Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 37

Thursday's 86-point Big Board drop kept Pensacola stockbroker Keith Loughlin of Merrill Lynch busy, 8B Navarre Beach gets a long-range plan 3B Newsjournal To report a Local story: 243-7686 Pensacola, Florida Friday. September 12, 1986 BRIEFLY Boat capsizes; 5 plucked from Gulf p.m. Thursday when it was 9Vz miles south of Destin in the Gulf. Grahn said he and his passengers were attempting to position the boat to drop anchor when the anchor line became tangled around the boat's propeller. The craft swung around, forcing the stern into the waves.

The men on board managed to untangle the anchor line, but not before the waves began breaking over the stern. The waves swamped the boat, Grahn said. He tried to start the boat's motor and steer it out of danger, but he could not. By Barbara Janesh and Lisa Ashmore NewsJournal DESTIN Five area boaters were stranded atop their capsized boat in the Gulf of Mexico for about 40 minutes Thursday, before the U.S. Coast Guard came to their rescue.

None of the men aboard the boat, a 24-foot Proline, were injured, and according to the owner of the craft, none were worried over the prospect of rescue. "There was no danger. We knew we were going to be rescued," said Lt. Col. Victor Grahn of Niceville.

The boat got into trouble around 12:30 Grahn radioed the Coast Guard station at Destin and relayed the boat's location. Grahn and the passengers, James Humphrey and Thomas Parrot, both of Niceville, Peter Caldarelli of Fort Walton Beach, and Edward Parrot of Evergreen, I1L, put on life jackets. A few minutes later, the boat capsized, Grahn said. As it flipped, the five men, four of whom are on active duty in the Air Force, jumped into the water. They climbed onto the capsized craft and awaited rescue.

The 55th Rescue Squadron from Eglin Air Force Base responded to the scene and took one of the five men to shore. A 41-foot cutter from the Coast Guard arrived moments later and brought the other four passengers to safety. Grahn said the boat is still afloat in the Gulf and drifting to the north. He plans to retrieve it today. The boat recently had been renovated and was in "perfect condition," Grahn said.

Despite the mishap, he kept a positive outlook on the mishap Thursday evening: "What can I say. Nobody got hurt. That's the important thing." Bad-check writers bug lawmen, too Sheriff turns collector By John Helton News Journal SHALIMAR Clerks at the Okaloosa County Sheriffs Department who process warrants for worthless checks say there are people who write bad checks for a living. And when businesses can't collect on a check drawn on insufficient funds, a closed bank account, or no bank account at all, they turn to law enforcement agencies. Because the Sheriff's Department goes through a booking procedure fingerprinting, mug shots and bond as a deterrent, a proliferation of bad check writers puts a burden on the department.

About 7,800 worthless checks were filed with the state attorney's office in Okaloosa County last year, and the number could be more this year 5,500 cases already have been logged since Jan. 1. Sally Fortner, a warrants clerk in the department's criminal division, estimates half the department's case load is bad checks. "We've processed as many as 150 warrants a day," Fortner said. Pointing at a desk with a stack of warrants piling up to 6 inches high, she added: "Those are just from this morning." "Some people list 'worthless check writer' as their occupation," joked Deborah Sewart, Fortner's fellow warrants clerk.

Undersheriff Jerry Alford said Fortner may be exaggerating the percentage of the See BAD-CHECK, 2B Iff in fe afafc frarn 1 rriSam flu. Bruce GranerNews Journal An anonymous donor, left, talks with Laurel Hill neighbors Billy Harrell and George Holder, above, as renovation continues on the house the donor is providing Rutheford and Faye Corbett and their nine children. Missing husband, 3 children OK in Arizona Bike-a-thon benefits cystic fibrosis fund A bike-a-thon to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday on Persimmon Street near the First Baptist Church in Choctaw Beach in Walton County.

The bike-a-thon is called "Ride for Eddie," after 13-year-old Eddie Murphy, who has cystic fibrosis. Murphy, a ninth-grader at Freeport High miles. Choctaw Beach is about 10 miles east of Niceville on Highway 20. Pledge sheets are available at Quick Way in Choctaw Beach, Freeport High School and Choctaw Beach Volunteer Fire Department. Prizes will go to those collecting the most money.

