Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 144

THE HARTFORD COURANT: Thurcday, December 29, 1994 B7 mm Nuns bid loving farewell Groups scramble to have tax credits validated to bister Mary Basil, 105 planned to station people in shifts all night and be among the first to submit their letter from the town Thursday morning. Jeanne Dele-hanty, president of the ambulance association, said plans for the new ambulance have been put on hold. "I'm immensely disappointed. We camped out for three nights. We followed the procedures we were told to follow.

It's very dissapoint-ing to know that's all being taken away," Delehanty said. In November, the state social services department declared 240 proposals eligible for tax credits from the 1994 Neighborhood Assistance Act program. Under the program, businesses that give cash or in-kind services to a nonprofit agency or community project can receive up to 60 percent of their donation in state tax credits, up to a maximum of $75,000. A total of $3 million in tax credits will be distributed statewide. Claudette Beaulieu, spokeswoman for the social services department, said the state had awarded tax credits on a first-come, first-serve basis after receiving proposals from nonprofits and pledges from business sponsors.

The non- profits had solicited donations after the local government approved their proposal for Neighborhood Assistance Act tax credits. But state law requires that the towns review the award of the tax credits after the social services department receives the pledges from the businesses. The process followed in the fall skipped the last step, Beaulieu said. "We were awarding the credits without giving the towns the opportunity to approve or disapprove the proposed donation we received," Beaulieu said. "Does this mean we start over fresh? Yes." She said the social services der partment asked the attorney general's office to review their procedures after their tax credits were depleted within 30 minutes on Oct 3, the first day the state would accept proposals.

Letters were sent Tuesday to 75 towns that held public hearings during the summer and fall and approved proposals for Neighborhood Assistance Act programs, Beaulieu said. Tax credits will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis. Staff writer Jesse Leavenworth contributed to this report. tions. "It's crazy.

But you got to do what you got to do. We've got an ambulance riding on this," said Scott Bergeron, one of eight people who were waiting in line in the lobby Wednesday night. The others there were from municipalities such as Bloomfield, Brookfield and Hartford. David Sessions, who heads fund-raising for a new library in New Hartford, said he was outraged over the attorney general's "ridiculous" finding and the extremely short notice. Library volunteers had camped out in shifts to be among the first in line at the Middletown office.

Also, New Hartford corporate donors who pledged about $200,000 because of the assurance of tax credits have already paid some of the promised money, Sessions said. "A substantial amount of that money has already been received. People have made commitments. This is wrong," Sessions said. He received a letter about 2 p.m.

at his home, notifying him of the attorney general's ruling, Sessions said. The library sent a volunteer to Hartford to stand in line again, he said, but by that time, between eight and 10 representatives of other agencies were already waiting. Regardless of the results, Sessions said, the New Hartford library's cause will not end today. "In our opinion, the result was appropriate the first time around," he said. "We worked hard to play the system exactly according to the rules." The ambulance association By VAN ALDEN FERGUSON Courant Staff Writer Last October, eight Simsbury ambulance volunteers spent a weekend outside a state office so a corporate sponsor could get a tax credit for the ambulance it was offering to pay for.

They thought their efforts paid off when the state Department of Social Services accepted their Neighborhood Assistance Act proposal in late November, and Ensign-Bickford Industries pledged to pay for the $94,000 ambulance in exchange for tax credits. They were wrong, and Wednesday they were preparing to spend another long night outside a state office because of a gaffe by the social services department. The Simsbury Volunteer Ambulance Association along with nonprofit organizations in 24 towns throughout the state learned Wednesday its tax credit proposal was no longer guaranteed. The previous day, social services officials learned from the state attorney general's office that the process used to authorize tax credits did not comply completely with state law. Unlike in October, when the ambulance volunteers spent a weekend camped outside an office in Middletown, they were inside this time in the lobby of a building on Sigourney Street in Hartford.

