The Coral Gables Times

Thursday, July 6, 1961, page 2 (of 20)

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Gables Considers Its Own Insurance Pool City Is Now Spending $207,000 a Year on Fees

By MAURICE LABELLE Times Staffer A self-insurance plan for the City of Coral Gables is under study by Finance Director Kenneth Allyn. Allyn's study, which may run into opposition from the Insurance industry, would try to determine if it is feasible and profitable for the city to insure its own losses. The insurance bill for Coral Gables is more than $207,000 this year on 14 types of policies totalling $4.5 million. Savings could go toward financing badly-needed capital improvements, Allyn says. For example, the interest on a $1 million insurance kitty could finance $60,000 worth of improvements annually. This is equivalent to approximately 1/2-mill in taxes. STUDY PLANNED The insurance director said a study of Florida communities such as Sarasota would have to be made to learn what the experience has been. In any event, Allyn said, the the change, if approved, would have to be a gradual one, with the City insuring for the higher losses only at first and gradually reducing or limiting the amount of coverage until a sizeable pool could be established. A largely deductible - type program, with the City paying for losses at the lower level and insuring the larger losses, might prove to be the answer. What about the risks? You can't afford to insure against all losses anyway, Allyn said. GIBLIN CASE The Giblin traffic case, in which the city stands to lose $34,000 out of taxpayers' pockets, is a case in point. At the time, the city was not insured for false arrest damages. It is now. But the trend has been for the City to buy more and more insurance coverage. Recently awarded contracts for fire, lightning, windstorm, hail, explosion, riot and civil commotion, aircraft vehicle damage, smoke, vandalism and malicious mischief on the city's sewer system and most of its buildings and contents totalled $5,600 for the first year's premiums. The $3.1 million coverage was hailed as the best ever obtained by the city by Richard Rutledge of the Insurance Advisory Committee. It meant that the city was covered for the first time for windstorm damage. Coverage was also increased to cover all but 10 per cent of total losses, which is tantamount to complete coverage, Allyn said. TAKE CATASTROPHE Only an atomic attack or natural catastrophe, Allyn said, could produce these losses. This is the bright side of the insurance picture. On the other side is the fact that no matter how much insurance you have you never have enough. Covering all possible losses would be prohibitively costly. "I don't know of anything that's more difficult to handle." said Allyn. "Insurance is at best a complicated subje[?]" For that reason there has been much difference of opinion about what the City should get and how much. The complexity has also resulted in much confusion which resulted last year in a considerable hassle over who should get the liability and casualty contract. A difference resulted within the Insurance Advisory Committee as to which of two main bidders, Continental or Bituminous Casualty Company offered the better deal. It could not make up its mind and wouldn't make a recommendation. Continental, which had the contract the year before, agreed to continue the insurance until the City could decide. When the Gables d[?] decide, it chose Continental's competitor. SPLIT EXPLAINED Fred Hartnet Inc., the agent of record, gets 60 per cent of the premium, and the other successful companies within the Bituminous bid are to get 10 per cent each. Prior to this arrangment, all casualty firms licensed in the city received a share, regardless of whether they bid or not. This year, for the fire, windstorm and other coverage, the split was made evenly among all the bidding firms with no agent of record. What could be a conflict of interest has also been a factor, with firms affiliated with committee members bidding for city business. At one time, a city commissioner's firm was a successful low bidder for some coverage. The bid was withdrawn on the complaint of another bidder. Today, there is no apparent conflict involving committee members or city commissioners. Committee members are Rutledge, 3308 Toledo St.; James F. McComb, 700 Mendoza Ave., and Jack H. May, 923 Escobar Ave.

W.E. Sloan, 94, Wintered Here

Funeral service was held Wednesday, June 28, in Chicago for W. E. Sloan, who had a winter home at 1032 Alhambra Cir. Mr. Sloan, 94, died Sunday, at his Chicago home. Burial was in Embers Cemetery. He was Founder of the Sloan Valve Co., of Chicago, and chairman of its board, at the time of his death. He is survived by his wife, four children, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and four great - great - grandchildren.

