The Capital Journal from Salem, Oregon • 1

KVDO transmission tower is toppled Camper is killed by tree year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Tulley, 7085 Skyline Rd.

said he could see from his bedroom window this morning that the tower was down. He said he heard nothing during the night "but we're so used to cars going in and out that we sleep right through it" "I didn't notice anything unusual at all last night," said Mrs. Robert Dole-zal, 6804 Skyline "even though I was up until almost 1 a.m. and awake off and on after that. I didn't hear a thing." The television station tower was built in 1969 at a cost of about $150,000.

It began broadcasting Feb. 24, 1970. By August 1971 the station operations were merged with KEZI-TV of Eugene. The station was scheduled to be completely taken over by the public broadcasting system tomorrow. It had been operating on a part-time basis this last week.

Renewal of its broadcasting will have to await state approval, according to Mrs. Bryant, who said her husband may have to turn to the legislature for funding to get the tower operating again. ion County Sheriff James Heenan. Officers had received telephone calls early this morning, however, threatening harm to the tower. A spokesman in the sheriff's office said that deputies had been dispatched to the area about 8 a.m.

Neighbors said they had noticed no unusual activity. in the area of the tower last night but Felix Martin, the owner of the property where the tower is located, said he didn't believe any of the gusts of wind he heard was sufficiently strong enough to blow down the tower. Another neighbor, Brian Tulley, 10- The 300-foot transmitter of Salem's KVDO Channel 3 was toppled today and the station was knocked off the air indefinitely. The tower apparently toppled this morning when guy wires supporting it broke or were cut. Mrs.

Donald S. Bryant, wife of the Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting System's executive director Donald Bryant, told the Capital Journal today that the act had been described to her as a "malicious, intentional act." She said that information came from Marion County Sheriff's office which had called the Bryant home in Portland to report the incident. A suspect was being questioned this morning by Marion County sheriff's but by early afternoon no arrests had been made, said Cpl. David McMullen of the Marion County Sheriffs Department. The damage to the tower was estimated at $100,000, according to Bryant.

Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting Service last week took over operation of the station. It was that takeover that prompted a law suit by Salem residents wanting the station's ownership returned to private owners whose programming in the past has been predominantly religious. Ron Campbell, owner of the Chapter One religious book store and one of the Salem residents who brought the suit, said he had been contacted by telephone about the damage to the tower at about 11 this morning. He said he would like to think that the vandalism had nothing to do with the controversy over the station's takeover by the state. "But this has become such an emotional issue," he said.

"And it's not just with the Christians, but with just anybody who is opposed to more and Carter down and out this morning takes is for ever- young Cadillac bond more government control." He said he is still opposed to the state control of the station and will continue the legal battle to have it returned to private operation. "To use this kind of method to stop the takeover is completely incongruous with what we're trying to do. It's just not the act of a Christian thinking person," he said. The station was not on the air at the time the tower fell and no injuries were reported. Investigators were withholding details of the tower damage pending further investigation, according to Mar- CP aim According to district facilities chief Don DuBois, the estimates for the new schools were based loosely on the designs used in the' most recently completed schools.

DuBois stressed that the estimates were not precise and that the district is not tied to a specific design for any of the new schools. With inflation in construction slowing down, DuBois is now revising cost estimates on the new buildings. Carter attacked a number of details in the proposed bond construction Some of the improvements are needed to bring the district up to state standards and Carter questioned even those. He pointed to an item for adding seven acres to the McNary High School site for $140,000. He said he knew that was to bring the site up to the state requirements.

"I'm asking you, is that the way you want your tax money spent?" Carter has not yet been involved in an organized effort to oppose the two ballot measures. There are a number of "splinter groups" in the community that will be opposing the levy and bond issue, he said. He talked vaguely about newspaper ads, but said he would oppose a campaign like that conducted by former board member Cleo Hicks several years ago. The Hicks' campaign attacked the school board and district administration. Carter said he wouldn't do that and said he believed Kendrick to be an excellent superintendent.

Carter said that opposing the district ballot measures was "like being against motherhood and apple pie." But he believes it's time to bring out the opposing point of view. He will take his case next week to the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, which now has its education committee at work studying the proposed budget and bond issue. Inside fl By JOHN HAYES Capita Journal Correspondent NEWPORT A giant maple tree, toppled by a violent coastal storm early Friday, crushed two sleeping campers, killing one and injuring the other. Steven Kenneth Jones, 19, a resident of Otis, was killed instantly, according to a County medical examiner's report. He died when a fork of the 120-foot -tall tree crushed him inside his tent Linda Gail Rhodes, 25, also of Otis, was seriously injured when the tree crashed through the top of the couple's tent.

