Columbia Daily Tribune from Columbia, Missouri • 1

VOL LXXVIII No 322 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 8 1979 COLUMBIA MISSOURI 48 PAGES PRICE 20' director of public relations Jack Hackethorn has resigned at the request of the new president Eric Thompson Nick Kelsh photo Hackethorn forced to quit MA By JE MUNZINGER of the staff Newly elected Missouri armers As sociation President Eric Thompson quickly began making organizational changes yesterday seeking the resigna tions of two officials during his first day in office Thompson whose election to the farm cooperative Monday ended the 33 year tenure of red Heinkel late yester day received the resignation of Jack Hackethorn public relations director of Midcontinent armers Associa tion branch since 1951 resignation which will not take effect for about two weeks fol lowed that of longtime MA executive LC Carpenter Carpenter vice president of public af fairs for the Midcontinent armers As sociation had worked for MA since 1956 Thompson could not be reached for comment this morning but Hackethorn said he understands the new president will seek the resignations of perhaps four other executives in the Midcontin ent armers Association not free to speculate on Hackethorn said Meanwhile the downtown buildings that house MA offices also are chang ing Heinkel has vacated his office at 201 Seventh St and moved into quarters at the MA Insurance 1817 Broad way of which he remains chairman Thompson who is expected to occupy old office today continued to work from the MA Building at 200 Seventh St where he has been stationed as the director of em ploye relations elevation to the MA pre sidency Hackethorn said does not carry with it an automatic promotion to the top leadership positions of various MA organizations Heinkel also head ed Heinkel who also could not be reached this morning will continue to serve as board chairman of the MA In surance Cos MA Oil Co and MA Livestock Association Hackethorn said But he said he believes con tinued role in MA organizations will pose no problems for Thompson Each of the separate affiliates chooses i f' MMI BIS I LutfiLauiKl ill (SB I I rag JRg KOS tBjBIl "IS I i I Uffl 1 jMSTL 15 I I j'4 B5 jy iMlyra ZZ? 1' BwJ I 4 HI' PffefifaiJ yra ly mg katM mMbh 1 'vM' I Iffinmit irmBi 1 rt Pa 1 8 tn im frV kf I 'I BIW IV 49 I its own leader Hackethorn said and each board but does not have elect Thompson to a board position Heinkel also serves as chairman president or board member of various other MA organizations including the MA Milling Co irst Missouri Cop the MA oundation the armers Live stock Marketing Association and the MA Retirement Plan During the short but intense campaign battle between Heinkel and Thompson Hackethorn was quoted in the Kansas City Times describing Thompson as man with all the attributes of a dog ex cept But he said today he think that comment precipitated re quest for his resignation imagine it happened anyway Hackethorn continued making reference to his association with Heinkel years of loyalty to one man makes it a little hard to switch a new man undoubtedly wants his own press person agreed to submit a resignation in writing but I done it yet be cause I want to take a couple days and do a good job I want it to be just a hereby sort of Hackethorn well known to members of the press and politicians throughout Missouri already has received a few job offers nothing serious One was from an a avertising agency that wondered if be interested in doing some consulting work going out to farms now and then to writes stories and take pictures not the 68 year old Hackethorn said can get by not like in my late 40s and trying to get started again That would be a lot office walls are covered with photos of MA leaders and nu merous politicians including former President Harry Truman and Gov Joe Teasdale But the one time executive secretary of Democratic State Commit tee thinks stay away from any full time political jobs always been interested in Hackethorn said of politics never again want to depend on it for a living I got baptized early on In addition office walls are lined with photos of Missouri mules which occupy a soft spot in his heart But like politics Hackethorn foresees no full time job working with an organi zation such as the Missouri Mule Associ ation too he joked Hackethorn who moved here at the age of 4 and is well known to longtime Boone County residents almost accept ed a government job in Washington DC when he joined MA in 1951 was all set to go to work for former Sen Stuart Hackethorn re called a senator then he was in charge of dismantling the Army after the war I was approached by MA to come over here I was about to get mar ried and my wife want to go to Washington so I joined MA been here ever since eligible for retirement but I want to keep busy because my work has been my hobby I guess you could say avail Voters support bridge bond issue by3 to margin Related story on Page 2 By KEVIN MORAN of the staff Boone Countians bought themselves 103 new bridges yesterday Only a tiny minority of the 49368 registered voters