Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 152, Greencastle, Putnam County, 3 March 1984 — Page 1

Short session of Legislature said 'a great success'

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Education, utility reform and teacher merit pay are among topics legislators leaders predict will return next year after being considered in the recently adjourned 1984 General Assembly. “We may even be able to discuss tax reduction next year. I’m sure there’ll be bills filed,” said Senate President Pro Tern Robert D. Garton, R-Columbus. The 103rd Indiana General Assembly adjourned Thursday, and its handiwork is now in the governor’s hands. Legislators can return their attention to their regular jobs or, for some, to their reelection campaigns. All 100 House seats and half the 50 Senate seats are up for election this fall. “I think it’s amazing in an election year that there were more difficult issues handled than any time I’ve been in a short session of the Legislature,” said Senate Minority Leader Frank O’Bannon, DCorydon. “When you talk about pay increases for public officials and judges and legislators, when you talk about local government funding which affects taxes, whatever their local choices be a supplementary budget which sets a record of $l5O million I really feel the Legislature took on some hard issues in a short session in an election year and worked very hard on them,” O’Bannon said. Senate President Pro Tern Robert D. Garton, R-Columbus, said, “I was prepared for a highly partisan session, and i' don’t think you saw it I did not see it. On specific votes, but that’s (true) in any session.” Gov. Robert D. Orr has said the session was “a great success.” “No short session of the Legislature has ever accomplished as much,” the governor said. However, the assistant House minority leader, Rep. B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said the Legislature didn’t do

Don't leave home without it... Scott's patience tested by airtravel, grounded by Midwest blizzard

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MERRILL SCOTT Happily home at last

Meltdown countdown Increasingly cloudiness overnight. Low in the mid 20s. Winds becoming southeasterly at 5-10 mph. An 80 per cent chance of rain beginning late Sunday. Warmer, with high in the upper 40s Indiana Extended Forecast Good chance of showers Monday. Highs in the 40s and lows in the 30s. Showers ending Tuesday and turning colder. Mostly cloudy Wednesday. Highs in the 30s both days and the lows in the mid teens to low 20s. Abby A 8 Classifieds A ? Comics A ® Crossword A ® Horoscope A 7 Obituaries A 8 People A 6 Sports A4.A5 Theaters A 8

Banner Graphic Putnam County, Saturday, March 3, 1984, Vol. 14 No. 152 20 Cents

enough. Utility reform, reform of Indiana’s political license branch system, and legislation regulating the dumping of hazardous waste into disposal sites by 1992 were significant casualities in the short session, Bauer said. O’Bannon and House Minority Leader Michael Phillips, D-Boonville, said the biggest disappointment of the session probably was lack of utility reform legislation. “I’m not sure whether that was by design of the governor and Republican leadership, but certainly we did not resolve a lot of the issues on utility ratemaking that had been discussed and voted on,” O’Bannon said. O’Bannon predicts education and utility issues will be prominent in 1985. Garton said death of the utility bill was not a disappointment, in part because the governor has appointed a committee to study Indiana’s utility laws and make recommendations to the 1985 General Assembly, and in part because there are three new members of the Public Service Commission who are still getting used to the job. Highlights of the 1984 session listed by O’Bannon and Garton include the $157 million supplemental budget bill, which includes SSO million for highway funding, additional funding for mental health and a sl9 million program aimed at reducing class sizes in the early grades. “Overall it’s been a positive short session,” O’Bannon said, adding that some basic, “very, very necessary” legislation was approved. But O’Bannon also said there were “a lot of shortcomings in the budget. “I think the priorities were mixed up. I think education, if we’re talking long term, should have had a much higher priority, even in the short session, and that’s both elementary and secondary and universities. We should have been more peopleCol. 1, back page, this section

By BECKYIGO Banner-Graphic Area News Editor So you think you have problems attempting to get out? Try getting back into Putnam County, after Monday and Tuesday’s foot-high snowfall that created havoc with the highways and byways of Central Indiana. And don’t even mention air travel. At least, don’t say a word to North Putnam Supt. Merrill Scott. He, along with hundreds of other school officials across the nation, gathered last weekend at Las Vegas to attend the American Association of School Administrators Convention. So how was your trip, Mr. Scott? “Fine, until the plane caught on fire,” he responded Friday afternoon via phone from the Bainbridge corporation office. LAST FRIDAY, SCOTT boarded a plane at Indianapolis to head for the convention, an event he has attended since 1959. “As I

