Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 16

DECATUR HERALD Decatur, Illinois, Monday, December 1, 1975 IS Early-Morning Fire Destroys Taylorville Department Store about 12:55 a.m. and noticed the fire soon afterwards. She could not be identified immediately. The other stores damaged were DiPlotti's Shoe Store, Bill's Dollar Store and the P.N. HirshCo.

The Taylorville fire department was joined by units from Stonington, Morrisonville, Kin-caid, Tovey, Pana and Owaneco in bringing the main fire under control by 4 a.m. However, the flames rekindled at 6 a.m. and again at about 1:30 p.m., according to 'if illll-r liaiiiiiiiiiiiiPiM livi lf: lillllllS jliililSlfl Wi i i mm -r 1:1 y-i j-hfiil zzJSMzz- 1 bfJter wbif' i'z -r im. WiL-t Jka. gmy tiii: mKZ.

i in i. i Mm mmf Pi i 1 1 i i ii I Hi! Hi i T3rW if i ri Mnp- i fij- jS ttpHII iliplsiil! i. r.ilif i mf: sfiipif 1 ii fiiiifoijtii i v0m liiffll I i lii liiif llllfc Hi iiiMiiiliiiiini nil mntt'-rrr-f r- J-i mi' minir Taylorville Fire Chief William Qirnrnings. He said the fire was not completely extinguished until about 6 p.m. Curnmings said he did not yet know the cause of the fire.

The three firemen injured were Gene Dunn, Dave Aldridge and Cory Halfliger. Dunn suffered first and second degree burns on his head, face, neck and arms and was admitted to St. Vincent Memorial Hospital, where he was reported in good condition Sunday night. Halfliger was overcome by smoke from the hot fire and in good condition at the hospital Sunday. Aldridge was treated for a bruised leg that apparently occurred when part of a wall caved in.

He later returned to help extinguish the fire. Hospital spokesmen said both Dunn and Aldridge would be released today. Curnmings said the fire began in the baseineot of the two story department store, and quickly spread upwards, in all sections of the building. The brick structure was described by several city residents as being very old, as were the adjoining buildings on the north side of the square. Quick work by the fire fighters and the presence of fire walls in the neighboring stores were credited with preventing the spread of the fire.

Nevertheless, the department store was devastated by the fire, according to several eyewitnesses. "It's completely gutted, a total loss," Curnmings said, although he declined to estimate a dollar figure. "It's kaput, totaled, no fix-ee," said Dwight Neece, police department shift supervisor. Curnmings said the upper floor of the building gradually caved in, but no firemen were in the building at the time. The department store is across Main Cross Street from the Christian County Courthouse and only about 300 feet from the police and fire artment headquarters, Neece said.

Neither building was threatened directly by the fire, he said. Curnmings described the fire as "flamy," and indicated that false ceilings in several sections of the store prevented firemen from reaching the areas with their hoses. All told, more than 100 persons helped fight the fire, using about 10 fire units. The DiPlotti store probably suffered the next greatest damage, primarily with smoke and water. Del DiPlotti, who has operated the store for 42 years, said the major damage was to his merchandise.

"The smoke gets into the shoes and socks, it gets into the leather and is awfully hard to get out," he said. He said the flames briefly reached the south, or back edge of the store, but did relatively little damage. Fire fighters knocked a hole in the south end to help isolate the flames. DiPlotti had no immediate estimate of the damage to the building or to his goods. "We'll clean up tomorrow, check up and see what we're going to do," he said.

He described the Sherman store as a "shambles." The managers of the other three damaged businesses could not be reached for comment Sunday. Curnmings said police and fire officers were patrolling the area overnight to prevent possible looting. He said, however, that there was little danger that any of the department store's walls would collapse. Clean up of the fire scene began late Sunday and may take a week or more, according to police. Ciimmings said that deputy Fire Marshal Robert Eairo would be called in this week to help investigate the fire, but he added that arson was not suspected at this time.

A fireman stands by the charred facade of Sherman's Department Store, whose interior was reduced to a smoldering Stoff Photos by HerbSlodounik rubble early Sunday. 'Farmers Have to Expect More Government Control' By Dick Zaker Taylorville Fire destroyed Sherman's Department Store on the square in Taylorville early Sunday, with three neighboring stores suffering smoke and water damage and three firemen injured while battling the flames. About three or four families living in apartments above the store escaped the early morning fire. One of those residents reported to police that she heard a muffled explosion at Tornadoes In Pawnee, Strong winds and at least two tornadoes swept through Central Illinois late Saturday night, causing two known injuries and extensive damage. Tornadoes reportedly touched down in Pawnee, south of Springfield, and in Lincoln.

