Lebanon Daily News from Lebanon, Pennsylvania • Page 1

£ebanon 106th Year No. 96 LEBANON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 30,1977 15 CENTS A ROBBERY IN PROGRESS This picture, taken by the security camera at the Commonwealth National Bank at the Lebanon Plaza shows the man who robbed the bank Tuesday morning. Part of the sawed-off shotgun he was carrying is visible under his arm. The clock and calendar on the wall fix the date and time of the robbery. Police yesterday arrested Frank Rodriguez, 45, Manheim RD 3, and charged him with the robbery.

The Daily News has had this bank photo for two days but cooperated with police in withholding publication until a suspect was apprehended. Man Jailed For Robbing Local Bank A Manheim RD 3 man was placed in the county prison yesterday in lieu of $50,000 bail, accused with the $17,000 shotgun robbery of the Commonwealth National Bank, Lebanon Plaza, Tuesday morning. Arrested and arraigned before District Magistrate Robert Anspach was Frank Rodriquez, 45, Penns Woods Motel. City Detective Richard Heverling, who assisted in the investigation, said this morning that there is the possibility that Rodriguez had an accomplice. "But we don't know for sure," Heverling said.

Heverling said N. Cornwall-W. Lebanon Township police are continuing the investigations. It was also reported that Rodriguez told police he had spent some of the stolen money on narcotics and that police were checking the possibility that Rodriguez had a criminal record for armed robbery in New York State. The arrest yesterday morning was made in the wake of more than two days of continuous investigation by members of the N.

Cornwall-W. Lebanon Township police, assisted by Lebanon city police, state police, and members of the FBI. Arrested On Job Rodriguez was apprehended by police at his job as a janitor at the Cleona Elementary School at about 11 a.m. yesterday. "There was no problem during the arrest," said Chief Raymond Brentley, N.

Cornwall-W. Lebanon Township police. "He surrendered without causing trouble," Brentley said. Rodriguez has been employed by the Annville- Cleona School District for more than three months, according to Walter Weekes, business manager for the school district. Newspaper files show that Rodriguez's hiring was approved by the school board during a meeting Aug.

22. He was paid $3.30 per hour. "He was doing a good job," Weekes said. "I was shocked to hear that he had been arrested." The account of the investigation leading to the arrest by N. Cornwall-W.

Lebanon police is as follows. On Tuesday night area police and FBI officials met in conference following the processing of photographs taken of the robbery by automatic security cameras in the bank. Clear Picture Obtained Since the hold-up man had in no way concealed his face during the armed robbery, police officials were able to obtain a clear picture. As a result, contact was made by police with a number of informants, who in turn helped with what Chief Brentley called "some'very good leads." (Continued on Page 4) Carter Trip Marred 1977 REVIEW A review of the Top 10 local news stories in 1977 appears in today's edition on pages 6 and 7, along with several photographs taken throughout the year. Today In The NEWS Amusements 16,17 Area IS Classified 19-23 Comics 18,19 Editorial 4 Obituaries 2 Sports 8-10 Women's Pages 13,14 MIREAU Of Polish 'Insults' Follow Strain With Egyptians By HELEN THOMAS WARSAW, Poland (UPI) President Carter may meet Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Cairo next Wednesday to try to ease the strains that developed when Carter spoke out against creation of a Palestinian state, White House sources said today.

Sadat has called the Palestinian issue the crux of the entire Middle East settlement and said he was surprised, disap- pointed and embarrassed at the Carter statement made in a year-end television interview Wednesday night before he arrived in Poland Thursday night, first stop on his six- nation, nine-day trip. White House spokesman Jody Powell said the Carter- Sadat meeting is under consideration, but added, "plans are not locked in yet." Asked whether he would be meeting Sadat, Carter replied: Extra Forces On Alert For Carter ARREST MADE Lt. Larry Tompkins, N. Cornwall W. Lebanon Township police leads Frank Rodriguez, 45, Manheim RD 3, in handcuffs from the city police station yesterday.

Rodriguez was apprehended yesterday morning and charged with the armed robbery of the Commonwealth National Bank near the Lebanon Plaza Tuesday morning. Rodriguez reportedly offered no resistance when he was picked up at his job as janitor in the Cleona Elementary School. Following Tompkins and the suspect from the building are Richard Heverling (left), city detective, and Raymond Brentley, chief of the N. Cornwall W. Lebanon police.

