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

i 6 In Brief st Icuistuesday 3A Feb. 28, 1934 Additional local news on pages SILCOiS POST-DISFATCH I Peril Of Vacant Buildings Worries Parents 1 'lmeW A Schnuck United Way Honors Schnuck, Ornest For 'Caring' Support Donald 0. Schnuck and Harry Ornest will be honored tonight for helping build a "caring community through their support of the United i Way. Awards will be presented to them at 7:20 p.m. at The Arena at a ceremony before the hockey game between the Blues and the Minnesota North Stars.

Schnuck is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Schnuck Markets Inc. His award recognizes the support of United Way programs by Schnuck's employees over the years. i Ornest is owner and president of the Blues. 1 His award honors his participation in civic and community activities in the brief period be has i been in St Louis. The presentations will be made by H.

Edwin J( Trusheim, president and chief executive officer of General American Life Insurance Co. and general chairman of the 1984 United Way I campaign. ipiiw iMum. J-lxjj i urn iiuj-iiw i. mm i i i i 1 I wY' i Km i if V- 1 1 I "-N- i 'r lit I ij i I I 'I kr jrv A Archway Cablevision Stockholder (Calls Firm's Hopes Here 'Dead' By Robert LKoenig Otttfot-OtspatdiStaff Feb.

lm: The decapitated body of a young girt is found in the basement of a crumbling, vacant apartment building at 5636 Omens Avenue a basement described as "too cold even for rats." The girl's hands had been tied behind her back, and she had been raped. The girl was never identified. Feb. 21, 1984: An 8-year-old girl on her way to school Is abducted by a man wielding a hunting knife. He leads ber into the basement of a vacant building at 5878 Cates Avenue and rapes her.

She is seriously injured In the sexual assault Two young girls. Two brutal crimes. Two vacant buildings with accessible basements within a few blocks of each other. There may be no connection at all between the attacks, which were almost exactly a year apart But the pattern disturbs many residents of St Louis neighborhoods In which vacant buildings are common. It is a fear shared by many parents since a series of sexual assaults on schoolgirls in north and northwest St Louis.

"If I had a child, I'd be scared," said Harvey Thacker, 29, the manager of an apartment building on Clemens Avenue next door to the basement where the decapitated body was found last year. "That (basement) door is boarded up now. But there's no reason somebody couldn't do the same thing In the vacant building over there." Thacker said, pointing to a building about 30 yards from the Clemens address. Thacker witnessed the scene last year when the body of the decapitated girl was taken out of the basement And he was disturbed last week when he heard about the schoolgirl who had been abducted nearby. "People board up the doors and the windows of these places, but it doesnt do much good," he says.

"The people just kick them In." The building on Clemens where the decapitated girl was found has been boarded up by the Land Reutillzation Authority. A rusty lock is on the front door. But about three blocks away Is a vacant building on Cates Avenue. Off an alleyway between two decrepit structures is the basement where the schoolgirl was raped last week. The door, which was kicked in, is on the floor.

Snow swirls onto the trash and crumbling plaster Inside. The city has about 3,000 vacant buildings. About one-third are owned by the Land Reutillzation Authority, which takes title to property on which the taxes are delinquent The rest are privately owned. 1 Although St Louis police do not keep separate account of rapes and other crimes in vacant buildings, many say that such structures can present a serious law enforcement problem. Capt Leroy Adklns, commander of the homicide division, can't say how many crimes are committed in such buildings.

But he says that "it'd be much better for us If all these buildings would be boarded or locked up." Homicide detectives continue to seek leads in the case of the decapitated girl. But Atkins said he had. major developments to report A special police task force Is Investigating the rape of the 8-year-old girl on Cates. Henry Autrey, assistant circuit attorney, estimates that as many as 90 percent of the cases he handled on sexual assaults of children (by someone other Chances are slim that Archway Cablevision of St Louis Inc. will get back in the running for the city's cable television franchise, says Thomas A.

Connelly, a stockholder in the firm. "It looks dimmer and dimmer," Connelly said Monday. "Right now, the horse is dead and rigor mortis appears to be setting in. It doesn't look good at all." Paul Skulsky of Fort Lauderdale, and Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the principal owner Archway. He sent St Louis aldermen a letter in January withdrawing the Archway proposal.

But Connelly had been hoping to have the proposal reconsidered. He had hoped to buy Skulsky's share of the company and resubmit the Archway bid. Connelly said he had been unable to reach Skulsky for more than a month. Post-Dispatch Photo illustration by Gary Bohn rape of an 8-year-old girl Feb. 21.

The buildings are behind the Hamilton Branch 2 school. This gangway, between two apartment buildings in the 5800 block of Cates Avenue, was the site of the Price Index In St. Louis Area Rises 0.4 Percent In Two Months .1 r. Consumer prices in the St Louis area rose 0.4 percent in the two months ended in January, putting them 3.4 percent above January 1983, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

The consumer price index for the area In January was 300.9 percent of the 1967 average. that means a list of consumer goods and services that cost $100 in 1967 cost $300.90 last month. The 12-month increase was less than the 4.6 percent Increase in the previous 12 months. In the latest two months, medical care rose 2.9 percent, more than any other major category. The agency said the rise was mostly because of increases In health insurance prices.

