The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 1

OeUurlingtonJfreeftress IBM operating system to be released early In MONEY, Page 6B ermoit section State medical practices debated of Vermont Health Care Review, denounced Meehan's proposals as "punitive measures" that would alienate the state's physicians from the twin causes of reducing health care costs and ensuring medical quality in Vermont. He credited physicians in the state with doing much in recent years to cut overall hospital utilization and said Meehan's approach would jeopardize their cooperation. "We have come so far in a relatively short period of time and I hate to jeopardize it," he said, He and Golodetz suggested that a Turn to MEDICAL, 2B from 13 percent to 51 percent among the state's five largest hospitals. After hearing the findings of the study, data council member Timothy Meehan, president of Blue CrossBlue Shield of Vermont, said his company intends to scrutinize the records of the hospitals that have high admission rates for back treatment. According to Meehan, the insurance giant probably will demand that physicians admitting patients at these facilities change their treatment of back cases or risk being denied reimbursement from the Blues.

Dr. Robert Ezerman, a board member "If physician education had previously taken place and practices had changed, I would estimate that 200 to 250 should not have been hospitalized," Dr. Arnold Golo-detz said of the 900 back-related hospital admissions in 1985. Golodetz is the medical director of Vermont Health Care Review, the physicians' organization that prepared the study and is charged with reviewing the utilization and medical practices of the state's 16 hospitals and 1,000 doctors. The number of back admissions categorized by the study as questionable that is, probably could have been treated at home or in a nursing home ranged 1 I.

4 '4 It 'J Wednesday, November 4, 1987 City Editor, Sam Hemingway Phone: 863-3441, ext. 225 State notes No classes today at Winooski schools All classes in the Winooski School District have been canceled today in memory of LaFayette Saucier, former Winooski school superintendent, who died Sunday. The educator's funeral will be at 11 a.m. at St. Stephen's Church with interment following in St.

Stephen's Cemetery. Superintendent George Cross said classes will resume Thursday. Christmas donations sought The North Street Business Association in the Old North End is trying to raise $3,300 by the end of the week for banners and lights to decorate the street for Christmas. Alderman Gary DeCarolis, independent-Ward 3, said lights that previously have been displayed along North Street from North Avenue to North Winooski Avenue no longer work. DeCarolis is helping the organization with its fund-raiser.

Donations can be taken to R. Allen Beverage Center on North Street. For information, call the Burlington Community Land Trust, 862-6244. Gift to provide flower bed The Burlington Parks and Recreation Department has received a gift that will allow for a new flower bed in City Hall Park. Mary Waddell, a Burlington resident who died Aug.

18, left the department an estate worth about $8,000 with the provision it be used to plant flowers in a public bed. 2 named to housing panel Gretchen Hoff and Gil Livingston have been appointed to serve on the Burlington Housing Authority. Hoff, a social worker, will replace Jim Hokans who resigned to take a job outside the country. Livingston, an attorney with the public defender's office, will replace Phyllis Severance who moved away from Burlington. "I am corfident that Gretchen Hoff and Gil Livingston will continue the outstanding work done by their predecessors," said Mayor Bernard Sanders.

Veterans' ceremonies set WHITE RIVER JUNCTION The Veterans Administration Medical and Regional Office Center will hold ceremonies for Veterans Day Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. The public is invited to attend observance of the holiday, which this year has the theme "Veterans, You Are America." For information, people may call Bonnie Gunter at 295-9363, ext. 496. Sirens near Yankee sound The Associated Press Authorities say three sirens near the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant accidentally sounded for three minutes Tuesday, on the eve of emergency preparedness tests for nearby towns.

Emergency personnel reset the sirens, all in Winchester, N.H., as police fielded numerous calls from curious residents. "Just a few thousand" calls came into the Winchester station after the 8 p.m. alarm, said police dispatcher William Nichols. "They just wanted to know what the siren was for. We just told them it was an accidental thing." Today, civil defense and public safety officials within 10 miles of the Vernon reactor will conduct a test of emergency procedures.

CV plans waterfront study Central Vermont Railway is planning to conduct a market study of the property it owns on the waterfront. Central Vermont gained ownership in court to more than 30 acres of prime waterfront land in September, but a Superior Court judge ruled the land had to be used for a "public purpose." The Study will (ieiennii)e iiie marketability of the property for the uses permitted by the court's decision," according to a company statement. After the market study is completed, the railroad company plans to develop a master plan for the waterfront. Inside Births Deaths. 2B Money.

