The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 41

C9 Thursday August 31 1989 The BuffaloNews Business Key Indicators DOWAfooJ 114 272929 DOLLAR Tokyo today 120 yen 14428 GOLD Comex dose $35960 BONDS 30 yr treasury Unchanged 817 actory orders fall 17 in July WASHINGTON (AP) Orders to US factories for manufactured goods fell 17 per cent in July to the lowest level in eight months the government said today The Commerce Department said orders for both durable and nondurable manufactured goods totaled a seasonally adjusted $2313 bil lion It was the lowest level since November and the second decline in three months Orders rose 06 percent in June and fell 26 percent in May Construction pacts rise 2 NEW YORK (AP) A rebound in public works projects helped push up the level of new construction contracts nationwide by 2 percent in July according to the Dodge Group of McGraw Hill Information Services Co Overall construction last month rose to an annual rate of $2566 billion a three month high following a 2 percent drop in June Contracts for public works and utilities con struction jumped 5 percent in July to an annu al rate of $457 billion July contracts for new non residential buildings rose 2 percent to $918 billion Residential home contracts were up a modest 1 percent with multifamily hous es and hotels declining slightly and single fami ly homes advancing 2 percent Glove maker loses zone status GLOVERSVILLE (AP) State officials on Wednesday yanked the Economic Develop ment Zone benefits of largest glove manufacturer which opened its first United States factory here earlier this year The state decertified Swany USA Corp as an Economic Zone Development Business En terprise saying it fulfill its commitment to New York and the city of Gloversville The Japanese application for zone status included substantial amount of inaccurate according to officials of the state Urban Development Corp 5 big to be sold WASHINGTON (AP) ederal regulators announced Wednesday they are putting up for sale five of the largest failed savings institu tions under control of Resolution Trust Corp the new agency charged with cleaning up the thrift mess They are: Bright Banc Savings Association Dallas with $4 billion in assets formerly owned by HR Bright once one of the 50th wealthiest men and the former owner of the Dallas Cowboys San Antonio Savings Association San An tonio with assets of $2 5 billion Baltimore ederal inancial Baltimore 2 with $16 billion in assets Broadview ederal Savings Bank Inde pendence Ohio with $16 billion in assets Skokie ederal Savings and Loan Associa tion Skokie Ill with assets of $961 million Lewis pleads guilty to fraud NEW YORK (AP) Stock speculator Sal im Lewis unexpectedly pleaded guilty Wednesday to three felony charges stemming from a federal investigation of alleged stock fraud involving und Corp The guilty plea by Lewis 50 a well known Wall Street figure came a month before he was to go on trial and marked a stunning turn around in a case that stemmed indirectly from the Ivan Boesky insider trading scandal Lewis entered the pleas before US District Judge Kimba Wood to charges of manipulating the price of und common stock three years ago aiding and abetting the falsifi cation of records and stock margin violations spurns buyout offer ATLANTA (AP) A group of franchisees operating more than 500 fast food res taurants said Wednesday it had offered over $200 million for the chain but the owner says not interested in selling Inc is owned by a company con trolled by DWG Corp a Miami based holding company controlled by industrialist Victor Posner The group of eight franchisees said it wanted to buy the Atlanta based chain because continued ownership could threaten the stability of partly because of Pos ner's legal and financial problems Eastern adding 101 flights MIAMI (AP) Eastern Airlines nearing the seventh month of its strike on Wednesday said it will add another 101 daily flights Oct 1 and is ahead of its rebuilding schedule The announcement of new flights most be tween lorida and Northeast cities came a day before Eastern officials were scheduled to make a presentation in New York to creditors on their rebuilding plan The Wall Street Jour nal reported Wednesday that Eastern faces $400 million in revenue shortfalls and may have to revise its plan for emerging from Chapter 1 1 bankruptcy protection Ecologist on board NEW YORK (AP) Exxon Corp said Wednesday it has named marine scientist John Steele as a director in response to share holder demands for the addition of an envi ronmental expert following the worst oil spill Steele 62 is president and a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ardent Stellar to merge NEW YORK (AP) Stellar Computer Inc and Japanese backed rival Ardent Computer Corp money losing makers of high powered graphics computers said Wednesday they had agreed to merge to form a company named Stardent Inc Kubota Ltd which owns 44 percent of Ardent will own 22 percent of the com bined companies and eventually will take over all manufacturing as well as ar East distribu tion of the consolidated product line 300 area investors wonder: Lear needs Where did the $5 million go? Michalek denies wrongs says investors still may benefit By DAVID MONTGOMERY News Business Reporter Chester Kalinowski and his family invested $142000 in James spectacular vision of profitable con dos and gorgeous estates in Orchard Park Michalek was attorney and personal friend Jim would attend Christmas parties and they golfed together The trust was so complete that $6000 in college savings for Chet's grandson went into grand vision Chet and Jim friends anymore Haven't been for about a year ever since banks started foreclosing on the vision and Jim became a trifle evasive about that $142000 been doing for the last year is stalling for time with every said Kalinowski owner of TV Appliance Inc in Orchard Park and East Aurora Kalinowski is one of about 300 investors who became limited partners and chipped in $5 million to finance Mich real estate developments beginning in 1981 82 An uncounted number at least scores perhaps hundreds have yet to get back their principal much less profits The development projects include two medical office buildings and 64 apartments completed at 5285 Chestnut Ridge Road and an unfinished proposal to build estates in the vicinity of ox Chapel Road Attorney General Robert Buffalo office is investigat ing dealings and the in vestigators promise their spadework will result in legal action either civil or criminal charges or both But Michalek in his first public statements on the matter Wednes day afternoon denied he has done anything wrong He said this is a case of real estate projects being hurt by contractors and investors who lost faith in them And he said there is still a chance that investors will get their money back not a scam when you bor row money and complete the proj we Michalek said I can survive I think the investors are going to get more Michalek said all his actions including those criticized by the attorney general have been aimed to wring money for investors from the real estate and office developments But investors are stampeding to cash out of the projects and he pay them agree they have a right to be concerned and they have a right to get their money Michalek said investors are good people But when you run at some thing you hurt the Wearing a blue suit with a red silk handkerchief in the breast pocket Michalek spoke in his Orchard Park office one of his three area law offices A flamboyant South Towns figure in the winter he favors a full length fur coat and for a time he was driven in a chauffeured limousine or 1 5 years he has been the 1 5000 a year attorney for the Lackawanna Municipal Housing Authority Michalek estimated he has sunk $3 million in personal funds into the real estate projects plus personally guaranteed bank loans get my money out of he said RICHARD ROELLERBuffalo News Jr KX HR 's'25swwas' xK4S 'i Kltlte' Ifflai a Im JJI i firl 5 Chester Kalinowski put $142000 into a limited partnership headed by his former friend Michalek have to live in this community I have to practice in this Michalek said not going But the attorney general and attorneys for angry investors suspected Michalek might be planning to duck out of the Chestnut Ridge losses when he made arrangements this month to sell it to Buffalo real estate speculator Harold Schectman irst without telling the investors Michalek conveyed the property for a mere $20000 to companies he set up Then he agreed on a sale to subsidiaries of operating company according to information gathered by Assistant Attorney General Dennis Rosen The attorney general Tuesday obtained an injunction halting the sale But Michalek said' that by then he had already disposed of part of the property the two medical buildings while retaining some equity in them Rosen said if that is true it is news to the attorney general Not keeping investors fully informed and shifting the property around when it is the only asset of the limited partnership is suspicious conduct said attorney Michael erdman representing investors Eugene and Constance Leo See Michalek Page C12 James Michalek ect which is what IBM gives $500000 grant to ECC for high tech manufacturing training Systems use computers to integrate production processes By IRENE JENNINGS News Staff Reporter Erie Community College signed a landmark agreement with IBM Wednesday that will teach students a technology that American manufactur ers are using increasingly to make their operations more competitive and effi cient The project also is seen as a spur to economic development in Western New York increasing the job readiness and employability of ECC graduates and possibly attracting new businesses that need workers trained in computer integrated manufacturing or CIM is a revolutionary ECC President Louis Ricci said afford not to get involved We are assuring our students of employment in Western New ECC which received a $500000 grant from IBM is one of 57 colleges and universities across the United States to be tapped for similar projects involving the relatively new concept The IBM grant will provide for the establishment of a regional center scheduled to open in the spring and local manufacturing interests will be di rectly involved with it and the students learning the concept Ricci said are beginning a process that will enable us to fill a strong Steve Hoffmann IBM branch manager told Board of Trustees after ad ding his signature to the a formal agree ment with the college will benefit not only the college but the manufacturing community as a CIM systems which have been on the market for approximately five years link every department of a manufac turing company from marketing to sales to the plant floor where produc tion takes place They can assist in everything from predicting sales demand to monitoring quality control and worker productivi ty on the plant floor Moog Inc for example has been using CIM seriously for about three years according to Ron Book the Elma manager of domestic sup port Using computers in manufactur ing new he said but the concept of CIM is relatively new think it does have potential to improve productivity and at the same time provide quality Book said potential in the end is for reducing costs and it all adds up to being more ECC plans to design an entire curric ulum around CIM Ricci said To illus trate how the technology might work in an educational setting Ricci suggested that students in the engineer ing program might decide to design a specific kind of die Students in marketing pro gram then would conduct a feasibility study on the engineering de sign Business students then would han dle questions of production and sales of the die Graphic arts students would be involved at another level In this way Ricci explained the CIM system will link the learning pro cess among previously autonomous de partments All the students involved will have worked