Food and beverage prices rose 1.3 percent in the two months, as fruits and vegetables advanced 6.8 percent after December's freeze damaged crops. Prices of pork and eggs also advanced. Housing costs Increased 0.7 percent in the two-month period, but prices of apparel, gasoline, automobile parts and entertainment declined. buildings," she said. Calvin Cook is a graduate of the Hamilton Branch School, 5859 Clemens Avenue, within two blocks of both crimes.

He says boarding up the vacant buildings helps somewhat but is only a short-term solution. "I'd say a typical building stays boarded up for only two or three days," Cook says. "It's not as If the problem Is solved once the buildings are boarded up." Kenneth W. Greene, the city's building commissioner, concedes that boarding Is a stopgap measure. "Many different ways have been tried to solve the problem, but than a close relative) Involved assaults in vacant buildings.

"There are so many of these places in the city," Autrey says. "The odds of a criminal's getting caught raping someone In one of those vacant buildings are very small." That danger has led some parents and community groups to demand that the city either open such buildings to urban homesteading or permanently close them. One person who feels that way Is Ruby Daniels, who lives In a neighborhood not far from where the crimes occurred. "You hear about crime after crime In those if someone really wants to get Into a building, he'll get in." Greene says his department has made a special effort since the decapitation of the girl to board up as many vacant buildings as possible. A crew of a foreman and four workers does nothing but board up vacant structures.

The crew boards up only doors and windows "that are easily accessible from ground level," he says. But Greene says his department often needs two weeks or longer to board up privately owned buildings, mainly because the structures must first be condemned. Young Opposes Rushing Dioxin Bunker Decision Fr Red Cross Seeks Blood Donors, Hopes To Avoid Shortage Here The St. Louis Bl-State chapter of the American Red Cross Is asking people to stop by its centers to give blood. The Red Cross had to cancel 13 blood drives scheduled throughout the metropolitan area because of weather conditions, said Glenna PurcelL a Red Cross spokeswoman.

The drives had been scheduled for Monday and today. "We do not have a blood shortage now, but we're trying to avoid that possibility," Ms. Purcell said. "We normally collect about 900 units of blood a day. This weather Is going to decrease that" She said that all three centers would be open for donors Tuesday.

Hours for the center at 10196 Corporate Square In Olivette will be from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The center at 15 South Florissant Road, Ferguson, will be open from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. The Crestwood center, at 9234 Watson Road, will be open from 10 a.m.

until 3 p.m. Lafser Federal officials announced last year that they would buy all property In Times Beach. The state task force on dioxin recommended the bunker option last October, the proposal was subsequently endorsed by the EPA. State and federal officials attending Monday's meeting said they were concerned about Young's opposition but determined to proceed with ongoing evaluations of the bunker proposal. Fred A.

Lafser, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said he would decide by March 8 whether to waive normal environmental regulations for the project The department plans to make public detailed engineering and environmental assessments on March 12. Lafser stressed that nothing is final yet and that the ultimate decision on the bunker whether to proceed, modify or withdraw the plan" Is very much up for grabs. But Lafser also said he sees no good alternatives to the bunker, at least In the short term. The bunker would be used to store dioxln-contamlnated soil from six sites In the St Louis area. "Our only priority is to get this material out of areas where we can't protect people adequately," he said.

William N. Hedeman head of the EPA's Superfund, the federal funding mechanism for cleaning up hazardous-waste sites, said Young's opposition to the bunker is "certainly of concern. But our position at this time is that we're going to proceed." The sample containing the high level of dioxin had been taken from the corner of Laurel and Dahlia avenues, according' to Rowena Michaels, an EPA spokeswoman In Kansas City. The sample had been taken from a depth of 6 to 1 2 inches. Mrs.

Michaels said the location Is bne block east of the proposed bunker. "It will not have any impact on our plans for a bunker," she said. Mrs. Michaels said her agency has no immediate plans to retest the sample or to do additional sampling In the area. "Because it was so high, the sample already has been rerun once," she said.

"We really just don't have any explanation for it." Times Beach Mayor Marilyn Leistner said she was "a little taken aback" by the high level of dioxin found in the sample. She said she was concerned that other soil samples taken in Times Beach in recent months but not yet analyzed would show similar readings. "I really believe that all the people in Times Beach who have been talking about health problems feel that their worst fears are coming true," she said. Mrs. Leistner said she believed the high dioxin reading should motivate the government to Immediately clean up dioxin contamination in Times Beach and at other sites In the St Louis area.

