The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 33

i 7 i if f-1 yy t'rir -w pit Editorials Local News The Indianapolis Star Features Stocks, Travel Sec. 2 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1969 TTTTT Disaster Hear in Spur Air Safety controller, have necessary Ihe Readers' Column then why didn't the small plane appear on radar screens at Weir Cook? C.Was the air controller re-" sponsible for tracking the planes constantly watching his control panel? How could the crash have been avoided? "The board of inquiry hearings are for fact-finding and not fault-finding," said an Charges that the FAA has somewhat "ignored" the problem of crowded airways have been denied sharply. The FAA affirmed its point last week when recommendations were made to eliminate congestion around busy airports. UNITED STATES senators and representatives, reportedly not anxious to spend tax dollars several years ago, now say they are eager, to provide both money and measures for air safety. The hearings in Indianapolis will be opened by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) at 9 a.m.

Wednesday in the Holiday Inn Motel at Weir Cook Municipal Airport. They are expected to take two days. More than 25 eye witnesses, airline officials and air controllers will testify. After the Indianapolis hear Old Bullets Pain Policeman ever My realze what being a policeman can demand of a man. A' good example is Indianapolis Police Lt.

William G. I 13 years he has carried bullet fragments in a stomach- These floating pieces of metal have caused Beaumont almost constant internal suffering. wunds were suffered in a gun battle at the York Hotel on pec. 6, 1956, in which Police Inspector Albert Kelly was killed by a holdup suspect. Beaumont, after being shot, was able to return six shots, killing the gunman.

Beaumont currently is undergoing a series of tests at Mar-, ion County General Hospital to determine what can be done to alleviate his pain. How About Noblesville, Mayor? comic at Randy Galvin's new Cabaret Club, 2147 North Talbot Avenue, said he has invented a Mayor Lugar Doll you wind it up, pull a string and ask it what it wants for Christmas and the doll responds, "Beech Grove Speed-: way Brown County." 17? -V By MICHAEL P. TARPEY The recent pygmy-vs-giant crash in a placid Indiana sky finally has riveted the nation's attention on the deadly dangers of crowded- airlanes, overworked air controllers and lack of the latest and finest in radar. There have been crashes before. There have been demands that something must be done.

There have been hearings and proposals. THEN ON Sept. 9 a small private plane and commercial airliner collided, strewing 83 dead onto a soybean field in Shelby County. That grotesque tragedy brought the growing problem out of the shadows of apathy into the harsh light of public concern. Public hearings here this week should bring to light important information thus far withheld concerning the collision of the Allegheny Airlines DC-9 and Piper Cherokee above a trailer court near London, Ind.

The disaster has prompted actions by and drawn criticism from the Federal Aviation Administration, air controller groups, airline and aircraft officials and members of Con gress. S'ar Photo) TWISTED WRECKAGE OF BODIES AND MACHINES Eighty-Three Die In State's Worst Air Disaster NTSB spokesman. "We just want to make facts known and correct a dangerous situation." The spokesman said the cause of the crash does "not now seem to be the result of a mechanical problem" He al luded to an error by a pilot or air controller. The tough new FAA proposal to avert mid-air collisions around congested airports had been in the making for over a year and was speeded by the Shelby County disaster. It would establish terminal control areas where planes would not be permitted to enter unless they were under ground control.

The proposal is aimed at the swarm of small aircraft around the country's 22 most congested airports. Under the plan, planes would enter a space shaped like an inverted wedding cake. They would be required to get clearance first from the tower Wanna Buy A Railroad Coach? chairman of the safety board and former governor of Maine. THE NTSB, a Transportation Department unit, is a third-party investigating agency for aircraft and surface transportation accidents. It will issue a probable cause of the Shelby County crash in about six months.

The hearings here will attempt to answer questions, that haunt government and airline officials. Some of them are: msm AUCTI0H 0 1 A BROWN COUNTY SCENE Interstate 65 Construction Progresses Modern-Day New Harmony Is Taking Shape By STU HUFFMAN Star Special Correspondent Nashville, Ind. A modern-day New Harmony based on ideas of conservation and organic, farming is taking shape northwest of here in the hazy hills of Brown county. ings, which are being held quicker than usual by the NTSB, an unprecedented hearing wUl be held in Washington, D.C., on the whole problem of mid-air collisions. The aim of the Washington hearings, scheduled to begin early in November, is to put the FAA, airlines and other aircraft groups on the spot.

"We are gratified with what has been done to improve the problem, but we want to move faster," said John H. Reed, jor at Indiana University. "We want to take the natural things that man now throws away and use them, to show him that it's really what would be best for him." Across from the compost heaps a house is being remodeled and insulated for a new community member, a woman with five children who lived last winter near Trev-lac in a tent. "The house cost me nothing, it went with the land," said Canada, noting that the going price for land there is about $300 an acre. "So, I'm giving it to her.