participated ELECTIOn 79 in the $75 million bridge bond issue election But the 3388 who did supported the massive bridge re placement and repair program 3 to 1 And though they may use the bridges only infrequently Columbia voters lent al most unqualified support to the ambitious bridge renovation program Of 14 precincts in which city residents voted only one failed to give two majority support to the the county con struction program But even in that IB and 2A 655 per cent of the voters sup ported the issue In contrast voters in three out county areas missed the two mark Sixty one per cent of voters in the Station Hallsville area approved the bond issue and 662 per cent of those in the Midway Rocheport area supported the program In the Centralia area where Centalia Special Road District residents pay higher road taxes than other Boone Countians a but not two of voters supported the bond issue The bond issue is expected to increase the county road and bridge tax levy from 35 to about 53 cents per $100 assessed valu ation of property this year an average increase of about 29 per cent for each property taxpayer Boone County Court Presiding Judge Bill reeh today said he is delight the bond issue passed and to get going what will be the biggest county construction program in history Besides replacing 103 bridges the county will use the bond proceeds to repair another 144 rural bridges reeh said engineers will begin work on the bridge program poss ibly even getting some construction or re pair done this year Original plans called for construction and repair work to begin next spring and end by December 1982 Although delighted that voters agreed to raise property taxes to finance the bridge program reeh said he was at the meager turnout think anybody likes to have a larger he said reeh said he thinks the of organ ized to the bond issue duced both the pro and con in yes election Like reeh Northern District Judge Dick armer today expressed disappoint ment at the number of persons who took the trouble to go to the polls But that armer said overshad the joy he felt at the bond 3 to 1 passage It was armer who first proposed plac ing the bond issue on ballot He did so after a state sponsored survey indicated scores of the 324 bridges were in unsafe condition County officials particularly were concerned about school buses corssing weak bridges proposed it because I felt there were no other armer said And the judge believes elec tion may have statewide impact lot of county officials across the state were looking at this possibly to help gauge whether inflation plagued voters can be convinced of the critical con ditions on most rural bridge systems he said vote was unique in that only 25 polling places were set up countywide Normally 50 polling places are in opera tion for a countywide election Boone County Clerk Chris Kelly who directs elections here last night said he re duced the number of polling stations to save money Kelly estimated costs for election at about $10000 With 50 polling places he claimed the election would have cost about $9000 more He said in the last special election here the county spent about $3 per vote Votes in election cost about $260 each The clerk admitted reducting the number of polling places may have affect ed the number of voters but only The staff in fact took pains to make getting to the polls easier in some precincts he said or instance instead of setting up Co lumbia Precincts 6A and 6B at Lee School Kelly said voter registration staffers chose Paquin Tower yesterday Many older and handicapped persons live in the high rise apartment building While he might be criticized by some for halving the number of polling places Kelly said he also has been criticized for spend ing too much money on minor elections lose either the clerk said with a shrug KCBJ sold to Ohio media chain pending CC approval By KEN USON of the staff KCBJ TV Channel 17 in Columbia has been sold to an Ohio media chain subject to approval from the ederal Communica tions Commission the Tribune has learned A station advertisement scheduled to appear in Tribune said the station has been puchased by the Wooster Repub lican Printing Co of Wooster Ohio President of the Ohio company is Ray mond Dix a 1934 graduate of the Universi ty of Missouri Columbia A family spokesman who asked that his name not be used confirmed the sale this morning saying representatives from KCBJ TV and Wooster agreed to the sale few days The spokesman refused to release terms of the contract is still very he said still own the sta tion in strictest legal KCBJ TV is owned by Channel Seven teen Inc The president Rich ard Koenig refused to confirm the sale this morning not out for publication at this he said have no comment not official been no sale at this The Wooster spokesman said the com pany hopes to receive CC approval within three to six months In the meantime no immediate pro gram changes are planned behoove me to say what we realistically can or cannot do before the ap proves the sale he said In its advertisement KCBJ TV said son Tom will remain as the sta general