The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 21

Palm Beaches The Palm Beach Posl Times News of the SUNDAY, JUMi 16, 1971 SECTION County Employes Sign Cards From Union By MARILYN ALVA Poll Stiff Wrlttr About 180 Palm Beach County employes have signed cards authorizing the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers union to represent them, union officials said yesterday at a meeting in West Palm Beach. The union, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, has distributed handbills at work sites and held three meetings since late April in efforts to unionize the county's blue-collar workers, the main part of the county's work force. I With the exception of the fire fighters at the airport, county employes are not unionized. Of the more than 1,200 county employes, it is estimated about 800 are blue-collar employes, such as laborers and other non-clerical workers in the parks, road, bridge, motor pool and public works divisions. Jack Henry, a union representative for this area, said recruitment has been lower than expected because employes "fear intimidation" from their supervisors.

He said he has a letter on file from Personnel Director Don Roberts, directed to employes, saying that he and county commissioners do not want employes unionized. Roberts could not be reached for comment yesterday. But County Commissioner Robert Culpepper said the commission has never taken an official stand on the subject. He said there has not been a "concerted" effort to unionize employes in the past. Ed Draper, state director of the firemen and oilers union, said, "We will be holding more meetings in Palm Beach County preparing for the time when the new state collective-bargaining law goes into effect (Jan.

1, 1975). There is no way an employer can refuse to bargain under this law if (a certain percentage of) employes are represented by a union." Draper, who is based in Tampa, law passed by the state legislature recently, at least 30 per cent of a given department must be willing to have union representation before negotiations can begin, Draper said. He said the new law will make it less complicated for them to gain recognition since the law provides bargaining guidelines with the help of a still to be appointed Labor Relations Board. In the past, Draper said they were often forced to the courts to gain recognition. He said a lawsuit is pending against the City of West Palm Beach for its refusal to recognize them.

chaired yesterday's local meeting held at the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall, on Belvedere Road. Draper said the county employes he has talked to say they are dissatisfied with low salaries and a so-called "favortism" system in job promotions. "Very poor personnel policies apparently exist in this county," Draper said. Draper said the workers would like job openings posted so that employes could bid for them based on their ability and seniority. "They (supervisors) pretty much hire who they want," he said.

According to the collective-bargaining r4 Family Gets Damages For Child's Injury owned by Palm Springs Athletic Association, an independent organization, and is used by the Little League players for batting practice. Rosemary Barkett, attorney for Parrish, had argued earlier in the three-day trial that "There is no question that that machine is a dangerous instrument. It can kill." The suit, filed last April, said that two years ago the boy, then 7 years old, was hit on the left side of the head by the arm of a mechanical pitching machine in Little League park, owned by the Village of Palm Springs. The boy had to undergo brain surgery and he was left partially paralyzed, the suit said. The pitching machine is 1 A six-member Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury yesterday awarded $177,000 to the family of a boy who was hit in the head by a baseball pitching machine two years ago.

The jury, three men and three women, deliberated about an hour and a half yesterday morning before returning the verdict against the Village of Palm Springs. Jurors had deliberated about four hours Friday before being sent home for the night at 11 p.m. by Judge W. C. Williams III.

The judgment awarded $12,000 for past and future medical bills to the boy's father, John Parrish, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper. The remaining $165,000 was awarded to his son, David Wayne Parrish, for his pain and suffering. The suit had asked for $500,000 in damages, claiming the village was negligent in leaving the machine unattended. mii I I II I 1VJ StaH Photos by Nick Arroyo Jesse Fuchs (Left) and Bill Maybeck Munch Chicken Under Umbrellas After the Rains Came Co-ops Backed For Fishermen By JOYCE HEARD Pml SUN WrIUr JUPITER A government expert and a university economist yesterday warned 80 members of the Florida Fishermen's Marketing Association they'll face difficulties but they may gain rewards if they decide to form a fishermen's cooperative. Ray Williams, an official with the Farmer Cooperative Service, a branch of the U.

S. Department of Agriculture, told the group at the Holiday Inn here yesterday how two successful fish marketing cooperatives were started in Rhode Island and North Carolina. "A cooperative could help you just the way the cooperatives have helped the Florida orange growers," he said. Williams explained that it is not easy to set up such a cooperative because of the need for adequate funding to start, a feasibility study such as the one his agency performed for the North Carolina group, and the need tor a firm commitment from every fisherman to go all the way with the cooperative. James Cato, a marine economist with the University of Florida Sea Grant Program, told the fishermen that he is conducting a market study of the Florida fin fish' industry "to find out what happens in between the time you catch the fish and the consumer buys it." Last year Florida fishermen caught 175 million pounds of fish worth $70 million, Cato said.

