The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 3

The Courier-Journal, Thursday morning, May 22, 1980 Television Regional news Deaths Accent Sports After 23 years, final link of 1-24 will open without fanfare KENIUOKY ILLINOIS KENTUCKY opens I Xi(( DETOUR PSIAX FRIDAY 1 GRAND NX1 1 M0'C ciz I i the Lakes John Fisher of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. In the meantime, motorists will have to contend with a 10-mile detour around the bridge. Illinois built 31 miles of 1-24, from the Ohio River bridge to a junction with Interstate 57 at Pulley's Mill, 111., 15 miles south of Marion. 1-57 intersects with Interstate 64, which connects St. Louis and Louisville, 35 miles north of Pulley's Mill.

1-57 continues to Chicago. 1-24 gives Far Western Kentucky its only direct connection with interstate highways to many other parts of the nation. The Kentucky segment of 1-24 has some new safety and other features. For example, the shoulders are built to create a warning sound when tires stray onto them. Joints in the concrete run at an angle instead of perpendicular to the shoulders.

The joints also are not uniform distances apart, as are most joints in highways. The angled joints and the random intervals between them increase safety and riding comfort because they do not cause the trance-produc- See FINAL PAGE 3, col. 4, this section for five years because of unfinished road construction at each end. On Dec. 10, his last full day in office, Gov.

Julian Carroll opened a section of the highway that allowed the bridge to be used. The Cumberland River bridge, which is 1,700 feet long, cost about $20 million. The cost ran three times higher than expected, mainly because of a problem in basing it on bedrock. The Ohio River bridge's original contract price was $18.6 million. But, before the bridge opened, cracks were found in welds on hanger bars that connect steel cables to two suspension arches.

It cost $1.2 million to correct the flaws before the bridge could be opened in 1974. The bridge was closed last August when inspectors found cracks in welding on tie girders. Illinois Department of Highways officials said yesterday that the 120 cracks already discovered may be repaired by bolting steel plates over them. Roy Harris, district engineer for the Illinois Highway Department at Carbondale, said yesterday that a final decision on the repairs is awaiting completion of a study by Dr. By BILL POWELL Courier-Journal Staff Writer EDDYVILLE, Ky.

The last unfinished segment of Interstate 24, a four-lane highway that has taken 23 years to build, will be opened tomorrow morning, but without a ceremony. "We'll just remove the barriers and wave the traffic through," said Robert Hodges, a district engineer for the Kentucky Bureau of Highways. The last link runs 23 miles from the Western Kentucky Parkway in Lyon County to U.S. 68 near Cadiz in Trigg County. 1-24 connects Chattanooga, and St.

Louis. The limited-access highway runs 93.3 miles across Western Kentucky, entering the state southeast of Hopkinsville and leaving it at Paducah. Total cost of the Kentucky portion of the highway will be about $225 million, according to the latest figures compiled by the Paducah office of the Bureau of Highways. The need for major bridges across the Tennessee, Cumberland and Ohio rivers increased the cost of the Kentucky segment. The Tennessee River bridge, 2,108 feet long, cost $14 million when it was completed in 1975.

It sat unused Staff Map This map shows Interstate 24's route through Kentucky. A 23-mile segment from Cadiz to the Western Kentucky Parkway will open tomorrow. The detour at Paducah was necessitated by repairs to a bridge over the Ohio River. New justice chief can make $64,000, opinion says restricted by the state constitution be- cause neither is a constitutional office, Graham contended that Welch would receive two salaries for the same work. But Runyan said the courts would presume, "in the absence of well-documented evidence to the contrary, that the governor's appointment was conducted in good faith." Runyan said he doesn't believe the courts would reverse Brown's action "except under circumstances clearly indicating an abuse of the statute." It is true, Runyan said, that two sections of the constitution require that At the time Brown said it was hard to find good people for state jobs because the pay was so low.

In his opinion Assistant Deputy Attorney General Charles Runyan said, "There can be no common-law or practical incompatibility where Mr. Welch can perform both jobs with care and ability and with partiality and honesty." The move was questioned last week by state Auditor James Graham, who cited a statute that says agency chiefs' salaries shall not exceed the governor's salary. Brown currently makes $45,000 a Jury investigating Hidden Valley deal By LIVINGSTON TAYLOR Couriar-Journal Staff Wrltar LEXINGTON, Ky. A special federal grand jury indicated continued Interest yesterday in the state's 1977 purchase of the old Hidden Valley resort in Powell County. A witness, Jack C.

Lewis of Frankfort, former social services commissioner in the Department for Human Resources, said he was asked "if my department had anything to do with Hidden Valley." Lewis said in an interview that he didn't have a part in the purchase, although later he did discuss the project with a Bureau of Corrections official. The Hidden Valley property was intended to become a correctional facility when the state bought 541.7 acres from Investors Trust Inc. of Indianapolis for $515,000 three years ago. Investors Trust had paid $300,000 for about 681 acres in 1975. The state dropped its conversion plans after fire and windstorm damage to a main building.

Lewis spent less than five minutes before the jury. Another witness declined comment About 15,000 lower-paid state workers getting raises By SY RAMSEY Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. More than 15,000 lower-paid state employees are getting 10 percent pay raises. Gov. John Y.

Brown Jr. announced yesterday that the raises are the first from $11.8 million the recent General Assembly set aside to improve pay. The workers getting the raises make up 90 percent of state employees in the lowest pay grades of the merit-system salary schedule. They include laborers, institutional aides, highway-equipment operators, clerks, typists, secretaries, janitors, non-supervisory maintenance workers, engineering aides, toll collectors and storekeepers. The raises take effect June 16 and will show up on checks in July.

