The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 22

'22 THE BOSTON GLOBE WEDNESDAY. MAY 25. 1988 Neighborhoods "WEMTHROP MDC begins picking land for acquisition With $50 million in hand, panel is studying 190 parcels suggestedjor 'breathing space' Police chief working I to keep on working He has less than 3 years to persuade town Zip let him remain on the job after age 65 Globe staff photoBarry Chin fit enough to stay on the job said Mark Primack, executive director of the Boston GreenSpace Alliance. The alliance is an umbrella organization for more than 100 open-space activist groups in the region. Franklin Fryer, the Weymouth town clerk, attended an MDC hearing in South Weymouth on March 23 and left the meeting "genuinely impressed with how people care for what little breathing room we have left," he said.

The hearing, attended by almost 500 people, focused on the fate of the Weymouth Fairgrounds. A private owner sold the 44-acre grounds in January to a developer who plans to build 61 housing units on the site. At the May 2 hearing in Hyde Park, concern centered on the fate of 6V2 acres abutting Kovey Road and 17 acres abutting the George Wright Municipal Golf Course. Both parcels also abut the Stony Brook Reservation. The Boston Redevelopment Authority has granted a developer initial approval to build on the Kovey Road land, according to a Hyde Park resident, George Perry.

"We had some 400 people packed into the Municipal Building that night lobbying for the preservation of that open space," said Perry. While opponents of MDC land acquisition were rare in Hyde Park, they were prominent at the Dorchester hearing April 6. The MDC master plan for a green belt of land from Milton Lower Falls to Castle Island in South Boston cuts under the Neponset River Bridge. This is near Brilliant Tire, an automobile repair shop that Harvey and Michael Brilliant, who are brothers, founded 10 years ago. The Brilliants say the MDC is trying to force them to relocate; their shop and the carwash next door are destined to become a repair facility and carwash for MDC vehicles.

"It's an offer we can't refuse," said Harvey Brilliant. "If we do, we get bounced." body else's turn to become chief. They say Rice knew the retirement age was 65 when he took the job 1 8 years ago and should accept that mandate now, and that his remaining on the job delays the advancement of younger members of the department, who can move up in rank only when someone dies or retires. Others criticize Rice's handling of the 38-member department. The only issue is "management," Richard Dimes, a member of the Board of Selectmen that appointed Rice chief in 1970.

told this year's Town Meeting. "We've had mediocrity and we don't deserve it. Dave Rice as an individual is a fine gentleman. Dave Rice as a manager, in my mind, has left a-lot to be desired." "He's proven to be very inept, very ineffectual," said Selectman Richard DiMento. Others say the chiefs main problem is political, that he is paying a price for frequent skirmishes he has had with other town officials.

Six months after he was named chief, he won a lawsuit against the selectmen after they refused to pay him a salary twice the amount paid to patrolmen a proportion mandated by law. "I think the bad blood with the selectmen started at that time," said Rice. In 1978, the board removed the chief job from Civil Service, effective with Rice's successor. In 1979, it conducted administrative hearings for what Rice recalls were frivolous allegations about his handling of the department. He later had to fight town officials to get his holiday pay and clothing allowance.

Some opponents complain that Rice still takes special paid details, depriving his officers of overtime pay, and that he is unassertive as a leader. "I get along with most of the men," said the chief, a man who speaks softly, usually capping his By Ray Richard rJlobe Staff tri; WINTHROP Nearly any about 4 o'clock, police chief David C. Rice can be seen jogging 1 along Pleasant Street near home. workday that probably began 6 a.m. completed, he moves -along smoothly in a sweatsuit, having and smiling whenever a 'Xriend drives by.

J'This regimen, says Rice, shows -he is in good physical condition, I-Jiealthy enough to remain chief Rafter he becomes 65 years old. He turned 62 in February. For three years at town meet- ings. Rice has tried to persuade the town to grant him an exemp-J tion from the state law that re- quires public safety personnel to retire at age 65. Each time the town has turned him down.

Rice wonders why. The statute implies that public safety employees beyond the age 65 cannot adequately handle the stress and the potential per-j sonal danger of their jobs, says state personnel director David A. Haley. But Rice says he does not anticipate problems with condi-J tipning and stress management, and his health is rarely mentioned as a possible reason to step down. fit physically and mental-J ly to stay on," he said from behind his desk in his cluttered, closet- sized office in the basement of Town Hall.

