The Morning News from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 1

H. H. "i "i J. ij 'V The Morning News Wilmington, Delaware Tuesday, June 22, 1982 Weather, B2 Obituaries, B4 Record, B4 Classified, B5 I mITD11DD1l(S SECTION Duos Dei bids boo voyage to tall ships illy By PHIL MILFORD Staff reporter As the tall ships from Philadelphia's 300th anniversary celebration headed down the Delaware River Monday for the open sea, thousands of spectators lined the shore for a daylong farewell. More than 3,000 showed up at Ommelanden Park south of New Castle for a major ships watch festival and evening fireworks display but many were disappointed because the ship channel was so far away and because a moderate southerly wind kept most of the ships' sails furled.

A picnic-like atmosphere prevailed in northern Delaware, as thousands more stood along the shoreline from Claymont to Augustine Beach, and jammed New Castle's Battery Park. But the day was marred by one serious bicycle accident. Durell Dollard, 10, of the 2900 block of N. Claymont Wilmington, was crossing Gov. Printz Boulevard just north of the city at 12:40 p.m., state police said.

At the time, hundreds of ship watchers had stopped along the boulevard at nearby Edgemoor, looking at the first giant square rigger passing by. Police said Dollard's bicycle was struck by a car driven by Keith Barton, 27, of the 200 block of Governor House Circle. The youngster was thrown onto the hood, and his bicycle was dragged 63 feet. Dollard was listed in fair condition Monday night with a compound fracture of the left leg and a fractured skull, police said. No charges were filed.

At Ommelanden, about 500 people made their way to the beach along a newly plowed dirt road cut through the reeds. But 100 feet of the road sank into the marsh, and the hikers had to wade though shin-deep mud to reach the river. "I'd call it a 'fen of said Roger McConnell of Unionville, who traveled to Ommelanden with his wife, Betty, and four children to see the ships. "It was a disappointment." Middle-aged Newarkers May Sims and Janet Cross said they arrived at 9 a.m. and made their way through the mud with folding chairs.

They good-naturedly chided New Castle County for a "lousy" paving job, and said the muddy beach, where a dozen children swam in the mid-day heat, was "not what we expected." The rest of the 223-acre park is well-back from the river on higher ground, where most of the picnickers remained. lii the region House OKs bill to require notice of rent hike DOVER The House passed a bill Monday that would require landlords to notify their tenants of rent increases at least 30 days in advance. Landlords are not required to give tenants any advanced warning of increases now, said Rep. Marian Anderson, D-Rob-scott Manor, the bill's sponsor. The measure, H.B.

616, now goes to the Senate. Study finds dwindling life, pollution in Chesapeake WASHINGTON A lengthy Environmental Protection Agency study of the Chesapeake Bay has found evidence of long-term pollution and dwindling marine life, although the project is not expected to be completed for another six months. "If we wait 20 more years and do all the research necessary to prove this without a shadow of a doubt, then it may be too late to reverse the situation," said Kent S. Price, a marine biologist from the University of Delaware. U.S.

Navy helicopter goes down off Jersey shore CAPE MAY, N.J. The Coast Guard suspended its search for a U.S. Navy helicopter crewman missing after his craft burst into flames and ditched into the Atlantic Ocean 200 yards from shore Monday, the Coast Guard said. Three other people aboard the twin-rotor helicopter when it went down escaped uninjured, according to Coast Guard Lt. John Frost.

The Navy is investigating the cause of the crash, officials said. Pa. bank employee wins $5.5 million in Lotto game HAVERTOWN, Pa. A bank employee who followed the advice of her husband and bet $1 in the Pennsylvania Lotto game has won almost $5.5 million, making her the largest single lottery jackpot winner in the United States, the Lottery Bureau announced Monday. In her first try in the lottery, Dorothy Thomas, 52, picked the winning six numbers based on the birthday dates of herself, her husband and their four children.

