The Coral Gables Times

Thursday, April 13, 1961, page 1 (of 60)

← Earlier issue Later issue → Download this page

The page

You can also pinch or scroll to zoom, and drag to move around.

The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.

Murphy Leads Balloting; Dressel, Evans And Wilson Complete Slate

THE Coral Gables TIMES

Vol. 36 No. 9 Thursday, April 13, 1961 Price 10c

OUR NEW CITY COMMISSION

L-R: Dressel, Mayor Searle, Murphy, Wilson, Evans

43 Per Cent Vote; Searle New Mayor

(Precinct count on page 2) By MAURICE LABELLE Times Staffer Commissioner Robert L. Searle was elected this city's mayor Tuesday with Commissioner Joe Murphy leading the ticket. Other victors in the contest for City Commission were C. L. Dressel Jr., Dr. Franklin J. Evans and George E. Wilson. Murphy and Dressel, as high men, won four-year terms. Dr. Evans and Wilson will serve two years. 77 ABSENTEES Of the city's, 10,913 registered voters, 4,718 cast ballots. There were 77 absentee ballots. This is a 43 per cent vote, three per cent better than the 1959 election but four per cent off from 1957. The winners were up at 8 p.m. Tuesday, an hour after the polls closed, City Manager L. W. Robinson Jr. posted results on a placard in the crowded City Commission chamber. Searle and Murphy indicated some concern earlier in the day when reports came back that a heavy write-in campaign was being waged for Murphy for mayor. Searle was officially unopposed and Murphy had announced several times that he was not a candidate for mayor. Some of his support persisted. FEW SURPRISES The results were mostly expected but Dr. Evans' very strong showing and Bernard Weksler's failure to run better than sixth in a field of 11 were mild upsets. Weksler and Murphy had run on campaign, platforms that were virtually identical and they had championed the same causes in the past two years. Wilson, who had difficulty making up his mind to run and who got a late start, finished strong enough to nose out Henry G. Simmonite for the fourth seat and a two-year trm. ENDORSEMENTS Dressel, Wilson and Leo F. Mahan were generally endorsed by a group of local leaders led by Metro Commission Winston W. Wynne. Murphy, Evans, Weksler and Simmonite had the backing of the Coral Gables Citizens Association, the Apartment Association and the heads of the Sunrise Harbour Association. Zoning - high rise buildings particularly - played an important part in the campaign. Conflicts of interest also played a role and the ever-present Douglas Entrance controversy managed to be injected.

Sale, Free Parking

Twice a year Coral Gables merchants hold a sale of sales. This week end, one of those times, you will find some of the best buys of 1961 in Gables shops. All parking is free. Advertised items do not go on sale until Friday.

Dip's Over; Realty Sales Up Again

"We've reached bottom and are gradually coming up," said the executive vice president of the Coral Gables Board of Realtors Wednesday. W. Anderson cited real estate sales here for March as proof that business is beginning to tingle again. Sales are up for the third straight month, though still lower than the same period in 1960. March's total Gables sales was $1,338,450. March, 1960, the figure was $1,767,975. Low point this year was January with $811,450 followed by February with $1,275,070.

Up Up Up!

Your Gables taxes are going up. Story on Page 2

In Rock Pit Lake Dying Ducks Drop From Pneumonia

The ducks are dying of pneumonia. And apparently nothing can be done to save them. "I carried six or eight away the other day, six or eight more today and maybe six or eight more tomorrow," said a Negro workman. The still-healthy fowls swam quietly around the lake. Their home is a rockpit pond inside the city bus garage enclosure on LeJeune Road at San Lorenzo Avenue. Nobody seems to know what has caused the sudden illness. Truman Smith, the depot's auto maintenance director, said a veterinarian made an autopsy on one duck and concluded it died of pneumonia. Smith said the illness is aggravated by poisonous chemicals flowing into the lake from depot wash racks after insecticide spray guns have been cleaned. Smith said after the hens have hatched their eggs, they will be fed sulphur drugs to help kill any germs in their bodies. He said, however, nothing can be done to prevent the ducks from waddling back into the lake and possibly picking up the poisonous chemicals again. The duck family began several years ago when a worker brought two Easter ducks. "Then we got a drake," said the workman. "And we had good luck with them, had about 100." Lately, the birds have been dying at the rate of six or eight a week. "It's sure a shame," said another workman as he dug a small hole. "It's sure a shame."

THIS DUCK IS DYING. The killers are pneumonia and poisoning. The hands are those of a bus garage employe. (Staff photo by Raymond Lang).

Neill, Grothe Will Address Merchants

Coral Gables merchants have a full evening ahead of them Wednesday of next week. They will hear two speakers, elect officers, receive a word from the new mayor and receive a report from the Business Action Committee. Meeting time is 6:30 p.m. at the Pub. Speaking will be Howard Grothe, retail advertising manager of The Miami Herald, and Rolfe Neill, editor and Publisher of the Coral Gables Times. Neill will present for the first time information obtained in a Gables economic survey made two months ago for The Times by the University of Miami. The public is invited to the inner meeting.

Chamber Will Hear Ohioan At Annual Banquet May 4

FRED SMITH Fred Smith, a humorous, hard-hitting management consultant who travels 100,000 miles a year, will be speaker for the Chamber of Commerce banquet here May 4. His address will be a highlight of the annual membership meeting, to begin at 7 p.m. at the Coral Gables Country Club. Tickets have gone on sale. Dress is informal. Warner Daniels is chairman of the chamber's 35th annual event and will act as master of ceremonies. New officers and directors will be introduced and a written progress report will be presented by Bernie Blanck, outgoing president. Another feature of the program will be the presentation of the Program of Work. In this program are the goals the chamber hopes to achieve in the coming year. Smith lives in Cincinnati. He began work as a day laborer for 7 1/2 cents an hour. He went into sales and at 26 was head of industrial relations for General Shoe Corp. He also is former vice president of operations for Gruen Watch Co., a job he left in 1955 to start his own business.

Brodel Named Sales Manager

John N. Brodel has been appointed general sales manager for Air Cover Division of Diversified Sales Organizations Inc. Brodel and his wife and two children live at 6275 SW 85th Ave. They have lived in this area for two years. Previously he was with Kelly Smith Inc., national newspaper advertising representatives.