The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 31

06 00 C. Section Region Sunday, The August 23, State 1981 Remap Plan Hartnett Asks: Why Run To Lose? United Press International ISLE OF PALMS Freshman Rep. Thomas F. Hartnett, says he probably won't run for re-election if the General Assembly adopts the socalled McLeod plan for congressional reapportionment. "There's no sense in getting my brains beat out in a district I can't win," Hartnett said from his beach house.

"Right now I am planning to run and we're putting together the committee and the mechanism to run again. But I can't say definitely I've made up my mind one way or the other. I assume we'll run again and that's what our plans are. "But I don't know what chance I'd have in the McLeod district." The South Carolina House adopted a congressional reapportionment plan called the McLeod plan that would take heavily Republican Berkeley County from its traditional tie with Charleston County in Hartnett's 1st District and put in the neighboring 6th District. But the state Senate, narrowly defeating the McLeod plan that is named after state Sen.

Peden McLeod, D- Colleton, approved another congressional remap plan that leaves Hartnett's district much like it i is now. The McLeod plan would be of benefit to a Democrat who wanted to run for the 1st District because it adds Democratic Georgetown County, now in the 6th, i in exchange for the Republican Berkeley. Hartnett won Berkeley by a wide margin. at Maxie Roberts The State 'Reckon She'll A Columbia Metropolitan Airport security officer servists from Fort Jackson to California. Larger is dwarfed by the giant wing and engines of a Boeing military planes have visited the airport, but Satur747 that arrived Saturday to transport Army re- day's landing was the first at Columbia by a 747.

One Time She Didn't Read The Fine Print Sarah Touchton blushes when she talks about the time a parcel service lost her package and she found out too late the service's insurance would only pay $100. She ought to blush. As the state's foremost recipient of consumer complaints, she spends a lot of time telling people they should have read the fine print before they handed over. the money. "I didn't read the insurance form," she admitted with a sigh during an interview last week.

"Well, everybody learns. It's never too late to learn." Mrs. Touchton is executive assistant for consumer services in the state Department of Consumer Affairs. She supervises a staff of analysts and clerical employees who field between 300 and 400 written complaints every month from people who think the business community did them wrong. Nearly 20 percent of the complaints are about cars and trucks, another 13.5 percent concern mail-order merchandise that failed to arrive and more than 8 percent are against building contractors.

"I do worry about mail orders," says Mrs. Touchton. SARAH TOUCHTON "People spend so much money without knowing who they're SARAH TOUCHTON By DAVID TOMLIN Associated Press Patriot's Point Where Once Was A Dump Is A Tribute To The Sea By WALLACE C. HITCHCOCK Orangeburg Bureau MOUNT PLEASANT A peninsula in Charleston Harbor that once was a dumping ground is fast becoming the site of a unique naval and maritime museum and a top tourist attraction. The peninsula, formerly called Hog Island, now is known as Patriot's Point; it is the permanent home of the U.S.S.

Yorktown, the famous World War II aircraft carrier nicknamed "The Fighting Later this year, the Yorktown will be joined by the nuclear ship Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered merchant ship; the U.S.S. Laffey, a World War II destroyer; and the World War II diesel-powered submarine Clamagore. Plans for the Patriot's Point project include a championship golf course, a major motel, a 500-slip marina, a recreational vehicle park and an amphitheater. The work at Patriot's Point began in 1973 when the General Assembly created the Patriot's Point Development Authority to improve the area and establish a naval and maritime museum on the peninsula. Charles F.

Hyatt, a former naval and maritime officer who is now vice president of First National Bank in Columbia, has been chairman of the authority since its creation. Born in the mountains of Tennessee, Hyatt's interest in ships began after he -finished high school and started working at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia. Hyatt went to sea at age 18 and saw the aftermath of World War II on hospital and cargo ships. He made 64 crossings of the Atlantic Ocean prior to his 23rd birthday. "Once you go to sea, you never forget the sea," Hyatt said.