So why the resistance to his staying on the job? I "Whether it's jealousy or bigot-try, I don't know," said Rice, who believes he is "the only Jewish po-" lice chief in New England." It bigotry? That's hard to say, something you can't prove. Maybe some people want me out so they can push their own man into the job," he said. Anti-Semitism is not an issue, nor is the age of 65, people in and 'outside the Winthrop Police De-I partment told the Globe last week. Opponents say Rice has had J' his years at the top and it is some David C. Rice says he is statements with a smile.

"You have many personnel problems running a department. You are bound to make a few enemies along the way." "My job is my whole life," said Rice, whose retirement pay will be 80 percent of his $45,734 salary. "I'm a bachelor. It's my vocation and avocation. I'm here seven days a week, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

"It's challenging. I've got to have a reason to get up in the morning. I feel I have a few more good years. If I get sick or tired of the job, I can say goodbye." Two years ago, the Town Meet-ing granted a five-year extension beyond the age of 65 for Patrolman Robert Crawford, a motorcycle officer, but denied the chief the same privilege. This vote gave him new ammunition in his fight.

"I felt when they gave it to a patrolman and not to me the same time I asked for mine, that I was las Monday night, police reported yesterday. Jessica Rowntree, an honors student, disappeared one day after withdrawing $500 from an automatic teller machine. DA. assistants to push for raises Massachusetts district attorneys and their assistants plan to lobby Beacon Hill lawmakers today for a $6.4 million budget amendment, expected to be introduced on the House floor, to provide pay raises for the state's 489 assistant district attorneys. Dis being discriminated against," sakfRicel "The issue basically is fairness," agreed businessman Myer Brill, who spoke on behalf of the chief at the last Town Meeting.

"Why not give him same benefit as anybody else?" Rice hopes the Legislature will relax the law to allow chiefs to remain in office after 65. As ordered by the Legislature, Haley is surveying public safety agencies throughout the state to determine if age should be a factor in mandating when people retire. He will recommend to the Legislature whether or not the mandatory retirement at 65 should be removed. Rice says a local referendum and an antidiscrimination suit against the town are other possible routes to take. "I don't like getting walking papers handed to me at the age of 65 and somebody telling me I'm all done," he said.

trict attorneys said prosecutors have received the same starting salaries of between $18,000 and $21,000 for the past five while their counterparts, public defenders, recently won legislative approval to increase their starting pay to $27,000. With current salary levels, they added, the state tends to lose its more experienced prosecutors to private firms with offers of better pay. Police say crowd threw rocks, bottles SPRINGFIELD Three Springfield police officers were injured fJEl'J EHGILAFJB) KIElfJS BRIEFS The Metropolitan District Commission began yesterday to winnow down a list of about 190 parcels of land for acquisition that was compiled during a recent series of public hearings. The commission held the hearings during the past two months in communities that share in the MDC park system; almost 3,000 people attended. For the most part, they pleaded for slowed growth and gave MDC planners what grew into a "wish list" of properties they wanted left undeveloped.

"I was most impressed with the tremendous public support across the socioeconomic spectrum I found for the preservation of what precious little open space remains in the Boston area," said MDC Commissioner William J. Geary. Geary scheduled the hearings after the $500-million Open Space bond issue last December gave the MDC a lion's share $50 million -of the funds targeted for park land acquisition in the metropolitan area. Geary said yesterday's meeting with planners on open-space acquisitions focused on parcels most threatened by development. He did not elaborate on specific properties.

The selection process, which will favor sites of historic importance and lands abutting MDC parks, will take about six months, said Julia O'Brien, director of the MDC planning office. She said the hearing process gave her "a new sense of mission." Not all the parcels on the MDC list can be purchased with $50 million, O'Brien said. Planners expect to spend the next six months bargaining with owners and getting appraisals, then will an-, nounce their selections in another round of public hearings. The MDC has the power to take properties by eminent domain only with the approval of local park commissions. "Not for a century has open space been given such a priority," and two men were arrested during a rock- and bottle-throwing melee triggered by the arrest of 16-year-old boy accused of dealing heroin, police say.

