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

.1 The Palm Beach Post TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1996 SECTION MAKING AN IMPACT County commissioners weigh the idea of raising new-home impact fees to cover growth. STORY, 2C SAVING THE PAST Lake Worth commissioners tonight consider a new historic preservation ordinance. STORY, 12C LOCAL NEWS Trachea Mending hearts Technique reduces pain in valve replacements Sternoclavicular joint New incision By REBECCA GOLDSMITH Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Heart New Heart Valve Technique With the old technique, the sternum, a breastbone which is approximately 14 inches long, had to be completely cut open to do heart valve surgery. With the new technique, the surgeon has to cut only 2-4 inches of the sternum. Hospital stay is also a few days shorter with the minimally invasive valve replacement.

i Dr. Carl Gill of the Cleveland Clinic in Fort Lauderdale performed Florida's first minimally invasive valve replacement in March with a technique that sacrifices an internal mammary artery. About 40,000 Americans undergo valve replacement surgery each year, including about 300 Palm Beach County residents last year. Good candidates foi the technique have heart disease that is contained to one or two valves. A beaming Nathan, 66, said he was glad to avoid the traditional procedure, especially since learning he may be able to return to the tennis courts in about six weeks.

"Dr. Begelman showed me I'm not too old to play tennis." Ribs' ment in Palm Beach County at Delray Community Hospital. Their patient, Ralph Nathan, 66, of the Huntington Lakes community west of Delray Beach, discovered that he needed the procedure after losing his breath during a tennis game. His doctors made a 4-inch vertical incision in his breast bone. Instead of separating his ribs, they cut laterally into surrounding cartilage to get a better view of his heart.

Nathan was out of the hospital's intensive care unit in two days, one day less than with the usual procedure. And his entire hospital stay is expected to be six days instead of the usual eight. A new approach to an old procedure is saving patients much of the pain and some of the recovery time common to heart valve replacement surgery. Since open heart surgery began in the 1950s, doctors have reached the heart with a long vertical cut through the breastbone, allowing them to pry open the rib cage. Techniques pioneered in the past six months use shorter incisions, sometimes altogether avoiding bone.

On Thursday, Drs. Kenneth Begel-man and Jeffrey Newman performed the Old incision SOURCE: Delray Community Hospital lina LAwsoNstaff Artist first minimally invasive valve replace Construction Workers Hit Unmarked Gas Line i J-1 l.v ac- J-- -f-N CAROLINE E. COUIGStaff Photographer DELRAY BEACH Tom Oakes with Florida Public Utilities Co. crawls Twins Bakery and Restaurant. Deputies closed Military just south of through a 4-foot hole to turn off the gas valve to a line broken by Linton Boulevard while gas company workers clamped the pipe.

No construction workers Monday. The workers were laying cable on Mili- one was injured, but the owners of the restaurant said their business tary Trail when they hit an unmarked gas line leading to the Bagel suffered because they were not able to cook hot breakfasts. Limit on growth has thin leeway Only 25 days remain for officials to get the school crowding measure placed on the March ballot. By MARY WAREJCKA Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Several trees have been killed for all the documents distributed so far, but on Monday, the county's elected officials still needed more information before agreeing to ask voters to approve growth restrictions linked to school crowding. The school board, county and cities will resort to "locking their lawyers" in a room to negotiate the details of the documents necessary to start the limits in five to seven years.

"We could bring documents to this table until the cows come home, and could someone use (lack of information) as an excuse not to act in the affirmative? They could do that," said Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Joan Kowal. Kowal said she got clear direction to move forward Monday. In the last joint meeting in July, Kowal effectively killed putting the issue on the Nov. 5 ballot when she said the district couldn't prepare all the necessary documents and wage an effective campaign in such a short period. The three groups also will ask the Intergovernmental Coordinating Council, a countywide planning group made up mostly of elected officials, to review the ordinance that would spell out the growth restrictions.

And the school district will have to finish its seven-year school construction plan by setting priorities for a list of 119 additions and 19 new schools; expenses would be paid for with more than $900 million from a proposed 1-cent sales tax increase needed to catch up with student enrollment. Officials have 25 working days to come to agreement if they still have any hope of getting both issues on the March ballot. That is a cheetah's pace for a group that has been moving at snail speed over the past couple of years. But many are still optimistic the deadline can be met. For some, getting the issues to the voters means they won't have to continue talking about it.

"I want it finally resolved," said Gale English, president of Palm Beach County Municipal League, which was the chief opponent of the limits until last week. "This has been emotionally draining." English and others believe compromise can be Please see CROWDING2C West Palm, Boca on first lady's Florida itinerary Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to help dedicate a hospital while campaigning for her husband. auditorium at 5:30 p.m. Her motorcade may temporarily disrupt rush-hour traffic as it moves in a rolling blockade down Interstate 95. Tickets for the Boca Raton event cost $100 per person, $50 for students.

