The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 3

Saturday, May 4, 1991 Page A3 LOTTERIES OBITUARIES WEATHER re Real 'Maim Mae9 tuin. Dover anidiemee The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. 4 ft. Fran Peek is constantly amazed by his son, whom he nicknamed "Kimputer." He discovered Kim could read when the boy was 3. Kim wanted to know what the word "confidential" meant.

When his an hour and 22 minutes. It took his father seven hours and 45 minutes. Kim's prowess shames 'children into turning off the TV and turning on to reading. To advance the cause of the disabled, Fran Peek estimated he and his son have spoken to more than 107,000 students and 75,000 adults. Fran Peek said Kim's IQ is 184, but his reasoning ability is 88 (average is.

100). Kim has trouble interpreting what he learns and often struggles with minor changes in his routine. He interrupts his father with seemingly bizarre associations, and believes everyone thinks the way he does, Fran Peek explained. Fran Peek, 65, retires from a public relations job in July. He worries what will become of Kim, but believes Kim will probably always get help from the pec pie who have come to know and love him.

after he met Hollywood writer Barry Morrow and inspired Dustin Hoffman's character Raymond an autistic savant in the 1988 hit movie "Rain Man." Kim Peek's message is simple: People who are different merit respect and love, not rejection or isolation. He shatters stereotypical notions about retardation. Peek never stops concentrating. He sways his head a little when he speaks, paces, and rubs his hands together repeatedly. He demonstrated his first meeting with Hoffman by walking up to a stranger and rubbing noses.

Kim Peek spends his days at the Columbus Community Center, a Salt Lake City sheltered workshop, where he calculates the payroll for 160 people without a calculator. The job, which used to take two people seven hours, takes Kim three hours and 15 minutes, Fran Peek said. By SARA-ELLEN AMSTER Staf( reporter DOVER Ask Kim Peek anything. He will hum classical music, recite lines from movies and literature, and spout sports trivia. In his head are maps of cities he's never visited.

He memorizes phone books and encyclopedias. But the 39-year-old Salt Lake City man lacks the survival skills to make it on his own. His father, Fran, must help him shower, shave and dress. And Kim Peek who can tell you that Feb. 8, 1958, was a Saturday sometimes forgets where to find the household silverware.

Peek, a savant with an infectious smile and laugh, easily won over more than 300 spectators at a conference Friday in Dover's Sheraton Inn. Brain-impaired since birth, he was thrust into the public eye JANE BROOKS Veteran of PSC finds retirement hard to resist For Earle J. Lester, the state's early retirement package was an offer he couldn't refuse. After 21 years, he's giving up his seat on the Public Service Commission. "At 69 it's time to get out to let somebody else have a shot at it and take the shots," said Lester as he worked among the flowers in front of the ChesDel Restaurant.

Life hasn't exactly been a bed of roses for the senior member of the regulatory commission lately. He's facing a felony charge involving the removal of four radiators from a va PI 1 1 A 0 in 01 Jessica Moore lumps in event at Elkton High as Tom Barkley prepares to measure the distance. Hugs hold special place at these Olympics family asked why, Kim said the word was in the newspaper. Go look it up in. the dictionary, the family joked.

Kim did. Fran Peek said he did not appreciate his son's abilities until 1979, when Skylab was plummeting to Earth. PEEK Kim predicted correctly the space station would land near Perth, Australia. Kim reads constantly and sleeps only five hours a night. He finished Tom Clancy's novel "The Hunt for Red October" in 5 friVl SALLIE K.

STABLER photo Shannon Corley. Nowland two-putted at the miniature golf hole. "And you told me you weren't a golfer!" Learn said. A third-place finish in the 50-meter dash put a supercharge into 9-year-old Joe Pleasanton of Crystal Beach Manor. "I did it! I did it!" he hollered as he rushed to his hugger, Christy LaManna, an Elkton junior.

He was so excited about getting his medal that he accidentally jumped off the awards podium. "He's so adorable," said LaManna, a rookie hugger who hopes to participate in more events. "I just figure you can give one day of your life to help other people. And it's a lot of fun. I recommend it." "I've learned to treat people as you want to be treated," said Melissa Travis, a junior who was a hugger for Pat Gorton, 45, of Elkton.

Carla Givens, a senior, said Gorton was just as thrilled with a third-place finish as a win. "They're all winners," Givens said, "and they're being acknowledged. The rest doesn't matter. It's just great to get acknowledged." The huggers got high marks from Allison McMahon, area director of Special Olympics, and from Ed Ginder, who coordinated the track and field events for the 18th year. "The huggers did a great job with the athletes," McMahon said.

