Lititz Record Express

              THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1999
L ititz R e c o rd E x p r e ss •i «*>
P u b l i c a t i o n
123RD YEAR 28 Pages- No. 1 LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA 30 Cents
□ INSIPE Supervisors w ill not
resign in Elizabeth □Special Inside
April Showers bring
spring values
Register to win hundreds of
dollars worth of gift certificates
and merchandise in Lititz area
stores now through April 24.
Check inside this issue for
participating merchants, and
look for the “April Showers”
posters when you shop.
STEPHEN SEEBER
* " « * k
□ Social
Puppy reunion
Dan and Lori Zimmerman
recently held a first birthday
party for the 11 puppies that
their golden retriever Emmy
gave birth to last April.
They’ve grown quite a bit
since the above photo was
taken last Spring. Page 14.
Record Express Staff
BRICKERVILLE — Usually,
the second Monday of any given
month coincides with Daniel Groff
calling for the Elizabeth Township
supervisors to resign. This time it
was a capacity crowd doing the call­ing
on Groff’s behalf.
Turmoil was unveiled early Mon­day
night, when township supervi­sors
could not even make it through
the Pledge of Allegiance without a
biting Groff reference from the
audience.
“... with liberty and justice for all”
was followed by a shout from the
back of the room, “and God bless
Dan Groff.”
The tension heightened shortly
afterward as a small room full of
angry people, many coming from
foreign municipalities, cried for
supervisor resignations and an end to
zoning laws Monday night.
“Repent and sin no more, you have
sinned,” William Reil, who identi­fied
himself only as a Pennsylvanian
and a Constitutional scholar, said to
the supervisors.
“I think your gutless. You’re mur­derers,”
said Phillip Scaduto of Clay
Township.
“We have been harassed by zon­ing,
the township can live without it,”
said John Murama of Murnma Road.
He then called for the supervisors to
remove Josele Cleary, township
attorney, and Rita Snavely, zoning
officer, from their duties.
Act I, which lasted about 45
minutes, was a very emotional show
of support for Groff, the man who
committed suicide on March 29,
(See Groff, Page 22)
c e n t e r is OK’d
New name chosen; construction starts this month
RICHARD REITZ
□ Back Page
Accidental lessons
A demonstration involving a
mock car accident will be con­ducted
on Thursday morning
at Warwick High School for
juniors and seniors getting
ready for the Prom. Page 28.
□ Entertainment
‘Celtic Voices'
Warwick students Jocelyn
McIntosh and Michelle Lynch
will perform “Celtic Voices” in
the Ballet Theater’s “Stories
and Expressions” show on
April 17-18 at McCaskey High
School. Page 12.
□ Business
Welcome back
Welcome Wagon may no
longer visit local homes, but
Deb Radesky wants to make
sure the hospitality services
continues here, starting her
own business. Page 18.
□ Manheim
Small Frey’s returns
It was destroyed by fire last
December, but the Small
Frey’s Day Care Center in
Manheim is ready to return,
breaking ground for its new
downtown building. Page 20.
□Government
Pump decision
Warwick Twp. supervisors
adopted a zoning ordinance
revision allowing for gas
pumps at a convenience store
in a village overlay district.
What does that mean for the
Newport Square plan? See
Page 21.
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — Four years
ago, hundreds of local residents
cheered, and a “60 Minutes” crew
filmed supervisors nixing a plan to
build a Wal-Mart superstore south of
Lititz Borough.
On April 7, the crowds and camer­as
were gone, as supervisors gave
their unanimous approval to a shop­ping
center on the same location, but
about 75,000-square-feet smaller
than that Wal-Mart plan.
Whereas Wal-Mart met with
heavy public resistance, the shop­ping
center proposed by Kennett
Square-developers R.J. Waters and
Associates met with virtually none.
In fact, the only barrier they met dur­ing
the past three years of planning
was “getting the paperwork done”
and securing easements, according to
Kevin Lahn, vice president of RJ.
Waters.
Groundbreaking on the new site,
located on a 22‘A -acre farm north of
Stauffers of Kissel Hill, is antici­pated
to begin later this month,
though an exact date has not yet been
established.
The 138,000-square-foot shop­ping
center will be anchored by a
56,000-square-foot Giant super­market.
Other merchants that have
signed leases include CVS, McDo­nald’s,
Radio Shack, GNC, The
Framery, Frankford Cleaners, and
Photo by Stephen Seeber
Jeff Bender of the Lititz Sportsmen’s Association is busy stocking
Lititz Run for the annual Kids Fishing Derby this Saturday.
