The Call-Leader from Elwood, Indiana • Page 1

West Elwood residents face problem with blocked drains "The sad part about this problem is a home worth $50,000 on Oct. 27, suddenly is only worth about $25,000 with water standing around it all year long," Hinds says. Plugging the drains not only will render the West Elwood residents' septic systems utterly useless, Hinds says, if the drains are not unplugged, farm chemicals from drainage from fields to the north will come down on West Elwood, virtually killing lawns and perhaps contaminating the water supply. Hinds says he and the others party to the lawsuit and torts do not hold a grudge against the city, and he says he is willing to discuss the matter, if city officials are willing to talk to him about it. "All I'm interested in is getting the drains opened," Hinds says, "but by gosh if they don't get them open they (the torts) will be filed." damages caused by flooding expected during the spring thaw should be easy to find, Hinds added, "When they cut these (drains) off Without any notice, it hit us out here like a ton of bricks.

"I had to deliver the message to the property owners," Hinds continued, "and they didn't take to this too kindly." Other than the mistake of thinking the lawsuit and torts had something to do with the drains on Fairground Road, Hinds says he cannot understand how City Attorney Larry Swick can even think of combining the West Elwood claims with the others. "The Fairground Road issue has all been over an illegal connection," Hinds says, while the Sherman Decker Drain has been in existence since 1897, and the city connected it to its sewer system. cluding one at Third and N. Streets, Hinds says, also have been blocked. "I don't think they (the city officials) understand what they have done," Hinds said, while noting that he has been unable to get anyone from the city to respond to calls he has made about the problem.

A farm field that will be affected by the drain closure, Hinds says, will become a "20 acre lake without any catfish." The lawsuit and tort claims, Hinds points out, were filed within the 180-day period during which he and the other plaintiffs could file a complaint to get the drains unplugged. The city, he continued, has 90 days in which to respond, until around the first of May. "If the city doesn't respond, the torts will be filed (as lawsuits)." Indicating evidence of the interceptor sewer and eventually reaches Duck Creek. "It's not going to flow any other way," he says. Aerial maps obtained by Hinds from the Tipton County Courthouse show the Sherman Decker Ditch as a drain tile that runs through the heart of West Elwood, providing surface water drainage along with the Scott Ditch to the north.

The Decker and Scott drains converge and are connected to the city's 12-inch N. Street sewer main where it meets County Line Road. Hinds and the others who filed the Jan. 5 lawsuit, as plaintiffs representing those who gave notice of torts, claim the city blocked the North Street sewer at Third Street and again at Second Street on or about Oct. 28, 1986, completely shutting off the drainage from West Elwood.

In addition three catch basins, in suit, says the tort claims are notices that the owners of some 30 parcels of property located generally in West Elwood and along both sides of County Line Road intend to file suit if the city refuses to re-open drains it reportedly closed on Oct. 28. Hinds describes those properties as generally within and surrounding an area bounded by. the western city limits and in West Elwood by N. A Street, McCloy Avenue, N.

Street and Washington Street continuing north along a fence row to the first east-west fence row just past N. Street on the west side of the County Line Road. It also includes areas-on the east side of the County Line Road that are outside the city limits and north of N. A Street, he said. One can easily see that surface water from these areas, Hinds says, flows east to the large Ninth Street by NEIL JOHNSON Several notices of tort claims alleging the city of Elwood damaged 30 properties in West Elwood by blocking surface water drains connected to the city's combined sanitary-storm sewers are related to a lawsuit filed Jan.

5 by eight residents of West Elwood, In recent accounts of statements of public officials, the Call-Leader mistakenly reported Jan. 5 lawsuit and the tort claims were filed as the result of the city disconnecting surface water drains "to the north" along Fairground Road. The Jan. 5 lawsuit, filed 'in Madison County Superior Court III, and notices of tort claims that stem from it have nothing to do with the actions taken by the city along Fairground Road. John H.

Hinds, whose name appears first as a plaintiff in the Jan. 5 MS Orr asks panel to pass education plan INDIANAPOLIS AP) Gov. Robert D. Orr today asked a House committee to approve a $372.5 million package of educational improvements he described as "the most ever offered to the people of Indiana." "This is not the time for small action," Orr told the House Education Com ho LGADGQ in Korthorri Madison County VOLUME 97 NO 22 USPS 174-640 TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1987 ELWOOD, INDIANA 46036 25CENTS mittee. "This is the time that if we look, we see that we've been faling behind for some time and under these circumstances, we need to take extreme action." i The appearance before a legislative committee was Orr's first in six years as governor.