"I didn't see any kids sitting around not doing anything. They were great." vegetables, eggs and poultry, which were usually reasonably priced. The intimacy of the environment also attracted vendors and farmers alike. These days, although prices are still cheaper than at supermarkets and flower shops, on a good day only about 10 vendors display their wares on tables behind their trucks. Each farmer pays a $100 annual fee.

The market is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The hours are not expected to change. "I think the plan is pretty decent," Rosazza said Friday, when sales of asparagus and blooming pansies, marigolds, lilies, impatiens and begonias were brisk. "Ninety-five percent of my customers say it's closer to their offices.

So I think it will help business." vl i'''- Woman found slain at home Death stuns neighbors on Harrison Street By ANN STEWART Staff reporter WILMINGTON A 75-year-old woman was found slain Friday afternoon in a bedroom of the North Harrison Street home she shared with her older sister. The body of Marie Brown was found about 4 p.m. by a relative who had come to the house at 2815 N. Harrison to check on the two women, said city police Detective Lt. Peter Episcopo.

Episcopo said detectives believe Brown's death was a homicide, but he declined to describe her injuries or a possible weapon. He also would not speculate about the time of her death, saying detectives had not yet determined when she was last ijn contact with friends or family. The state medical examiner is expected to perform an autopsy today. i Brown's body was found in the second-floor rear bedroom of the two-story white house on the corner of 29th Street. Her sister was in the house, unharmed, when the body was found, police said.

They declined to name her. "We interviewed her, and she was of some assistance," Episcopo said Friday evening. "She's going to go with family tonight, and then we hope to interview her further." He said there were signs of forced entry into the house, but investigators had not determined Friday night whether anything had been stolen from inside. Brown's car was missing and believed to have been stolen, police said. i Neighbors said the two women were longtime residents who were regarded as "nice ladies" who did not go out much and were not well-known by the younger families in the area.

Brown did the driving and other chores for her frailer sister, they said. "I've lived here for 20 years," said one neighbor, who would not give her name. "And they were here many, many years before that. But this is a quiet block, and we mind our own business. I think the older neighbors who knew them well have mostly died or moved away." Neighbors stood around in small clusters Friday evening, watching uniformed officers, plainclothes detectives and relatives come and go from the house.

All expressed surprise that violence could strike the neighborhood of quiet, tree-lined sidewalks and well-kept homes. And they expressed dismay that an elderly person would become a victim in her own home: "They're nice ladies -r-just nice ladies," said one woman who has lived in the neighborhood for 16 years. The area has not been a particular crime target recently, neighbors said, although some recalled an occasional break-in or minor theft. Rosazza said the current spot between two multistory buildings is often buffeted by winds, as it was Friday. "My flower stands blow all over the place, which can be a real bother," he said.

"It's also pretty cold in the wintertime." Nellie and Robert Foreman, who own a 28-acre farm in Blackbird, agreed the change would be beneficial. Nellie said she did about $200 worth of business Friday, mostly on potted flowers. "In the summer we'll have tomatoes and squash. Also a little sweet corn," she said. The Foremans also sell plenty of zinnias, cosmos and marigolds.

"We feel the change will improve shopping. Most folks say they'll be closer to us. Anyway they want this street for traffic." cant farmhouse condemned for highway construction. Lester was hoping to have his day in court, to clear his name, before the May 31 retirement date. But LESTER the state has postponed his trial again until June.

He knows some people will see his early departure as somehow tied to the allegations. He swears it is not so. Lester's term on the commission is up next May. Under the early retirement, he gets five years added to his service, bringing it up to 26 years for pension purposes. And then there's the matter of health insurance benefits, not available to working commission members in their part-time, jobs.

At retirement, however, they qualify for the state's Blue Cross plan. "I'd be crazy not to take it," said Lester. He will save thousands of dollars in health insurance premiums and in trips to Dover every Tuesday for often-grueling commission meetings. "At 69," he says, "that's something to think about." There's been a lot of water under the St. Georges Bridge since Gov.

