Mexico Ledger from Mexico, Missouri • Page 1

16 PAGES COOLER TONIGHT Mexico, Thursday, April 28,1977 Phone Year No. 100-Fifteen Cents Upside Down 'Preventer 1 Thwarts Oil Well Capping FRANCIS, now only a memory, was once one of the busier railroad service complexes around. That memory will fade further if the Burlington Railroad abandons the tracks running between Francis and Old Monroe. The picture of the old station was in the mid-1960s, shortly before it was torn down. The 75-foot high coal chute (below) was torn down in the 1930s or 1940s.

It was part of a vast servicing complex built in 1904. (Photos courtesy of the Audrain Historical Society) STAVANGER, Norway (AP) American-led troubleshooters trying to save the North Sea from further massive pollution failed in three attempts today to choke off the runaway Bravo offshore oil well. Fearing a fire threat, Norway ordered a temporary halt in all production in the area. Officials of the Phillips Petroleum the well's owner, said they did not know or how the "blowout" specialists would try again to cap the gushing well. "It's a setback, and any setback is serious," Robert Archambeault, Phillips director of engineering for the midsea Ekofisk oil field, said at a news conference.

"It certainly doesn't leave the situation without a possibility for recovery." Norwegian Industry Minister Bjertmar Gjerde, citing safety concerns, ordered a temporary total halt in all production at surrounding platforms in the Ekofisk field in the middle of the North Sea. Norwegian officials, who fear the possibility of a seaborne fire in the field, said 6Vfe million gallons of crude oil had spilled into the North Sea since the well blew out last Friday. Archambeault said that a "blowout preventer" had mistakenly been placed upside down on the wellhead before last week's accident. "It's a good possibility that the well could have been sealed if the blowout preventer had not been installed in an inverted position sometime last week," he said. Phillips officials also said the half moon-shaped steel discs called "blind rams" that were used today to try to close off the well had been tested to withstand only 4,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, but that the force of the oil spurting to the surface from the seabed was estimated at 4,350 pounds of pressure per square inch.

The crew, stationed on a nearby barge, boarded the Bravo rig at dawn in good weather to begin what, they hoped would be the final phase of the capping operation. The rig is situated 170 miles southwest of Norway. The seven-man team used hydraulic pressure to put the rams in place over the spurting wellhead. The rams held back the oil for a few seconds each time, but then they burst open under pressure of the gas that is pushing the oil up from 10,000 feet below. There were no injuries during the procedure, which was described as one of the riskiest in the entire capping process because of the possibility that sparks from the steel rams might Ignite the gas and oil.

Archambeault, of Dayton, Ohio, had told reporters Wednesday night that if the machinery used today failed, the crew might try to winch a four-ton capping device over the gusher. The president of Phillips Petroleum Norway, Gordon Goering, rejected allegations by some Norwegian workers on the rig who said they had been forced to work under speed-up conditions that compromised safety. The allegations were reported by Norwegian newspapers. "We have workers appointed as safety guards, and a chief safety guard on all our operations," Goering said. "There is absolutely no in- dication that any alert was given before the blowout." The well has been gushing 36,000 gallons of oil and shale an hour into the North Sea since it blew out late Friday night during a maintenance optration.

The spill has created a slick about 31 miles long and miles wide in the Ekofisk oil field, but no coastline was threatened yet, and Norwegian fishery experts said they did not expect any "mass killing of fish." Big Truck Bill Revived Over Committee Objection JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Backers of bigger, heavier trucks on state highways say action of the Missouri House resurrecting such legislation indicates the controversial big trucks will probably be rolling through Missouri by fall. The House, whose Consumer Protection Committee twice rejected the bill this session, overrode that decision on Wednesday and scheduled the measure for floor consideration in the next few weeks. The bill, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tern Norman already cleared the upper chamber. Because 97 House members voted to place the bill before the full House despite the committee's objections, 15 more votes than needed, advocates of the measure say it will easily gain final approval and will ultimately be enacted this year.

The House action on Wednesday was unprecedented in at least the last quarter century, members said. Should the measure clear the legislature as now ex- pected, the only other roadblock to the 60-foot, pound rigs would be a veto by Gov. Joseph Teasdalc. While Teasdale has not formally taken a position on the proposal, the governor did issue an executive order this winter allowing the larger, heavier trucks on state highways to carry fuel during a 30- day emergency. "This bill is vital to the industry, vital to the economy of Missouri, vital to the President's request of last Wednesday that we conserve fuel," said Rep.

William Fickle, D- Parkville, who spearheaded the salvaging effort. The maximum truck length is now 55 feet and the maximum weight is 72,000 pounds. Critics of the bill claim the larger trucks will tear up highways, increasing the maintenance costs by as much as $30 million a year and offsetting any benefits resulting from increased cargo capabilities. They also question the safety of the heavier vehicles, although most other states in the nation now allow them, "The committee did not vote the bill out because many questions were not answered about the bill," said panel member Stan Piekarski, D-St. Louis, "about safety, about the economic implications, about what it will mean to the consumer." Piekarski also claimed backers of the bill had used "pressure, intimidation and threats" to get it before the full House.

