The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 9

OeiBurlingtonjfreeflress Board investigates state's energy future In MONEY, Page 6B Agency puts lid on Northgate ren SECTION Thursday, February 2, 1989 City Editor, Sam Hemingway Phone: 863-3471, ext. 2017 'We think it is a great victory for the tenants that HUD rolled it back to 7.6 Brenda Torpy development coordinator ballpark of reasonableness," Mayor Bernard Sanders said. "If HUD will give them another increase in December, that would be extremely unfair. What the fight is now is to make certain that they don't get any more increases this year." Torpy said the situation lends urgency to Northgate Non-Profit's bid to buy the property. The Northgate project was built 20 years ago with low 3 percent 40-year mortgages, with the proviso that after 20 years the loan could be paid off and the developer could dispose of the building at it sees fitThe tenants association will meet today to decide on a course of action.

able their original request was," said Brenda Torpy, development coordinator for Northgate Non-Profit, which is trying to buy the project and keep it affordable. HUD's decision, however, is only for the next six months, leaving the door open for another request, tenants fear. "If 8 percent is all that Northgate receives for the entire year, that is in the By Michael Allen Free Press Staff Writer Rents for Northgate Apartments will go up this April, but by far less than tenants had feared. "It is not as much as the management asked for, but for low-income tenants it is going to be difficult," said Anne-Marie Dennis, president of Northgate Tenants Association. Fairfield Associates, which owns Northgate, had asked the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow rent increases of up to 24 percent for the low- and moderate-income complex.

HUD cut that request by almost two-thirds, granting six-month increases MISSES SON: 'I miss him says school in Massachusetts because in Vermont. to Iroelp 11 Km State weighs issue of emotionally State notes Group fights decision on Spear Street home The controversy over a nearly-completed home along a scenic stretch of Spear Street may not be over despite a ruling earlier this week by the South Burlington City Council. Martha Campione, a spokeswoman for Save the View said Wednesday the citizens group will appeal the city's decision to allow the home to be completed to Chittenden Superior Court. The group is concerned with preserving the view from Spear Street of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. The court already reviewed the matter and ruled that the city did not sufficiently support its June decision to issue a building permit to Robert and Cynthia Hoehl.

Their home is nearly finished but lies in what is designated as a "scenic district," according to interim zoning regulations. The City Council decided Monday to stand by its original ruling. Campione said the group will work to get the interim zoning measures adopted as the permanent regulations when the City Council takes up the issue Monday. Should the council not adopt the interim regulations, Campione said the group would work toward a citywide vote on the issue. Board allows physician to continue practice MONTPELIER The Medical Practice Board Tuesday voted to allow a South Burlington physician to continue his practice as long as he participates in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program and submits to random drug testing.

Dr. John Sheppard, 46, a general practitioner, was charged last April with reckless endangerment after police said he aimed a loaded handgun at a plainclothes deputy who had come to Sheppard's home to serve papers on the doctor's wife. Board Chairwoman Susan Spaulding said Sheppard is also barred from prescribing narcotic drugs for himself or any family member, and the physician must attend alcoholic counseling. "If he violates any grounds of the stipulation, it becomes grounds for further action," Spaulding said. South Burlington closer to naming city manager The South Burlington City Council is expected to interview two finalists for the post of city manager this week.

Charles E. Hafter, manager of Eden, N.C., and Dominic Mazza, manager of Cortland, N.Y., are the two people still in the running from among 82 applicants. Hafter had been manager in Surf City, N.C., before moving to Eden. Eden, which has a population of 16,000, was formed 21 years ago when three communities merged about 30 miles north of Greensboro. Before moving to Cortland, Mazza worked in the budget office in the city of Syracuse.

Cortland, which has 20,000 residents, is about 30 miles south of Syracuse. Both men have master's degrees in public administration. William J. Szymanski, who has worked for South Burlington for 22 years, including 17 as manager, announced last fall he wants to retire in April when he turns 60. Essex Junction teacher honored, receives grant Essex Junction teacher Jane Goodman has been named a 1989 National Endowment for the Humanities teacher-scholar and awarded a $27,500 grant for a year's sabbatical.

