The Key West Citizen Newspaper, March 30, 1954, Page 1

Only 4 More Days To Register For Voting In May P Che Key West Citisen Warmest City In Nation Today Was REY WEST 16° VOL. LXXV No. 76 THE SURPRISED “MISTER ROBERTS”—Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Circle drove more than a thousand miles from Marion, Indiana, to see their son in the title role of the Key West Players’ production of “Mister Roberts” at the Barn Theatre. The Circles arrived in Key West yesterday after- noon, and their presence at the Barn last night was a complete surprise to Drake.—Citizen Staff Photo, Finch, E isenbower Asks Congress For Broader Tariff Power Special Message Deals With ‘Bold’ Program Planned By DOUGLAS B. CORNELL WASHINGTON (# — President Eisenhower asked Congress today for broader power ,to cut tariffs as the heart of a “‘bold” program he said would bolster the security and economic growth of America and her allies. In a special message dealing with the politically explosive issue | of import duties and laying down | the foreign economic policy of his administration, Eisenhower also: 1, Called for cutting down aid to other countries, and an end to out- right grants of economic aid as soon as possible, 2.Gave assurances that in- creased trade in peaceful goods between the West and Iron Cur- tain countries “should not cause us undue concern.” 3. Asked that Congress ease up| on “buy American’ laws which give preference to domestic firms | over foreign competitors on some | government or -government - fi- manced purchases. Doubts Raised Important sections of the pro- gram may be heading into legisla- tive quicksand, For the 5,000-word message goes pretty much down the line of rec- ommendations of a special com- mission on foreign economic policy —a commission whose report was 60 loaded with dissents as to raise grave doubts as to how far its Proposals would get in Congress. Those same doubts still apply how that Eisenhower has accepted (Continued On Page Ten) NOTICE HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION This office is calling to the attention of any- one who is entitled to Homestead Exemption that April Ist is abso- lutely the dealine for filing. CLAUDE A. GANDOLFO, Tax Assessor. Cothron Bids Low On Coral Shores School Addition Alonzo Cothron, Islamorada buil- der, last night was awarded the {contract to build a four-room ad- dition to Coral Shores School. Horace O’Bryant, county super- visor of public instruction, said a special meeting of the school |board gave the contract to Coth- ron on his low bid of $60,550. Work on the addition will start | this week and will add four class- rooms, two restrooms and a clois- ter to the school. William H. Merriam, Coral Ga- bles architect, said the windows along the east side of the rooms will be shielded from the direct sun by a plastic light-control sys- tem that also will protect the windows from hurricanes, | The new plastic louvers are al- ready in use on one school in | Dade County. Other bidders were J. S. Steph- |ens and Sons, Miami, $61,667; and |the Trieste Construction Co., Del- ‘ray Beach, $67,864. C119 Crashes Into Ft. Bragg Mess Hall Today FT. BRAGG, N.C. A C119 Flying Boxcar, carrying nine men, crashed into a mess hall on this Army post today. The plane and mess hall burst into flames. An of- ficer said there “‘will be few sur- vivors.”” The public information office at adjacent Pope Air Force Base re- ported that at least two men were killed. It said it was checking for more fatalities. They were mem- bers of the 82nd Division Parachute | Maintenance Company. | A witness said the plane, flames shooting from an engine, hit an officers’ quarters, snapped off a | Power pole, skidded across a pa- rede ground and crashed into the mess hall, setting it aflame. Lt. Col.’ Bernard A. Katz, who witnessed the crash, said, “There will be few survivors.” The PIO said the plane, based at Sewart Air Force Base, Tenn., had just taken off from Pope | bound for Louisville, Ky. The PIO said normally about six men, cooks and kitchen police, are in the mess hall at the time when the crash occurred. KEY WEST'S TRAFFIC BOX SCORE To Merch Date Accidents _ 50 149 Traffic Deaths ___ o Traffic Injuries __ 9 21 Property Damage $11,567 $39,983 Key West enjoyed its third accident-free day during the month of March yesterday, ac- cording to police department records. City officials are hopeful that it will indicate the city’s traf- fic toll is on the downswing. Police and other law enforce- ment