"Some of the most unconscionable behavior was used to get this big truck bill through the House," Piekarski said. Lobbyists supporting the measure had been rounding up support for it all week following its second defeat in the committee last week. Merrell has denied charges leveled a week ago that he applied political pressure to keep his bill alive in the House. Had the House rejected Merrell's bill, the question of bigger trucks could still have come before the House since the bill has been tacked on to a minor House-approved measure by a Senate committee. Democrats Reject GOP Effort For Tax Cuts Bond Invites Friends, Advisors To Meeting Burlington May Quit Francis-Old Monroe JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.

(AP) Former Gov. Christopher S. Bond has called together several friends, former staffers and political supporters for a weekend meeting at his house at Lake of the Ozarks for what he terms "just a gathering of ohK friends." But one of those close to the situation termed the meeting more political than social. "It seems like he (Bond) just wants to take the pulse of people from around the He wants to know the status of things," he said. Bond, a Republican, has maintained a low profile since office Jan, 10 after His defeat at the hands of Demo- Teasdale To Name Doak To Curators William Doak, Vandalia area farmer and a member of Gov.

Joe Teasdale's agricultural brain trust, has been picked to fill one of the vacancies on the University of Missouri Board of Curators His acceptance has not been confirmed, however. Mr. Doak was out plowing in the fields this morning and could not be reached. His wife, Betty, newly appointed department of revenue license fee agent for Audrain, said she would rather not comment on the appointment. Reports from Jefferson City were that Mr.

Doak and Daniel Brenner, a Kansas City attorney, were being appointed to, fill two of the three remaining vacancies on the board. One vacancy was filled last week by the appointment of Robert Dempster, a Sikeston attorney. The Associated Press in Jefferson City said the governor might announce the appointments at a bill-signing session late this morning. The Columbia Missourian said today that Mr. Doak last night said the appointment is "a long way from being final.

I visited with the governor this (yesterday) morning but I would rather not go into what we said." The Ledger learned that the position was offered to him. He would replace Pleasant Smith, Mexico landowner and real estate agent and a longtime curator. Mr. Doak said he is unsure about serving on the board, the Missourian said. "When you're talking about a job this big, you don't know whether to be happy or sad," he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Doak was graduated from the university in 1951 and has four children now enrolled in the university. Gregory, 25, is enrolled in the School of Medicine; Garrett, 20, Stephen, 19, and Deborah, 21, are undergraduates. All four of the Doak children were active in 4-H work during their younger years. They were members of the Liberty Wide-Awake Club of Rails County, which met about a mile from the Doak home in northeast Audrain County.

All four showed Southdown sheep in area fairs and the state fair, where they have been steady winners for many years. Mr. Doak is president- elect of the American Southdown Sheep Breeders and his purebred flock has won many championships at major shows. He operates a 560 acre grain and livestock farm. crat Joseph P.

Teasdale. He has refrained from commenting on the performance of his successor, saying Teasdale was new to the governor's office and needed time to get settled. Is Bond preparing to reassemble his political future which was shattered during the November general election? "That's too far in the future for anyone to speculate on at this point," he said. "I've got plenty of things to do up here before taking on other assignments." Before Bond left office in January, he indicated that he planned to get back into active politics at some time, but he declined to say whether he would make another bid for governor in 1980 or seek some other office. Since Teasdale has taken over, both Republican Lt.

Gov. William Phelps and Republican Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft have indicated they would be interested in the GOP governor's nomination three years from now. The entry of a third major Republican contender in that race would make for an almost unprecedented GOP primary.

The seat of Democratic U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton will also be on that November 1980 ballot, and there has been limited speculation that Bond may decide to seek that post. Unseating the popular Eagleton would require a well- organized campaign. Bond avoids all talk about his political future.

"Right now, I'm right in the middle of thinking about the Great Plains Legal Foundation," Bond said. Today's Smile Success has made failures of many Belt Livestock Feeder) The Burlington Northern railroad tracks running between Francis Station in eastern Mexico and Old Monroe, once part of a thriving railroad complex, may soon be abandoned. The 63-mile section of track is one of 60 which the Burlington has notified the Interstate Commerce Commission may potentially (in the next few years) be abandoned or discontinued. "It's a matter of money," Richard M. Gleason, assistant general counsel for the company in St.

Paul, "We figure that to keep a line open it requires annual revenue of $7500 per mile." Mr. Gleason says he has not yet broken down the revenue on the Francis-Old Monroe run, but a local agent for the company says only one train per day, six days a week, travels that secton. The track runs through Martinsburg, Wellsville, Bellflower and Buell and towns in Warren and Lincoln Counties before terminating in Old Monroe, which is in Lincoln County, just north of St. Charles County, near the Mississippi River. Mr.

