Southern Illinoisan from Carbondale, Illinois • Page 3

Lottery IDfiiOOy: G3-2- IPDeCl Qi JKaKSdipoG: caMa I I I 1 I I I 1 fi lv I I 4 ij i i Ji i Page Friday, October 8, 1993 The Southern Illinoisan FOX K(BW (o(Mfin tatBOH MB BW WW jiSi Radio-TV chair to head communications college if 4v A By Anne Marie Obiala Of The Southern Illinoisan Joe Foote was named the first dean of the newly formed College of Communications and Media Arts at Southern Illlinois University at Car-bondale on Thursday. i Foote, chairman of the university's radio-television department, will become dean Nov. 1, subject to the approval of the SIU Board of Trustees. A new chairman for the department will be nomal ot tliot 1 I Jackson deputy pardoned for gun violation SI Springfield Bureau A former Jackson County sheriffs deputy has been granted a pardon by Gov. Jim Edgar.

Curtis D. Ehlers was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon last year after U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents searched his Murphy-sboro home and found a homemade gun silencer. Ehlers pleaded for clemency before the state's Prisoner Review Board in April stating he did not know he was doing anything illegal. Kent Stein-kamp, legal counsel for the board, said Wednesday that Edgar granted the pardon late last month.

Ehlers was a firearms training instructor for the sheriffs department and said he was going to show the silencer to his trainees. The silencer was made by a longtime friend with parts bought from a hardware store. When asking for a pardon, Ehlers said he pleaded guilty to avoid a federal trial, which would have meant a mandatory 24-month prison sentence. Instead he received 18 months conditional probation, which means he did not have to report to a probation officer. Ehlers said his friend borrowed a few of his weapons, and when he returned them to Ehlers last winter, the friend gave Ehlers a silencer for him to see how it worked.

Ehlers accepted the silencer and put it in a bag with the rest of his weapons. There were not any target ranges open in the winter to test the silencer with his trainees, so Ehlers put the bag in a locked closet with the rest of his weapons until spring. Ehlers said he did not know that he could not legally have a silencer. As a result of the case, Ehlers resigned from the sheriffs department. "This is a college built up by grassroots so it has internal qualities that are unique and give it great momentum going in." Besides the groundwork with core courses already established, there's a lot in common between the departments within the college, Foote said.

"We can get excited about ideas and all be reading form the same script," with an academic unity, he said. Also, the information age will be a challenge to prepare students for the next century. "This new college is being born at the same time the information industries are on the verge of extraordinary change," Foote said. In 1991, Foote won the Frank Stanton Fellowship Award, named for the former CBS president, in New York City for his contribution to broadcast education. He is known nationally for his annual report on trends in network television news and he periodically traces the visibility of congressional leaders on TV.

Last year, he was a Fulbright lecturer in Bangladesh, training news reporters at the country's only television station. He also taught classes at the National Institute of Mass Con-numication in Dhaka, the nation's capital. He plans to keep his national profile going, to bring attention to SIUC. Although the university produces good students and has award-winning teachers, its Midwest location away from metropolitan areas keeps it a secret. "We have to go out externally and prove how good we really are," Foote said.

"Anytime we can be visible, then that's a highly positive thing. The challenge at the university is to spread the word of the quality of the programs." Foote has been with SIUC since 1986. Prior to that, he taught communication classes at Cornell University and worked as a press secretary to former Speaker of the House Carl Albert during the 1970s. tes i riluu ttl Foote time. Foote was one of three internal candidates competing for the position.

The others were Richard Blu-menberg, acting dean of the college and William Elliott, an SIUC journalism professor. This is a good time to take the position because a group of faculty called the Phoenix group laid the groundwork for the new college, yet the college isn't entrenched in its operations, Foote said. The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts was formed after protests from alumni and faculty over the planned disbanding of the College of Communications and Fine Arts. CCFA was abolished July 1 While some units from CCFA went to the liberal arts and education colleges, alumni and faculty wanted to save the communications focus. The new college includes the journalism school, the radio-television and cinema and photography departments, the Daily Egyptian student newspaper and the public television and radio stations operated by the university.

