Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 1

Kssprn'ovsn Canada's giv3ivig m-smn Gnmo SEiy-raos, pg1 T7 PENSACOL A Jfew just Fiddler Frances Michaels won a blue ribbon at the Florida Folklife Festival with her musical prowess and versatility, 1D rrf iH 1217 fch success Chan Cox recently reopened his former eatery and bar behind University Mall and added a deli and bakery, Money, 3B -l Jill nnia. A Gannett Newspaper Pensacola, Florida Tuesday, July 9, 1991 Northwest Florida OUJJ i FBI: Man who bilked $3.8 million arres ted. By Ginny Graybiel News Journal An Arkansas financial manager accused of swindling more than 100 retirees out of $3.88 million was arrested Monday in Fort Walton Beach. FBI Special Agent Fred McFaul said agents arrested Nils Eugene Flannes, 69, without incident at The Anchorage "Apartments, 342 Bonita Ave. He was living under the name Dick Blakemor.

Flannes disappeared on April 7, 1988, from Hot Springs Village, a resort-retirement community outside Hot November 1988, seven months after disappearing. U.S. Magistrate Susan Novotny on Monday ordered Flannes jailed pending a bond hearing Wednesday. She appointed a public defender to represent him. Flannes stole the retirees' money through his financial-planning and money-management company, NEFCO Financial Services according to the federal indictment.

The Arkansas Gazette reported last year that Flannes was a real estate and insurance broker in the mid-1970s. But he Springs. He had a reputation as a church-going community activist. McFaul wouldn't say how agents learned of his whereabouts. Flannes was acting as manager of the small apartment complex and selling health care products by phone.

Flannes, who has appeared twice on the television show "Unsolved Mysteries," is accused of bilking 116 people, mostly retirees, out of their life savings in a scheme dating back to 1976. He was indicted on federal mail fraud and fraud by wire charges in Arkansas in branched out into financial management, recruiting clients at cocktail parties and through word of mouth in Hot Springs Village's social circles. His clients said he offered a stable, low-risk return on their investments, guaranteeing a 10 percent profit, easy access to cash and full federal insurance on money-market shares. But federal charges accuse Flannes of putting the clients' money into a string of failing real estate partnerships and properties, self-service laundries and a Hot Springs hardware store. Meanwhile, Flannes was accused of forging investor statements.

He also was accused of paying clients who wanted to make withdrawals with new investors' bank accounts or deposits. Flannes' own lifestyle wasn't extravagant, however. He took only about $79,000 for he and his wife's living expenses in the 16 months before he ran away, according to a receiver's audit. His wife, who said she was unaware of the alleged scheme, divorced him after he disappeared. for Qtaip il L-i i 1 Champion paper mill Cantonment" Eleven Mile i Creek Perdido I By Sara Lamb News Journal Eleven Mile Creek's history winds from inedible fish to industrial fines, from citizens groups to million-dollar studies.

Once nicknamed Stink Creek, the stream that meanders from Cantonment to Perdido Bay is still known for its polluted water. Last September, dioxin levels found in fish tissue prompted health officials to warn residents against eating fish caught in the creek. Ten months later, the warning still applies, although no one can say exactly how much dioxin there is in the water. And as study after study piles up in offices of the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, a deadline nears for Champion International paper mill, which has been fined $14,580 by the state since December 1989. "Champion is under a lot of pressure not to impact Eleven Mile Creek," said Bob Cooley, DER water facilities program administrator in Pensacola.

Under a consent order signed in 1988, the company must find and begin using technology that will reduce the mill's effect on the creek by 1994. The company must do whatever is needed to accomplish that, even if it means removing itself from the area, Cooley said. "It's possible" it could come to the company leaving, he said. The consent order allows the mill to discharge wastewater into the creek and outlines how much of various compounds can be released. The mill continuously monitors its wastewater and submits monthly reports Pensacola Bay Photo, Bruce Gramer Graphic, Ron GriswoldNews Journal ronmental group Greenpeace warn of dioxin and advise people not to eat anything caught in the water.

"A lot of people aren't letting their kids swim north of the (Lillian) Bridge," Trapp said. Dioxin is a potential but unproven cancer-causing chemical in humans. It is produced by a variety of industrial processes, including the bleaching of paper See CHAMPION, back of section Oxygen Demands or BODs put a kind of stress on the creek environment by creating more competition for oxygen. For some, the fines aren't enough. "That does absolutely nothing to clean up the bay," said Joe Trapp, a member of the Perdido Bay Environmental Association.

Last week, Trapp posted signs along Eleven Mile Creek and Perdido Bay. The signs made by the international envi to the DER, which also monitors the mill's lab. The company faces at least another $19,100 in pending fines, the most recent violations being for three days in May. The fines were levied, state officials said, for days and months when Champion exceeded levels set for the amounts of organic compounds released into the water. The compounds called Biochemical Escambia must choose taxes or cuts Time running out in budget crunch Fee increase consideredIB By Craig Myers News Journal Escambia County commissioners will debate today whether to raise taxes or cut services when they meet at 2 p.m.

to discuss the budget. On Monday, County Budget Director Jim Elens presented commissioners ways to make up a $3 million budget deficit. But the choices boil down to either raising more revenue or cutting services. "I have no idea what will happen?" Elens said. "We are almost at an impasse.