She's a good woman and mother, and she cans a lot so I figure next winter she Turn to Page 5, Column 3 An 80-year-old railroad coach, long parked at 960 South Keystone Avenue, will be auctioned off at 1 p.m. Saturday. Auctioneer Art C. Carroll said the coach has served as a meeting place for the Big Four American Legion Post 116 for the last 35 years. Carroll, who was present, as a child, when the Legion post opened in 1934, said the coach is made almost entirely of wood and was formerly used by the New York Central (now Penn Central) Railroad.

Carroll said he expects the coach and land to sell for somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000. Did You Know? Dr. James Phillips, a Crispus Attucks graduate and son of Mrs. Luke Phillips, 2257 North Kenwood Avenue, has been named director of secondary education in the St. Paul (Minn.) school system Red Cross caseworker Miss Karen Parish, 4955 Rue Vallee, currently is working in the Hurricane "Camille" disaster relief operation at Biloxl, Miss, Indi- anapolis Police Sgt Robert R.

Boykia has opened up an art shop at Nashville, specializing in famous Indiana artists. The name of the shop is Art Treasurers Limited. The Readers Ask A fr IPS! ill tLi iXS. I ri2 A 4 Mil ii -hi mitm hIBim i.mi i it if mimj ifii rtCiTZ equipment to insure a good image on radar, and furnish by radio details concerning altitude and flight plans. DUANE L.

Jennings, chief controller of the Weir Cook tower, said the FAA has plans for a similar operation at 97 airports including Indianapolis. He said the local require ments, not yet finalized, may not be as stringent as those for more congested airports. Indi anapolis is classified a medi um busy" airport. Jennines said the FAA wants to do whatever it can with Dresent resources. Plans for the more congested airports are expected to be operable by next July.

Prior to the mid-air collision over the London trailer court the Allegheny jetliner had been cleared to descend from 6,000 feet to 2,500 feet in preparation for an approach to Weir Cook. The accident, officials say, occurred at an altitude of about 2,700 feet. Clouds were broken at 3,000 feet. The National Aviation Trades Association, which sells and services light airplanes, concluded that the body of the Allegheny craft passed under the small plane, but the high on the jet's tail hit the small Turn to Page 5, Column 1 Bonds interest rates on prime-rated municipal bonds stood at 5V4 per cent, according to the Bond Buyer, financial trade newspaper. Those rates now average more than per cent.

In comparison, interest on taxable corporate bonds has risen in the same period only from 7.95 per cent to 8.05 per cent, the trade paper points out. Many investors have shifted to corporate and Federal government securities because those securities are not threatened with new taxation, Indianapolis experts say. The lack of buyers continues to drive municipal bond interest rates higher, to an income rate which would corn-Turn to Page 5, Column 6 be worked out in time. I'll be able to tell in 30 days whether the system will work." Most of the headaches have come from the two night traffic courts (Municipal Court, Rooms 3 and 6), Sharp said. Less than 30 cases have been heard in these courts, which will handle guilty pleas ta minor traffic cases.

"The police were slow In slating traffic cases into these evening sessions," Sharp ex-Turn to Page 9, Column 2 I 1 Why won't Mayor Richard G. Ln gar's administration keep the weeds off the sidewalk and curbs in the city? Roger LaCelH, Indianapolis. Lawrence S. Landis, assistant public information director for Lugar, said the city is "legally responsible for removing the weeds, but practically speaking, it's impossible." "What it boils down to," Landis said, "is unless citi-' zens are willing to co-operate by removing the weeds, they probably will not be Landis did give a glimmer of hope that the administration might take on its responsibility next year, when the Unl-Gov Department of Transportation will be given 1 How did the planes collide and which craft struck the other? Did either pilot have an opportunity to maneuver his aircraft seconds before the crash to avoid the collision? Is the radar equipment at Weir Cook adequate' or are there blank spots as some controllers charge? A. It the radar equipment is adequate i and the best available as officials claim, according to records of City Securities, an Indianapolis securities trading firm.

An unknown number of other school systems have refused to place building bonds on the market in fear of being unable to sell them, says Cecil M. Fritz, vice-president of City Securities. IF BONDS do sell, it often is because they are offered at interest rates more than 2 per cent higher than those of a year ago, causing higher local tax rates to retire the bonds. William R. Curry, superintendent of Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation, says his system's plans to build a 24-room elementary school were thwarted when nobody offered to buy a $1.9 million bond issue.

The issue was offered for sale Sept. 16. The new building was to replace three schoolhouses constructed in 1861, 1911 and 1921. CLASS SIZES will have to be increased next year from the present 30-pupil figure because construction will be set back by at least one year, according 'to Curry. Madison Consolidated Schools, located in the historic Ohio River town, may be in the same predicament.

Superintendent George D. Cook hoped to have a new junior high ready by January, 1971, but construction will be delayed almost a year. Madison has put its $3.6 million bond issue on sale twice, with no takers. In July the bonds were offered at 6 per Construction of Interstate 65 is slowly progressing to the heart of Indianapolis, as can be seen from these two photographs. The left photograph shows one lane of the interstate completed from 30th Street almost to 22d Street.

