The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 144

2BR THE HERALD TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 12 1995 Airport land-swap deal still up in air ICOlINTYiBUDGETIHEftRINCI Broward residents have a chance to sound off tonight about county services and taxes at the first of two hearings on the proposed fiscal 1996 county budget The hearing begins at 7 pm at Hollywood Hills High School 5400 Stirling Rd If approved the $14 billion budget would mean a 38 percent tax increase for a typical Broward home- owner Fire fees for a single-family home in unincorporated Broward will jump 12 percent to $151 A second final public hearing will be held at 7 pm Sept 21 at Northeast High School 700 NE 56th St Oakland Park Citizens interested in giving their views may register to speak just before the start of each meeting By JOSEPH TANFANI Herald Staff Writer Two years ot on-and-off negotiations brought Dania and Broward County to the brink of a truce over expansion of Fort Laudcrdale-Holly-wood International Airport Perhaps not close enough though Today Broward commissioners will consider a deal to swap land with Dania and hand pver $16 million in iPturn for the agreement to drop its lawsuit against airport expansion Dania approved its own version of the deal Aug 22 But a problem: version differs from which squeaked through by a 3-2 vote Dania City Commissioner Bob Mikes says as far as concerned i Part of the airport lies within Dania Linder the deal Dania would give up the airport land in return for some chunks of unincorporated territory The county also would agree to some restrictions on the runway to (keep down jet noise The sticking points: The county wants to keep an abandoned trailer park called End at the southern border Dania wants it too And although the county is willing to give up a 33-acre parcel called Marina Mile the city of Fort Lauderdale has moved to bring it into its boundaries The county wants the deal to go ahead with or without Marina Mile but Dania buying that idea not too crazy about the expansion and what it does to our small city Mikes said no deal typical of this County Commission which is so beholden to special said Mikes who voted reluctantly to settle Dania has battled unsuccessfully for years to contain airport growth Using borrowed money Dania filed suit to try to stop the airport from expanding its southern runway over US 1 So far the county has been winning BROWARD BRIEFLY POMPANO BEACH Commission hires new manager acting leader to head finance William Hargett will become Pompano new city manager Sept 19 Hargett 52 who was recently hired by the Pompano Beach City Commission will earn $93000 a year as the city's top business executive He was the former assistant county manager for Collier County and has a degree in engineering and a degree in public administration The new city manager will fill a vacancy left by Lawrence McNerney 53 acting city manager who was demoted to his former job as finance director in April McNerney was hired as acting manager in January 1994 after City Manager Roy Stype resigned In April 1994 McNerney was given the job full time When Hargett assumes his duties as city manger McNerney will step down to head the finance department a job he held for nine years FORT LAUDERDALE Car of beaten woman 72 found outside city on Broward Blvd The car of a 72-year-old woman badly beaten in her home as she prepared to go to church on Sunday was found abandoned early Monday The Broward Sheriffs Office recovered the 1994 Honda Accord in the 3400 block of West Broward Boulevard just outside Fort Lauderdale Police were processing it Monday for clues The woman whose name is being withheld while police determine whether she was sexually assaulted was in fair condition Monday at Broward General Medical Center She was attacked about 9:30 am in her Center Avenue home after a man followed her inside after she had put some items in her car The man bound and blindfolded the woman before hitting her with a heavy object knocking her unconscious police said A black mountain bike was left in the driveway Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 493-TIPS Cab driver dies of head injury received in fight with passenger A Checker cab driver who was hit on the head Thursday by a passenger died Sunday morning Armis Strickland 56 of Fort Lauderdale fell unconscious outside a Fort Lauderdale gas station He died at Broward General Medical Center of blunt-force trauma to the head according to the Broward medical office Michael Pray 27 formerly of Massachusetts with an unknown local address is expected to be charged with homicide today said Fort Lauderdale police spokeswoman Sonya Friedman Pray was charged with aggravated battery and violating probation at the time of the attack Strickland picked up Pray about 4:40 am Thursday at the Copa Cabaret Disco police said Soon afterward the two began arguing Strickland stopped at an Amoco station at 601 SE 17th St where the two men got out of the cab and continued to argue Pray then punched Strickland and ran away police said He: was arrested a short time later Pray told police he hit Strickland because he kept driving him around and shoved him 6 cats die in blaze that destroyed apartment short circuit caused fire Six cats died Monday after a fire destroyed a Fort Lauderdale apartment Twelve firefighters answered the call at 5:44 pm and found smoke billowing out of the window of the apartment 916 NE 17th St Battalion Chief Tom said The fire was brought under control about 15 minutes later and firefighters found the cats which included some kittens said Attempts to revive the cats failed he said The apartment was rented by Scott Zinolli who was not home when the fire started said The fire was sparked by a short circuit in the wiring of a lighted hutch he said Damage estimated at $10000 was confined to the one apartment said PEMBROKE PINES Child-care center is evacuated after lightning strikes nearby tree A child-care center in Pembroke Pines was evacuated Monday when lightning struck a nearby tree About 50 kids were evacuated just after 1 pm from the Stepping Stones child-care center 8914 Taft St said owner Sheena Stone No one was injured said Pembroke Pines spokeswoman Maryann Flanagan The tree was in the back yard of a home at 1 596 NW 89th Ter behind the child-care center in the Pembroke Place South shopping center The kids ranged in age from 6 weeks to 5 years and were asleep when the fire started in the tree Stone said The staff members roused the children and rushed them out of the center The children waited for about 20 minutes at a dry-cleaning business in the shopping center while firefighters extinguished the blaze They then returned to the child-care center EMILY KELSEY Herald Staff SINKHOLE PLUGGED Larry Mackey an employee with the city of Fort Lauderdale smoothes fresh asphalt over a large sinkhole at Sunrise Boulevard and Bayview Drive that nearly swallowed