Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 49

Section 2 Citysuburbs Parties at 'church' are over, court rules By James Kane A $395,000 MANSION in Wauconda, described by its owner as a church but labeled a "party house" by authorities and neighbors, was ordered shut Wednesday by a Lake County Circuit Court judge. Judge William D. Block issued a summary judgment in favor of allegations by the state's attorney's office that parties held at the house were in violation of liquor laws and building and zoning codes. There was no need for a trial because of facts admitted to in pretrial depositions by David Sholl, who opened the house in 1979, Block said. SHOLL AND his wife, Nancy, charged $8 per person for admission to birthday parties, wedding receptions and other private affairs held at the house.

He said that he was a minister of the Universal Life Church and contended that the house was a church. "This effectively closes down any and all gatherings at the Sholls' property," said Joseph Waldeck, Sholl's attorney. "I would like to appeal," Sholl said, but he conceded that he might not be able to afford it. Sholl called the private parties harmless fun. "I did everything I could to make this socially and morally acceptable to the community," he said.

But parents and neighbors complained that the parties corrupted the young and were a nuisance. WEDNESDAY'S ruling came in response to a complaint filed by the state's attorney last year alleging that Sholl was violating a 1981 court order limiting the parties to less than SO persons and prohibiting him from selling liquor, said Margaret Mullen, an assistant state's attorney. After that order was issued, Sholl did extensive remodeling to meet the fire code, had hosts supply liquor and spent $30 to become a minister of the Universal Life Church. The Universal Life 1 Church was begun in California in the 1960s and has been used by persons seeking exemptions from the draft and from tax laws. But Mullen argued that even a church must comply with building codes and that holding the parties constituted a commercial activity run for money rather than a church activity.

Serious violations of the building code remained, she said. Block said that having hosts supply liquor was a device to circumvent the law because Sholl was collecting an admission charge at the door. Chicago Tribune, Thursday, December 1, 1983 Rostenkowski acted to save project, aide says "4 tions for ongoing projects Salmon said. "Otherwise, you couldn't any reforms around here." PRESIDENTIAL Towers Is ir. apartment complex aimed at bringing young professionals to live in an area that was formerly Chicago's Skid Row.

The project has been delayed for years and was once declared "dead'' by Mayor Jane Byrne when it failed to receive a federally insured mortgage. Later, the project was granted at' $158.9 million federally insured mort-H' gage. Rostenkowski had stated earlier! that he did, indeed, arrange to ex-I' empt Presidential Towers from 'an-? other federal restriction in 1980. That restriction, which was then new, re- quired that apartment projects to be- -built with federally insured funds. had to set aside 20 percent of the unit for low- and moderate-income1 renters.

tion allowances on the project for income tax purposes. WHAT HAPPENED, Salmon said, was that the developers of Presidential Towers and the similar projects around the nation were initially guaranteed that they would be allowed to take accelerated depreciation allowances. In 1982, Congress decided to tighten up on the future use of tax-exempt bonds for private purposes, such as those used for Presidential Towers. So Congress amended the tax laws to say that any project using the tax-exempt bonds could not accelerated depreciation, too, Salmon said. In a routine step, according to Salmon, projects underway were exempted from the change through "generic" language that applied to hundreds of projects, including Presidential Towers.

"We always do this provide exep- SHERMAN AND Salmon were responding to accounts published elsewhere that said Rostenkowski had pushed legislation designed to benefit an apartment project being developed by a friend and financial adviser, Dan Shannon. Shannon heads a Chicago consulting firm that is one of the developers of Presidential Towers. He is also a former president of the Chicago Park District and an old friend of and financial adviser to Rostenkowski, said Sherman. Shannon's previous relationship with Rostenkowski and his involvement in the Presidential Towers project were "coincidental," Sherman 6aid. The 1982 law allowed developers of certain ongoing real estate projects financed by low-interest, tax exempt bonds, also to continue to benefit from another tax advantage the ability to take accelerated deprecia U.S.

