The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 2

2- The Indiunapolis Stnr SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 1983 (SftDfl Section fo) Public ire just 1 barrier to PSI rate plan bers. "Realizing that, the governor decided he had to get involved." Public displeasure with the plan was being voiced at many Orr appearances around the state. Lubbers said. "People are very upset about it, but no more so than the governor." "THERE IS beginning to be an attitude on the part of the public that all utilities are out of control," Orr said last Wednesday when he made his request to the Public Service Commission. But the events leading up to Orr's decision are more complicated than just a quick move to get involved.

When public officials, consumer advocates and utility executives speak about Public Service Indiana's nuclear project these days, words like "extraordinary" and "unprecedented" are commonly used. three-member regulatory panel charged with setting rates that are fair both to consumers and utilities. THE COMMISSION, after several studies by engineering, firms and consultants, has decided that Marble Hill will be more economical to complete than cancel. Therefore, the commission said, a plan should be considered that would help PSI consumers cope with enormous rate hikes (50 percent when Unit 1 begins operation and 16 percent when Unit 2 starts up) that will occur when Marble Hill is completed. That -plan, developed with help from commission staff, was filed July 8.

It called for 8 percent increases, starting in November, for each of the three years until Marble Hill is completed and 8 percent hikes See RATE Page 14 By PATRICK T. MORRISON When Public Service Indiana officials filed a rate control plan with the Indiana Public Service Commission July 8, approval seemed assured. Seven weeks later. Gov. Robert D.

Orr persuaded the commission to stop any action on it until a panel he appoints comes up with alternatives. What happened in those seven weeks to cause such a reversal in the rate plan's fortunes? What circumstances led the governor to take the unprecedented step of "elevating this full matter" to his office? The answers to those questions involve a number of complicated factors, including a financially strapped utility's desperate need for additional cash revenues; a mammoth nuclear power plant being built on the Ohio River; legislative and The utility, Indiana's largest, serving' 540.000 customers in 69 counties, is building the most expensive power plant in Indiana history. COST ESTIMATES for the Marble Hill 'nuclear plant, rising on a bluff on the Ohio River near Madison, vary from $5.1 billion to $7.9 billion. Already invested in the nearly half completed project is $18 billion. Simply put, the enormous cost of building Marble Hill is suffocating the utility financially.

PSI officials admit that in the near future, the company will not only have to borrow all of the money needed for construction, but also will need outside financing to pay a portion of the company's interest and dividends. Into this picture insert the Indiana Public Service Commission, a queen, gypsies. the site 3,000 people showed up actresses, dressed in mingled with guests Market settings. in faii mim. I in--' ii Dan Carpenter 'Retired' wrestler Menacker still active SAM MENACKER tells of the lean times back in the 1930s.

when he was a kid wrestler on the make and had the privilege of being trained by a canny veteran named Tom Draak. After a few weeks of Draak's tutelage, Sam decided one day he was ready. "I know you've been going easy on me up to Menacker now," he remembers telling the old pro. "But I think I can beat you." Though retired from the ring and nearly blind from an illness, Draak agreed to wrestle for keeps. He spent the next seven or eight minutes rubbing the youngster's face into the mat.

"WHEN IT WAS over, I said, I don't understand; you taught me everything you He said, 'No, I didn't. I taught you everything you "That's an object lesson I've carried with me ever since." Sam Menacker went on to become an outstanding professional wrestler. He played strongman roles in several movies, including the giant ape thriller, "The Mighty Joe Young." He managed the late George Wagner, alias Gorgeous George, the original prissy bad guy of modern rasslin'. But to folks in Indianapolis, and many other cities from here to Texas to Australia, Slammin' Sammy Menacker is best known as a promoter and television ringmaster for a business where the line between violent sport and unabashed showmanship is carefully kept vague. They won't tell you everything they know, and if you're a real fan, you'd just as soon they didn't.

"THERE ARE only two things we can offer the public," Menacker says when you ask him if it's for real. "Entertainment and service meaning restrooms, concessions and so forth. The No. 1 draw at the box office, what pays the bills, is what you see in the ring." In case you haven't noticed, Sam Menacker isn't around the ring in Indianapolis anymore. Af- ter 12 years as right hand man to Dick "The Bruiser" Afflis, Menacker has split from the Afflis-owned Championship Wrestling Inc.

and is, in the words of both men. "semi-retired." At 63. Menacker now is living in Springfield, III. with his new, sixth wife, Sandra. And while he has done a little TV wrestling promoting in Kentucky since leaving here a few months ago, he is.

