The Mail-Journal, Volume 20, Number 44, Milford, Kosciusko County, 16 November 1983 — Page 1

Phones: 658-4111 & 457-3666

VOLUME 20

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VIEW OAKWOOD GROWTH PLAN - Explaining a plan for expansion and growth for Oakwood Spiritual Life Center with the aid of a large map is Kev. Bruce R. Ough, director, shown second from right in

S-W Chamber meeting upbeat

Bill Beemer, president of the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce, set the tone for the chamber’s annual fall membership meeting, held at the Oakwood Spiritual Life Center last Wednesday evening, when he said, “I’m excited, and I hope you are too!” He had reference to two important announcements to be made ; during the business 1 session. About 7(r chamber members were present to dine on ; swiss steak, at what Beemer said ; was one of the chamber’s largest sucn meetings. i Nursing Home, Oakwood The announcements concerned a new 66-bed nursing home for the Syracuse area, and a three-year, $6,500,000 expansion of Oakwood Park facilities on the shores of Lake Wawasee. Tom Teghtmeyer, director of marketing and planning for Miller Manor nursing homes (23 facilities throughout northern Indiana), said approval was granted on October 21 at an evidentiary hearing by the state board of health for the new Syracuse facility, in a field of three such requests within Kosciusko County. “Right now we’re in a waiting period,” Teghtmeyer said, when objectors to the planned nursing home have an opportunity to be heard. “If all goes well, we’ll break ground yet this fall,” he said. They hope to open for operation by August 1984. Teghtmeyer said the Millers began their first nursing home in the old county home south of Warsaw in 1965, and now that three <* sons, including State Senator Richard Miller of Plymouth, run the operation. The proposed Syracuse nursing home will employ 42 skilled people, with an annual payroll of $600,000. Cost of the facility: $1,650,000. Oakwood Park Rev. Bruce R. Ough, who became director of the Oakwood Spiritual Life Center (formerly known as Oakwood Park) in October 1982, outlined a 1983-1986 plan for renovation and rebuilding of the popular center. He introduced Rev. Hunter Colpitts, who has been a guiding light in directing the new planning. Rev. Colpitts is a former Muncie Minister of considerable reputation in fundraising and church facility rebuilding. He said they hoped to have “a spiritual impact on the entire community.” He said the new management hoped to bring Oakwood more into the mainstream of local community life, something that has not been done in the past. The 90-year-old facility, originally founded on Conklin Hill, Rev. Ough said, is about to have a re-birth. The plans call for tearing down the old 66-bed hotel, which was ruled as outdated and unsafe. “It would cost $2 million to update the old hotel,” Rev. Ough said, “and then we’d have an old building.” They hope to break ground this fall or next spring for a new retreat center on the hotel site, for 50 modern rooms, and a ban-

The Mail Journal

Consolidation of THE MILFORD MAIL lEst. 1888) and THE SYRACUSE-WAWASEE JOURNAL (Est. 1907)

quet room to seat 350 people. He said, “The old hotel is the last of seven hotels on Lake Wawasee.” Total cost of the project: $6,500,000, to be spent as follows: Program development, $500,000; endowment, $1,000,000; facility and site development $5,000,000 (new retreat center construction, $3,300,000; building renovations $500,000; land and building acquisition, $150,000; landscaping and roads, $450,000; furnishings, $300,000; and architectural fees, $300,000). The drive for these funds is now well underway, Rev. Ough said. Commendations President Beemer presented special business commendations to the following local business: Buzz Keck Motors, Dr. Wendel R. Shank, Bonnie Workman and Jean Rogers, Enchanted Hills Playhouse, State Bank of Syracuse, Hibschman Motors, Pilcher Shoe Store and the chamber’s executive director Joe Gray. Beemer also spoke in glowing terms of the community’s “experiencing a mixed growth,” and pointed to the renewed production at the local Dana Corporation. He showed a handsome four-club brochure Dana is circulating, highlighting an aerial view of the Syracuse plant on its cover and a map on the back citing Syracuse as it’s plant “in the heart of the industrial Midwest, with easy access to the major interstate highways and railroad systems, provide(ing)

Approve street paving —

Syracuse board receives sanitation bids last night

Six bids were received last night for garbage removal in Syracuse at the monthly town board meeting held in the Syracuse Town Hall last night (Tuesday). Board members decided to table the bids for further examination and will make a decision on the bids at a special board meeting next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The following companies placed respective bids for garbage removal from 935 residents and 130 businesses: Apollo Disposal Inc., Angola, $31,950; Waste Management Partners Lakela'nd Inc., $38,072.40 annual or $75,000 for a two year contract; Clevenger Disposal, Pierceton, $28,499.40; Darrell’s PDQ Service, Goshen, $38,340; Stuckman’s Tri Lake Sanitation Service, $38,340; Heckman’s Sani Service, Columbia City, $33,867. Carl Myrick, presiding over the meeting, suggested the board “take (the bids) under advisement for a week” and then act. Steve Snyder, representing Lawrence Thwaits, addressed the problem of paving Hillside

the above photo. With Rev. Ough is Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce executive director Joe Gray, and on the left are Char Ough and Rev. Hunter Colpitts.