6B 2B New England 4B Coming tomorrow HARWOOD RULING: The Harwood Union High School Board of Education is expected to release today the grounds for its decision to fire history teacher William Altman. By Marie Gottschalk Free Press Staff Writer WATERBURY Physicians and members of the Hospital Data Council sparred Tuesday over whether to use the carrot or the stick to change the medical practices of Vermont's doctors. The debate was prompted by a study that showed wide fluctuations in the treatment of back problems around the state. The study concluded that in 1985 the rate at which residents of different areas of Vermont were hospitalized for back problems varied more than threefold. This loaf bigger than a breadbox By Kent M.

Shaw Free Press Correspondent VERGENNES Under soggy, gray skies, they went where no baker had ever gone before. It was one for the record books. In a huge grid of trenches lined with stubbornly damp charcoal, 280 students at Northlands Job Corps Tuesday made a bid for the Guinness Book of World Records, fashioning a loaf of French bread. It took 3,200 pounds of raw dough, 2 tons of charcoal, 360 eggs, four cases of lighter fluid, 5,000 feet of tinfoil and a lot of good-humored cooperation to get the job done. "It's a lot of fun," said Rep.

Lang-don "Lanny" Smith, R-New Haven, an organizer of the giant bake-in and a part-time student government teacher at the center. "But it's also a lesson in teamwork and a chance to show these kids success. A lot of them have never seen any kind of success at all." Acting student government head Pam Neri-son, 19, from Exeter, N.H., called the day a great morale booster. "And it's great public relations, too," Nerison said, noting a large press corps that had turned out for a look at the world's longest loaf. The effort bested by more than 225 feet the previous prodigy, baked in Mexico two years ago.

Applications for formal acknowledgement from the British record keepers will in the mail soon. After Smith and Lt. Gov. Howard Dean made the measurement official, a cloud of balloons soared over the 50-acre Northlands campus and the cheering students hoisted food service supervisor Allan Snow on their shoulders in celebration. Snow said he had begun preparing Turn to LOAF, 2B City seeks By Enrique Corredera Free Press Staff Writer Burlington, which already has a sister city in Nicaragua, is trying to establish a similar relationship with a community in the Soviet Union.

"The concept of a sister-city program is very simple but very profound," Sanders said at a news conference. "The goal is that by encouraging citizen-to-citizen exchange we can break down the barriers and stereotypes which exist between the Soviet Union and the United States." The mayor acknowledged that the idea may draw some opposition, but said he hoped that most people in Burlington would support the concept, regardless of their political affiliation. "Ultimately in my view, peace is going to come about when human beings Aesthetic By Lisa Scagliotti Free Press Staff Writer The District 4 Environmental Commission's rejection for aesthetic reasons of a $5.5 million Colchester development proposal prompted criticism luesuay from town officials who say evaluation standards are too vague. The reaction was in response to the district commission's rejection of the Colchester Hotel Group's proposal to build a 212-room hotel and a 100-seat restaurant on seven acres near Interstate 89's Exit 16 and U.S. 2 and 7.

"The Commission finds that this hotel project would have an undue adverse impact upon the aesthetics of the area," the decision said. It noted the extreme size of the proposed structure and its closeness to the major roadways. This is the second of two applications rejected for aesthetic reasons, said Town Manager David Timmons. The first an application more than a year ago by Truck Sales of Burlington to NO LOAFING: Northlands Job Corps Center food service supervisor Allan Snow, left, and food service staffer Jeff Kennedy work on what could be the world-record loaf of bread. Williston debates mall plan By Ian Polumbaum Free Press Staff Writer WILLISTON Developer Ben Frank, who wants to build a shopping center at Taft Corners, listed potential benefits of the project Tuesday night before skeptical local residents.

At the Planning Commission's second public hearing on the proposal, Frank said the mall would increase Williston's tax base by perhaps $300,000 a year while creating minimal pressure on municipal services, would provide a pleasant all-weather gathering place and would be surrounded by acres of open space. Commission members questioned Frank and his associates on such aspects of the plan as a system that would use three ponds on the 72-acre site for storm drainage. Water runoff is one of nine areas that must be discussed before a decision is reached. But from the audience of about 40 people came the same themes sounded at the first hearing: concern about congestion, fear of a drastic change in the character of the town, and mistrust of Pyramid with whom Frank, a Stowe resident, is a partner in the venture. Pyramid tried and failed to win approval for a larger mall on the same property in 1978, a fact alluded to by Herb Painter, a Williston resident opposed to the proposal.

