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Committee Plans Soon to Reopen Bank at Hornell
Depositors' Committee, Under Attorney Robbins, At Work on Proposal to Return First National Bank to Activity, More Than Enough Capital for Reopening Available—Former Directors Named
Hornell—The First National Bank of Hornell will be reopened as soon as the details of a carefully guarded plan are fully arranged.
This information, concerning one of the two Hornell banking houses to close its doors during the past year, comes from a group of men who have been at work to get the bank afloat after nearly a year in dry dock.
The First National Bank closed its doors on order of its directors Feb. 13, 1932, following a heavy run which, later events showed, was not warranted. The bank was subjected to demands for deposits on the Friday preceding its closing. Saturday found the run increasing in size and the closing order, issued to protect the bank from a serious situation, appeared on the doors Monday.
Receivers of the bank have been at work since the closing, and report the institution's affairs in excellent condition. Attorney Albert W. Robbins, chairman of a depositors' committee named three weeks ago, is at work with B. C. DeWitt, and Mr. Forrestel, a financier. The committee was instructed to prepare three plans for the re-opening of the bank. These plans were to be submitted to the depositors as a whole.
The details of the plans under consideration were not disclosed by Chairman Robbins, because the committee feels that until a definite decision has been reached, announcement might be detrimental to the committee's work.
It is understood that more than enough capital to re-open the bank is available and that many other obstacles heretofore standing between the re-opening have been removed.