Alabama Journal from Montgomery, Alabama • 5

I UUl L-J JLJv THE ALABAMA JOURNAL, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1983 tJ nidge Asked Decode Voters League Backs Constitution Rewrite Iff Nammes Cam Go on Ballot "Hie League of Women Voters of Alabama issued an endorsement of the proposed state constitution. focus on Juanita Watson, president of the league, said the proposed constitution is an editorial revision of the state's 1901 constitution. She said it removes all sections which have been declared unconstitutional, but contains few other substantive changes. She said the changes include: The addition of women in the Declaration of Rights. A provision for continuing the previous year's budget if the Legislature fails to oass a By MIKE SHERMAN Montgomery Circuit Judge Randall Thomas has been asked to decide whether the Alabama Republican Party should be able to put names of two GOP candidates for the House in Madison and Baldwin counties on the Nov.

8 ballot. Thomas heard arguments today from lawyers for the Republicans, who believe they should be able to replace two primary candidates who resigned after the September party primary. And he heard lawyers for Secretary of State Don Siegelman and the Alabama Democratic Party argue that the Republicans tried to make the substitution too late. Perry Hooper representing the Republican Party, said Alabama law gives no time limit on the right to fill a vacancy. He also said Siegelman "has no authority to leave a certified candidate off the ballot." The Republicans certified to Siegelman in August that Doug Hale of Huntsville in House District 20, and Lillian Carlton of Daphne in House District 94 were party nominees for the Sept.

6 primary. On Sept. 27, Siegelman was notified by GOP Chairman Bill Harris of Birmingham that Hale had resigned his candidacy. The following day, similar notification of Ms. Carlton's resignation was received.

Just before the Oct. 3 deadline for certification of candidates for the Nov. 8 general election, the party certified its list of candidates for the November election to Siegelman. The candidate positions for House 20 and House 94 were marked "vacant." Two days later, Harris wrote Siegelman and asked him to certify John Beasley in House District 94 and Anna Graham in House District 20. Redding Pitt, representing Siegelman, and Julian Butler, who was allowed by Thomas to intervene on behalf of the Alabama Democratic Party, told Thomas the Republicans should not be able to replace Hale and Carlton because their candidacies had lapsed Butler said the Republicans did not certified Hale and Carlton as party nominees and their resignations made the positions vacant a week before the Oct.

3 deadline. "The party cannot be permitted to certify a vacancy, and then wait as long as they want to fill the vacancy." said Butler. "The question for the court is whether the Republicans ever certified a nominee." said Butler. "We are asking the court to certify Anna Graham and John Beasley as candidates in House District 20 and House District 94 respectively for the Nov. 8 ballot." Hooper said.

Car -Truck Wreck Kills Elmore Man By MICHAEL SZNAJDERMAN WETUMPKA A Tallassee man was killed today when his car collided with a tractor-trailer rig hauling produce on U.S. 231 in Elmore County. Doyle T. Gaither, 73, was thrown 200 feet from his car and killed after he pulled in front of a Winn-Dixie grocery truck about 6 a.m., according to trooper spokesman Lt. Roy Smith.

Smith said the truck was heading north on U.S. 231 when Gaither pulled into the highway from Redland Road. The two vehicles collided, Smith said. Gaither was a part-time security guard at John M. Patterson State Technical College in Montgomery.

The Winn-Dixie truck, driven by Larry Taylor of Deatsville, over turned and slid about 500 feet following the collision. The truck's refrigeration unit then burst into flames, Smith said. Taylor was taken to Baptist Medical Center in Montgomery where he was treated for minor injuries and released, a hospital spokeswoman said. Pat Turner, assistant chief of the Wetumpka Fire Department, said it took about three to four minutes to put out the blaze. Turner added the truck was sitting in the middle of U.S.

231 at 8:30 a.m. and authorities were waiting for equipment from Birmingham to move the truck. Gaither, a Tallassee resident and a retired cotton mill worker, was evidently on his way to work when the wreck occurred. "He was supposed to be at work this morning," said Larry Taunton, Patterson College president. "We're shocked.