Goodman, who lives in South Burlington, was one of 53 teachers chosen from 615 applicants for the award that allows teachers to undertake an academic year of independent study on topics in the humanities. Beginning in the fall, Goodman, a French and Spanish teacher at Essex Junction Educational Center since 1976, will use the award to study the work of 18th century writers Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The NEH program, which is funded in part by Reader's Digest, grew out of a 1987 report by NEH director Lynne Cheney on the poor state of humanities education in public schools. The report recommended that teachers be given opportunities to learn more about the disciplines they teach. Inside Deaths.

2B Money- 6B of 7.6 to one section of the property and 8 percent for the other, starting April 1. That means that rents, which range from $252 to $311 a month at the 336-unit project, will go up an average of between $20 to $25. "We think it is a great victory for the tenants that HUD rolled it back to 7.6 percent. It shows how grossly unreason Sheila Renfrew of Fairfax, referring to services for the severely emotionally IrQOF Some of the youngsters, including Renfrew's son, are considered "special education" children, adding to the burden on the state's underfunded special education coffer. "These are not psychopathic killers.

They are kids with emotional problems, and they are being sent all over," said Ken Libertoff, the association's executive director. "Everybody seems to say they are opposed to the out-of-state placements. Until we begin funding an (in-state) system, it's just lip service." William Dalton, Mental Health commissioner, said Vermont has increased in-state services in recent years, including providing therapeutic programs in nine areas. But he said a cautious approach toward providing more is needed. Dalton said it is almost "always better to have kids near home," but he added that "It's not clear that all services offered out-of-state should be offered in-state." A report will be delivered to lawmakers today that is expected to recommend several measures to address the problem, including a family-based program, a therapeutic foster and group care plan, specialized education hold out on plan before ratifying it, Frymoyer said.

Surgical Associates has several unresolved concerns, including a reluctance to dissolve the corporation and join one large corporation comprised of the 10 practice groups, Davis said. Each group is a separate corporation. Surgeons, perhaps more than other UHC physicians, want to retain their corporate identity, said Davis. "Some people don't care if they give up theirs. We do," he explained.

"There's a certain amount of pride in the corporation." Surgical Associates has about 32 physicians. UHC is 200-physician group practice affiliated with the University of Vermont College of Medicine and sees about 85,000 patients annually. Proponents of the merger say the changes are necessary because of the increased pressures doctors are under from insurance companies, government, and other doctors. They say a tighter, more centralized organization is necessary so UHC is equipped to respond quickly to the rapidly changing health of Paving funds go unspent Agency accumulates $16 million surplus By James E. Bressor Free Press Staff Writer MONTPELIER Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday questioned if the Transportation Agency is ready to absorb a major increase in revenues while it has more than $16 million left unspent in its maintenance budget.

Committee members learned that the agency ended fiscal 1988 with $16.3 million in unspent paving funds. Lawmakers last year discovered that the agency finished fiscal 1987 with $27 million some of it federal money in appropriated but unspent construction funds, with part of that earmarked for non-paving projects. Agency officials explained at the time that a backlog had built up over several years because the two principal paving contractors in Vermont had been temporarily barred from working in the state, and promised that the carry-over would be reduced. Maintenance Director Frank Aldrich, however, told the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday that the agency's Maintenance Division budget had $16.3 million on hand, all of it state money. Gov.

Madeleine Kunin last month proposed a package of tax and registration fee increases designed to raise money for repairing or replacing hundreds of rusting bridges. She recommended raising the gasoline tax by 8 cents over four years 3 cents in 1990 and the diesel tax by 11 cents immediately. The governor's package would generate an additional $45 million annually for the Transportation Fund when fully implemented. Some members of the committee, including President Pro Tempore Douglas Racine, D-Chittenden, and Chairman Edgar May, D-Windsor, said the large sum of unspent money raises a question of whether the agency was prepared for a tide of new revenues. Racine said before voting to increase fuel taxes he wanted to be sure the agency was ready to spend its new money wisely.

the agency have the capacity to spend this money prudently and effectively?" May asked. "That's the nub of the question." He has scheduled meetings with agency heads next week. Clavelle wins key backing By Lisa Scagliotti Free Press Staff Writer Independent mayoral candidate Peter Clavelle got a boost from the opposition Wednesday when former city Democratic Committee Chairwoman Caryl Stewart announced her support for him. "This is not a step taken lightly, but it is one taken with every belief in its logic," Stewart said. The city Democratic Party chief from 1983 to 1985, Stewart lost a bid for the party's endorsement for mayor to Paul Lafayette at the 1987 Democratic caucus and also lost a 1985 run for Ward 3 alderman.