The committee is beginning a series of hearings on House Bill 1360, which carries Orr's education proposals. He said he decided to speak to the panel to underscore his message, delivered jn the State of the State address two weeks ago, that Indiana needs to prepare its children to compete in a world economy of the 21st century. "If we don't prepare today for a generation hence, those kids in first grade today won't be in a position we enjoy," said Orr. "They will find it difficult to carve out a life in a competitive atmosphere." In a 20-minute speech to the committee, the Republican governor defended his proposal to add 10 days to the school year. He acknowledged that the proposal was one of his most controversial and expensive, but he called it the "most important element in the whole package." Indiana requires 175 days of school, one of the lowest requirements in the nation, and does not mandate schools to make up days lost due to snow and other factors, he said.

That combination means "Indiana has the lowest number of school days of any state in the union," said Orr. "How can we hope to compete with our neighbors, who require more days of school, to say nothing of the rest of the world," said Orr. Superintendent of Public Instruction H. Dean Evans also spoke to the com- continued on page five) AFNB, Banc One merge INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Merger of one of Indiana's largest banks and four others intoOhio's second-largest bank holding company la part of a plan to dominate the Great Lakes region, officials of the two companies said. The $552 million merger of American Fletcher Corp.

into Banc One Corp. of Columbus, Ohio, was completed Monday. The merger was approved last month by stockholders of the two cocmpanies and by state and federal regulators. American Fletcher Corp. owns American Fletcher National Bank and four others in the state.

The holding company will be renamed Banc One Indiana Corp. and will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Banc One, American Fletcher chairman Frank McKinney Jr. said at a news conference. American Fletcher National Bank will be known as Bank One In MANILA, Philippines (AP) President Corazon Aquino said the military today crushed a coup attempt by mutinous soldiers and warned she would use force to oust as many as 300 rebels holed up in a broadcast complex. Military chief Gen.

Fidel V. Ramos said the mutineers were supporters of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos out to destablize the country before Monday's national plebiscite on Mrs. Aquino's proposed constitution, which has been opposed by left-wing and rightist groups. The military said it put down attempted pre-dawn takeovers of two military bases and quashed planned revolts at three camps in the Manila area.

One mutineer was killed and 16 were injured at Villamor air base in a sporadic four-hour gunbattle. As houses television Channel 7 and radio station DZBB. Hundreds of government troops in full battle gear were stationed outside. Canlas said he was negotiating by radio with Ramos. He said he anticipated no bloodshed but added, "If they come at us with guns and we have guns, what would you do?" He refused to discuss specific demands or his next move.

Ramos appealed to "our good friend Colonel Canlas" to surrender and promised "honorable treatment." Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eduardo Ermita met with the rebels in the besieged complex for about three 4:. iTtitftlonwlde radio and television address this 'afternoon, Mrs. Aquino said, "The situation is well in hand." many as 180 rebels were arrested in the most serious attempt by disgruntled soldiers to grab power since Mrs.

Aquino took power in February. The leader of the group holding the broadcast complex denied any links to Marcos and said his men were "nationalists" out to save the country from communism. "We are fighting communism and we feel that the influence of communism has grown very fast" since Mrs. Aquino came to power, said the rebel leader, air force Col. Oscar Canlas.

The Aquino government has negotiated a cease-fjre with Communist rebels and held peaceniks, to end the 18-year-old insurgency Canlas spoke to reporters who climbed over a 7-foot-high wall into the suburban Quezon complex that Mrs. Aquino ordered Ramos to apply "the full force of the law" against the rebels. "Their situation is hopeless," she said. "There may have to be intensive military operations around Channel 7," she said, urging people to leave the area "or you will be hurt." Electric power to the stations was cut off so they could not broadcast. Riot police used water hoses and tear gas to clear crowds around the complex, including Marcos supporters who chanted "We want Marcos" and threw bags of food over the wall.

Military sources said as many as 300 fnutinous aaldiersJook. over the complex at about 3 a.m. (2 p.m. Monday EST). But reporters saw only about 200 rebels in full combat dress armed with automatic rifles.