"We have a head start because of the excellent work of the Phoenix committee last year that drafted the backbone of the college," Foote said. "Most of the time you have the decisions handed down from up above, the administration," he said. Southern Illinoisan photo by CEASAR MARAGNI Squash harvest Rosie Stadelbacher sorts and packs summer squash at Blueberry Hill Farms In rural Cobden earlier this week. She, her husband and her brother-in-law operate the truck farm where the vegetables earn the family some extra income in the early fall. She said they are in the last week of the six-week squash harvest season.

roup wants beaming on zonm By Lucinda Morgan Of The Southern Illinoisan Television viewers in Southern Illinois will finally get the chance to judge the controversial program "NYPD Blue" for themselves, beginning next week when the show airs on the local Fox affiliate. Steve Engles, president and general manager of KBSI Fox 23, announced Thursday afternoon that his Cape Girardeau station will become the second non-ABC affiliate to begin airing the show. An independent station in Dallas signed an agreement with ABC just hours before KBSI did, he said. Engles said he believes that the show will fit perfectly with the Fox Tuesday night programming. The program will air in 9 p.m.

time slot, just as it would on an ABC affiliate. "It follows 'America's Most Wanted' which isn't a kid's show. The genre is the same," he said, 'it fits perfectly on a Fox Tuesday night." The fourth installment of the dramatic series is due out next Tuesday, but Fox viewers will have to be a little more patient. Engles said the station will not catch up to the network until the sixth episode on Oct. 26.

That's so viewers can have an opportunity to see the first episodes and meet the characters, he said. The first, and most controversial episode, will air Oct. 16 at 10 p.m., "away from the family viewing hours," he said. The second episode will air at 10 p.m. Oct.

1 7 and the third show will air at 9 p.m. Oct. 19. The following weekend, Fox will air the fourth and fifth episodes and on Oct. 26, will join the network for the sixth episode.

"Essentially, we just became a secondary ABC affiliate in this market," he said, adding that his contract with ABC runs indefinitely. "We have had people in Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri very irritated because they cannot see this very, very good dramatic series," he said. "It's the No. 1 dramatic series in the country and beat out the National League playoffs this week." "And, I see it as a question of free speech," he said. "I believe in free speech and for a small group of people to demand that this not be aired on a television station is wrong." Janice Gretemeyer, vice president for public relations at ABC, said the network has been talking with several independent stations around the country in areas where the show is not being run.

"If the ABC station has indicated that it is not interested in carrying the program, we are looking at other stations who might be," she said. "ABC obviously would approach the local station with it one more time before signing a contract with another station, but once signed, the independent gets the show for the remainder of its run." In fact, Engles said, if WSIL Channel 3, the local ABC affiliate, should ever decide to change its decision and start airing the program, ABC would have to negotiate an agreement between the two local stations. But Steve Wheeler, program director at WSIL, said he doesn't think that will be a problem. "Our policy all along has been to judge it on a week to week basis, but we frankly haven't seen anything that would change our minds. We still have some deep concerns about the show and I haven't been very impressed with what I've heard," he said.

Wheeler said that his station did have the right to "first refusal" of the show and that he had indeed refused the show a final time so that ABC could go ahead with the transaction. "Just because we've decided not to run the show, doesn't mean that I want to prevent someone else from being able to," Wheeler said. "In fact, I kind of welcome it." The agreement between ABC and KBSI "does not mean that I'll never pick up the show," he said, "but now I can't pick it up until their agreement expires." Engles said the only negative reaction he expects to his decision to air "NYPD Blue" will be from the fans of the show he is replacing. Fox currently runs episodes of the original "Star Trek" in the 9 p.m. slot on Tuesdays and trekkies may be upset by the station's decision.

However, he said, trekkies should not despair, that show will simply be moved back to 9 p.m. on Mondays. By Tracy James Of The Southern Illinoisan section of East Main Street and Giant City Road. The developer, Mid-American Hotels Corp. of Cape Girardeau has erected a "Coming Soon" sign and construction could begin any time.

The company began working on its plans three years ago. Agreed to pay for part of the costs of buying property so that the Mill Street Underpass project can proceed. Buying the right of way will cost the city $16,250. Agreements have been reached to buy seven parcels on East Freeman Street that are owiied by John Karayiannis, Dennis Cripps and Carol Morrison. The underpass project is designed to alleviate delays caused by trains.

The construction will connect Mill Street with East Freeman Street, which also runs east and west, by an underpass beneath Illinois Avenue and the Illinois Central Railroad tracks. Freeman Street will take drivers to South Wall Street. changed so that three unrelated people could live together. That would make if fairer for landlords and for students, he said. City Manager Jeff Doherty said the city attorney and other staff members will review the matter to determine the best way to proceed with the USG request.

