The Amarillo Globe-Times from Amarillo, Texas • Page 34

METROPOLITAN AREA Page 33 Wednesday, August 3,1977 AMARILLO GLOBE-TIMES Hill Cites Nursing Home Law By PATRICIA MASTERMAN Globe-News Staff Writer Favoring new criminal penalties for nursing home abuse and for failure to report abuse, State Rep. Danny E. Hill today called the legislation "a good law." "It's a beginning," Hill said. The bill was signed last month by Gov.DolphBriscoe. Hill acknowledges some portions of the new law may seem like "too much government interference." He said he felt he had to weigh the health and safety of nursing home residents against increased government regulation--and he voted for the bill.

The new law makes abuse of a patient by nursing home personnel a felony punishable by a prison term. Employes or owners of nursing homes who intentionally abuse residents can be punished by a ten year prison term and a 15,000 fine under the new legislation. Under previous law, there was no special category for an assault on a nursing home patient by nursing home home patient by an owner or employe owners or employes. has a new, increased penalty. Similarly, the threat to beat a nursing.

An ordinary threat of bodily in- REP. DANNY HILL Their business is young peopie in Pools: Houseparents Named For Detention Center By STEVE LaPRADE Globe-News Staff Writer A country man and his city wife are new houseparents for the Potter Coun; ty Detention Center out on the Northeast edge of Amarillo. Dub Pool, 24, and his wife of 13 months, Sheila, 21, took over the job Monday at the center for delinquents and runaways aged 10-17. The center is a "holding area" until determinations can be made on police cases involving young persons. "We'll be getting delinquents and runaways," said Pool, a soft-spoken man who worked as a welder before taking his present job.

His wife previously worked at a pet shop. "We saw an ad in the paper for houseparents and we applied," said Pool In addition to having been raised in this area and having taken two years of courses at Amarillo College, Pool had a background which helped lead to the couple's hiring. Pool spent most of his life on a farm near Stinnett and while there learned to operate and repair many types of machinery. He furthered that knowledge after training in welding. Mechanical ability has already proved an asset in the first three days on the job.

The detention facility, located on N. Willow Creek, a couple of miles east of the Dumas Expressway, had been closed down for a month before the Pools were hired. Previously, the facility had been run first by houseparents under the County Court of Domestic Relations and then by the Potter County Sheriffs office. Now it is under the jurisdiction of the county juvenile probation department. "The place had been closed down for a month and the air conditioner hadn't been on for a year," Pool said.

"I got that working." "We had to sweep the floors and rearrange the furniture," said Mrs. Pool, a diving champion at Amarillo High School in the early 1970s. "We also had fun at first trying to find the lights." Pool, a former football running back and lineman at Stinnett High School, is trying to clear out the grass in the yard, greenery that was up to knee-high. The couple was able to do much of the fix-up work Monday and yesterday because they only had one youngster in their charge. Yesterday afternoon, that number rose to two.

"We've been busy," said Mrs. Pool. "We haven't had a chance to meet our neighbors yet" Despite their will-to-work and friendly smiles, the couple realizes there are some dangers in the job. In 1970, three giris at the center attempted to escape by pulling a dinner knife on a houseparent To reduce the chance of abusive or obscene phone calh, the detention home number is unlisted. Pool said the barbed wire on top of the facility's surrounding fence is "to keep people out as well as in." When "lights out" is ordered at 9 p.m.

for the youngsters in custody, the houseparents set an alarm which "will go off if anyone tries to break in or out of the center. If the alarm goes off. Pool will have to act. As his wife noted of her husband's football career at Stinnett High School. "he was fast enough to be a running back and big enough to be a lineman." The couple doesn't have to worry about cooking because the food used is TV dinners.

This is done to keep the center from having to get a permit from the health department jury--outside a nursing home--ranks as a Class misdemeanor, punishable by a $200 fine. Threat of bodily injury made to a lursing home patient by a nursing liome owner or employe now carries ixjssible punishment of 180 days in jail trnd a $1,000 fine. Failure to report abuse of a nursing home patient is now punishable by a in jail and a $2,000 fine. The law zilxMit reporting "abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation" of an elderly person applies to "any nursing home personnel. The new law also creates fine for mu-sing home operators who violate sU te standards or run a home without a stale license.

The bill also requires open hearings at the nursing homes to permit patients or their closest relatives to air grievances. Tiie new nursing home law shifts the responsibility for assessing quality of care nursing homes from the depart- raent of public welfare to the department: of health. Until enactment of the new the health department handled only the licensing and certification of the nursing homes. Tht 1 new law gives the health department authority to suspend a nursing home's license or close the home for 10 days if violations threaten the health and of the residents. State' Rep.

