Journal and Courier from Lafayette, Indiana • 14

B4 REGIONSTATE JOURNAL AND COURIER LOCAL EDITOR PHILLIP A IORIN1Phone 420 5231 ax 420 5246E mail pfiorinijournalandcouriercomJournal and Courier online: wwwjconlinecom SUNDAY JANUARY 2 2005 1 70 work near Indy airport done early By The Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS Work oh moving and widening Interstate 70 for a new entrance to Indi anapolis International Airport has been completed two years ahead of schedule 1 i State and city officials have con sidered the $170 million highway project started in late 2002 with completion originally scheduled for 2006 as critical in relieving traf fic around the airport and gener ating economic growth in the area The project included rebuilding an interchange west of 1 465 and building new ramps and bridges that will take travelers to the air planned new $275 million passenger terminal will serve as the founda tion for everything that will hap pen from an economic development standpoint and from an airport state highway com missioner Bryan Nicol said Wednesday as a ceremony was held to formally open the 45 mile stretch Nicol said careful planning al lowed the quicker construction pace as workers built much of the new 1 70 before destroying the old roadway limiting lane closures The highway was shifted south to make room for a possible ex pansion of the edEx fa cility The road also was lowered be low ground level so a taxiway for airplanes could be built over 1 70 should the need arise The airport operates its two main runways north of 1 70 while space for a third runway exists on the inter south side The improved interchange is ex pected to replace the cur rent entrance off 1 465 as the main route to the new passenger termi nal which is expected to open in late 2008 Developers hotel companies and restaurants have already begun looking at land west of the airport along tiie Marion Hendricks coun ty line in anticipation of the new configuration The 1 70 refurbishment is than concrete and said John Kish director of the airport terminal project jobs and eco nomic Hendricks County leaders hope to use the improved interstate as a springboard for additional resi dential commercial and industri al development in the area is going to drastically change the landscape in eastern Hendricks County Com missioner Steive Ostermeier saicL Polio epidemic changed many lives Iron lung helped many patients during 1950s By Stacey Lane Grosh The Herald Bulletin ANDERSON The mon strous machine is a pale sickly hospital yellow It saved lives and led others to their death in the midst of an epidemic that closed swimming pools ended pub lic outings and forced par ents tb lock their children indoors ifty years later some are still trapped inside those machines while younger generations are growing up not even knowing the words or the horrors as sociated with the disease that led to its creation Vaccines eradicated polio in the 1950s in the United States But not in time to save 5 year old Jack Robin mother Or prevent Ellen hellish experi ence inside the iron lung while her body temperature soared to 106 degrees Jack Robinson re By Perry ReichanadterThe Associated Press Jack Robinson 60 sits in his home in Anderson and reflects on his death from polio when he was 5 Robinson said mom was so gracious She never felt sorry for iBBi £vjESgBCTM7yfflg member his mother taking him to a park Or ever walk ing Or even eating remember my mom ever holding' the 60 year old Anderson resi dent said mother rances contracted polio in the late 1940s and lost her ability to breathe on her own her chest mus cles non responsive was left to live inside of an iron lung An iron lung a cylin drical steel drum about sev en feet long and 700 pounds encloses the entire body except the head It is a res pirator and a haven giving victims an extension of life doing the breathing for them Air pressure in the iron lung contracts the pa diaphragm causing inhalation opposite pres sure expands the di aphragm causing exhala tion iron lung breathed the patient 16 times a said Dr Thomas Bright a pulmonary and critical care physician at St Medical Center In the early 1950s there were more than 20000 cas es of polio each year In 1952 alone 58000 cases were re ported according to the book the Sun: Polio and the Salk Three thousand died ran died in 1950 inding closure About 50 years later St pulled out an iron lung acquired from the Robinsons as part of hospital anniversary cele bration Jack Robinson stopped by never seen it empty and it crushed me I broke Robinson said there was my closure It took me to my Bessie Hitchcock Crim once lay among a room of 50 iron lungs humming in unison nightmare began on Aug 6 1949 While her father sat in the ER waiting for treat ment for an ear infection a teen was brought in dying from polio Her father was stricken with the idea that "Imagine if that (eliminating polio) could really happen if it was finally all over" Jack Robinson his mother died of polio in 1950 polio could attack his three daughters and called home to ask a favor of his wife heard there was in surance for this (polio) He asked her to call around and get polio insurance Ten days later I got iThe insurance paid for the month Ellen spent in the iron lung: $1097 13 The nv erage salary in the 1950m was $2992 Ellen an Anderson resi dent is sure she became in fected with polio from ice cream she purchased at a lo cal stand The teen who sold it to her and the friend she ate with that day both came down with polio as well i Several days later Ellen began to feel nauseous and became feverish Then she began having trouble swal lowing ended up at Riley (Hos pital for Children) and went straight into the iron New form of polio i Iron lungs filled hospitals during polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s but the bulky machines were even tually replaced by smaller portable ventilators The polio vaccination was created by Jonas Salk in 1954 with a dead version of the virus In the late 1950s Albert Bruce Sabin tried to im prove upon the Salk vaccine By the mid 60s an oral ver sion of the vaccine was in wide use Since the vaccine became available children have been receiving four po lio vaccines between 2 months old and 6 years old I By 1960 the number of cases had dropped to about 3000 and by 1979 there WEB Rh ki wk fe I 9 fjtgg I amily photo via Associated Press When ho woi 5 Jock Robinson shows his mother rances a birthday card he received while nufso from St Hospital in Anderson adjusts the iron pressure gauge in this 1950 family photo rances Robinson suffered from polio and spent nearly three years in the Iron lung in thoir dining room She died shortly after this photo at the age of 34 "The suggestion of cannibalizing the parts (of iron lungs) may not be the best What we did 50 to 60 