The Hutchinson News from Hutchinson, Kansas • Page 20

Red tape snarls FHA loans THIS MOBILE HOME owned by Roger Vlosier of rural Sterling was destroyed by Tuesday's winds. Mosier was not living in the home as he was fixing it up and planned to For Police, firemen Pension reserves hike in making A charter ordinance that would make four minor changes in police and fire department pension plans will be on first reading at next week's city commission meeting. The changes got the tentative okay of the commission Tuesday at its weekly study session. Most significant of the changes is a section that would raise the maximum amount in the city's pension reserve funds (one for each department) from $50,000 to $125,000. Established in 1930s The city's pension plans were established under state statutes in the 1930'a and requires a reserve of not less than $10,000 nor more than $50,000.

Under the proposed charter ordinances those figures would change to $40,000 and $125,000. The reserve is for unbudgeted pension expenses caused by death or disability of an employe for whom no pension fund expenditure has been anticipated in a given year. Both police and fire chiefs and other city officials have been Predict bumper sardine crop WOODS HOLE, Mass. (AP) There may be a bumper crop of sardines in New England waters this year. The National Marine Fisheries Service says that larval herring spawned in 1971 were the most numerous in eight years and that if all continues to go well with them there should be a strong rise in sardine pack.

The five-year average is 27 million pounds, but in 1972 it was only 22 million. concerned for some time that the reserves were too low. Other proposals Other proposed changes include a provision that would allow a firefighter or police officer with 22 years service to leave the department before he becomes 50 years old, but still be eligible for his pension if he became disabled or died, or upon turning 50. Present regulations require a man to have 22 years of service and be 50 before he can retire. There is a gray area as to whether a man with the years of service but not the age can retire early and what rights he has if disability or death comes during the intervening period.

The fire and police pension officials also asked that heart or lung disease contracted by an employe with at least five years service be considered service- connected. The city's present plan doesn't rule either way on that subject, but most courts and pension boards have tended to rule in that direction. Spell it out Dallas Jones, fireman and spokesman for the groups, said they would like to have that provision spelled out in the ordinance. The fourth change would eliminate an old provision of the law that excludes persons convicted of a felony from collecting their pension, regardless of service. That section written into the 1930's law, is not found in other state pension plans and is "completely out of place," Jones said.

The charter ordinance, which requires a four-fifths vote for passage, will be on first reading next week and should come up for a final vote in two weeks. (Newn Photo by Jim Morrin) move in next month. A family living in mobile home two miles south of Mosier was not as fortunate, (sec Photo I'agr 3). Swimming pool staffs are named The Hutchinson Recreation Commission has completed the staffs for the three Hutchinson pools. Calvin Polk has been named aquatics supervisor, to oversee all the pools.

Carey Park pool manager is Robert Garwood; Fairgrounds pool manager is David Pryor; and Rice Park pool manager is Gary Britton. June 3 is the opening date for the Fairgrounds and Carey swimming pools. The Rice Park pool, formerly the Dolphin Swim club, will open after repairs have been completed. Swimming hours will be from 1 to 5 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m.

seven days a week. Other pool employes are assistant managers Rick Hardacre, Fairgrounds; Barbara Pryor, Rice Park; and Vincent Green, Carey Park. Cashiers are Sandy McElwain and Roxie Carpenter. Mrs. Calvin Polk is the concession stand manager for both the Carey Park and Fairgrounds pools.

Life guards for the three pools are: Terry Batosh, Lee Ann Blackburn, Orville Bryant, Kim Carter, Stuart Conklin, Nancy Dickerson, Vickie Dunkel, Cheryl Hatcher, William Long, Larry Martin, Deb McMurray, Katy Streepy and Marcia Wood- By Leroy Towns Kansas Correspondent TOPEKA The number of Federal Housing Administration home loans in Kansas dropped sharply the last 15 months, the result of FHA-imposed red tape and higher conventional interest rates. The sag in FHA home loans is nationwide. "The situation here is just like it is all over the country," said Jim Haff, acting state FHA director. Mortgage lenders complain complicated new restrictions on FHA home loans have all but forced them out of the FHA market. They add real estate dealers are steering home buyers to conventional loans because of a 7 per cent interest ceiling on FHA-backed loans.

The decline hits hardest Kansas families with moderate incomes persons who could buy homes with FHA loans but can't qualify for conventional financing. For example, most lenders won't issue a conventional mortgage to a buyer if more than 20 to 25 per cent of his income is needed to meet house payments. The FHA will go higher, up to 35 per cent. Figures supplied by the state FHA office in Topeka show 1,225 applications for home loans were received in April, May and June of 1971. During the same quarter in 1972 only 989 applications were processed.

The drop is illustrated dramatically in figures for the first quarter of 1973 compared with the same period in 1972. During last year's first quarter 839 home loan requests were processed. But in January, February and March of this year the FHA received applications for only 387 home loans. Complicated new restrictions in the writing of FHA loans were ordered in the wake of a nationwide FHA housing scandal that resulted in federal indictments for 50 real estate firms, builders and FHA employes. Appraisal procedures were WEEKS Rexaii Drug 201 S.