Putnam Patter

Snowdrifts deeper as years go by

By DAVID BARR Banner-Graphic Civic Affairs Editor Don’t waste your time thumbing through reference books to find records set by snows of long ago years. Just buttonhole some of the old-timers who always walked to scnool for their Three R’s, and be prepared for records that would startle today’s governmental weather watchdogs. Also be prepared for a “slight” margin of errors should snow depths on certain years vary by as much as a half foot when related by those who were there and remember “just like yesterday” exactly how it was. YOU MUST REMEMBER that distan ces from home to the schoolhouse were different for different people. As a rule of thumb, the farther kids had to walk the deeper were the snows as they now recall them. And who is to dispute this fact? Who among most listeners were there when the drifts piled high? And who would now

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Sen. Pease credited with solving Cataract dilemma

INDIANAPOLIS-Long-awaited improvement to the access road from U.S. 231 to Cataract Lake will now become reality thanks to the efforts of State Sen. Ed Pease, who has convinced the Indiana Department of Highways to assume responsibility for a critical phase of the project. ACCORDING TO PEASE, the state has said it will acquire the right-of-way needed for the project to proceed. Before, the state had agreed to design and construct the road while Owen County was responsible for acquiring the land. During a meeting in Spencer Feb. 22, the Owen County commissioners asked for Pease to intervene, explaining that the county was financially unable to go ahead

was sitting there on the plane, there was a young lady sitting next to me and her young husband. You could tell she was very nervous. “She asked me if I could tell that she was scared to death,” Scott said of the woman’s apparent fear of flying. “I told her that never having met her before, I hadn’t really paid that much attention.” With introductions made, Scott said he discovered this was possibly the lady’s first plane flight. Her husband, an executive with Chem Lawn, had evidently convinced his wife to join him on his business trip to Alburquerque. ALTHOUGH THE husband may have been convincing, the young couple’s son cast a shadow of doubt about her decision. When saying goodbye to her six-year-old son, the woman said her spn told her: “I’m kissing you now because you’re never going to come back.”

bother to go through the records of those who got paid by Uncle Sam to record official snowfalls of past years? These statistics were compiled from scattered reports from scattered areas that didn’t always extend into the boondocks where anything less than six inches of snow was classed as an extra heavy frost. THIS CLASSIFICATION was made by those who had to answer kids who complained that the snow was too deep for them to wade through to school. This opinion was bolstered by the township trustee, a one-man school board of the day, who made sure the taxpayers who put him in office got full benefit of their tax dollars by keeping the school doors open come what might from the weatherman. Snow depths were relative. For example, a snow deep enough to reach up to the ears of a kid who had to struggle through it should take into consideration that the distance from the ears to the ground was considerably less than now when the bench

The thrill of a DePauw University victory in the opening round of the NCAA Division 111 Great Lakes Regional basketball tournament provided plenty of cheering at Gaumey Neal Fieldhouse Friday night. Graduate assistant football coach Tom Kaczkowski

with the land purchase. The Brazil Republican immediately contacted officials with the state highway department in Indianapolis, and was notified yesterday that the state would agree to provide the funds for acquisition of the right-of-way. "1 AM VERY PLEASED that our efforts to persuade the state to take this extra step toward making the Cataract Lake access road a reality were successful,” Pease said. “Local governments are in a financial squeeze, and in a case of apparent need such as this, state assistance is justified.” Land acquisition should take about 18 months, with the construction contract being awarded within two years.

As the plane proceeded somewhere between Terre Haute and St. Louis, Scott said he heard panic from the back section of the plane. “I heard people yelling ‘Fire, fire, fire,” the North Putnam superintendent recalls. Turning his attention to the back, Scott noted, “I saw jet black smoke coming over people so you couldn’t even see them, but there were no flames. ” WITHIN MINUTES, the plane’s cabin door opened and a pilot explained there was no need for panic. “They said that snow had gotten into the exhaust and reversed the ventiliation system. He said there was nothing to worry about. All they would have to do was shut off the air conditioning and vent the plane,” Scott remarked. But the words “nothing to worry about” didn’t reach the young wife sitting next to Col. 1, back page, this section

warmer recalls it. Depths were also relative in another way. Snows through which youngsters had to flounder on their way to school were much less forbidding, and even pleasurable, at recess or noon when rolling in the white stuff could be a delight. FINGERS NEVER SEEMED to be half frozen when mittens were soaked with the snow. At home this would have been a different matter, and an excuse to stay indoors by the stove until mittens were dry. Walking through the new-fallen snow was really more of a hardship than it may sound today. To reach school before the tardy bell, country kids had to at least start in approaching daylight and “break” their way through the drifts. Nobody, in our area at least, had ever heard of a snowplow to get out early and make a walk way through the snow. And unless someone with a team and wagon had been out earlier, there was seldom more than a rabbit track to indicate where Col. 1, back page, this section

