St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 3

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1969 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 3A Senate Votes to Hike City Police Pensions Ghetto Firms9 Risk Problems Striking bus drivers and mechanics employed by the Bi-Srate Transit System voting on a proposed contract after a union meeting this morning. The pact was rejected by a wide margin. (Post-Dispatch Photograph) Reject New Offer By the Post-Dispatch State Political Correspondent JEFFERSON CITY, March 12 The Missouri Senate yesterday passed and sent to the House three bills that would improve the St. Louis police retirement system.

The bills over five years would lower the optional retirement age for police to 55, from 60, and extend death and disability benefits to dependents of policemen through age 21, instead of 18, provided the dependents are attending school. The bills are sponsored by Senator Theodore D. a 1 St. Louis. A fourth bill to improve the police pension system is awaiting approval by the St.

Louis Board of Estimate and Apportionment before Mc-Neal attempts to pass it. This bill would change the retirement formula so as to increase pensions. Also passed by the Senate and sent to the House were bills that Would: Give circuit judges the discretion to determine conditions under which hardship driving permits should be granted to persons whose licenses have been revoked. Permit railroads to issue bonds by a vote of the board of directors instead of a vote of shareholders. Give a salary increase to employes in the office of the St.

Louis collector of revenue. Permit persons who receive unsolicited merchandise through the mail to regard it as a gift and use it or dispose of it as they wish. $1,466,000, for a total outlay the second year of $4,210,000. The salary bill contains an emergency clause that would allow it to become effective May 1. Poelker objected to a provision in the salary bill that calls for the city to pay for health benefits and medical insurance for the policemen, their wives and dependents.

"It is legally questionable whether we can provide these benefits for spouses and dependents," Poelker said. "Besides, we can't provide these benefits for the other city employes, so I don't see how we can discriminate and provide such benefits for the Police Department." The second bill, to provide ad-d i i a 1 retirement benefits, calls for benefits to be based on an average of the last three years of employment, rather than the last five years, as is "90 per cent of was their own damn fault." Drivers earned $3.36 an hour under an agreement that expired on March 1, the day the strike began. Mechanics earned slightly more. Before the strike began the union rejected a pact that called for pay increases of 45 cents an hour. The union represents about 1800 Bi-State employes, 1400 of whom are bus drivers.

Bi-State that this (strike) Board Balks at Pay Rise Bills of Local 788, Amalgamated Transit Union, that last week management had sharply criticized the union negotiating committee for not having a secret ballot on its rejected offer. Management said it would not recognize the standing vote against the proposal. "We're here today to take a secret vote," he said, "we told the company that our negotiating committee would under no circumstances recommend its adoption. And we ask you all to reject it." This was followed by vigorous applause. Those attending the closed meeting were given instructions on how and where to apply for welfare aid and food stamps.

It was also pointed out that each member was obliged to take turns on the picket lines whether he voted for or against the offer. Driemeyer concluded with the remark that it had given him a great deal of pleasure to tell Boy Robbed of $7 Howard W. Miner, 13 years old, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hubert W.

Miner, 8538 Geiger road, was walking near his home last night when two boys in a group of five approached him and demanded his money. One of the two had an air pistol, police said. He gave them $7 and the two pushed him to the ground in a ditch and fled. Miner said the boys were 15 or 16 years old. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment balked yesterday at approving bills before the Missouri Legislature th a would give members of the Po-lice Department $4,210,000 in salary increases and fringe benefits and $370,000 in increased retirement pay.

Comptroller John H. Poelker, a board member, said of the proposed salary increase, "Unless there is some unknown source of revenue we can't commit ourselves to a $4,000,000 increase when we don't have the money." The salary package, spread over two years, would provide a 13.3 per cent salary increase the first year. Education incentives and health and welfare benefits would bring the total first-year expenditure to $2,753,404. A 5 per cent salary increase and additional fringe benefits he second year would cost i By the Post-Dispatch Jefferson City Correspondent JEFFERSON CITY, March 12 Arbitrary cancellation of fire and extended insurance coverage of several St. Louis firms and businesses in ghetto or high risk areas was cited yesterday at a legislative hearing here.

-Witnesses told the Missouri House Insurance Committee that policies held by their firms were canceled without warning and solely on the basis of their location. They said they had been unable to obtain new fire insurance coverage. The testimony was offered in support of a bill that would permit the state to establish a mandatory placement pool to help provide insurance for property and business owners in high risk areas. Voluntary Plan Fails The proposed legislation was drafted at the request of Robert D. Scharz, state insurance superintendent, after a plan proposed by his division for a voluntary insurance pool fell through because a number of major companies in the field refused to participate.

