Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 18

18 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Wednesday, September 3, 1980 Buses Ready To Roll, Contractor Says earlier, would have given school officials more than a month to prepare for this year's service. "We have had an extremely short time due to the delays on this contract being awarded through the city of Hartford," Ms. Clough said. She said she expected bus service today to be "rather successful under the circumstances." Hartford Corporation Counselor Alexander Goldfarb charged last month that school officials had brought the delays upon themselves by withholding information unfavorable to Beebe School Transportation which provided the school bus service for the last four years. Goldfarb said city officials tried repeatedly to obtain an essential perfor- schedules and bus routes.

He said radios have been ordered and are expected to arrive within a few days. If all goes as Abell predicts this week, school officials will consider it a major miracle. But Abell refused to say that preparing to run the bus service in two weeks was difficult "Maybe a little bit, but it didn't kill us," he said. Elisabeth Clough, who coordinates transportation for the school system, appeared somewhat optimistic that bus service would not falter today. However, she remained adamant in her insistance that city officials had jeopardized bus service by delaying contract procedures that, if completed By KEVIN THOMAS A Hartford school bus official remained confident Tuesday that his company will be able to deliver on its 2-week-old promise to provide nerly 90 buses for more than 6,000 students attending their first day of fall classes today.

Charles W. Abell, vice president of the Connecticut which was granted a contract to run the city school bus service Aug. 14, insisted that bus service would run smoothly today, despite the company's being short about 25 buses and many of the two-way radios that must be installed in them. Abell said additional buses were expected Tuesday afternoon, and drivers were being given assignments, written mance bond for Beebe even though it appeared the company was not providing adequate service. He said this was done not only because Beebe was the lowest bidder for this year's bus contract, but also because it had provided the service in the past.

He blamed school officials for being slow to send his office important memos that criticized the company's performance. But Ms. Clough said Tuesday that city officials were provided with more than enough information some of it critical of Beebe's performance at the beginning of the summer. She insist that the only thing the school board did not do officially was to openly voice its preference for a bus company, which she said is never done on a city contract. Among other problems, the contract delay has forced school officials to change the opening and closing hours of elementary schools twice this summer.

Officials originally announced new elementary school hours would be from 9:10 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Those hours were set to save transportation costs when school officials were expecting the bus service to be run by Beebe. But with Connecticut Co.

school officials found they could change the hours more to their liking and still pay less than anticipated. The new elementary school hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 P-m. I T-iiiiii. Mary Ellen Flynn William DiBella Attorney Argues Housing Board Not Public Agency as Suit Opens Pair Campaigning Hard; Close Contest Predicted the Housing Authority is a public agency and thus subject to Metropolitan's suit before proceeding on the question of a possible illegal contract No mention was made in court of the Housing Authority's earlier stand that O'Sullivan won the bid because it was the only one of five fuel companies that had complied with its stipulations on submitting a minority hiring plan with School Board Inaction Leaves Rehiring of Aides Up to Council the bid.

That'requirement was not found in the bid specifications, Twachtman noted. So far, no oil deliveries have been made by O'Sullivan to the Nelton Court, Dutch Point Colony, Bellevue Square, Charter Oak Terrace and Stowe Village housing projects. Both attorneys asked that the case be settled before cold weather sets in. members first considered largescale layoffs in response to City Council cuts in the school system's budget. Those meetings concluded with a compromise of layoffs that included paraprofessionals and other workers.

But the board agreed at that time to rehire all the paraprofessionals if funds were found. A stronger commitment to rehire the paraprofessionals was sought Tuesday by the resolution's strongest backers, Mrs. Kornfeld and board members Patricia Malizia and Maria Sanchez. It was hoped that adopting the resolution would guarantee that the paraprofessionals would get their jobs back regardless of the outcome of City Council proceedings. But just before the board meeting Tuesday it became apparent that the alliance of the three had weakened, and when the meeting began Mrs.

Malizia almost immediately asked that the resolution be tabled. Mrs. Malizia, maintaining that she has "never wavered" in her support of paraprofessionals, said she had reconsidered and favored tabling the measure because of assurances she was given during the weekend that the council would approve the additional money for the school system. She said those assurances came from the mayor and some council members. Ms.

Sanchez, however, disagreed with that assessment and said she too had spoken with council members and had been told that no funds would be By MARC GUNTHER State Rep. Mary Ellen Flynn wants to be considered the underdog in her re-election campaign against former City Councilman William A. DiBella in Hartford's 1st Assembly District. Mrs. Flynn likes to contrast the campaign she and a few friends are running in her garage with DiBella's high-powered and expensive effort with two offices, full-time staff and endorsements from top South End Democrats.

