The Times-News from Twin Falls, Idaho • 7

Tuesday, January 10, 1989 Obituarieshospitals B2 Businessmarkets B3 IdahoWest B4 Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho OKs demolition of old nmirses biElldied Boaird The contract calls for a $30,000 per year increase fiot a $30,000 monthly increase as incorrectly reported in Monday's paper raising the yearly flat fee to $290,000 from $260,000. The hospital will also take over paying the $29,000 insurance and benefits fee for John Bingham, the hospital's administrator. "From my standpoint, I think HCA has done an excellent job and I am pleased," board member Jim LaGrone said. Harold Petty, with the Nashville, architectural firm Earl and Swensson and Associates, presented the board with the ex and increase its cost. The board discussed the new architectural plans for nearly two hours before deciding to continue discussions at a future meeting.

It did vote, however, to demolish the old nurses building, which now houses the Teen Parent Program, partly because it would cause parking and traffic flow problems. In other business, the board unanimously approved a new five-year contract with the Hospital Corporation of America Management the corporation that manages the hospital for the county. panded treatment center plans and said the nurses building, also referred to as "Annex would cause traffic flow and parking problems and hinder the view of the proposed new cancer treatment facility. He said, however, that the building could be "worked around" if needed. The county commissioners had sent a letter to the board requesting the building be preserved for its historic value.

At its November meeting, the board received letters from two consultants saying it would cost an estimated $434,000 to upgrade the old nurses building to meet current building codes. The nearly two-hour discussion of the new cancer center plans was ended by a motion from Ben Katz, a local pediatrician and newly installed Hospital Board chairman, to put the discussion on hold until a special meeting, tentatively scheduled for Jan. 19th. The main architectural visual showed tje original cancer treatment plan, presented Jo the board last year, with a clear plastic overlay mapping out the new floor plan a floor See HOSPITAL on Page B4 Action postponed on cancer center By JENNIFER KAUTH Times-News writer TWIN FALLS The county Hospital Board voted Monday to demolish the old nurses building but postponed for at least 10 I days a decision on cancer treatment center plans, which would expand the facility's size Norma Blass takes oath of commissioner By KIRK MITCHELL Co. Ltd.

bankruptcy proceedings oath of office Monday hoping to put reTerring to the troubled bean ware- her new duties as commissioner she Times-News writer looming, Twin Falls County Com- personal business aside. house, of which Blass and her hus- said, "I feel like I need to give my TWIN FALLS With Hawkins missioner Norma Blass took the "It's a part of my life," Blass said, band Robert are part owner. But of full time to this and my thinking to Idaho lacks i sufficient child abuse caseworkers The Times-News this." County Clerk Richard Pence administered the oath to Blass in a ceremony in county chambers. Blass, a Republican, replaces Judy Felton, who said she was stepping down after six years to devote more time to her family among other reasons. Shortly after she took office, Blass helped install Commissioner Marvin Hempleman as Commission chairman and Commissioner Jim Fraley as vice-chairman.

Blass said the problems with the bean warehouse has been a difficult experience, and will continue to be, but she wants to leave it in the hands of attorneys and the company's directors. "I can't imagine it not hitting anyone when you lose to that magnitude Blass said. Nevertheless, "you can't lay flat because life goes on. We've got to make our life go on." Hawkins filed bankruptcy Friday. The Filer bean warehouse company has been under state control since Nov.

22 when the owners' warehouse license was suspended after inventory shortages were discovered. Blass has said that she did not know of the discrepancy until a year-end company audit and it was immediately reported to the state. Blass said she was excited to get on with county business. "I want to get as informed on all of the issues because there are so many things that come before us," she said. "You really feel a deep sense of responsibility.

You want to do the best job you can." Hempleman, meanwhile, said he plans to follow Felton' leadership style. "Eventually there could be a need to do something different but not at this point," he said. BOISE Just about every day tfie name of another child who has bean sexually abused, beaten neglectod is added to the list of cases Carlos Meza is investigating. I The Twin Falls Department of Health and Welfare investigator said the flood of cases is more than the state can handle and still do the best for each child. "Carlos and his colleagues do la great job," Gov.

Cecil Andrus said in his state of the state address Moil-day, i "The trouble is there aren't enough people like Carlos to protect all the children," Andrus said. The state needs more professional child protection workers, Andnis said, and he introduced Meza to tile joint session of the Legislature to prove his point. "He needs our help to reduce his caseload so he can provide moe help to injured children," Andnis said. "He needs our help because eS-ery day he sees a dark, savage side of our society." Better child protection including tougher sentences for abusers, creation of a statewide resource center and more state social workers 4r was one of four goals sAndrus outlined. More time to spend with each faifi-ily would curb the number of negleCt cases Health and Welfare workers see come through the system again and again, Meza said.

"More workers, more face-to-fade home counseling, more home visits I'd like to think that might id-crease our effectiveness," he said. See ABUSE on Page B2 2 i i Tt 'J vt lf Time-New photo ANDY ARENZ New Twin Falls County Commissioner Norma Blass said she is anxious and excited to get on with the county's business Unsolved Mysteries' films local segment Shoshone has Idaho's only homeless site By KEN ARMSTRONG Times-News writer TWIN FALLS When Donald I Edward Smith left his California I home on May 11, 1987, it was the I beginning of a bizarre cross-coun- try trek that somehow ended in his I murder. Now, 20 months later, the televi-l sion show "Unsolved Mysteries" is I enlisting the aid of local authorities in an effort to retrace that trek and, with the hoped-for help of millions of viewers, to identify his murderer. "With all its twists and turn, it's a very strange case," said Kris Palmer, who is producing the television-show segment. For Smith, those turns ended in the desert near Miracle Hot Springs, where his badly decomposed body was found on May 27, 1987.

