The Kokomo Tribune from Kokomo, Indiana • Page 2

2 Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune Friday, OK. 19, 1980 Initial bond OK is given By John Stowell Tribune staff writer Preliminary approval of a $600,000 economic development bond issue for construction of a Gold Rush restaurant on Kokomo's southside was given Thursday by the Kokomo Economic Development Commission. The Gold Rush is part of the Big Wheel restaurant chain which operates an establishment near U.S. 31 and Alto Road. Specializing in prime rib, the Gold Rush offers a variety of steaks, seafood, chicken dishes and sandwiches.

Alan Hurst, a Highland businessman who is one member of a four- person partnership wanting to build the restaurant, told the commission the 160-seat dining area would be open at lunch and dinner and "would definitely not be fast food." KEDC attorney John Grimes said he had eaten at the Gold Rush in Bloomington many times and de- Itl Friday closeup scribed the food as "superb." Hurst said the restaurant would be located at the corner of LaFountaine Street and Rainbow Drive. The decore will carry the theme of the 19th century Colorado gold rush and feature a 40-seat cocktail lounge. He said the restaurant will employ 125 people as cooks, bartenders, busboys, managers and waitresses. If the bond issue is approved, Hurst said, construction will start In the spring and the restaurant should be ready to open In September. "We use a general contractor to build all our restaurants but we do hire local labor to do the actual construction," Hurst said.

"The contractor supervises." According to the bond application, the partnership will offer the bonds through the Lake County Trust Co. Gary National Bank has agreed to purchase the bonds which will be paid back on a monthly basis over a 15-year period at AS percent of the prime rate. Gold Rush attorney Kenneth Fedder said he will ask the Kokomo Common Council to pass an Inducement resolution Jan. 12. The KEDC then will have to hold an adverse competitive affect hearing, probably in February, to determine If the bonds would give the Gold Rush an unfair edge In its competition with other local dining establishments.

Jury cites Argos man on 10 counts Don Dimmitt Indicted on 10 counts By Mark Berns Tribune staff writer A Marshall County grand jury Thursday returned a 10-count indictment on charges of receiving stolen property against Argos salvage yard dealer Donald W. Dimmitt. The indictment resulted from a two-month Kokomo Police Department investigation of a multi-state auto theft ring. Kokomo police were assisted in the investigation by Howard County and Indiana State Dimmitt, owner of Dimmitt Auto Wreckers, was arrested at 6:30 p.m. Thursday by state and Marshall County police, and was released on $10,000 cash bond an hour later.

A search warrant executed at the salvage yard Dec. 2 netted parts from at least 20 stolen vehicles. Two of those cars, a 1979 Buick Regal stolen in Marion, and a 1980 Pontiac Trans Am stolen in Carmel, were delivered to Dimmitt under the surveillance of Kokomo detectives, according to KPD Sgt. John Card well. State police officer William Soru- kas told the Tribune today the other eight cars from which parts were found had been stolen around Hammond and East Chicago, and in nearby Lansing, 111.

"All the others were late model car parts we were able to trace through the National Auto Theft Bureau, or where they (the thieves) missed a number," Sorukas said. The eight other counts against Dimmitt are for receiving a Chevrolet Caprice, 1980 Cadillac Fleetwood, 1980 Buick, 1978 Cadillac De Ville, 1979 Oldsmobile, 1980 CMC pickup, 1979 Toyota pickup and a diesel engine, according to Marshall Circuit Court records at Plymouth. Sorukas said police are continuing to investigate the probability there are more stolen parts at Dimmitt Auto Wreckers, and did not rule out the possibility another warrant will be requested for a further search of the 160-acre auto salvage yard. Sorukas said salvage yard employees have reported Dimmitt has been extremely careful about whom he deals with since the Dec. 2 warrant was executed.

Dimmitt was to have been arraigned today in Marshall Circuit Court, but court officials expected the matter to be continued. Taffy McKay, left, and Dee Shipley work with new license stickers (Tribune staff photo) Expect longer lines when new 3-year plates issued Local air service hearing delayed until next year A Civil Aeronautics Board hearing which was to have considered an application from Kokomo Aviation Inc. to provide a local commuter airline service to Chicago was postponed Thursday. John Quay, a CAB official, said the hearing was delayed because the staff report had not been re- viewed by the supervisor of the commuter division. Quay said, because of the holiday season, the next CAB meeting has not been scheduled but, he said, it probably will not be held until after the first of the year.

