Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 3

FMDAY MAY 25, 1990 ROCHESTER NEW YORK SECTION 2B BRIEFING 3B NEW YORK 6B DEATHS 78 COMICS wcmonaranottnronintJi GL017 TAKES HEAT The GLOW Solid Waste Management Committee is again under pressure to organize a recycling this time, program from citizens eager to get started. Story, 8B. outers JBira.irsfelle pflaim nnooro oun regioh OTB directors OK new parlor The board of directors of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. yesterday approved the purchase of the Bourne Office Supply building at 131-133 State St for $225,000. OTB plans to spend $225,000 to $250,000 to turn the first floor of the four-story building into a betting parlor, to replace the corporation's leased parlor at 47 State St, which is too small, said OTB spokesman Edward Carney.

The corporation hopes the renovations will be completed by April 30, 1991, when the lease on the existing parlor expires, Carney said. Oakfield-Alabama board Small apartments scheduled to get 10,000 blue boxes By Diana L. Tomb Democrat and Chronicle Apartment dwellers, it's time to cough up those cans, bottles and newspapers. Monroe County and Rochester city officials yesterday announced they are expanding their municipal recycling program to small apartment buildings, providing blue boxes to another 10,000 city homes. "We want to have a blue box in every move the trash, the city either will work with those contractors to develop recycling programs for those buildings, or expand its own program later.

Ryan said response to blue-box collection has been more positive than expected. City workers have received calls and letters from renters who have been eager to join in the recycling their neighbors began some months ago. Abby Goldsmith, recycling specialist for Monroe County, said county officials are still working on a plan for apartment recycling outside the city. About 50 percent of the 140,000 homes that have the opportunity for curbside recycling actually participate, she said. Participation is voluntary now, but under Frey's proposals, it will become man- datory after Jan.

1, 1992. If his plan is approved, he said, then all homes, offices and schools would be required to recycle, too. "This is something we have found that kids really want to get into," Frey said, noting that students in some schools have asked the administration to stop using throw-away dishes in their cafeterias. "We've eliminated all the (foam) cups in the mayor's office," Ryan added. City officials suggested apartment residents mark their boxes with their address and apartment numbers.

County drop-off points will still be maintained for people who want to recycle but don't live where blue boxes are available. For more information on local recycling, city residents can call 428-5990. Elderly told to speak oufi State official says service pie shrinking. By Deborah Fineblum Raub Democrat and Chronicle Though funding will remain relatively stable, some services for senior citizens will be lost under the new state budget, according to the director of the state Office for the Aging. Faced with inflation and an "explod- ing" elderly population growth, Jane Gould yesterday urged senior citizens their advocates to speak up for services "or the government will assume you're content with what it provides." 'MmJi ff Jill I Hlllln I jTnm wKSSmf CT" 1 i 13 If rl kitchen," said Monroe County Executive Thomas R.

Frey, who announced the expansion along with Mayor Thomas P. Ryan Jr. Boxes will be distributed beginning Wednesday to Rochester apartment buildings with four to 10 apartments that have city refuse collection. Citywide collection from smaller homes began in October 1989. City residents put their metal cans, clear glass bottles and newspapers in the boxes, and place them at the curb on garbage-collection days.

In some Monroe County communities outside the city, blue-box collections also take in green and brown glass, and plastic containers. Ryan said because most larger apartment buildings have contractors that re Sports and other group activities will take mographics who's in there, why and for how long to find ways to reduce a chronic overcrowding problem. The downtown jail routinely houses more than 800 people, twice what it is built to hold. It's part of a two-pronged approach to easing the crunch building new jail space and finding "alternatives to Gould, 51, addressed 160 people who attended a luncheon of the Advisory Committee of the Monroe County Office for the Aging, at Logan's Party House on Scottsville Road. She reported some funding losses and a few gains in the new Burr Lawte Democrat and Chronicle One of new jail's five 'housing pods' open units where each inmate will have a partitioned off, 50-square-foot area.

