Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 9

ilittsburcif) jtast-ifiazrltr Saturn dealership, general jnanager face fraud charges The challenge for Clinton in a 'swing' justice's retirement EDITORIALS, PAGE B-2 bUilNtbi), PAGE B-10 i SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1993 D-l Local. iocese to close city oldest parish JAM t- 7K; ft, 'I ST il 7 i- 1 4 1 I Kvjl: riT3 'f i --v" ''--fsS''" Ik 1' "4s tfc fXrif. jjuV The city's oldest parish is St. Patrick's in the Strip District. O'Connor is a third-generation member of St.

Philomena's. "It's like a death in the family," he said. The diocese's decision was not expected, he said. Though it was not technically a part of the diocesewide reorganization that has consolidated and closed parishes throughout the area, O'Connor said, it was clear St. Philomena's would have been closed once parishes in the East End came under review next year.

Starting in June, parishioners living south of the Parkway East are to be assigned to St. Rosalia's in Greenfield and those north of it to St. Bede's in Point Breeze, Kelly said. O'Connor suggested that the church community might be able to stay together if most of the property were sold and a smaller chapel built onto the existing rectory. Andy St.

Philomena's parish in Squirrel Hill. Two jail inmates charged in prisoner's death 4 with homicide in Floyd's death. Originally, authorities believed Floyd's death might have been a suicide. That changed after interviews with several other inmates in the jail. The two defendants had approached another inmate, who told police that Burton and Goodwine had asked him to help them in the A positive sign I I i second By David L.

Michelmore Post-Gazette Slaff Wrier The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has told leaders of St. Philomena's parish in Squirrel Hill, the second oldest in the city, that it is closing it down, parish council members said yesterday. Parishioners will be told of the diocese's decision tomorrow at Mass. Parish council members were told of the decision Monday night in a meeting with Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Tobin and other diocesan officials.

The Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese, confirmed only that the Monday night meeting took place and that parishioners would be informed of the decision tomorrow. The reason for the closing is the church's mounting debt. Tim Kelly, a member of the council, said the church covered its operating ex killing, said Supt. Robert Kroner of the Allegheny County Police.

The inmate, who told police he refused the request, said other prisoners told him the defendants were offering $3,000 to a "select few inmates for help in a killing," according to an affidavit filed with the county coroner's office. Floyd, 25, of Westgate Village, 0- "For the last 17 years, only one child under the age of 6 died of accidental poisoning in Allegheny County, and I attribute that to the poison center," he said. "Before the poison center existed, there were three to five children a year who died of poisoning in Allegheny County. That is the equivalent of 51 fatalities we would have had over 17 years." Last year, the Pittsburgh Poison Center handled 51,000 calls from panicked parents whose toddlers drank household cleaners, from workers who spilled corrosive chemicals on themselves and from doctors wanting treatment advice. Total calls for this year are expected to rise to 61.000.

The center serves 3 million residents of Western Pennsvlvania. 1 TOM HRITZ Unearthing bits of spring rites ey! It's spring. Here are some profound thoughts and observations on the arrival of what I believe is really the new year. Spring is spring, summer is summer and winter is winter. But fall is not only fall but also autumn.

Why is that? And why is this? We capitalize the days of the week and the months of the year. But unless they are used to begin a sentence, we don't capitalize the four seasons. Most people nowadays have so-called all purpose tires on their cars which are used all year round. But this used to be the time of the year when you'd start thinking about having your winter tires removed from your car and replacing them with regular tires. Some motorists even used studded tires during the winter months.

When studded tires were popular, they were blamed for damaging roads. So the state Legislature passed a law prohibiting the use of studded tires on Pennsylvania's roads after April 15. The law is still in effect. I wonder how many people have been fined for breaking it. I wonder if anybody ever has.

Here's a tip from my neighbor, Howard, for those of you who become frustrated and exhausted trying to fire up the old power mower after it's been sitting in the coldness of your garage all winter long. A day before you plan to use it, bring it in the house and let it warm up for awhile. Howard promises it'll start on the first pull. One of the things I like best about spring is that the days become longer and longer as we approach summer. But there's one drawback for people (not me, of course) who have dogs.

