The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 17

(Etj? urltngtott Deaths 2B Court News Your View 4B Chittenden Rndp 7B Sunday, December 9, 1 984 Wright Gets Democrats' Nod for Speakership By DEBORAH SLINE In his acceptance speech Wright stressed do the same. "I wish you success and I would hope the members of this caucus would get behind you and support you to the end," Zampieri said after the vote. ms pian to oe as non-partisan ana lair a speaker as possible. "The speaker represents all members not just a specific group," he said. "Should we be successful in our quest for the speakership, our friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle can expect no less." influence in the House.

Wright, 49, faces a tough battle for the post when the Republican-dominated House convenes Jan. 9, however. His GOP opponent will be chosen from among four contenders when the 78 Republican representatives caucus next Saturday. At this point, Majority Leader Robert Kinsey of Craftsbury is considered the likely party nominee. Wright must keep all 72 Democrats united behind him and also steal some Republican support to win the speaker's contest "I think we're going to do it!" he said after his nomination.

Democratic House members. The victor received warm congratulations minutes later from Democratic Madeleine Kunin, who told the caucus the longtime minority party has a critical opportunity to forge change in the months ahead. "We're making history, all of os, in that sense," Kunin said. "We've got to make the most of it." Winning the speakership would give Democrats an unparalleled triumvirate of power in the next biennium: control of the governor's office and the state Senate and key Free Press Capital Bureau MONTPELIER The resurgent state Democratic Party has picked Rep. Ralph -Wright as the party's standard-bearer in the fight for the House speakership one month today.

Wright, a Bennington teacher who rose to prominence as minority leader during his past term, defeated Rep. John Zampieri of Ryegate by a 45-27 vote of Democratic House representatives during a Saturday morning party caucus at the Statehouse. The '72 votes reflected a 100 percent turnout by Because House members choose their speaker by secret ballot, the emergence of an unexpected, write-in candidate always is possible. However, Zampieri has said he would not mount a candidacy on the floor if he failed to win his party's nomination, and he underscored that position Saturday. Turn to DEMOCRATS, 9B Zampieri, 43, who has served two decades in the House compared to Wright's six years, was viewed as a formidable opponent by Republicans because of his conservative leanings.

He vowed Saturday to support Wright, however, and urged his followers to COUNTY Chittenden County Slow Tackling Welfare Fraud problem right now," he said. "And I have not given up hope." Bradley admitted that welfare fraud was not given top priority by his office. "I can't say we haven't neglected the welfare cases to some degree. We have. But we have changed the priority at where they sat in the past," he said.

"We're starting to ADDISON 8 TSyjCl BENNINfeTON 7 'Tg3 CALEDONIA 20 FRANKLIN 6 TZZTTgl LAMOILLE 5 2S3 ORLEANS 12 TtistM ORANGE 7 TESTS'- RUTLAND 12 51 I WASHINGTON; 14 WINDHAM 21 0'3' WINDSOR i 22 'TrziJZTZ-Ti 3 4' By SUSAN YOUNGWOOD Free Press Staff Writer Chittenden County's record of prosecuting welfare fraud lags far behind that of Vermont's other counties, statistics from the Welfare Fraud Division of the Social Welfare Department show. Of 71 cases referred to State's Attorney Kevin Bradley's office in the past two years, there have been four convictions and 10 dismissals. In the last year, 34 out of 36 cases have not been resolved. Bert Smith, director of the Welfare Fraud Division, said he has not been notified of any disposition on the remaining 57 cases. Over the same time period, Vermont's other counties handled 242 cases, resolving nearly three-quarters, half with convictions.

Also, Smith said, 17 cases of welfare fraud left by Mark Keller, state's attorney before Bradley, have not been resolved. The total of 74 unresolved cases, Smith said, amounts to about $157,000 defrauded from the state. One case, the largest welfare fraud in at least two years, according to Smith, went unhandled for a year after Welfare Fraud referred it to the state's attorney. Thomas Kolich of Colchester was charged on Dec. 3 with welfare fraud of more than $47,000, 19 days before the statue of limitations would have expired.

