The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 3

The Salina Journal Saturday, August 3,1985 Page 3 Officials gear up for marijuana harvest Ellsworth prison site By LAURIE OSWALD Staff Writer Across the nation, law officials are striving to reap a harvest of arrests while confiscating marijuana crops and their farmers. The Saline County Sheriff's Department, for instance, is conducting an investigation into two "suspicious looking" crops found last weekend during an air search, and is checking marijuana reports turned in by citizens. But the search might be much more extensive. Government sources, speaking on the condition they not be identified, told the Associated Press that federal, state and local law enforcement agents plan to begin a massive search for marijuana in all 50 states beginning Monday. The effort is coordinated by the Justice Department and will involve 300 to 400 officers, sources said.

State and local officials would not confirm that. Earl Maudlin, supervisor of the narcotics section of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, said his officers, as well as local officers, actively seek the cannabis crops during the prime harvest season, from late July to early September. "But as far as any organized activity, we won't announce that," Maudlin said. John Evans, a Wichita-based agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Friday no state or loqal law enforcement authorities have announced to him formal plans to take part in Monday's mission. However, a continual search for the weed and the arrest of its cultivators is being carried out by local agencies, Evans said.

"Kansas has been rather productive on this kind of thing for the last three years," Evans said. "Monday won't be any different for them. There's an extensive program going on all the time." Maudlin said the KBI developed in 1982 an extensive marijuana program that includes educational programs for local law enforcement agencies. Ways to conduct air searches, with the help of Kansas Highway Patrol airplanes, are part of the program. Air and ground searches are used, and burning is the usual form of crop eradication.

Local agencies make the arrests. Evans said he did not have access to the number of arrests made in 1985, but "quite a few of the state's 105 counties have had problems." Maudlin said, "We generally used to have the problem in the northeastern corner of the state, but now it's pretty well scattered across the state everywhere in the south, western areas of the state as well." Although the harvest season has just begun, 26,000 pounds of marijuana have been confiscated this year, Evans said. Law officers made 50 arrests statewide during 1984 and confiscated 494,000 pounds of the weed. Saline County Undersheriff Cal Johnson, who helped spearhead Saturday's county-wide air search for cultivated marijuana, said the department would not release plans for additional searches or eradication. Two suspicious sites were located, but no arrests have been made.

Johnson said, however, the sheriff's department has received a number of calls from citizens who reported "suspicious-looking activity and supicious-looking crops." Dickinson County Sheriff Steve Britt said that the department on Wednesday night uprooted, collected and destroyed high-grade marijuana plants with a street value estimated at $415,000. The raid in the northeast portion of the county yielded 415 plants, which were taken to the city dump and burned by the sheriff's department. The field had been under observation since April, Britt said. He said the department is monitoring several other fields. Britt said no arrests have been made, but the investigation continues.

Evans said search and seizure of the small, often hidden marijuana plots is tricky and dangerous. Many law enforcement agencies are reluctant to announce their search plans because forewarned cultivators either harvest their crops before the search or protect the site with booby traps. He cited several of the maiming devices, such as pits with sharp sticks covered with cloth and dirt. Mouse traps that fire shotgun shells and fish hooks strung on string at eye level are other devices. "They sometimes are waiting with warning devices, or maiming devices," Evans said.

"Their ploys are limited only by human imagination." Craig Chandler PRE-SEASON PRACTICE Despite the warm-weather wardrobe, the recent cool weather seems fitting for football practice as, a football bounces out of the hands of Stacy Rogers, Salina, while playing catch with his brother. Hearing on city budget Monday By MARTIN ME LENDY Staff Writer A public hearing on Sauna's proposed $23.6 million 1986 budget is scheduled for Monday's city commission meeting. Commissioners gave first-round approval to the budget July 22 and can adopt the document after the public hearing. The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Room 200 of the City-County Building, 300 W.

Ash. The lone complaint at the July 22 meeting was about planned fee increases at the Salina Municipal Golf Course. Commissioners were asked to reconsider the increases because some contend that the cost of golfing at the city course would become too high for elderly people on a fixed income. The commissioners took no action on the fees. If the budget is not al- tered, the fees would go up Jan.

