Longview Daily News from Longview, Washington • 13

Thursday, September 18, 1986 The Daily News B3 Sale clears way for new funeral home building or construct a new one when the funeral home moves to its new location. "Full determination of what we will do won't be coming for a few weeks," said Patricia Tisdale, real estate construction coordinator for McDonald's in Seattle. She said, however, that McDonald's probably will demolish the Steele building regardless so the property can be used completely. Construction of the new funeral home, which will be located on a site at the west end of the cemetery, probably will begin in the spring, said Larry McVicker, a partner in McVicker's Funeral Chapels which merged with Ditlevsen-Moore in 1983. McVicker said the site for the funeral home has already been excavated and plans are being drawn up.

Value of the deal was undisclosed. However, the Cowlitz County Assessor's Office lists the value of the land under the funeral home at $69,000 and the building at $109,000. The land under the City Center Motel is assessed at $85,600, with the building assessed at $9,400. The assessor's figures don't include the value of the business, furnishings or equipment. By Paula LaBeck Stepankowsky The Daily News After months of negotiating, the McDonald's Corp.

and Ditlevsen-Moore Funeral Homes have reached an agreement that eventually will lead to an expanded McDonald's Restaurant and a new funeral home in Longview. In a deal closed Tuesday, the McDonald's Corp. purchased the City Center Motel at 1527 15th Ave. and the Steele Funeral Home at 1500 Maple. The motel is between the funeral home and McDonald's.

Ditlevsen-Moore Funeral Homes owns both Steele's and the motel. The deal was announced by Ken Dahl, Ditlevsen-Moore president. Ditlevsen-Moore will lease back the Steele Funeral Home from McDonald's for two years while construction on a new funeral home at Longview Memorial Park Cemetery is under way, said Dahl in a news release. McDonald's plans to demolish the motel soon and share the additional parking space with Steele's. The motel has been closed since the end of August.

But McDonald's still hasn't decided whether it will renovate and enlarge its current restaurant I Amnesia victim knows algebra, but not her past Duly News photo by Rojn Werth James Jura, Bonneville Power Administration administrator: 'Don't believe what you're going to read about me' BPA rates will rise, but how high? taste and smell, her mother said, "so I'm afraid there is some permanent brain damage." Some odd smells such as burning motor oil break through, but most spicy dishes "taste like mashed potatoes to her," Cook said. "But it doesn't seem to really bother her. She just doesn't have too much interest in food." She is interested in the world around her, though. Kyra began classes at Lower Columbia College Monday, studying college algebra, basic design and thfe history of Western visual art. "She knows algebra.

It didn't disappear with her memory," Cook said. She's enjoying college, Cook said, "and she likes everybody coming up and talking to her. People come up and tell her they knew her and they were friends. She just has them in-troduce themselves and start from scratch." Kyra is coping well, Cook said. "I don't think I could handle it as well.

But we've read some books on amnesiacs, and they seem to handle it better than the people around them. They have no history, so they don't seem to miss it." Kyra Cook is studying algebra, design and art history. But the 18-year-old also is learning about herself this semester. "She doesn't remember anything," Kyra's mother, Gloria Cook, said this morning. Kyra apparently had been struck by a car or attacked before she approached a man in R.A.

Long Park on Sept. 8 unaware of her name or what city she was in and asked for help. He took her to the Hall of Justice, and sheriff's deputies took her to St. John's Hospital, where she was treated for a bruise at the base of her skull. Her parents didn't know what had happened until a story about her appeared in the next day's newspaper.

She retains some academic skills and her artistic talent, but the 1986 R.A. Long High School graduate hasn't regained any memories of her life before Sept. 8. Physicians and specialists have performed a number of tests on Kyra, Cook said, "and they can't give an opinion at all. There's just no way of telling if an amnesiac will get their memory back." Kyra has lost most of her sense of BPA power sales by $100 million.

BPA sales of surplus power from Columbia River hydroelectric dams to California have dropped 40 percent or about $150 million. The decline in oil and gas prices has made power generated from those sources competitive with Northwest hydropower, Jura said. BPA's largest, second-largest and fourth-largest customers are California utilities. The price of oil will be an important factor in determining rates, Jura said. "I thought I'd never see the day when I hoped OPEC would get its act together.

I do now." BPA is in a competitive market, he added, acknowledging that "increasing the price of our product (electricity is not a way of making our product more attractive. Power suppliers in British Columbia are trying to undercut BPA's prices, and even Eastern suppliers are competing with BPA to sell power in California, he said. On other power issues, Jura said: A new law prohibits him from studying a possible sale of BPA, as the Reagan administration has proposed in the past. The issue is dead. BPA will recommmend in six months whether two incomplete, mothballed Washington Public Power Supply plants should be terminated or preserved until their power is needed.