Hill said many previous regulations were made into law by passage- and signing of the bill. The Law requires at least one medical examina -Jon per patient per year. Misdemeanor penalties are stated for bad-faith, reckless or malicious reports of nursir, home abuses. Also iiicluded in the law is a requirement that the state health department grade nursing homes so the public can become aware of those homes which fail to reaci minimum levels. During consideration of the bill by the Texas .5 enate Committee on Human Resources the state welfare commissioner, Ilaymond Vowell, challenged a federal r-aport that Texas' nursing home situivbon is "critical" Vowell said, nursing homes are doing a better job far than those hi other states." Dr.

Fratii! Duff, state health commissioner, siid complaints about nursing homes ait? an easy way for persons to relieve their guilt feelings for not taking care 01: relatives in their own homes. State Attonitjy General John Hill has promised statewide investigation of nursing including a hearing in Amarillo. District Attorney Tom Curtis has begun an investigation into the death here of a man injured in a nursing home. Death of the a 5-year-old man, Willie Homer Homeyer has been declared a homicide. The homicide ruling by Justice of the Pe a ce Cliff Roberts came after the initial inquest hearing investigating the Homeyer death.

A death certiiicate filed in the Homeyer death lists natural causes. Another death certificate, signed the previous day, lists fractured ribs as a secondary cause death and mentions that Homeyer suited a beating on June 13. He died in a hospital here on June 20. Christian Folllt Concert Scheduled at Church Beloved will pres eat a concert at 7 p.m. today at M'sranatha Baptist Church.

It wfll include teslitnony and Christian folk musk. Bev Hurwitch and Pauli Erickson, both of Rockford, sire Beloved. Bev is a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church and Pauli is a member of Gentle Shepherd Maranatha Baptist lurch is at 1200 E. 10th. The Rev.

Mfte Sheffield is pastor. "Great American Hamburger" founder John Marrs (inset) and, from left, Mrs. Pepper, Don Marrs, and Mrs. Marrs. 'Great American Hamburger' Taking Shape on Paramount By MICHAEL H.

PRICE City Editor, The Daily News A fast-food concept called "the Great American Hamburger," originated by an Amarillo restaurateur just months before his death, is beginning to take shape this week on Paramount Terrace with construction of the first eatery in a planned chain. There has been an amendment, though, by surviving partners in the venture: The sit-down or takeout restaurant will open for business as "Johnny's Great American Hamburger," named as a memorial tribute to John Marrs. Marrs, who with his family established the eastside Country Bam Steakhouse in 1964, died last October at 58. He had begun planning in the summer of 1976 to expand operations of OROWIMO WITH AJWAWU.Q the Marrs family's Texas corporation, having relocated The Country Earn in 1974 from Amarillo Boulevard to Interstate 40. His widow, Norma; son, Don; and a daughter, Diana Pepper, began late in '76 to prepare financing and acquire real estate for the expansion, commissioning architectural work and organizing a separate corporate set-up.

Don Marrs, co-owner and vice president, said the restaurant at 2508 Paramount, designed by Wilson-Doche Architects and being built by the Wiley Hicks Jr. contracting firm, is due for completion about mid-October. "We plan on building more," he said- The "Great American Hamburger" will contain about 2,500 square feet with seating for about 90 persons. There also will be a drive-through service window. The menu will center on hamburgers and barbecue sandwiches.

Unlike the parent restaurant, Marrs said, the new place will be of "contemporary" design with little of the "old West" decor that characterizes The Country Barn. Marrs, who termed the Paramount project as about a 1250,000 investment, said the workforce will include as many as 30 employes, full- and part-time. The "Great American Hamburger" site is part of the commercial district surrounding Lawrence (or Dunrvea) Lake in West Amarillo. New Alcoholism Commissioner Active in Community Affairs By PATRICIA MASTERMAN Globe-News Staff Writer Gov. Dolph Briscoe has appointed Mrs.

Tom Kritser of Amariilo to the Texas Commission on Alcoholism. The Amarillo woman will serve a six- year term on the statewide panel. Her term will expire June 8,1983. The commission, established by state law, consists of six members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. Mrs.

Kritser, of 3809 Linda, has beec active in alcoholic recovery programs in Amarillo since 1968. Last year she participated in a regional institute on alcoholism and drug abuse. This year she is serving on the planning committee for the 1977 Regional Institute on Substance Abuse. A member of St Andrew's Episcopal Church, Mrs. Kritser has been active in the American Heart Association, the cerebral palsy treatment center, the Don Harrington Discovery Center, the Amarillo Community Chest (now the United Way), the Killgore Children's Psychiatric Center, the Amarillo Regional Hearing and Speech Foundation, American Cancer Society, and the Young Women's Christian Association.

