Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 51

1Q Section 2 Wednesday, August 29, 1990 7 About j. Du Pago i uy rvauiciinc Seigenthaler "if j. i i t-j 1 in i0 km iih in fi i i iiJ 1 Tribune photo by Nincy Stone Neighbors walk in the debris at Plainfield High, where more than 130 athletes were practicing on the field and in the gym moments before the tornado hit. tornadoes Frantic -sewches follow Crest Hill parents scour cornfields Doria says he has no ax to grind Du Page County Sheriff Richard Doria insists it's just a coincidence that his office filed misconduct charges this summer against two deputies who got caught supporting his opponent in the March primary election. Coincidence or no, the series of departmental charges against Lt Ken Lepic and Officer Kerry Rkhards that are now pending before the Sheriffs Merit Commission could cost the officers their jobs.

Lepic, a 22-year veteran of the department and one of five lieutenants, is charged with four counts of abusing his office, including allegedly sleeping on the job, leaving his post when he was the officer-in-charge, and procuring a meal from a fast-food chain at less than full-price. Among the six charges against 7-year veteran Richards are allegedly leaving his post early, taking an extra-long lunch hour, failure to property fill out a report, and failure to obey a sergeant's orders. Now, neither Lepic nor Richards were too secretive about their endorsement of Doria's opponent, Richard Reimer, in last spring's election. Richards even passed out campaign signs for his boss first primary opponent since 1978. Reimer, a former Bensenville police officer, claimed during the primary campaign that he had the grass-roots support of the county's police officers, including many of Doria's deputies.

Doria ended up defeating Reimer by about 8,000 votes, which isn't exactly a landslide in a Du Page primary. Afterwards, Reimer challenged Doria to work with the deputies who had openly supported Rentier's campaign. Doria defends the legitimacy of the misconduct charges, and claims there's no politics involved. "They ran think what they want," said Doria. The fact of the matter is that I wasn't the one who was sleeping on the job and insubordinate.

The coincidence is that these two guys cant stand to be disciplined. These two guys cant stand to do their jobs." By trie way, here's one more coincidence. It so happens that the attorney representing Richards before the merit commission is none other than Reimer. Richards' hearing has been continued until September and Lepic's is set for October. So stay tuned.

Staying home U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Bensenville), ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, will not be heading to Saudi Arabia this weekend with dozens of other congressmen to check out the Persian Gulf mess first hand. "He's been to Saudi Arabia on two occasions before, and doesn't feel it's really necessary to make the trip," says Hyde's press secretary Sam Stratman. "He's kept very well abreast of the situation through the Intelligence Committee." Stratman says Hyde had been approached about the journey last week, but he decided against it over the weekend because of a number of constituent meetings in his district office in Addison that have been planned for months." "Of course, security is a concern," Stratman says.

Then he added, "But Hyde was pressed to get some things done here." Paying up North Aurora Village Clerk Linda Mitchell moved a step closer Monday night to collecting her $6,000 in back pay. At Monday's meeting of the Village Board, Village Attorney Gilbert Drendel announced that he had determined Mitchell is entitled to the five years of pay (at $1,200 a year) for the duties she ostensibly performed as village collector. The political wrangling started when Village President Al Imgrund, no friend of Mitchell asked for a legal opinion on whether Mitchell could hold her elected position as village clerk and also a staff position as village manager, making $24,000 a year. To solve the problem, Village Trustee Mike Mudry came up with the idea of dusting off a 196S ordinance that stated that the village clerk also should serve as the village collector. Mudry suggested that if the title of "village manager" was replaced by the legally correct title of "village collector, everything would be hunky-dory again.

Things got touchy, however, when Mudry also suggested that Mitchell was entitled to an extra $6,000 in back pay for the time she technically should have been paid as "collector," but wasn't Imgrund asked Drendcl's opinion on giving Mitchell the back pay, and he gave it Monday night Now, all that remains is for the trustees to pass a resolution authorizing the payment Interestingly, in the midst of the meeting, Mitchell's husband, James Mitchell, a Republican nominee for the Kane County Board, stood up and said that his wife had intended to decline the money. However, after Imgrund insulted her at the last meeting, he (hubby) told her she should take it, ana she now agrees. Must have been a tough decision for her. Students flee gym just before tragedy By Bob Menifield and Linda Young Moments before a tornado destroyed Plainfield High School Tuesday, 102 varsity and junior sity members of the Plainfield Panthers football team were on the school's athletic field, practicing for their first game of the season Friday. Thirty members of the girls' volleyball team were in the gymnasium preparing for a late-after-, noon game against a team from and administrators were getting ready for the opening of the new school year Wednesday.

