The Times-News from Twin Falls, Idaho • 5

ie Valley Saturday, January 7, 1989 Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho Hawkios Co. files bankruptcy to avoid 'fire sale1 By MARTA CLEAVELAND and to have the beans returned to them. A hearing; to consider making that suit a class action is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday before Judge Daniel Hurlbutt in 5th District Court in Twin Falls. However, the bankruptcy court could stay that action.

If so, Walker's clients plan to petition the bankruptcy court for the beans. The directors want all interested persons to attend the Friday hearing in Boise and offer suggestions to the court, Tucker said. Copies of Hawkins' bankruptcy proposal are available at the law firm of Nelson, Rosholt, Robertson, Tolman and Tucker in Twin Falls. ed after inventory shortages were discovered. Wednesday, the state Department of Agriculture petitioned the state court to appoint the department the company's receiver in liquidation.

But the department wasn't moving fast enough to mill and market the beans stored in the warehouse in time to honor a large seed-bean contract with a Canadian company, Tucker said. "The company is in the best position to get the most for the beans," he said. "It is in the best interests of everyone to have a structured liquidation rather than a fire plex tangle of claims against the company, Tucker said. Another lawyer involved in the case was skeptical about that motive. "The only reason the bank is pushing the bankruptcy is to get the proceeds of the beans," said Lloyd Walker, an attorney representing several growers.

"It makes no practical sense whatsoever for Hawkins company to go into bankruptcy. It could be a disaster to the growers." Walker is representing Lyle Abel and Jim Hurley, both Filer-area farmers, in a state-court suit against Hawkins to have the growers declared the legal owners of the beans sale." With a bankruptcy, "there is a road map to follow," Tucker said. Although the bankruptcy has been filed under Chapter 11, the reorganization section of federal bankruptcy law, Hawkins has no plans to restructure and continue operating, he said. The company's directors Jerry Hawkins, William Nungester and Robert Blass chose bankruptcy partly because of urging from the company's major creditors, including First Security Bank, because they believe the bankruptcy court is best equipped to deal expeditiously with the com Times-News writer Hawkins Co. Ltd.

filed for bankruptcy Friday, for the sake of the owners, the creditors, the customers and the growers, the company's attorney said. Hawkins' directors decided bankruptcy is the most expedient way to handle all the problems, their attorney Jim Tucker said. A hearing has been set for 9 a.m. Jan. 13 in federal bankruptcy court in Boise.

The Filer bean warehouse company has been under state control since Nov. 22 when the owners' warehouse license was suspend Science teaching takes bold step Local jobless rate still moving down By KRISTAN WATKINS Times-News correspondent veloped the cure for cancer yet and they haven't quite launched the space shuttle, but some students at BELLEVUE They haven't de- Bellevue Elementary School are By The Times-News and the Associated Press BOISE While total employment in the state reached a record high in December, the Magic Valley's job-' less rate kept "inching its way down" for the fourth consecutive month. The area's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in December was percent, according to Lon McDonald, Job Service labor analyst in Twin Falls. That's a little better than November's 5.4 percent, but a bit worse than the 4.9 percent recorded in December 1987. "A main contributor to the improvement has been employment levels," he said.

"Since August, these levels consistently have been moving up several hundred workers per month in comparison to last year's levels." In August 943 fewer people were working than in August 1987. But in December, 667 more people were working than in December 1987, he said. Job creation expected in the area in 1989 "could give the Magic Valley economy a nice rebound after several lean years," McDonald said. In December, the Magic Valley which the Department of Employment defines as Twin Falls, Jerome and Gooding Counties had a work force of 33,540, with 31,800 working and 1,740 jobless. Statewide, hiring to meet strong See JOBS on Page A6 working on some pretty important experiments these days, thanks to their new friend STAR TRAC.

STAR TRAC short for Science Technology Activity Room Traveling Center is a science classroom on wheels. It is "piloted" by science teacher Bill Quann and makes scheduled stops in each of Bellevue Elementary' classes. The rectangular silver cart a refurbished lunch tray cart proudly bears the letters STAR TRAC on its side and rolls down the hallway. Children run to it with enthusiasm usually reserved for recess or finger painting. "Do we have STAR TRAC today Mr.

Quann?" one asks. "Yippee, we get STAR TRAC today!" another says. These Bellevue students are the last elementary-aged youngsters in the Sun Valley area to get science classes. The program began in 1983 after area parents told the Blaine County School Board they'd pay for the program's expenses if the district would pay teachers' salaries. The board liked the idea and the first program began in Ketchum.

Plenty of, objects and visual aides are the secrets to teaching science to the very young, says Richard Kay, science and environmental education consultant with the Idaho Department of Education. "Students need hands-on experience with concrete objects," Kay said. "Young children cannot understand abstract concepts so it is a waste of time to try to deal with abstracts." Today in Bellevue, STAR TRAC is in the kindergarten room. All the youngsters sit with their hands folded on their laps in their "star trac" positions. The eager hands do not move until Quann has passed out all 28 trays stored neatly inside the cart.

On each tray sits a marble, a spool, a nut, a piece of clay, a ball and a ramp made of an empty toilet paper roll and a piece of cardboard. One by one the students roll the objects down their homemade ramps. Some objects roll, others simply stop. The spool rolls and stops, depending on the position. The room is buzzing as the youngsters try to discover which objects will roll and which will stop or slide.

The lesson lasts 15 minutes before all hands are back into the folded STAR TRAC position. Today's lesson: gravity. The kindergartners are in class for only 15 minutes anything more and their attention span wanders. But STAR TRAC's lessons lengthen in time and complexity for the first, second and third grades. Bellevue Elementary houses kindergarten through third grade while Hailey Elementary has fourth, fifth and sixth grades.