A.E. LaRue, a Jupiter fisherman with 14 years experience, said: "I'm here because I believe as an individual you can't do anything, but as a group you can do something." The president of the year-old organization which represents 185 fishermen from Palm Beach County to Cape Kennedy, Mike Weiner of Fort Pierce said, "The problem is that the wholesalers, processors and local fish houses get together and pay the fisherman a low price while they charge the consumer a high price." For example, he said consumers pay 80, cents a pound for mackerel but fishermen receive only 13 cents a pound for the fish. The rest goes to middlemen. Okeeheelee Dedicated Dickinson Supporters Prevalent at Ceremony Far from the questioning eyes of a federal grand jury in Tampa, State Comptroller Fred (Bud) Dickinson, looking like a celebrity, signed autographs and posed for photographs with admirers during an afternoon dedication yesterday of a mammoth park he helped make pos- sible. Do the people still have confidence in him during an investigation into his business dealings that has already indicated one of his closest friends and business associates? "You've seen the photographers and authographs I've been asked for," Dickinson said.

"The sense of fair-, ness is a magnificent strength of this country." "My mail," said Dickinson, "is running 98 per cent I for me. I feel humbly confident." Dickinson and fellow Cabinet members Doyle Con- her, commissioner of agriculture, and Ralph Turlington, 'recently appointed commissioner of education, were featured guests at the Okeeheelee Park dedication cere- monies just east of Florida's Turnpike off Forest Hill Boulevard west of West Palm Beach. Dickinson strongly supported the Cabinet's March purchase from the county of a $7 million tract south of Forest Hill Boulevard. Money from that sale will be spent by the county for an adjacent tract north of the boulevard. Together, the separately-owned, although contiguous segments, will span 1,600 acres to make them 1 Inside 1 Larry Pelletier Rests After a Long Night of Preparations for the Ceremony Schools in Palm Beach County are preparing for summer classes and recreation centers are planning leisure time activities.

Story, B3 The ruckus that state Treasurer Thomas O'Malley is raising over the appointment of a new state land management chief may actually be aimed at Gov. Reubin Asketv. Story, B10 he "sent his regrets" although he said "he did want to be with us." Others participating in the ceremonies that were dampened periodically by showers were former Secretary of State Richard Stone, who resigned recently to run for the U.S. Senate, County Commissioners Robert Johnson, Lake Lytal and George Warren and Parks and Recreation Director John Dance. MARILYN ALVA one of the largest parks on the East Coast, nearly twice the size of New York City's Central Park.

Every form of outdoor recreation, including boating and fishing in canals and lakes, will be available at the park, which will be operated by both the state and county. The state's tract to the north will be retained as a wilderness preserve. Gov. Reubin Askew was expected for the dedication but County Commissioner Robert Culpepper announced The End of a Lackluster Legend Mm WALT D1SNEYS rd HOOD NAPOLEON ANC James I II III tSAMANTHA Quinlani Jr. i ft lUiUIOM 1 Post Columnist TI There weren't really any genuine glory days for the old Lake Theatre in Lake Worth.

People mention the crowning of the Fiesta del Sol Queen in 1955, who received her honor on stage, and the big opening day ceremonies in 1940 when Mayor Grady Brantly and the town's first girl baby sat through the matinee but there was never anything like the big city stage productions put on by the Orpheums and Roxys of the theater business. (A note on opening day 1940: The mayor and Mrs. Jean Addison, the first girl baby who was all grown up by that time, were unwittingly part of probably one of the most frugal promotions on record. Since the opening day ceremonies were held at 12:15 p.m. matinee prices were in effect.

And total cost for the pair of tickets was 45 cents.) On the negative side but nevertheless part of the lackluster Lake Theatre legend was a suit filed in '64 against the management by a woman who contended she broke her ankle in the place after tripping over a box of popcorn. But the Lake Theatre was always, by design and intention, a neighborhood, a family, a community theater, with frills few and far between. It had a balcony and once proudly advertised its "acoustically treated walls." But today about the only flair remaining is the old Weeki Wachee Spring clock with its eerie blue light which hangs near the exit. The 160-seat balcony has been closed for a long time. The acoustically treated walls are dark with tobacco stain.

Between movies a yellow slide appeared on the screen and announced the end. In irregular type the sparse audience was informed "Robin Hood and Napoleon and Sa-mantha will be the last feature presentation of the Lake Theater ending 36 years of motion picture entertainment." A final comment, "Thank you for your patronage," ended the notice. The audience never reacted and the recorded seranade of tinny guitar music continued until the ceiling lights faded in advance of the next movie. A final chance to respond to the demise of the Lake came on the heels of the fading house lights as the screen came alive again. But the almost humorous announcement, "previews of coming attractions," was ignored.

iFri rV LZTl 1 lit kJ i 3s And the theater itself is now just a few hours away from closing forever. Sitting through one of the showings of the theater's final double feature may have provided proof the community wasn't all that upset over plans to convert the "landmark" into a miniature shopping mall. I i I I "I StaH Photo By FroatorDon These Bright Lights Soon Will Be Dimmed Forever.