The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 25

Modesto Schools Brace For Arrival Of 20000 Students1 Summer vacation for Modesto school children will officially end Tuesday as the 27 elementary and high school district schools open their doors for the 1973-74 academic year Tuesday also will mark the start of the fall semester at Modesto Junior College and of classes in the Stanislaus Union Empire Paradise Shiloh and Salida Elementary Districts the Modesto Christian School and the private parent-operated Modesto Alternative Ways and Modesto Schools Students in the Sylvan Union and Hart-Ransom Elementary Districts and at the other private schools resumed studies last week More than 20000 elementary junior high and high school dred Settle and Karlene Duckart confening with reading specialist Joan Beaton seated teacher Pauline Smith greets twins Warren and Vaughn and their mother Mrs Joyce Pag gette standing and new principals John Bryce Fairview Elementary and Bruce Urban Mark Twain Junior High chatting prior to an administrators' meeting students are expected to be on hand for the opening of the Modesto City Schools a slight drop in enrolment from last year with most of the decline anticipated in the lower grades Pre-school preparations this past week included above left to right drivers Bernice Smith Charlottee Jones and Ida Wilson washing a bus Bret Harte School second grade teachers Mil Smoothing Things Over Almost $1 Million Remains To Be Expended on City Streets NNKSMHIBKMieSe tmmma LOCAL COUNTY AND VALLEY NEWS EDITORIALS MODESTO CALIFORNIA SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9 1973 AAA Ywnr saBMMMSi PAGE C-l I Shoplifting Epidemic Keeps Businessmen On The Alert Granger to Briggsmore Florida Avenue and Sherwood Avenue both from Florida to McHenry Stetson Avenue Orangeburg to Pearl and Del Monte Avenue Kearney to Tully Road Priority Process Mangnall reported the streets are selected by priority process under continual evaluation based on maintenance needs public complaints installation of sewer lines scheduled capital improvement projects overall community traffic patterns and engineering requirements "Hopefully once the streets are overlaid they will not have to be torn up by unexpected sewer water and other emergency installation" Mangall explained He added delays to motorists while the resurfacing work is done will last no longer than one day with short stretches being blocked off for single day completion Long stretches will be done a lane at a time so traffic can use the other half of the street Lpngtr Life Portions of 30 oil-dirt streets in the city were given longer life by using a paving process applying oil then a layer of crushed granite during a two-week project by city crews this summer Contractor George Reed Inc Modesto is completing a $6661960 project in the five-block federally funded west Modesto housing rehabilitation area on portions of Maple Oak Franklin Madison Jefferson and Washington Streets and nine blocks of alleys The council last week award-ed a $7245 contract to Lee White Paving Co Modesto to construct the Rumble Road crossing of the Tidewater Southern Railway tracks east of College Road At Tuesday night's 7:30 meeting in the city hall the council is scheduled to call for bids on a park project to includq city widening to full streets of Crestview and Kruger Drives adjacent to Downey Community Park at an estimated $21991 By Bill Phillips Almost $1 million in street projects are expected to improve roadways in Modesto during remainder of the year says Assistant Public Works Director Richard Mangnall Ready to go is the $194000 Paradise Road widening from two to four lanes past Modesto High School from Franklin to First Street The contract has been awarded to Flint-kote Co Modesto at $159-94590 Engineering and contingencies account for the rest Bids now are being accepted on the $134000 revamp of the dangerous Virginia Avenue-West Morris Avenue intersection and to enlarge oneway Street from two to three lanes from First to 16th Streets at an estimated cost of $103000 Other Projects Mangnall said other major road projects still possible this year include the $192000 widening of Scenic Drive from two to four lanes from Burney Street to the front of Scenic General Hospital and the $318000 El Vista Avenue widening from two to four lanes from Edgebrook Drive to Yosemite Boulevard Clearance by Stanislaus County of its portion of the El Vista work is delaying a bid call Mangnall said Plans for Scenic Drive are being adjusted to state and federal guidelines we may let it go until Mangnall commented All but the Virginia-Morris project originally were scheduled for completion this summer The delay was required to clear more than $200000 in federal funds Bids Scheduled Bids will be opened in the city hall Sept 18 for resurfacing streets in the annua! maintenance program at an estimated cost of $5882 Mangnall said the project calls for Modesto using state gasoline tax allocations to concrete asphalt Seventh Street from Tuolumne Boulevard to Street Morton Boulevard from 12th to Grand Street By Jim McClung An affliction of epidemic proportions is hitting owners