Bill provides medical grants dianapolis, McKinney said. Signs reflecting the change will be erected at the hank's branches starting Feb. 16, he said. "The first and probably the onnly inconvenience will be trying to get used to the name change," McKinney said. Customers will receive checks with the new name imprinted on them when they reorder, and checks reading "American Fletcher" still will be accepted, he said.

The other banks owned by American Fletcher will change their names to Bank One and the name of their home cities. They are Carmel Bank and Trust Citizens Northern Bank of Elkhart, Union Bank and Trust Co. of Franklin and First American National Bank of Plainf ield. Banc One also owns banks in Crawfordsville, Lafayette, Marion and Mer-rillville and has acquisitions pending in Bloomington, Rensselaer and Richmond. The latest acquisitions will give Banc One Indiana control of 10.8 percent provision if the area was economically distressed.

The bill also would repeal the Indiana Medical and Nursing Distribution Loan Fund, which has provided subsidies to medical and nursing students who agreed to work in areas with shortages. Sen. Lawrence M. Borst, R-Indianapolis, said he believes the grant program for graduates would be more effective than the loan program because students often changed their minds about going into a certain specialty or about moving to a particular part of the state. Borst said the grant program would use money from the loan fund and from loan repayments.

It would not require a state allocation. Approval of S.B. 233 came on the 16th working day of the 1987 Indiana General Assembly. Lawmakers have 61 session days to complete their work. Senators also voted 49-0 Monday for a bill that would allow permanently disabled Hoosiers to get handicapped parking permits without paying recurring physicians' fees.

Under current law, a disabled person cannot receive the permit without being recertified by a doctor every four years. S.B. 6 would remove the recer- INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Doctors and nurses could receive grants for working in communities with shortages of medical professionals under a bill approved in the Indiana Senate. The vote was 49-0 Monday for Senate Bill 233, which would establish the Indiana Medical and Nursing Grant Fund. The fund would provide grants totaling up to $15,000 over three years to eligible doctors and nurses.

The measure would require the community needing the service to provide a supplemental grant. However, the State Board of Health could waive the community grant tification requirement once the applicant was declared permanently disabledhy a physician. "It takes away a little bit of the red tape that's imposed in getting a handicapped parking permit," said Sen. William Costas.R-Portage, who authored the bill. Those favoring the measure have said the recurring medical fees have posed a financial hardship on the permanently disabled, who often have limited incomes.

The Senate voted 34-15 for a bill that would abolish most interim legislative study commissions and committees and assign their duties to 12 permanent studv committees. Fosiirs gjcorj voir Ktaitfe's ofesoBic location in the area of the American University of Beirut on Jan. 20, he rejected their attempts to stay with him. As-Safir, quoting unidentified security sources, said Waite went into an apartment building and then emerged to demand his Druse escort leave him and return to the hotel. The guards called their chief by telephone, and he rejected Waite's request, the newspaper said.

But Waite insisted on being left, saying he needed to go alone outside Beirut to renew secret negotiations with the captors, it said. As-Safir did not give the name of the Druse official who counseled against leaving Waite. Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, in his first public comment since Waite embarked on this mission, said he concerned" about his envoy's safety, but that he had "no direct evidence" to confirm a report that Waite was under house arrest. "Needless to say we continue to check with our Runcie said. Spokesmen for the Progressive Socialist Party, a Druse militia that has been in charge of guarding Waite, refused to comment on the Kuwaiti report.

The leftist Beirut daily As-Safir said today that when Waite's Druse bodyguards drove him to a secret BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Police today said gunmen kidnapped a Saudi Arabian, bringing to 11 the number of foreigners reported abducted in two weeks. A news agency said hostage negotiator Terry Waite was detained by the kidnappers with whom he was meeting. Waite, a lay envoy for the Anglican Church, has not been seen in public since Jan. 20, when he set out from his hotel in Moslem west Beirut for a meeting with the captors of two Americans. It was the longest he has remained underground in his five trips to Lebanon to negotiate freedom for hostages.

