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Re: (erielack) Addendum to Yesterday's Post

Perry Shoemaker was initially Vice-Chairman at the start of the merger 
and moved up to Chairman of the Board after Henry Von Willer retired in 
September '61.  He was probably involved (at least in part) where he had 
the contacts and the most influence, namely with leadership in former 
Lackawanna communities.

      A case in point: I read that Scranton officials were very unhappy 
with E-Ls objections and foot-dragging on two highway  redevelopment 
projects, to replace the Spruce Street overpass (by the depot) with an 
underpass and some other track relocation issues holding up the North 
Scranton Expressway.  So in August '61, they contacted Perry in 
Cleveland and offered to go out there in order to try and find out why 
there was no resolution.  Shoemaker was concerned that the Scranton 
people felt that the railroad was uncooperative and he instead went to 
Scranton for a city hall conference.  While there, he announced  that  
E-L had tentatively agreed "in principle" to both proposals. 
    At the same time, Shoemaker also announced that the railroad was 
willing to consider selling all of Keyser Valley (they had already 
leased a small tract to a mobile home builder) to a larger industry that 
would need the whole shop area.  Scranton Redevelopment was very 
interested in that because of their desire to move the food wholesalers 
from center city into some kind of new food and light industrial park 
which could be established there.  Also, the KV property could finally 
be put on the tax rolls (an old agreement with DL&W kept it tax-exempt).
    A last bit of good news that day was to announce that E-L was ready 
to provide the trackage into the proposed Keystone Industrial Park (off 
the Jessup Branch).  So the Scranton people were quite pleased with the 
attention and the positive outcomes.

Mike Oravec


Montgomery, Edward T wrote:
> One thing I forget to mention when referring to the Jeep Cab-Forward high railers in the January 1961 EL magazine was an additional story about Perry Shoemaker.  They had a picture of him with the announcement that he was leaving his Chairman of The Board position with EL to become President of the Jersey Central.  I remember reading that Shoemaker was not very happy with the position he received after the merger.  What exactly was his role as Chairman of the Board?  I assume he was not involved in day-to-day management decisions of the company.  I heard people say that EL might have been better off if he had assumed the role of president in the early 60s.
>
> Any thoughts on this?
>
> Ed Montgomery
>
>
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