The Journal Times from Racine, Wisconsin • 20

IB the Journal Times SUNDAY 4B Dec. 11, 1988 nime pr- 71 1 iJtW --vf tv VVv v-'i Some commuter airlines cited in FAA probe 6 "I am particularly concerned about what appear to be systemic deficiencies with management personnel." -Allan McArtor, FAA administrator 9 i 41 WASHINGTON (AP) The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday a nine-month inspection uncovered safety violations and "what appear to be systematic deficiencies" with the management of the nation's commuter airlines. The inspection was announced last March after a series of accidents involving commuters. The FAA said its examination of the commuter industry showed that while there are some air carriers that were found in full compliance with federal air regulations "others demonstrated a need for significant Improvements." The inspections, which covered 35 airlines, resulted in 1,284 violations of air safety regulations, about one-third of which were considered serious enough to warrant a possible civil penalty. 30 seats maximum The commuter airlines, which generally fly aircraft with 30 or fewer seats, have become an increasingly important segment of the commercial airline industry since they often provide feeder traffic for major airlines at busy hub airports.

This year commuter airlines are expected to carry more than 32 million people in and out of 800 cities. The FAA inspections covered about 20 percent of 172 commuter air carriers. They followed seven commuter accidents over a four-month period in late 1987 and early 1988 resulting in 56 deaths. Letters sent In announcing the results of the inspection of the 35 commuter carriers, FAA Administrator Allan McArtor said in a letter to all commuter "I am particularly concerned about what appear to be systemic deficiencies with management personnel. The most serious findings of the inspections reflected a lack of management knowledge of, and experience with, complex commuter air carrier regulations as well as substandard administration of training and deficient aircraft inspection programs." The FAA attributed much of the industry's problems to the "rapid growth of the commuter industry and the transition to larger, more complex aircraft" about which Paul RobertsJournal Times Shoppers check bins of books for bargains at Western's outlet store, 21 13 N.

Wisconsin St. many of the managers are not knowledgeable. The commuter airline Industry, responding to the FAA findlpgs, ac-knowleged some shortcomings and attributed many of the problems to the industry's rapid growth In recent years. "We were aware that the tremen- dous growth of regional airlines may have created difficulties for some carriers in filling operational and maintenance posts," said Duane Ekedahl, president of the Regional Airline Association. How it is useful He suggested that the FAA inspection may have been "useful to bring these concerns into focus." Last year the commuters carried 32 million passengers and are expected to carry more than 33 million this year.

In 1979 commuters carried only 14 million passengers. The Regional Airline Association announced Friday it was forming a special task force of industry officials to find ways for the commuters to retain experienced pilots and management employees. The commuters for several years have conj-plained about problems with rapid turnover. The FAA said that it found in its inspections some of the airlines failed to fill management positions or filled them with "inexperienced or unqualified people." For example, the agency said, a chief pilot at one airline was not aware of regulations on how much rest pilots should be allowed. In areas of training, the inspectors found that at times pilots did not complete required competency checks and training records were incomplete or did not exist.

sill KtoiLfls Ibooks Ibsckoini Western outlet store a favorite with shoppers If i Hani mmmmmmmmmmm Peoplo in Business 7 1 ft. wwiiMms jmcr Si John Dickey "The historical basis of that is that the checkout operations were unsophisticated and one-third off was easy to figure out," Rosellini says. "We started with that price and stayed with it." Some local retailers of Western's products have not been as enthusiastic about Western's cut-rate presence in Racine. "We've created a stir with some local retailers who are selling the same products," Dickey says. "But we try to work with them by offering them better deals on close-outs." "Our objective is not to compete with them.

It is strictly to reduce our inventory." Western's products are not the only items found at The Boat House. Rosellini also buys close-outs and slightly damaged items from other companies. "But we're really here to sell Golden Books, that's the real draw," he says. "The other products just give our customers something else to look at." The store sells name-brand toys, housewares, gift-wrapping paper and other assorted off-price merchandize. The strangest item Rosellini says he ever sold at The Boat House was a close-out inventory of stuffed toy rats dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms.

