Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 15

Wednesday April 121995 I Fon Worth Star-Telegram Section A PageT5 Mobile home park residents protest at track ceremony "All ofus would leave peacefully ifthey would just give us some answers Then we wouldn't have to be doing this" Sherry Acuff Country Lane Estates resident time" Smith said "We're not there yet This will hinge on whether we move the speedway a bit or whatever "You know we have 1000 acres and we just hope to make them comfortable that's the whole thing and hope they like it" Smith said Smith said he may buy more land in the area for his racing complex and for a race car manufacturing center he intends to build next to it "I may I may But right now we've bought enough land We don't need any more but we may buy more" Smith said Denton County officials say I 4 0 n' tJ 1 it41--It mt Ilt 14 r- lE i I I 4' il1-'' ''4 4101ii' ti- is Ikt i 41 4t 1 ''4 P1 4444' 1 4 -d 9 't 17 0 4 tot ra I 'i i i 1 o' 2 000410 k44 0 k-ik 'fo -4( 2Noto00toowoot 00 0 r' I A' t) 4 tv ts( 4i40 4t It i'4 1 1 3 oi 4 1 31) on 7 44 '44- I' Fort Worth Star-Telegram GREGG EILLM4tN Wheeler left greet racing fans yesterday before groundbreaking ceremonies for Texas Motor SpeedwIti 4 first" said she and her husbaQd Bill moved to Country Lane Estates I 0 years ago intending to retire there "We just redid the whole outside" she said "This was going to be our home until the last day" Residents said they fear that Fort Worth is going to annex their land and condemn their property But Fort Worth Assistant City Manager Mike Groomer said the city at the request of Smith will only annex land owned by Smith and designated as part of speedway project "We're not in business to annex the world" Groomer said just 117- fore the ceremony began 3J in the other states and wait them to bring it here" said fi racing fan For the event yesterdat she was dressed in pants shirt an jacket embroidered with the names of a major NASCAR sponsoy" Miller Lite Staff writers Jack Smith and Bar) bara Powell contributed to this renorp Bimbo are still working on a torlii Ha marketing venture Mrs Baird's bakes sells and db tributes more than 150 frd breads cakes snacks tortillasan4 other items across nearly all ck Texas and portions of New Melti co Oklahoma and Louisiana On El Paso is outside its Texas map from 11 plants and its Texarkair4 delivery catches the tip of Arkitp sas C5 "-s The Bairds don't reveal sates but trade publications estimA Mrs Baird's annual sales at $2-30: million to $240 million Its payr11 covers about 3000 employees cluding 1100 in the Metropletq More than 700 are in Fort Worth Wheeler's arrival comes as till company faces other industry cdiii solidation efforts that could even tougher competition to 4 Texas market that is already "idl credibly competitive and one cll the two toughest markets in nation" Malovany said es Included is the proposed merge of St Louis-based Continems) Baking known for its Wonditt Bread and No 2 nationally anti Kansas City Mo-based Interstati Bakeries known in Texas for Dolt( Madison snacks and ranked sixth si Mrs Baird's remains TexaV bread market leader and for ovelc all bakery goods is ranked 24 nationally by the baking industry Wheeler also arrives as grand julr ties in Dallas and Macon Ga con tinue to review business records i4 a Justice Department inquiry in the possibility of bid-rigging an other anticompetitive practices ib the bread industry Records have been subpoeniett from Mrs Baird's Continenli) Baking Interstate Bakeries Campbell Taggart of St Louis a4 Flowers Industries of Thomasvillik Ga The Bairds have declinedIst comment on the industrywide iti quiry BY BARBARA POWELL Fort Worth Star-Telegram DENTON COUNTY One small group among the 1000 racing fans at yesterday's groundbreaking of Texas Motor Speedway wasn't cheering as developer Bruton Smith broke ground by pushing a detonator As a huge cloud of smoke rose behind Smith creating a blinding momentary solar eclipse about a dozen residents of a nearby mobile home park paced the road behind the crowd wearing red shirts and carrying protest signs "Have 3 acres will strip mall Find me a developer" said the sign carried by one of the protesters Track From Page 1 ager Mike Groomer said yesterday that a "memorandum of understanding" which will outline Fort Worth's general agreement to provide financial incentives for speedway construction will probably be presented to the City Council for approval within two weeks Groomer said the agreement is being fine-tuned by attorneys for Smith the city and Denton County which is also offering incentives Mayor Kay Granger said she does not see any stumbling blocks to prevent finalizing the agreement "We think we've passed all the hurdles to a final agreement or you wouldn't see me at a groundbreaking" the Fort Worth mayor said "We are going to have a racetrack and we are going to have it in Fort Worth" Tentative plans which include annexation of the race site by Fort Worth call for financing speedway construction with bonds issued by a sports authority created by Fort Worth and Denton County The plan also includes a tax increment financing district or TIF Property tax revenues from the track site as well as the city's share of sales tax from speedway events would go into a TIF fund to help retire the sports authority bonds Smith's company Speedway Motorsports would be responsible for paying the