Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 4

SECdMD) PAGE ME DAYTON DAILY NEWS Monday, June 25. 1984 Page 3 Multiflora one tough plant Rose proves to be thorn in state's soil fCDale Huffman Herie's store stays; headquarters moves Herman Levitt may be moving his company headquarters out of downtown Dayton after 37 years, but his heart will always be there. And so will one of his Herie's Men's Stores. I ran Into Levitt on the street Friday and he revealed that he is moving his flagship store and offices to 5009 Salem across from the Salem Mall. wildlife habitat.

"It's a great wildlife cover, some of the best there is, but you've got to maintain it," said Jeff Cummons, a biologist with the Division of Wildlife office near the Portage Lakes. "Some guys want to kill every patch they see. Others think it's great." FOR FARMERS, THE multiflora rose can grow into an impassable wall 10 feet high with three-quarter-inch thorns, and it will take over vegetation around it. It takes a tractor or bulldozer to pull it out, and it will grow back from the roots unless killed by chemicals. Carl Materna planted the rose on his Stark County farm 20 years ago and has been trying to kill it for the last decade.

"Multiflora rose makes poison ivy look like a sissy," Materna said. "I've never seen anything more tenacious." He said he had planted the rose about six feet apart around most of his property, but soon rose bushes were everywhere, threatening to choke out his fruit trees. The federal Soil Conservation Service pushed for a multiflora rose program in Ohio, said Donald Richter, who has been with the state Division of Forestry since 1947. Beginning in the early 1950s, state foresters grew multiflora rose for the SCS to sell to farmers and landowners and for the state Division of Wildlife, which planted it on state lands and game preserves. "There's nothing wrong with it if you keep it in its proper place," Richter said.

HE SAID IT SHOULD have been kept in northwestern Ohio, where land is flat and square fields can be mowed at least once a year. However, it also was planted in southeastern Ohio, where hilly land and woods make it too difficult to mow. "It should never have been allowed to go to the Southeast," Richter said. "Of course, we didn't know back then what it would do." Soil and Water Conservation District offices and county Cooperative Extension Service offices both recommend the chemical Tor-don 10K, which can be used safely in a pasture where animals are grazing, to get rid of the plants. "It's as close to 100 percent control as we can get," said Dean Slates, Stark County Extension agent.

Some government agencies that promoted multiflora rose and helped farmers plant it years ago now are telling them how to get rid of the thick, thorny hedges. "Somewhere along the line, we stopped promoting and started discouraging," said John Clark, a conservation specialist with the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service in Ohio. Clark said his agency didn't distribute the plants, but smiled on those who did. Now, the ASCS in some counties offers farmers federal dollars to help get rid of multiflora rose. The rose was brought to the United States from Japan 40 years ago.

Agricultural agencies and natural resource departments had promoted the plant as a living fence and great "Don't get me wrong," he said, smiling. "I'm not deserting downtown. Here Ic uhpr etflrtoH wfiAn only employees running thm tire ctara 97 iiabm tut in jiui jewa aeo. I have a commitment uunuiunu mat A wuil ever deny. We'll maintain a store with full services Hearing set for 2 men on death row ZZZZ Jss 'Si Staff photo by Bill Shepherd On a summer's day, a boat outing These boats zoom along at the Dayton Hydrobowl off Ohio 4 Sunday because it was a wonderful summer day and being out on the lake was a great way to enjoy the weather.

The temperature hit a high of 76 at 3 p.m. after a fitful start, with cloudy skies and threats of rain. Then the sun came out, the boaters took to the lake and this is what it all came to. Worker's items found Oven residue being sent to FBI at 22 E. Third St As long as there is breath in my body, we'll have a store downtown." Levitt Levitt said he is consolidating operations at the Salem Avenue location because "we just got too big down here.

We were stretched out in several locations and needed more room under one roof. Besides, there will be the plus of more parking spaces." LEVITT CALLED HIS business Herie's, a combination of his first and last name. "I once knew a guy named William Murston, who named his business Wilmur and made a couple of million dollars. So I thought I would try to do the same." He laughed and added, "I'm still working on my first million." His stores specialize in renting and selling formal wear. They also sell uniforms, big and tall men's clothing, and clothing for short men.

In addition to the Salem Avenue store, which will open August 1 after extensive remodeling, there are Herie's branches in Kettering and Huber Heights. Herie's downtown operation was severely damaged when a $1.2 million fire hit last July. Even though he was optimistic for reporters at the time, and got back on his feet quickly, he admitted to me Friday that he almost threw in the towel. "I STOOD THERE LOOKING at the ruins, and I almost hung it all up," he said. "It was a hell of a setback, and so depressing.

