The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 2

Ife fnlabdjmia Inquirer SATURDAY February 22, 1992 CLASSIFIED, on B4 NEW JERSEYMETRO SECTION k0m Jl1 fob vj.il: Wall St. warm to 5-year plan So far so good, analysts say. But critics call it overly optimistic on federal and state aid. By Marc Duvoisin and Dan Meyers 'J INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Mayor Rendell's plan for solving the city's financial crisis got its first written notices on Wall Street yesterday. The verdict: So far so good.

In a brief analysis circulated to investors, Standard Poor's a credit-rating firm, said efforts to "stabilize Ithe city's! shaky finances are finally moving forward." The assessment was echoed by other Wall Street analysts, who pored over the inch-thick volume yesterday. But an official of the Pennsylvania Economy League said Rendell's proposals relied too heavily on borrowing and contained overly optimistic projections of state and federal aid. The plan, released Thursday, calls for saving more than $1 billion over five years by slashing the cost of employee benefits, freezing wages, closing fire stations and privatizing some services as part of a "complete restructuring" of city government. Though the plan would not raise taxes, residents would pay fees for a variety of services that are now free, including the 911 police emergency number. Standard Poor's said that Rendell would face "a multitude of challenges" in putting the plan into effect, and that it was too early to say whether Philadelphia's financial condition would improve enough to justify raising its bond rating, the lowest of any major city.

But with the release of the plan, the firm said, "two major hurdles have been cleared." Last month, the administration and City Council signed a cooperation agreement with a state authority created to borrow money for the city. Michael Johnston, an assistant vice president of Moody's Investors Service said he also was encouraged by the document. "The thing that seems clear is that this is a different kind of plan than has come from the city before," he said. "It does seem to be an effort to (See REACTION on B2) The Philadelphia hqunr WILLIAM F. STEINMETZ A mourner supports a little girl as she places a flower on the coffin of one of the eight who were killed in the Park Boulevard fire.

The day that Camden cried 1,000 mourn 8 killed in city's worst house fire U.S., Penri agree on funding i Less money -for overhead By Edward Colimore INQUIRER STAFF WRITER The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has renegoti- ated an agreement with the University of Pennsylvania to slightly reduce the amount of overhead funds it provides with federal research grants, Penn officials said yesterday. The reduction follows the uniyejr-sity's repayment in the fall of $930,642 in federal funds that govern, ment auditors said were improperly spent on such things as public relations, entertainment and maintenance of the school's art collection. Federal guidelines require that the funds for research overhead be used for utilities, libraries and other items indirectly related to the cost of research. Under the new agreement with Penn, 62.5 percent of the research funds will be provided for overhead costs in fiscal 1993; 62.5 in fiscal 1994, and 63.5 in fiscal 1995.

Sixty-five percent was provided in 1990 and 1991 and will be given this year as well. "We're satisfied that the new negotiated rates exclude unallowable costs and are equitable to the university and the government," said John Gibbons, an HHS spokesman in Washington. "We're not aware of any deficiencies in the university's accounting system that would affect the new rates." Selimo C. Rael, Penn's vice president of finance, said the slight drop in the overhead rate reflected the government's confidence in the university. "We are satisfied that the newly negotiated rates will allow the university to adequately recover indirect costs associated with sponsored research and will allow us to perform research at expected levels of excellence," he said.

"This has been an important year for those of us involved ta calculating and substantiating government reimbursements for research costs conducted on attention has focused on this process, and I am confident that, as a result, the general public now has a better understanding of the partnership shared between universities and government." Federal investigators found in the summer that Penn had misspent funds, and the university agreed in October to repay the government. It also agreed not to misuse overhead funds again. Penn was one of 14 research universities across the country audited over four months by federal authorities. At least a half-dozen schools have returned money to the government. The Penn audit focused on the university's use of federal research dollars in 1987.

Based on the findings for that year, auditors estimated the total in improper billings for fiscal 1988 through fiscal 1992 to be $930,642. The repayment of the funds was an unprecedented action in the 251-year history of the university. At the time, Rael said the problems leading to the money's return stemmed "primarily from inadvertent simple oversights on our part." Yesterday, the finance vice president said the "governmentuniversity relationship is vital to America's basic research, and is essential to our ability to support and encourage research and development." "I am pleased with our agreement and consider it a vote of confidence in Penn's $200 million-a-year research enterprise," he said. two Barbie dolls, the purple Ninja Turtle, the tiny pink bicycle doll and the small, rubber football nestled among the flowers on top of each child's coffin, wails of despair echoed throughout the church. "It's hard to say goodbye," Barry Maddox sang.