It's a tragic loss," he said. "He had become a part of the family out here. He was a jewel of a person." Tauton said Gaither had worked at the school since 1978. new budget. A provision for changing legislative compensation so that legislators are not voting on their on pay.

A provision mandating the Legislature to provide for optional plans of local government for counties which would make home rule possible. These changes are viewed as positive by the league, she said. Wallace Calls King Holiday 'Appropriate' Gov. George Wallace said he will sign legislation making the late Martin Luther King birthday a state holiday, if the Legislature passes such legislation. In a statement released by his press secretary today, Wallace said making King's birthday a national holiday was an "appropriate step in view of the tremendous social and racial changes brought about in America through the efforts of Dr.

King and those who worked with him." Wallace said the Alabama Legilature will have to decide if King's birthday will also become a state holiday. If so, he said he would sign the legislation. Library To Get Shakespeare Collection By the time construction of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival theater is complete, the City-County Public Library will have a $15,000 collection of Shakespearean and Elizabethan literature. The Friends of the Library, a private non-profit support organization voted Thursday to donate $15,000 to the library for the purchase of the collection. Joe Lehman of Montgomery, president of Friends of the Library, said the group is interested in creating a resource for area students to supplement the educational benefit of the theater.

Lehman said the group raised the money through membership fees and a book fair. Library director Gillis Doughtie said the library will consult several Shakespearean authorities such as the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington before purchasing any books for the collection. He said the present plan is to include the collection in the central reference section of the main library on Lawrence Street. Charles Barnette, director of corporate communications at Blount said, "We think that is terrific." Winton Blount, chief executive officer of Blount is sponsoring the Shakespeare theater's move from Anniston to Montgomery and has donated the land for the theater site. "We think Montgomery can become not only a center for the arts, but a resource for information on Shakespeare and the books will help toward that," he said.

Another Blount spokesperson, Cathy Gassenheimer, said "One of Mr. Blount's strong interests in the Shakespeare Festival is the educational aspect how children and students can benefit from it." The books will help with that, she said. Bibb Probate Judge Is Indicted CENTREVILLE (UPI) Bibb County Probate Judge George A. Desmond was indicted Thursday on charges of falsifying county financial records. Desmond, serving his second term as chairman of the Bibb County Commission, could receive two to 10 years in prison if found guilty.

Bibb County ended up $150,000 in the hole last year and several employees were laid off. The grand jury began looking into the county's financial troubles in May. More than 50 witnesses have testified. The indictment against Desmond, who has five years left in his term, charges he falsified records during 1978-79. 2 Suspended For Taking Cow To Office BIRMINGHAM (UPI) Two Streets and Sanitation supervisors apparently made the wrong decision earlier this month when they had to figure out what to do with a 250-pound cow found roaming downtown Birmingham.

Henry Strickland, a supervisor, was suspended for a day and his boss, district supervisor James Brown, was suspended three days following an employees' hearing this week. The cow was found in downtown Birmingham Oct. 6 after a cattle truck crashed on the nearby interstate. The truck was hauling cattle and the one found downtown left the scene of the accident on its own. "We called the police, but they never did respond.

The cow was in bad shape," said Strickland, who said he told his workers to load the animal on a department truck and take it to the district office until they could figure out what to do with it. At the district office, they gave it water and fed it the following day before delivering it to the stockyard. Newly installed Streets and Sanitation Director Robert Broadus said the workers did the wrong thing. Board Chief Denies Mockery Charges MOBILE (UPI) The president of the Mobile County School Board on Thursday denied he made a mockery of the court by allegedly encouraging teachers to continue to lead students in prayer. Agnostic lawyer Ishmael Jaffree filed a motion Wednesday in federal court in Mobile requesting that school board President Dan Alexander be found in contempt of court.

