The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 35

LA MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 30. 1984 Audit Set for Financial Records of Medicaid Babies ELSEWHERE in Birmingham, Huntsville Hospital, the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile and Baptist Medical Center in Montgomery, she said. However, the state agency audited Baptist's neonatal unit in September after the hospital's board of director voted to limit admissions to a four-county area. The hospital had been serving most of south Alabama, but it cited a heavy load of indigent patients in the unit and Medicaid cuts in its decision to restrict called us about anything." Mrs.

Baggiano said the audit beginning Monday will look at "only the financial records of Medicaid babies not the medical records like we did at Baptist" The audits will cover the fiscal year ending Sept 30, 1963, she said. Mrs. Baggiano said the five hospitals that have neonatal units all were making money with Druid City Hospital earning an overall profit in 1983 of $8.2 million. Associated Press Report A statewide audit begins Monday of financial records of Medicaid babies treated at neonatal units across Alabama after a similar probe revealed certain discrepancies at a Montgomery hospital. State Medicaid Commissioner Fa ye Baggiano said the statewide audit would begin with the neonatal unit at Tuscaloosa's Druid City Hospital.

Other hospitals in Alabama with neonatal units are University Hospitals admissions. The hospital later decided not to implement the admissions restrictions after an audit showed the unit owed Medicaid 140,000. Mrs. Baggiano said the FBI was investigating operations of the neonatal unit at Baptist, but hospital officials said Thursday they were not informed of the probe. "We have not had a single contact from anybody," said Baptist hospital spokesman Gene Hannah.

"Nobody has The 1983 earnings of the other hospitals with such units were University Hospitals, 7.9 million; Huntsville Hospital, S4.3 million; Baptist Medical Center, "about $5 and the University of South Alabama Medical Center, 1500.000, she Mid. Don Simmons, deputy regional inspector for the Health Financing Integrity Office in Atlanta, said there were criminal penalties for hospitals found guilty of Medicaid fraud. "Most of these things are punishable by jail sentences and a fine," he said. IN ALABAMA Man Convicted Of Rape Cashes Victim's Check BIRMINGHAM (AP) A Jan. 18 sentencing hearing has been set for a Birmingham man convicted on rape charges after a victim of a sexual 'attack testified she wrote her assailant lm hvlr vrhlnti ha faehoH tinninff Officials Try To Head Off Traffic Rise if- Wallace Arrives For Work Despite 'Minor' Ailment Associated Press Report Gov.

George C. Wallace's second recent bout with a urinary tract infection, described by an aide as minor, did not keep him away from his Capitol office Thursday. Wallace, dressed in a gray suit, said he was "feeling fine" when he arrived at his office shortly before 2 p.m. Billy Joe Camp, the governor's press i secretary, said Wallace decided to authorities to his identity. Franklin Dwight Williams, 38, was 'convicted Wednesday on two counts 'each of rape, robbery and second- degree kidnapping in connection with assaults last March.

During the trial, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham testified that Williams raped her and then demanded money. She said she no cash, so she wrote him a check but left blank the portion where "paid to the order" was written. She said Williams told her she would know his name when the check was returned. The check later showed up in her thank statement with Williams' name and the endorsement of a store in I Titusville. Prosecutors said store employees gave police Williams' address and that led to his arrest.

Assistant Jefferson County District Attorney Carole Smitherman said Wil- liams will also be prosecuted on two other rape charges and a charge of I attempted rape. The five incidents occurred between January and March. Jefferson County Circuit Judge James Hard set the sentencing hear- ing. Williams could receive up to 20 years in prison on each rape and robbery conviction and 10 years for i each kidnapping conviction. Divers Honored HTTNTWTT AP Turn Htuor.

work Thursday af- ternoon in his -A. I I I I Lr Capitol office after dismissing the ailment as no worse than "a cold bug." "He has no fever," said Camp. "He feels he has improved." Wallace's per who tried in vain to save the victims of a ooaung acciaem inai Kiiiea people were honored Thursday by the state rbmnrtmant nf Piihll SnfMv 4V Homer Hickam and Mick Roney received the state agency's Distinguished Service Award for their at- tempted rescue last July of passengers from the capsized "SCItanic." Hickam and Roney spent two to three hours in the water and sustained WKAB-TV Owner To Buy WAKA By ALVIN BENN and GRAHAM OSTEEN Advertiser Staff Writers Montgomery Independent Tele-casters operators of WKAB-TV, has contracted to buy WAKA-TV of Selma, formerly WSLA-TV, Channel 8. The purchase must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. WKAB owner Cy N.

