Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 3

DAYTON DAILY NEWS Bernie the Clown loses home in fire Sat. Oct 2, 1982 News By DAVID KEPPLE Metropolitan Staff Writer Bernie the Clown, who brought laughs to thou Digest sands of children and adults" over the years, was crying. 4I just got a new wheelchair. It burned up in ine fire too," Bernard Miller, alias Bernie the Clown, said this morning, fighting tears as he discussed the destruction of his Beavercreek home and the family's personal possessions by fire Friday night Miller, who was alone in tne house wnen tne oiaze began, did escape with his life and only minor in juries as neighbors pulled him from the burning structure. HE SAID THE foundation of a hydrant 600 feet from the house broke loose when the water was turned on.

Crews then tried to use a second hydrant 900 feet from the house, but it, too, exploded, Merrill said. At 10 p.m. about 90 minutes after the Are started water was pumped from a hydrant 1.700 feet from the house. Bolts were tightened on the third hydrant and it operated properly, the chief said. Merrill said the hydrants were part of the Greene County water "I'm apprehensive whether the rest of (the hydrants) are all right" Merrill said.

Assistant Fire Chief Kip Smith said today the hydrants are designed to break away at the collar when they are struck, so damage to a vehicle striking them will be minimal and the hydrants can be easily restored. He said the collars on the first two hydrants were loose and the water pressure pushed them off the water main. "The water department is aware of the problem, and I'm sure Mr. (Timothy) Denger (Greene County sanitary engineer) will be getting with Chief Merrill to work out a plan for verifying the serviceability of all hydrants in the area," Smith said. Neighbors managed to salvage a truck and car Miller used in his clown act, along with the family dog.

Miller celebrated his 30th year as a clown in March and over the years he has entertained thousands of children. "TO SIT BACK and watch 30 years of your life go down the drain tears a hole out of you my stomach's like, full of pits." Firemen began sifting through the debris this morning in an attempt to determine the cause of the blaze. Firefighters said they had no idea as yet how it started and Miller said he didn't either. He said he was asleep in his bedroom and "something hit me on the head and woke me up. There was no flame In the room until just when they started pulling me out and then all of a sudden the whole room it just like blew up." Miller and his wife spent the night in a motel.

This morning she went shopping for some clothingjor them. NEIGHBOR CHARLES L. Grooms, of 3991 Timber-line said, "I heard a pop, and then a shattering of glass" about 8:20 p.m. Grooms looked out a window and called the fire department. Grooms said he and neighbor Paul Cramblit of 3968 Timberline met at the house, and found Miller had knocked out the screen in his open window.

"He was yelling Help! We just went to the window and grabbed hold of him and pulled him out," Grooms said. Miller's wife and 15-year-old daughter were away from the house at the time of the blaze. Fire Chief Eugene Merrill said firefighters could have saved much of the house but for the malfunctioning of the first two hydrants they hooked up to. "I'D L1K TO rebuild it (the house) in the same place, if it's possible," he said after visiting the site at 1884 Grange Hall where only a chimney remained standing amid charred debris. "I don't know whether I could afford to rebuild.

It's up to the insurance company, and what they can do for me." Miller, who had lived in the house for more than 30 years, said he built ramps into it several years ago so handicapped children could come in to be entertained. "When I became handicapped, It was perfect for me too," said Miller, who has a heart ailment that forced him into a wheelchair. "I just had so many things there that you just don't place a value on money-wise. All my clown suits from the time I started 30 years ago all my clown supplies burned. They did save the train.

if 0 Upland forest to join Miami parks system Defendant wants U.S. in on plane crash suit icio's in detention teacher crosses a police line to enter a school where about 150 Teaneck teachers spent school hours Friday detained in a' kindergarten auditorium for defying a judge's back-to-work order. Bargaining, which had stretched 16 hours over two days, broke off Friday and was scheduled to resume at 1 p.m. today. Gromyko accuses U.S., asks nuclear moratorium Frtm Win Sn UNITED NATIONS Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, accusing the Reagan administration of "lies, hysteria and chauvinistic intoxication," tybposed a worldwide moratorium on all nuclear explosions, including peaceful ones.

