Western Union

As part of its continuing effort to cut costs, Western Union Corp. said yesterday that it would close its central telephone bureau in Moorestown in August, a move that will affect 383 full-time and 124 part-time employees. The Moorestown office, opened in 1971, handled mailgrams, telegrams and cablegrams for customers in the eastern United States. Functions now performed there will be moved to offices in Bridgeton, Mo., and Reno, Nev., the company said yesterday. Customers will have the same access to the Western Union system through an 800 telephone number, the company said.

The news that Western Union was closing its plant at 308 W. Route 38 in Moorestown came as a shock to the 507 people who work there, even though some had seen the handwriting on the wall. In the four months before the doors close on Aug. 1, however, the company, the township and the employees are pulling together to "go out shining," as plant director Sandi DeStefano put it. DeStefano was among five members of a management team that went from room to room April 4 to break the news to the employees.

The news that Western Union was closing its plant at 308 W. Route 38 in Moorestown came as a shock to the 507 people who work there, even though some had seen the handwriting on the wall. In the four months before the doors close on Aug. 1, however, the company, the township and the employees are pulling together to "go out shining," as plant director Sandi DeStefano put it. DeStefano was among five members of a management team that went from room to room April 4 to break the news to the employees.

A New York investor will acquire control of Western Union Corp. for $25 million in cash and combine it with an international telex operation he will buy from ITT Corp., it was announced yesterday. The plan engineered by Bennett S. LeBow is designed to rescue Western Union, the nation's oldest telecommunications company, which lost $556 million last year and has been struggling to avert bankruptcy. LeBow's plan differs from previous rescue plans because it would keep Western Union in telecommunications instead of converting it into a financial- services company.

A slow-stewed legal mess finally hit the Common Pleas Court fan last week as a coalition of disgruntled restaurateurs, a neighborhood association, and a state representative filed a lawsuit in their quest to wrench a Pennsylvania-owned wine boutique out from the heart of Jose Garces' new BYOB. As an industry observer, I feel their competitive pain. The red-hot Iron Chef is the last restaurateur who needs a state-boosted advantage over his competitors, which is how the plaintiffs (with their costly liquor licenses, liability insurance, and triple markups)

Josephine Cimino, 67, a retired editorial assistant at The Inquirer, died of Alzheimer's disease Monday, Aug. 29, at Voorhees Care & Rehabilitation Center. Ms. Cimino, known as "Josie," joined the newsroom staff in 1989, after 26 years with Western Union. She was hired by Karen Knoll Bergbauer, a former Western Union colleague who was the newsroom's office manager. "At the time, Western Union was closing and The Inquirer was hiring editorial assistants. Josie was my first choice," Bergbauer said.

William G. Smith Sr., 81, of Havertown, a retired Western Union executive who smoked Cuban cigars with President John F. Kennedy and played poker with President Harry S. Truman, died Monday at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital in Darby. On occasion, while assigned by Western Union to the White House press corps in the early 1960s, Mr. Smith would sit and chat with President Kennedy at the end of the day, said his son William G. Jr. Mr. Smith worked 48 years for Western Union and traveled on many presidential campaigns, including those of Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Pat Henning of Delran had been working in Western Union's public relations department in Moorestown since February 1982. "I really enjoyed my job in the customer relations department," said Henning. On April 5, the announcement from the company that it planned to close the Moorestown location filled her office with a sense of shock. Then followed a different emotion: What would she do now? Last week, Henning completed a three-week course for dislocated workers at Burlington County College's Levitt Center in Willingboro.

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, who has taken his message to the American people this week, took messages from the American people to Congress yesterday. North placed on the witness table in front of him two stacks of telegrams that expressed overwhelming support for his testimony before the congressional Iran-contra committees. Most of the messages, which North's attorney made available to reporters, reflected conservative political views, extolling North's bravery and - in some cases - calling members of the congressional committees "communists.

NEXT WEEK, our family is visiting London as part of our summer vacation. While my wife is showing the kids Big Ben, I'll be looking for royalty. But I'm not going to Buckingham Palace. Instead, I'm staking out the Western Union office at Lei- cester Square. Why there? Well, two months ago, I received an e-mail from a female friend with a most distressing story. She said she'd been robbed in the U.K. and asked that I quickly wire her some cash so she could pay her hotel bill and make her flight home.

Josephine Cimino, 67, a retired editorial assistant at The Inquirer, died of Alzheimer's disease Monday, Aug. 29, at Voorhees Care & Rehabilitation Center. Ms. Cimino, known as "Josie," joined the newsroom staff in 1989, after 26 years with Western Union. She was hired by Karen Knoll Bergbauer, a former Western Union colleague who was the newsroom's office manager. "At the time, Western Union was closing and The Inquirer was hiring editorial assistants. Josie was my first choice," Bergbauer said.

