1960-12-08; Clare Sentinel

              I
Established 1978
$2.50 Year in Clare, Isabella Counties
THE CLABE SSNfiHEL, CX,ABE, MICHIGAN
DECEMBER 8, 1360
JTett Cents Copy
New Series, Vol. 69, No. 13 I
Complete Loss
In Car Fire
On Street
A lire early Saturday- afternoon caused total Joss, of a passenger car, attracted quite a
crowd of watqhers as Clare firemen sought to beat the stubborn
blaze on East Fifth street.
Occupants of the cap who
noticed the fire as they were
driving through Clare were driven to the curb where they
stopped, but could not save the
car from burning completely, nor
the contents of a small trailer
loaded with their household
goods.
Occupants of homes nearby in
the 300-block east on (US-10)
Fifth street said they heard the
sounds like a collision, or explosion and looked out to see the
lire enveloping the rear ef the
1959 Chevorlet.
Before the fire department
arrived, the blaze was eating
away the interior of the car and
thick, black smoke from the
burning tires was rolling up from
the scene.
Police did not obtain the names
of the couple and one small child
who were riding in the car. Two
possible causes for the fire's
start were given, one that the
trailer tongue loosened and
punched a hole in the gas tank
of the auto, or that a leak in the
fuel line allowed gasoline to drop
on to the hot exhaust pipe.
The intense heat broke glass,
blistered the body paint and
burned into complete ruin the
rear tires and all the car's interior.
Firemen were forced to pry
and smash open the rear trunk
lid to get at flames directly above
the gas tank. Charring and water
damage added to the loss in the
loaded trailer.
Wmirt Fights Shaping Up
tBn i%Au;qy Land Offers
*.
Speed Limit
Hike Urged
On Freeways
Speed limits of 75 miles an
hour in the daytime and 65 miles
an hour at night on Michigan's
freeways will be recommended to
the next session of the Legislature py' the Highway Department."
Commissioner John C Mackie
said recently he also would suggest that vehicles On the new
roads be required" to'" travel no
slower than 40 miles an hour.
Mackie made his proposals at
the recent 46th annual convention of the American Association
of State Highway Officals at De-
troit.
The new speed regulations
would apply to the 900 miles of
Interstate and State freeways in
Michigan, scheduled for completion by 1962.
However, Mackie said that
where the freeways travel within
city limits, present limitations
would continue.
Mackie said accidents on the
freeways are 75 per cent lower
than they were on the roads
which they replaced, and that
' most of the accidents occux'ing
now involve rear end collisions,
or cars going off the road whiie
swerving to avoid slow-moving
traffic.
Mackie noted that a minimum
speed limit would discriminate
against tractors and heavily
loaded trucks. But he added:
"Out* greatest allegiance is to
the majority of motorists, who
make up 90. per cent of those
using  the freeways."
Michigan
Booster Dead
t
Frank Davis, secretary-manager of the East Michigan Tourist
Association" since 1942, died on
Th&hksgivittg day from injm'ies
received in an autombbile accident Tuesday night. November
22. He was 50.
Davis suffered critical injuries
When the car he was driving
went out of control on a Bay
City street and struck a power
pole.' He underwent surgery at
General Hospital for internal
injuries Wednesday.
Funeral * services were held on
Monday, November 28, Burial
was in Elm Lawn Cemetery, Bay
City".
Early in 1938 Davis became assistant to the late Tom. F. Mar-
ston, secretary-manager of the
East Michigan Tourist Association, and following Marston's
death, was appointed to succeed
' htm on December 10, 1942=
Clare firemen fought the
worst car blaze that many
had ever seen last Saturday when gasoline ignited
while this car was traveling through Clare. Destroyed all except fhe engine and front tires, the
loss also included the
household contents of a
small trailer pulled behind
ihe ill-fated car. Ai one
time firefighters feared the
gas tank might explode before water' could extinguish the blaze and cool
ihe metal. Top foto by The
Sentinel, bottom foto,
courtesy of Meryl Graham.
