The Mail-Journal, Volume 20, Number 15, Milford, Kosciusko County, 27 April 1983 — Page 4

THE MAIL-JOURNAL — Wed., April 27,1983

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Editorials Pride month in North Webster We would be remiss if we did not make note of the fact this is Tippy Township Community Pride Month. Under the sponsorship of the North Webster/Tippecanoe Township Chamber of Commerce, it is an attempt to focus on improving and taking pride in the community. Last week focused on commercial improvements to the area’s commercial properties and businesses. This week the chamber is promoting community clean up and roadside beautification. Both should help the image of that community. The first major activity was to clean up an eyesore north of town on SR 13. In doing this the committee hopes to “instill pride in the community.” The property had become a roadside dumping area. It will npw be posted and citizens will not be allowed to use it as a dump. All in all the work being done in North Webster deserves the praise of all in the Lakeland area, in fact, other towns would do well to take note and do likewise. Have you thanked your secretary this week? This week has been set aside as National Secretaries Week. It’s a good time for bosses to pause and say thank you to their Gal Fridays, or Guy Fridays for that matter, for all that’s been done above and beyond the call of duty over the pastyear. Why not take her to lunch, buy her a special something, or if that’s out of the question a “thank you for the good job,” quite often forgotten in the rush of the work day, is always appreciated. Smile secretaries, this is your week! Nature's world The world of nature, coming to life around us now, a beauty beyond the capacity of mortal man, is to be appreciated. _ Spring is a time of hope, baseball, summer dreams, pretty girls in pretty dresses and exhilaration over warming weather and the end of winter. A close observation of the miracles on all sides in every field and forest, and on every hillside, can restore one’s strength and peace of mind. It can bring tranquility and humbleness to every thinking individual. - What others say — Is the fault in ourselves? An Editorial in Tuesday night’s Fort Wayne newspaper was entitled “Indiana: A hot prospect.” It reported that a recent survey ranked Indiana’s “business climate” 29th out of the 48 mainland states. By some strange logic, it concluded that “all things being equal Indiana is simply a better place to do business. And you don’t need any fool study to see that.” > » Bullroar. That is exactly the kind of self-deception we don t need. Nobody should be proud of ranking 29th — especially when Indiana ranked 25th last year. / We obviously need some improvements before new businesses are beating down our doors. The 126-page Conference of State Manufacturers’ Associations report on business climate in good news in only a few respects. It says Indiana’s business climate is the best of six Great Lakes states. Big deal, The Great Lakes region is rated worst in the nation. Michigan rates dead last. The only really good news is that Indiana rates 3rd best in the nation in business climate factors affected by government — especially for low taxes, low workmen’s compensation costs, lack of government debt and low welfare expenditures. ® So why do we drop to 29th overall? Because Indiana rates 46th in factors not affected by government. It just so happens that these factors are more important to businesses. The study used 22 factors to rate each state’s business climate, but some factors were given more weight than others. According to the study, the three most important factors are: 1. energy costs, 2. wages, 3. unionization. Indiana ranked 23rd in energy costs. Not bad, although it may be getting worse as natural gas prices rise. Indiana ranked 43rd in wages, with an average hourly manufacturing wage of $9.37 per hour in 1982. The national average is $7.84. Indiana ranked 41st in unionization, with 30 per cent of manufacturing workers unionized. The national average is 22 per cent. That’s true even though Indiana’s union membership dropped by 4.7 per cent in 1982. It’s dropping faster everywhere else — down 6.1 per cent nationwide. In one factor related to unions, Indiana ranked dead last. We had the nation’s ’ highest percentage of lost time due to strikes in 1982. Indiana gives a company less work for a dollar of wages. We are 42nd in the category titled “Value added by manufacturing employees per dollar of production payroll.” We also rate poorly in educational areas — 25th in vocational education (a big improvement from last year’s 36th) and 32nd in the percentage of high school graduates. Education is one area which the state government can improve, but that means more taxes — and the survey ranks low taxes as more important than education. The message seems to be clear. The fault does not lie in Indiana’s political leaders, but in ourselves. There is only so much our state government can do to improve the business climate. We’re already in 3rd place on government factors. But it is clear that the rest of us have plenty of room for improvement. The adjustment will be painful. We’re already seeing it. In the past few days, workers at two Butler companies had to swallow a pay cut. We’ll almost certainly see more pay cuts and pay freezes in the months ahead. That seems cruel. In many respects the Great Lakes states have been a worker’s paradise. Now that is coming to an end as Sunbelt states compete for business by offering lower wage scales. The top-rated state for business (overall) is Florida with an average wage of $6.37 per hour. Number two is Texas, which has middle-range wages of $7.95 per hour. Number three overall is North Carolina, which has the nation’s lowest wages at $5.94 per hour. (Indiana’s average is $9.37 per hour.) The implications of that are pretty depressing, but they are undeniable. The survey may seem unfair, callous, unfeeling, but it tells the score in the hotly-contested game of economic development. We’re behind, and all the Chamber of Commerce cheerleading won’t help unless we play harder. -AUBURN EVENING STAR

