South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 10

Ml UUULd uuw NORTH BROVARD Sun-Sentinel, Wednesday, February 18, 1987 Section GARY STEIN Staff Columnist may Hp! tsis 1 piMmwHimi. hi uu siyiiiili little control over other costs, such as new jails, higher salaries and insurance. "These are not frills, they're necessities," said Commission Chairman Howard Forman. In the fiscal year after next, there may be an even more drastic increase in the cost of services because of the estimated $2.4 million-a-year cost of providing feeder bus service for the SEE SHORTFALL 6B case The budget, which will be finished by Johnson's successor or by Assistant County Administrator Celiene Bruce, will be presented in detailed form in mid-July: Still, many of the programs Johnson said would push the county's operating budget from $295 million this fiscal year to $313 million next year have already been approved by the County Commission. And commissioners have By JON MARCUS Staff Writer The difference between what Broward officials plan to spend next year and what they expect to collect from taxpayers is likely to fall short by about 14.8 million.

The gap could be closed by increasing taxes at least 5 percent next year, though outgoing County Administrator Floyd Johnson, who released the figures Amphitheater to be considered. 2B Shared parking for centers. 2B Tuesday, called the estimates preliminary and subject to change. "Today is gloom and doom 4ay," said Johnson, who has resigned effective March 13. "I'm giving you the worst- Enrollment projections Capacity of new school: 2,288 Overenrollment at opening In 1989: 26 students Projected overcrowding by 1991: 307 students PARKLAND 5' 6 1 1 WM 1 School vY-: Sawgrass Expressway Staff graphic Crowding; projected at school Expansion plan aims to adjust to growth I rV liliwl" hi tV- iWSBESaSSm Jill a f.

Better write a letter than see 'Amerika' 1am a little surprised at the nature of the protests surrounding the commie invasion of our living rooms this week. Conservatives generally like Amerika, because it feeds the "Better Dead than Red" mentality. But some conservatives supposedly are ticked off because! they think the show should go even further to justify spending more billions on missiles. Paul Harvey has mentioned the show two days in a row on the radio, which is enough to make me turn the channel. Liberals have been more vocal in their protests, claiming the program is "not fair to the Soviet people." Talk show hosts and political scientists have been busy telling us what this television movie stretched into a 14 Vi -hour marathon is supposed to mean to the history of mankind.

Anyway, it seems like everybody has been protesting something. What is hysterical is that these folks were protesting before they ever saw the show. f- I think they should have waited a night or two and watched part of the show. Then maybe they would have started a protest that your columnist could have joined. "We are against this show," the picket signs would have blared, "because it is boring as Give me a picket sign for that protest.

I'm ready. Some Amerika'J alternatives I understand Tuesday night's third part and, Sunday's final part of Amerika are'what you should see. That's possible, but I had my fill after two f-rki I watched most of the first segment, during which the boredom might have been eased if somebody had used a cattle prod on Kris Kristofferson to get him out of his standing coma. The first segment made the America's Cup races look exciting. The second segment was just as boring.

I have had enough. i Perhaps you, too, will be looking for alternative things to do the rest of the week while Amerika is I droning on and protesters are protesting. Here are some ways you might entertain yourself: Write a letter. In particular, you might write letters to the 73 members of the Florida House many from North Florida, naturally who apparently are going to throw out all local gun control laws in the state. You, too, will be able to buy a gun as easy as you can buy a Slurpee in a convenience store.

Better yet, send a letter to Gov. Bob Martinez, who sounds like a National Rifle Association mouthpiece when he ridiculously says he would support no waiting period on gun purchases. Nice way to improve the Florida lifestyle, Gov. Anyone can be a researcher Become a researcher. From the sounds of things lately, we need research projects that make sense.

Recently, we've had just the opposite. Just a couple of examples: Two researchers at the University of South Florida have discovered that joggers holding weights must swing them or increase their speed if they want the weights to improve their workouts. The researchers took three months' time to figure out this information that is critical to our survival. Then there was the biology professor in Louisiana who spent three years researching whether motorists are more likely to run over snakes or turtles. I really think there should be a law against stupid research projects.

Write a slogan. Eventually, the "Florida. The Rules are Different Here" promotion will be over. Then it will be time for the tourism types to spend millions of dollars on another ridiculous slogan. There should be a law against spending money on this stuff.

7 Do something unusual. I suggest the most radical alternative of all to watching Amerika read a book. By KIKI BOCHI Education Writer The ground hasn't been broken. The plans haven't even been drawn. But projections already indicate that a long-awaited high school to ease" crowding in northwest Broward County will be overenrolled before it opens in" fall 1989.

"On the day the prototype high school opens, it is going to be overcrowded," facilities Director Don Frederick said. Officials are preparing for the crowds by designing an unusual expand- able school that will be reproduced in other areas of the county, probably starting with southwest Broward. Plans for the school in Parkland were unveiled Tuesday by architect James I Hartley. He estimated that to accom-1 modate growth, it would cost $1.15 million more than the $20 million projected to build the school. i The proposal was well received by School Board members, who are sched- uled to vote on the plan today.