The towns of nonprofit organizations that want their corporate pledges eligible for 1994 state tax credits have to submit letters or faxes today approving the dona- Sister Mary Basil taught young children throughout New England and New Jersey until 1968, when she retired to the Enfield convent. Born Sofia Misiaszek in Poland in 1889, Sister Mary Basil's family imi-grated to Nashua, N.H., when she was a young girl. In 1906, she entered the Roman Catholic order in Buffalo, N.Y., and later transferred to Lodi, J. In 1934, when the mother house for the New England province was opened in Enfield, she moved here and took her religious vows. She taught in parochial schools in Hartford and Torrington, and also in the Bronx and Floral, N.Y.; Springfield, Boston and Webster, Newark, Trenton, Passaic and Garfield, N.J.; Manchester, N.H.; and West Rutland, Vt.

"She was gifted with a great mother's heart, and for many years, as a teacher of kindergarten, first-and second-graders, she touched those youngsters with her motherly touch," Sister Mary Doloria said. "Her word was serenity. She was a woman of prayer and, naturally, she was a woman of kindness." Earlier in her life, she would often go for walks alone. Sister Mary Basil was described as a soft-spoken woman who rarely talked about herself. She never complained or became angry, even during her lingering illness, said Sister Mary Doloria.

She was like that for a reason. "Jesus Christ said, 'You have not chosen me; I have chosen she recalled. "She had a very peaceful death." She leaves a niece and nephew, Jessie and Eugene Wojcieszik, both of East Hartford. Funeral services will be held Friday at Our Lady of the Angels Chapel, 1315 Enfield with a Mass of Christian burial at 10:30 a.m. Burial will be in St.

Adalbert's Cemetery. Visiting hours will be today, 1 to 5 p.m. Browne Memorial Funeral Chapels, Enfield, is in charge of By MINDY A. ANTONIO Courant Staff Writer FNFIFI Victor Man, uuu Misiaszek's body lay in a convent parlor, where the sisters with whom she lived visited and said the rosary. rouowing tradition, white carnations were olaced beside her in the coffin.

Her hands clasped her Bible and rosary beads, and a crown of thorns was placed near Sitter Mary her head, symbolizing life's Basil trials and tribula- rions. A Polish immigrant who became a beloved parochial school teacher throughout the Northeast, Sister Mary Basil died Wednesday at Our Lady of the Angels Convent. At 105, Sister Mary Basil was the oldest member of the New England Province of the Order of the Felician Sisters. She lived at the convent in retirement. Wednesday, Sister Mary Doloria, a convent member, kissed Sister Mary Basil's forehead and admired how her skin remained smooth and wrinkle-free despite her years.

"Parents and relatives of the youngsters referred to her as 'the sister with the perennial said Sister Mary Doloria, who taught with Sister Mary Basil in New York City. "I can still see her during recess, you know." Sister Mary Basil taught for more than five decades and was remembered Wednesday by other sisters for her kindness toward children and others. "She was loved a great deal. Being a first-grade teacher, she was very active and involved with them, and she had been greatly admired Jjy them," said Sister Superior Mary Seraphine. i A Lb Computers will assist commute to New York IMPORTANT VICTORIANA AUCTION SUNDAY JAN.

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Act fast while they last. Comparative values $365.00 each, pleated trousers 00 additional. state police and employees of a private company, Smart Route Systems of Cambridge, will observe 33 video monitors and operate computers to detect where traffic slows. State police will dispatch emergency personnel if necessary to handle casualties and clear the scene, map alternate routes and notify motorists. State officials said the new system would quicken response times to accidents, perhaps by as much as 10 to 15 minutes.

All of the equipment is expected to be linked through fiber optic cables and working within the next two months. Newly trained crews of state transportation workers will patrol the highway during peak travel hours to help drivers with flat tires, overheated radiators, dead batteries and empty gas tanks. And state police on motorcycles will be specially trained to handle traffic accidents. A state task force that began work in 1991 identified southwestern Connecticut and the greater Hartford area as suffering from the most severe traffic congestion in the state. The changeable signs will be placed on 1-95 and major traffic arteries leading to it 1-91, the Mer-ritt Parkway, and routes 1, 7, 8 and 25 to notify motorists of accidents on 1-95.

Sometime next year, the system will be enhanced so that state police can update motorists on radio broadcasts, Frankel said. The Federal Highway Administration provided 80 percent of the money for the project, and Connecticut state tax dollars will pay for the other 20 percent. A pilot project already is operating at the interchange between 1-84 and 1-91 in the Hartford area. That system is monitored out of an operations center in Newington. The Bridgeport operations center is housed in a temporary facility and is to be moved April 15 to an adjacent building that is under construction.

That facility will be a new state police barracks. American Materials Corporation Landscapes Commercial Snowplow Operators American Materials Corporation is Your Local Source For DE-ICING SALT and Screened Sand (Red, White Washed) Bulk Delivery Available ROUND THE CLOCK PICK-UP AVAILABLE DURING INCLEMENT WEATHER 242-9005 Visa Mastercard AcccDtcd mn nu im pj i Bloomfield. CT 06002 Associated Press BRIDGEPORT The daily commute for thousands of Connecticut residents who drive to work in New York should get a little easier if a $25 million plan that state officials unveiled Wednesday is successful. Within two months, Connecticut transportation officials plan to use high-tech equipment to monitor accidents and slowdowns 24 hours a day along a 56-mile stretch of 1-95 from the New York state border to just east of New Haven. The highway runs along Connecticut's southern edge, bordering Long Island Sound.

The plan is to use 216 speed detectors embedded in the tarmac of the highway, 91 video cameras showing the traffic and 40 changeable overhead signs to inform travelers of problems on the frequently clogged interstate. "This is not just technological toys," Connecticut Transportation Commissioner Emil H. Frankel said. "This is a critically important part in the management of our transportation system, in assuring the efficiency in the movement of people and the movement of goods, which lie at the heart of the economic renewal of the state of Connecticut." In announcing the plan, state officials unveiled a new Traffic Operations Center in Bridgeport where Raymond Schaller; building contractor Raymond T. Schaller, a Manchester resident and retired home builder, died Wednesday at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

He was 94. Mr. Schaller had lived at the Broad Eaves House in Madison since September. A self-employed building contractor for many years, he had built more than 100 houses in the Manchester area. He retired in 1980.

Mr. Schaller, who was born in Switzerland and immigrated with his family to the United States, was active in the Swiss-American community in Manchester. At the age of 85, he returned to Switzerland to visit his birthplace, his family said. Mr. Schaller served in the U.S.

Navy during World War I. He leaves his son, Judge Barry R. Schaller of Madison; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be Friday at 11 a.m. at St.

Mary's Episcopal Church, 41 Park Manchester. Burial will be in the East Cemetery. There are no calling hours. Holmes Funeral Home, 400 Main Manchester, is in charge of arrangements. Memorial donations may be made to St.

Mary's Episcopal Church Book of Remembrance, or to the Manchester Scholarship Fund, 20 Hartford Road, Manchester. CT 06040. Schiitx SchaU, Ribicoff Kotkin Kttornm et Lew over GOP nominee John Rowland, who won the election. "Helen proved the point that longevity does not necessarily mean stodginess. She was a great progressive Republican from my earliest associations with her right up until the time of her passing," said Gov.

Lowell Weicker a Greenwich resident and former town first selectman. Mrs. Walsh supported Weicker in his 1990 gubernatorial bid. In addition to her stepgrandson in Greenwich, she is survived by a stepson, William James Walsh of Princeton, N.J.; another stepgrandson, Joseph White Wilshire IV of Connecticut; and three nieces, Helen Payne Clarke of Greenwich and Mary Wilshire Laing and Alice Wilshire Berkeley, both of Dayton, Ohio; Funeral services are still being set. The family requests no flowers be sent, but that instead memorial donations be given to either the First Church of Round Hill, 464 Round Hill, Greenwich, CT 06830; or The Nathaniel Witherell Home, 70 Parsonage Road, Greenwich, CT 06830.