Mrs. Elsie Grosvenor Fujiyama, Czar's Silver --All Part of Her Life

By GAIL MARSHALL Correspondent It's not often a wife can go along on all her husband's business trips. But to Mrs. Elsie Grosvenor, traveling is both a hobby and a wifely duty - and she likes it that way. Her husband, Gilbert Grosvenor, served for years as president of the National Geographic Society and editor of its magazine. Traveling and photography have taken up a major portion of their lives. The couple now spends January to May in their home at 3985 Douglas Rd. and their talk is the friendly, homespun type so easy to listen to. Mrs. Grosvenor loves to tell how she and her sister discovered that their father, Alexander Graham Bell, had invented the telephone. FATHER CALLED "My father called me and asked if I wanted to speak to Santa Claus on the telephone. I was very young then and it was hung high on the wall so that I had to climb up on a chair to talk." "After a long conversation on the phone, I climbed down off my chair and said to my father, 'But Pa, isn't that wonderful! I wonder who invented it?'" Mrs. Grosvenor traveled before she met her husband, "I had to see what the world was like." Elsie May Bell was born in England and her first trip was to the United States. Her family spent summers in France and traveled to other countries. She was married in London, October 23, 1900, and proudly displays a picture taken on their recent 60th wedding anniversary. They have seven children, two sons and five daughters. BUSY WOMAN Outside activities take up much of her time. She is a member of the Coral Gables Country Club, University of Miami Woman's Club and a local associate of many national organizations. Discussing her travels, Mrs. Grosvenor pointed out many differences in Russia between 1914 and 1927 when she visited there. "Petersburg was the headquarters. There was almost nothing in Moscow." "But I never saw so many churches. On almost every corner there was a church." The 1914 trip was before the Bolsheviks and they stayed at the Czar's palace. When the Grosvenor's visited Russia in 1927, things had changed. Moscow was now the busy metropolis and many of the churches had been torn down. SELLING THINGS "They were selling things out of the palace," the spirited lady says, "to get money for the new regime." "I bought some of the Czar's dinnerware for one dollar a piece. When we got back to New York, I found a store that sold the same set for 50 dollars." Mrs. Grosvenor has climbed Japan's 13,000 foot sacred mountain, Fujiyama and also Mauna Loa in Hawaii. "The only place I haven't been," she says, "is the North Pole. The Air Force took my husband, but they wouldn't take a woman. "I was a very much disgusted with them."

Rooms in Family Homes Can't Be Rented -- Judge

(Continued from page 1) resolution was adopted, Semple said. This means that the ordinance prohibiting room renting in single family dwellings stands, the city attorney said. The author of the controversial resolution, Commissioner Joe Murphy, conceded privately that it would not stand up if attacked in court, but sought a way out of the long squabble short of tampering with the ordinance. Murphy's resolution, adopted unanimously by the previous commission, set up a board to hear complaints and hardship cases and recognized the right of persons to rent property constructed prior to June 27, 1944, when the ordinance was adopted. Other provisions of the resolution would have eventually knocked out room renting in Coral Gables because the right to rent could not be passed on to heirs or to a buyer. Persons renting rooms have been put in an embarrassing position after establishing their right to rent under the terms of the resolution. Here are those who chose to intervene in the case: Mr. and Mrs. Enoch Erickson, Mrs. John Rawson, Mr. and Mrs. James McCarthy, Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Dieckhow, Mrs. Alice Neely, Mr. and Mrs. Harold A. Castle. Mrs. Minnie A. Hoffman, Mrs. W. M. Walker, Mrs. Grace Durham, Mrs. Elizabeth Rankin, Mrs. Helen M. Bonn, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hertz, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Oliver, Mr. and Mrs. Charles McCullough. Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Tillinghast, Mrs. Lucy Williams, Mrs. Mildred Jordan, Mrs. Elizabeth O'Rourke, Mr. and Mrs. William Armstrong.

Nephew Contests Merrick Home Sale Ends Up in Court

The owner of Merrick Manor probably will not be known until after a Circuit Court action next fall. Mr. and Mrs. Leon Jack Mass, 6001 Mall, said Friday that they intend to go to court to force the heirs of Ethel Merrick to complete the sale to them. Miss Merrick had signed a contract selling the family home to the Masses for $45,000 but died before the sale could be consummated. The heirs, Merrick Kuhn and Donald Kuhn, nephews of Miss Merrick were apparently set to dispose of the 56-year-old residence, but Donald Kuhn, of Lansing, Mich., decided his aunt was not competent before she died and sued to have the sale set aside. Donald Kuhn claims that the property is worth $67,000. Last week, another cloak was thrown over the property. Fumigators wrapped up the old house at 907 Coral Way in a huge blanket and gassed the termites to keep them from carrying away the property. The Masses, longtime friends of Ethel Merrick, were surprised to hear of the latest development, but repeated their determination to see the sale through.

Life Around the Gables

POLISHING HIS light tan Cadillac under the shade of a tree is Howard Wiener, 20, 26 Alhambra Pl. The senior at Florida State University is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wiener, 5300 Maggiore St. (Staff photo by Raymond Lang).