At about 3:30 p.m., lightning started to flash to; the west, and Coach Wayne DeSutter ordered his football players to take shelter in the gym. At about the same moment, 16-year-old Amy Singletary took a break from her volleyball practice and stepped outside the gym to find hail falling from a darkened sky. The football players, who had been taking their; time, were now running full tilt to the gym. As Amy stepped back inside, the school's fire alarm sounded, and everyone was ordered into an interior hallway SO feet away. Volleyball coach Kathy Cartwright told everyone to sit on the By Rudolph linger and John O'Brien The tornado hit Crest Hill from the northwest, slamming into three housing complexes and dumping its victims in cornfields.

"Most of the victims were blown from the buildings into the cornfields," said Lockport Fire Chief Dave Martis. But the anguish was not over after the tornado struck between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Tuesday. In the hours that followed, parents searched darkened streets for missing children. Volunteers aided by dogs, floodlights, cranes and heavy earth-moving equipment looked for bodies.

A National Guard helicopter shone -floodlights on cornfields. A police detective on the scene said: "They are looking for some children who have not been accounted for." Parents were saying: "We cannot find our children." The tornado ripped open mailboxes in a neighborhood about four blocks from the Crest Hill municipal building. Unpaid bills were scattered on the ground. So was an undelivered birthday card. "I have never seen anything like this," Crest Hill Mayor Don Randich said as he stood outside the severely damaged Crest Hill Lakes complex on the west side of the town.

"There were people wandering around, dazed," Randich said. "Automobile horns were blowing, but there was no one in the cars. It was total confusion." The tornadoes exacted a toll on thousands of residents in northeast Kendall, southeast Kane and northwest Will Counties. More than 65,000 homes lost power. Hundreds of trees and power lines were knocked See Cornfields, pg.

6 -f i tioor. "We were in the gym practicing when the principal ran in and told us to get out," said Ellen Bmnke, 14, a member of the volleyball team. "We went to the hallway, and sat out by the walls. Everything got dark and we heard a sound like a freight train. Then we heard a loud boom." "We all knew what to do," Amy said.

"We stood against the wall with our hands over our heads." Then, it hit "All of a sudden, the lights went out, and the See School pg. 6 Tnbuna ohoto bv John Inrina A pile of crushed, toppled cars in Crest Hill provides more grisly proof of the storm's destructive power. Board freezes county chairman's salary By Kerry Luft The next Du Page County Board chairman won't get a raise for at least four years. But five other top elected officials will, along with some board members and all of the county's employees. Those decisions were hashed out Tuesday night in a rare evening meeting of the County Board.

After a short discussion, the board approved by overwhelming votes 5 percent raises in each of the next four fiscal years for the county clerk, treasurer, sheriff and Circuit Court clerk. The board also voted to increase its share of the regional school superintendent's salary by percent In total, that increases those officials' county salaries by 21.S percent over the next four yean. On a 16-6 vote, the board also decided to pay those board members who win election in November $24,626 for each of the next two years. Board members who are not up for re-election will be paid $23,453 next year and $24,626 in fiscal 1992. That salary was previously approved.

In addition, the board approved a 3.5 percent increase for all county employees, plus a merit-increase plan and a merit bonus system for employees who already are at the top of their pay scale. But the board decided not to give a raise to its chairman, whomever he might be. That salary will remain at $58,000 a year for the next four years. It has remained at that level since fiscal 1988. The chairman also receives $6,000 for serving as county liquor commissioner.

Ironically, the issue of no raise at all sparked more debate than any of the raises that were given. The board's budget subcommittee considered the issue twice, and the Finance Committee on Monday couldn't reach a decision. But the board had to vote on it because the chairman's salary must be set by law before a term of office begins. Board member Floyd Sanford tried to persuade his colleagues to give the chairman a raise and said he thought that denying the raise was unfair. "I want this job to be a full-time position," he said, adding that the two candidates for the office "have no idea how many hours are required to do the job properly." Board member Michael Formento agreed and suggested that the board "was becoming buried in personalities.

I really feel we should examine the office, not the people who will be in it And I see no need to reduce the chairman's salary at this time." Outgoing board Chairman Jack T. Knuepfer was mum on the issue Tuesday night, but on Monday he chided the Finance Committee for denying a raise to the office, saying that the committee "obviously considers the office the least important in the county." Nonetheless, the board voted down Sanford's motion and decided to keep the salary at $58,000. A motion by board member Judith Crane Ross to reduce the chairman's salary by about See Raises, pg. 10 ChicagolandAn elementary school contends with a dump next door. In Chicagoland roundup.

See Page 10 West Chicago The U.S. will analyze soil pollutants in areas where thorium-contaminated dirt was excavated. See Page Elmhurst There are not enough petition signatures to put a proposal on the ballot to cut the size of the City Council. See Page 8 Downers Grove The first months of the village's effort to cut the flow of waste to landfills have been termed a big success. See Page 3 Wheaton Parents in Wheaton-Warrenville Unit School District 200 win a round in their effort to get noontime crossing guards.

See Page 9.