The announcement sounded a note of optimism for state employees, many of whom have been concerned about their jobs during the administration's drive to cut the number of state workers by 5 percent by July. Brown said that he wanted to upgrade the lowest-paying jobs first because those employees are most affected by inflation and high interest rates. "We're starting at the bottom grades and moving up rather than from the top down to benefit the rank and file," Brown said. "It's essential that no state employee be paid below the 1980 federal minimum wage or be forced to exist below the poverty level." As of next January, the minimum wage will be $3.35 an hour; the poverty line is an annual income of $6,700 for a non-farm family of four. The raises are separate from annual raises of about 5 percent usually given to state employees as a kind of cost-of-living increase.

Brown said the remaining $3.8 million of the special legislative appropriation will be used to upgrade midlevel jobs where, studies show, it is hard for the state to to recruit and retain people. Fort Knox unit to help set up refugee center Associated Press FORT KNOX, Ky. More than 80 Fort Knox soldiers will leave this morning for Wisconsin to help set up another center for Cuban refugees. Eighty-seven men and women from the 401st Personnel Services Company of the 194th Armored Brigade are going to Fort McCoy near LaCrosse, Wis. Their return date is unknown.

The 401st is the fourth Fort Knox unit to help with the resettlement of Cuban refugees. Members of the 42nd Field Hospital Unit, the 61st Medical Detachment and the 544th Maintenance Battalion went to Fort Indian Town Gap, on May 14 to help provide medical services for 20,000 Cubans. Members of the 401st will provide administrative services for other troops at Fort McCoy and assist in paper work. The refugees are expected to begin arriving next Thursday. year.

However, that will go up to $50,000 in December 1981, and the ad ministration used that fact to set Cabinet secretaries' salaries at $47,500. The governor's office claimed the total salary is legal and, based on Graham's request for a formal opinion, turned the matter over to Attorney General Steven Beshear. In ruling the salary legal, Runyan cited a statute that says the governor shall fix the compensation of people employed by him and noted that there is no pay limit under that provision. He said neither of Welch's two jobs is Photo by Dan Carraco mg payments from the state treasury be based on services rendered. The assumption, he said, is that Welch will be assigned a definite role as special assistant to the governor "which will be entirely separate from and in addition to his statutory duties as secretary of justice." Brown has indicated that Welch's role as special assistant might be of an investigative nature.

Runyan also noted that there is nothing in the constitution prohibiting a person from holding two state offices at the same time. and left in a vehicle that, according to The Associated Press, is registered to George H. Doane Jr. of Noblesville, Ind. Efforts to reach Doane later were unsuccessful.

A woman at the Investors Trust office said Doane is a member of the corporation's board. A woman at Doane's home said he had been in Lexington yesterday. Also appearing yesterday were Charles O. Pewitt operator of a bookkeeping and tax service, and accountants George Helton and Harold Butler, all of Frankfort Pewitt said later that he spent about five minutes with the jury and was there to deliver copies of some clients' tax returns. An attorney accompanying Helton and Butler said they would have no comment.

Witnesses called before a grand jury are not necessarily targets of an investigation. It was the 35th known session of the grand jury, which has been investigating matters related to state government since last June 14. There have been no indictments. council has begun looking into alternate sites for a cemetery. Mrs.

Baldwin said that the 20-plus acres needed to start a new cemetery would not be easy to find. City Attorney Byron Hobgood pointed out that the city has the legal duty to provide a cemetery and can take land through its power of eminent domain. "But to do that, you're going to have to pay the going market rate," Hobgood said. Councilman Ernest Mason who is a local mortician, 'said he has calculated that there are 800 to 900 deaths a year in Hopkins County. But he said he could not calculate how many people might need a city plot each year.

He estimated that Odd Fellows Cemetery will be filled in one to two years. The council seemed to agree that a new cemetery would have to be self-sustaining. Mason said that, compared with cemeteries in Earlington and other surrounding communities, the rate charged for burying someone at Odd Fellows is low. By SY RAMSEY Associated Prtss FRANKFORT, Ky. The attorney general's office said yesterday that the state can pay Neil Welch $64,000 a year for his work as justice secretary and as a special assistant to Gov.

John Y. Brown Jr. Brown hired Welch, a retiring FBI official, as justice secretary at $47,500, the salary most Cabinet secretaries make. But Brown said Welch would also be paid $16,500 a year as a special assistant to the governor when he starts work next month.1 John Ross of Battletown soaked up soldering gutter joints on the roof it rKwwmr P'mM 'WJ i mmm jpf sSiifiiSM 1 hijii. tsy mul ,,,,1 WTZjtk TJ 1 Madisonville cemetery is running out of plots Associated Prost MADISONVILLE, Ky.

Final resting places are in short supply in Madisonville's city-operated cemetery. "We probably have 200 graves at most," said Zoning Administrator Carl Davis, referring to Odd Fellows Cemetery. Although there are other cemeteries in town, the city has been advised that state law requires it to maintain a municipal cemetery for paupers and other people who wish to be buried there. Davis said the availability of "choice" lots at the city-operated Odd Fellows Cemetery is limited. "Everyone wants to be on high ground," he said.

"There just isn't that much left." A steep hillside behind a storage building has been under consideration for additional grave sites, but its use may not be feasible. City Council members were so concerned about the situation that they went to the cemetery Monday night for a look at the situation. Mayor Charlotte Baldwin said the Burning for learn some sun while of the new li brary in Carrollton earlier this week. The library is scheduled to be completed by August. i.