The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 13

The Courier-Journal, Wednesday morning, November 6, 1985 MARKEIPIAGE Regional news Deaths -yy -T -rr- -jr MEEEO 1985 ELECTION 1 1 1 1 1 1 Abramson, Sloane already preparing jobs' groundwork imfW fc-i. Mfvm xk I Heleringer finds sign of trouble at the polls By LARRY TYE Courier-Journal Staff Wrlttr Bob Heleringer generated the only excitement in an otherwise calm election yesterday in Jefferson County. The Republican candidate for mayor of Louisville was on the campaign trail early, greeting voters near John Celletti's house in eastern Jefferson County, where a swimming-pool shed serves as a polling place. Celletti, the former mayor of Shively and a longtime Democrat, was leaving the house when he noticed someone blocking his driveway. "He had one of his signs in my yard," said Celletti, who added that he didn't recognize the casually dressed candidate.

"I rolled down my window and said he'd have to move the sign from my yard, and he said that I already had all those signs in my yard. "I said, 'Yes, but they're Democrats and I don't have no Republicans in my The two talked and agreed that Heleringer would carry his sign rather than post it, Celletti said. But when he returned home later, Celletti said, he was shocked to find the yard bare and the signs stacked nearby in shreds. "He (Heleringer) was just jumping up and down and tearing up signs," said Celletti's wife, Marietta. "He said, 'If my signs can't be in this yard nobody's can so he tore them down and put them next to the tree.

Then got in his car and drove away real fast." Heleringer, who was trounced yesterday by Democrat Jerry Ab-ramson, confirmed Celletti's version of what happened, but he added an explanation. "That's not his property on Election Day, Heleringer said. "If we're not going to be fair about it, we won't have any signs. So I tore them all up. "I had one puny little sign up there an island in a sea of signs.

The hell with him." Heleringer said he has had problems at Celletti's home during pre- See ELECTION PAGE 2, col. 1, this section ment heads and eliminate the positions of cabinet secretaries; he said he thinks communication will im prove with less bureaucracy. Abramson said he intends to put "every department under a microscope" between now and Jan. 1, when he'll be sworn in, to see whether money might be saved by contracting for some city services, such as street cleaning and data processing. He said volunteer experts from outside government will advise department heads as they review their operations.

Abramson and Sloane said they want a thorough study of the possibility of consolidating some city and county operations, such as. emergency medical services, data processing, economic development, permits and licensing, and fire-alarm offices. They said they will jointly name a city-county economic-development director, whose primary responsibility will be creating jobs in the metropolitan area. Sloane and Abramson declined to say who will be asked to join their staffs. Abramson said he expects some city officials to stay, while some will go to the county with Sloane and some will leave local government altogether.

Abramson may have to delay some personnel decisions until Sloane has decided which city officials will move with him to the courthouse, but Abramson said "there will be new faces, significant changes across the board" at City Hall. With tenure, city Police Chief Richard Dotson probably will keep his post. Sloane said he will appoint a screening committee to recommend a new county police Chief Russell McDaniel will leave when Ehrler's term ends, and Sloane's begins, on Jan. 6. Sloane said the new chief prob-1 ably will come from within the county department, but he said his plan to make the post a tenured position, as in the city, may have to be See ABRAMSON PAGE 2, col.

1, this section By SHELDON SHAFER Courlor-Journol Staff Writer Jerry Abramson and Harvey Sloane have much to do in the two months before they assume their respective offices of mayor and county judge-executive, and they don't Intend to waste any time. They will appoint transition teams soon perhaps today. They intend to choose their key personnel as soon as possible. And they plan to unveil a joint 1986 legislative package around Christmas. Abramson and Sloane have pledged unprecedented cooperation in solving city and county problems, many of which are rooted in a common need for financial stability.

They agree that finding an alternative to annexation is the most pressing need, in part because, if a solution isn't found before the General Assembly convenes Jan. 7, the legislature may impose one. Abramson and Sloane said during interviews Monday that the city and county must find a way of sharing growth in the occupational-tax base, to moderate competition for development. They also want to agree on a new formula for funding city-county agencies. Sloane favors imposing a limit on the city's annexation authority; he supports a bill prefiled for the 1986 legislative session that would require that a majority of the residents of any area proposed for annexation approve the change.

Abramson said that, at least for now, he doesn't support the bill. City and county governments are facing severe cuts in federal funding, and Sloane and Abramson said they will begin working now to find ways of compensating for anticipated losses of federal money. Sloane said he will name a "management task force" to review the county's personnel and finances, looking for ways of streamlining a government already thinned sharply since 1980. He said he will abolish the Office of Economy and Efficiency set up by County Judge-Executive Bremer Ehrler. Abramson said he will name a "management staff" of city depart And Ms.

Wilbert said that "having a substantial win will dictate how much power the candidates will have in the years to come." Third Ward Alderman Michael Carrell, sitting with friends in a crowded third-floor party room, said he thinks of the vote as "a positive statement from the people that we've done a good job. And it's certainly motivation for us to work harder. The opportunity for city-county cooperation is something that we haven't had in recent memory." Abramson seemed to savor his rri i- Stall Photo by Scott Goldsmith served as a polling place. Celletti, a Democrat, would not permit Heleringer to post his own signs there. "That's not his (Celletti's) property on Election Day," Heleringer said.