The motion says Alexander's statements to the public and teachers "makes a mockery of this court's injunction. This is expecially true when the harm to be avoided is all state-sponsored prayer activities and not just certain limited prayer actions." Hoping For A Nibble for fishing. The this weekend will be a little wet National Weather Service said An early morning fog rises off the water at Lay Lake in Shelby County as a lone fisherman sits in his boat, hoping for a nibble or two. The weather there is an 70 and Sunday. percent chance of rain Saturday Dog Track Bidder Contacted By FBI Space Shuttle May Visit Mobile On Way To Fair MOBILE (UPI) NASA officials are not certain yet whether the space shuttle Enterprise will be displayed at the New Orleans Worlds Fair, but if it is it may arrive via Mobile.

If arrangements to showcase the Enterprise in New Orleans are worked out between fair officials and NASA, the craft could be flown piggyback into Mobile on a 717 ah liner. The orbiter would then be transported to a barge and floated through the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, Lou Parker, NASA exhibits manager in Houston, said Thursday. He said the space agency was studying several alternative methods of getting the reusable space craft to the fair. The New Orleans International Airport was ruled out as a landing spot because of the distance the Enterprise would have to be transported over land to the fair site. "I don't know that I can tell you what other sites are being considered there aren't many," Parker said.

"Mobile is definitely one of the sites." A losing bidder for the right to contract a dog racing track in Macon County said the FBI has contacted him about the bidding process used by the Macon County Racing Commission in the deal. Ray Massengale, an investor from Gilbertown in Choctaw County, said the FBI has contacted him three times. Eddie Bazar, supervisor of the Montgomery FBI office, said the agency is not investigating the racing commission at present. "I'm not saying we are not going to at some time," he said. The commission received six bids for construction of the dog racing track, which was approved by Macon County voters in an August referendum.

Massengale, who said he will file suit against the commission, said each of the groups submitting bids had been contacted by the FBI. U.S. Attorney John Bell in Montgomery said he was unaware of any FBI investigation into the racing commission's issuance of a license. He said it is unlikely that such an investigation would begin without his knowledge. Massengale is sole owner of Macon Development Corp.

AG's Opposition To inmate Release Program Draws Fire The opposition of Attorney General Charles Graddick to an inmate release program has drawn fire from a committee responsible for monitoring state compliance with federal court orders on prisons. The four-member Prison Implementation Committee, in an interim report, submitted to U.S. Graddick torney general had not seen the report, but he is the chief law enforcment officer in the state and the SIR Program violated state law. "It was his duty to stop it and he did," she said. The committee claims Graddick was aware the SIR Program was designed as the primary means of complying with federal court orders, but he never gave the committee formal notice of his opposition.

Committee members also said Graddick did not question the program's legality after a committee report praising the program was forwarded to the court. The attorney general could have worked with the committee to try to achieve compliance with court orders, the panel said, because he knew the committee was charged with handling such matters. "It is plain had the attorney general used' this Phelps ruled in a suit filed by Graddick that Prison Commissioner Fred Smith did not have authority to implement the program. Graddick and Smith have been ordered by Varner to appear in court Wednesday to show cause why they should not be held in contempt. The contempt issue was raised by attorneys for inmates whose legal activities led to court orders to alleviate crowding in county jails.

In the interim report, the oversight committee said it was compelled to bring Graddick's activities to the attention of the court for the judge's consideration during the upcoming hearing. "Perhaps at that time, Attorney General Graddick will have some explanation for his acts and omissions," the report states. "At this stage they appear disingenuous, at best." Graddick spokeswoman Janie Nobles said the at committee to work with the commissioner and other" parties to the end of solving the remaining problems of compliance with this court's orders, steps could have been taken including possible legislation to remove any legal or substantive deficiencies," the committee said. Both Smith and Graddick have told the court they should not be cited for contempt because they are unable to solve inmate crowding problems. Smith said circumstances beyond his control have caused the inmate population to increase and Graddick claimed it was his sworn duty as attorney general to" challenge the release program.

The commissioner also contends nullification of restitution program will require the state immediately to build new prisons to handle the growing inmate" population. District Judge KODeri vamer, claimed Graddick did not contact the panel about his opposition to the Supervised Intensive Restitution Program, United Press International reported. The program, which allowed certain inmates to gain early release to work on public projects or to pay back their victims, was struck down by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Joseph Phelps several weeks ago..