She will receive 21 yearly installments of $260,754.61 with the first payment to be made today at the state Capitol, said lottery public relations director Ray Shaffer. Study finds little impact from nuclear power plants ANNAPOLIS Three nuclear power plants in Maryland and Pennsylvania appear to be having little effect on the environment, according to a study prepared for the state power plant siting program. Tests conducted at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant on the Chesapeake Bay and at Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania have turned up traces of radioactive discharges in the air and water around all three plants, the study said. But in most cases the amount of radioactivity released from the plants is so small that it is difficult to separate plant discharges from natural background radioactivity, the study said. Two Maryland prisons said greatly overcrowded BALTIMORE Two of Maryland's prisons are packed to nearly twice their planned capacities as inmates continue to be sent to the institutions at a record rate, according to corrections officials.

The Maryland Correctional Institution in suburban Jessup now houses more than 900 inmates, although it was built to quarter 512. In western Maryland, the Maryland Correctional Training Center in Hagerstown houses 2,037, although it was built for 1,204. Staff photo by Simon Baigelman Laverne Onuschak (right) helps Amy Crocker through mud at Ommelanden Park. The ships began slipping from their Philadelphia moorings about 8:30 a.m. Monday, bound for Newport, R.I.

By 4:30 p.m., only two were left, preparing to get under way. The first of them reached northern Delaware by about 11:30 a.m., and continued through the afternoon. The first large vessel, a four-master, reached Ommelanden at 1:45 p.m. Meanwhile Monday, officials were tallying the cost of the "Ships on the Shoreline" program. Donald W.

Callender director of the Greater Wilmington Convention Visitors Bureau, estimated the total cost of two major New Castle County park festivals, and a two-part bash in Lewes at "about $20,000." "The money came from a variety of sources," said Callender, "including the Crystal Trust, the county, and the state. "But we probably brought in $2 million or $3 million in tourist revenue," said Callender. The Crystal Trust, founded in 1947 by the late Irenee du Pont, has given money to the county parks department in the past, and has also made contributions to area private schools and the Boys Club of Wilmington. Leah L. Roedel, head of the Delaware River Bay Shoreline Committee, said Monday the trust gave $10,000 for the celebration.

She said the money was used for transportation in Lewes, Fox Point Park north of Wilmington, and Ommelanden; and for trash, rest room, and spectator facilities at the three celebrations. Callender said about 5,000 people visited the 130-foot-long Canadian barkentine Our Svanen in Lewes June 15, and there were up to 10,000 people watching the ships the next day at Fox Point, Delaware City, Port Penn, and other vantage points. Many of the week's events paid for themselves. Officials charged $2 per carload for admission to Ommelanden Monday. Tickets were sold to the private officers' reception at the Lewes Yacht Club.

And the public had to pay a fee to join the Cape Henlopen Beach Party the night the sailors arrived in Lewes. More than 100 state, county, and Wilmington policemen helped direct traffic and control crowds during the two festivals. See TALL SHIPS B5 Blood found on Hughes' hand in test Police say results showed traces throughout house By JANE BROOKS Dover Bureau reporter DOVER A series of scientific field tests showed blood on the left hand of Robert D. Hughes and more than a dozen locations throughout his freshly scrubbed house several hours after his wife was found murdered, police testified during the murder trial of the former Milford teacher Monday. A "luminol" test, in which blood not visible to the naked eye glows in the dark, indicated blood on the kitchen floor, on a telephone, wall, and around the kitchen sink, on doorknobs, the washer and drier, a birdbath in the basement and a trail from the dining room table to the back door, Milford Detective Lt.

Bobby Taulbee told the jury as the trial entered its second week. When the test was administered to the defendant's hands and resulted in a postive glow around his ring and fingernails, Hughes said: "That doesn't prove a thing," testified former Delaware State Police Detective John H. French Jr. But when the luminol was sprayed on the kitchen wall near the telephone and also glowed positive, "there were tears running down from his eyes and he said, 'well I can say one thing I didn't scrub the French said. Hughes was arrested on the basis of the field tests in the early morning hours of Sept.

1, 1976, and charged with the murder of his wife Serita Ann about 24 hours earlier. He was released a week later for lack of evidence after FBI tests apparently were inconclusive. See HUGHES B3 JfcT''S yvV 1 l' Constructing a work life of their own Grant sought tonight to fund a unique firm By ROBIN BROWN Staff reporter Beneath their hardhats and behind their safety goggles, these people are not the average construction workers. They're in a small, extraordinary company designed to let the employees own the business within a year. But something else makes them even more different: These men are mentally retarded.

