The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 9

fit iftilabdpfiia Inquirer SECTION TUESDAY February 25, 1992 RQ By B. J. PHILLIPS 1 i -Wlii sa Alt 2 1 1 I ,4 4 ML AJfr kTnr HILL ii Mini I 's'l 1 ill 1 4 41 '4I'; Driver dies in plunge into river Rowers watch car helplessly By Rubin Clark INQUIRER STAFF RITER Sixteen members of the St. Joseph's University rowing team watched in horror yesterday morning as a car carrying a Havertown woman plunged into the frigid waters of the Schuylkill along Boathouse Row. As the car sank about 6:20, one of the oarsmen prepared to dive Into the river in hopes of saving the woman.

But he was restrained by teammates and St. Joe's crew coach Joseph Canino, who feared that the cold water would claim a second victim. The athletes watched helplessly for 45 minutes more as divers from the police Marine Unit sought to free the victim, eventually breaking a window in the locked car. Rescue workers tried to revive the woman, who was identified as Gail Weiner, 49. She was pronounced dead at 9:02 a.m.

at Hahnemann University Hospital. Police continued to puzzle over the case yesterday, citing eyewitness reports that the woman's car apparently had been parked between two boathouses for several minutes with its motor running before rolling into the river. Members of the rowing team said that the car appeared to be moving only 10 to IS m.p.h. as it headed down a grassy slope toward the water, and that the driver did not appear to hit the brakes. "I saw the car going across the field between the Lighthouse and the next boathouse, the Women's Rowing Club," said team captain Chris O'Brien, 21, a senior from Mer-ion.

"I remember thinking, 'That guy better slam on the And then the car went right off." Police have classified the incident as a case of sudden death, pending an autopsy. Although foul play was not suspected, the investigation was continuing last night. For members of the St. Joe's crew, the episode was a tragic start to a spring season that began yesterday with the team's first day back on the water. "It was ironic that we were even there," Canino said.

"Normally, we would have been further up the river by that time. But today we started a new tradition of saying a prayer to start the workout." Because of the prayer, the two 8-man crews were still floating offshore in their shells, waiting for Canino in his motor launch, when Weiner's car began rolling slowly toward the water. "A whole bunch of us were watching," said O'Brien. "When the car hit the water, we all yelled out at the same time, 'Oh, my The two crews quickly turned around and rowed toward the car, which was sinking slowly in about 15 feet of water some 50 feet from shore, its taillights casting a red glow on (See RIVER on B2) Special to The Inquirer SHARON GbKOSKI Westbound traffic is tied up approaching Race Track Circle. "Just drive like you're from New York," one driver advises.

Running the Route 70 gantlet Circles, construction drive commuters crazy roomed into mammoth mounds of mud. As Maggio and DeAngelis have learned, navigating the construction zone requires a solid mix of creativity, planning and nerves of steel. "Just drive like you're from New York and it's not so bad," Maggio mused. "You just sort of, you know, just go." Five days a week, about 7:30 a.m., Maggio motors in his late-model station wagon from the East Falls section of Philadelphia to his Italian food shop in Cherry Hill. He stops at the Food Distribution Center in South Philadelphia, makes it into his store by about 9:30 (See ROUTE 70 on B7) "The first three years, it used to take me 20 minutes to get in and out of Philly.

Now it takes 4S." On a typical weekday, Maggio; DeAngelis and 70,000 other drivers brave Route 70, South Jersey's cornucopia of motor misery. The four-lane highway has long been plagued by congestion, accidents, two treacherous circles and, for the last five months, a major road construction project that has turned the thoroughfare into an obstacle course. Bright orange barrels line the 3'2 miles of highway from Springdale Road to Garden State Park. The traffic circles have mush- By Louis R. Carlozo Moments before his morning commute down Route 70, Peter Maggio projected perfect calm.

He stretched, sipped his steaming coffee, adjusted his shades and waxed philosophical on Zen and the Art of Motor Vehicle Avoidance: "You've just got to rely on your instinct and do it," he said. "You can't think about the traffic! too much." Frank DeAngelis, on the other hand, couldn't help but grouse about all those cars clogging up Route 70. "That's one of the problems with this stupid commute," be said, Tinari pleads guilty to tax evasion Lousy market's silver lining? This was supposed to be the end of the American Dream, golfer's version. They'd raised the kids, seen them off to college and careers, and in recent years had devoted their vacations to a survey of golf courses in Florida and South Carolina. Now it was time for a lifetime of hard work to pay off.