Bahakel and Charles Grisham, owner of WAKA, announced the planned acquisition in a joint statement Thursday night. Bahakel declined to reveal the purchase price, but said it would be "substantially more" than the million being spent to enlarge WAKA. He also said FCC rules will require him to sell WKAB in Montgomery before the WAKA purchase is approved. A University of Alabama law graduate, the 61-year-old Bahakel said final terms of the sale were completed recently but would not give any details. Bahakel said he owns seven television stations, six AM radio stations and seven FM radio stations and operates them out of his Charlotte, N.C., headquarters.

"I am a great lover of Alabama," said Bahakel, a native of Birmingham. "We are looking forward to this purchase and the tremendous increase in coverage by WAKA." The station will operate with 316,000 watts of power on a new tower, which is being erected between Montgomery and Selma. WAKA has been in operation for more than 30 years and is affiliated with the CBS Television Network. WKAB is an ABC TV affiliate. The new tower will allow Channel 8 to serve Montgomery, Selma and 24 surrounding counties.

Announcement of the sale was the latest in a series of developments at -PM By THOMAS BUCKINGHAM Advertiser Staff Writer State Highway Department officials and city planners are developing a strategy to cope with a projected 50-percent increase in the number of cars on Montgomery, Autauga and Elmore county roads by 2005. City planner Parker Collins submitted a computer study to a regional committee of planners and engineers this week that projects there will be 50 percent more dwellings in the three counties by 2005. Collins also predicts an Increase In the number of Jobs and in average income. Based on that projection, he said, officials in the three counties can expect about 50 percent more traffic in the area early in the 21st century. The state Highway Department is examining the study and will use it to draft a transportation plan for the three counties.

Jerry Peters, an urban planning engineer with the department, said the plan should be finished by late March. The plan will give priority to the most urgently needed construction projects, Collins said. This is the third time planners have attempted to predict local transportation needs 20 years in advance. Studies were done in the early 1960s and in 1979. Peters said a third study was needed this year, only five years after the last one, because the 1979 study did not anticipate the rapid growth of East Montgomery.

The roads in that area, including Vaughn Road and the Eastern and Southern bypasses, need to be widened, Collins said. Montgomery Traffic Engineer Jack Chambliss said Vaughn Road is the most congested street in the city. Collins said it needs to be widened from Carter Hill Road to Taylor Road. In addition to Vaughn Road, Chambliss said, "I'm real worried about the Eastern bypass it's worse than the Southern bypass." Roads on the west side of Montgomery also will have to be improved if they are to accommodate heavier traffic when General Electric opens its new plant in Lowndes County, Peters said. Once these immediate needs are met, he said, East Montgomery still will require a great deal of work because of continued growth.

But Collins said new roads will be needed throughout the three counties to prepare them for the future. Peters said it is too early to estimate how much money will be available for projects or the total cost of preparing local roads for the next century. In addition to updating the 1979 projections, Collins study is the first to estimate Autuaga and Elmore counties needs along with those of Montgomery County. Although roads in those counties do not need as much work as those in Montgomery County, Peters said, the road from Wetumpka to Montgomery will have to be improved if it is to handle more traffic. As soon as the specifics of the Highway Department's plan are developed, it will be submitted for approval to the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

injuries while trying to rescue people trapped underwater when the ex- cursion boat was capsized by high winds. Christmas Festival Nears A Christmas wreath adds a festive touch to this statue of a Confederate soldier in Demopolis. Thousands of spectators are expected to triple this river, city's population Saturday when the 13th annual Christinas on the River Pageant gets underway. The week-long festival will be highlighted by an evening boat parade along the Tombigbee River after a day filled with marching bands, an arts and crafts show and a Living Christmas Tree. sonal physician, Wallace Dr.

