The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 13

The A State COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA METRO Business SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2002 SECTION CLOSED gates The during will to the be Harbison budget closed holidays State cuts. for 10 Forest thanks days Budget cuts hit Harbison forest Harbison State Forest Gates will be closed difficult this year. But many folks who hike or five days around the holidays in- chester, which are much larger Broad for 10 around The gates to the popular recre- walk dogs at the forest prefer to stead of the 10 days this year. than Harbison, raise enough from days be ation closed area for north 10 of days Columbia around will drive closer to to the interior Broad River parking overlooks areas trimmed Hubright the said forest budget staff cuts from have six their timber sales to pay some or all of Columbia the holidays, but the employees' salaries. 26 city limits Thanksgiving and Christmas be- and picnic areas.

It's a two-mile employees to three. But Harbison focuses on eduBroad trails will be open cause of state budget cuts. hike to the river from the outer The forestry commission's bud- 'cation, not timber cultivation. River 8 That doesn't mean the 18 miles parking lot. get has been cut by 14 percent Salaries for the employees at Har20 By JOEY HOLLEMAN of hiking and biking trails are off- Also, Hubright said forest staff over the past two years, commis- bison are paid from the state-apStaff Writer limits, forest director Russell won't be available for advice or sion spokesman Ken Cabe said.

propriated funds, Cabe said. Hubright said. People will be able first aid on the closing dates The operation of the three state Ninety-seven of the 493 posiWorking off those holiday to park in the outer parking lot on Nov. 28-Dec. 1, Dec.

24-25, Dec. forests Sandhills, Manchester tions in the agency are vacant 26 126 meals on the trails at Harbison Broad River Road and get on the 28-29 and Jan. 1. and Harbison is financed by because of budget cuts, Cabe Saluda Rivet State Forest will be slightly more trails there. In the past, the forest closed for timber sales.

Sandhills and Man- said. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIK STATE Members of the Marine Corps League salute the flag-draped casket Friday of aviator Joe Tobul following funeral services for the late U.S. Marine Corps veteran. Tobul died Sunday in Columbia when his F4U-4 Corsair crashed during an air show performance. Air show pilot laid to rest amid id tributes say goodbye.

The retired Marine and popular air show pilot went down Sunday over Columbia in his beloved World War II-era Corsair plane. After a patriotic public funeral, Tobul, 68, was buried at noon in Bamberg County Memory Gardens. "It's stupendous," said his son, Jim. "It's so heartwarming to see the phenomenal responses from all around the world. I know he touched a lot of people, but I didn't know quite to this extent." Jim Tobul was a wingman for his dad in the Celebrate Freedom Festival air show Sunday at Owens Field near downtown Columbia, and saw him go down.

In one of his final acts, Tobul Trial focuses on accused killer's statements RICK BRUNDRETT called saying to Saltz during a Lower Richland neighborhood Saltz's lawyers say police presBy break in the interrogation at the several weeks after the 12-year- sured their client into giving a false Staff Writer Sheriff's Department. "I felt he was old's disappearance in May 1997, confession. Saltz had learning Two days after Joe Barefoot's holding back." Williamson testified. problems and didn't have a lawyer bones were found, Michael Saltz Jurors weren't told Williamson After Barefoot kept "mouthing or his parents present during the Jr. gave detectives eight state- had given Saltz a lie detector test, off" to him, Saltz said he pushed seven-hour interrogation, they said.

ments about the boy's disappear- which prosecutors away from the boy to the ground and hit him Swerling grilled Williamson ance or death. the jury said he failed. Poly- in the back, thinking he "knocked about details of the confession, The last one was the truth, a re- graph test results generally are not him out," Williamson testified. which Saltz signed. It was notatired Richland County sheriff's in- allowed in court.

Saltz then picked up the 4-foot-11, rized by another investigator. He vestigator testified Friday. In his final police statement, 80-pound Barefoot "like a baby" suggested investigators pleaded with Michael to tell Saltz, then 17, said he ran into and tied him to a tree, according the truth," Alan Williamson re- Barefoot on a wooded path in their to his statement. SEE TRIAL PAGE B2 Newberry's Matthews House demolished had been slated for demolition for The tower By PAUL WACHTER Writer several months. The lot on which of the Staff it stood is owned by West Devel- Matthews The Matthews House was torn opment, a local company, and is House in down Friday, ending weeks of ma- scheduled to be sold to a Charlotte Newberry neuvering to save the historic company.

