The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 58

mugm rrrv WT' Metro MEMPHIS THURSDAY FEBRUARY 24 1994 The Commercial Appeal SECTION Tucker may OK fix-it Foiled robbery suspect linked to long list of heists session on schools Tucker also called on legislators to begin a series of statewide public hearings in advance of a full-scale effort to re ey in past years That plan could land the controversy in court no matter the legislature's course of action The governor warned that unless lawmakers get behind his plan or an alternative plan he en on the parking lot of Deposit Guaranty National Bank and was arrested without Incident moments after he took more than $100000 from the vault His apparent scheme to divert when Mitchell struck arrested him at Deposit Guaranty but it would have been much the same we believe if he had hit any other bank in Long said after a press conference Wednesday Johnson the of Patrick Michael Mitchell David FBI special agent in the FBI office in Jackson said Mitchell would be charged federally with bank robbery and with the use of a firearm in commission of a felony He said the US Attorney Office in Oxford Miss had agreed to prosecute on those charges which could give Mitchell a sentence of 30 years if convicted is a smoking-gun type of Johnson said was Please see SUSPECT Page B8 By Joan Duffy Tlw Commercial Appeal Little Rock Bureau LITTLE ROCK Gov Jim Guy Tucker promised Wednesday to call a special session of the legislature next week if lawmakers line up behind his plan to fix the school funding mess Tucker wants to correct a Department of Education practice that for 11 years has given 117 school districts more money than they were entitled to and 200 districts! less money His plan would keep all dis tricts from taring any money this year but would not compensate districts that have lost mon- County Chancery Court City Atty Monice Hagler said Wednesday she has directed attorneys with Glankler Brown Gilliland Chase Robinson and Raines to contact Winchester and other attorneys in the Hickory Hill cases to if there was room for comr oom for Hagler declined to say what ort of settlement would be of- sort fered don't want to get into that We need the opportunity to see what the possibilities Winchester said it would be possible to quickly resolve the lawsuits were the city to agree to abandon the annexation Assessor can accept he will cancel spe-plans and allow the cial session plans i school funding for ten to take effect 200 school districts and some would be to bankruptcy In applying the funding formula since 1983 Department of Education administrators calculating local effort to finance school operations tailed to take into account growth in a wealth By Robert Cohen pressed something Hagler said would not happen Another possibility Winchester said would be to the by letting Hickory Hill residents vote by referendum on whether they wanted to join Memphis That proposal he said too inconsistent with democracy not the most radical proposal ever suspect there would be some who would vote to be in Memphis and a greater number that would prefer to remain in the (unincorporated) Winchester represents the Hickory Hill Industrial Park Please see ANNEX Page B8 attention from the bank a trap that he i Police Chief Tom that he walked into Long said telephoned Mitchell apparently telep in three diversionary including a bomb threat to City Hall before entering the bank had telephoned every bank in town saying that we believed that a robbery might be Long said and he said the city's 13 banks and its major stores were all covered Hickory By Roland Klose The Commercial I Unless Memphis wants to drop plans to annex the Hickory Hill area reaching a settlement with the city will prove difficult attorneys fighting the annexation said Wednesday happy to sit down and talk to anybody about any pro-ils they said Richard Winchester Jr who represents industries in the southeastern section of Shelly County a difficult case to set tle Hickory Hill will either be in Memphis or it will not The administration of Mayor WW Herenton recommended I i I I i Js I 4 By William Bayne Ttw CommweU Appml Patrick Michael Mitchell 51 who was arrested Tuesday in Southaven is believed responsible for robberies involving more than $3 million in the United States and Canada He was scheduled to be formally charged today and taken before a ILJL magistrate in Oxford Miss He is befog held in the La- ing 1 faCounty Jail in Oxford who has been featured on America Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries was stopped at gunpoint in Southav- Christ Pantocrator an Icon depicting Jesus as the center of the universe was installed Wednesday In the ceiling of St John Orthodox Church at 1663 Tutwiler Parishioners touch up the painting which is 14 feet In diameter It was created by Father Luke Dingman of California as part of the five-year project to fill their walls with icons' Dingman has painted icons for Orthodox churches in the United States England Canada and Japan Mark Pryor says run for Atty Gen in Arkansas By Joel Williams The Aaaodated Frees LITTLE ROCK The Democratic Party race for attorney al began taking shape ednesday with state Rep Mark announcement that he 11 run for the office against incumbent Winston Bryant Bryant has not made a formal announcement but said he plans to seek re-election Pryor 31 of Little Rock said he did not expect that his father Davit' US Sen David Pryor would play a major role in the campaign Hark Pryor said that as attorney general he would focus on violent crime as well as consumer protection and economic development is supposed to otect people But not he said at a press conference at the Little Rock airport continue to watch violent crime exploding in our state It's time for government to address the issue of protection" He declined to comment on Bryant's record until Bryant makes a formal announcement that he will enter the May primary Pryor an attorney with the Wright Lindsey and Jennings law firm is serving his second term in the state House of Representatives Bryant 55 said Wednesday he prepared to run on his record as attorney general an office he has held since January 1991 Mark Pryor I think is a fine roung Bryant said 've said before a free country and if he wants to run or office he No Republican has announced or attorney general Marty Ryall executive director of the state GOP said some potential candidates are run form and simplify school fund-1995 regular session ing in the 1995 regul Tucker speaking Legislative Commit! to a Joint Legislative Committee on Education in the House chamber to accommodate the crowd rejected