Tucson Daily Citizen from Tucson, Arizona • Page 27

Editorial Markets Euc00tt THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1969 PAGE 27 Sports Classified Benson Highway Blues Citizen Photos by John Hemmcr Mid-morning on the Benson Highway lots of blue sky plenty of paving but hardly a car in sight. Freeway Generates Mixed Reaction On Old Benson Highway Most travelers seem to prefer a new highroad, Interstate 10, which parallels the old four-lane highway. By RICHARD E.WILBUR Citizen Business Editor The way they tell it along the backwatered Benson Highway, motel operators there are finding: "It's not like it used to be." "It's terrible." "Traffic is down 60 per cent." "We miss a lot of 'ovcr- nighters' where the money mostly is." "It hasn't done anything to us yet. But I don't know about the summer." "It got rid of the trucks, I'll say that for it." They're talking about how a newly completed section of Interstate 10 has affected their remaining five-mile stretch of Benson Highway. The new 1-10 section approximately parallels their stretch, which lies between Park Avenue and Valencia Road.

At Valencia Road, the Benson Highway and Interstate 10 rejoin and continue eastward as a freeway. Not. everyone interviewed in a Tucson Daily Citizen survey along the Benson Highway was unhappy about his business volume since the 1-10 section was completed last month. "I think it got better," said Mrs. Adam Pijanowski, owner of the El Pais Motel.

"We picked up a little the last month. "I don't know whether it was due to more people traveling or what." Glen Miller, owner of the Iowa Motel for 17 years, said the new 1-10 stretch "hasn't hurt us any yet." Like several other Benson Highway motel owners, he said his place has "repeat business" from persons who come and stay there five or six months in the winter. At the Desert Edge Motel, a "No Vacancy" sign was out in early afternoon and "no difference here" was reported by Mrs. Paul Clogston, who has operated the place since last May. But Mrs.

Elva Gallagher, owner for 11 years of the Apache Tears Motel, voiced an opinion held by several others when she said the new 1-10 section "definitely has cut into us." Interstate 10 has dealt a blow to at least two service stations on the Benson Highway five- mile stretch. Archie Allen said he will have to close Archie's Enco Service this month. "I can't make it at this rate," he said. Allen said his gas pumping has dropped from 1,300 gallons a day to 300 per day since the 1-10 section was finished in December. Bill Weinstein, manager of an American Oil Co.

station on the Benson Highway, said his station sells about 400 gallons less a day now than it did at the same time last year. There's a "closed" sign at the Hillbilly Truck Stop service station on the Benson Highway. Three cafes on the highway are closed. If motel owners on the stretch of road can weather this summer by attracting enough "overnighters," they may be able to keep going permanently, several owners estimated. But one operator predicted "a lot aren't going to make it." Cleo Searcy, manager of the Sunset Motel, said he thinks Benson Highway motels might benefit if they band together and put up a sign of their own along 1-10.

Mrs. Agnes Brooks, manager of Le Sage Motel, said some "overnighters" now appear at her hostelry unusually late. She surmised they're customers who "may go into town and find it too then come back- to the Benson Highway. The MO stretch that bypasses the Benson Highway "is going to hurt Tucson more than anything else," in Mrs. Gallagher's opinion.

Travelers heading for Phoenix used to stop off at Benson Highway motels and stay a few days seeing the sights of Tucson after they found they liked it here, she said. But 1-10 "is just going to help them get to Phoenix faster," ignoring Tucson, said Mrs. Gallagher. Early Casualties These former places of business on the Benson Highway have signs out reflecting a tale of two roads. The other road is Interstate 10.

A section of it, completed last month almost parallel to the Benson Highway, now gets the lion's share of travelers. CONTROLLED ACCESS Road Official Defends 1-10 Job Why did the Slate Highway Department eliminate a five- mile stretch of the Benson Highway here, by building an Intcr- state-10 section almost alongside il? "We have not eliminated that particular stretch," State High- Engineer William N. Price said in Phoenix. "What we have built is a section of interstate and defense highway with controlled access." The question was asked of Price after several motel owners on the Benson Highway stretch told the Tucson Daily Citizen in effect: "This is a perfectly good highway. We don't see any point in building another one.

They just want to spend people's money." Pi-ice said the highway department had considered making a controlled access freeway out of the present five-mile Benson Highway alignment. "If we had, we would have eliminated virtually every business there," the state highway engineer said. "Or if we had gone down one side, we would have eliminated all on that side." Businesses on the other side of the Benson Highway would have been fenced off and reached only by a frontage road, Price added, "and I think it would have been a lot worse." He said, "We determined the best way was to build a con- trolled access to the north and give sufficient interchanges for businesses" on the Benson Highway. (There are three interchanges one near Park Avenue at the western edge of the five-mile stretch, another near Valencia Road at the eastern edge, and one in between at Palo Verde Road.) "Furthermore, we get all that truck traffic away from them," Price said. "That should be of some help to them." Protests about the new alignment, of 1-10 near Ihe Benson Highway dale to 1956, when a hearing was held al Ihe Elks Club here, according to Price.

Formerly districl engineer at Tucson, he said Ihere also were "other discussions over the years." May End Space Flights Borman Promoted To Deputy Director Will Be Slayton's Top Aide A I I --Apollo 8 moonflight commander Frank Borman was promoted to second in charge of all the nation's astronauts Thursday probably ending his chances of being on the first U. S. lunar landing crew later this year. Borman, 40, an Air Force Colonel, will serve as deputy director of flight crew operations under astronaut chief Donald K. "Dekc" Slayton at the Manned Spacecraft Center, a space agency spokesman said.

