The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 28

3 (Thf CnrcnuiHe Ntws GREENVILLE Friday, October 18, 1991 3C Of nil BRIEFS In ii UK V' i A 1S il yuyy his father shot and killed Valdon Keith at a roadblock on State Park Road. U.S. marshals and local police arrested Wodke at a motel in Noel, where he was living under an assumed name, authorities said. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services said a de tainer will be placed on Wodke, who also faces a federal firearms charge in Texas. After Wodke serves any other sentences, he will be brought back to South Carolina, Linda Stevenson said.

Wodke, now 25, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1986 for being an accessory to a felony, but the prison time was suspended to By Toby Moore News staff writer A man who disappeared while on probation for his role in the Thanksgiving Day slaying of a state constable in Greenville in 1985 was apprehended Wednesday in Missouri. Samuel Richard Wodke was a passenger in a getaway car when five years of intensive probation. Wodke testified against his father, Samuel Leroy Wodke. The elder Wodke, 46, is serving life plus 25 years at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said. The other man involved, Wilbur Rutledge "Rusty" Corvette is serving 21 years for armed rob bery at the state prison in Manning, she said.

The shooting of the constable followed an armed robbery at the Family Mart on East North Street. The three men were fol: lowed as they fled into the roadblock and sprayed Keith's car with gunfire. They escaped but were later apprehended in West Columbia. Greenville man gets 6-year term in swindle case Jury deliberated about 20 minutes before finding businessman guilty Vt Jro AlOtty ifrte tf'nvfi IjJ :Q.Ll LM i I tT By Matthew Burns News staff writer A Greenville businessman was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday after he was convicted of swindling two customers and pocketing some of the financing he arranged for their home improvements. A seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated about 20 minutes before finding Superior Siding and Window Co.

chairman Rabb Daws Leonard guilty of breach of trust. Leonard, 66, of 1 Prestige Place, remained free late Thursday on bond pending an appeal on the case. Pearl Choice testified Wednesday that she and her husband contracted with Superior Siding in the summer of 1989 for about in repairs to their Taylors home, including a new roof and some vinyl siding. Leonard told the couple that the company also would pay off an old hospital bill they had outstanding in return for higher monthly payments, Mrs. Choice said.

The former Superior Siding salesman who sold the Choices on the repairs said Leonard told him a mortgage company wouldn't finance the home improvement loan unless the hospital bill had been paid off, so the salesman said he negotiated a $2,500 settlement of the bill. But an official of the mortgage company said Leonard told the firm not to worry about the hospital bill and to write up a $9,000 loan for the work to be done on the Choices' house. The hospital bill was never paid, the repair work wasn't completed, the Choices were stuck with the higher payment schedule and Leonard received $7,000 from the mortgage company for the job, according to court testimony. Assistant 13th Circuit Solicitor Mark Meglic told the jury in his closing argument Thursday that Leonard "manipulated the paperwork" to deceive the mortgage company and the Choices and to keep the extra money for himself. But defense attorney Dick Warder maintained that the Choices knew Superior Siding wouldn't pay the hospital bill and that Leonard was only guilty of hiring "unscrupulous siding salesmen" who promised customers things they couldn't deliver and then blamed their boss.

Circuit Judge C. Victor Pyle Jr. sentenced Leonard to 10 years in prison, suspended to six years in jail and five years on probation, and ordered him to pay the $2,500 hospital bill and finish the repairs on the Choices' home. Leonard also faces a number of other charges alleging that he swindled customers out of thousands of dollars by overcharging them for work and using pressure-sales techniques. Meglic said he doesn't know when those cases might come to trial.

Wetlands plan open to comment CHARLESTON The public will be allowed to comment for 60 more days on a federal plan to redefine wetlands that comprise nearly half of South Carolina's coastal plain. South Carolina ranks fourth in the nation in percentage of land considered wetlands under the current definition, said John H. Thorp, soil classification scientist With Westvaco Forest Research in Summerville. i-The amount of land listed Wuld significantly drop under proposed changes to the federal protection, the National Audubon Society reported this week. Around 4.5 million acres, or 23.4 percent of South Carolina is covered under the current delineation.

scientists across the nation are asking President Bush to delay adoption of the federal plan at least a year while the National Academy of Sciences conducts an independent review. The Environmental Protection Agency has extended the Public comment period until Dec. 4. Comments on proposed revisions for the wetlands manual may be sent to Gregory Peck, chief of the Wetlands and Aquatic Resources Regulatory Branch, A104-F, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 401 St.

