The Mail-Journal, Volume 23, Number 4, Milford, Kosciusko County, 22 January 1986 — Page 4

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THE MAIL-JOURNAL—Wed., January 22,1986

Editorials

Mental retardation education The Association for Retarded Citizens of Indiana is joining ARC units nationwide in an awareness campaign about mental retardation. Through the month of March, they will be intensifying their efforts toward educating the public on the more than six million adults and children with mental retardation in the USA. ARC is also campaigning for prevention and educating future generations on what can be done to prevent mental retardation in their children. We feel a need to inform out readers about facts on mental retardation as provided by ARC. Those facts follow: One of every 10 Americans has a family member who is mentally retarded. In the United States about 3 percent of the population will be identified as mentally retarded at some point in their lives. Mental retardation is four times more common than rheumatic fever, nine time more prevalent than cerebral palsy and affects 15 times more people than blindness. Any condition that hinders or interferes with intellectual development before or during birth or in the early childhood years can be the cause of mental retardation. Although more than 250 causes are known, these account for only one-fourth of all identified causes. A growing number of people with mental retardation are how living in group homes and receiving community-based services. The population of state institutions is decreasing at a rate of 5,000-6,000 per year. The number of residents in all state institutions has decreased from a peak of 194,650 in 1967 to 117,160 in 1982, a 40 percent drop. About 89 percent of children and adults with mental retardation are mildly retarded and in many respects, quite similar to people without retardation. They differ primarily in rate and degree of intellectual development. Mental retardation cuts across the lines of race, educational, social and economic background. It can occur in anyone. In fact, hereditary components are known to account for only a fraction of the cases of retardation. Our American heritage What many forget about America these days is that this nation was originally founded by individuals with strong religious faith and a similar determination to enjoy the freedom to worship as they pleased. The predominating early American heritage, then, was one of religious faith combined with hard work by people with enough initiative to emigrate to a new country to escape discrimination, or persecution. That spirit has lasted to this day in many parts of America. And, of course, the heritage was not without shortcomings. The Puritan influence in New England was good in ways but narrow-minded and itself at times persecutive. But, overall, that spirit built the greatest industrial nation in the world and the world’s leading Democratic society. In more recent decades more stress has been laid on individual Jicense to do almost anything, and on permissiveness of society in general to allow individuals to do almost anything, than on the old-time faith-moral standards-hard work ethic. I Where to draw the line is today the constant business of the courts, and public officials, in some cases. It is a difficult task, and as militant rights groups and individuals demand more and more license, the issues often become controversial. But it can be said that society in general, or the majority, or put another way, the general welfare, should sometimes prevail over extremist individual freedom demands.

