The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 3

Delta King Sacramentan may make old riverboat into restaurant New super department store will anchor center A 50000-square-foot and a 50000-quare-foot Department Store will anchor an $8 million neighborhood shopping center to be known as Century Center on the northeast corner of Oakdale Road and Orangeburg Avenue Modesto Thomas Raley owner and board chairman of the 45-store chain and Lawrence of Sacramento owner of the five-store department store chain said they anticipate a late-September or early-October opening Raley and Lawrence announced their plans Friday while in Modesto for a meeting with property owners Jim Lamatis and George Manatos and developer Bob Howard of the Sacramento-based Century Centers In addition to and the 19-acre center with a total of of retail space will contain 20 to 25 other stores and shops Howard said It will be second Modesto store In early 1976 opened a 43000-square-foot supermarket and drug center in the Tully Manor shopping center at Tully Road and Standi-ford Avenue is just where we want to be since it makes it possible for us to serve the whole community of said Raley during a visit to the site of the future store Lawrence founded his department store business in 1946 in Sacramento and today operates stores in Sacramento Carmichael Davis South Lake Tahoe and Reno specializes in clothing and shoes for the entire family jewelry gifts and domestics the owner said The Modesto store will be largest store The others range in size from 20000 to 37500 square feet Lawrence said Raley said he and Lawrence have been friends for more than 20 years and their business relationship goes back to 1959 when they opened stores side-by-side in Sacramento They also share the same shopping center at Lake Tahoe Lawrence said it was Raley who convinced him to participate in the new Modesto shopping center Lawrence said his firm carries name brand quality merchandise and the stores concentrate on providing the extra service customers like and want The east Modesto will contain 7000-square-feet more than the Tully Road store and will feature some 40 major departments including an in-store bakery drugs liquors and a service delicatessen The shopping center will have about 800 parking spaces Howard said Among the tenants none of which have yet been identified will be a bank a savings and loan association and a dry cleaners Bee Photo Tom Fat and his purchase the once-proud stately Delta King paddlewheeler Police warn of con artist check forger The Delta King was owned by the bankrupt Quimby Island Reclamation District The attorney Robert Lieff said he expects more bids at the bankruptcy court hearing have never owned a Fat smiled even know how to fish! When I left Sacramento this morning I never thought own the Delta King by Fat said he plans to convert the vessel into a complex of restaurants shops and offices and berth it at Old Sacramento will be a neat thing for he said Seeing the Delta King in such a scraggly shape was saddening for some of the auction guests who remembered the vessel in the 1920s and 1930s when the excursion boat made the romantic overnight run from San Francisco to Sacramento with 40 automobiles and 248 By Emmett Corrigan Bee staff writer RIO VISTA Sacramento restaurateur Tom Fat never before owned a boat and even know how to fish so not quite sure what going to do with the boat he bought at auction Friday Even for someone who does fish it might take some head-scratching to come up with a use for a delapidated 280-foot paddlewheeler bid of $32000 was the highest submitted at the oral auction conducted here on the once proud Delta King However it will take a Feb 10 bankruptcy hearing in the US District Court in San Francisco to determine if Fat has full possession of the vessel a steelhulled but dismal derelict at a fog-shrouded port off River Road Fat outbid another Sacramento businessman Terry Black in a dramatic 17-bid encounter that started with opening offer of $18000 and was interrupted only once when Black asked a break of a few More than 150 interested spectators crowded about the bidders when Solano County Deputy Wilson called out $32000 three times and it was over Both Fat and Black conceded that nothing finally will be settled until the San Francisco court session when the sale is to be confirmed a bid 10 percent or than offered by Fat is submitted in court Fat 37 son of Sacramento businessman Frank Fat estimated it would take $3 million to $5 million to restore the riverboat tell you the truth I have any idea what do with it a nostalgia buff an antique buff I just read about the auction in Sacramento last The auction was conducted in a cold fog from the hood of a car some 50 yards from the weed-covered river bank where the King has been tied up for almost three years the key figure in a series of many attempts to put it back into business jA night on By Tony Walker Bee staff writer TURLOCK The shift begins on a deceptively lackluster note for Turlock Police Officer David Huckaby After a briefing on the previous activities he climbs into his patrol car and starts his 8-hour run from 7 pm to3am The first two hours move slowly routinely patroling the streets But then comes his first call to back up another officer on a routine traffic stop in north Turlock Arriving moments later Huckaby confers with Officer Alan Tate who explains that he pulled the driver over after watching him backing his car across an open field for several minutes The driver tells Tate that his car is equipped with automatic brake adjusters which work only when the brakes are applied while the car is in reverse After a 10-minute coffee break Huckaby moves toward downtown Turlock where he spots a car traveling without taillights He maneuvers the patrol car behind Huikuby winds up a busy evening King in the Thirties well this piece of the King King was all its name implies stately proud something beautiful to see in the day but something majestic to see under the moon on the river is the first time seen the King in 40 years going to be the last time for us It all makes me want to cry" The riverboat is far from that description today Footsteps on the rotting decks sound hollow The cabins one the scene of swinging overnight parties are unpainted or painted in sick greens and yellows The bulkheads are scaly An area where autos were parked contains partitioned plywood tanks (Some promoters thought they could raise fish in the tanks another idea that fell flat) Police officer David Huckaby makes patrol with police passengers Woodrow Ulm contractor at Russian River north of San Francisco shook his head sadly as he looked at the riverboat almost lost among the derrick booms at the dock came down here to say goodbye I