The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 1

Cloris Leachman brings Labor and Industry commissioner Women in hockey: Grandma Moses to life named Natural Resources secretary, IB After high school, 1C uriin Thursday, March 3, 1 994 Vermont's Newspaper 35 cents four news sections I rv "A friend set our computer up for us, and when he left we discovered that we didn't even know how to turn the thing on. For a while we had to depend upon our 9-year-old son! Greg Schipa, recovering computer-phobe eouimdl won Progressives enjoy new life I a 1 luu if t. (I 1 By Sona Iyengar Free Press Staff Writer It was a mood of triumph. "No more death," said City Councilor Donna Bailey, reciting the words like a mantra, in reference to past claims that the Progressive Coalition was dying. Bailey, who did not run for re-election, and other Progressives celebrated their victory at Club Metronome on Tuesday night.

"I feel really validated," she said. Tuesday's election gave the Progressives an apparent majority on the new 14-member City Council. It created a council of five Progressives and three independents, most of whom are expected to vote with the Progressives. The current council has four Progressives and two independents. Frustration with Mayor Peter Brownell's administration and the lack of basic city services fueled the change, some councilors said.

Others attrib- JWWI t'WTT'-W- 1 Town meeting coverage, 4B, 5B, 6B and 8A i uted it to better organization on the part of Progressives, including stumping for the student vote. The election results are likely to mean a search for new ways to fund city services, more headaches for the mayor and his agenda, and a possible return of some of the Progressive ideas that were floated before Brow-nell took over, city leaders said. It will give Progressives an edge in choosing committee and See PROGRESSIVES, 2A ADAM PIKE RIESNER, Free Press Terry Maxwell, a Lane Press employee, was sent to Laser Image in Burlington to learn Photo Shop, a program thai manipulates images. A mouse isn't always a rodent Vt. computer-phobes overcome their fears A 111 MARK SASAHARA, Free Press Martha Abbott (left) celebrates her Ward 1 victory with fellow Progressive Coalition member Barbara Nolfi, who won in Ward 3.

Mayor might back meals tax increase computers, with the result that computer training is a booming business. In 1993: I At least 4,000 people attended McAu-liffe Education and Training's single day and evening courses at its Burlington and Rutland classrooms, up from 2,500 in 1992. I 1,200 students took computer courses at Champlain College, a 20 percent increase from the year before. I 1,600 students passed through Laser Image's basic, advanced and customized courses, also up about 20 percent from 1992. In addition, Community College of Vermont, Trinity College, the University of Vermont's Church Street Center and the Essex Technical Center offer programs to help the computer-impaired survive in a world in which a window has become an opaque palette of information.

"There are whole groups of adults out there who know that computers exist but little else, and they fear they're missing out on something," said Mark Carter, a trainer with Laser Image. These new computer students vary dramatically, from the 18-year-old fresh out of high school to the 50-year-old executive who has just had a computer dropped unceremoniously upon his desk. The one thing these students often share, however, is anxiety. "Everyone who comes here is worried that he's going to be the most foolish-looking person in the class," said See COMPUTER, 2A By Chris Bohjalian Free Press Correspondent Greg and Carolynn Schipa live in a primitive settler's house' in Charlotte that dates back to 1775, beside a barn that is two centuries old. Greg Schipa, 47, often drives a 1974 Camaro, and Carolynn, 45, still writes her letters the old-fashioned way: by hand.

Even their business, the Weather Hill Restoration lives to preserve the past: The Schipas are architectural historians and preservationists. In August, however, these two proud, self-proclaimed "dinosaurs" finally broke down and bought a computer. "I didn't know what a disk or a hard drive or a monitor was," Greg Schipa said. "A friend set our computer up for us, and when he left we discovered that we didn't even know how to turn the thing on. For a while we had to depend upon our 9-year-old son." The Schipas are not unique.

"There's this widespread and erroneous notion that everybody in this country is computer-literate now. "Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who aren't," said Claude Bauer, former communications director for the now-defunct Computer Literacy Council. Although computer literacy is difficult to define and rarely surveyed, Abhijeet Rane, a research For those adults who Want to overcome their fear of bits and bytes, ROMS and RAMS, DOS and disks, computer teachers recommend. a Ask your friends or family lots of questions. When you think you're ready to buy a computer, be sure to talk to someone who won't gain from the purchase, Talk to children.