He seemed to lean toward saving the plants: "Once you ring the bell for termination, you can't unring it." tial PUD residential bill is $30 a month. BPA rates have increased about 700 percent since 1979, but Northwest power rates are still among the lowest in the nation. Nevertheless, Jura said, the region can't take more large increases. The power-hungry aluminum industry is particularly vulnerable to rate increases because foreign compeition has brought down aluminum prices, he said. "I still think aluminum has a bright future," Jura said.

"Offshore competition is making it difficult for them to compete. We are looking for ways to help them compete." Yet a rate increase is inevitable, Jura indicated, because BPA expects a $250 million to $260 million deficit in its $2.6 billion 1986 budget. By law, BPA must pay all its costs from power sales. About 80 percent of BPA's budget is in fixed costs (such as paying its debt to the federal government), leaving only 20 percent of its programs eligible for cuts, he said. BPA is trying to cut costs by reducing conservation programs and putting a hold on expanding system of transmission lines, he said.

But the bulk of BPA's deficit must be made up through rate hikes or increased power sales. Jura said two factors have worked against BPA recently: Northwest industrial activity, particularly at aluminum smelters, has dropped, reducing By Andre Stepankowsky The Daily News The man who will raise Northwest power rates next year asked for understanding in Longview Wednesday. "Don't believe what you're going to read about me in the next few months," James Jura told the Longview Rotary luncheon at the Mon-ticello Hotel. "I'll do everything I can do to hold down rates," he pledged. Jura is the chief administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that sells power to aluminum plants and public and private utilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Jura, on the job eight weeks since taking over from Peter Johnson, did not not make any projections about the size of the rate increase, which he will propose in December. But in an interview at The Daily News after his talk, he said one "pessimistic" BPA forecast estimated that the agency's rates could rise 35 percent next year. "That would be much too high. I will take drastic measures to keep rates from going there," Jura said. The Cowlitz PUD buys a large amount of BPA power, primarily to serve its industrial customers.

Cowlitz residential rates are partially shielded from BPA hikes because the PUD buys power from other sources to serve homes and apartments. The average residen-. Kalama pushing ahead on recreation district Planners give Cottonwood Island plans a boost become a traffic hazard. Walker had already started work, not knowing he needed a permit. Planners found the residential classification of his land unsuitable for a light-industrial business.

He has 10 days to appeal the decision to county commissioners. Planners approved another special use request, from a an who sought to run a mobile auto glass service out of a metal building in his back yard. The commission found the request by Mike Arthur of 3419 Columbia Heights Road would be compatible with his neighborhood since he uses his property mainly to store supplies and delivers vehicle windows to his customers. way, so to speak, to finally get development on their land," said Del McNerney, county planner. At Wednesday night's hearing, a representative of the Longview Chamber of Commerce supported the rezoning.

No one spoke against it. Next, county commissioners will hold a hearing and decide whether to rezone the island. Also Wednesday, planners denied a man's request for a special use permit to run a part-time kindling packaging business near Pacific Way north of Longview. Neighbors of Joe Walker, 2802 36th showed up in force to oppose the request, saying his operation is noisy and unsightly and could mouth of the Cowlitz River is unzon-ed. Leaving it that way could mean future owners might use the island for something besides industry.

The island, near a 40-foot-deep international shipping channel in the Columbia River and not far from 1-5, is considered prime land for manufacturing. First, though, its developers must find a way to build bridges and roads to the island. Curtis Pickering of Portland, president of Falcon Development, said industrial zoning will help his firm's efforts to get bank financing, state grants, local bond approval and future clients for sites on the island. "It's the first step in a long stair By Dell Burner The Daily News A Cowlitz County board took "the first step in a long stairway" Wednesday toward turning Cottonwood Island from a pile of sand into an industrial area. The county Planning Commission recommended approval of a Longview development firm's request to zone the island south of Kelso for heavy manufacturing.

Falcon Development Corp. has an option to buy the island and has laid out a 14-year plan to develop it with manufacturers, shipping firms and other businesses. Currently, the island near the KALAMA If approved on November's ballot, a Kalama recreation service district would create a temporary alliance between the city of Kalama and Cowlitz County. The Kalama City Council approved a resolution Wednesday agreeing to work jointly with Cowlitz County to buy the Lions Park and renovate Kalama's community building, both of which are inside Kalama's city limits. The resolution is part of a process that must be completed before Friday in order to get a recreation service area on the November ballot.

A recreation service area differs from a strictly city-sponsored effort because it creates a taxing area that includes property owners outside the city limits. The area's proposed boundaries generally follow Kalama School District boundaries. Funding would be through a bond issue. At a hearing last week, Cowlitz County commissioners explained that a recreation service area is a more equitable way to spread the cost of the facilities among all those who will use them. Wednesday's resolution acts as a guarantee to county commissioners that the alliance between Kalama and the county will be limited to the park and community building.

