North Adams Transcript from North Adams, Massachusetts • 1

DCJGDDG Spring Home and GardenCar Care supplement, MoCA study complete and ready for review By MICHAEL I. COHEN Transcript staff NORTH ADAMS The completed feasibility study of the proposed Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is in the hands of the nine commissioners who will either accept or reject it at the next commission meeting. Joseph Thompson, executive director of the MASS MoCA planning group, released a copy of the study to The Transcript today. "This is the document that will be put back on the table for the commission's review," Thompson said. The document spans hundreds of pages in 16 sections.

The studv sum marizes the volumes of technical and economic material prepared by Thompson's group and the consultants who worked on the project of converting an old mill complex into the largest museum of contemporary art in the world. This final study is the result of a meeting of the MASS MoCA Cultural Development Commission in October 1989, when the commission approved the first draft of the study, but made suggestions for several changes. "We took the comments from the last commission meeting and incorporated them into the study," Thompson said. Thompson said many changes in the final study are minor but there are some substantial changes. "I've done a more conservative analysis of the museum's operations, a "This Is the document that will be put back on the table for the commission's review." Joseph Thompson, executive director, MASS MoCA planning group.

series of 'what if scenarios' about the cost of running the museum," Thompson said. Thompson said he has updated and refined the construction timetable and the cost estimates since the October meeting. See MoCA, Page 10 "We hold the western gateway' Zk ommipt Serving Northern Berkshire and Southwestern Vermont 14 PAGES 35 CENTS TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1990 NORTH ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS 1 47TH YEAR No. 189 WA chapter eyes leasing state armory 'ill Sn Jf; sV. IJfei- s.

if Sprague kin sues dealer in fatal airplane crash By MICHAEL I. COHEN Transcript staff NORTH ADAMS Robert C. Sprague Jr. would have survived the 1987 airplane crash that claimed his life if that aircraft were properly designed, Sprague's widow asserts in a wrongful death suit filed in federal court. Geraldine L.

Sprague is suing Christen Industries Inc. of Wyoming, the manufacturer of the airplane, for a design defect in the Christen Eagle II airplane which Sprague claims caused the death of her husband. Mrs. Sprague filed the suit in federal district court, Springfield. "The crash was survivable and Bob Sprague would have survived had it not been for the fire and the unreasonably dangerous and defective condition and design of the aircraft," the suit reads.

"The Christen Eagle II was unsafe by reason of the dangerous design, construction and placement of the fuel tank and the lack of an adequate firewall or other protection from fire," the suit reads. On April 10, 1987 Sprague was approaching the Harriman- West Airport preparing to land when his airplane hit the top of some maple trees and crashed into the ground just short of the runway. According to the suit, the fuel tank in Sprague's airplane was located in front of the pilot's seat and there was no firewall between the pilot and the fuel tank. "At the time and place of the crash the fuel tank ruptured and fuel escaped and was ignited and fire spread into the cockpit and engulfed Bob Sprague in flames as he was attempting to evacuate the aircraft," the suit reads. Sprague, the son of Robert C.

Sprague, founder of the Sprague Electric was 63 years old when he died. Sprague Jr. retired from his father's company in 1982 as senior vice president of corporate relations. "We have evidence to support the allegation that Mr. Sprague was alive and able to move after the impact of the crash," Clifford Ross III of Pellegrini Seeley In Stockbridge, attorney for Mrs.

Sprague, said today. Ross said his case is based on information contained in the Federal Aviation Administration's investigation of the crash as well as eyewitness reports and "other sources. Dr. Benjamin Glick, Berkshire County Medical Examiner, performed an autopsy on Sprague and determined the cause of death to be burns suffered after his airplane crashed. There were "no underlying natural causes.

He had no other condition which would have caused the accident," Glick told The Transcript in 1987. The airplane Sprague was flying was a craft he built himself from a kit manufactured by Christen Industries. "Bob Sprague constructed the aircraft personally in a careful, prudent and meticulous manner, following the plans and instructions prepared and provided by the defendants," the suit reads. Mrs. Sprague is charging Christen Industries with wanton, reckless and wilful negligence in its design of the aircraft.

