The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 1

A A. A iv i jr-iu I 1 i III 'Av i VOL. 230, NO. 11 LOUISVILLE, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 11, 1970 176 PAGES 23 CENTS Mor yatt. Group Urges on Consolidation of City9 County hi 7r Times 1 i 1 iv WAW 0 By DON RIDINGS Courier-Journal A Timet Urban Affairs Editor A "new" Louisville spreading out to the Jefferson County line was proposed yesterday by a local government task force.

The expanded city would not affect Jefferson County's fourth-, fifth- and sixth-class cities unless they wanted to be absorbed. But the "new" Louisville as proposed would include nearly nine out of every 10 residents of the county. A task force appointed by the Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce and headed by former U.S. Sen. Thruston B.

Morton and former Louisville Mayor Wilson W. Wyatt made public its recommendations yesterday after six months of meetings. Initial reactions from Jefferson County's legislative delegation, from County Judge Todd Hollenbach and from Louisville Mayor Frank Burke were cautiously approving. Most indicated support for the principle of consolidated local government but wanted more time to study details of the report. Burke's statement was the most enthusiastic.

He praised the task force for writing a report "sufficiently flexible to let the people and their representatives work their will." For more than an hour before releasing the report yesterday morning, the task force met with Burke, Hollenbach, state legislators from Jefferson County and other local leaders at the Brown Hotel. Under the proposal, several city and county functions would be merged and administered under a streamlined city administration. The county government and its consitutional officers, however, would continue to administer functions such as health and welfare for the entire county. Both Morton and Wyatt characterize the task force's work as "probably the most important plan ever to be devised for Jefferson County." Two themes run throughout the six-page report: The need for a merged government "to avoid duplication and to obtain more effective delivery of urban services." This is the familiar efficiency-and-economy theme that usually characterizes merger efforts. The need to make local government more responsive to citizen needs, through the establishment of "community or neighborhood councils or associations." -This proviso reflects current concern with "participatory democracy" and suburban fears that "big" government will turn a deaf ear to local needs.

The opening statement of the report emphasizes this concern by saying: "The See CITY-COUNTY Back page, col. 1, this section 1 3 Highlights join the merged government, but would not be required to do so. As authorized by a constitutional amendment approved last November, the "new" Louisville would adopt variable tax That is, outlying areas receiving only minimal urban services would pay lower taxes than other areas. There would be a "gradual extension" of urban services. Provision would be made to "encourage the concept of community or neighborhood councils or associations" an effort to bring urban government closer to the people at the same times it boundaries are expanded.

For more details and background, see the City Countryside section. WILSON W. WYATT listens intently as Thruston B. Morton discusses a task force report on consolidated government for Louisville and Jefferson County. Morton and Wyatt headed the study.

iS rSiSJK WK-i'il Study Group Formed Teachers Assail Nunn lif iSIf For Omitting Pay Hike At. mCA'- Photo by Thomas Bytrs tribution for the Louisville Water last night reported 41 breaks in six-and eight-inch water mains and 350 telephone calls from people with broken pipes in their homes. "It was our biggest day so far," Ryan said. (Under normal weather conditions, the average number of main breaks is three to five per week, Ryan And the worst in pipe breakage is yet to come, according to Ryan. As the weather warms, undiscovered broken pipes will thaw out and home owners will be confronted with problems they didn't know existed, Ryan said.

The cold caused a fourth-floor sprinkling system in the Cardinal Hotel, 417 S. Fifth, to malfunction, yesterday resulting in an undetermined amount of damage. Manager Fred Simons said the water caused plaster to peel off ceilings in the lobby and guest rooms. A similar malfunction in a storage room See WARMER Back page, col. 1, this section ICE SKATING isn't quite like walking, as Susie Kempf of Louisville found out yesterday.

Coming to her aid is Pete DeLozier. The couple tried the ice on Beargrass Creek in Louisville's Seneca Park. Warmer but Not Warm; And Look Out for Snow Merger Plan Here are highlights of the report released yesterday by the local government task force headed by Thruston B. Morton and Wilson W. Wyatt: The City of Louisville would be expanded to include all the unincorporated areas of Jefferson County.

