Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 17

Monday, December 7, 1998 Tallahassee Democrat 3 Science: Solar- powered craft may someday gather meteorological data. 4C Briefi, 2 Obituaries, 5 Calendar, vrow.lallahassfc.com 1 fflMi UrRtMlfP More to lose than electricity I uiinj.i.iii:r--i I State receives I present with strings attached Trash iraws ire Suppose you wake up I on Christ- about 25 percent this year has strained local social service agencies trying to help desperate residents keep their power on. "Ever since the city changed its policy probably a year ago it has increased the number of disconnects," said Barbara McCloud of the Tallahassee Red Cross. During the 12 months between July 1997 and June 1998, there was an average of 2,500 disconnections per month up from 2,000 per month in previous years, city officials said. Actual monthly figures range from just over 3,000 in June and July, when air conditioner use I 'V 4 'I A Zli condition called sarcoidosis.

She has a special tag on her meter to let city workers know that she is medically dependent upon electricity. Yet twice in recent months, the city has cut off her utilities because she owes roughly $900. Hill is not alone. Cutoffs are up all over the city. The trend is a result of deregulation-spurred attempts by city officials to shore up the budget by tightening up on collections.

City officials say they can no longer tolerate for months on end thousands of outstanding bills that average several hundred dollars each. But the increase in cutoffs For poor people dependent on electric-run medical equipment, a power cutoff can be a health risk. By Catherine McNaught DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER Veronica Hill can't pay her utility bill. And while losing electricity is a hardship for just about anyone, it can be a life-or-death situation for her. Hill, 36, uses a nebulizer a machine that vaporizes medicine she has to inhale every four hours to treat a degenerative lung f- mas morning and find a paid-in-full copy of your auto loan bank note under the tree, along with a letter from your boss saying MARK WALLHEISERDemocrat Veronica Hill stands below Bill Cotterell STATE AGENCIES her electric meter, which bears a Please see CUTOFFS, 3C Medic Alert tag.

you're get- Reclaiming the fort ting a big pay raise. But then visions of maybe another car and a junket to the Fiesta Bowl dancing in your head you read the fine print. It says you've got to share the windfall with family members, in proportion to how much each of them contributes to the household income. And you also have to stash some in the bank for unforeseeable lean times. That's how the Legislature must feel, unwrapping its new financial study of the Florida Retirement System.

Residents of the Woodland Drive neighborhood spruce up their local park with trees, shrubs, ground covers and So pood lc in the black The FRS is going great. If it was a baseball team, it would h. be the New York Yankees. If it I was a toy, it would be Furby. i Since the state merged doz-! ens of pension plans in 1970, the FRS has been lugging around flowers.

The Residents and businesses near a proposed garbage transfer building on Tharpe Street say they haven 't had much input in the county's plans. By David Twlddy DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER Arnold Gruning has lots of questions about Leon County's plans to truck all the county's trash to a building on Tharpe Street near his home before sending it to Jackson County. And once he started talking to residents and businesses near the proposed site, he found out he wasn't alone. "I'm running into a lot of people who are getting real concerned about it and haven't heard about it," Gruning, a retired plumber, told the County Commission recently. "No one seems to have any communication about what's going to go back there." What's going to go back there is a $3.5 million transfer station that will process the county's garbage after the landfill on U.S.

27 closes in 2000. Trucks and tractor-trailers will enter and leave the site close to 200 times a day as they bring in trash, bundle it and send it to a landfill in Jackson County. And if Gruning and his neighbors don't like it, that's probably too bad. By all indications, it's a done deal. Commissioners will vote on Tuesday on selecting JRA Architects to design the station and walk it through the permitting process, which will start early next year.

"I think we're operating under the assumption that this is the most desirable site," said Jud Curtis, the county's solid waste director. Please see STATION, 3C small but popular park holds remnants of a fort built to protect the city during the Civil War. 1 tnjr i DEMOCRAT PHOTOS BY MARX WALLHEISER an "unfunded actuarial liability." That's the gap between assets and payouts, if no more money came in and everybody retired at once. Happily, the opposite is happening. FRS has been taking in money faster than it's been paying it out, year after year.

So now, the FRS actuarial study shows liablities of $66.4 billion and assets of $67 billion making a positive balance for the first time. And that's Residents hold the fort in high regard Rnley 4 i 1 being very conservative; the market value of assets is some-i thing like $83 billion. So the unfunded liability (like the car note on Christmas i morning) is paid off and the state's stock market earnings (like that pay raise) are pour- ing in faster than expected. Oh, I what to do, what to do? 1 He says he was motivated to improve the park's landscaping alter Sprint boxes were installed. 3 Old Fort Park was getting a little shabby until nearby residents took up the battle cry for improvement.

