The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 31

STATE 1 THE TAMPA TRIBUNE SECTION TAMPA, FLORIDA, TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1977 Plans For 3LZ3L Advance unds Uncertain While raff Tribune Photo by Roy Garvin Tribune Photo by Britt Laughlin Architect's Plaza Model Suggests Brick-Paved Open Space Franklin Street would be closed and buildings razed By DALE THOMAS Tribune Staff Writer Preliminary plans and a model of a $375,000 plaza around City Hall and the unfinished city office building have been completed by a local architect, but Mayor Bill Poe said yesterday he doesn't know how the city will pay for its construction. The plaza, as proposed in the plans by Tampa architect John Howey, would be paved primarily with brick similar to Franklin Street Mall, and would feature a "seating pyramid" that would be the focal point for public gatherings outdoors. POE SAID THE plans so far are "conceptual," and no construction drawings have begun. He said he has not yet studied how to pay for the plaza, but he has had discussions with Charles Miller, the city's planning consultant. Miller, who was not available for comment last night, worked closely with Howey in discussing the plaza.

Poe said he will be able to consider several alternatives in the coming weeks after he knows for certain how almost $4 million in federal public works money will be spent. The public works grant is expected to pay for four projects, and Poe said some money may be left. Another possible money source is part of about $4 million remaining from a bond issue that is paying for construction of the city office building and other city buildings. AND POE MIGHT consider including the plaza in the city's regular capital improvements program in the coming budget year. The plaza will probably not be under construction until early next year, although there is a chance work may begin late this fall if the contractor on the office building is able to turn part of the property back to the city, he said.

Howey, in a letter to city council members, estimated the plaza as planned would cost $375,000. The council today is expected to approve paying Howey $2,500 for designing it the plaza. Howey recommended that the city Inmates Were Ushered Into Central Booking With Their Ankles, Wrists And Waists Shackled i nine prisoners were charged with aggravated battery following riot at Balm prison 9 Inmates Charged, 10 Hurt In Violence At Balm Prison entertainment events, art shows and downtown lunch-goers. HOWEY ALSO architecturally "sug-gested" in his plan and model changes in the privately owned land west of Franklin Street. Freedom Federal Savings and Loan Association owns the property and leases some of the buildings to a restaurant and adult bookstore.

An attorneys' firm owns the building at the south end of the block. Howey suggested an open-air res-tuarant on the property, with steps leading down to the plaza. He said he has discussed the idea with Freedom Federal officials, but they have made no commitment. Howey will present his plans to the Downtown Development Authority Thursday at 2 p.m. in the city council chambers; but he does not plan to appear before the council today.

If Poe can find the money to build the plaza, the city's public works department would draw construction plans and advertise for bids from consider paving parts of Kennedy Boulevard, Florida Avenue and Jackson Street around the city buildings with brick to make the area compatible with the mall and the plaza. But that, and additional landscaping and shelters, would cost another estimated $375,000. POE SAID HE has not discussed that recommendation with Miller and had no comment on it. Plans indicate that Franklin Street west of City Hall would become part of the plaza. The block, now open to motorists, would be accessible only to pedestrians and the planned tram system the city hopes to have operational this fall, as well as emergency and service vehicles.

Also included on the -acre site would be a small parking lot, water fountains, trees and the pyramid. Howey said that while the plaza would be an open decorative area, it would also be functional, serving as the site for meetings, ceremonies, various By KEVIN KALWARY Tribune Staff Writer BALM Nine inmates were charged yesterday with taking part in a riot among more than 100 prisoners at the Hillsborough Correctional Institute Sunday night. During the fight, which officials said had "definite racial overtones," nine inmates were injured and one was hospitalized with a punctured lung, broken ribs and severe head cuts. "I DONT KNOW the exact cause yet," said correctional institute Supt. Paul Gunning, "but once the fight got going, they all jumped in." Detectives from the Hillsborough chairs to a homemade knife" that was later confiscated.

