The Mail-Journal, Volume 26, Number 27, Milford, Kosciusko County, 19 August 1987 — Page 5

"CRUZIN AROUND CUSE"

, (Continued from page 4) Robert Westfall is area coordinator for the hefty project, with six clubs under his jurisdiction. • 7 -OTHIS WRITER received a beautifully ornamented letter in the mail this week, addressed to “Mr. Bum Gardner.” At first we thought it a joke, perhaps being sent by a proponent of the Superintendent’s two junior high school plan. But it wasn’t. It came from a Dallas/Fort Worth group working under the heading of National Association for the Self-Employed. —o— THERE’S STILL a great deal of debate, public and private, concerning the Supreme Court’s ruling that service clubs cannot discriminate against admitting women into their membership rolls. While a-ojumber of clubs are adamantly against admitting women, this isn't the case with the Syracuse Lions Club. On the contrary, club president Charles Hafner is opening their doors wide to women members. The club plans to invite five “excellent women candidates” to its mid-September

Letters to the editor

Gradys score school costs (EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letter has been sent to school board members Carol Swartzendruber, David Carey, Curtis Jordan, William Troup and Bill Little, and has been sent to the editors of The Mail-Journal as a letter to the Editor.) Dear Editor: We are deeply concerned about the issues of the middle school proposals that exist in the Wawasee Community School Corporation. We attended the school board meeting on August 11,1987 to hear what the public, the school board and school administration had to say about this issue. We voted for each of the school board members and for them to give directives and guidance to the school administrators for the purpose of the children and to attend to the business and financial affairs of the school corporation. ,It is the school boards duty to carry out these responsibilities. At the school board meeting on August 11, 1987 the public input was restricted to the amount of time and presentation that they were allowed by the simple omission of statement that the public had to ask to be on the agenda to speak. However the administration personnel “who you hire and we pay a salary to” were granted unlimited time and number of •speakers. This is not the way to ;get public input from the public at a so stated public meeting. It looks like a clear cut case of THE tail wagging THE dog. ; SAC committee membership ;was very definitely narrow in scope in the fact that the Agriculture tax base and large tax-paying base were excluded from this body. That in itself makes the findings reported on by these committees have a dubious validity. More consideration has to be given to the true cost of the project proposal. The business and farm land base and individuals that have lived in this community for a long period of time and will continue to do so in the future are the ones that are going to pay the bills for these proposed new schools. Putting these 2 proposed new middle schools out in the rural agricultural area is not the place to put them for all the reasons that have already been cited to you. Plus the fact they will create a major impact on that rural agriculture area with increased traffic, sewage and waste water disposal and security problems to the adjoining property owners, not to mention the inconvenience for everyone involved. There is no way to move all the middle school students from the towns of Milford, Syracuse, and North Webster to a school located in a rural area without a great increase in cost and liability riskto the school corporation. These costs will go on forever. These costs do not end when the loan is paid off! As a member of the Area Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals, one of the major factors that we must base our planning decisions on is the safety and well-being of the citizens of the county. Point-in-fact we are mandated by the county ordinances to locate all centers of residential development close to essential emergency services such as police, fire, EMS and others. Putting 400-600 junior high youngsters out in an agricultural area does not meet this criteria in any way shape or form. This number of people far exceeds most residential development numbers. Therefore it is of the utmost importance that we keep these schools located in the towns where they belong. Not touched by anyone is the fact that there is room to remodel and expand at both Syracuse and North Webster schools. There is adequate area at these present

meeting, with the view of having them sign up as new members. Now that’s a real tip of the hat to women’s lib. SEQUEL TO Dr. Hull’s narration of Aesop's Fable regarding the birds, beasts and bats, is a story coming out of South Bend during the past week about rabid bats in that area. It comes to us this way: The birds and beasts — yea, even the fishes of our beautiful lakes — have gotten along exceptionally peacefully since we have had school consolidation. Peacefully, that is, until our own bats came forth with a proposed two-school plan. We hear local birds, beasts — and even the fish — do not favor such a plan. > NEDRA JONES, longtime Syracuse resident now living in Indianapolis near her daughter Judy and her family, spent several days last week and this week with Vera Hall, and visiting her many friends in the area. She appears to thrive on the Indianapolis atmosphere. She comments, “There’s so much to do there, but I do miss my friends here.”

