The Mercury from Pottstown, Pennsylvania • Page 37

C. S. GARBER WEIL DRILLING DEMING PUMPS Route 562 Boyertown, Pa. PH 367-2861 It's The Fresh One Maier's Sunbeam Bread Potlstown, Monday, November 24, 1975 Page Thirty- Seven Hil! rink maintained by experts No matter what the vagarities of temperature, Hill School hockey players are in ice from November until March, thanks to Joseph McLaughlin and Clarence Krieger. McLaughlin and Krieger manage the vats of ammonia and brine and the 10 miles of pipes that keep the ice at 16 degrees, the best for skating.

when the temperature outside is 60 said McLaughlin, can keep the ice hard so the boys can skate The compressors and condensors that the ice arrived at The Hill School in 1952, when equipment was according to McLaughlin. had been making ice this way for years, but then only a few colleges in this country could do said McLaughlin. Hall, the headmaster then, was something of a hockey nut, and he had it brought in. He even coached the team himself, until he left in he said. By mixing ammonia with brine, and running the results over the pipes into wet sand on the rink floor, the artif ically- made ice is formed.

Liquid ammonia is pumped in to mix with the brine, a water and calcium chloride solution similar to anti-freeze. The temperature of the brine will lower each time it passes through the ammonia which involves several trips through the machinery. Then a compressor evaporates the liquid ammonia out of the brine, and creates gaseous ammonia. The gas is sent into three outdoor condensors, where continually running cold water returns it to liquid. Meanwhile the cold brine goes into the 10 miles of pipes under the rink.

A sand and water mix poured over the pipes freezes, and the rink is ready for skating. warm days, we have two machines running all the time to keep the ice explained McLaughlin. the temperature outside stays down around 30, we have to Should an enthusiastic Hill hockey player punch a hole in the ice, McLaughlin can patch it immediately at the end of the day with a little wet snow. The experts who run indoor rinks do not understand how he can keep The Hill rink going in all weather, he says. they come around, explain it to them, but they have to learn to juggle the temperature and the McLaughlin has never lost his frozen rink in the 13 years he has been mantaining it.

used to have a problem before they put the roof over it, from the rain warming the ice, but we have never had a Zamboni cleans the rink daily, picking up snow shavings and spreading a little more jfwater. Roving reporter Should PE be granted another rate increase? Area residents were asked: "The Philadelphie Electric Co. was granted a $105 million rate increase 10 months ago. What do you think of the company's request for Public Utility Commission approval on an additional $95 million hike7" Here are their answers: Mrs. George Bell, Pottstown RD 3: you are retired it is not easy to cope with all these increases.

The electric company is going too far. just too hard to live. The cost of living is going up and up and you certainly get any more in your social security checks. They stay the same and you have to take more and more to just meet your Mrs. Florence Seibert Edward Case, 250 W.

High rate increase is definitely wrong. They were just granted one increase, and now they want another one. I think ripping the people off. My bill will go up again, and have to pay more each month for the same service, but it will be even tougher for the people who make much Dorothy Thorpe Harry H. Wolf, Pottsgrove Towers: think the rate is necessary for the electric company to keep going.

Look at the money they are losing on the delays involved in building the power plant in Limerick. People are upset about the rate increase, but really necessary. After all, the employes of PE like it if their checks stopped Edward Case Dorothy Thorpe, 505 Hale rate increase would be a bad thing. The cost of electric service is already more expensive than it should be. The first increase hurt but if this one is approved, it will really be painful to everyone.

It will really put a strain on my budget and with the cost of everything else going up, things are tight enough Harry H. Wolf Mrs. George Bell Mrs. Florence Seibert, 173 N. Hanover rate increase just right.

My husband has been unemployed for three or four months and our bills are high now. We only pay service for the two of us but we still have to be careful and watch everything we use so we don't waste electric. The only thing we can do is pinch pennies even more. The company gets more money but we sure get anymore Your single telephone call to The Mercury newsroom could be worth a $100 savings bond! Each month, that award goes to the reader who tells about some unusual and timely news event. Just call 323-3000 with your newstip! Queen relaxes at home after fast, busy week Mercury photos by Tom Kelly After the grueling pace of competition, Mrs.

Karen Hughes, newly-crowned Pottstown Bicentennial Queen, and her husband, Garrett, relax and enjoy a romp with the family pet on the lawn of their Stowe home. A 1971 graduate of Pottsgrove High School and a 1975 graduate of Susquehanna University, she is employed by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit at Indiana Valley Junior High School where she teaches children with learning disabilities. She also attends classes at Pennsylvania State Graduate Center, King of Prussia. Pictured below is the queen, right, with first runnerup, left, Mrs. Jan Fizz, 859 Spruce St.

(See related photo on Page 26.).