7ire$tone
Textiles Company
Gastonia
North Carolina
Bennettsville Bowling Green
South Carolina Kentucky
Our Gifts Help UW-UF-UGF
United Way of Gaston County (NC) is reaching for
$888,000 in its 1977-78 funding drive toward support of 3
community services—“People Helping People.” The goal was
increased 10% over last year’s, the extra to allow for ex
panded programs for some of the agencies,
Gaston United Way has come from all departments of plant,
short only twice in its 25 years
of operation. It was honored re
cently for greatly exceeding its
1976 goal—out front among
agencies of similar size in North
Carolina. For the sixth time in
13 years the Gaston UW finished
first in its category.
Last year, the $805,437 raised
went beyond the campaign goal
by $42,000 and was $51,000 more
than the total reached in 1975.
Of this amount. Firestone Tex
tiles people pledged $46,553.
This year, the UW Firestone
in-plant campaign is being con
ducted in September. Ralph
Reep, shift foreman in TC Weav
ing; and James G. Burr, engi
neer in Industrial Engineering,
are chairmen of the drive. Help
ing also are many volunteers
Back Home
Mr. and Mrs. Pedro DeZarlo
are back in Argentina after a
summer visit to Gastonia. He,
the manager of Firestone’s tex
tile plant in Buenos Aires, spent
a week observing the latest tech
niques in production of tire
fabric.
The DeZarlos are native Ar
gentines. In Gastonia, they had a
reunion with the Bemie Farmer
family. Farmer, division man
ager of technical services, was
manager of the Buenos Aires
plant in the 1960s. Before re
turning to the States, he picked
DeZarlo from a production job
to become plant production man
ager. From that promotion, he
moved up to manager. DeZarlo
has been with the company in
South America for 25 years.
offices and warehouse.
Factory Manager P. R. Wil
liams is a volunteer chairman
among industries of the county-
w i d e UW campaign. Helping
him are Thomas A. Grant, man
ager of Industrial Engineering;
S. E. Crawford, manager of In
dustrial Relations; E. H. Pass-
more, plant safety engineer.
☆ ☆ ☆
SAL
COSTANZA
Bowling
Green
At the other two U.S. plants
of Firestone Textiles Company,
community-service programs
have funding drives in Septem-
ber-October. The United Fund
of Marlboro County (SC) is
seeking $57,050 for its 23 agen
cies. Leaders of the in-plant
campaign at Firestone, Bennetts
ville, are Frances Fletcher, per
sonnel services representative;
and M.D. Coleman, safety super
visor.
United Givers Fund of Bowl
ing Green and Warren County
(Ky.) has 13 community services.
This year’s goal is $190,000.
Plant manager Thomas Yelton is
UGF chairman of the county
campaign.
Chairpersons for the Firestone
plant drive are Brenda Hale,
controller’s office secretary;
Clifton Logsdon, employee in
terviewer and counselor; and
Don Davis, supervisor in Re
claiming.
SEPTEMBER 1977
Summer moves on in the
"Caravan of Seasons." Sights
and fragrances of September's
maturity are here. And the
sounds all around are surely the
voices of early Autumn.
Ss 16% Of Goal
Firestone Textiles Company moved from its earliest goal
of 13% reduction of energy usage in 1975, to 20% savings as
of summer 1977. From the 13%, it moved to 14, then 16 by
late 1976. The current goal is 23% savings.
Division energy coordinator cy during summer drops well
Sal Costanza, personnel man
ager at Firestone, Bowling
Green, has been in his present
assignment since June 15. He
succeeds Jeff Claypool who was
transferred to Gastonia as divi
sion personnel manager.
Costanza came to Bowling
Green from the company’s Nash
ville, Tenn., tire plant, where he
was personnel representative.
Originally from Crystal Lake,
111., Costanza was graduated
from Eastern Illinois University.
He and his wife Kay have four
children—Kim, 15; Cindy, 13;
Trevor, 9 and Mathew, 3.
Costanza joined Firestone in
May of 1964 at the Decatur, 111.,
plant. He was at Firestone’s
Akron headquarters in Plant
Employment Development be
fore his transfer to Nashville.
Two Firestone employees
at Bowling Green moved in
to their sixth year of service
in August. Receiving a serv
ice pin for five years com
pleted were Zettie Wingfield,
backwinder; and Johnny
Johnson, doffer. Both are in
the Twisting department.
Noted: A tailless squirrel up
and down a large hickory tree
at east end of Firestone mill,
Gastonia.
Brian Schroeder expects a 1%
improvement in savings per year
into 1980, closing year of the
current energy-savings program.
Included in the textiles divi
sion grouping are Firestone Tex
tiles Company units at Gastonia,
N.C. (headquarters); Bowling
Green, Ky.; Bennettsville, S.C.;
Woodstock, Canada, and the
fabric-treating unit at the Mem
phis, Tenn., tire plant.
THE CURRENT Gastonia
plant rate is 14% savings. Of
Gastonia, Schroeder noted that
further savings will be costly at
first, but in the long run will
pay for themselves—and more.
For example, the boiler efficien-
V
below 50%. A smaller boiler in
operation could effect a signifi
cant saving, a recent study
shows.
As an area of possible major
savings, he mentioned heat re
covery from exhaust of fabric-
treating operations, adding:
"But this is very complicated,
and will require a great deal of
investigation and study to see if
it would work out to good ad
vantage.”
Firestone’s current worldwide
Energy Conservation program
aims at reducing energy con
sumption in every way possible,
and saving the equivalent of
125-plus millions gallons of oil
annually by 1980. The program
began in 1975. Rate of savings is
measured against the company’s
usage levels of 1972.
—more on page 4
Warehouse
• Checking plans for the new
$3 million warehouse at Gas
tonia. John Walters, project en
gineer from Akron corporate
headquarters, will be in Gas
tonia during the construction,
expected to be completed within
a year. Denise (Dee Dee) Lynch
of Gastonia is employed as
project office secretary.
Project engineering mobile of
fice and another one for Hard
away Construction Company are
on Vance Street truck lot near
warehouse site. Demolition of
old warehouse row along Third
Avenue began in late August.
Portion of this unit (left) built
in 1903, a few days before it
"went into history." A second
row of the old warehouses will
be cleared away in a later phase
of the new construction.