Crane

Conrail has $1.3 billion in the bank. Norfolk Southern Corp. has offered to pay $1.2 billion for the federally owned railroad. That math doesn't add up, Conrail chairman L. Stanley Crane said yesterday. "If today were the closing date on a sale (of Conrail) . . . all of these cash assets would be acquired by Norfolk Southern," Crane told a Senate subcommittee. "Thus, for its $1.2 billion agreed-upon price in June 1984, Norfolk Southern in April 1986 would acquire the full $939 million cash balance and the $360 million in overfunded pension assets - not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars in tax benefits.

A firefighter in a crane soaks down the area of the Kimberton Food Market on Prizer Road in East Pikeland Township, protecting it from the flames raging next door in a three-alarm fire at the Detwiler Foundry yesterday. The firefighters were able to save the market.

For the second year in a row, Cornell & Co. Inc., which undertakes some of the highest steel-construction projects in the area, has mounted a fiberglass and steel Christmas star atop its tallest crane. The icosahedron glowing in the night sky over Westville has added to a Christmas tradition in the area, said Patricia Rafferty, the company's purchasing agent. "For many years, the company mounted a Christmas tree atop a crane," she said. "Last year, Marion Craig, manager of our fabrication division, had a whim to put a star there.

When Township Manager Betty Crane agreed to work for the township, she thought it would be only a two-week assignment. "I stayed for a month, then 10 years," said Crane, who recently announced that she would retire in March. During her decade of service, she oversaw the renovation of the Municipal Building, construction of a public works garage, development of a road-maintenance program, and the hiring of several key employees. "I can't say enough good about Betty," said James Morrash, chairman of the Township Council.

A New York man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty in Chester County Common Pleas Court yesterday to charges of helping to slay two people at the home of a Valley Township supervisor in November. Gregory Ferguson, 22, of Queens, pleaded guilty to charges of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of Mabel F. Toledo and her boyfriend, George Montgomery. He was sentenced to serve two concurrent life terms in prison by President Judge Leonard Sugerman. Ferguson took part in a plea bargain with the Chester County District Attorney's Office, according to Chief Executive Deputy District Attorney John Crane.