The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 5

lMI THE COURIER-JOURNAL SDAY, AUGUST 14, 1996 Firm envisions historic depots as stops on high-speed rail line Kentucky Kingdom adding coaster RICHM0ND 1 INDIANAPOLIS I Cincinnati INDIANA Louisville Vonderhite said. It will sit on six acres in what is now a parking lot near the T-2 roller coaster. A Swiss firm that specializes in roller-coaster engineering will design and develop Chang. The ride will have five "inversions." At one point, riders will plummet 144 feet into a 121.6-foot vertical loop; Kentucky Kingdom contends the drop will be the steepest on any stand-up coaster anywhere. Riders will then take a 103.8-foot dive loop, encounter a high-speed twist, then a 72-foot inclined loop, a high-speed spiral, another dive loop and finally a series of corkscrew turns.

People will have to be at least 54 inches tall to ride Chang, which will be able to accommodate about 1,500 riders per hour. By SHELDON S. SHAFER The Courier-Journal Kentucky Kingdom, which bills itself as "the Thrill Park," plans to add what its contends will be the park's biggest thrill of all the world's tallest, longest and fastest stand-up roller coaster. The looping coaster to be dubbed "Chang" will cost $12 million and be ready when the park reopens next April for the 1997 season. Chang it means "long" in Chinese, according to the amusement park will have 4,155 feet of track, rise to 154 feet at its highest point and have three 28-passenger trains that can reach a top speed of 63 mph.

Those figures will surpass the present records for a stand-up coaster all held by the Mantis, which opened this year at Cedar Point near Sandusky, Ohio. A spokeswoman for that amusement park, which is on Lake Erie, conceded that the Mantis' marks would be shattered by Chang. Mantis has about 3,900 feet of track, has a top height of 145 feet and goes up to about 60 mph. But the spokeswoman, Janice Liske, noted that several classic roller coasters whose riders sit down are taller and faster. Cedar Point's Magnum, for instance, is 205 feet high and goes 72 mph.

And many sit-down coasters are longer than Chang, she said. Chang, Kentucky Kingdom's fifth coaster, will be its biggest investment in a single ride, spokeswoman Debbie KENTUCKY this spring by the Indiana Historic Landmarks Foundation. The Richmond Urban Enterprise Association, which owns the depot, has worked for years to secure a developer to restore it a job that would cost close to $2.5 million, "It's an excellent idea and a concept we would support," said Bob Goodwin, secretary and treasurer of the association's board of direct tors. "We would anticipate that area taking on, an entirely differed look than it has now." Besides a train station, USA Rail officials said the Richmond depot also might serve as a restaurant or! ballroom. "We were impressed with what we saw in Richmond," DePlanty' said.

"The support is what we're looking for, and that's what we've' got there." DePlanty and fellow investors hope to visit Richmond in the next couple of weeks for a second Fred Holycross, director of thel landmark foundation's eastern re-' gional office, said USA Rail's interest seems promising, but he remains cautious. "We can't pin our hopes on a positive development," he said. 'T know it's a good building and will find its developer eventually. It's too attractive and in a great Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS Two of Indiana's historic railroad depots may be revived as links in the nation's first high-speed rail system. Investors looking to build a line from Pittsburgh to St.

Louis hope to establish a hub in Indianapolis' 108-year-old Union Station and a stop in Richmond's 94-year-old Pennsylvania Railroad Station. Steven DePlanty, president of Syracuse, USA Rail Passenger Light Freight Systems said his company has made a bid for Union Station and wants to turn the landmark into "a showplace." Nestled on the south edge of downtown near the RCA Dome and Circle Centre mall, Union Station has been a consistent money-loser as a mall, and the city is trying to find a profitable use for it. The city acquired the property when a real estate subsidiary of American Express lost $19 million and gave it up last year. DePlanty said the railroad line's backers have committed to spending more than $20 million to fix up and operate the site. "There's a lot more where that came from," he said.

Despite DePlanty's enthusiasm, Indianapolis officials haven't made a decision on the property. USA Rail's proposal arrived in the office of May- BY JOANNE MESHEW. THE COURIER-JOURNAL of Stephen Goldsmith just last week, said spokesman Ed Sagebiel. Indianapolis earlier this year rejected two lease bids for Union Station. The bids from Coca-Cola bottler Marvin Herb and a group including the owners of the adjacent Downtown Omni Severin hotel both met the city's minimum price of $3.55 million for a sale or a lease, but fell short in other areas, including the city's stipulation that the successful bidder pay for half of the estimated $2 million in repairs the landmark needs.

