The Indianapolis News from Indianapolis, Indiana • 24

Poga 24 THE INDIANAPOLIS NEWS Thunddy, Saptambar 29, 1977, Wilkinson: A Big Small Town -1 WILKINSON By MVRTIE BARKER Special Correspondent WILKINSON, Ind. In Wilkinson, the "Central Intelligence Agency" of the place is Bob and Daisy's Barber and Beauty Shop, in an annex to their home on Main Street (Ind. 109). Here, one can pick up all kinds of scuttlebutt, just about anything one would want to know about the town. A visitor may be told that Wilkinson was the birthplace of Col.

Weir Cook, famous World War I aviation ace. The international airport at Indianapolis bears his name. Incidentally, the house in which Cook was born is still standing. One can also "zero in" on another source of local pride. Nearby Eastern Hancock High School is consistently among the top 10 Class A high school football teams.

improvements. We want to make it a beautiful addition to the town, equipping the plot with all kinds of popular playground equipment. But, alas, Penn-Central will not say "yes" to selling. This could be good. The railroad, in looking in their crystal ball, may foresee an exciting future for Wilkinson some outstanding events to transpire.

At Bob and Daisy's, the Town Barker learned of one outstanding occasion now in the making. Preparations are underway for the big annual Methodist Church Bazaar, planned to begin at 9 a.m. on Nov. 12. i It seems this small town is not exact-.

ly "small town" when it comes to stag ing spectaculars. Their recent annual smorgasbord is said to have grossed more than $1,800. The Bazaar gives promise of being even bigger. "Crowds come from miles away," says Daisy Collins. "They come from throughout the state." these Wilkinson Methodist Church flingdings have become something of a tradition.

"The coming Bazaar will be big and beautiful really big. Why don't y'all come," said exuberant Daisy. 5 mwaj i i Married 53 years ago this month, Bob Collins, 74, and his wife Daisy, 72, have shared not only their lives but their barber and beauty shop ever since. Ask them any question having to do with Wilkinson and the couple can come up with an answer. Yes, the town has a doctor a rarity of which few suburban areas can boast these days.

He is Dr. Robert W. Kuhn, 60, who grew up in Wilkinson, went away to college and medical school and then came back, to his hometown to practice. Nationally recognized by the American Academy of Family Practice in a 1971 ceremony at New York's Madison. Square Garden, Dr.

Kuhn was later honored by the Wilkinson Civic Association. A kind of "This Is Your Life" pro-, duction was presented in the Eastern Hancock gym, to show the area's appreciation for the country doctor's many years of devotion to his home community. More than 1,500 men, women and children were in the audience, many of whom had been delivered by Dr. Kuhn. "He even makes house calls," said one Wilkinson resident.

A remarkably self-sufficient village, Wilkinson includes 30 different business, everything from a hardware store to a pizza spot; from an automatic laundry to Condo's Mortuary; from a "Wear-House" to a Mr. Fix-it Shop and still more. It is amazing that so many establishments can continue to prosper in a town of only 500 persons. The place has got to have charisma. Platted by two brothers, Elnathan and Thomas Wilkinson in 1883, the town was not incorporated until Feb.

18, 1914, with a population of 340. By 1970 the town had grown to 480. In the seven years since, 20 people have been added. The of course, is the lack of local industry. The 30 businesses require few employes.

Most citizens of working age must commute to Indianapolis, New Castle or Anderson for jobs. Robert Applegate, for 15 years Wilkinson fire chief, described the current project of the 18-man volunteer fire department. "The town has purchased a solid old building 160 by 40 feet and our volunteer fireman are spending every free moment remodeling the structure to make it into the town's City Building," Apple-gate said. "Fortunately, we have several building contractors in the group quite skilled in handling such work," he added. While all this goes on, town board president Arthur Drysdale and other board members are trying to get Penn-Central Railroad to sell an acre of ground along its right-of-way to the town, to be made into a playground for Wilkinson's young fry.