What others say — Loss of revenue sharing After years of wondering how long the gift horse could last, we now know that revenue sharing is dead — the victim of hard fiscal times in Washington. Its death came as no surprise. In many ways, it’s a wonder it lasted as long as it did. Vermonters have always greeted the buoyant “Hi, I’m here to help” attitude of government with appropriate skepticism. Revenue sharing, when it first arrived in 1973, was free and easy money, given without strings (other than an annoying audit now andagain), that many municipalities saw as ideal for tax relief purposes. Almost from the beginning, however, there were warnings from those whose advice we trusted telling us not to rely on revenue sharing, not to build it into the tax base, not to grow so comfortable with the gift that we stopped thinking of it as a gift. We never squandered the money. We bought new trucks, new graders, new equipment with those funds. We painted the town hall and had the land records redone. We used the money for things that wee needed, that we might have put off if we had had to use tax moneys for them. But we couldn’t help ourselves — we got used to the idea that the money would be there, and even though we didn’t pay salaries or maintain highways with revenue sharing funds, we did develop bad spending habits because revenue sharing was there. We did develop a revenue sharing addiction, and now we must face withdrawal. Government is best at beginning new programs. Perhaps because it seldom has to face up to the opposite experience, government seldom handles endings well, especially the ending of programs as generous and as discretionary as revenue sharing. So it should come as little surprise to see mayors and managers raising the specter erf fiscal apocalypse as they decry the end of revenue sharing. Without this money, they say, we will soon see starving people trudging homeless in the ice and snow. Hyperbole aside, the end of revenue sharing will be traumatic to many Vermont communities, who rightfully suspect they will not find much eagerness on the part of taxpayers to raise property taxes to make up the difference. Whether the state should soon establish its own revenue sharing system to adequately fund the necessary services provided by municipal government is a separate question, however. The legitimate justification for additional state funding of municipal services is the exhaustion of the property tax as a funding mechanism. Few would argue with that conclusion, although there are many opinions on what should constitute appropriate limits on government spending in general. Federal revenue sharing was a sugar plum. There is no justification for demanding that the state design its own sugar plum to replace the one lost at the federal level. If state revenue sharing does come to pass, it must be based on real need. It must be calculated in a manner which reflects the electroate’s best judgment on how their tax dollars should be spent. We cannot afford to forget the lessons of federal revenue sharing: thatmoney coming from someplace else, even if it once belonged to us, is never treated with the same respect or file same sense of responsibility as money we raise ourselves for our own specific purposes. Like tax refund checks, it seems like found money, like other people’s money, and it spoils us by nultingus forget it is temporary VERMONT SECRETARY OF STATE JAMES H. DOUGLAS

\ Hr fl Build a better life

Tony is. As one of the more than 6 million Americans with mental retardation, he wants the same things you do ... a happy, productive life ... to make friends ... to prove himself. Every day, people like Tony take part in programs of education and job

Help build the arc

Association for Retarded Citizens

Court news

Circuit Court The following complaints have been filed in Kosciusko Circuit Court, Judge Richard Sand presiding: Complaint On Note Peoples State Bank versus Ronnie and Deanna L. Poe, Prairie St., Leesburg. The plaintiff is seeking judgment against the defendants for the foreclosure of real estate to satisfy judgment in the amount of $20,104.09 plus interest, attorney’s fees and ail costs of action. Complaint On Note ITT Financial Services versus Jay C. Smith, r 2 box 513, Syracuse. The plaintiff is seeking judgment against the defendant for the sum of $1,917.29 plus interest, attorney’s fees and all Letter to the Editor To set the record straight Dear Editor: I enjoyed reading the other week about the Pickwick Block and The Indiana Journal. We do need to set the historical record straight, however, on a couple of the items. One is the construction of the Pickwick Block itself. It was not a new building, built on the site of former frame buildings, as indicated in “Crazin’V 2 “; there were already brick buildings on the entire Main Street frontage west of Huntington Street. Ed Long simply gutted, remodeled and resurfaced these buildings, putting the old-English style exterior on the west half of the block and a more modern, stone and stucco exterior on the east portion. I believe photographs of the buildings before and during remodeling exist in the collection of the Syracuse Public Library. C.C. Bachman, for example, had a grocery and department store in the corner building; it was of substantial brick construction. The former Oakland Theatre — damaged by fire in the late 1920 s — was the eventual site of the Pickwick Theatre. Secondarily, the myth persists that Mr. Long constructed a “Chinese Gardens’’ on Kale Island. AH due apologies to our Chinese friends, it was not. Built in the 19305, it was a Japanese Gardens, and some of the structures came from the Japanese exhibit at the Chicago Century of Progress exhibition (1933-34). The name was changed to Chinese Gardens only after the beginning World War n, for obvious reasons: it was public policy not to honor the nation which attacked Pearl Harbor. The tea house was a Japanese tea house; I don’t even know if the Chinese have tea houses! I hope to cover things like tins and many others in my pictorial history of Syracuse and Wawasee, which I understand has the blessing of the Sesquicentennial Committee. We had talked about possible publication tins fall, but I suspect a spring 19V7 date is better advised. That would be when the sesqmcentenmal interest is at its nignest. Best wishes, . Bill Spurgeon

training, neighborhood living and self-development, proving that persons with mental retardation can contribute to our communities. That’s why the Association for Retarded Citizens asks for your support. Help build better lives.