The Richmond depot needs even more work. It was named one of Indiana's 11 most endangered landmarks A RECORD-SETTING ROLLER COASTER Kentucky Kingdom's new Chang is planned as the world's tallest, longest and fastest stand-up roller coaster. The coaster, which is to be ready by next April, will have 4,155 feet of track, rise to 154 feet and reach a top speed of 63 mph. EH DWion of TAX CREDITS PROPOSED Property-tax credits proposed by Frank O'Bannon, Democratic candidate for governor: Credit Income hill Jii smism nXlnSTTirs. 1.154-foot lift 2.

121 vertical loop 3. 103.8-foot dive loop to freeze tax rates because a fam-1 ily's property taxes could still crease significantly with a frozen: rate if the assessment on the family's property rose significantly. "People don't pay rates. They-pay dollars," he said. Earlier this year a state Court judge ordered the state to scrap its complex and often subject tive property-tax-assessment prac-' tices by March 1998.

The judge ordered that assessments be based on fair market value, or how much property would fetch on the open market. i i i 4. High-speed carousel 5. 72-foot inclined loop 6. High-speed spiral interlocked with dive loop 7.

Corkscrews 8. Loading and unloading station 12 Up to $29,999 10 8 6 4 $90,000 and above BY JOANNE MESHEW, THE COURIER-JOURNAL Jewish responds to new suit on fungus Kernan touts tax-cut plan Continued from Page 1 cut or limit taxes in four ways: Allowing people to deduct up to 12 percent of their property-tax bill from their state income taxes. The percentage deduction would depend on income. Families with adjusted gross incomes below $30,000 would get the 12 percent credit; those with adjusted gross incomes between $30,000 and $50,000 would get 10 percent. All families would continue to get at least the existing 4 percent credit.

The Democratic candidates estimate that the deduction would save people $654 million in income taxes in the first four years. Lowering the ceiling on how much a local government can increase its total property-tax income every year from a maximum increase of 5 percent or 10 percent every year (depending on assessments) to a maximum increase of 4 percent or 8 percent. The proposal would keep the maximum increase in new money at 5 percent for school districts. The Democratic ticket estimates that change would cost local governments $237 million. Increasing the renter's credit on state income taxes from $1,500 to $2,500.

The Democrats estimate that this would cost the state about $88 million over the first four years. Exempting any person with a child from paying state income taxes uoiusmun aruiuuiiteu nis pian in June, estimating that it would save people more than $4 billion in property taxes. But Kernan criticized it as vague on the source of the savings. Late yesterday, Goldsmith, at-'. tending the National Republican Convention in San Diego, was at -least as critical of the Democrats' plan.

i "Unlike our proposal, this one does not even purport to cut prop- -erty taxes," he said, saying proper- I ty taxes will be allowed to continue to increase every year. He said the low'e. Mlt, rani mite rtmr, iw if his or her income is below $10,000 per year. The Democrats estimate that would cost the state about $88 million over four years. In total, the cuts or limits would save taxpayers about $1.1 billion over a Democratic administration's first four years, Kernan said.

He said the state would compensate for its portion of the lost tax revenue by spending about $537 million of the its $1.7 billion surplus and by cutting spending over the first four years by a total of $293 million. As for the property-tax money that local governments would be prohibited from collecting, Kernan said, "The $237 million will result in local government having to get a little bit smaller, to work a little bit differently, but to not cripple them." Kernan, who is now the mayor of South Bend, said the Democratic proposal is better than Goldsmith's plan only the hospital but Judith K. Brohm, senior transplant coordinator; Robert Dowling, a heart transplant surgeon; University Cardiovascular Surgical Associates, the surgical group Dowling works for; and Wehr. Dowling declined last night to talk about lawsuit. Brohm couldn't be reached for comment.

The complaint alleges that Brohm "negligently" took a series of steps that delayed Karen Hall's transplant, exposing her to aspergillosis, and ultimately precluding her from surgery. For example, the complaint says Brohm told Hall that she couldn't get on a list of transplant patients at both Jewish and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Hall dropped off the Mayo list so she could get on Jewish's, and was admitted to the hospital in September 1995. The suit says that in November, Dr. Laman Gray, a member of University Cardiovascular Associates, told Hall "that she would receive the next available (suitable) heart." A few days later, the suit says, a suitable heart was received by Jewish, but Dowling and Brohm "negligently and intentionally decided to overlook Hall" and give it to somebody else.

