Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 75

W22 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Friday, February 23, 1979 HUD Engineers To Investigate Heating Problems at Complex Bristol By SUSAN HOWARD BRISTOL Federal engineers next week will begin an in-depth investigation in an effort to correct heating problems that have plagued residents of a housing complex for the elderly, Housing Authority Director Alfred T. Catucci said Thursday. A local heating contractor also has been reviewing the heating system so that rer airs, even if temporary, can made, Catucci said. The contractor is expected to begii work on the system next week, he said. About 40 senior citizens attended a Housing Authority meeting last week, corn- heat for nearly seven hours last week and that about 80 apartments were affected.

Catucci said he wants the residents to know that the Housing Authority is trying to correct the heating situation. He also said no one has been totally without heat. The complex's underground heating system was replaced two years ago and now is malfunctioning, he said. Housing officials have had difficulty finding the exact cause of the heating problem, he said. Engineers from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development have BristoI plaining that they don't think enough has been done at the Bonnie Acres senior citizens' complex to take care of their heating problems. They claimed they lost Plymouth "Wolcottj Final Clinic Heidi 5 Violate promised to tour the complex next week and to conduct an in-depth study of the heating system so the authority finally will know what the problem is, he said. In the meantime, the local contractor, who he declined to identify, will try to fix the malfunction at least temporarily. Housing Authority maintenance men provided space heaters last week to elderly residents as an interim solution, housing officials said. Board Slates 3 Hearings on Tax Appeals BRISTOL The Board of Tax Review will hold three hearings in March on appeals of tax assessments, Chairman Tony Calti said.

The hearings all will be held in the assessor's office. Appointments are not necessary, Calbi said. fie hearings are scheduled March 12 from 1 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m., March 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. and March 19 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Buddhists Eat Pork But Not Chicken Himalayan Buddhists believe that in the time between death and rebirth, a chicken will put white pebbles on a scale for the good deeds person, but a pig will shovel black ones on for the evil deeds. Thus, they will eat pork but will not harm a chicken. Immunization Law BRISTOL Five public school students remained in violation of the state immunization law Thursday afternoon as the Health Department ended its series of clinics aimed at bringing all students into compliance, health officials said. Although Thursday was the last day the Health Department had an immunization clinic scheduled for local students, health officials said students may obtain shots at the department's office today. The public health nurses who have administered the shots will be at a senior citizens' clinic during part of the day, but students still may wait for the nurses at the Health Department office, officials said.

Dr. William E. Furniss, health director, said that, of the five students remaining, one is at Jennings Elementary School, one is at BristoJ Eastern High School and three are Bristol Central High School The state law requiring the immunizations or documentation of past immunization became effective Jan. 1, but city officials have been extending the deadline in hopes that all students will comply. The state law requires immunizations to protect elementary and secondary school students against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, rubella and polio.

The students have until Monday to get the immunizations. If they fail to get the shots or provide documentation that they received the shots in the past, health officials say they will be excluded from school. One of those students still not complying may comply by next week, Furniss said, because the student's former Ohio physician is supposed to be sending documentation on the shots to Bristol. Falling Down on Job and begins her fall to the her (AP). safety net stretched below A member of the Flying Carrolls misses a hand hold during a performance earlier this week in Milwaukee, Report Backs Expanding Library Battle Cry Sounds in Fight To Control Noise Pollution Plymouth PLYMOUTH Terryville High School's recent accreditation report bears out some suggestions already made by the School Building Commit-, tee about high school expansion, School Superintendent Stephen H.

Casner said Thursday. For instance, the high school's combined media center and library should be expanded and enlarged to allow for larger storage areas, a workroom, shelving, an audio-visual area and and girls' physical education locker facilities and adequate classroom space for the special education program. Other recommendations include an expansion of the health office and guidance library, additional storage space, further art instruction space and an additional biology laboratory room. The building committee and the Board of Education will use the accreditation report in a discussion with the Town Council today at 7 p.m. in Town Hall about the school expansion proposal.

