so that the company could build a
small maintenance shed — one of the
early phases of the project.
“In order to keep this project on
schedule, we need to get a building
permit,” he said.
Work on the inside of the plant is
already underway, according to
Rihn, and within the next five years,
Warner Lambert in Lititz will be
known as the premier Global Sourc­ing
Plant for customer health care
products.
Council OK’d the building request
with little concern, offering full sup­port
to Lititz’s biggest industry as it
prepares to get even bigger.
The current 1.2 million-square-foot
facility, which includes a manu­facturing
plant and a distribution
center for all of Warner Lambert’s
East Coast products, supplies
approximately 900 local jobs and
provides the borough with $28,000
in tax revenue each year.
The improvements are mostly in
quest of factory efficiency. Rihn
(See Warner-Lambert, Page 20)
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The Lititz Train Station project is starting to take shape, and planners expect it will be completed ahead
of schedule.
A r r iv in g a h e a d o f t im e
Lititz Train Station could be done by Feb.
RICHARD REITZ ________
Record Express E d ito r
LITITZ — Even as workers
were preparing the foundation for
the new Lititz Train Station, key
discoveries were being uncovered
about the former station.
It has been an exciting time for
organizers that have been plan­ning
and fundraising over the past
five years for the Lititz Springs
Park capital improvement project
— the cornerstone of which is the
construction of a replica train sta­tion
at the park entrance.
“It’s well-ahead of schedule,”
said James Wynkoop, chairman
of the Capital Improvement Com­mittee.
That is due in large part to
cooperative weather. “We could
have it done by February.”
Fundraising efforts have
exceeded their goal by nearly
$20,000, with Wynkoop reporting
that they have collected about
$670,000 — and counting.
He said the train station itself,
including the road, sidewalks, and
landscaping improvements, will
cost in the neighborhood of
T r a i n S t a t i o n
$240,000-260,000. An additional
$100,000 will be used for other
park projects, including the con­struction
of a maintenance build­ing,
and improvements to the
band shell, round house, log cabin
and other general maintenance.
The remaining money will be
placed in an endowment fund, and
the interest will be used for the
upkeep of the train station.
“We didn’t want the Park
Board left with a white elephant
that they couldn’t maintain,”
Wynkoop said. “The endowment
was always part of the plan.”
Recently the building has
begun to take shape, with its
three-tier roof giving passers-by a
pretty good idea of what the com­pleted
project will look like.
And when it is completed, it
will serve many functions —
though an operational train depot
is not among those uses. It will
include an office for park mana­ger
Jim Nuss, a meeting hall, rest
rooms, an information center, and
storage for the Lititz Springs Park
Board on the second floor.
Construction
Creating a replica of a building
that hasn’t existed for over 40
years was not an easy task. It has,
however, been a rewarding one.
Dexter Fry, a consultant for the
project, said they searched unsuc­cessfully
for the plans for the orig­inal
station, which was designed
by Philadelphia architect Frank
(See Train Station, Page 20)
Will Rte. 30
woes hurt or
help shops?
RICHARD REITZ
AND JILL GAGLIANO________
Record Express S ta ff
LITITZ — As the borough pre­pares
to celebrate another Hometown
Christmas this weekend, local mer­chants
are keeping a close eye on the
impact road construction south of
town will have on this holiday shop­ping
season.
“I think it will help — force people
in town to see what Lititz has to
offer,” said an optimistic Michelle
Havrilla, manager of the Wilbur
Chocolate Candy Store, 48 N. Broad
St.
She said the candy store did much
better than expected during its first
weekend of the Christmas season,
and is looking forward to strong sales
over the coming weeks.
“I think because we’re saturated
with Wal-Marts and K-Marts, people
are looking for more unique gifts,”
Havrilla said.
She said the store has expanded its
gift selection this season, featuring
more tins, baskets, and other items
for a wide range of holiday budgets.
The store also receives a number of
mail order requests.
Barb Zink, owner of The Herb
Shop, 20 E. Main St., expects that the
(See Merchants, Page 20)
■ . taeSSL _
Trisha Kramer of Lititz was in town Saturday with her children Addi­son,
9, and Victoria, 4, and their Golden Retriever puppy Zeus — doing
a little window shopping at the Pewter Mug on Main Street.