It is being sponsored by Florida Win in '96, a political arm of the Democratic Party. Lake Ave. in West Palm Beach where she will give a speech in the auditorium. She is expected to arrive at the center at 3:30 p.m. More than 300 people have been invited.

Then she travels to Boca Raton where she plans to attend a "When Women Vote, Women Win in Florida" reception and rally at Florida Atlantic University. Clinton is scheduled to arrive at the By BRIAN E. CROWLEY Palm Beach Post Political Editor WEST PALM BEACH Hillary Rodham Clinton comes to West Palm Beach and Boca Raton today combining campaign stops with a hospital dedication. The first lady is spending this morning at Disney World, where Disney is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom. From there she comes to West Palm Beach where she will attend the dedication of the new cancer institute at Good Samaritan Medical Center.

After that, Clinton is going to the Armory Art Center at 1703 S. 1 Clinton Team deserts DowntownUptown opers E. Llwyd Ecclestone Jr. and Murray Goodman. The decision to withdraw fits the pattern established by Millennium in its presentation, said City Commissioner Al Zucaro, who served on the review panel.

"They had more issues that were nonnegotiable than anybody. They were more 'it's our way or the Now they see it's not their way, so it's the highway. I'm not surprised." Millennium had been an early favorite because of its ties of Please see D0WNT0WN4C The move leaves two teams competing to rebuild the city core. By JOEL ENGELHARDT Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH Millennium, the partnership of high-stakes international developers Melvin Simon and Gerald Hines, withdrew Monday from the city's competition to build Downtown Uptown. The one-time favorite to develop the 77-acre site next to the Kravis Center bowed out in a three-paragraph statement without listing any reasons.

Project manager Michael Harrison, a Hines vice president, said Monday afternoon that he could not discuss the group's reasons because he was late for a meeting. The group, ranked last of three teams by a city review panel Sept. 12, had been scheduled to make its presentation to the city commission next week. The withdrawal leaves two groups in the running: top-ranked CityPlace, a team of The Related Cos. and Himmel and Kravis Place, which links local devel Water managers hail Everglades land-sale ruling as precedent By MARY McLACHLIN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH A jury handed water managers a $7 million legal victory Monday and may have set a precedent for land purchases made to clean up the Everglades.

I Ieirs to the McArthur Dairy family had sought at least $18 million for 1,463 acres of vegetable and cattle land west of Wellington. They argued that the value should be based on its potential for residential development, as well as its agricultural uses. The South Florida Water Management District had offered $10 million for the property, which will become part of a pollution-filtering marsh next to the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. After an eight-day trial in Palm Beach County 1 'ir-: Voters to decide four runoff races today Judge OKs group's palm cards 3C Circuit Court, jurors set the fair market value at By GEORGE BENNETT Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Democratic voters will decide four races in Palm Beach County during runoff elections today.

J1 1 it iiiinimmiiiMMiiMiiiiiMiiifTii $11 million. "This is the precedent," said Bill Malone, head of construction and land management for the district. "The big issue was how far west will there be subdivision-type development and how soon." The verdict should dissuade other landowners from basing their claims on development potential, Malone said. The district had argued that residential develop- Todays balloting will settle contests in which no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the Sept. 3 primary.

No Republican or nonpartisan races or questions are on the ballot. Turnout for runoff elections has ranged from 6.5 percent to 34.6 percent since 1976. Elections Supervisor Jackie Winchester is predicting 18 percent of Democrats will vote today. James FitzGerald will compete for the Democratic nomination for sheriff. The winner faces Republican Robert Neumann on Nov.

5. Democrats will select a nominee to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Harry Johnston of West Palm Beach. State Sen.

Robert Wexler of Boca Raton or state Sen. Peter Weinstein of Coral Springs will face Republican Beverly Kennedy for the 19th District. South county Democrats also will choose between Barry Silver and Glenn Wichinsky for state House District 89. No Republican filed for the seat. Incumbent Port of Palm Beach Commissioner Linda Weiss will try to hang on to her seat against challenger DeNeal Cunningham, Polls are open from 7 a.m.

p.m. ment west of Wellington isn't likely soon for a variety LANNIS WATERSStaff Photographer FHP K-9 Training WEST PALM BEACH Billy, a Florida Highway Patrol K-9, attacks dispatcher Orlando Carrasquillo during the first Patrol Dog Academy graduation Monday. of reasons. Water managers are buying thousands of agricultural acres to turn into marshy buffers to absorb excess phosphorus from fertilizer and other pollutants that encourage the growth of cattails and other normative plants, In the only countywide race, Sheriff Charles McCutcheoiand Palm Beach Gardens Police Ctyf.