Banner Graphic, Volume 13, Number 43, Greencastle, Putnam County, 26 October 1982 — Page 1
Message clear But financial future clouded as budget problems persist for North Putnam
By BECKY IGO Banner-Graphic Area News Editor BAINBRIDGE-What was hoped to be a brighter financial future at the North Putnam School Corporation is reverting to a bleaker and shakier situation, according to Supt. Merrill Scott, who stated he is unsure if North Putnam will ever become financially strong again. Scott made the statement following the corporation’s Monday meeting at Indianapolis with the State School Property Tax Control Board. As a state-controlled corporation, North Putnam must have its budget reviewed and finalized by that board. FOLLOWING A 3-1 VOTE, the Control Board voted to allow North Putnam to increase its general fund amount to $2.5 million which now balances the corporation’s 1983 budget. Previously, the state cut the corporation’s tax rate from the advertised $4.63 to $4,159. Increasing the general fund to near its orginial advertised amount will see the tax rate adjusted accordingly. Scott declined to project the tax rate figure until it is actually determined. Attending the Indianapolis hearing with Scott were Corporation Treasurer Donna Gibson, North Putnam School Board President J. Carroll Fordice, North Putnam School Board Secretary Medford McBride and North Putnam School Board member Ted Britton. ALL WHO ATTENDED did not leave the session without hearing a stern warning from state officials, according to the superintendent. “I heard them loud and clear whether anyone else did or not,” Scott said. “The message was totally clear Quite frankly, the message was don’t come back to us next year. They tol us we’d better have a balanced budget next year.” And how does the superintendent plan to do that? “I haven’t the faintest idea in the world,” Scott said bluntly. “Where do we cut back? If we had elementary guidance people, social workers or elementary librarians, we could cut back.
New sound system due Fairgrounds improvements set
By DAVID BARR Banner-Graphic Civic Affairs Editor Thanks to the Putnam County Farm Bureau, there will be a new sound system installed in the Community Building, it was announced Monday night at a meeting of the Putnam County Fair Board. IN PRESENTING the offer to install a new system, Noble Fry, a director in both the Fair Board and Farm Bureau, said the donation is made for the benefit of the 4-H members of the county. Accoustics in the Community Building have been bad since its construction and those who have tried to present programs there have found it difficult for those attending to hear. Various methods to improve the situation have been tried before with little success. In other Fair Board action, final plans
Route 66 revisited Fair and cool overnight, with low in the mid to upper 30s. Mostly sunny and a little warmer on Wednesday. High near 66. Little chance of precipitation. Indiana Extended Outlook Warm with a slight chance of showers Thursday. Highs in the upper 60s to mid 70s. Lows in the low and mid 40s. Fair and a little cooler Friday and Saturday. Highs ranging from 60 to 65. Lows of about 30 to 35. Abby A 4 Bridge A 8 Calendar A 4 Classifieds AB.A9 Comics A 5 Crossword A 8 Heloise A 4 Horoscope A 9 Obituaries AlO People AS Sports A6,A7 Supermarket Shopper A 8 jy A 5
Banner Graphic Putnam County, Tuesday, October 26,1982, Vol. 13 No. 43 20 Cents
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MERRILL SCOTT 'Where else do we cut?' "WE’VE DONE A LOT OF cutting to begin with,” Scott added. “We even cut part of our curriculum. Where else do we cut? “We came up short of a balanced budget this year. In order to balance it next year, it would destroy our educational programs. Even if we riffed 10 teachers that still wouldn’t do it,” the superintendent surmized. “I don’t know where this coporation is going to go,” Scott said of North Putnam’s financial future. “When I first got here in the corporation, and saw how much in debt they were, I asked for a five-year contract because I figured it would take that long to get them out. "YOU AND I BOTH realize the situation in the last two years has not been normal,” Scott said of the apparent lack x>f funding for schools on the state level. “To a man on that Control Board, each one made the oral comment that the General Assembly would not do one thing for the school systems next year,” the superintendent recalled. “The state agencies have bent over backwards to help North Putnam and the Control Board helped with what they could. “But sometimes I have to sit back and
were made for the annual meeting which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 22 in the Community Building. AMONG THE INVITED guests to this function will be buyers at 4-H auction sales, 4-H Council and leaders. Extension workers and others, along with Fair Board directors and families. At the annual meeting, Terry Clifford, chairman of the Nominating Committee, will present a slate of directors to be elected from Cloverdale, Jackson, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Franklin and Warren townships, as well as a director-at-large. Present director-at-large is Rodger Winger, who has asked to be relieved of this post. Also to be elected will be a secretary. Since a number of tables owned by the board are in a bad state of repair,