Once enabling legislation put the process into motion, the expansion would require approval by the Louisville Board of Aldermen and the Jefferson County Fiscal Court, plus a favorable vote by the citizens of the city of Louisville and the unincorporated areas of the county "taken as a combined total." Jefferson County's fourt-, fifth- and sixth-class cities would have the option Nixon-Congress Pollution Fund -H- fa fj Fight Brewing By SPENCER RICH Los Angeles Timei Washlngton Post Service WASHINGTON President Nixon faces stiff criticism from congressional Democrats if he decides to "freeze" $586 million in extra funds voted by Congress for the fight against water pollution. They will charge that while he talks a good game of environmental cleanup, he appears unwilling as a source close to Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, D-Maine, put it yesterday to "put his money where his mouth is." The issue could become a new focal point in the Democratic election-year effort to paint Mr. Nixon as a President whose financial priorities are wrong and who is not sufficiently concerned with the nation's health, education, welfare and environmental needs.

$586 Million 'Reserved' Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel and federal Water Pollution Control Administrator David Dominick told Congress several times last year that the Interior Department could beneficially use $600 million in fiscal 1970 for grants to localities for construction of sewage treatment plants. But because of budgetary pressures, the Nixon administration proposed only $214 million in appropriations for sewage treatment grants the same amount recommended by former President Johnson. This was only one-fifth of the $1 billion authorized for fiscal 1970 in the Clean Waters Restoration Act of 1966 under the guidance of Muskie, who is chairman of the Senate air and water pollution subcommittee. The administration promised to come up with some alternative financing program to cover at least part of the difference.

However, under the prodding See FIGHT PAGE 19, Col. 1, this section are jailed to await trial or hearing because they can't afford bond, 24 per cent are serving time to pay fines at uneconomical rates, and 40 per cent are held for drunkenness or related offenses. Though fines usually are given to offenders whose cases show no need for imprisonment, the report pointed out, a defendant can be detained in jail to pay a fine at $1 or $2 a day for a period that exceeds the maximum legal jail sentence for the offense. Because many of the jails have poor or no rehabilitative programs and because few provide facilities to separate convicted offenders from those waiting for trial, a large number of jail inmates are "graduates" on return visits. The problem is particularly clear in the case of persons held on drunkenness charses.

manv of whom are "chronic repeaters" who will receive "neither edical attention aunng incarceration indicted to in By MIKE McKINNEY Courier-Journal Staff Writer The Kentucky Education Association registered shock and anger yesterday at Gov. Louie B. Nunn's failure to recommend a pay raise for teachers in the budget he submitted to the 1970 General Assembly last week. In a meeting in Louisville, the KEA Elsewhere War Near an End? Nigerian troops capture vital Biaf-ran town, move in on major air link, sources report Page A 2. Koreans Too Tough? There are more reports, and a denial, that Korean troops mistreated South Vietnamese civilians Page A 10.

Super Glitter Gambling talk and expected bad weather haven't taken the edge off pro football's Super Bowl in New Orleans today Page CI. Poetry Parley Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a Russian poet and a theater director discuss verse, ice hockey and the human condition Page A 16. Amusements Section Classified Section Editorials 2 Financial 6-8 Homes-Building Section Obituaries 4, 8, 10 Sports Section Women's Section if Staff Photo by Larry Spitzer President May Seek Changes In Labor Laws By NEIL GILBRIDE WASHINGTON (AP) Labor Secre-tary George P. Shultz indicates that President Nixon soon will propose the first major labor-law changes in more than 20 years to deal with strikes that threaten harm to the nation.

Shultz, in an interview, hinted Mr. Nixon may propose that Congress junk the separate Railway Labor Act covering railroads and airlines and overhaul the Labor Department survey says dock strike's impact was contradict-. ing former President Johnson Page A 18. 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to cover all big labor-management disputes. There has been speculation that Mr.

Nixon will propose strike-law changes in his State of the Union message soon after Congress returns Jan 19. "That's certainly a distinct possibility," Shultz said, while emphasizing that the final decision is the President's and still under consideration. Such changes in labor law would be extremely difficult to enact. Similar pro- See NIXON Page 19, col. 1, this section Associated Press Which Witch? LOUISE HUEBNER says she's the "Official Witch of Los Angeles County" and warns the county not to take away her title won in a parks department event or she'll rescind the good spells she's cast.