Sportsmen get ready for
annual kids’ day event
□ Sports
Soccer victory
WARWICK TWP. — The Lititz
Sportsmen’s Association will once
again host a kids fishing derby on the
opening day of trout season, which
happens to be this coming Saturday.
For the past few years the event
has taken place at the Warwick
Township Linear Park, Clay Road
and Route 772, and in that time it has
become an extremely popular event
as indicated by the 228 people who
attended in 1998.
To improve safety this season, the
sportsmen have been given the OK
from the township to close Clay
Road between Route 772 and Lititz
Run Road.
Warwick School District children
can register at 7 a.m. and the derby
will run from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.
There will be plenty of food and
prizes to go around, and you can have
your fish cleaned by experienced
anglers while you wait. Now that’s a
deal you just can’t beat.
The club has been busy all week
stocking fish around the county,
including 800 in Lititz Run. And to
make sure everyone catches their
limit on Saturday, 580 more fish will
be added early that morning.
Jeff Bender, derby chairman, said
that many of the fish are 13-14 inches
this year. Prize categories are as fol­lows:
first, second and third place for
catching the limit; first, second and
third largest gold trout; and the first,
second and third largest fish caught.
Prizes this year include trophies, rods
and tackleboxes.
The winning fish last year was
close to 19 inches and Bender thinks
this year could find a record breaker
in the cool waters of Lititz Run.
Cub Scout Pack 27 of Rothsville
will be assiting the sportsmen this
year in what promises to be another
great family day.
Harris Savings Bank. Lahn also said
that Blockbuster Video has now
signed a lease for the center.
Supervisor Michael Vigunas said
he was pleased with the way the plan­ning
process progressed.
“I’m very impressed with the work
done,” he said. “The work done by
both parties (developer and town­ship)
has been exemplary.”
Inbn returned the compliment at
the meeting.
“I work in a lot of townships, and
you have the best township manager
I have ever worked with. He made
the process work really well,” he
said.
One of the advantages this plan
(See Shoppes, Page 18)
The ones
that didn’t
get away
STEPHEN SEEBER_________
Record Express Staff
WARWICK TWP. — A couple
of illegal fishermen were the catch of
the day April 6.
Armed with a pair of fishing rods,
a flashlight and cans of beer, two
Manheim teens planned a short-lived
midnight fishing expedition to the
the Lititz Run Road trout nursery.
An alert neighbor heard some
noise and spotted their parked car. As
a result, these criminal anglers will
not be telling their friends about “the
one that got away” as they face
charges from Warwick Township
police and the Pennsylvania State
Fish Commission.
Six police officers from both the
township and Lititz Borough
responded to the scene and a foot
chase was underway within minutes.
One and a half hours later, Dennis
Garman Jr. and JohnLefever Jr., both
19 and both from Manheim, were
taken into custody. Charges are now
in the process of being filed.
A third suspect was seen fleeing
from the nursery, but only two young
men were reported to be caught.
Garman and Lefever gave police
written statements telling of their
part in the incident. Evidence col­lected
at the scene included two fish­ing
rods, a can of com, a flashlight
and two cans of beer.
The Lititz Sportsmen’s Associa­tion
maintains the nurseiy in con­junction
with the state fish commis­sion,
raising 12,000 trout each year to
(See Fish, Page 21)
Photo by Richard Reitz
William P Femmore !!: performs on the newly-restored pipe
organ in Mary Dixon Memorial Chapel at Linden Hall on Sunday. His
wife, Julie, accompanied him on the recorder during the concert
ceremony.
C o n c e r t h o n o r s r e s t o r a t i o n
o f C e n t u r y - o l d p i p e o r g a n
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
LITITZ — The pipes of the
century-old organ in Mary Dixon
Memorial Chapel haven’t sound­ed
this crisp in nearly 100 years.
In November, a month-long
restoration of the Hook and Hast­ings
Co. Pipe Organ by Patrick J.
Murphy and Associates, Inc. of
Stowe gave new life to tire organ
perched in the balcony above the
second-stoiy chapel at Linden
Hall School for Girls.
A rededication of the pipe
organ was held on Sunday after­noon,
featuring William P. Feni-more
III performing several tradi­tional
and inspirational tunes for
the full sanctuary.
“This is a concert that is con­siderably
historical for Linden
Hall,” said Headmaster Thomas
Needham.
Past Headmaster Dr. David
Devey returned to Linden Hall
help with the dedication. He hon­ored
Margaret W. “Hap” Bren-hecke,
Class of 1928, who pro­vided
the funding for the
restoration.