By Zannah Lyle DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER During the Civil War, Tallahassee was never seriously threatened by Northern forces. Nevertheless, the war was Tharpfc St Proposed site for trash transfer station 1 much felt in the city. In hotels, homes and nearby plantations, wounded soldiers were vN. Tennessee Sf. if But those soldiers never made it farther than Natural Bridge, where, six weeks before the war ended, 900 Union soldiers were turned back to Apalachee Bay by more than 1,500 Confederate troops.

Today, Old Fort Park with its raised earthen works surrounded by a ditch and a grassy field guarded by two live oaks serves as the heart of Woodland Drives, established in 1936. The park is a small space perhaps a couple of acres. But it is popular. It is a place where children Please see FORT PARK, 5C LP cared for Mili- tary men met Jack Rosenau, 79, right, digs a hole for shrubs during a morning of landscaping at Old Fort Park. I.V'.l...

here to draw up ally, Union prisoners were held although not under heavy guard. Tallahassceans firmly believed their city was vulnerable to attack. That's why Gov. John Milton sent his family to live at their Jackson County plantation, Sylvania. And why, around the city, residents constructed 13 earthen forts.

Today, remnants of only one of the forts remain Old Fort Park in the Woodland Drives neighborhood. During the war, sentries likely looked down from the fort scouring the woods owned by Gen. E.A. Houstoun for signs of Yankee soldiers. J0VAN WIUJAMVUemociat Republicans in I lie catbird seal Ending the unfunded liability means the state, school boards, counties and various other FRS members can cut contributions to the pot by $1 billion to $1.8 billion, depending on how cautious plan managers and legislators want to be.

They're working wjth a "safe" figure of $1.2 billion. The state puts up only 25 percent of the FRS nest egg, so it gets only one-fourth back. School boards get 45 percent, county governments get 20 per-. cent and others various colleges, mosquito-control agencies and water management districts get 10 percent. But remember Amendment 6 on the ballot, the one that proclaimed education the chief duty of the state? In sending the biggest chunk of the change back to the school boards, the Legislature has a chance of painlessly complying with that unwelcome mandate.

"All right, school boards, you tied our hands with that constitutional amendment," lawmakers can say, "here's a half-billion in relief from your share of the pension pot (which you would have gotten anyway), so don't tell us we're not making education No. Meanwhile, what's the state to do with its own share say, $280 million of the windfall? Well, there are always pay raises, insurance subsidies or improved pension benefits. It will be interesting to see how the all-Republican administration handles this long-expected financial windfall. Doing lunch fills appetites, hearts 'Voyager' will soon arrive through Tallahassee cable CHRISTMAS CONNECTION An accident victim needs paint and brushes to help support himself. 2C.

i "In a virtual way, they're eating lunch i with an older person who As wouldn't have tikJ lunch otherwise." TIFin town bearing $10 platters of 1 I rhirknn nnrmn. For $10, you can order a gourmet lunch while helping the elderly. Carol Ann Breyer used to tackle office gift-giving by taking her colleagues to a restaurant, bringing in pizza or picking up a deli tray at the supermarket. Then she got hooked on the annual "Let's Do Lunch!" benefit, coming again Thursday to raise money for Meals on Wheels. "It's no trouble," Breyer said.

"The luncheons are delivered and everything is done for you all the utensils and everything. The only thing the host has to take care of is coffee or tea or a beverage." On Thursday, Elder Care Services will send volunteers all over i 1 san and other It became a joke around Rick Oppenheim's office every time FedEx delivered a tape from his friend in Miami. "Getting my regular Star Trek' fix from my "Star Trek' junkie dealer," went the ribbing, said the 46-year-old owner of a local advertising and public relations company. But tape no more. The United Paramount Network, which features such colon-titled shows as "Star Trek: Voyager," "Love Boat The Next Wave," and "Poltergeist The Legacy," Is here In Tallahassee.

VPN, home or "Star Trek: Voyager, "Is coming to Comcast cable, much to the relief of clamoring rans. By L.A. Newklrk DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER Last season, Tallahassee fans of "Star Trek: Voyager" were left high and dry. No local station carried the science fiction show, so they had to rely on friends and family to send them tapes of the weekly episodes shown around the country. gourmet treats.

This year, the agency's professional staff has cooked up a new chocolate bark dessert. Orders Breyer has Introduced "Let's Do Lunch!" to the Notre Dame Club, the Master Wildlife Conservationists, her colleagues at Florida State University and fellow members of a task force that finds jobs for people with disabilities. "These are four very distinct Please see BRIGHTS, 2C must be placed by noon Wednesday. Over the past four years, Please tee UPN, 3C 2 -t Bw itfci i itoi Jfcmfci a I.