"as they say in the entertainment world, at liberty." DESPITE REPORTS that Sam felt that younger wrestlers weren't being moved up fast enough in Championship Wrestling, the two longtime colleagues insist their parting was amicable. Certainly, their relationship was fruitful. With the gravel-voiced Bruiser evolving from villain to top-of the-card hero, and the burly, bespectacled Menacker sounding the praises of "The World's Most Dangerous Wrestler" at ringside. See WRESTLE Page 13 PUBLISHER'S gubernatorial opposition to any prepayment for a power plant not yet completed; PSI rate increases of 50 percent or more which could occur within four years; and public opposition to the plan. IN PART, the governor acted last week because he and his aides felt the rate plan should not have prepayment provisions and because public doubt about the plan was so great.

"It was clear from ongoing conversations with Parvin Price (Indiana utility consumer counselor) that we were not going to have a plan without prepayment," said gubernatorial press secretary R. Mark Lub- ed as one of the United States's first astronauts. Locke, whose district is nominally Republican, added "No presidential candidate helps our ticket very much but he would be the best candidate against Ronald Reagan." In other comments at a news conference which started late because storms in southern Indiana delayed landing of Glenn's plane Glenn recited a litany of reasons why he deserves support. THEY INCLUDED: A 23-year career in the Marine Corps. "I'll only buy what we need for our defense, not what the last salesman on the Pentagon steps says." His stands on civil rights.

"I'll put my record civil rights against anyone's." Support of disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union. "I've been in two wars and had to write those next-of-kin letters. No one will negotiate for peace better than Glenn also chided President Ronald Reagan. "We now have a $200 billion deficit that will be paid off by our children's children." HE WENT on to criticize Mr. Reagan for "flip-flops in foreign policy." less enforcement of civil rights "just when we are over the hump," European minstrels, Crafts, just north The good oP days Gypsies perform for the crowd at the Middle Country Renaissance Festival, which began Saturday in Thorntown.

The festival, which will continue every weekend through Oct. 2, recreates a 16th-century village festivaT, including king and troubadours, a court jester and the food, wine and beer are available at of Lebanon. An estimated 2,000 to Tickets, ex-chief's demotion add spice to Southport life Speaks at French Lick Glenn tells Demos his bid strongest VynVv -'V 1 A By R. JOSEPH GELARDEN Star Staff Reporter French Lick. Ind.

U.S. Sen. John Glenn, DOhio, urged Indiana Democrats to support his presidential candidacy, saying he could best help the entire Democratic ticket in 1984. "I know that is very unhumble." the nine-year Senate veteran said. but I believe my candidacy is the strongest one.

"It is important to have a strong candidate at the top of the ticket. I want to be that candidate, to make a very strong party ticket from the White House to the courthouse." Glenn's statements were greeted warmly by Indiana Democratic Party regulars, meeting here for their annual end of the-summer get togeth er under the auspices of the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association. THIS IS THE 103rd meeting of Hoosier newspaper publishers who traditionally support the Democratic ticket. Glenn's candidacy seemed to make sense to many in the crowd. "He is conservative and a hero and that ain't bad." said Sam Locke.

Connersville, Democratic chairman in the state's Ninth District. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth when he was select memo Star photo by Jrry Clark for the first day. Actors and costumes of the 1 6th century, the King's Court and Village tions of traffic tickets issued by Southport's four part-time policemen. Holler discovered that some tickets could not be accounted for. In addition, when the chief contacted about 12 people for whom no record of payment could be found, the violators told him they had paid thea clerk-treasurer many of them in cash.

Several produced receipts. IN OTHER instances. Holler found that some receipts issued by Mrs. Maxey differ from corresponding entries in the city ledger. For instance: Last February, a speeding ticket was issued to Sierra D.

Stevens of Indianapolis. A receipt signed by Mrs. Maxey shows that a $25 fine was paid on Feb. 28. However, the Southport ledger shows that Ms.

Stevens paid a fine of $12.50 on April 12. According to Holler, Ms. Stevens said she paid the fine in cash. Holler said there are several such discrepancies in the ledger. Though Mrs.