In the right photograph, progress on construction of bridge over the Penn Central tracks at about 18th Street can be seen. (Star Aerial Photos By William A. Oates) Tax Reform Leads To Unsalable From the Lanam ridge to the Plum Creek Valley, Larry E. Canada 27, is accumulating land and setting up a cooperative farming community in which he already has about 30 workers. Dreaming the dreams of Robert Owen, the Scottish industrial reformer who oper- ated the Posey County community of New Harmony in the early 1800's, Canada says his farm colony has been active only four months and he expects it will require several years to prove success or failure.

"MAN WASN'T meant to live in big cities, in little boxes piled on top of each other," said Canada, the former owner of several Vhippie" type shops burned out on Bloomington's Kirk-wood Avenue by an arsonist last Christmas. Canada believes man should have open and green spaces. He said he and other young persons today believe the world's life-support system, air and water, are being poisoned and polluted by society's unthinking waste. They want to show the way to better uses of God's The community's workers, who consider themselves to be "New People" or "New Ones" rather than "hippies" although they wear their hair long, live ln several houses purchased by Canada as he acquired several hundreds of acres on the ridge once known for its apple and peach orchards. Along with building contractors, members of the group are remodeling a barn to be used in the farm project to raise cattle by organic methods.

On a valley road opposite the barn, the first of the community's compost heaps is beginning to rise: It will provide natural fertilizers instead of chemicals for the farm. Part of the compost is provided by the a leaves collected from the streets by the city of Bloom-ington. The city was glad to find a place to dump them, and Canada plans eventually for the "fertilizer company" operation to cover several acres. "IT'S PART 'of the whole Idea," said Canada, who grew up in the Lawrence county limestone area at Oolitic and formerly was a business ma We have been trying to have a stoplight installed at South Meridian Street and Banta Road for some time. Pupils from four schools cross at the intersection and school buses on Banta Road have a difficult time getting across Meridian Street.

We have a petition with more than 100 signatures. What should we do now? Fred J. Schoettle, 6574 Hi-Vu Drive. Take your petition to Richard P. Wetzel, executive director of the Mass Transportation Authority, at Room 2160 in the City-County Building.

The MTA will have its engineers make a study of conditions at the intersection and, if they deem it necessary, an ordinance can be passd by the City Council authorizing the stoplight. Sponge Grew In Indianapolis cent interest, and again in August at 6 per cent. Cook says the bonds, will be placed on the block again Oct. 15 at 7Va per cent interest. The 55-room Madison junior high is to replace a 41-year-old building which cannot be ex panded.

Cook now rents rooms in a nearby church, but still has trouble keeping classes at the 30-pupu level. He estimates construction costs will jump half a million dollars during the period of delay. The municipal bond taxation bill passed a House vote in August and now is in a pre-vote Senate hearing. WHEN HOUSE committee hearings began in early July, WEEDS AT 338 DELAWARE charge of all weed removal. Landis said he is drawing up a specific weed removal program and hopes to implement it next year.

Anthony J. Gatas, 45, 701 North Mitchener Avenue, writes that a type of sponge plant, normally found in the Middle East, has grown to twice its normal size in the "good soil of Indianapolis." According to Gatas, who had the seeds sent to him from his hometown of Beirut, Lebanon, this spring, the largest sponge plants grown In Lebanon are about 20 inches high and 10 inches in diameter. Gatas said the seeds planted in his backyard have yielded plants 45 inches high and 25 inches around. Gatas said the sponges the plant produces are better than ones that are produced in the ocean. By STEPHEN L.

CASTNER State financial experts say municipal bonds a principal source of borrowed money for local government construction almost are unsalable at any price because of Federal tax reform proposals pending in Congress. A Nixon administration tax reform bill asks for taxation of some of the interest re ceived by individual municipal bond holders. To date such earnings have been untaxed under Indiana and Federal laws. 11 mm. 5 1861 BUILDING HOUSES Replacement Plans Slowed Meanwhile, investors have switched from municipal bonds to other securities in fear that bond revenues will be reduced by new taxes.

The near halt in state municipal bond sales shown in trading house records during August and September is leaving schools and other local government projects unbuilt. At least five Indiana school bond issues advertised for sale during the last two months remain unsold, an all-time high for the Indiana bond market, '4 MOORESVILLE PUPILS By Poor Bond Sales Market October Called Test For Court Reforms FA By ROBERT L. PEIRCE October will be the most crucial test of the expanded and reformed Marion County Municipal Court system, Pie-siding Judge William T. Sharp, the program's chief architect, snid yesterday. The reforms, which provided two additional courts and other innovations in judicial procedure, have been in operation four days and already have run into some administrative difficulties.

But Sharp commented, "I believe these problems can Keep Your Letters Short If you have a contribution for Intercom, don't be bashful. Send it in. Remember to keep your letters short and legible and include your name, address and phone number. Send your letters or cards to Intercom, The Indianapolis Star, 307 North Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis, 46206. 4.