Security deposits of the forme!' Laurel Glen Apartments, pictured in this
1979 file photo, are now in the hands of a disbursing agent.
With legal fight over,
Laurel Glen residents
can recover deposits
By MICHAEL NEWNAM
Collegian Staff Writer
After a three and one half year
legal battle, residents of the
former. Laurel Glen apartments
now Heritage Oaks and Pennwood
North will receive payment on
security deposits lost when the:
complex went bankrupt in 1980.
Michael Day, attorney and
disbursing agent for the deposits,
said the $40;000 that was recovered
is less than one half of the $101,821
lost. •
"The amount that was -
recovered was as a result of
money that was put up by Stanley
Melnick (the former owner)
himself," Day said. "There was
nothing in bankruptcy court left to
be had."
No additional funds were
available because of the extensive
liens on Melnicks assets by his
creditors
Tenants who lived at Laurel
Glen between 1979 and 1980 must
contact Day, 200 W. College Ave.,
before June 18 to receive payment.
"(The former tenants) should
write a letter to me it has to be a
written claim detailing where
they lived in Laurel Glen, when
they lived there and how much of
their security deposit they seek,"
Day said.
"To clarify that, if they had
roommates and they only seek one
half or one third of the deposit,
they should put that in the letter."
Day said if all the former
tenants file claim; only a
proportionate share of the lost
deposits can be refunded.
However, Day said he does not
think all the tenants will contact
him because many have since
moved from this area. •
The problem with the Laurel
Glen security deposits began when
Melnick filed for bankruptcy in
1976. Federal bankruptcy laws
allowed him to continue operating
the complex until the end of 1980.
Melnick had deposited $300,000 in
the
daily
a secured escrow account to prove
to the court he was not spending
all the rent money he was
collecting, said Robert Karp, 1980-
82 OTIS president.
Melnick also should have had an
additional escrow account for the
security deposits but he did not,
Karp said.
When filing for bankruptcy,
Melnick told bankruptcy judge
Thomas Wood that $40,000 was
enough money to refund the
security deposits. However;
Property Management Inc., the
firm that later managed the
•
property for Rochester Savings
Bank and the Home Savings Bank
of upstate New York, holders of
the mortgage, said the figure was
closer to $lOl,OOO.
In May 1980, Wood agreed the
former tenants were due $40,000
from the escrow fund but Home
Savings appealed the decision,
saying all of the $300,000 in the
secured account should be used to
pay Melnick's debts.
In January 1981, Judge Richard
P. Conaboy ruled that OTIS and
Association of Residence Hall
Students 'could intervene on behalf
of the former tenants. Conaboy
later said the tenants should be
considered as secured creditors,
so he upheld Woods decision to pay
them $40,000.
Karp said a major problem in
resolving the issue was trying to
get Lloyd Persun, the attorney in
charge of Melnick's secured
account, to disburse theponey.
"The whole 80-81 school year
was spent tryin to get (Persun) to
disburse the money," he said.
Persun was reluctant to release
. the money to a student
organization, Karp said, so OTIS
and ARHS secured the assistance
of Day as disbursing agent.
Karp said he was always
confident the tenants would get
their deposits refunded: "The
lesson in this is that the wheels of
justice move extremely slow."
olle • lan
Supporters of Solidarity
routed during ceremony
By BRYAN BRUMLEY
Associated Press Writer
WARSAW, Poland Poll& armed with pistols routed
1,000 Solidarity supporters in Warsaw yesterday, while
Cardinal Jozef Glemp traveled to Gdansk and met with
Lech Walesa in a strong gesture of church support for the
outlawed union.
Police in Warsaw moved in after the crowd flashed
victory signs and sang union songs at an unofficial
ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw
ghetto uprising.
Authorities detained at least three people, including
Solidarity's former national spokesman, who told the
crowd that if the Warsaw ghetto fighters were alive today
they would join Solidarity in the "fight for truth, freedom
and human dignity."
