The Mail-Journal, Volume 12, Number 37, Milford, Kosciusko County, 8 October 1975 — Page 1

Phones: 658-4111 & 457 3666

VOLUME 12

Who was Laurel Mitchell?

By MARY LEE WILLMAN Since the disappearance and death of Laurel Jean Mitchell two months ago the community of North Webster continues to be in a state of shock and indignant outrage Laurel, the 17 year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Mitchell. North Webster. disappeared August 6 on her way home from a summer job at Epworth Forest Her body was found August 7 in the Elkhart River Cause of death was listed as drowning She had been raped Once the tragic news was out the same comment could be heard everywhere “Oh no. not Laurel She is such a nice girl, a good girl Why would anyone want to hurt her?” The citizens of North Webster were so upset by the senseless crime that the “Citizens For Law Enforcement" committee was formed and in less than three weeks the sum of SIO,OOO was raised and is being offered as a reward to anyone coming foreward with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person nr persons responsible for Laurel's death High Morals 1 recently spent the morning talking with Mrs Mitchell and Trudy Smith a neighbor and close friend of Laurel's 1 wanted to know' more about this young lady who seemed to be so loved and

Milford volunteers adopt rules for painting hydrants

The committee of volunteers which has organized to paint the fire plugs in Milford for the coming Bicentennial observance adopted rules at their meeting on Wednesday night, Oct 1. Mrs Robert Pifer is serving as general chairman of the vplun teers Mrs Pifer, Mrs Arnold (Pete) Doll, Mrs. Clifford Wolf and Teresa Stump plotted the town and located each hydrant. These have been listed and numbered on a town map that is posted at Doll s Decorating The rules adopted by the volunteers are as follows I. Clean fire hydrant thoroughly iwith brush and household cleaner before starting to paint. 2 The first coat of paint must be a metal primer Undercoat all over each hydrant. 3 Temperature must be 60 degrees or more when painting 4 Basic colors must be red. white and blue. 5. DO NOT use any printed blue

| X THE NETHERLANDS — Eighth In A Series'®

J Amsterdam, at 700, is city of I many canals and bridges

By DELLA AND ARCH BAUMGARTNER AMSTERDAM. Holland. Friday. Sept 19 — The United § States is proudly preparing to celebrate its 200th anniversary. & while the people of Amsterdam are celebrating their 700th anniversary. Many places one sees “700*’ & under three vertical Xs, .toe Xs coming from the city's’«at of $ arms. Many citizens are shearing § lapel buttons so marked. v This country, just a third the size of Indiana in square miles. S has IXS million inhabitants, and § is called the Netherlands < Holland is made up of a number of provinces along the North Sea. < in which are located the principal cities of Amsterdam. The Hague and Rotterdam. The tours we have taken of the city, on the crowded cobbtestone 3 : streets and on its many canals, I have impressed us greatly with ; t Mb history. The Dutch are proud of die history of their country, and they are proud of their rote in < Im military history, particuteriy

The Mail Journal

Consolidation o/THE MILFORD MAIL )Est. 1888) and THE SYRACUSE-WAWASEE JOURNAL (Est. 1907)

respected by everyone who knew her. It wasn't easy for Mrs Mitchell to talk about things but she was eager to share the Laurel she knew with a community that would so quickly and willingly rally behind law enforcement officials. She showed me Laurel's Bible It was her second Bible .Although only 17 years old Laurel had worn out one Bible. Mrs Smith and Mrs. Mitchell agreed that "Laurel lived by the Bible She was a girl erf high moral character and standards ” She was quite upset by the “free living” conduct of some of her classmates and the day before her death had discussed her concern with Mrs Smith Laurel had a lot of friends, boys as well as girls, but she didn’t date often, preferring instead to go with a group of young people. She was active in her church music and youth group and Girl Scouts She spent one summer as a counsellor at the Whispering Pines camp She was also this years American Legion Auxiliary Girls' State representative Laurel was working to pay her own way through college She planned to study business. Besides her job at Epworth Forest she did babysitting and house cleaning According to Mrs John Pruitt.

