The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 3

www.pantagraph.com The Pantagraph Friday, March 25, 2005 A3 LOCAL dm eeier By Kelly Younqblood CLINTON DeWitt County residents will no longer have a recycling center and most of the 23 disabled workers the center employs will lose their jobs. The DeWitt County Board voted 7-5 Thursday night to deny a request from the DeWitt County Human Resource Center for $162,000 for equipment upgrades at the recycling center on Illinois 54 in Clinton. Officials at the center said it will probably close in 30 days because it can't afford to keep running. Board members who voted to deny the request previously said they were trying to control spending in an already tight county budget. Ed Wollet, chairman of the DeWitt County Human Resources Board, wondered where local residents would be able to take their recyclable materials now.

"Personally, I'm disappointed because of the people of DeWitt County who obviously were doubling their efforts to recycle. Now what are they going to do? Where do they take their re-cyclables? Maybe they take them to the seven no votes and put it in their garage and store it there," Wollet said. The new equipment was necessary to keep the recycling program run- ning, said Cheryl Lietz, executive director of the DeWitt County Human Resource Center. Lietz said speeding up the process of recycling would have allowed the center to break even on its costs. "The materials we sell after processing don't come close to covering the cost of processing it," she said.

"Last year, the losses our agency experienced after processing was $95,000, which was paid for through (other recourse center) funds." The center, which opened in 1993, employs 23 developmental disabled adults, and an additional eight to 10 are currently in training. Two full- was going to be used to displace workers anyway "The only way that you can make money and make it work in recycling is to minimize your labor costs. We funded (the recycling program) to help the mentally handicapped. I see a decrease in the money that goes to mentally challenged people if we go on with this," Young said. The county receives a potion of landfill tipping fees, so it is required by law to provide a public recycling program.

The board did not discuss other options for fulfilling that man- date after the recycling center has closed. time and two-part time employees without disabilities assist and supervise the clients. "Most of the (disabled workers) are going to get laid off," Lietz said. "A few of them will be moved into other programs." The center cannot continue to subsidize the shortfall of recycling, Lietz said. "We cannot continue to do it and there will be a decision to close that soon, probably within the next 30 days," Lietz said.

DeWitt County Board member Ed Young said the recycling program was a noble cause, but he voted against funding the new equipment because it Prayer-filled pilgrimage I 'If A- Inmate suspect in spree killings By Karen Blatter pontiacpantaqraph.com with AP reports PONTIAC A suspected serial killer serving time in Ponti-ac Correctional Center has been linked to a 1990 murder in Utah and possibly one in Texas through DNA testing. Robert Ben Rhoades, 59, a for I ft I U'i'l mer truck driver from Houston, faces charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping in Utah in the 1990 slaying of Patricia Candice Walsh, 24, of Seattle. He also may be charged with killing her hus Robert Rhoades ft jf i The PantagraphDAVID PROEBER Left: Fran Crownhart of Bloomington prayed in front of a torn curtain during the Holy Week Pilgrimage at St. John's Lutheran Church at Emerson and Towanda avenues in Bloomington. The torn curtain represented the curtain torn in the Temple in Jerusalem when Christ died on Good Friday.

The seven displays were built in the church as a means to help worshippers reflect on the events of Holy Week and remain open through 7 p.m. today. Above: Scott McCoy of Bloomington sat before a whipping post, whip and crown of thorns that represented the events of the pilgrimage. The whip and crown of thorns are part of the story of Christ's passion before his death. TV 'I Right: A hammer and spikes were laid out for visitors.

The spikes represented the elements that were used in Christ's execution on a cross. County restores cemetery Court orders DNA test in murder case 1 1 1 T7 i Nr band, Douglas Scott Zyskowski, 28, whose body was found in Texas. Rhoades was in Livingston County Court on Thursday for an extradition hearing. He refused to sign an agreement to go to Utah, so he will appear in court again on April 13. The Millard County, Utah, prosecutor asked for the case file involving Rhoades to be sealed when the charges were filed in February Rhoades has been featured in a book, "Roadside Prey," which details a murder and torture chamber that was in the cab of his truck.

He is serving a life sentence in Illinois for the 1990 murder of 14-year-old Regina K. Walters of Pasadena, Texas. Walters' body was found in a barn along Interstate 70 in Bond County, just east of St. Louis. She had been strangled with a loop of bailing wire.

Rhoades pleaded guilty to that crime in 1992. He submitted to a DNA test in 2003, Livingston County Assistant State's Attorney Carey Luckman said. The results matched with the evidence in Walsh's case and one in Texas, prosecutors said. "DNA tests were done here, which were asked for by (Utah officials)," Luckman said. "(Rhoades) fell into a crack in the system.