"We knew they'd come back, and sure enough, here they are, perhaps with a token Vermont flavor," Painter said. "I hope in another 10 years they'll come back with something much smaller." The plans for the ponds and for leaving the southern third of the site undeveloped drew praise from some commission and audience members, but skepticism from others. "This is not a unique project," said Peter Brooks, also a town resident. "It is a mall and has all the problems of a mall." But one audience member, Jim Mc-Cullough, cautioned his peers against trying to thwart the project based on' gut feelings. "We can't reject just because we don't like," said McCullough, a former Planning Commission member.

"If the project satisfies our rules, all we can do is exhort the developer to do the best he can. "We are in a growing community. We're not an island," he said. He did not take a position on the mall. Frank has sought to downplay Pyramid's role in the development.

He also has taken pains to dispel critics' views of developers as overconfident and arrogant. At Tuesday's meeting, he frequently prefaced his answers to questions with the phrase, "If the project were to be approved "Only a fool would be filled with confidence," he said later. "I'm filled with hope. It's a long road ahead." Another hearing is scheduled for Nov. 17, with traffic concerns as the main topic.

Doug Robertson, director of the Colchester Community Development expressed his frustration with the process. "It's a crap shoot," he said. "You have to take your best shot and hope for the best Robertson said a lack of concrete standards do a disservice to local planners. "There are several towns in this area with planning staffs who are doing a job that's hard to put down," he said. "This project is probably one of the neatest ones we've seen come through." Property taxes for the project would total about $110,000 a year, but Robr ertson said Colchester needs the hotel for more than just taxes.

"It's at our front door and provides a quality way to welcome people to Colchester," he said. The hotel group has 30 days to file an appeal and up to six months to present the district commission with a revised plan, Vose said. 5 4 ir KENT M. SHAW United States that have sister cities in the Soviet Union. "The thing that we're most excited about is that more young people from the Soviet Union are being allowed into the United States as a result of the program," Oakland said.

Sanders wants Burlington students to visit the Soviet Union regularly when the sister-city relationship is established. He would also like to establish exchanges among citizens, cultural exchanges, and study the possibility of establishing trade between the two cities. "The bottom line of what a sister-city program is, is human face-to-face contact," said Sanders. "Going beneath government where people are simply standing up and saying, 'Hey, what's going on doesn't make sense. We don't want our kids killed by a nuclear war.

We need money to be spent in all the important ways that we all know." sion, before issuing its decision, presented Colchester Hotel Group with a list of its concerns and allowed it to respond. That step is part of the normal hearing process, he said. "In this case, the applicant chose not to" respond, Archer said. Katherine Vose, district commission coordinator, said the commission found the building to be architecturally "quite lovely," but it was too big compared to other buildings in the area. "The mass would be so close to the viewer's eye that it would create almost a wall," Vose said.

That was enough to be deemed an "undue adverse impact" by the district commission, she said. Colchester Hotel Group counsel Stephen R. Crampton said the developers will meet later this week to decide what to do next. "Obviously an option would be to appeal the decision if they feel it's appropirate," he said. "I think it'll be an interesting leading case in aesthetics in an urban area such as Chittenden County," he said.

sister in Soviet Union start talking to human beings and this is a part of that process," Sanders said. "So I'm not going to tell you that there's not going to be opposition I think there will not be much opposition." It has not been determined which city in the Soviet Union would become Burlington's sister city. But Sanders is suggesting Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia, which are in some ways similar to Burlington. Both cities are said to have prominent universities and colleges, are near a large fresh-water lake and share a similar climate. Sister City International, a non-profit organization in Virginia, is helping Burlington find a sister city.

Richard Oakland, director of member services for the organization, said it will take at least six months to set up the program. Oakland said there are 16 cities in the concerns doom 1-89 exit project relocate its business to the site has been appealed to the state Environmental Board by both the developer and the town. "The question here is that two very pnod plans have both been rejected." Timmons said. "What is an acceptable standard?" District Commission Chairman Evan C. Archer agreed that the standards are not concrete.

"There are differences of opinion," he said. "There are no clearly objective standards." Colchester Planning Commission Chairman Mary Jane Vartuli said if the criteria were available it would help the process along from the beginning. "It would be nice if we had a list of their criteria even prior to our Planning Commission meetings." Archer said his advice to developers is to review previous decisions by the district commision to glean aesthetic guidelines before submitting new applications. Archer also said the district commis.