The South Bend Tribune from South Bend, Indiana • 21

The South Bend Tribune, Thursday, October 20, 1 9 77 21 metro Mullen wants $200,000 in delinquencies Death sentence reduced by judge LEBANON, Ind. (UPI) A Boone County judge Wednesday formally vacated a death sentence of a convicted murder who previously had his execution stayed by the Indiana Supreme Court. Judge Paul Johnson Jr. changed the sentence of Charles Martin of Alexandria from death to life imprisonment. Martin originally was scheduled to die in the electric chair at the Indiana State Prison on Aug.

15, but the high court stayed the execution several days earlier while John-' son was on vacation. Martin was convicted along with Lester French for the kid-nap-slaying of Kathy Wylie, 19, of Gaston, in 1974. Miss Wylie had been abducted from her grandmothers store during a robbery and her body was dis-covered several days iater. truck. Utilities Director John F.

Stancati estimated damage at $2,500, loss of a million gallons of water and untold inconvenience to his crews, water customers and motorists from the break. BROKEN VALVE A Water Works crew this morning removed the faulty hydrant on Miami at Victoria that caused two water main ruptures Wednesday and here blows out the broken valve with high pressure water. The painted hydrant lies in the Search begins for coed killer By MARCIIMONT KOVAS Tribune City Government Writer City Controller Peter H. Mullen wants the county auditor to collect an estimated $200,000 in delinquent Barrett Law assessments that are on the books and apparently unpaid for years. Properties on which assessments are delinquent for more than 15 months may be put up for sale by the auditor and sold for the amount of the delinquency, according to county officials.

County Auditor Eugene Basker has in hand a list of some 375 property owners who are delinquent on the payments totaling an estimated $200,000. The names of some prominent contractors and real estate developers are on the delinquency list. Delinquencies range from $33.50 to as high as $1,203.50. But delinquent Barrett Law assessment property sales have not been held since 1966, it appears. And there is uncertainty among county officials as to the reason such delinquent assessment sales have not been held.

The assessments are those made for sewer, water mains, streets and sidewalk construction under the plan that currently calls for property own ers to pay half the project costs. Mullen said that there is the possibility that a new state law puts the burden of collecting the delinquen-. cies directly upon his office. He said that letter communications from Richard L. Worley, deputy examiner of the Indiana State Board of Accounts indicate that because the citys population has dropped below 130,000 the burden of collecting the delinquencies shifts to the controller.

It appears that delinquent assessments have been allowed to go unpaid for years although the Indiana State Board of Accounts makes frequent references to the delinquencies in routine audits. Mullen said the issue has been un- der discussion for months with Auditor Baskers office. Mullen has sent Basker a letter noting that the citys Barrett Law cierk, Clement Wlodarek who works in the office of County Treasurer A. J. Kromkowski, had certified the fist of delinquent Barrett Law assessments to Baskers office last June 1 as required by law.

However, Basker failed to advertise the properties for sale in the delinqnent tax and assessment sale held the first Monday in August each year as required by the law. Basker was not available for comment but his chief deputy, Harold Hershman, said there was insufficient time for his office to advertise tween two rows of com. The Indianapolis Star reported this morning a man was being held in Texas somewhere after a map of Martinsville, was found in his possession. Miss Harmeiers abandoned car as well as the body were found near Martinsville. The Star said police reportedly have some evidence found at the murder scene that could lead to the man in Texas.

The suspect was not named, and the Star said Indiana authorites declined to comment on the report. In Cambridge City, David Weston, the leader of a citizens committee that mounted a nationwide search for Miss Harmeier, said, That (the killing) was in the back of a lot of peoples minds as a possibility. Were very saddened about the situation, but on the other hand if it has to be that way, were glad that she was found. If thats any consolation at all, were glad that shes been found." Leads are very said State Police Maj. Stan Kenny, who heads the investigation.

