Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 13

Nevada Letters by number The Reno-Sparks Scrabble Club meets each Wednesday at the Senior Citizens Center, Ninth and Sutro, In Reno. Play is held from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Details: 323 8169. Wednesday JUNE 13.

1990 RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Section 2B OBITUARIES 2B VITALS 3-6B BUSINESS 3-5B MARKETS CITY EDITOR: MORGAN CARTWRIGHT, 788 6397 Anti-abortion activists protest ballot measure going door-to-door referendum. Secretary of State Frankie Sue Del Papa, an abortion-rights candidate seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for attorney general, stood by the referendum's language. "That language was cleared with the deputy attorney general," she said. "I think it does cover the situation. When you look at the statute, it says (referendum language) has to be brief and understandable.

I think it does that." If approved, the referendum would shield the state's existing liberal abortion statute from legislative change. Referen-dums must include an explanation of the See BALLOT, page 3B By Mike NorrisGazette-Journai The Nevada pro-choice referendum's ballot language misrepresents opponents' position and will hurt them politically when it goes before voters in November, anti-abortionists claim. "It's very biased," said Janine Hansen, president of Nevada Eagle Forum, a conservative coalition. But abortion-rights leaders supported Question 7's language, which was released by the secretary of state's office Tuesday. "The secretary of state is to be really applauded for doing a very fine job," said Mylan Hawkins, northern Nevada coordinator of the Campaign for Choice, which ran the petition campaign on behalf of the Lawyer says client feared he'd be killed The fear that he would be killed led a Sun Valley man to shoot and kill one of his assailants, the defense lawyer in a murder trial told Washoe District Court jurors Tuesday.

David B. Phillips, 21, of 375 Loster Way, is charged in the Oct. 18 death of Sean L. Brown, 21, of 343 Mill St. The trial continues today.

Defense lawyer Herb Santos told jurors Phillips' shooting of Brown was justifiable homicide. He said that last Oct. 18, Phillips had an encounter with some of the men at a casino, and that later the men came to his residence. There, Santos said, one of the men punched Phillips in the face when he answered the door. They pushed him inside and three men began pummeling him with their fists, a baseball bat and an ax handle or pick handle, Santos said.

Phillips fled to a bedroom and locked the door behind him, the defense lawyer said. Someone started pounding on the door and Phillips heard someone say, "Let's kill him," Santos said. At that point, he said, Phillips got a gun, went outside the house and saw a person in a white shirt fleeing. Phillips fired four or five shots in that direction, then went into the house to call for help, the defense lawyer said. But the telephone had been pulled off the wall, he said.

Reno won't back Ibeaveir Pro-life campaign By Mike NorrisGazette-Journai Nevada's anti-abortion forces have begun a statewide door-to-door campaign aimed at persuading voters to reject a November referendum that would solidify the state's liberal abortion law. "We're trying to persuade them to vote against it, but we want them to open their minds first," said Janine Hansen, president of the conservative Nevada Eagle Forum and northern Nevada co-director of the volunteer effort. Jose OsorioGazettejournal ed dropping in 1985, three years before the plant was in production. The 12.5-megawatt plant, the second in the Steamboat Springs area, turns 450-de-gree water in the Steamboat geothermal field into energy. The company supplies Sierra Pacific Power Co.

with enough energy to supply 12,500 households. Once the addition is complete, the company could serve around 20,000 households. While approving the plant expansion, the commission directed its planning staff to study the well-water problem and report back in 30 days. Mike Harper, assistant planning director, said when the original plant permit was granted in 1986, the county was asked to look at the impact the plant could have See GEOTHERMAL, page 2B WHAT IS SO RARE: As a day in June? Robert Delva, 135 Russell Lowell's poem as he putters in his garden of sweet the line from James WHliarosncL.vegeiaBles jQftJuesday afternoon. geothermal plant expansion Question 7 was placed on the ballot after another statewide group, Campaign for Choice, obtained 53,997 valid signatures 18,571 more than required in a petition campaign.

Hansen estimated more than 200 pro-life volunteers are urging people in Washoe County to reject the ballot issue and about 1,000 are covering the rest of the state, except Storey County. Donations are not being requested, she said. See CAMPAIGN, page 3B kiln Council votes not to support state proposal By Susan VoylesGazette-Journal Save the beavers and kill the resolution was the battle cry Tuesday night as the Reno City Council rejected a resolution to support the state wildlife department's plan to remove the animals along the Truckee River. The City Council also formally approved and appointed members to a new environmental commission the Earth Day Every Day Committee. It also took the first step toward approving new parking meter fees.