Since part of the program depends on support from parents, promoting the program is hallways at Bellevue Elementary are scattered with signs that read "The PTO needs your help to keep the STAR TRAC carts rolling." "STAR TRAC is super scientific. your child." See SCIENCE on Page A6 Overpass may cost less iff' X'' r-W. 0 By KEN ARMSTRONG Times-News writer TWIN FALLS Transportation officials said Friday that repairs on a U.S. Interstate 84 overpass damaged by an overheight truck will probably not start until May. That exceeds the preliminary estimate of three months, but the good news is that the repair bill could be less than initially thought.

"If we can do our anticipated repairs, we're looking at $150,000. That would be our minimum," said Loren Thomas, acting district engineer with the Idaho Transportation Department. Officials initially estimated repair expenses at between $400,000 and $500,000. Costs could still hit those levels if officials need to replace an entire span of the most heavily damaged overpass. The bill will be sent to Yanke Machine Shop Fabrication, the Boise company for which the driver worked, Idaho State Police said.

Local transportation officials and See ACCIDENT on Page A6 Quann shows a youngster how to use a magnifier TV will examine murder was found in the desert near Miracle Hot Springs on May 27, 1987. Since its outset, the case has confounded local investigators. Not only was Smith's body found some two weeks after he was killed, but another two weeks passed before authorities could identify him. "We've gone just about as far as we can go with it," Munn said. Authorities contacted the show's representatives roughly six months ago about the possibility of featuring See MURDER on Page A6 The Times-News TWIN FALLS Come February, the television show "Unsolved Mysteries" plans to showcase the May 1987 murder of a California man whose body was found near Buhl.

Representatives of the NBC show are expected to come here sometime next week to gather information on the murder of Donald Edward Smith, said Twin Falls County Sheriff Jim Munn. The badly decomposed body of Smith, 55, of Hemet, 1 4 3 sets of twins pop up deliveries. One set of twins, born to Mr. and Mrs. David Runyan of Hagerman, came on New Year's Day.

Mr. and Mrs. Ben Sackett of Twin Falls became parents of twins on Thursday. Burch's duo, born Dec. 31, are still in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit but doing fine.

The new mother said she hopes to have her daughters home next week. Burch said she and her husband, Paul, have read everything they could find on twins and said she's looking forward to raising the pair. Two cribs and a pair of high chairs await the newborns. But Burch said she hasn't decided whether she'll dress the girls alike, because some experts say twins should be treated as individuals. The Times-News TWIN FALLS A trio of storks performed double duty at Magic Valley Regional Medical Center this week.

Pamela Burch, the first of three mothers to give birth to twins in the past week, said she's never really wished for twins, but said she's excited. "The thought of twins just never occurred to me," Burch said. Linda Marra, the hospital's director of obstetrics, called the week's triple twin births "unusual." Only 11 sets of twins were delivered at the hospital in all of 1987, the same number as in 1986. With a total of 1,145 births in 1987 and 1,075 in 1986, twins account for only about 1 percent of the hospital's -V TlmMtew photoaTERESA TAMURA Bellevue kindergarten teacher Gloria Wieand assists Quann in handing out trays for an experiment in magnification Upper Snake water users organize to fight for rights district's authority could double the assessments paid by the current water users, said District Watermaster Ron Carlson. There are about 2,500 wells in the affected area.

"There is no evidence these canal companies have been damaged," Carlson said. Even with increased diversions in the Upper Valley, "stream flows at American Falls and Swan Falls dams have remained stable" or increased slightly, he said. "Is it serious? It is serious. Every groundwater pumper should feel threatened," said Robert Lee of Rexburg, former chairman of the Idaho Water Resources Board. "There is not a groundwater pumper who would not be shut off in a series of dry years" if the moratorium is granted.

"You have to fight it." Lee said the North Side and Twin Falls canal companies use an "antiquated system" for delivering water that needs an estimated $65 million in improvements, including reconstruction of Milner Dam. Their system "wastes tremendous amounts of water and they're challenging one of the most efficient irrigation systems in the world," Lee said. But Richard Smith, a Rexburg Bench farmer and meeting organizer, said competition between consumptive users and hy-dropower developers is the real issue. Magic Valley canal companies have entered into an agreement with Idaho Power to finance reconstruction of Milner Dam, while the Twin Falls and North Side canal companies and the American Falls Reservoir District. The petitions ask for expansion of Water District No.

1 to include administration of groundwater and a moratorium on groundwater permits on any groundwater tributaries to the Snake River above Milner Dam. The water district currently administers only surface water. The Magic Valley canal companies contend they have priority rights to water being diverted by irrigators in the Upper Valley and that diversions from the groundwater directly reduce flows in the Snake River or in storage reservoirs. Adding groundwater wells to the water the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a license for Idaho Power to build a hydroelectric generating plant there, Smith said. The attorneys representing the Magic Valley canal companies also represented Idaho Power in the Swan Falls lawsuit.

"Draw your own conclusions from that," Smith said. Those at the meeting voted unanimously to organize a steering committee, and gave it authority to hire an attorney who can file an answer with the Department of Water Resources and ask for a continuance of a hearing scheduled Jan. 30 in Boise. A decision from the department is expected next year. The Associated Press REXBURG Upper Snake River Valley irrigators, organizing to joust with downstream water users over groundwater rights, have agreed their real enemy is Idaho Power Co.

"It's Upper Valley against Lower Valley, and it's pumpers against stream users until all of us are subordinated to the power interests of Idaho Power said Dell Ray-bould, a Rexburg fanner who helped organize Thursday's meeting, which attracted nearly 200 people. The irrigators appointed a five-member committee to fight petitions filed with the Idaho Department of Water Resources by.