Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 29

Nevada Today's tip The Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club offers an evening bike ride requiring some cycling, experience. The 10- to 12-mile trip has many hills. Details: A. Bowen at 356-0852. Thursday AUGUST 20, 1987 RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Section 2C OBITUARIES 2C VITALS 6-1 7C CLASSIFIED 14C BRIDGE CITY EDITOR: JOE HOWRY, 788-6305 Woman murder guilty of att empte arraigned before Washoe District Judge William Forman.

Sitting in the second row of the spectator section behind the defense table, Chilow got up and walked slowly behind the bar separating the defense table from the spectator section. As she passed, she pulled out a automatic pistol she had purchased only hours before, aimed at Cunningham's back and appeared to pull the trigger twice. When it failed to fire, she threw the gun at Cunningham, hitting her in the back. It turned out the gun's safety was on, preventing it from firing. With court personnel, attorneys and spectators diving for the floor, sheriff's deputies wrestled Chilow to the floor and See GUILTY, page 2C which carries a maximum one-year sentence.

The jury could have found Chilow guilty of attempted first-degree murder, but the penalty is the same for both crimes. Attempted first-degree murder involves premeditation and deliberation; attempted second-degree murder does not. In the courtroom next door where Chilow attempted the killing, Eileen Cunningham, her target, and Valerie Moore were with their attorneys confirming that plea negotiations in the case failed and the trial would begin Sept. 8. The attorney for James R.

Mayfield, a third defendant, confirmed the trial date without appearing in court. A notice has been filed to seek the death p'-; By Michael PhllllsGazette-Journal Suzanne Chilow was found guilty Wednesday of the courtroom attempted murder of a woman accused of killing her friend, Kathleen Kennedy. Ironically, as the jury of 10 men and two women reached a verdict after deliberating about two hours, the woman Chilow attempted to kill was in the courtroom next door confirming her murder trial would start Sept. 8. Washoe District Judge Roy Torvinen set Sept.

25 for sentencing Chilow, 38, of Sparks. She faces from one to 20 years for the conviction of attempted second-degree murder, and the sentence will be automatically doubled because she used a gun in the crime. The jury also found her guilty of carrying a concealed weapon, ir J- Charges sought in Sparks slaying Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Dave Spitzer said Wednesday his office plans to seek criminal charges against Sparks housewife Cyndi Lue Hendricks, arrested Tuesday for investigation in the killing of her husband. Prosecutors plan to file a complaint in Sparks Justice Court or to seek a criminal indictment from a grand jury by Sept. 2, but haven't decided what specific charges to seek, Spitzer said.

Paramedics and police found John Hendricks, 42, an unemployed bartender and ironworker, fatally injured with a single stab wound to the chest in the couple's northeast Sparks home at 7 a.m. Saturday, authorities said. About one hour after her husband's funeral Tuesday, the 41-year-old woman turned herself into the Sparks Police Station on Street, police said. Mrs. Hendricks told police the stabbing was accidental.

After being booked for investigation of open murder, Mrs. Hendricks was released from Sparks City Jail late Tuesday afternoon on $50,000 bail, police said. Tahoe road dispute flares SOUTH LAKE TAHOE City Council members have revived a 20-year-old plan for a bypass road between Meyers and hotel-casinos at Stateline to help ease U.S. 50 congestion. But Tom Martens, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, says his group would fight the bypass plan which the city wants to place on a priority list of possible transportation projects.

Government officials have proposed a countywide 1-cent sales tax increase, subject to voter approval, to finance transportation projects. Councilman Norm Woods, who has pushed for years to build the bypass, said the project must top the list and that all other traffic circulation proposals are simply "fingers in the dyke." The bypass would alleviate U.S. .50 traffic congestion but would cost about $100 million compared with the price 20 years ago of about $13 million, he said. Martens said the league would demand that the city conduct an environmental impact study on the bypass before it goes on any priority list. He added that such a road would bypass the city's commitment for mass transit.

'W MIchMl LMChMnGazene-Journal NUMBER CRUNCHING: Jeanne Wendel, an economics economic impact of the proposed Fallon Naval Air Station professor at the University of Nevada-Reno, discusses the expansion Wednesday. Fallon expansion: Revenue shortfall overestimated penalty if the three are found guilty of murdering Kennedy, a 32-year-old unemployed waitress allegedly killed in an argument over a $5 debt and who she was sleeping with. Chilow was not brought up to the fourth floor courtroom of Department 4 to hear the verdict from the jury until Cunningham and Moore were finished in Department 5 and taken back to jail. She showed no emotion as the verdict was read, but she appeared near tears and her eyes were puffy as she was led from the courtroom by deputies. Cunningham, 27, Moore, 28, and May-field, 41, had been charged with the Feb.