"I'm to the point where I can't reassure the people here that everything's going to be OK," she said. "I don't feel that way anymore." By Jon Sawyer and Marjorie Mandel Of thtPoit-Dltpatch Staff WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Robert A. Young, D-Maryland Heights, pledged Monday to fight hard against any attempt to rush through plans to build a temporary storage bunker at Times Beach, for dloxin-contamlnated soil.

Young said too many questions about the environmental impact of the proposed bunker remain unanswered. He also accused Missouri officials of attempting to short-circuit normal regulatory procedures In the interest of a quick decision. "They want to bypass the process," Young complained, "but I'm not going to let them." Young pressed his concerns at a closed-door briefing for the Missouri congressional delegation by state and federal environmental officials. Deborah Jones, an aide to Young who attended the meeting, said he left little room for compromise. "He made it pretty plain," she said, "that as long as he's congressman there will be no bunker." Young said he told the officials he was particularly concerned by reports published Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency had found concentrations as high as 1,200 parts dioxin for each billion parts of soil In a sample taken from Times Beach.

Dioxin levels In previous samples from the town has never exceeded 330 parts for each Young billion. Federal health officials have advised that prolonged exposure to dioxin at levels above 1 part for each billion may be a health hazard. "The testing quality leaves a lot to be desired when (one sample) turns up four times higher than the one before," Young said. "It confirms what a lot of us have been saying: Let's make sure we know what we're doing before we rush ahead." Young's 2nd District Includes Times Beach, one of 37 sites In Missouri contaminated with the toxic chemical The city's streets were sprayed In the early 1970s with dloxin-contamlnated waste mixed with waste oil and sprayed to control dust Workers Will Be Raising The Roof In Refitting The Admiral City Is Accused Of Violation Of 20-Hour Limit On Detention Attorneys for prisoners say St Louis is violating a federal court order by allowing police to keep certain prisoners for more than 20 hours In the city holdover. John J.

Fttzgibbon, associate city counselor, contends that the detention of those prisoners "is not the city's fault" Fltzglbbon said prisoners held beyond the 20-hour limit were either military prisoners or fugitives from other states who had not been picked up by the authorities who want them. Fttzgibbon met last week In the chambers of U.S. District Judge Clyde S. Cahlll to answer allegations by Frank Susman, who represents prisoners held in the City Jail and City Workhouse. Judge Cahlll Is presiding over a suit filed by three prisoners seeking to ease crowded conditions in detention facilities.

Susman and Fttzgibbon said Judge Cahlll had Indicated that be would direct the St Louis Police Department this week to come up with procedures for transferring prisoners after 20 hours. "When the Admiral was originally designed and constructed, the live load requirements were not what they are today," Gollub said. "So we decided that If we removed the roof and made it a clear span and took the load off the interior, that would take the load off the deck beneath it and the deck beneath would be adequate to carry the present load." The reconstruction will be done while the Admiral Is moored at its old spot just south of the Eads Bridge. Haviluk said the Admiral would be towed here from Its temporary berth near Paducah, in two or three weeks, depending on river conditions. Demolition on the upper decks and cleaning out the rest of the boat will take two to three months.

Then the upper decks will be reconstructed, and the entire boat will be renovated. The plan for the old Deck is to put the main restaurant seating about 200, Inside a glass-enclosed area at the stern. A large food court area with indoor and outdoor seating will be built at the bow. The kitchen area will be built between the restaurant and the food court While the design for the reconstructed deck has not been completed, it will be In keeping with the way the Admiral looked when It was completed in 1940. "Our approach will be to retain and develop the character of the Admiral," said Charles P.

Reay, a senior vice president at Hellmuth Obata ft Kassabaum architect for the project Two theaters showing movies about the history of St Louis and the Mississippi River will be built on a barge between the Admiral and the levee. where visitors once bought food or strolled, will be gone. "But It will appear the same, except for the beams inside," said William Haviluk, general manager of the Admiral. The reconstruction Is being done for three main reasons: Removing Interior columns will make it easier to design a restaurant kitchen and food court for the deck. Raising the roof will make It possible to Install air-conditioning ducts in the ceiling.

Removing interior columns that support the roof and shifting the roof supports to the exterior of the vessel will enable the developers to meet city codes. If the Admiral were reopened today as is, parts of It probably would not meet codes, said Stanley Gollub, project manage for the Flelscher-Seeger Construction which is construction manager for the project ByCharleneProst 1 Of tfwPott-Oispatch Staff The excursion boat Admiral returns to St Louis next month to begin a major renovation that will include tearing off the top deck, the roof and the pilot house. More than $26.7 million will be spent to convert the riverfront landmark to a floating entertainment center. It will contain restaurants, souvenir shops and boutiques, theaters and family entertainment areas. By the time the vessel is reopened about July i of 1983 the top deck will be replaced.

The boat's owner, a group of 28 Investors, and Six Flags say there will be major changes. Six Flags will operate the Admiral Jor the owner. The roof will be raised by about i feet The many columns throughout the old Deck, lottery lumber Thi winning numbtdrawn Monday In the Illinois Lottery Dally Game was 835..