By a 4-1 vote, the council rejected the beaver resolution, which has been drafted at the request of several council members. The resolution would only would have been advisory because state law gives the Nevada Department of Wildlife exclusive power to control animal populations. Wildlife department officials have said about 15 beavers must be exterminated because the water-dwelling rodents are destroying cottonwood trees that provide home and shade for other animals. Reno Mayor Pete Sferrazza and Council-women Kathryn Wishart, Karen Bryan and Sue Smith rejected the resolution. At a meeting last week at the Nevada Humane Society, Wishart said wildlife officials didn't appear interested in citizen's alternatives to killing the animals.

Councilwoman Florence Lehners was the resolution's only supporter. "I think trees are just as important, if not more so," she said. The first meeting of the Earth Day committee is scheduled for July 11. The committee will delve into recycling and other environmental issues and make recommendations to the council. Sferrazza, Bryan and Wishart will serve as ex-officio members.

Appointees to the commission represent citizens at large, environmentalists and industry officials. They are: Anita Sullivan, Bill Hull, Kevin Golden, Patricia Moen, Paul Bony, Bill Martin, Christian McMillan, Therese Bolton Class, Alfred Gangi, Shelly MacDonald, Kathleen Dickinson, Lauren Greenwood, Tom LaMure, Carol Richards, David Emme, Kelly Larson, Joseph Warburton, Joan Rivet, Dee Ann Vyne and Phil Bryan. The council also approved the first reading of an ordinance boosting fees for the city's 1,712 parking meters. The ordinance will be voted on again June 26 before See BEAVERS, page 2B Sam Macias will take early retirement, leaving some parents feeling they are losing an ally who could have helped their transferring children adjust to a new school. earlier this year, thinking he wouldn't be eligible for a few years.

But everyone on the list ahead of him opted out of retiring in 1990, so Macias' name ended up on the top of the list. Turning down the offer would have meant putting his name back in the pool and possibly waiting several years to become eligible again. "I wanted to stay on one more year," Macias said. "I'm very disappointed. I feel like I'm kind of selling out, but financially, it would be a pretty dumb move for me not to take it." Parent Cheryl Ruiz, who has a seventh-grade son who is zoned to attend Traner, said she understands Macias' decision.

But it still leaves her family in turmoil, "I was going to go ahead and send my son there," she said. "I felt good about him being there if Mr. Macias was going to be there. "Now I don't know what I'm going to do." Washoe County Superintendent Marvin Moss said the district will choose Macias' replacement June 26. The overlap will give the outgoing and incoming Traner principals time to work together, Moss said.

Macias will prepare a master schedule for the 1990-91 school year before leaving, and will orient his replacement with Traner's programs, as well as the promises he's made to parents. bemini Circle in Reno, could illustrate Washoe OKs By Martha MillerGazette-Journal Washoe County commissioners on Tuesday approved the expansion of a Steamboat Springs geothermal plant despite some objections by local residents. The commission voted 5-0 to approve a special-use permit for Yankee-Caithness Joint Venture so it can expand and improve its air quality by 70 percent. General Manager Ted De Long said the addition will allow them to put out less than two pounds of hydrogen sulfide per hour even though the plant is licensed to emit up to 5Vi pounds. Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs.

While nearby residents praised the proposed improvements to air quality, they told the commission they suspect the plant is causing their well water to decrease. Dorothy Towne, who said her well dried up Ti 2 guilty on tax charges A Carson City couple has been convicted on Internal Revenue Service charges of underreporting business income of $500,000 and personal income of more than $200,000, according to court documents filed Tuesday. After a month long U.S. District Court trial, Harold J. and Jennifer Susan Edelman, owners of the Central Bit Supply Inc.

of Carson City, were convicted of underreporting business and personal income for the years 1983 and 1984. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Setness told jurors that Harold Edelman, 47, was president of the company, and Mrs. Edelman, 33, was an officer. Money was diverted from their business to personal use, and they failed to report the income on both their business and personal income tax returns in 1983 and 1984.

In a typical situation, a check would be written to the business but deposited to their personal bank account, Setness said, and the Edelmans would fail to report the money as either business or personal income. Harold Edelman could be sentenced to up to nine years in prison and receive fines up to $300,000. Mrs. Edelman could be sentenced to up to 17 years in prison and face fines of up to $800,000. Sentencing is scheduled Aug.

31 before U.S. District Judge Edward C. Reed. Also, Setness said, both could be ordered to pay the costs of prosecuting the case. Homicide autopsy begun WINNEMUCCA An autopsy was begun in Reno on Tuesday on the body of a homicide victim found near Winnemucca on Sunday.