Wyman Heads
Clare C.C.
At an election Monday, Clare.
Chamber of Commerce members
named a new president for 1961,
Bernie Wyman who replaces the
1960 leader, Tim Cotter.
Dr. Robert Kring, secretary-
treasurer was elected to succeed
himself and the new vice .presk
dent is Joe Johnston.
The annual meeting was held
at noon at the Doherty Hotel
where about eighteen members
turned out to vote for -the new
slate of officers. In further business conducted there discussions were held on the annual
Winter Sports Carnival slated to
be held January 28 and. 29.
Committees for the affair were
appointed with Dick Groves accepting the general chairman's
post      ■■        •••   '   ;   ...
See Little
Farm Income
Gain In '61
Michigan's farmers,, if Sthey
studied a Cooperative Extension
Service report on the industry's
outlook for 1961 issued this
month saw little reason to expect relief from the cost-price
economic squeeze during the next
12 months.
In general, the report in Michigan Farm Economics, a bulletin
issued monthly from East Lansing by MSU, told farmers to
expect trends to continue in
What might be interpreted as an
air of mild gloom.
Assuming that all-important
weather is "average" and no
bettex-. farm income will decline
slightly while -consumer prices
will ride a level line, or rise a
little over 1960 figures.   '
A section of * the prediction
called "1961 In A Nutshell" said
that weakness in the general
economy ' 'is a continuation
through the first half at least
of 1961, of the conditions in the
final half Of 1960.
Some small silver lining is
seen, however in the qualification .that. despite some areas of
consumer price increases, prices
that farmers pay Will remain
level and such products as hogs,
wheat, soybeans, -apples can
rise, or at least not "decline in
any important de'gree.
The paper spells out:
Prices which farmers pay in
1961 will be about the same as
in 1960.
Feed grain prices will continue low. with corn prices near
$1.00.
Farm prices on dairy products will average about the same
as in 1960.
Livestock prices will be declining in 1961, with, cattle and
lamb prices averaging moderate-
Continued on Page 8
Clare Kiwanis Was Host At
Silver Anniversary Party
Growing signs'of dispute between "drea property owners in
the,.#a£h.of the new US-27 Freeway -and. the Michigan Highway]
Department point, to the probability;' of.lasttditch legal battles
in'.Sst |easi; sonte of the cases.
|ieprfesentatives of at "least
two Clare"area land owners have
called offers of the. Department
"paltry" jp comparison with value of- land and resources being
taken.-':
Dissatisfaction of Joe McKay,
a very large property owner between Clare and Harrison has
reportedly stemmed from the
ivide spread between the Department's o'ffer of some §30,000. for
right-of-way wanted and damag-
es resulting in the taking, — and
Mr- McKay's own appraisal of
the value and damages, said to be
about twice the offer, The story
is without official substantiation, but McKay is rumored to
have told Department represent
tatives that it would be worth
double the amount of their offer
if the right-of-way missed his
land entirely and the Department would leave him alone.
The McKay "farm" embraces
holdings of thousands of acres
of land in Clare county where
cattle is grazed and crops are
raised in the beef and dairy operation.
The separated "locations of
some of the farms will be further divided by the barrier of the
limited access Freeway.
It is part of McKay's contention that damage and inconvenience will be caused when the
Freeway Interferes with the
driving of herds from one pasture locaton to another, or to-
Elect Sixteen Seniors
National Honor Students
The election of sixteen members of Clare High's senior class
to membership in the National
Honor Society was announced by
the school this week." All of superior scholarship rating •' and
named also for their qualities of
Clare Kiwanians proved themselves Jine hosts, Saturday evening in their proud and festive <
observance of the 25th anniversary of the Kiwanis charter in
Clare. The party in the Doherty
Wedgewood Room included a social hospitality hour from six
oclock to seven, then a bapquet
dinner and program for hundreds of guests followed by dancing through the remainder of
the evening.