According to accounts from guards and prisoners involved, the fight started after two inmates one white and one black began exchanging punches on the athletic field. "We're not sure wether the original fight was over any racial problem," Gunning said, "but when inmates see a white man and a black man going at it, the rest of them jump right into the middle of it and make it a racial problem. "We observed breakfast (yesterday) and there wasn't a ripple of violence," Gunning said. "The only thing we can See 9 INMATES, Page 2 County Sheriffs Office were called in after prison officials "felt there was an outside investigation needed," Gunning said. Sheriffs Maj.

Walter Heinrich said nine inmates were charged with aggravated assault after prisoners and guards were questioned by detectives, "and there may be more arrests to follow." The fight broke out shortly after 8 p.m. on the athletic field, Gunning said, and lasted about a half an hour before guards could stop the brawl. OFFICIALS SAID when the fight was over, 19 prisoners suffered "cuts, gashes, bruises and holes" after being struck with "everything from metal QTAT Stenc Resid From Hillsb ents orou gh Jriay Angers make conditions ripe for algae bloom and the process which causes the stink, Wilkins said. He said one solution to the problem is eliminating the sewage effluent being pumped into the bay from the city's sewage treatment plant. A $90-million treatment plant now under construction should be completed within a few months, Twachtmann said, and the city's goal is to discharge water of almost drinking quality into the bay.

Twachtmann said that will not entirely solve the problem in the coming years, but it "should put a dent in it." single-cell plants are reproducing and growing "in tremendous numbers" in the bay. While they grow at night, they use up all the oxygen in the water, he said. As a result, fish die. "Then you get bacteria growing, and they give off hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs," Wilkins said. Because prevailing summer winds blow across the bay from the east, Davis Islands and Bayshore residents usually get a strong wiff of the odor daily.

He said the algae bloom is also occuring in McKay Bay, up the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers, and in canals in the Apollo Beach area. Hot weather and the badly polluted bay smell. It asked the city to find some other means of eliminating the water weeds. A county biologist and a city official said, however, that the smell that has been fouling the air almost daily this summer is the result of "algae blooms," not other factors which have caused the odor in past years. Rich Wilkins, a biologist for the county's Environmental Protection Commission, said, "There's a lot of misunderstanding about the cause the of the smell.

Everybody has a different idea. "Some think it's the low tide, when the bottom is exposed, that's causing it," he said. "The smell now is not from hyacinths. There are no By DALE THOMAS Tribune Staff Writer More than 250 residents of the Davis Islands and Bayshore Boulevard areas have been living with the stench that comes off Hillsborough Bay each summer, but yesterday they tried to do something about it. In a petition received by the Tampa City Council and Mayor Bill Poe, the residents blamed the odor on what they believed to be water hyacinths that float down the Hillsborough River from behind the reservoir dam.

The petition, signed by about 250 people, said the hyacinths were rotting and causing the hyacinths because the city has not opened the dam (at 30th Street) since before the drought." Dale Twachtmann, city administrator of water resources and public works, agreed. He said the dam, which contains the city's drinking water reservoir, hasn't been opened since late March, when the river level began dropping. He slid some hyacinths do float downriver when the dam is opened, and he agreed rotting hyacinths along Davis Islands' west shore or along Bayshore Boulevard would likely create a stench. But, he said, the polluted bay and the algae bloom are the most likely culprits this time. Wilkins, in explaining the bloom, said tiny Area Judges Rule Stiff Traffic Fines Unconstitutional 1 The Dark Continent Adds African Queen The African Queen, one of the new attractions in the Congo Area of Busch Gardens, makes its way down the quarter-mile waterway that twists and turns around the new $7.6 million expansion.

