The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 19

nrluujtmt Deaths. 2B Chittenden Roundup Your 5B Classified 6B Sunday, June 1, 1986 "5 vtissing Adults: bp roblems for Kin Poiicit Police put out a "be on the lookout" call to patrol cars, fied' By DANICA KIRKA Free Press Staff Writer Craig Alexander's parents hoped last year's spring thaw would 41 I 1 bring a clue. Alexander, then 23, had packed up his car, grabbed the leftover pizza from the dinner table and rushed out on a snowy evening Jan. 22, 1985, to drive back to college in New Hampshire. Four days later, Gene Alexander found his son's car buried under a drift in front of the Lane Press building in Burlington.

"After a month, we didn't think we were looking for a live person," Mr. Alexander said. Alexander's parents waited for the snow to melt, hoping that if he had been killed, they would at least find the body. But there was no i ALEXANDER ft trace. "There's not much sense in hoping week to week they'll find him," said his mother, Lynn.

"Just like the MIAs you can't conclusively say he's gone." Although nationwide efforts have sprung up to find missing children, finding a missing adult presents a number of difficulties for families and for law enforcement officials. In Vermont, 43 adults were reported missing last month; about half of them were found, according to Lt. Richard Boyden, director of the Crime Information Center in the state. If those under 18 are included, about 55 to 80 persons are reported missing monthly. Because adults have the freedom to pick up and leave report wun ine ixaiionai crime iniormauon center ComputerLand checked with friends and relatives.

Police say it is easier for adults to disappear if they want to. "With an adult, they're more accessible to cash," Button said. "We have to expand the area (of the Police checked to see if any of the checks Craig Alexander had with him when he disappeared were cashed out of town. The advent of the jet age has meant that someone who wants to be missing can be on the other side of the nation within hours. Police become especially concerned when a disappearance is out of character, as in the case of 30-yearrold Russ Bdvit, who disappeared in Walden May '6.

State Police Detective Sgt. Richard Perry said it was unusual for Bovit to be out of touch with his family. "It's just hard to figure," Perry said. "We don't have a motive for his disappearance." Bovit is described as being 6 feet, 160 pounds with blue eyes and dark brown graying hair. His car was found in a ditch on a back road near Cole's Pond in Walden.

Foul play is suspected in the case. The ordeal is not over for law enforcement once a missing adult is found, Boyden said, because an adult can stay missing if he or she so chooses. "The finding agency is left out in left field," Boyden said. "If I asked a person to go back to the police station to call his wife, am I violating his rights?" Perry said the disappearance of Jean. Ellen Caccavaro, a Newbury waitress, who vanished 8'j years ago from Vermont and was only recently found in Massachusetts, is the perfect example of someone who intentionally dropped out of sight.

"She just showed up we didn't know what to think," Perry said. "She just decided she just didn't want to stick around." A state trooper visited the mother of five, who was 31 when she disappeared, to check her fingerprints and positively identify her. Many of the relatives of the missing, like Lillian Metcalf, 68, of Rutland, never stop looking. Mrs. Metcalf has tried almost everything to find her husband, William, who disappeared Sept.

17. Mr. Metcalf, 71, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, went for a walk with some of his fellow patients at a Rutland rest home and never came back. The agencies that search for missing children were not able to help Mrs. Metcalf.

She has called in a psychic, written to the Dear Abby newspaper column and considered hiring a private detective. "We're a city of 20,000 people and not one single clue?" she said. Police began searching immediately in an effort that included helicopters, dogs, house-to-house searches, she said. However, information on the disappearance was not immedi disappearing does not break any laws police in many states do not start searching for a missing adult for 24 -t 71 hours. Missing children, unlike adults, are seen as being defenseless, according to Linda Barker, executive director of Washington Victim-Witness services a private, non-profit group.

"There's something about a fresh face on a milk carton that grips your heart," Barker said, referring to a campaign in which missing children's photographs are printed on the containers. But, she said, "You never think about your mother disappearing. No one is looking for those adults. It's not an issue." BOVIT Burlington police usually start searching immediately for a missing person adult or child according to criminal division Commander Glendon Button. When searching for Craig Alexander, as in most adult missing persons eases, police took into account his past history and any possible reasons for his disappearance, Button said.