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TONEY JOHNSTON

Who's news

Compiled by ERIC BERNSEE Banner-Graphic Managing Editor TONEY JOHNSTON, a former Greencastle resident, has been promoted to co-manager of the Gainesville, Fla., 84 Lumber Co. store. A 1977 Greencastle High School graduate, he is the son of Dallas Johnston, Route 1, Reelsville, and Diane Coffey, Indianapolis. Johnston was graduated as an honor student and lettered in wrestling at GHS. He began his 84 Lumber career at the Castleton store (Indianapolis) in September 1981. As co-manager of the Gainesville operation, Johnston is directly involved in inventory control and sales. Fourth Ward Greencastle City Councilman ROBERT P. SEDLACK attended a day-long workshop Feb. 25 sponsored by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. The workshop, “Orientation to Municipal Government,” was held at the Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in Lafayette for public officials in west-central and northwest Indiana. Morning sessions covered a variety of topics, including the Indiana Code, conducting public meetings, public access, municipal liability and media relations. Afternoon sessions focused on public safety, conflict of interest and budgeting. Sedlack, a Democrat currently serving his first term on the Council, said the workshop developed many of the themes that were introduced on Dec. 14 when the lACT held an earlier workshop for newly-elected public officials at the Indianapolis Hilton. Collins-Evans Insurance & Real Estate Co. has presented its “Agent of the Month” award for January to MARY DAY. Mrs. Day has been associated with Collins-Evans since October 1978 and was selected “because of her production achievements in real estate during the month of January.” Mary and her husband Harold have lived on a farm just north of Greencastle for 44 years. The Putnam County Cancer Society was represented by DOREEN BRADEN, lay delegate and treasurer, and board members JOYCE McCAMMACK and ANN CROSBY at the district meeting Feb. 25 in Vincennes. Road to

really had his (Tiger) head in the game against Capital University, while the 62-60 outcome had a legitimate Tiger cheerleader in ecstasy. (BannerGraphic photos).

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MARY DAY

Recovery services was the focus of the training session. WILLIAM STROTHER, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Strother, Cloverdale, has been awarded dean’s list distinction for the first semester at Cincinnati Bible Seminary. A senior, Strother’s grade-point average is 93.92 out of 100. Alpha Gamma Delta sorority at DePauw University has initiated into membership CHRISTA MICHELLE SCHLUETER, daughter of Jerry and Jackie Schlueter, Route 1, Cloverdale. She is a management fellows major at DePauw. JAMES W. ARCHER, son of Herbert W. and Thelma L. Archer, Cloverdale, has been promoted in the U.S. Army to the rank of private first class. Archer is a utilities equipment repairer in Nuremberg, West Germany, with the 2nd Support Command. His wife, Osa, is the daughter of George and Esta Cummings of Cloverdale. The private is a 1982 graduate of Cloverdale High School. Airman KEITH A. SIMPSON, son of Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Simpson, Route 1, Cloverdale, has graduated from the U.S. Air Force aircraft maintenance course at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. Simpson is scheduled to serve with the 3rd Equipment Maintenance Squadron at Clark Air Base, Philippines. He is a 1977 graduate of Cloverdale High School. Marine Staff Sgt. RONALD J. LUKE, son of Ronald C. Luke of Route 2, Coatesville, has reported for duty with 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Calif. Marine Pfc. KEVIN P. GADDIS, son of Margret Gaddis of Route 1, Cloverdale, has been promoted to his present rank while serving with Ist Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif. Air Force Staff Sgt. RAYMOND T. KLIPSCH, son of Ralph T. and Eloise G. Klipsch of 433 N. Arlington, Greencastle, has arrived for duty at Clark Air Base, Philippines. Klipsch, a broadcasting specialist with the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, was previously assigned at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. He is a 1973 graduate of Butler University.

ROBERTSEDLACK