Gleason says the company is now just going through the formal procedure of notifying the ICC of the possibility of the abandonments. Decisions actually to proceed with the abandonments won't be made until September when formal notices, including legal advertisements, will be made, he says. The line was once one of several which made Mexico a railroad hub. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy built the "cut-off" line from Old Monroe to Francis Station in 1904. There it reached a junction point with the old Chicago Alton.

The Burlington line never went further west. From Francis west to Kansas City the trains traveled what is now the ICG rails, formerly the succeeding the Francis Station, originally named Felton for Samuel Morse Felton, president of the Chicago and Alton Railroad, was named later for David R. Francis, governor of Missouri from 1889 to 1893. The change was made to eliminate any confusion with Fulton. There were days when Mexicoans took the train to Francis station as a social excursion.

In the heyday of railroad transportation, there were reports from time to time that the line would be extended west from Francis. The old station, torn down in the mid- 1960s, was once visited by a president. But there were no cheering crowds for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937. It was at midnight with sheriff's deputies and state patrolmen stationed around the lonely place to provide security.

The stop was made necessary by the fact that the train had to be transferred at Francis from the line to the The old station was located not far off what is now Pollock Road in the eastern annexed wing of the city and the little access road which leads to it was so rough that many Mexicoans in later years never saw it. But it once was part of a thriving railroad complex, John D. Robertson, a local railroad buff, says. "At Francis is where trains of the Burlington, and the Chicago Alton would meet, exchange passengers and cars and have their respective engines serviced at the terminal located there," Mr. Robertson says.

A December, 1904, Ledger reported on the progress of the complex construction: "The push and systematic arrangement of the work, which are always characteristic to building and construction work, done by railroad companies, is noticeable at Felton. "The switching yards are a mile long and it now contains about six miles of trackage, which is being increased every day "The (coal) chutes building is 75 feet high and will have a capacity of 240 tons of coal A water tank with a capacity of 60,000 gallons will be ready for use within ten days "A turntable 75 feet long has been in use for the past two weeks The roundhouse-house which will be the largest building, and the ground will be completed and ready for use by Jan. 1, 1905 Seventy-four car loads of concrete have been used in the construction of the roundhouse and turntable "Another structure of concrete Is the cinder pit, which is 190 feet long and 11 feet deep and is composed of not less than 50 car loads of concrete." That facility remained pretty much intact until the water tower, 12-stall roundhouse and coal tower were torn down in the 1930s and 1940s, Mr. Robertson says. "That old station felt the pound of steam trains of both the Burlington and the Chicago Alton, along with the streamlined 'General Pershing Zephyr' and the 'Mark Twain Zephyr' of the Burlington," he says.

(Continued on Page 5) WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Democrats are determined to back President Carter's economic plan, turning down repeated Republican efforts to hand Americans immediate cuts in their income taxes. Carter has insisted on holding any tax cuts until later, when he plans to offer his own plan for a comprehensive restructuring of tax laws, He has threatened to veto any immediate tax cuts tacked on to his economic proposal. Still, Republicans spent Wednesday trying to get their Democratic colleagues to accept two amendments that would have provided workers with across-the-board individual tax cuts. Backers of the Carter measure are hoping to complete action on it this week. It would then go to a conference committee, which would work to settle differences between the Senate measure and the House version.

The Senate has approved Carter's request to scrap his original proposal for a one- shot $50 rebate to nearly every American, but has voted to leave in the bill a provision expanding tax breaks for businesses. Carter opposed the business tax breaks, but backers of the provision say they hope the President will back off his threat to veto the bill if the provision is not deleted. Despite the President's threat to veto the Republican tax cuts if they showed up in the bill, GOP leaders argued Wednesday that the economic climate demanded the tax cuts. Sen. Russell B.

Long, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, argued that including the GOP tax cuts would be an "exercise in Girl For Lambs Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Lamb, 205 Countryside Estates, are the parents of a daughter, weighing five pounds, nine ounces, born today at 3:18 a.m. at the Audrain Medical Center.

Mr. Lamb is manager of the Liberty Theater. futility." He said he was certain Carter would follow through with his threatened veto and that "there is not a chance on earth that this veto could be overridden." Long argued that the only reason for the GOP tax cut proposals was so Republicans could tell the voters it was the Democrats who killed their chances for a quick tax cut. But Sen. Jacob Javits, a sponsor of the GOP proposal, argued that the first tax cut plan would stimulate the economy, prevent an economic downturn next year and create 350,000 new jobs.

But by a vote of 58-39 the Senate turned down the first GOP amendment, a $7.9 bililon-a-year individual tax cut that would have reduced taxes on income under $20.000. