Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 3

star Casper Area Sunday, July 28, 1985 Star-Tribune, Casper', Wyo. A3 For many, the midway is the fair's main attraction The carnival life is not for everyone, but it's a living 0C Ov fjO OO tS By JEFF THOMAS Star-Tribune staff writer CASPER Their office is outdoors hot asphalt underneath, a summer sky above and the smell of diesel fuel filling each breath. But for some, it's the best way to make a living. Carnival employees spend their evenings at the throttles of machines designed to bring their passengers' stomachs to the point, of no return. At the helm of their midway rides, they spin, drop, shake and flip their customers with almost disturbing nonchalance.

About 20 carnival workers are in Casper for the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo, which runs Tuesday through Saturday. But the midway for many the real reason to go to the fair opened Saturday evening. The carnival crew can turn an empty lot into a carnival midway in "a couple days," according to Cecil Frazier, who heads up the Frazier carnival outfit that' has supplied the rides in Casper for almost 15 years. After the last ride closes, Frazier and his crew can disassemble the midway and roll out of the lot in eight to 10 hours, he said. What is now a house of mirrors will fold up into a trailer to be hauled off by a semi-tractor Saturday night.

"That's what we hired thein for: To drive, set up the equipment, operate the rides, tear them down and move on to the next place," said Marge Frazier, who. along with her husband, oversees the midway operation. But with the rides completely assembled by early Saturday afternoon, many workers were getting some sleep before the 5:30 p.m. midway opening. Small bedrooms could be found tucked into the rear of larger rides, and some took advantage of the scarce shade to rest.

The mobile lifestyle of carnival work appeals to some, while others find it too fluid. "We've had some (employees) for quite a few years," Marge Frazier said. "But then you have some who slay for a week or two, get tired of it and move on to someplace else." The Fraziers, who live in Arizona, consider their recreational vehicle their home while on the road. "To me, it doesn't seem loo nomadic, because we go to the same places year after year," Marge Frazier said. "The people are always glad to see us come into town." The Frazier carnival rolled into Casper after spinning and whirling the citizens of Gering, Neb.

After the fair and rodeo here, the outfit will set up shop in Hemingford, in the northern part of the slate's panhandle. Cecil Frazier offers no reasons for his attatchment to the carnival life, other than to say he was "born into this business." His father operated the Frazier outfit at the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo for 10 years before Cecil over four years ago, he said. Frazier pays the Natrona County Fair Board a minimum of $50,000 to operate the midway during the fair and rodeo. Most of the money comes from ticket and food sales. The carnival keeps 60 percent of any income over $50,000, with the other 40 percent going to the fair board.

Fair Manager Tom Jones said the carnival has never had trouble taking in the minimum. Game booths that offer prizes for tossing rings over stuffed St. Bernards or knocking over milk bottles are not part of Frazier's carnival. He rents the midway space to others who run the games. "There's no way you can see what these guys are taking in to get a percentage," Jones said.

To make sure the game booths are legitimate, two undercover sheriff deputies will try their luck at them to make sure luck is the only ingredient working against a customer. 4 occn ri J'' But building permits were issued for only five homes during the month, he said. In May, $9.21 million in building permits wre issued in the county, an increase of 155.1 percent from May 1984. ii i i Siar-TribuneRick Sorenson Brad Olson catches a quick read in a different time warp the lull before the midway opens Saturday Value of building permits increases in city But other local economic indicators show decrease or slight rise from last year Tanker, truck collision sends man to hospital Truck driver reported in stable condition The amount of freight unloaded in Casper also showed a sharp drop 31.2 percent from 108,728 pounds in May 1984 to 74,765 pounds this year. Besides the value of building permits issued, the other economic, indicators that showed a May-; to-May increase were the number of air passengers boarding in Casper up 9.9 percent; the number of air passengers arriving in Casper, which increased 9.6 percent; postal receipts, which posted a 7 percent rise; and the number of water meters in the city up 1 percent.

BUSINESS BAROMETER To change. May 1984 to May 1985 Riverton man looking for federal approval to market anti-cancer drug Eli Bchout lias personal stake in cancer war byer was reported in stable condition Saturday evening. A hospital spokesman said the man was expected to spend the night under obversation. Leo Hopkins, 22, of Riverton, was driving a Peterbilt semi-tractor hauling a full tanker-trailer of diesel fuel when he and Byer collided. The trailer overturned, but no spillage was reported.

Rescuers had to siphon off the fuel in the overturned tanker before righting it, a sheriff's deputy on the scene said. Hopkins was not injured in the accident, according to the state Highway Patrol. A patrol spokesman said no other details were available on the accident Saturday evening. Building permits 1 55. 1 Postal receipts 7.0 Air passengers, on 9.9 Air passengers, off 9.6 Air freight, on 43.3 Air freight, off 31.2 Gas meters 1.7 Water meters 1 .0 Electric meters 1.4 -jr lit' v.