"There's something that keeps drawing you back." About a dozen years ago, Hyatt started drumming, up support for A Established Consumer Law Under Attack, Nader Tells Lawyers Special to The State HILTON HEAD ISLAND The auto industry's refusal to sell air bags is the equivalent of drug companies refusing to sell polio vaccine, consumer advocate Ralph Nader said Saturday. "They've worked so well that Gen'eral Motors is ashamed of them," Nader told the annual convention of the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association at the Hyatt hotel. GM disbanded its air bag program four months ago, and Nader' expects the Reagan administration to rescind regulations that require them in future cars. What's happening with airbags is an example of "a sophisticated counterattack" on 50 years of consumer law by the Reagan administration and insurance companies, Nader said. RALPH NADER Recently disclosed industry docu- RALPH NADER dealing with or seeing what the merchandise is really like." Pest control companies are showing up more in the complaints these days too, she says.

So are hotels and motels and health spas. Mrs. Touchton says complaints are running well ahead of last year, and one reason may be the economy. "We're getting a lot of questions about credit billing," she says. "It seems to be people who can't pay the bill and don't think they have to.

They think they're being harassed if the creditor calls them." Many complaints are settled simply by determining the facts and explaining them carefully to the complainer. In other cases, businesses refund money, make repairs or provide replacement products. One way or another, Mrs. Touchton says about twothirds of the complaints are "satisfied," at least in the eyes of her office. Roughly 10 percent can't be settled because it's hard to say who's at fault, and 7.8 percent are referred to agencies or attorneys for civil or criminal court action.

The rest are evenly divided between those left unsettled because the business doesn't respond and those in which the consumer quits fighting or was wrong to begin with. (See NOW, 13-C, Col. 1) ments show massed-produced air bags would cost $100 each, not more than $1,000 as Detroit automakers claimed, Nader said. Air bags installed in 10,000 GM vehicles during the 1970s show they are capable of stemming America's leading cause of death, he said. Trial lawyers should undertake a grassroots campaign making air bags such "an intimate, urgent issue" that the government "won't dare" relax regulations, he said.

Lawyers should get out of their conference rooms and clubs to lead a broad coalition including consumer groups, the elderly and labor to achieve "planning and respect for human rights" from the "reactionary" Reagan administration, Nader said. The convention's keynote speaker, Nader was stumping for the National Trial Lawyers Advocacy Firm, a nonprofit corporation funded by member attorneys, which he said would provide "critical countervailing power to the corporate interests that dominate public forums." Nader sees himself and the administration on opposite sides of "a massive national struggle over whether technology and capital are going to respect the rights to health and safety of present and future generations, or whether the corporate juggernaut with the dollar foremost in mind is going to sacrifice the lives and health of millions of Americans." Industry is "exploding" with hazardous chemicals, he said. Neither environmental science nor the law has kept pace, he said. Nader, a former trial lawyer, rose to national prominence in 1965 after publication of "Unsafe at Any Speed," an indictment of GM's safety practices. Nader recently called budget director David Stockman insensitive and urged Stockman to visit daycare centers and ride with state highway patrolmen to experience the effects of his budget cuts.

He continued criticism of the administration Saturday, calling it "so extremist and so reactionary that it even makes the Nixon and Ford years look benign. Once you get behind the smiles you see an incredible harshness, brutality, indifference and callousness. It is shocking even to those who expected the worst." Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis and other Reagan appointees "are refusing to uphold their oath of office and uphold the law of the land" by failing to enforce safety laws, Nader said. "This is not an area of discretion. It's a black-and-white destruction of the mission of these agencies," he said.

The administration and insurance companies are seeking to undermine legal procedures followed in product liability cases, Nader said. Nader praised the state Trial Lawyers Association for its efforts to preserve South Carolina consumer law and urged members to make consumer protection a political issue for South Carolina congressmen and senators. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings "is one of the greatest puzzles I've ever seen in the U.S.

Senate," he said. "Hollings knows the right thing to do, but he's afraid if he does it he'll be smeared," Nader said. The U.S.S. Yorktown naval museum in South Carolina similar to the ones in Wilmington, N.C., and Mobile, where the U.S.S. North Carolina and U.S.S.