Weston, principal at the elementary school where Miss Harmeiers mother, Marjorie Harmeier, teaches, said the same townspeople who searched for the coed now may turn their efforts to helping police locate the killer. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Authorities studied files on known sex offenders today in their hunt for the killer of a pretty coed whose partially nude body was found in a cornfield. The discovery ended a five-week search for Ann Louise Harmeier, a 20-year-old drama major at Indiana University, who was driving to the Bloomington campus from her Cambridge City home when she disappeared. The body was found Tuesday a few miles from where her abandoned auto was discovered Sept. 12.

The car had broken down. Miss Harmeier was positively identified Wednesday after an autopsy and a study of dental charts. Dr. Josefino Aguilar, an Indianapolis pathologist, said the young woman was strangled with a shoestring twisted by her own hairbrush. Anoth.

er shoelace bound her hands behind her back. The autopsy, which took five hours because the body was decomposed, indicated Miss Harmeier had been sexually assaulted, Aguilar said, adding that medical proof of that was impossible because of the decomposition. He said the young woman's sweater had been ripped off, her bra torn away and her jeans and underwear pulled down around her ankles. The body was found lying face up be the sale and put the properties on a tax sale on the first Monday in August as prescribed in law. He said the properties will be put on sale next August.

County Treasurer Kromkowski, who conducts delinquent assessment and tax Sales, said the tax-delinquent properties cannot be put on sale unless Basker first advertises them. He said he is not sure why they have not been held or why the auditor has not advertised the delinquencies, i Hershman ventured that some court may haye ruled in the past prohibiting the delinquent assessment sales. Kromkowski said there is a 15-year statute of limitations on the collection of the assessment so that if delinquencies are more than 15 years old, they are uncollectible. The statute of limitation for property taxes is 10 years. A 6 per cent penalty is assessed for late payments.

Hershman said Barrett Law assessments are sent to property owners twice each year along with real estate tax bills. Mullen said the city legal department has been working on the problem of collecting the delinquencies' since last May in discussions with Basker. He said an audit by the Indiana State Board of Accounts for the years 1972 through 1975 show that 304 property owners were delinquent at the end of 1975 and owed $153,544.55. On Oct. 31, Miss Warrens 34-year Studebaker career, and Mrs.

Andersons 36 years, with the one-time South Bend carmaker will come to an end. We plan to rest for a while, said Miss Warren, commenting on the dusty, tedious task of sorting the last of the Studebaker files. My only regret is that I didnt keep a diary its been most interesting, Miss Warren added. OUT WITH THE OLD Workmen lift out the hydrant with the painted face before installing a new one. Crewmen from left are Mufley.

harles Adams and Joseph Muszynski. Tribune Staff Photos by Dali A. Murphy Studebaker's final farewell Flushing Studebaker-Worthington offices in New York and New Jersey, Miss Warren commented. The pension issue has been a bitter one here but Miss Warren noted that employes who had reached retirement age and had enough years service when the production lines stopped received pensions and employes who would not have been eligible for immediate retirement on that date were given cash settlements. Of, course we no longer have anything to sell, said Miss Warren, explaining that mechanics and car restorers across the nation still call them after dialing the South Bend information operator to see if Studebaker still has a telephone number here.

The remaining local residents with pension or other paperwork problems will now have, to deal directly with United Way begins push By BEVERLY WELSH Tribune Staff Writer The "big push is on by United Way of St. Joseph County to meet this year's fund-raising goal of $2,247 million. A campaign status report presented today to the agency's board of directors listed of the goal achieved as of Oct. 19. Collections to date represent two-thirds of the goal, according to Patrick O'Malley, United Way dent.

He reminded board members and others of a special report meeting scheduled for 7 am. Friday in the Indiana University at South Bend administration building (former Associates builing) to "find out where the soft spots are in this campaign." OMalley told the board that "there is ample nxim for any assistance board members can provide during the final week of the campaign. Two-hundred reservations have Ix'en made so. far for the achievement dinner Oct. 28 at St.

