Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 15

BLM investigation sought by Nevadans Able said the act, along with other BM guidelines for grazing, wild horse management and public land use figure prominently in complaints. Able said the list has been approved by the Nevada Cattleman's Association and by the Nevada Woolgrowers Association. He added that Senators Paul Laxalt and Howard Cannon, along with Santini, have been asked for help in pushing for an ELKO (AP)-The 300-member Nevada Land Action Association today asked Congress to launch an immediate investigation into operation of the Bureau of Land Management. The group said the Department of the Interior agency is attempting to "usurp" the powers of Congress, and is Americans of freedom, rights and property value without due process of law." The group also asked that the "those respon sible be removed from authority or cited for contempt. Dave Able of Elko, secretary of the group, said his membership has compiled a list of 17 specific reasons the BLM should be investigated.

At the top of the list is passage of the controversial Organic Act, which was sponsored by Nevada Congressman Jim Santini. Reno Evening Gazeti Fifteen Reno, Nevada, Monday, Jan. 17, 1977 Phone (702) 786-8989 This evening's Truckee Meadows firefighters start work under union contract because the negotiations dragged for such a long time. The contract covers only rank and file members of the fire protection district not officers. The district is supported with a county tax of 50-cent per $100 of assessed valuation.

The county formally recognized the local fireman's bargaining unit Dec. 10, 1975. Negotiations for the first contract started in late February 1976. Deputy county counsel Chan Griswold was the county's chief negotiator. Representing the union were Dennis Wilson, president; William Jackson, vice president, and Jim Sullivan, secretary-treasurer.

The Truckee Meadows Firefighters Association is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the Nevada State Federated Firefighters and the International Association of Firefighters, Sullivan said. Nineteen fire fighters of the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District started working under a union contract for the first time in history this morning. Washoe County commissioners and representatives of the new union, the Truckee Meadows Firefighters Association, Local 2487, penned an agreement at today's county commissioners' meeting after a year of negotiations. It calls for a starting salary of $410 per month ranging to a top pay of (455 per month. The former starting pay was $398 per month to a top range of $429.

Dennis Wilson, president of the new union, said these salaries bring the county fire fighters up to par with what is earned by Reno and Sparks city firemen. He said there still are some problems in the county fire fighters insurance program and with "limited manpower," which involves one-man engine companies. Requiring fire fighters to have only one man per fire engine is "unfair to us and unfair to theeople we have to protect," Wilson However, a grievance procedure contained in the new agreement will help the fire fighters and the county solve these problems as they immediately enter new negotiations on non-salary issues, he said. County commissioners, who also act as the county's fire commissioners and are the governing body of the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District, approved the agreement unanimously. The contract was made retroactive to July 1 and will be in force until June 30.

County Commissioner Bill Farr said he urged making it retroactive i rL' nr i i A Different university document Budget justification was in on time Quarters and dimes Five hundred dollars in quarters and dimes was stolen from Roller King, a skating rink at 450 S. Rock Blvd. early Friday, Reno police reported. Reno police suspect a slipwire was used to open the door of the establishment around 1 a.m. Tolitical activities' "Political Activities of the Greater Reno Chamber of Commerce" will be the topic of a talk Tuesday by the chamber president, William Kottinger.

He'll speak at the monthly luncheon meeting of the Sigma Nu Alumni Club. The noon meeting is at the Stein Hof-brau, according to William Cobb, president of the fraternity alumni group. Prison group meets The United Families and Friends Outside, a nonprofit organization working toward improving conditions for Nevada State Prison inmates, will hold a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Race Relations Center, 1029 N. Virginia St.

The meeting is open to the public. United Families and Friends Outside are made up of wives, girlfriends, relatives of prisoners and concerned individuals. The primary goal of the organization is to assure fair and equal treatment for all prisoners, families and friends of prisoners under the law. Golden Heart award The Nevada Heart Fitness Institute will present its Golden Heart Award to Dr. Frank Roberts at 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday at the Reno Orthopedic Clinic, 555 N. Arlington. The award will be an annual one given to someone within the community who has contributed to the Institute. The Nevada Heart Fitness Institute is involved in the cardiac rehabilitation program and sponsors the marathon in late summer. Still below standard The Reno-Sparks Joint Sewage Treatment Plant still isn't meeting discharge standards set by the state and federal governments, Sparks Public Works Director Bob Churn told the Reno City Council today.

Churn noted the City of Sparks, which operates the bi-city plant, continues to be cited for violating water quality standards for the Truckee River. The citations continue despite the fact that the last flow metered at the plant was 17.5 million gallons per day 2.5 mgd less than the design capacity of 20 mgd for the plant. The city council voted to recommend to the Joint Sewer Coordinating Committee, which meets Thursday, that it consider recommending a ban on commercial garbage disposals and a ban on dumping septic tank waste into the sewer plant. The Reno City Council already has passed an ordinance preventing septic tank dumpings into the plant, but Sparks still allows them. The two cities had planned to allow the plant to treat 24 mgd by 1980 which would allow continued construction in the two cities prior to a plant expansion expected to be finished by 1980.

