Statesman Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page 2

LOCALAVORLD Paga 2A Statesman Journal, Salem, Friday, October 6, factions agree to cease-fire, pea sma Negotiations on ending the war are to begin Oct 25 in the United States. The Associated Press ZAGREB, Croatia Bosnia's combatants agreed Thursday to a 60-day cease-fire and new talks on ending their ZVi years of carnage, taking one big step closer to a peace settlement that U.S. troops would help police. The accord on the cease-fire was reached during the strongest U.S. push yet for peace in Bosnia.

In announcing the agreement, President Clinton in Washington acknowledged that i30 night Tuesday (4:01 p.m. PDT Monday). But U.S. officials 6ay that deadline might have to be extended if utilities are not restored to Sarajevo by then a key demand of the Bosnian government. Facing a fourth winter of war with Serbs still surrounding their capital, Bosnian officials insisted on secure supplies of gas and electricity.

Utility lines go through Serb territory and repeatedly have been cut to put pressure on Sarajevo. If the utility work cannot be done in time, the cease-fire will take effect the day after it is com In the northern Serb stronghold of Banja Luka, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said he saw no reason to take back by force territory Serbs recently have lost. "We want peace, and we have to be practical," he said. Under the agreement, signed by Bosnian President Alija Izet-begovic and Bosnian Serb leaders including Karadzic, peace talks will be held in the United States beginning Oct. 25, and later in Paris.

The Muslim-led government army and rebel Serbs will halt all offensive actions, including mine-laying and sniping, at mid- Telecommuting helps environment wytisnnDecision on penalty up in air Reduced traffic would be a step toward improving air quality. By Larry Roby The Statesman Journal Oregonians drive nearly 30 billion miles a year and much of that is to and from work, accounting for 40 percent of the energy consumption in the state. The state Department of Energy says a way to reduce that energy use has to be found. Officials are encouraging private companies and public agencies to help by letting employees stay at home to do their work. It's called telecommuting replacing actual travel to work with computers, telephones and fax machines.

Kathy King, the state's primary cheerleader for telecommuting, said nobody knows how many people are telecommuting now, but she estimates that about 300,000 Oregonians have the types of jobs and dispositions that lend themselves toward Continued from Page 1 A Gorham thinks the district attorney's office is simply reluctant to decide about the death penalty. "I want them to take a position," Gorham said. "I don't want them to sit on the fence." Abar said his office needs to do more investigation before prosecutors can decide if the death penalty is appropriate in this case. Oregon law requires jurors to answer "yes" to four questions before a defendant can be sent to death row. If any one of the 12 jurors answers "no" to just one question, the defendant cannot be executed.

One of the questions, for example, is whether the defendant is likely to commit other acts of violence. That question may be difficult to prove because Whitson had no history of violence before the Scotts Mills shooting. Whitson, who lived in Seattle, was arrested Sept. 11 shortly after his estranged savor trend ce talks pleted, Alexander Vershbow, special assistant to Clinton for Euro-" pean affairs, said in Washington. Holbrooke earlier had won agreement on a 51 percent-49 percent division of Bosnia in favor of the government and its Croat allies, and a post-war power-sharing agreement.

The exact division of territory remains to be worked out, however, and the complex power-sharing arrangement risks a return to the ethnic-based paralysis that led to war in April 1992. WARY: Residents suspicious of truce. Page 7A What's next David Whitson has a hearing scheduled for Oct 27, at which time Judge Rodney Miller will try to determine if Whitson seems competent to aid in his own defense. If Miller has doubts, he can order Whitson to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. wife, Laura Whitson, and the couple's three daughters were gunned down outside Laura's Scotts Mills home.

Laura, 36; Sarah, Rachel, and April, 5 months, all died at the scene. Laura's mother, Margaret Magee, suffered a gunshot wound to the arm, but was not seriously injured. Although Whitson originally was on a suicide watch at the" jail, he no longer wants to kill himself, Gorham said. "His present wishes are to-die," Gorham said. "The dif-." ficulty is how to get there.

He doesn't want to commit sui-' cide." tailer to start reorganization plans. The company, which! failed in a business expansion' into Washington state during the 1990s, owes more than" 5,000 creditors $71 million. Choruby said he was in-; formed of Perris' decision to close the stores at 7 p.m. The! closure marks the second time; Smith's has halted business. The first shut down came! Aug.

