St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 9

A Tl A SLJ1W ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1974 SECTION MoB Lists Conditions On Carr Housin 00 Aid AiaM JS. Poelker insisted though, that he had come to Washington with no specific proposal there's no application (with HUD) from Mr. Hurt at this time to do anything." "Of course," the Mayor said, "Mr. Hurt does have the option on the land, and we will talk to him first." In addition, there would be nearly 30 single-family houses, ranging in price from $27,000 to $35,000.

The complex would include a shopping and recreation area. The project would be financed, he said in a recent interview, by the Federal Government and private investors. Lag In City Building Permits Construction of new housing in St. Louis has come to a virtual halt this year. Through July, the Building Division issued permits for only five single family and 26 multi-family units.

In the late 1960s, home building in the city nearly stopped. For a few years, federal funds brought about a modest revival. But for the last two years, federal funds have almost dried up. Last year, permits for 54 single family and 3S2 multi-family units were issued. Meanwhile, the Building Division issued permits for the demolition of about By TAYLOR PENSONEAU Of the Post-Dispatch Staff WASHINGTON, Aug.

20 Federal housing officials have expressed a tentative willingness to provide money for part of a new residential development in the De Soto-Carr urban renewal area, says St. Louis Mayor John H. Poelker. The specific site was discussed yesterday in a meeting between a delegation from St. Louis and officials of the De partment of Housing and Urban Development.

It is a 30-acre tract bounded roughly by Fourteenth Street, Cass and Hogan Avenues and Calhoun Street. Poelker said after the meeting, "I conveyed my impression that residential development in that acreage would be consistent with other development in the over-all area." He said the Government "still has questions on the kind of residences for the 30 acres." But he noted that federal money might be provided for housing units if certain conditions were met. First, Poelker said, some private financing must be available. In addition, he said, federal approval would be contingent on the "fiscal integrity" of the developer. But the Mayor insisted that the meetingwith Sheldon B.

Lubar, an assistant secretary for housing production and mortgage credit had resulted in no federal commitment toward the De Soto-Carr site. "We talked basically about the current HUD posture on that site," Poelker said, "because about a year ago, HUD turned down an application for federal funding for residential development on those 30 acres." The application concerned Villa de Ville, a proposal associated with St. Louis businessman James Hurt Jr. that called for building about 170 units in the De Soto-Carr area. "HUD didn't go along with Villa de Ville because it didn't meet the test of marketability," Poelker said.

"In other words, there was no market for the units at the proposed rent." Hurt, who is president of the Vanguard Bond and Mortgage is pushing an expansion of his earlier proposal. Among other things, the new proposal would increase the housing units to 500. Hurt has said he wants to build a $10,000,000 complex on the 30-acre site. He has an option to buy the acreage. The 500 living units in the proposed complex would include 150 units for the elderly, about 200 apartments and town houses and several condominiums.

Rents would range from $175 to $295 a month. U.S. Firm On UE Cleaning Up Stacks -a US i if hmmmmm brary. Afterward, the youngsters returned to the library for refreshments and to hear again the stories from which they drew their costumes. (Post-Dispatch Photo by Michael J.

Baldridge) FANTASY PROCESSION: South Side youngsters dressed as their favorite storybook characters paraded along neighborhood streets near the Fyler Branch Library yesterday. The procession is sponsored each year by the li- By MARGIE FREIVOGEL Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The Environmental Protection Agency remains determined to clean up Union Electric Company's smokestacks despite the company's suit challenging some clean-air laws. "As far as the regional office is concerned, this doesn't change anything," said Jerome H. Svore, the agency's regional administrator. "As I understand it, the suit challenges the sulfur dioxide regulations.

But as long as those regulations are in effect, we're going to try to enforce them." As a first step, Svore said, the agency will discuss a tentative compliance schedule with state air pollution officials tomorrow at a meeting of the Missouri Air Conservation Commission. Then with or without Union Elec-tric's co-operation federal officials will issue orders telling the company when it must comply or face fines and other penalties, Svore said. The agency has found Union Electrid In violation of the sulfur emission laws at three plants Portage des Sioux, Meramec and Labadie in one case exceeding permissable sulfur emission by more than 100 per cent. After hearings last October, federal officials determined that the technology was available to control sulfur emissions at reasonable cost. Sulfur dioxide forms in the air as a result of sulfur emissions from coal-burning power plants.

The sulfur dioxide can be detrimental to human health and plant life, the agency said. Union Electric, in documents filed yesterday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit here, argues that sulfur controls an impractical and therefore that the clean air laws should not be enforced at the three power plants. Union Electric raised this contention two weeks ago at a meeting with Environmental Protection Agency officials, but they were unsympathetic. Judge 9s Firing Urged In Prostitution Fight 46 units for every one built this year. The total is 1412 dwelling units from January to July this year.