- prints by an unknown source Designs that are blueprinted sometimes are copyrighted and the original artist can charge a fee for such plans. 6 Volunteers must sign up to paint a hydrant on the town map which has hydrants plotted and is posted in Doll's Decorating. The paint for the project is being purchased by the Milford Lions club and the decorating center is being used to store paint and brushes where volunteers can get material and return it to a central location Many of the hydrants have received the metal primer this week and it is expected other painting will be done soon New volunteers since the first article are Mrs Gerald Martin. Miss Stump. Robin Auer. Sherry Young. Mrs Leon Young. Renee Wolf. Mrs Dennis Corl. Mrs John Hare and Helene Lentz Anyone else interested in pain ting a hydrant is urged to register at Doll's on the map as soon as possible

their participation in World War n. but more on that later. About a third of this country, known as part of the Low Countries, has been rectaimed from the sea through a series of summer and winter dikes Our search for the little boy with his finger in the dike has been in vain, however. Yesterday, toe 18th. we toured toe city of Amsterdam with our guide Mia She showed considerably more knowledge of this city than she did Brussels, perhaps because this is her home She showed us the traditional buildings like the city ahll. the residence of highly respected Queen Juliana, and others all dating back four or Five hundred roars We noticed a lot of buildings are dirty from age. while many are being sandblasted and took beautiful. It was our good fortune to be riding in a tour bus. since traffic in this city of over a million people is heavy, with the little cars darting in and out at a

wife of the manager at Epworth Forest: “My daughter and Laurel were friends. She was a nice girl with a reputation that was above all question with anyone who knew her. She was very reliable and level headed ” Wanda Luke who works in the administration office at Epworth Forest and attended church with Laurel stated: “She did housework for me for over a year and also for my sister's family. We were very’ fond of her. She was a very fine and good person, a dependable person ” Laurel was an honor roll student She took her studies senously and liked school *■ I asked Wendell Bryant, principal at North Webster junior high if he remembered Laurel: "Oh yes. she was a good student, quiet, serious and very well mannered. She was an excellent citizen and never got into mischief.” Donn Kesler, assistant principal at Wawasee high school stated: “She was a good student. Her attendance record was very good She was quiet and got along well with others She never caused that first bit of trouble as far as dicipline was concerned." Laurel enjoyed her family and fnends and preferred spending most of her free time with them She liked to sew. bake, camp out 1h the back yard and ride the family snowmobile. She studied tap and ballet dancing as a hobby, and had performed in several dance recitals. She seldom attended school sporting events Considerate “Laurel was a very considerate girl” accoring to Mrs. Mitchell “She minded well and (Continued on page 2) Governor visits Syracuse Lions District governor Charles (Chuck) Barnes of South Bend was the guest and speaker at the Syracuse Lions club’s regular meeting last Wednesday. He congratulated the local Lions on their past activities and urged continued support of the various state projects. As a response to the challenge, the Syracuse club voted to donate over 51.500 to various causes this year, including over $l5O to the operation of the local Scout Cabin. S3OO to the Cardinal Learning center at Warsaw, and S3OO for special projects Don Hoover, formerly of Peru and now of Lake Wawasee. was a guest for the evening meeting.

frightening pace We were to find this out last evening and earlier this evening when we went out to dinner by cab. Land Scarce Due to the fact that land is a scarce commodity in Amsterdam. all buildings are built in juxtaposition, and go straight up four, five or six stories Some buildings are as narrow as 10 feet wide, many being 15 or 20 feet wide. And each building has a steel beam extended out over the sidewalk at the top. “What is this far.*’ we asked. Mia told us all buildings have very narrow stairways, since they want to conserve the space they have available for living space, so furniture is taken in the windows. One would think residents would be reluctant to move frequently The stone ornamental structure at toe top of many of these buildings is magnificent. As well many of toe older buildings have stone imbedded near the top with dates when they were con-