"This primary is out of hand with the bucks on one hand and the underdog on the other," said Mrs. Flynn, a first-term legislator. DiBella scoffs at that notion and says he simply wants to get his message to the voters. Mrs. 48, a paraprofessional at Kennelly School, won election to the House in 1979 in a special election.

She has been active in the neighborhood for many years, as a member of the Democratic Town Committee, PTA president and a church woman. DiBella, 35, who is the party-endorsed candidate, is emphasizing his eight years of experience with urban issues on the council and three years as chairman of the Metropolitan District Commission. He is an executive with Royal Par Industries of West Hartford, an engineering firm. The contest has echoes of last year's bitter mayoral primary. Mrs.

Flynn was campaign manager for the victorious slate led by Mayor Athanson and Deputy Mayor Robert F. Ludgin, while DiBella ran and lost as part of the slate headed by former Deputy Mayor Nicholas R. Carbone. Both candidates publicly downplay the importance of ethnic politics in the largely middle-class district, which includes many Italian-Americans like DiBella and Irish-Americans like Mrs. Flynn.

Nevertheless, DiBella notes that his mother was Irish. And Mrs. Flynn will get help later this week from City Councilwoman Antoinette L. Leone, who will call some of her neighbors and talk to them in Italian. Arms has bad her rent increased in the past six months from $184 to $250, she said.

And Nick Mathis was -upset that her rent at Sovereign Arms went up from $250 to $290 a month. Making the hikes unbearable, the tenants said, was the management company's laxness in making repairs to the apartments. During a brief but spirited meeting Tuesday, Hartford Board of Education members tabled a measure that would have ordered the superintendent of schools to find enough money to rehire more than 20 paraprofessionals who were laid off this summer because of budget cuts. The board's tabling of the resolution on a 5-4 vote drew an immediate and angry response from Phyllis H. Kornfeld, president of the Hartford Federation of Paraprofessionals.

"I am extremely dissappointed," Mrs. Kornfeld said after the special board meeting. "The paraprofessionals are being used as a political football. Tomorrow is the opening of schools and there will be a number of classes without paras." The matter now is expected to go to the City Council. Mayor Athanson is expected to introduce a resolution Monday asking the council to give the school system more than $120,600 from city coffers to rehire the workers.

The council is not expected to take action on the mayor's resolution until at least Sept 22, and then only after public hearings are held. Tuesday's school board proceedings threatened to rekindle the firey battle that surfaced in June, when board Af fleet Street Fire Forces Family From Apartment Fire struck an apartment building at 160 Affleck St. Tuesday at about 3:50 p.m., resulting in no injuries but forcing a family to relocate, fire officials said. The fire destroyed a room on the second floor of the three-story brick tenement house but was brought under control within about 15 minutes, officials said. None of the family members was in the apartment when the fire began, officials said.

The blaze is being investigt-ed by the fire marshal's office and it's cause isn't known yet said Deputy Chief James Callahan. By MONICA M. CARROLL The attorney for the Hartford ing Authority denied in court Tuesday that his client is a public agency, claiming that, therefore, the agency isn't subject to state laws requiring that the lowest bidder be awarded a contract. Walter A. Twachtman attorney for MetroDOlitan Petroleum which is suing the authority over the loss a $1 million contract to supply heating fuel to several federally funded Hartford housing projects, called the claim by Morris Apter "preposterous." Both sides presented preliminary arguments Tuesday before Judge Douglas Wright in Hartford Superior Court on Washington Street, and they are both scheduled to submit briefs for Wright's review before the next court session Monday.

Metropolitan of Glastonbury wants the court to enjoin the Housing Authority from executing the contract with O'Sullivan's Fuel Oil Co. of New Haven firm, a minority-managed firm that submitted a bid of $28.30 per barrel of No. 6 heating oil. Metropolitan bid $28.17 per barrel. The difference in the $1 million contract for provision of 1.6 million gallons of oil is about $5,000.

Twachtman said the contract is illegal because the authority, as a public agency, is required by state law to accept the lowest bid. He also said his client was denied a hearing when it complained about the acceptance of O'Sullivan's bid. In denying the lowest bidder a hearing on the matter, Twachtman said, the contract witn usumvan became illegal. Citing a legal precedent, Apter tciiucu lucuuyvuuu uuc a us a yager's suit" that would have to be dismissed becaucse Metropolitan, like the plaintiff in the other case, does not pay taxes to the authority. To be able to sue, Apter said, Metropolitan would have to show it pays taxes to the hnriv in nnpstinn and the Hous ing Authority is neither a state or a city agency.