Participants in today's meeting also might refer, if needed, to the working notes of a state building inspector, Casner said. Robert G. Langer, school building inspector and code enforcement officer of the State Board of Education, Thursday let Casner have his working field notes on possible school violations of the state fire code, the state Meeting Planned On Health District For Two Towns Suf field Board Mulls Rent Aid Offered by State other items, according to the accreditation report issued this week by the New England Association of Secondary Schools. The building committee already has included library expansion as one of the focal points of its $7.4 million expansion proposal at the five local schools, Casner said. Th proposal also includes school renovations to accommodate handicapped students' needs.

The accrediation report also recommends an enlarged automotive shop, individual music practice rooms, additions to the boys' tried to form health districts and failed so Bristol and Burlington can avoid the problems they encountered, he said. City officials say Bristol can save $40,000 a year if it forms a health district with Burlington. The savings will be realized, Mayor Michael J. Werner has said, because of a significant increase in state financial aid for a health district. The city now receives 20 cents in state aid for each resident but would receive $1.20 per resident if a health district were formed.

The state offers added assistance to districts because it wants small towns like Burlington to have full-time health directors. State health officials have been considering forming a district between and Burlington since it was proposed by Furniss last summer shortly after his appointment as the Bristol health director. dash and engine cover also were damaged to the extent of $232, police said. Sanitation control of West Washington Street reported that a radiator valued at $250 was taken from one of the company trucks. Police said they also found a car reported stolen Feb.

18 by Egbert Allen of Longview Avenue. A tape deck valued at $50 and. $500 in cash that had been in the glove compartment were missing, they said. Police also said they received a complaint from Dominic Savino of Emmett Street concerning the theft of his 1977 car valued at while it was parked on Pine Street. health code and matters related to physically handicapped students, Casner said.

Casner wouldn't comment on Langer's confidential notes, but said a complete formal report from him is expected at a later date. Langer's report is a necessary step before the schools can be remodeled, Casner said. Year of the Child The Terryville Congregational Church will devote Sunday to the International Year of the Child. The 10 a.m. worship service will focus on local and world conditions and on what can be done to improve the quality of life of children.

A UNICEF film entitled "Mache Bhate Bengalee" will-be shown after the worship service in the church social hall. The film concerns the problems that face children in Bangladesh and the progress being made to overcome those problems. meets the needs of low-income persons, elderly persons, handicapped and disabled persons. A Hartford area family of four with income of less than $14,560 which met other requirements, would be eligible, Brush said. In Suffield, elderly persons in Maple and Laurel courts, as well as those renting apartments in private homes, could participate in the program if they qualify.

Waterman said. "The program is quite comprehensive," he said. Once the preliminary work is completed, a meeting will be planned with the Housing Authority so further steps may be taken, he said. The selectmen's office is interested in helping those residents in need, Waterman said, especially now that the costs of fuel and other essential items are rapidly increasing. The town's participation in the program must be approved at a town meeting, Waterman said.

Olive Oil Removes Clown Greasepaint MIAMI Clowns' greasepaint consists of zinc oxide, oxide, calcium carbonate, mineral oil, paraffin and lanolin. Most professional clowns use olive oil to remove the' paint. Suffield Noise Trespass has pressured Los Angeles officials to create a more effective noise enforcement program. At the time the group was organized, Ms. Hammer said, Los Angeles County virtually had no noise program at all and the city's was badly disjointed and administered with little coordination or enthusiasm.

In Los Angeles, for example, loud noise from amplified music or motor vehicles is handled by the Police Department, while complaints of air conditioning units, pool pumps or noisy commercial shops and stores are answered by the Building and Safety Department. Barking dogs fall under the. Department of Animal Regulation. Still other noises are handled by other agencies. In effect, Ms.