All they had to do was sell up here in Pennsylvania and move into a house on the fairway just walk out the back door and tee 'em up. Except that it has been nearly two years now, and they still can't sell their house here. That means they can't buy a house there, and if they tee off outside the back door, they've got a lawsuit on their hands. "We've changed agents three times and lowered our asking price I don't know how many times," she said. "Now we've taken it off the market." "We'll list it again in the spring," he added, "but it looks bad for a house to hang around forever without being sold.

Besides, the sign was getting weathered." Surely there is no better sign of these hard times than for-sale signs that stay up so long the paint starts to fade. 'No idea' "I used to think I knew the value of my property," the frustrated golfer said. "Now I have no idea what my house is worth." On an individual level, that is a tragedy. But taken as a whole, the current slump no, the crash in the real estate market offers a unique opportunity to put more realistic values of all these houses on the tax rolls. You don't have to believe that even an ill wind blows some good to realize there's no better time than a recession for Jax reassessment.

Stop and think about it for a moment. For the first time since the 1973 oil shock, we have stable or decreasing house prices and land values. That doesn't mean that dairy farms are still worth the price of dairy farms in 1973. But it does mean that they are no longer worth the price of a housing development in 1986, either. And that, in turn, means that for the first time in a long time, reassessment could be done without driving every farmer off the land or bankrupting every senior citizen in the commonwealth.

Tar and feathers Of course, whenever anyone raises the specter of reassessment, it's tantamount to providing taxpayers with tar and feathers, which is why our courageous and highly principled political leaders behave as though reassessment isn't in the dictionary. However, it is in the dictionary of disgruntled taxpayers and their lawyers. They have successfully appealed so many inequitable assessments that the entire system is heading for collapse. In Chester County, commissioners are still trying to gum the bullet and avoid countywide reassessment the first since 1972. But over 2,000 appeals cost $800,000 in revenue last year.

Consultants hired by the commissioners say that the situation will only worsen without reassessment. Meanwhile, the county would be effectively tearing up $100 bills each time it hears appeals and faces litigation charging grossly unequal and unfair tax burdens. Things are much the same in Bucks County, where assessment appeals doubled last year. The last countywide reassessment there took place in 1973. "We need reassessment," says chief appraiser Richard Brosius, "but it's political suicide to do it.

Unlike most states, there's no state law to say you have to do automatic reassessments. So we use the appeal process to put bandaids on the problem." Not a cure Unfortunately, bandaids have not been shown to cure cancer, and they're not likely to fix assessments that are decades out-of-date either. Montgomery County has the most current tax rolls it reassessed in 1978 but no one can remember the last countywide reassessment in Delaware County. According to folklore, it happened sometime after World War II. Most taxpayers fear reassessment because they believe their taxes will automatically go up.

But that is not necessarily true, and in any event, only the brain-dead can't figure out how to exempt senior citizens from school taxes and otherwise act to ease the sting that reassessment inevitably brings to some homeowners. The problem is that if the counties don't do it on their own, the courts will eventually do it for them at greater cost and with less regard for whom it hurts. That's why we ought to start reassessment now, while houses are worth a lot less than they used to be as anyone who wants to sell has sadly learned. judge ran through each phrase of the familiar legal catechism, right down to asking the attorney, "Can you read, write and understand the English language?" The judge also asked Tinari whether he understood that his guilty plea to the felony could mean the loss of his rights to vote or to sit on a jury. He noted that the plea would be "referred to appropriate disciplinary authorities in the state of Pennsylvania" meaning the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme (See TINARI on BS) lines permit a reduction of prison time when a guilty plea is accepted by the judge as an "acceptance of responsibility" for the crime.

The guidelines call for an 18-to-24-month prison term for tax evasion amounting to more than $350,000. Acceptance of responsibility can lower the sentence to 12 to 18 months, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Marin-ari. As required in all such hearings, Yohn inquired into the voluntariness of Tinari's plea. As Tinari nodded his head and said "yes sir," the three children.

Dressed in the well-tailored gray, pinstriped suit that has been his trademark during a decade of representing accused criminals in high-profile cases, Tinari stood before U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. accused of evading $441,000 in taxes on $1.1 million in legal fees never reported as income. Tinari quarreled with the specific amounts an issue to be resolved before he is sentenced May 21 but admitted the general charges of tax evasion.

Federal sentencing guide By Henry Goldman and Emilie Lounsberry IN'IRKR STAFF WRITERS Nino V. Tinari, one of the city's busiest and most flamboyant criminal-defense attorneys, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court yesterday to two counts of tax evasion on unreported income that prosecutors say totaled more than $1.1 million over five years. The money, according to Tinari, went toward support of two families his wife and their children, and his former legal secretary and her Supreme Court refuses to hear Allstate's case against N. J.

auto law 2 Si fl the J. 1, 1 U-Sh Is Wfi sition Facility (MTF). Taking drivers out of the high-risk pool is a key component of Florio's changes in auto insurance. The state's old high-risk pool, the Joint Underwriting Association, once held more than half of New Jersey motorists, including many good drivers. The pool ran up a $3 billion deficit, and all motorists once paid up to $222 per car each year to keep that pool afloat.

"Today's decision means we can keep carrying out our new insurance law in a steady and orderly way," Florio said. "We are trying to overcome years in which the drivers of New Jersey were not treated with the fairness and respect they were due." Yesterday's appeal stemmed from a Jan. 24, 1991, order requiring Allstate to offer insurance to thousands of drivers previously insured in the high-risk pool. State insurance officials have charged that Allstate and 39 other companies have delayed accepting new business from the pool. They (See INSURANCE on B2) By Thomas Martello ASSOCIATE!) PRF.SS TRENTON Gov.

Florio's auto insurance law received a boost yesterday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to be drawn into the legal fight over New Jersey insurance rates. The court turned down arguments that the law forces Allstate Insurance Co. to accept new business. The law requires insurers to take policies from the state's pool of high-risk drivers.

Florio praised the court's refusal to hear the case. Allstate officials said they would continue with a separate state suit that attacks how the law is being administered. Allstate, the state's largest auto insurer, has announced plans to pull out of New Jersey, contending that it can't make a profit here. State officials say Allstate has taken 50,000 fewer vehicles than the Department of Insurance has ordered it to accept from the high-risk driver pool, called the Market Tran 5i- I I I Jtyjk row .1 1 1 Special lo The Inquirer JOHN SLAVIN SIGNS OF HOPE AND PAIN came down at on his brother's lawn and watches as the Thomas Cicippio's Norristown home yester- signs that chronicled the hostages' captivity day. Former hostage Joseph Cicippio stands are taken down.

Story on Page B4 Blaze destroys historic train station in Downingtown communitv in the 19th century." Da The rubble at the station was cleared yesterday afternoon, by which time both Amtrak and SEPTA were on schedule, officials said. Chester County Historic Preservation Officer Jane L.S. Davidson said the Downingtown train station, built about 1890, used to be a major connecting point for travelers by stage coach and rail around the turn of the century. "The station reflected the local were pouring out the windows and starting to reach the roof." Train service at the station, which is owned by Amtrak, experienced minimal delays, said Amtrak spokesman Howard Robinson. Commuters still are able to board trains from the landing at the Downingtown station and Amtrak riders will not be assessed the normal $5 penalty for buying tickets on the train, Robinson said.

nue was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at about 3 a.m. yesterday, authorities said. A wall collapsed within minutes of their arrival. The fire was declared under control at 4:37 a.m. "It was well on it's way when we got there," said Downingtown Fire Chief Jim McGowan.

"We had a quick response. But there wasn't any interior fighting attempted. Flames I By Kevin McKinncy SFKCIALTOTHKINqiilRKR Downingtown's train station, where commuters have bought tickets for more than 100 years, was destroyed by fire early yesterday. The cause of the blaze, which caused damage estimated at $200,000, is under investigation by local, state and Chester County authorities. The historic brick structure on Viaduct Avenue near Lancaster Ave- I vidson said.

"Before the rail lines were consolidated, each rail line that passed through there had its own promotional person. "So it was a real community hub of activity because you had between four and five trainmen there promoting their particular line." Jim Farrelly, Downingtown Borough's assistant director of adminis-(Sce FIRE on B7).