A crowd of about 250 gathered Monday evening at the Bergen Circle housing complex where the teen-ager was arrested when narcotics officers discovered he had 52 bags of heroin valued at more than $1,000 in his possession, said police Lt. Richard La-Belle. More than a dozen cruisers had to be dispatched to the area when the crowd began flinging rocks and bottles at the police officers and their vehicles, LaBelle said. (UPI) Fingerprint on bag is key evidence NORTHAMPTON The prosecution's primary evidence against a Belchertown State School worker on trial for the 1986 shooting death of his boss will be a fingerprint lifted from a paper bag stained with the victim's blood, a prosecutor said yesterday. During opening arguments in the trial of Kenneth Phoenix, Assistant District Attorney Howard I.

Safford said the paper bag was found in a wastebas-ket in an area where the gunman ran through after shooting Raymond A. Green, 30, the school's maintenance supervisor. Phoenix is charged with murder in the death of Green, who was shot several times in the head at close range while eating his lunch. FBI experts allegedly lifted Phoenix's fingerprint from the paper bag, which Safford said was the only clue that led to the defendant's arrest nearly a year after the Aug. 4, 1986, slaying.

(UPI) Springfield officer charged in shooting SPRINGFIELD A veteran Springfield police officer, accused of fatally shooting one man and severely injuring another while off duty last fall, pleaded innocent yesterday and was ordered held on $50,000 bail, officials said. During arraignment in Springfield Dis-, trlct Court, the parents of John J. Kljak Jr. said they would put up their home as ball for their son. Kljak, a 14-year officer, Is charged In the Sept.

19 shootings outside a Chlcopee bar owned by his wife. Efraln Serrana, 18, of Springfield was killed during the mckl out rior court judge's decision to revoke Gilchrist's $25,000 cash bail. Superior Court Judge Cortland A. Mathers, who in revoking bail called the April 7 slaying of Merrill Lynch regional vice president George W. Cook the act of a "deranged man," Is scheduled to preside over the hearing.

Missing Mass. girl shows up in Dallas A 15-year-old North Reading girl, who disappeared April 24 after attending a church service, turned herself in to police in Dal Ex-stockbroker due back in court A former stockbroker accused of gunning down his ex-boss at Ithe Merrill Lynch office in Bos-I ton's financial district is sched-; uled to return to Suffolk Superior Court on Friday for a hearing on the appointment of an expert to determine whether he poses a danger to himself or others. A Su- preme Judicial Court justice or-' dered the lower court to appoint an expert to examine Lonnie L. I Gilchrist 4 1 of the South End, after his attorney appealed a supe Premiat's case against French wines, side the bar. Juan Malave, 27, of Springfield was wounded by a bullet that lodged near his spine, leaving him paralyzed.

(UPI). N.H. police officer attacked, injured PLYMOUTH, N.H. A Plymouth police officer who teaches defense tactics at the state's police academy got some unwanted practice this week when he was attacked from behind and had to struggle for control of his pistol. Patrolman Christopher Warn suffered a broken nose and possible fractured skull in the fight early Monday.

Warn, 27, is a defense tactics instructor at the police academy in Concord. Randall Hoyt, 20, of Plymouth, later surrendered at the police station with a lawyer. Hoyt is charged with first-degree assault, trespassing and resisting arrest and may face more charges, police said. (AP) Dartmouth changes old school song HANOVER, N.H. Bowing to pressure from alumni and female students, Dartmouth College has changed its school song to eliminate sexist references.

The new version "celebrates the presence of men and women as a single community on this campus," said James O. Freedman, president of the Ivy League school. The song's title has been changed from "Men of Dartmouth" to "Alma Mater," a Latin reference to foster mother, and the opening phrase "Men of Dartmouth" has been replaced with "Dear old Dartmouth." Other changes replace "chivalric faith" with "undying faith," "sons" with "ones," and one reference to "brother" with "sister." (AP) Police seeking car after murder in U.I. NORTH PROVIDENCE. R.I.

-Police yesterday were searching for a 1970 green Plymouth in connection with a murder here, officials said. The unidentified victim was found In his home by a neighbor about 1:40 p.m. yesterday, said Capt. Richard E. Tramonti of the North Providence police.

The victim had been bound and his throat slit, he said.UP) I MMIM ffiEMlAX rKEMiSl i tWVIIAT Bit ill iin i im-i ij 4 fVl f- -rra-- 5. Offer expires refund the front expiration Mail to: P.O. Box Send check December 31. 1988. To be processed, all requests must include a store cash register receipt.

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