Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 29

Tonight's tip Wednesday JULY 17, 198 RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Section 3C OBITUARIES 5-1 5C CLASSIFIED Nevada There's no better way to spend these hot summer nights than at a barbecue and ice cream social. There's one tonight at the University of Nevada-Reno quad at 6. Cost: $3.50. Details, 784-6620. Fire worry closes Vegas hotel tower problems and improperly installed valves.

A Showboat spokesman said 150 rooms remain open, as well as the resort's casino and: bowling center. Showboat spokesman Rod Reber said the problems could be corrected within 24 hours and the tower reopened; however, Hall said the repairs will take one or two months to complete. The resort last year received a one-year extension of the deadline to complete fire safety retrofitting measures. Hall said his office received a letter June 10 from hotel officials saying they would be able to complete the project before the new Clark County Building Director Bob Weber consulted with attorneys Tuesday to determine what to do about the 31-story Landmark Hotel's failure to comply with the tough fire-retrofitting statutes. County legal counsel Bill Curran has advised Weber that the county has two options.

Weber's department could determine the Landmark is dangerous and order part of the resort closed until the I safety measures are completed. Or the matter could be referred to the County Commission, which could direct the district attorney to initiate legal action to close all or part of the LAS VEGAS (UPI) The Showboat Hotel has voluntarily closed its 350-room tower because of fire-safety deficiencies and Clark County Building Department authorities are considering possible legal moves against the needle-shaped Landmark Hotel to force compliance with fire retrofitting laws, officials said Tuesday. Las Vegas City Manager Ashley Hall said Showboat officials closed the Boulder Highway resort's tower Sunday night after inspectors determined the water pressure to the structure's sprinklers was insufficient. "After a lengthy review, we could not declare it safe," said Hall, who said other deficiencies involved overall engineering Ex-Stardust owners' lawsuit dismissed LAS VEGAS A civil suit filed by the former operators of the Stardust Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip who claimed they were forced to give up their gaming licenses was dismissed Tuesday by a federal judge. U.S.

District Judge Roger Foley dismissed the suit filed against the state of Nevada by former gaming executives Al Sachs and Herb Tobman. The two, who headed Trans-Sterling charged they were under "duress" when they signed a stipulated agreement with Nevada gaming officials last year and agreed to surrender their gaming licenses and sell their Las Vegas casino properties. The judge said the lawsuit filed by Sachs and Tobman "could only have been brought to delay the carrying out of the terms of the settlement agreement." The January 1984 agreement came after the state threatened to revoke Sachs' and Tobman's licenses in the wake of allegations they permitted $1.5 million to be skimmed from the Stardust casino. Art i rf ftlf te 1 Ambulance driver cited Reno police cited Aids Ambulance driver Todd Ellison, 23, of Minden, for driving through a red light and colliding with a van at South Sierra and West Liberty streets Monday night. Even though Allison was driving with flashing lights and blaring siren, Nevada law requires emergency vehicle drivers to use due care while going through intersections.

Three people in the ambulance and two people in the van suffered minor injuries, including van driver Patrick Brown, 25, of Reno, police said. No one was hospitalized. No patients were in the ambulance, which was responding to a call in southwest Reno. A passenger in Brown's van, Thomas Sellers, 34, of Reno, was cited for investigation of having an open container in a vehicle, police said. Blaze near Red Rock contained By Lenita PowersGazette-Journal A man-caused fire north of Reno was contained Tuesday and firefighters expected to contain today the last of three large fires in northeast Nevada that have burned more than 50,000 acres in Elko County.

There was no estimate on when the fires would be controlled; a fire is contained when it is surrounded and not expected to spread, controlled when all flames are extinguished. No structures were threatened by the 300-acre fire that began Monday about 15 miles north of Reno in the Red Rock Road area, said Lisa Keating, a Bureau of Land Management dispatcher. The road was closed temporarily Tuesday while firefighters set back-burns for a firebreak. Tuesday's high temperatures and exploding juniper pines made the Red Rock Fire a tough challenge for firefighters. Finn Ostman of Virginia, said he used his imagination to keep going.

"I've been dreaming of 10,000 lakes in Minnesota, swimming in each of them and then drinking them all dry." A small, man-caused fire Tuesday four miles north of Sparks off the Pyramid Lake Highway was quickly extinguished. Lightning storms ignited three fires Monday that burned approximately 53,000 acres of BLM rangeland in Elko County. The Winecup Fire 25 miles northeast of Wells and the Black Rock Fire north of the Winecup Ranch each burned about 20,000 acres and containment was expected Tuesday night. The Silver Cloud Fire south of Midas near the Silver Cloud Mine was expected to be contained by 10 a.m. today.