costs of action for a promissory note. Dec. 3,1984. Superior Court The following complaints have been filed in Kosciusko Superior Court, Judge Robert Burner presiding: Complaint Sea Nymph, Inc. versus Boat Basin at Maple Bay, Inc., doing business as Maple Bay Marina, Lakewood, N.Y. The plaintiff is seeking judgment against the defendant for the sum of $15,774.12 plus pre judgment interest, attorney’s fees and all costs of action, for a .check returned for non-sufficient funds. Complaint On Note State Bank of Syracuse versus Leßoy E. Konkle, r 2 box 29, Ligonier. The plaintiff is seeking judgment against the defendant for the sum of $4,520.62 plus interest, attorney’s fees and all costs of action, for a past due promissory note. County Court The following persons have been assessed fines and have paid those fines tn Kosciusko County Court, Judge James Jarrette presiding: Speeding — Deborah D. Dull, 35, Syracuse, $65 Marriage Dissolutions The following couples have filed for marriage dissolutions in Kosciusko Superior and Circuit Courts: Richcreek — Daniel L. Richcreek, r 2 box 262, Milford, and Janet S. Richcreek, r 2 box 260, Milford. The couple was married April 8, 1983, and separated Jan. 6, 1986. There are no minor children. Garner — James R. Garner, 301 John St., Syracuse, and Denise L. Garner, no address given. The couple was married July 20,1974, and separated Aug. 17, 1985. There are two minor children. Mickem — Harold A. Mickem. r 2 box 460, Syracuse, and Kristy L. Mickem, r 2 box 460, Syracuse. The couple was married Oct. 2, 1981, and separated Jan. 10,1986. There is one minor child. Marriage Licenses The following couples have applied for marriage licenses in the office of Kosciusko County Clerk Jeanne Weirick: Vankirk-Shatzer Todd A. Vankirk, 20, r 1 box 45, Pierceton, and Samantha Sue Shatzer, 19, r 1 box 234, North Webster Baker-Erb James R. Baker, 57, P.O. Box 64 Syracuse, and Jamie F. Erb, 35, P.O. Box 523 Syracuse

THE MAIL-JOURNAL (U.S.P.S. 3258-4000) Published by the Mail Journal every Wednesday and entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office at Syracuse. Indiana 46567. Second class postage paid at Tin E Main Street, Syracuse, Indiana 46567 and at additional entry offices Subscription: STS per year re Kosciusko County, s2l outside county POSTMASTERS: Send change of ad dress forms to The Mail Journal. P.O. Box TM. Milford. Indiana 46542 !

"CRUZIN AROUND 'CUSE"