Maxey said she has done nothing wrong in managing the town's books and collecting traffic fines, she could not explain discrepancies in her ledger. MRS. MAXEY, who performs city bookkeeping duties at home while tending to two young children, suggested that differences in the re-See TICKETS Page 10 receive the suspension letters this week. They must show the records are wrong to successfully appeal their suspensions. But "amazingly enough." Bailey said, records at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles are about 95 percent accurate.

"We are not expecting too many successful appeals." SOME OF those receiving suspension notices will present legitimate arguments for reinstatement of at least partial driving privileges. Bailey said. "These will be the people who had their last d-unk driving conviction in. say. if 78.

They may also See DRIVER Page 18 Auociattd Prtu Sen. John Clenn Views please Demo editors looser environmental enforcement and cuts in funding for poverty programs, education and fundamental research. Speaking near the heart of Indiana coal country, Glenn plugged his plan to enact a federal tax on electric power. Revenues from the tax would create a fund to better scrub power plant sulfur emissions, suspected of causing acid rain. Glenn admitted the clean-up would be paid for by consumers.

But he urged acceptance of his plan because it would help solve the pollution problem with existing technology and not by heavier use of more low-sulfur western coal instead of high-sulfur midwestern coal. He said other plans to combat acid rain, including one authored by U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, Maine, would hurt Indiana coal production. By SCOTT L.

MILEY And WILLIAM J. SEDIVY Welcome to Southport population 2,500. It's business as usual at the Dairy Queen, the bank and the lumberyard which dominate the downtown business district along South-port Road, just east of Madison Avenue. Unkept lots and stray dogs still create the biggest stir at city council meetings. But behind the ordinary facade, Southport residents and state investigators are trying to unravel two mysteries.

They involve traffic fines and the demotion of the former police chief. Some people, including the ex-chief, think they're related. The State Board of Accounts is checking allegations that some traffic fine money paid to Southport Clerk Treasurer Karen A. Maxey may not have been deposited in the city treasury. IT MAY take several weeks to get to the bottom of the case, according to a state auditor.

The ticket issue surfaced about six months ago when former Police Chief Richard E. Holler told Mayor Robert L. Anderson he'd discovered discrepancies in city financial records. Holler said he stumbled onto the problem while checking final disposi ments within a 10 year period for certain major traffic offenses. THOSE INCLUDE reckless homicide, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter and any hit-and-run accident involving personal injury.

Drivers convicted of any of those in the past ten years, and those having three or more convictions for drunk driving, driving without a valid license, criminal recklessness, drag racing, any felony involving the use of a motor vehicle, or failure to report an accident involving more than $100 in damage could also face the retroactive suspensions. About 7.00?I drivers, identified by Bureau of Motor Vehicle records, will Flood of protest on driver's license suspension expected Yuri Andropov By GEORGE STUTEVILLE Court officials expect an onslaught of telephone calls this week when Indiana's worst motorists receive letters telling them their drivers' licenses have been suspended. Most of the protesting callers will just have to get used to doing more walking, says Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Jon M. Bailey. "If their driving record on file at the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles is accurate, then there will be nothing they can do.

They have lost their driving privileges." Bailey referred to a law effective Thursday which mandates a lO year license suspt-nsion for anyone with two or more convictions or judg There's been a lot of speculation about what kind of man Yuri Andropov is since his surprising selection as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist party and later President of the USSR. The latest assessment came this week and the credentials of the assessors are impressive. The article appeared in "Imprimis." the journal of Hillsdale College at Hillsdale. and its associated organizations. The Center for Constructive Alternatives and the Shavano Institute.

The authors: Victor Herman, an American survivor of decades in Soviet labor camps and Emeritus Professor Fred Dohrs, Wayne State University, who specializes in Russia and Eastern Europe. According to fiiem, Andropov is "the toughest, most clever and shrewd politician since Stalin and possibly of all Soviet leaders. He is not likely to be easily fooled and only a fool would fool with him." What about stories describing him a "pretty good guy, who undoubtedly thinks much more like a Westerner and was more understanding than any of his predecessors? The kind of person the West could easily work with?" Herman and Dohrs answer that in two words, "Utter nonsense." "Certainly," they conclude, "relaxation within the Soviet Union seems unlikely, and nothing has happened since last November suggesting that the strong Soviet thrust toward its global goals will be reduced, in any significant way. The opposite seems more like'." E. S.

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