Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 14

EUdC EDITION Belleair, Dunedin, Largo, Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, Safety Harbor, Oldsmar and all Upper Pinellas. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1982 EDITOR'S NOTE (SoiuiinisoD woftlhidlirfflws LbBd nODERT fljjj Ciroiffipini LnmiLflirdleir aise By TIM JOHNSON Claarwatar Timaa Staff Writ CLEARWATER Public defenders who just three weeks ago asked a circuit judge to reopen the case of convicted killer Glenn Consagra now have withdrawn their request Former Largo manager tries for Dunedin job Whatever happened to Don Herrman, who was forced out as Largo's city manager in 1979 after nearly six years in the job? He's unemployed and applying for the job of city manager in Dunedin. In a letter to Dunedin City Clerk W. E. Jeremiah, Herrman points out that he and his wife Virginia still own their home in Largo and that their youngest son Avon Park Correctional Institution.

"I think it's incumbent to have the defendant present at this critical stage in the judicial process," he said. Meissner said he will formally ask Fogle within the next few days to require Consagra's three former defense attorneys to testify before the court at that hearing. The former defense attorneys, all now practicing law in Tampa, refused to give testimony at a hearing Monday on their roles in Consagra's conviction four years ago. The attorneys Seymour Honig, Grant Halliday and Thomas Granahan, who represented Consagra at various times said they could not speak because it would break attorney-client privilege. MEISSNER SAID he will continue his investigation into the Consagra case even though Everhart has asked the court to ignore his allegations.

The prosecutor said his concern is to find the truth about the charges that Consagra was wrongfully convicted. The Times telephoned each of the three attorneys three times seeking comment. None was available, and none returned phone messages Tuesday. Meissner called the public defenders "obstructionists" and said "they threw themselves in front of me every time I tried to find out what the truth was." Everhart declined to respond to Meissner's comments. "We (prosecutors) were left swinging on a rope with the clear impression that we had sent an innocent man to prison," Meissner said.

"It's a sorry mess. They raised all these issues (publicly), and when we tried to find the truth they blocked us" by withdrawing the motion, Meissner said. Judge Fogle also said he was surprised at the action. He said "it is an extremely unusual procedure to file it and withdraw it like that," especially after such serious allegations have been leveled. Consagra never went to trial for the murders of Freddie Lamar Douberly and Mary Lou Holmes, whose bodies were found tied to an outboard motor April 19, 1978 near the spoil island.

The three had rented a 16-foot boat the night of April 16 and gone fishing in St. Joseph Sound. Consagra swam to shore the morning of April 17 and said Douberly and Miss Holmes had left him on an island the night before to go for beer. CONSAGRA AND Tampa private detective Steven Millwee, hired by one of Consagra 's relatives, have claimed that Consagra changed his plea on the two murder charges in 1978 because his legal counsel convinced him that, if the case went to trial, he would be convicted in spite of his innocence and sentenced to death. Fogle said Tuesday "the state attorney's office is duty-bound to pursue some of the allegations" despite the public defender's request to have the motion dismissed.

Fogle ordered Consagra to be brought to Pinellas County for a hearing Sept. 7. Consagra is an inmate at the Stephen Everhart, an assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco public defenders' office, would not explain Tuesday why he asked Judge Harry Fogle to ignore the appeal for "post conviction relief for Consagra. Everhart had alleged in an Aug. 5 court motion that a new confession exonerates Consagra, who is serving two consecutive life prison terms for two murders committed in 1978 on a spoil island off the Dunedin Causeway.

But public defenders Monday asked the court to Peter, 18, will be a freshman this fall at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. "These are two additional reasons Virginia and I would like to come to Dunedin," he wrote. Herman's last day on the job in Largo was Nov. 30, 1979. In a farewell interview with Timet reporter Frank Taylor, Herrman said, "It's all politics." The following April he became city manager of Penn Hills.

a GLENN CONSAGRA convicted killer. See CONSAGRA. Page 3 DON HERRMAN to Vrvi dismiss the motion. THE ACTIONS of the public defender's office have angered Assistant State Attorney Paul Meissner, who criticized Everhart for making serious charges, then withdrawing them. New fire chief has logged 18 years of service By MICHAEL DAVIS Claarwaf Timaa Staff Writer CLEARWATER In his job as the city 's new fire chief, Robert Davidson wants to extinguish the myth that firefighters spend all their time "just waiting to put water on a fire." "People want more than that and need more," said the 18-year veteran of the Clearwater Fire Department.