The suit asks for damages "in an amount reasonable, according to the evidence, including exemplary and punitive damages." Ross said the next step will be a "discovery" proceeding whereby he will ask to see all company documents relating to the aircraft in question, its design and its track record. Ross said the three years that have elapsed since the crash is not an especially long time considering the case. "The fact finding and investigation of these cases take quite a while," Ross said. Mrs. Sprague was not available for comment.

By ALEXANDER GROVES Jr. Transcript staff NORTH ADAMS The members of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 54, have an idea. The veterans are prepared to operate the National Guard Amrory on Ashland Street for a variety of uses. The only problem is the veterans are having a hard time getting a clear ruling from the state on how to lease the facility. "It's in limbo," said Eugene Lyons, Chapter 54 president, about the organization's efforts to use the building.

Lyons said the veterans would like to use the building as a youth center and a meeting place. Because of 'the state's on-going financial problems, Lyons said, the building is hardly ever used. He said Chapter 54, which has several years experience operating its own club, Firebase Trentino on River Street, is a group which could use the building's size and central location for the benefit of the city. William Bradley, a Chapter 54 member who will take over Lyons' role as president, said what concerns the veterans at this point is the fate of the building if the status quo is left unchanged. "We're really concerned about what happens to the building," he said.

Both Bradley and Lyons said the building is too valuable a resource not to be utilized. They said they fear it will deteriorate gradually over the years if it is not used. One of the possibilities Lyons and Bradley see for the building is as place for holding dances, since Chapter 54 has its own liquor license at Firebase Trentino. "We could just close this place for the night and transfer the license," Lyons said. The veterans also have their own insurance so any liability would be covered.

In addition, Bradley sees a possibility of the building being used by the North Adams School District. "The middle school really doesn't have a large auditorium," he said. Other uses of the club would include its use by the veterans and a reception area for its larger functions. The possibility of establishing a day care center and its use as a storage facility are also being tossed around by Chapter 54 members. Before any of that comes about, the Adjutant-General's office of the Massachusets National Guard must agree to an arrangement in which the veterans could use the building.

Lyons believes that, unlike the state, the veterans are financially able to keep the building operating. "We've got this place (Firebase Trentino) pretty much squared away," he said. Rep. Daniel Bosley, D-North Adams, said he has been trying to get a ruling from the Adjutant General's office but has been unable to get an answer. Bosley said the office, like many others in the state, has had its staff reduced by budget cuts, which makes obtaining information all the more difficult.

See Armory, Page 10 NEW PUMPS Paul Stasack of Metcalf and Getty station on State Road In North Adams. Eddy Co. Installs new electronic gas pump at (Transcript-John LeClalr) Soviets to cut natural gas and oil to Lithuania Gorbachev did not specify what supplies could be cut off, but Lithuania depends on the Kremlin for oil, gas, machinery, raw materials, chemicals and automobiles. MOSCOW (AP) Soviet officials ordered drastic cuts in natural gas supplies to Lithuania today, putting into force a threatened economic embargo to break the Baltic republic's drive for independence, Lithuanians said. Cuts in oil and gasoline are to begin Wednesday, Lithuanian officials said.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had given Lithuania until Sunday to repeal laws enacted since the republic's parliament declared independence March 11. "Implementing the orders of the government of the Soviet Union and those of the state gas concern supplies of natural gas ot the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic will be sharply reduced from the 17th of April," said a telegram sent by a Soviet gas official to Lithuanian authorities. Rita Dapkus, a spokeswoman for the Lithuanian Supreme Council, confirmed the telegram's text, which was broadcast on the republic's official radio and monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp. in London.