Several commissioners said they were reluctant to take action against the resort operators since the matter currently is in Justice Court, where the Landmark is challenging 13 misdemeanor citations for fire safety violations. Landmark attorneys contend the citations are "too vague." A Nov. 26 trial on the issue is scheduled before Justice of the Peace James Bixler. The fire-retrofitting statutes, which are costing resorts millions, were enacted after the 1980 MGM Grand Hotel fire that resulted in 85 deaths and the 1981 Las Vegas Hilton arson blaze that killed eight people. British wary of swapping gaming info By Myratn BordersGazette-Journal LONDON British officials said Tuesday they hesitate to be candid with Nevada gaming investigators seeking sensitive information about casino applications because Nevada board members can accept casino jobs without a "cooling off" period.

"You pour out your heart to them one month and give them all kinds of information and then you learn they have gone to the other side and are working for the gaming industry," said one British gaming official. "It is hard to be candid under those circumstances. I don't want to say more because we must try to work together." Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Paul Bible and Control Board Chairman Bart Jacka said Tuesday they're aware of the concern over Nevada's lack of a "cooling off" requirement for Control Board and Gaming Commission members. The 1985 Nevada Legislature killed a bill that would have required a two-year waiting period before gaming and Public Service Commission regulators could work for the industries they formerly oversaw. "Great Britain is concerned, very concerned about it," said Bible before addressing the First International Gaming Law Seminar, which convened a two-day meeting in London on Tuesday.

The seminar moves to Monte Carlo Friday and Saturday; Jacka addresses the seminar Friday. "Great Britain is disturbed about giving a Nevada regulator sensitive information and then finding out the person is working for a club or casino company, but we do exchange information," said Bible. "I know the gaming people in Great Britain are worried about it," said Jacka. "But they have always been cooperative to my knowledge. We exchange intelligence information." Bible and Thomas O'Brien, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, hope to open the door this week for gaming regulators from foreign nations to exchange information on applicants and international cheating gangs.

"We hope this seminar wUl be the beginning of an international gaming regulators group designed to share much more extensive information," said Bible. "For example, right now we have no exchange of information with Austria. We would expect an information exchange to develop, for example, on slot cheating gangs that operate on an international basis." New Jersey gaming regulators must wait four years before accepting jobs in the gaming industry after leaving state service. Regulators in Great Britain do not switch to private industry. "It just doesn't happen here," said Sir Anthony Rawlinson, chairman of the See BRITISH, page 2C Parole hearing delayed CARSON CITY The state Parole Board deferred action Tuesday on a release request from Nevada State Prison inmate David "Bang Bang" Wayne after Wayne refused to show for a parole hearing.

Wayne, who won acquittals in three Nevada trials but lost in a fourth trial and got a life prison term, will get the hearing as soon as he's willing to make a personal appearance, Parole Board spokeswoman Nykki Kinsley said. Wayne was convicted in December 1981 of kidnapping, false imprisonment, setting a deadly trap, possession of a dangerous weapon, battery and possession of a controlled substance. The convictions stemmed from an October 1980 Nevada State Prison hostage-taking incident. 41 I Craig SallorGazette-Journal LOOKOUT: Rob Fasteland, one of dozens of Minnesota firefighters called in to battle Nevada's fires, checks the sky for falling burning embers Tuesday at a 300-acre fire near Red Rock Road north of Reno. Navy backers want Bryan to hear their side area "support the Navy, want the Fallon Naval Air Station to remain and grow, and back the Navy's various and needed programs for building a better defense for America.

"Frankly, we have had it with those who criticize the Navy's every move, disrupt vital naval training, stage demonstrations and make it almost impossible for the Navy to reach amicable solutions to any of the myriad of problems fomented mostly by the dissidents themselves." Opponents of expanded military training in the area slipped onto three bombing ranges last Thursday, forcing closure of the zones for one day and delaying training involving 57 planes. Bryan criticized those protesters Tuesday. "This is not a sound tactic," he said after appearing before a government class at Reed High School. He called the action "counterproductive." Nonetheless, Richard Bargen, spokesman for the Coalition of Rural Americans, said his group may send more people onto the ranges. He said another move may be made in about two weeks and continue every week or two if necessary.

Bargen said his group wants an independent report on the impact of the planned military activity, including the impact of increased sonic booms. Wire service reports Room tax increase nixed CARSON CITY The Carson City District Attorney's Office Tuesday threw cold water on plans to raise the hotel-motel room tax from 6 percent to 9 percent, to help finance an 18-hole expansion of the golf course and boost tourist promotion. Deputy District Attorney Charles Cockerill said the state law sets a limit on how much local governments can raise taxes, fees or licenses. He said the proposal by Carson City was outside that limit. Mayor Dan Flammer says he's still optimistic the city can come up with the financing for the golf course.

