The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 3

The Salina Journal Saturday, May 2,1987 Page 3 Bill to help correct Winf ield abuses passes Senate T6PEKA (AP) It would be a Class A misdemeanor to intentionally mistreat, neglect or abuse patients at hospitals for the mentally retarded under a bill that passed the Senate Friday and was sent Oov. Mike Hayden. Sen. Robert Frey, R-Liberal, said the patient mistreatment bill was a response to problems that surfaced recently at the Winfield State Hospital and Training Center involving abuse and mistreatment of patients by the staff at the facility. "This would allow us to prosecute those who mistreat residents at our institutions for the mentally retarded as well as the mentally ill," Frey said.

"This was designed to address a problem at the hospital in Winfield." Anyone convicted of mistreating a patient at a hospital for the mentally retarded could be sentenced to one year in jail and fined $2,500. Under current state law, it's a crime to mistreat, abuse or neglect patients at facilities for the mentally ill, corrections institutions and private hospitals and nursing homes. Abuse of patients at Winfield led to federal decertification of that facility earlier this year and prompted lawmakers to consider a major shift in state policy toward treatment of the mentally retarded. As a result of the Winfield problems, the population at the hospital will be reduced and more money and emphasis is beginning to be placed on treating mentally retarded Kansans in smaller, community-based facilities. The bill will be sent to Hayden, who can sign or veto it.

The House passed and sent Hayden a bill that changes the qualifications for the chief of the state's prison system. However, the measure has changed dramatically from the bill Ha; den had introduced. The secretary of corrections bill sparked a angry speech Thursday in the Senate by Minority Leader Michael Johnston, D- Parsons, who accused the Republican governor of playing partisan politics and trying to flex his muscle to show Democrats who is in control of the Legislature. Hayden wanted to repeal the current law, which has been on the books about three decades. However, the Senate found the idea distasteful and simply relaxed the qualifications.

It also added a loophole that allows Hayden to appoint an acting corrections sec- retary and sidestep the qualifications. The bill requires the governor to appoint as secretary of corrections someone with a degree in penology, public administration and behavioral sciences and five years of experience as a district judge, a district attorney or in military justice. A person also could have five years of experience as an administrator of a judicial agency or corrections-related program. Other bills sent Hayden Friday would: Create a fund to handle the finances of the "superconducting super collider project" if Kansas lands the federal government's $4 billion atom smasher. The collider fund would be handled by a board appointed by the governor that would have powers of eminent domain to pick a location for the project and coordinate the efforts of state regulatory agencies in monitoring the project.

It's estimated the project will bring thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in research to the state where it's built. The Legislature already has budgeted $250,000 for site research and planning in the state's efforts to recruit the project. Make it illegal to operate a boat or other watercraft while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Authorize Sedgwick County to issue bonds to build a turnpike interchange near Haysville. Exempt officers, directors and volunteers of non-profit organizations from being sued but requires the organizations to buy liability insurance.

School finance still in hands of conference panel TOPEKA (AP) The issue of exactly how much money to put into state aid to local school districts was in the hands of an appropriations conference committee Friday night, after House Republicans rejected two attempts to sweeten it a few million dollars. The conference committee was expected to meet well into the night trying to resolve that issue, as well as a variety of other differences between the two houses in the final funding bill of the 1987 session. Its negotiations were the key to the Legislature being able to adjourn late today, as hoped. The six-member panel headed by the House and Senate budget committee chairmen, Rep. Bill Bunten of Topeka and Sen.

Gus Bogina of Lenexa, was trying to reach a middle ground between the Senate's position of wanting to include in the school aid pot an extra $5 million over what the schools had appropriated for this fiscal year and the House's position keeping the funding at the 1986-67 level. An earlier compromise decision in another appropriations bill called for going $1.7 million above the House position, or $3.3 million below the Senate position. However, when the omnibus funding bill started in the Senate Wednesday, the additional $3.3 million was placed in the bill. It passed the Senate that way, but the House Appropriations Committee took it out, and House Republicans backed the committee decision during floor debate one vote. The House vote left to the appropriations conference committee to decide before today's scheduled adjournment of the Legislature how much money to give Kansas' 304 school districts for 1987-88.

It could be anywhere between $454.28 million and $457.56 million. On a vote of 62-63, the House turned down a motion by Republican Rep. Alfred Ramirez of Bonner Springs to add $3.278 million to the omnibus appropriations bill. Larry Turnquist, D-Salina, voted for the amendment, while Salina Republicans Bob Ott and Jayne Aylward voted against it. That amount would have restored the entire $5 million for school aid that Gov.