1. All fees except the annual $220 regular membership would increase. Junior memberships would go from $60 to $75 and senior memberships from from $120 to $150. A member surcharge for a day of play would go from 50 cents to $1. A new 10-play card would be available for $40, and greens fees would increase from $4.50 to $5 weekdays and $6.50 to $7 weekends and holidays.

In addition to the golf increase, city employees are budgeted to receive a 3 percent pay hike in 1986. However, for the fourth year in a row, there is no increase in the property tax mill levy. The planned budget increases $639,710 from 1985. Also included in the document is $450,000 for major improvement projects throughout the city. The projects are funded by sales tax revenue.

In another money matter, the commission is to consider a request by the Salina Housing Authority that $42,392 it owes the city be erased from the books. The commission tabled the request at its July 22 meeting. The debt was incurred from 1977 to 1983. The debt is the accumulation of what the property tax- exempt authority owed the city each year instead of taxes. Instead of property taxes, the authority must pay 10 percent of what it annually receives in rent.

At the July 22 meeting the authority paid the $7,044 it owed. Also Monday: First reading of an ordinance thai reflects changes in state laws regarding at what age a person may consume and buy cereal malt beverages. The ordinance will bring the city Into conlormance with new state laws. The age to buy and consume the beverages went from 18 to 19 in July. Second reading of an ordinance that rezones approximately 77 acres in the 3400 block of Centennial Road from single-family residential suburban to heavy industrial.

To Wilson MunJdpJ Airport PRISON SITE K-ltt Stephan accused of Posse Comitatus TOPEKA (AP) Kansas Attorney General Robert T. Stephan was accused in a civil rights lawsuit filed in federal district court here Friday of "creating" the Posse Comitatus to further his political career. A suit brought on behalf of Freda Steele, 61, of rural Alta Vista, her son James Steele, 27, of rural Burdick and Harold Hovander, 68, of rural Herington alleges Stephan created the Posse Comitatus as a "verbal straw man," warned about the danger it allegedly posed and urged law officers to "punish" alleged Posse members and those who shared their beliefs. Posse Comitatus is one name ascribed to a largely secret organization believed to have been started in Wisconsin and whose membership spread to Kansas, Missouri and other states. Its members usually recognize no civil authority higher than the county sheriff, believe the system of taxation in this country is illegal and believe the U.S.

monetary system is invalid because only gold and silver should be used as legal tender. The lawsuit, filed by Topeka attorneys Fred W. Phelps and his daughter, Margie J. Phelps, seeks actual and punitive damages in excess of $2.75 million from Stephan, Morris County Sheriff Richard Malek, Morris County, the Manhattan Production Credit Association and an unidentified officer of MPCA who the suit says supervised repossession of James Steele's property two years ago. It seeks in excess of $165,000 in actual damage and $385,000 in punitive damages from each of the five defendants, and demands a jury trial.

Stephan backs closed records in some cases OLATHE (AP) Attorney General Robert T. Stephan said Friday the state's open meetings law was not intended for "fishing expeditions" and that the opening of police investigative files could hamper law enforcement probes. Stephan gave his interpretation of Kansas' open records act during the third day of testimony in a Johnson County District Court lawsuit in which a newspaper is trying to obtain police files on the 1983 slaying of two Olathe teen-agers. The Daily News of Johnson County sued Olathe and District Attorney Dennis Moore in an effort to obtain files relating to whether po-' lice properly handled the investigation into the murders of Kelly Duffield, 17, and her 12-year-old sister, Janelle. Stephan testified that police files should be released only when the public's interest to know how a case was pursued outweighed the need for secrecy.

He said that balancing act should require proof, not just allegations of police misconduct. The attorney general said the disclosure of files could hurt the credibility of police who promised secrecy to sources, and could open the possibility of civil actions being brought against authorities by innocent people. nson (Continued from Page 1) Ellsworth because of the 1982 closing of El-Kan, a manufacturer of automobile wiring harnesses that once employed 700 people. City Administrator Harold Swanson said Ellsworth was able to win the prison site because the community supported the effort and was able to put together an incentive package that was attractive to the state. Ellsworth'offered 35 acres of free land, free extension of utilities and a lease-purchase arrangement for construction of the prison.