That higher flow, however, wouldn't be allowed if the water quality standards continue to be violated. He said the university went through all the recommended budget procedures outlined by the 1975 Nevada Legislature, and prepared frequent reports to answer all questions the governor or his budget staff might have. "The Department of Administration (which includes Barrett's budget division) and the legislative counsel had all our budget materials every step of the way," the chancellor said. "They had the budget even before the regents approved it in August. We've supplied so much budget information to his Barrett's) office in the past year that I don't have the slighest idea what he's referring to." Contacted later this morning, Humphrey said he had telephoned Barrett and confirmed that the document received last Friday was the university's comprehensive plan and not a budget justification.

"But if that document is of substance to help the state administration in considering our budget, we're delighted," Humphrey added. Humphrey said the updated plan which outlines where the university has been and where it's going in the next four years is required each two years and is due in Carson City by Feb. 1. Humphrey said the rough draft of the plan was available last November and was approved in its final form when the university regents met last Friday in North Las Vegas. Barrett said he hadn't seen any draft copy of the plan, although Humphrey said it had been sent to the budget office in November.

When the governor's executive budget was officially unveiled last Thursday, Barrett was critical of the Board of Regents' communications with the executive branch, but he did not say that the university's budget justifications hadn't been submitted. Nevada Budget Director Howard Barrett's claim that the University of Nevada System didn't submit its budget Justification document until last week is untrue, according to University Chancellor Neil Humphrey. When asked today about Barrett's remarks last week that the university's detailed justification for budget requests was about four months late, Humphrey expressed surprise and said he didn't have "the slightest idea what he's referring to." Barrett, when telephoned by the Gazette this morning, admitted the document he received Friday wasn't the budget narrative, but instead a 150-page copy of the university's four-year comprehensive plan. The plan, according to Humphrey, was submitted early and isn't due until next month. When asked to explain his mistaken comments of last week, Barrett at first refused comment but later said he thought it was part of "a great deal of information" on the budget that he has been receiving from the university.

Barrett said the university met its Sept. 1 deadline for filing detailed justifications of its budget requests. Attempts to contact Gov. Mike O'Callaghan whose budget proposal for the university system was met last week by much criticism in university circles were unsuccessful this morning. Barrett had claimed last week that the university hadn't submitted its budget justification required of all executive departments in state government until last Friday.

The justifications were due in the governor's office last September. But Humphrey said today his office has been working with Barrett and the budget staff ever since last January. Campusfun Classes at the University of Nevada-Reno resumed today for the spring semester. Juan Vega, 25, a senior engineering student at the University of Nevada-Reno, arrived on campus last week and passed part of the time in front of Lincoln Hall with a soccer ball. (Gazette photo by Larry Nylund) Backdrop of Hughes world Summa-Greenspun trial resumes If you thought there were a lot of helicopters, you were right Innocent pleas Four of the "Huey" UH-1 helicopters, each capable of carrying 13 persons including the pilot and co-pilot, were used in a simulated rescue mission which transported "injured" personnel from the parking lot at Slide Mountain ski resort, to Pickett Park, across the street from Reno's Washoe Medical Center.

If you thought there were an uncommon number of helicopters flying around the Reno area Sunday, you were absolutely right. It was a training exercise for the Army National Guard's 1150th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance), stationed at Stead airfield. It was not disclosed if Hughes' instructions ever were carried out. In addition, Dist. Judge Joseph McDaniel heard testimony from Melvin Stewart, Hughes' barber for many years who ultimately became the billionaire's male nurse when Hughes' condition deteriorated late in life.

Stewart said that on more than one occasion he heard Hughes tell his aides "We've got to get rid of that S.O.B...if we have to give the damn paper away, but we ha ve to get rid of that man. The late billionaire's animosity toward Greenspun apparently was prompted by articles critical of Summa published in the Sun, and by Greenspun's multi-million dollar lawsuit. ELKO AP) -Set against the backdrop of Howard Hughes' secretive corporate world, attorneys this week will resume Summa defense of Las Vegas newspaper publisher Hank Greenspun's $142 million slander of title suit. In dramatic testimony last week, it was learned that the reclusive billionaire once directed Summa officials to tail Greenspun 24 hours a day with 90 detectives. The industrialist also instructed his corporate executives to see if Summa could ppurchase the Las Vegas Review-Journal, cnief competitor to Greenspun's Las Vegas Sun, and sell it for as little as a nickel a copy to drive Greenspun out of business.