Hamilton Hutchinson of Montgomery, said Wednesday that Wallace was taking medication and the urinary tract infection probably would not require hospitalization. A urinary tract infection two months ago sent Wallace to University Hospitals in Birmingham suffering a high fever. Wallace was given antibiotics, both orally and intravenously, and was released Oct. 12 after 16 days of treatment. Hutchinson, who disclosed Wallace's latest ailment in a newspaper interview Wednesday, said hospitalization would be considered only if the governor's condition does not improve by Friday.

Wallace, 65, who has been confined to a wheelchair since he was left crippled by a gunman in 1972, appeared to return to his normal work routine, including periodic public appearances, after his release from the hospital last month. Wallace, who often handles state business from an office at the executive mansion, worked at the Capitol Monday and Tuesday but did not come to the Capitol Wednesday. Camp said the governor had no "set schedule of appointments" Thursday but planned meetings with various people while working on budget and legislative matters. Wallace's hospitalization two months ago was his fourth since he took office in January 1983. His stays in the hospital, covering 50 days, were for treatment of various illnesses, including recurrent pain, at least indirectly associated with his lower body Hayden Wants Highway To Go Through Uniontown of the Safety Education and Public Relations unit for the department, called their act one "of bravery above and beyond the call of that which would usually be expected." Henderson said the award is the highest honor given by the state of Alabama.

Missing Vessel ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -t The Coast Guard received new in- formation Thursday that prompted it to resume the search for a missing fishing boat carrying two Alabama men and four others. Brenda Flint, a Coast Guard spokes- woman in Miami, said additional de-? tails about the type of life raft that was aboard the Aleutian Bounty prompted the resumption of the search. She said about 5,400 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico, centered about 180 'j miles west-northest of Dry Tortugas, was expected to be canvassed.

A distress call was picked up last Friday morning by another conv mercial vessel off Fort Myers, of-' ficials said. The search for the 94-foot steel-hulled shrimper, owned by Golden Gulf Industries here, had been suspended Tuesday night. The Aleutian Bounty carried a Giv- See WKAB, page 2D Hayden. A third proposal is to forget the Highway 80 improvements in the Uniontown section; something Hayden said would be "unthinkable." "West Alabama would suffer terribly without this corridor," he said. "We need it because of the Tennessee-Tombigbee project and what it will mean to all of us in this reagon.

This is the most depressed area of the state." The one-mile section passing through Uniontown is already a four-lane road, but highway officials said it would be improved if that corridor is selected. The 100-mile stretch of Highway 80 West from Selma to the Mississippi State Line is often called blood alley because the hilly, winding two-lane road has contributed to numerous fatal accidents through the years. Between 1978 and 1983, there were 89 accidents with six fatalities and 43 By ALVIN BENN Advertiser Staff Writer UNIONTOWN Mayor Andrew Hayden pushed Thursday to have a $21 million section of Highway 80 West pass through his city instead of detour-ing four miles to the north. "It would have an adverse economic impact on our town if the highway does not continue through as it now does," said Hayden, who added Uniontown is the business hub of several smaller west Alabama communities. Members of the Alabama Highway Department spent the day at the Uniontown City Hall to hear suggestions or complaints about the proposed four-laning of the 12 mile section.

One of the two proposed corridors would bypass Uniontown along a six-mile stretch north of the city of 2,112 and Hayden said it would harm farmers as much as businessmen in his community. "It would cut through farmland and wind up costing farm jobs," said Circuit Judge Wins Award For Distinguished Service ens life raft, which is designed to drift with the current instead of the wind like most other rafts, Ms. Flint said. Because of that new information, By RICK HARMON Advertiser Staff Writer Frank M. Johnson, a federal judge whose landmark decisions helped define civil rights in the South, accepted the Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award Thursday, saying fair-minded judges who enforce the Constitution "are the true conservatives." See HAYDEN, page 2D authorities will be able to concentrate their search in a slightly different Officials Hope for Cooperation on Teacher Pay Plan area, Ms.