(Daily News Photo) Man Faces Commissioners Multiple Charges A 46-year-old local man is facing multiple charges today as the result of two incidents here Thursday night. A local woman was cut with a knife and tied up with a telephone cord in one of the incidents. A city police report identified the man as Dean Furman, who has a local post office address. He was committed to the county jail in lieu of $5,000 bail on two counts each of recklessly endangering the lives of others, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct and one count of criminal trespass. The report said Furman threatened the life of Roy Spangler, a night clerk at the Hotel Walton, and he also damaged hotel property and created a disturbance.

The report said he also went to the apartment of Grace Conrad, 507 N. Seventh forced an entrance to the premises and threatened her with a knife and tied her up. She was cut on the cheek and the front window and TV and other items in her apartment were broken by Furman, the report continued. Conrad was treated for her wound at Good Samaritan Hospital emergency room. Participating in the investigation of the incidents and the apprehension of Furman were: Sgt.

George Gruber and Patrolmen Robert K. Bowman, Robert Weinhold and Nigel Foundling. Other Incidents A purse snatching was among other incidents on city (Continued on Page 1) Approve Budgets By JAMES D. SHELHAMER Daily News Staff Along with a $10,466,303 general fund budget the county commissioners adopted at their weekly session Thursday, they also conducted a public hearing and annroved a federal Revenue Sharing budget for 1978. Benefits Due For Laid-Off Approximately 150 Lebanon area employees laid off from Bethlehem Steel's Morgantown Mines are eligible for compensation under the federal Trade Readjustment Act, a local unemployment compensation office spokesman said today.

The act benefits those laid off as a result of the effect of foreign imports. Morgantown employees who lost their jobs after July of this year are eligible, and are being notified now by the local office. Frances Curtin, unemployment compensation supervisor here, said that benefits from the Trade Readjustment Act are supplementary to regular unemployment subsidies. Elig- (Continued on Page 4) WEATHER Partly cloudy tonight through Saturday with chance of snow or rain late tonight and early Saturday. Lows in the 30s.

High Saturday 35 to 40. The Revenue Sharing budget projects receipts and expenditures of 51,503,399. Some of the expenditures will augment grants from the general fund, such as those for libraries and Good Samaritan Hospital. No members of the public showed up for the Revenue Sharing hearing. The Revenue Sharing receipts for 1978 are projected at $738,399, with $765,000 in unap- propriated funds from the same source now on hand.

This adds up to the $1,503,399 budget total. TEHRAN, Iran (UPI) Police today ordered extra forces on alert for President Carter's New Year's Eve visit to Iran and searched for a group of bombers who set off an explosion at the Iran-America Society's academic center. One anonymous letter called Carter the "father of the human-killer neturon bomb" and said he was not welcome in Iran. The letter, purporting to Grinder On Truck Kills Co. Man, 56 A Richland man was killed Thursday afternoon while attempting to do maintenance work on a hammermill in the rear of a grain truck owned by Umberger's 23 N.

Park Richland. Dead is Arthur S. Griffe, 56, 19 N. Park St. He was vice president and mill foreman of the company.

He was employed at the mill for 30 years. Millcreek-Richland Regional Police said Griffe was caught in the hammermill after an unidentified mill employee activated a switch that started the machine in motion. A is a device that grinds grain stored in the truck. Patrolman Brian Frantz said Griffe had gone into the truck to adjust some tightly-fitting gears on the hammermill. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Dr.

Robert L. Kline, Lebanon County coroner. He listed the cause of death as multiple injuries and ruled the death accidental. Donald H. Umberger, mill owner, said Griffe was quite adept at working with machines and that he performed all maintenance work at the mill despite his position.

"He did anything that ever got done," he noted. Born in Stricklerstown, Leba- be from the National Front Forces of Iran, warned it would not be responsible for the "results" of Carter's visit. Carter is scheduled to arrive in the Iranian capital Saturday for talks with the Shah and Jordan's King Hussein. Iranian and U.S. embassy officials said the bombing had no bearing Carter's Tehran visit, but diplomatic sources said already tight security around the Shah and Carter will be increased.