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North Webster Cub Scout Pack 3726 assisted in the Tippy Township Community Pride Month program by cleaning up trash and debris at the North Webster fairgrounds, ball diamond and North Webster School. The Scouts assisted on Saturday, April 23.

Shown above are a number of Scouts cleaning up at the ball diamond.

Unsung hero —

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Larry Gerke has been fireman for six years

“1 was scared to death the first time 1 went into a burning house,” remarked Larry Gerke, 27, North Webster. Gerke has been a North Webster fireman for six years and stated “you can’t see your hand in front of your face, it’s a strange house and you’re not sure if the floor is still there. It’s a spooky feeling at first.” Gerke became a fireman by being interested in the department and going to fires. Some time later he was voted in as an auxiliary fireman. “1 like it, it’s fun sometimes, rewarding and scary sometimes, but, somebody has to do it.” Besides being a fireman, Gerke has been an emergency medical service driver for 24 years. He took a first responders course through the fire department. He started running as a trainee on the EMS but decided he wanted to drive and become a driver. As a driver he concentrates on getting there as quickly as he can, but safely and getting the patient to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible. Gerke has lived in North Webster for 13 years moving

there from Cincinnati, Ohio, when he was in the seventh grade. He enjoys fishing, hunting and basketball on which he participates on the fire department team. The team recently had a charity game to raise money for the department. He and his wife. Sue, have one son, Terry, 13 months old. Gerke is currently laid off from Masonlite Concrete, Fort Wayne. TH! MAU JOURNAL i u s p s in 840 i Published by The Mail-Journal every Wednesday and entered as Second Class matter at the Post Ottice at Syracuse, Indiana 46547 Second class postage paid at MB E. Main Street, Syracuse, Indiana 44547 and at additional entry ottices Subscription: Mb per year in Kosciusko County; $14.50 outside county POSTMASTERS Send change ot address forms to The Mail-Journal, P.O. Box IM, Milford, Indiana44s42

"CRUZIN AROUND 'CUSE"