She and her husband, a rancher, are parents of two grown daughters and have been supporters of Girl Scout and Campfire Girls organizations. A sustaining member of the Junior League of Amarillo. Mrs. Kritser is a founder of the Center BARBARA KRITSER Association and a supporter of the Amarillo Symphony. A 1944 graduate of Amarillo High School, Mrs.

Kritser is a graduate of Christian College in Columbia, Mo. She continued her liberal arts studies at the University of Texas in Austin. By law, the Texas Commission on Alcoholism onmiinates "the efforts of all interested and affected state and local agencies." The law requires the commission to meet quarterly and "at such other times as may be necessary." The commission has a duty to "carry on a continuing study of the problems of alcoholism in this state and seek to focus public attention on such problems." Another duty is the establishment of cooperative relationships with other state and local agencies, hospitals, clinics, public health, welfare, and law enforcement authorities, educational and medical agencies and organizations, and other related public and private groups. The commission allocates funds for local alcoholic clinics, for hospitalization of alcoholics, and for detention and treatment of alcoholics in "farm or colony type facilities." Last month the Texas Commission on Alcoholism approved partial funding for 91 of 116 grant applications from across the state, including at least partial funding of all requests from the Panhandle The Panhandle Alcoholic Recovery Center, operated by Potter County near the county correction center east of downtown Amarillo, received a grant The state commission allocated $2.5 million for state alcoholism programs. Other area programs receiving state funds are the Texas Panhandle Community Action Corp.

of Amarillo, the Driskffi Halfway House of Tulia, the Central Plains Comprehensive Mental Health Mental Retardation Center of Plainview, and Catholic Family Services and the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission, both of The Texas Commission on Alcoholism and the University of Texas will sponsor in Austin on Aug. 23 the 20th annual Institute of Alcohol Studies. The three-day meeting in Austin is expected to attract more than 500 teachers, counselors and other interested persons. Earlier Problems in Channel 7 Records By RICHARD Globe-News Stai Writer WASHINGTON, D.C-The broadcast license renewal of i innel 7 television in Amarillo had deferred once before the Fi'ieral Communications Commlssjctii took the latest action, records in tl regulatory agency show. Channel license was deferred during a 1971 investigation for "hypping" (artifk lly inflating) of ratings claims and enga.

ng in illegal advertising practices. The FCC has again failul to renew Channel 7's license, whicii expired at midnight Sunday, pending iwnpletion of two investigations involving the station and its parent company. Marsh Media. Ltd. Federal law allmvs the station to continue broadcastin under its old license until the under investigation are resolved to lie FCC's satisfaction.

FCC records show was fin- ed $1,500 and granted only a short-term renewal of its license, instead of the asked-for three-year following resolution of the 1971 investigation. FCC records show Channel 7 was fined $1.500 for illegal advertising practices following the 1971 investigation. Also, in 1971. the firm was granted only a short-term renewal of Channel license for "hypoing" of ratings. Marsh Media.

which owns Channel 7 and one-half of the Amarillo cable television system, is currently being investigated by the FCC for possible violations of the agency's cross- ownership rule and for failure to satisfy Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulations. The investigation into "hypoing" of ratings centered upon the station's mass mailing of questionnaires to residents in its marketing area during a time when independent audience surveys were being taken. The FCC reported it investigated the mailings, made in 1970. for what the federal agency termed suspected attempts to manipulate viewing habits with the goal of distorting audience-size ratings. The FCC, in a communication to Marsh Media said in 1971 that "by broadcasting the claim that KVtt TV Channel 7 is 'the nation's No.

1 ABC station in prime time' without making legible to your viewers the qualifications to the major claim, you have created a misleading impression of the results os the survey and contravention of commission polky." The investigation into illegal advertising practices dealt witi; the station's alleged failure to disclose the identity of sponsors of certain commercials aired by the station. FCC investigators found the station had broadcast promotional announcements of a motorcycle show in whose profits Marsh Media snared. The investigation showed these commercials were aired daily on Channel 7 between March 12 and April 14. 1971, without "visual or aural" an- nouncements as to their sponsorship. The $1,500 fine was for what the FCC termed as "repeated violations of Section 317 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended in Sections 73.654 and 73.670 of the commission's rules." The FCC last month opened an investigation of possible conflicts involving Marsh Media's recently increased ownership in the Amarillo cable television system from 25 to 50 per cent Marsn Media did not seek prior authorization and waiver of the FCC cross-ownership rule before acquiring the additional 25 per cent ine cable system.

Earlier this week, the FCC disclosed it is investigating Channel 7 for failing to satisfy Equal Employment Opportunity regulations by not employing enough women in its "upper four" job categories. The station had reported on its current license renewal application that it employes two women among 38 employes filling the positions in question.