But I thought that if I decided to pull out, I would be giving in. And I'm not that kind of person. And also, I have 30 great employees working for me. What would they have done?" Levitt will turn 65 on July 1, but he has no desire to retire, yet. "As things get rolling and smooth out, I'll take more time out for my grandchildren, or some golf," he said.

"But you never know when I'll be at one of the stores. You've got to continue giving the people quality service or you just can't survive on the market place." Family has winning chili Here's an interesting twist to things. For two years in a row, the winner of the chili cookoff in Dayton has come from the same family. The winner this year was Eileen Owens, who was entered by Dan Tankersley to compete in the June 16th affair on Courthouse Square. Last year's winner in the competition was Elaine Baker, Mrs.

Owens' sister. "Elaine used a recipe I gave her last year and won," Mrs. Owens said. "When Dan entered me this year he asked me to come up with a new recipe. So I did, and by golly I won." MRS.

OWENS SAID THAT her recipe included ground chuck, chili powder, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, red Mexican peppers churned in a blender tomatoes, and her big secret, "onions browned in bacon grease." She said she usually puts beans in her chili, but the official rules of Texas style chili cook-offs do not allow beans. "I used some brown flour for thickening," she said. "I really don't have a definite recipe because I make it different every time I make it." The second annual chili cookoff grossed over $4,000. The money will be divided between the Vietnam Memorial Park of Greater Dayton, and the Kidney foundation. (Dale Huffman's column comes to life this week as he guest hosts from 10 to 2 p.m.

daily on WAVI radio, 1210 on the AM dial. Dale's scheduled guests for Tuesday include Cincinnati Bengals Quarterback Ken Anderson at 1 p.m. On Wednesday at 10 a.m. a 16-year-old Dayton girl talks about the horrors of her drug addiction.) Searchers also found what appeared to be the steel toe plates and eyelets from work boots, metal portions of work glasses, and pieces of a radio in the incinerator residue, he said. Stokes said there was no evidence of foul play.

He said the findings were being shipped to FBI laboratories in Washington, D.C., for testing. 39, of Loveland, according to Sheriff Lincoln Stokes. Bocks has been missing since reporting for the morning shift at the plant on Tuesday. His car was still in the parking lot and his street clothes in his work locker. It took several days for the oven to cool down before it could be searched.

Stokes said keys recovered from the oven Saturday fit padlocks found in Bocks' toolbox. CINCINNATI (AP) The Federal Bureau of Investigation will study several metal objects found in a salt incinerator at the NLO Inc. nuclear components plant in Fernald, indicating an employee died in the superheated oven. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Department searched the cooled-down oven Saturday and found items that evidently belonged to pipefitter David Anthony Bocks, By NOREEN WILLHELM Staff Writer Two Dayton half-brothers who have been on Florida's death row for more than four years have been granted a federal court hearing into allegations that prosecutors threatened witnesses. William Jent and Earnest Lee Miller were scheduled to die last July for the 1979 death of an unidentified woman whose body was found burned and beaten in the Richloam Game Preserve in Pasco County, northeast of Tampa.

ACQUAINTANCES OF Jent, 32, said he was visiting in Florida when he was arrested and Miller, 27, who was born in Dayton, had been living in Florida for several years. U.S. District Court Judge George C. Carr, who stayed their executions last summer, scheduled a hearing for July 18 in Tampa into allegations made in Jent's and Miller's appeals. The men, who were convicted in separate trials, have exhausted appeals to the Florida courts and were denied stays of execution last summer by the Florida Supreme Court.

They filed appeals with the federal court, but Carr denied them on all accounts except one; the claim that the state threatened witnesses Tina Parsons and Elmer Carroll into recanting testimony that might have freed the two men. According to affidavits filed with the appeals, Parsons and Carroll were prepared to say the dead woman, who has been identified only as "Timmy," actually is a Tennessee woman named Gail Bradshaw. BRADSHAW'S BOYFRIEND allegedly, killed her and set her afire in the game preserve on July 12, 1979, while Carroll watched, the affidavits said. In 1979, Parsons and Carroll lived in a trailer in Pasco County, next to a trailer occupied by Bradshaw and her boyfriend. But in a hearing on the appeal motion seeking a new trial, Parsons and Carroll did not testify as outlined in the affidavit.

A later affidavit signed by Parsons said she changed her testimony after the state attorney's office told her that unless she did so the custody of her baby would be threatened and she would go to prison "for unknown reasons." During the trials, prosecutors contended Miller and Jent killed the unknown woman during a July 12, 1979, swimming party on the bank of the Withlacoo-chee River in southwestern Pasco County. They allege that she was beaten unconscious with a club, driven to Miller's house nearby, then taken to the game preserve where she was set afire. The body of the woman, whose age was estimated as 25, was discovered July 14 by passersby. MILLER AND Jent were convicted of first-degree murder in separate jury trials in late 1979 and early 1980. The jury recommended the death penalty for Jent and life imprisonment for Miller.