"I will not comment on any particular record of a state's attorney," Smith said. "We're concerned about any record where there's a lot of pending cases. All I can tell you is there is no other county with such figures." He said a meeting of department officials is planned next week to discuss the issue. "We're diligently working on this vuai avm vi uicac: tarns again. Of the 74 unresolved cases, Bradley said about 20 have been or will be brought to court this month.

Some cases, he said, were sent back to Welfare Fraud for more work, or a decision was made not to prosecute. Of the remaining 40-plus cases, "They're in a filing cabinet over in the investigator's office," Bradley said. "We knew that they were here," he said. "It's not as if they've been Turn to COUNTY, 9B "As of September 1, the Welfare Fraud Division has made no referrals to State's Attorneys in GRAND ISLE or ESSEX counties. "Referred by Welfare Fraud Division to State's Attorneys Free Press Illustration by JOHN PYIE Figures show county-by-county handling of welfare fraud cases for the period July 1 1983, to June 30, 1984.

School District May Discipline Business Manager showed the Ticehurst family has made $300 in payments toward the bill, the first coming in October, a month after the citizens committee began its review. Ticehurst said last week he has paid $300. He said $100 has been taken out of his last two biweekly paychecks. "It's on the computer," Ticehurst said. "I have a bill.

I'm well aware of it and so is the board." Fay said the village has no policy or penalty provision for delinquent Turn to SCHOOL, 8B and avoid taxes on major items. A $130 air tour of the Grand Canyon taken by Superintendent Glenn M. Fay during a conference in Arizona in April Fay said he charged only half the cost to the district. Ticehurst, 45, is paid $40,100 a year and has been the business manager for the Chittenden Central School District for almost seven years. Chittenden Central is the supervisory school union for the village of Essex Junction and the town of Westford.

The district's investigation is looking into allegations that as of September Ticehurst, of Winooski, had made no payments toward the tuition for his son, Stephen, who was graduated 18 months ago from Essex Junction High School. Ticehurst has since paid $300 of $4,700 owed. The Ticehursts were sent a bill in June 1983 for $4,700 to cover the cost of the junior and senior years at Essex Junction High for Stephen, the records show. Because Stephen was in the vocational education program, the state and Winooski School District paid half. Records produced by Fay's office works full time in the district's business office.

Chester J. Balon, a member of the district board and chairman of the Westford School Board, confirmed that "no one other" than Ticehurst was being investigated at this time. The probe is being conducted on the heels of a report by a special citizens committee that recently completed a two-month review of expenditures in the district during recent years. Ticehurst said nobody had told him anything about the probe, but he believed he was the focus of the investigation. Ticehurst said he" is waiting to see the final report of the committee.

if The Free Press has also learned that among the items the citizens committee reviewed were: A stock market club the High Rise Investment Club being operated out of the superintendent's office. Employees' buying items, including computer equipment, through the School Department for personal use. Because school districts are tax-exempt and often receive special discounts, employees can save money By MIKE DONOGHUE Free Press Staff Writer ESSEX JUNCTION The Chittenden Central School. District is investigating possible misconduct by James J. Ticehurst the system's business manager, and may consider disciplinary action against him this week.

Barbara Mudgett, Chittenden Central School District Board chairman, said the board will hear a recommendation on disciplinary action against a single employee at Tuesday's meeting. She declined to identify the employee but said he i Injuries Suffered in Fall Fatal to Rutland Chief 41 i RAY OePARKmSON iOURS 3-RM. jsjj, ncamiTT tu -i I TKl I -r nut NOT I nnncErtlTFll By DAVID HENCH '( Free Press Staff Writer RUTLAND Rutland City Fire Chief Richard M. Barron, 64, died Saturday as a result of injuries he suffered Monday when he fell 12 to 14 feet when a Fire Department bucket loader was hit by a tractor-trailer truck. Barron had been repairing fire alarm wires downed in a Monday snowstorm when the bucket was hit and dragged by the trailer of a truck driven by Leonard Rockhill, 64, police said.