4 OBii *1 tV'.l '< IW'’ n ' I F* BE*"- * B | w ** < PLAN NURSING HOME — Chamber of Commerce president Bill Beemer is shown with Tom Teghtmeyer, director of marketing and planning for the Miller Merry Manor nursing home corporation, in a photo taken last Wednesday evening following the announcement that plans are well under way to erect a 66-bed nursing home in the Syracuse area, actual site unknown at this time.

our customers with ‘just-in-time’ delivery benefits.” In other business James E. Caskey and Robert Troutman, members of the chamber’s doctor search committee, reported that progress is being made to secure another doctor for Syracuse, and Kip Schumm

Drive by providing the board with four proposals on how the work could be completed. Snyder cited three problems with the unpaved street: the city had agreed to pay for the cost of curbing; gradework and basework had already been done twice, but the street was never completed; and Thwaits is not a developer, he merely owns the lots, which means he is not responsible for all costs involved in paving the street. If the city would not contribute to one of the outlined plans, Snyder said Thwaits could “sell the lots and walk away.” Myrick rejected all of the proposals saying the town was not obligated to supply curbing for the addition. According to the presiding officer, the town is obligated to supply labor and funds for a two-inch base and oneinch surface. Myrick suggested the city supply Thwaits with labor for shaping the street plus $5,000 towards materials. Thwaits told the board the street was unimproved and was within the corporate limits, “If the city will work with us, the

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16. 1983

spoke on the need for additional Christmas lights for the town. A financial report distributed indicated the chamber had a November 2, 1982 balance of $3,426.35, with revenues of $6,597.82 and expenditures of $7,322.55, leaving a balance on November 9,1983, of $2,701.61.

paving will be cheaper.” Town attorney Robert Reed agreed the problem was “joint” between the lot owners and city ; and Snyder assured the board his client was trying to get the work accomplished in “the least expensive way.” Besides what the city supplies Thwaits with, he will still have to contribute approximately $12,000. After some discussion, the board increased its offer and agreed to have the city “shape and roll the gravel base to the engineer’s specifications and pay $5,500 towards materials.” Joe Dock, street, water and sewer superintendent, told the - board storm sewer completion far the Hillside Drive area would cost the city $3,400. Since those funds aren’t available, the board advised Dock to use his present materials to partially complete the sewer so it does not interefere with the paving. Department Reports Tim Weisser, representing the Syracuse Emergency Medical Service, requested board approval to purchase supplies in (Continued on page 2)

Seek to purchase bank shares The First Indiana Bancorp, located at 301 South Main Street in Elkhart and owners of the First National Bank of Elkhart and other financial interests, is seeking to purchase shares of the State Bank of Syracuse and oi the First Charter Financial Corporation, both located at 100 East Main Street, Syracuse. The announcement is being made this week through a legal notice appearing in this issue of The Mail-Journal. The Elkhart financial holding corporation will apply to the Federal Reserve Board pursuant to Section 3 of the Bank Holding Company Act for acquisition of shares as follows: 2,382 shares (11.17%) of the State Bank of Syracuse and 4,829 shares (17.73%) of the First Charter Financial Corporation. Interested parties are invited to submit written comments on the application to the Federal Reserve Board at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 230 South LaSalle Street, P.O. Box 834, Chicago, Illinois, 60690. The comment period on the application will not end before December 16,1983. Calls may be made to Nicholas P. Alban, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to find out if one has additional time for submitting comments on the application or if more information is needed about submit,A|r>g comments. Mr. Alban's number is (312) 322-5876. The Federal Reserve will consider comments, including requests for a public meeting or formal hearing on the application if received by the Federal Reserve Bank during the comment period. Public meeting set for Tippy River work A public meeting will be held in Warsaw on Tuesday, Nov. 22, to present a proposed plan for clearing a segment of the Tippecanoe River, Jim Ridenour, director of the Department of Natural Resources announced recently. The meeting will start promptly at 7:30 p.m. at the Warsaw Pavilion. The area under consideration for the clearing and snagging work is from the outlet of Lake Tippecanoe to an area approximately two miles downstream from the river’s crossing at old US 30. George M. Palmiter, widely known for his environmentally sensitive river clearing techniques and consultant on the project, will give a presentation on the proposed work, Ridenour said. Ridenour urges all interested persons to attend the meeting, especially those individuals who own land along the river. The proposed project was authorized and funded in action taken by the 1983 Indiana General Assembly. ■no cnoigOQf marijuana being cultivated Kosciuscko County police officers arrested three men in Syracuse on Thursday and charged them with possession of marijuana. Bernard Francis Deschenes, 32, Hubert, Quebec; Claude Remi Ferland, 31 Delray Beach, Fla.; and Melvin Conrad Jr., Wolcottville, were booked in the county jail. According to police, the three men were involved in cultivating marijuana plants west of Milford and southeast of Nappanee. Officers traced their Toyota pickup to an apartment in Syracuse where the arrests were made. The trio was preparing to ship the Plants to Florida at the time of the arrest. Police recovered a small amount of marijuana in the Toyota. However, the fields contained about 23 pounds of marijuana plants. TU\nenreportedly planned to keep the plants for their own use.