Southwest, Washington, D.C., 20460. Offshore drilling possible in state MYRTLE BEACH South Carolina may be included on a list of possible gas and oil offshore drilling sites federal officials will be compiling in the next three years, a scientist said. "pe0pie should be aware that, although there may not be immediate plans for exploration off our coast, the potential does exist," said Richard Moore, a biologist at Coastal Carolina College's Center for Marine and Wetland Studies. state has been slow in addressing issues that would arise if an area is chosen for offshore drilling, he said. The federal list will include 250 sites along the East Coast that could be leased for drilling.

Most of, the sites are off the coasts of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, but some are off the South Carolina coast. I rim an company sues state agency I COLUMBIA Soil Purification Inc. has asked that the state Board of Health and Environmental Control be forced to allow operation of a facility near Inman that would treat contaminated soil. tThe board denied the firm's request last month on the grounds that the cleansing method constitutes incineration of waste that is banned under a moratorium imposed by the Legislature last spring. The lawsuit filed in Richland County Circuit Court Wednesday seeks reversal of the board's decision that prevents the opening of the $1.8 million facility.

The firm contends that the heat-induced evaporation of fuel is not affected by the ban and that the company is actually recycling soil. About 40,000 tons of soil a year were to be cleansed by the facility, which was originally seen by DHEC staff as a possible solution to the contamination of soil around some 35,000 leaking gasoline storage tanks. Residents around the facility protested during a DHEC hearing that the facility was an incinerator and that too little was known about by-products. iAfter wavering, the DHEC staff agreed that the freeze on incinerators applies to the project. DHEC officials declined comment.

"Because it's in litigation, we can't comment," agency spokesman Richard Chesley said. Company given OK to apply for loan Southern Bio Products has received approval from Anderson County Council to apply for a $250,000 loan through the governor's office to help launch a biotechnology firm in Pendleton that would develop microorganisms to be used in waste remediation, officials said Thursday. The company would be housed at the Clemson Emerging Technology Center on Westinghouse Road when construction is completed in February, said Tom Zirnmerer, the center's assistant director. iAbout 15-20 people will be employed at the center when Southern Bio Products and another start-up company, Molecular Rx, begin operations in February. Employment will probably double in two years, Zirnmerer said.

Emerging Technology Center was established about four years ago to help Clemson University faculty, students and others convert tfteir ideas and inventions into businesses. Symphony guild's goal $1 00,000 for TV event THE NEWS DAVE EKHEN Richard Long works on a doorway upstairs in one of the YWCA transitional homes on Augusta Road in Greenville YWCA plans to open facility to house women in Greenville joint promotion for the GSO and dealership, Snyder's general manager Tom Joseph said. In previous auctions, local businesses have donated automobiles, vacation trips, buying sprees ana a variety of services. They are then rewarded with television exposure during the auction and tax deductions, Mrs. McQueen said.

She expects many other items, worth between $100 and $5,000 or more, will be donated to be auctioned. She added the guild will announce soon other "important gifts" for bidding. "The auction isn't until next spring," she said, "but a lot Of work goes into putting this fundraiser together. The auction, the fourth to be held by the guild, is our way to help the Greenville Symphony become one of the, best." She invited contributors who wish to donate items to be auc-' tioned to contact the guild at By Blake A. Samson News arts writer The Guild of the Greenville Symphony has set a goal of raising $100,000 at its 1992 GSO Live! television auction, guild president June McQueen announced Thursday.

To help reach the goal, Snyder's Auto Sales and Advantage Mazda, a new dealership scheduled to open soon on Laurens Road, have donated two 1992 Mazda Miatas. One will be auctioned off during the seven-hour auction April 11 on WHNS-TV. The other will be raffled at a drawing April 3 at Fluor Daniel. Raffle tickets are $10 a chance, and proceeds from the raffle will be used to support the guild's fund-raising auction for the Greenville Symphony. Every Mazda sold between now and April 11 also will leave the showroom with a specially prepared tape in its tape deck of the Greenville Symphony playing pops and classical music as a also will have access to a resource library at the YWCA which houses a computer where the women can type resumes and seek better employment resources all in an effort to become self-sufficient.

