Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 1

ESTABLISHED 1764, DAILY EDITION. VOL CL NO. 276 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1987 SECTIONS COPYRIGHT 1987, THE HARTFORD COURANT CO. 30 lUU On IS OU i 4 i 1 Bill Clark, below, a cable repairman for Southern New England Telephone, reaches for a rope to remove a manhole cover that ahattered and fell inside a manhole on Main Street In New -Britain Friday. At right.

New Britain firefighters remove water 1J Senate votes for defense Mil limiting arms Fight likely over measure restricting Reagan authority i- Hi from a manhole so workers can begin to repair damage from the By SARA FRITZ Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON The Senate ap- (iroved a mammoth, $303 billion de-ense spending bill for the 1988 fiscal year Friday that would set unprecedented restrictions on President Reagan's authority to manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal The legislation, which still must be reconciled with a $289 billion House-passed measure that contains the same arms control limitations, was approved by a highly partisan 56-42 vote. Forty Republicans voted against it, many of them staunchly pro-defense senators who have never previously rejected a Pentagon spending bilL From Connecticut, Democrat Christopher J. Dodd voted for the bill, and Republican Lowell P. Weicker voted against it Senate passage of the measure triggered what is expected to be a blistering showdown between Reagan and Congress over arms control and defense spending that might not be resolved until Christmas.

"We have essentially a Democratic Congress on a direct collision course with the president of the United States," said Sen. Dan J. Quayle, R-Ind. "What we have is the opening round of the 1988 presidential campaign." At the White House, Reagan vowed to veto the bill on the grounds that the arms control provisions would give the Soviet Union concessions they have been unable to win at the bargaining table. He said the arms control provisions would dercut my efforts to negotiate equitable and verifiable arms reductions and undermine U.S.

national security." "Any bill that includes these provisions will be vetoed," he said. Undaunted by those threats, Democratic leaders pledged never to back down on the arms control issues and predicted that the president eventually would be forced to accept the restrictions if he wants to continue funding the Pentagon. "He can veto it, he can veto it, he See Senate, Page At I 1 Dennis Yonan Special to The Courant 1 1 UfriaLX if Wi tj VIA Blasts rattle residents 75 in New Britain evacuated after fire, explosions By JACK EWING Courant Staff Writer NEW BRITAIN A series of explosions caused by an underground electrical fire shook Main Street at dawn Friday, blowing manhole covers sky high, shattering windows, cutting electricity to the downtown area and forcing at least 75 residents of nearby buildings to seek shelter elsewhere Friday night There were no serious injuries, but 40 residents of the Glen Main Hotel, directly in front of the fire, were evacuated shortly after the explosions blew out second- and third-story windows. The residents at first were told they could reoccupy their rooms, but city officials decided later in the day to evacuate residents of the hotel and a 39-unit apartment building at 38 Main St until power was restored probably sometime today. The city promised to find shelter for those people who could not stay with relatives or friends.

"Most of them are going -to relatives and friends. Those that don't, well find a place for them," said Alton F. Brooks, executive director of the city Human Rights and Opportuni- ties Commission. The plate-glass windows of three Main Street storefronts, In-eluding the city welfare office, were knocked out but an adjacent gift shop loaded with, glass and ceramic objects was untouched. "I was so lucky.

Everything was breakable," said Elizabeth Lorn-bardo, owner of Lombardo Gift and Imports at 27 Main St Gesturing toward the many fragile religious objects in the store, she said, "I still think that God, somehow He watched out" Northeast Utilities spokesman Jeff Kotkin said an underground electrical main short-circuited, starting a fire that spread to a nearby transformer. The explosions apparently were caused by the build-up of gas generated by the burning electrical equipment Some power initially was lost when fire damaged underground equipment Kotkin said. The utility then was forced to shut off power -to the underground network serving the city's main business district About 1,650 NU customers lost power, but by 9:45 a.m. power had been restored to most of them. About 50 customers near Franklin Square had power restored about 6:30 pm Friday.

But about 100 customers in the two-block area adjacent to the fire were still without power late Friday. Witnesses and fire officials said the first explosions occurred near the intersection of Main and Chest-' nut streets, a half-block from the See Underground, Page A6 of aimsdiieiipark at Lake Comoouti ice By WILLIAM HATHAWAY Courant Staff Writer BRISTOL Hershey Entertainment and Resort majority owner of Hershey Lake Compounce amusement park, shocked city and state officials Friday when it announced that it would no longer oper- ata at I alra fVimnuinnA pany from Hershey, to run the park. City officials said the company spent $28 million renovating the park, $6 million more than it had anticipated. State officials ly hoped as many as 900,000 people would visit the park each summer, which would have made it the state's top summer tourist attraction. But only 450,000 people visited the park this year, its 141st consecutive season and Hershey Entertainment's first full season of operation.

