Evansville Press from Evansville, Indiana • 9

3 Tyidoy May 1 1990 In this section 10 Editorials 13 Money 15 Obituaries Woolworth assesses fire damage yesterday Litcble Litchleiter By Brian Kunksl Staff i Former principal faces arraignment Special to The Press JASPER Ind The former principal of Southridge High School in Huntingburg is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow on 18 in his district 10 of which are in St Louis and one each in El Dorado Carbondale and Cen-tralia 111 Of his 1 3 other stores only one of the St Louis stores was in the heart of Downtown like he said But Thompson said Woolworth a fixture of American Main Streets since 1879 generally remains bullish on the economic prospects" of stores in Downtown areas is still very alive in Downtown he said pointing to a new generation of scaled-down Woolworth Express stores which have sprung up in some Downtown locations recently be made No damage estimate has been made yet Thompson said the Evansville store which was purchased by Woolworth in 1904 is one of 1024 traditional-style five and dime variety stores under the Woolworth name in the US Worldwide the company operates over 8000 stores most of which are of more recent retail vintage such as Kinney Shoes Anderson Little and Foot Locker Thompson said the company will weigh such factors as profitability lease arrangements and store potential before making a decision Litchleiter said the volume of traffic at the local store was by comparison with the the other said a decision to remodel and reopen the store would be made by Woolworth officials in their corporate headquarters in New York Barry Thompson vice president of public affairs for Woolworth said yesterday it was just too early to predict the Evansville fate still awaiting a determination as to the fire's cause and the engineers assessment of the structural Integrity of the building" he said Thompson said engineers from the Chicago office would likely be dispatched to Evansville sometime this week but he would not speculate on when a decision will Gene Litchleiter leaned against a shovel taking a break from the strenuous task of removing wet ashes and debris from a fire-ravaged Woolworth store Downtown just makes you sick to look at a sight like he said Litchleiter a district supervisor from Woolworth's St Louis regional office has been employed by the variety store chain for over 40 years The Evansville store severely damaged by fire Sunday is one of 14 under his jurisdiction now just attempting to get organised and take inventory of what we have left" he said counts of telephone harassment for allegedly making crank calls to six employees of the Southwest Dubois County School No firms bid to tend esplanade Stephen Stanton currently a high school principal in La Porte Ind faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1000 fine on each count according to William Weikert Dubois County prosecutor Each count is a Class misdemeanor The charges allege that Stanton made the calls on March 11 12 13 15 and 18 Weikert said The alleged victims reported the calls actually began around the Feb 1 usually consisting of one or two rings and a hang-up according to State Police Master Sgt Steve Chambers of the Jasper post The charges resulted from a two-month investigation by the Indiana State Police Con-tel of Indiana and The alleged victims included the superintendent a school board member principals teachers and counselors Weikert said Chambers said police served a search warrant on Stanton's home and found a home computer capable of automatic dialing But there were couple of necessary to actually do this which police could not find on the premises Chambers said Lotto startup pleases officials By Brian Kunksl Staff i INDIANAPOLIS Despite widespread disappointment among retailers Hoosier Lottery officials say they are pleased with first-day sales from their first on-line game Lotto Cash Lottery officials hope the computerised game which will pay off winners in lump sums instead of installments will keep lottery players in Indiana from playing games in Illinois Michigan and Ohio Ticket sales began at 6 am yesterday at about 2000 retail outlets throughout the state About 1200 people bought 4273 tickets during the first five minutes of sales But yesterday's sales were slow compared with the blockbuster sales that accompanied the first day of scratch-off instant ticket sales last October IU campus fires dissimilar Associated Rasa By Alton Mayo PUSHING INTO SPRING It takes a lot of muscle to mow a lawn when ifs had all winter and early spring to grow tall and thick with weeds like dandelions and wild onions But 5-year-old Rodney Bonds has ample muscle and a helper his father Eric Bonds The two mowed Rodney's yard on Cherry Street recently Owensboro sets merger hearing The efforts to find a landscape company to care for the Riverside Drive esplanade this summer have been dealt another blow A second bid opening at the Evansville Redevelopment Commission meeting today yielded but one bid and that from an individual rather than a landscape company The commission failed to receive any bids at its last meeting two weeks ago Evansville resident Judy Mayes submitted the lone bid for $17500 or nearly twice what the commission paid Commercial Landscaping Service Inc to provide the same services last year The commission rejected the bid and scheduled another bid opening at a special meeting on Friday Mary Arnold director of redevelopment said she was disappointed with the level of interest in bid opening expected at least four bids based on conversations as recent as she said Arnold said for the time being a service is mowing the grass on an as-needed basis and the Parks Department is assisting in keeping weeds pulled The commission has been responsible for overseeing landscaping and maintenance of the esplanade since the Downtown Walkway was converted to a pedestrian transit mall in the mid-1980s Within the last couple of weeks Mayor Frank McDonald II assigned the Parks Department to take over the responsibility starting in 1991 Carolyn Georgette commission vice president said she hoped contract arrangements for landscaping services can be lined up before the Ohio River Arts Festival begins May 11 She said if acceptable bids are not received Friday a renewed effort will be launched to convince local groups or businesses to care for the esplanade under Operation City Adopt-A-Spot program City-county proposal attacked by critics By Maurtan Hayden Staff i BLOOMINGTON Ind A dozen fires set on the Indiana University campus the last three weeks appear to be dissimilar and executed without premeditation IU Police Chief George Huntington said yesterday that security has been beefed up on campus since fires began occurring randomly April 14 No one has been injured in the biases Twelve fires have been started at buildings housing the business law geology and computer science departments The School of Music and Fine Arts buildings have been hit twice Huntington said and the lounge of a dormitory ana a campus chapel also were targets structures and tax bases in the cities and county which has sparked criticism by an opposition group known as BEST Government is not necessarily said BEST member Roy Stoops record of metropolitan government is that the (delivery of) services is actually