Abilene Reporter-News from Abilene, Texas • 12

12-A THE ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS AbilencTwMFri MoraAug 101979 ES1 Step Pay Plans City administrators have proposed two "step pay" plans (or police and firemen one of which may be implemented if Saturday's referendum does not pass Both plans are alternatives to the 101 percent across-the-board raise built into the city's original budget proposal issued last week Plan One includes raises averaging 106 percent while Plan raises average 145 percent Both are designed to reward experienced patrolmen and firefighters with automatic raises at certain intervals based on tenure The city hu no step plan in effect now but the City Council agreed last year to work towards one at the request of the Police Association Council members have not made a decision yet on the salary plan to be adopted next year pending the outcome of referendum The referendum proposes to set 51290 as the minimum monthly pay for police and firemen and the city would be bound by that Alternative 1: 106 Proposed Police Salary Steps Starting October 1 Truck overturns Academy 124 (5 Yrs) (10 Yrs) 1000 1000 1190 1250 19 25 (lYr) 1000 1075 7J (3 Yrs) 1000 1130 13 (Sworn) 953 1000 5 Current Proposed Increase ISO The truck rear-ended the Brent car then about mile later rear-ended the Lawson car according to police reports Both wrecks happened in the 'phntitw ther driver of the two cars was injured (Staff Photo by Gerald Ewing) William Deeldon Turner 54 of Clyde walked away with minor injuries Thursday after his pickup overturned on west Highway 80 median near the Winters Freeway about 5 pm Before overturning the truck was in collision with two cars one driven by Otis Brent 39 of Dallas the other driven by Melvin Eugene Lawson 43 of Abilene Proposed Police Rank Officer Increases Fitzgerald to Move to KTAB Proposed Firefighter Salary Steps Proposed Fire Rank BOB BARTLETT leaving KRBC that in trying to put together the "best possible staff" he had not solicited help from any of the Abilene media outlets "We have not solicited any of them We have taken in applications not just from Abilene but all over the state" he said Terry Mid KRBC-TV has an 80-man staff and that he is "not taking very many of them" although he declined to specify how many he is taking He said he is trying to flesh out his nightly newscrew with additions from Lubbock and Austin "I am delighted to have Larry Fitzgerald" Terry said am delighted that he applied" Bartlett said earlier that to his knowledge no other news personnel are leaving KRBC-TV but "there are a number of people going I can tell you that" He said most of the remaining KRBC-TV defectors are sales and programming personnel think it's a new challenge and I'm looking forward to it" Fitzgerald said about his move to KTAB was a tough decision but I think Abilene is ready to support a third television station" he said Fitzgerald said he leaves KRBC-TV with no animosity His decision to join the new station was based primarily on the presence of Terry his employer at KRBC-TV for 19 years at KTAB LARRY FITZGERALD on to KTAB By MICHAEL DUPONT Staff Writer After 25 yetrs with KRBC-TV news director and anchorman Larry Fitzgerald will make his final on-air broadcast for the Sweetwater-Abi-lene station at 10 pm Friday Fitzgerald said he will assume new duties beginning Monday as news director and co-anchorman of KTAB-TV an Abilene-based CBS affiliate acheduled to begin broadcasting on Sept 16 on Channel 32 Veteran sports broadcaster Bob Bartlett said he will also be moving to KTAB with Fitzgerald and sources say a host of KRBC-TV sales and programming personnel will make the move too KRBC-TV station manager Ken Knox confirmed Thursday that Fitzgerald will be leaving the station after Friday's 10 pm newscast but said it would be to comment on any other personnel departures "It is true that I am leaving" Bartlett said Thursday date is up to the management but I'm scheduled to go next Friday Aug 17" Bartlett said he is leaving his KRBC sports post after eight years to take a more active newsrole in the fledgling CBS affiliate He said he will co-anchor several newscasts and some features" at KTAB KTAB President and Station Manager Bill Terry himself a former longtime KRBC-TV employee and station manager stressed Thursday night 1 Total Salary Cost: $1830257 (includes cost of new Firefighters) Cost Increase: $235793 currently touchy situation" with KRBC-TV management He Mid station officials requested no on-air mention be made of his coming departure Bartlett said KRBC was his first television assignment and learned a lot here" However he said was captured by the excitement of KTAB's creation and took the "rare chance to be in at the start of a new station" temporary basis He declined to comment on'' reports that the station is com'' trading individuals from outside the Abilene area to fifi'1 the nightly news anchor and" sports posts on a permanent0 basis v' "We hope to take all -the! good things from here (KRBC- TV) and eliminate the mis- i takes" Fitzgerald said1 of KTAB's news philosophy Alternative 2: 145 "It was mostly Bill" he said The 48-year-old Fitzgerald began woricing for KRBC-Ra-dio in 1952 while still in college at Hardin-Simmons University He started working for KRBC-TV in 1953 when the NBC affiliate first signed on the air Fitzgerald said he was doing lot of when he left the station in 1956 for a two-year tour of duty at KMID-TV in Midland He returned to KRBC-TV in 1959 as news director a post he has held since Fitzgerald said he was reluctant to discuss his scheduled move because it was Proposed Police Officer Salary Steps feel lucky to be at the right place at the right time to get involved" he said Terry said KTAB personnel are "sure as heck trying toy get on the air by Sept but said he could not be Mire they would achieve that target date Knox said KRBC-TV news reporter Carlson will assume Fitzgerald's vacated an-chorman position on a Academy Current $24 Proposed Increase 650 3 (Sworn) 953 1020 7 (3 Yrs) $1000 1140 14 (1 Yr) $1000 1075 75 (5 Yrs) (10 Yrs) $1000 $1000 1210 1310 21 31 Crossword Puts Loyalties Back Mexico Oil