"We want to be here all the time, educating the people." That education, Davidson said, may include advice on fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and ways to prevent and escape from fires. It also may include showing first aid movies at a local fire station. Or it may mean speaking to neighborhood and civic associations about safety. "I'm a traditionalist," said the 43-year-old Davidson as he sat in his office. Behind him on a table stood a fire alarm box from 1928, and on the wall was a bronze plaque of a firefighter holding a hose to a blaze.

ON ANOTHER wall are several honors, including the American La France National Award for Heroism, received in 1971 when he pulled an elderly couple from the flames of their mobile home. "I believe in the fire station being there for the people at all times," he said. "I grew up in a little town in Ohio with a population of 5,000, and it was always nice to know that the fire station was right around the corner." Davidson wants to let people in Clearwater know that, with six fire stations, a station is almost right around the corner from everyone. And he wants people to get acquainted with those fire stations. "If someone, for example, was handicapped and would have special problems in case of a fire, they should let their local station know about it," he said.

Davidson was chosen as the new chief Tuesday morning by City Manager Tony Shoemaker. As chief he will earn $40,000. suburb of Pittsburgh. He was ousted last January and said in a phone interview this week, "It's ail politics." PENN HILLS, unlike local municipalities, has partisan politics and it's "a Democratic town," Herrman said. But a Republican reform group got in several years and faced a deficit, he said.

Herrman was hired and had to finish the job of cutting the city's work force by 25 percent. After having to deal with the phenomenal growth of Largo's population and government, "In Penn Hills I had the opposite challenge," Herrman wrote to Dun-edin's Jeremiah. "The organization was cut 25 percent in one year, and we learned new ways of doing old tasks for less. "For instance, at four sewer treatment plants we in-' stalled alarm equipment for a one-time cost of $50,000, thereby saving $200,000 in annual manpower costs. These savings could be doubled in another year or two." But, Herrman said in the phone interview, "Reform didn't last." Last January the Democrats got back in City Hall, and Herrman was back out on the street.

He's been out since and said he has been looking at jobs both in government and private industry. "It's absolutely horrendous up here," he said, referring to the economy. HERRMAN SAID he is considering a position with Investors Diversified Services, a Minneapolis-based firm that specializes in mutual funds, insurance and financial planning. But he'd like to come back to the Suncoast. Herrman said that getting used to Pennsylvania weather wasn't a problem because he had municipal government jobs before Largo in Brooklyn Park, Port Angeles, Wash, and Oak Lawn, 111.

His older son Matthew, 20, is a student at Reed College in Oregon. Bucs-Bombers replay No, this year's benefit softball game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Clearwater Bombers isn't going to be replayed, just the presentation of the proceeds. Checks for $5,000 each already have been presented to the Upper Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens, Channel Markers for the Blind and the Ronald McDonald House at All Children's Hospital. That record amount of money is due to the near capacity crowd in Jack Russell Stadium last June. See EDITOR'S NOTE, Page 8 Claarwatar Timaa STEVE HASEL New Clearwater Fire Chief Robert Davidson wants 'neighborhood concept' in firefighting.

SHOEMAKER said it was hard to choose just one new chief to replace John Pitts, who retired last month after serving 42 years on Clearwater's firefighting force. "There were six solid applicants," Shoemaker said. "But I decided that Chief Davidson had such a wealth of experience going for him." Clearwater's new fire chief has been assistant chief for four years. In the early 1970s, he helped develop and institute the first Emergency Medical System (EMS) in Pinellas County. He now is president of the Pinellas County Fire Chiefs Association.

"He has been involved in every aspect of firefighting," Shoemaker said, "and he was just too good to pass up. What was encouraging was that there were so many other good candidates, all from our department." The other candidates interviewed were Capt. David Kinsey, Capt. Clarence "Bud" Meyer, Marshal Joseph Painting's fate is at stake today A II I fyva. Pi, ifvi By MICHAEL DAVIS Claarwatar Timet Staff Wrltar 4 Donald Molnar, Capt.

Michael Petellat and Lt. Richard Phillips. In addition to his "neighborhood firefighting concept," Davidson said he wants to take routine fire inspections off the backs of fire inspectors and let firefighters do them. This, he said, would free the inspectors for more serious violations in the city. HE ALSO SAID he will encourage the 177 members of his fire department to continue their education by taking fire safety classes at St.