"We are fortunate that people see ahead of the present time and support the city in this," Swanson said. "Since the farm economy has dwindled, we needed an economic lift to the community. You can feel the enthusiasm on the streets for the prison." Mayor Bob Homolka said downtown Ellsworth has felt the depressed farm economy, and economic diversification is welcome. David Barclay, an assistant to the secretary of corrections, said he expects planning for the prison to continue through next June. The Department of Corrections will request construction money for the Ellsworth project during the 1986 legislative session, Barclay said.

"The department's reading of legislative leaders is that there is a need to proceed with the planning and construction of this facility," Barclay said. "The department is proceeding on the basis of that mandate." Barclay said a contract for $170,000 in preliminary planning work would be sent to the Dallas- based consulting firm of Henningson, Durham and Richardson early next week. Actual planning should begin "as soon as possible" after the contract is signed, and definitely before the end of August, he said. The corrections department will ask the construction panel and the finance council to release another $300,000 in planning funds for the prison later this year, he said. The State Finance Council, composed of Gov.

John Carlin and top party leaders from both houses of the Legislature, approved the $170,000 preliminary design study with an 8-1 vote after a brief discussion in which two Republican senators voiced reservations about building a new prison. Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Lenexa, contended that the state should allow a legislative study committee to complete hearings on a long-range prison strategy before going ahead with plans for a new prison. Bogina, who was the only member of the council to vote against the resolution, also proposed that an expert panel be formed to conduct further prison studies. "I have a problem with embarking on (the) project, especially in light of the fact that long-range plans are currently under development for presentation to the Legislature," Bogina said.

"I don't wish to discuss Ellsworth or any other site as far as that's concerned," Bogina said. Sen. Paul Burke, R-Leawood, agreed and said he believed the state's prison overcrowding problem could be dealt with by restructuring the way the Department of Corrections places offenders within the prison system. "I'm not convinced that what we're doing legislatively is going to take us where we ought to be going," Burke said. However, Senate President Robert Talkington, R-Iola, said he believed the state must go forward with planning the Ellsworth prison because legislation passed during the 1985 session called for a site selection and planning process.

Carlin said he thinks Kansas has been on the right track in dealing with prison crowding problems. "We've stayed ahead of the court orders and we're not under the gun," the Democratic governor said. Staff Writer Jeri Heidrick contributed to this story. Briefly Car theft suspect appears in court A Grandview, man charged in connection with what police have referred to as a local car theft ring made his first appearance Friday in Saline County District Court. David Hall, 27, is accused of felony theft for allegedly stealing a 1985 Chevrolet Blazer between Dec.

8 and 11 from J-J Chevrolet, 2700 S. Ninth. The charge was filed Feb. 19 along with those against nine others arrested in connection with the case. Hall was brought to Kansas Thursday from Harrisonville, where he had been held.

Missouri authorities arrested him early in June, Saline County Sheriff Darrell Wilson said, but he refused to waive extradition to Kansas. A judge ruled this week that he could be brought to Salina. Hall, who remains in the Saline County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bond, is scheduled to appear for a possible preliminary hearing Aug. 13. 2 face trial in Concordia robbery CONCORDIA Two men accused of taking $15,000 in a robbery at a Concordia supermarket were ordered Friday to stand trial at a hearing in Cloud County District Court.

David Sorrell, 21, rural Glasco, and Tory Funk, 20, Concordia, face a charge of aggravated robbery. Sorell also is charged with two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly firing a shot at two people who were chasing him. Sorrell was released from custody after posting $20,000 bond. Funk remains in custody in lieu of $20,000 bond. An arraignment date has not been scheduled.

Central High yearbook party set A yearbook distribution and signing party is scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday at the Salina Central High School concourse. A family member or friend can pick up copies of the Trail if the student is unable to attend. Refreshments and plastic dust covers for yearbooks will be sold..