But the trial judge, who heard both cases, ruled both should die in the electric chair. William Munsey, Florida assistant attorney general, said his office will argue that attorneys for Jent and Miller "did not follow the proper procedure" and the judge should not hear evidence on the prosecutorial misconduct allegation. That issue was not addressed during the state court appeals, Munsey said, and thus it is not proper to raise it in the federal court. Howardene Garrett, of Tampa, attorney for Miller, last week said Miller and Jent "are certainly encouraged by the hearing and are optimistic about the opportunity to prove their innocence." But she said she isn't sure the July hearing will help. Frankly, I'm skeptical about the role of the federal courts in these appeals," she said.

Last time it cost a lot County faces another job and class shuffle i -'CsStaM1 I state Department of Administrative Services approved. Montgomery County doesn't have an approved plan, in part because positions aren't given numbers that determine how layoffs will occur. Only eight of Ohio's 88 counties have approved classification plans, according to the Department of Administrative Services. A court decision in Cleveland last year could increase that number. In that case, three Cuyahoga County sheriff's office employees filed suit in common pleas court saying they were being denied.

promotions because of patronage. They said the lack of a classification plan allowed county managers to discriminate against employees they didn't like. Judge Richard J. McMonagle ordered the county to establish a classification system. The Department of Administrative Services is now reclassifying positions and developing civil service tests for Cuyahoga County jobs.

MILTON SCHULMAN, the employees' attorney, said, "the whole state is violating the law." That, in turn, is threatening the state civil-service system, he said. "This is a terrible thing," he said. Personnel director Joe Hartz said the issue in Montgomery County is control, not patronage. But for now, county officials aren't sure how to proceed on the classification issue. Several proposals have been submitted calling for $70,000 to $100,000 in consultant fees alone.

By JOHN ERICKSON Staff Writer Four years after approving a costly and controversial classification plan for county employees, Montgomery County commissioners are considering doing it over again. Last week, several' elected officeholders met with the commissioners to review proposals for re-classifying civil-service jobs to meet state standards. OFFICIALS JS AY the county classification practices don't meet state requirements. "We don't want the state coming in and running our program," said county Treasurer Joe Shump. The "program" is a series of job descriptions and rankings that classify jobs in order of importance or difficulty.

For example, a Clerk 1 has different duties than a Clerk 2 and fits into a different job classification. Likewise for an Environmental Engineer 1 and 2. The idea is that a Clerk 1 in the sanitary engineering department should draw the same salary as a Clerk 1 in the auditor's office. But the last time the county tried to equate job duties with pay, the cost came to about $4 million. Nobody seems too eager to repeat the messy business.

THE COUNTY MAY have little choice. In 1982, the Ohio General Assembly passed a law that said all government agencies must have a classification plan for their employees. 'The legislation said those governments, the county for example, could have their own plans providing the 7 treated at Miami Valley after early morning blaze Seven persons were treated for smoke inhalation early this morning after a kitchen fire at 5130 Dayton-Liberty Road, Jefferson Twp. Treated at Miami Valley Hospital were: Sarah Davis, 78; Joe Davis, 79; Scott Davis; Anthony Davis; Buford Davis, 42; Mary Davis, 36, and Jackie Ward, 19, according to the night nursing supervisor. She said none would be admitted.

The 4:59 a.m. fire at the two-story structure resulted in $200 damage, according to the fire department. One ambulance from the township and two from Moraine were used to transport the victims to the hospital. Nurse needed degree, so she got two of them AKRON Nurse Ida Holland, a mother of five and a grandmother, has returned to her job at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brecksville with two academic degrees. Mrs.

Holland, 60, who graduated from St. Thomas School of Nursing in 1973 as a registered nurse, lacked the bachelor's degree recommended by the American Nurses Association and National League of Nurses. The organizations said that to upgrade the nursing profession, all RNs should have bachelor's degrees by 1985. Last month, she got her degrees a professional arts degree from St. Joseph's and a nursing degree from St.

Louis. Staff photo by Bill Shepherd There's no 'buW about it Scott Elder of New Wester, Ohio, steers his steer for the judges at the lamb and steer show wer the weekend at the Montgomery County fairgrounds. The judge, In the background, isn't giving away any hints, as to his verdict, but the steer the one on the left for you cityfolk looks as if he's thoroughly in the dark. Oh well, 'nothing a good steak er, break won't solve..