For more information, call 897-2050. 20th Shrine Fair to have extra-big midway FORT WALTON BEACH The Okaloosa County Shrine Fair will celebrate its 20th anniversary this fall with an attraction that entertained at the Statue of Liberty renovation celebration this summer. The fair, Sept. 26-Oct. 4., features the carnival's Midway, which took part in July 4 festivities in New York City.

Fair coordinator Bull Rigdon says that while the Midway is one of the largest brought to Northwest Florida, "We'll still create a genuine, old-time, country fair environment." League of Women Voters holding brunch Saturday FORT WALTON BEACH The Okaloosa League of Women Voters will kick off their 1986-87 season Saturday with a brunch at the Seagull Restaurant on Okaloosa Island. The League is trying to attract new members, male or female, age 18 or over. There will be a presentation of the organization's goal of informed and active participation in government issues. To make reservations, call Lyndia Trainer at 651-1554. State hires handicapped to maintain rest areas The Florida Department of Transportation will spend $842,000 annually in 10 counties and initially employ 80 to 100 handicapped employees beginning this month.

"They will maintain and operate our rest areas under the same criteria we presently use for contract maintenance," said DOT District Maintenance Engineer Julian McCrary. "It's our policy to use handicapped services whenever possible and we took advantage of this opportunity." The workers will be provided by the Association for Retarded Citiz.ens through an agreement with RESPECT (Rehabilitative Enterprises: Services and Products) of Florida, a service of the Florida Association of Rehabilitation Facilities. ARC workshops in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Washington, Holmes, Gadsden, Leon, Jackson, Madison and Jefferson counties have contracted with RESPECT of Florida to provide maintenance services. McCrary said the arrangement is patterned after a similar program in Ohio. "We anticipate this contract will provide 10 to 15 jobs per rest area for handicapped citizens who often have problems finding meaningful job opportunities." Fall schedule announced for community education FORT WALTON BEACH The Community Education Office of Okaloosa County is offering the following courses at Choctawhatchee High School this fall.

For pre-registration or information call 244-2161, ext. 237. Calligraphy: Mondays, 7-9 p.m., Sept. 22-Nov. 24.

Writing for Fun and Profit: Tuesdays, p.m., Sept. 16-Oct. 21. Introduction to Investment Planning: Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m., Sept. 24-Oct.

29. Advanced Painting in Acrylics: Thursdays, p.m., Sept. 25-Oct. 30. All About Sailing: Thursdays, 7-9 p.m., Sept.

25-Dec. 18. Hunter Safety: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7-9 p.m., Sept. 30-Oct. 16.

Powder Puff Automotive Mechanics: Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m., Sept. 16-Nov. 18. The following courses will be offered at Niceville High School: Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation: Tuesday and Thursdays, p.m., Sept. 16-25.

Lamaze: Thursdays, p.m., Sept. 11 -Oct. 30. Powder Puff Automotive Mechanics: Thursdays, p.m., Sept. Basic Bookkeeping: Tuesdays, 8-9 p.m., Sept.

23-Nov. 25. othy, 4, had mysteriously disappeared nearly two weeks ago, and she asked law enforcement officials to investigate. According to an anonymous benefactor who came to the couple's aid when they were stranded in their converted schoolbus home near Pensacola in July, Corbett called from Arizona on Tuesday to say that he and the children were all right. LAUREL HILL Rutheford Corbett, 60, and his three small children, missing from here since Aug.

29, are alive and well in Arizona, according to an anonymous donor who providing a home for the once-stranded Corbett family and their nine children. Corbett 's wife, Faye, reported that Rutheford and her three smallest children Kimberly, Gordon, 2Vi, and Tim Eglin museum to honor Vietnam POWs, MIAs Air Force pays tribute to prisoners of war Ex-prisoner of war makes new sacrifice: POW exhibit items The new exhibit opens at 2 p.m. today at Eglin Air Force Base's Armament Museum. By Elizabeth Donovan NewsJournal EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE You've probably heard about people who donate their bodies to science but how about a person who gave his pajamas? Elizabeth Donovan NewsJournal EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE As of today, the Air Force Armament Museum on Highway 85 no longer will be just a showcase for aircraft and weapons. A new POWMIA exhibit opens at 2 p.m.

today in recognition of the human side of the Air Force, museum director Russ Sneddon said. The exhibit includes a simulated Vietnam prisoner of war cell, POW artifacts such as soap, toothpaste and cigarettes, and historical displays about POWs from as far back as the Civil War, Sneddon said. Sneddon said the POW exhibit lends an important dimension to the museum. "A lot of POWs were Air Force pilots who got shot down," Sneddon said. "Here we have things that were used and developed for Air Force armament, but this exhibit pays tribute to the men who paid with their lives or part of their lives." A series of events is planned around the POW exhibit, Sneddon said.