But Tom Baker, a member of the Carson City Tourism Authority, said this means the end of plans to add to the present 18-hole course. Dry Carson cracks down on illegal water users A pro-Navy group of Fallon businessmen and ranchers are seeking a meeting with Gov. Richard Bryan to express their support for Navy plans to expand military training in central Nevada. Clint Harrington, Fallon merchant and president of the Churchill County Chamber of Commerce, said the governor recently met with critics of the Navy and "now we are asking him for equal time to tell him the other side of the story." Harrington said the pro-Navy group, "Sensible Citizens of Churchill County," is "fed up with the handful of protesters and dissidents who seem to badger the Navy at every opportunity they get." He added that most people in the Fallon BLM round-up divides rural neighborhood By Laura MyersGazette-Journal GARDNERVILLE With the help of a helicopter, the Bureau of Land Management rounded up 10 wild horses in the Fish Springs Road area last week and transported them to Palomino Valley leaving behind a divided community. "I think we all just need a little time to cool off," said Jim Finch, a 21-year resident of the small horse-raising community.

"I've got my daughter mad at me because I don't agree with her about the horses. She complained to the BLM about them. I tried to talk to her before she did it slow her down a bit but she had a point: those horses did knock down her (swimming) pool." The dust had hardly settled from Friday's round-up before the accusations began to fly. The horses the band taken away and six others the BLM said it couldn't find are a welcome part of the scenery to most residents but a nuisance to others who say they eat their crops and tear up their property. Suzie Kelsay, Finch's daughter who moved back to Fish Springs seven years ago with her husband and children, said she has been receiving "terrible phone calls" since she complained to the BLM.

"I was told I was the 'Wicked Witch of See BLM, page 2C 1 Power outage in Sparks About 600 Sierra Pacific Power Co. customers in the Prater Way-Lincoln Way area of Sparks were without power for at least two hours Tuesday. A malfunctioning underground cable caused the outage at 12:05 p.m., and most customers were back on line by 2:50 p.m., said spokesman Mike Reed. The rest had electricity by 6:51 p.m.; no major problems were reported because of the breakdown, Reed said. Vegas, rail officials to meet LAS VEGAS Gov.

Richard Bryan is scheduled to meet with local government leaders and Union Pacific officials today in an effort to prevent the unloading of low-level radioactive waste in downtown Las Vegas. Bryan met with railroad officials Friday and said he opposed the plan. The railroad is transporting 7,200 tons of radioactive waste from New Jersey to the low-level dump in Beatty. Railroad officials want to unload waste-laden tractor trailers in a rail yard at the edge of downtown's casino center. Government officials are urging that the waste be unloaded at the Apex siding north of the city.

Wire service and staff reports By Laura MyersGazette-Joumai CARSON CITY The third time won't be a charm for Carson City residents who insist on watering their lawns when they're not supposed to, officials warned Tuesday. "It's getting to the point now that some people have been warned twice," said Lew Nagy, the city's utility manager. "If we catch them watering again when they aren't supposed to we're going to start fining them." City "water patrols" have been working overtime during the past week, issuing more than 400 warning citations to people who ignore the city's odd-even water rationing system. People at odd-numbered addresses can water lawns on odd-numbered days and vice versa. Also, no one is allowed to water lawns on the 31st of any month or from 1 to 7 p.m daily.

Exceptions are made for people with automatic sprinkler systems; they may water every day but only between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The water conservation program runs from May 1 to Oct. 1 each year. After issuing a warning citation, the city may impose a $20 fine; $30 for a second offense.

"We have to start getting tough," Nagy said, "because the only thing that would save us from this water shortage is liquid from the sky." And the National Weather Service isn't forecasting that in the near future. Nagy said the city's water situation has improved somewhat since two of Carson's three major water tanks ran dry last week. The 4 million-gallon Quill tank, on the west side of the valley at the mouth of Kings Canyon, and the 3 million-gallon Goni tank north of the Carson Airport were depleted, leaving only the 3 million-gallon Prison Hill tank to cover peak summer water use. "We are catching up a little bit," Nagy said. "I think that is due to the strict water patrols making people aware there's a problem." Part of that problem, said Public Works Director Joe Laird, is that on the hottest summer days city residents have been using 4 to 5 million gallons more than it can pull from its 11-well direct water supply.

Those wells can provide about 11 million gallons daily, and about 500,000 gallons are provided daily through the state's Marlette system. The rest comes from the lo million-gallon city tank storage capacity. 6 05 Jean Dixon AlklnGazette-Journal DETERMINATION: Michael Nattress, 8, takes a swing at a tiny red ball during a one-man game of paddle ball at the Truckee Meadows Boys Club Tuesday..