For some strange and unknown reason, the railroad is reluctant to do that and people around Wilkinson are puzzled. "For years Wilkinson has leased this ground," Drysdale said. "Now we want to purchase it and spend money making i zP'uCJ WILKINSON Ar ft City limits sign it i i i 3 I 1 notes famous son I Tht Ntwt Photos, BUI Worcosttr Green STAR SYSTEM A 'A i i iff 4 1 I I fa 11 i ..1.. INDIANAPOLIS Man Not He Saw Special to Tht Niw BLOOMINGTON, Ind. State Police today said a Paragon service station operator who reported seeing a woman matching the description of a missing Indiana Uhiversity coed is no longer certain the woman he saw Sept.

12 was Ann Harmeier. Sgt. Donald Gastineau said investigators -have interviewed the owner of the Deep Rock station in Paragon four times and are now "handling his information like 100 other leads we've had." Slaughter House Fined Special to The News i ANDERSON, Ind. An Anderson slaughtering house has been found guilty of continuing contempt of court for ignoring a court order prohibiting it from operating. Special Judge David E.

Hayes fined Hobert M. Heiney $2,000 and ordered him to discontinue operations at Heiney 's Frozen Foods. The State Board of Health cited the firm in '1974 for violations of the Cold Storage Warehouse Act, the Locker Plant Act and the Indiana Meat and Poultry Inspection and Humane Slaughter Act. Madison Circuit Court permanantly enjoined the Heiney from operating the plant, which slaughtered livestock and processed, packed and stored meat. The firm was found on June l.to be in contempt of court and ordered to discontinue operation.

1 Beautician Daisy Collins with customer Phoebe Certain I.U. Coed Sgt. Gastineau said 15 members of the Bloomington Sierra Club will comb remote areas of the Morgan-Monroe State Forest near here this weekend in search of Miss Harmeier. Although other search attempts have been made by individuals in the state forest, Gastineau said he believes the Sierra Club members have the best chance of locating Miss Harmeier if she is to be found in the forest. Meantime, the friends and neighbors of Miss Harmeier plan to travel to Paducah, this weekend in hopes of helping authorities there locate the young woman.

The focus of the search for the 20-year-old Cambridge City native shifted to Paducah when Paragon service station operator Willard Walt, 57, reported seeing a young woman matching Miss Harmeier's description in a car with a Kentucky license plate on the day the I.U. junior disappeared. Miss Harmeier was last seen by her mother and friends in Cambridge City when she left home the morning of Sept. 12 to drive back to the I.U. campus at Bloomington.

Her disabled car was found along Ind. 37 northeast of Martinsville. The radiator was empty, indicating she stopped the car and went for help after it overheated. Walt and an employe told investigators they saw a woman matching Miss Harmeier's description about 11:30 a.m. Sept.

12 in the company of three other young women and two young men. The six were in a car bearing a McCracken County, license plate. 1 FP6 SUBURBAN NEWS Trucker Hit By Car On 1-65 Dies A Kentucky truck driver was killed instantly, today when he was struck by an auto while standing beside his semitrailer truck on 1-65 about six miles north of Lebanon. Investigators said WILLIAM NANTZ, 41, Florence, was hauling mail for the U.S. Postal Service when his tractor unit developed mechanical problems.

A second unit was taken to him and he had just completed hitching the replacement tractor to the trailer unit at 3:45 a.m. when he was struck by a southbound auto driven by Ted Dearing-er, 20, Muncie. Dearinger was not injured. WILLIAM C. SHEPARD, 20, Knox died today in Porter Memorial Hospital in Valparaiso of injuries suffered last 'night in a traffic accident.

Police said the accident occurred on U.S. 30 about a half-mile west of Hamlet in Starke County when Shepard's car left the roadway and overturned several times. A passenger in the car, Richard Pressley, 39, Knox, was hospitalized at Starke County Memorial Hospital in Knox. JUNE C. DUNAWAY, 20, rural El-wood, was killed at 9:10 p.m.

yesterday when her eastbound car collided head on with a semitrailer truck on Ind. 28 about 2i2 miles east of Elwood. Investigators said the westbound truck crossed the centerline and collided with the victim's car. The trucker, Richard Tyler II, 25, Marion, was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol. He was not hurt Witnesses told investigators the truck swerved on and off the roadway several times before colliding with the victim's car.