You've got to wait later and later each evening to walk him because you need the cover of darkness when he decides to sully somebody else's front lawn. I am getting ready to start envying you people who own convertibles and swimming pools. When robins tilt one side of their heads to the grounds, are they listening for grubs and worms? Or are they looking for them? Or maybe hey just have a crick in the neck, i've always thought they were listening except for one little problem. Where are their ears? Vicki Roth, a curator at the Pittsburgh Aviary, put my problem to rest. The birds, she said, are looking for food and usually above them rather than in the ground.

And their ears, which are tiny holes, are located behind or below their eyes. Yes, the robins are back, and so are the starlings. Starlings are not my favorite birds. I think that one of the worst things that could ever happen would be if starlings and pigeons were somehow able to crossbreed and produce stargeons. They would be the filthiest, meanest birds on the planet.

It's way too early to start thinking about planting annual flowers. But the coming of spring always reminds me about my own stupidity when it comes to botany. I mean, a Luther Burbank I ain't. It was spring when we moved into our home years ago. Suzanne insisted that we plant some annual flowers, even though our lawn hadn't come up yet.

We went to a nursery where she mentioned she wanted a few flats of impatiens. "Impatience," I laughed. "What a stupid name to give to a flower." She clued me in, but I still call them impatience. Besides, what do you expect from a guv who learned only last week that Florida is in two different time zones? If you're thinking of buying a new gas grill, check very carefully to see if this disclaimer is written on the carton. Some Assembly Required.

If it is, offer to pay the people at the store to put it together for you. I'm serious. It is easier to build your own car than to put one of these things together. When this guy mentioned the other day that it was about time to toss the "old golf clubs into the told him that I never take mine Out. He asked me why I did that and I told him the extra weight in the rear gives my tires better traction on slippery roads.

Sure, he said, except that you've got front wheerdrive. What time zone am I in, anyway? Happy spring! -Tom fitz 's coh mn appears Tuesday. Thursday and Saturday. ru penses, but, since closing its elementary school three years ago, had not been able to meet its annual school subsidy obligation to the diocese of about $80,000. Its debt to the diocese now amounts to about $270,000, he said.

The church is the only one in the diocese that is not owned by the bishop. Instead, it's owned by the a Brooklyn, N.Y., province of the Re-demptorist missionary order. The Redemptorists leaders have not objected to the diocesan plan, said city Councilman Bob O'Connor, who is a member of the parish council. The church, which sits on a large piece 'of property on Beech wood Boulevard and Forward Avenue, was built in 1922. but the parish's history goes back to 1839.

when it was organized Downtown as the first German Catholic congregation in Pittsburgh. St. John Neumann, who was canonized in 1977, served as one of its pastors. was found strangled March 9 in his cell in the jail. Kroner said Floyd had been a member of a Los" Angeles gang known as the Crips.

Floyd had lived in Los Angeles, but moved to the state of Washington with his girlfriend and later to Pittsburgh. Police do not believe his killing was related to gang activity, howev 4 Kt Si IMS The governor's office said it was purely a matter of economics. "Right now. there are just other outstanding priorities the governor must deal with first," said Sue Grimm, the deputy press secretary of the governor's budget office. The state is juggling shortfalls in many important programs, she said, including a $1 million shortage in its AIDS program and a $34 million shortage in subsistence cash grants for people on public assistance.

Once the Legislature approves a supplemental appropriations budget, currently proposed for $130 million, the governor will consider which programs to fund, Grimm said. The state once had seven poison centers. But as funds dried up. three have closed in the past months and a fourth is closing next i i fat er, the superintendent said. Investigators are not sure if Floyd was killed because of rumors that he was cooperating with federal aut horities in a grand jury investigation or if it was in retaliation for a burglary he was accused of committing.

