Each week, we’ll bring you a selection of notable stories that happened this week in Dayton history, chronicled by the same newspaper that continues to serve the community today.
Here are some headlines from the week of Feb. 15-21, 1976.
Feb. 15, 1976: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base set to fight Fairborn in court
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was preparing to go to court, if necessary, to fight Fairborn’s plans for annexation of the giant air base in 1976.
Air Force legal officer Col. Robert Ripple said no decision had been made on how far the fight against annexation of the entire base by Dayton would be carried.
If base officials were unsuccessful at persuading Greene County Commissioners to deny the Fairborn annexation, the U.S. attorney was going to file a suit in Federal District Court to halt it.
Base officials feared that annexation by either Fairborn or Dayton could pave the way for the municipality to attempt to regulate activities on the base.
A second concern was that either city might attempt to tax contractors building on the base, resulting in larger costs being passed on to the federal government.
The Fairborn annexation, since it affected only the Greene county part of the base, 6,300 acres, could have caused administrative problems in keeping track of what areas people were working in.
Dayton’s proposed annexation of the entire 8,200-acre base would have caused a substantial loss in tax revenue for Xenia, Springfield, and Kettering, since the income taxes of civilian employees would be paid to Dayton.
Base officials “oppose the diversion of our employees’ tax payments from the city where they live to Dayton,” Ripple said.
The base itself, being federal property, could not be taxed, he said.
After much debate, the base was not annexed and remained an independent federal installation.
Feb. 15, 1976: Monster Pony House bar to reappear in Jay’s restaurant in historic Oregon district
In 1976, a new downtown eatery was opening at 225 E. Sixth St.
Jay’s restaurant was to be located in a building constructed in 1854 and formerly used as a grist mill. The area was being renovated in the historic Oregon district.
Now known as Jay’s Seafood Restaurant, the business remains in operation to this day.
The 150-seat restaurant was to be in a building formerly used by Dimco-Gray, Inc., which moved operations to Centerville around the middle of 1975.
Principals in Jay’s were Joseph, Ned, Kim and Jay Haverstick, who also operated the Yankee Tavern on Ohio 725 and Yankee St.
One of the features of Jay’s was marketed to be a 32-foot bar, rescued from the old Pony House cafe on Jefferson St. between Fourth and Fifth St., before urban removal cleared out a four-block downtown area. The Stouffer hotel was then under construction on the old Pony House site.
The bar, which remains, is built of Honduras mahogany. James Jacob Reddy, the inventor of the first cash register, contracted to have the bar built by carvers from the old Barney and Smith Car Works and opened the Pony House in 1882.
The massive bar forced contractors to trim part of the exposed beams to fit it in place. It was saved from destruction during razing of the business places and stored by William H. Eicher.
Jay’s followed the Victorian theme, with antique lighting fixtures, red upholstered chairs and iron-based tables for the patrons.
Jay’s became the first restaurant to open in the Oregon district and Jay considered it a spur to future commercial development of the area.
Prices at the time ranged from $1.75 for sandwiches up to $8.95 for combination seafood and steak. Fresh fish were flown in from Boston several times a week.
The restaurant represented a $285,000 investment, said Jay Haverstick.
Feb. 17, 1976: Fireworks trade booming in ’76
Don Beechler made fireworks and was sure business would boom in 1976, the nation’s Bicentennial year.
Beechler and his father, Walter Beechler, who were pyrotechnicians and owned the United Fireworks Co., 840 S. Union Rd., said every city, drive-in theater and civic organization with even a trace of patriotic fervor was counting on a fireworks display as the Fourth of July drew near.
And because of the great demand, Beechler warned fireworks could soon be in short supply. Already more orders had been sent to the country’s fireworks sellers than they could fill.
United’s past clients said they wanted 30 to 40 percent more fireworks that year. And, while he said he liked new business, Beechler had adopted a policy of selling to former buyers first. He said they would still be with him long after the 200-year celebration was forgotten.
Beechler said he foresaw the 1976 demand and sent his import orders to Taiwan in September, early by most standards. He said he knew the Chinese fireworks manufacturers would have their hands full with orders from all over the world.
Wholesale business couldn’t be better.
Beechler’s workers assembled about 1,500 backyard display kits each day. Although most of the $15 kits were for wholesale distribution, he said he expected to sell thousands to Dayton area celebrants.
Also made each day on the 47-acre grounds were 50,000 feet of “green safety fuse,” the kind that burns under water. United was the country’s largest maker of the fuse, Beechler says.
Retail business of such hot items as Buzz Bombs and firecrackers was good, too, despite Ohio laws making it illegal to use fireworks without a permit.
“You can sell anything you can make or get your hands on,” he said, adding that buyers signed papers saying they would not use the fireworks in Ohio.
Feb. 18, 1976: Troy couple coaches Olympic competitors
Troy had a stake in the 1976 Olympic skating competition in Innsbruck, Austria.
Bill Fauver, a 1972 graduate of Troy high school and a three-year resident of Troy, had supporters cheering him on from Troy while he competed in figure skating pairs competition. He and partner Alice Cook placed out of medal contention in eleventh and twelfth positions in two phases of competition.
Lynn and Dick Rimmer helped coach him on his way to Olympic competition.
The Rimmers were the rink pros at Hobart Arena. Mrs. Rimmer is Fauver’s sister.
Mrs. Rimmer met Dick Rimmer when she started working at the arena, and they married a year and a half later. Three years later, in 1971, Fauver moved to Troy to study figure skating under the married pros.
Dick Rimmer had a national reputation in Canada before moving to Troy. He had skated thirty years, and had spent 18 years coaching other skaters. Rimmer-trained athletes had competed in the previous three Olympics.
Working as a team, the Rimmers provided a nationally recognized combination of help and development for skaters. Skating students traveled to the Rimmer’s home rink from all over the country for instruction, and several families had even moved to Troy to be close to them.
Under the Rimmers’ tutelage, Fauver skated with Patty Morton in the Troy skating club for four years, before reaching the U.S. National competition in 1972, where they placed second.
Fauver and Morton stopped skating together after the national competition.
Fauver returned to competition after one year of rest to skate with Alice Cook of Lansing, Mich.
Fauver and Cook later practiced for the 1980 Olympics with the Rimmers’ help. The team teaching might have helped move Fauver and Ms. Cook to Olympic competition faster than they otherwise would have gotten.
“When we actually teach skating, the rest of the work is a team,” Mrs. Rimmer said. “He might instruct them on technique and style, and he doesn’t have time to make sure that they work on their stamina and endurance. So I put them through their paces. The kids are really lucky to have that team teaching,” she said.
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