a car Sunday Two teens rescued Sadie Beau-chene and her 6-year-old daughter Amy from their car aftei it tipped into the hole they were unhurt The 10- foot sinkhole was repaired by Monday afternoon Hector Castro Fort assistant utilities director said the intersection was open to all traffic by rush hour The sinkhole developed when a 10-inch water main ruptured causing the asphalt to collapse Castro said Water service in the area was not affected he said Gunman who seized yacht cleared by jury Suspension proposed for bus supervisor By MARILYN MARKS Herald Staff Writer I Broward public school officials have recommended a transportation supervisor be relieved of duty without pay for her role in an incident in which a bus driver with a suspended license crashed into a Hollywood home After the Thursday accident transportation officials found records showing that five other drivers also had suspended licenses although all but one have already been reinstated The other will not be allowed to drive according to Arlin Vance transportation services director School officials Monday said the administrator Billie Fitzgerald was negligent because she never told her supervisor she did not complete a check of licenses The suspension without pay must be approved by the School Board In last incident driver Mary Wise Gissendanner 47 of Hollywood appeared to have passed out at the wheel before she lost control of her bus and crashed through the front wall of a Hollywood house witnesses said Her license had been suspended in December when she dropped her insurance coverage and failed to notify officials of new coverage records show Fitzgerald wrote in a memo that she did check weekly updates on licenses and that she believed was coded as reinstated She said she was checking all licenses a job she said was not assigned her but did not complete it because of a heavy workload around the beginning of the year Fitzgerald would not comment Monday except to say she was in a over the suspension She has had an record during her 23 years in the transportation department Vance said issue is that it was not completed and she did not inform he said supposed to be completed before each semester It is not uncommon to find suspended licenses in the weekly and semester checks Vance said it has to do with insurance we find that many times the people even know their licenses are under he said notify them that they drive until they get it cleared Gissendanner remained in intensive care Monday at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood Health plans to get scrutiny ALLIANCE FROM 1BR attorney In fact Florida regulators ordered Humana to pay $625 million earlier this year after allegations surfaced that the healthcare titan overcharged patients by not passing along discounts Now the insurance department insists it has safeguards in place to assure consumers get bilked Still the people who run health-purchasing consortium plan to do their own inspection of policies The alliance one of 1 1 blanketing the state aims to broker health-care plans for small businesses and their workers people often priced out of the insurance market By knitting together dozens of companies and hundreds of workers into a single buying bloc the alliance gets the kind of discounts on insurance usually reserved for big companies Since its formation in fall 1993 the consortium has been striving to transcend price to make sure low cost doesn't translate into low quality By AMY DRISCOLL Herald Staff Writer Dazed by drugs with 54 suicide attempts in his past James Parrillo was in no shape to understand what he was doing when he commandeered a $17 million yacht docked at Bahia Mar last year a Broward County jury decided Saturday the jury found Parrillo 29 not guilty by reason of insanity on five of the six charges he faced in connection with the hostage-taking in July 1994 On the sixth charge the jurors returned a straight not-guilty verdict said Assistant Public Defender Wayne Corry The jury which began deliberating on Friday completed work during a rare Saturday morning session ordered by Broward Circuit Judge Richard Eade Parrillo who told police he had swallowed at least 50 pills of an anti-seizure drug before boarding the 155-foot Defiance faced charges of armed kidnapping aggravated assault armed burglary and shooting at an occupied vessel Three of four psychologists who evaluated Parrillo said he was insane at the time of the assault Only one determined that he was sane Prosecutor Joe Maus argued during the two-week trial that Parrillo displayed clear signs that he knew what he was doing including telling police that he would not turn himself in because he would face in prison Parrillo dressed in army fatigues eventually released all eight hostages including the captain the captain's wife and six other crew members telling them he was the right Maus said were things that this guy did that indicate he knew what was going on that he was aware of the nature and consequences of his Maus said EMILY KELSEY Herald Staff INSANITY DEFENSE: Shackled to his chair James Parrillo listens to court proceedings Monday ISILLYiSIGNSI 954 code greeted unenthusiastically looking for irregular road signs upside down topsy-turvy foolishly misspelled idiotically inaccurate lamely misdirected irresponsibly ironic ridiculously redundant or displaying any other abnormality that strikes your fancy or tickles your funny bone Call us with your finds Using a touch-tone phone call TeleHerald at 527-4636 in Broward A recorded voice will ask for a category number Press 4111 and follow the instructions Please leave a message and include the spelling of your name the city where you live and a daytime telephone number publish some of your comments soon Southern Bell plans an advertising blitz AREA CODE FROM 1BR businesses start reprogramming their phones and alerting customers who need to update their systems A test phone number (954)236-4242 has been set up for callers to verify that their phone can handle the new code But some Broward business owners Until then Linda Sue Marsh vice president of sales at the Riviera Ocean Resort in Fort Lauderdale even going to mention a possible change to tour operators and travel agents you kidding me? not going to be the one to walk into the she said If international callers get stuck on 954 divert business to the calls they can make and that means 305 and 407 she said 1 and Palm Beach would give their eyeteeth to have the business worked so hard say if calling easy lose overseas customers still hoping that the PSC will reconsider because it will impact our said John Bauer president of Basic Foods International in Fort Lauderdale He get calls from a veritable United Nations of clients Monday: Jamaica Guatemala Moscow and St Petersburg Latvia and Brazil all failed to get through when he asked them to try the new area code The Public Service Commission has scheduled a rehearing on the area code for Sept 26.