The young couple was camped Thursday night at Maples Campground, about four miles south of Oregon 34 along Five Rivers Road. Donald Schmidt, a Sheriff's office investigator assigned to cover the accident, says officials had no way of knowing when the accident took place. "They weren't discovered until after daylight Thursday when a truck driver saw the tree down," Schmidt said. "We don't know how long they were trapped in that tent" Neither does Miss Rhodes. From her bed in Newport's Pacific Communities Hospital this morning she described the chain of events.

"We just got there Thursday night and had to put up the tent in the rain," she said in a barely audible whisper. "We had never been there before." "We both went to sleep, then I woke up like I am now, not fully aware. I tried to wake up Steve but I couldn't do it. The next thing I knew those men were there," she said. "I must have passed out." Schmidt said the hollow, rotten maple snapped off nine feet above the ground and crushed both the couple's tent and their vehicle parked nearby.

"There was a big fork in the tree. The right one took out their jeep and the left one hit the tent," Schmidt said. The Lincoln County Sheriffs Office was notified of the accident Friday morning after a gravel truck driver passing on Five Rivers Road noticed the tree lying on the victims' tenL Schmidt said an ambulance was dispatched to the scene, but Miss Rhodes could not be removed to a hospital until Lincoln County Road Department crews cut away the branches of the tree with chain saws. The coast was battered by high winds and heavy rains early Thursday. The storm blasted exposed areas with wird gusts up to 50 miles an hour and dumped more than l1 inches of rain on Newport overnight.

Schmidt says the gusts toppled several trees near the campground, briefly blocking the road early Friday. Miss Rhodes said she and Jones were returning to Otis after a winter-long camping trip vacation-She suffered severe lacerations of her scalp, chipped vertebrae in her neck and bruises. A hospital spokesman described ber condition as fair. "I don't have any idea where to go next," she said. "My family is in Alabama, maybe 111 go back there." She asked the deputy sheriff "is this Saturday, I am in Newport aren't Jones' father in Portland has been notified of the accident by the sheriffs office.

Schmidt said that Jones suffered broken ribs and possibly a broken neck in the freak accident. He pegged the time of the accident between 5:30 and 8 a.m., Thursday. Jury trial asked WASHINGTON (AP) Actress Gloria Swanson has asked for a jury trial before the U.S. Tax Court to decide the validity of an Internal Revenue Service claim that she owes $14,000 on her 1969-70 taxes. Sports today A VIOLENT thunderstorm cancelled today's third round of the Tournament Players Golf Championship.

Earlier story. Page 24. CHEMEKETA Community' College's basketball team winds up its best season ever. Page 23. PLAYER Independence, vct-" sus owner investment is what the legal nassie surrounding baseball-is.

all about Page 24. ty CapUaT7ounuirVb(la Dan Bruce Parsons is one who hasn't missed any observances even on the off years. Parsons, of 4385 Verda Lane NE, said he's had a birthday celebration on the 28th when there wasn't a 29th. year, I don't consider myself 5. I'm 20.

But it does seem kinda strange." Marion County Dist Atty. Gary Gortmaker announced Friday his candidacy for re-election to his fourth term in office. Gortmaker, 41, has been district attorney since 1965. Programs he said he would seek in the next term include expansion of child support services and formation of a major crime team made up of highly-trained police officers from several police agencies. report THE 1977 tax cut proposed by the Senate Finance Committee will be at least $8.5 billion less than suggested by President Ford.

A panel recommended the difference to social programs. The cut recommended will be no more than $20.6 billion. THE CIVIL Aeronautics Board has given most major domestic airlines permission to raise ticket rates for the second time in two months. Fares can go up 2 per cent for nine airlines. i 7 7 "7 KVDO's tower was found By ALFRED C.

JONES Capital Journal Writer Margaret H. Olmsted says that when she and Louis Olmsted were married Feb. 29, 1928, "we never even thought about what day it was." Since it was Leap Day, a day which just plain disappears for three of every four years, it's cut down on the number of anniversaries the Salem couple has celebrated. Olmsted agrees that the anniversary gift problem is simplified for him, as well as for the sons in Texas and California and the daughters in Colorado and He didn't plan it that way just to save on gift-buying, said Mrs. Olmsted.

It just happened. "Or did you, Louis?" The problem on their 50th anniversary in two years will be that there won't really be a Feb. 29. They'll call it their 12th-and-a-half observance. Births on Leap Day just happen, too, and only to about one out of every 1,461 persons.

The pregnant mother on Feb. 28 of a Leap Year passes midnight without delivering then, presto, there is a slap, a cry, and a child requiring no birthday cake or gift for the next four years. Ceothermal data PORTLAND (UPI) The Bureau of Land has released for public comment an environmental analysis record for the 100-square-mile Bully Creek Geothermal Interest Area just west of Vale. Included within the area is the Bully Creek Reservoir. BLM prepared the study because of the recent interest from energy-interested companies to lease parts of the area for geothermal development.