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1975

/ \ 200 YEARS OF INFORMATION AND INSPIRATION

Property tax rates have now been set

Potential 1976 property tax rates in Kosciusko county have now been set and posted by field representatives of the state board of tax commissioners Rates were set following two day’s of budget and tax rate hearings last week in Warsaw. Locally, the town of North Webster proposed budget was cut $7,852 resulting in the proposed town rate of $2.20 being recommended at sl. The proposed amount requested by the board had been set at $37,812. v Rates In Syracuse, taxes will be 30cents lower next year with 20cents taken from the general fund for a recommended rate of $1.12. Increased assessed valuation was the reason given for the cut. Also, the town received credit for budgeting SB,OOO in federal revenue sharing funds for police and fire departments, $2,000 for parks and recreation. S2OO for legal notices, and $7,500 for street repairs Lakeland Community School Corporation taxes will total $4.66. an 18-cent drop from what tax payers are now paying. Cuts were attributed to increased assessed valuation.

structed. Many were in the early 1600 s, and right now we are reminded of one dated 1602. Os course they are built of stone andor brick. Brick seems to be plentiful here, and certainly the brick-laying trade must be flourishing. Canals. Toe There are mites and mites of canals in Amsterdam, all manmade except the main river that flows into the city. There are over 1,000 bridges, including toe old. <• narrow bridge, hand drawn, called the “skinny bridge.” We’ve never been to Venice, but this city would come close to our idea of Venice with its canals. Most of the canals are unguarded, and one could slip into the water easily, or could <■ overjudge his parking and drive into a canal. In fact, Mia told us about 30 cars a year are fished out of the canal. The city has a standard fee for recovering a car. Channel boats appear on both sides of many of the city’s channels, with people living in

underestimating of miscellaneous revenue and a reduced operation balance. One-cent was trimmed from the Syracuse public library, setting the rate at seven cents, this also due to increased assessed valuation and underestimates in tax collations in December and in miscellaneous revenue to be collected in 1976. The state board cut seven cents from Milford’s general fund with the rate being $1.14. The town board had proposed a rate of $1.21 but had underestimated miscellaneous revenues. The $1.14 general fund rate plus the $1 cumulative sewer tax rate gives the town a levy of $2.14. The rate in Leesburg was cut from 94 cents to 75 cents in the (Continued on page 3) Mobile meals in Syracuse Mobile meals is now available in Syracuse for persons qualifying for the noon meal for the five week days. Persons desiring more information may contact Mrs Georgia Buster at Syracuse.

'Money matters' being studied at Syracuse

Members of the Syracuse town board are contemplating several “money matters" following their board meeting last evening (Tuesday). John Cripe stated he had researched the claims of the fire department as requested to see whether or not officers should be paid for ambulance runs. Since the service went into effect in July he did not have much history to research with only July and August figures available. Cripe said officers made 46 runs one month and 45 the other. Each run was approximately one hour long with each of the officers having made eight or nine runs per month. Cripe offered a proposal to the town board which he said was basically a 1976 salary schedule but could be retroactive to cover the period from July 1, 1975. His proposal calls for a 20 per cent reduction in salaries paid to the officers because of the lack of first aid responsibilities since July 1. Each officer, he said, would then be paid $4 per run with the eight or nine runs per month coming to an approximate $384 per year. Fire chief Larry’ Weaver said he was against the reduction He said the administrative duties are more for all the officers since the ambulance has been put into use. Weaver also said that now those officers on call have to stay close to home and have to stay reasonably clean, ready to make an ambulance run. Cripe said the 20 per cent reduction was for first aid. not administrative work. Board member Christine Clodfelter said two executive sessions had been held with the trustee and his advisory board and she felt they should be contacted before action was taken. After continued discussion it was decided to invite the trustee, his advisory board and the officers of the fire department to the next board meeting to see if a settlement can be reached Sewer Agreement The second “money problem" before the board came about as the results of an agreement signed with Tom Leonard in June of 1974 for preliminary permission to connect the sewer from his developmer on Lake Wawasee to the town sewer. Leonard said he was ready to set final rates, connection charges, excess capacity and the