Last year, the division issued permits for wrecking 4343 units. Michael E. Werner, acting building commissioner, said the unavailability of financing was the main reason for the low number of housing construction permits. However, the dollar value of permits issued in the first half of this year was greater than the value of all permits issued last year $73,572,084 compared with $51,735,290. Most were for commercial structures.

Harvey D. Shell, executive secretary of the state Air Conservation Commission, takes a middle-of-the -road stance on sulfur control equipment. "If you mean, has it been tested on plants as large as Labadie and Sioux and found acceptable, then the answer is no, the technology is not here," Shell said. VBut it almost is, and maybe the EPA knows more about this than we do." Svore, the agency's regional administrator, had scheduled a meeting for today with Union Electric to further discuss compliance, but the company filed the suit instead. The utility maintains that sulfur controls are uneconomical, unreliable and perhaps even unnecessary.

As an alternative to controlling emissions the company says, it could simply shut the three plants. But that, the company says in the court document, would cause "a discontinuance of electric service to large numbers of persons In the Middle West." "This would result in an Immediate cessation of civilized life as we know it in that part of the country," the court document says. "And this would, of course, be a national catastrophe." The company's doomsday predictions reflect the importance that the electric industry has attached to the Union Electric battle and others like it in several cities. The Union Electric court case could take on national significance because of this. Proposed Increase In Gas Rate Here Is Put At 6.9 Pel.

By a Poat-Dlspatrh Cormipondrnt JEFFERSON CITY, Aug. 20 Revised figures filed by Laclede Gas Co. late yesterday show that gas bills for jit. Louis area residents would increase 6.9 per cent if the Missouri Public Service Commission accepts a compromise rate proposal by Laclede and opponents of an earlier rate request by the utility. A company spokesman had told the commissioners yesterday morning that the increase under the stipulated agreement for residential users would be about 7.5 per cent and that the increase for industrial users would be 12 per cent.

But a company revision now shows increases of 6.9 per cent for residential users and between 9.9 per cent and 13 per cent for commercial and industrial users. Laclede had sought a rate increase that would produce additional gross annual revenues of $13,500,000. The proposed settlement, subject to the commission's approval, would give the gas company Insurance Ads Too Much Puff, Bureau Charges Advertisements by the Farmers Insurance Group offering automobile insurance discounts of up to 25 per cent for nonsmokers are "not in the public interest," says the St. Louis Better Business Bureau. The bureau says the advertising is supported only by a study that looked at 1025 men between 18 and 25 years of age.

In addition, the bureau says there is no way to determine whether a person who claims not to smoke indeed does not smoke. Additionally, the bureau said, the savings is based only on a comparison with the rates of two unidentified insurance companies. Insurance companies weigh various factors in determining rates; therefore, such comparison are confusing, the bureau says. The bureau wants the company to withdraw the advertisements until more substantiation is available. 4 Counselor Jack L.

Koehr, Mrs. Stolar, Robinson representing citizens in the area. Warns Of Changes On Stale Sales Tax JEFFERSON CITY, Aug. 20 (AP) -Missouri Revenue Director James R. Spradling issued a sales tax bulletin yesterday warning of two Important legislative changes.

The department has about 86,000 sales tax accounts. Sales and income tax fraud are now felonies punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and a sentence of up to five years in the penitentiary. By PHILIP SUNN Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The dismissal of St. Louis Police Judge Morris M. Rosenthal was urged today as a first step toward ridding the West End tf prostitution.

The demand for Rosenthal's removal was made by a group of West End residents who contend that a ruling by the judge has increased prostitution in the Kingshighway and Washington Boulevard area. The judge had ruled that men charged with asking members of the police decoy squad to engage in prostitution cannot be prosecuted under the city's antisolicltation ordinance unless sexual intercourse occurred. Mayor John H. Poelker, who had appointed Rosenthal, defended the judge in a meeting with about a dozen members of the group this morning. They Former Civil Righ ts Worker Has 'Gone Back To The Land9 agreed to see if the antisolicltation ordinance could be revised to meet Rosenthal's objections.

Mrs. Ora Hamilton, a spokesman for an antiprostitution committee of the Union-Sarah Community Corporation, said her group had worked for years to persuade police and the city counselor's office to crack down on prostitution in the area. Now the judge has undone their efforts, she charged. Men looking for prostitutes are a serious menace in the area, several of the group said. The accost and annoy women who are not prostitutes and sometimes chase the women into nearby buildings they said.