Gray said last night that he remembered Karen Hall as a candidate for a heart who soon was deemed not suitable "because she got sicker." That's not uncommon, he said. If there's a heart available when a patient is doing well, they get it. If their condition worsens, they don't, he said. the hospital, so he decided to address the latest one. "False fears" about the fungus may have arisen in the minds of some patients, he said, adding that such a result is "morally unconscionable." Shaw said an autopsy indicated that Karen Hall died of massive organ failure, not aspergillosis.

Hall never had the disease, he said. Karen Hall's death certificate says death was caused by "end stage cardiomyopathy," a heart-muscle disorder, and by other problems, including kidney failure and heart valve disease. Aspergillosis isn't mentioned. Attorney Laurence Zielke, who filed the suit on behalf of Steve Hall, Karen Hall's husband, acknowledged last night that the autopsy doesn't say aspergillosis caused death. But "an appendix" of the document did say Hall had the disease, he said.

Shaw said the autopsy showed that at one time, Hall did have aspergillis spores in her nose. But that didn't mean she had the disease, or that she would be barred from a transplant, he said. Each of four other suits filed earlier allege that aspergillosis caused the deaths of the patients, three of whom had received transplants. The fourth was being treated for a brain tumor. Aspergillus spores have no effect on healthy people, but for those with suppressed immune systems, asper-gillus spores can cause aspergillosis, which can be fatal.

The suit filed yesterday names not By DICK KAUKAS The Courier-Journal Another suit alleging that an airborne fungus caused an infectious disease that contributed to a patient's' death was filed yesterday against Jewish Hospital, prompting hospital officials to comment in- detail about the allegations for the first time. The complaint, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court, alleges that Karen L. Hall, 44, of Letcher County, was "negligently" denied a heart transplant when she needed one, then kept in the hospital so long that she contracted aspergillosis. The disease, the suit says, "precluded her from receiving a heart transplant." Hall died Jan. 10.

The suit was at least the fifth filed citing aspergillosis as a reason for death and blaming the hospital and Wehr Constructors Inc. for allegedly stirring up the fungus and exposing vulnerable patients to it during an extensive renovation project. Aspergillus spores are found in soil, decaying plants and old buildings, and some research has indicated that infection can rise during construction, but that air filter systems can reduce its levels. Previously, Jewish Hospital officials had denied the lawsuits' claims but said they couldn't comment specifically on pending litigation. However, hospital president Douglas Shaw said yesterday that the suits and media reports about aspergillosis have been "maligning and unfair" to piaii a uiujr igai uia niu wine ui state income taxes giving Indiana a graduated income tax, in essence, while most states are moving toward flat income taxes.

And, Goldsmith said, the Democrats' plan ignores the fastest-growing and biggest portion of property taxes: school taxes, which make up about 60 percent of the property-tax rate. CORRECTIONS Because of a reporting error, an incorrect telephone number was published for getting additional information about Kentucky Kingdom prices and hours during the Kentucky State Fair. The correct number is (502) 366-2231. An incorrect date was published for the candlelight vigil during Elvis Week '96 in Memphis, Tenn. The vigil begins at 9 p.m.

tomor- Virginia Zoo hippopotamus dies after swallowing ball Zookeepers had known the hippo was suffering from some kind of blockage but decided against surgery, which can kill such a large animal. Signs instruct visitors not to throw food or other objects into the enclosures. Nyla arrived at the zoo in 1975. She was once part of a Las Vegas circus act. Hippos can live into their late 40s.

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) The Virginia Zoo's only hippopotamus died of a bowel obstruction caused by a rac-quetball that a visitor had apparently thrown into the animal's pen. Nyla died at 31 Sunday after a monthlong illness. The exact cause was unknown until an autopsy revealed the 2-inch rubber ball lodged in her small intestine, a passage about the size of a quarter in diameter. 1UW.

TODAY IN THE NATION Forecast for noon today i A TUC From the National Weather Service, COLO FRONT WARM FRONT SN Snow STATIONARY FRONT RN Rain JL1 1 1JL1V Ap and Accu-Weather at 8 p.m. EDT yesterday. Forecasts are for today. 70j Hi Lo Prec. Forcaet uiy LOUISVILLE FORECAST Clear and warmer today with a light breeze.