High spots . en the program
which Will be remembered were
the entertaining jokes and introductions ,by Toastmaster Tim
Cotter, the recollections of a
quarter-century in Kiwanis by
Willard Bicknell, a featured
speech by Charles Saur, visiting
Kiwanis District Governor, and
the impressive awarding of Kiwanis Legion Of Honor memberships to ten Clere clubmen.
Club President Alan Ott presided at the meeting following
dinner and also on the program
were Rev. Van Parker who pronounced the invocation. Jack and
Celia Hall to lead singing., and
Sid Main of Lake, a past governor who was called on for remarks.
Legion Party
Starts Yule
Merryniaking
The Clare American Legion
;post and Auxiliary held their annual family night and Christmas
party on Monday evening, this
week with a pot lUck chicken
dinner and all the trimmings.
The large room at the City Hall
Was festive with the lighted;
Christmas tree. Red poihsettas
and greens were used for table
decorations. Mrs. Ina Hammond
gave the table grace,
Mr. and Mrs, Lester Cotton,_
post commander and auxiliary
president, presided for the pro
gram. Christmas carols were
sung by the group, led by Mrs.
Cotton, with Mrs. Florence Kane
at the piano. Ihe children then
entertained with a number of
Christmas songs. Mrs. Cotton
and Mrs. Kane favored the group
with several piano duets.
Jahet Hart Slocum,'delegate to
Wolverine Girls' State, sponsored
by the Auxiliary, gave a fine report of her trip there, and expressed thanks to the group for
selecting her as their representative.
Mrs. Cotton read a Christmas
reading, and then to the tune of
Jingle (Bells, Santa arrived with
treats for the children. • .
The Cottons expressed thanks
to the members and their families for coming and wished them
all a "Merry Christmas".
In the ceremony eonfering the
Legion of Honor membership 6.,
D. Bayes, Mark Bicknell, Willard
Bicknell, Tim Cotter, Harold
Fleming, Kuno Hammerberg,
Donald E. Holbrook Murl Houghton, Clayton B. Neff and Wallace Johnson heard their records praised for devoted contributions to the good of Kiwanis
and their community for 25
years.
Kiwanis
Goodfellow
Sale Set
Clare Kiwanis Goodfellow
Newsboys will start an advance
sale of their annual Christmas
Goodfellow edition of the Clare
Sentinel on Wednesday next
week when a downtown campaign will take them to business
places in the money-raising effort
Larger crews of the club members will take to the street corners on the following Saturday
When all-out street sales will be
continued all day.
This year's campaign was announced by Dr. J. R. Gershon
and Richard Groves, co-chairmen of the sale.
Proceeds from the Goodfellow
Edition sale go to help pay for
many Kiwanis charities and support such programs as the purchase of eyeglasses and hearing
aids for underprivileged children, financial support of Christmas basket distribution, the beef
steer raising and prize competition program for youths, award
oi the Athlete Of The Year
title at an annual club affair,
and other eriterprizes.
Tim Cotter, charter member
and first president of the Clare
Kiwanis club, and retiring president of the Chamber of Commerce was the purchaser of the
first copy of the newspaper in
the kickoff of the sale to begin
next Wednesday.
Among Best
Two Clare, Michigan, eating
and lodging establishments will
receive national recognition in
the, hew 1961 editions of the
Duncan Hines Travel Books
coming out "this month.
The Clare establishments are
among 9,200 eating and lodging
places in North America so recommended. They are: Doherty
Hotel, listed in., "Adventures in
Good Eating', and Bush's Motel,
.listed in "Lodging, for a Night,"
To Prepare
Candy Treats
Clare firemen are making
plans for a "sweet time" on
Thursday evening of next week
^vhen they will pack eaiidy sacks
|\o be given away- at their annual
Children's Treat party later in
the month.
Details.of the children's Christmas event are expected to be
much the same as in former
years when Santa Claus will ride
into the town's business district
on a shiny fire truck to attract
the customary crowd, and then
lead the youngsters to the fire
station On Fifht street where the
treats Will be passed out to all.
Contributing the work and promotion for the event, the firemen
will be aided in the purchase of
the candy by contributions from
the Chamber of Commerce, and
from the city of Clare.
Santa's mail box, a Christmastime feature of many former
years probably will be again located in a downtown street corner. Santa will collect all the mail
deposited there by cliidren from
the entire area.
Members of Clare's volunteer
fire-fighting organization were
hosts Tuesday to men from 16
fire departments in the Tri-
County Firemen's Association at
a meeting in the Clare VFW hall.
Sixty-four attended.
A ham dinner was served and
at the meeting which followed
the men traded experience on
how to fight grain elevator fires.
A movie on the subject Was
shown.
Visitors at the meeting were
Ray Martin, Civil Defense Director for Isabella county, and
the mayor of Reed City, Michigan.
Pharmacist
At Houghton's
Ed Welsh, pharmacist newly
employed at Houghton's,, Drug
store is a former resident of
Sault Ste. Marie where he owned and operated a drug store
for 25 years.
His family will be moving to
Clare to join him after the" first
of the year. Besides his wife,
Mr. Welsh has one son, a senior
at Ferris Institute where he is a
student in the pharmacy school.
His position at Houghton's is
that of manager of the prescription department.
4c Required
The Clare Postoffice wishes
to announce to the public that
all Christmas cards sent to Canada ot Mexico must bear a Ac
stamp regardless of whether
sealed or not, __, _ _ _
good school citizenship,, the honor group includes:
Joe Bowler, Lawrence Cam-
cross, Vicki Cook, Karla Cooper,
Joe Graves, Janet Hart.
Jean Hart, Shirley Leposky,
Jim Mercer, Donna McKee, Virginia Northon.
Judy Presley, Jeff R aymond,
John Ruark, Elaine Wilson,
Douglas Young.
All are members of the class
which will graduate this coming
June and were selected on the
basis of scholarship, leadership,
character, and service. The
choices were made by fellow
students and faculty members.
Method of selectng the Society
list was explained by High
School Principal Richard Snyder:
Each student in the upper third
according ^to grades is .given an
equal - number of points for
scholarship attainments.
Senior- class students and the
faculty then rate the candidates
on the remaining three qualities
and a number not exceeding 15
per cent of the class enrollment
with the highest ratings are qual-
fied for membership.
The sixteen will be specially
honored on school Commence-i
menfnight, ! '      v'"      kV ?
Mfcre 1-Jianjorie,? third qf .the .flew
Society members are varsity
letter winners in school inter-
scholastic athletic programs.
and-from the huge barn located
near the present US-27, just
north of the five-mile corner
north of Clare,
One sensational development
came nearly two weeks ago
when M?Kay filed suit in Ingham County Circuit Court for a
milhpn dollars for alleged libelous statements made by Michi-
igan Highway Commissioner
John Mackie and Donald Whip,
Graduating
At MSU
. Four former- 'Clare High
School students are among the
graduates at Michigan State
University getting their degrees
at the end ' of the fall term at
East Lansing.
They are Richard Fancon. Pat
Pudvay, Beverly Thayer (graduate with honors having -maintained a B dr better average),
and ChaHes Ruby.
$<>'■■■^.■^■tt&i:*;-- f ".'J
t-*?.;W*1t,*i»fc%!f-.
Move To
New Postoffice
At Rosebush
In Rosebush, Postmaster David Bellinger and his staff are
completing their frist week under the roof of the new post-
office building where they moved Wednesday and Thursday of
last week.
The modern new facilities are
in a building recently completed
on the corner one block west oi
the intersection of US-27 and
Rosebush's main street.
While awaiting the arrival of
some new sorting racks for mail
and work tables among other
items not delivered in time for
installation in the new building,
older articles to take their places temporarily have been moved;
from the recent location oi the
postoffice immediately behind
the bank on the highway-fronting street.