officials are working to- ward cutting the 1953 record of an average of 40 accidents per month in half. Let’s all drive safely and see if we can’t better that goal. Million Dollar Overseas Highway Budget Approved TALLAHASSEE (P—A $1,096,000 budget drawn up by the Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District for the business year beginning April 1 was approved by the Cabinet Board of Administration on a month-to-month basis today. However, final approval was given to a $112,061 item for con- struction of catwalks for aoe men along the highway. Board Director Ralph Potts said he didn’ | think the month-by-month approval was a result of recent criticism | of the district on grounds of ex: | travagance but was because a study is being made of the agency’s needs. Other items on the budget in- clude $60,400 for maintenance, $48,- 900 for operation, $42,200 for super- vision, $30,000 for equipment, pur- chases and insurance premiums, $12,000 for publicity, $185,000 for fill protection, $50,000 for resurfac- ing and $207,585 for bridge painting and maintenance. The district earmarked $319,072 for bond serve and set up a re- serve of $25,000. Its anticipated revenue of $1,096,000 comes from tolls, gas taxes and interest on investments. ‘SOUTHERNMOST NEWSPAPER KEY WEST, FLORIDA, T 'UESDAY, MARCH 30, 1954 IN THE U.S.A. tenants Test On Road Bidz \CAA Engineers M Machine Begin Ti oday City Tax Sale Will Be Held Here Thursday Tax Delinquency Is Up For 1953, Roberts Reveals Key West’s annual tax sale will be held Thursday at 11 a. m. on the city hall steps, it was announ- ced today by City Tax Collector Archie Roberts. At that time, Roberts said cer- tificates for 103 parcels of land as- sessed at $5,818.63 will be sold for back taxes. The sale will cover 1953 assessments, Roberts aid. But Robert emphasized that de- linquent tax accounts may be brought up to date prior to the sale by paying the taxes, a three- per cent penalty and advertising costs. Low Bidder Failure to pay the taxes by ‘he time of the sale will result in cer- tifieates which amount to 4 lien against the property in question, to the person who bids the lowest amount of interest. The sale, along with a list of delinquent assessments, has been published three times in past weeks in The Citizen. It appear for the final time today on page 2. Last year’s tax sale, on 1952 assessments, qmovsted to only $1,- 876.62. Roberts pointed out that at the time the 1953 tax roll became de- linquent, Feb. 1, 93% per cent of the total roll for real estate as- sessments had been collected. To date, more than 99 per cent of the $397,613.81 real estate tax roll has been paid by Key West property owners. Total roll, including real estate and personal property assessments, amounted to $504,654.43. Millage was set at 24% mills, in. cluding two and a half mills for homesteads, two mills for the hos- pital and 20 mills for general op- eration of the city. Jordan Presses For UN Action In New Trouble JERUSALEM #® — Jordan pressed for U. N. action today on the latest bloody Arab-Jewish incident in which it charges Is- raeli forces killed nine persons and wounded 16 in the Jordan- ian border village of Natalin. Israel viewed the attack as a “local reaction” to a previous bor- der killing by Arabs. The Jordan government demand- ed an emergency meeting today of the U. N.-sponsored Mixed Armi- stice Commission ‘to probe the one- hour raid Sunday midnight on the village of 500 two miles east of the Jordan-Israeli demarcation line in the Judean Hills near Bethlehem. U.N. sources said the armistice commission would investigate the incident, which heightened the growing tension between the Jew- ish state and her Arab neighbors— (Continued On Page Ten) See Inside Ad Regarding First Federal Savings and Loan Ass’‘n. NOTICE All Real and Personal Property Taxes for 1953 must be paid on or before 5:00 P.M., April 1, 1954. After this date interest and other charges will accrue. HOWARD E. WILSON, County Tax Collector. New Operation May Save Money On Paving Costs First tests on a road build- ing machine city officials hope will save them at least one-third of an estimated $700,000 street: paving pro- morning at 7th Street, near Flagler Avenue, The machine, known as a Sea- man Trav-L-Plant, is being tried out on a money back gurantee ba- sis. The city commission purchas- ed the machine after City Manag- er Victor Lang and Public Ser- vice Director Ivan Roberts jour- neyed to Orlando to see it in op- eration. The city fathers adopted their “wait and see’ attitude until it is determined what the result is in Key West with the type of mater- ial used here, In Orlando, sand is used while locally a marl base is to be used. | Too Early To Evaluate Mayor C. B. Harvey, who ob- served the tests this morning, said that “it is too early to evaluate the results of the tests, but it looks like the machine has great possi- bilities.” Harvey pointed out that the ma- chine is a great time saver when he said that this morning’s test resulted in the paving of one black of street in about 30 minutes, +. .