The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 1

10, VERMONT BICENTENNIAL 1777 1977 MtAMOKt'i Uftit Mit Quoad Ytor Serving Vermont 30 Paget, 20 No. 61 Wednesday, March 2, 1977 FREE PRESS SESOUICENTENNIAl 1827 1977 3a a Ji mp Mr! -on 1 uooa fi Morning, fi I Vermont 1 1 l.i 71 Votes Kill School Hike In Burlington By RUSS GARLAND Free Press Staff Writer One of the heaviest campaigns in support of a tax issue in Burlington Winooski Reelects Brunelle history ended Tuesday with a 71-vote defeat, for the 95-cent school tax hike. The 42-cent city tax hike, which generated far less visible support, passed by only 45 votes. The other three questions on the city election ballot were approved by far larger margins, but none will cost city residents money. School officials, who told voters that the $8.23 million fiscal 1978 school budget would do little more than preserve present operations, had gathered Tuesday evening in the School Department administration building for a get-together, which turned from jubilation to dejection as the night wore on.

Early returns indicated that the school tax ceiling would be lifted to $6.43 by a narrow margin, but final returns brought defeat. Turn to SCHOOL TAX, Page 5A Cloudy Today Considerable cloudiness is forecast for today, with a chance of snow flurries. High is expected to be around 30; low tonight 10 to 15 Page 2A Sports Schoolboy Basketball Burlington 61 Windsor 55 Mt. Anthony 91 Rice 77 Schoolboy Hockey Montpelier 8 Winooski 2 Milton 6 Northfield 4 College Hockey RPI 5 Boston College 4 Dartmouth 3 Harvard 2 Putney: Change National Anthem Tht Associated Press PUTNEY "America the Beautiful" would be prettier and more fitting as a national anthem than the "Star Spangled Banner," voters in this southern Vermont town declared Tuesday. Julie K.S.

Rosegrant, 72, who has served as a library trustee, told people at town meeting that the "Star Spangled Banner" is a war song and was only adopted as the national anthem in the 1930s. "It starts with a question and Free Press Photo by JIM WIISON SCHOOL SUPT. REINHOLZ AND SCHOOL COMMISSIONER STEWART MCCONAUGHY TALK they watched results come in on school tax increase proposal Paquette Reelected Easily I II fM 7 ends with a question," she complained, suggesting that "America the Beautiful" is a more appropriate national anthem. At first voters planned to decide by a show of hands whether to seek a change in national songs. But after lengthy discussion that included a demonstration of both tunes sung by an impromptu duet the town decided to hold a secret ballot.

"American the Beautiful" won on a 87-64 vote. Four Americans Die in Crash By DAVE KRIEGER Free Press Staff Writer Winooski voters reelected Mayor Donald R. Brunelle in a landslide Tuesday and ousted City Coun-cilmen Felix G. Bissonnette and Edward P. Matte, both opponents of Brunelle in the city's heated urban renewal controversy.

Former City Councilman Clement J. Bissonnette, who stands with Brunelle on the urban renewal question, and James W. McCann, brother of State Rep. George A. McCann, D-Winooski, won the City Council seats.

Brunelle immediately called a meeting of the new council for tonight to restore the city's urban renewal commission and end the controversy over that body's right to administer the project. Nearly 46 per cent of Winooski's registered voters cast ballots in the election versus an average turnout in recent years of only 30 per cent. Of nearly 1,600 votes cast in the mayoral race, Brunelle won 1,076, or 67 per cent. Matte, who was running both for mayor and for reelection to his City Council seat, had 265, or 17 per cent. Robert R.

McGregor received 252 votes, or 16 per cent. Matte, who for three months has led the City Council majority opposed to the urban renewal commission, was soundly defeated in his bid for reelection to the council, running last in a field of six. Incumbent Felix Bissonnette ran fifth. Clement Bissonnette, the top vote-getter for City Council, won 29 per cent with 857 votes. McCann won 26 per cent with 75 1 votes.

Former City Councilman Nor-mand J. Shaw ran third, winning 17 per cent with 503 votes. Alan G. Bouffard was fourth with 13 per cent and 365 votes. Felix Bissonnette had 8 per cent with 247 votes and Matte won 7 per cent with 201 votes.