balance on the construction bonds Smith a North Carolina businessman signed an agreement Space From Page 1 Gene Kranz lead flight director "The performance of the crew and the operations team and the support of the whole world they just came together in a marvelous moment of achievement" The high drama didn't escape Hollywood Director Ron Howard's film Apollo 13 based on Lovell's 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 will be released in June Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks stars as Lovell The date of the tank explosion: Israeli judge holds session on merits ofgator wrestling The Associated Press TEL AVIV Israel An American staged an amphibious assault in an Israeli courtroom yesterday There was no military response Alligator trainer Jim Moulton of St Augustine Fla wrestled a 3- foot-long gator in District Court Judge Hila Gertler's courtroom before flipping it over and knocking' it unconscious Moulton was flown in this week by the owners of a Tel Aviv alligator farm to prove the harmlessness of their alligator-wrestling show under fire from animal-rights activists "There has been no damage so far to any of the alligators just to people" Moulton assured Gentler He said he trained three Israeli wrestlers who for the past 18 months have been staging a daily 30-minute show at the Hamat Gader farm in Israel Animal lovers in court weren't convinced "This is torture!" some yelled Smith wants to use the mobile home park land for parking lots but some residents said they believe that Smith needs their land for the track itself Many residents of the mobile home community where most of the homes are owned and sit on one-half- to 3-acre lots wouldn't be so angry if they weren't being ignored they said "All of us would leave peacefully if they would just give us some answers" resident Sherry Acuff said "Then we wouldn't have to be doing this" Mary Lou Van Buren whose picket sign read "Where have all the flowers gone We were here' Debbie Papenfuss a 28-year-old Fort Worth resident said the prospect of attending races in Fort Worth has led her to cancel her annual out-of-state trips "We've been going to Atlanta and Florida's Daytona 500 and Charlotte for the last five years and this year we decided that we're going to quit spending our money Wheeler From Page 1 All I 9 Baird family members including Carroll who are now directly involved in the business will continue to work for the company Allen Baird said Company policy-making will remain the province of family members he said Wheeler said yesterday that Mrs Baird's expects "fresh thinking" from him to help the company expand inside and outside Texas through acquisitions and in-house growth The industry was expecting Mrs Baird's to name an outsider to the chief executive's post Mrs Baird's "a very traditional family" surprised the industry late last year by saying it was looking for an outsider to become chief executive said Dan Malovany editor of Bakery Production and Marketing magazine in Chicago "They keep family matters pretty tight to the chest" Malovany said Gordon Davidson editor of Milling and Baking News in Kansas City Mo said "The Bairds are taking a step a lot of families in the baking business do from time to time to get fresh viewpoints and new expertise for growth" He added: "Mrs Baird's is still a strong franchise" Mrs Baird's revealed early last year that it wanted to make significant changes in its direction by developing a broad-based joint marketing venture with Grupo Industrial Bimbo of Mexico That venture didn't materialize but the hiring of an outsider to be chief executive is probably another step in the company's broader efforts to change business strategies Malovany said Allen Baird said Mrs Baird's and Jeanne Johnson The residents among the 107 families living in Country Lane Estates said they are angry because they haven't been told whether Smith intends to buy them out About 200 of the residents walked out in anger from a meeting Monday with Smith representatives because they got no answers to their '1 id 012 010 WI 00-EacAy-iM-41 I ElizabethN I Creek Fort I Worth TARRANT CO Alliance-Airport Haslet i Roanoke Mappe Saginaw Fort Worth Star-lblegram April 1 to buy 1000 acres for the track from Ross Perot Jr's Alliance Development Company "They haven't paid for it But everything is done Now it's a matter of getting all the details and engineering completed and get it under construction" Perot said Terry Labonte the 1984 Winston Cup racing champion joined Smith onstage yesterday with brother Bobby Labonte and fellow driver Jeff Gordon "I've been to the racetrack in Charlotte and the racetrack in Atlanta and this will be something special The people in Texas will be awfully proud of this" said Terry Labonte a Corpus Christi native Traffic flow was one of Smith's top priorities during negotiations with Fort Worth Traffic leading to the ceremony yesterday was backed up for about a quarter-mile to Interstate 35W and the Texas 114 intersection A April 13 1970 two days after the colossal Saturn 5 rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Center The time of the launch: 2:13 pm at Kennedy Space Center and 1:13 pm at Mission Control in Houston or 1313 in military time Cursed or not it remains the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's only in-space disaster in 99 human space flights The Apollo 1 spacecraft fire which