The YWCA has also started a scholarship endowment fund to help the women attend college. "Right now the fund is $10,000," Ms. Perry said. YWCA officials, volunteers and a host of other contributors helped raised more than $280,000 for the home which also received a $105,000 contribution from the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority, Ms. Perry said.

Ms. Perry said the home, which is under renovation, will cater to single disadvantaged women who are divorced, widowed or battered or who suffer from mental illness. "They will be charged rent and they have to have a source of income such as a part time job in combination with going to school or have a full time job," Ms. Perry said. The women will be able to stay in the shelter for up to two years.

Rent and utilities will cost between $50 and $55 a week, and they also will have access to the fitness and other programs at the YWCA, Ms. Perry said. Women who live at the home By Aliah D. Wright News staff writer An official at the YWCA of Greenville County said Thursday the agency will open a transitional home for women in mid-to-late January. To be located in two duplexes on Augusta Street and Tindal Avenue, the home will house about 22 women and a resident housing manager.

"With half the marriages now ending up in divorce, we're finding so many women that are coming out of divorce situations and don't have a home to go to," said Sallie Perry, director of development and special projects for the YWCA. Greenville growing bumper crop of traffic EPA digging at dump site 'uneventful' GREER The Environ-, mental Protection Agency was in Greer Thursday to do some excavation work at the Elmore industrial waste dump. The digging was The EPA and their contractors unearthed a 3-foot-tall barrel, but the container was empty and extremely decomposed. The Elmore site, which is located near the corner of Sun-nyside Drive and East Poinsett Street, was placed on the EPA's list of most hazardous sites two years ago. Last week, the EPA released the results of groundwater samples and soil borings on the site and determined that there was no immediate health risk, officiats said.

the city, the new computerized traffic signals actually count cars and stagger the signals to move traffic on roads including Wade Hampton Boulevard and Pleas-antburg Drive. Choke points still exist. Plans have been announced in the city for a number of projects addressing its most heavily traveled roads. Interstate 85, which carries vehicles each day, is set for a five-year, $80 million widening project. It will stretch from Anderson County, where work has started on the Saluda River bridge, north to Pelham Road, where bridge work is also under way.

As part of the work, major improvements will be made to smooth out the traffic flow at the interstate's intersection with major commuter routes like Augusta Road and Mauldin Road, officials said. Officials are also designing improvements to Augusta Road to alleviate congestion. Similar work is being planned for Laurens Road, officials said. Workman said residents on the western edge of town are increasingly drawn to shopping areas and work on Greenville's Eastside, leading to an increase in traffic traveling across the city. A project called the Western Corridor is being designed to create a major thoroughfare from the city's west side to smooth out bottlenecks that include a narrow two-lane underpass on Buncombe Street.

More serious problems have to be addressed outside the city limits on the fast-growing Eastside, officials said. Old Spartanburg Road traffic, for example, grew by 25 percent in three years. County Council Chairman Bob Leach said the county has identified $50 million in road needs. said. "We have some places that need attention, but I think we're managing pretty well." Workman said traffic is helped by wide boulevards flowing into the downtown area such as Church Street, which bisects the central city.

A new synchronized traffic light systems also helps move traffic in and out of the city each day, officials said. County Traffic Planner Mark Cunningham said increases on certain routes are hard to analyze. In many cases, he said, large increases in traffic levels can be tied to more commuters favoring a particular route. An increase in business along a road can also cause a jump in traffic. Workman said increased traffic levels in the city also follow the opening of major office buildings and attractions like the Peace Center for the Performing Arts.

To help vehicles enter and exit By Jo Fleischer News staff writer If cars grew on trees, the city of Greenville could boast a bumper crop of vehicles after traffic on some thoroughfares increased by more than 30 percent over three years, according to a recent report. Commuter habits, cross-town shopping and downtown growth are being cited as reasons for the climbing traffic volumes. The statistics were culled from state highway department traffic counting machines between 1987 and 1990 for the Planning Commission report. Some road improvements are scheduled for the city, but Mayor Bill Workman said roads seem to be keeping pace with traffic demands. "We have a good level of service for an urban area, and we're dding everything we can to keep it from getting worse," he.