The Tribune from Seymour, Indiana • Page 1

Weather Tomorrow Cloudy High76 Low55 Details2A 7kiLtonCup u. Shields coming down jRibiuiiie it Citing safety, owners tearing all of school down By MARQAB. WALKER Tribune Staff Writer Another piece of Seymour history with memories for many Seymour residents is coming down. The Ralph Pardieck family, owners of Shields High School, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon announcing their intent to demolish the whole building. Their original plans were to remove only a section of the building that housed the girls' gymnasium.

Greg Pardieck said today that when the girls' gymnasium was removed, a back wall fell in and family members became concerned over safety issues. "Rather than an eyesore to the community, our family decided to go ahead and take the whole structure down," Pardieck said "We're concerned over safety. We don't want anyone in there." Pardieck said his family had worked vigorously for more than a year to find an alternative use for the building, and had offered it to both the county and city for office space. Those plans fell through. He said the family had no plans for the property at the present See ShieldsPage 2A Tribune file photo Owners of the former Shields High School now plan to tear down the entire structure.

Workers, above, inspect demolition of the small gymnasium earlier this spring. Patriotic singers Comets quench thirst Hit atmosphere, leave tons of water v' i ''Ail Tribune photo by Joe Robbing Laurielle Malone, center, and other fifth-graders at Margaret R. Brown Elementary School in Seymour perform Wednesday during "America, I Hear You Singing," a music program presented by the entire fifth-grade class and arranged by Montie Prince and Lisa Raynor, music teachers. The program featured a patriotic theme. Associated Press Church burns Volunteer firefigthers battle a blaze that started around 5 a.m.

Wednesday at the United Methodist Church in Galveston. Firefighters from nine departments worked more than two hours before bringing the fire under control. The church was built in the early 1900s. Congregation members and neighbors were able to save records and other items from the rear of the building before it was destroyed. Women denied rights LONDON (AP), Despite the promises of 180 countries, millions of women are still denied the right to choose whether to have children, the U.N.

Population Fund said today In its annual report "For many women, denial of sexual and reproductive rights is a matteof life and death," the fund's executive director, Dr. Nafis Sadik, told a news conference. Millions of women are suffering and dying every year, mainly in developing countries in sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia, because of the "massive denial of human rights," she said. According to the report, 585,000 Women still die every year from pregnancy-related causes, the equivalent of one woman every minute. git J' Associated Press Pachyderm picnic Elephants from the Ringling Bros, and Barnum Bailey Circus eat their lunch in Philadelphia's Italian market on Wednesday.

The circus opened in Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Classifieds. Comics. Hometown Report. Obituaries.

-2A Opinion. Record book Sports 6A Television listings. HOW TO REACH US 522-4871 Assembly ends BY GARY R0B81NS The Orange County Register Earth's upper atmosphere is struck thousands of times a day by house-size snowballs that explode, releasing tons of water that may help make life on this planet possible, scientists said Wednesday in confirming a theory that once drew ridicule. Louis Frank, the' University of Iowa physicist who made the discovery, told an American Geophysical Union conference in Baltimore that the snowballs are small comets that created Earth's oceans. Frank said, "This relatively" gentle cosmic rain and its possible simple organic compounds may have nurtured the development of life on this planet." Other scientists said the ori gin of the oceans remains irf question.

But they agreed that new satellite images show Frank was right in saying "water-bearing bodies" explode daily 600 to 15,000 miles above Earth. Frank first made that assertion in 1986, after deciding that black spots on satellite photos of Earth were comets exploding in the atmosphere. The theory elicited criticism from scholars who said Frank was misreading the images. But a powerful new ultraviolet camera on the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's Polar spacecraft distinctly shows that Earth is being struck by snowballs from an undetermined region, of the universe. That water falls as rain and, snow, fostering plant and animal life on Earth, researchers say.

would sing at his church. "Nothing was left but the slab." M. I OKLA. ARK. TEXAS ntt I pmmm- 1 AP special the other two bills, which would help fund the Marion County General Assembly sports and convention projects.

State Rep. William W. Bailey, D-Seymour, said the special session will likely have an effect on the legislative process. "People will be more careful to make sure they ask all the questions and will take less for granted," Bailey said today. "I don't believe the personalities involved will be affected long term." Several winners emerged mm O'Bannon wins compromise pact INDIANAPOLIS (AP) It was a take-it-or-leave-it plan for ending this special session, and legislators took it.

They're 'going home. The General Assembly adjourned early today after passing a five-bill proposal that Democratic Gov. Frank O'Ban-non presented in -hopes of settling a series of partisan impasses. "I think all of us worked together to get my package passed, if we were going to do it in one day, and I think it car session early this morning as the session ended, Bailey added. "Two things finally got done in the month of May the Indy 500 has a winner and so does the Indiana General Assembly the workers of Indiana with workers comp increases, the people who would have faced inheritance taxes up to $100,000 and people who enjoy, the Indiana Pacers or attend functions at the Convention Center in Indianapolis," Bailey said.

"Gov. O'Bannon and Mayor Goldsmith also have to be considered winners from the results of yesterday's extremely lenghty negotiations," he added. a cluster of 50 homes a couple miles from the center of town. Joan Igo, a special education elementary teacher, left her school not long after daughter Audrey, a high school junior, received medals she won in a state choral competition. The twins, John and Paul, would have been sophomores next year.

If the family stayed where they were, all would have survived. The house was totally demolished," Johnson said, recalling how the entire family ried the day," O'Bannon said after shaking hands with members of both parties in the House. Late Wednesday and early this morning, the Legislature approved bills to. raise workers' compensation and unemployment benefits, cut inheritance taxes, and provide funding for a new Indiana Pacers arena, expansion of the Indiana Convention Center and remodeling of the RCA Dome. After private meetings that lasted all day, the Republican-controlled Senate convened late and approved three of five bills that were part of O'Ban-non's proposal.

Senators already had passed into danger," said the Rev. Max Johnson, pastor of the First Baptist Church. The tornado that killed an estimated 27 people in Texas took with it the entire Igo family, leaving behind the foundation to their home. Another 23 people are unaccounted for, which could raise the death toU to 50. Searchers on Wednesday slogged through muddy fields that had been strewn with dead cattle, body parts and debris as they looked for bodies or Tornado's brown swath tells gruesome tale Death toll at 27, may reach 50 JARRELL, Texas (AP) When the tornado alarm sounded, teacher Joan Igo left her classroom.

Her husband, Larry, closed up his auto parts store. Daughter Audrey left "SLUuut to Julii her twin 'lntl! Jarrell's warning siren sounded 10 to 12 minutes before the half-dozen twisters hit Tuesday afternoon. It did little good. "It was too large to outrun and too strong to have survived unless you got away from the path," said AI Dreumont, a National Weather Service forecaster. Swirling at upward of 200 mph and roiling the earth for a half-hour, the twister may have been no more than unforgettable if it had not wandered toward Double Creek Estates, i FiMdoa ers.

They all made it home ahead of the tornado, and it cost them their lives. They actually rushed home TJ.