VERY FEW Syracusans recall that just 50 years ago last Tuesday— on Wednesday, April 19, 1933 — the State Bank of Syracuse was robbed of SB,OOO in a bizarre mid-morning heist. This came to light through Jack Vanderford, president of the Syracuse Library Board, when he was rummaging through the files of The Syracuse Journal to prepare a display for the local library’s observance of National Library Week. The library has a new updated microfilm system for copying the pages of The Journal, which is now being put to very good use. Vanderford copied the memorable Thursday, April 20, 1933, front page of The Journal and showed it around to many surprised local citizens. Most were not old enough to remember the fateful robbery. One who did remember, however, was Lois Schleeter. a resident of 213 South Huntington Street, a young bank teller at the time of the robbery. She had only recently come out of business school to take the bank job. which she then held for 47 years, retiring formally June 1. 1972. “Oh, yes, I remember the robbery very well,” she said upon seeing the front page story in The Journal. She and the late Charles Bachman, Jr., were put into the bank’s vault by the daring young robber while he scooped up the SB,OOO loot and put it into a suitcase. Other possible unwitting eyewittnesses to the abortive robbery was one Ira Crow, who entered the bank to pay his taxes, and Leo Druckamiller. now a resident of 95 East Shore Drive, who, at just 26 years of age. was standing “leaning against a post” in front of the old Grand Hotel, the remodeled building now occupied by The Stout Shop, located just across main Street from the bank. The bandit telephoned the bank stating that he was a bank examiner, and that he had car trouble at Benton “at the intersection of roads 2 and 13”. He asked to be picked up. Sol Miller, father of the late Richard Miller of Pearl Street, was the bank’s cashier, and came to the "examiner’s” rescue in his late model Essex sedan. When Miller arrived to meet the bandit “just north of the Solomon’s Creek Bridge, the man was carrying a brief case and was walking into town.” so said The Journal. As the two headed for Syracuse, the passenger told Miller “this is a hold-up.” They drove into the woods of the Earl Butt farm, “where he tied him (Miller) hand and foot and gagged him. On the way to the woods the bandit hit Miller with his gun.' ’ The Journal’s account read. Then the bandit drove Miller’s Essex into Syracuse, parking on the west side of Huntington Street, across from the bank and beside what is now the Anchor Bar. After he forced Mrs. Schleeter and young Bachman into the vault and filled the suitcase with the SB,OOO in cash, he returned to the parked car to make his escape. To his surprise, the car wouldn’t start, so. according to eyewitness Druckamiller. he pushed the car down the Huntington Street grade, jumped in, threw it into gear, and the motor started. Druckamiller said he was watching the bank and “saw no movement” which caused his suspicion to be aroused. He watched the quiet escape of the bandit and recalled that construction worker Charles McClintic, now deceased, “almost hit him with his road grader. ” Inside the bank, during the robbery, the bold bandit stepped up to the counter after he had Mrs. Schleeter and Bachman in the vault, and told Mr. Crow he would have to come back later to pay his taxes, that Mr. Miller was not at the bank at that time. When the stubborn Essex was finally started, the bandit headed south one block, turned east on Pearl Street went one block north, then went to Main and right around the lake. He drove the Essex to a point north of town where he met an accomplice and made his escape. As it turned out. the bandit had been a meat cutter at the Louie Soltz market just across old State Road 13 from the booming South Shore Hotel, and was known to many in the community. He purchased a chicken farm in Michigan, and, due to his flashing an inordinate amount of cash in his home community, came under suspicion, as his new source of quick cash became quickly apparent. The Thursday, June 29. 1933 issue of The Syracuse Journal, in a story under a screaming six-column headline (similar to the April 29th headline), it was revealed that the robber in the Syracuse bank was one Charles Hoeflinger, aged 24. of Charlotte. Michigan. A heady story in The Journal told how a lakes area man tipped the sheriff off on the identity of the robber providing the informant’s identity was not made known. Hoeflinger was arrested on Thursday, June 22, 1933, was jailed, then appeared before Judge Donald Vanderveer where he was given a 20-year sentences on two counts, bank robbery and commiting a robbery while armed, the sentences to run concurrently. At first Hoeflinger said he was a lone bandit, but finally confessed his accomplice was his 24-year-old nephew. Harold Hoeflinger, of Mishawaka, well known in Syracuse and around Lake Wawasee. 1| was the nephew, Hoeflinger said, who dropped him off at roads 2 and 13, and after the robbery picked him up at the corner of roads 6 and 13. The investigation into the Syracuse bank heist threw light on other robberies, in that Kosciusko County Sheriff Harley D. Person turned up Merritt Longbrake. 38, of Claypool, another bank robber. He was charged with robbing the Hicksville. 0.. bank in the amount of $2,990 on April 18. 1933. and the robbery of the Huntsville. 0.. bank in the amount of S7OO, on July 11.1932. At the time Hoeflinger was encarcerated in the Kosciusko County jail in Warsaw, he escaped, but war later recaptured. (Note: Breaking out of