Republican mayoral candidate Bob Heleringer created a commotion by tearing down the Democratic campaign signs in John Celletti's yard, where a swimming-pool shed Like election outcomes, both sides' party atmospheres no surprise may be in trouble nationally, but it certainly isn't locally." Bob Benson, Sloane's campaign manager, said that for volunteers and party workers, the Democratic sweep is "their paycheck and a bonus besides. It builds their adrenaline and gets their juices going." Sharon Wilbert, executive director of the city's Neighborhood Development Cabinet, said the victory symbolizes "unity for the community. I think it's a sense of coming together and mustering behind a leadership that can move us forward. That's the excitement." utive, got hot applause when he appeared. And when Jerry Abramson approached the podium, the crowd chanted "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry," for the 39-year-old lawyer who had been chosen mayor.

"It's a great day for Jefferson County and Louisville, my friends," Sloane told the crowd. "And it's a great day for the Democratic Party. For the first time in 30 years, there's going to be a Democrat in every seat in the county and every seat in the city." As county clerk Jim "Pop" Ma-lone put it: "The Democratic Party Information for this story was gathered by staff writers Elinor Brecher, Leslie Scanlon, Larry Tye and Andrew Wolfson. By 9 o'clock last night, the band at the Democratic victory rally at the Hyatt Regency was playing to a largely empty room. Harvey Sloane and Jerry Abramson had made their speeches of triumph, their hands raised together in unity.

The senior citizens and children had gone home. But try to get an elevator. The Democrats had all of them they Jim Walton, who led; Crusade for Children for years, dies at 68 African wildlife artist feels Logan County best suits his palette victory, wending his way slowly, through a crush of well-wishers. "You were there you were, there for the first soft shuffle," he told one supporter. "I won't for-; get." Early in the evening, key campaign workers and other politicians thronged Abramson's third-floor suite where they munched on hors d'oeuvres, two five-foot submarine sandwiches, and chocolate cheesecake as they See LIKE PAGE 2, col.

1, this section im StiH Photo Jim M. Walton Knoun as "Mr. Crusade" over organ music on the late-evening "Dream Serenade" radio program. Walton also was host of "Walton's Wax Works," a daily program fea-turing big-band music, and of the "Fair Weather Hour." In 1948 he began the daily "Cof- See JIM WALTON PAGE 9, col. 3, this section were in mass migration to a series of private parties on the third floor.

Democrats were everywhere: legislators, aldermen, volunteers, candidates, state officials, school board members, city and county employees. The Democrats had swept the Jefferson County elections, and the party faithful were determined to prove one thing: Democrats don't need suspense to have fun. For the Democrats, last night's victory rally had an air of reaffirmation. Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloane, the new county Judge-exec training to amount to anything," he said. "I used to go to the library in Dayton and get books about all the impressionists.

You can get a lot of things in a library if you want to look for them. There are books on how the masters did it" After high school, Robertson took a job as an assembly worker at the National Cash Register plant in Dayton where his father worked, but he continued to paint and to dream that, one day, he'd go back to Kentucky and that his work would gain public acceptance. In 1974, Robertson and his wife, Lois, returned to Dunmor and bought the 165-acre farm where Glenn's grandparents had lived. "I was going to just do anything to move down here, paint signs or whatever," Robertson said. "We raised tobacco a couple of years.

I didn't mind that too much. "I don't have to have all the material things to be happy. I don't try to keep up with the Joneses or anything, but I'm doing a lot better than I did when I first moved down here." Soon after Robertson returned to Kentucky, the late Ray Ryan, an oil executive from Evansville, who owned the Lake Malone Inn, saw one of his paintings in a small grocery store near the lake. He was so impressed with Robertson's work that he began promoting the paint-See LOGAN PAGE 4, col. 5, this section 4L1 Bvron rm 1 vravviuiu Courier-Journal columnist 5 liar i y.

ui mnrr- I Jim M. Walton, a longtime WHAS television and radio announcer who was known as "Mr. Crusade" for his work with the WHAS Crusade for Children, died yesterday. He was 68. Deputy Coroner James B.

"Buddy" Egner said Walton died of natural causes at his apartment at 3201 Lelth Lane. Walton's son, James G. Walton, said his father was living at the apartment because his home, at 1801 Casselberry Road, was damaged in a fire in April and was being renovated. WHAS hired Walton in 1939 after he wandered into the station and read a spot announcement in place of the absent regular announcer. Except for a stint with the Army intelligence division during World War II, he stayed with WHAS until his retirement in 1979.

Walton began his telethon work as anchorman for WHAS Cerebral Palsy telethons in 1952 and 1953. Those events spawned the annual Crusade for Children, which began in 1954 with Walton as its sole emcee. He continued as master of ceremonies for 25 more Crusades and also worked as executive director and executive producer. He retired after the 1979 Crusade. Walton also did administrative work for the Crusade, and it was part of his job to recruit local and big-name talent to appear on the telethons.

Early In his career with WHAS, he spent nine years reading poetry "When somebody comes up and says, 'That's it's almost as good as 20 bucks." Artist Glenn Robertson DUNMkX Ky. The sleepy hamlet of Dunmor, astraddle the Logan-Muhlenberg County line and hard "by the banks of Lake Malone, is a strange place to find an African wildlife artist. But Glenn Robertson says there's no place he'd rather be. Robertson's childhood, on the heels of the Great Depression, was divided between Logan County, where he was born, and Dayton, Ohio, where his family moved when he was a boy. Although he lived in Ohio, young Robertson's heart stayed in Kentucky, where he returned each summer to his grandparents' farm near Dunmor.

As a student, he preferred sketching pictures to routine classwork. An English teacher who also taught art recognized Robertson's talent and encouraged him to paint. "I haven't had any professional Stiff Photo by Byron Criwford Wildlife artist Glenn Robertson returned to Logan County in 1974. His limited-edition collector prints are sold throughout Kentucky and in parts of surrounding states. IS.