and managers of retail stores right where it hurts the most the net profit columns of accounting ledgers They are hard pressed to do something about it And to make matters worse some admit their affliction is a byproduct created by their own quest for the mass market The affliction they say is the American shoplifter created trained and fed by modern merchandising methods The process leaves products within easy reach of penniless shoppers who are fleet of foot and as wily as foxes Shoplifters cost US businessmen millions last year For the Modesto Pay Less Drug Store and its 42 other sister stores in California the shoplifter represented a $102-000 loss in 1972 Security Force John Tyler of Oakland has been the "loss prevention for Skaggs Pay Lew Drug Stores for 14 years Three years ago to combat the rising rate of shoplifting he Initiated a security force for Skaggs He now has 42 security employes who are rotated from store to store throughout the year Their Job is to detect observe and follow shoplifters out the door of Pay Less stores I To obtain prosecution of shoplifters employes make the arrest after the suspect is IS feet from the store and walking away with the goods Tyler says Not Alone Pay Less is not the only store plagued by shoplifters In a west Modesto market last month an elderly and intoxicated shopper was caught going out the door with two bone steaks inside his shirt At a Safeway store several weeks ago a regular customer raised his arms in a gesture of innocence after being stopped by the store manager and four packages of lobster fell to the floor from beneath his bulky jacket In a north Modesto market a woman customer of many years stamped out of the store after clerks asked her to pay for the packaged meats Bee Photo Four Foreign Students Will Be Welcomed Four students from Europe and South America who will attend local high schools this school year will be welcomed at a potluck dinner tomorrow arranged by the Modesto Chapter American Field Service The event will begin at 6:30 pm in the Modesto Irrigation District Auditorium Ane Laursen of Denmark is living with the John Wool-leys and attending Beyer High School Rebeca Figueroa of Venezulae with the Melvir Cranks and a student at Davis High Guillermo Uslar ol Chile with the Robert Watson family and attending Downey High and Christian Verst raete of Belgium with the Warren Boyds and at Modesto High School Greetings also will be extended to two local students who spent the summer in other countries under AFS Americans Abroad program Carolyn Wadiin of Downey was in Germany and Susan Mensinger of Davis went to Sweden Robert Garvin AFS chapter president will conduct the public meeting Those attending are asked to take a hot dish and a salad or dessert with their own table service Sylvan Board Will Convene Ponder Raises Pay raises for Sylvan Union Elementary School District employes will be discussed during a meeting of district trustees at 7:30 pm Tuesday in the multipurpose room of the Sylvan School The suburban northeast Modesto 154 teachers Friday accepted an average 63 per cent cost-of-living pay hike offer from the board And Supt Carroll Clark said negotiations with the 60 non-teaching employes also are close to being completed Other agenda items include approval of an agreement with the Stanislaus Union Elementary District board and the Modesto Board of Education governing interdistrict attendance and a review of the City of planned after-school recrea-t i ft program at Sylvan schools Car Injures Bike Rider 78 Adelino Tueciarone 78 of 315 Sutter Ave Modesto is in critical condition at Scenic General Hospital where he was taken after his bicycle was struck by a car Friday morning The police said Tueciarone was westbound on Street when he pedaled in front of a car driven on Eighth Street by Robert Eaton 18 of 113 Sylvan Road Modesto Officers said Eaton had stopped for a stop sign and was pulling away when Tuc-ciarone darted in his path No citations were issued Displays are an easy touch Bee Aerial High school building indicated by arrow has been moved to allow Paradise Road widening Franklin to First Street and save campus trees across street contract with general city funds are residential portions of 12th Street to Morton Locke Road Brighton to Rose-lene Avenue Frances Avenue McHenry to Ila Way Dixie Lane Gardenia Road and Honeysuckle Drive all from Sunrise Avenue from Lucern to Fairmont Aven ie Tokay Avenue from McHenry to Sunrise Griswold Avenue from Sycamore to McHenry Avenue Princeton Avenue from Carver Road to Kearney Avenue To be paved under the same stuffed in her purse She had a shopping cart full of groceries and intended to pay for them but not the meats She has not been back In spite of the security forces employed by the chain stores and larger individually owned retail outlets shoplifting is relatively unchecked An arrest for shoplifting is a misdemeanor and treated lightly by the courts say security officials In addition to prosecute a shoplifter the victim store must provide witnesses against the suspect in court which more often than not costs the store more in wages and expenses than the items taken In one day a