Release key to jail overcrowding to discuss budget rejection OAKFIELD Officials at Oakfield-Alabama Central School will meet Thursday evening to decide how to proceed in the wake of a districtwide budget rejection Wednesday. Voters in this Genesee County school district of 1,235 students rejected a proposed $8 million spending plan for 1990-91 by a vote of 339-243. The proposal was an 8.9 percent increase over the $7.4 million budget for the current school year. Superintendent Norman Fagnan said yesterday that he believes residents were frightened off by "uncertainty" in projections of how much the district would have to raise through taxes. For the 1989-90 school year, the dis-, trict collected $1.8 million in tax money.

Fagnan said officials projected having to raise 12 to 18 percent more in 1990-91. That might have translated into a slight increase in taxes for voters, Fagnan said. Without updated assessment and equalization figures, officials cannot come up with a specific tax-rate proposal. The board will meet at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the board room at the high school on Route 63.

Gunman at Burger King surrenders in Horseheads The Associated Press and Democrat and Chronicle HORSEHEADS A gunman who held police at bay at a fast-food restaurant for two hours yesterday was arrested without incident, state police said. The man, identified as Joseph M. Brock, 22, and believed to be from Char- lotte, N.C., had made "numerous phonic and written threats" against state police officers and their families. He is a former resident of Horseheads who was arrested for aggravated harassment March 7 by state police, after they received a threatening letter from him. State police, Horseheads village police and Chemung County deputies surrounded the Burger King on Grand Central Avenue after Brock walked in about 11:15 a.m., troopers said.

Restaurant patrons left through a rear door, and no hostages were taken. Traffic was detoured off Grand Central, a main thoroughfare of houses, fast-food restaurants and other businesses, where the Burger King is located. Horseheads is about 75 miles southwest of Syracuse near the New York-Pennsylvania line. Brock, armed with a handgun and a knife, held authorities at bay before surrendering, state police said. He was charged with first-degree coercion, a felony, and second-degree aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor, state police said.

Troopers say they'll enforce 40 mph at 1-490 work zone The state police will begin enforcing the speed reduction on Interstate 490 between Wegman and Buffalo roads in Gates on Monday. The signed work zone reduces the speed limit from 55 mph to 40 mph. Motorists will continue to encounter lane reductions in this area on east-bound and westbound lanes throughout the construction season. HOLIDAY CLOSINGS MEMORIAL DAY EVENTS. 8B Offices and schools to be closed Monday in observance of Memorial Day include: Federal, state and municipal offices.

Auto license bureaus. Public and parochial schools. The Memorial Art Gallery, the international Museum of Photography's archives and the George Eastman House. RundeJ library and all Rochester Public Library branches. The following city branches will be closed Sunday: Arnett, Lincoln, Maplewood, and Winton.

The U.S. Postal Service's main facility and branches. Delivery will be limited to Express Mail and Special Delivery. Refuse collection in the city will be delayed one day. Residents outside the city should confirm schedules with their private refuse collector.

budget, but with se Jan Gould niors representing the fastest growing population in the country, state resources can't meet the demand, "especially of those 85-and-older, most in need of labor-intensive services." The 1980s were hard years for senior services. "A continuous diminishment of federal funds passed the human services buck to the states and localities," she said. And seniors have been fighting over a shrinking human service pie. TURN TO PAGE 6B Monroe film may capture DWI drivers By Alan Morrell Democrat and Chronicle Drivers beware: the Monroe County sheriffs office is now armed with video equipment to help battle drunken driv- ing. We 11 use them on the streets in the patrol cars to monitor, erratic driving behavior, like swerving or stopping at a green light," said Maj.

Robert Kehoe, the department patrol division commander. Aetna Life and Casualty in association with the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, yesterday donat-, ed eight video cameras worth about $1,000 each to the department The groups also presented two VCRs to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office to use when the videotapes are brought tc court. Officers in the sheriffs STAR unit will use the cameras to record drivers' actions before they are stopped and when they are pulled over, Kehoe said. "They wiil show what caused the officer to be drawn to the vehicle, and if there was any unusual driving behavior exhibited," he said. The cameras will be equipped with audio recorders, allowing officers to record possible slurred speech or belligerent be- -havior, which can help convict drivers of." DWI.