Hammer says, the city's noise ordinance was considered a step-child by the seven agencies administering different sections. The result was that little control took place. In addition, the 1973 law contained loopholes that often prevented officials from even attempting to solve certain noise problems. Sections prohibiting overly loud music, for example, were enforceable only between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

During daylight hours there was virtually no restriction on stereos or practicing bands. City officials say that Ms. Hammer's view of the law's failing were shared by most of the agencies connected with it. "There was the sense that enforcement was not as effective as it might be," said Roger Holt of the city attorney's office. In general, the EPA has found that effective anti-noise ordinances contain three basic provisions: A central enforcement agency to prevent the passing of problems from office to office.

Such an agency need not be large, federal studies have found, and, in fact, often are cheaper than spreading the responsibilities among several existing agencies. A precise definition of what noise levels constitute a violation of the ordinance. Such levels should be expressed in decibels the standard noise measurement and enforcing officers should carry sound measuring instruments when investigating a complaint. Enforcing officers should have authority to control offenders quickly and efficiently. In cities using the citation process, fines paid by offenders often come close to paying for administration of the law.

project unwanted music over neighborhoods day and night, summer and winter, during the week and weekend. "Calling noise a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience. Noise should be considered a hazard to the health of people everywhere," said former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. William Stewart.

Physiologically, the body reacts to the high levels of noise by shifting into what is known as a "flight or fight" response. Blood pressure and heart rates increase, muscles tense, blood cholesterol levels rise and various stimulative hormones are released throughout the body. Emotionally, the on-again, off-again nature of barking dogs or loud stereo music can leave victims whip-sawed between resentment of the noise and then fear that it will begin again at any moment. "It, can send people' right up the wall," said one official. "You sit down with the Sunday paper or go into the bedroom for a nap, and then it begins the bark, bark, bark like a metronome.

Sometimes it seems like the dog is purposely torturing you." As the anger over such intrusions build, noise victims can become depressed and occasionally even violent or demented. One founder of an anti-noise group confesses that she once considered taking the life of a neighbor who appeared to be taunting her with loud music. A highly civilized man living in an apartment building found himself waiting for the residents of the next suite to leave so he could choke their poodle. At the Bell home near Carson, the band music from next door once so tortured Mrs. Bell that she fell to the floor, crying and sobbing hysterically.

In San Diego, neighborhood adversaries have appeared at hearings and lunged at each other with knives. A noise control official in Los Angeles said he has arrived at the home of noise victims to find them wearing pistols strapped to their waist. "Gradually people are coming to realize that noise intrusions are not minor problems. They are severe and can become so serious that they destroy people's lives," says James Dukes, director of San Diego's anti-noise office and a founder of the National Association of Noise Officials. For the last two years Ms.

Hammer and the 150 other members of Citizens. Against number of sources producing loud or irritating noises have doubled in the last 10 years. "It's the fastest growing form of pollution we have," says Richard Dennerline of the Los Angeles County Health Services Department. "Somewhere society is going to have to say, Until recently, little aid was offered to victims of such noise. That may be changing.

Los Angeles County recently began enforcement of a new noise law passed last fall. And Los Angeles is revising its five-year-old ordinance, although anti-noise groups and others have criticized the revisions currently being considered, saying they would leave the city lagging far behind some other metropolitan areas. In addition, the federal government, through its Environmental Protection Agency, is developing a program to offer financial support and technical advice to local governments in controlling noise. And, for the first time, a National Association of Noise Officials has been organized to help develop low-cost, effective programs. Long Searches for Help "The momentum is developing," says Ann Hammer, president of Citizens Against Noise Trespass in Los Angeles.

"But the noise victims still get the short shaft. You can spend months or years trying to find someone to help you." For many years, excessive noise in the work place, near airports and industrial areas have been recognized as harmful both physically and But recent studies have suggested that loud and irritating noises in residential neighborhoods of urban areas also can cause lasting harm. For many, the home has become a last refuge from the harassments and intrusions of daily life. The repeated invasion of unwanted noise effectively can destroy that sense of refuge and leave the victim moving from one form of stress to another. The reaction often is first despair, then desperation and anger.