I appreciate how tough the decision is, but time is running out." After months of discussion, commissioners seem no closer to agreeing with Elens or each other on balancing the budget. "I am not looking at Elens budget-balancing act. I want to create my own act," Commissioner Willie Junior said. The county's 1991-92 operating budget will be approved in September. But if commissioners raise property taxes, they need to act by July 25, before tax notices are mailed out, Elens said.

Commissioners last month voted against staff-recommended cuts of $6.4 million, approving only about half the reductions. That means without more budget cuts, $3 million more will be needed next year to offer the same services as this year. Elens' options include: Property tax increase of 62 cents per $1,000 in property value, bringing the total ad valorem tax for all county residents to $8.61 per $1,000. Property tax increase of 85 cents per $1,000 in property value in the unincorporated areas of Escambia County only. Flat fee of $31 a year paid by every county household including residents of trailers, apartments and condominiums for a specific county service.

Franchise fee increase of 2.5 percent. Gulf Power Energy Services of Pensacola and the Escambia River Electric Cooperative paid a total of $6 million last year to use county rights of way. County Administrator Wayne Peacock said none of those choices are popular. But cutting services also proved unpopular in June, when hundreds protested to restore funding to the West Florida Regional Library, county extension service and community service agencies. Junior said he is dead set against "anything that spells a tax increase," but could not say where he would cut services.

Junior wants to challenge elected officials' budget requests, he said. Commissioner W.A. "Buck" Lee might recommend cutting $1.5 million more from next year's sheriffs, emergency medical services and library budgets. Commissioner Steve Del Gallo said if the property tax rate is left alone and property values go up, the county could get $600,000 more next year. The board also has not decided how it could use $5.8 million in annual gasoline tax money for road improvements.

Residents have complained that the gas tax was approved in 1986 for new road construction but has been used in the operating budget. If the panel uses that money on new roads, they would have to replace it. Plan would put put of projects By Erica K. Berry News Journal I' Some Pensacola residents Monday night embraced a program that would kick drug 'dealers out of federally funded housing projects, while others said officials need to get to the root of the problem lack of education, unemployment and idleness. "This is a multifaceted problem we have Pensacola," said Rita Jones, a district, administrator with the Escambia County School District.

"It's a good program, but we need to look at it from all angles." Sgt. Jack Dove of the Mobile Police Department showed about 100 residents at City Hall how successful the Public Housing Crime Interdiction program has been in ridding Mobile of drug-dealing criminals. The program, sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, allows police officers to go into housing projects and patrol the streets heavily. If a resident is convicted of any drug-related or criminal activity, police recommend that the resident's lease be terminated, Dove said.

"The people in housing projects are just as fed up with crime and are just as tired of being robbed as everybody else," Dove said. "All these people want is their neighbor hoods back." In Mobile, the program has reduced violent crime by about 50 percent, reduced homicide by 200 percent and decreased property crimes about 70 percent, Dove said. City Councilman Jimmie Perkins said he will stand behind any program that can stop the wave of violence and crime that has plagued Pensacola's streets for the past months. However, he doesn't want to bypass the heart of the problem joblessness and a lack of motivation and role models. "We need to show our youths some positive role models and stop crime and vio lence before it gets to the point where we need a program like this," said Perkins, a councilman for three years.

Elbert Jones, manager of Devilliers Gardens, said Pensacola needs the program, or a similar program, badly. However, it's not likely that the program will work because so many people in crime-ridden areas will thwart the well-meaning intentions of authority, Jones said. "People would accuse police of heavy-handed tactics and police brutality," said Jones, a Pensacola resident for 17 years. hope they adopt some form of what they're doing in Mobile. We need it." WEATHER Public housing short circuits crime Partly cloudy skies Camiella Court (2 sites) Gonzalez Court Rain chance, 30 percent.

High 90. Low 73. Traveling? Call WeatherTrak hot line: 1-900-370-8400 Details back of this section Project 009 By Melanie Hiett News Journal A federal policy of evicting drug dealers and criminals has limited drug trafficking and violence in six of Pensacola's public housing projects, a local official said Monday. Mike Rogers, executive director of the PensacolaEscambia Area Housing Commission, said residents of the housing projects have been warned about the policy for two years. And it seems to be working, he leases that states the lease will be terminated if the tenant, a member of the household, a guest or any other person under the tenant's control is found guilty of a crime.

Two tenants have been evicted through the provision, Rogers said, and several others have voluntarily moved because of an arrest or conviction. The provision controls drug activity because it makes the tenant responsible for what goes on in their home, Rogers said. "Obviously it has been a deterrent because I think many of the parents look at it like they have a Attucks Court Moreno Court INDEX yPntteHa Sty One mile A Aragon Court Alabama Ann Landers. 2B 3B 2B 6B 2D 2D -5-8C 4D Lottery Money Movies Nation news. Obituaries Bridge Ron GriswoidNews Journal Opinion Classified Comics Crosswords Cryptoquote Florida Public record said.

The policy was drafted in 1989 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and has eliminated some of the problems that now plague privately owned, subsidized housing projects such as Escambia Arms and Sports. 6C 4-5A 2D 1-6D 1-2B 2B 1-5C 5D 2A Stock markets. lot to lose," Rogers said. "It makes the head of the household the person we execute the agreement with totally See POLICY, back of section Truman Arms apartment complexes, Rogers said.

The local commission, which oversees the public projects, includes a provision in Horoscope. Life Local Television World news 1991 Gannett Co. Inc..