REP. DAN Rostenkowski 111.) supported federal legislation that benefited investors in an apart-, ment complex being constructed on the Near West Side "to save" the project, an aide to Rostenkowski said Wednesday. John Sherman, the congressman's aide, also said the apartment complex, called Presidential Towers, "is going to be an economical plus for. Chicago." Rostenkowski "did, in fact, do what he could to save Presidential Towers since it was a major project in his own city," Sherman At the same time, John Salmon, chief counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee, of which Rostenkowski is chairman, said a 1982 law backed by the congressman to support the Presidential Towers project also benefited hundreds of other real estate projects around the country. Tribune photo by Georga Thompson Winter coverup With the mercury hovering in the 20s, and a bitter wind making it feel closer to zero, students bundle up as they trudge to school Wednesday in Elmhurst.

A "high" of 28 degree's is forecast for Gang leader Jeff Fort nn TT.S. mnst-wnnfori list "I got my foot Inside the window. The building was billowing black smoke. I could see the kids -milline around. I veiled.

'Over here, over Angels City report Continued from page 1, this section wheel of Truck 35, a hook and ladder unit that was among the first fire companies to arrive at the blaze. His longtime buddy Willard Martens was the tiller man, in charge of guiding the long and cumbersome trailer through the narrow residential streets. 7 .4 must have gotten 35 or 40 kids out of there, justl pushing them onto the ladder as I grabbed for another one. "Once that room emptied, we grabbed the and caught other kids. Some children missed other nets.

But none missed ours. It was midnight before we left. But the memories stay forever." I This reporter also was among the first to at the scene. IN ONE ROOM, the bodies of six children lay crumpled against a wall. The charred body of- their teacher, a nun, was buried by debris.

In a room nearby, a porcelain figure of the Virgin Mary stood on a bookcase, looking out over desks on which pupils had been working on an arithmetic problem when super-heated gasses ex- ploded from the ceiling. The papers never would be graded. Teacher and pupils were dead. "We didn't know it was a school fire when we. left our quarters at 1713 Springfield 7 Roman recalled.

"It took us less than a minute to get there. We were the best team in town. Thank God, we had only five traffic lights and they were all green. I never took my foot off the accelerator. A.

ufaH Dao ..,00 7, iLTflS 3 "WE WHEELED UP to the curb. Martens and I Walter Roman was one of the first firefighters put up a Iadder to floori wa8 a at the scene: It was after midnight before war foot ladder that usually takes six men to put up in left. But the memories stayed forever. two sections. We did it bv ourselves.

ERVICE ERCHA1MDISE CHICAGO STREET-GANG leader Jeff Fort was placed Wednesday on the U.S. Marshal Service's list of 15 most-wanted fugitives, said Stanley Morris, director of the service. Morris, at a press conference in the Dirksen Federal Building, said Fort was placed on the list after he failed to appear Tuesday for sentencing on a drug conspiracy charge to which he had pleaded guilty in federal court in Oxford, Miss. U.S. District Judge J.T.

Senter Jr. issued a bench warrant Tuesday for Fort's arrest and ordered his $50,000 cash bond forfeited, as well as the balance of his $500,000 bond. Fort, 36, was indicted on the Mississippi charge last summer. Morris said marshals throughout the country have been alerted to look for Fort. "We will consider him to be dangerous." Chicago gang-crimes officers were making a search Wednesday of places Fort has been known to frequent, police said.

i City ordered to pay for clinic referrals A FEDERAL JUDGE ruled Wednesday that Chicago must pay $250,000 in hospital costs incurred by 271 needy, high-risk pregnant women referred to Cook County Hospital by a city clinic from 1977 to 1981. U.S. District Judge Frank McGarr entered summary judgment in a class-action suit brought on behalf of the women by the Legal Assistance Foundation. The women were referred to County Hospital over four years beginning in 1977 by the Chicago Board of Health's Lakeview Clinic under a federally funded program designed to reduce infant mortality, according to the suit. The foundation said the city received about $5.8 million a year in federal funds in that period for medical care of high-risk pregnant women with low Robbery suspect's pal cleared in chasej A SOUTH SIDE man who was with the suspected leader of a gang of high-rise robbers when the leader was captured by police turned himself in Wednesday to Wentworth Area detectives.