Russell W. Peterson named farmerbusinessman Earle Lester to the PSC in May 1970. "In those days we were concerned about getting a telephone to everybody who wanted one. We never imagined the deregulation of and all that came after that." A Republican, Lester is the at-large representative on the five-member body that regulates two electric utilities, two gas companies, one telephone system, 17 water companies and eight cable television networks. It is the only part-time public utility commission in the country, its office accommodations are the worst, but the commission and its dedicated employees are unmatched for efficiency, says Lester.

He unabashedly gives the PSC credit for much of Delaware's economic boom of the last decade: "It takes healthy utilities to keep an economy good." Lester, who has been vice chairman of the commission since 1974, also has played a national role as a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions and its water committee. He was named president of the Great Lakes Conference of Public Utility Commissions in 1977. He's been the voice of the small businessman on the commission. He hopes Gov. Castle who can pick a member of any political persuasion from any part of the state to succeed him will choose "a small businessman, a farmer, or at least a property owner with knowledge of land values" to help decide future water and electricity issues that are likely to cross both private property and state boundaries.

As for Lester's future, he plans to spend more time tending flowers, traveling and "doing what I please, going where I want to and talking to whom I want," simple pleasures not always easy for a public service commissioner wishing to avoid appearances of conflict in a 6tate like Delaware. He also will be able to buy utility stock again. On the advice of his lawyer, Lester won't talk about the pending charges, except to say, "At 69 1 don't want to go out as a felon." If I were a betting person, I'd put my money on Earle Lester to fight to the last bell and win. Jane Brooks is a staff reporter. Her column appears each Saturday.

1 By BETH MILLER Cecil Bureau reporter ELKTON, Md. To start the Indianapolis 500, the announcer says: "Gentlemen, please start your engines." To start Cecil County Special Olympics Track and Field Day at Elkton High School Friday, announcer David Parrack said: "Huggers, please join your athletes." With that, hundreds of "huggers" students from Elkton High School and the Cecil County School of Technology's nursing program streamed onto the football field to find the special athletes they would spend the day with. And from that point on, hugs could be seen everywhere at the softball throw, at the standing broad jump, at the 25-meter walk, at the miniature golf hole, at the arts and crafts tables. The day had a festive feel. Two soldiers from the Persian Gulf war helped bring in the torch.

The Baltimore Orioles' Bird mascot handed out medals and posedfor pictures. And Jazzercise instructor Deanie Padhan had a crowd dancing to "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and other lively tunes. But the real action was taking place one-on-one, between huggers and athletes, coaches and athletes, families and athletes, volunteers and athletes. Louden Segraves of Elkton spent his day with two Elkton sophomores James Cooper and Jason Tingley. Segraves, who is in his mid-50s, won the 50-meter dash and had a pair of third- v.

tin i The real action was taking place one-on-one, between huggers and athletes, coaches and athletes, families and athletes, volunteers and athletes. place finishes. He removed his cap politely each time the medals were draped around his neck. "When I saw him cross the finish line, he was all smiles," Cooper said. "It feels so good that you helped make someone's day.

They wait all year for this." Among those handing out medals was Trooper First Class Robert Perrot, criminal investigator for the Maryland State Police. "Some of the things I do on this job make it worth it," Perrot said. "This makes you feel good being with special people. It's really a good deal." Getting a medal from Perrot put a smile on Marie Quomony, 68, of Elkton, who was escorted by Greg Grieser, a Bohemia Manor High School senior. "I've got so many medals I don't know what to do with them all," Quomony said happily.

Earl Nowland of North East had a pair of huggers at his beck and call Elkton sophomores Trish Learn and Others they've loathed, such as the narrow stretch of Sixth Street they occupy now. But the latest proposed change, which would put the farmers on the parking lot once the site of The News Journal, has them delighted. An ordinance to move the vendors to the lot bounded by Eighth, Girard, Tat-nall and Orange streets was introduced in City Council Thursday night. It is expected to pass May 16. City officials said the farmers can peddle their wares under a canopy to be constructed on the lot.

Temporary, removable stands will be provided. The number of farmers has dwindled substantially since the days when they lined King Street for blocks. Customers would flock to them for their fresh fruits, Farmers happy with proposed move in town Market would be put on News Journal site By CRIS BARRISH Staff reporter WILMINGTON For more than 40 years, Ralph Rosazza, 59, has trucked flowers and fruit from his family's Avon-dale, farm to the Farmers Market in Wilmington. Over the years, Rosazza and other vendors have grown accustomed to being bounced by the city from one spot to another off King and Market streets. Some sites they've enjoyed, such as the empty lot between Sixth and Seventh streets on the Market Street Mall.

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