NEXT WEEK, our family is visiting London as part of our summer vacation. While my wife is showing the kids Big Ben, I'll be looking for royalty. But I'm not going to Buckingham Palace. Instead, I'm staking out the Western Union office at Lei- cester Square. Why there? Well, two months ago, I received an e-mail from a female friend with a most distressing story. She said she'd been robbed in the U.K. and asked that I quickly wire her some cash so she could pay her hotel bill and make her flight home.

A slow-stewed legal mess finally hit the Common Pleas Court fan last week as a coalition of disgruntled restaurateurs, a neighborhood association, and a state representative filed a lawsuit in their quest to wrench a Pennsylvania-owned wine boutique out from the heart of Jose Garces' new BYOB. As an industry observer, I feel their competitive pain. The red-hot Iron Chef is the last restaurateur who needs a state-boosted advantage over his competitors, which is how the plaintiffs (with their costly liquor licenses, liability insurance, and triple markups)

MIREBALAIS, Haiti - Luc Bouquet set foot in the United States for the first time in August 1988 and built himself a life that by any measure would be considered an immigrant's dream. But he has never felt at home in his adopted country. Born in Mirebalais, a small village in the Goat Mountains about 40 miles outside Port-au-Prince, Bouquet was essentially an orphan. After his mother died when he was 7, his father abandoned the family. Bouquet managed to get himself through high school, was sponsored to attend Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, Tenn.

One man pleaded guilty this week to charges of operating a business in Philadelphia that illegally transmitted money out of the country, federal authorities said yesterday. Another man was sentenced this week on similar charges. Seide Venord was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in federal prison after being convicted in January of laundering more than $267,000 in what he believed was drug money through his business to the Dominican Republic. Venord ran Venord Multiple Services at 4922 N. Fifth St. and was a legitimate transmitter for Western Union, Vigo Remittance and Girosol Corp.

Joe Morrone is a small, bent man who, at 85, still wears a tie and suspenders to work every day and carries five pens in his shirt pocket. Actually, only three are pens, and are completely dispensable. The other two are a penlight and a screwdriver. These Morrone needs every day. Joe Morrone is the man who brings sound to City Hall. Every time the mayor holds a news conference in Room 202, Joe Morrone sits in the corner, headphones on, making sure the audience can hear and the media can record it all. In 22 years at City Hall, from Rizzo to Rendell, Joe Morrone has engineered thousands of news conferences and proclamation ceremonies, from Battle of the Bulge survivors to Boyz II Men. He doesn't remember much about any of them.

Charles H. Jeffers Sr., 91, of Southwest Philadelphia, a huckster who spent 25 years as a volunteer policeman, died Thursday of heart and kidney failure at Haverford Mercy Hospital. The son of a West Philadelphia huckster, Mr. Jeffers began selling fruit and vegetables from a cart as soon as he left school after the eighth grade. When he wasn't peddling produce, he was pedaling a bike all over town to delivering messages for Western Union. He continued huckstering until he was about 65 years old, going from a pushcart to a horse-drawn wagon to a truck.

James C. McGettigan Jr., 73, founder and one-time owner of a sports wire company that sent results of events worldwide to newspapers and electronic media, died Wednesday from the effects of a stroke at Mercy Haverford Hospital, Havertown. He lived in Drexel Hill. Mr. McGettigan was born in Philadelphia, graduated from St. Joseph's College in 1950 and embarked on a career in telecommunications. In 1970, he cofounded Sports/Comm Inc., Medford, N.J., which wired results of major professional and collegiate sports events to media sports departments.

He phones collect, this extortionist who calls himself Michael. He claims that he has your lost pet, and he wants your money before he will return it. It's doubtful that he actually has the animals, his victims say. At least, they hope he doesn't. Michael has made at least 20 collect calls to three worried pet owners in the last few weeks. Two families live in Philadelphia, the other in Upper Dublin, Montgomery County. None of the families has paid him. But his cruelty, they say, is immeasurable, as it has compounded the grief they feel from the loss of their pets.

The Overbrook Park check-cashing and candy store that attracted the opposition of many of its residential neighbors has closed. The reason? A "lack of business at the moment," said Stanley E. Luongo Jr., attorney for Girard Financial Services and Mailroom and Sweet Melissa, on Haverford Avenue near Sherwood Road. "We're discussing the possibility of all their options," Luongo said. Those options could include renting the space to others or reopening. In May, the Zoning Board of Adjustment sustained the objections of the Overbrook Park Civic Association against Girard's permit, issued by the Department of Licenses and Inspections.