"Someone came in recently and asked if we were still selling them," he says. While many companies like Jockey International Inc. have gotten heavily into off-price retailing, renting store space in in so-called factory outlet malls springing up around the country, Western's plans don't go any further than The Boat House. "Western plans to stay with one store and leave the retailing to our customers," Dickey says. By John Matthews Journal Times Why is an international company with $450 million in annual revenues selling 99-cent coloring books from cardboard boxes sitting on pallets in a wornout former grocery store? Western Publishing Co.

Inc. management says it relieves inventories of slightly damaged and closed-out merchandise. It's also a tradition. It started in the early 1960s with less-than-perfect or excess Western printing products piled on a card table in a boathouse off Water Street, says Jim Rosellini, Western's manager of special inventory. In those early days, employees could buy the products, but no one else, he says.

"The next spring they opened it again and told their workers if non-employees find out about it and want to buy something, don't turn them away," Rosellini says. After moving the sale to Western's Plant 7 on Water Street in the mid-1960s the roof on the original boathouse leaked it was opened to the public from mid-November to just before Christmas. And three years ago, Western moved the sale again to a former Piggly Wiggly store at 2113 N. Wisconsin extending the season into the summer and retaining "The Boat House" name. Despite the company's low profile on the outlet advertising has been rare The Boat House has become an annual favorite of Christmas shoppers.

The day after Thanksgiving saw close to 2,000 people go through the store, says Rosellini. That's a lot of people even for a store twice its size. Many of those people were not from Racine, either. The store has vf Mi John Neibaur Scott Blanchlnl Todd W. Knop Jim Rosellini special inventory manager a following from the entire state and beyond.

Tour buses make it one of their Racine stops, and an estimated 25 percent of its customers travel here from Milwaukee. People also come from out of state, like the Bloomington, 111., labor union that throws a Christmas party every year for unemployed families, giving children gifts purchased at The Boat House. "A lot of civic groups shop here for giveaways at fund-raisers," says John Dickey, Western's national sales development director. "And school teachers buy loads of books to use in their classrooms." On one recent day, the recreation specialist for the West Allis and West Milwaukee Recreation Department bought about 250 Western books for four parties her department sponsors every year. "We've been doing this every year for 13 years now," said Jeri Franz.

national sates director Rosellini declines to give sales Figures or even traffic figures for the outlet. But he does say the store gets in a semi-truck-load of merchandise every day for its 10,000 square feet of selling space. And, he says, a tub holding about 1,000 99-cent books can empty in a single day. Though products leave the store by the thousands, it is not meant to be "wildly profitable," Dickey says. "The primary purpose is to reduce Western's inventory of slow-moving products and obsolete and closed-out items," he says.

If that's the primary purpose, coming in a close second is tradition. "Tradition is a big part of why we do this," Rosellini says. "It has been good for both us and the community." Part of the tradition is how the products are priced. Western's products in The Boat House have always sold for one-third the suggested retail price. Why APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS: Roger Davis has been named chief financial officer of St.

Luke's Hospital, 1320 Wisconsin Ave. He replaces Alex Soltesz, who is retiring. Davis will be responsible for managing the total fiscal system, which includes accounting, data processing, patient accounts and medical records. Before joining St. Luke's, Davis' health-care experience included chief financial officer at Total Care Health Plan Inc.

for four years, a health maintenance organization owned by Children's Health System Inc. Before that, he was director of finance and director of internal audit for Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. In-Sink-Erator has appointed Dennis A. Powell national sales manager appliance group. In his new position, Powell is responsible for the sale of all In-Sink-Erator products sold through appliance distributors.