Stewart is executive director of the Burlington Ecumenical Action Ministry, a non-profit community development organization. She also works with the Renaissance which is studying new uses for the McNeil Generating Plant on the waterfront. Stewart worked with Clavelle when he was director of the city Community and Economic Development Office and said he is the candidate who will respond to the needs of the poor, the homeless and the unemployed. Turn to CLAVELLE, 5B ADAM R1ESNER, Fra Preu her son, Eric. He has to attend disturbed could not be provided troubled youths and an in-home crisis service.

The System of Care Plan, which was due Jan. 12, assembled by the departments of Mental Health, Education and Social and Rehabilitation Services, lacks information on funding, however. "From a therapeutic point of view, people agree it's better that kids not be removed from their families," said Sen. Sally Conrad, D-Chittenden, chairman the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. "It's a real problem." Rep.

Toby Young, D-Westminster, chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, is scheduled to meet with commissioners from the three departments today to discuss the issue. Lawmakers will also question the commissioners about why these services are not being offered in-state. A legislative study of that issue is under way. According to Libertoff and others, programs offered in-state are too limited. In Burlington, for example, the Baird Center for Children and Families treats children up to 12 years of age.

The Northeastern Family Institute takes older children, but has only six bods Turn to STATE, 5B UHC pact care environment. UHC could accomplish those goals without having to dissolve the individual corporations, Davis said. Although the earlier merger proposals called for creating a single corporation, Frymoyer said he is not opposed to retaining the 10 separate corporations. Laurence Coffin, director of cardiac and thoracic surgery, echoed some of Davis' concerns. Both surgeons said they want to ensure that individual practitioners and departments still have a strong voice in UHC's affairs after the center is reorganized.

"We have been reluctant to turn over control of our assets and operations to a unified management group because we have not felt sufficiently represented on the structure previously contemplated," Coffin said. Asked why surgeons have been slower than other specialists to approve the plan, Coffin said, "We're the biggest owners, the biggest earners, with the biggest assets to give away." He added, "We're probably the most independent, too." By Susan Allen Free Press Staff Writer MONTPELIER Sheila Renfrew's 17-year-old schizophrenic son often begs to come home to Fairfax from his Massachusetts treatment center. But he can't: There is no help for him in Vermont. The Renfrews are one of a growing number of families forced to send their emotionally troubled children outside the state for services, prompting a call by lawmakers and advocacy groups for programs closer to home. "As of June, we will bring our son home, but we do not know to what," said Renfrew.

"He may end up being a couch potato, but at least he'll be happier than being a couch potato seven hours from home." The Vermont Association for Mental Health said 54 emotionally troubled children are receiving help in other states, including Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Minnesota up from 43 youngsters two months ago. The state spends about $2.4 million to keep those children in out-of-state facilities, averaging $45,000 annually per child. Renfrew said her son's placement costs about $60,000. Surgeons By Marie Gottschalk Free Press Staff Writer Surgeons remain the lone holdouts in a proposal to make the University Health Center, the state's largest group of physicians, a tighter-knit organization. While nine of UHC's 10 departments have ratified a plan that would greatly centralize the management and finances of the organization, Surgical Associates has yet to embrace the agreement.

Surgeons and UHC administrators will discuss the plan at a special meeting this weekend, and Dr. John Davis, chairman of UHC's department of surgery, predicted the merger might be ratified as early as next week. UHC's chief executive officer, John Frymoyer, said he is optimistic about chances of an agreement, but that ratification has gone more slowly than he had expected. "We will find a way to make it work for all of the departments," said Frymoyer. None of the other departments called for fundamental changes in the merger.