Slick Impact Less Than First Feared Texan proud of the Texas New Jersey town teaching the fifth grade So Mary the true blue Proposed Police Rank Officer Increases Cost Increase: $255616 Texas added to the optimistic outlook late)1 Thursday saying initial lab tests on how poisonous the oil was were did not find that the oil was significantly said Parker He said (uU-groni shrimp and fish placed in samples of oil aRU water taken from the gulf throvjh pretty well" although eggs and newly hatched fish died 1 "This oil has changed drastically" becaise it has been in the water so long Parker sal- much 1cm Asked if shrimp caught after living in the pil would be edible Parker said "I don't think it would be an attractive thing to eat but I don't know what the medical implications woild he" CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) The world's largest oil spill has had less impact on Texas beaches than had been feared and may not get much worse than the ecattered now dotting the shore a government scientist said Thursday "I would have expected a little more impact by said Dr John Robinson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration "The impact haa been very light unexpectedly light" The leading edge at the main slick from Mexico remained about 50 miles offshore near the border between Texas and Mexico but a 40-mile-long finger of that apparently broke away from the main slick loomed parallel to South Padre Island just 15 miles Off the tourist-laden beach Task force commander Capt Roger Madson of the Coast Guard said he was optimistic the beaches focus of a multimillion-dollar tourist industry will not become much more soiled but cautioned "some sections of Padre (Island) will be worse than we have Proposed Firefighter Salary Steps Texan became for about three years a in the strange land of New Jer-sey She liked it But she could not shake some of her Texas thinking One day another teacher in the school working a crossword puzzle was stuck on one word "Miss Johnson" the teacher asked "do you know what is a five-letter word which means a fort?" Why of course Miss Johnson knew "Alamo" she said came a puzzled inquiry "Alamo!" Mary insisted "Didn't you learn a thing in Texas history?" Her response as a true blue Texan everybody knows about the gave Mary an identity which set her apart in a New Jersey school "I never lived it down" she recalls And the New Jersey school never did start teaching a class in Texas history (3 Yis) $953 $1055 107 Current Proposed Increase tradition imbued with the Texas spirit But an early experience with the realities of Texas education as it was practiced in a rural western community soured her on this facet of Texas life Fresh out of Southern Methodist University she took a job the only one available teaching school at Toyah Toyah is a tiny village away out in Reeves County In the 20s before irrigation had brightened that area Toyah was a desolate town Mary was one of three Toyah High School teachera who taught every subject then offered It was a difficult assignment And then Toyah ran out of money School was suddenly closed after eight months Mary went home disgusted "I'll never teach school again" she told her mother "But what else can a nice girl do except teach school?" her mother asked But Mary was so determined that her mother decided to get in touch with her son Rupert Johnson in New York (Rupert a West Point grad had quit the military after World War I the "war to end all and was building himself a career as a New York investment banker He was most successful Now he Is retired Next week Mary and Vic will fly to California to help him celebrate his 80th birthday) Rupert said he would find Mary a job in the ladylike pro-feu ion teaching school And he located a post in a nearby Waterfowl are still threatened by oily slids' but officials said that if appears that mostof the oil coming on the beaches is the remnnU of submerged globs i Madson asked about conditions next week predicted of the same thing we're seeing now" He said he did not expect conditions to be worse The US task force was set up here as foe oil neared US waters and threatened te kill wildlife in the lush Laguna Madre damage offshore shrimping and fishing and put an economic dent in the coastal tourist industry at the height of the Mason Proposed Senior Firefighter Salary Steps While occasional pancake-size patches of crude along the beaches are normal the tar balls are believed to be part of the oil that has been spilling from a well off Mexico's Yucatan Penisula since it blew out June 3 And Dr Patrick Parker of the University of (Upon Promotion) $1000 $1100 10 (5 Yrs) $1000 $1155 155 Current Proposed Increase Firefighter Says Job ropoqjcUPBjaiik Officer Increases i a V-1 yafw Current Proposed Lieutenant $1105 $1325 Captain $1216 $14694 Dist $1341 $1610 Asst Chief $1478 $1775 Increase 20 20 20 20 a Martin said The propoMls offer pay fa-creases for police after one three fire and 10 years of employment needs to addreu those with lewer years of experience" he said addi' that 65 percent of the police have Ins than two years' experience want to get the Im salary up (as proposed in Saturday's referendum As for the firemen getting 1cm undr the step pay proposals Martin said V-I was a fireman I'd be very upset" Continued from PglA payoff under the step program Approximately 20 percent of the police are in such a position Hawk said making a higher-salaried step program in their department more feasible Hawk said the firefighters' classification system might be looked at and that another step proposal may come up again Pogue talked with Hawk Wednesday and said he was satisfied something elM would he worked out Sgt Melvin Martin spokesman for the Police Association said the proposals lack meaning becauM there is still much diMussion on the subject within the City Council Martin said the 106 percent proposal quite a bit" but that the 145 percent increaM have validity especially in the higher ranks problem is that there are very few officers with 10 years experience (to benefit from either step pay proposal)" Cost: $1691146 (Includes cost of 6 new firefighters) Cost Increase: $296684 psai.