At a victory party Tuesday night, Turn to WINOOSKI, Page 5A I'm sure they would never have gotten out." Safstrom was soundly defeated by Paquette at the Democratic caucus. His strongest platform plank was a call for raises for city employes in the current fiscal year. Both his opponents said the city could not afford that. Porter, who would have been the first Republican mayor in 12 years, said he was hurt by the low turnout. Just less than a third of the city's registered voters cast ballots about average for a March election.

"I knew I had to win big in four and take six," he "I had hoped," the Burlington Savings Bank vice president added, "that this election we had a chance to get the Republicans to unite and see if we could have the two-party system in Burlington again. I think until such time as people get really concerned and interested again it's going to be difficult." Republicans now hold three seats Turn to PAQUETTE, Page 5A 3 By RUSS GARLAND Free Press Staff Writer Burlington Mayor Gordon H. Paquette easily won a fourth term Tuesday, defeating his Republican opponent by 1,477 votes. Paquette, running as a Democrat and Independent, carried all six of the city's wards for a total of 4,621 votes. Republican and Concerned Citizen C.

Howard Porter received 3,144 votes and People's Party candidate Alfred Safstrom had only 395 votes. Paquette, on his way to a victory party, said that his margin of victory was larger than he had expected. "I'm gratified that the people of the city have put that much trust in me," the mayor said. Porter watched the votes being counted in his home in the fourth ward and knew after hearing totals from the first few voting machines that he had lost the race. Paquette, who also lives in Ward 4, carried the North End ward by 112 votes.

The only other ward in which Porter came close to the mayor was Ward 6 where he lost by 88 votes. "I have no regrets, no hard feelings," said Porter Tuesday night. "We worked, we brought out some issues. We made the other candidate work." "I did what I wanted to do," said Safstrom after the election. "I wanted to voice an opinion and get on a platform and talk about a few things.

If I hadn't talked about them Ml Free Press Photo by JIM WIISON BURLINGTON MAYOR PAQUETTE AT VICTORY PARTY he talks with Arte Rotheberg, left Schools Are Statewide Losers on community issues, revenues and taxes. Issues of broader significance, possibly even national significance, were also on some agendas. Twenty-seven Vermont communities supported bans against nu- By FREDERICK W. STETSON Free Press Staff Writer Vermont voters returned to their town halls, schools, municipal buildings and meeting halls Tuesday, to conduct their annual Town Meeting Day business and to make decisions Carter Meets With Soviet Dissident SEOUL, South Korea (AP) A U.S. Army helicopter crashed 40 miles south of Seoul today, killing four American military personnel, a spokesman for the U.S.

8th Army announced. Korean police reported the CH47 copter hit a high-voltage cable in dense fog. The helicopter was assigned to the 19th Aviation Battalion at Camp Humphrey and crashed near the camp, the Army spokesman said. 1 Dead, 9 Trapped Inside Coal Mine TOWER CITY, Pa. (AP) A three-foot-high wall of water rushed through a tunnel in a coal mine Tuesday, killing one miner and trapping nine others about a mile inside a 400-foot mountain, a mine official said.

There was no immediate word on the condition of the trapped men, said Leon Richter, vice president in charge of deep mining for the Kocher Coal Co. Amin Backs Off Some Americans begin leaving Uganda after Ugandan President Idi Amin postponed indefinitely a meeting scheduled today with all Americans in the country Page 4A Living DENTISTS, HYGIENISTS and dental assistants are required by state law to learn a life-saving technique called cardiopulmonary resuscitation Page 7A clear power facilities or the storage of nuclear wastes within their borders. r' An early pattern emerged showing communities more willing to go along with increases in the general' fund than with those in school issues. Burlington voters rejected a 95-cent increase irr the school tax rate by 71 votes, while passing a 42-rent increase in the city tax rate by 45 votes. Barre voters defeated a $4.25 million school budget.

And St. Albans city voters turned down a school tax decisively. 1 In the state's two largest cities, Democratic incumbent mayors were returned to office, Mayor Gordon H. Paquette, carried all six city wards in defeating Republican C. Howard Porter; 4,621 to 3.J14.

People's ty candidate Alfred Safstrom ceived 395 votes'. In Rutland, Mayor Gilbert God-'nick carried all nine wards to win a landslide victory and his third two-year term. He got 3,054 votes, compared to Alderman Terrence A. Barrett with 799 and Alderman William J. Chapleau with 528.

