The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 34

SECOND THE MORNING CALL, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1993 B7 Eiipart says disabled need information By ALLAN J. WILKINS Special to The Morning Call hj "Isn't it amazing?" he said. "We assume in our society that people will be unhappy and miserable because they have a disability. These are common concepts. "We are not disabled people.

We are not blind people. We are no cripples. We are no collective class of people. It is absolutely wrong. We are people who happen to have one characteristic about ourselves that is some kind of anomaly.

"If anyone is going to change the problem, you can't depend on professional people. Bless them for the help they gave us and do give. But it must be the people who experience the problem who are go- ing to turn this around." He said there are some 43 million people in the United States who have a disability, and that Good Shepherd discharges about 1,500 newly disabled people each year from its 75-bed hospital. "We estimate, and I think it is conservative, that there are some 22,000 people with disabilities, in the Lehigh Valley. We estimate some 5,000 people with physical disabilities." There is no mechanism in place to determine the exact numbers nationwide, Odhner said, "But we do know the cost: about $170 billion each year.

That's all disabili- ties. We spend 40 more times the. amount on disability benefits than we spend on people with disabilities becoming productive. Consider it. We have to reverse that." Odhner holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Muhlenberg College and a master's degree in vocational rehabilitation from Southern Illinois University.

He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation LISA A. JOHNSTON The Morning Call Chunk Road in North Whitehall Township. The other birds remain, Follow the leader One brave bird takes flight first on a qrisp late-autumn afternoon yes terday, embarking from this barn rooftop at a farm along Mauch a 9 Crime stats aren't as bad as they seem Allentown Dolice sav a chanae in trackina skews comDarisons 1 For example, the city reported rapes to the FBI in the first six For example, the city reported discussing who will be next came in but may not have actually occurred were listed as investiga- tions. As a result, there was a huge glut of "investigations" and crimes that never were categorized. The figures did not give an accurate crime rate, Houck said.

Now, those crimes would be listed under their respective categories and changed to unfounded or-some other category when the investigation concluded. The same goes for attempted robberies and rapes. They now are cataloged under robberies and rapes for the purposes of reporting them to the FBI, which keeps the statistics. The city's own numbers are broken up to show a difference between attempted crimes and concluded crimes, Houck said. Rw KRKTIN fr 5i -riTil Of The Morning Call Crime statistics released Monday indicated violent offenses in Allentown went through the roof in the first sue months of 1993, but they may have only jumped a few feet.

The department has changed the way it keeps track of crime statistics, and the latest percentage increases were skewed by the change, said Sgt. Thomas Houck, who handles the numbers for the city. Assistant Police Chief Gerald Monahan was unaware that the change already had gone into effect and commented on the startling numbers a 30 percent in Access to information for the disabled is just as important as the wheelchair ramp on the side of a public building, said Carl F. Odhner, vice presidenthuman services for the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital and executive director for the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living. "We need information disbursement," he told honorees recently during a Volunteer Appreciation Night at Northampton Community College by the Greater Lehigh Valley Radio Reading Service for the Print Handicapped (WRRS RADPRIN).

"We need the kind of information WRRS provides," said Odhner, who uses a wheelchair because of childhood polio. For more than 13 years, WRRS has been broadcasting newspapers and specialized programs to thousands of Lehigh Valley area residents who are blind, visually impaired, dyslexic or have permanent or temporary physical (Usabilities. The disabled and impaired of this nation do not have sufficient access to the right kind of news and information, said Odhner. Citing a recent study, he said 29 percent of the disabled population is not aware of the American with Disabilities Act. "This is the first civil rights act in the world for people with disabilities, and yet 29 percent of them are not even aware that this act exists.

"You just don't hear the news about efforts being made to enable people with disabilities to become more a part of our community. It takes a lot of reading and digging to find information such as Social Security, the Fair Housing Act 1988 amendments and jobs that are available. All this is information we should have at our hands." Odhner praised WRRS for facing the challenge of providing information with its round-the-clock, 52-week-a-year service. With studios at Northampton Community College, the station's signal is heard in nine counties: Berks, Buck, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe in Pennsylvania, as well as Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren in New Jersey. The programming is carried also by five Lehigh Valley area cable television operators and has been made available to patients in four Lehigh Valley hospitals.

