Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 1

Sports nuts will enjoy what cable TV offers Page 9 Domestic violence discussed Page 13 WEATHER MENDOCINO COUNTY Scattered showers and thunderstorms tapering off tonight. Mostly sunny Saturday. Snow level lowering to 4,500 to 5,500 feet. Coastal Tows tonight upper 30s to mid 40s with highs Saturday mid 50s to lower 60s. Temperatures Yesterday 73 41 Last year 65 37 Rainfall overnight rainfall as of 5p.m.

Thursday 0.03 Year to date 25.54 Last year 46.38 UkiahDaih Friday, April 3, 1987 1987, Donrey, Inc. "Journal Vol. 126 No. 299 20 pages Serving Mendocino County, Cc 25 Cents Lawmen knock hole in crank network By PETER PAGE Journal Staff Wrltw Narcotics agents claim the arrest of four Willits residents and the seizure of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine has crippled production and street sales of "crank" throughout Lake and Mendocino counties. The raids Wednesday yielded approximately SO pounds of ephederine, a chemical that is the key component in the manufacture of metham- phetamine, according to Jack Nehr, commander of the Mendocino Countywide Narcotics Task Force.

The supply of ephederine was adequate to produce 45 pounds of crank, he said. With street sales of the illegal stimulant currently fetching $20 per quarter gram, the seizure prevented the manufacture of crank worth $1.6 million. Raids by the task force, Willits police, Lake County narcotics agents, Mendocino County deputies, and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms led to the arrests of Salvatore Bufardeci, 43, Shelly Ann Riggins, 27, Johh Laudermilk, 34, and Sheila Rene Yoko, 24. The raids began in the early morning at the residence of Bufardeci and Riggins at 40 School Street, in Willits. Before the day was out, agents had served five search warrants issued by Little Lake Justice Court Judge James King.

Narcotics agents on an all night stake-out outside the house observed a steady stream of people making brief visits. Nehr believes they were completing purchases of metham- phetamine. Inside the house agents found two ounces of meth, with a street value of $4,500. Raiders then struck at the Willits Furniture Center Warehouse, 169 East San Francisco a commercial property rented by Bufardeci, but found nothing. Agents moved on to a remote rural property east of Tomki Road, where they arrested Laudermilk an i seized a Chevrolet pickup truck loaded with chemicals used in the manufac- ture of methamphetamine, Nehr said.

He described Laudermilk as a "cooker," a person skilled in the dangerous business of mixing toxic and potentially explosive chemicals to produce methamphetamine. Laudermilk was arrested last December by the Lake County Narcotics Task Force on charges of conspiracy to manufacture metham- phetamine. A lab was seized at the time. (See, CRANK, page 2) New machine hunts for bad air More Marines By RANDY FOSTER Journal Staff Writer A monitoring device that will keep tabs on the tiny airborne particles most harmful to human lungs was installed recently on the roof of the Ukiah branch library. The device, cft'Jed a PM 10, sucks in sampl of air and shoots it a filter that can be removed fox later testing.

The Uter irdartgfled to catch in the air that are smaller than 10 microns, equivalent to what is left on a handkerchief when cigarette 'smoke, is bWwn through it. But Bob Swan, deputy director for the county Air PoUution Control District, said the measuring device does not Utdah has an air pollu- tlohproblem. "Even during its worst days air quality in Ukiah is better than some urban areas' best days, "Swan said. During itr. most pollution- prone late fall and early spring and during the winter, months air quality is a health hazard for only the most sensitive people.

It is during those periods when inversion layers, regions of warm air that act like caps over valleys, form over Ukiah. This cap tends to keep inside the valley auto exhaust and smoke from woodstoves and fireplaces. One advantage to Ukiah, Swan said, is that Valley walls are open to the north and south, implicated Randy Foster Air Pollution Control Deputy Director Robert Swan explains the county new PM 10 monitoring device, a machine that can measure particles suspended In the air 10 microns and particles most likely to enter the lungs. which provide an outlet for tainted air. By contrast, Willits is located in a valley that resembles a giant bowl.

Auto exhaust and smoke from woodstoves and fireplaces tend to settle inside the valley. California air quality standards puts a limit of 50 mlcrograms per cubic meter on the amount of particles suspended in the air. Willits is the only community in Mendocino County that has violated that standard, at least six times during this past winter the time when home wood fires are most likely. "When the air is of poorer quality in Willits," Swan said, "the air is also of poorer quality in Ukiah but not as much." WASHINGTON (AP) Two more Marine guards at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow have been implicated in a widening investigation of a major security breach there, two members of Congress said today.

The disclosure was made in hearings by the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. Rep. Les Aspin, chairman of the Armed Services panel, said "I have from very good sources that two more Marines have been implicated in violations of the fraternization rule and the two might have been (acting) together," Aspin said. He said he was disturbed that the security breach at the embassy might be "very much bigger than we thought. Rep.

Dan Mica, chair- man of the Foreign Affairs international operations subcommittee, said, "The scope and numbers involved is It's going to increase rather substantially." Mica said the investigation of the breach, which initially involved two elite Marine guards alleged to have had sexual liaisons with Soviet women and later to have allowed Soviet spies access to the embassy, might also involve U.S. embassies in other countries as well. Neither Mica nor Aspin would say whether the two latest Marines to be implicated were suspected of abetting Soviet espionage, or were simply suspected of violating rules against intimate social contacts with Soviet bloc citizens. Planners turn down Eel gravel mining State highway work poised to begin SACRAMENTO (AP) At least 1600 million worth of California highway work is poised to begin because of the U.S. Senate's override of a presidential veto.