remember the King when I was growing up in the delta Used to take the Sacramento trip with my girlfriend was a wild trip those days You couldn't feel the waves it was so smooth And along the way along the levees the weeping willows would drop into the water and the river looked like the Mississippi in the Brother and sister Erick Maxwell and Alice Ruehe came down from San Francisco for a last look at the ing sorry we said Mrs Ruehe you knew the a past drug offense The boy is handcuffed and taken to jail where he is kept until his mother arrives to sign a citation for his release Back on the streets Huckaby is directed to what is reported as a near Turlock High School There Huckaby finds two heavily damaged cars resting on opposite sides of the street and a young woman sitting on the sidewalk with a bloody nose Debra Sartin 18 relates that she was on her way home from work when for reasons he was unable to explain her car struck another parked in front of the school Huckaby summons an ambulance to transport her to the hospital and a fire truck to wash down the gasoline that spilled when the tank on the parked car ruptured Afterward he drives to the hospital where he gets additional information for the accident report he will write later when time permits In the meantime Huckaby is called to take a report on damage to a parked automobile and later helps two motorists get their cars started In his he makes three traffic stops giving warnings to motorists whose vehicles are without taillights or proper registration One is a young woman who cuts a corner and speeds off down a side street With his shift nearing an end Huckaby stops at Donnelly Park where he starts the drawn-out process of writing the reports that must be filed before he goes home average he signs Child Continued room was broken first by quavering voice think got a clear then by a whimper from the child as he drew a deep breath He was alive a beautiful sighed someone in the crowded emergency room as the parents embraced in tearful relief Martin later was transferred by ambulance to Emanuel Hospital' where he was listed as in good told her she should correct the oversight immediately The elderly woman who told the police that she had seen a movie with the same scheme told the examiner she believe him and hung up After calling her bank and learning that no such examiner was employed there she notified the police That was Tuesday and police say there have been no more reports of suspicious bank examiners we think they may still be in the area" says Det Ken Reid of the MPD bunko division Reid says the sham is just another example of the different types of swindles many people are failing for like to know how they were going to have the victim get the money to them but she hung up before the could negotiate it Reid said Reid warns that elderly people should particularily be alert for a possible con game and report suspicions immediately In a separate bunko case four more bogus checks have been passed by a forger who is writing checks on the closed account of the defunct chain of Shoe Palace stores The latest checks were cashed Thursday at four different supermarkets in Modesto and Ceres police said Detectives say the phony checks are usually for about $100 and they are made out to a person who has identification to show cashiers The forgery suspect described as a Mexican male in his late teens or early 20s may have more than 3000 checks in his possession says Det Linda Carter suspect has been passing three and four checks a day lately Carter said The owner of Shoe Palace stores Jay Alexander told police he sold his chain of five shoe stores to the Dillen Shoe Corporation in January Two stores are in Modesto and one each in Turlock Manteca and Merced Alexander says after he sold out he threw away 3150 checks at a Stanislaus county dump on Jan 18 The following day the first bogus check was passed at a Ceres market police say The name forged to sign the business checks is always Ruben Alvarado Police said Alvarado is the manager of the Modesto store on Crows Landing Road but that Alvarado is not a suspect Alvarado told The Bee Friday afternoon that he has no idea who is passing the bad checks or how they knew to use his name on the checks The missing checks are printed on green paper and numbered from 1851 to 5000 Carter said Arrangements for shut-tleboats to the islands from the Port of Stockton are being negotiated and shuttle service to Uncle Houseboat Haven at the western edge of Eight Mile Road also will be provided he said The project eventually could cost $6 million but it probably will be built in phases He piano to have it cnntptatad within a year A swindler and a forger are operating in Modesto and Ceres and police are warning residents especially senior citizens to beware and know with whom they are dealing in money matters A con artist representing himself as a bank examiner was unsuccessful in his attempt over the telephone to bilk a 75-year-old Modesto woman into drawing $500 from her savings account saying the bank's computer had made an error and money had mistakenly been doposited in her savings account The phony examiner a drug arrest in downtown Turlock live entertainment and several shops Spaces for 20 with 100 units 103 berths for motorboats 26 houseboat spaces and camping picnic and swimming areas also are included in Bob Pat and Mike proposal for the project The facilities although boater-oriented also will bo accessible to persons who do not have boats Mike Malone sand A passenger in the car is moving about erratically He appears to be stuffing something down the front of his pants initial concern that it may be a pistol or other weapon is While the Turlock Police Department cannot guarantee a stiring scene such as saving a life it is the kind of thing areas residents can look forward to when they participate in the program So far more than 260 people ranging in age from 14 to 78 years have buckled themselves into patrol cars for an look at police work and the town in which they reside Interested persons may sign up for a by contacting the department at 634-4938 alleviated when he frisks the subject and comes up with a baggie of marijuana The suspect is a 17-year-old Stevinson boy who has one day am nmlvitinnonr farm frtt writing reports in his patrol car Multimillion dollar recreation complex planned on delta gains zoning board nod STOCKTON A $5 million to $6 million recreation development for boaters in the Sacra mento-San Joaquin Delta has been approved by the San Joaquin County Board of Zoning Adjustment The development of North Headreach and North Tule Islands northwest of Stockton at the mouth of Disappointment Slough will provide boaters with a two-story marina containing a restaurant bar dancing and.