Computer fear is a generational thing. Take an introductory computer course. Practice. a Begin with a faith that the computer won't break. Don't invest a computer with more power than It has.

TR1CIA BARRY, Free Press I analyst with New York City's Link Resources, says that only about three in 10 households in this country have personal computers. Nevertheless, businesses are demanding that their employees become comfortable with Clinton asks Arafat to resume talks voters also defeated a $1 million bond for city building repairs and a 1.26-cent tax for schools, but passed a request that councilors raise general fund monies from sources other than the property tax. A city tax increase from the current 1 cent to 2 cents for each dollar spent on a restaurant meal or a movie ticket would raise roughly the same amount the defeated 3.5-cent property tax increase would have, Browncll said. "I may be forced into recommending it," he said. New and incumbent councilors from several factions said they will look for cost savings before proposing new taxes.

"There are some costs to be saved by tighter management of the Fire Department," said Jane Knodcll, PC-Ward 2, "but I don't see how we could solve the budget problems with short-term cost savings." What's needed, she said, is a restructuring of revenue-raising and spending practices. Councilor-elect Michael Monte, I-Ward 5, wants to consider the combination of police and firefighters into a Public Safety Department. Paul Lafayette, D-Ward 5, said any new directions in taxation must emerge from public consensus. "Any sizable new taxation should be brought back to the voters for a decision." By John Howland Jr. Free Press Staff Writer As much as he hates the idea and has opposed it in the past, Mayor Peter Browncll said he may be forced to recommend an increase in the city meals and entertainment tax.

The prediction came in the wake of voter rejection of a property tax increase that would have helped to maintain city services such as snowplowing. Brownell has asked city department heads to prepare new budgets at 95 percent of this year's spending level. "We want to know, narratively, what that will mean to the people of Burlington," Browncll said. The Republican mayor, who backed the defeated 3.5-ccnt property tax increase, said $900,000 will have to be cut from this year's budget to keep next year's services in line with expected revenues. Had the tax passed, cutbacks of about half that much were anticipated.

The city Finance Board will begin reviewing the consequences of the 5 percent cutbacks next month, he said. "My guess is that when we see what the picture would look like, the level of services will not be acceptable either to the City Council or to me." Browncll pointed out that Inside Poll details bigotry A majority of blacks, His-panics and Asian-Americans believe that they lack opportunities enjoyed by whites, a new poll indicates. Story, Page 2A Volume 167, No. 62 Weather Snow, accumulation 2 to 4 inches; high mid 20s. Tonight, more snow, low 20.

Regional forecast, 10A sures that Arafat has demanded as a condition for resuming the talks. He has said that all Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be disarmed and that the settlements should be moved away from Arab population centers. Taking up the same theme, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said the Palestinians must get beyond their demand for revenge and realize that only peace will give them "a different future." He said he plans to meet today with Nabil Shaath, an adviser to Arafat, on ways to restart the talks. But PLO sources said that Shaath's only objective is to persuade Washington to apply pressure on Israel. By Norman Kempster and Michael Parks Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON President Clinton appealed personally to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and angry Palestinians on Wednesday to resume peace talks with Israel, warning that a breakdown in negotiations would "hand a victory" to the Jewish extremist who massacred 48 worshipers in a West Bank mosque.

"If the peace talks don't get back on track, then we are rewarding the damage and the death wreaked by the extremists," Clinton said. "We don't want to do that. We want to keep going." In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Arrests in van shooting, 3A I Arab anger spreads, 10A Minister Yitzhak Rabin made an appeal to Palestinian leaders to resume the negotiations. "I believe at this stage the leadership of both sides, Palestinians and us, have to stand up to overcome pain, sorrow and agony and to understand that the real solution is in the political field," he said. Using similar arguments, Clinton and Rabin called for logic to prevail over emotion.

Both insisted that the only chance the Palestinians have to improve their living conditions in the Israeli-occupied territories is to resume negotiations. But they both ruled out mea Index Classified6C Opinion 8A Comics 12D Sports 1C Crossword.9C TV list 10D Deaths 2B Towns 4B Money 5B Vermont 1B.