Alabama are berthed as tourist attractions. Hyatt's enthusiasm spread and he Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. said he received statewide support for John E. Guerry a former rethe project particularly in altor and mortgage banker, was an Charleston where retired Admiral original member of the Patriot's Point Herman Kossler and prominent Development Authority until he was citizen Joe Riley Sr. backed the idea.

named executive director in 1978. In 1972, Gov. John C. West asked Guerry, who heads a staff of 25, Hyatt to head a study committee to directs the activity at Patriot's Point look into what could be done. The from his office aboard the Yorktown, Patriot's Point Development Author- in space that once was the admiral's ity was created the next year.

bedroom. According to Hyatt, the General He said Clamagore will be opened Assembly directed the Authority to to the public this month and the Savantell the story of U.S. naval and nah in December. The Laffey will join maritime history emphasizing its the museum in May. contribution to American heritage The 18-hole golf course is schedand to develop Patriot's Point as an uled to be completed in October, entertainment and recreation center.

Guerry said. The long, rolling course, Hyatt is excited about what al- with many bunkers and 18 acres of ready has been accomplished at Patri- lakes and lagoons, will be leased to the ot's Point and is even more enthused Kemper Group, he said. about what is yet to come. The marina, 400-unit motel and "Patriot's Point is something for amphitheater, all scheduled for compresent and future generations to ap- pletion prior to 1985, also will be preciate and maybe future gener- leased to private enterprise, Guerry ations more than the present gener- said. ations," he said.

According to Guerry, income revThe 450-acre tract now owned by enue at Patriot's Point produces about the Patriot's Point Development Au- 65 per cent of the total annual operatthority was last used as a site to dumping budget of $1.3 million. dredgings from Charleston Harbor. Visits to the Yorktown now Visitors standing on the flight deck number about 200,000 a year, with of the Yorktown are afforded a pan- adults paying $4 admission and chiloramic view of the Cooper River, the dren ages 6 through 12 paying $2.50. Harbor, the city of Charleston, Castle The average visitor spends at least $1 Pinckney, Fort Sumter, Fort Johnson at the gift and souvenir shop. and Fort Moultrie.

When the three other ships are Hundreds of yachts, sail boats and berthed at the Patriot's Point piers, Navy and Coast Guard craft greeted the income revenue is expected to the Yorktown when she arrived in jump considerably, and the lease Charleston Harbor in June 1975 to agreements for the golf course, become the first ship of the naval and marina and other facilities will bring maritime museum. in more money. The Yorktown was opened to the Profits will be used to maintain the public in January 1976. More than one ships, naval and maritime equipment, million visitors have toured the air- artifacts, books, manuscripts, art and craft carrier, which was christened historical materials that make up the with champagne in April 1943 by First. museum, Hyatt said.

U.S. 17 North Charleston Bus. Gate Entrance 26 52 Picnic Area 17 R-V Park Display Concourse Charleston USS Yorktown Parking James Island USS Parking Patriot's Point Clamagore Golf Course USS Museum Laffey Parking Hotel INS Savannah Shops Amphitheatre Hotel Patriot's Poir Marina Proposal Patriot's Point has twice been named "'The Most Outstanding TaxSupported Attraction" at the Governor's Conference on Tourism and Travel. One of the most innovative programs was started in early 1980 when a 250-man berthing compartment aboard the Yorktown was reactivated for the Patriot's Point Scout program. Thousands of kids from Webelos, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Explorers and other organized groups spend a week or weekend camping aboard the aircraft carrier, learning what is was like to be a sailor on "The Fighting Lady." The kids sleep in the forward crew's quarters, eat in the chief petty officer's dining area, see movies in the ship's theater and tour the Yor decks.

There's a lot to see Yorktown. Vintage World fighter planes are on display al torpedo bombers, a helicopter and an anti-submarine aircraft "I'm proud of Patriot's Poin I'm proud for my children and children," Hyatt said..