manager after the transi tion The sale marks the second time the Wooster firm has entered the television field The company currently owns nine daily eight in Ohio and one in and three radio stations based in Ohio Virgina and Maryland The spokesman said the station owned a Wheeling WVa television station from 1952 to 1957 He said the company expected no major problems taking over the Ameri can Broadcasting Co affiliate in Colum bia a very loose operation the spokesman said strictly a family And he said the president Ray mond Dix is familiar with Columbia and the Mid Missouri area from his college ex perience and subsequent visits The spokesman gave no indication if pro graming alterations would be made in KCBJ TV schedule But he did say the company focuses on at its other holdings KCBJ news operation in Columbia consistently ranks below those of KOMU TV Channel 8 in Colum bia and KRCG TV Channel 13 in Jeffer son City But Wooster could benefit from KCBJ affiliation with ABC That network ranks first nationally in prime time televi sion ratings uture plans for Koenig were not made public this morning Koenig has been at the helm since it first went on the air in December 1971 He also has been highly visible at times on the local television scene In 1975 the station petitioned the CC asking that KOMU TV which is owned by the University of Missouri Columbia be made a non commercial station The CC rejected the request And in 1976 the station filed an objection to the CC concerning TC Industries plans to bring cable televison to Co lumbia which Koenig was firmly against That request also was rejected Inflation recession pose short term Social Security funding problem (C) 1979 The Washington Post WASHINGTON The Congressional Budget Office has warned that continued inflation and the slumping economy threa ten short run financing of the Social Secu rity system and suggested that new taxes or other infusions of money soon may be needed The warning based on a series of pessi mistic assumptions about the economy comes at a time when many members of Congress are considering postponing a big Social Security tax increase approved in 1977 to take effect in 1980 It also comes as the Carter administra tion looking ahead to next year has sug gested that if a tax cut is needed to offset the recession the most desirable cut would be in the Social Security payroll tax In a July 31 letter to House Budget Com mittee Chairman Robert Giaimo Conn budget office director Alice Rivlin said that inflation and anticipated eco nomic slowdown have brought the short run financial soundness of the Social Secu rity system into question The economic assumptions were devel oped by the House Budget Committee and are gloomier than projections by other government agencies If the more optimis tic assumptions prove correct there would The weather Clear to partly cloudy continued hot and humid tonight and tomorrow Low tonight in the low 70s High tomorrow In the middle 90s South to southwest winds tonight 5 to 10 mites per hour 4 be less cause for worry The budget office said the problem could be handled by increasing the payroll tax allowing the old age insurance fund to bor row from the US Treasury on a tempo rary basis or borrowing from the disability or health insurance funds certainly talking about a crisis involving the collapse of the Social Security Robert Reischauer budget office deputy director said Rather he said it is a matter of a terioration of fiscal because projections of inflation and general eco nomic conditions are far worse than proj ections in 1977 when Congress enacted new Social Security taxes designed to end financing problems for a generation The key problem is that it is going to take years before the taxing schedule laid out in 1977 begins to pile up substantial extra money Meanwhile because of auto matic cost of living increases in benefits inflation has kicked benefit levels up higher than were expected according to the analysis As a result the balance in the old age and survivors insurance fund which at the start of 1979 was equal to 34 per cent of an ticipated outlays for the year is expected to drop to 54 per cent of anticipated out lays by not enough to ensure cash flow to pay all benefits The budget office analysis said the prob lem could be solved by any of six different methods One method would be to allow the old age fund to borrow from the disability or health insurance funds both which are fin anced by specied portions of the overall Social Security payroll tax and right now are in better shape than the old age fund If the fiscal balance of the old age and dis ability funds were combined the overall balance expressed as a percentage of an ticipated outlays would be 124 per cent in 1984 Robert Myers former chief actuary of Social Security and Robert Ball former commissioner both said in interviews that a 124 per cent figure should be enough to get past the short run crisis of the 1980s and that the balance then should begin to increase as new tax revenues begin accu mulating The Rivlin letter said however that 124 per cent projection could