The company's decision angered VS. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-6th District, who was instrumental in obtaining a federal loan guarantee for the project Tm very disappointed and in the next few weeks I'll be working to see that the public's interest is Johnson said. "I think they pulled out too soon.

Frankly, I think they did a poor job of managing and marketing the park. They didn't give it the backing we expected." David C. Driver, marketing director for the state Department of Economic Development, said, "We're very disappointed. Hershey was a SeeHeney, Page A5 The Pennsylvania based company cited poor attendance in its second season of running the park and greater-than-expected costs of the park's renovation as reasons for pulling out of the 70-acre theme park on the Bristol-Southington border. Hershey Entertainment officials said that, under a different financial structure, another operator could reopen the park.

But others in the distressed amusement park industry said finding a new operator could be difficult The park, which officials had hoped would be one of the state's top tourist attractions, will be open today and Sunday, then will be shuttered for the winter, a company spokesman said. Federal state and city agencies invested heavily in luring the com Michael McAndrews The Hartford Courant President lobbies for Bork as opposition increases Jurist failed to show compassion, prove he cared Nine more senators join opposition to nomination News Analysis The Reagan administration plans modest reductions in the size of the huge American battie fleet in the Persian Gulf region, administration sources said Friday. Pace A3. Crumbled wans, shattered windows and toppled chimneys faced residents of Whitber, Cafit, Friday as they began planning to repair at least $40 minion in damage from Thursday's earthquake. By AARON EPSTEIN Knight-Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON Judge Robert H.

Bor appears to be losing his case for promotion to the Supreme Court, and of all the explanations for that, there is one that stands out In this bicentennial year of the Constitution, he failed to convince Americans that be really cared about them and their rights. There are, of course, important political reasons. As the polls and the 1986 elections showed, the nation is not as far to the right as President Reagan and the conservatives who championed his nomination of Bork. Winnin confirmation is tough enough for a president nearing the end of his second term and confronted by a Senate controlled by the opposing party. The administration needed at least a half-dozen Southern Democrats to back Bork and the overwhelming opposition of blacks to the nomination made that task enormously difficult J.

Bennett Johnston, the conservative Loui of Texas, who trooped to Senate microphones Friday to announce their opposition to Bork. By the end of the day, nine Democrats had expressed such opposition. One Democrat and two Republicans announced they would support Bork. Sen. David L.

Boren of Oklahoma became only the second Democrat to back Bork, the other beirg Sen. Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina. Of the nine anti-Bork Democrats, eight had already been counted against Bork by the White House's legislative headhunters. Bent-sen's decision was "disheartening," said one official; who had put the respected Texan in the undecided column and had thought he could be persuaded to back the president's choice.

Despite the mounting evidence that the nomination was disintegrating, Reagan exhorted his chief aides to keep pressing hard and. refused, as communications director Thomas Griscom said, to "concede an inch." One White House official said, "The presi- 7 See PraMeat, Page Al By DAVID HESS and ELLEN WARREN Knight-Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON Clinging to a fraying thread of hope that he can save his nomination of US. Circuit Judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court, President Reagan personally lobbied wavering senators Friday and ridiculed Bort'i detractors as Pinocchio-like "special interests" whose noses have grown with false As Reagan and his top lieutenants Intensified their drive to win over uncommitted senators, the laws of political arithmetic seemed to work against their every move. Even senators who insisted they were "truly undecided" told Reagan during meetings at the White House that the nomination was, as Democrat J.

James Exoo of Nebraska put it, in "big, big trouble" and that the numbers did not add up to a Bork victory. Exon's words were underscored by a lengthening line of previously undeclared senators, led by Democrat Lloyd M. Bents-o 1 Thursday by joining some other Southern Democrats in the anti-Bork camp, was asked whether black voters were important in those decisions. "Sure, they're very much a part of this," Johnston said. "They have now become part of the mainstream, and they no longer are ignored as they once were." Another major factor was the massive public relations campaign financed by liberal anti-Bork organizations.

Though sometimes hysterical and distorted, it was unquestionably effective. It caught the conservatives napping, but awakened people who deluged Senate offices with letters and telephone calls. Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and other Republican senators" backing Bork complained bitterly and often 07 Horoscope.

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