28 beating death of Kennedy when they were brought to court April 2 to be Jf.f. because the expansion will bring 510 new residents to the county by early 1989, and the cost of services to the newcomers will outpace the revenue they generate by more than a 2-1 margin. The report says the expansion would bring in $123,906 annually in new income for Churchill County, compared to $204,268 in added expenditures, a yearly loss of $80,362. The new residents would bring in $65,259 annually in new income for Fallon, with added costs of $92,665, a $27,406 shortfall. Public schools would lose about $3,399 annually.

See FALLON, page 2C Nor is the Osco store on Plumb Lane experiencing any pinch in its prophylactic supply, according to Georgiann Perez, a pharmacy technician. "I have noticed a lot of people are buying more," she said, adding that the item is also being shoplifted more frequently. "We find more packages that have been opened and some are missing from inside." Ironically, stories on the shortages in other parts of the country have surfaced just as other reports questioned the ability of condoms to prevent disease. See CONDOM, page 5C 1 Sir-' Jmwi Dixon AIMnGazene-Journai near a shed that was destroyed by fire on She said they moved the trailer out of the area Tuesday afternoon when they had to evacuate the area. The Williams family set free 250 quail and 20 pheasants they were raising, but the fowl apparently died in the fire.

The family's chickens, however, were freed and survived. By Courtney BrennGazette-Joumai FALLON The expected revenue shortfall local governments will see from the expansion of the Fallon Naval Air Station is less than half of the original estimate of $243,000, an economics expert told a group of Fallon residents Wednesday. "It was a gross overestimation of expenditures," said Dr. Kambiz Raf-fiee, a University of Nevada-Reno economics professor, of a study on the base expansion plan. "The earlier analysis had a mistake regarding the division of the county and city." Fire officials: Better lighting needed for high-rise stairs By Wayne MeltonGazette-Journal Reno firefighters say nearly 75 percent of the city's high-rise buildings don't have vital battery-operated stairwell lights, needed in case of fire.

City Fire Marshal Marty Richard said Wednesday that of 19 buildings checked this week, only five had the lighting systems, which automatically turn on when electric power systems fail or are shut off. The devices are required to varying degrees by building code regulations, ordinances or Fire Department policy, Richard said. Fire officials decided to make this week's checks after a Sunday night electrical transformer fire forced evacuation of about 400 people from Sundowner Hotel-Casino in Reno. There were no battery-operated stairwell lights in the Sundowner. Fire inspectors through next week will be checking the city's 21 other buildings over five stories tall.

Letters will be written to owners of buildings that don't have the devices, asking the systems be installed, Richard said. The fire marshal said he doesn't know the costs, which some experts say could reach several hundred or possibly thousands of dollars per building. If building owners refuse to install the lighting, firefighters will ask officials to review city ordinances and cite violators. Richard also said operators of many local high-rise hotel-casinos have not taught their employees formal evacuation plans. Firefighters want to meet with those employers and assist in training programs.

In addition, inspectors found that several local high-rises don't have required unlocked emergency doors leading from stairwells to roofs. If those doors are locked, they should at least have devices allowing them to be unlocked by alarm companies via remote control, he said. "We're concerned because we don't want a case of a lot of fatalities crammed up against the top of stairwells," Richard said. Many local hotels have emergency stairwell lighting that can be turned on by backup emergency power generators. But firefighters sometimes have to turn off backup generators, especially during electrical fires.

At the Sundowner blaze, firefighters were concerned because there were no battery-operated lights in stairwells and a stairwell door leading to a roof in one of the hotel's tower's was locked, Richard said. The Sundowners' emergency generator worked, but had to be shut off because fire was damaging the 593-room hotel's electrical system. There were no major injuries. Fire damage was confined to concrete electrical transformer rooms. Card counter wants controls on blackjack dealers CARSON CITY (AP) A card counter wants the Nevada Gaming Commission to protect players against what she describes as cheating techniques that can be used by casino blackjack dealers.