25, when Smith's closed; all 18 stores in three states be-'; cause it couldn't meet payroll! for some employees. The com-'. pany never reopened its Wash-' ington stores. Perris' order in the wee hours; of Sept. 1 allowed Smith's to continue business in Idaho and; Oregon.

Since then, Smith's repeat-; edly has fought off who until Thursday were un-! successful in convincing Perris that the company wasn't viable. The company came close to! losing its Oregon and Idaho stores late last month, but Smith's Chief Executive Officer Glen A. Grodem temporarily bailed the company out with a $350,000 loan. Grodem couldn't be reached Thursday. Correction Because of an editing error, the location of the governor's stop of an erratic driver was in- correct in Thursday's Statesman Journal.

The stop was made on Wallace Road NW near Lincoln. unresolved problems remained before it takes effect Tuesday. "We need to be clear-eyed about this," he said. "It matters what the parties do, not just what they say." NATO planners said they would hasten work on a military force to help enforce an eventual peace arrangement The United States would commit about 20,000 troops to such a force, but is saying they would not enter Bosnia until a final peace deal is signed. Citing progress toward peace, the United Nations announced that it could cut its troops in Bosnia by one-third, or 9,000.

It working from home. King, who works for the Energy Department, said the state's pioneering effort with telecommuting shows an average of 30 percent reduction in travel because of fewer trips to and from the workplace. "We believe that telecommuting has the potential to become one of Oregon's most effective strategies for reducing automobile travel," she said. King thinks telecommuting will save energy by reduced travel, help clean the air by putting fewer vehicles on the roads and reduce highway construction and maintenance costs. "Telecommuting is expanding the work force for employers and providing more job opportunities for employees," she said.

That has been the case of Oregon Mutual Insurance Co. of McMinnville. Human resources director Jenny Sherman said telecommuting has made Oregon Mutual a more attractive employer. "We are in a bit of a remote location for some of the technical Pros and cons Telecommuting advantagesdisadvantages: Advantages for employer Greater productivity by employees. Higher employee morale.

Helps retain valued employees and recruit top-quality new ones. Expands access to broader labor market, including people with disabilities, part-time and semi-retired workers and those who live far distances from the office. Less sick leave and absenteeism. Advantages for telecommuter Fewer commutes save time, energy and money and reduce stress. Quieter work environment with fewer distractions.

More flexibility and greater control of their work schedules and the state Legislature, agrees that telecommuting is in its pioneering stage in Oregon. The reluctance of businesses to adopt telecommuting doesn't mean it is a bad idea, she said. "It's like anything new people question it," Lewis said. "But in the long run, businesses will accept it and see its advantages. "That doesn't mean you will find a majority of people working from their homes, but it will become commonplace in the future." The future already has arrived for Bill Wilhelmi.

He averages one or two days a week of telecommuting from Salem with Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis. He likes his flexible work BICYCLES Smith'sSalem workers aren't sure what's next was not known how long the withdrawals would take. Warring forces in Bosnia continued to battle for strategic territory. But in contrast to countless failed truces, they seemed to want this cease-fire. The U.S.

official who negotiated it. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, shed his normally cautious demeanor Thursday after shuttling around the Balkans. "Today marks another important step forward, undeniably a big step forward," Holbrooke said in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. "We're pleased with where we are." skills we need," she said, "and telecommuting is used as a recruitment tool so that we are able to attract those skills here and take advantage of them." Tomo Maruta, a computer program analyst for the company, represents that type of employee. He lives in Beaverton 45 to 50 minutes from McMinnville and cuts his commute time because he is allowed to work from his home one day a week.

"It is a long commute," Maruta said, "and a programmer's job doesn't really require meeting with the customers. "In my case, I like to be alone and be really quiet," he said. "That way I can concentrate more on my job. In my case, it works at home just me and my computer." King said if a company chooses telecommuting as an alternate work mode, it should develop formal policies and guidelines to let employees know the precise obligations of the employer and employee in the telecommuting relationship. When labor unions are in their lives.

Telecommuters generally are more efficient, produce higher-quality work and feel trusted by their employers. Disadvantages Time and energy needed to deal with new approaches to managing people, liability, security and labor unions. Perception by some employees that telecommuting is unfair, because not everyone can or should telecommute. Impact on coworkers who may need to perform extra tasks when the telecommuter is out of the office. Telecommuters miss out on impromptu meetings and casual conversations that generate new ideas and solutions to problems.