years ago is not what we do today There are more advanced portable ventilators now" Dr Thomas Bright pulmonary critical care physician were only about 10 The suc cess of polio vaccination in the United States and other countries sparked a world wide effort to eliminate po lio: "Now the polio survivors have grown up but an esti mated 250000 Americans are facing a new form of the polio epidemic called post polio syndrome Sufferers complain of joint pain de creased endurance and mus cle atrophy associated with nerve loss from the initial polio 'A museum Ellen now 67 is one of them She is the president of the Central Indiana Post Polio Support Group that as sists polio survivors in find ing medical care obtaining information about receiving state disability benefits which just came available for survivors last year and provides emotional sup port About 40 polio survivors nationwide may soon be forced to give up their iron lungs Respironics Colorado of Thornton Colo the only company that provides and services iron lungs stopped guaranteeing parts and re pairs for the equipment in March The company is searching for iron lungs that can be used as substitutes or for parts Respironics has of fered to donate iron lungs to users who will assume re sponsibility for mainte nance suggestion of canni balizing the parts may not be the best decision Bright said we did 50 to 60 years ago is not what we do today There are more ad vanced portable ventilators iron lung has sort of become a museum piece now The hospital retains it as more of a curio a relic a way to look back and see how far come and what so many The Rotary International Club has been trying to eradicate polio around the world since the early 1990s by raising more than $130 million to have doctors trav el to third world countries and vaccinate children The number of polio cas es has been reduced by a projected 99 percent since Rotary and partner agencies formed the initiative from 350000 in 1988 to fewer than 1000 in 2003 accord ing to their Web site wwwrotaryorg goal is to elimi nate polio globally in 2005 if that could re ally Jack Robinson said it was finally all 99 1 over Small town seeks money for flood program By The Associated Press VERA CRUZ Resi dents of a tiny town pop ulation 54 have been working to raise $100000 to participate in a state pro gram which would allow the town to buy out the owners of flood damaged homes near the Wabash River Nine homes and six other buildings were damaged during a July 2003 flood in the town about 40 miles south of ort Wayne The town government of Vera Cruz has little income so residents started raising money to participate in the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and buy out the property owners So far the Vera Cruz lood Recovery Committee has raised about $84000 said Kent Park who helped lead fund raising efforts The committee also hopes to finish the extensive pa perwork for the application and submit it to state offi cials Park said it has taken time to secure some of the necessary documentation to complete the application in cluding flood certificates from the state Department of Natural Resources town knew it was a slow Park said just need to keep moving Vera application is the only one for the hazard program filled out by vol unteers said Mary Moran program director for the mitigation division at the State Emergency Manage ment Agency can be daunting to people that have never had to do a grant application be Moran said not just a one page form that you fill The committee researched the history of disasters in the Wells County town col lected property tax infor mation on all the structures got estimates for the cost of buying all the properties and researched alternatives to the buyout program ishing tackle maker angles for high end market By Mike Bennett Palladium Item RICHMOND Build the best and they will buy the mantra of Gary Moorehead of Richmond whose mind chums out cre ative ideas like Peyton Man ning tosses out touchdown passes In the world of fishing tack le Moorehead sees clear path ways from what ifs to whet ting appetites He and his son Brent are trying to spark a new path in high end fishing rods with their new company ESOX And they aim to use that as a ground floor to create a na tional outfitter that will draw buyers in droves to Richmond is my Brent Moorehead said of the world wide giant in fishing supplies and mail order retailing want to get into being a full outfitter a manufacturing and retail can be to Richmond for fishing tackle what Tom Rap er is to the RV Gary Moorehead added The 63 year old has good pedigrees in manufacturing and in fishing supplies As a former co owner of Heddon the most recog nized fishing supplier in the world he had a hand in de veloping the Zara Spook from an underperformer into one of the most popular lures ever The Purdue graduate also pioneered the development of graphite blanks used in mod em fishing rods and found methods to paint lures to make them more fish like and longer lasting He left the fishing tackle business in the mid 1980s af ter the other owners chose to sell out Last New Day the Mooreheads agreed it was time to get back into the mar ket with a handmade fishing rpd do Brent re members saying do it the his fa ther replied Brent Moorehead 34 said the fishing business always held a special allure for him grew up around this stuff They (rods) were around the house all the he said have been bugging him about starting the After months of' research and development that in cluded visits around the coun try they started assembling the rods one by one last sum mer Each takes four to five days to produce finish and dry could do them faster but not at the quality Gary Moorehead said putting a little extra into ESOX is a Native Ameri can term for mean tough fish The name is appropriate be cause a large marketing po1 tential now is in muskie fish ing where catches can hit 50 pounds The company has four 'em ployees and will hire another in early January be added as orders grow 750 rods we can hire a per Gary Moorehead said The rods sell for an average of $210 and come with a life time warranty The first sale was finalized in August The Mooreheads have start ed a tackle supply business too at their manufacturing site in north Richmond Gary Moorehead is' a Lafayette native pas sionate about his beliefs whether politics Purdue athletics or fishing products not think differently be creative in everything you he asks be like every body Before settling in tlicht mond he specialized in reviv ing troubled companies At age 32 he was vice president of manufacturing for Victon the company that owned Heddon: had no preconceived ideas My job was turning around companies to look at things he said Heddon) my purpose was to go into fishing tackle and turn it around We made a lot of.