The most notable decline in the chamber's report was in the amount of air freight loaded onto planes at Natrona County International Airport, which decreased 43.3 percent to 57,684 pounds from 101 ,659 pounds last May. have exclusive distribution righls in the United Slates, Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Distribution in the United Stales won't begin, however, until the FDA approves the tranquilizer's use, Bebout said. If the FDA refuses to approve KC-101 for U.S. use, Smilh-Collins might market it in Third World countries, he said.

Additional studies on the ointment are being conducted at Temple University in Philadelphia to develop a synthetic form of the drug. Bebout said if enough information can be derived from the studies his company will be able lo apply for an Investigational New Drug Application from the FDA. Once such an application is made the agency has 30 days to decide whether the pharmaceutical company can begin testing the drug on humans. While the FDA has become more lenient in accepting foreign data on drug research in recent years, Bebout said Portugese studies of KC-101 are not likely to help gain FDA approval because the scientist who worked with the drug was more interested in "treating humans than compiling wata." Bebout has a personal, as well as financial, interest in gaining FDA approval for the ointment. Two of his uncles died from cancer, and he said it's likely he'll eventually develop it.

"If we can help somebody and save a life or two, wouldn't that be neat?" he said. By P. J. ROSE Star-Tribune staff writer CASPER The value of building permits issued in Casper in May more than doubled from the same month last year, the Casper Area Chamber of Commerce reported. But while that measure of the local economy rose sharply, most other economic indicators listed in the chamber's monthly "Business Barometer" are either lower or only slightly higher than in May 1984, according to the chamber's July newsletter.

"(The increase) reflects more investment in the commercial sector," chamber Director of Economic Development John Kin-namon said. "Essentially what has happened is we have seen about an $8.5 million expansion in commercial buildings," he said. Kinnamon cited a new Hardee's restaurant on the east side of town and the planned $3 million expansion of the Albertson's supermarket in the Westridge Village Shopping Center as examples of the new commercial expansions for which building permits were issued in May. l5h i CASPER A collision between a diesel fuel tanker and a small truck near Casper sent one man to the hospital Saturday, Wyoming Highway Patrol officials reported. Douglas Byer, 18, of Casper, was admitted to Memorial Hospital of Natrona County Saturday afternoon after the Ford Bronco he was driving collided with a truck hauling a diesel fuel trailer.

Hospital officials said Byer was taken to the emergency room with multiple abrasions and contusions. The accident occurred west of Casper on Highway 20-26 near the turnoff to the Natrona County International Airport. Pioneer spirit RIVERTON (AP) A Riverton man who has spent most of his life in the oil business is now the head of a pharmaceutical company trying to get federal approve to market a cancer-fighting drug. Eli Bebout, who formed Smith-Collins Pharmaceutical said he became interested in fighting cancer through a friend who had worked with an experimental drug being used in Portugal to cure skin cancer. "Maybe there's something I can do about cancer," he said.

"It made a lot of sense to try to help." The drug, KC-101, was used on more than 500 people during a five-year test in Portugal and provided encouraging results, according to Bebout. The people who used the ointment had a recurrence rate of less than I percent, Bebout said. But while Smith-Collins holds the patent and research rights to the drug, the Federal Drug Administration hasn't approved its use in the United States. And Bebout said it could cost his company as much as $10 million to obtain that approval. To raise (he capital, Smith-Collins is planning to market a tranquilizer manufactured by a European company.

"Then maybe we'll make some profits to put into the other big thing, which is cancer," Bebout said. Smith-Collins, under an agreement it signed with the tranquilizer's manufacturer, will $12,000 worth of items stolen from truck CASPER Items valuing more than $12,000 were apparently taken from a truck parked at 1554 S. Con well St. late Thursday or early Friday, a police report says. The pickup truck, belonging to NL Sperry-Sun contained a briefcase, camera, calculator and company documents valued at $11,000.

The theft took place between It a.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday, the report says. Grass fire burns fence CASPER Police report a person set fire to a grass field south of 941 E. 23rd St.

Friday, damaging an adjacent fence. The grass fire, set at 6 p.m., ignited a wood, fence at the rear of the property and burned about 25 feet of the fence before the fire was exting-isheil, according to police reports. The fire did about $250 damage. No suspect has been charged in the case, which police say is under investigation. jl Sur-Tribunc Rnk Sorenion An old-fashioned afternoon of crafts keeps (left to right) I endsey Dev pain, Krisiina onnesbeck, Rachel l.catham and Rebekah L.eatham busy during Pioneer Days Washington Park Saturday.

The event commemorates the pioneer heritage of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints..