1969-02-26; Clare Sentinel

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Fifteen Cents
Fourteen Pages
Clare Michigan^Wfdnesday^February 26> l969
Our 91st Year
15
CENTS
New Series Vol. 77 No. 26
Sat. Deadline
Crowds Late
Tag Buyers
Richard Nivison, manager of the Michigan Dept.
of State auto license bureau for^ Clare county said
lines are getting longer at
the 1969 tagpurchsing desk
in his office at 105 E. Sixth
street in Clare as the final
day, February 28 apjproa-
ches.
Late last week Nivison
estimated his office would
need to sell licenses at
the irate of roughly one
every minute and one half
through normal working
hours to the Saturday deadline just to equal the number sold in the county last
year. The sales were 2000
short of last year and
everywhere in the state
expected sales are going
to   top   the 1968 numbers.
Some late buyers are
going to stand in a long,
chilly line to wait their
turns.
Monday this week long
waiting lines of buyers filled the office space and
sometimes extended outdoors.
Reminding autoists what
to   bring  when   they apply
for 1969 tags, the secretary of state's office numbered off the title to the
vehicle or 1968 registration, the certificate of insurance, -and 57.percent
more money than last year
to account for the raise in
weight tax on passenger
vehicles.
Last year Michigan
drivers shelled out $85.6
mil] ion for   weight  taxes.
Dairy Tour
Scheduled
On Thursday
Dairymen of Clare and
Gladwin counties will get
a cross section view of the
dairy industry in the two
counties on Thursday February 27th. There will be
two farm visits along with
a noon lunch stop.
The first stop will be
at the Ron Haines Farm at
10:30 a.m. Get to this farm
by taking M-61,5 miles west
of Gladwin to the Bard Rd.
Continued On Page 10
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Proposed for annexation to Clare is Vernon
City and a surrounding area south of Dunlop
Road to Herrick Road and bounded on the
east and west by the US-27 Expressway and
P.
a.
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Grant Road (extended). Surveys place the
number of families in the area at more
than 90. (Story on this page).
Propose Vernon Annexation To Clare
Check
Passer
In Jail
A man who gave a Far-
well address had a short
career in bad check pas-
sing here last week. George
Allen Davis of the Parkview Hotel in Farwell was
arrested just 10 minutes
after the first of several
complaints reached Clare
police and the Clare county
prosecutor.
Davis, who worked as
a cook at the US-10 Cafe
in Farwell was charged
with stealing the cafe's
checks and making them out
payable to himself. He used
them in a shopping trip in
several Clare stores and
shops.
After passing seven of
the eight checks he took,
he tried to cash the last
one in Citizens Bank &
Trust, Clare where Assistant Cashier Mrs. Donna
Lozen suspected the validity of the check and had
Clare police notified with
Davis' description.
Police Sgt. Mike Becker
answered the call and arrested Davis on the street
just leaving the bank.
A plan for annexation
of Vernon City and a portion of Vernon Township
to the City of Clare has
been revived after lying
pigeon-holed for 18 months
and petitions are to be
circulated among Vernon
residents as the first step
toward starting action.
The proposed annexation
calls for the joining to
Clare of an area immediately 'south of the city
bounded on the north by
Dunlop Road on the Clare-
Isabella county line, on the
south by Herrick Road. The
east boundary is the US-27
Expressway and to the west
as far as Grant Road.
An area study prepared
in 1967 for the Isabella
County Planning Commission estimates that there
are 72 families In Vernon
City and including families
living on Mission Road (Old
US-27) to a point one quarter mile south of Herrick
Road. Other residents in
the area proposed for annexation would bring the
total  to near 96 families.
Two residents of Vernon
City first seriously proposed annexation in August
1967 and were advised to
petition their neighbors.
One later died and the other
is no longer living in the
area.
But the idea has been
revived within the past few
weeks and Jack Hemstreet
of 122 Markley Street in
Vernon City has said that
he and other interested
property owners will seek
action through new petitions.
