The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 6

The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. jr Ol i Thursday, Feb. 13, 1992 Section DELAWARE NEWS, PL US EX PAN ED cTu" 0 CO A i Q1DDT1 foelffleld Park bidding et o-ahead i Job estimated at $2.4 million By STEVEN CHRZANOWSKI Cecil Bureau reporter ELKTON, Md. Federal housing officials said Wednesday they've given Elk-ton Housing Authority permission to take bids for the $2.4 million renovation of its low-income town-house community known as Sheffield Park. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokeswoman Rheba Gwalt-ney said the housing authority can take offers from contractors for interior and exterior work on Sheffield's 50 town houses, at Maryland routes 213 and 279.

But she said HUD doesn't plan to re lease the $2.4 million to pay for the project until the private, non-profit organization hires a full-time director and renovations coordinator who are capable of administering the money. HUD also has set aside about $300,000 for the housing authority's two other properties Windsor Village off Locust Lane and the Housing for the Elderly apartment building on Main Street to make them more handicapped-accessible. According to an advertisement in today's News Journal, the housing authority will take bids until March 18 on six renovation projects for the three developments. Reed said he believes HUD's permission to advertise is a sign that the grant soon should be on its way. "I don't think they would have given us the go-ahead if they didn't plan to fund the project," he said.

"Things are moving right along." Gwaltney said the housing authority can make all the necessary preparations to do the renovations. The only thing it can't do before it proves that it has viable leadership is "draw down the funds." HUD approved the grant totaling $2.7 million in September. However, questions concerning the authority's recent operating procedures and appointment of director Robert R. "Dick" Reed prompted the federal agency to withhold the grant. Reed became director immediately after relinquishing his seat as housing authority chairman a volunteer position in December.

However, HUD's standard contract with housing authorities says members of the board of directors must wait at least one year before taking paid positions with their organizations. As a result, Gwaltney said her agency considers Reed an acting director. She said HUD doesn't recognize housing au thority-appointed renovations coordinator Cindy Osborne, even though she is a HUD-certified coordinator. The housing authority's board is seeking a waiver from HUD to let Reed stay on after a 20-week period as acting director. The authority is taking applications through Friday if the federal agency rejects the request.

The 50 town houses in Sheffield are to receive new facades, pitched roofs and interior remodeling including new kitchens and bathrooms. Landscaping also is planned. HUD officials have said the yearlong renovation would begin about six months after it releases the money. Elkton Housing Authority is a private, non-profit corporation that gets about 70 percent of its money through federal grants. The rest comes from rent paid by its 700 tenants.

RALPH MOYED It's hard to tell the guilty from the innocent The dire reports of corruption in Delaware had reached us thousands of miles from home, and I received a more thorough briefing from a well-connected Delawarean I ran into on the plane home. As I passed through Wilmington, I looked up and shouted, "The poli Taking steps to have fun ticians have even stolen Caesar Rodney. And his horse, too!" My mind raced: Perhaps it had been melted down to make door knobs for one of our fine suburban developments. Then I remembered: Old Caesar was out for repair. At least that's what Hizzoner the mayor had said.

If you can believe a politician. Speaking of Dapper Dan, I was happy to learn that a few Delaware politicians had escaped the great Psychiatrist: Fantasy drove Cohen to kill But now he's competent to plea ByTEDCADDELL Staff reporter WILMINGTON Charles M. Cohen was driven by "morbid and sadistic fantasies" and a 6ense that his parents had "shattered" his life when he bludgeoned and stabbed them to death in November 1988, a psychologist testified Wednesday. Gerald Cooke has examined Cohen several times and researched the 27-year-old's past. Cooke told Superior Court Judge Jerome O.

Herlihy the murders of Martin and Ethel Cohen culminated more than five years of depression, heavy drug use and a sense that the love Cohen received from his parents depended on his adopting their values. Cooke said that just over two weeks before Cohen killed his parents, FBI sting in which several other fa miliar players, including my friend Kermit Justice, supposedly had been nailed, granted immunity or both. Could it be, I said with a sense of relief, that some politicians might not even be named unindicted co conspirators? Two pols called me to ML. JlA: register unsolicited pleas of not guilty. The guy at the gas station tried to scotch the rumors of innocence growing out of the failure of news reports to mention certain politi cians.