A Pawnee police officer reported that twin tornadoes ripped paths through a trailer court and a residential section of town about 11:20 p.m., injuring one woman in her forties. In Logan County. 56-year-old Alfred Vaitkevich of Chicago was hurt when his semi-trailer truck was blown off U.S. 66, about a mile north of Elkhart. The woman in the Pawnee incident was treated by a local doctor and did not require hospitalization.

Vaitkevich was admitted to Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital, where he was in satisfactory condition Sunday night. Elsewhere, tornado sirens sounded in Lincoln, indicating winds greater than 60 miles an hour. Funnel clouds were sighted in Lincoln and Elkhart, and gusts of up to 76 miles an hour were recorded at Springfield's Capital Airport. In Pawnee Officer Wayne Fritz said three trailers were overturned and demolished by what he described as a tornado P'S A fourth trailer in the San Terra Trailer Court was shifted off its foundation by the winds. Two of the three trailers destroyed by the winds were vacant, with their owners away on Thanksgiving trips, Fritz said.

The injured woman and a middle-aged man were in the trailer when the funnel struck. He escaped serious injury, Fritz said. The tornado tore their trailer apart, scattering sections and belongings more than 50 feet. Another trailer was occupied by two boys, about 11 or 12 years old. Fritz said that the boys were not injured when the tornado Champaign Boy Shoots Sister Hattiesburg, Miss.

(AP) A 3-year-old Champaign boy fatally shot his 2-year-old sister after their parents left the children unattended in a car with a pistol, police said. Mr. and Mrs. Columbus Jones of Champaign, said Saturday they returned from shopping and found their daughter, Stacy, dead with the gun lying on the floorboard. The boy, Columbus Jones was still in the car, police said.

A coroner's jury ruled the shooting accidental. Police said Saturday night that although they were still investigating the incident, no charges had been filed. DANVILLE TAXES FOR NEW RESERVOIR Danville (AP) The Danville City Council has released tax rate figures which would go into effect if city voters approve a referendum for funding the proposed Middle Fork Reservoir northwest of Danville. If the referendum is approved Dec. 18, federal revenue sharing funds would be used to finance the first three years of the city's $3.15 million share in the $17.85 million reservoir.

For 17 years, beginning in 1980, property owners would be charged an additional 14.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to pay the city's share. Reported Lincoln shifted the trailer on its foundation. Several other trailers suffered minor damage. "If it had deviated as much as feet," Fritz said, "it would have taken several occupied homes. We were damn lucky it hit unoccupied homes, or it would have been a lot more serious." After striking the trailer court, the tornado blasted Bill's Body Shop, located on a small hill a short distance northeast of the court.

The concrete block building was demolished, but the German Shepherd watchdog inside survived with only a cut ear. Fritz said he later traveled the route of destruction later Sunday, tracing a four-mile path from near Divernon, noticing uprooted trees, broken fences and downed light poles and power lines. What Fritz believed to be the "twin" tornado struck a residential section of Pawnee, about one half mile from the trailer court funnel, running in the same, southwest-to-northeast direction. He said it lifted a two-car garage off its foundation, carrying it several feet before depositing it into another garage. A car sitting inside the first garage was relatively untouched, receiving only a few dents, he said.

The tornado also shifted two other garages on their foundations, and felled several trees and power lines. He also reported a 60-foot radio tower owned by the Dodds Gas Co. on Illinois 104 on the eastern town limits was toppled, falling against a power pole. Fritz estimated damage roughly at $50,000 and said it would take more than a week to clean it all up. Police and firemen are standing watch over the trailer court to prevent looting.

At least one Pawnee resident, Mrs. Norma Stephan, has offered lodging to any families displaced by the tornadoes at her apartment house, 111 S. Second Fritz said. A funnel cloud was sighted near Lincoon at about 11:30 p.m., according to Sangamon County sheriff deputies. The resulting tornado cut off power to about 1,700 homes for about 14 hours from about midnight Saturday to mid-Sunday.

No one was injured, however. Power outages similarly were reported throughout Effingham Saturday and Sunday. Illinois State Police estimated that the power was lost from about 2 a.m. to 4 or 4:30 a.m. Damage also was noted in Beecher City, Xenia, near U.S.