Investigators believe he was killed almost two weeks before, on May 14. In trying to find out how and why his body got there, an "Unsolved Mysteries" crew went to Twin Falls and Buhl Monday re-enact scenes connected to the murder. The night before, they spent about two hours interviewing Bill Tilson, the Twin Falls County deputy leading the investigation. Tilson, who contacted the show's representatives about five months ago, said he welcomes the help. "I really don't have an avenue to go down right now, and they have quite a few solved cases from things of this sort," he said.

"I'm looking at getting quite a bit more information and possibly identifying our suspect from this." The suspect, a hitchhiker who See MYSTERY on Page B4 By JaNENE BUCKWAY Times-News correspondent SHOSHONE An unused Bureau of Land Management warehouse and former office unit in Shoshone has been identified as "suitable for sponse to a suit filed by the National Coalition for the Homeless last fall. The suit resulted in a December court order requiring the Department of Housing and Urban Development to review excess federal property and come up with a list of suitable Gold drafts Alonzo from Jerome police 'It's been vacant for years and I don't think it would be appropriate at this time (for homeless tenants) without major Jerry Baltazor, City Councilman overnight or temporary" shelter for homeless people. The Shoshone building is among 94 sites nationwide that will be made available to groups working with the nation's sites. The suit was filed because the federal government had failed to implement a law approved by Congress in July 1987. That law made unused or underutilized federal property available for By KEN ARMSTRONG Times-News writer i JEROME On his first day as Jerome Coun- ty sheriff, Larry Gold drafted Mito Alonzo from the Jerome City Police Department to be his new chief deputy.

Alonzo, a nine-year veteran with the city po- lice department, was selected over five other applicants, including four Jerome County deputies, Gold said. Alonzo, 41, assumed his new post effective Monday. "I'm very happy that he has decided to leave the police department and come work for us," Gold said. "He is an excellent choice." The selection process included a review of the candidates by 12 people unaffiliated with the sheriffs office, an extensive background check and a lie-detector test, Gold said. While the move advanced the transition within the sheriffs office, it simultaneously set the stage for more turnover in the police department, where Alonzo, a captain, was second in command.

Police Chief Greg Will said eight people have left the department in the one and a half years he has been there. "We'll survive just fine always have, always will," he said. While Will said there were no hard feelings, he said he was "a little bit" disappointed at the lack of notice Alonzo provided. "He called me last night at 5:30 p.m., as a matter of fact," Will said. "That was his notice." Alonzo, who turned in his official resignation Monday afternoon, said he decided to move over to the sheriffs office for several reasons.

"I've known Larry Gold for quite some time, and I've always been impressed by his intelli- See JEROME on Page B2 USFS wants to kill plants with chemicals homeless, said Mary Fillipini of the General Services Administration's regional office in San Francisco. The Shoshone building, just south of State Highway 26 on South Date Street, is the only Idaho site on the list and Fillipini said Gov. Cecil Andrus, Shoshone Mayor Tim Ridinger and other area government officials and agencies involved with aide to the homeless will be notified this week. The designation does not mean Shoshone or the surrounding area has a homeless problem, Fillipini said. Last year a federal judge ordered the government to screen unused federal buildings across the country as potential sites for housing homeless people, regardless of their location.

"Location did not have anything to do with it," Fillipini said. The list was compiled in re emergency shelters. City, state or private, non-profit organizations working with the homeless are eligible to run the facilities. Applications are made to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and must include, a plan for use of the facility.

If the plan is accepted, the building would be turned over to the successful applicant. Exactly what groups will be involved or how the facility could be used depends on who applies for the site, Fillipini said. Anyone interested in taking the building over likely will have to do some work on it before it is ready to be a temporary shelter, City Councilman Jerry Baltazor said. The building is probably structurally sound, but could require extensive remodeling inside, he See HOMELESS on Page B2 By N.S. NOKKENTVED limes-News writer TWIN FALLS The Forest Service wants to add chemicals to its arsenal for getting ductive and unwanted" plants.

"We want to have a complete range of tools for managing vegeta-; tion," Forest Service spokesman Ed said. I tools include fire, chain saws, bulldozers, hand labor, ani- jnals and parasites. The Forest wants to include the use of chemicals in places where they are appropriate, Waldapfel said. The Sawtooth National Forest has not used any chemicals in its management programs in the last four or five years, said Bert Webster, range and wildlife officer. In the past it has used the broadleaf defoliants and The Intermountain Region of the U.S.

Forest Service is reviewing its management tools as a result of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. The court has ruled that all National Forests within its jurisdiction must prepare environmental impact statements before using chemicals to control vegetation. As its first step in preparing an environmental impact statement, the Forest Service is seeking public comments and suggestions for a "vegetation management" program. The statement will suggest solutions to problems brought up in the public comments. Vegetation management seeks to improve forest and range lands for wildlife forage and habitat, livestock grazing, watershed protection and timber production, Webster said.

For example, when more than 25 percent of an area is covered by old sagebrush it is no longer effective habitat for sage grouse, but it may serve as winter range for deer, Webster said. When subalpine fir and aspen take over an area they block out other, more valuable species. Management seeks to reestablish a "mosaic" or plant diversity in such areas, he said. Management tools are selected based on the type of plant control and location to ensure the safest method for each particular management area, Waldapfel said. Some other examples of needed plant control include campgrounds and roadsides.

People interested in how unproductive and unwanted vegetation should be managed in the national forests can get a briefing paper and response form from any Sawtooth National Forest office..