' Informal discussion of the
plan among Clare City
Commissioners ■■ indicates
that the City of Clare would
likewise petition residents
if there is enough favorable
interest south of the county
line.
No action by the Clare
city government is called
for, nor planned until petitions in the area proposed
to be joined to the city are
Signed showing favorable
interest of a simple majority of property owners.
A similar reaction by
Clare property owners
would then be enough to
place the • question on an
election ballot.
Advantages to both Clare,
and to the Vernon City area
are found in annexation by
sponsors of the proposal.
Pushing its borders south
is the' city's best answer
to the need for area ex-
' pansion. Mayor Willard
Koch and City Manager Glen
Cain had the same Words
to describe possible relief
from the present pinched
confines of the city's area
limits, "There is no place
else to go."
The US-27 Expressway
puts a positive halt on city-
growth    eastward and private land belonging to Julius
Schaeffer is the   limit of
growth to the north.  "This
property is either already
privately subdivided or else
not  available  for annexation, —either way blocking
northward    growth    along
McEwan (Old US-27) north
of the present city limits.
Any extension of the city
to the west would have to
overcome the problem of
commercial zoning in an
area already occupied by
manufacturing sites, railroad right of way, and livestock yards.
An indication of the Clare
City Commission's interest
in growth in the southerly
direction is in placing the
Vernon City area among
others to be studied for
feasibility of development,
—that is, residential development with installation
of city Water service, sewers, street lighting, graded
black topped streets, curbs
and gutters, sidewalks or
whatever improvements
are commonly accepted as
standard.
In the case of the Vernon
City area, services gained
with annexation would include more. There would be
police service not presently
available to any resident
outside the city limits, and
city sewer and water services that are also not
available outside present
limits.
Fire protection is presently purchased by residents of Vernon township
on a contract honored by
mutual agreement between
the township and city from
year to year. The area, if
annexed would, of course
be automatically entitled to
the same fire protection as
anywhere else in the cti^i*
The feasibility study _ .
also to include areas of
possible expansion of resi^
dential development, but
already within the incorporated city, such as the
north shore of Shamrock
Lake, the Brookwood Subdivision at the northwest
corner of the city, and the
McDonald Subdivision north
of John R. Street to the west
of business zoned property
along McEwan.
Several blocks to enlargement or growth of the
city have been removed as
in the case of water supply that will be more than
enough to eliminate shortages and to serve the proposed greater area when
the   new  water  well is in
service and new services
of the enlarged iron removal plant are ready.
The larger, higher water
storage tank and improved
-_ter main circulation System Will complete a ays tern
"mpre than adequate to serve
more users and a wider
city area.
Mayor Koch says that
none of this may be taken
to mean that Clare will
extend services to areas
outside corporate limits of
the city.
' 'I have talked to public
officials and persons with
long, successful records in
civic government and nowhere is the idea accepted
that cities can sell such
services outside their own
boundaries", he says.
He holds that the city
should not sell public services as commodities, even
if the costs of providing
such services were recov
ered through charging
users for the services.
Rather, the services should
be only for properties coming under a district or districts that are part of the
.gOUd, permanent tax-base
community.
An unspoken thought of
an advantage to property
owners willing to become
part of the city to obtain
better services, is that only
by doing so can they be
entitled to vote for the
government that is responsible for delivery of the
services.
The idea of Vernon City
becoming part of Clare is
not new. A former resident
John Empey tried to interest property owners in
an annexation plan almost
a generation earlier, but
nothing came of it at that
time.
Empey owned a residence
in Vernon City and was a
township office holder.
Now, as formerly, there
are objections on the
grounds that property taxes
might be higher if the property was part of the city.
Older persons, aria espfe -
cially those on small, fixed
incomes find the lack of
modern community services easier to bear than
prospects of higher costs
on city tax rolls.
Mayor Koch talks about
initial costs of improvements in special assessment districts being spread
over periods as long as
25 years. He is also thinking about a plan for consideration which would
place the cost of much
improvement in Vernon
City on citywide tax rolls.