Witnesses included Harry Hoffman, general manager of United Clothing and Furniture 4517 a avenue, St. Louis. He told the committee that his company had been at tjie same location since 1934 and had not had a fire in the last 23 years. Last April, however, on a single day, 14 policies taken out by his a were canceled, they involved fire and extended coverage totaling about $500,000 he said. "There is i we have been able to do since then to get enough insurance," Hoffman de-c 1 a d.

"The companies will jiast not cover this area that Rent Strike Spreads to Pruitt-Igoe Tenants of Pruitt-Igoe, St. JLouis's 'largest public housing project, will join the rent strike Jagainst the Housing Authority tApril. 1, Eugene Porter, chair-Iman of the Pruitt-Igoe Neighborhood Corporation, said to-lay. -7 -J; Pledges to withhold rent have Jbeen signed by Pruitt-Igoe tenants, he Two hundred pledges are expected td be obtained before a tenants' meet- ine at 3:30 p.m. sunaay at Pruitt School, 1212 North Twen tv-second street Porter said the tenants' de mands were the same as those of strikers at the six other housing developments.

The strike began in February at five projects and spread to BIu- meyer Village this month. Protest Over Increases The strike is a protest against rent increases of up to $19 month announced by the au thority in November. The strik ers, uo to 1000 in the other projects, are demanding that rent be limited to one fourth of a tenant's income. Pruitt-Igoe has 1700 tenants, There are about 6500 in all seven developments. The rent withheld by Pruitt- Igoe tenants will be placed in a leeal escrow account, Porter said.

Officers of the neighbor hood corporation will confer with lawyers before establishing the fund, he said, The strike is late in spreading to Pruitt-Igoe, he said, because neighborhood leaders have been invo ved in a leadership light, Porter lost his position on the Pruitt-Igoe Neighborhood Ad visorv Committee. an enti- novertv group, in an election Saturday. Sit-In Planned Strike leaders at Carr Square, Vaushn. Cochran, Darst-webbe and Clinton Peabody projects said they were proceeding with plans for a sit-in tomorrow at the authority's offices, 1300 Del-mar boulevard. They had thrPAtend the demonstration if eviction suits filed against 73 strive narticinants were not i i withdrawn.

The suits will not be dropped, said Kenneth Brantley, public relations director for the au- Provide machinery whereby citizens may pay taxes under protest and receive a refund if it is proved that the taxes were not owed. Cut off appropriation of about $120,000 in state funds to county superintendents of schools as a means of speeding elimination of the office. A bill to create a new "little Hoover commission" on state government reorganization was sent to the Senate Budget Control Committee. The bill is part of the prograim of Gov. Warren E.

Hearnes, and its passage will depend a recommendation by the committee that the state can afford the $140,000 estimated expenses of the commission. The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended for passage a constitutional amendment to permit the state to construct toll roads. Gov. Warren E. Hearnes is supporting such a measure, but the bill approved was not the Governor's proposal.

The bill cleared by the committee was submitted by Senator Edward T. Linehan St. Louis. The Senate Public Health Committee approved a bill to license sanitariums. Westminster Alumni John A.

Morrow, 533 Sheffield avenue, Webster Groves, was elected president of the Westminster College Alumni association at a meeting last night at the Missouri Athletic Club. Morrow is director of operations for Lammert Furniture Co. the practice now. Poelker objected to this proposal, too, on the ground that the city could not provide the same 1 1 for other employes. of the board will meet with the Board of Police Commissioners next week to discuss the increase proposals.

Poelker said the only way the city could consider the pay increase was if the state bill were in the form of enabling legislation allowing the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to approve the increase when the money became available. Although the state passes on bills providing operating funds for the city's Police Department, the city is responsible for the operating cost. Thus, the Missouri Legislature prefers to have the city's indorsement of pay and budget bills before they are approved in Jefferson City. WEST COUNTY is the excuse they are giving." He said his firm had good credit rating, employed about 50 persons and had been unable to obtain iusurance on its building.

The company's property, he said, presently is about 80 per cent underlnsured. Cites Premium Payments "We would do anything within reason to get insurance," Hoffman told the committee. "We have paid out a tremendous amount of money for insurance over the years and now we haven't any." A St. Louis witness, Morton J. Singer, told how insurance coverage totaling about $80,000 was canceled without warning last January on the content or inventory of a radio and television sales and service company he manages.