The staff report, which Quay helped write, concludes Kokomo Aviation's request for a first-year $281,000 subsidy is "reasonable." Quay said the subsidy is based on start-up costs including purchase of a 10-seat Piper Navajo Chieftain commuter aircraft. It also includes a profit margin calculated by adding the interest on the aircraft plus 4 percent of the annual operating costs. Kokomo Aviation, which plans two flights daily except Sunday to and from Chicago, will operate under the name of Direct Air. The company is the fixed base operator at Kokomo Municipal Airport. By Linda MlUer Tribune staff writer The Howard County License Bureau will begin issuing new three- year plates in January.

It also will start operating under state-mandated procedures that will cause people to wait longer in line for their plates, according to Phyllis Gregory, branch manager. The three-year plate along with a sizeable hike in registration fees for certain classifications of vehicles was brought about by action of the Indiana General Assembly. To combat the long lines, Mrs. Gregory said the local branch will offer a new service called Next Day Plates. Plate buyers will be able to drop off vehicle registration forms and a check for the plates at the license branch one day and pick up their new plates the following day.

There will be no additional charge for Next Day Plates. It's amount of time consumed" by the additional paperwork that will tie things up and complicate the process of getting new plates, Mrs. Gregory said. The old plate, replaced each year, had to bear only a single sticker indicating the month the plate expired. But the new plate must carry a second sticker, this one bearing a letter of the alphabet and a seven- digit number.

The long number on the sticker must be typed on the vehicle registration form along with the license plate number and the license plate number must be recorded in the book from which the sticker was taken. The state has not made this an easy task. The sticker numbers are printed on a busy black-and-white background, making them difficult to read and accurately transcribe. Mrs. Gregory was told the Indiana Board of Accounts is insisting on the new sticker as a means of accounting for all plates issued.

In the past, the plate itself was sufficient. According to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the fee hike passed by the state legislature will drive up fees for some vehicles an average of 25 percent. Passenger vehicle fees will not change. Fees for motorcycles, recreational vehicles, trucks, farm trucks, semi-trailers, tractors, school buses and church buses will be higher in 1981. For example, motorcycle fees will rise from $6.25 to 36,000 pound-trucks from $225.25 to trucks over 66,000 pounds from $450.25 to and farm trucks from to $202.75.

None of the proceeds from the fee increases will be allocated to the local license branches. The three-year plate is made of slighly heavier metal than the single-year plate. It uses brown numbers on a white background, carries the state's name in black letters at the bottom and a farm scene in brown across the top. The three-year plate does not mean the motorist can forget about the license branch for three years. Each year, new registration forms will be issued as well as new stickers which are to be pasted over the previous year's stickers.

Passenger car and recreational vehicle plates having a number of 100 or lower and personalized license plates will remain annual plates. Mrs. Gregory encouraged motorists to purchase their license plates by mail after carefully following the instructions. About 7,500 Howard County residents buy their plates by mail. The license branch here issues about 50,000 plates annually.

About 4 million pre-printed registration forms currently are being mailed to Hoosiers. Persons who want to use the mail service should: the information on the registration form and make sure the registration is for the vehicle they own. out a check or send a cashier's check or money order payable to the "Bureau of Motor Vehicles" for the exact amount indicated by the arrow on the preprinted form. Never send cash. the pre-print on the far left-hand side, place all copies of the form and the check, cashier's check or money order in the envelope.

Be sure that the license branch address is visible through the envelope window. All license plates must be purchased in the county of residence. pre-printed registrations must be mailed on, or before, the fifth day of the expiration month to assure delivery before the 1980 plate expires. Allow three weeks to receive the 1981 plate. Conditions improve for Tipton pigeon kill By Julie Saytor Tribune staff writer TIPTON, Ind.

Warm weather foiled local health officials ia their effort to annihilate pigeons from downtown Tipton Thursday, but prospects look better today. "We counted 200 pigeons that city street workers picked up yesterday, but we were hoping for 500," Jill Stauffer, county sanitarian, said today. City and county officials have been discussing various methods to kill the birds since county clerk Maxine Clouser began complaining about the birds last week. She became angry when pigeon droppings on a ledge outside her office window at the courthouse be- Here There gan seeping through the sill into the Office. She contends the droppings are a health hazard, causing lung diseases such as emphysema and histoplasmosis.

