The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-05-02
US. Time
fcnntinued from Page D

fIMHEEWWIu lAOtu EUAE ~ d watehmakers. Victor c. Stud le If Woodhury, engineer with the u. Time, Is in charge of arrange mo It's.
 OHiclals elected ct yesterdays meeting were:
 Directors: Bernt Belchen. Edward r. Carmody, Irving H. Chase, ". Estrem ]. Lehmkuhl, Harold Mul- Ter. Thomas Olsen, PM. WILCOX and Harry M. zuckert.
 Thomas Olsen, chairman of the Board of Directors; Harold Muller, Vice-charman of the Board Of Dl- rectors; J. Lehmkuhl, president; J. M. Ivory, vice-president and treas urer: David E. Tully, assistant treas urer: Edward T. Carmody, Secre- tary: Lester J. Brooks, assistant sec- retary.
 Mr. Lehmkuhl's report is as fol- lows:
 'It is a pleasure for me to wel- come you to these new quarters Everything here is in our opinion satisfactory except the position the Middlebury Zoning authorities have taken and are taking toward the company. As you know, we bought our land here in 1941 and in l942 we built what we planned to be the first section of our plant. There were no 1oning laws when we bought the land nor when we built the plant. But almost immediately after we had finished building, a zOning ordinance was adopted claS- sifytng our plant here as being m residential or farming zone. We believed then and still believe that simple justice required at least that our existence be admitted by claS- sifying our land or a reasonable part of 1t as an industrial zone. The Zoning authorities subsequent ly denied our application to add a second story over part of our plant. We have instituted suit in the Su- perior Court for this county wher- in we have asked for declara- tory judgment stating just what our rights and privileges are under the law.
 Building Project
 There has been another develop ment since we last met. During the war at the inSiStence of the War Department, we built 5000 square foot addition to the plant. The permission of the Zoning authori- ties to build it included clause to the effect that it was only a temporary permission in that, if they ordered us to do so, we should have to tear the building down af- ter the war. On April l, 1946, the Board of Zoning Appeals actually ordered us, in this period of great est scarcity in modern times, to de- stroy this addition which cost ap- proximately $1O0O00 to construct. The need for this building is so great that If it did not exist we would have to construct it.
 If I finger on this subject in my reports to you, it is because I feel deeply about it as you must too when you realize that the ef- feet is on the value of our plant. What value can be put on an in- dustrial property whose existence its own town seems to resent and whose normal and reasonable growth it seems determined to prevent by hostile and unfair treatment? For tunately, this attitude of mind has alarmed the Governor who has ap- pointed commission to look into the effect of unwiSe and unfair zon- ing on the industrial growth of this essentially industrial state. Be- cause of this and the courts and other plans we have, we expect to receive eventually a fair deal. Beyond all this, it seems incom- prehenSibly bad business for the town. Our tax bill for the cur rent year will be $44, ,166.5O or 32 per cent of the total If we were ''liquidated" the town tax rate would have to be further increased by AS per cent from 20 mills to g mills.
 ITO get on with other matters -our company is now taking the consequences of its "all out" war effort. During the war period we produced implements of war in an amount well over $1O0,0OO OOO-a far greater contribution than made by any other company in our indus try. During this period we were completely out of our regular busi- ness.
 Although our reconversion prob-