suggestions that lawmakers merely change the law to match the 11-year-practice Such action Tucker said would reward districts that happen to have a new manufacturing or utility plant land within its boundaries at the expense of districts whose wealth is stagnant Please see SCHOOL Page B8 Beale St pubs can stay open till 5 am By Richard Locker Tlw Commercial Appeal NaahvNIe Bureau Chief NASHVILLE Without fanfare or ceremony Gov Ned Me-Wherter signed into law Wednesday the legislation ex-sale of alcohol- tending the legal lc beverages in the Beale Street historic district from the current 3 am to 5 am But even though the measure became effective at the stroke of the pen not likely reading this at 5 this morning in a Beale Street bar First the management aware it had been signed until a reporter telephoned late Wednesday afternoon And second the extended drinking hours apply only on nights when the street is dosed to cars usually weekends and when festivals are under way going to happen it will be Friday night (Saturday said Mike Hjort president of Beale Street Management Inc don't think any of the merchants know he's signed it It's also not likely you can imbibe until just before dawn very often either Hjort said that managers of most of the street's 10 alcohol-serving clubs indicated during a meeting earlier Wednesday they aren't likely to stay open until 5 am on a routine basis a normal midwinter night most of them say through at 1 or 2 am anyhow It will be an individual decision to stay open Most of them wanted the opportunity to stay open and most of them will do it during the that bring crowds to Beale Hjort said The largest draws include the Memphis in May International Festival's Blues Festival the Zydeco Festival the Spring Memphis Music Festival and Labor Day Music Festival Under state law alcoholic beverages cannot be served between 3 and 8 am weekdays and 3 am and noon Sundays The new law applies only to the officially designated Beale Street historic district paid on lower previous i ments Sterling said that after he took office Sept 1 1992 he found that the Office had no checks and balances to verify whether all exempt properties should be exempt The most expensive formerly exempt property Involves land owned by Le Bonheur Medical Center on Washington between Manassas and Dunlap The new Physician Office Building and garage at 777 Wash- is appraised by the Office at $131 million no back taxes are owed Francis Winkler the assessor's director of exempt properties said the Office discovered that families igthesin- the Smo- development in north-central Memphis Once purchases are completed the homes developed under a nonprofit program go on the tax rolls he said Hill offer may be John Ford says criticism by Gray affect him api on property worth $7o million lifts tax exemotions Tuesday that the City Council attempt no new annexations of unincorporated Shelby County until lawsuits involving Hickory Hill Getwell West ana the Hill-shlre-Stonebrldge area are resolved The 156-square-mile Hickory ea and a no Hill area and a noncontiguous 39-square-mile area called Getwell West both were annexed by the city in December 1987 Those annexations plus last year's move to take in the 47-square-mile HillshireStone-bridge area have been blocked by lawsuits filed by residents and businesses Hickory Hill has more than 40000 residents and Includes some of the county's largest em- most prom: a family that has served in sever-almbUc offices since the early In the booklet that Gray began circulating Tuesday the minister claims John Ford entered three past races only to prevent other blacks from winning: the county race in 1978 the city mayors race in 1983 and the county race in 1990 He claims the senator is to his old in this year's race Gray said unless Ford quits the race he and his supporters would seek a candidate to ran against Ford for his Senate seat this year and would back a candidate against him for his clerk position in 1996 if Ford seeks re-election Noon today is the deadline for candidates to withdraw from county races Ford dismissed call for him to withdraw two most prominent members of solve his own problem I am not concerned about what he says" Ford said There are nine other candidates in the race By Nate Hobbs The Commercial Appeal County mayoral candidate John Ford said Wednesday his candidacy would not be affected negative comments about in in a booklet being circulated by a minister Ford a state senator and General Sessions Court clerk said be believed Rev Leo Gray Jr Baptist Church was motivated by nisi role as an official in the campaign of mayoral candidate Otis Higgs Jr Gray has said Higgs has nothing to do with the 14-page booklet that accuses Ford of using his public offices to the black community Ford Gray and Higgs are black FordHn a telephone interview from Nashville said of Gray: only claim to fame is to tty to say something negative about a family who over the past 25 years has given some of the finest service to this community" Ford and his brother Rep Harold FOrd of Memphis are Urn vide additional revenue Property appeals could reduce the amount of new revenue received In a related development Sterling said office equipment furniture and similar items used by Agricenter Interna-id Ducks Unlimited tional and which is on county-owned Agricenter property have been placed onpersonal prop-Tne Agricenter erty tax rolls property is exempt Sterling said the personal property used by the private organization to conduct business is not exempt Sterling ordered a mqjor review of tax-exempt properties last year after the Assessor's Office discovered that 43 acres at Germantown Parkway and Dexter Road had been purchased by the Wiener family from University of Tennessee in 1986 for $14 million but that a deed had not been filed The Office 1993 appraisal on the property is $49 million Any back taxes will be By Jimmie Covington Tlw Commardal I Formerly tax-exempt properties valued at $762 million have been placed back on the tax rolls as a result of agres-sive review of exemptions county Assessor Harold Sterling said Wednesday Tax assessments on the 291 properties ranging from a office building and single family homes to 43 acres on Germantown Parkway and former greenbelt property total $217 million That amount represents $751730 in 1993 county property taxes The properties within Memphis and other county municipalities also will provide new tax revenue for municipal governments Some of the tax assessments including reclassification for former greenbelt property for which ownership size or use changed will go back over three years and pro- tit MlyhilMUM.