War on 'cute' could be ugly battle
By ERIC BERNSEE Banner-Graphic Managing Editor Parents of the world, it’s time for a little temper tantrum. Throw yourself onto the living room floor. Pound your fists into the shag carpeting. Kick your heels ’til your nose bleeds. We’ve earned it. We’re the losers in the cute invasion. The army of occupation numbers in its forces legions of Smurfs, battalions of Strawberry Shortcake and friends, and platoons of Disney and Sesame Street cuties. Lovable and marketable E.T. commands the invasion. WE SEE SMURFS IN OUR sleep. Strawberry Shortcake in our cereal bowls. Disney on parade all around us. The battle is over. Cute has won. The last straw came in loud and clear over the television set Monday evening. Not to be outdone by Smurfs on underwear or Muppets on pillow cases, the people who gave us the Man From Glad are torturing us with a little plastic lunch bags emblazoned with cute little Disney cartoon characters. Designer baggies. A PLEASANT DIVERSION from yellow wax paper, yes. But also another blow against parental rights. Our three-year-old doesn’t even stay for lunch at nursery school, yet she practically begged us to buy the lunch bags. Each replay of the commerciail the sobbing increases and the resistance wanes.
ask, ‘ls this really worth it?’ I have been doing everything I could do to get the corporation solvent. I’ve given it my best shot for three years now. “BUT THE GENERAL Assembly has done nothing to help the schools,” Scott maintained. Saying the state continues to require school corporations to offer additional programs and increases graduation requirements, it still provides no funding for those moves. “They don’t put the money where their mouth is,” he remarked. With North Putnam’s frustrating financial condition it remains uncertain if the corporation will be offering any encouraging words for its teaching staff. “I HAVE NO COMMENT on that at this time,” Scott said. “Before we can even talk teachers’ salaries, I will have to do a lot of figuring. There’s no way I can get that done by the time the board meets again on Nov. 1.” Scott said he does feel he will be able to provide the board with some options during a future executive session meeting. “I hope before the next meeting with the (teachers) union, that I will have the opportunity to provide the board with more figures on salary “I can say ‘Here are the options now where do we go from here?’" Scott noted. “I think the board then can give us the parameters we will work under. “IN SPITE OF WHAT the teachers may say, I am not stalling,” Scott commented. “The board makes the final decision, not the superintendent. “But that’s what I see as the best approach for North Putnam right now. to meet with the school board and the corporation negotiations team in executive session and to discuss the options. Then we can meet with the union and see where we stand.” Concluding, Scott added, “You know, we don’t talk about what’s good for the kids anymore. That bothers me. I always thought that schools were for the kids. Now with all the collective bargaining, it seems like all we talk about are the dollars all the time.”
President Gerald Edwards asked that the board consider purchase of 10 new tables. ANOTHER BOARD consideration was the need to put boundary markers on a parking area acquired a year or so north of the horse barn. Alan Stanley, county surveyor, is to be contacted on this matter. Fair Board department heads were reminded that any rule changes they planned to make should be completed by January 15 in order that they can be listed in the fair catalogue. Some discussion was held concerning completion of programs by this date to avoid confusion after the catalogue is printed. ANNOUNCEMENT was made that new curtains for the Community Building had been provided by the Extension Homemaker Clubs.
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I mean, have you ever tried to tell a three-year-old no in the middle of the evening rush at Kroger? Have you even tried stern discipline in front of dozens of mothers poised at the Marsh checkout line? It’s impossible. You may as well give in and cough up the 89 cents for a roll of “Smurf invisible magic tape,” a product separated from cellophane tape only by a colorful picture of your favorite Smurf on the wrapper. THIS PARENTAL discrimination is rampant. Pizza Hut has added E.T. glasses, a fine souvenir of the movie, for sure. But another chance for kids to scream and holler until they get their: greasy little pizza saucecovered mitts on the tumblers. Our pre-schooler had already memorized the commercial before E.T.