drop should the economy go into deeper reces sion than the budget office estimates were assuming Other methods for getting around the problem outlined by the budget office: bor rowing from general Treasury revenues putting a cap on cost of living increases in Social Security for example holding such increases to 7 per cent the guideline figure for wages in stead of raising them the full 103 per cent now projected for June 1980 and perma nently using general revenues to finance all or part of the Social Security system The budget office made no recommenda tions but simply outlined ways to shore up the system temporarily Last April when the Social Security trustees issued their annual report they projected that the Social Security old age and disability trust funds require any financing other than' that already scheduled for the next 50 years as long as the economyjtook the Mexican spill threatens industries rom Tribune wire services CORPUS CHRISTI Texas The first wave of what authorities fear may be a massive invasion of spilled oil hit island beaches south of here yester day imperiling the vital fishing and tourist industries Globs of crude oil some as large as baseballs but most no bigger than a fingernail began washing up on coast al beaches along the Gulf of Mexico about 30 miles north of Brownsville Texas So far there have been no reports that any of the coming from a run away Mexican well in the Bay of Cam peche that already has spewed more than 100 million gallons into the has eluded sophisticated traps designed to protect sensitive spawning grounds for marine life But officials warned of a remote pos sibility that the spill could travel all the way up the Gulf Coast to Louisiana and perhaps even as far as lorida Of more concern than the island beaches were the waters of the Laguna Madre a large bay filled with marshy inlets wedged in between Padre Island and the Texas mainland ederal offi cials have said that while any oil even tually could be removed from the beaches oil creeping into the environ mentally sensitive laguna could kill or damage fish shrimp and other marine life which spawn or develop there The Coast Guard has placed booms across two important gaps in the is land called which could allow oil to flow into the laguna Coast Guard Capt Roger Madsen the coordinator of federal efforts to keep as much oil as possible away from the US coast said he was confident that barring a major hurricane or storm oil on the surface of the water would not get past the booms But he acknowledged that there was little the Coast Guard could do to stop submerged oil from flowing under the booms and into the Laguna Madre A University of Texas research ship has detected several small pieces of called tar floating deep be neath the surface of the water It has taken more than two months for the oil which Madsen said was drifting north at the rate of about 10 miles a day to reach the US main land The oil began belching out of a well in Mexico's Bay of Campeche that blew out June 3 and which officials fear may not be capped for another month It spews 20000 barrels of oil each day While a 150 man team of experts is working to identify and protect envi ronmentally sensitive locations along the coast it is becoming clear that ocean not scientific exper are being counted on to avert a disaster Dr Jon Robinson a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad ministration said that the current in the Gulf normally shifts from a north erly flow to a southerly flow in Sep tember expected to find a southerly flow of current somewhere out there which will blow the into the Robinson said oil will eventually all break up into tar balls and eventually find its way into the Gulf Stream Some of it will undoubtedly Coastal analysis teams have been mapping areas along the Texas coast which especially may be vulnerable to oil and therefore need special protec tion Robinson said He said the teams would soon move into Louisiana which could be harder to protect because there are few natural barriers like Padre Island to protect the coastline Madsen said no oil had been spotted yet in any of the protective booms and no sea life had been washed ashore with the oil which has landed on the beaches But agents of the US ish and Wildlife Service have scheduled a demonstration riday for the public on how to clean oil soaked birds The oil slick could present a serious threat to the thriving fishing in dustry particularly the $141 million a year Texas shrimp business that has its headquarters in the Corpus Christi region may lose a whole sea explained Nick Mavar a member of the Gulf of Mexico ishery Management Council is the height of the fishing season The spill is at the wrong Harold Allen deputy regional direc tor of the National Marine isheries Service said that shrimp had survived for years along the Louisiana coast de spite minor oil spills and the continu ing presence of occasional tar balls But he added the present spill consi dered to be the largest in marine histo ry is so severe that it could harm shrimp and other aquatic life 4 i 4 42 IBisI Mi MW.