Other attractions in the Congo, which opens today, are Claw Island, a Bengal tiger display, the Mamba, swinging vines, a delicatessen and a stilt village. Tribune Photo by Dan Fager I Medical Board Told To Open Records By IVAN HATHAWAY Tribune Staff Writer Hillsborough County Traffic Court Judge Don Kilgore and Sarasota County Judge Edwin W. Cummer yesterday joined three other Florida judges by declaring as unconstitutional a new state law that more than doubles traffic fines. Cummer ruled that the stiff fines constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Kilgore signed a written order citing that legal ground and then setting forth several other constitutional points.

IN RECENT WEEKS, since the new fine schedule became law on July 1, judges in Polk, Palm Beach and Broward counties have ruled the law unconstitutional. Hillsborough Deputy Court Clerk Joe Perez said yesterday that the number of citations issued by local police has dropped by 50 per cent for most of July, apparently due to officers' disapproval of the higher fines. Last weekend appeared to be "almost normal" for the issuance of citations, Perez said, but it was inconclusive in determining whether the volume of citations is returning to normal "or if it was jnst a heavy weekend." Perft said the cour violations bureaulsually receives between 500 to 600 citations within a 24-hour period from the various law enforcement agencies in the county. IF THE TREND does not return to normal, Perez said, the county court system could lose as much as half of the estimated $2 million in fines it collects yearly and uses to cover its operating expenses. Kilgore's order affects only those cases assigned to his division.

Other local traffic cases are being handled by Judge Don Castor in Tampa and by Judge Rogers Padgett in Plant City. Polk County Judge Susan Roberts was the first to declare unconstitutional the new law that raised the standard $25 fines for moving violations to a minimum of $57.75 and tacked on an extra $200 for more serious offenses, such as drunken driving. Part of an auto insurance reform bill, the law calls for the extra amounts collected to be placed in a special fund for rebates to drivers who have liability insurance and good driving records. THE FLORIDA SUPREME Court is scheduled to hear the state's appeal of Judge Roberts' ruling next month. Atty.

Gen. Robert Shevin has said he would not be suprised to see the high court declare the law unconstitutional. Legal observers said they expect the See AREA, Page 2 pass our findings on," Mrs. Hapke said. "We are a private volunteer group and we don't have to open our records to the public." A spokesman for Gov.

Reubin Askew said last week that "there's nothing we can do to force private groups to open their records," however, Askew yesterday ordered the state board to open its records. PALMER SAID, HOWEVER, "We investigate what needs to be looked into and if we decide to revoke a license, we do it, and if we think criminal By KEVIN KALWARY Tribune Staff Writer Gov. Reubin Askew yesterday ordered the Florida Board of Medical Examiners to open its records and at the same time, Rep. George Sheldon, D-Tampa, accused the board of neglecting complaints against doctors. Askew and Sheldon referred to the case of Tampa psychiatrist Dr.

Wilson C. Rippy who was indicted in North Carolina recently on charges of mailing obscene films in which two emotionally disturbed boys from Tampa engaged in sex actffcwith an adult identified as the investigation would end if Rippy moved out of state," he said. "This is inexcusable. Protection of the public does not begin and end with political boundaries. "PERHAPS EVEN sadder is the fact that this case is just one in a series where the board was at fault through inaction," Sheldon added.

Amelia Hapke, executive secretary of the Hillsborough County Medical Association, said Rippy was investigated by her agency and the "entire report" was turned over to the Florida Board of Medical Examiners. "All Pe can do is investigate and HOWEVER, THE head of Florida's board, Dr. George Palmer, said to open his agency's records would only hurt "practicing doctors." Palmer blamed the board of medical examiners in North Carolina for Rip-pys "continued immoral behavior," saying that "they knew about Dr. Rip-py's background because I sent the entire file on him." Sheldon said that the Board of Medical Examiners investigated Rippy on charges of using "bizarre forms of behavior modification" when he was head of the children's psychiatric ward at Tampa Hekhts Hospital. "However, their attitude was that See BOARD, Page 2 1 Rippy.

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