"It is not a game of blackjack," said Barbara Baker of Los Angeles. "It is a game of which shell is the pea under." She plans to ask the Nevada Gaming Commission today to adopt regulations to require dealers to scramble all cards in the middle of the table before shuffling. Scrambling the decks would prevent the preparation of stacked decks or "slugs" in which dealers can cluster high cards and break up what would otherwise be a random distribution of cards, Baker claimed. She also said the commission should legitimize card counting by declaring a player can't be removed from a casino for reasons of "mental competence" the ability to keep track of cards by memory and adjust bets accordingly. She said she was told at times by dealers to quit playing because they allegedly were told to use stacked or "cooler" decks.

i in? i 1 The impact of base expansion should cost Churchill County and the city of Fallon $111,167 a year, Raffiee a member of the team that performed the study told the audience of about 40 citizens at a public hearing on the planned expansion. The federally funded study originally said the expansion would cost the local governments $243,205 a year. Although there is still a projected shortfall, Kambiz said an error that included counting all of the county instead of just the unincorporated areas brought in the original figure too high. The revenue shortfall is expected There's been a shortage of condoms in some areas of the country because of the fear of AIDS, as well as more latex being diverted to make rubber gloves for emergency personnel who might come in contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of accident victims. Mike Becher, department manager at Long's Drug Store on Oddie Boulevard, said he has seen an increase in sales since the fear of the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was diagnosed in the early 1980s.

"But we've got plenty in stock and we're not having trouble getting them," he said. if' i BURNED OUT: Sharon Williams stands her Clio property Wednesday. and shop equipment and building materials. The loss probably was between $20,000 and $50,000." Sharon Williams said her family had moved from the San Diego area about six months ago and were living in a travel trailer until they could build their home. Condom popularity hasn't depleted area's supply PSC orders money returned LAS VEGAS The state Public Service Commission has ordered the former owner of a Las Vegas mobile home park to return nearly $10,000 belonging to tenants of the park.

But officials doubt the tenants will ever see the money. PSC chairman Scott Craigie said Tuesday that Marvel Edgell, former owner of the Lone Pine Mobile Home Park, has left town. Craigie said as a practical matter the tenants may not be able to get their money back. But he said the commission owed it to the tenants to issue the order. State officials alleged Edgell overcharged tenants and left town with trust funds for utility deposits.

Tourism grants awarded CARSON CITY More than $248,000 has been awarded by the Nevada Tourism Commission to rural communities to promote special events ranging from camel races to a gathering of cowboy poets. Lt. Gov. Bob Miller, chairman of the commission, said the grants include $17,000 to print and distribute brochures listing fairs and rodeos throughout the state in 1988. The panel also awarded grants of $10,000 apiece to publicize Elko's cowboy poetry gathering, Virginia City's camel races, various events in Carson City and special events including Armed Forces Day in Mineral County.

Dispute over airport noise SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -The Federal Aviation Administration is concerned that aviation safety might be compromised by noise standards for the Lake Tahoe airport. The FAA hasn't decided what to do about its concerns, but court action is an option, an agency attorney said. "We are concerned that pilots must engage in unnecessarily strict maneuvers or unusual maneuvers in order not to violate the standard," FAA lawyer Emily Trapnell said. 2 vice principals named Jim Bennett has been chosen vice principal of Wooster High School and Dorothy Merrill has been named vice principal of Reno High School.

The appointments were made Tuesday during a special meeting of the Washoe County School Board. The board also selected Carolyn Fricke as health services supervisor and Jerry Hughes student activities specialist. Staff and wire service reports By Lenita PowersGazette-Journal The nationwide push to use condoms to help prevent the spread of AIDS hasn't depleted the Reno area's supply of prophylactics as it has in other areas, a state health official and store spokesmen said Wednesday. "There's not a chance of running out," said Jerry Thomas, a pharmacist for Keystone Owl Rexall Drug. "I think there's been an increase in sales since the AIDS thing, but there's so many more brands on the shelf it's hard to say whether we're selling more or there's just more kinds." Timberland fire controlled after burning 520 acres By Lenita PowersGazette-Joumai Firefighters have controlled a fire that burned 520 acres of timberland near Portola, but the cause remains under investigation.

The fire began at 2:48 p.m. near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks 1 mile east of the tiny community of Clio, located about 60 miles north of Reno and just 2 miles south of Graeagle, Calif. The fire came within 3 or 4 miles of Portola before it was contained, said Carl Summer-field, Plumas National Forest fire information officer. "There was no danger to Portola, although the fire did present quite a hazard to the KOA campgrounds ev eral miles west of Portola on Hig'iway 70," he said. Summerfield said the only structure damage was to sheds and materials that housed all the belongings of a family that was building a house in the area near Clio.

"They had three metal storage buildings and they lost their household items 4.