The Mail-Journal, Volume 16, Number 14, Milford, Kosciusko County, 25 April 1979 — Page 1

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VOLUME 16

Ship first Ford axle housings Monday—

Plan s l3 million expansion at Dana Corp, plant at Syracuse

The Spicer Axle Division o| the Dana Corporation is anticipating the expenditure of an additional sl3 million capital outlay at its Syracuse plant, it was learned this week The expenditure will include the building of a large addition to its present plant on the east, bringing a rail spur off the Chessie line into the plant, and new equipment. $1 Million ECD Issue This information was revealed Friday when Richard C. Rice, local plant manager, appeared before the Syracuse Economic Development Commission at the town hall, asking for a bond issue of $1 million It was immediately approved. Mr. Rice told the commission members that, once the EDC approved its bond issue, plans would be flown to Indianapolis (possibly on Monday) for approval, and work would start yet this week. The company wants the plant partially completed by November 1 and entirely completed by January 1,1980. Appearing for the EDC were Lelani Nemeth, secretary, and Philip Beer, member. Com- [ mission president Paul V. Levernier was not present. According to Mr. Rice, an addition of 170,000 square feet of floor space will be added, to the east of the existing building, giving the new’ facility over 300,000 square feet of space. This will cost $3,861,000, according to estimates. New equipment being moved into the building will cost an estimated $4,000,000 and s3*2

1:1 'Bl M |K Rb?Ww > KV ■r v w B a. H SB -“ *' S I ' \ ■ ■ - ' Vjl • ASK $1 MILLION EDC BOND ISSUE — Richard C. Rice, right, plant manager of the Syracuse Dana Corporation plant, is meeting with Syracuse Economic Development Commission members Philip Beer, left, and Lelani Nemeth, and Syracuse town attorney Robert Reed to win approval of a $1 million Economic Development Commission tax-free bond issue, on Friday.

Post office now in new location

Syracuse’s new post office is now in service at the top of the hill on SR 13 north! The new 50’ x 82’ building, nearly double the size of the 25-year-old previous one, still needs landscaping and a blacktopped drive which will replace the stone drive, as soon as weather permits. The final curbing was poured last Friday and the move was made on Saturday. Postmaster Avon Bushong urges patrons to drive into the new location from SR 13, and exit to the east toward Harrison St. on the one-way drive. The drive is clearly marked for the one-way traffic, and following the rules will eliminate confusion and tie-ups, he said. The post office site committee has been on the job since 1973, says Postmaster Bushong, a committee member along with representatives from- the Louisville Real Estate office,/ headquarters for the post office, and from the South Bend Sectional Center. It was a long and tedious process,

Consolidation of THE MILFORD MAIL !Est. 1888) and THE SYRACUSE-WAWASEE JOURNAL <Est. 1907)

million in new equipment is to be added next year. Rice added. The roof height of the new building will be 24 feet, enabling the firm to ship by railcar and to add cubic feet -for storage and material requirements. The proposed building will be approximately 400’ by 400’ and a small structure at the northeast corner of the existing plant. The structure to the east will have concrete block walls up to an elevation of about eight feet. The remaining sidewalls will be corrugated metal paneling, finished in yellow, comparable to the present metal siding of the existing building. The proposed rail siding will come in from the east and will allow for four rail cars to come into the new building. Within this area will be a small office and rest rooms at grade level as well as an elevated rest room facility for men and women.

i 1 f nr I f rj j . •! Bi 1 •I - FIRST SHIPMENT FROM DANA CORP. — This truck, pulling away from the Spicer Axle Division of the Dana Corporation plant at Syracuse Monday morning, was the first shipment of axle housings leaving the local plant. It went to Edgerton, Minnesota, an axle assembly plant.