"Frank has a tremendous background in engineering, in flight test and as an instructor," Slayton said. "He will be of enormous help to us in assuring proper pilot training in the critical months ahead." This past Christmas, Borman, James Lovcll and William Anders flew Apollo 8 around the moon 10 times in a flawless mission. Borman's promotion to the directorate level at the space center --largely a management desk job placed him in responsibility for activities of the astronaut office, the aircraft operations office and the flight crew support division. Slayton's statement a i Borman would help in training astronauts for flights during "the critical months ahead," however, seemed to rule out his chances for being on the landing crew himself. The Apollo 8 crew members have been mentioned as strong candidates for the lunar landing mission later this year, but a source said the new duties will keep Borman from making the flight.

A source said Borman may receive a promotion to the rank of brigadier general. If the promotion does come, it will make him the first astronaut to reach general officer rank. Borman is married and has two teen-age sons. A Medal For Borman President Johnson clasps the hand of Air Force Col. Frank Borman after presenting the former Tucsonian the Distinguished Service Medal of the a i a Aeronautics and Space Administration today in a White House ceremony.

Borman, commander of the Apollo 8 moon flight; Air Force Lt. Col. William A. A (left) and Navy Capt. James A.

Lovell Jr. (beyond Borman), who were crewmen on the flight, all received the awards. (AP Wirephoto) Apollo Heroes Feted At Capital; 'Very Says Bormaii WASHINGTON I -America's three astronauts who made man's first voyage around the moon were honored today by President Johnson, applauded by Congress and cheered in a Pennsylvania Avenue motorcade. In response, the Apollo 8 flight commander, Air Force Col. Frank Borman, told a joint meeting of the House and Senate that he and the two others "stood on the shoulders of giants" in their epic space exploit.

He described himself and his fellow astronauts, James Lovell 'Meek' Fugitive Charged In Slaying Of FBI Men WASHINGTON (UPI) A "meek" and mud-covered fugitive was captured in the attic of a Washington apartment Wednesday, seven hours after he allegedly fatally shot two FBI agents. Billie Austin Bryant, 29, an accused seven-time bank robber and escaped convict, tossed his gun through the attic trap door and surrendered without a struggle, police said. His capture came almost seven hours after FBI agents Anthony Palmisano, 2(5, Hyattsville, and Edwin R. Wood- riffe, 27, Oxon Hill, were shot to death in the hallway outside the apartment of Bryant's estranged wife. A third agent at the scene apparently escaped injury.

It was the first time since 1934 that two FBI agents were killed in a single incident. The agents had gone to the apartment within minutes after a man matching Bryant's description robbed a a Maryland bank of $1,700 at the point of a gun. Police said Bryant apparently the scene of the slaying and hid in a muddy creek near the apartment building in the southeast section of Washington while police scoured the neighborhood with tracking dogs. They said he crawled up the creek bank under cover of brush later in the afternoon and apparently slipped into the apartment of Robert Ross, where he secluded himself in the attic. Ross called police when he heard strange noises from the attic, as did a resident of the neighborhood who saw a stranger entering the Ross apartment.

and William Anders, as "three very grateful and very humble Americans." The appearance of the three in the Mouse chamber followed a White House ceremony at which President Joiinsor. presented them gold medals and declared their achievement showed there are few a problems that cannot be over- conic be they those of "heavens or hunger, or moonshots and urban renewal." From the While House, they rode to the Capitol. When the welcoming applause of the assembled legislators Borman introduced first Lovell, then Anders, who each spoke briefly. Borman then spoke i a prepared text for a i a 12 i paying tribute to three Presidents, members of Congress, his space program colleagues and particularly the American workers who had made the historic flight possible. He quoted lines from poet- playwright Archibald Md.eish who wrote a the Apollo mission demonstrated more clearly a ever before in mankind's history a all men are "truly brothers." Borman then turned to Ihe words of Sir Isaac Newton to declare that in their achievement "we stood on the shoulders of giants." "And if Apollo was a triumph," he commented, "it was a truimph for all mankind." The day in Washington was the first public acclaim to be given the three moon astronauts.

It was to be followed by similar ceremonies in other American cities over the next five clavs. AP Operates Despite Strike a NEW YORK A Members of the Wire Service Guild walked off their jobs today in the first strike of editorial em- ployes in the history of The Associated Press. The Guild called the strike in a dispute over wages and a form of the guild shop. The AP is con- i i its basic news services domestically and abroad. The walkout began at 8 a.m.

and Guild pickets appeared before Associated Press headquarters at 50 Rockefeller Plaza. Newspaper Executives Arrive For Start Of State Meeting The vanguard of about 200 newspaper executives and department heads and their wives began moving into Tucson loday for the 29th annual Arizona Newspaper Association convention at the Pioneer International Hotel. Many early arrivals hit the golf course at Oro Valley Country Club for an ANA men's tournament. First business session gets an early start tomorrow, with contest awards being announced at an 8 a.m. breakfast.

The awards will single out the best efforts of newspapers throughout the state in categories such as general excellence, community service, editorial excellence, mechanical excellence and other fields. Other items of business before convention's end will include election of officers, adoption of resolutions, announcement of the a a Master Editor-Publisher Award winner and presentation of the coveted John Peter Zenger Award to Wesley Gallagher of New York City, general manager of the Associated Press. The convention will close with a dinner honoring officers of the association at the Old Pueblo Club at p.m. Saturday. Current officers are Leland M.

Hover, advertising director of the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette, president; Jim Hudson, publisher of the White Mountain Eagle, first vice president; Jim Garner, publisher of the Arizona Daily Sun, second vice president; Bud DeWalci, editor of Arizona Magazine, third vice president; Quentin J. Robb of Tucson Newspapers secretary-lreasurer. Hudson and Rohb arc convention co-chairmen..