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REMODELING PLANS: Artist's conception of one Prevo Building possibility Renovation work to ready old Wards store for tenant
By LARRY GIBBS Banner-Graphic Publisher The former Montgomery Ward store in downtown Greencastle, scene of a devastating fire during the pre-dawn hours of June 8, will undergo partial renovation during the next two months in preparation for showing to prospective retail tenants by the first of the year. DePauw University, owner of the building at 18 S. Indiana St., was scheduled to ffcceive bids Tuesday for the renovation work. •WE RE IN THE PROCESS of beginning an intermediate renovation,” explained Dr. Fred S Silander, the university’s Acting Vice President for Finance. ‘‘We will bring it up to a condition where we can show it to potential tenants.” A week after the fire Montgomery Ward corporate officials announced they would not reopen the fire-gutted store. Instead, the company is expanding its North Jackson Street auto store to include appliances, paint and catalog sales. Since the fire. Wards has maintained a catalog sales outlet on Walnut Street immediately west of Horace Link & Co. Silander said a new roof has been installed on the 73-year-old building, which extends from Indiana Street westward to the parking lot behind the old Central National Bank building. Plywood has been removed from windows in favor of plexiglass as a temporary measure to avoid a boarded-up appearance, he added. ‘‘WE WILL REBUILD the main floor near the main entrance (where the fire did the most extensive damage) and restore the subfloor,” Silander continued. “We’ll get it ready for carpet or tile-whatever the eventual occupant may want. We’ll also clean the walls to make them presentable, but we won’t paint them yet. We’ll finish the building in a manner in which its tenants might use.” The Montgomery Ward facade and canopy above the sidewalk also are being removed.
Daze Work
Silander said the intermediate renovation will begin within a matter of days, immediately after a bid is accepted by the university. He said the work should be completed in time to begin showing the building to possible tenants in January. THE UNIVERSITY IS ready to work with the Chamber of Commerce or others in an effort to locate a suitable tenant for the property, he said. DePauw acquired the building in 1970 as a gift from the Prevo family and had leased it to Montgomery Ward. Silander said James Associates, an Indianapolis architectural and engineering firm, has developed two possible designs for the building’s front exterior. One would utilize a single, double-door entrance in the center, similar to its most recent appearance. The other would involve two separate entrances, as were utilized when the building opened as the Model Clothing
glasses had even landed in Greencastle. And she could have cared less about the pan pizza once the glasses graced our table. And so it is with Strawberry Shortcake. For months I avoided the rear of the Kroger store where the hotdogs are displayed. Frankly, I couldn’t stand the pressure. Kara had spied wieners adorned with an advertisement for some Strawberry Shortcake item. She fully believed they were Strawberry Shortcake hotdogs. Funny, they didn’t taste at all like strawberry. I THOUGHT $3.98 Strawberry Shortcake shoelaces displayed at Haag’s checkout counter were bad enough until I came across General Mills’ new Strawberry Shortcake cereal at $1.59 a throw. We now also avoid the cereal aisle, least we add another souvenir to the New Donuts and Fruity Flintstone Pebbles that already adorn the top of our refrigerator evermore. Yes, it’s time for drastic action. A class action suit might be in order for some bold parent. We could sue the berries off Strawberry Shortcake. We could turn the blue Smurfs green with envy. We could send E.T. home for good. We could close down Sesame Street. Cite them all for contributing to the delinquency of minors. Nail them all for deception. But it would never work. No court in the land could convict anyone so cute. And besides, if we won, what would we do with all that cereal?
How building looked after '34 remodeling
and Dry Goods Store in 1910 and was remodeled as Prevo’s in 1934. A final decision on the design has not been made. THE JUNE 8 FIRE WAS triggered by a bolt of lightning which struck power lines in the alley along the north side of the store. The blaze erupted at approximately 2:30 a.m. during the height of a savage electrical storm and was not finally contained until after dawn. Greencastle firefighters were assisted by units from Cloverdale, Bainbridge, Madison Township and Crawfordsville. Firefighters were hindered in their efforts to extinguish the blaze by overlapping floors that had been added over the years. The fire spread between the layers of floors, doing its most severe damage near the front of the building, before being halted at the fire wall separating the structure from Horace Link & Co.
Absentee vote ends Saturday Absentee voting at the Putnam County Courthouse will end at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30, County Clerk Sharon Hammond has announced. The voting team for confined residents began its task Tuesday, Miss Hammond added. Anyone who needs to vote, but is confined, should get an application in so that the voting team can call on him or her. Anyone with questions about the procedure may contact the Clerk’s Office at 653-2648. Political ad deadline set The deadline for political advertising to appear in the BannerGraphic editions of Saturday, Oct. 30 or Monday, Nov. 1 is 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28. Any ads brought in after that time cannot be published prior to Tuesday’s general election.