HIGH SCHOOL students from this area, and throughout the Midwest for that matter, have made ‘'educational pilgrimages” to Washington, D. C., and to New York City for a good many years. When they were in the nation’s capital they usually stayed at the famous 300-room Harrington Hotel located at 11th and E Streets, by now a 11-story souvenir of the days when Woodrow Wilson was president and carriages rumbled over the roads of downtown Washington. The old but fancy hotel, which holds many fond memories for a large number of local students, has a glorious past, and was the subject of a feature article in the Monday, Jan. 13th? issue of the Metro section of The Washington Post. The nostalgic article came to our attention through Nathaniel Crow Fick, whose Lake Wawasee connections date back a long way. Fick resides at 836 S. 24th Street, Arlington, Va. “Once fur-draped women and tuxedoed men dined in splendor on white linen clothed tables under chandeliers at the Harrington, but now downtown workers and elderly people on fixed incomes drop by the hotel’s noisy Kitcheteria for hearty, home-style meals,” the article states. Regulars who meet daily at the Kitcheteria for “specials” like spaghetti and meatballs for $2.25 or chicken and rice for $1.85 consist of Office workers, department store workers and walk-ins. One thing that attracted students were the hotel’s reasonable rates, down from an average per night of $88.52 to S3B to $54. What the hotel lacks in elegance it compensates for in hospitality. A telephone operator remains on duty where personal problems are threshed out for patrons, and such items as soap or toilet paper will come to the room on the double with a simple telephone request. Cashier Rose Migliaccio has worked at the Harrington for 27 years and Guy Puglisi has operated the barber shop for 50 years; bell captain has been on the job 28 years. All this gives the old Harrington part of its charm for repeat customers. “No one worried about the fate of the Harrington until Robert V. Bryce retired as managing director last year and the original owner died leaving the hotel to a son,” The Post article noted. Bryce called his hotel the “Traveling Man’s Home.” Bryce recalls when the Nixon girls would call the coffee shop for sandwiches and Lyndon Johnson had them fix sandwiches for a White House Rose Garden party. Arthur Godfrey lived there for a time, and Babe Ruth wasa regular. “We tried to run this hotel so it would feel just like your home.” Bryce. 80, said, “and I hope it will continue.” Many former local students who stayed there will have fond memories of the home-like attention they received at the Harrington. ONE OF the very successful but underplayed programs at Wawasee High School is the ongoing driver training program, according to Donn Kesler, vice principal at the school. Few people know there are 190 students (at least 15 years of age) who are in the program. The program used to be given during the summer months, but is now conducted throughout the day during the school year. Instructor Rob Hanson conducted the classroom phase of the program during the first nine weeks of the school year, then he and teacher Don Storey and Athletic Director Hal Traviolia shared the behind the wheel phase for all 190 students. The two vehicles used are late model cars: an Oldsmobile and a Cadillac Cimmaron, provided by Bruce Petro Olds-Buick-Pontiac-Cadillac and G.M.C. of Warsaw on a lease basis. The comment has been made that for teaching students to drive a Cadillac the first thing out might be gilding the lily a little, but the lease of the Cadillac — the smallest car in that line — is no more costly to the school corporation than a midsized car. IT LOOKS very much like the Syracuse community will have its first bed and breakfast establishment. Bob and Jean Kennedy have returned from a four-year stretch in Alaska where Bob worked in the oil fields on the North Slope to purchase the old homestead on the west side of SR 13 south of Syracuse, from Michael and Roberta King The old home, sitting on a little over an acre of ground, has had an assortment of occupants, including the Jack Vanderfords, Bruce Freys and Bob Hulleys. The ground was originally deeded to Samuel Crossen, a co-founder of Syracuse with Henry Ward, in 1838 by President Martin Van Baren. The house and outbuilding were originally built by Rudolph deJardin in 1967 for $3,500. Bob Kennedy has taken a job with Pacific Molasses and he and Jean, a registered nurse, have begun a long-range job of refurbishing the oM dwelling. They are adding a large front porch in keeping with the lines of the house, and have put on a new roof and chimney. They rewired the building azitird insulation and a new furnace and are reworking the basement. They have had to change the bathroom facilities and are

Bartholomew County Auditor, Ann G. DeVore, has formally announced her candidacy for the Renublican nomination for auditor of the State of Indiana. DeVore, 49, is completing her first term as Bartholomew County Auditor, and she has served in leadership positions in several