He was not a particr'arly adventurous type, his parents said, and was really much too fond of creature comforts to risk roughing it on his own. The student, described as being 6 feet tall with blond hair and a beard, would rather ride than walk and would never leave his "wheels" behind. ately publicized and when a neighbor saw William Metcalf standing in front of his Rutland home the day after he left the rest home, the neighbor thought nothing of it. She did not know he was Craig missing. in the Turn to MISSING, 4B head Free Press Photo by JYM WILSON Alexander's shirts lay across the bed and his boots stand on the floor bedroom of the Burlington home he left the night of Jan.

22, 1985, to back to college in New Hampshire. Easy Bovine Hormone Clears First Test By FDA Officials Fix Seen By Utility By SARAH WILSON Free Press Capital Bureau JOHNSON Bankruptcy would not necessarily solve problems at the Vermont Electric 7 y-jty ptf Syy if If. 7 7 I Kb A' AW Cooperative or even bring rates down, ratepayers were told at the co-op's annual meeting Saturday. "Bankruptcy may sound great, but experience in By STEVE ROSENFELD Free Pross Correspondent The synthetically produced bovine growth hormone, which substantially increases a cow's milk production, has cleared the first of two tests required before it can be approved for commercial use. The U.S.

Food and Drug Administration ruled in late May that the genetically engineered protein that naturally occurs in cows is safe for human consumption, according to Rep. James M. Jeffords, R-Vt. The FDA's focus now will shift to the substance's effect on cows and their offspring, a process which may take several years to complete, said Steve Kerr, Jeffords' aide. Preliminary tests, however, have shown "There aren't going to be any long-term effects to offspring," Kerr said.

Said Jeffords. "Eventually, it will be used." More than any other recent technological advance to boost a cow's milk production, the growth hormone's impact on the surplus-ridden: milk industry is expected to be revo-. lutionary. University tests have shown the hormone has increased milk more than 40 percent, although in-, creases of 15 percent to 20 percent' are being eyed for a commercial product. In contrast, the federal da- iry buyout, intended to eradicate th nation's milk surplus, will cut the milk supply by 9 percent.

Last weekend, following the FDA ruling, Jeffords and Kerr went to St. Louis to observe cows being given various doses of the hormone for in-J house tests by Monsanto, one of three large drug companies developing commercial hormone. The most striking aspect of the! visit, Jeffords said, was the absence of signs of physical stress in Monsan- to's herd. "You cannot see problems even- though they were getting five times i Turn to COW, 4B: other places is beginning to NORTHROP that it will not be a sure-fire show fix," said Robert Northrop, quick president of the board of trustees. Free Press Photo by MARK SASAHARA Vermont Electric Cooperative President Robert Northrup received varying degrees of attention from about 200 people in the audience at the utility's annual meeting Saturday at Johnson State College.

Vermont Electric Co-Op Facing Long, Hard Fight for Survival Sierra Club Gives Approval to Leahy Confronting a sometimes angry crowd of about 200, Northrop repeatedly asked for patience. He told the group the board and management are doing everything they can to determine the best course for the utility, which is nearly $100 million in debt. Ratepayers were clearly frustrated. "This isn't the time for business as usual. This is the time for panic.

I don't hear pdiiic," said Armand Beli-veau of Williston. "Power is not a luxury, it's a necessity," another member complained. Norman Rolband of Johnson complained the board is trying to blame other groups like the Rural Electrification Administration which holds most of the huge co-op debt for the organization's problems. He said the co-op is so far in debt it will never get out, and should be dissolved. The comment drew enthusiastic applause.

But co-op lawyer Bennett Greene said the utility cannot dissolve without figuring out how to pay its debts. Northrop promised decisions would be made in July, when a variety of studies have been completed. "I don't think it's time to panic. We are going to make hard decisions and soon," he said. Harvey Salgo, an economist who has been hired as a consultant, said it is not clear what would happen if Vermont Electric went bankrupt.

He said the first cooperative in the country to file for bankruptcy did so a year ago, and officials at the Turn to NO, 4B wants to bring the rates down. "I think the bottom line for us has got to be the ratepayer," he said. "The only purpose of the co-op should be to provide competitive rates with good service." Northrop said he hoped a decision on the co-op's future would be made by the end of June. But he said there are no easy answers. "I can tell you without any hestitation this has been one of the most stressful times in my life," he said.

