Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 12

The Arizona Republic SECTION Columns Puzzlesbi4 Thursday february 13, 1992 Pfooemx faces Tbi i' i Sit m. 4 delSciit If i Mar' Paul Johnson He says job cuts cannot be avoided. "There's no other way to make up the deficit" 7 rwvti- Work force must be cut, mayor says By David Schwartz and M.E. Saavedra The Arizona Republic Phoenix faces at least a S23 million revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year and will be forced to lay off an undetermined number of workers because of lagging retail sales, city officials said Wednesday. The cuts will be made throughout the city's 1 work force, including Police and Fire department employees.

Mayor Paul Johnson said. The layoffs will mark the second time in two years that Phoenix has been forced to hand out pink slips in midyear. The financially strapped city has furloughed 336 employees in the past year. "Clearly, the numbers we are seeing are the most devastating the city has seen in the last three decades," Johnson said. "We will take the appropriate action and go from there." Johnson said job cuts cannot be avoided.

"There's no other way to make up the deficit," he said. "It's something we're going to have to do." Officials blamed a slow holiday fcn" Ptiotos by Charles KrejcsiThw Arizona Republic When work is complete, Roosevelt Dam will be 77 feet higher, providing enough capacity to hold the largest flood expected in a 200-year period. A drain on the lakeside bottom of the dam will come out on the lower right of the dam. A tunnel for it is to the right of the construction crane (middle foreground). season for the sharp increase in the projected revenue shortfall for the fiscal year, which will end June 30.

The shortfall had been pegged at $5 million to $8 million. Retail-sales taxes from the Christmas season are a key revenue source. The city's slumping economy prompted Phoenix to cut 221 positions a year ago as part a S22 million cost-cutting effort. In November, the city pared an additional 115 jobs from the payroll. Ray Bladinc, Johnson's chief of staff, said additional cuts will be difficult because the budget already is bare-boncs.

"We cut off some of the branches last year, and now it looks like we're going to have to cut into the trunk a little," Bladinc said. City Manager Frank Fairbanks has told the Mayor's Office that he has a plan to trim the deficit by $10 million and on Friday will give the City See PHOEWX, page B4 i 5 I "'I r- i si i a'V SRF asks for haste on radar Caught between flood, drought, officials say By Steve Yozwiak The Arizona Republic ROOSEVELT DAM Salt River Project officials, caught between releasing too much water and risking future drought, or keeping too much water and risking floods, urged the federal government Wednesday to step up installation of a radar system that would help in predicting rainfall runoff. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain, urged the Army Corps of Engineers to "take whatever steps necessary" to protect a landfill on the Salt River north of Mesa from being inundated by possible water releases of up to 50,000 cubic feet per second. Such a flow would be 23 times the amount that apparently washed trash into the river last month.

Construction work started in 1990 at 80-year-old Roosevelt Dam eventually will raise the Cutting sentences for some drug, sex crimes urged More judicial latitude also sought Divers work to build a coffer-dam across to the main Roosevelt Dam. Dirt (foreground) also will be removed during construction on the 80-year-old dam. The $200 million project will be done in 1 995. feet, cutting storage capacity by nearly 25 percent, or about 400,000 acre-feet of water. That's the equivalent of one year's residential water needs for the Valley.

"If all the snow melted today, it would fill that space," said Dan Phillips, supervisor of the SRP's water-resource operations. See WEATHER, page B6 280-foot structure by 77 feet, providing enough capacity to hold the largest flood expected in the next 200 years. But until the $200 million project is completed sometime in 1995, SRP officials say they are at the mercy of Mother Nature. During construction, they have had to lower the water level of Roosevelt Lake by nearly 20 One penny at a time BE MY VALENTINE Businesses expect romance to equal dollars By Kim Sue Lia Perkes The Arizona Republic A joint legislative committee released a study Wednesday that recommends revising the state's criminal code to reduce sentences for certain drug offenses and sex crimes against children, and to eliminate the so-called Hannah priors. The study also recommends that judges be given more latitude in mandatory-sentencing requirements.

