El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 3

21 flaso ILdDdsaill Section Wednesday. March 26, 1980 I Page I Suspect in Kerr ambush found in Denver Times Combined Newi Sources A San Antonio FBI investigator may fly to Denver to interview a member of the Bandidos motorcycle gang who is a suspect in the attempted murder of former U.S. Attorney James Kerr. Denver FBI agent Bob Bishop Tuesday said he hasn't decided whether to interview Thomas Lloyd Gerry himself, or to bring in the San Antonio case agent. "He (Gerry) hasn't decided to talk to us," Bishop said.

"They're not going to come unless he's going to talk." Denver police arrested Gerry, nicknamed "Hammer" and "Lefty," last week on an FBI warrant charging him with flight from prosecution. When Gerry left Texas last year, he was awaiting trial in Irving, Texas, for murder. "Then we found he was a suspect" in the Kerr case, said Denver police Detective James Wattles. Gerry, 32, has been charged with the 1978 murder of Bandido Jan "Fat Jan" Colvin, Wattles said. The Dallas FBI said Gerry was arrested on the murder charge in Sioux Falls, S.D., and returned to Texas in August 1979.

Wattles said Gerry and Jay Lane Roberts were being tried separately for Col-vin's murder. Roberts was tried first. Several days into the trial, Gerry fled, Wattles said. Roberts was found guilty and sentenced to 55 years in prison, Wattles said. Roberts, along with several other Bandidos, also was subpoenaed last October to a special grand jury investigating the ambush of Kerr in November 1978 and the murder of U.S.

District Judge John Wood in May 1979, both in San Antonio. Denver police said San Antonio authorities have not been able to question Gerry on either case because he has remained a fugitive. Police also said Gerry is one of six Bandidos being questioned about the Kerr incident. Wattles said Denver police got a "tip" about Gerry's location. Gerry's bond on the FBI charge is $250,000.

His lawyer in Denver has said he will not fight extradition at his April 21 hearing, an FBI spokesman said. U.S. Attorney Jamie Boyd has been quoted as saying he knows the people behind the Kerr murder attempt and the Wood murder are the same, but that different hired gunmen were used. However, no indictments have been handed down in either case. New leases irk projects tenants By GARY SCHARRER Times Staff Writer The El Paso Housing Authority board realized Tuesday night it is going to take a hard sell before a new 1 v.

A I ') I 'J" Ill -M ih. 1 public housing. least- van ue enact More than 250 if 1 tenants from public housing projects packed into the Paisano Recreation Hall Tuesday night to respond angrily to any change in their present leases. The housine ft. Spanish that the housing authority must take in a monthly average of $87 per unit "to function in the black." The average tenant payment is now $72.

difference has to be made up somewhere," Holguin told the tenants. El Paso Housing Authority is operating with only $100,000 in reserve, though the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires $2.9 million to be set aside, Holguin said. Holguin said the housing authority came "very close to bankruptcy" before Mayor Tom Westfall last fall ordered a board shakeup that replaced the executive director and all board members. "If this housing authority had not turned around.

HUD would have required a turnaround program that would have been much more severe," Holguin said. HUD now is requiring El Paso Housing Authority to accumulate 40 percent of the $2.9 million reserve money. Holguin said it will take two years of cutbacks to achieve that level. "The housing authority is in serious financial trouble." Holguin said. "The most destructive factor is the cost of energy.

I can't conserve energy for you. You have to conserve enerpy." One tenant said lights must be kept burning to deter burglar. Holguin several times assi -tid that the 1980s would be harder on tenants than the 1970s. The tenants kept insisting any lease change would create a hardship for them. But Commissioner Jack Vaughn said only the people who pay their rent late would be assessed a (Please see Housing, Page 4B) board said some Hector Holguin changes are necessary because of a financial squeeze.

The proposed changes include: Charging tenants for labor costs when repairs are needed. Tenants now pay only for materials. Increasing the present security deposit from $60 per family to an extra $10 for each bedroom. Senior citizens would be charged a flat $40. Requiring late charges for tenants who do not make their monthly payment on time.