At another gathering, Glemp told 10,000 faithful at an
outdoor Mass in Warsaw that the communist government
has not responded to initiatives to open a dialogue with
Solidarity, and that the Polish people are "humiliated
before the world."
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Catch of the day
Jeremy Burris of State College catches his first fish ever on Saturday, the first day of fishing season. Twenty
one lakes and creeks in Centie County lakes and creeks were stocked for the season opener.
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• -••••••'-.1:'!.t.
Glemp later went to Gdansk for ceremonies
consecrating Auxiliary Bishop Tadeusz Goclawski.-
Walesa said that before the religious ceremony, he met
with the Roman Catholic primate f0r,30 minutes in the
parish house of St. Mary's Cathedral.
Walesa declined to discuss details of the meeting, but a
reliable source said they talked about the interrogation of
Walesa, his wife and-their driver last week by police
seeking information about Walesa's secret meeting with
underground union leaders.
The developments came a day after police announced
the arrest of at least 26 Solidarity backers in apparent
retaliation for the underground's call for nationwide
protests May 1.
Walesa met with the underground a week ago and •
agreed they would coordinate policies.
Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Solidarity's former national
spokesman, was led away by two plainclothesmen
yesterday after giving a speech at a monument to the
70,000 Jews who were killed or captured in the 1943 ghetto
uprising against Nazi occupation forces.
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Modday, April 18, 1983
Vol. 83, No. 158 20 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
==l
AP Laserphoto
Cardinal Jozef Glemp
Bad weather
strikes out at
Pa. residents
By The Associated Press
• Western Pennsylvania residents were
digging out their winter coats yesterday as
snow flurries and cold air moved in from the
west, while residents in the eastern part of the
state continued to fight river flooding caused
by heavy rains Dyer the weekend.
Charles McGill, Bucks County Emergency
. Services director, said the Delaware River
crested at 2 to 3 feet above flood stage
yesterday evening, flooding basements and
several roads.
McGill said a few families in Riegelsville
were evacuated early in the day, and several
more in Yardley left voluntarily as water
rolled out of the river and the canal.
A waterlogged state Route 32, knoWn as the
River Road, was temporarily closed for about
20 miles from Plumstead Township to
Morrisville, McGill said.
The Susquehanna River was receding at
Wilkes-Barre, where it crested at 23.8 feet,
about a foot above flood stage, late Saturday
night. The National Westher Service at
Wilkes-Barre reported a record 1.1 inches of
rain in the area on Saturday; topping the one
day mark of 1.04 inches set in 1972.
The Wilkes-Barre` area area also reported
3.9 inches of snow in a 24-hour period Friday
and Saturday, breaking the April 24-hour
mark of 1.7 inches set in 1935.
In Chester County, one canoeist was
rescued by a passing firefighter, but two
others were still missing last night after their
canoe capsized on the swollen Schuylkill
River,authorities said.
Rescue workers called off the search for the
two missing canoeists when darkness fell and
planned to resume efforts in the morning,
Phoenixville Fire Chief Reggie Wonder said.
"The river was too treacherous for divers
We sent three boats out looking for them,"
Wonder said
The Schuylkill was running at 15 mph when
the boat capsized at about 4:45, throwing 22-
year-old Susan Painter, of Royersford, and
her two male companions, both in their early
20s, into the icy water, Wonder said.
Robert Yannick, a volunteer Phoenixville
fireman who saw the accident, dove into the
Schuylkill and rescued Painter, but her
companions had gone under by the time he
reached shore, Wonder said.
inside
4 He didn't know it 24 years ago,
but a young black songwriter
started the "Motown Sound" of
stars like Diana Ross when he
`began picking out tunes Page 18
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weather
Partly to mostly cloudy and
unseasonably cold today, high of
40. Partly cloudy and cold tonight, a
low of• 27. Partly sunny tomorrow,
high of 43. —by Craig Wagner