Mike Hayden recommended in January to be spent above the amount of state aid given schools in the current fiscal year. Democrats supported Ramirez' amendment, but Republicans didn't. All 63 no votes came from Republicans, including those of Reps. Denise Apt, lola, chairwoman of the House Education Committee; Don Crumbaker, Brewster, vice chairman of that committee, and James Lowther, Emporia, a former chairman of that panel. Besides rejecting Ramirez' amendment, the House also turned down an amendment offered by Rep.

Bill Reardon, D-Kansas City, that would have added $8.278 million for school finance the $3.278 million needed to match Hayden's recommendation plus an extra $5 million. Again, Turnquist voted for the amendment, while Ott and Aylward voted against it. The Republican leadership urged its members to hold the line against additional expenditures in the omnibus bill in order to insure as high an ending balance as possible in the state general fund at the end of the next fiscal year. Both Ramirez and Reardon argued that the money was available. They said state budget analysts estimate a state general fund ending balance after next fiscal year of between $136 million and $145 million, and that Gov.

Mike Hayden proposed a $130 million balance. Ramirez and Reardon also argued that adding the money for school aid would be translated di- Rep. Alfred Ramirez (second from right), R-Bonner Springs, talks with education lobbyists about school finance legislation. rectly into property tax relief, dollar for dollar. The more money the state puts into public schools, the less school districts have to raise through the property tax to fund elementary and secondary education.

However, Speaker Jim Braden, arguing against the increased school aid, said Democrats didn't have enough of commitment to education in 1986 to vote for a sales tax increase to help support education when a majority of Republicans did. "Don't tell me I don't have a commitment to education," Braden said. "I'm tired of the hypocrisy." To that, Ramirez replied, "I really feel badly the speaker took this personally. I think that's been a big part of our problem resolving this." The Legislature had passed and sent to Hayden Thursday a bill changing the formula for distributing nearly a half-billion dollars in state aid to local school districts, a compromise plan that benefits medium-sized districts the most. How much it helps those districts and lessens the burden on the big school districts will be determined by how much money the Legislature ultimately puts into school finance.

That won't be decided until today, when the appropriations conference committee makes the final decision on the omnibus appropriations bill. That committee will decide between the House position of adding only $1.7 million more than the 198687 funding and the Senate position of adding the full $5 million Hayden recommended. Final approval of the plan for distributing the state aid for elementary and secondary education for the 1987-88 school year came on votes of 70-53 in the House and 35-5 in the Senate. It was far less of a battle winning approval for the compromise on the distribution formula than the fight over how much money to put into that formula when the House debated it Friday. Briefly Salinan fair following stabbing A 25-year-old Salina man was in fair condition Friday in the intensive care unit at Asbury Hospital after being stabbed following a fight at his apartment building Thursday night.

Police arrested Beauregard Daniel III, 30, 334 N. 10th. Police are seeking charges of aggravated battery against him for allegedly using a knife to stab Jeffery L. Coffman, 25,210 W. Iron, Apt.

206. Assistant Police Chief Glen Kochanowski said the men were at a party about 10:40 p.m. outside the Iron Crest Apartments, 210 W. Iron, when they began to argue. The argument led to a fight during which Coffman was stabbed twice in the back.

Police carried a blood-stained blue shirt from the apartment as they left the scene. Accidental gunshot hurts Salinan An 18-year-old Salina man was in good condition Friday at Asbury Hospital after accidentally shooting himself early Friday when he thought he heard a disturbance outside his apartment. Antonio I. Bonilla, 18, W. Jewell, shot himself once in the stomach with a .22 caliber, 6-shot revolver after going outside his apartment to check on a noise, said Glen Kochanowski, assistant police chief.

The accident occurred at 4:45 a.m. as Bonilla was preparing to leave for work. The gun contained only two bullets, Kochanowski said. Salina man, 19, arrested for theft Police are requesting a charge of felony theft against a 19-year-old Salina man who allegedly took money from a home after he asked the occupant if he could use the telephone, a Salina police officer said. Christopher R.

Hulen, 1108 Yale, allegedly took $900 at 8:30 a.m. Friday from the home of Emma M. Day, S. Ninth, according to police reports. Police arrested Hulen at 12:30 p.m.

Friday and recovered $472. Hulen rema-ni in the Saline County Jail. Hayden's brother I of 2 stabbed MANHATTAN (AP) An Indiana man was being held on $100,000 bond in Riley County Jail Friday after Gov. Mike Hayden's brother and another man were awakened and stabbed at a Manhattan home. Rocco Alfonso Denizio, 49, appeared in Riley County District Court on two counts of aggravated battery, a spokesman at the county attorney's office said.