"After all", he asserts,
"there have been cases
Continued on Page 10
Sgt. Becker     said  that
complaints and suspicions
that had been telephoned to
police  and to  Prosecutor
Jay F. Trucks began with
one registered at 10:56 a.m.
and  the arrest was made
at -11:06 of the same day,
Eriday- ...
The checks, had been
made out in amounts totaling $508.88 but Davis had
only change from several
purchases. Sgt. Becker recovered $353. found in
Davis' pockets.
Davis had been off probation only for a short
time after being sentenced
last summer for a theft of
tools from Fullerton's
garage in Clare, police said-
Davis was arraigned Monday and lodged in jail at,
Harrison after being unable
to post $2,500. bond. The
felony he is charged with
carries a possible sentence
of up to 14 years in prison.
SETS   NEW   SCHOOL   RECORD
Gillaspy s Scoring Paces 94-76 Win Over  Evart
More than $100,000 worth of farm machinery and equipment was on display at the
Mechanized Farming Day for Clare and
Gladwin farmers and their families February 18 in the Clare County Highway Dept.
Garage. Attending were 150 farmers who
viewed the exhibits and talked with sales
representatives there. Photo by George
MacQueen.
Clare High bounced back
Friday night with a thumping basketball victory over
Evart's Wildcats 94-76
after a loss earlier in the
week to Saginaw Arthur Hill
Tech.
■The Pioneers and their
Coach Ivan Davis have been
saying all year that they
had great scoring potential
in the "right" combination on any given -night,
and they would be hard for
any team to, catch when
they   gain  an  early  lead.
' "We could have scored
over 100 points", Davis
said after the Evart game.
Clare's scoring leader,
Grant Gillaspy set a new
school record for a single
game with his 42-poiht contribution. He poured in 14
points in the final quarter
alone, and didn't even see
action in the last four min-
• utes.
Davis said there were
many players who deserved
to play in this last home
game. He used t them generously after the Clare lead
.made it possible. Besides,
he simply doesn't believe
in funning up a big score
after a great lead has the
game Won.
At one point in the fourth
quarter he used five seniors;    GillaSpy   and Tom
Whitfield, Dan White, Joe
Squires, and Tom Lewis.
Whitfield with 19 points
and White with 18 were the
only players besides Gillaspy in double figures.
An all-junior team was
also on the floor at another
time during the free substituting in the last period.
Taking a 10-point lead in
the first- quarter, the Pioneers established a tight
zone defense and out rebounded the Wildcats.
After some substituting
in the second quarter when
Davis relieved two players
who committed three_ouls
each, and two others with
a pair of fouls, the half-
time score was 46-35 in
Clare's favor.
The third period saw
Evart picking up the tempo, but heavy scoring by
White and Gillaspy. put the
game virtually beyond
•reach of the visitors. Clare
counted 25 points to Evart's
20 and coasted through the
last quarter.
Chippewa Hills, Fremont *
and Big Rapids will be'
matched for the tournament
beginning March 3 at Big
Rapids.
JUNIOR HIGH
CHAMPIONS
Teams from Clare's
seventh and eighth grades
each won US-10 Conference
championships in last
week's   tournament   here.
Seventh graders beat
Coleman and Meridian to
win their way into the finals against favored Evart.
Thursday's game was also
Clare's by a 31-25 score.
The eighth graders Won
over Coleman and then
Farwell on their way into;
a finals tilt where they
met Chippewa Hills. The
Chips had edged a strong
Evart team 30-28 in the
se mi-finals, but were
swamped by Glare 45-18
for the championship.
Clare faculty members
Gene Theisen and Mlcheal
Tate were coaches of the
title holding Jr. High
cagers.
Players and fans cheer-
.ing the  Green and  White
when it wa s announced he   IVlOVeCl   X O JlJ._a^
had set a new scoring re-    Don R, Harrison, onetime
cord« police  chief of Clare and
now a corporal with. the
Michigan State Police has
been transferred to the
Traffic Division at East
Lansing.
Coach Davis attended
District Tournament drawings Tuesday in Big Rapids
Where   Clare, Reed City,