"There are enormous decisions being made." Vermont Electric's problems unwise investments, poor management and bad luck have been building for years. Observers say it must raise.rates, sell assets or excess power contracts, sell out to other utilities, reorganize under the protection of the bankruptcy court or substantially reduce its debt. Co-op officials are trying to persuade the federal Rural Electrification Administration the utility's main creditor at $61 million to take the unprecedented step of swallowing some of the debt. Northrop said if the co-op is to survive, the federal government must recognize it is nartlv to blame for the problems by reducing the debt payments. The most recent crisis was alleviated Friday when trustees, facing a June 16 deadline for an overdue S900.000 REA payment, learned they would receive a $1.4 million REA loan.

But another payment is due June 30 and the co-op does not expect to have the money. Vermont Electric also cannot pay several hundred thousand dollars every month toward generating projects it partly owns, or power contracts. "The feeling was that we could become a power broker buy and sell power and make a profit. Well, it simply hasn't worked out that way," Northrop said. "It Turn to ELECTRIC, 4B By SARAH WILSON Free Press Capital Bureau MONTPELIER The fate of the Vermont Electric Cooperative hangs in the balance this summer.

Events of the next few weeks and months will determine whether the small non-profit utility survives. The result will affect the pocketbooks of 10,500 households and small businesses across Vermont. It also may take the state into uncharted waters; only one cooperative in the United States has declared bankruptcy and its case is still unresolved. Vermont Electric, based in Johnson, serves rural regions of northern and southeastern Vermont. In the 1970s, with the approval of state and federal officials, it went into the power sales business, investing in nuclear plants with the expectation of selling power and keeping in-state rates low.

But the nuclear industry ran into serious trouble, oil prices dropped and the cooperative now sells power for less than it pays for it, while struggling to meet crippling debt payments. Rates, already the highest in the state by 25 percent, would have to rise 300 to 500 percent to finance the co- nv rtrtl. inn rtk tors. There are no stockholders to help absorb losses. "The kinds of rates you'd need are politically and socially unacceptable probably," Public Service Board Chairman Louise McCarren said last week.

She said land values apparently already are lower in Vermont Electric service areas than in neighboring towns because of high electric costs. Higher rates would dampen economic development, she said, creating "economic disaster" in those regions. Squeezed between unpaid bills and ratepayers unwilling and unable to pay more for their electricity, the coop's board of trustees is moving on several fronts to seek a solution. President Robert Northrop said the board By JOHN DONNELLY The Associated Press MONTPELIER Sen. Patrick J.

Leahy, Saturday picked up his second campaign endorsement in two days, with the Sierra Club announcing it would support his re-election bid. At a Statehouse rally that attracted about 75 Leahy supporters, Vermont Sierra Club Chairman Larry Sherwood said the national club had determined Leahy has backed every environmental bill supported by the group. be more than just having a perfect environmental record," Sherwood said. "We expect them to be leaders. Senator Leahy has been a leader, and has brought Vermont's environmental ethic to Washington." Friday, the Vermont chapter of the National Education Association, the largest teacher union in the state with 6,000 members, endorsed Leahy.

Vermont's junior U.S. senator also has won the endorsement of the Vermont Alliance of Conservation Voters, which represents a number; of non-profit environmental groups. Sherwood, a Brattleboro resident, said the Sierra Club's nine-member! executive committee examined Re- publican U.S. Senate contender Rich- ard A. Snelling's environmental record and also found it to be pro-, environment.

But he added, "Snelling wouldn't'; be the superstar on environmental issues that Pat Leahy has been." Rey Post, Snelling's campaign: manager, played down the endorse1-; ment. He said Saturday that Snelling iiaii a strung environmental record, and predicted many environmental-; ists would vote for him. "In the total scheme of things, an" endorsement in and of itself is lest important because Vermonters have! an independent streak," Post, "An endorsement by itself, free- standing, does not guarantee victory? or defeat." The Sierra Club's endorsement which caught the Snelling campaign by surprise, came two days before Turn to LEAHY, 21.