Local man loans car to stranded travelers

They have put the middle stripe on the Mattoon-Tuscola road, and it is an interesting job to watch. The men on the job are not inviting a gallery, but there are always a few spectators who are watching the work with keen enjoyment. The broad black center stripe in the middle of the road is put on with a machine and it may be done about as fast as a man can walk. There are now upwards of 2400 miles of state bond issue road in Illinois and this middle stripe must be renewed at frequent intervals. To do this expeditiously a machine must be used…MATTOON — Apropos of his eighty-third birthday, which falls on Christmas, Charles W. Robb, constable of Mattoon township, can lay claim to having already run a long course, in life’s great handicap, and incidentally this township may well make its bid for national honors in having an octogenarian at the head of its constabulary. In addition to this feature, Mr. Robb is a veteran of the Civil War, from start to finish, and proudly asserts having participated in 33 battles, many of them being major ones. His civil life has been spent largely in this city, to which he came soon after the surrender, and resumed his trade of journeyman printer. Although he served as a constable here 12 years, from 1872 to 1884, the most of his civil life was spent at the “case,” the closing years as a typo being with the Journal-Gazette.

Stranded travelers have begun making their way home, and two of them are driving to North Caroline in Bill Hilton’s car. Hilton, the American Legion manager, said that most of the persons left Sunday and “the last ones left in my car.” The two were truck drivers whose truck had gotten stuck in the snow. “They got the truck out, said Hilton, “but now it’s in the shop for repairs. So I lent them my car so they could get home for Christmas.” Hilton estimates that the American Legion housed 350 persons during the three-night period and fed about 1000. The American Legion provided the food at no cost to those persons who were stranded. He said that women from the Civil Defense prepared the meals. Hilton estimated that 25 persons offered their services to help the travelers while they were at the American Legion. Hilton said they haven’t heard from any of the people yet, “but I expect we will.”…CHARLESTON — Only “critical maintenance services” are being performed during the current energy-saving shutdown at Eastern Illinois University. The process of cutting back temperatures “to a level consistent with building maintenance” started last week, according to Everett Alms, physical plant supervisor. Another project underway, and intended to be permanent, is the removal of some light bulbs in all areas where high intensity light is unnecessary such as corridors and lockers, Alms said…ARCOLA — An electronics component manufacturing firm is considering locating a plant in Arcola, according to the Arcola Chamber of Commerce. The location of the plant hinges on finding enough labor to operate the plant. Openings would include assemblers, maintenance engineers, telephone operators, inspectors, supervisors, secretaries, drafts-men, testers and foremen.

CHARLESTON — Travelers this Christmas season might want to be aware of strange pay phones if the experience of a Charleston man is any indication. Dennis Wright, co-owner of R&W Trucking in Charleston, received a $104,57 phone bill this fall for two collect phone calls from North Dakota that totaled less than 46 minutes. Wright said one of his truck drivers made the two collect calls in September from a pay phone in Grand Forks, N.D. to Wright’s Charleston home. The first collect call lasted 37 minutes, the second one lasted nine minutes, Wright said. Wright said he was shocked when he was billed $70.82 for the first call and $23.82 for the second call. The calls from Grand Forks totaled $104.57 with tax. Wright said the two calls brought his total phone bill to $253.43. He said his phone bill is usually $100-150 per month. After investigating the phone bill, Wright said he discovered that the calls from Grand Forks were handled by a billing company called Zero Plus Dialing, Inc. and a long distance company called Opticom. Wright said he called the two companies to complain about his bill. He said Opticom offered to not charge him for the taxes on the bill, but neither of the companies would reduce the bill. An employee at Opticom said Wright’s driver should have asked what the long-distance rates were before he made his collect calls.