Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 8

8 DECATUR SUNDAY HERALD AND REVIEW Decatur. Illinois, Sumlay, July 15, 1979 I -7 hi if tfAJ TilTiS Durbin's Store marks Wrights Corner Store keeps Wrights Corner fM Photos by Bob Strongman Text by Linda Negro Wrights Corner Wrights Corner is plainly printed between St. Elmo and Beecher City on the Illinois State map but finding it might not be as easy. You have to know what you're looking for. It isn't a small community or even a ghost town, it's a grocery store.

And that's all Wrights Corner has ever been in its more than 80-year history a grocery store, garage and home for the owner. Mrs. Lloyd Durbin, who runs the store with her husband and sister-in-law, Nelsine Sarver, can't remember These four workers Nelsine Sarver keeps the slicer Coffee drinkers chipped in to buy ash i cl tv i "-ff, h1 on map Those large sandwiches friendly atmosphere attract and the area oil field workers, pipeline and construction crews in addition to the area farmers and campers, hunters and fishermen. In addition to the sandwiches Durbin's offers milk, ice cream, soft drinks and coffee. And some claim the copy of the Decatur Herald Newspaper which is delivered daily to the store "is the most widely read (copy) newspaper in the country," and is "usually dog-earred by noon." Durbin's store also has a gas pump and although it isn't self service many of the "regulars" are trusted to help themselves, Mrs.

Durbin said. "And we haven't had any trouble getting enough gasoline so far, we're just hoping it lasts," Mrs. Durbin said. Durbin's grocery business long ago gave way to the supermarket chains in area towns so the Wrights Corner Store stocks the "drop-in pick up" items, Mrs. Durbin said.

The nearest stores are eight miles to either south to St. Elmo or north to Beecher City. The Durbin's, he's 74 years old and she's 71, purchased the store in 1965 after operating a dairy farm for years. Durbin still farms with his son Richard, while his wife operates the store. The Durbin's don't have any immediate plans to retire but "our health is not too good," said Mrs.

Durbin, looking to the future. However, the couple keeps the store open seven days a week. "We like to come in of a morning about 5 a.m. just before the men start going to work," she said. "And in the spring and summer we like to get out about 6 p.m." State may Richard between Beecher City and St.

Elmo. fashioned meat case to choose meat, cheese and dressings which will fill the two large slices of bread. Regardless of whether they ask Mrs. Sarver to slice salami, corned beef, pressed turkey or ham, meat loaf, pickle loaf and any assortment of cheeses, three kinds of pickles and add mustard, ketchup, may-onaise or onions, the sandwiches cost 85 cents each. break at Durbin's.

Brother gets load of feces for birthday Chicago (AP) Sam Matar and his brother John don't believe in giving ordinary birthday presents to each other. Shirts and ties just won't do. On Saturday, John's birthday, his brother sent him two tons of horse manure. "As far as I'm concerned, the idea stinks," John said Saturday after the load was delivered to his front yard. It was stacked in a pile eight feet high.

Sam, the owner of a car dealership in Monterey, said he included a note for the top of the pile that read: "The baby rocks you sent me were not housebroken." The bachelor brothers, who are both in their 30's but refuse to give their ages, have been playing practical jokes on each other's birthday for several years. "On my birthday in February, John had 21,000 pounds of small rocks dumped in my front yard," said Sam by telephone from Monterey. "He said they were the result of the pet rock I had delivered to his home two years ago. He said that rock was pregnant and it took all this time for it to give birth to the thousands and thousands of little rocks. "On my previous birthday he sent me an elephant.

I finally returned it to where it was rented," said Sam. "I ordered the processed horse manure from a place in the Chicago area and made arrangements for it to be trucked to John's yard. His girlfriend is to have him away from the house at the time. It will be matured manure that can be handled without getting it all over yourself. "We used to send each other funny birthday cards and then it all just sort of got out of hand," said Sam.

John Matar, a printing company supervisor, lives in a modest South Side neighborhood. Briefly Speaking The State why or when Wright's Corner was placed on the map. She says "it's kind of an old landmark." Durbin's store is a grocery store but it specializes in serving large sandwiches and gallons of coffee to the customers that file through each day. Customers can linger over the old- downed 13 sandwiches in one lunch ment agencies. A company official said the suit "currently is unchanged, but we may spell out more clearly our intentions in the brief." The judge had said the company "failed to present a justifiable case or controversy." Checker autos too uncomfortable for governor Chicago (AP) Two new Oldsmobile 98 Regency se- dans will be ferreting the governor and his family around in Springfield and Chicago instead of his Checker Marathon automobiles.