He is also involved in the development of new products and marketing plans. Before joining In-Sink-Erator, Powell served as national sales manager with Dacor, a California-based cooking appliance products manufacturer. Powell is a graduate of Northwestern University, Evanston, 111. Jim Butler has joined Williams, Young and Associates, certified public accountants and management consultants, as director of tax 'Whiz ICid' gets 8-year prisom term services. He has also been named a principal in the firm.

Butler earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a second law degree in taxation and estate planning from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He worked with international firms in Milwaukee and the Fox River Valley prior to joining Williams, Young and Associates. Scott Bianchini has joined Williams, Young and Associates as a senior accountant in the tax group. Prior to joining the firm, he worked with a large, independent accounting firm in Chicago and with a firm in Sarasota, and was a revenue agent with the Internal Revenue Service in Chicago. Bianchini has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Northeastern Illinois 1: Jim Butler Manhattan's Upper East Side, a Long Island beach house worth $1.9 million, and two cars an Aston-Martin convertible and a Mercedes-Benz worth $200,000.

Bloom sent his investors bogus account statements that claimed to show their securities holdings, according to the charges. He also was charged with using new clients' funds to pay "profits" to older clients. Edelstein sentenced Bloom to four years on each count and, ordered the terms to run consecutively. "He went on his way without any thought of the pain, suffering and misery he was inflicting," said Edelstein. The judge said Bloom had "cannibalized his family and friends." He also ordered Bloom to make full restitution.

No fine was imposed. Edelstein could have sentenced Bloom to 10 years in prison and fined him $20 million. In January, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil charges against Bloom. He entered a guilty plea to charges in March. morseless, completely lacking in conscience.

He was a predator, completely insensitive." The judge said he was imposing the stiff sentence because it was "absolutely essential" to send a message to those who act through "greed and insatiable lust for despoiling innocent people." The prosecution said Bloom used deceit and fraud to parlay a college investment club into a multimillion-dollar investment operation Vith about 140 clients. Bloom, who was not registered as an investment adviser, attracted investors to his now-defunct Greater Sutton Investors Group Inc. by falsely claiming his clients included the Sultan of Brunei, the Rockefeller family and entertainer Bill Cosby. Bloom, a 1985 Duke University graduate with an art history degree, told clients be was putting their money into the stock market when be actually was using it to pay for his own lavish lifestyle. He had art works worth $5.5 million, an $330,000 condominium on NEW YORK (AP) A would-be financial adviser who bilked investors out of $15 million to finance a lifestyle of expensive art and luxury homes was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison by a judge who called him "amoral, not immoral." David P.

Bloom, 24, whose swindle earned him the title "Wall Street Whiz Kid," pleaded guilty in March to one count each of mail fraud and securities fraud. Most of the investors he conned were friends of his parents, prosecutors said. "1 have betrayed my own sense of morality and values and betrayed the trust and love of numerous people around me," Bloom told the judge. He conceded he was "deserving of punishment" but his attorney, David W. O'Connor, sought leniency, saying Bloom was "a greedy young man and a product of our times.

When he grew up, greed was on the ascendency," O'Connor said. "David Bloom shouldn't wind i John Neibaur has been promoted to the position of product manager, surfactants at PPG-Mazer, a division of PPG Industries' Chemicals group, Pittsburg. Pa. In his new position, Neibaur assumes marketing responsibilities for food emulsifiers, general surfactants and personal care product lines. Neibaur, of Gurnee, 111., was a Racine resident for 30 years, and his parents still reside in Racine.

NEW HIRE: Botsford, Leslie, McClure Ltd. has hired William E. Beck III, CPA, as a senior accountant. Beck, of South Milwaukee, was most recently associated with Madneck, Cohen Leack, of Milwaukee, as an accountant. Todd W.

Knop recently joined the staff of Riley Construction Co. in Kenosha as project manager and estimator. Knop had been associated with another area contractor for the past six years in a similar capacity. He is a 1975 graduate of Racine Hot lick High School. David P.

Bloom pleaded guilty March up being the scapegoat of the 1980s." U.S. District Judge David N. Edelstein said be found Bloom "re.