%4 Public Service Director Rob- erts added that under the system iis workmen have been using, it would require five men about two days to complete the same amount of work. Ira Fender, an official of the Flo- rida Equipment Company, who sold the machine to the city, sup- ervised the tests during which city workmen will be trained in the op- eration of the road builder. He ex- plained that the machine is design- ed to make use of the existing ma- terial on the city’s roadways. He said that it is capable of laying down streets equal in quality to the best now existing “‘if the same graded and prepared. Four Steps The road building mcethod con- sists of four steps. In the first, the road bed graded an prepared. Secondly, the road bed is “‘sacri- ficed’’ by raking it up with a motor grader and in the third step, the travelling plant passes over it and mixes asphalt with the material — a process known as “admixing” in which the material (in Key West, marl is the material) is set in mo- tion, thoroughly mixed with as- Phalt and laid down again. The fourth step consists of roll- ing and curing. In this process, a solvent which has been added to the asphalt evaporates and the Toad is soon ready for use. Good Material Needed Fender emphasized that “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” “In other words,” he said, “‘the street will be just as good as the material you put into it.” He pointed out that the travel- ling plant effects its biggest sav- ing over the usual “plant mixed” Paving, because the machine con- solidates several operations into one step. Fender added that in other cities, as much as two-miles of paving have been laid down in one day with the machine, In today’s test, it travelled at the rate of about one mile per hour. The result was a 2% inch coating of marl and asphalt which will later be rolled. City officials jare hopeful that it will solve the city’s road building problems. is gram, got under way this| | Of Meacham Airp After Bid For Federal Aid rimaries For Quick Communication, Use CLASSIFIED Ads! You'll Teach buyers and sellers— or workers. . Just DIAL 2-5661 or 2-5662. PRICE FIVE CENTS Wilde Says County Has Good Chance For Funds By DENIS SNEIGR The odds that the county will get $324,000 in Federal airport aid looked better | than ever today. | port consultant, Harold Wilde, county air- and two | Civil Aeronautics Authority engineers, yesterday and te- ! day looked over the airport. TESTS UNDERWAY—Tests of a new city street paving ma- chine got under way this morning at 7th Street and Flagler avenue. has a money-back guarantee Photo. Plan Advanced For Building 2nd Overseas Highway Here City officials are hopeful that the “travelling plant” will save them at least one-third on paving the city’s streets. Preliminary tests were pronounced “satisfactory.” Auto Inspection Deadline Moved The deadline date for ob- taining semi-annual automo- bile inspection stickers has been extended to April 12, it was announced today. Reason for the extension is the fact that the start of the safety checks was delayed un- til March 12 be se the stick- ers had not arrived from the printer. Originally, the inspec- tions were to have been un- derway March 1 with the dead- line April 1. The inspections are being conducted at the Number Two fire station, Seidenberg Ave- rwe and 12th Street. Work Begins On New Key West City Directory Work on a new Key West city directory was underway today. Andrew Fay, representative of | the Johnson Publishing Co., Mani-| tawoc, Wis., was selecting a sur- vey staff and said that he hoped to begin gathering information by the end of this week. The new directory will be detiv- ered next August, according to present plans, Fay added. The new book will list the names | of husband and wife, their occu- pations, number of children, ad- dress and telephone number. Home ownership also will be indicated. Besides the alphabetical name listing there will be a classified business section, street guide and a reverse telephone directory. The directory also will include human interest stories about Key | West, the history of the town and/ statistical data. Fay said the Johnson Publishing Co. now prints directors for more than 100 cities and counties through jout the United States. All advertisers automatically will get a copy, Fay said, and anyone can buy a copy. Copies of the book will be sent to Chamber of Commerce libraries throughout Florida and to larger libraries throughout the country. The city on the machine.