The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • 40

The Orlando Sentinel II I II 1987T I IUU Wednesday, August 12, 1987 Members speak minds before okaying controversial teacher By Carolyn Cox OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Bill Bond ON THE LAKE FRONT time. Howell, contacted after the meeting, denied directing the hand gesture to Dunaway. He said he began working Tuesday, shortly after the board meeting, and wants to put the renewed controversy behind him. "I'd like to go to work and do my job," he said. "I don't want to get into any hassles.

As far as I'm concerned, it's finished." Board member Phyllis Patten grilled Bill Cockcroft, principal of Clermont Junior High, about his desire to hire Howell as a science teacher. She questioned whether science courses Howell took in the late 1950s would qualify him to teach modern science and whether Cockcroft believed he was the most qualified applicant for the job. Cockcroft said there had been two other applicants, one of whom was not certified to teach science, and that Howell was his choice. Before voting, Patten also chastised Garner, whose feud Please see REHIRING, 5 TAVARES The school board agreed Tuesday to rehire Bobby Howell, a one-time controversial Lake County educator, but not before grilling the principal who recommended him and giving an earful to Superintendent Freddie Garner. Board member Charlie Beals, who two weeks ago voted against Howell, said he thought it was "unwise to employ people who keep diaries and logs on their supervisors and make obscene hand gestures to their employer." Beals was referring to records that Howell kept while employed as an administrator at the county's vocational center in the 1970s.

Howell used the records to back up allegations of wrongdoing that he leveled in 1979 against Ken Bragg, then director of the center. Beals also was referring to school board member Jim Dunaway's claim that Howell had directed an obscene gesture at him during that State puts up barrier to death By Terry O. Roen OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Wrapping up a few Random news tappings here and about. 0 LOST CERTIFICATION THE FLORIDA Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission has revoked the police certification of former Mascotte Police Chief Gary Bir-man. Seems when Birman applied for Florida certification about three years ago, he neglected to mention a previous felony arrest years before he moved to Florida from the Midwest.

He was police chief in Mascotte when city hall was destroyed by a fire bomb in December 1984, and later, along with three other officers, quit, saying the mayor was hampering a criminal probe. The three officers later took lie detector tests that cleared them of any connection with the fire. Birman refused to submit to a polygraph. RV PARK UPDATE THE CITY sold its recreation vehicle park to Aspen Enterprises about four years ago for $6.1 million. The sale contract required the city to finish about $200,000 in renovation work, giving the city a net take of $5.9 million, according to city officials.

Of that figure, the city is holding a $4 million mortgage and collecting about $400,000 annually. City officials invested the remaining $1.9 million in 6.25 percent interest, short-term U.S. Treasury notes. SWEARING IN HOWEY-IN-THE HILLS GETS a new postmaster Friday when H. Ken Elliott, of Weirsdale, is sworn in during a brief ceremony beginning at 1:30 p.m.

at the Howey Town Hall. Elliott, with the U.S. Postal Service since-1963, was appointed to the Howey post in mid-July. Afterward, refreshments will be the order of the day. NO WAY, TAMPA BAY MICHAEL KLAPER recently returned to hometown Umatilla after winning more than $11,000 on the afternoon television game show, Jeop-ardy.

Unfortunately, host Alex Trebek blew the location of Klaper's home for the show's national TV audience. First Trebek said KlaDer. a doctor in food SANFORD A 6-foot-high chain-link fence was added to the sides of the State Road 46 bridge over the Wekiva River Tuesday to stop daredevils from diving into the shallow water below. Several people have died and others have been seriously injured after diving off the bridge, which straddles a narrow stetch of the river between Seminole and Lake counties. Michael Bedenbaugh, a San ford carpenter, was the latest to die after plunging into the water beneath the bridge June 21.

Bedenbaugh, 28, was swimming with friends when the accident occurred. His daughter, Melody, was three weeks old when he died. "If that wire had been there, he'd probably be living today," said Jim Bedenbaugh, Michael's father. The state Department of Transportation erected the $5,000 fence after receiving petitions from county residents who were concerned about the danger of people diving off the bridge. "DOT is not in the recreation business and our bridge was being used as a diving board," said Steve Homan, a DOT spokesman.

Kathie Marbel, resident manager of Katie's Wekiva River Landing, said she and others had been trying to get the fence erected for about a year. She said people who drank and used drugs congregated around the bridge and often tried to scare canoeists by jumping near their boats. State Reps. Art Grindle, R-Altamonte Springs, and Stan Bainter, R-Mount Dora, were among the writers who petitioned for the fence. Bainter said he had contacted the Seminole County Sheriffs Department and the Seminole County Commission about solving the problem.

He pointed to Bedenbaugh's tragic death as the impetus for state action. "It's the best way to protect people from y.yAY.Y.y.y.Y.' see BARRIER.S RAY POWELLSENTINEL Upsy-daisy Mollie Bowers, 3, of Mount Dora, voices her delight as she rides the see-saw, one of her favorite activities at Mount Dora's Gilbert -Park, Mollie recently enjoyed a sunny, fulfilled outing at 4he -Dark nutrition, lived in Umatilla but after a break Xon a commercial, he said. Klapec Was from. Tampa BayT..