Petersburg Junior College. Davidson is married and has two children, a 20-year-old son who is a paramedic for the East Lake Fire Department and a 19-year-old daughter who is a year away from becoming a paramedic. And now Davidson is relishing being fire chief. "Very few people have the opportunity to reach the top of their profession," he said. "I feel real good." Zoning laws could delay Countryside hospital By SANDRA HARGROVE and KERRY J.

NORTHRUP Claarwatar Timaa Staff Write ra SAFETY HARBOR Construction of the proposed $16-million Mease Countryside Hospital may be delayed by the bureaucratic necessities of Safety Harbor zoning laws. Although Mease officials want to start building their new 100-bed hospital in mid-October with a goal of having it in operation by the peak tourist season in 1984 Safety Harbor city commissioners told them Monday night that is rushing things a bit. Plans for the Countryside facility, to be located on McMullen-Booth Road one mile north of State Road 580, call for a five-story, 69-foot-high tower of patient rooms. That's 34 feet higher than the standards in Safety Harbor's zoning laws. It's four feet higher than city officials can approve without a special review.

So Safety Harbor city commissioners said Monday that building permits cannot be granted until after a series of public hearings that will stretch into mid-November. Mease Executive Director Donald Schroder presented plans for the new facility to the Safety Harbor commissioners at their meeting Monday and asked that they speed up the approval process. MEASE'S architects had hoped to keep the building under the 65-foot limit, Schroder said, but had run up against the space requirements of modern medical equipment. Also, he said, the building's design allows for the See HOSPITAL, Page 8 "1 "'fc'. jjrj.

jLa.W5SJ "'iSfefc. sawcife fcUMI Claarwatar Tim DAVE PIER SON The day the painter finished the wall at Birge' s. CLEARWATER Alf Birge, a purveyor of meats in Clearwater for 32 years, will take to the City Code Enforcement Board today a petition as thick as a cut of his prime beef. Several hundred residents have come to his meat ket on Court Street to sign the petition imploring the city to let him keep his new "mural" on the outside of his building. The colorful mural shows giant hams, turkeys, sausages and steaks, and it stretches all the way across the side wall facing Myrtle Avenue.

The Greater Clearwater Chamber of Commerce has also asked city officials to let Birge keep the painting. Today at City Hall, Birge will find out if the support will do him any good. If not, he will be forced to paint over meats and poultry. At 2 p.m., his case goes before the code enforcement board. The city's sign inspector Stuart Williams found Birge in violation of ordinances two months ago, just as the painter was putting the finishing strokes on a giant pink ham.

Not only did Birge not have a permit for the painting, but the "sign" was bigger than allowed by law, Williams said. Williams, gave the butcher 10 days to wipe out the sign or face the consequences before the code enforcement board. The painting remained. And today is the showdown, If the seven-member board finds Birge in violation of city ordinances, it could impel him to paint over the paint- magazine of the sign industry, which printed an article about a similar dispute in Delaware. In that case, a travel agency painted a "love boat" on the exterior of its business building, and the city decided the painting was in violation.

"Can you imagine what doors it would open (if Birge were allowed to keep his painting)?" Williams asked. "Anyone in town could paint what they wished on their walls. "I'm a citizen of Clearwater, and I don't want that for this city. I think it (Birge's painting) looks like garbage." But Bomstein, for one, thinks otherwise. "It's a hell of a lot better than the drab, blank wall that was there before," he said.

"Now it's bright and colorful." Birge said he commissioned the mural because he wanted a change from the drab walls. Williams said he does not care what kind of support Birge has garnered. "I'm just enforcing the laws," he said. ing or be fined up to $250 a day. Birge said he will argue that the painting of hams and beefs is not an advertising sign, but a mural.

He will have others to help him argue his case. "I wouldn't miss it for the world," said Alan Bomstein, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Downtown Development Board. "For a sign inspector to decide what's a sign and what's a mural, he's got to become an art critic." But Williams said a sign is an advertisement to "whatever you do inside." "He sells meat, doesn't he?" Williams asked. "Well, he's advertising then by having that sign painted on his building, and that's against the sign ordinance." If Birge painted pictures of cars on the side of the building, for example, it would be okay because it wouldn't be advertising, Williams said. He said he will bring an issue of Signs of the Times, a.