The rapid increase of noise sources in recent years stems largely from changes in technology and the use of dogs as sentries for the home. While the value of dogs as crime deterrents is generally doubted by law enforcement officials, the dog population is exploding. As the population grows, so does the problem of barking. In addition, the low cost and inceased volume of electronic amplifiers, phonographs and radios now regularly BRISTOL City health officials plan to meet early next month with the organizers of the newest health district in the state in hopes of getting guidance on how to form a Bristol-Burlington health district, Health Director William E. Furniss said Thursday.

Furniss and other city officials have been working during the past month to determine the cost of forming the health district. They hope to have all information compiled before the start of the next fiscal year in July. If they don't, they will have to wait another year before the district can be formed. Furniss said he plans to meet with Dr. Dorothy W.

Brockway, head of the Quin-nipiac Valley Health District that was formed July 1, 1978. That district includes Hamden, West Haven and Woodbridge, he said. The Health Department also is getting information from municipalities that L.A. Times Service LOS ANGELES Theda Bell remembers the evening it began. Watching television with her husband, she suddenly jerked upright as their den exploded with the noise of amplified guitars and drums coming from next door.

Startled, Mrs. Bell called her neighbor and soon the music quieted. Well, she thought, that was that. It wasn't. For more than two years now the Bells have lived under a siege of noise.

Their neighbors' sons, who had started a rock band, soon made no pretense of restraining-the volume of their electronic music. Eventually, incredibly, the first rock band was joined by a second on the opposite side of the Bells' tidy home near Carson, a community just south of Los Angeles. When the music begins and sometimes both bands Iplay at once the windows of their house rattle, the 'Bells must shout at each other to be heard, and the two of them retreat into a stoic silence. For as long as the bands play, there is no refuge from the noise. Since the night it began, the Bells repeatedly have tried to find help.

Over two years, many trips to downtown Los Angeles, and dozens of phone calls, the Bells have contacted two police departments, the county sheriffs, the city's Department of Environmental Quality Office, a television station action line, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn's office, a Carson legal aid center, a local anti-noise citizens group, the county Health Services Department and, in a moment of desperation, the church pastor. Tense Wait Several of the agencies attempted to end the Bells' torment, but none succeeded. The retired couple was caught in a slow shuffle from one office to the next. "Every evening when we sit down to supper, we are tense, waiting for it to begin," Mrs. Bell says.

"There's just no peace at all." Though unusually severe, the Bells' plight is only one of thousands of similar cases in urban areas. The victimization of city dwellers by noise from barking dogs, stereophonic equipment, motorcycles, power boats, practicing rock bands and other sources has become a virtual epidemic. Beginning in the early 1970s, a series of U.S. Census polls has found loud noise to be the most frequently listed of all urban complaints. A government study has estimated that the potential Car Part Thefts Studied By JOANNE BALL SUFFIELD A resolution approved by the Board of Selectmen Thursday represents the first step toward the town's participation in a rental assistance program under the state Department of Economic Development.

First Selectman Earl Waterman received information from the state on the program that allows renters meeting certain criteria to receive regular subsidies at no cost to the town, he said Thursday before the selectmen's meeting. If Suffield participates in this program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would be the 73rd town in the state to do so, Steven Brush, a state housing program specialist, said Thursday. Town social worker Jean Henesey said Thursday that she wasn't sure of the exact number of residents who would be eligible for the rent subsidy program, but she added that the program "answers a real need in the town." Further research is needed to determine how many persons meet eligibility requirements set by the government, she said. Brush said the program BRISTOL Police said Thursday they are investigating five thefts of items from cars parked throughout the city.

Two complaints were mad? by Emmett Street residents, both concerning the thefts of car batteries, police said. Earl Patton of Emmett Street said a $46 battery was taken from his car while parked near his apartment. Pedro Diaz also of Emmett Street, said his car battery, valued at $53.29, also was taken while parked near his apartment, police said. Stephen Pontiac on Farm-ington Avenue reported that a new motor home had been entered and an eight-track tape player valued at $150 was taken, police said. The.