Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 33

jfir Lionel Playworld opened Monday, and a grand opening today through Saturday will feature special guests, 10B Newsjournal For the Record 2B Firm refuses contract 10B Pensacola, Florida Thursday, October 24, 1985 Doctor denies abuse occurred as described By Ginny Graybiel News Journal "Absolutely impossible." Those are a Pensacola gynecologist's words in describing the possibility that a 6-year-old child was sexually abused in the exact manner that she described for an Escambia County Circuit Court jury. Dr. B.L. Stalnaker testified Wednesday in the trial of Hal Bower, a 61-year-old retired Navy captain accused of sexually battering one child and committing lewd and lascivious acts on two others while working as a volunteer in the Beulah Elementary School health clinic two years ago. The child testified Tuesday that Bower unzipped her jeans while she was lying on a cot, pulled her jeans and underpants to her knees, and then used his finger to sexually batter her.

Dr. Neil McWilliams, the child's pediatrician, testified that when his colleague, Dr. Melissa Picardi, examined the child two years later, she noted internal scarring. He said that in his opinion, the child suffered sexual abuse. Under questioning by defense attorneys Roy Kinsey and Ron Johnson, Stalnaker said the digital penetration of the child, especially with her jeans around her knees, would have been physically impossible.

In addition, he said such an act would have been "exquisitely painful" and would likely have resulted in the child crying out, something school workers in the office adjoining the clinic said they did not hear. He suggested that injuries similar to those reported in the girl could be caused in numerous other ways, including falling on a bicycle bar or horseback riding. Judge John Parnham has not allowed Stalnaker to conduct his own examination of the child. And, under questioning by Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar, the doctor said he had examined only four children in the last 10 years who suffered possible sexual abuse. Under further questioning, he admitted that if a number of conditions and circumstances fell together, including the jeans being around the child's ankles, sexual abuse would be a more realistic possibility.

But he was unequivocal in his assertion that abuse in the manner described by the child and related to him through the defendant's attorneys was impossible. Stalnaker's testimony capped a day that began with a videotape of a 13-year-old girl describing Bower's examination when she was 10 years old and went to the school clinic with a stomachache. The child said he had unzipped her pants and used a stethoscope on her See SEXUAL, 6B Carnival business different each day Fairgoers love Italian, Polish sausages a day," he says. "That was pretty good money back then." He also popped corn in the ballpark. Since 1960 Swopes has traveled the country for Fair Concession of Kansas Inc.

Now he is a supervisor for the company and oversees four beer gardens at the fair. "I'm usually the first guy in and have to make sure we get all squared away," he says. "We sell everything, with our biggest seller being beer. But we also have hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, Polish sausages. I think this is one of the more popular concessions because of the beer." Swopes says there are occasional problems with people drinking too much beer, but his workers try to limit sales by posting a sign saying one beer to a person.

"But it's hard to enforce. People say they want an extra beer for their friend in the bathroom or teenagers say they left their ID in the car or See CARNIVAL, 3B a -iA ril Environmentalists study sewer permit request Phaon Swopes dishes out sausages to Service permit request is slated for 7 p.m. at the Orange Beach Community Center, ADEM spokeswoman Catherine Lamar said Wednesday. The Gulf Shores-based company has finished phase-one construction of a sewer system in the Orange Beach area, built under contract to the Orange Beach Water, Sawer and Fire Protection Authority. That contract subsequently was transferred to the city of Orance Beach.

The company holds a permit to dispose of 400,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day through spray irrigation. But development of an innovative new treatment system prompted the request By Craig Cairns News Journal ORANGE BEACH Alabama's environmental agency has scheduled a Nov. 21 public hearing on a private sewer company's request for a permit to dump treated wastewater into the Intracoastal Canal. If the permit is approved by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), ip would be the first issued under strijgenp jew standards that all dischargers of effluent into the canal including the city of Gulf Shores must meet by July 1988. The hearing on Pleasure Island Sewer By Cindy West News Journal "I just love this because it's not like anything else.

One year I quit and was going to go in the bread business. But I got out there and when fair time came I got to thinking about what I'd be doing so I came back. "It's in my blood. Definitely," says Phaon Swopes with a slow, wide grin. Swopes is a big guy.

A black beard flecked with gray covers his face. His curly black hair is topped with a white baseball cap. Occasionally he puffs a green cigar held between two fingers in his right hand. His name is written in red on his blue shirt. Sitting on a blue chair in Bushes Garden at the Pensacola Interstate Fair, he says he's lucky.

Swopes has been with carnivals 25 years. He started in the concession business by picking up soft drink bottles at a ballpark in Kansas City. "My friend and I got about 10 cents a case and were averaging about $5 to $6 BRIEFS Baldwin legislators hold public meeting FOLEY Baldwin County's state legislators will hold a public meeting at 4 p.m. Friday in Foley City Hall. Meetings also are slated in Bay Minette and Daphne at 10 a.m.

and 1 p.m., respectively. Sen. Perry Hand, R-Gulf Shores, and Reps. Walter Penry, D-Belforest, and Steve McMillan, D-Bay Minette, will answer questions about legislation affecting the county and listen to requests for bills that could be introduced when the Legislature convenes next January. Construction underway on Boys Ranch home SUMMERDALE Foundation work is underway on the second home at the Alabama Sheriffs Boys Ranch here on Baldwin County Road 32, said Baldwin sheriffs spokeswoman Bettye Brown.