Twachtman offered his client's tax records to show it pays taxes to the state, but Apter replied that the authority relies on federal subsidies and accepts state money only for rehabilta-tion and modernization projects. When Twachtman insisted that the authority is an agency of the state, Apter said the authority was "created by virtue of statute just like a private corporation" and, therefore, is not subject to the Uniform Procedure Administrative Act that governs rules of evidence and hearing procedures for commissions and departments. Calling the case before him "many tentacled," Wright said the court would have to address the question of whether 2 Arraigned on Two men were arraigned Tuesday in Superior Court on Morgan Street on murder charges arising from two unre- Woman, 26, Raped On Holcomb Street A Holcomb Street woman told police that she was raped at knifepoint in her apartment Monday by an unknown man who had a piece of a towel wrapped around his face. The woman said she had fallen asleep and woke to find the man unplugging her television. The man fled after raping her, police said.

Drag Charges A Middletown man was arrested by Hartford police Tuesday afternoon and accused of possession of about 13 grams of cocaine, worth about $1,400, police said. Frederick H. Rothbun, 26, was charged with possession of narcotics and possession of narcotics with the intent to sell, police said. He was arrested at the United Parcel Service station at 90 Locust St after he claimed a package containing the suspected cocaine, police said. Postal officials had informed police after they had opened the package, police said.

Address Incorrect The address of 20 Atwood St, Hartford, listed to Linda Day in Monday's Courant was incorrect according to the owners of the property. They said Ms. Day, who was arrested on a number of charges, does not and has not lived there. Police said it was the address Ms Day gave them, and they don't check addresses to make sure they're correct Tenants Say Rent Goes Up, Services Don't Both candidates are conducting traditional door-to-door campaigns. But DiBella may have an organizational edge because he has used volunteer canvassers on many streets, phone banks and mailings targeted for the elderly and young people as well as district-wide mailings.

The DiBella headquarters above the Nutshell Tavern on Hillside Avenue is staffed by two well-known city personalities who are working for him virtually full-time: Board of Education President Curtiss B. Clemens and Gerry Toney, a former WFSB-TV reporter. DiBella expects to spend about $7,000 on the race, raised at neighborhood events as well as a $100-a-ticket fund-raiser at a downtown restaurant Mrs. Flynn says she will spend about $2,000. nwn Few major disagreements over issues have emerged.

The candidates are taking somewhat different approaches to the property. tax' issue, which both agree is very important in the district dominated by one- to three-family homes. i Mrs. Flynn supports the tax differential passed last year by the General Assembly. She says it will provide temporary relief to taxpayers and give legislators time to study more permanent tax reform.

DiBella supports a tax classification system that would tax homes, apartments and commercial properties at different Mrs. Flvnn emphasizes her concern about education and promises to work for the elderly as a member of a legislative task force. DiBella promises to do better than his opponent to bring state-financed home mortgages into the city and home loans to help people save energy. Both candidates, as well as neutral observers, predict a close race Tuesday. Some give DiBella an edge because he is better known, probably slightly better organized and endorsed by such popular city Democrats as Secretary of the State Barbara B.

Kennelly and Sen Joseph J. Fauliso. Denese Chisolm of 16 Niles a building owned and managed by the Housing Services said she had been served an eviction notice and asserted that it appeared prompted by her attempts to organize tenants there and her protest of a rent hike. She said the management company had denied the charges. lic hearing was held on the proposed bonding.

Only three persons from the public spoke, two of them in favor and the third criticizing Maguire for not giving enough consideration to solar heat as an energy source for the town's public buildings. Only the high school swimming pool would be heated with solar energy, according to Maguire's recommendations. In other business, the council voted to delay action on the Housing Authority's request for $50,000 towards leasing a former nurses' dormitory at Newington Children's Hospital. The building would be converted into housing for the elderly- The state Housing Department has asked that the town reserve the money as an act of good faith on the project which would require a state grant of about $1.5 million. Because there is no written -agreement between the town and the-hospi-taL council members said they "prefer to wait until specific informationls presented before appropriating the money.

Ann K. Pimm School of Dance, Masonic Hall, Wethersfield. Registration Saturday 13, 1-5 p.m. or phone 529-2190. Advt Sold Bill O'Brien and his consultants are eager to discuss the value of your home.

Please call us 666-1234. Advt made available to rehire the paraprofessionals. In extremely angry tones, Ms. Sanchez said, "I know these paraprofessionals are not going to be working in one or two more months, maybe not for the whole year and I don't want to play politics with this board anymore." After the meeting Ms. Sanchez laid most of the blame for Tuesday's action on board President Curtiss B.