locations to meet the needs of these schools. No one in the present administration has put a figure or cost on simple remodeling and expansion plans at these locations. Ibis needs to be looked into further with figures put on it. None of the already mentioned 1 costs have included the end costs of interest and daily or yearly operational costs of these proposed facilities. Sure the loans will be retired in a set number of years, BUT the operational cost go on forever... Sincerely, Jerry Grady Jane Grady Calls school consolidation plan 'Volcanic' Dear Editor: First, I’d like to congratulate our school board for its willingness to give of its time toward the administration of our Wawasee School Corporation school system. We are fortunate to live in this area of diversified agriculture, good industry and lakes. We have very few bankruptcies in our corporate area. We’re actually setting pretty well, with high per capital income behind each of our students . . . one of the highest in the state, in fact. Our students are not being turned down by colleges for their low academic standing. My wife and I have four grandchildren who graduated from Wawasee High School, and another who is a senior, and my term on the school board in the early 1970 s has given me a close connection with the school. I have a fairly close connection with five other school corporations, also. Our high school students can drive to school, but this isn’t the case with junior high students. The two central schools would work a hardship in this regard on many parents of these young students. The junior high school situation IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. We do have time to move on this issue. Building in the country means buying land, providing sewer, police and fire protection, which will be costly. I favor building Syracuse a new junior high school on land we now own, and I think the majority of people will go along with this plan. We re happy with Milford’s junior high system, and North Webster appears so also. But if and when the situation at North Webster is such that a new school is needed, I would strongly favor building one there. We’ve had peaceful relations in our school system all these years, and now we’re coming into a volcano — and it can be avoided. If we don’t settle this situation peacefully, it will most certainly result in litigation that will harm our school system irreparable. To avoid a disastrous outcome of this problem, I think the school board should call for a referendum on the matter. That’s only a matter of fair play. Kenneth Haney Calls 2-school opposition vital Dear Editor, Thank you, Mr. Baumgartner, for all your editorials and your firm stand on this (school) issue. I’d also like to thank the Citizens for Quality Education committee for all of the time and hard work they have put into this. Also, a special thanks to Mr. Snyder for not reading their entire report at the board meeting last Tuesday evening or lining up half a dozen speakers, as I thought I would nod off at the last of Dr. Thornton’s. I realized after attending the school board meeting Tuesday evening* how vital it is that we

who oppose Dr. Thornton’s proposal get involved. We need to take a serious look at our administration in the Wawasee School Corp. There seems to be no one in the administration (including all building principals) who oppose Dr. Thornton’s proposal. I hope the board members take a long hard look at this issue and not buckle under to administrative pressure. Let us as parents make it our business to be involved in our educational system. If this proposal is passed 1 sincerely hope that it will benefit our children more than it benefits a few administrator’s portfolios. Donna Beer 978 people signed the petition Dear Editor: I was out of town when the school board meeting was held on August 11, so I did not get to attend. I did hear from reliable people who were there I missed one of the best staged and rehearsed productions put on yet to date by Dr. Thornton and his cronies. You had one man who quoted figures that were at best a poor guess. You had one man whose job was created for him, quoting fables and lastly, you had the head performer who quoted the same tired facts people are getting bored with because they don’t hold water. This sideshow puts me in mind of a fable of my own, but instead of “bats, birds and bees,” mine starts out with the line, ‘Three little monkeys all in a row./ If th/ administration cared about the people and their communities as they claim, it would have withdrawn its proposal a long time ago. Faced with the massive opposition from all three communities, it would have been the sensible thing to do. Instead, the superintendent has tried to drive a wedge between the communities by making Milford the bad guys. Os the 978 people who signed the petition that was circulated the last time, 418 people were non-Milford residents. We have suggested other proposals, but Dr. Thornton has shot them down by quoting inflated figures or by just simply ignoring them. We are really fortunate to have a school board which, when confronted with the real “truthful” facts in the reports that were given it by the Citizens for Quality Education, should come to the conclusion it is best for each community to retain its own junior high school. That is what the majority of the “voting” public wants. They are not going to roll over and play dead while someone with not a shred of feelings for any of the three communities comes in here and in six months’ time, tries to steam-roll a proposal through — no matter what it costs, no matter whom it hurts. So far, the cheapest and the best proposal I’ve heard was suggested in last week’s paper — “Replace the superintendent.” How many people know land has been offered at no cost if the junior high was built and retained in North Webster for North Webster students? The same thing could happen in Syracuse if more people got behind it. Jim Beer Soviet negotiators The Reagan administration has accused the Soviet Union of slowing negotiations to curb nuclear weapons and refusing to set a date for a problem-solving session between Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and Secretary of State George P. Shults.