"Give the G-men some time," he traveled to r-'' New York Citv. I he said. And money, I thought. mit a murder. Vf I This has been an expensive sting, especially if you count the bribes The News JournalSUSAN LGREGO Participants strut their stuff Wednesday at the fifth annual pairs residents from five New Castle County senior centers Senior Center Dance at William Penn High School.

The event with students for an afternoon of dancing and entertainment. andor campaign contributions that are said to have ended up in the hands, purses and safety deposit boxes of assorted public servants. It's expensive, but it's worth more than money to prove that creeps like Ron Aiello, the convicted for Jr A mer New Castle County Councilper- "By Oct. 31, 1988," Cooke said, "he was experiencing such frequent and angry fantasies about killing someone that he felt he had to kill someone to get the anger out." Cohen didn't find a victim however, and returned home. Cooke testified Wednesday during a hearing to determine Cohen's competency.

Herlihy son, are not the exceptions. This man, the author of legislation to require leashes for pet snakes, may be the zaniest person, and one of the most stupid, ever elected to public office in Delaware. His arrest and conviction were the moral equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel. While I am shocked about Kermit Justice and am hoping that he will aeterrea ruling The News JournalCHUCK McOOWEN until today. After New Cas Charles M.

Cohen Is escorted Into tie County police court Wednesday. Jill Barbieri, 70, of New Castle, dances with William Penn Marion Treece of Wilmington swings with William Penn student Jay Hatfield. student Damian Fletcher. prove himself innocent, I derive per Long day on campaign trail Gilchrest, McMillen seek votes in Cecil By BETH MILLER Cecil Bureau reporter ELKTON, Md. The congressio nal incumbents went stumping Wed- neday in Cecil County, taking stock of varied constituent issues.

McMILLEN GILCHREST The Republican from Maryland's 1st District, Wayne T. Gilchrest, led off with an hourlong meeting at the detective John Downs testifies about the murders this morning, Herlihy is expected to rule Cohen competent and accept his pleas of guilty but mentally ill on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during a felony. If Herlihy accepts the plea, the next step is the penalty phase. All penalty phases, and all capital murder trials, are on hold until the state Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the new death penalty law. Deputy Attorney General Stephen M.

Walther said the state will seek the death penalty for Cohen. Cohen's plea was first scheduled in November, but during that proceeding Cohen appeared to lapse into a catatonic state. Now, after about two months of medication at Gander Hill Prison, Cooke said he feels Cohen is competent. Cohen has admitted killing his parents in their Hockessin town home the night of Nov. 18, 1988.

Cohen remained at large, traveling around the country, until he admitted the murders in a Louisiana courtroom a year and half later. Cohen has also admitted stabbing San Francisco banker Conrad Lutz in 1989. San Francisco police have a warrant charging Cohen with murder. Cooke's disclosures were the first indication of the extent of Cohen's mental problems. Cooke, who practices forensic psychology in Plymouth Meeting, said he administered several tests to the former punk rocker, as well as reading interviews of family friends, autopsy reports and crime reports.

Cooke said he diagnosed Cohen as having a "borderline personality disorder." Cooke said that while Cohen, an only child, was growing up in Illinois, he envied friends who had See DOCTOR B2 hlkton Vet Center on Bridge Sreet, incentives to move toward home ownership, Mahaney said. Mahaney urged Gilchrest to link Section 8 funds to requirements that recipients seek job training and education toward leaving public assistance rolls. "Being on the dole is not a bad lifestyle," Mahaney told Gilchrest. "Our poor live better than most of the middle-class in Third World countries. We're giving away a pretty good deal here." Mahaney also told Gilchrest that spending $2.4 million in HUD funds to refurbish Sheffield Park would not be the wisest use of the money.

"That's $54,000 per unit," Mahaney said. "Give me three-quarters of that money, and I'll build you a project that you wouldn't believe." Gilchrest said one developer told him he could refurbish Sheffield for $300,000. "Don't put more money into public housing," Mahaney said. "That's money down the drain. Section 8 landlords pay taxes." McMillen did more of the talking during his stop at the detention cen- See VOTE B5 spent three hours at Perry Point Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Perry- ville, then spent an hour with Cecil Housing Director David Mahaney.

He also sat in as Elkton town offi cials wrestled with a parade permit application from the Ku Klux Klan. tricting, McMillen, now in his third term as the 4th District representative, is seeking the 1st District seat. He faces five other Democrats in Maryland's March 3 primary. Gilchrest, barely halfway through his first term, faces four Republican challengers in March. House Republicans back Gilchrest.