A chance of a thunderstorm tonight. It. -7(1 unaersiormsv 60 I If I Los Angeles Memphis Miami Beach Milwaukee Paul Mobile Nashville New Orleans New York City W- LA 1 1 l'v Bfc- ou LOUISVILLE" SUN AND MOON 6:56 a.m. 8:38 p.m. MOONRlSfc 7:17 a.m.

If M00NStfl 8:39 p.m iNEWMOONil Aug. 14 dTftll Aug. 21 RH.LM00N Aug. 28 LASTOTR. Sept.

4 mxyi- TODAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY h. W0STLY PARTLY CHANCE OF SUNNY SUNNY SHOWERS FAIR Sr861- MZ 83 83 go lips flpfew1 pf45i 70 S'iHLiii'l rSf'i'H aftf J-rfts 1 60 67- ggb 30 64 Jj II II i NATIONAL WEATHER CL Clear CY Cloudy Temperatures and precipitation for 24 hours ending City HI Lo Prec, Forcast Albany, 78 60 83 56 CL Albuquerque 97 67 93 68 CY Anchorage .69 66 67 50 CY Atlanta 85 69 87 67 CL Atlantic City 71 64 2.67 78 63 CY Baltimore 75 63 1.90 84 62 CY Billings 85 64 94 60 CY Birmingham 85 68 89 64 CL Boise 98 75 98 67 CY Boston 63 60 .28 73 59 CL Brownsville 96 80 96 78 CY Buffalo 77 59 82 60 CL Charleston, S.C. 86 73 89 71 CY Charleston, W.Va. 75 62 83 60 CL Charlotte, N.C. 82 64 82 65 CY Cheyenne 88 60 .08 82 56 CY Chicago 84 65 86 64 CY Cincinnati 85 59 .01 85 65 CL Cleveland 83 56 85 62 CL Columbia, C.

87 72 .02 89 67 CY Columbus, Ohio 83 60 .01 85 61 CL Dallas-Ft Worth 93 69 92 70 CY Dayton 84 58 85 62 CL Denver 96 64 92 60 CY Des Moines 84 62 84 64 CY Detroit 86 60 .11 64 65 CY Duluth 70 60 .04 66 55 RN El Paso 97 66 100 67 CL Fairbanks 71 51 69 48 CY Fargo 85 69 .01 80 57 CL Flagstaff 88 55 88 52 CY Hartford, Conn. 69 58 .47 84 59 CL Honolulu 91 76 90 76 CL Houston 93 76 .06 93 74 CY Indianapolis 86 61 88 65 CY Jackson. Miss. 87 69 91 65 CL Jacksonville 90 72 91 72 RN Juneau 55 51 62 49 CY Kansas City 83 60 86 63 CY Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland, Maine Portland, Ore. i jk 110 83 110 81 CY 91 67 91 66 CY 94 69 92 70 CL 87 69 90 69 CY 91 79 92 78 CY 85 68 85 69 CY 88 63 78 62 CY 87 69 .25 89 68 CY 83 67 88 64 CY 87 69 .51 90 70 CL 80 63 CY 75 74 1.09 76 69 CY 85 63 91 68 CL 85 61 .01 88 62 CL 91 73 .31 91 73 RN 72 63 2.28 82 62 CY 109 88 111 88 CL 80 57 83 59 CL 69 61 79 57 CL 91 63 87 81 CL 64 60 .93 78 59 CL 73 64 .05 79 62 CY 90 68 86 56 CY 92 57 .12 96 57 CY 67 64 1.34 77 63 CY 108 72 103 68 CL 86 64 91 68 CY 100 67 96 66 CY 99 74 98 74 CY 80 70 78 69 CL 73 59 72 58 CL 74 45 72 55 CY 83 58 81 59 CL 80 59 82 57 CL 90 78 89 77 RN 85 59 87 62 CY 106 77 103 77 CL 88 62 90 67 CL 75 65 1.32 85 65 CY YESTERDAY'S EXTREMES unutrsiurn Si 100 Jr High: 125 at Death Valley, Calif.