Local officials decided earlier this week to use poison whole grain to kill the birds. The grain was scattered on the tops of downtown buildings Thursday morning. The reason for the low death count Thursday is in warm weather the pigeons go outside of the downtown area to look for food, Miss Stauffer said. In colder weather the birds stay in the protection of larger buildings. Since the thermometer took a nosedive Thursday night, Miss Stauffer is confident another 300 to 400 pigeons will be eliminated from the area today.

"But we are only touching the population of birds, we are not wiping them out of the county," she said. "People are getting the impression we have killed every pigeon in the county, and it isn't true." Street crews have been picking up the birds on the ground within a four-block area of downtown. Surprisingly, most of the birds have not died on top of the buildings where the poison grain was scattered. Miss Stauffer said local officials are slightly concerned about a recent newspaper story detailing how Princeton officials called off a pigeon kill because of potential legal problems. The story said legal problems could occur if a person is hit by a falling dead bird.

It also said Indiana's state bird, the cardinal, eats whole grain corn and could be killed along with the pigeons. So far, there have been no reports of anyone being hit by falling birds, and the only dead birds have been pigeons, Miss Stauffer said. But she is concerned about local residents allowing their pets to wander freely thoughout the area despite earlier warnings the animals could die if they eat a poisoned bird. Since more pigeons will be killed today, she asked again that pets be kept inside until the birds are disposed of by late today or early Saturday. Numbers! They'll get us in trouble Christmas gift Three Northwestern School Corp.

students load up the more than 1,000 cam of food the students collected mis post week for the Kokomo Rescue Mission. The idea, which. started at Ervin School, snowballed to include Northwestern Elementary and the junior-senior high school. Ervin collected more than half of me cans with some classes having a can exchange in lieu of gift exchange. Scott, Sinnamon, high school student, gives a helping hand to Jenny and John Hill as they load up the truck which delivered the food today.

(Tr bune $faff What's all this hullabaloo about numbers? We've lived in a growing society of them for years. But now it's all wrong because the U.S. Postal Service wants to give us a few more to remember. Is it that the edict is coming from our big brothers in Washington? Or is it merely the final straw that's breaking the camel's back? In defense of the postal service's proposal to provide us with a nine- digit Mr. Super-ZIP, let us make these points: 1.

In the past decade, postal productivity has increased 27 percent the service handles 18 billion more pieces of mail a year with 75,000 fewer employees. 2. The present five-digit code will be virtually unchanged. 3. Once added, the new numbers (separated from the first five by a hyphen) will be permanent.

4. You'll have five to seven years to memorize the longer code, since that's how long it is anticipated to be implemented. Fred Odlet 5. The new system is intended chiefly for handling business mail, about 80 percent of total volume. 6.

Each household will be notified by mail of its ZIP, or be given a nine-digit telephone number to call for information. On the other side of the coin (or stamp, in this case) are opponents like Sen. Roger Jepsen, R-Iowa, who comments: "I am afraid the nine-digit ZIP code will become the 1981 version of the Susan B. Anthony dollar." And W. Ronald Salafia, professor of psychology at Fairfield Univer- sity, who says: "The short-term memory is like a bucket that can hold seven gallons.

If you load it with nine gallons, the bottom falls out and you lose everything." His contention is that looking up a nine-digit code in a directory, closing the book, walking to a desk and writing down the number is beyond the mental capacity of most people. What are we, idiots? Who among us can't reel off our license plate number (three to six digits), the numeral designation for our birth (four to six digits), our home phone number (seven digits), our home address and ZIP (eight, nine or 10 digits), our Social Security identification (nine digits), the toll-free number for an advertised product (11 digits) or our credit card numbers (up to 13 digits). All right now, everyone by the numbers! Obfuscating Local officials who received a recent communique from the U.S. Census Bureau are convinced it ought to avoid words and stick with numbers. The letter was attached to a report titled "Need for a Multi-Purpose Cadastre," released by the "Committee on Geodesy" and referring to studies published "quinquennially." It stated: "As the most comprehensive source of timely statistics emanating from local assessing and recording offices, the Bureau of Census has an operational interest in the progress affecting these offices.

Consequently, the bureau endorses all reasonable efforts to simplify and thus modernize parcel identification systems, in a sequence of expeditious evolution for multi-purpose land data systems." Got that, or are you lost? Quin- quennially means every five years, geodesy is a branch of mathematics dealing with geography and a cadastre is a public record of property for tax purposes..