Main Ph.3-5448 KL.I 21 N. Main and SATURDAY ENTIRE STOCK Infants and Children's Wear Reduced Swimwear Toddler Dresses Sweaters Crawlers Panties Gowns Sleepers Mobiles Boy's Pants Boy's Shorts Boy's Shirts Strollers High Chair Diapers Diaper Bags Baby Swing Blankets Humidifiers Playtex Nursers Aprons Potty Chairs tightened, in many cases to the extent mortgage lenders must certify homes have been properly inspected and that plumbing, heating systems and electrical systems are in good repair. Also tightened but with more paperwork was the procedure for obtaining FHA credit. "We haven't shut the door on writing FHA loans. We'll consider them like we always did," said Maurice Roberts, vice president of Fidelity Investment Company, the largest mortgage banker in Kansas.

FHA loans written by the firm have dropped 50 per cent. "The reason we aren't writing more of them now is because the new policy has made FHA loans much slower to process." Roberts said some mortgage lenders in Kansas have abandoned the FHA loan market entirely because of the red tape. He added FHA loans have been "penalized by the new requirements." Bob Maupin, executive vice president of Capitol Federal Savings and Loan in Topeka agreed the new red tape has made FHA loans more difficult to write. But he attributed much of the FHA loan sag to higher interest rates on conventional loans often over 8 per cent the interest on FHA loans is pegged at 7 per cent. To make up that difference a lender must "discount" an FHA loan, meaning the seller often must kick in the difference tween the interest at, say, 8 per cent and 7 per cent.

Thus a seller won't be particularly eager to sell his house under FHA financing. Under conventional lending a buyer can get up to 95 per cent of the cost of a house in a loan. The figure for FHA loans is lower, which can mean higher down payments. One spokesman for a Kansas lender who asked not to be identified said the red tape surrounding FHA home loans "is a case of overreaction." But Haff sees the restiictions as a form of consumer protection. "This is quite simply for the protection of the consumer.

There's little of that in conventional loans," he said. Montezuma barns hit by high wind MONTEZUMA "Irrigation pipes looked like twisted pick-up sticks." That was the description given by Paul Yost, rural Montezuma, of part of the aftermath of a wind storm that briefly hit near Montezuma Monday night. No injuries were reported. Faulty materials blamed in fire TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A report from the Kansas fire marshal's office says deficiencies in construction contributed to the loss of six lives in a Kansas City, apartment fire earlier this year.

Two youths, ages 18 and 16, have been charged with setting the fire. Billie, J. Shelton, deputy state fire marshal, said unprotected wood joists over the entire basement corridor and combustible fiberboard ceilings in part of the area most extensively damaged contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. Two nearly-new grain bins were destroyed on the Yost farm, nine miles northwest of Montezuma. Yost said the storm struck his farm about 11 p.m.

Monday. "I heard what I thought was hail and some wind," Yost said. "I got up and checked the barometer and, seeing it was rising, I figured there were no tornadoes in the area so I went back to bed." Yost was awakened later by his son and wife who Yost said, "heard more of the storm," than he had. "They told me about the bins and I couldn't hardly believe it." The two bins, 31 feet in diameter, had been carried about 600 feet, according to Yost. He said they landed in about the same place.

"I don't think the twister stayed on the ground too long because it didn't carry the irrigation pipe all over the country," Yost said. "The pipe it did get looked like pick-up sticks all twisted around the poles." A barn containing freshly baled hay valued at $800 was gutted by fire on the Dan Love farm, nearby the Yost farm. Jim Love, a brother, said the Love family lives in Montezuma, so no injuries resulted from the fire. "We're not sure how the fire started," Love said. "But it demolished that barn." Love said neighbors near the farm called the family reporting the barn fire about 11 p.m.

Monday. He said a self-feeder about 50 yards from a corral had been picked up by the wind and blown into the corral. "What hay was left after the tornado had bristles sticking out of the bales like they had been slivered," Love said. Liza switches LONDON (AP) A wisecracking Liza Minnelli announced Tuesday the end of her engagement to Desi Arnaz Jr. and proclaimed her love for British comic Peter Sellers.

Page 10 Hutchinson News Wednesday, May 23,1973 Hotel to lack tower There won't be another 150-foot tower on top of the Kansas Inn. "I don't think we'll even consider it at all," says C. J. Lett, president of Lett Electronics, 508 East 4th, whose tower came crashing down in Tuesday morning's storm. "I'm rather disappointed with the engineering on it," Lett said.

The tower was designed by Rohn Manufacturing Company, the nation's largest builder of such towers, and was to be able to withstand 100 mile an hour winds. It was installed by an out-of -town firm that specializes in tower construction. "I don't know whether anything would have stayed up there," Lett said. He said the firm will install a small, rooftop antenna on the 12-story hotel until a new antenna can be erected. But the new antenna, to serve Lett's mobile phone service, won't be atop the Inn.

It may be on an eastside elevator, where another Lett antenna is presently located. Holtz IP Chiropractic Clinic 312 N. Main, Hutchinson, Phone: 662-3033 Break With Tradition. Calhoun DISCOUNT SPECIAL A Price Break ForX52 "Qll Summer 1973 Merchandise" the most famous maker of mens qolf shirts. Mens Knit 5portshirts Buy now save for Father's Day buying.

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