"We tinkered with mandatory sentences, but we didn't do away with them," said Sen. Ann Day, R-Tucson, a committee member. "We gave the judges more discretion." The committee recommends that judges be allowed to increase a mandatory-sentence limit by 50 percent if there are three or more aggravating circumstances in the case. Judges also would be able to decrease mandatory-sentence mini-mums by 25 percent at their discretion, and decrease them by 50 percent if the state concurred and if there were at least two mitigating factors in the case. However, the judicial discretion See REDUCING, page B3 'THRESHOLD' DRUG PROPOSAL A bill proposed by the 18-member Joint Legislative Study Committee on the Criminal Code Revision would create "threshold amounts" for drugs.

Possessing the following amounts of drugs would exempt an individual only from mandatory sentences. The amounts were recommended by Attorney General Grant Woods. Heroin, 4 grams Cocaine, 1 5 grams Cocaine base, or hydrot-ized cocaine "crack" 250 milligrams PCP, 4 grams Methamphetamine, 4 grams LSD, 50 milligrams LSD in the case of blotter-dosage units, less than 10O Marijuana, 8 pounds, or 36 plants exceeding 24 inches in height Anabolic steroids, 2,000 dosage units imi 'Milling 7n "I I By Art Thomason The Arizona Republic With his arrows aimed at your heartstrings, tastebuds and pocketbooks, Cupid is poised to sling another commodity your way this Valentine's Day a lot of chow. "We wouldn't mind having Valentine's Day fall on Friday every year," said Ann Lane, director of public relations for the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale. "I think people have been planning this Valentine's Day more than usual.

They have decided they will go to dinner and have a complete, lovely evening." The business boon albeit a weekend spark is a shot in the arm for many Valley restaurateurs, who have been hoping for any kind of lift in the bleak economy. "For the hotels that have suffered because of the economy, it's very welcome," said Sally Cooper, director of public relations for the Phoenician Resort, which is sold out for dining and lodging Friday. "We're right in the height of our season, but anytime we have a special holiday fall on a weekend, it's a boon. A lot of it has to do with Valentine's Day." Like several resorts and hotels throughout the Valley, the Phoenician's three restaurants are booked solid Friday night. Two of the Hyatt Regency's three restaurants were sold out by Wednesday afternoon, Lane said.

And the third was declining reservations for dinner from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. "We've had an incredible response this year," See RESORTS, page BS li 'Toll-free' line costs callers in prize offer mm School snaps Cupid's arrow By Kathleen Ingley The Arizona Republic Call a certain toll-free "800" number, and you could end up paying S3. 90 a minute. The number appears on a new version of those "You're a winner" postcard schemes and may be the start of a disturbing trend, the advocacy group Consumer Action warns.

The San Francisco-based group says Sweepstakes Clearinghouse of Dallas is flooding the country with millions of postcards saying, "You have definitely been awarded" two of the following prizes: $10,000 in cash, $1,000 in cash, a $200 savings certificate, or a $100 U.S. Savings Bond. But when consumers call the 800 number on the postcard, it turns out there's a charge for claiming their prize by phone. Similar sweepstakes schemes are common, but they use 900-prefix numbers, which always carry a toll "We're paying a lot of attention to it, because this is the first one where someone is using an 800 number and billing as though it were said Mark Foster, policy analyst at Consumer Action. According to the odds printed in tiny type on the postcard, a person's two prizes are certain to be two of the savings certificates, good only for discounts on overpriced catalog merchandise, Foster said.

The odds of winning $10,000 are one in a million. See page B4 bud does not sit well with some students. "It only happened once a year, so what's the big deal?" senior Eddie Eads asked. And the ban will be a costly one for at least one Kingman florist. Colleen Pethers, co-owner of Mandarin Orchid House, estimates her store will lose 1,500 in business as a result of the ban.

What's worse, she said, there'll be no chance to witness young love blossom. "We've enjoyed having the kids pour in here for Valentine's Day, trying to decide what they're going to get, laughing and giggling and making each other happy," Pethers said. The principal of Kingman High School has shot an arrow into a Valentine's Day tradition, but not everyone is falling in love with his decision. Effective this year, students no longer will be allowed to arrange on-campus deliveries of bouquets and balloons to their sweethearts. Because there's no place on campus to stash the tokens of affection, the tradition has become unmanageable.

Principal Walt Keller said Wednesday. "When you've got 400 kids carrying balloons and flowers in the classrooms, you've got disruptive classrooms," he said. The decision to nip the deliveries in the Cheryl Evans Sarah Bisman, 14, of. Mohave Middle School in Scottsdale, counts pennies as part of a yearlong national effort to build a civil-rights museum at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The campaign seeks to raise EJ6..