B5 The approaches at two meetings Wednesday were quite different. At Mahaney's office, Gilchrest mostly listened as Mahaney explained the problems of public housing, federal Section 8 subsidies of housing for low-income people and Cecil County's Project Self-Sufficiency. A new proposal, Family Self Sufficiency, would give clients The Democrat from the 4th Dis trict, Tom McMillen, had a sandwich made with homemade bread at Elk sonal satisfaction from the extensive federal investigation that unearthed the wrongdoing. The revelations might convince associates I wasn't paranoid when I kept saying that local government in Delaware is shot through with corruption. And when I predicted a decade ago that at least two county councilpersons would end up in jail as a result of the building boom of the 1980s.

Now that, and more, could happen. At this point it's hard to tell the guilty from the innocent. Who cut a deal and was granted immunity for snitching on their friends? Who put himself on the right side of the federal prosecutors, who is on the wrong side? And is anyone innocent? There are so many familiar names from so many seamy eras. Harry Roberts, Republican, whose years as a member of the old New Castle County Levy Court had the public screaming for a reorganization of county government; his son, Chris Roberts, a member of the County Council; Mel Slawik, the Democratic county executive who went to jail in the 1970s; Mario Ca-pano, developer, convicted with Slawik; Joe Cashman, Republican and a former Delaware secretary of finance, who went to jail for business fraud; Louis Capano, Mario's sophisticated cousin who handed bribe money to Aiello and was proclaimed a hero by federal prosecutors. A lot of people were nervous as a federal grand jury met this week, presumably to hear evidence collected by the FBI.

Developers probably have little to worry about. The federal government has a policy of trying to put crooked public officials in prison and allowing the corporals of industry to take a walk. In this case, that's a shame. When you have a rich, well-educated, smooth-talking businessman handing big bags of money to a ding-a-ling like Aiello, who is the victim? Who is more culpable? Ralph Moyed's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Lanes on Bow Street, then spent about an hour touring Cecil County Detention Center and discussing law enforcement with Sheriff Rodney Kennedy and 1st Lt.

William Le Fevre of the Mary-land State Police. Because ol congressional redis- Tips for driving in snow and freezing rain Snow and freezing rain are predicted today and driving may become hazardous. Here are tips that should make the going safer: Approach winter driving with the right atti tude, realizing that visibility, road and traffic conditions may change suddenly and without warning. I Winter storm watch in effect A1 AM; and Storer Cable Channel 4. Sussex County WGMD 92 FM; WKHI 100 FM; WLVW 960 AM; WQHQ 104.7 FM; WOLC 102.5 FM; WRKE 101.7 FM; WSCL 89.5 FM; WYUS 930 AM; WAFL 97.7 FM; WZBH 93.5 FM; WSEA 900 AM; WECY 98.3 FM; and Cable Channel 47, WBOC.

Avoid sudden movements when steering and stopping. Focus your attention farther ahead than normal, and increase following distances to allow time for stopping on slippery surfaces. If a skid starts, don't panic. Steer into the skid and wait for the tires to find some traction before trying to regain control. Carry an emergency kit including, at a minimum, tire chains, small snow shovel, extra clothing, traction mats and material such as sand or cat litter, ice scraper, flares, flashlight and blanket.

These and other tips are explained in more detail in a pamphlet, "How to Go on Ice and Snow." For a free copy, send the pamphlet's name on a sheet of paper and a stamped, self-addressed 9'2- by 4-inch (No. 10) envelope to AAA Delaware, Attention: Public Affairs, 875 Triple A P.O. Box 6030, Newark, Del. 19714-6030. Dress appropriately, in clothing that will Radio and television are the fastest ways to find out if school is closed because of snow.

Stations that broadcast snow closing information include: New Castle County WILM 1450 AM; WDEL 1150 AM; WSTW 93.7 FM; WNRK 1260 AM; WJBR 99.5 FM; and Philadelphia stations affiliated with the central calling system for school closings, which uses a special code number for each district. Kent County WDOV 1410 AM; WKEN 1600 allow freedom of movement in the car and provide warmth outdoors if an emergency Before departing, warm the car and remove all snow to allow maximum visibility. Cecil County, Md. Keep the car and equipment in good work ing condition, especially windshield wip WSER 1550 WOEL 89.9 FM; AM. erwashers and tires, which should be properly inflated for maximum road surface contact.

FOfj CECIL COUNTY CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL (800) 235-91.