When driving they cause accidents by looking for prostitutes instead of paying attention to trafic, the group said. Jesse Todd, 4516 Westminster Place, rewarding. "With the price of food skyrocketing, I feel I can contribute a small part toward helping people in this area get fresh fruits and vegetables at a reasonable price." Moving from a career In community organizing to one of farming is not typical of what civil rights workers are doing nowadays, but Williams says, "Filling a child's stomach is just as important as organizing a picket line. Farm Owned Market seems to be doing a brisk business since opening up about three weeks ago. "We made six trips back to southern Illinois in two trucks since we opened up," Willians said.

"Fron the response from the public, we're filling a need here. "We pick and haul the items ourselves and that helps to keep prices down because we don't have a middleman between us and the customer." He said the group was thinking of expanding the operation to other areas. "Part of the money we make is being put back into the operation for buying seeds and planting more crops and hopefully opening up other markets," he said. "This year, we had a problem because of the drouth. It hit us tremendously.

We lost a whole crop of cucumbers and turnip greens." In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh eggs and homemade jellies are sold at the market. The eggs, like the vegetables, are produced on Walden's farmland. The jellies are made by Walden's wife, Elaine, and some women in the Thebes area, Williams said that Farm Owned Market was not a cooperative, but that all parties involved in planting and harvesting shared to some extent in the profit accused the city of racism in enforcing antiprostitution ordinances. White men seeking prostitutes are note prosecuted, he said. "If black men come into a white community and asted like the men seeking the prostitutes, they would be lynched," Todd said.

Alderman Mary Stolar Twenty-fifth Ward, who attended the meeting with the Mayor, said she did not agree that Rosenthal should be removed. But she called Rosenthal a male chauvenist and expresed doubts that the ordinance could be revised to meet his objections. A meeting on revising the ordinance will be held next month with Rosenthal and Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Lucille and the other Police Court judges, City from the venture.

"The thing that impressed me about Mr. Walden is that even though he owns the land, he works as hard as we do," Willians said. "He has a hatchery ano many times we work from sunup til sundown and he still spends time with his chickens. "We see the operation as blacks and whites working together to help themselves and others." Williams says farming can sometime be backbreaking work, but he notes that he has had his share of problems in community organizing, too. He has been tried three times on a federal charge of illegally purchasing a firearm.

The charge grew out of racial disturbances in Cairo. The first two trials were invalidated because of prejudicial errors by the government. At the third trial he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. "There have been three trials and I lost my third appeal," he said. "Presently, I'm seeking probation." Those who have known Williams since his days in the civil rights movement stood by him after his arrest on the firearms charge in Cairo.

His supporters include mostly middle-class blacks, like Dr. Lee Blount and Mrs. Betty Lee, editor of "Proud" Magazine. "Bob has demonstrated time and time again that he's a real person," Dr. Blount said.

"He has shown, to use a street term, that 'He ain't shucking and "In light of his troubles, his indictments and convictions, he might have expected to be well, left of center, but he has acted in a very rational way. I think his present endeavor in farming demonstrates this." By ROBERT JOINER Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Bob Williams, former national coordinator of the United Front of Cairo, 111., is down on the farm now. The United Front is a civil rights organization. "I've gone back to the land," he said a waited on a customer at the Farm Owned Market, St. Louis Avenue and Goodfellow Boulevard.

Williams works with a group of farmers in growing vegetables and melons on farmland owned by J. D. Walden at Thebes, about 17 miles north of ro. Along with Walden's son, Tony, Williams has been transporting the goods from the farm to sell in St. Louis.

"I was no longer a member of the United Front and was looking for some-thing viable," he said. "I met Mr. Walden and some other guys and I agreed to help in farming the land. It has been mentally, spiritually and economically Bi-State's Docks May Be Expanded Talks havp begun on the possibility of $2,800,000 expansion of Mississippi River docking facilities controlled by the Bi-State Development Agency at Granite City, the Bi-State Board chairman said today. John G.

Brawley Bi-State chairman and state director of transportation, said that preliminary talks had been held between Allen P. Bebee, president of St. Louis Terminals and representatives of Olin agricultural chemical division and a national firm that wishes to remain anonymous at this time. i Mr cr ff I i J- v' lA -li-v '11 ST. LOUIS MARKETPLACE: Bob 'Williams (left) and Tony Walden selling vegetables to Mrs.

Gwendolyn Davis and her children, Tonja, 5 years old, and John, 8, at a market at Goodfellow Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue. (Post-Dispatch Photo by Fredric F. Sweets).