Flint said. Petty Officer Dan Waldschmidt has Identified those missing as David White, 24, captain of the boat, and bis father, Robert White, both of Gulf Shores. Also listed are Craig Marsh, Craig Makovich and Mitch Brokaw, 22, ANALYSIS The national award and a 110.000 check were presented at a banquet in his honor given by the Alabama Bar Association. The judge, who has been called "a role model for all federal judges" by U.S. Attorney bijas, in her 20s, Waldschmidt said.

disruption of state institutions and with minimum intrusion into state government," Johnson said. He said this part of the country was probably affected most by civil rights legislation because judges "spelled out the law clearly and effectively." Johnson is the third winner of the award, named after judge Edward J. Devitt, a longtime chief U.S. district judge for Minnesota. The two previous winners were Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and Judge James Browning, a U.S.

court of appeals judge for the 9th circuit in San Francisco. Devitt presented the award, saying Johnson had earned it for his important and courageous actions as a trial judge in the 1950s and 1960s in which he had brought about "a peaceful judicial revolution in states of the former Confederacy." Johnson, now on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is a former U.S. district judge in Montgomery, and it was on that bench that he presided over many of Alabama's most controversial and far-reaching cases. Johnson ruled Montgomery's segregation ordinance unconstitutional, ending the year-long bus boycott that propelled Martin Luther King into the national spotlight Along with his rulings on segregation, the 66-year-old judge also banded down landmark decisions concerning the constitutional rights of state prisoners andthe mentally in.

members of the commission agree that if they are to have a pay plan next year, they must also have a plan to fund it Because almost any new funding would require a constitutional amendment and a popular vote of approval educators aren't the only Alabam-ians who must be convinced that new money for merit pay and other reforms would be well-spent And the chances of obtaining the additional funds seem remote indeed without the support of the state's business leaders. "I don't think business people resent paying the tab on education," Baker said, "but they want to think it's balanced. I would hope that whatever they come up with is going to be skewed toward quality. "The quality of any program is Judged by those who utilize the product." be said. The "users," in this case.

Baker said, are the employers who hire grad- By BETTY CORK Advertiser Staff Writer Business and legislative advisory groups are planning to meet with members of the governor's Education Reform Commission as they begin drawing up a teacher pay plan and a method of financing it "We can't settle for polarization of education and the business community that's not going to be constructive," said Rep. Glen Browder, D-Jack-sonville and vice chairman of the commission. Some business leaders have expressed doubts about the makeup of the commisson, which they fed is dominated by Paul Hubbert of the Alabama Education Association, the state's powerful teachers lobby. "I think that there is a feeling in the business community that anything that AEA is involved in would be heavily skewed toward the union point of view," said Carlton Baker, a vice president fof South Central Bell in Birmingham. Hoi man Head, executive vice preai- dent of the Alabama Chamber of Commerce, also has his doubts.

"It just doesn't make sense to me that people totally involved in education should be making all the decisions about education," he said. Not all members of the reform commission are educators, but all have some ties to education. For example, James McCarty, the only businessman on the commission, also is president of the school board in Muscle Shoals. Under the state Education Reform Act, the commission has until February to recommend career-ladder and merit-pay plans for all education professionals in Alabama. A career-Udder plan would establish a system for promoting a teacher without moving him from the classroom to an administrative office.

Although the act does not say so, Prison Term Set CLANTON (AP) An Elmore County man got a five-year prison sentence for a jail break that led to the death of a Chilton County deputy sheriff. Milton Varden, 21, of DeatsvUle had been charged with murder in connec- tion with the death of Deputy Obra Wilson, but he pleaded guilty Wednea- day to reduced charges of escape and manslaughter. Chilton County Circuit Judge Joe Macon then sentenced him to five years in prison. Varden had escaped from the Chilton County Jail on March 17. when Wilson tried to recapture him.

Wilson, who, according to other deputies, had a 'history of heart trouble, suffered a heart attack while grappling with -Varden. 4 General Griffin Johnson Bell and a "carpetbaggin', integratin' scallywag" by Gov. George C. Wallace, said justice must be for everyone if law is to be preserved. "People crushed by laws have no hope other than through power," be said.

Johnson said that although be grew up in Winston County, his pride in Alabama was not just "a matter or roots" but bad been enhanced by the way Alabamians had accepted civil rights legislation. "In this part of the region civil rights were brought about with a minimum of lawlessness, with a minimum 4 See LEADERS, page 2D.