retarded" Stoops contends county residents will pay more taxes to support a merged government of questionable quality Supporters of the Urban County Chanter Commission including Da-viesi County Judge Executive William Norris and Owensboro Mayor David Adkisson concede county residents may pay more taxes initially but only to pay their for additional services they will enjoy 1 Initially the cost of supporting the urban county government would occupational tax But the current property tax structure would not be affected immediately and school taxes would remain unchanged according to the proposed charter Also no additional revenue from taxes will be raised during the first year of the merged government than the combined amount of revenue collected in the year before the by Whitesville Owensboro and viess County governments The proposed charter also lays out a streamlined form of delivering services with only one unit of government making decisions and delivering services The current county fiscal court and city commission would be merged into an Urban County Council consisting of five non-partisan council members representing districts three partisan members elected at-large and a partisan county also elected at-An appointed chief administrative officer would manage the government The position would be eliminated judge-executive large A Daviess County residents will be able to voice their opinions tonight on a proposed city-county government merger that proponents hail as both efficient and effective but critics say will slight county residents in services and taxes The public hearing scheduled for 8 pm at the Elizabeth Munday Center is the first of five public hearings scheduled this month on the proposed merger The plan which has been in the making for two years by the Urban County Charter Commission would merge the governments of the cities of Whitesville and Owensboro with Daviess County into a single government known as the Owensboro-Daviess Urban County Government The merger would bring about significant change in the political Ducklings killed at hospital -Three ducklings at the Evansville State Hospital about a week old were killed by someone who threw them against a tree the Vanderburgh Humane Society reported today Society officials were called to the hospital today and were to remove the ducklings It's the second case of ducks at the hospital being killed On Christmas Day several adult ducks were beaten to death Two men have been charged in that case and are awaiting trial on animal cruelty charges be passed along more significantly to people who live or work outside the city limits in part by levying a 1 percent occupational tax on all county residents Currently only people who work within the city limits pay the Witnesses: Wolf voided receipts FA? Board to study fining company By Roush Vanes Staff i people who paid the fines in question testified that they received receipts but they voided Wolf allegedly By Cheryl BlckeJ Staff i Where can I get pillow cases machine hemstitched In the Evansville area? I have my own transfer patterns but would like to crochet edges on the cases Mrs PK A Area fabric stores should be able to give you names of people who do various kinds of sewing Also some dry cleaners offer such services as hemstitching statements yesterday Wolf 62 faces 13 felony counts of theft that allege she took money between July 1988 and January 1989 She is the former supervisor of the Misdemeanor Traffic Division of the office and also worked for former mayors Russell Lloyd and Michael Vandeveer I The charges claim Wolf took money on 13 separate occasions totaling $799 although a State Board of Accounts audit showed that more than 40 receipts may have been tampered with and more than $2300 was missing During testimony yesterday Witnesses took the stand in the trial of former Vanderburgh County deputy clerk Dorothy Wolf and claimed they paid traffic fines in full and received legitimate receipts However Deputy Prosecutor Rich 'Amour claims Wolf voided the copies of receipts kept by the office so that they counted at the end of the day In turn she would take money from the cash drawer for the value of the receipts argued in opening voided only the cow of the receipt the clerk's office kept Defense attorney Allan Loo-semore said the missing funds can be blamed on mistakes by other office employees He argued in opening remarks that testimony of the handwriting expert who is-to testify that Wolfs handwriting appears on the receipts is not conclusive He also pointed out that no one witnessed the thefts Recycling figures pile up Absentee ballots delivered to shut-ins Utility Board members today were to consider fining an electroplating company for allegedly illegal chemical discharges The board last year began taking a hard line against industries discharging chemicals into the city sewer system in response to federal pressure Today the board will decide whether to continue that stance against National Anodising Plating 4700 Drive Gil Diekmann utility general manager said the company has improperly discharged levels of sine into the city sewer Board members have the ultimate authority in the setting of fines Fines in at least five other instances have generally ranged from about $100 to $200 per occurrence although the maximum fine allowed is $2500 per occurrence Also the board may decide how best to restructure the method for figuring sewer tap-in fees a review requested by the City Council Board members last week couldn't agree on a recommendation from Diekmann that nearly all tap-in fees be slashed to avoid giving breaks to any one group That would have meant a revenue loss of nearly $90000 which the board informally agreed was too big By Pam Martin Staff i various recycling centers in the United States recycled 273000 metric tons of aluminum cans last year about 86 percent of the total amount recycled in the country according to the annual report To put it another way of an estimated 80 billion aluminum cans produced in the United States nearty 50 billion were recycled and nearly 20 billion of those were recycled by Democrat alone helping a voter A voting device similar to the tray of the regular voting machines was taken to those voters confined to nursing homes For other absentee voters the punch card ballot was positioned on a thin piece of styrofoam for voting and a corresponding booklet indicated which number should be punched for each candidate Kirk said this procedure is followed every primary the Republican and Democratic Earties took ballots to 196 omes and six nursing homes Before leaving with their supplies the teams were instructed that any absentee voter requiring assistance in casting a ballot is to get aid from both members of the absentee team were all told that no member either the Republican or Democrat is to help a voter without the other Kirk said will be no instances of either the Republican or the Bipartisan teams yesterday started taking absentee ballots to voters who will be confined to their residences or nursiag homes during primary election Republican Susan Kirk who along with Democrat Paul Bits supervises election procedures said 10 absentee voting teems made up of volunteers from the League of Women Voter and said Alcoa operates in a plant at Yankeetown Alcoa the compa 20 countries incli in Warrick County a.