Sesquicentennial Memories

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Steam boats hauled passengers on Syracuse Lake thelake

This photo, loaned from John Sudlow’s collection, shows the “Modoc,” a little steam boat that was used to haul passengers on Syracuse Lake as far back as 1875. Little is known about this photo but the two unidentified men seem to have just left the pier, shown in the background, and are starting a tour across

Youths will participate in state leadership school

By RONALD W. HOYT Extension Agent 4-H And Youth Most teens would not look for- ■ •" * mH RONALD W. HOYT

Letter to the editor

Bass clubs not included

Dear Editor: In answer to Mr. Wills’ letter in the July 29 Mail-Journal, I agrafe that a boat ramp should be built at the hatchery for people who fish for sport; but this does not include bass clubs. We all know that a new boat ramp on Wawasee Lake will be surely saturated with bass club equip ment. Mr. Wills once wrote an article in the Fort Wayne Newspapers about the 14-inch size limit on bass in the Chain-O-Lakes State Park, and how this allowed the bass to spawn another year. In another article it was stated that it was not harmful to take fish from their beds; this is contradictory. I have lived on a channel on Lake Wawasee for 26 years and have had a good view of bass club members; believe me, it’s not a pretty picture. Istjved two hatches of bass under my pier by placing big tree limbs over the beds, but all the remaining males were removed mostly by bass club members. Bass clubs from Michigan had two contests this last May right

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ward to school starting early, but some 250 Indiana youths are anticipating the annual State Fair Leadership School to be held at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, August 19-30. Each county is eligible to send as many as six young men and women to the conference. Eligible 4-H members must be between the ages of 16-19 during the calendar year. Attending the State Fair Youth School from Kosciusko County this year are Katti Stroup, r 5, Warsaw; Lisa Kaiser, r 2, Milford; and Paul Berkey, r 1, Claypool. The Indiana State Fair Youth School is a program developed to assist Indiana youth in the development of leadership skills,

during the bass spawning season. Michigan protects its bass by closing the season during spawning time. I have never talked to any fisherman and this includes bass club members, who will not agree that the season should be closed for spawning. LeJ’s close the season for spawning again and give some real meaning to the Mermaid Festival. Otherwise, I expect someday to see a first prize of 1 million dollars on the last bass in Lake Wawasee. William E. Baumbaugh Syracuse Unfairtrade move The Senate, moving to combat unfair foreign trade practices, overwhelmingly approved a key amendment to the trade bill that would penalize nations with large, persistent surpluses with the United States if they refuse to remove barriers to American goods within three years.

If anyone has any further information about the photo, or the steam boats used in hauling passengers, please contact the Syracuse office of The MailJournal, 103 East Main Street. Also additional photographs are needed and special precautions are being taken to ensure proper return.

as well as a greater appreciation for the state of Indiana. The school also encourages delegates to look more closely into areas of state government, American culture and human relations, as well as look at potential career opportunities open to them. Delegates are housed in dormitories on the state fairgrounds. During the state fair, they attend special events, such as the giant balloon race, Indiana 4-H Adult Volunteer Leader’s Day Program, 4-H Fashion Revue, and the Spotlight Sale. The young adults are given at least two hours of free time daily toward a group project to improve the fair buildings or grounds. By their own choice,

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Wed., August 19,1987 — THE MAIL-JOURNAL

'they select and carry out actiyities such as painting, cleanlandscaping or redecorating. All of the work time is donated. Participants in the school take part in mock legislative sessions in the house chambers of the State Capitol Building. They also tour the State Capitol, Indiana State Fair departments, and the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, as well as participate in seminars on automotive preventive maintenance and outdoor cooking. Delegates for the Indiana State Fair Youth School are selected by a committee of community leaders making up the 4-H awards committee. School directors are assisted each year by a

group of-young adults returning as an honor group. Kosciusko County has one delegate returning to assist with the state fair school this year. Kim Demske of Pierceton will also be working with the program as part of the 1987 honor group. 4-H Calendar August 19-30 — Indiana State Fair 19 — Claypool 4-H Club meetings, 7 p.m., Claypool Lions building 22 — 4-H Adult Leader Day, Indiana State Fair 24 — Lake City Lassies and Lads 4-H Club meeting, 7 p.m., Justice building lounge September 1 — 4-H members pick up state fair projects at extension office

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