MAGNAVOX Illll-piP mi yyui TGUOIliTU Real Income Grew In State, I.U. Says Boone Board OK's Landfill Special to TM Newi LEBANON, Ind. The Boone County Board of Zoning Appeals last night voted 3-2 to allow expansion of the nortntiem sanitary Landfill north of iionsviae. The board aDDroved the 30-arrp ev. pansion despite protests from about 90 remonsirators.

Manv of the remnnstratnro ivora members of the Northfield Christian Church who argued that odors from the lanatm 'are repugnant and would become worse if the operation were ex-. panded. Other remonstratnrs rnmnlainol that trucks bound for the landfill, lo cated about a quarter-mile off U.S. 421, drop debris and litter along the roadway and paper from the trucks and (landfill blows onto adjacent property. Landfill owner John Bankert argued that the landfill operation conforms with all county and state regulations.

He emphasized that recent landscaping improvements, including the addition of shrubbery along the landfill peri-menter, effectively hide the landfill from the view of passing motorists. Mining, a major factor in the rise of Pike County (2nd with followed agriculture with a 125 percent increase. Marcus said strong negative influence of the recent recession may have phanged things. Data on 1977 will not be available from the state's Commerce Department until 1979. Monroe County ranked 86th out of the 92 Hoosier counties in average income with $4,213.

Morgan and Brown counties also were more than 10 percent below the average with $4,781 and $4,650 respectively. Hamilton and Marion counties ranked 7th and 8th respectively among Hoosier counties. Average per capita income was $6,439 in Marion County and $6,452 in Hamilton County. Other suburban Indianapolis counties were within 10 percent of the average income. They are: Boone, $6,148 Hendricks, $5,493 Johnson, $5,284 Shelby, $5,554 Hancock, $5,389 Sue In Home Fire SMClal Th Ntwt NOBLES VILLE, Ind.

A Noblesvile couple is suing the Indiana Cities Water Corp. for $38,000, claiming the utility's workmen set fire to the couple's home while thawing frozen pipes last Winter. The suit by Mr. and Mrs. Jack S.

Ott was filed in Hamilton Superior Court in connection with the Jan. 26 fire. (I p. '( (f nT! ll VZX i if ll 5 I 4 4 1 KiW- 1 COLOR TU Touch-Tuna by computer directly to any channel lie set by lemoM control. No dunk-dunking through tht dijmeis m-between.

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Model 4471 18 diagonal tit model. 411 i- 111: Mi i i If. iJi 1 Jim lor touching Touch-Tun TV SMcial to Tin Ntw BLOOMINGTON, Ind. The average per capita income of Indiana' residents increased by $2,503 between 1967 and 1975, according to an Indiana University study. The 79.4 percent growth rate exceeded the 61.2 percent rise in the cost of living over the same period, the study showed.

"Hence, the real income of Hoosiers rose during a period that included two recessions and a major inflation in prices," said Morton J. Marcus, author of the study. Marcus, a research economist in the Indiana University School of Business, published a study of personal income growth in Indiana counties for the Indiana Business Review. The 1975 average income for the state was $5,656. Benton County showed the highest per capita income with $8,051.

Marcus found that in 1975 the highest per capita income was in rural counties. This differed sharply with the 1967 figures, which showed that urban, industrialized counties had the highest average incomes. Marcus explained the difference in income averages was due to large growth in agriculture and a slow recovery of industry from the 1974-75 recession. The study showed that total farm income rose 147 percent, compared to the 65 percent increase in industry income. kill -J MiCKJS QUALITY IN nrmn CMTUTOM SOUUt OMt joae NFL OFFICIAL RECORD MANUAL EVERY DETAIL mm All products sold by vmars an serviced by i rcisia I IN THE SERVICE BUSINESS MUMst WUHHETON SQU4M MIX 1 ana t4 cmiieut Xs.

1 I mm -Mow Smite, lOUlU CELEBRATING OUR 26th YEAR tl 1 I Opening No. 17 GREENWOOD, Ind. Al Budd (left) manager of the new Value City department store here, accepts a congratulatory handshake from Alvin Schottenstein, president of Schottenstein Stores at the grand opening of the firm's newest store today. Flanking Schottenstein are corporate executives of the Columbus, Ohio, firm. The Greenwood store is the 17th in the chain.

The NEWS Photo, Bob Doeppers..