From the Files of the Kosciusko County Historical Society

Editor’s note: This is a retrospective article that runs a few times a month on InkFreeNews.

Information for this retrospective series is courtesy of the Kosciusko County Historical Society.

April 11, 1978 —Warsaw police and fire officials are investigating a blaze early today at the old Freshman High School building, West Main Street, Warsaw, for arson. City Police Capt. Eugene Brown explained that there is no electricity and running water in the empty building, which is supposed to be torn down. The blaze started in the projector room near the auditorium on the second floor of the building. Alert residents spotted smoke billowing from four windows at 8:40 a.m. and notified city firemen. Warsaw and Winona Lake firemen brought the flames under control within minutes and remained at the scene for one hour.

April 7, 1977 — Warsaw Mayor H. Dale Tucker and City Councilman Graham Kreicker Wednesday night blasted the Kosciusko County Commissioners for “being slow in appointing an EMS coordinator and failing to lend a helping hand in the program’s quick initiation.”

The verbal spanking came during a public meeting conducted by the Warsaw City Council relative to organizing Emergency Medical Services for several townships now lacking ambulance coverage.

Toward the end of the two-hour meeting, Kreicker asked County Councilman Norman DeGood what plans the council has made for an EMS program. “We have no plans,” he replied. “We’re anxious to know what plans there are.” Kreicker asked DeGood why the county commissioners had not been planning for the mandated EMS deadline of Jan. 1, 1978. “That’s not a function of the council,” answered DeGood.

Commissioner Fredrick Gilliam said he hopes the new EMS coordinator, R. Mark Royce, will develop a plan in May or June. “I hope by June 1 he comes up with a concrete plan,” noted Gilliam.

April 4, 1977 — One of the shortest competitors proved to be mighty tall when it came time to tally the points at the Indiana High School Athletic Association girls’ gymnastics tournament in Indianapolis Saturday.

Wawasee freshman Tracy Rinker, standing barely 4’11”, enthralled an estimated 2,500 fans at North Central High School by completing an unprecedented coup — sweeping gold medals in vaulting, uneven parallel bars, balance beam and floor exercise, then topping it off with the No. 1 spot in the all-around competition.

Never in the five-year history of the tourney has one individual so dominated the competition as Rinker becomes the second Wawasee all-around champion, joining Jenny Cox, who won in the 1973 tourney inaugural.

– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels