The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 111

New management to come Pennhurst School and Hospital property to remain under state control. W5. Debate over surplus ends Additional funding for the George Clay Fire Company is scuttled. W6. Thursday, July 13, 1995 Chester County Md.

woman will continue fighting interracial adoption Two psychiatrists recommended that the girl go back io a Downingtown couple. New papers were filed. ings. The proceedings were suspended after a federal lawsuit was filed by the foster parents, B. William and Debi Fell.

One year ago, the Chester County Department of Children, Youth and Families removed Alexa from the home of the Fells, who had raised her from infancy, and placed her for adoption with Herring. The Fells sued, charging that the county made its decision based almost solely on race. Under a settle ment announced in November, the county and the Fells agreed to abide by the decision of two court-designated psychiatrists as to where Alexa should be placed. The psychiatrists, whose report was released Tuesday, said she had bonded more with the Fells and should return to them. Herring did not agree to the settlement.

Nor did Leona Howard, Alexa's maternal grandmother, who also is interested in adopting her. Malloy-Good said that although the flect that race would be a factor in but not a barrier to adoptions. Herring has contended that the primary issue in Alexa's adoption is not race but who would take the best care of the child. In part because of pressure from families like the Fells, the state began reexamining its policies regarding transracial adoptions. The Department of Public Welfare lacks any language in its adoption guidelines See ADOPTION on W7 county department will recommend the Fells as an adoptive family, the decision will be left in the hands of the court.

Courts usually follow the agency recommendations. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania officials are looking at eliminating some racial barriers to adoption and strengthening the rights of foster parents. In the November settlement, the county agreed to change the language of its adoption policies to re should be returned to her white foster parents in Downingtown. Julia Malloy-Good, an attorney for Darlene Herring, with whom Alexa has been living in Maryland since July 1994, said she filed papers yesterday in Chester County Orphans Court to resume adoption proceed Woman's body, cut in pieces, is found in suitcase The bag was spotted by Valley Creek. Police declined to give detailed information on the body.

By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger I'- INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT An African American woman who has been trying to adopt a black Chester County girl for the last year will continue to pursue that adoption, despite the conclusion of two psychiatrists that 4-year-old Alexa I) 1. "A rf si ,1 i if. vv A Ijf 1 v. W.

tit-' 1j 1 Ul It 0 These teachers are spending their summer vacation digging up ways to better teach their students to do research projects. Marisa Grandin (left) and Sandy Pierce collect samples from Ridley Creek during a Widener University field ecology class. Story and another photo: W3. Montco to close gaps in bike trail that lead riders right into traffic The work should be completed by fall. Regular users are pleased.

By Clca Benson INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT EAST CALN A young woman's body, cut into pieces and stuffed into a suitcase, was found along a bank of Valley Creek on Tuesday, police sources said yesterday. Spokesmen for the state police and the county District Attorney's Office declined to offer any information about the body's condition. State police at the Embreeville barracks, who are investigating the death, said in a news release that the body was transported from an unknown location and dumped. It was found by a fisherman about 1 p.m. off Valley Creek Road, said Chester County District Attorney Anthony Sarcione.

Police are attempting to identify the woman, who was in her teens or possibly 20. She was white, with brown hair and eyes, and wore a light-blue cotton shirt with copper buttons, Sarcione said. "There is no question that we're labeling this a suspicious death, and our first priority is to find out who she is," he said. Inside Neighbors Triathlete Chuck Rogers of Schuylkill Township is among a select group that in October will compete in the two-day Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii. Sports, W9.

The Scene W3 Religion Notes W4 Education Notes W7 Obituaries W8 Police Report W13 Elsewhere in today's Inquirer High court suspends action on Chester waste plant's case. Bl. -A A pathologist determined that the woman had been dead for about a week, Sarcione said. Sarcione said police and the District Attorney's Office would not release information about the condition of the body because they felt it would not be beneficial to their investigation. "The family has not been spoken to yet," Sarcione said.

"I think you can understand my position." The cause and manner of death were being investigated yesterday afternoon. An autopsy was inconclusive, and toxicology results are pending, according to the County Coroner's Office. Police are asking anyone with information to call the Embreeville barracks at 610-269-5355. Police are also looking into a possible link to a second incident, in' which a young man's body was found floating in the Green Lane Reservoir in northern Montgomery County Tuesday night. Correspondent Wendy Walker contributed to this report.

Constable is removed from office Darby's Anthony Spano is put under house arrest for indecent assault. By Angela Paik INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT Anthony Spano will work as a constable no more. Delaware County Judge Anthony R. Semeraro removed Spano as constable yesterday, and sentenced him to six to 12 months' house arrest and community service for indecently assaulting a 21-year-old woman while on duty in Darby Borough. Spano, 58, will be monitored electronically at his home in the 1100 block of Lawrence Avenue in Darby beginning July 31, Semeraro said.

Spano was convicted June 7 of assaulting the woman during visits to serve arrest warrants on her friend. Defense attorney John G. McDou-gall was accompanied to the proceedings by his daughter, Colleen J. Mar-sini, who resigned recently as an assistant district attorney. She had hoped to offer expertise in the case for the defense but was blocked from doing so by the judge.

"I know this issue intimately," Mar-sini said afterward. She had been retained to help block testimony at sentencing from three women who had tales of similar indecent assault by Spano but who had not brought criminal charges against him. Semeraro ruled that the testimony could not be included, but he did so with-Se? CONSTABLE on W8 in I to1 Maureen Sheedy of Oregon on the Schuylkill Bike Trail. The three detours are more than a ijttle annoying to users. For The Inquirer JAY GORODETZER mountain bike, outfitted with smooth- treaded tires.

(His Tour-De-France- style 21-speed was in the shop). Felker was waiting for the traffic to buzz by on Hector Street at supper-time yesterday so he could make his entrance onto the road and the next span of the Schuylkill Trail. For five years, he has been braving the potholes and lead-footed drivers on his four-times-a-week workouts. He pedals onto the trail in Roxbor-ough, where he once crashed into a car and was tossed across the hood. By the time he gets to Montgomery County's 11-mile-expanse, he has a mile of detours to work through.

Wiping a soggy brow with his wrist, Felker said, "I frequently talk myself out of going to Valley Forge See TRAIL on W4 the fall of 1996, it would vacate office space in West Conshohocken and take 400 employees with it. Some residents have worried about the effect on the borough's tax base. State officials have not worried, because those employees will be relocating to Upper Providence. The borough has greatly benefited from its inclusion in the enterprise zone program, which it joined with Conshohocken in 1988. But before Tuesday's vote, Councilman Pete Vivian and Mayor Michael Leonard said they still had a worry about the expansion: What effect would the new business have on traf-See ZONE on W6 cials said yesterday.

No longer will sweat-soaked bikers such as Clay Felker, a 136-mile-a-week man, have to veer off the 21-mile trail in the three spots in Montgomery County where the trail abruptly and some bikers say rudely ends. For years, these three detours in Conshohocken and Norristown have forced the bikers and skaters onto the streets and into an uneasy coexistence with speeding sport coupes, minivans and sedans. By letting the contract for the new portions of the trail this month, Montgomery County officials said yesterday they would put an end to that. "Get out of here! Really? I can't believe it," Felker said as he savored the news of the new trails. He rode a black ured, were offered in the enterprise zone program, set up 12 years ago to lure businesses to the state's depressed areas.

SmithKline was not in an enterprise zone, but was building right next to one. So expanding the zone, according to Jerry Nugent, an economic development adviser for the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority, was seen as key. There were two hooks, though: West Conshohocken had to agree to the plan. Now it has, despite growling, grousing and griping. Now its sister borough must agree.

The vote came several months after SmithKline announced that in By Michelle Conlin INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT NORRISTOWN With their aerodynamic helmets and snug-fitting span-dex, they've become fixtures on suburban roadways, hugging the shoulders as their faster, four-wheeled counterparts whiz by. But in the burgs of Conshohocken and Norristown, the cyclists and bladers will soon become relics of the past on certain traffic-packed strips. Come September, the throngs who exercise and pleasure-ride along the Schuylkill Bike Trail will have their own uninterrupted expanse of 10-foot wide pavement stretching all the way from Port Royal Avenue in Philadelphia to Valley Forge Park, county Planning Commission offi from financial incentives in such a zone. The plant, which will cost $61.6 million and generate 150 jobs, is largely viewed as a boost to the county. That's one reason county officials were so eager to get West Conshohocken to approve.

It is seen as a symbol of Smith-Kline's interest in the area, important because the firm employs more than 2,000 people in the King of Prussia area alone. Tax breaks and low-interest loans are seen as encouraging the company to grow here rather than elsewhere. And the most attractive and alluring packages, county officials fig Borough adds SmithKline plant site to zone By Kyle York Spencer INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT WEST CONSHOHOCKEN One of Montgomery County's smallest boroughs has done a big favor for one of the county's largest employers. The pharmaceutical firm Smith-Kline Beecham has plans to build a manufacturing plant in King of Prussia a stone's throw from West Conshohocken. Tuesday night, the Borough Council unanimously approved a plan to add the plant site in King of Prussia to the enterprise zone West Conshohocken shares with Conshohocken.

If Conshohocken approves the plan, it will allow the firm to profit.