major drug store in Modesto had seven of its clerks in court to testify against a suspect They were there at company expense Losses may run as high as 2 to six per cent of gross revenue for some stores This loss is not directly reflected in the price of stock but the consumer does pay The chain stores operate on a net profit basis and merely increase their prices Who are the shoplifters? Fifty per cent are under the age of 18 The other half consists of people of all descriptions and walks of life A young security officer in one Modesto store says the art of shoplifting has no economic or moral barriers She has arrested the wife of a successful businessman in Modesto and while working in Hayward arrested the wife of a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation my work everyone is suspect and about one in three are she says Is That A (Bleep) Fllyng might be one week one month or six months from now but when a UFO is in the vicinity the detector will leap to action" (The Modesto detector owner would just as soon it went quietly) is reported to be more UFO activity in California than practically any other state in the Paradice continues There are many UFO detector owners in your state all satisfied Homeowner Burns While County Fiddles Where's The Fire? FrWe 3 35 am -5447 Hale Read bo-tan Hre Wuuhtor 4 OS a 1311 Mono Drtvt train Empirt 4:15 410 7th St train a Lotion Part troaa Art Paradice also encloses a sheet of testimonials to the GEOS-10 with his correspondence The testimonials are largely in French While there was a rash of UFO sightings over the Stanislaus district in 1966-67 the last sighting was reported to Modesto police three years ago Several Reports Most recently Atlanta Ga has been stirred by several sighting reports The US Air Force in charge of UFO investigations has been less stirred than most It is not going to investigate Most UFO sightings turn out to be connected with earthly rocket launchings or weather balloons or some such that is except for about 400 out of more than 2000 UFO sightings studied by the Air Force Those 400 flying objects turned out to be genuinely unidentified leading some respected scientists to speculate on the possibility of visits from an unknown planet or so magnetic fields Tn fact without a GEOS-10 you never know what may fly over your house Only UFOs are believed to have a magnetic field strong enough to set off the Flying Magnet? As a matter of fact a magnetic field strong enough to activate the detector's buzzer also should trip every traffic signal in town says a Modesto electronics man doubt anything in space will set it off unless a huge magnet flies Cost of the components a 9 volt battery powering a reed magnetic switch similar to those used in burglar alarm circuits the buzzer and plastic case is estimated at $399 Almost $10 between cost and price is left over to divide among the master Swiss craftsmen Paradice and the mailers and handlers Makes Promise detector will set off its buzzer when a UFO is in the vicinity of your promises Paradice "That Flying saucers have been avoiding Stanislaus County for the last six weeks The reason for the certainty is that a genuine Swiss-made UFO detector has been sitting around on a Modesto office desk since late July without burping so much as a bemused blip It has in fact done nothing at all although office wags suggest it may be working up to a self-destruct hiccup Nothing of the kind says Sammy I Paradice Beaumont Tex publisher of Spaceview Magazine Paradice whose name sounds like a chancey cross between heaven and a crap game sells the GEOS-10 UFO Detector for $1395 from his headquarters in the Goodhue Building Suite 103 He Explains His advertising touting sensational instrument precision made by master Swiss made a local landing this summer The instrument he explains detects approaching 7:14 33S Suttar Ava fonct ttra 7:34 pm 130 Roaeburt Ave train Modesto 7:41 300 Yosemit Blvd tenet fire Modecto :55 pm Monte Vista Avenue and Montpellier Road Brass Waterford 10:10 pm 133 Granger Ave train Modesto George Thomsbury of 1021 Rosie Ave Modesto is convinced the Stanislaus County Public Works Department could lighten its work load by writing fewer letters Eight days ago a home owned by Thomsbury in Ceres at 2420 Don Pedro Ave was totally destroyed by fire According to Thomsbury two of the bedrooms fell into the basement and the entire roof of the structure collapsed Yesterday Thomsbury received a letter from the county agency informing him an official of the department following an inspection of the property had determined the house damaged beyond repair and unfit for human got news for the said Thomsbury house is such a loss the dog even stay Thomsbury purchased the home about a year ago for his daughter and her husband He said the site will be cleared away as soon as his insurance claim is settled Drive-la 3 3 a Younaston and Paulson Roads Repele Camper Co structure tire Turlodt Rural Peres Den-air and Stanislaus 7:44 jn Oak Street electrical short Modesto a 05 Oliva Avt Turlock Rural smoke 11:35 am Epnail Avenue and 10th Street press Keyes 13:44 pm Houser Lane grass turbenk-Peradise Bet Ptroto Saucer Seeker.