Being able to expand the capacity of a school is a good solution to an unfortu- i nate problem, School Board Chairper- son Neil Sterling said. The school in Parkland, to be just north of the Sawgrass Expressway at Coral Springs Drive, was expected to open in two years with 2,288 students. But the projection has grown by 400 students. Projections show there will be 2,314 students overenrolled at Taravella, Coral Springs and Coconut Creek high schools by 1989. By 1991, the schools will be overenrolled by about 2,595 students, who might have to be taken into the new school Hartley has suggested putting as many as 16 portables on the school's grounds and building a large enough auditorium, cafeteria and library to accommodate the extra 400 students.

Board members expressed concern at expanding the school's capacity to almost 2,700 students but they said they thought they had little choice. "When this first came up, I wasn't in favor of it because of the size of the school," board member Jan Cummings said. "But when you start looking at the realities, the reality is that the growth is there, the kids are there." staff photoNICHOLAS VON STADEN Ronnie DeSillers is surrounded by well-wishers as he leaves Executive Airport in Fort Lauderdale. SURVIVAL MGHT Ronnie DeSillers goes to Pittsburgh to await liver. Pegasus Jet Aviation of Fort Lauderdale landed at 3:50 p.m.

at Allegheny County Airport. "Whoo! My face is cold, and my feet," were Ronnie's next words in the 35-degree air. He wore just pants and a T-shirt that said, "Pittsburgh, please help me." Ronnie, a first-grader at St. Anthony's Catholic School in Fort Lauder- SEE RONNIE 5B to live. The other wishes were to ride in an airplane and see snow.

Three inches of snow are predicted by this morning in Pittsburgh, where Ronnie and his Maria, are staying in a floor room at Children's Hospital, the world's premier liver transplant center for kids. "Thank you for. sending the money to send me to Pittsburgh," he told reporters to tell his friends back home minutes after a Lear jet provided by By JONATHAN SUSSKIND Staff Writer PITTSBURGH More wishes came true Tuesday for Ronnie DeSillers. He arrived here to begin the next step in his battle for survival, as doc-' tors start at least five days of intensive tests to see how badly he needs a liver transplant. That is the 7-year-old Miami boy's first wish to come here for a chance INSIDE --local A holiday cruise to the Bahamas was anything but a holiday for 'Caribbean Princess' passengers that were stranded.

3B Park hitch stalls Springs development plan press trees and slash pines. An environmental impact report by the county's Office of Planning states that no more than 20 percent of the cypress trees and slash pines in the 36-acre area should be removed. The city's principal planner said Tuesday that the requirement could hurt the city's ability to provide needed park facilities in Turtle Run, at the northwest corner of State Road 7 and Sample Road. "We don't Intend to tear down every cypress tree we can find in there but we've had our hands tied significantly," said principal planner Jaye Epstein. A joint venture of the Courtelis a commercial developer, and Lennar Homes, Turtle Run is expected to include 3,000 residential units, a middle school, offices and shops.

The ambitious development has been billed as a "city forest area remaining in Coral Springs, and would like to see most of it pre served in its natural state. That sentiment was echoed by County Commission Chairman Howard Forman, who said, "Those cypressheads" are very beautiful. I would tread lightly on the cypress areas." An attorney representing the two developers of Turtle Run offered a compromise, asking the county to convey its park land to the city if the city agrees to preserve 70 percent of the 36-acre forest area. "My Impression is that the County; Commission is sympathetic to some of the concerns of the city," said attorney Joel Gustafson. Epstein said city and county officials' would schedule a meeting to work out a-compromise on the park issue.

within a city." To Coral Springs officials, those numbers translate to nearly 10,000 future residents in Turtle Run, residents who will need and demand active park sites in their neighborhood. "People move to Coral Springs for two reasons: schools and parks," Epstein said. But the land on which the proposed park acres sit has been classified as an environmentally sensitive area by the county, making its development subject to county environmental guidelines. Developers have arranged to donate about 19 acres within the 36-acre tract to Broward County and the remaining 17 acres to the city. The land Is at the southwest corner of the development, just east of Coral Springs High School.

County officials call the collection of cypress trees and slash pines the largest By GARY ENOS Staff Writer Developers of the 490-acre Turtle Run community In Coral Springs will not be allowed to begin construction of their "city within a city" until Broward County and city officials iron out a disagreement over parks in the development. Broward County commissioners on Tuesday approved plans for the residential and commercial project, but said developers may not obtain building permits until the city and county decide how to develop a 36-acre forest area within the development that has been designated for park use. City officials would like to build ball-fields on their share of the 36 acres, but county planners want to preserve the environmentally sensitive area of cy LOCAL The owner of six Fort Lauderdale apartments was arrested after ignoring orders to fix his properties, including a home where sewage would back up into a bathtub. 6B For more local news, please see your community Plus section. ST5.