Clemens, who has been strongly opposed to any resolution that would direct school officials to find funds without directing them to potential sources. Ms. Sanchez said Clemens opposed the measure because of a threat he made to the council in April that if the council cut the school system's budget many employes would have to be laid Clemens strongly denied that charge Tuesday; insisting that regardless of how the council handles the matter, he never would support the resolution ordering the school system to rehire the paraprofessionals. In tabling the measure, the board did agree to call another special meeting to consider the resolution if the council doesn't appropriate the necessary funds. Voting in favor of tabling the measure were Clemens, Mrs.

Malizia, M. Sue Ginzberg, Thomas McBride and Drew Soltys. Board members Wayne De. Casey, Ms. Sanchez, Maxine Graham and William H.

Carey voted against tabling. Some of the tenants have been refusing the pay their rent increases and are appealing them to Hartford's Fair Rent Commission. Others are challenging their notices of eviction in the state Housing Court. Richard R. Rangoon, president of the management company, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

Also at the meeting were tenants of 65 Sumner another apartment building managed by Housing Services Corp. One of them, 70-year-old Willie Evans, complained that the rent for her one-bedroom apartment this month was raised from $195 to $240. She said the charge includes $10 a month for a parking space but she doesn't own a car. For Curtis Brandon of Sovereign Arms, the rent on his one-bedroom apartment was raised from $205 to $250. G.

Nasimiyu Smith of Sovereign 40 Move! 69th annual Haddam Neck fair Monday, which featured scores of activities for young and old. Mwr-Sfci Murder Charges Council Sets Referendum On $1.6 Million Bond Issue By MARK STILLMAN Tenants of the Sovereign Arms apartment house at 57 Sumner St. met Tuesday night to protest rent increases, attempts at eviction and what they called poor maintenance of the building. "Why should we be the victims of high increases in rent and we're not getting anything for it?" asked Elizabeth Poitier, president of the Sovereign Arms Tenants Association. The 81-apartment building is owned by the Society for Savings because of a foreclosure and is managed by the Housing Services Corp.

of Hartford, the tenants said. Most of the 25 tenants attending the session complained about rent increases that have been imposed every six months, and some were bitter about the management company's attempts to evict tenants for alleged failure to pay rent Come on, Bod McLean of the Cobalt section of East Hampton urges his oxen team on doring an oxen-drawing contest at the ft inn la ted homicides last weekend in Hartford. Nathaniel Lee, 59, of 710 Albany Ave. and Angel Cruz, 54, of 483 Ann St. appeared before Judge Sherman Drut-man, who transferred their cases to Superior Court on Washington Street Lee and Cruz were jailed on $100,000 bond each.

Lee was arrested Monday. Police charged him with the fatal shooting of Alton Wilson, 46, of 1614 Main during a row 30-minutes earlier inside the Albany Avenue Laundromat 690 Albany Ave. Wilson died 30 minutes after reaching St Francis Hospital and Medical Center. Cruz was arrested Saturday, about four hours after the fatal stabbing of Ricardo Rodriquez, 48, of 271 High St Police said the attack occurred about 6:20 p.m. in front of a High Street liquor store.

Police said it stemmed from the alleged theft of food and a radio from Cruz's apartment by Rodriquez. Charges of first-degree sexual assault against three men, all residents of the Open Hearth, a shelter for transients at 437 Sheldon St, were transferred to Superior Court on Washington Street They were jailed on $3,000 bonds. The three, Robert J. Hipkins, 39, Mike Foster, 18, and Charles Rhoden, alias Frederick Lewis, 24, were arrested Aug. 30 in Bushnell Park after they allegedly attacked a 34-year-old city woman.

A charge of first-degree sexual assault against Bruce Parkes, 25, of 135 Hungerford St was transferred to Superior Court on Washington Street By KIRK G. HATSIAN NEWINGTON The Town Council Tuesday night voted to hold a referendum Nov. 4 on a proposed $1.6 million bond issue to make energy-saving improvements in buildings. The vote was 8-0 with Councilman Richard Willett abstaining. Willett is employed by C.E.

Maguire of New Britain, the company hired by the town to conduct the energy audit. The council action only put the issue to referendum, council members stressed. At the suggestion of Councilman Donald Cohen, the council will hold work sessions to determine whether borrowing or an increase in the tax rate. would be the better financing method. Some councilmen opposed a 20-year bonding program, noting that interest on a $1.6 million loan would amount to $1.3 million.

The method is to raise the money through taxation at a rate of 6 mills if the project is to be done in one year, two mills for three years or one mill for six years, officials have said. Anthony Ruglio, chairman of the Energy Audit Committee that hired Maguire for the study, said the town would save $275,000 a year in energy costs if the conservation program is used. "It's an investment in Newington's future," Ruglio said. 9 Before the council took action, a pub.