Rose 86; taught in Hartford Rose Hoffman, a retired teacher in Hartford schools, died Monday in Florida. She was 86. Mrs. Hoffman, a former West Hartford resident, lived in Sarasota, Fla. She was a former member of the Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford and an active member of Ha-dassah.

She volunteered for the American Cancer Society. She leaves her husband, Herman C. Hoffman; a son, Sheldon J. Hoffman of West Hartford; a daughter, Esther H. Weinstein of Las Vegas, and a grandson.

A brother, Samuel M. Solloway, and a sister, Eve S. Rubinstein, died before her. A graveside service will be Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Emanuel Synagogue Cemetery, Wethersfield.

The Bailey Funeral Home, 48 Broad Plainville, is in charge of arrangements. There are no calling hours. Memorial donations may be made to a charity of the donor's choice. 3 DUNPHY. A memorial service for Samuel A.

Dunphy, of East Hartford, will be today, at the Hockanum United Methodist Church, 178 Main East Hartford. Mr. Dunphy passed away Dec. 3, 1994, in Belfast, Maine. NESSLER.

The memorial service of Elizabeth (Vander Eb) Nessler, of Simsbury, wife of John L. Nessler who died Thursday (Dec. 22, 1994) at a local nursing home, will be Saturday, Dec. 31, II a.m., at the Avon Congregational Church, 6 W. Main Avon.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Lung Association, 45 Ash East Hartford 06108. Taylor 8. Modern Funeral Home, West Hartford, has charge of arrangements. By KEVIN McKEEVER Greenwich Time GREENWICH Helen Payne Wilshire Walsh, 97, the matriarch of Republican politics in Greenwich and an internationally known advocate for the disabled, died of natural causes Monday at Greenwich Hospital. Mrs.

Walsh, who had been ill with heart problems for the past several months, had been in the hospital jseveral times recently but once out she rarely paused from participating in her loves of politics, those in need or playing bridge, according to her stepgrand-son, Van H. Wilshire of Greenwich. "She was extremely active even to the end," he said. Although best known in Greenwich for her political activism, having served as vice chairman of the Republican town committee and as a member of the Republican State Central Committee and the state GOP finance committee, Mrs. also achieved worldwide for her work with the handicapped and disabled.

She was recognized as a leader in rehabilitation, and served as president and chairwoman of Re-' habilitation International USA, a worldwide volunteer agency dedicated to improving services to disabled people. President Bush, whose parents friendly with Mrs. Walsh, appointed her in 1990 to a three-year term on the National Council on Disability, a commission that drafts legislation to help the disabled. "Helen Wilshire Walsh was a respected, revered friend and an inspiration to me in both my private and public life," the former president said in a statement released by 'his office in Houston. In the early 1970s, Mrs.

Walsh appointed by President Nixon "to a term on the National Advisory Council of Vocational Rehabilitation. She was also a member of the President's Committee for the Employment of the Handicapped. One of her last major public acts occurred in July when she held a press conference at her home on Clapboard Ridge Road to announce she was joining several other prominent Republicans in town to back Lt. Gov. Eunice Groark, A Connecticut Party's candidate for governor, In Loving Memory of EDWARD J.

SPELLMAM Who passed away Dec. 29, 1971. Wife and Family DINATALE. A funeral service for Giovanna (Pistritto) DiNatale, 93, of Hartford, widow of Antonino DiNatale, who died Monday (Dec. 26, 1994) at a local convalescent home, will be today, 9:15 from the D'Esopo Funeral Chapel, 277 Folly Brook Wethers-field, with a Mass of Christian Burial, 10 a.m., at St.

Luke's Church. Hartford. Burial will be in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford. Memorial contributions may be made to the Newingfon Children's Hospital. 181 Cedar Newingfon 06111.

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