Lt. Steve French of the Riley County Police Department said Paul A. Hayden, 23, and Richard D. Vrbas, 23, both students at Kansas State University, told him they were awakened shortly after 3 a.m. Friday and attacked by a third man who was staying at the residence.

Protesters seek answers from Hayden ByDALEGOTER Harris News Service TOPEKA Although they failed to spur legislative action on Kansas' membership in a multi-state nuclear waste compact, leaders of a north-central Kansas protest group continued to raise questions Friday about the state's participation in the compact. The group submitted a list of 11 questions to Gov. Mike Hayden's office Friday, asking for a response before the Legislature returns to Topeka for its final adjournment session later this summer. "We're requesting he make a black-and-white response to this by 'sine the ceremonial adjournment session of the 1987 legislative session, said John McClure, Glen Elder farmer. McClure was one of a handful of protest leaders still in Topeka Friday following Thursday's demonstration by about 500 people on the Statehouse steps.

Protest organizers had hoped to sway legislative action on the compact issue, but were unable to persuade lawmakers to pull an anti-compact bill out of committee. Failing that goal, the protest leaders drafted the list of questions to Hayden. "The discrepancies just keep coming up and coming up. What else don't we know?" Menhusen "We need to know the options," said Laura Menhusen, Jewell farm wife and a primary organizer of the protest. "The discrepancies just keep coming up and coming up.

What else don't we know?" Kathy Peterson, Hayden's press secretary, said the governor would respond to the questions. The crowd of protesters had returned home Friday, but many apparently were keeping up the effort by calling the Constituent Service telephone number in Hayden's office. Peterson said there had been a large number of calls to the governor's office Friday, although no official tally was available. Peterson said staff members were taking the names and addresses of callers who wanted a personal response. The list of questions submitted to Hayden Friday largely dealt with issues raised during Thursday's protest.

The protesters said they have not received clear-cut answers to the questions, and want the information before the Central Interstate Low- Level Radioactive Waste Compact selects a developer, who will pick a dump site. Among issues on the list of questions were the status of Kansas' recent ban on burial of hazardous wastes, Kansas' authority over a dump site located within its borders and the difference in the cost of a state-owned dump compared to the state's cost as a member of the compact. Another key question on the list is whether Kansas would have the authority to exclude the wastes of other states If it chose to drop out of the compact and build its own dump. Although the legislature took no new action on the issue this week, the controversy is certain to continue into the summer. Public meetings have been tentatively scheduled in Hays and Manhattan early in June to allow developers to present their proposals.

The compact meets June 8 in Lincoln, to begin discussion on selection of a developer. City will consider Meadowlark sidewalk The Salina City Commission will hear Monday a petition for a sidewalk to be constructed from Meadowlark School, 2200 Glen, to the traffic light on Marymount Road. The commission will meet formally at 4 p.m. Monday in room 200 of the City-County Building, 300 W. Ash.

It will meet informally at 3:30 p.m. in the city commission conference room. The sidewalk petition was submitted by the Meadowlark Parent Teacher Association Safety Committee. The petition calls for a 4-foot-wide curb sidewalk to be constructed on the south side of Glen Avenue from Beechwood west to Marymount Road, and on the north side of Northwood between Fairdale and Beechwood. The city installed a stop sign on Beechwood and Glen to give children a safe crosswalk, but there is not sidewalk on the south side of Glen to take them to the intersection.

The commission also will decide whether to give formal approval to an ordinance that lowers the amount of insurance required to license taxicabs. Taxicab companies currently must carry $500,000 in insurance, but the ordinance would lower it to $85,000, the minimum required by the state. The commission will consider three recommendations by the city planning commission made at its April 21 meeting. The planning commission recommended that the commission not approve a zoning change that would allow construction of a mobile home subdivision north of the Hollybrooke Addition and west of Interstate 135. The request was filed by Danny Huehl, 1731 N.

Ninth, and Monty Montee, 631 Scott. At the planning commission meeting, some residents of Hollybrooke voiced opposition to the project because there is only one access road to the area, and they said it would overcrowd the school and it would lower property values. The planning commission also recommended that the city reduce the required width of streets from 33 feet to 29 feet, and the city right-of- way from 60 feet to 50 feet. The planning commission recommended that the city amend zoning ordinances to comply with Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations. The regulations require that the term "manufactured home" be used to replace "mobile home," that the city use flood data from other sources if Flood Insurance Study data is not available, that mechanical and utility equipment be elevated above base flood elevation and that manufactured homes in the floodway fringe district be elevated..