The county asked for that guarantee to make sure the county isn't responsible for other city parks or recreation sites. When Kalama's park has been purchased and the community building renovated, the agreement will end and the park and building will be Kalama's responsibility. The county commissioners witj take the final steps in the process Friday, when they pass a resolution to put the proposal on the ballot. 10 their resolution they must define the service area's boundaries as well as the means of financing the $500,000 project. The commissioners also could modify Kalama's resolution if they choose.

For instance, they could choose to not include the park in the ballot measure. At Wednesday's meeting, Mayor Faye Mahoney explained to the council that November's ballot measure would not provide funding. It would only define the work to be done and the area that would be taxed later. Councilman Jim Springer agreed that it would be a good idea to wait I year before asking voters to approve a bond issue, saying the council needs the time to promote the pari and community building as well zs acquaint taxpayers with the process. In other business, the council denied a request from Pat Price, owner of Columbia Vue Terrace Mobile Home Court, that her moSt recent water bill be reduced by $230 because of a leak in the city's water lines.

The council also read a letter from Welch, a Kalama resident who complained that residential areas are not being kept as tidy is the downtown area. She asked thjt the city enforce its municipal codes to clean up residential neighborhoods. The council decides to refer the matter to city police. Rainier school workers will get free season passes again No hepatitis outbreak here, but region hit with epidemic in honor of a Rainier teacher and coach who died of cancer last year. Agreed to send three high school students to the Presidential Classroom, a one-week program in Washington, D.C., where students attend classes and meet government leaders.

The district will pay $500 for each student's room and board and tuition. Students will pay for transportation to Washington. The board's next step will be approving a student selection process. Appointed three budget committee members: Robert Van Natta, an attorney; Betty Weldon, a retired school administrator; and Bob Nebekar, a local businessman. They will serve three-year terms.

Failed to agree on a date and time for this year's high school graduation. The board will meet again Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Rainier Middle School music room to set a date and consider a water rate agreement with the city. last year. Most victims are between 15 and 40 years old, said Deena Hahn, nurse epidemiologist with the Southwest Washington Health District in Vancouver.

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver, bringing fatigue, muscle aches, nausea, jaundice and weight loss. Hepatitis A is spread primarily by contact with contaminated feces. Crowded living conditions, poor sanitation and poor hygiene help the spread. It is not transmitted by coughing or sneezing. "If a food handler has it, there is potential for food-borne outbreaks as well, so there are any number of reasons to be worried about it," said Dr.

Gil Potter of the Washington Epidemology Department. Inexplicably, hepatitis cases increase every seven years, Potter said. Health officials suspect that the epidemic has resulted from "more people living on the edge moneywise, and more living in communal situations," said Dowd. By Cathy Lindsley The Daily News RAINIER School district employees again will receive free season passes to Rainier athletic events. At Wednesday night's School Board meeting, the board voted 6-1 to grant the passes after administrators and teachers argued that employees at events help with crowd control and discipline.

Sid Corl voted against the measure. The passes were discontinued several years ago after complaints they were being abused. Workers were giving their passes to other people and using them to bring people other than family members into events, some board members said. Passes will be issued to school employees but not to spouses and families. In other business, the board Named the high school gym the Chris Binder Memorial Gymnasium Arrest in Kelso nets stolen car; The Daily News andAP Although public health officials say hepatitis is epidemic throughout Washington and Oregon, "we don't have the problem at the moment," the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Health District's head nurse said today.

Through August of this year, 650 cases of hepatitis A were reported in Washington. Of those, 110 were in Clark County. Through all of 1985, 700 cases were reported in the state, 75 of them in Clark County. In Cowlitz County, 15 cases of hepatitis A have been reported this year, most of them in February or March, said Miriam Dowd, nursing director at the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Health District. Local cases have not increased significantly from last year, she said, and none was reported in August.

Clark County's relatively high proportion of the cases may be due to its proximity to Multnomah County, where 368 cases of hepatitis A were reported through August of this year, compared with 153 for all of Kelso police arrested a Santa Cruz, man Wednesday night and recovered a stolen car. Anthony Carl Neill, 21, was jailed in lieu of $2,000 bail pending a formal charge by the prosecutor's office. According to police, a 1972 Datsun belonging to Karrie Colleen Donnelly, also of Santa Cruz, was spotted on a parking lot at the Kelso Denny's Restaurant shortly before midnight. A routine check showed it had been taken from Santa Cruz withojt the owner's permission. Police arrested Neill, who hall been inside the restaurant.

But they released two passengers after determining they were hitchhikers the driver had picked up near Eugene. When police asked Neill his he replied, "Greg Stonewall," police said. A check with the Santa Cruz Police Department revealed his true name, they said..