The Coral Gables Times

GETTING READY for last week's Junior Orange Bowl parade was Ponce de Leon Junior High bandsman David Elman, 1421 Venetia Ave. In the foreground are sousaphones. (Times photo by Raymond Lang)

University Federal Float Wins JOB Parade First

Cinderella and her pumpkin coach, the University Federal Savings and Loan Association float, won first place in the Junior Orange Bowl Parade. And the North Miami Beach Recreation Department's float was the best non-commercial float. Receiving special mention was the Coral Gables Youth Center marching unit. Awards were made at the Queen's Ball held at the Youth Center Friday night of last week.

Loquacious, Bungling Thief Talks Way Into Hoosegow

A man who talked too much and a cabbie who talked to police led to the arrest of a Loffler Brothers Oyster House employe for a burglary there Dec. 26. According to Gables police, Gary E. Richardson, 22, of Homestead, was charged with the $1,800 break. Richardson was apprehended after Metro Officer John Kurtz, a former Gables policeman reported to Gables police a tip he got from an unidentified Yellow Cab Co. driver. The driver told Kurtz of picking up a passenger who propositioned him on going in with him on the safe job. He dropped the passenger at a downtown restaurant where he was picked up by Officers Thomas L. Tharpe and Harry E. Elton on the description given by the cabbie. Later, Officer Earl E. Callahan checked Loffler's and found that it had been burglarized and the safe missing. Richardson's story did not check and an investigation proved he was employed at Loffler's. Police found the small safe near the third hole at Biltmore Golf Course where Richardson said he put it after he failed to get it open and couldn't get help.

Free Enterprise

Want to know more about the American free enterprise economy? The Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce is offering an eight-week course on that subject each Thursday, beginning Jan. 11. Classes are held at Tyler's Restaurant, 1526 Ponce de Leon Blvd., according to Bill Bond, chairman. Arrangements may be made through the Chamber at HI 6-1657.

FIRM ROBBED

The Electrolux Co. a branch office at 1616 Ponce de Leon Boulevard was broken into between Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 and $234 stolen from a safe which had been cut open by the burglar.

Creche Is Taken Down Early

Why all the rush to take down the Christmas decorations? The decorations were taken down the day after Christmas. "We needed the room for the Junior Orange Bowl Parade," said Al Jacobson of the Chamber of Commerce's Christmas Decorations Committee. The parade was held on Dec. 28. Jacobson said the area used for the new decorations at Merrick Park and the creche scene in front of City Hall was needed for review and concessions stands. There was also the danger of vandalism and theft, Jacobson said. Last year and the year before figures in the Nativity scene were stolen and damaged. It would have been an imposition to ask the police to maintain their round-the-clock vigilance, Jacobson said.

Red Lights, Etc.

Le Jeune Road and the downtown traffic light systems will be back in synchronization soon, Mayor Robert L. Searle reported to the City Commission Tuesday. The system out of order since before the Le Jeune Road project started more than a year ago, is scheduled to be repaired by Metro starting about Feb. 1. It will take 15 days.

Gables Wants to Know Water, Water Everywhere But--Will The Rate Go Down?

Coral Gables is asking Circuit Court Judge Joe Eaton to spell out what his recent decision on the South Miami water rates case means to the Gables. The Gables City Commission recently asked city attorney to check also with the county to see if it would join in a petition to the Circuit Court. Judge Eaton ruled recently that South Miami had the right to reduce South Miami's base water rate from $1.50 to $1.40 using a system-wide survey of the company's profits in South Miami, Coral Gables and the unincorporated area adjoining both. Attorney Semple reported to the Gables City Commission recently that Judge Eaton's decision left unanswered the question of the exact effect of his decision on other communities and areas in the Consumers' system. Some have interpreted the court's decision following a three-year battle as indicative that Coral Gables and Metro have the same right to lower rates based on a system-wide basis as did South Miami. Semple indicated that in his opinion it isn't that smple. He told the commission that it is still not known if similar action by the Gables would be interpreted in the same way in the courts or whether it might be interpreted as confiscatory. The Gables had made no survey of its own. There was also some discussion about the possibility of buying out Consumers, but the commission indicated they would await the outcome of pending litigation before a decision is made on this. Meanwhile, Hughlan Long, South Miami attorney who fought successfully against Consumers to keep the base rate at $1.40, asked the Circuit Court last week to set the fees in the case. Long, who was city attorney for the City of South Miami, during most of the controversy, is asking for an additional fee for his services. Consumers, which has indicated it will file an appeal on Judge Eaton's decision, has claimed $15,000 legal fees in filing the suit and fighting it to this point, $35,000 in engineering costs, and an additional $5,000 miscellaneous expenses. Long has asked the court to grant him a fee comparable to that claimed by Consumers.

SW Y Elects Gableite

Newly elected chairman of the Southwest Branch YMCA Board of Management is Rogers E. Eikenberry, 460 Hardee Rd. Together with Eikenberry, the board at its Dec. 14 meeting elected Frank E. Kerdyk and William C. Swain as vice chairmen, and Charles R. Granger as recording secretary. These officers will serve during 1962. Along with them, the YMCA members elected by ballot nine new directors. They are: Dr. Norman R. A. Alley, 216 Catalonia Ave.; William L. Gale, 250 Alhambra Cir.; Robert R. Hildreth Jr., 2501 Ponce de Leon Blvd.; Dr. S. H. Huntington, 495 Biltmore Way. William H. Kerdyk, 2828 Flagler St.; Charles H. Kimbrell, 101 E. Flagler St.; Franklin W. Maury, 280 Miracle Mile; Charles F. Sharp, 3260 SW 8th St., and Fred Stanton Smith, 234 Biscayne Blvd.

On Le Jeune Road Storm Brews Over His Awning

Bar and grille owner Don Arden has a problem - his awning juts out more than two feet over the new and widened Le Jeune Road. How did this come about? Arden, whose bar is at 4521 Le Jeune Road, says he's been trying to get the City, County and State Road Department to do something about it for 11 months but has been getting the runaround. "If I could have 50 cents for each person that has come to look at it I'd be a rich man," said Arden. But everybody claims it's somebodyelse's responsibility, says Arden, who paid $640 for the awning five years ago when he got a permit. "Somebody should reimburse him," said Monty Marshall, City Building and Zoning Director, but he didn't think it should be the City. If a truck or other vehicle runs into the awning, the problem will be settled quickly, said Marshall. Meanwhile, the County tells him to see the State Road Department and the SRD tells him to see the City. DON ARDEN AND HIS AWNING