—Citizen Staff ; Neblett Replies To State Highway Head’s Statement On Toll Highway A plan for a second Overseas Highway was advanced today by attorney William R. Neblett, a can- didate for the State Senate from | the 24th District, Neblett made his recommenda- tion in a letter to Cecil Webb, chairman of the State Road De- partment. Webb had advocated, in a state- ment here March 12, that an 80- million dollar bond issue be float- ed to four-lane and resurface. the present Overseas Highway. One } of the reasons he gave at that| time was that the road was a “first class military target and in | the event of a war, a single bomb could cut off Key West’s life-line.” Webb also pointed out the strate- gic importance of the road to lo- cal Naval activities. Neblett, a retired Naval Lt. Commander, said in his letter to Webb: “I do not believe it is a wise idea to double-lane the present Overseas Highway. To begin with, jit would be more expensive than building an alternate route. Sec- \ondly, from a military standpoint, it would be more vulnerable to an| jenemy. In the same manner, it would be more vulnerable to the | Possibility of destruction by wind | ‘or wave. In the third place, it} | would — still channel all traffic {down the East Coast, making for | | more congestion. This would re- quire tourists to back-track on the same highway on which they en- tered the keys, as they must do| now in visiting the Everglades Na- | tional Park. “The waters of Florida Bay are| shallow, and will lend themselves readily to the construction of a jnew, alternate “Overseas High- | way” from Big Pine Key or No-} jname Key to some point at Cape | Sable, where it would join a state | lor Federal Highway on Florida’s | West Coast. Such a new highway, (Continued On Page Ten) Galvanized Bolts and Washers Strunk Lumber Wilde said he felt that the recommendations of the CAA men would be a high one as far as Federal aid goes. Phillip Moore, CAA district air- port engineer for Florida, and B. A. Waldenmaier, deputy district engineer, and Wilde drove back to Miami this afternoon. “It looks,” said Wilde, that there will be about 33 millions of dollars for Federal airport aid. Amendment to Senate “The Bureau of the Budget ap- proved that amount and it has now been sent to the Senate as an ae mendment to the appropriations bill.” Wilde explained that the appro- priations bill already has been passed by the House. The bill will have to be returned to the House when the amendment is added, he said. The visit of the CAA engineers was a result of the application fil- ed a few weeks ago by the county for Federal airport aid. $648,000 Total Sum The $324,000 in Federal funds would be matched by an equal amount in county funds, making a total of $648,000 for improvement of Meacham Field. According to the application fil- ed with the CAA, the improve- ments will be broken down this way: Preparation of site — $200,000. Paving runways, taxiways and aprons — $150,000. Lighting the field — $20,000. Building costs — $150,000 Other miscellaneous construction — $30,000. Engineering and supervision — $35,000. Administrative costs — $3,000. Contingencies—$60,000. Terminal Planned The building costs | include an airlines’ tern control tower. The county’s share of the im- Provement funds will come from airport revenues. If necess: the county can borrow on anticipat revenues to match the Federal funds. The county commissioners have been working for a better airport and better air service for Key West since Jan. 1 when National Airlines dropped three of its four daily flights here. J. J. TREVORS WILL |ATTEND CONVENTION Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Trevor and son Benny will attend the 60th annual convention of the Florida Bankers Association which will be {held at the Vinoy Park Hotel, St. Petersburg, April 8, 9 and 10. C. B. Harvey Will Speak Over above 1 and Tomorrow 120 Simonton Street, near Docks (Pd. Pol. Adv.)