In the past there has been no penalty. If approved, the late charges for tenants paying more than $100 a month rent would be $5 after the fifth working day and $1 each day after that. For tenants paying less than $100 a month, the late charges would be percent of the rent after the fifth working day and 1 percent of the rent each day after that. Board chairman Hector Holguin explained to tenants in English and t. 'MJ 14 1 a V' 1 v.

mTiihh HtN pIxKo Un Villilotm. English on the 5th floor A worker for Urban Contruction Co. leans over a concrete pillar on the $2.5 million structure at Rio Grande and Santa Fe, now half complete, fifth floor of E) Paso Community College's Downtown Rio Grande will have four floors of labs and classrooms and an empty fifth floor for Campus as he yells instructions to workers on a lower floor. The future growth. It is to be completed by Aug.

24. Council foils Housing Authority bid for lower gas rates City cuts building wage Public housing projects will continue paying higher natural gas rates than other apartment complexes in El Paso because of a 4-2 City Council vote Tuesday. Housing Authority board vice chairman Jack Vaughn asked council to allow housing projects with a single gas meter to pay the same rate as schools and municipal buildings. Vaughn said 32 of 39 public housing projects have a single meter and pay the residential rate. That rate is highest of all.

Vaughn said. Other privately owned apartment buildings with single meters pay a commercial rate that is higher than the school and municipal rate El Paso gain something from the schools, thry gain something from the municipality. They don't gain anything from the Housing Authority." Vaughn argued that the savings in gas bills would free Housing Authority funds to install individual meters at each public housing apartment. Then the projects would go back to Saying the residential rate, but tenants would ave a cash incentive to conserve, Vaughn said. With individual meters, residents would be billed according to the amount of gas they use.

But council voted unanimously to deny the school and municipal rate to the Housing Authority. Alderman Jim Scherr then moved to allow the authority to pay the commercial rate, the same as other apartments in the city. "Why should we discriminate against the Housing Authority?" Scherr asked. But when the vote was taken, only Mrs. Harris voted with Scherr against the tale More city council 4B but below the residential rate, Vaughn said.

Southern Union Gas area vice president Bennett did not object to switching the housing projects to the lower rate. In 1379, Bennett said, the Housing Authority could have saved $61,594 if it had enjoyed the lower rate. But Bennett also said SUG would make up the loss in revenue by charging more to other customers. At that, aldermen dug in their heels. Alderman David Escobar kept asking Vaughn which customers ought to have higher rates to make up for lower rates for the Housing Authority.

"Why ire you asking the citizens of El Paso to shoulder the added burden?" Alderman Polly Harris asked. Mayor Tom Westfall supported Vaughn. He said schools and other city agencies already enjoy the lower rate, so why not the Housing Authority? "The only problem with your logic," said Alderman Pat Haggerty, "is that the people of sthfiule based on a survey conducted in li77. Of 80 construction jobs on the schedule, f.scobar said. 42 are barely minimum wage.

Escobar and Haggerty said they thought lower wages would mean lower-quality workmanship. Kerr, a member of the new city wage board, said a new survey could be completed in 30 to 60 days. Henry Mesa, business manager for the sheet metal workers union, argued against a temporary rollback. "The county wages adopted are a fair wage rate Mesa said. He predirU-d a separate rity yirvey would "come out with the same thing or even higher." Alderman Jim Scherr.

who pushed for the rollback, wanted the 1977 wages to stay in effect indefinitely. But at the urging of Alderman Joe Divis, the wage board was given 60 days to devise a new schedule LI Paso Ciiy Council voted 4-2 Tuesday to roil back the minimum wage rates set for private contractors on city-funded building projects. In the minority were aldermen Pat Haggerty and David Escobar. Last month, with little discussion, council adopted a higher wage rate schedule already used by El Paso County. That rate was based on a survey of contractors conducted by the county's wage rate board.

Ron Kerr, president of the nonunion Associated Builders and Contractors, told council Tuesday that city ordinance requires council to name Its own wage rate board to do its own surd. When the council raised the wage rates last mon'h, the terms of the numbers ef the city wage rate board had expired. A new board has since bcrn named. Escobar complained the rollback would mean a return to a wage rate Correction corner County commissioners Monday voted to reimburse $428.60 to Commissioner Pat O'Rourke for trips to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, not $1,228 as reported in Tuesday's rimes. Paso.