The proposed addition at the northeast corner will have yellow brick on the north facade approximately the color with the present north facade of the office. This addition will permit relocation of the existing receiving docks to minimize traffic congestion on Railroad Street. In order to begin construction of the new’ building, a large propane tank will have to be moved, two settling ponds will have to be relocated and Northern Indiana Public Service Company will have to move its substation and a number of poles will have to be moved. Clean. Neat Structure Mr. Rice stated, “It is our intention to provide the community with a clean, neat structure which should enhance rather than detract. It is also our intention to provide a good place to work and one our community

Bushong says, with six to eight sites picked three different times for submission to the committee. If a committee member didn’t like a site, for any reason, he had to show why, in writing. The whole process was evaluated by someone higher in the post office real estate department, before final judgment was made. Much of the ground work was done by Michael LeGrand, from the Indianapolis Post Office, who devoted considerable time to the project. Purchased from Richard Maresh, the real estate is actually owned by Don Twiddy of West Lafayette, who.leases the building to the U. S. Post Office on a 10-year lease, with options. Construction was begun last year for the new building, with Co-ordinating Construction Co. of Warsaw as general contractor. Various phases of the work were subcontracted to firms including Clair Mohler’s C & J Construction Co. of Syracuse. C & J did all the carpentry work

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25,1979

can relate to.” ' The present plant will be the fifth plant of the Dana Corporation manufacturing axles, and it is not the largest. Other axle plants are located at Fort Wayne, Edgerton, Wise., Hopkins, Minn., and Morgenton, N.C. At the present time one axle line is in operation. All axles manufactured here are for the Ford Motor Company. Plant officials forecast 150 additional jobs to be added, bringing final employment to from 450 to 500 by late summer 1980, possibly by September 1, 1980. Mr. Rice said the wage rate for company employees is in the $6.50 per hour neighborhood, and that generous benefits are available to workers. The local plant is geared to ship 55,000 front axles during 1980, 65,000 in 1981, amounting to approximately five rail cars per day, coming off the two assembly lines. “We have already outgrown the Syracuse plant before it is built,” Mr. Rice added. The architectural firm for the new’ plant is Rossi & Nickerson, Inc., Toledo, Ohio, and the general contrctor is Schenkel & Sons, Fort Wayne. Cost Breakdown The cost breakdown of the new addition is as follows: Architect & Construction Management Fee $335,000 Structural Steel, Steel Joists Steel Erection, Misc. Steel, Metal Deck $451,000 Roofing $232,000 Mechanical $637,000 Sprinkler $232,000 Electrical $759,000 Site Work $ 80,000 Concrete Paving $ 65,000 Regular Concrete $330,000 Reinforcing Steel & Mesh $ 46,000 Painting $ 56,000 Doors $ 15,000 Dock Levelers $ 15,000 Carpentry $ 12,000 Fencing $ 42,000 Siding $ 95,000 Precast Walls $ 84,000 Railroad $175,000 $3,661,000 Demolition $200,000 $3,861,000 $ 1,250 damage to vehicles Damage was estimated at $1,250 at 4:02 p.m. Monday when two cars collided at SR 13 and CR 530E at the south edge of Syracuse. No one was injured. The accident occurred when Steven L. Jorden saw a car, driven by Kevin Lee Kern, Fort Myers, Fla., approaching and was unable to get out of the way.

and installed the tile floors and counter. Bushong, who started at the post office on May 1,1946 as a substitute clerk, was appointed postmaster in 1972, following the death of the former postmaster, a cousin; Ernest E. Bushong. The present postmaster was one of the first in this area to be appointed to the post under the merit system, being appointed from the actual work force. He had served as assistant postmaster since the 1960’5. His assistant is Kenneth Willard. There are 18 members on the post office staff. It has been a long hard pull, from the time the new building was a possibility until it became a reality. Bushong says he got discouraged at times, but is glad he kept “plugging away”. The old building, at the corner of Pearl and Huntington Sts., is now vacant. The owner is the State Bank of Syracuse, who has not yet announced the future plans for the post office building.

- . . . ... - ’ SIGN OF SPRING — A sure sign that spring is here is when farmers are in the field plowing for spring crop planting. And there was plenty of this to go around this week, with plenty more to come. , Carlton Beer, a r 1 Milford farmer, located on the Milford-Syracuse road just east of Milford, is one of the first farmers to take to the field. In the above photo, his son Ronn is operating a large tractor pulling a six-bottom plow, turning from 35 to 40 acres of soil per-day.