Brown said local advisory board members also learned this week of plans for a stocked fish pond at the John B. Foley Southwest Alabama Boys Ranch, and that Trump Industries of Elberta has donated a 50-foot swimming pool. Six homeless, non-delinquent boys live at the ranch's first home with house parents Mr. and Mrs. Bill Peevy, with plans to house another 12 when the second home is completed, Brown said.

She said the ranch is looking for donations and volunteers to help with electrical and plumbing work. Nearly 230 boys and girls have found homes at the state's seven Sheriffs Boys and Girls Ranches. The Summerdale ranch was Alabama's fifth Boys Ranch when it opened last year. South Baldwin Chamber schedules two seminars FOLEY The South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce and Business and Professional Women's Club have scheduled two management seminars Wednesday at the Baldwin Mutual Insurance building in Foley. Dr.

Hazel Ezell, a University of Alabama marketing professor, will focus on time management during an 8:30 a.m. to noon session; and Dr. Charles Odewahn, a UA human resources management professor, will address "Managing for Excellence." Each session is $15, and checks should be made payable to the South Baldwin Business and Professional Women's Club. Call the chamber at 943-3291 for information. Public gripes about education Bruce GranerNews Journal milligrams per liter could be discharged into the canal.

That stringent standard was set after an ADEM consultant found the canal in Baldwin County has reached its capacity to handle oxygen-consuming material, primarily because of natural causes like soil runoff, algae and warm water temperatures. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared a moratorium on new sewer connections in Gulf Shores because that city failed to meet interim BOD limits of 20 milligrams per liter on wastewater dumped into the canal. See AGENCY, 3B Farmers need faith to succeed By Kathy Beasley News Journal CHUMUCKLA Most things written and said these days about the future of America's farmers and agriculture is depressing, but Copeland Griswold says he remains optimistic. "Everything we read is depressing.

I've got to have a positive outlook," said the Chumuckla farmer whose family roots in agriculture go back, more than 100 years. While the next two or three years will continue to be bleak for farmers, Griswold predicts a "turn around" with better management skills, an improved market, better crop varieties and more efficient use of farm land. "Hard work is part of it, but now you've got to look at management and technology, take advantage of everything available," he said. "We'll make it. You've got to have a lot of faith to make it." Griswold and his family are Santa Rosa County's farm family of the year.

Griswold and his wife, Winona, have been farming in Santa Rosa County for 34 years. Along with their four children and their spouses, the family plants 1,800 acres of crops. Working together as a farm family is the binding tie that will help them survive the tough times for farmers, according to Griswold. "I think See FARMERS, Tage 4B Journal visitors at the Pensacola Interstate Fair. for a permit to discharge up to 2.4 million gallons per day into the canal, said company President Ralph Eastburn.

Eastburn said the system, which has a patent pending, uses activated carbon columns to reduce the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in treated wastewater to less than 2 milligrams per liter. BOD relates to the amount of oxygen-consuming organic nutrients contained in treated waste. High BOD counts cause low dissolved oxygen levels in water, threatening marine life. ADEM in March 1984 told existing and potential permit holders that as of July 1988 only wastewater limiting BOD to 2 Kathy BeasleyNews Grisold is optimistic about farming-. rr" --y" ft v.

v-T i you we're moving in that direction," Holloway told Howell. "There's always a few" who will excel, Howell said. "The ones we have to get to are the many." "The key is motivation," said board member Ed Stanford. "We can just do so much a lot's got to go back to the parents unless that is done, it is impossible for us to completely motivate, however hard we try." Assistant Superintendent for Finance Wallace Odom outlined the new $153 million budget, a 4.8 percent increase from last year's $146 million budget. The district had planned to increase its property tax levy 10 cents per $1,000 of property value, or from 7.209 to 7.309 mills, but will levy 7.017 instead.

But taxpayers will pay more anyway, because property assessments are up about 20 percent county-wide. The district's financial options are limited next year, Odom said, because Escambia ranks 62nd among Florida's 67 school districts in new money received from the state. "It's very difficult to achieve a lot of things when you're low man on the pole," he said. Another citizen criticized the School Board for spending $2.5 million on renovating the old Washington High School on Tex-ar Drive into the J.E. Hall Educational Services Center, spending $1 million on a new computing facility and remodeling the district's 215 W.

Garden St. administrative headquarters. 1 See PUBLIC Page 3B By Tom Hall News Journal No one complained about the size of the Escambia County School District's budget, but citizens at a public hearing Tuesday did complain about the quality of education students are receiving. "I don't feel I'm getting anything for my money," said parent Lloyd Howell, 5902 Walton St. He was among citizens commenting on the school system's budget and quality of education at a special School Board meeting Tuesday night.

Howell noted that the tax rate levied by the school district was lower, but said he wasn't satisfied with the services rendered. "What do I get for it?" he asked. "Do I get another son that graduates from high school, as I did last year, that cannot write?" Howell said. "I have a 14-year old son that was elected to the National Junior Honor Society last year and cannot tell you the difference between an adjective and an adverb." "We're doing everything we can to see that the children of Escambia County receive quality education," Superintendent Mike Hol-loway said. "I'm committed to that, and the staff, teachers, principals and the School Board are equally committed for that." Holloway cited the expansion of the gifted program, revision of the curriculum, and having 13 National Merit Scholars among the district's 42,000 students as indications the district was improving academically.

"Any changes in improving quality education will not occur overnight, but I can assure H-1 Copeland.