Signalization can’t
handle Lititz traffic
STEPHEN SEEBER___________
Record E xp ress S ta ff
LITITZ — Local residents might
have to accept bottlenecked traffic
and seemingly unfair red lights as a
way of life.
Last year, the borough used a
matching transportation grant from
the county to install a high-tech syn­chronized
traffic light system for
Broad and Main street intersections.
This closed loop system can be con­trolled
from a central computer in the
Lititz police station.
So far, borough council does not
appear to be completely happy with
the investment. Reacting to phone
calls from frustrated residents, coun­cil
decided have engineers investi­gate
the timing at some of the prob­lem
intersections — Locust and
Main streets, Cedar and Main streets,
Orange and Broad streets, Broad and
Main streets, and Second Avenue
and Broad Street.
“The north-south traffic flow is
not good,” said a concerned council
president Dennis Stuckey. “It’s just
crawling through the square. That’s
my observation.”
Lititz Mayor Russell Pettyjohn
said that he has fielded several com­plaints
from his neighbors who use
Second Avenue to get to work in the
morning.
“Only two cars can get through
that intersection before the light
changes,” he said.
Hoping to provide some clarifica­tion
on what the closed loop system
can and can’t do, John Schick, an
engineer with Rettew Associates,
was brought in to the Nov. 24 bor­ough
council meeting.
“The purpose of the system is to
move traffic on the main artery,” he
explained. “You should expect and
accept that we will have two 20
minute windows (6-8:30 a.m. and
3-6 p.m.) each day when traffic will
be bottlenecked.”
He said that if a driver is using a
side street, a wait of up to 80 seconds
can be expected. To compound driv­er
frustration, the long wait is often
followed by a very brief green light
and then the cycle starts all over
again.
The problems seem to be mount­ing
with Route 30 construction and
holiday traffic, but it may leave some
council members wondering if they
got what they paid for.
On Wednesday of this week,
Stuckey said that when the closed
loop system works properly, it will
be well worth the money that funded
it.
“I think it needs some fine tuning
and then we can alleviate some of the
backup,” he said.
When the timing is set properly,
north-south traffic that drives at the
35 mph speed limit should be able to
hit a sequence of green lights for
quick passage through town.
Side streets may continue to be a
problem, meaning that local drivers
might have to adjust their daily travel
routes. At any rate, it appears that
everyone is still going through the
acculturation phase of this new
system.
Hofferth back
for 12th term
as board pres,
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express E d ito r
LITITZ — Twenty-five years
after he was first elected to the War­wick
School Board, Wallace B. Hof­ferth
was given another show of sup­port
by his peers, re-elected to serve
as its president for 1999.
Hofferth was first elected to the
hoard on Nov. 6, 1973. He was
named the board’s vice president on
Dec. 2, 1975, and a year later made
his first bid for president, falling one
vote short to William G. Owens,
4-to-3.
He continued to serve as vice pres­ident
until Owens stepped down in
1987. On Dec. 8, 1987, Hofferth was
elected president, and has won re-election
eveiy year since.
On Tuesday, he was elected by a
unanimous vote to his 12th term as
president of the Warwick School
Board.
William Flickinger was elected to
his second term as the board’s vice
president.
(See Hofferth, Page 20)
Photos by Richard Reitz
Kyle and Cara Fairhurst, the children of Curtis Fairhurst and Kim
Romney, both of Lititz, were among the first children in line to visit San­ta’s
Castle at the entrance to Lititz Springs Park on Saturday morning.
Hometown Christmas
sparks holiday spirit
RICHARD REITZ______________
Record E xp ress E d ito r
LITITZ — If warm weather has
made it hard to capture the Christmas
spirit, spending some time down­town
this weekend will take care of
that.
The annual Hometown Christmas
celebration returns this Friday even­ing,
featuring the community light-ing
of the Christmas tree at Lititz
Springs Park, as well as numerous
activities and events, including a
holiday craft show, on Saturday.
“Everything seems to be be in
place for the event,” said Lon Hei-back,
president of the Lititz Retailers
Association, co-sponsors of Christ­mas
in the Park with the Lititz
Springs Park Board.
(See Hometown, Page 20)