Roger A. Mercure, 46, of Winnemucca was fatally beaten on the head, apparently with a crowbar, Humboldt County Sheriff's Capt. Richard Formby said. Some people walking in a canyon about 13 miles east of the city spotted the body late in the morning. Formby said Mercure, who had worked at odd jobs, was last reported seen Friday afternoon in Winnemucca.

Formby said investigators had not determined who killed Mercure or for what reason. Hepatitis test negative Test results were negative for an Agnes Risley Elementary School pupil tested for hepatitis, two weeks after about 400 students from the school were inoculated against the disease. Pam Young, of the Washoe County Health Department, said last week that two suspected cases were reported to her office. One was found not to be hepatitis last week. This week, test results for the other case were also reported as negative.

On May 18, 661 children, including siblings of the Risley students, were inoculated at the Health Department after a kitchen worker was found to have contracted hepatitis A. Employee group won't sue CARSON CITY The State of Nevada Employees Association won't sue the state over new hiring policies that could allegedly erase gains made by women in state government. SNEA director Bob Gagnier said the organization's board decided over the weekend against filing a lawsuit. Instead, he said he'll try to get the 1991 Legislature to rescind the hiring policies. "It can be taken care of faster in the Legislature," Gagnier said.

With Gov. Bob Miller's endorsement, the state Personnel Commission recently adopted a policy to promote more hiring of people not already working for government. Wire service and staff reports Parents upset that Traner school principal plans to retire in August May 10, asked the commission to delay expansion plans until it reviewed a study recently completed on the issue. "They should have taken the time to read the study before allowing the expansion," she said. The study is a nearly 3-inch-thick thesis report done by a master's student at San Diego State University.

The report says that hot spring and geyser activity at Steamboat Springs began to decline in early 1987, shortly after the plant began operation. De Long criticized the study as not wide enough in scope and said separate reviews by two hydrology experts concluded the study was incomplete. "Our studies show that the water level changes being felt in the area are the result of several drought years," he said. De Long said the well-water levels start 2 Sen. Richard Bryan, said the report "should pour cold water" on those who believe Nevada will get a huge cash windfall from housing the nuclear waste.

"If the (Energy Department) is more than $2 billion short of funds now, and they are just beginning, there will be no money left over for Nevada," Bryan said in a statement released by his office. "There isn't enough money in the fund to finish the project, much less pass out a lot of money to buy off the state of Nevada," Bryan said. Nevada officials have passed laws, delayed permits and done whatever they could to stall federal government plans to bury high-level radioactive waste deep inside Yucca Mountain. Jose OsorioGaelle Joumal YOU'RE A Sparks Middle School student gets tagged during a seventh grade vs. faculty softball game that ended in a tie Tuesday afternoon.

By Jill JordenGazette-Journal The man Spanish Springs parents thought would ease their children's transition into Traner Middle School won't be there to do it. Traner Principal Sam Macias will retire in August, leaving some parents feeling there's no one they can count on to help their children adjust to life at the northeast Reno school. "Why now, when we need him?" parent Marie Kiley asked. "He knows the area. He knows the children.

He knows the problems out there." Throughout an emotional middle school zone shuffle this spring in which the Spanish Springs, Palomino Valley and Sutcliffe areas were rezoned from Sparks to Traner middle schools, Macias met frequently with concerned residents. Parents say he convinced them he would work with them and help their children receive the best education possible. But Macias, 56, recently learned he was eligible for the Washoe County School District's early retirement program. The plan provides an incentive for long-time and generally high-paid employees to retire early by giving them a share of the difference between their salary and the salary of a younger, lower-paid employee. Early retirees can receive a one-time payment of up to $11,000, which they can use to add a year to their retirement pay, pay medical premiums or earn monthly stipends.

Macias, who has been with the district since 1959 and Traner principal since 1971, earns about $55,000 a year. A principal with less experience could earn a minimum of $48,000 per year. Macias said he applied for the program Funding for nuke dump $2.4 billion in red By Earle EldridgeGannett News Service WASHINGTON Funding to complete the nation's proposed high-level nuclear waste dump in Nevada is at least $2.4 billion short, says a congressional report released Tuesday. The General Accounting Office, an investigative and auditing arm of Congress, recommends that the Department of Energy raise utility rates to cover increasing costs associated with the Yucca Mountain project. The report also says Congress should amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act so that the waste disposal fees charged to utilities are automatically adjusted for inflation.

Those fee increases in most cases could be passed on to utility ratepayers..