NIPSCo granted permission to reduce customers costs

Northern Indiana Public Service Company petitioned the Public Service Commission of ijndiana for permission to reduce customers’ gas costs by $469,618. NIPSCo has been informed by Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, one of its five pipeline suppliers, of lower purchased gas costs. Upon approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Service Commission of Indiana, the lower gas costs will be passed on to NIPSCo customers. When approved, the utility's average customer using gas for spaceheating and other purposes,

Four honored by schools

A dinner and program was held for non-certified employee of the Lakeland School Corporation to honor four employees who will be retiring at the end of the school year. Honored were: Ed Green a custodian at Wawasee High School; Ed Caskey, head custodian at the Syracuse Schools; Doris Dorsey, cafeteria worker. Syracuse schools; and Lunetta Metcalf, cafeteria manager, North Webster Schools. Ed Green, Wawasee Lake, doesn’t plan on doing much after his retirment except gardening and golfing. He has been a custodian for the past 11 years at the high school. Prior to that he was a custodian. He has lived

160.800 cubic feet a year, will realize a reduction of 32 cents a year or about two and two-thirds cents a month. The average NIPSCo customer using gas for purposes other than spaceheating will realize a reduction of nine cents a year or about :! .» cents a month. Adjustments in gas rates to NIPSCo customers, usually upward but sometimes downward, have occurred and will continue to occur as rates charged by the company’s pipeline suppliers change. This is the sixth tracking adjustment filed by NIPSCo this year. Three have been increases and three have been decreases.

(See photoon page 2.) most of his life in the area and graduated from Syracuse High School. Green and his wife, Doris, have four children, Fred, Carol and Meg, Cromwell; and Bill, Fort Wayne; and eight grandchildren. Mrs. William. (Lunetta) Metcalf, r 1 Leesburg, has been a cafeteria manager for the North Webster Schools for the past 20 years. She started in September of 1959 after working for the Koscisko Abstract in Warsaw for (Continued on page 2)

. ’ ■' ■ th GETTING THE POSTAL STORY — Mail-Journal reporter Louise Purvis is shown interviewing Syracuse Postmaster Avon Bushong in his office at the new postal facility Monday morning, amid Bushong’s hustle and bustle of arranging his furniture and files..

Syracuse police install their own darkroom Something new at the Syracuse Police Department! In a week or so, police will be able to do their own darkroom photography work right on the scene, thanks to the efforts of Deputy Marshal Jack Zimmerman and Reserve Officer Steve Knispel. The two have logged at least 100 hours of their own time building the darkroom in a room adjoining the police office and will soon be doing most of the work. The enlarger is already in place, and other materials and equipment will soon be added. Deputy Zimmerman studied darkroom procedures when he attended the Indiana Law’ Enforcement Academy in Plainfield. He says it will be a big help in accident and criminal investigations to develop photos on the scene, rather than waitthe frustrating two or three weeks it now takes to get the film back from county police. 4 Files of negatives and photos will be kept right here in the Syracuse office, aiding greatly in police investigation. Zimmerman says.

Leesburg women in 3-car crash

Goldie E. Lemons, 72, and Hazel M. Pace, both of Leesburg, were involved in a three-car accident in the business district of Warsaw, Tuesday afternoon, April 12. Lemons stopped in the northbound lane of Washington St., and started across Market St., when her auto collided with a car operated by Sally L. Ewald. 35. South Bend. Edw’ald’s auto bounced into an auto operated by Linda C. Jackson. 34, r 6 Warsaw. Ewald was eastbound on Market St ~ and police stated Jackson had stopped in the westbound lane of

NUMBER 14

Market, waiting to make a left turn onto Washington St. Pace, a passenger in Lemons' auto, suffered a cut on her forehead. Also injured were Mrs. Jackson, who hit her head and complained of back pain and Mrs. Ewald, who suffered a bruised thigh and bumped her head. Damage to Lemons’ auto was estimated at $3,000, $4,000 to Ewald’s car and $1,500 to Jackson’s vehicle. Lemons was cited for failure to yield the right-of-way by Warsaw City Patrolman Lance Grubbs.