Running for state auditor

state associations of county officials. In announcing her candidacy, DeVore said she always has expected the highest standards from others as well as from herself and said she will apply the same qualities in serving the people of Indiana. A graduate of Franklin College,

redecorating throughout. “We are trying to save the old house and keep its original charm,” says Jean Kennedy, who is obviously relishing the job at hand. They want to have three rooms available, she said. The Kennedys plan an open house in April, and after that will be open for business. ■>. REALTOR JOE Todd suggested he might “go public” in seeking a name for his proposed eight condominiums, to be located across the channel from the Shrimpboat. He did this with the Syracuse Lake Condominiums and had a wide assortment of sugges - tions, some very excellent, some unprintable. “Shrimpboat Condominiums” might be too obvious, and anyway this would not generate the public interest if he made the naming of the new project that simple. SYRACUSE TOWN Clerk-Treasurer Jennifer Lewis made the first payment on the new Syracuse Town Hall on January 10th, to Midwest Educational Services of Fort Wayne, holder of the bond issue on the building. The payment was in the amount of $39,963.62, but the following semi-annual payments will be in the amount of $45,215. The second payment, for example, due July 10,1986, will include $30,162.50 for interest and SIO,OOO on the principal. The* adjusted original purchase price of the building, which includes quarters for the* clerk - treasurer and town board, rooms for the Syracuse Police Department, the Turkey Creek Township Trustee and Assessor and the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce, is $645,000. The Chamber will pay the town $75 per month for its quarters, but the amount of rent to be paid by the trustee and assessor has not been determined as yet. The building and land originally purchased from the Syracuse Rubber Company for $87,500 was the subject of a law suit when this amount was never paid. The settlement, which took into consideration interest for the period of delinquency, amounted to $17,454, thus making a total for the building and grounds of $104,954. Contractor Don McCulloch was given an SB,OOO contract to remove the old rubber company building, and later $2,000 to remove a concrete floor and foundation. Two architectural firms were employed: Schmidt Associates Architects, Inc., of Indianapolis, was paid $36,930*76, and later the firm of James & Associates of Fort Wayne, was paid $47,000. The two totaled $83,930.74. When the final $45,215 payment on the building is made on July 10,2001, the entire cost of the town hall building will be $843,884.74. DR. W. WINSTON Becker, the new principal at the Milford Elementary and Junior High School, and his wife Maxine are currently making their home in Warsaw, while searching for a home in the Lakeland community. They have rented the home of Marilyn Moore on North Shore Drive (r 4) for the remainder of the winter, while Mrs. Moore is at her Naples, Fla., condominium. 808 AND Mary Jane Knudsen, of 167 North Shore Drive, left early this week for Boca Grande, Fla., where they will remain for two months. They normally vacation at Longboat Key, near Sarasota. Bob is a recent DuPont retiree. IT WAS surprising how many people rattled the door at the Milford and Syracuse post offices Monday morning, only to find the service window closed. They had forgotten it was a holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 57th birthday. The state of Indiana did not legally observe the birth of the slain civil rights leader, but the post offices are federal buildings and the postal employees are federal employees, thus the observance locally and the closing of the PO windows. THE WEATHER has been unseasonably warm, true, but two local restaurants are taking precautions against cold weather just the same. Aunt Verna’s restaurant at 613 So. Huntington St. is getting a windbreaker built on to fend off the winter winds from rushing in the front door. Verna Weaver of New Pains and hubby Mahlon, the Ing man in the kitchen, purchased the place last summer and have been doing an excellent job ever since for a growing number of customers. Neighbor J R. Koher call her lunches and dinners the “best around. ” Then there’s Kellie and Doris England, who bought Hepler’s Bakery from Carl and Becky Hepler and are doing likewise, with a large windbreaker at the front of thpir popular establishment. They are changing the name of the place to Kellie’s Family Dining “as soon as our new sign arrives,” and are planning a big open house later in February. The Heplers have been vacationing in Florida where Carl is trying his luck fishing. THIS COLUMN has been getting regular itinerary updates from Pete (“Choo Choo ) Savage who is traveling around the world. The most recent comes from Bangkok, Thailand, where the temperature is in the 85-90 range He plans to leave tehre for two months’ stay in Australia.

she has served as a member of the Alumni Council. In Columbus, she has been active in the Republic Women’s Chib, the Chamber of Commerce, the United Way, the committee which developed a juvenile shelter for the county, and numerous other committees.