The projects range from country road repairs to a 140 million segment of the Century Freeway in Los Angeles. Over the next five years, the bill will provide some 15,5 billion for California, Including 1870 million total and more than $108 million this year for the Metro Rail subway system in Los Angeles. Thursday after the veto override, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, a Metro Rail supporter, called it a "victory for the na- 535," The veto override will not quicken the pace of highway construction in Mendocino County, "In general terms, without the highway bill, there would have been no federal funds," said Del Brown, a Caltrans spokesman in Eureka. "That would have generally slowed construction, but I don't know of any money available in the bill to speed any projects in this region." The override of President Reagan's veto of an $88 billion transportation bill also paves the way for a boost in the 55 mph speed limit to 65 mph on 1,200 miles of rural interstate freeways throughout the state. Boosting the speed limit would require legislation signed by the governor.

Bills now in the Legislature would also require new traffic studies. Kent Milton, spokesman for the Highway Patrol, said the studies might be completed by June. The patrol has recommended 65 mph for the following, based on two-year-old traffic studies: miles of Interstate 5, essentially all of the highway from the Oregon border to a few miles south of Bakersfield, except where It passes through the Redding, Sacramento and Stockton urban areas. miles of Interstate 8 between San Diego and the Arizona state line. miles of Interstate 10 between San Bernardino and the Arizona state line.

miles of Interstate 15 between San Bernardino and Baker. miles of Interstate 40 between Barstow and the Arizona state line. miles of Interstate 205 near Tracy. -33 miles of Interstate 505 between Vacaville and Zamora. miles of Interstate 580 between Livermore and Interstate 5.

Rare tornado injures two in Salinas SALINAS (AP) A tornado tbe roofs off greenhouses, 1 two people and scattered as it whipped through a large nursery in a rural area this morning, authorities said. A number of other people were to be dazed by the that hit the 35-acre Sun- nytide Nursery. "This wai a good-sized tornado," MM Sho Yoshlda, owner of the nursery. "I've seen small reported twister tt pected there would be more sightings of funnel clouds, which become tornados when they touchdown. Eva Cabrera, a dispatcher for the Monterey County emergency center, said the funnel cloud that hit the nursery touched down at 8:14 a.m.

She said the nursery was located west of the Northridge shopping mall in this city aboufao roues south of San Francisco. Capt. John Hooks of the North The Weather Service predicted thunderstorms throughout Northern and Central California through tonight and said it ex- Monterey County Fire District said two nursery workers who were hit by debris were treated at the scene. He also said the preliminary damage estimate to 16 greenhouses at the nursery is $250,000. "They were very lucky," he said, referring to the nursery employees.

was quite a dark cloud, big funnel, high winds. It scattered debris over quite an area. It tore down roofs, rafters and beams." Sunnyside employee Anne Sparling said, four greenhouses were destroyed and several others were damaged. "We saw it coming and it just came so fast that nobody could do anything about it. It tore off the fiberglass roofs in the houses," said Sunnyside employee Lorna Wheatley.

"You could see it going up into the air," she said. 'It was huge, as far as width and height. It was going up higher and higher and becoming narrower and narrower and then it went away." Wheatley said there are 200 employees at the nursery, but the tornado went through a lesser populated area. Cabrera said 16 nurseries were damaged and one injured employee was treated at the scene when a fiberglass roof collapsed on him. Federal Aviation Administration personneJ spotted the cloud moving to the east at about 8:10 a.m.

By RANDY FOSTER Journal Stiff Writw A Willits gravel company's attempt to mine gravel on a wild and scenic portion of the Eel River north of Dos Rios was turned down by the Planning Commission Thursday. The area is inaccessable to anyone but rafters, hikers, four- wheelers and railroad workers. The company, Peters and Garman Construction, asked for a use permit to remove 20,000 cubic yards of gravel per year for up to 10 years. The commission voted for the permit 3-1 with two abstentions and one absent, but the use permit was turned down because it did not get the required majority vote. The application can still be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.

Company partner Bud German said most of the gravel would be sold to beleaguered Eureka Southern Railroad, which uses the gravel to repair its track bed. The construction company planned to sell gravel to Eureka Southern at one-fifth what the railroad is now paying to its suppliers in Healdsburg and Eureka, plus pav the railroad to haul the remaining gravel to their Willits yard. "The railroad has got to have some rock pretty fast or they're going to go out of business," Garman said. "The rail is in pretty bad shape.Our intent is to save them some money and make some business for ourselves." The gravel bar is located eight miles north of Dos Rios on the main stem of the Eel River. According to staff reports, the bar is over 1,000 feet long and about 450 feet wide, and holds about 20,000 cubic yards of gravel.

The decision was earlier postponed to allow commissioners to visit the site. "The river there is a treasure that needs to be preserved," Commission Chairman Billy Cornet said. "Anything that happens Robert Cancllni there, it should be so as not to disturb the I think you want to remove too much gravel too fast. I think there are resources available in other places." In attendance at the meeting was newly seated commissioner Robert Canclini. His appointment as Fifth District commissioner was the subject of a bitter battle among supervisors.

Canclini said he would support the permit if the company was careful not to Interfere with the natural scenery. He said processing and earthmovuig equipment should be kept out of view, large boulders should not be dumped back onto the bar and that the gravel should be dry-screened, rather than washed. would have a problem with 20.JOO cubic yards being removed," he said. But the commission turned down the motion by Commissioner Linda Pyle that included some protection of the area's scenery as well as time and removal limitation. "Without this project the future of the railroad is dim," Pyle said.

Canclini, Pyle and Commissioner Karen Calvert voted to approve the use permit. Cornet voted no, commissioners Joanne Jury and Erlyne Schmidbauer abstained. Commissioner Scott Miller was absent..