Good times that made us laugh outweigh the bad It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday." And so it was yesterday. Evelyn Jackson, grandmother of the five children, tried hard to smile from beneath her white veil, but her sobs rose above the music, the prayers, the eulogies. Lying in her white dress on top of a combination wheelchair-stretcher, she was guided into the church by several solicitous nurses and paramedics from the Crozer-Chester Medical Center's Burn Center in Upland, Pa. She had been treated there for smoke inhalation and burns suffered while trying to escape the flames and save her grandchildren during the Feb. 13 fire at 1351 Park Blvd.

Seven of the eight family members Judge's ruling favors Winslow sand miner Grammy nominees barred from dispatching a stand-in By Dwi)ht Ott INQUIRER STAFF WR1TF.R More than 1,000 mourners jammed St. Joseph's Pro Cathedral yesterday to say goodbye to three generations of a Camden family killed in Park-side last week in one of the worst house fires in city history. Five of the dead were children. Their mothers, Keya Jackson and Margo Jackson, had to be helped past the flower-draped coffins, sobbing and kissing each of the small, white boxes. As a tenor's voice soared above the low's Zoning Board denied Pettinos' request to be grandfathered.

After the first denial, in July 1990, Davis reprimanded the board and ordered it to consider Pettinos' request a second time. The second time in July 1991 the board said no again. For that reason, township officials were concerned that Davis would react more harshly than he did. Pettinos was seeking punitive damages, contending that the board acted with "bias and malice." That judge denied the request. He said the Zoning Board was "confused" about its duty.

The company plans to appeal. "God bless Judge Davisl," Mayor Albert K. Brown said yesterday. "That's one big worry off our backs. I was really worried about the damages." Board Chairman Mario Clement agreed.

Clement said township officials had expected Davis to rule for Pettinos. "It could have been a lot worse," Clement said. "Fortunately, Judge Davis didn't see our decision as a direct affront to him." Melvins thinks the academy ought to be able to bend the rules. "There's always exceptions to the rule, unusual circumstances," said Melvins, 31, a Glassboro native who grew up in Camden. "You've never had any other group of prisoners nominated before." Melvins, interviewed yesterday by phone from prison, said Greene ought to put the matter to a vote of academy members.

He said he knows the rules of a corporation because the Lifers' Group he heads is incorporated in New Jersey. "If I wanted to change the rules, I would take it to the floor and it would have to be changed by a two-thirds vote," Melvins said. "I would think that it would've been appropriate for him to go to his 6,000 members, instead of just making an executive decision." The group's Juvenile Awareness Program was started in 1976 and was the nation's first "Scared Straight" program, bringing troubled youth and prisoners together for heated, confrontational discussions. Melvins had hoped that the Lifers' Group, nominated in the long-form video category for the 1991 mini-album "World Tour, Lifers' Group, (See NOMINEES on B4) By David Lee Preston INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Maxwell Eric Melvins was 19 when a Camden jury put him away for life in 1980, convicting him of killing a friend with a bullet intended for another man. Since then, he has devoted himself to sending a message back to the streets from which he came: Stay clean, jail is no fun.

Melvins is the leader of the first group of prisoners nominated for a Grammy award for a rap video made at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway about the consequences of making the wrong choice. Of course, if the video wins, none of the 36 lifers who participated will be able to accept the award at Tuesday's Grammy ceremony in New York. But now the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which nominated the video, says Melvins can't even send a prison staff coordinator in their place. "We have a 15-year-old rule that says no one but a Grammy nominee can attend or accept an award," said Mike Greene, academy president. "We have standardized rules and we have to stick to policy, because if we bend the rules for one group we have to bend for all." By Christopher Mumma SPECIAL TO THE INQUIRER A Camden County judge struck a blow yesterday for a 75-year-old Winslow Township sand-mining firm that has been fighting a four-year battle to stay open in a township that has lost its ardor for the industry.

Superior Court Judge Theodore A. Davis declared that 670 acres owned by George F. Pettinos Inc. should be protected from a 1988 ordinance banning new mining operations. Since passage of the ordinance, the company has been virtually out of business, because the township considers uhmined property a new mining operation.