The county wants her to stop claiming "of ficial status. i board of directors charged that Nunn's $13-million "uncommitted reserve" wouldn't even meet the cost-of-living increase that is automatically being provided to all other state employes." The governor, in his budget address to the General Assembly Wednesday, set aside an $18 million "pot," telling legislators that teacher pay increases could be one of the items to come from this fund. Strong KEA Rebuttal In a harshly worded statement, KEA officials said they found it "incredible that public schools, which bear so much responsibility for the state's future, are completely excluded from participating in their fair share of Kentucky's economic growth." "Moreover," the statement continued, "Kentucky's public-school teachers deeply resent being cast as villains who would rob the poor and infirm and who would oppose tax exemptions for food, medicine and clothing in order to line their own pockets." Nunn did recommend a $57 million increase for the Minimum Foundation Program and the Teacher's Retirement System. Committee Action Uncertain He said these funds would pay for the "rapid growth of pupil enrollment, continuation of the free textbooks program and supplemental support for the teachers' retirement fund" over the next two years. KEA officials announced that they plan to establish a strategy committee "to explore action alternatives for the coming weeks." J.

Marvin Dodson, executive secretary of KEA, said the committee will be See KEA Back page, col. 1, this section The report said a regional system, created through inter-city and inter-county cooperation, would permit concentrations of prisoners sufficiently large to make improved conditions and programs economically feasible. The commission also recommended changes that would put more emphasis on alternatives to jail sentences, particularly where drunkenness and inability to pay fines are involved, It said the state of New Mexico has saved an estimated $4 million per year since 1963 by tripling its probation staff and cutting its prison population by 32 per cent. In other recommendations, the commission called for: Programs that would increase the use of supervised probation in misde- See JAILS Back page, col. 1, this sei Termed 'Outdated, Unfit' By MIKE BROWN Courier-Journal Staff Writer Balmy it wasn't.

But after three days of temperatures in single figures, yesterday's high of 20 degrees seemed to qualify as a warm spell for Louisville. And last night the weatherman was predicting continued relief from the stinging cold. After an early morning low in the mid-teens, the mercury was expected to climb above the freezing mark today and slide back only into the high 20s tonight. But rein in your optimism. The forecast calls for an 80 per cent chance of snow, changing to rain by this afternoon.

And you guessed it "colder tomorrow," the weatherman said. Life Not Back to Normal General Hospital reported no emergency frostbite cases. It had treated three on each of the two previous days. And the Louisville Gas Electric Co. experienced a drop-off in gas consumption, which had set records on the three previous days.

Even the chilly Jefferson County Jail, whose inmates were issued extra blankets Friday, wasn't so chilly any more. "It's warmed up quite a bit in here," according to Deputy W. C. Wieger. However, life still was not back to normal.

John E. Ryan, superintendent of dis- Wheel Spinner Furnished by the U.S. Weather Bureau LOUISVILLE area-Cloudy and slightly warmer with snow likely) one-inch accumulation possible before changing to rain by afternoon. Precipitation chances: 80 per cent today, 30 per cent tonight. High in 30s; low near 30.

KENTUCKY Cloudy and warmer, with snow In ulkct nnA cnrnr4inn nvmr matt of ttatft. Hiaht In 30s; lows in 20s-30s. INDIANA Chance of more snow mixed with freezing rain. Highs in 30s; lows in 20s. High yesterday, 20; low, 1.

Year Ago: High, 34; low, 19. Sun: Rises, sets, 5:43. Moon: Rises, 10:41 a.m.; sets, 10:34 p.m. Wither map anil details, Page 9. State's Jails 9 by Crime Panel By JOE WARD Courier-Journal Staff Writer The Kentucky Crime Commission yesterday indicted the majority of the state's local jails as substandard institutions that can't hold prisoners, that do more harm than good when they do hold them and that cost more than they're worth in either case.

In a 46-page report compiled after a year's study, the commission described conditions in local lockups as "worse" than those in institutions where more serious offenders are confined and recommended sweeping changes in local-level correctional systems. According to the report, which is based on examination of 170 Kentucky jails, persons charged with misdemeanors in the commonwealth are confined in buildings that are "on the whole, outdated and unfit for use." Of those persons, it said, 31 per cent nor rehabilitative services after conviction." The report said conditions in the jails are made worse by the "reality of political life" that often prevents enforcement of building, sanitation and food standards where jails are concerned. It blamed those conditions, coupled with a lack of adequate security arrangements, for 507 escapes it said were reported between January 1966 and March 1968. But the largest part of the 46-page commission report was devoted to suggested remedies. A system of regional jails that would reduce the number of local-level lockups headed the list of recommendations.

On the average, it said, Kentucky's jails are half empty, a factor that hinders or prevents the creation of needed treatment and recreation programs, i 1'.