In his speech Friday to the 37th session of the U.N. General Assembly, Gromyko accused the Reagan administration of plan-' ning for nuclear war with the "cold-blooded composure of grave-diggers." Outside the U.N. building, about 200 young men demonstrating against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan burned a Soviet flag and hanged a four-foot effigy of Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev. About two dozen demonstrators staged a brief sitdown In the street, blocking traffic until police hauled one demonstrator away and the crowd broke up.

The 73-year-pld Soviet foreign minister charged the Reagan administration was whipping up an "atmosphere of lies, hysteria and chauvinistic intoxication" to make it "easier to get astronomical military budgets approved." Draft resister's motion rejected CLEVELAND A federal judge has rejected a motion that 1 charges against a draft resister be dropped because he was singled out for prosecution. U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich, without written explanation, threw out the defense motion Friday in the trial of Mark Arden Schmucker, 21, a Mennonite college student accused of failing to register for the military draft. Defense attorney William Whitaker maintained before the case began that the government had taken action against only those non-registrants who made their feelings known to Selective Service. PIQUA The largest upland forest in Miami County, which has been under the stewardship of the Garbry family of Piqua for 130 years, will be officially dedicated Tuesday and opened to the public as the county's third major park.

On Feb. 13, 1981, J. Scott Garbry and his family gave the 100-acre forest known for generations as Big Woods to the Miami County Park District. In September, the park board officially named the tract Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary. It is located on Stat-ler Road, east of Piqua, in Springcreek and Brown Twps.

AS PART OF the agreement between the board and Garbry, the district purchased an additional 150 acres adjoining the 100-acre tract. It has been officially designated Big Woods Reserve but will not be developed as a park immediately. The 3 p.m. ceremony Tuesday will be held at the entrance to the sanctuary. More than 100 invitations have been sent to county officials, state officials, the mayors of the 12 municipalities in the county, representatives of park systems in neighboring counties, friends of the Garbry family, and representatives of the Upper Valley Joint Vocational School and Edison State College.

The public also is invited to the dedication and tour. Park Director Scott Huston said a special surprise is planned for the 80-year-old Garbry during the dedication, and it has not been easy preventing Garbry from learning what it is. THE BIG WOODS traces its beginnings to Garbry's great-great-grandfather, who came here from France. He purchased the first tract in 1837, added to it in 1847 and again in 1853. Last month, the park district staff completed a 42-inch-wide boardwalk over seven-tenths of a mile through the 100 acres.

Huston described the sanctuary as a miniature zoo, an arboretum, a living museum of what the state looked like more than 250 years ago. v' By JACK JONES Staff Writer A defendant in damage suits filed over deaths caused by the May, 1981, crash of a Wright-Patterson Air Force Base plane wants the government added as a defendant Lear Seigler one of three aircraft manufacturers named in suits filed following the crash in Maryland of the missile-tracking plane, filed a motion in U.S. District Court here Friday asking to be allowed to file a third-party complaint against the government. The company, which built an automatic pilot for the Boeing EC-135 Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft, claims the government owned and operated the plane. It also said the government had ultimate responsibility for the flight and for the "Have Partner" program "which permitted a non-pilot to occupy a crew position at the time of the crash." Lear Siegler says that if it is found liable for damages in the case, the government should be found primarily liable and should pay all or part of the costs.

Damage suits totaling $75 million have been filed by families and representatives of the estates of 14 of the 21 victims of the crash. The crash occurred while the aircraft was on a training flight from Wright-Patterson. Lear Seigler, the Boeing builder of the aircraft, and the McDonnell Douglas said to be responsible for modification work on the plane, are defendants in the damage suits. Lear Seigler's action is being filed in connection with suits involving the three civilian victims of the crash. The family of Michael Riley of Trotwood, an engineer for the Bell and Howell Co.

who was aboard as an observer, has sued for $25.3 million. The other suits asked $2.5 million for the death of Peggy Ann Emilio, wife of the pilot, Capt. Joseph C. Emilio, and $4 million for the death of Linda Fonke, wife of navigator, Capt. Donald Fonke.