Paul B. Warren III, who teaches general trades including construction to special education students at the Howard Career Center in Wilmington, started and supervises the work crew, known as the New Tech Construction Company. But in a year, if things go according to plan, the workers will own the business. Warren has asked the Delaware Foundation for Retarded Children based in Wilmington, for a $25,000 grant. The grant, according to foundation president Robert B.

Kelley, is to be considered at a board meeting tonight. If the grant goes through, the company, which "started unofficially about three weeks ago," will go into business as the first of its kind in Delaware, according to Warren. A similar non-profit construction company for mentally handicapped workers has been operating in Pennsylvania for two years, he said. Even without the grant. New Tech is working on small jobs successfully bid by the group four men now and one woman who will join soon.

The biggest of these jobs was gutting a house for the Wilmington Housing Authority. William G. Ridgway, direc- Charles H. Debman, acting director of the department's Division of Child Protective Services said the new, full-year license was granted Friday about 3 p.m., hours before the most recent short license was to expire. The five-day license had been awarded one day before the school's previous 30-day permit expired, "to keep them from operating without a license, Debnam said at the time.

Five hurt, one critically, in Md. building collapse HAGERSTOWN, Md. Five construction workers were injured, one critically, when the roof of a building under construction collapsed Monday afternoon in the downtown of this western Maryland city, authorities said. The partially completed roof of the Sheetz Quick Shop collapsed about 3 p.m., trapping the most seriously injured worker under a pile of rubble. Compiled from dispatches New Tech Construction Ed Brown cor of modernization, said New Tech won the bid for a 2Vi- to 3-week project to gut a house on West Eighth Street, and the job was finished without a hitch.

"They dismantled the entire interior of the building for us," he said. "They did a good job." The group was paid about $1,000 for the work "a small contract" for the housing authority, Ridgway said. Unfortunately, according to Warren, hopes of getting a variety of contracts from the authority including gutting, painting and trim work were dashed by budget cuts in that agency. But Warren said New Tech has a few smaller jobs lined up, including some minor repairs at the Friends School in Wilmington. Warren also adds quickly that New Tech always is looking for more work, Debnam said Au Clair was then one detail short of meeting state certification requirements, and the school's financial records were in transit from its auditor to the school and the state division.

The state requires such an institution to make those records available for the licensing inspection team's review. When the records arrived, the normal year-long license was issued. Debnam noted that Au Clair officials "were an a Staff pnot Dy Pat Crowe puts finishing touches on a fence. and potential employers can call him at home after 6 p.m. The crew is trained in general construction skills, he said, and does a variety of work, short of building house or major additions.

For Michael Matthews of Pine Street, Wilmington, New Tech is something of a dream come true. The idea of working for a company in which he can become an owner is something he never thought would be possible. "I like it," he said, smiling during a break from work last week. "It's a good opportunity to better myself." Edward Lee Brown, 36, of South But-tonwood Street, Wilmington, agreed. "I really like it, too.

I'm thrilled about it because I've been trying to get into my own business for years, and this is the best opportunity I've had." See FIRM B3 extremely cooperative group. It went very, very smoothly." The school's director, Kenneth M. Mazik, was not at the school Monday and could not be reached for comment on the new license. Au Clair lost its normal license called "permanent," although annual inspection is required in June 1979. State investigators said then that school officials had been using unprofessional punishments and needed more staff training, educational Au Clair School for autistic children gains 1-year license programs and therapy provisions.

According to Debnam, the school did not get its permanent license when the second of two half-year licenses expired May 15 because there still were a few problems inappropriate use of electroshock, unavailability of the financial records, inadequate written policy about use of slaps and shock for behavior modification and two unspecified violations of the fire code. Debnam said the school had 26 residents this week and is licensed for 30. By ROBIN BROWN Staff reporter The Au Clair School for autistic children has been granted its first full license since 1979. Last week, the school was operating under an extraordinary, hand-delivered five-day license the latest of four short-term permits the state Department of Health and Social Services has issued to the school near St. Georges..