the Kosciusko County jail appears to have a long and acepted tradition to observers of that type of thing.) In the case of Longbrake. he had earlier served time in the penitentiary at Michigan City and in the Ohio state prison. He was in the Michigan City prison for stea ling hogs. His path of robberies took Sheriff Person on a chase “that makes the detective work (of Person) real like stories of Sherlock Holmes, and put him in the class with the Northwestern Mounted Police who ‘get their man ,” so reads The Journal’s old file, in what must have been one of its “big stories” in those Depression-ridden days that were marked with John Dillinger bank robberies across northern Indiana. It all ended with Longbrake, the robber who gave Syracuse and its bank center stage for a brief time, securely behind bars. A happy note was that bank deposits were insured up to $20,000, and no one lost any money through Hoeflinger’s shenanigans AFTER YEARS of high school basketball coaching, a World Book sales representative, and representative for Remington Rand. Don Butt and his talented wife Laura have decided to try their talents in the field of private enterprise. They have purchased “The Log Cabins" on Kuhn Lake, located on SR 13 across from the Flowing Well south of North Webster. The buy was from Floyd and Ruth Baker, who have owned the popular summer resort for many years Laura Butt, a real talent, plans to make one cabin into an arts and crafts shop, to widen the interest in their young enterprise. It’s interesting to note that when Butt went to North Webster as a 21-year-old just out of college to coach that community’s Trojans he rapped on the door on old pro coach Baker, seeking out his guidance and assistance They have been like father and son over the years. “And now I’m asking ‘Bake’ for his guidance again," says Don. “in getting this new business enterprise off the ground.” YOU HAVE to hand it to the little town of North Webster. The movers and shakers of that tiny town have organized themselves a chamber of commerce and are pushing a spring improvement program. Theme: Tippecanoe Township Community Pride. Mike Kern states a community trash pick-up is scheduled for Saturday, April 30 (rain date May 7). beginning at the north side of town and working south. The town will furnish trucks and several town workers, others will be chamber volunteers All trash is to be along the Main Streets (no alley pick-up), anything large or small, but no garbage. Kern states. He says this is aTirst. and will include the town only. Next year they hope to include the entire township. JEFF WELLS wants to try his wings at operating his own business, and has quit his job of three years at the Salem Bank and Trust Company at Goshen, to devote full time to his Syracuse Products Co., a young orthopedic concern he is operating with his partner Jon Sroufe on Pickwick Road. Jeff, a Tri-State grad at Angola, worked at the State Bank of Syracuse before going to Salem where he became assistant vice president and Numero Dos in the commercial loan department. * He and Cindy are completing their new home in Kanata Manayunk and hope to be moving in soon. Their nicely remodeled farm house on the Syra-Web burned just after Christmas. Remember? THE STORY is out that a popular Wawasee Village eating establishment is about to be sold. A firm offer has been made and tentatively accepted, but no names have been inked on the sales forms, so we’re told. THERE ARE Already rumblings being heard about the Flotilla Week End Road Race, spon sored by this paper, and to be held this year on Monday, July 4, at 9a.m Two places of business, for instance have employees who are putting themselves out to form teams against one another. Todd Realty is fielding Joe. the big boss himself, and Clare Baumgardt and Nike Pawlicki. against a team from That Sail Boat Place consisting of Larry Baumgardt. Steve and Debbie Gabrielson and Jeff Schmahl. More on the race later SYRACUSE CONTRACTOR Tom L. Jackson of T. L. Jackson Construction Co., is proud of a large framed photo of himself. The picture ran as a cover photo on a home building section of “the paper.” this paper’s sister publication. Becky Doll, of Doll Decorating at Milford, friend of Tom and Patti Jackson, got the original photo of Tom sawing a board, had it framed and presented it to him, to his considerable surprise and pleasure. STATE SENATOR and Mrs. John B. Augsburger left Sunday for a brief Carribbean crake to the tropical island of St. Martins, not too far from the South American continent. A welcome relief from the rigors of the recent stormy sessions of the Indiana General Assembly, so states Senator John, who owns grocery stores in Syracuse and North Webster. CHARLES F. HAFFNER, r 4 resident and principal of the Syracuse Junior High School, has told staff members of his desire to return to the classroom as a teacher, but to remain within the Lakeland School Corporation Apparently principal Haffner feels he would find classroom teaching more challenging. He has been principal at the junior high school for the past 13 years, having graduated from the (Continued on page 5)