The city code requires specific proceedings in zoning matters and often requires that applicants for changes own property. Davies also was warned that zoning proceedings are designed to allow time for the people who would be affected by a proposed change to learn about it and to respond. Such matters are addressed by the city's planning commission, in an advisory role, and by the city council. In other business, the council: Authorized city staff to apply for certifica tion from the Federal Communications Commission so the city can regulate basic cable rates as allowed by the 1992 Cable Act. If certified, the city can make sure basic cable rates stay within a formula established by the FCC.

No drastic changes in rates should be expected, officials said. TCI Inc. already is within the FCC formula, and the city cannot regulate expanded basic rates. The FCC is supposed to do that. Larry Juhlin chairs the council's advisory cable commission.

He said applying for certification is the best approach because there are no alternatives. But he said the "tool" is not a good tool, and he cautioned against cable viewers' great expectations. Approved an amendment to a development plan submitted for a Burger King that is planned at the southwest corner of the inter Chris Davies, city affairs commissioner for the Undergraduate Student Government at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, told the Carbondale City Council this week that he wants a public hearing conducted on the issue of single-family zoning. Mayor Neil Dillard asked Davies to put his request in writing and said the council will consider it. Davies said USG wants the occupancy requirement in single-family zoning, which also is called R-l zoning, expanded.

Under the existing ordinance, no more than two unrelated people can live together in a neighborhood zoned for single families, even if one of them owns the house. Davies said USG wants the ordinance Towoshnp fore department ommproves raitnimg By Tracy James Of The Southern Illinoisan had an ISO of 10 until they asked the organization in December to re-inspect the fire department, anticipating a drop in the rating. They learned they were not rated, but in March the department received a rating of 10 based on some paperwork sent to the organization. ISO inspectors examined the department this summer and just recently officials learned their rating dropped to 7. Fire Chief Mike Bilderback attributes the improved rating to new fire trucks, better equipment and training and upgrades that the five water districts in the township made to their waterlines.

"I'm happy," Bilderback said about the new rating. "But for us it doesn't make that much difference. It's not a grade of the department, per se, it just is their formula to figure out coverage. But ISO ratings do make a difference in insurance rates. Richard Diederich, owner of Diederich Insurance, said homeowners in the township could expect a drop in premiums of 20 percent to 22 percent.

Some homeowners in developed areas just outside Carbondale might already be insured at a lower ISO rating, however, and they likely will not see a drop in their premiums. Bilderback said insurance companies will be able to use the new rating as of Dec. 1. Diedrich said insurers will have to wait until the number is published in an ISO annual publication. In 1990, Carbondale Township residents, including those living in Carbondale, supported a referendum for a tax increase so the township could buy a new pumper and equipment.

The pumper that drove into the firehouse last fall has a 1991 chassis and a 1992 body. It replaced a 1956 pumper that constantly needed repaired. The new truck cost $118,1 12. The department also bought the 1968 550-gallon pumper it rented while it waited for the new truck. The department received new hoses, a longer extension ladder, and six self-contained breathing packs, which allow firefighters to go into more toxic areas.

Bilderback said township officials plan to get more information from the Insurance Services Office on what the department needs to do to drop its rating even more. But more improvements, he said, will depend on how much they cost and how much time is required. Insurance premiums on property in Carbondale Township should drop later this year or next year because the township fire department received in improved rating. The department went from the worst rating possible to one of 7. Ratings by the Insurance Services Office affect how much property insurance costs in the areas covered by the particular fire departments.

The higher the rating 10 is the highest the higher the insurance premiums. Township officials thought they Benton Cdvdc Center gets OK for bidding on renovation By Nick Howes Southern Illinoisan Correspondent board will be held at 2 p.m. Nov. 10, at the civic center dining hall. The project, which will be partially funded by the state with a local The Benton Civic Center has received state approval to so- completion by Labor Day 1 994.

"It will meet all health and safety codes and be better insulated," Seymour said. The insulation should reduce utility bills. The remodeling project has been in the works since 1989. Later new lobby, concession and restrooms will be built, the auditorium will be completely rewired and replumbed, and a sprinkler system installed. Seymour estimates the price at around $700,000.

Construction should start in mid-December with phases of the work will include replacing the stage with a more professional version, he said, as well as install meeting rooms and a kitchen. Seymour said with the renovations complete, he hopes some major entertainment acts can be brought in. match, includes a complete exterior ncii digs ior pnase one oi its renovation project. A bid opening meeting of the one of its makeover of the auditorium, said board chairman Jake Seymour. A 4.