The two women were on board as part of an Air Force spouse orientation program called "Have Partner." It was designed to acquaint spouses with details of their spouses' jobs. Wright-Patterson suspended use of the program after the crash. Air Force investigators said they were able to determine that at the time of the accident, Mrs. Emilio was seated in her husband's. usual seat on the left side of the cockpit while Emilio was in the co-pilot's seat on the right.

Cleveland teens heavy drinkers heaviest drinkers, the survey showed, are white males, with a quarter of them getting drunk more than once every two weeks. Two national studies show that 10 percent to 17 percent of pupils polled took their first drink at age 12 or younger. In Cleveland, 36 percent of the pupils took their first drink at age 12 or younger. CLEVELAND (AP) One in five Cleveland high school students gets drunk at least once every two weeks, according to a survey of 1,100 students. The study, conducted at John Marshall and John F.

Kennedy high schools, showed that the Cleveland teen-agers drink more than their counterparts elsewhere In the country. The Judge's order keeps Greene CAC in business, for now Panama president praises Reagan WASHINGTON Panamanian President Ricardo de la Espri-ella is leaving town after an "unusually warm" meeting with President Reagan that emphasized their common views on the Panama Canal and on the turmoil in Central America. De la Espriella, who is heading for Boston today, praised Reagan Friday for carrying out terms of the canal treaties even though he opposed them before he took office. The Panamanian president his comments after he and Reagan met for 40 minutes at the White House. An U.S.

official who briefed reporters oh the meeting said it was held in an "unusually warm atmosphere." Mexico loosens some money curbs MEXICO CITY The government has loosened some of the tight currency controls it put into effect to halt the export of scarce dollars needed to pay Mexico's $80 billion foreign debt, the largest in the developing world. The change was announced Friday by Treasury Secretary Jesus Silva Herzog, who said dollar accounts now are authorized along the border with the United States. He also said "all possible actions" will be taken to encourage currency exchange in Mexico instead of the United States. It was not immediately clear whether the dollar accounts would apply only in the 1 2-mile-deep free zone extending the length of the U.S. border.

Reagan's New Federalism, Gormley said. The commissioners' vote means that block-grant funds, which once were funneled through SCOPE, will go straight to the CAC this year. But Gormley said the new federal regulations that allow county commissioners to decide which agency will handle block-grant funds won't take effect for two months. Without Kimmel's order, the CAC would not have been able to operate its weatherization, meals and other programs for the next two months, Gormley said. On Sept.

14, SCOPE told the CAC it would no longer delegate block grant funds to the local agency because of a dispute over the monitoring of local programs. However, the Greene County Commission said it wants the CAC to continue running social service programs in the county. And Tuesday, the commissioners selected the local CAC to administer $77,000 in federal Community Service Block Grant funds for the new fiscal year. THIS IS THE FIRST year counties have had authority to select social service providers, under President ties, said it would seize all property the council purchased with funds received from SCOPE; close the local CAC office and programs by withholding funds; and refuse payment of vouchers and payrolls. BUT THE CAC BOARD Friday filed a suit against SCOPE and its director to protect the council's assets, accord-ing to CAC board member John Gormley.

And Kimmel issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the takeover, at least for a while. The order expires in 14 days, pending a hearing Oct. 12 for a preliminary injunction. The action is the latest round in a battle between SCOPE the CAC. By BETTY KUBIK Metropolitan Special Writer Greene, County Common Pleas Judge Edward R.