The record details what will happen if geothermal leasing is allowed and the long-term effects of development. A PLAN to blow up a large city's water system, possibly Portland's, was included in revolutionary pa Leap Day Today' PAUL JACOBS Capital Journal Writer Former Salem School Board chairman Douglas Carter isn't happy with the district's bond and budget measures and he thinks there's a ground-swell of public opinion to support him. "I think they're trying to sell a Cadillac bond issue and I personally can only afford a Chevrolet," Carter said Friday. And he has the same reaction to the budget measure. Carter served on the school board from July, 1970, to December, 1974.

He said he was reluctant "to put on the black hat" and become the most visible opponent of the district's $28.5 million bond measure and $30 million budget. And he had praise for Penney Jones and Robert Adams, who are heading up the political campaign in support of the two district ballot issues. "They'll do an honest responsible job of presenting the pro side, but I don't agree with them." For Carter, it's a matter of degree. "I'd be on the street pumping so hard for a $20 million bond issue, I'd be my own band," Carter said. He has no specifics for cutting $8.5 million out of the bond issue, and the $20 million figure is arbitrary, he said.

But he objects to including items like covered play areas at elementary schools that already have gyms. Carter also believes that $9 million is too much to spend on a new high school and $2.2 million each is too much for the first three of four elementary schools. "I agree there's a need for four new elementary schools," Carter said. "Do we need $2.2 million for each one?" The elementary school estimates were based on building schools like Schirle and Meyers, and Carter contends that there are less expensive ways to construct schools. It's a more special occasion than that for the Robert Crenshaw family, 3632 Silverton Road NE.

Crenshaw is 56 tomorrow and having only his 14th honest-to-goodness birthday. What is a special kick-in-the-pants to him is that he has a grandchild, Robert Wilson Spangler, bom on Feb. 29 four years ago. Little Robert is the son of Mr. and Mrs.

Michael Spangler, living in Honolulu. Crenshaw said that he, like other Leap Day persons, takes a lot of kidding about being only "14" but he didn't expect a greeting that came with his paycheck this month. The computer evidently detected that there was something different about this check-casher. "Happy Birthday, Robert," it printed out Gerald L. Hoch, 466 Lantz St.

SE, is both 9 and 36 Sunday and thinks "we are the unique ones." "It's a good deal, being born on Feb. 29 don't have to worry nearly as often." His cake will come from a sister-in-law from Seal Rock, and there'll be a dinner attended by his four brothers from Seal Rock, Castle Rock, Kelso, and Salem. Four years ago Jerry Bach was both the oldest and "youngest" in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Willis Bach, 3225 Jack St N.

This year is no different, he's 6 and 24 and will come from Portland for a rare dinner. Joy (Mrs. John Hall, 3180 Jack St. is just down the street from the Bachs and thinks she has enough cakes now. Three of her friends where she works have baked them already.

"You bet I like being a Leap Day baby (44). I waited a long time for three cakes." Then there is Mrs. Moses Plumb, Woodburn, also 44 and 11 tomorrow, and she said that A. B. Toepfer, Rt.

1, Woodburn, is in the same Leap Day boat or fraternity, or sorority. Mrs. Plumb will spend her birthday knocking down pins in the city bowling tournament "I'm bound to win," she said. late news kidnapped by gunmen in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday night Neihous is an executive with Owens Illinois glass company. Ransom demands are not yet known.

FIDEL CASTRO is an 'international outlaw says President Ford. And the Ford Administration will have nothing to do with him. See Page 2. THE LAST draft board in the United States was closed down Friday. The nation now will operate the draft on a standby basis.

Today Recommended reading NOT ALL taxpayers are cheats, the Internal Revenue Service has decided. And the agency is changing its attitude and its procedures. See Page 11. TIRED of hearing about products that claim to be much better than their competitors, but in reality are about the same? There is something you can do about it. Turn to Page 28.

OREGON and Washington prisoners were used in sterility experiments during the 1960s by the Atomic Energy Commission. See Page 2. Abby .7.......... ....9 pers seized in raids on terrorist Capital Life headquarters in San Francisco. Declassified tails of the plan were, not available Comics.

25 in me report published in the San Francisco Chronicle, A VIOLENT thunderstorm can- 12-13 round of the Obituaries 36 Tournament Players Golf Champi- Regional News 18 onsWp. Earlier story, Page 24. Religion 14 Sports AMERICAN businessman Wil- TV, Crossword .........25 Iiam Neihous of Toledo, Ohio, was KM.