Yerby's shoulders hid sprung backwards. He ran a hand across his white hair and hitched up his trousers. He was ready right then to head on out for the garden. But he didn't. He sat down for Stan Birk.

gardening counselor and greenhouse owner-operator, to take the floor to carry on their gardening class before the three dozen or so persons of Yerby's generation learning to be gardeners. Leslie Burke, director of the renter for the Parks and Brcnatioo Department, credits Yirby with sparkplugging the idea of I Senior Citizen Community Girdeo project Yerby, la turn, shakes his head ind chuckles tnd says so, she gets the credit, meaning Ms. Burke. Whoever gets the credit, Yerby is the booster, the "catalyst," if you please, of whit appears to be the first gardening project for the el derly in in Southwest city. It's one of those projects that, for city recreation and social workers, comes along all too seldom.

It clicks, right off the bat. Everybody it touches gets a plumb sood feeling and throws in his two bits, even if it's just smile and piece of good will. How much Yerby's enthusiasm contribute is hard to measure. But when he follows the gardening counselor again as speaker and says he's going to be "there" at 7 a.m. to open the gate (this was last Monday his teal is contagious.

What's "there?" "There" is the garden, about a quarter-acre plot a few blocks distant from the Wellington Chew tenter. It is directly behind the Northeast police substation, to be exact, and adjacent to the Nothmt branch parks recreation office. Inside this plot of land, reclaimed for gardening from the desert, are 30 rows planted, or being planted, to vegetables and flowers. The planting; begin Monday, and continues, alone with cultivating, weeding and related chores, from 7 a.m. to noon ind I m.

Monday through Friday. Each row is numbered and A wag at the gardening class that day last week used a play on words to put the marijuana restraint in a somewhat different context. "Just don't step on your neighbor's pot," he said. His closest listeners didn't catch the humor immediately. That particular class wis the official launching of the community garden center.

Leaving the classroom, the elderly amateur gardeners piled into cars, pirkups and whatever transportation was at hand for the short drive to th' lr plot of land. It already had been enriched with 30 trurkloads of horse manure hauled from the I'pprr Valley, and with a layer of lop soil, all ol which wis well plowed. And the rows had been furrowed for planting. Blrk's wife, Jo, got right to work demonstrating how to plant ind seed. She set out little cabbage ind broccoli plants, then tomatoes.

After that rime radishes, followed by beets. Everybody witched her release the seeds from thumb ind forefinger. staked to a senior citiren. Anyone driving along Gateway can lo'tk across the desert toward the Franklins and see the elderly gardeners at work during those hours, inside their protective chain-link fence. The fence keeps out jackrab bits and other predators.

A "make-work" project this is not. The Wellington Chew gardeners expect to be feasting on their own vegetables for much of the coming summer, and even before then with their fastest-growing kind. Come July IS, they're foing to have a "Greco Thumb Day" on which they'll give awards for "best gardeners" and "best produce." Construction of a grape arbor will bogfn soon, if it hasn't alrraCy. A tool thed Is on the way. And thir "drip irrigation" system is working fine, with all valves connected, assuring constant moisture.

Rules? At this communal garden spot, the only restraint, says Yerby good-naturedly, Is "you can't grow marijuana." "1 plant thick," she said, "then come back and thin." She suggests that beet tops make a good mess of greens. In about 20 minutes. Row No. SO has a good start for some lucky gardener. LaVernia Frey.

a Henderson Heights retiree from Chick-asha, volunteers to do her first planting ever, under Sirs. Birk's directions. The garden undertaking was financed with an $1 ISO grant obtained through the est Texas Council of Governments. As a pilot projiKl, it may spur others. None should hive serious problems if there are other weldon Yeroys to go around.

It must Li- said, though, th.it in this pilot gardening project Yerby Is helped a lot by other enthusiastic volunteers, not all of them in the elderly bracket. One is O. Miller, retired Army man who, since undergoing heart surgery, has obtained a degree in social work and Is putting It to use as i partner with the Wellington Chew community gardeners. up front by Ed Foster hope you'll rtlix in the sua- inne. Reach up octislonally and pull down gnpt.

tJ -Weldon Yerby "Concord Blue!" that's the kind of grapes they'll be. It wis spelled out In the twinkling eyes of weldon Yerby, 72. is he gave his prp talk last week to fellow senior citizens at Wellington Chew Senior Citizens Center In Northeast CI I.