40, west of Effingham, on Illinois 33, between Dieterich and Newton and in Carmi. tific progress. We need eco nomic progress, he said. Lebeck threw a few barlSs at Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and AFL-CIO President George Meany. Without naming them, he criticized men negotiated international commodity agreements which have "a history of failure," and labor leaders who claim they want to keep food prices down when their actual goals may be somewhat different.

"Why does the bread go up when wheat goes down?" Lebeck asked. The Board of Trade president said "I agree with Del (Rentshler) on embargoes We've had them for three years in a row and for political reasons." He said the United States "can't afford another embargo of agricultural products." But Rentshler was somewhat more pessimistic about the idea of future export embargoes. "I think it will be routine' he said. Citizens two-way radio on world supply and demand. Only in the United States, where prices have been relatively dependent on actual supply and demand, has price been allowed to ration with demand.

Rentshler was optimistic about the future for the American soybean farmer. But at the same time he was somewhat pessimistic in View of potential government controls. "The ongoing demand for (soybean) meal is rather outstanding," Rentshler said. However, at current consumption rates the United States is "flooding" the world with soybean oil, Rentshler said. Rentshler estimated that prices for soybeans for the farmers might strengthen next year, but he said the market has "not bottomed out yet." Johnson, in commenting on the price-enforced reduction in U.S.

feed grain usage, said that without it "literally millions of people would have died." Stroud said that beef consumption this year will probably hit record levels. On the other hand, pork, which is more quickly adapted to changes in the feed price ratio, will probably sink to its lowest levels in many years. But he predicted pork supplies should increase by mid-1976. Stroud said the world food supply, in his opinion, is "exactly where it was one year ago." By Mike Carr Chicago Farmers will have to face the fact that export embargoes and government control of grain products will continue, two experts said Sunday. Speaking at the Newspaper Farm Editor's of America Winter Briefing, Del Rentshler, manager of the Chicago clear- mg ottice, A.

E. btaley Mrg. "Dr. Gale Johnson, Chairman of the economics department of the University of Chicago, agreed that export controls are now a form of "political competition." They were joined on the forum by David Stroud, president of the National Live Stock and Meat Board, and Warren Lebeck, president of the Chicago Board of Trade. Rentshler said that embargoes and moratoriums on U.S.

grain products which were "once unthinkable are now routine." Johnson blamed the situation on the "body politic" which forces U.S. politicians to take actions which may not be economically sound. Johnson said the world food supply, which was much publicized one year ago had actually been subsidized by the United States. He said the free market system of the United States led to a reduction of 34 million tons of feed grain used by this country. This almost equaled the grain necessary to feed the starving countries.

Other major grain-using countries, such as in Western Europe and the Soviet Union, have carried on a policy of strict government control over feed grain supplies, Johnson said, regardless of its impact market system," allowed to operate. Lebeck was not hopeful in his presentation of the future of American agriculture without government controls. "Unfortunately there is loose in this nation an impression of government omniscience that is staggering in its import." Lebeck was firm in his belief that a free market could survive the ups and downs of world pricing and demand. He admitted this is "not perfect" but added "the beauty of the system is that it works." Lebeck said government interference in the export markets "creates ah impression of forked tongues." Under these conditions he said it's not unusual that other countries do not feel sorry for the United States. He said the world food price and supply situations are not strictly rural affairs, but affect all segments of the economy.

"We need more than scien CR-202 mam competitive would be Ji Sells He was referring to the world food conference held in Rome in November, 1974, at which the United States was attacked by representatives of the Third World and the Democratic Party for not doing enough to feed the hungry. Stroud admitted that the livestock men are concerned over the potential competition of the soybean. The Live Stock and Meat Board refers to engineered protein products, but in Central Illinois it is better known as Texturized Vegetable Protein, a registered trade mark of Archer Daniels Midland Co. Stroud referred to the soybean as "that miraculous little vegetable," and said "I think the soybean is the Schmoo." The Schmoo is a creation of cartoonist Al Capp which provides the people of the mythical village of Dogpatch with all their worldly needs, from eggs to meat to toothpicks. Lebeck sounded a generally pessimistic note about government intervention in agriculture but under questioning he said "I am warning of the dangers basically I'm an optimist." Lebeck said "American agriculture is ho place for the technological skeptics." He pointed out that American farmers have come up with new production techniques every time they were needed and predicted they would continue to do so.

However, he conditioned that on the assumption that "a Open 7 Days 24 hours Sun. 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wed. Expires Deo.

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