The 26-year-old man was released after police determined that he had nothing to do with the series of robberies In downtown and North Side lakefront high-rise buildings. The suspected leader of the robbers, Gregory Hill, 33, was apprehended Tuesday night after a brief chase and a shootout with police. He was under police guard and in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the hip in Cook County Hospital. Hill is a suspect in seven robberies over the last month and a half. Lebanese 'midwife' -held as smuggler OFFICIALS OF THE U.S.

Customs Service on Wednesday seized a kilogram of heroin at O'Hare International Airport that was being smug' gled into Chicago. Arrested Tuesday evening was Georgette Merhebi, 52, a citizen of Zjorta, Lebanon, who described herself as a midwife. According to Peter Dispenzirie, regional commissioner of U.S Customs, and also agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the heroin was sealed in plastic bags and concealed in false bottom of a suitcase. Customs officers examined, the suitcase after noticing "irregu-, larities" about it.

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Automatic thermostat con-. trol; positive Two position stand. 29H601AA Reg. $39.97 tractions In New England. Host families in District 144 will show the Enfield students Chicago-area at tractions, said Dennis Lonstine, as THE BERWYN CITY Council voted unanimously Monday to sell 2 acres of city-owned land to the Berwyn-Cicero YMCA as the site of a future $2.3 million fitness and recreation center.

The city plans to use the remaining 2 acres of the site, the former Berwyn Lumberyard property. Oak Park Avenue and 31st Street, for a new library or senior citizen housing complex. The YMCA, based in a vacant Berwyn school at 6438 W. 34th serves 120,000 residents of Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, Forest View and a portion of Riverside. Construction on the proposed one-story facility is expected to begin in the spring.

The facility is to include a pool, gymnasium, running track ana exercise rooms. Berwyn acquired the entire tract In 1979 for $327,000 after a $3-million fire in J977' destroyed the lumberyard. 4. sistant principal. 2 teens may have helped dump body FIREPLACE ORATE 097 HEAT EXCHANGER OU Two speed lanlorced blows' generates up to.

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McCumber. a 22-vear- old nurse's aide from Peoria, is on trial in Du Page County Circuit Court on a charge of murdering rock guitarist Jeffrey Williams, chopping off his legs and dumping his torso in a ditch. The trial, presided over by Peoria County Circuit Judce Peter J. 9 W. MnWM, 6q Shop C.

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nundua Common" (Mroaa feti Martam muno PlaM) Pnont (312) 47 K33 Cma 1 ffeioa fvn Markham school to swap students PRAIRIE HILLS Junior High School, Markham, will be sending 12 of its students to a small town in Connecticut in the spring and welcoming 12 students from the Connecticut community to Markham. The District 144 school board agreed to pay $100 to each student as part of the $300 cost of the one-week trip to Enfield, Conn. While there, the Markham students will visicultural at-. Town and Coixtfry Plan 346 PnUWna Ht) Pnont (312) 677 WOO Oak Lawn, ft, and Cwo Avan M12 6oui Oram Ax. Pinna (312) KM-4200 7111 tmnfti Wm Plana (312) N6-7400 Coomv Comumd Mai Broartwiw Phona (ii 3S-1171 a ClaaQO, ft.

fMiMK ptam Eaal IIWi SI Pnont (312) Mt-frMS Wauaaoan, ft. I0 launurtl M. ArtMoam 10 lahalnjfal Mafl Pruna (312) 43-0270 Wmwnton Sqai Mai 17716 Htitladat (Mo nam Ptwo (31?) M7.0M0 OnH Omar Go Ho fVwtt Paoluccl, was movea to Wheaton after the judge ruled that widespread publicity might have prevented McCumber from getting a fair trial In her hometown. The investigator. Harold Brinadcllo.

said Phnna 3801 CMtNCTMAS MOUftS Monday HvougK Saturday A 10 10 M. Sunday II AM lot PM OAKUWN. WAUfctOAN, NR.E8 Sundavll AM.toPM. (312) tOt-MII BOOSMC-INFOI For the location ol the showroom nearest you call loll tree 1 McCumber told hirn two youths who lived in the same apartment building helped her carry a heavy package vf Copyright by Service Merchandise Company, 1983 out jner car. ft.