The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 4

THE COURIER-JOURNAL, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1979 3 ondihg rules State's new transmitted 1 brings KET into focus for Paducah residents on strip mines will be eased lC mond, Morehead, Hazard, Pikeville and Ashland. KET broadcasts over Channel with the call letters WKPD, in Paducah. The station was donated to KET more than two years ago by Lady Sarah McCallum. In-school type programmming, starts ed yesterday by KET, was the first lor WKPD. The facility has no studio.

All KET-broadcasting is done now from a studio?" center in Lexington. However, taped broadcasts from some of the state universities are broad; cast over the network, which, Press said, is the largest state system in the nation. Continued from Page 1 sized because it will serve so many more Western Kentuckians than have been served (by KET) in the past. Morgan said the Paducah transmitter "should never be off the air." He explained that if a microwave signal is lost the push of a button will switch dependency of the transmitter to Madison-ville. He said the transmitter facility also is "energy efficient." It requires no heat except when humidity is high.

KET went on the air in 1968. The other transmitters are at Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Somerset, Louisville, Owenton, Covington, Lexington-Rich Property values in state: increase 17.2 percent If Staff Photo by Robert Stolnau Grand tour at Goodwill Continued from Page 1 ment growth on existing property doesn't mean that local taxing districts, such as the school board, will be limited to 3.6 percent more revenue. spective workers can be tested. The building has undergone major renovation, including making it more accessible to the handicapped. It was open house at Goodwill Industries of Kentucky yesterday in Louisville.

Joe Parrott, a work evaluator, showed off one of the rooms where pro Chamber of Commerce pushes workmen Vcomp law changes boards, counties and cities would produce more revenue by limiting assesg-; ment increases to 4 percent a year, Rogers said, unless they want to risk a voter initiative to roll back the tax rate. Marcos drops plans to end martial law MANILA, Philippines (AP) PresP dent Ferdinand E. Marcos yesterday abandoned plans to lift martial law this year, saying "it would be folly to throw away the protective shield" of his re? gime. Marcos said he plans to "consult with the people" during the next 18 months and pledged elections for local offices" in the same period, but he set no timetable for ending his authoritarian Marcos spoke at military ceremonies in his honor on the eve of his 62nd birthday. The ceremonies began with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Jaime L.M.

Sin, archbishop of Manila, who last Fri-" day warned of civil war unless begins the process of dismantling mar New property added another 2.9 percent to the assessment bringing the total countywide average increase in real-estate assessment to about 6.5 percent. And, because of a quirk in the new tax law, Jefferson County's financial situation may be better than that of counties that had larger increases in real-estate assessments, Rogers said. That is because the local tax rate, although set on real-estate values, is also applied to tangible personal property, such as autombiles. Huge assessment increases on real estate could force local boards to reduce their tax rate to meet the 4 percent increase ceiling and therefore drastically reduce revenues from tangible property, Rogers said. Tangible personal property in Jefferson County is assessed at $2.07 billion or almost one-third as much as real estate.

Had Jefferson County's real-estate assessment jumped by 20 or 30 percent and the rate been rolled back to produce only 4 percent revenue, it would have probably have cost county schools and other taxing districts money, Rogers said. One positive effect of the new tax law, revenue officials have said, is that it encourages property valuation administrators to assess real estate at its fair market value. Actually, taxing bodies, such as school By HOWARD FINEMAN Couriw-Jaunwl Staff Writw Washington Federal officials have backed away from a tough set of rules they wrote governing the bonding of strip mines. The' U.S. Office of Surface Mining agreed with coal operators and insurance companies that at least some parts of the rules would be unfairly harsh and expensive.

The office announced that it would start another "rulemaking" this fall to rewrite the rules the first time the two-year-old agency has agreed to re-examine a major action. The bonding rules aren't scheduled to go into effect until next year, when the "permanent" features of the 1976 federal law come into play across the country. Even so, the way the rules were first drafted upset the coal industry as much, if not more, than any other aspect of the federal law. All coal states have laws requiring coal operators to post "performance" bonds, designed to ensure that stripped land is properly reclaimed. In Kentucky, for example, operators are being required to put up about $1,800 to $2,200 per acre, with a mum per mine of $5,000.

But the proposed federal rules were much tougher than those of Kentucky and most other coal-producing states, especially in the East. And, according to critics of the Office of Surface Mining, the rules went beyond Congress' intent in passing the landmark law. The upshot, according to coal industry spokesmen, is that bonding companies have been scared away from making new commitments to coal operators. Where they are staying in the coalfields, they are asking for much higher premiums. Stricter bonding rules were one of the major objectives of the environmental groups and others who lobbied for years for the act that passed in 1976.

They argued that state bonding laws were so lax that it was cheaper to forfeit a bond than do good reclamation. In theory, they pointed out, the bond is! supposed to be high enough so that the government can use to money to properly reclaim the land if the operator doesn't. That was unlikely, they said, if the bond was only $500 per acre as it was in Kentucky until only a few years ago. Supporters of the law also argued that states allowed bonds to be released too soon before it was clear that the land was restored in a way that would last. 'A bond is released when the operator and his bonding company are relieved of any further financial liability for what happens to the land.

The result of these arguments was a law with language far tougher than those in most states, including Kentucky. Kentucky law says that 80 percent of the bond can be released as soon as the stripped land is filled in and regraded. Federal law says that only 60 percent can be released at that point. Kentucky law says that the remaining 20 percent can be returned after new vegetation grows for two seasons. In the federal law, none of the remaining 40 percent can be returned for at least five years.

(According to coal industry spokesman, the Office of Surface Mining went beyond even those tough new features of; the 1976 law. the office's rules, it's up to the agency to decide whether to release arty of the first 60 percent. It should be automatic, said Dan Gerkin, vice president of the Mining and Reclamation Council of America, an association of smaller Appalachian producers. The rules also called for giving citizens living near a strip mine a chance to argue against release of the bond a key safeguard in the view of environmental groups. mining office reportedly is considering a the idea of requiring operators, to bond only a part of a mine at any one time.

The agency said it would release a new draft of the rules Oct 20. most cases a fair equivalent of an employee's take-home pay, Helmers said. However, he said the section limiting those benefits to 60 percent of the state average weekly wage is too low and should be changed. The chamber also recomended the creation of a full-time workmen's compensation board or system of full-time administrative law judges to consolidate evidence in a case and to cut expenses. Other chamber recommendations included abolishing the state Insurance Regulatory Board or requiring closer legislative review of board actions and appointments.

Helmers said insurance premium costs have risen 38.4 percent since the board was formed to judge rate requests three years ago. The chamber's testimony came during the first day of a three-day public hearing on the workmen's compensation law by a special Legislative Research Commission subcommittee. Associated Prats FRANKFORT, Ky. The 1980 General Assembly should rewrite Kentucky's workmen's compensation insurance law to reduce the cost of premiums and increase employee benefits, a spokesman for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce said yesterday. John H.

Helmers, an attorney for the chamber, told a special legislative subcommittee that legislators should not try to amend the law in piecemeal fashion, as has been done in the past. "Attempts to meaningfully amend the law have been disastrous and non-existent due to the politics of the legislative and executive branctes," Helmers said in a statement submitted to the committee. He said the current law hampers efforts to attract industry. The chamber recommended that the entire employee-benefits area of the law be rewritten because the law makes it virtually impossible to evaluate cases and has resulted in increased premiums. Helmers recommended that the statute be changed to a wage-loss benefit system, under which an employee is paid whenever he is injured at work and loses at least 15 percent of his wages.

However, Bob Catlett, a Louisville attorney representing the Kentucky Academy of Trial Lawyers, told the committee he is opposed to the wage-loss benefit system, because it doesn't take into consideration a worker's reduced capacity for future earnings. Under existing law, an injured worker may be paid permanent partial disability payments for life, even though he has returned to work and is earning the same or more pay than before his injury. The portion of state law that limits a worker's benefits to 66 percent of his average weekly wage should remain as is because the money is tax-free and in tial law. 6-year-old says he set fire in New Jersey house MILLVILLE, N.J. (AP) A 6-year-old boy has told police he set a fire that destroyed several rooms of a vacant two-family frame house Sunday, authorities said.

The child said he and some friends tried to stamp out the fire, but when the flames spread they fled from the house. No charges were filed. TneProblem: Carter selects 6 ambassadors Horj South Central Bell helped Tlie Optical Corporation of The Optical Corporation of America includes a group of subsidiary companies, headquartered in the same buuding, put served by one phone system. Southern Optical and Lugene Opticians are retail companies, while Kentucky Optical manufactures optical products. Customers complained when calls intended for one company were answered by another and couldn't be transferred internally.

And callers had trouble distinguishing among seemingly similar companies. Outgoing calls were tying up lines, creating too many busy signals. Lost calls meant lost business. ft iiiaenca or an identity fir 7, ff7' "hi proiuem into focus. WASHINGTON (AP) The nomination of six ambassadors was announced yesterday by President Carter.

Former Gov. Kenneth M. Curtis of Maine was picked to be ambassador to Canada. Curtis, who served briefly as Democratic national chairman, would replace the reassigned Thomas O. Enders in Ottawa.

The other nominees are: Career diplomat Richard David Vine, now principal deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs, to replace the resigned Marvin Warner as ambassador to Switzerland. Horace G. Dawson counselor for political affairs in Manila, to replace the transferred Donald R. Norland as envoy to Botswana. Richard N.

Viets, deputy chief of mission in Israel, to succeed the transferred James Spain in Tanzania. George B. Roberts deputy chief of mission in Laos, to succeed the resigned John Richard Burke in Guyana. Nancy V. Rawls, deputy assistant secretary for personnel, to replace the resigned Monteagle Stearns in the Ivory Coast.

The Solution: A Bell Account Executive analyzed The Optical Corporation's multi-company communications needs. And recommended Bell's new Horizon communications system. Now, individual incoming lines allow one central operator to answer each call with proper company identification. Yet, the use of "pooled-access" outgoing lines helps to eliminate costly busy signals. In addition, the Horizon system's conference feature and multiple intercom lines speed communications between companies and departments.

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