Low: 36 at Wisdom, Mont. REGIONAL OUTLOOK STRIDES IN SOLAR POWER Temperatures are for today's high and tonight's f- Reno Richmond Sacramento St Louis Salt Lake City San Antonio San Diego San Francisco St Ste Marie Seattle Syracuse Tampa-St Ptrsbr. Topeka Tucson Tulsa INDIANAPOLIS I 88-65 I I CINCINNATI I NGT0N AO 85-65 LOUISVILLE SVILLE 86-67 BL00MINGT0N EVANSVILLE YESTERDAY High: 83, low: 63. Humidity at noon: 60 Year ago: high 94, low 76 Records: 98 in 1874, 49 in 1964 Precipitation: none Month: 2.23 inches, .66 inch above normal Year: 37.46 inches, 8.25 inches above normal. cost $39 million and powers 10,000 homes.

Solar Two is, as the name suggests, the successor to Solar One, which nh cc LEXINGTON 85-65 I am often asked why wind power isn't harnessed to create electricity in our region. For now at least, it's not practical because our average wind speed is too low only 8 mph. However, researchers are making great strides harnessing the sun to make electricity to meet heavy summer demands. An experimental power plant in the Mojave Desert, known as Solar Two, collects the sun's heat and stores the energy until needed. The facility, near Daggett, PADUCAH 89-6CH BOWLING GREEN The following weather observations were compiled yesterday.

-Q) OO'OS Daseo on me previous aay weainer. LONDON 83-65 Hi Lo Sky City Hi Lo Sky City operated from 1982 to 1986 at the same site. Tammy Garrison WDRB-41 meteorologist Send questions to Weather Desk, The Courier-Journal, Box 740031, Louisville 40201. Fax: 582-4360. E-mail: tagwxaol.com.

78 57 CL 69 53 RN 62 CY POLLEN COUNT AIR POLLUTION YESTERDAY'S HIGHEST READING 71 62 89 84 89 77 86 CL 77 CY 78 RN 77 CY 55 CL roiiuiam: 150 THE WORLD City HI Lo Sky Amsterdam ..68 57 CY Athens 91 71 CL Bangkok 91 80 CY Barbados 86 75 CL Barcelona 86 71 CY Beijing 89 71 CL Beirut 84 71 CL Berlin 73 59 RN Bermuda 82 78 CY Brussels 68 57 RN Budapest 71 60 RN Buenos Aires 66 44 CY Cairo 91 71 CL Copenhagen 77 60 CL Dublin 68 55 CY Frankfurt 66 57 CY Geneva 64 51 RN 69 50 CL Oslo Paris Rio Rome San Juan Seoul Singapore Stockholm Sydney Taipei Tel Aviv Tokyo Toronto Vancouver Vienna Warsaw Zunch Havana 91 80 CL Helsinki 78 48 CL Hong Kong 89 82 CL Istanbul 84 68 CL Jerusalem 89 68 CL Johannesburg 69 42 CL Lima 62 55 CY Lisbon 82 64 CL London 69 59 CY Madnd 95 68 CY Manila 87 73 CY Mexico City ..73 50 CY Montreal 75 64 CL Moscow 75 53 CY Nairobi 59 51 RN Nassau 93 75 CY New Delhi 89 82 CY Readings taken at or forecast for 7 a.m. (in feet). (L) Lower gauge. (U) Upper gauge OHIO RIVER Fwrn'fVeek 100 ULTRAVIOLET INDEX 3 HtGH INDEX SCALE: OTP 15 TIME IT TAKES TO BURN AT MIDDAY 7 to 40 minutes TREES ABSENT GRASSES LOW WEEDS LOW WOLDS HIGH 93 87 78 CL 75 CL 75 CY UNHEALTHY 11 MODERATE I I GOOD Flood Yester- Tomor- Next Location stage day Today row day Flood Yester- Tomor- Next Location stage day Today row day 73 60 CL Time: 3 pm. Reading: 076 parts per million seal! 574-3319 71 27.9 17.4 12.6 15.4 27.0 160 12.5 13.9 29.3 29 8 20.8 19.3 12.7 126 18.5 19.5 11.8 14.3 14.1 14.1 Cincinnati 52 Markland(L) 51 Louisville (U) 23 Louisville (L) 55 CanneltonfL) 42 Newburgh (L) 38 EvansvilTe 42 Uniontown(L) 37 13.5 14.8 16.2 15.5 17.4 19.2 15.0 16.2 17.5 14.5 15.9 17.1 57 CY 59 CY 55 CL 50 RN Drs, Stephen Fallanf and James Sutlett 69 78 62 Internet: wwvmhnwscf.noaa.govhnV.