No official announcement was made immediately in Moscow. Teresa Juodenienie, a secretary for Premier Kazimiera Prunskiene, said in a telephone interview that the Lithuanian government received a telephone warning from the Druzhba, or Friendship, enterprise that supplies oil to Lithuania, saying that deliveries of oil and gasoline will be curtailed beginning Wednesday. She said the telegram announcing the natural gas reduction was sent only to Lithuania's gas authority rather than to the government, and that officials did not immediately know whether the cut already had taken effect and what percentage would be reduced. The news came after Lithuania's Parliament convened today to define a response to Gorbachev's ultimatum threatening an economic blockade. The republic's prime minister sent Gorbachev a telegram on Monday seeking a meeting to negotiate Moscow's objections to laws enacted in the Baltic state promoting its March 1 1 independence decree.

Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene said Lithuania's leaders were ready to discuss allowing residents who so desire to remain Soviet citizens and permitting Lithuanians to join the Soviet army if they so choose. She also expressed a willingness to discuss the protection of txrders. Gorbachev on Friday gave Lithuania 48 hours to rescind laws on those issues, or face a cutoff of products the Soviet Union supplies to the republic. The Soviet president described as "unconstitutional" such Lithuanian proposals as releasing Lithuanian youth from the annual spring conscription into the Soviet army and introducing the republic's own identity cards. Gorbachev did not specify what supplies could be cut off, but Lithuania depends on the Kremlin for oil, gas, machinery, raw materials, chemicals and automobiles.

The deadline expired Sunday night with no visible cut in deliveries. Gorbachev has refused to meet with Lithuanians unless the republic cancels its independence declaration and there was no immediate response to the telegram from Prunskiene. Lithuanian activists say they consider Gorbachev's ultimatum Friday to be a softening of his position because he did not demand outright that the republic revoke its independence declaration. In her telegram, Prunskiene said a broad economic boycott would damage both the Soviet and Lithuanian economy. If measures are not defined, Prunskiene said in an interview on Soviet See Lithuania, Page 10 1 50 poisoned at party Two fighter jets collide The numbers Massachusetts: Daily, 0871.

Tri-state: 481; 6642. The weather Mostly cloudy, windy and turning cooler today, showers likely with temperatures in the 50s. Tonight, clearing skies and colder with a chance for snow flurries, low 25-30. Partly sunny, brisk and quite cool Wednesday, high 40-45. Thursday, mostly sunny skies and not as cool.

Milder Friday with a chance for showers. Frank to run again BOSTON (AP) Congressman Barney Frank announced he will seek re-election this year, although a congressional ethics committee has yet to release a report on questions surrounding his relationship with a male prostitute. Frank initially said he would announce his decision after the report was released. But this morning he said the political calendar pushed him to make a decision beforehand. "I had hoped to make this decision after receiving the report of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (the ethics committee) however, that report is not yet available," Frank said in a prepared statement.

"The electoral calendar requires that nomination petitions be filed by May 8. LUCKNOW, India (AP) The death toll in a food poisoning outbreak from a marriage engagement party rose to 150 people today and an official said more fatalities were expected, news reports said. Hundreds of people were hospitalized after the feast Sunday in the northern village of Raipura Jungla near Lucknow, capital of the Uttar Pradesh state. At least 80 people were pronounced dead on Monday and 70 more died today, Press Trust of India reported. According to a preliminary investigation, a poisonous phosphorous compound apparently contaminated flour used for making puri, a puffy fried bread, and caused the deaths.

No reports from Lucknow have suggested foul play. West Germany (AP) TwoCana- dian air force fighter jets collided near this southwestern city today, killing one pilot, police said. The second pilot landed in his ejector seat on a busy highway and was hit by a car. Flaming debris fell over parts of the city, especially near the train station, and one person on the ground was slightly injured, authorities said. The condition of the second pilot, who landed on the A5 autobahn, was not immediately known.

"Luckily, damage (on the ground) was minimal," because the area where the planes crashed is not densely populated, a police spokesman said. He did not say if there was any damage from the falling aircraft debris. Police identified the aircraft as American-made F-18s flown by the Canadian air force. Adams 4 Classified 12-13 Comics 11 Obituaries 2 Sports 8-9 State News 14 Willlamstown 7 Editorial 6 National 5 Vermont 12.