Officials said the equipment will make it easier to prove that people stopped for DWI are actually intoxicated, an accus a- -tion defendants have challenged in the 1 past "Those arrested won't contest it in court once they've seen how they acted at the time of the arrest," said Thomas Greaney, an Aetna spokesman. He said that use of the cameras in other cities hai. prompted drivers to plead guilty to the charges rather than go to court, thereby -relieving backlogs in courts. This is the first countywide use of vidV eo cameras in such cases, Keh said. The Brighton Police Department has used video for DWI cases in the past Monroe study says prisoners awaiting sentencing could go By Craig Gordon Democrat and Chronicle One key to reducing Monroe County's bloated jail population is finding ways to release prisoners who haven't been sentenced nearly three of every four inmates the acting county public safety director said yesterday.

Nearly half of those people are charged with misdemeanors and other less-serious offenses, and two-thirds have bail set at $500 or less. That leads Frank A. Petrus to believe some of them could be screened and released from the jail into other programs without much risk. "We're not in the business of letting violent offenders out on the street," Petrus said, commenting on a 10-month study of the jail population released yesterday. But "there's probably a lot in there we could cull out of the jail and have an impact on the population there." County officials studied the jail's de- The Predator Wooden roller coaster makes debut today By Christine Leta Rook Democrat and Chronicle DARIEN Languishing at the thought of each mean-spirited plunge, roller coaster enthusiasts are awaiting this afternoon's debut of the Predator, a new wooden roller coaster in this Genesee County town.

"It looks like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of coasters. It's big and beefy and fast," said Paul L. Ruben, of Penfield, a coaster fanatic and editor of RollerCoas-ter! magazine. The Predator, more than a half mile of dips and high-speed twists, will be unchained this afternoon at Darien Lake theme park and camping resort in front of 450 coaster buffs and journalists. Information packets for reporters covering the event are labeled survival kits and contain antacid and aspirin tablets.

The public gets its chance to try and tame the $2.5 million ride beginning at 10 a.m. tomorrow, which is opening day for Darien Lake, off Route 77. Ruben, the regional representative of American Coaster Enthusiasts, is anticipating the thrills that wooden coasters is set to pounce in Darien place in the jail's multipurpose room. incarceration," ways to put people in programs that take them out of jail. The county plans to wrap up work next week on a new 253-bed minimum-security jail in Brighton.

Also, the county has added some beds and plans to add more to the downtown Public Safe- TURN TO PAGE 6B Maple, Ontario. He hopes for the same feeling of danger when he rides the Predator. Jennifer Mullen, 16, a sophomore at Batavia High School talked excitedly yesterday at the Genesee Country Mall about riding the Predator. Last July, she rode Darien 's steel coaster, the Viper, 1 1 times in a row. Mullen's friend, 16-year-old Shauna Filer, also a Batavia High sophomore, was lucky enough to catch a pre-season ride on the Predator on the weekend of May 12, when it was open for a test run.

Filer was disappointed at the length of the ride but the speed and surprise turns were no letdown. "You don't have time to breathe," Filer said. "Really," Mullen asked as they shared a hot pretzel before heading back for classes. "There's no stopping," Filer added. "It's just continuous." For architects and the theme park's workers, who have been preparing for this afternoon's debut, there is a different type of anxiety.

Curtis Summers, whose Cincinnati firm designed the Predator, said his anticipation is in wondering if each turn is as menacing as planned. TURN TO PAGE 6B are famous for negative gravity and the illusion that the supports won't hold. The top speed: a snappy 52 mph. "I feel a little like Indiana Jones stalking the Temple of Doom," Ruben said. An imposing 99-feet high and long, the Predator is the largest wooden roller coaster in the state, park officials said.

And with those types of statistics, it's difficult to keep coaster followers at a distance. American Coaster Enthusiasts, Mid-Atlantic Coaster Club, National Amusement Park Historical Association, and Western New York Coaster Club have planned a convention this weekend at Darien Lake to coincide with the Predator's coming out About 150 members from the three clubs will attend tonight's champagne toast. But it's not just hobbyists who are awaiting the ride that lasts 69 seconds from the start of the first drop, and two minutes including the initial climb. It will be "fast, violent, thrilling and any other adjectives you can think of," said 24-year-old Kirk McWhorter, of Attica, Wyoming County, as he watered plants at the Stage Coach Florist Plants and Things in Batavia where he works. McWhorter fell in love with wooden coasters in 1983 when he first rode the Wilde Beast at Canada's Wonderland in.