Those facts came to light in a memorandum sent by a top Hughes aide to Summa chief legal counsel Chester Davis. Three of four California men arrested at a Reno motel Dec. 18 pleaded innocent at arraignment in U.S. District Court last week on marijuana smuggling charges. The fourth man failed to appear.

A fifth suspect has never been apprehended. Charged with conspiracy to possess and intent to distribute marijuana, and unlawful use of interstate communications and travel, are Sebastian J. Napolitano, Julian G. Cassasco, James M. Salerno and Francisco Arevalo-Parra.

All except Arevalo-Parra pleaded innocent to two counts Friday. Assistant U.S. Atty. Ray Pike said Arevalo-Parra holds dual American and Mexican citizenship and is believed to be in Mexico. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

ave of armed robberies hitting Reno Net earnings They directed him to a dirt road near Interstate 80, took about $20 from Smith and told him "take a walk in the woods." Smith heard a gunshot as he walked away. He hitchhiked to Reno to report the crime. Washoe County sheriff's deputies later found the cab. It was stuck in a ditch where Smith had last seen it. In the Last Chance robbery attempt, a detective said a young man drove in, told an attendant he had a knife and demanded money.

Told the cash box contained only credit card receipts, the man hurled a gasoline can through a plate glass window of the adjacent restaurant and fled. The sheriff's department plans to question a man subsequently arrested in connection with another robbery near Auburn as possibly responsible. Smedes was asleep when he was attacked in his residence at 522 Roberts St. at 12 30 a.m. Saturday, he said.

Two young men forced their way through a rear door, awakened him, struck him with a flashlight and demanded, "This is a robbery. Where is your money?" When Smedes replied that he didn't have any money, one of the men hit him 10 or 12 times more with the flashlight, he said. The victim said the two finally fled with a camera and accessories and $230 cash. Cab driver Smith told police he picked up two young men in downtown Reno at 10:15 p.m. and was told to drive to Boomtown.

Near there, one held a pistol to his neck and said, "Do what we tell you to do if don't want to get hurt." Reno is in the midst of a wave of armed robberies Three gunmen this morning held up the El Tavern Motel, 1801 W. Fourth St. Two men with ski masks and pistols Friday night bound and robbed six employes of the Safeway Store, 1185 California Ave. Two nocturnal intruders Saturday beat and robbed resident Thomas R. Smedes as he slept.

Yellow Cab driver Jack Smith was robbed Saturday of his money and cab. A man unsuccessfully tried to hold up the Last Chance service station near the California state line Friday night. Employe Henry L. Dopps of the El Tavern Motel told Reno police three young men one with a rifle and one with a pistol entered the office at 1 15 a.m. today.

Dopps asked, "Are you kidding?" He said they took $140, forced him to lie behind the counter and fled. The Safeway store was robbed just after it closed for the day at 11 15 p.m. Friday. Two men wearing ski masks fled with $5,500 in store funds and $352 of employes' money. Police said the gunmen first overpowered Edward Shepherd and forced him to open the safe.

Then, they accosted the other five employes one at a time. The robbers rifled the victims' wallets as the latter lay on the floor in a rear room. The robbers forced Daniel Carlson and Wiley Marshall to bind the other victims hands with masking tape, then Marshall to bind Carlson. The robbers bound Marshall. The other victims were Edward Eastwood, Bob Killian and Edward Katzorke.

RENO AP) -Harrah's Hotels and Casinos today disclosed that both its net earnings and net revenues increased during the second quarter of fiscal 1976-77. Net earnings for the quarter ending Dec. 31 jumped 16 per cent to $1,972,505 on net revenues of $35,302,266, which rose 14 per cent. The Reno-Lake Tahoe gaming and entertainment complex said that its earnings for the first half of the fiscal year increased 13.5 per cent to $8,557,174. "Our lodging revenues increased substantially with the eurly opening of our 290-room addition at Tahoe," Harrah's President Lloyd T.

Dyer said. "Tahoe occupancy rates for the quarter were 81 per cent, compared to 84 per cent in the prior year, which is gratifying considering we had an additional 12,000 room nights for rent over the previous year." Reno increased its occupancy to 86.5 per cent compared to 82.3 per cent in the prior year's second quarter. "We expect a good third quarter ending March 31," Dyer said. "Although it will be difficult to beat the outstanding third quarter last year when our earning were two-and-a-half times greater than in any third quarter in our history." I LEARNED THAT I 6ET SlC RiBNS ON TriE BUS! I MM i 'I hi THESE FIELD 1 TRIPS! I THOUeHTHDUUKEDTHfiH. 0U T0LP ME fOU IEARNEP S0WETHIN6 VERY IMPORTANT ON OUR LAST FlELP 4 "ZZf I DID.