Mary's College, according to Sam Appleby, director of public relations. Appleby reported that the spot announcements developed in cooperation with Notre Dame football players and WNDU-Television have gained national attention. We apparently are one of the first communities ever to have done anything like this, and the national office of United Way is interested in how it was done Appleby said. The board reaffirmed its affirmative action plan that was adopted in June, 1973. as part of the required personnel process.

The plan has as its primary purpose the recruitment and utilization of minority persons in jobs and on boards of United Way and other organizations receiving United, Way support. Stanley B. Smith, chairman of the Flushing of water mains to remove sediment Friday will take place in an area bounded by Donmoycr, Ireland, Miami and Fellows. Evaluation and Allocations Division (EAD), reported devision denial of a Salvation Army request to expand its Christmas letter fund-raising effort to 45,000 mailings. Smith said that without prior knowledge of its board or United Way, the South Bend S.A.

last year upped its mailing from 1,200 to 33,500 letters. The EAD sugested that the mailing list be purged and restricted to maximum of 2,000 letters, Smith said. He said the EAD also is dealing with a state Easter Seals request that it run the local fund-raising campaign of the Easter Seal Society that is affiliated with United Health Services, a United Way agency. The problem seems to be that the local organization has not been paying its prorated dues to the state. Smith said.

The EAD has approved the allocation of $239 from emergency reserves to the Cystic Fibrosis Association to bring to $2,239 its total allocation this year. David Lambom, United Way agency services director, reviewed the 1978 state plan for Title XX programming and its import on United Way. He said the agency should be aware of becoming involved in future problems having to do with eligibility and rate determinations. OMalley called for an executive meeting, following the regular board meeting. He said the executive session would deal exclusively with the request of a company that had made a cash contribution to the 1976 fund-raising campaign and now wants to pay the remainder of the contribution through the sale of securities.

7 Our auditors advise this is okay, but with executive committee action," OMalley said. By RAY M. LELIAERT JR. Tribune Business Writer After the 31st, there will no longer be an answer, Good morning, Stude-bakcr, said Miss Margery Warren, office manager of the Studebaker Automotive Sales Corp. (SASCO).

At the end of the month, Studebaker-Worthington, the parent company, will dissolve SASCO, perhaps turning the final page of Studebaker corporate history in South Bend. Miss Warren and Mrs. Jane Anderson, the assistant office manager, are the last two Studebaker employes here. Although Studebaker car production in South Bend stopped in December 1963, SASCO remaim'd in operation in the former Plant 8, selling parts and taking care of administrative and accounting matters including pension and insurance claims. The parts sales business was sold to Newman-Altman, Inc.s Avanti division in late 1972 and SASCO moved to 613 S.

Michigan, the staff dwindling to its final two employes, said Miss Warren. She noted that the discontinued warehouse and accounting operations once employed large staffs here. The final offices, by the way, were once Newman-Altmans Packard showrooms in the days when Packards were made here in the Studebaker plant. On Nov. 1, Ed Sikora, an imported car dealer, plans to move into the showrooms.

(Story on page 44). Miss Warren and Mrs. Anderson this morning were helping city employes load a truck with files, a bust of J.M. Studebaker and a few other odds and ends being donated to the new Discovery Hall Museum. The two employes have spent the last year sorting dozens of cabinets of papers, including original Studebaker files, deciding which papers to sbnd to Studebaker-Worthington, which to discard and which to give to the museum.

KSwiv Studebaker Automotive Sales while Mrs. Jane Anderson and Miss Margery Warren, South Bends last two Studebaker employes, hold the door. The SASCO office will close Oct. 31. Tribune Staff Photo by Ed Baliotls 1 J.M.

STUDEBAKER DEPARTS Richard Welch, from left, director of the citys new Discovery Hall Museum, and Bill Flaherty, custodian of the citys Studebaker auto collection, carry of bronze bust of J. M. Studebaker this morning from the offices of the.