Editor's Corner; editor suggests specifying Kimble Glass Blocks for use in Muncie Fire Stations

[Newspaper]

Publication: The Muncie Evening Press

Muncie, IN, United States
vol. 54, no. 104, p. 4, col. 1-2


                                                       The Editor's

CORNER

 

Good Evening.

We have been falling down on our job. The Muncie Chamber of Com­merce has been falling down on its job, too. So have the labor organi­zations, the city and county govern­ments. Our schools.

Crossing our desk is a copy of the Muncie Transmitter, the house organ of the Muncie plant of the Kimble Glass Co., a division of Owens-Illinois.

In that publication is a picture of the new $3,375,000 Courthouse being erected in Humboldt County, Calif. Of what is it being made? Not bricks, not concrete, not aluminum. But glass blocks, 9,600 pieces of glass blocks, made right here in Muncie, Indiana.

 

Illustration

 

In Muncie, Indiana, do we have a single county or city building made of glass blocks? If we do it has escaped our attention.

The making of glass blocks, Kimble Co. glass blocks, is very important to the economy of our community. It is very important to the welfare of this newspaper, too, for as the com­munity prospers so does this newspaper. And so do we.

We have failed miserably in doing our part in supporting this Muncie industry which employs a great many men and women. The fact that other responsible people have also failed does not mitigate the degree of our own failure.

But we suggest here and now that something be done about this.

Only the other night the Muncie City Council passed an appropriation bill that provides the money to build two new fire stations, one in southeast Muncie near the home plant of Kimble Glass Co., and the other on the campus of Ball State Teachers College.

We aren’t too familiar with the legal requirements demanded by the laws of Indiana but we have the sneaking feeling that sometimes it is lawful and legal to set out in the specifications the exact type of build­ing for which bids are asked.

We would suggest that Mayor H. Arthur Tuhey, City Controller Stanley Terhune. City Engineer Horace Weber and City Attorney Marshall Hanley put into the specifications for these two new fire stations that Kimble Co. glass blocks be used in all or part of the exterior construc­tion.

Why not? They are made right here in Muncie, Indiana. And would it not be well to have a fire station of glass blocks on the college cam­pus?

Also when you have to buy a new battery, why not remember that we have a battery plant in Muncie?

Or a glass jar for home canning? Ball Mason jars are manufactured here.

For anyone who might be a little skeptical as to the appearance of a building made with Kimble Co. glass blocks, we present below a photograph of the new Humboldt Co. Courthouse in California, in whose exterior there are 9,600 glass blocks, made in Muncie, Indiana.


Keywords:Hemingray : Owens-Illinois Glass Company : Kimble Glass Company
Researcher notes: 
Supplemental information: 
Researcher:Bob Stahr
Date completed:January 30, 2023 by: Bob Stahr;