Fire insurance coverage was continued in effect on the building itself, Singer said. He is manager of Schweig-Engel 4931-35 Delmar boulevard. The House Insurance Committee, headed by Thomas G. Gra- 1 Jr ir i nam jeiierson 1 1 took no action on the bill. Gra- nam, one ot tne sponsors ot tne measure, said a hearing would be held at a later date for opponents.

Pool Ratio Principle Under the mandatory insurance pool program, companies dealing in fire and extended insurance coverage could be required to participate in the pool in ratio me amount 01 loiai coverage they write in this field. in ratio to the amount or total Robert A. Maddox, supervisor of the fire and casualty section of the State Insurance Division, told the committee that 230 of the 350 companies in Missouri handling such insurance had agreed to participate in the pool for high risk areas. The program has not been put into operation because these companies are reluctant to assume the entire responsibility. Maddox said this position was understandable because firms that have not agreed to participate handled about 40 per cent of the over-all fire and extended coverage in Missouri.

His division, a said, has refused to "capitulate to unreasonable demands being im posed by certain insurance com- panies as their price for fulfill- ing their responsibilities to the people of this state." ts Without such a program, Maddox said, insurance compa-- nies In Missouri would be inelk gible to qualify to purchase riot- reinsurance the: 1968 Housing and Urban develop- ment Act. CLAYTON Senator Jones ri tLngCtgCU lit i -wvt A Qffll ISSUG Special to the Post-Diapatch JEFFERSON CITY, March 12 The Missouri Senate was in the process of adopting a resolution asking the state government to delay razing Lohman's Landing. Suddenly there was a disturbance on the floor. Senator A. Clifford Jones RP-.

tad e. was hurriedly taking off his jacket and throw- ing it on tne noor. Li. uov. wu- liam S.

Morris rapped for or- der. "Excuse me. Mr. Presi dent," Jones said, "My coat's on fire." Jones had arisen earlier to speak against the resolution and put his lighted pipe in his pocket. Before Jones got the fire out, it burned a hole in his pocket.

The Senate went on to adopt the House-approved resolution providing two years in which to obtain private financing to preserve Lohman's Landing as a Jefferson City historical site. Beaten and Robbed Henry L. Jackson, 29 years old, 1404 Walnut street, East St. Louis, was robbed of $87 early today by three men who beat him and knocked him uncon- scious at Fifteenth street and I Brady avenue, East St. When Jackson regained con-' sciousness, he hailed a taxicab and went to Christian Welfare Hospital where he was treated for head, face and back inju- ries.

CRESTWOOD PLAZA ''t-'' Bus Strikers FROM PAGE ONE bargaining table as soon as possible. Presumably, It will be left to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to call the next meeting. Driemeyer told the members Teen-agers Give -m-m. OUluilinff "liPS 1 nuance lO LdVe Four youths, students at Mc-Cluer High School, found eight abandoned puppies yesterday along the side of a road in Hazelwood, then pooled their money for gasoline to get them to the Animal Protective Association, 1705 South Hanley road, Brentwood. Three of the puppies were wandering in the road.

Richard Johnson, who was driving, stopped and put them in the car with his friends, Joseph Husgep, Edward Fitzgerald and Richard Wilson. As Johnson was getting into the car, he heard another puppy whining. He looked into a ditch and saw it trying to claw its way out of a cardboard box. In another box, tied with heavy cord, he found four others. Miss Shirley Seiler, director of the association, welcomed the puppies and praised the boys.

"You hear a lot about wild teenagers these day," she said, "but I have nothing but praise for you." DOWNTOWN thority. He said steps were being taken to handle the demonstrators with a minimum of disruption in operations. Infant Scalded In Tub Dies Brian Birmingham, 4 months old, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Birmingham, 8418 South Broadway, died yesterday of scald burns suffered Monday in the bathtub at his home.

Mrs. Birmingham told police she placed the child in the rub and turned on the water. She left for a moment to remove a pot from a stove. When she got back to the bathroom, Brian was screaming and his body lad turned red from the hot water. He did not show any ill effects until yesterday, when he started to turn blue.

Police and firemen were called. They gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was pronounced dead at City Hospital of burns over 75 per cent of his body. Threadneedle Street, exclusive address of our best-dressed men! Threadneedle Street creates a look that sets a man apart. Forward fashion styling.

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