A special ceremony will begin outside the museum, where the Eglin AFB choir The POWs called them "Ho Chi Minh slippers," he said, after the leader of what was then known as North Vietnam. Shot down by a missile while flying an RB-66 aircraft, Hubbard, then 28, was forced to eject and was captured north of Hanoi in 1966. Hubbard said he spent 15 days at the brutal POW camp known as the Hanoi Hilton, before being moved to "The Zoo," where he spent most of his 2,420 days in captivity. Life as a POW for Hubbard meant 76 days of solitary confinement and innumerable beatings. Hubbard said he sometimes had wished he would be killed.

Asked why he didn't destroy all his POW souvenirs after his release in 1973, Hubbard said that he did not want to erase seven years of his life from memory. Former prisoner of war Ed Hubbard, 48, donated the maroon-and gray-striped pajamas he wore in a Vietnam prison to the Air Force Armament Museum's POW cell exhibit, which opens toHav will sing, a color guard will present the flag and the Armament Division's commander, Maj. Gen. Gordon E. Fornell, will speak.

A group of F-15 fighter aircraft will fly overhead in the "missing man" formation. From there, the ceremony moves inside, where Fornell will present the POW exhibit and former POW Col. Ed Hubbard will speak. Then the Eglin choir will sing patriotic songs while the public views the exhibit. The event is free and refreshments will be served.

Sneddon admits the jail cell exhibit a mannequin dressed in authentic POW pajamas and sandals and seated on a bench isn't very elaborate, but he points out that "cells over there were quite crude." Hubbard Hubbard, now a colonel and the Armament Division's chief of safety at Eglin, also gave the exhibit a pair of black sandals his captors made from rubber tire treads. FWB Mayor Shortall: Fire referendum is no 'fast one' contracting with private firefighters. City firefighters, represented by International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2601, who oppose the move, succeeded in having the question placed before voters this fall. "The referendum is not for or against privatization," Shortall said. "It's for or against looking into privatization." If voters approve the referendum, the city will not be able to hire a private firm for fire protection services, nor will it be able to consolidate its fire department with other south Okaloosa County agencies, Shortall said.

The latter is an option the mayor said he wants to pursue. If the referendum is defeated, a private system will not be adopted automatically, Shortall said. City officials will continue to investigate the possibility and if it seems feasible, they will present the mat The firefighters' union responded through a prepared statement, calling the action "an awkward attempt to blackmail the voters of Fort Walton Beach." Shortall said he prepared the pledge and is asking council members to sign it because "there have been people Who have stated that when the election's over we're going to have privatization (if the referendum is defeated). They say we're trying to pull a fast one" and are trying to bypass input from residents. Neither claim is true, he said.

During the past year, city officials have been investigating the possibility of contracting with a private company for fire protection services in an effort to save money. Preliminary investigation, Shortall said, indicates that the city could cut its annual $l-million fire protection budget by about 25 percent through ter to residents in public hearings before any contract is signed, he said. The pledge signed by city officials should serve as a written guarantee, Shortall said, adding that he expects all city council members to sign the document. Jim Sheridan, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2601 representing city firefighters, said "the citizens don't require a special pledge from their own city councilmen or the mayor to carry out their desires." The people have already spoken on the issue by signing petitions calling for the referendum, said Sheridan, reading the firefighters' statement. "We view the mayor's statement as an awkward attempt to blackmail the voters of Fort Walton Beach," Sheridan said.

He See CITY, 2B By Barbara Janesh News Journal FORT WALTON BEACH City officials Thursday promised to ask voters for their thoughts about switching from municipal to private fire protection service here if they defeat a November referendum on the issue. On the Nov. 4 ballot, voters will be asked to decide whether the city should be required to provide police and fire protection services with city personnel. "I want to make it very clear that we're not trying to pull a fast one on anyone," said Mayor John Shortall. Shortall joined City Manager Chuck Ingram and Councilmen Ralph Rivers and Lee Bobo, in signing a written "pledge to hold public hearings and accept voters' input before any action is taken to change our fire department.".