Kuwait's official news agency KUNA said Monday night that the Moslem kidnappers with whom Waite was negotiating had placed him under house arrest in a secret location. The agency quoted unidentified sources close to the negotiations as saying, "They (the kidnappers) detained him and put him under forced habitation after his attempts to reach a quick agreement were snarled." In London, the Anglican Church said it was making "urgent inquiries" about Waite's whereabouts. The British Foreign Office said it was "in contact with Terry Waite's bodyguards seeking clarification of this report." of the total deposits in Indiana banks. McKinnev said. State law limits a (continued on page flvc Prison fire injures 1 9 PITTSBURGH (AP) A four-alarm fire broke out at a state penitentiary early today and at least two guards and 16 inmates were injured as numerous fights broke out among convicts evacuated to an open prison yard, officials said.

Scores of state troopers and city police armed with shotguns and wearing flak jackets were called to the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, also known as Western Pen, near the Ohio River, authorities said, Two guards and an unidentified person were taken to Allegheny General Hospital and 15 inmates were treated in the prison's infirmary. Their injuries ranged from smoke inhalation to lacerations, said Margaret Rizza, spokeswoman for the city Department of Public Safety. Another inmate was taken to St. John's Hospital in Pittsburgh suffering from smoke inhalation, officials said. City fire units were called to the huge stone prison, which houses about 1,600 maximum- and minimum-security inmates, at 3:24 a.m.

in response to a fire in a prison basement, Miss Rizza said. Heavy smoke forced guards to evacuate hundreds of inmates from the 640-cell north block, and some from the upper tiers of the south cell block, and moved into the outdoor prison yard, prison spokesman Thomas Seiverling said. The evacuated prisoners were kept behind outdoor fences inside the walls, and all could not be accounted for immediately, he said. The temperature in the yard was 4 degrees, and scores of fights broke out among inmates and between guards and inmates in the yard. Guards fired shots into the air to control the prisoners, Seiverling said.

Inmates broke up and burned picnic tables in the yard in an effort to keep warm. The trouble began when a fire broke out in a utility tunnel, in a section separate from the cell blocks, and inmates broke down interior fences, said (eaatiaaea1 page ton) Prayer for today Teach us Lord to trust you and to obey you. Amen. Elwood Ministerial Association. Maid Esisf il5 tutf 0s Uemps pierage Other early morning temperatures included a minus 22-degree reading in Massena, N.Y.; 1 degree above In Buffalo, N.Y.; 8 degrees in Pittsburgh and Portland, Maine; 13 in Philadelphia, 15 in New York and 16 in Washington, D.C.

By contrast, Los Angeles reached a record-tying 86 degrees Monday, and lifeguards said about 40,000 people visited beaches from Zuma to Newport The brunt of the latest Eastern storm moved out to the North Atlantic on Monday, but it was still snowing on Cape Cod, blown by 30-40 mph Thousands of New York City's homeless sought shelter overnight from 15-degree cold. Figures were not immediately available, but officials expected about the record 10,144 people who stayed in 21 shelters Sunday night. In Boston, where today's low temperature dipped to 13 degrees, 539 people were put up at the 350-bed Pine Street Inn, the city's largest private shelter, said Billy Stamaris, a counselor. Stamaris said although the number being sheltered was 30 fewer than just before the storm, 189 people haaCto be bedded down in a lobby. with above-normal tides that could produce some flooding, said forecaster Jim Eberwine in New Jersey.

Since Thursday, when the first paralyzing snowstorm rolled up the Atlantic Coast, at least 51 deaths have been blamed on snow, slippery roads and cold from the outa to New England. Schools remained closed today in Delaware, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and in most of Maryland. Delaware legislative leaders canceled House and Senate sessions, extending a recess that began with the first storm. The snowed-in East shivered in temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees today, sending record numbers of homeless people to shelters, while bad weather kept schools closed in three states and the Delaware legislature canceled hearings. As road crews worked around the clock in the East, which had drifts up to 4 feet deep from 'Monday's snow, a storm packing gale-force winds took aim at the Northwest, triggering flood watches.

A storm brewing off the Gulf Coast could bring rain and more snow to the East Coast by Thursday, along Weather Tonight clearing and not as cold. Low in the middle teens. Southwest wind 5 mph. Wednesday mostly sunny and warmer. High 30 to 35.

Chance of snow Thursday and FrKay, snow may change to rain south. Lows in the 20s with highs mostly in the 30s. Partly cloudy and turning colder Saturday. Lows to 15 and highs in the 20s..