Sand mining, once a lucrative industry for miners who prized the township's sandy soil, fell out of fa-vor in the mid-1980s during a housing boom in the Sicklerville section of the once-rural township. There is only one other mining firm in Winslow. Homeowners in new developments near the old mines have jammed township meetings in recent years to complain about the miners' pits. In two separate decisions, Wins- lay in scaled coffins in a semicircle around the altar. A photograph of Sheldon "Wayne" Martin 18, also was on the altar.

Muslim services were held Sunday for Martin. The dead included Martin's grandfather, Robert Jackson, 72, and Jackson's five great-grandchildren: Ra-kiemah Jackson, Rakim Jackson, Rabesha Jackson, and Shawn Parker 7, all children of Margo, and Keyahna Jackson, 4, Keya's daughter. Keyahna's father, Roy Junior (See FUNERAL on B2) because they failed to maintain preventive measures for their coastline. Rhodes commended the towns for replenishing beaches, but said they did not keep up the work. Bernard Moore, an assistant engineering director for the state Department of Environmental Protection and Energy, agreed with Rhodes.

"There isn't enough money in the system for these towns to keep it going," Moore said. Still, Moore said New Jersey does not fully agree with the federal denial of emergency aid. While many beach towns did not meet federal maintenance guidelines, they should have received aid in the form of temporary berms that would have allowed for emergency repairs before the Jan. 4 storm, Moore said. Long Beach Mayor James Mancini said the federal requirements are impractical.

He said his barrier island commu- Mystery remains 1 year after woman vanished Federal officials pressed for aid by beach towns damaged in storms Aim Dede Rosenthal Everything was left behind Rosenthal was facing eviction at the time. An eviction notice had been slipped under her door Feb. 22 because she was behind on her rent. Detective John Long of the Cherry Hill Police said last week that Rosenthal had been having financial difficulties, although those problems didn't seem to him to be severe (See DISAPPEAR on B4) nity built up an 18-mile line of dunes after the devastating 1962 storm. Today, even a $15 million state beach fund would not cover the costs of pumping sand along the 127-mile shoreline.

"To say that every year we should pump in sand is not practical," Mancini said. Federal officials also heard criticism from residents about a proposal under consideration by Congress to end federal flood insurance for some beachfront properties that are not moved back. Homeowners in especially flood-prone areas could make a claim for 40 percent of their home's value if they relocated, or 110 percent if they demolished. No compensation would be made for the value of the land. The homeowners said they fear their homes will be worthless if the law passes because it would be nearly impossible to sell a house that lacked flood insurance.

By John Way Jennings i and Chris Conway I INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Maybe Dede Rosenthal had slipped out of the apartment for just a minute, to run down to the laundry room or to chat with a neighbor in the hallway. Her purse and keys were in the apartment. The door was closed but unlocked. And her much-pampered cat was out on the balcony in the winter chill. But that was a year ago, and the 33-year-old behavioral management specialist, a Canadian native living in Cherry Hill, hasn't been seen or heard from since.

"I'm just hanging on to hope that something came up that she couldn't cope with, because certainly, there should have been some clue if she met with some disaster," her 70-year-old mother, Dorothy Rosenthal of Hamilton, Ontario, said yesterday. Hope is all she has to hang on to. No call came to her house last April when she turned 70, though her daughter had faithfully called every birthday to wish her well. What happened to Rosenthal has mystified Cherry Hill police since her co-workers at the Elwyn Institute in Vineland reported her missing. They last saw her on Feb.

22, 1991. Police found no signs of a struggle in her neat, one-bedroom apartment at the Somerset Towers complex on Cooper Landing Road. Her passport, identification and some cash were undisturbed. Her clothes hung in the closet. Even her white Honda Prelude was parked in the lot outside.

From those clues police say she may have left the apartment under her own power. But from there, they draw a blank. Adding to the mystery is a single bank transaction, made about a week after she was reported missing. Police say that an electronic telephone transfer of $586 to pay her rent was made by Rosenthal or someone familiar with her account by touch-tone telephone on March 1. I By Henry Stern ASSOCIATED PRESS LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP Federal officials came to the Shore yesterday to discuss how beach towns can get aid for future storm damage.

But local officials told the representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that they still want to know why they didn't get any federal help for the storms of Oct. 31 and Jan. 4. Stephen Kempf FEMA regional director, said the agency is reviewing Gov. Florio's request for $8.5 million for those two storms, but did not say when he expected a decision.

Florio's request is both an appeal of FEMA's denial for aid after the first storm, and a new petition for help from the second. The two storms caused about $132 million in damage. Perry Rhodes, a FEMA consultant, told officials and residents of Shore towns that the beach communities did not qualify for federal relief.