toem. Some are fixed up very nicely. Occupants rent the space from toe city, and are given water and electricity as part of the bargain. We wondered about sewage, and was tdd they use the canal for that Visit Rijksmuseum The Netherlands has a proud history in the arts, and you can never escape this. As a result, any tourist must visit Rijks museum We felt privileged inasmuch as Mia is an avid art student. She was our personal guide in the museum and could point out interesting points in the works of the old masters. She called the 17th century the Golden Age in Dutch art, a time when most noted painters painted religious subjects. Os particular interest to us was the room with Rembrant paintings. Just last Sunday a deranged man whipped out a pocket knife, ran up to Rembrant’s most famous painting. The Nightwatch, and stashed it (Continued on page 2)

“recovery rights.” The town’s engineer. Jerry Lessig of Warsaw. designed the line and plans have been approved by the state. Before Leonard can move into development he needs final figures. Clerk-treasurer Betty Dust questioned Leonard on the “right of recovery" clause. She said in the past agreements which have been accepted with "right of recovery" have caused problems for the town. In some cases, she said, the town has lost money Leonard said he had had the system designed to handle a larger area than his personal needs and would be investing from SSO to S6O thousand for the lines and lift station He felt he had a “right to recovery.” if others hooked on to the line. Mrs. Dust said she felt it was a benefit to the construction people to be allowed to hook on to the city sewer system and the cost should be added to the cost of the

Charges are filed against Mrs. Jones

Kosciusko county prosecuting attorney R. Steven Hearn filed a theft affidavit last Thursday against Delores Jones. 37. r 3 Syracuse, who served as treasurer of the extra-curricular account at the Syracuse elementary school from June 8. 1974 to June 30. 1975. The state board of accounts field examiners' report showed $340.83 shortage from the bookstore receipts. $430.80 from textbook rental and $4,018.95 from the extra-curricular account. Mrs. Jones position with the school corporation was terminated after the loss was discovered A warrant was issued against Mrs. Jones and she was booked at the county jail at 7:22 p.m. on October 3 by Tom Kitch and Alan FIREMEN RESPOND Syracuse volunteer firemen responded to a call at 11:41 a.m. Monday at Schacht Rubber south of Syracuse. Fire was burning in a trash container used for scrap rubber, the fire was extinguished and no damage listed.

BS W S ■B w 8 1 I « s / A _ r it ’ ■* i k A *• « | // ’ 4 HBk '■ JI r ■i X TYPICAL SCENE IN HOLLAND - The traditfcaal windmill J makes a typical scene along a Holland highway. Abe note the flowers, seen almost everywhere in Hetland. ■

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property and not received through “recovery.” Leonard again commented his project at Pleasant Grove will have 40 units and once the line is in others will want the sewer hook ups too. Had he not thought he could have “right of recovery" he would have had a smaller system designed — one to serve only his needs. Mrs. Dust again commented she felt it was up to the developer to recover, not the town. Following discussions the matter was tabled to allow members time to study the situation. Street Bids Parker Phend of Phend and Brown in Milford was present to give a breakdown on his bid for work proposed on Boston Street. The complete job, including sewer, manholes, curbs, etc. would cost the town $75,000. A bid was also submitted from (Continued on page 2)

Rovenstine. Reports show she was released eight minutes later on a SI,OOO bond. No date has been set for her court hearing. MACOG meets at South Bend Michiana Area Council of Governments met at 10 a.m. today (Wednesday, Oct. 8) in room 1308, county-city building, South Bend. Resolutions of membership from towns of Milford, Silver Lake. Etna Green and city of Warsaw were presented. An application for a federal grant is being applied for by Sewage Facility Plan, Etna Green, with a total cost of $14,716, federal grant, $11,037. New business to be discussed was transportation plan update, program of projects for 1976 and coastal zone management contract, MACOG and Indiana State Planning Services Agency, $15,000.