So far no gropu has claimed responsibility for the explosion at the English language teaching center, six blocks from the U.S. embassy in downtown Tehran. The center, which is sponsored by the U.S. embassy, is not on Carter's itinerary. Three people were reported injured in the blast, which police said was caused by a time bomb in one of the center's washrooms.

The explosion ripped out one wall of the center, left a gaping hole in its roof and shattered windows all the way down the block. The letter, signed in the "I don't know." White House sources said Carter planned to explain his position directly to Sadat if the meeting could be arranged. Word was still being awaited from the Egyptians as to whether the meeting will take place. Powell said Carter presumably would stop over in Cairo on his way from Saudi Arabia to France next Wednesday. Carter arrived in Warsaw with greetings of goodwill on his mission of adapting America's foreign policy to a changing and diverse world, but many Poles were insulted and angry because of a mistranslation of his airport arrival speech.

The State Department interpreter produced laughs and then consternation. A reference to Polish friendship came out as, "I desire the Poles carnally." In a reference to his departure from Washington, the translation came out, "when I left the United States never to return Carter leaves for Tehran, Iran, Saturday where he will meet King Hussein of Jordan in an attempt to elicit his views on the question of creating some Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza strip. He will also visit India, Saudi Arabia, France and Belgium. The Middle East developments were beginning to ove: shadow the previous emphasis on U.S.-Polish relations as Carter went through wreath laying ceremonies in cold, gray, dreary, gloomy, miserable, snowy weather that left many persons in the Carter entourage with colds. It was a somber day as Carter, wearing a blue overcoat but bareheaded, began his program by laying a wreath at three Warsaw monuments to the (Continued on Page 6) (Continued on Page 3) Winters Warmer During Ice Age (Continued on Page 11-Col.

7) (Continued on Page 1) PASADENA, Calif. (UPI) Current winter temperatures in North America may be colder than readings for the season 22,000 years ago, during the height of the last ice age, say two Caltech scientists. They said Thursday they examined wood samples cut from 40 ancient trees that grew throughout the continent from when the ice was at its height 22,000 years ago to its final retreat 9,500 years ago. In areas not covered by the ice, the winters were generally warmer and summers cooler than they are today, said geochemists Samuel Epstein and Crayton Yapp. Among the wood samples that-Epstein and Yapp examined was one of the oldest living organisms known to man the bristlecone pine tree that grew in the White Mountains of California.

The wood samples the geochemists studied showed a 22-year cycle of fluctuations in chemical makeup. "Such a cycle may somehow reflect the 22-year cycle of- drought and rain found in the midwest," they said. "The difference in weather patterns between dry and wet periods may result in changes in isotope '(Continued on Page 2) Cedar Haven 'Stretches Staff For New Patients By SHARON MCCARTHY Daily News Staff Cedar Haven is "stretching" its nursing and housekeeping staffs in order to accommodate the recent admission of 19 residents of Hill Farm Nursing Home, according to Phil Feather, county commissioner. In addition, the state is providing several registered nurses to aid temporarily with the new influx of patients. Feather said additional employees have been hired but are completing a training course.

He expects the 30 new personnel should begin work by Jan. 15. Although the third floor of the new wing of Cedar Haven has not yet been approved by the state Health Department, a waiver has been granted which authorizes the opening of 40 beds. Feather said the county home was not expecting the Hill Farm residents until the second week in January. Health Secretary Leonard Bachman, however, ordered the residents relocated on Christmas Day when he received reports that the elderly were left unattended by registered nurses and adequate personnel.

No Major Problems The staff patient ratio has- been reduced slightly, according to Feather, but no major problems have been reported. Russel Ebling, administrator of Cedar Haven, said today that the department of health has given the county facility excellent cooperation with the transfer. "We had five state nurses here yesterday and five today," Ebling. "Their help is RENT A TOOL Floor Gnndtrs Rentals Unlimited 272-4658 really appreciated." Ebling said that the new residents have had physical examinations and chest X-rays as required by state regulations. "Had the exits been slower and (Continued on Page 11 Col 6) LEBANON LANDFILL Open Monday, Jan.

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