Initial cost of necessary equipment and computer software. Source: Oregon Department of Energy schedule, primarily because he gets to spend more quality time with his family. "It's too bad to spend your best working hours pouring your heart into the everyday work world and let the family get the daily leftovers," Wilhelmi said. "I would rather the family get some of the prime time." And they do lunch with his wife and being able to go to his daughter's softball games right after school. "After the game, I can go back out (to his home office) and finish my work or maybe I will cook dinner and after that I will go back to work," he said.

"It all balances out," Wilhelmi said. "People at work aren't questioning people about their hours. mm Ism. volved, King said it is vital that they be included in working out the details of the telecommuting agreement. "Unions are concerned with two issues equity and productivity when telecommuting is being considered," she said.

Not all employees will get to telecommute, King said, because not everybody is suited to do it, and unions need to understand that. Further, she said, unions will want to protect their members from being overworked in an atmosphere where production is measured and production goals are set at increasingly high levels. "There is some concern that telecommuting could lead to a high-tech version of sweatshops," King said. "If you don't bring in the union from the beginning, you will have nothing but problems all the way down the line," she said. "And that could mean failure for telecommuting." You have your job to do, and they expect you to do it.

You put in the hours to get the job done, and most of us put in more than 40 a week." Private businesses and public agencies have been willing to experiment with telecommuting, but each has kept a low profile on the practice for different reasons. Many state agency heads worry that taxpayers won't trust public employees who work from their homes. That's one reason it took six months to convince the state to allow telecommuting, King said. The policy didn't become effective until Aug. 1.

"There was the concern that the public would perceive telecommuting state employees to be staying at home watching soap operas and eating bonbons and not working," she said. When state employee Gwen Ulrey works from her Keizer home, she vows that the taxpayers are getting their money's worth. Ulrey said she does some of her best work from home, where she can take advantage of precious, uninterrupted quiet time. As the credit administrator for the state Department of Energy's loan program, Ulrey said she can get through highly complex financial statements and documents when she has zero interruptions. She said she develops more creative solutions to problems, and generally improves the quality of her work when she works from home.

In the two or three days a month that she works from home, Ulrey said, "I usually end up working through the lunch hour and on past normal quitting time because I'm on a roll." I not 3. 11 MT. Continued from Page 1 A "It means I have two hours less travel time that day, save about $5 a day in gas, and it's nice to be able to turn up that music while I work," Heath said. "The big thing is the amount of time saved in travel." Heath, a computer programmer, has been telecommuting one day a week for IV2 years. He said eventually he would like to expand it to two days.

He is among the handful of Hewlett-Packard employees estimated to be less than 5 percent of the plant's 5,000 workers tuned into the telecommuting trend. In June, Hewlett-Packard formally endorsed telecommuting as something it would offer its employees. For several years, the company experimented informally with telecommuting. The experiments generally were successful, so Hewlett-Packard officially embraced the concept. "It is the acceptance by the company that not all a person's 'work has to be done at his desk," 'said Marcy Eastham, community relations director for the company.

"It also means that the company is involved in work-family issues and that not everyone's Jwork day can be from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday," she said. Kathy King, who manages the state's telecommuting program ifor the public and private sec- tors, said telecommuting is in its 'infancy in Oregon, and many pri-jvate businesses and public agencies cautiously are exploring whether it's the way they should do business. Donna Lewis, vice president of I Associated Oregon Industries, which lobbies for businesses at Continued from Page 1 A Lawyers for Nations, Transamerica, Whirlpool and Maytag four major creditors who pushed Thursday for Smith's closure plan to meet with the company early next week. One option is sending the company into Chapter 7, a bankruptcy proceeding that means appointing a trustee and having a liquidation sale. Meanwhile, employees at the company's Wilsonville headquarters weren't putting much stock in reopening.

After hearing news reports of the closure, about a dozen people had cleaned out their desks and loaded their belongings into cars. Employees in Salem also were stunned by the news, which they heard Thursday evening in a televised bulletin on TV sets in the store at 2235 Lancaster Drive NE. They apparently knew nothing beyond that news report. "We arc open right now. We're open until 9 o'clock," employee Ken Correia said at 7:30 p.m.

"When we shut the doors, we don't know what happens after that." Employees are hopeful for reopening. "We're all going to hang in here and hope for the best," said Correia, who has worked at Smith's for six months. "It's a very good place to work." Smith's employs about 400 people. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Aug. 22, a move that fended off debtors and allowed the re EVERGREEN GOLF CLUB SALE BUY ONE 18 HOLE ROUND AND GET ANOTHER 18 HOLE ROUND FREE.

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