killed three astronauts in 1967 occurred at the launch pad during a countdown test The Challenger explosion which killed all seven aboard in 1986 occurred 73 seconds after liftoff NASA later concluded that both of those tragedies could have been avoided Apollo 13 also could have been prevented: A review board criticized NASA for "serious oversight" in the design and testing of the oxygen tank For four days in April 1970 hundreds of flight controllers and engineers worked feverishly on a daring rescue plan Council From Page 1 chapter of the Associated General Contractors or AGC withdrew its opposition Members of the AGC the largest contractors' group in the city had initially attacked the plan as a quota system and called for a substantially lower goal But the group changed its stance after the ordinance was rewritten to clarify what constitutes a "good-faith" effort by prime contractors usually larger Anglo-owned firms to meet the goal "The only concern we have is the implementation of it" said Richard Horton president of the Fort Worth chapter of the Associated 1 1 pp-Eadaips 0 0 0 tIi reAhoth --N 1 Elizabeth i 4ts Ale 4 Fort i Worth Roanoke Airport Haslet 10 iv Sig ilk area -qzTA 0- 71AMPoll El iiiiii -11t4 Saginaw sn Fort Worth Star2Thipffran questions they said Smith who drove past the picket line to attend the ceremonies said shortly before the groundbreaking that he hasn't decided whether he will offer to buy the 98-acre mobile home community which is adjacent to his 1000-acre racetrack site near Alliance Airport "We'll address that at a later Bruton Smith center and Humpy Smith representative said jokingly that the audience had experienced "the first traffic jam in Texas Motor Speedway history" Granger agreed that road improvements must be made in time for Smith's targeted racing date "Wait until they see the crowds that show up for the race People won't believe it" she said Not only was oxygen spilling into space from the service module two of Apollo 13's three fuel cells were out and one of two main power distribution panels was dead With Kranz calling the shots Lovell Haise and Swigert moved into the cramped dark and frigid lunar lander while rationing their dwindling oxygen water and electricity They swung around the moon and aimed for Earth as people worldwide waited and prayed No one panicked "If we didn't control our emotions we'd still be floating around up there" Lovell said "1 mean there was no other recourse" The drama ended April 17 1970 when the command module minus the jettisoned service module and lunar lander parachuted into the Pacific Ocean Men returned to the moon four more times and landed But none of the Apollo 13 astronauts flew in space again Haise ended up in business Swigert went into politics he died General Contractors Horton stressed that the 25 percent participation level must be treated as a goal and not a mandatory quota Granger praised councilmen Bill Meadows and Kenneth Barr for doing "behind-the-scenes work" resulting in the amended ordinance that addresses concerns of AGC members The ordinance calls for city advertisements for bids to "appear in minority- and women-targeted media" Written bid notifications must also be sent to minority and women trade associations and chambers of commerce To help small minority subcontractors who may be strapped for cash the ordinance stipulates that prime contractors for city construction contracts must pay their subcontractors within five business days after the city days them 1 i ''Je'2''''''' It 1::: 1111: 4' 1 4 I Eddie Gossage vice president for public relations for Smith's Charlotte Motor Speedway said yesterday that meetings will begin next week to discuss road improvements with state officials Sources said that Gossage is expected to supervise the Texas project and that an office will be opened by June 1 of cancer in 1982 one month after being elected to Congress "I'm living on borrowed time" said Lovell who retired from business a few years ago "I could have been dead back in 1970 and so all this is gravy" Russian crowds welcome record-setting cosmonauts The Associated Press STAR CITY Russia With new haircuts and buoyant smiles the cosmonauts who returned from the Mir space station three weeks ago emerged from medical isolation yesterday to the cheers of adoring crowds Velery Polyakov who set an endurance record of 439 days in space Yelena Kondakova a flight engineer whose 170 days in space set an endurance record for women and commander Alexander Viktorenko returned to Earth on March 22 and were whisked off for medical tests and reconditioning Contractors who falsely represent the level of minority and female participation in a city project face potential "debarment" under which they will be banned from participation in city work for at least three years the ordinance says The ordinance sets a goal of I 3 percent of city contracting and purchasing dollars going to minority-owned firms and 12 percent to women-owned firms for a total of 25 percent A specific goal for the percentage of participation by minority- and women-owned firms will be set for each individual project based on the availability of such firms and the skills required for the work The goal might be less than 5 percent or exceed 50 percent Staff writer Roland Martin con- tributed to this report 1 1 sc MILAIIIMMiEbk- MikmiMmiliMibbMilamilMiftlimMMMiLmibikMaMilaaiMM11diMAEMd M1AilMMME aminna 1.