There would have been no DNA tests done on him until his release date, which is the 12th of never." When Rhoades was first arrested in 1992, such DNA testing was not being done. Luckman said officials in Utah and Texas have been working together on cases that they believe involve Rhoades. That investigation led to the murder and kidnapping charges in the Walsh case that were filed last month in 4th District Court in Fillmore, Utah. If convicted, Rhoades could face the death penalty. In 1989, Walsh, and Zyskowski left Seattle to travel south and preach Christianity Zyskowski's body was found in January 1990 near Interstate 10, east of Ozano, Texas.

It took two years to identify his body Deer hunters found Walsh's body near a canyon in Millard County in central Utah that same year, but she went unidentified for nearly 13 years. She died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Authorities from Utah and Texas linked the two homicides in 2003. Also in 1990, an Arizona police officer caught Rhoades torturing a woman in his truck. He was convicted and was serving time in prison in Arizona when Illinois authorities filed charges in the Walters case.

PANTAGRAPH STAFF cm Mr MM in i) 'i hi turn rKot: mi Htlim CD5HMAK BLOOMINGTON A McLean County judge has ordered a double murder suspect to provide DNA for comparison with evidence collected from the slayings of two women. Circuit Judge Ronald Dozier granted prosecutors' motion for DNA samples from Leo Guider during a brief hearing on Thursday. Oral swabs will be used to collect the samples. Guider, 40, of the 500 block of West ft. JACOB ffiW J0H Sf re 'ft I 4" Front Street, Blooming ton, faces six counts of first-degree murder in the til J0T Dec.

18 stabbing deaths of If "v-cu Lorraine Fields, 41, and i I LaKeisha Tyus, 26, both of By Karen Blatter pontiacpantagraph.com PONTIAC Men, women and children buried decades ago in a Livingston County cemetery for paupers were nearly forgotten in their weed-choked graves, but not anymore. Volunteers have been cleaning up and restoring the cemetery behind Livingston Manor on Old Route 66 south of Pontiac, and they hope to be finished this summer. "It a historic site," said Livingston County Board member George Knudsen, who has led the cleanup effort with his wife, Germaine. "It is nice for the people who are buried to have the respect and dignity they deserve." Last week, the County Board took another step toward preserving the site by making it a parcel separate from the Livingston Manor. That means the county can keep the cemetery if it ever sells the nursing home property.

The move also allows the county to maintain a new gravel road to the cemetery. The restoration includes the recent installation of a new monument, which is engraved with names of those buried there who could be identified. About 120 people are buried in the cemetery, but only half have marked graves. Fencing and a flagpole also have been added. The Knudsens and several members of the County Board took on the cleanup effort about a year ago.

The cemetery, off County Road 1400 North, used to be on the county's "poor farm," where people worked 1 sC i The PantagraphKAREN BLATTER A monument at the Livingston County poor farm cemetery identified many of the people buried in the cemetery. About a year ago, a group of volunteers cleaned up the cemetery, which was oyer grown and forgotten about. Normal. Guider has pleaded innocent to the charges. He could face the death penalty if convicted because multiple victims were Leo Guider killed.

State's Attorney Bill Yoder said he remains undecided on whether to seek execution but said he expects to have a decision when Guider returns to court April 15. Prosecutors must announce their intention to pursue the death penalty within 120 days of the filing of charges; the deadline for that decision is at the end of April. Tyus and Fields were found in a car about a block away from Guider's home. Fields suffered 19 stab wounds while Tyus was stabbed four times, according to autopsy results. Guider was arrested in Chicago less than 36 hours after the bodies were make it an appropriate place," she said.

The Knudsens searched old records, some of which were incomplete, to find who was buried in the cemetery. The cemetery is in three sections. The oldest and newest sections have unmarked graves, but the graves in the middle section have markers that bear numbers, not names. The restoration cost about $7,500 for materials, and most of the labor was volunteer. The county's engineering department completed the road to the cemetery and removed some of the trees and brush.

the land to earn their keep. Records show burials took place from 1877 to 1934, but the cemetery has existed since 1860. Knudsen said more has to be done at the site, including adding flowers, shrubs and a bench. He said a formal dedication is a possibility. "It's a good feeling," he said.

"It was something that needed to be done. A lot of people helped out. Now, it is going to be able to stay that way forever." County Board Chairwoman Jeanne Rapp praised the work. "It is something everyone in the county can be proud of. They really worked on it to.