SEE JAIL, PAGE B-4 '5 John month, leaving centers in Philadelphia, Hershey and Pittsburgh. Children's "Hospital, which used to pay half the cost, has been footing the whole bill. Krenzelok said the center saved far more money than its $1 million cost. Last year, it saved health insurers, patients and the state $4.1 million, he said, by helping people treat 83 percent of the pediatric poisonings in Western Pennsylvania at home, preventing them from nishing to the emergency room. Experts at the poison center also advise doctors frequently on the more than 800.000 chemicals in cleaners, industrial chemicals and plants.

The center also is among the leading researcher centers in the on society's ever-growing list of chemicals. sss By J. Kenneth Evans Post-Gazette Staff Writer Days before Seth Floyd's strangulation in the Allegheny County Jail, two North Side meh offered $3,000 for help in killing him, police said yesterday. The two men, Melvin Goodwine, 26, and Shawn Burton, 25, were arrested yesterday and charged Butler man charged in N.Y. rape By Jim McKinnon Post-Gazette Staff Writer A Butler County business executive was fired yesterday after his employer learned that he had been charged with rape by New York City police, who said they had videotaped him telling his accuser that he had "a dark side." Thomas Lucidore, 36, of Anna Marie Drive, Cranberry, was videotaped Wednesday night at a restaurant in Lower Manhattan, where he met with his accuser, a 27-year-old co-worker, in a sting set up by New York detectives.

According to police reports, Lucidore and the woman had attended business meetings Feb. 18 in New York. Later that day, the two had dinner together in a restaurant at the Omni Berkshire Place, where Lucidore was staying. After dinner, the woman said that she became ill and was about to excuse herself and go to the ladies' room, but Lucidore persuaded her to go to his hotel room. Once inside the room, Lucidore overpowered the woman, tied her to the bed with her hosiery, gagged her with a wash cloth, and raped and sodomized her for four hours, police said.

SEE FIRED, PAGE B-4 CG search off, other continues for lost boaters The Coast Guard called off the search for restaurateur Charles A. Muer of Detroit, whose 40-foot sailboat was reported missing Tuesday in choppy waters off the Florida coast. Muer, whose 19 restaurants include the Grand Concourse in Station Square, was aboard the boat with his wife, Betty, and two friends, George and Lynn Drummey of Grosse Pointe, Mich. The family and friends of the missing boaters chartered sue airplanes to join the Coast Guard, which used six of its own planes and one from the Air Force to look for the boat, the Charley's Crab. Petty Officer Don Befort said the Coast Guard called off the search at sundown last night.

He said the Coast Guard did not intend to resume the search. Robert Zingle of Franklin Park, who is vice president of operations for the C.A. Muer said he did not know about the search being terminated. But. Zingle said, two or three charter planes will continue looking for the Muers and the Drummeys.

In a statement released last night Zingle said: "We are still confident of finding our president, Chuck Muer, and his wife, Betty, and Mr. and Mrs. Drummey safe and well." The corporation announced a $100,000 reward yesterday for anyone who finds the sailing party alive. A S25.000 reward has been offered for the boat. University of Pittsburgh graduate student Mark Yohe performs with the group Beautiful Hands at the 10th Deaf Awareness Fair held at the William Pitt Student Union yesterday.

The Pittsburgh group performs throughout the United States, interpreting songs into American Sign Language to promote deaf awareness. TRACE! RECORD "For the last 1 7 years, only one child under the age of 6 died of accidental poisoning in Allegheny County, and I attribute that to the poison center, Poison Center fears for its future By Sharon Voas Post-Gazette Staff Writer The Pittsburgh Poison Center fears for its future because of uncertain funding. For the past two years, as the state fought a tide of red ink, Gov. Casey never released the $1.5 million annual state appropriation for it and the other poison centers in the state. For the coming year, the centers are not in the governor's budget at all.

Edward Krenzelok, director of the poison center at Children's Hospital, said he was not sure what would happen if the center continued to lose the state money, which accounts for half its budget. He contends that lives will be lost in Western Pennsylvania if the poison center doses..