Turn SCHOOLS, Page 5A Bukovsky, according to Eisele, responded in Russian: "I'm extremely grateful. I understood the high honor being shown me by my being received in the White House and I understand that in doing so your administration shows its respect for the movement which I represent and the ideas which we stand for." Bukovsky, whose civil rights activities led him to spend 12 of his 34 years in Russian prisons, was released from a Soviet jail in December. His feedom was tied to Chile's release of Luis Corvalan, a Chilean Communist who then met with Leonid Brezhnev on the Soviet leader's 70th birthday. Turn to CARTER, Page SA But the White House has been sensitive to the way the Bukovsky meeting is viewed and refused to allow photographers and reporters into the meeting for even a brief period. Pictures were allowed, however, during a 30-minute meeting between Bukovsky and Vice President Walter F.

Mondale. Carter walked into the Mondale-Bukovsky meeting during its last 10 minutes. Mondale's press secretary, Al Eisele, reported on both meetings. According to Eisele, Carter told Bukovsky: "Our commitment to the concept of human rights is permanent and I don't intend to be timid in my public statements and positions." WASHINGTON (AP) President Carter, meeting Tuesday with Soviet dissident Vladimir K. Bukovsky, told his White House visitor that he will not be "timid" in his pronouncements on human rights and that the U.S.

"commitment to the concept of human rights is permanent." But Carter said he wants his public statements on human rights to be "productive and not counterproductive." In the face of strong Soviet protests over Carter's human rights pronouncements, the President told Bukovsky that he wanted "to assure that our own nation and countries other than the Soviet Union are constantly aware that we want to Solzhenitsyn Speaks Exiled Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn emerges from seclusion to greet his neighbors for the first time at the Cavendish town meeting Page 3B pursue the freedom of individuals and their right to express themselves." Carter's 10-minute visit with Bukovsky in the Roosevelt Room, across a hallway from the Oval Office, was in marked contrast with former President Gerald R. Ford's refusal to meet Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who now lives in Cavendish, in Windsor County. Vermonters Resist Nuclear Power I Today's Index i voters there decided to ban storage and transportation. They never considered plant construction. The question was on the Warning in Westminster but the outcome was not available late Tuesday night.

f' Towns which did adopt' anti-nuclear measures ranging from general policy statements to mandates for towrt ordinances are: Brookline, Guilford, Jamaica, Marlboro and Putney in Windham County; Benson, Clarendon, Chittenden, Middletown Springs, Mount Holly, Pawlet, Pittsford, Shrewsbury and West Haven in Rutland County; Fairlee, Newbury and Thetford in Orange County; Berlin, Plainfield and Woodbury in Washington County; Barnet, Danville and Stannard in Caledonia County; Norwich and Weston in Windsor County; Charlotte in Chittenden County; Fairfield in Franklin County; Grand Isle in Grand Isle County; and Brunswick in Essex County, in Putney, only about 10 miles from the state's only atomic power plant at Vernon, residents approved the anti-nuclear questions by a margin of nearly 2-1 despite pro-nuclear arguments by former U.S. Sen. George Aiken. The nuclear vote generally considered most critical to the nuclear power industry will be in Brattleboro at that town's representative meeting March 19. Brattleboro is on the transportation route to the Vermont Yankee plant at Vernon.

1 The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, which initiated the anti-nuclear move, claimed victory Tuesday night. pone a decision on the atomic power and waste questions until a special town meeting which will be held at a time not yet determined. In many towns the nuclear question was decided on voice votes unanimous in at least three small towns. Among towns for which hand counts or Australian ballot totals were available late Tuesday, the margins ranged anywhere from Pawlet's fairly close 229-165 to Fairlee's 73-18. Most towns considered three-point questions to cover construction and operation of reactors, storage of waste and transportation of materials through the town.

Not all the towns considered or voted on all three parts. The matter was brought up from the floor in Brunswick in Essex County and By BILL BRAUN Free Press Staff Writer Vermonters said "no" to nuclear power plants, atomic waste storage andor transportation in at least 28 towns around the state Monday night and Tuesday. There were only three known ripples in a sea of town meeting votes approving anti-nuclear stances. Voters in Waterville effectively killed an anti-nuclear measure by tabling it after it was brought up from the floor at the close of the meeting. In Castleton late Monday night, voters decided by a 65-63 margin not to add a transportation ban to the town's year-old prohibition against the construction of nuclear power plants and the storage of nuclear wastes.

And In Orwell, it was decided to post 1 OA IB Comics Editorial 12A eeeeeeeea 8A Money A Sports 6B Newi? Call the Free Prett 863-3441 .3 i.