MAD plans holiday breakfast

By CATHY BRILL Staff Writer The Milford Area Development Council met Saturday, Nov. 12, in the Milford Community Building and began plans for the coming pancake and sausage breakfast. The meeting was chaired by vice president Marcy Haab in the absence of MAD president Jean Treesh. A discussion was also held on contracts for those who use the building. Don Arnold gave the treasurer’s report, stating the October 31 balance was $987.01. He said $550 had been donated for letters, in addition to the $320 MAD itself had committed for the lettering which was recently installed on the community building. Arnold stated the bill for the lettering could now be paid from the treasury. Arnold added that a S2OO donation to be used for the community building had been received last week and the profit from MAD's chili supper was $288.41. The pancake and sausage holiday breakfast will be on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 6:30-9:30 a.m. in the Milford Community Building. ‘ A price for the breakfast has not yet been established by the committee. Members of the committee are: Jennie Heckaman; Raymond Pinkerton; Becky Doll, who represents the merchants ; Missy Sorensen; Marcy Haab; and Jean Treesh. Eva Hamilton, administrator and caretaker for the community building, presented the issue of contractural agreements with renters of the facility. After some discussion of damage to the building and several incidents of

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broken chairs which had occurred, the group reached agreement on the matter. It was determined that contracts would be required for renters who planned to use the facility for special events, but regularly scheduled meetings of organizations would remain as they presently are, under no contracted agreement. Other business included: •The decision to schedule only events that can occur in conjunction with Blood Pressure Saturday for the first Saturday of each month in order to prevent any interference with the blood pressure checks which are a community service. •The decision to require profit making groups to pay rent for use of a corner of the building during Blood Pressure Saturday and other regularly scheduled events. • It was determined that according to MAD's charter the nominating committee could indeed eliminate the office of second vice president from its offices. •It was learned that 28 meetings and activities were scheduled for the community building between October 8 and November 11. •It was mentioned that the community building maintenance committee had installed a bulletin board and was questioning where the fire extinguisher should be placed in the building’s kitchen. •Don Arnold mentioned that the State Police are interested in obtaining a street map of Milford to help in processing accident reports. He received several suggestions on where one could be located from those present at the meeting.

1 S VETERANS DAY OBSERVANCE - Poppies may have formed a blanket of brilliant red on Flanders Field in the French Ardennes when the armistice was signed to end World War I. but on Friday, marking the t 65th anniversary of the armistice signing, temperatures stood at 30 degrees here. Syracuse-Wawasee American Legion Post 223 marked the occasion in a brief ceremony on Main Street in front of the Syracuse Public Library, with past commander Gus Liske offering a prayer and commemorative message as the color guard and firing squad stood at attention. Three volleys were fired into the air as a tribute to fallen veterans who have served their country in past conflicts. And the ceremony was capped when Loree Mench played Taps. In the lower photo are several women who attended the ceremonies: From left. Ann Schrock. Margaret Nichols. Mary Jane Deardorff. Marge Coy. unknown, and Alice Kline. I 1 MF " Q j

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• It was noted that Santa would be present for most of the pancake breakfast on December 10 and that parents should remember their cameras if they would like photos of their . children with Santa. •It was also noted that this is the time for holiday reservations to be made for the community building as the holiday season is quickly approaching. • •MAD thanked the chili supper committee, those who helped with serving and cleanup, those who attended and those who donated desserts. • Again thanked all those who had donated money toward the letters for the community building. • Thanked Wade Mishler for his donation of a seven-foot aluminum Christmas tree, which MAD intends to set up in the community building around November 30. The next meeting of the Milford Area Development Council will be held on Saturday, Dec. 10. Movement seen in negotiations According to George Gilbert, assistant superintendent and head negotiator for the Lakeland Community Schools administration, progress is being made in the negotiating process. „ Both sides are moving closer to an agreement and another meeting of the two sides has been established for tonight (Wednesday).