The reason is that the Checkers, which look like taxicabs, have become uncomfortable for Thompson, who has back problems. Elderly man charged with slaying wife Chicago (AP) A 77-year-old man was charged Saturday with murder in the slaying of his wife, whose Northwest Side apartment was set afire, possibly to cover up the crime, authorities said. Police said Anna Pierich, 75, was shot once in the head with a shotgun that later was found in the rubble of the sec-' ond-floor flat where she lived with her husband, Wasyl. New Berlin man dies in car-cycle accident New Berlin A 24-year-old New Berlin man was killed in a car, motorcycle accident Saturday on West Lake Road near Curran, west of Springfield. Willie R.

Winkler was killed about 5:15 p.m. as he was eastbound on West Lake Road on his motorcycle. Mt running for the large sandwiches. this painting for Mrs. Durbin.

sandwiches. a inst fish iiitu wiui mc; iiiuiui; uiiuiiuu tfiiiiui Board or in Coles County Circuit Court. Thp infnrmatinn will he francforroH from Wolff's office in Chicago back to J-, --V-" before any charge is filed. The whole, nrrwnHnro will raLrn mrwt fhon n-rLr said Heidi Hanson, an attorney in EPA's enforcement (legal) section. State water quality standards limit -ammonia nitrogen to 1.5 milligrams in a liter of water.

An EPA technician measured 100 milligrams per liter at one sampling site. An EPA news re- lease also indicated that concentrations of 2.5 milligrams per liter are harmful to aquatic life. If the case is filed with the pollution control Doara, me maximum penalty is $10,000 and $1,000 for each day of the violation. Busch estimated the alleged 'leak occurred only one day. Charges also will seek $3,451, which is the value a state conservation biolo-gist has placed on the fish.

Durbin and his dad, Lloyd, stop in for chemical firms for killing Contacts about marina possible until Aug. 1 Clinton Persons interested in developing and operating the Clinton Lake Marina have until Aug. 1 to contact Illinois Power Co. More than 100 persons attended a meeting about the proposed marina this week, said G.L. McClelland, Illinois Power's director of general services.

McClelland said the company will not choose the developer or operator until interested persons have had a chance to contact the company. The cost of the marina's development is contingent on the number and type of facilities placed there, he said. Public hearing for police chief set Areola A public hearing will be held Monday for Areola's police chief suspended July 2 by the city council. The hearing for Chief John Calhoun will be part of the council's regular meeting, Mayor Max VanVooris said. VanVooris and Calhoun declined to comment on the reason for the council's decision to suspend Calhoun with pay.

Calhoun said he intends to fight the suspension and will be present at the hearing, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. Sgt. Mike Aaron was appointed acting police chief after Calhoun was suspended. Sears appeals dismissal of controversial suit Chicago (AP) Sears, Roebuck and Co. said Friday it has appealed a federal judge's dismissal of the controversial affirmative-action suit it filed against 10 govern file charges was a leak in an ammonia nitrogen storage tank, Busch said.

The Swift company leases storage tanks from Fuqua, according to the EPA. The. Illinois Department of Conservation estimated approximately 24,460 fish of several species died in a nearly nine-mile stretch of Riley and Kickapoo creeks within 24 hours of the May 18 incident. "The operator found the source of the problem within a day or so after it occurred," Busch said. "He got it stopped right away, once he found it," he added.

Representatives of the two firms were unavailable for comment this weekend. The Coles County State's Attorney's office also has been studying the case for possible criminal charges. There was no immediate indication charges would be filed locally, however. The state EPA's recommendations for charges next will be studied by George Wolff, chief of the attorney general's environmental control division. Wolff maydecidejo have the charges By Dick Zaker Charleston State charges are likely to be filed soon against two Charleston-area farm chemical firms for the accidental killing of 24,000 fish in mid-May.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has sent recommendations to the state attorney general's office that pollution charges be lodged against Fuqua Fertilizer and Chemical Co. of rural Charleston and Swift Agricultural Chemical Corp. The two firms probably will be accused of allowing an excess of ammonia nitrogen into Riley Creek near the Fuqua plant, which in turn used up the oxygen in the water. William Busch, engineer-manager of the field operations service in the EPA's Division of Water Pollution Control, said the EPA investigation showed either an "operational error" or "failure to maintain security which led to a loss of product." The most likely source of the problem.