Kimmel issued a temporary restraining order Friday that will keep the Greene County Community Action Council in business for the next two weeks, according to a CAC board member. The Supporting Council of Preventive Effort, which funnels federal funds to the action council, had told the council director the council would be shut down Thursday, the end of the federal fiscal year. SCOPE, which operates social service programs or funnels funds to social service contractors like the Greene County action council in five coun Visit tho Spendiiig-bill OK sign als start of Congress' recess Dr. Ronald J. Bohmer Wishes to announce the re-opening of his Medical Practice at 7135 Old Troy Pike Huber Heights, Ohio Hours By Appointment 236-2336 whr HUBER HOMES has a model for you AS LOW AS 12 30 yMrs flxod Interest 435-5149 Special below jr iiiiciiiiiiiu MEDICAL ASSOCIATES CLINIC OF XENIA, INC 140 Rogers Xenia, O.

announces the association of ROBERT P. DILLAPLAIN MD F.A.C.O.G. For the Practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology High Risk Obstetrics Infertility Office Hours 372-7691 By Appointment 426-7691 available 1. ThoVillflnes BL DLl Oji offer these features: resolution prohibits purchase of the first five MX missiles that the administration wants to buy, and bars any construction activity on the second of two new nuclear aircraft carriers that the president Is hoping to build. Construction of the Bl bomber may proceed.

THE $9.7 BILLION IN the measure for foreign aid is far below the $11.6 billion that Reagan requested, and well below the $11.1 billion the Senate voted earlier. Earlier Friday, the Democratic-controlled House killed a constitutional amendment designed to balance the federal budget The president, who supported the amendment, immediately vowed to make a compaign issue out of the vote. "Today, I share the deep burning anger, I think, of millions of Americans," Reagan said. "We'll fight on," he said. The vote against the balanced-budget amendment was 236-187, 46 votes short of the two-thirds necessary to submit it to the states.

The Senate had approved the amendment 69-31 earlier this year. Three Ohio Democrats and all 13 Republicans In the House voted in favor of the constitutional amendment. OHIO DEMOCRATS supporting the measure were Douglas Applegate of Steubenvllle, Dennis Eckart of Concord Township and Ronald Mottl of Parma. Democrats voting against included Tony Hall, Dayton; Thomas Luken, Cincinnati; Mary Rose Oakar, Cleveland; Donald Pease, Oberlin; John Seiberling, Akron; Bob Shamansky, Columbus, and Louis Stokes, Cleveland. WASHINGTON (AP) Congress has recessed for eight weeks of campaigning and vacation after a last-minute legislative flurry, including action to make sure the government has enough money to keep running until the lawmakers return.

The temporary spending bill will keep money flowing to government operations and programs until Dec. 17. After a 290-123 yote in the House and a voice vote in the Senate, the measure went to President Reagan for his signature. THE PASSAGE OF the omnibus spending measure cleared the last major roadblock to the lawmakers' leaving town to campaign for the Nov. 2 elections.

They worked late into the night and on into the morning on a grab bag of bills. Reagan's signature the stopgap bill was assured after the White House sent GOP leaders a statement that declared the bill "acceptable as an interim spending measure." The action is necessary because only one of the 13 regular annual appropriations bills for the government has been signed into law. Congress will return Nov. 29 for a post-election session to work on the "remaining money bills. While no precise figures are available, the measure generally holds spending for domestic programs within the limits imposed by the budget blueprint Congress approved earlier this year.

"It calls for defense spending of $228.7 billion, on annual basis, more than $6 billion below the amount approved in the budget and about $17 billion less than Reagan requested from Congress last winter. Temporarily, at least, the so-called continuing Country style living 5 minutes from Dayton Mall Near by swimming and tennis 15 minutes to Dayton, 40 minutes to Cincinnati Lighted streets and sidewalks Adjacent to Waldruhe Park Route 741 across from Metropolitan Life Afraid of open people? the Villages Is owned and developed by uir.iFzv ecipire DAYTOrJ 1189 Lyons Road 434-3707 IOOWNTOVXN I QYTON jOOUTMMOOfU Many are. But there is help for agoraphobia. Read about it Sunday in The Magazine..