Despite this effort, Odhner said information disbursement is a great challenge and claims society's attitudes are part of the problem. QUAKERTOWN VIZ NOV Florida Kumquats Dates Artichokes Figs California Persimmons Pomegranis Avacados Spanish Clemtinas We also carry bulk Chestnuts, Walnuts, Almonds, Pecans, Hazelnuts, Brazil Nuts and assorted nuts at great prices. Former Allentown teacher leaves $50,000 to charity 6 months of 1992. Those were actual rapes. In the same period this year, 16 rapes were reported, but they include attempted rapes and those that have since been determined to be unfounded, Monahan said.

The same goes for robberies, which jumped from 85 last year to 143 this year. Houck said the city is being praised by the FBI and state police for the changes it has made. "They're applauding us because we're showing greater accuracy," he said. "I think we're probably at 98 or 99 percent accuracy." Unfortunately, Monahan said, very few departments keep statistics in the same way. Home and Phoebe Home in Allentown.

Her real estate and $345,000 in bequests and a trust fund go to relatives and friends. RT. 309, Katharine S. (Stuart) Kohler Bolich, a teacher in the Allentown School District for many years, has provided bequests of $395,000 and her real estate including $50,000 to charity. But the fees paid by attorney James C.

Lanshe with the filing of her will indicate an estate worth up to $200,000. Lehigh County Register of Wills crease in violent crime and an 8.8 percent rise in overall crime. percent rise in overall crime. "In this year of transition in 1993, 1 don't want to leave the people thinking the crime rate went through the ceiling," Monahan said. "I don't want to make excuses, but people need to know this is not a true representation of what's happened here in the first six months." The new way of keeping statistics makes it almost impossible to compare the current crime rate with that of 1992, Houck said.

But under the new system, the 1994 figures will be easily compared to this year's. The biggest change in managing the numbers is that reports of robberies, burglaries and rapes that Sandra L. Schantz said that sometimes the fees paid initially don't reflect the full value of an estate, once an accounting has been completed. But should the estate be less than the bequests, then they would be prorated, she said. Bolich, formerly of Emmaus R.l, died Nov.

17 at age 92 in a Pittsburgh nursing home. Owe a ucase Kf On and the Private Industries Council of the Lehigh Valley, as well as treasurer of the Pennsylvania Council on Independent Living. In 1985, he was named Handicapped Pennsylvanian of the Year by the Governor's Committee on Employers of People with Disabilities. He also served on that committee. Odhner is past president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities and is founder and president of Operation Overcome, a disabilities rights organization that founded the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living.

He resides with his wife in East Allen Township. He has two grown sons living in Texas. WRRS broadcasts national, international and local news; entertaining and useful information, and advertisements from The Morning Call and The Express-Times. 536-3704 Carrots 3 ib. bag From the Greenhouse: All Sizes of Polnsettias, Norwegian Pine, Grapevine Wreaths and Cyclamen fcctifjl jJL Pssglas Rr CelsredoSprvce All Sizes She was the widow of Edwin L.

Kohler and Charles M. Bolich. Her will provides bequests of $23,000 to the Metropolitan Opera Co. in New York; $15,000 to First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, where she was a member; $5,000 each to the Salvation Army in Allentown and the Presbyterian Nursing Home in Dillsburg, and $1,000 each to the Good Shepherd viJeuelrtf HOUX i ji rn MM 13 4ffU vftH i4 MILE NORTH OF TRAINER'S CORNER stat Qpen A Year on Ffj 9 Sflt 9 Jun Noon 5 Specialty Food and FRUIT BASKETS All Sizes All Fruit No Filler neaoy in uoi Sweet Florida Sweet Florida Navel Oranges Florida Juice Oranges Great assortment of old-fashioned and specialty Christmas candy, fruit cam Rowena's Pound Cakes tin 3 tor Extra Sweet Red Gra b. 99 Box of 4012.95 a( 8 for 1 99 Tender California Celery stalk 79 Box of 80 1595 Si 39 ti'oo Genuine Idaho Baking Potatoes.

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