Barron suffered injuries to his head and shoulders and was admitted to the Medical Center Hospital in Burlington Monday night, hospital officials Barron had not been wearing a safety harness as he had instructed his men to do on many occasions, an official said. Barron had issued a letter to all firefighters requiring them to wear safety harnesses while doing work above ground, said Robert McLeod, director of the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration. McLeod said VOSHA had begun investigating the incident and should complete a report this week. Mayor John J. Daley said Barron had "always been a leader throughout the state for safety precautions." Barron had been a firefighter since 1946 and city fire chief since October 1976, officials said.

In 1980 he was elected president of the Vermont Fire Chiefs' Association. Turn to FIRE, 8B rRE5PB5SEBS WIUl. OWNER 1 Kunin Juggles Requests, Tough Budget Decisions Photo by STEVE ROSENFELD Sharon Nicol, founding member and spokesman stands in front of one of several landfill sites for Citizens for Responsible Waste Disposal, suspected of leaking hazardous chemicals. Lyndon ville Wants Some Answers To Town's Well Water Problems state deficit to retire, the governor-elect has been far more interested in cost-cutting ideas than in expanding programs. "Certainly we have to think conservatively," Kunin said.

Formal hearings with state department heads concluded Friday, and Kunin's budget team will spend Monday reviewing the proposed $22.9 million capital budget The following two days the team will take take testimony on budget issues from various advocacy and lobby groups. Once those are finished, the decision-making period will begin. By law, Kunin must present her budget to the Legislature by the end of January, but printing deadlines will force her to finish the final draft before the middle of the month. That gives Kunin four weeks to weed through the funding requests and prepare her spending proposal. "You have to sift through all that and see what is achievable," Kunin said.

The governor-elect said the first order of business, before any specific budget decisions are made, is establishing a projected estimate of the total revenues likely to be collected next year. Kunin said that process is under way, and she will have little "sense of where the bottom line is" until it is done. Kunin declined to discuss her estimate of a Turn to KUNIN, 8B By DEBORAH SLINE Free Press Capital Bureau MONTPELIER Madeleine Kunin wrapped up the bulk of her budget research last week with a clear understanding of the difficult decisions looming in the next month. Kunin spent most of the past 10 days delving into the fiscal 1986 spending requests of each state agency and department She came away from the probe with a keen sense of the contrast between state government's heeds and its financial constraints. Nearly every segment of the executive branch from the mammoth Human Services Agency to the tiny Governor's Commission on the Status of Women requested sizable jumps in money and manpower next year.

Some asked for allocations beyond the $383 million spending level recommended by Gov. Richard Snelling beginning next July, which translates into a 6 percent increase overall. (Many department wish lists seemed to reflect a hope that state needs unmet for some time might be fulfilled by the new administration. "Obviously some of those have to be adjusted," Kunin said late Friday of the requested budget increases. "I don't underestimate how tough it is going to be." Kunin and her budget team seem determined to err on the conservative side when compiling this first budget.

With a $35 million traces of hazardous chemicals in the town and several private drinking water supplies. Like a growing number of communities around the state, Lyndonville has been thrust involuntarily into the looming environmental storm of the 1980s: chemicals in the environment By STEVE ROSENFELD Free Preu Correipondent LYNDONVILLE Diane St Hilaire does not want to hear about the state Environmental Conservation Agency's small staffs or limited resources to test analyze and supervise cleanup of toxic chemicals in the environment For St. Hilaire and other Citizens for Responsible Waste Disposal members, current Health Department sampling of the town's water supply and agency study of ground-water flows near the regional landfill, located in town, is long overdue. For the last 18 months, the citizens' group has charged the regional landfill may be leaking hazardous chemicals. At the same time, it unsuccessfully petitioned town officials to amend local laws to regulate waste disposal.

What started nearly two years ago as opposition to one businessman's plans for an oil-land farm a method for disposing of petroleum-based products has resulted in tests showing There are two apparently unrelated locations in town where traces of hazardous organic compounds have been found. According to state officials, tetrachloroethylene and its byproducts usually the first volatile organic chemicals to emerge have been found in minute concentrations in one of the town's fodr wells and In higher levels near the Ray Parker and Son Sanitary Landfill. The landfill is the regional disposal site for 31 towns. The Health Department regulates municipal water supplies. Last month, the department began weekly testing of the town Turn to TOWN, 8B.