An entrance in the brick and
glass front ushers patrons into
the lobby with lock boxes ' and
separated from the staff work
space only by a waist-high counter where mail and parcel post is
accepted and delivered, and
where money orders, stamp
sales and other routine business
of the postoffice is conducted
New desks, weighing scales
and other equipment which did
arrive in time to install before
the move-in are modern and represent the latest of government
postoffice equipment and convenience.
A lot in the rear of the new
building is large enough to permit easy access for trucks ahd
delivery vehicles. Entering and
leaving hy the large rear loading
Area Js. going to be much easier
than by use of an alley approach
as in the older building,
Recovered
From Shot
Rodney D. Decker, 26, of
Flushing, shot Nov. 15 with a
slug from a 12-gauge shotgun
while deer hunting near Temple,
has returned to work, according
to State Police of the Mt Pleasant Post. The slug passed
through Decker's body. Charges
against Bernard M. Greathouse,
49 of Harrison, who fired the
shot, have been dropped, police
lsaid. .,
an appraiser for the Depart I
ment. It is claimed that the afcj
leged statements were defaming |
to McKay's character.
At issue is a plan to take fbr
the Freeway, the E% of the
NWH 'of Section 22 in Grant
township, a long 80 acres with
the proposed highway location
running the length of if. More
critical still is the dispute over
the value of 16 acres in a strip
to the west of the large McKay
barn 'some five-eighths of a
mile west of present US-27 and
cutting off the barn from the
rest of the McKay lands near-*
by.
The Department is said to
have proposed the construction
of an east-west "culvert" through
which the cattle could be driven
between barn and fields. But the
cost to McKay would amount to
Within $1,500 of the offer sup-j
posedly made to square all dam-|
ages and value.
In another case seemed surely!
headed for the courts, Adrian!
Blades trucking firm owner hasl
refused to consider an offer!
for right-of-way across gravel-f
bearing land. His objection is onf
the grounds that the offer is,|
"ridiculously low and ignores the
worth of the gravel known to
lay beneath the top surface.
Clare    attorneys       H a r o 1<
Hughes and James Bicknell, 3dJ
both representing area clients ir
right-of-way cases agree that toe
many times small land owners
feel unable to fight what they]
might  consider    .uinjust  setjtlei
ment offers but in the cases of
parties with more  means,-    the
Department  is  evidently   goihf
to find a-fight on its hands.
Criticism of so-called inequall{
ties in settlement offers blames
the Highway Department • for
placing values too low in on!}
part of the takings. Progress oij
the construction is expected tc
continue despite the fact thai]
many property owners in thtf
highway's path have not -reach!
ed final settlement with the £>e|
^jmrtmenfc -yet and may &«£ iw\
some time to come.
When a State offer is not ael
cepted, the Circuit Court ;assignq
a panel of three Commissione
to decide on a fair figure. Thel
law says that the price decided
by the Court Commission musf
be some amount between thn
lowest and the highest appraisf
als.
This procedure is sometime;!
thought to bring a hardship ori
sellers too when it is pointed oul
that a Commission may awar<f
an amount merely one cent oil
more over the offer by the Del
partment which is held to b([
too low to be fair.
Appeals from the rulings oi
the Commission go directly tq
the Michigan Supreme Court,
Many of the settlements ioi
landowners are conceded to hi
sound and perfectly satisfactory!
but. on the other hand, one cast
is described in which a 5%-acrf
plot containing some gravel an<
planted to 54000 partly growt
Christmas trees, drew an offer o
only 5800 from the State at
praiser. This was less than $20i
per acre, and disregarded th
owner's protests that the tree;
were wprth a dollar each on ih
stump.
I
>£%&
■ : -mmwmM^:
Tim Colter presents a check for me purchase, of Ihe first copy of the Kiwanis
I960' Goodfellow newspaper. Co-chairmen
Dr. J. R, Gershon, center and Dick Groves
of tho sale have announced advance s«ll|
ing to b9giaW*dto#*day of next week,
Le« Sowle phoij