The organ restoration ’ was
offered by Brennecke as a
memorial to her mother, Fanny
Ware Brennecke, who graduated
from Linden Hall in 1894, the
year the organ was first installed
in the chapel.
Her donation is a reminder Shat
“we have to remember where we
(See Organ, Page 17)
Drinking party lead s to 6
mailbox b a seb a ll v an d a ls
RICHARD REITZ
Record Express Editor
WARWICK TWP. — A group of
teenagers left a bread crumb trail of
evidence to an underage drinking
parly, where six juveniles were
charged for playing a game of “mail­box
baseball.”
Warwick Township Police Officer
Michael Burdge said that on April 1
at 11:53 p,m., they were called to a
report of a “large, underaged drink­ing
party” taking place along Elbow
Road in the Lexington area.
When officers arrived with backup
from Lititz Borough Police, several
juveniles fled the area, and 12 were
apprehended by police.
As they evalutated the scene,
Burdge found it curious that among
the scattered beer cans were some
baseball bats.
“Through our investigative inter­views,
four juveniles admitted to
their involvement” in smashing 30
nearby mailboxes. Another two were
also charged with the vandalism.
“All of them had been drinking,”
Burdge said.
Shortly after they apprehended the
teens, ages 15-17, Burdge said police
began receiving phone calls from
residents that their mailboxes were
damaged.
They noticed that the damage was
found along Route 501, Lexington
Road, and many along Farm Lane
and Snyder Hill Road — all roads
that lead to Elbow Road.
All six teens have been charged
with criminal conspiracy and mis­chief,
and will be responsible for
paying over $600 restitution. Burdge
also said they face fines of up to $300
each, and up to 90 days in jail.
“It was an April Fools joke that
backfired on them,” Burdge said.
Police are continuing to crack
down on acts of vandalism such as
this, and encourage residents to con­tact
police at 626-8882 if they experi­ence
similar damage to their
property.
“It’s a way for us to check for pat­terns,”
he said. “We have zero toler­ance
for vandals.”
The Warwick girls soccer
team scored its biggest victory
of the season, toppling
Ephrata by a score of 3-1 on
Saturday. For this and more
local sports, see Pages 8-11..
□ Index
Births................ 15
Business..........................18-19
Church............................. 16-17
Classified.........................23-27
Editorial / Letters................... 4
Entertainment.......................12
Government......................... 22
Manheim News.................... 20
Obituaries...................... 2, 23
Out of the Past............. 19, 21
Police Log..... ....................... 13
School News.......................6-7
Social.............................. 14-15
Sports................................ 8-11
BBQ gives
RICHARD REITZ___________
Record Express Editor
LITITZ — Community support
has been overwhelming for the prop­osed
K-9 patrol in Lititz and War­wick
Township, as fundraising has
already nearly reached the $40,000
goal.
A chicken barbecue held at Lititz
Springs Park and near Stauffers of
Kissel Hill last Saturday earned the
effort $1,873 in profits that will be
used toward purchasing the K-9 pat­rol
equipment, according to War­wick
Township Police Officer Gaty
Garrison.
Although they sold 1,100 chickens
that day, Garrison said with the dona­tions
they received above the chicken
K-9 patrol a big boost
sale, they earned profits equivalent to
the sale of 1,310 chickens.
The chickens were perpared by
well-known local barbecuer Mike
Hines, and Garrison praised his
effort. “He did a great job for ns.”
Miller Printing also assisted in mak­ing
the barbecue tickets for the event.
Garrison said that the patrol dogs
and handlers that participated in the
event from Deny Township and
Shilling ton were also helpful in
demonstrating what they can do.
In addition, a local sports car club
held a car wash at the same time at
Pal’s Service Center, and raised $250
for the patrol.
Garrison, who will become the
K-9 Patrol officer for Warwick, and
Ken Lockhart, who will do the same
for Lititz, have been pleased with the
support of something that is much
more than a “pet project.”
The two dogs would be trained for
slightly different specialties, with
one focused on tracking, and the
other on sniffing for drugs.
Outfitting a K-9 unit is not cheap,
and includes purchasing and main­taining
a vehicle, as well as the other
equipment and training involved.
Fortunately, several local businesses
and supporters have pledged to
donate food, veterinary service, and
other expenses.
“It’s looking great — things are
really coming together,” Garrison
said. “I think the community is sup­porting
us 100 percent.”
(See Barbecue, Page 13)
H'oio _ jbec
Local police held a successful barbecue April 10 to raise money for
two K-9 units. Selling the product, from left, is Lititz Chief Douglas
Shertzer, Sgt. Kerry Nye and Officer Brian Hann.