The house will be re- falls Friday Newberry home. placed by an Eckerd drugstore. as a "My wife called me when she But according to Zais, none of wrecking drove by the house as it was being these companies is responsible for company demolished," said Newberry Col- the demolition. demolishes lege President Mitchell Zais, who "Eckerds and both of the de- the home. led the effort to save the house.

velopment companies pledged "It's the saddest thing, what over $260,000 to move the house," TED WILLIAMS they're she TO The house, built in the 1890s, SEE HOUSE PAGE B2 THE STATE Hundreds salute Joe Tobul as a kind man whose final act saved lives By RODDIE BURRIS Staff Writer Within three hours of Joe Tobul's plane crash this week, a Web site previously used to heap thanks on the personable veteran pilot became a wall of memories. It has grown each day. On Friday, family and friends, near-perfect strangers and those who simply had a "close encounter" with Tobul gathered to watched as his dad "pulled back as hard as he could" in order to avoid crashing into a neighborhood near the airfield. Hampton Crest residents later wrote Tobul's family a letter of thanks for his action. Bob Broom of Columbia watched it from the ground at the airfield.

"He had guts and bravery to miss those homes and that's what America is made of," Broom said in a message posted Tuesday on the Web site, www.koreanwarhero.com. "A memorial at Owens remembering him is a must." Orangeburg Municipal Airport manager Roland Hill said that, in SEE TOBUL PAGE B2 STROM Immediate cuts urged by fiscal officials 10 Ann Tobul, left, holds the hand of her mother, Nancy Atkins Tobul, right, after she receives the flag that draped the casket of her husband, Joseph Oliver Tobul. Senator paid tribute to fiery politician To commemorate U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday on Dec.

5, The State is publishing a story about him daily for 100 days. The stories are from constituents, colleagues and others. In 1988, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History approved a request for a historical marker commemorating the career of the Hon. Benjamin Britton Chandler (1854-1925), legislator and community leader who was all the more colorful because of his boiling temper. Accordingly, a reunion and celebration were planned, which in Williamsburg requires two ingredients: barbecue and oratory.

The barbecue was no trouble. But the oratory? The youngest of the grandchildren (and there were dozens) of the honoree were in their seventies and remembered "Grandpa" only in a vague, sentimental way. The consensus was to ask Sen. Thurmond to deliver an address. He was the most prominent politi- LIVING HERE B2 BRIEFS B3 OBITUARIES B4 WWW.THESTATE.COM State's top finance officers including two Democrats say situation is dire By KENNETH A.

HARRIS Staff Writer Four of the state's top five financial officers all but Gov. Jim Hodges say immediate action is needed to cut government spending to avoid a year-end deficit. Comptroller General James Lander, a Democrat, was the latest member of the State Budget and Control Board to question the Democratic governor's decision to delay action amid a burgeoning budget crisis. Lander sent a letter to Hodges Friday, urging the governor to call the General Assembly into special session to make spending cuts by Nov. 23.

The state's official economic forecasters in September reduced their estimate on tax collections for the current budget year by $331 million. That could necessitate a 5 percent spending cut in the state's $5.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Lander is the second Democrat to split with Hodges over the management of the budget crisis. On Thursday, State Treasurer Grady Patterson told the governor in a letter that his "rising concerns" about South Carolina's credit rating require immediate action on the budget shortfall. Like Lander, Patterson urged Hodges to call lawmakers to Columbia to make selective spending reductions.

The Budget and Control Board, SEE BUDGET PAGE B2 STORIES William H. Chandler cian in the state, and he remembered The senator graciously agreed to come, and he arrived at the old farm at Henry on Saturday, April 16, 1988. His speech was enthusiastic and sincere, and he praised the "old man" and argued that his temper was appropriate. We were pleased that the senator spent several hours visiting and eating before he left a crowd of more than 300 admirers who had touched a legend. William H.

Chandler Hemingway.