together and learned how a product evolves from an abstract concept to a product on the market fabulous part is you are train ing business groups on the one hand training students and bringing together employers with prospective employ Ricci said is a win win situation all around" CC waiver for TV deal Approval certain on Channels 29 49 here By DOUGLAS TURNER News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON The complex $36 million plus deal involving the sale of two Buffalo UH television stations depends on the government's giving the Norman Lear interests a waiver from a rule barring television regional market dominance Lear the creator of "Archie and other off beat sitcoms has become a leading liberal spokesman helping to found such organizations as People for the American Way The question is whether role in such liberal campaigns as the suc cessful effort to keep Robert Bork off the US Supreme Court will play a role in the decisions made by a ederal Communications Commission which is dominated by appointees of conser vative ex president Ronald Reagan The Lear organization owns 79 per cent of the company that filed an appli cation with the CC to purchase WUTV Ch 29 for $3415 million from Citadel Communications Ltd The problem is that Lear's company Act III also owns WUH TV of Roch ester The signals of both stations overlap in central Orleans and Genesee Coun ties This means the proposed purchase runs afoul of the so called rule barring common ownership of TV stations that have overlapping broadcast patterns attorneys filed an application asking the CC to waive that rule and allow the Ch 29 deal to go through The proposed sale of Ch 29 is contin gent on the sale of Ch 49 WNYB TV to Tri State Christian TV Inc for at least $25 million i Essentially the deal represents a as documents filed with the CC put it of Buffalo Channels 29 and 49 into one with Ch 49 beaming out religious programs that would originate elsewhere fiercely competitive nature of the Buffalo market and the disadvan tages faced by UH stations operating there make it virtually impossible for the market to support two conventional independent waiver application said Principals of the Buffalo Sabres hockey organization who now control Ch 49 would take a small equity posi tion in the new Lear owned Ch 29 and would be entitled to at least two seats on Ch new board of direc tors The Lear petition to the CC to waive the duopoly rule rests in large measure on the participa tion by such Buffalo leaders as Sey mour Knox III and Robert Swa dos who are currently on Ch board in the new Ch 29 organization application to the CC said such community leaders will take part in advisory committee that will be a liaison between WUTV and the Buffalo measures will enable WNYB (Ch 49) local owners to continue to advance their plans and goals for the Buffalo the application said than pursuing their aims in the context of a struggling station however they will be able to contribute to the Buffalo community from a strong and commercial viable economic base and can concentrate their energies on enriching the commu nity" The document pointed to ing financial losses sustained by WNYB which in jeopardy the viability of this local of us is wearing silk shirts as a result of our participation in he said this arrange ment will give us an equity position in a financially strong Swados said Ch 49 has operated at a loss since it opened in 1987 Losses he said average $1 million a year The Sabres paid $58 million for the station See Lear Page C12 Very polite CWA harass substitutes By JOSEPH RITZ News Labor Reporter Driving on the Youngmann Express way near the University at Buffalo's North Campus strike leaders James Hoage and Linda Wilk spotted a famil iar white NYNEX truck parked near a telephone pole on Luskin Drive in the Town of Tonawanda Ms Wilk an area vice president of the Communications Workers of America one of the two unions striking NYNEX and Hoage a chief steward got off the expressway at the next exit and doubled back to the truck Nearby Kyle Gay a young account executive for the New York Telephone Co was gamely replacing a pair of aerial cables in an outside box holding hundreds of phone wires here to make your job go a little Hoage said with a smile as he and Ms Wilk donned picket signs and began to pace back and forth by the telephone pole where Gay was working longer it takes you to do your job the better it is for striking for your benefits as well as our own so we'd greatly appre ciate it if you took your time doing said Ms Wilk Pickets at entrances to New York Telephone Co offices garages and oth er locations have become a familiar sight since the CWA and the Interna tional Brotherhood of Electrical Work ers began striking NYNEX Aug 6 But picketing also is being done at isolated locations when roving teams of CWA members discover their work being done by management Hoage and Ms Wilk talked with Gay in a friendly manner about the issues in the strike and the importance that the union attached to having the company pay all medical insurance costs Gay who appeared a trifle nervous said little Hoage a service technician for the phone company with 19 years of ser vice took a professional interest in workmanship tell you one he said looking into the truck let us keep trucks as messy as Gay said he had been making re pairs since Monday He said pickets followed his truck to a company garage the first day but left after 45 minutes when he get the key he needed for supplies Wednesday he said was the first time he had been picketed On the whole he said he'd rather be selling phone service When Gay was finished and had put away his ladder Hoage pointed to a wire dangling next to the pole be telling you he said that wire could cost New York Telephone a damage suit if anyone should run into it I want to see anyone getting As Gay listened attentively Hoage gave him advice on how to remove the offending wire The salesman turned See NYNEX Page Cl 1 The BuffaloNews.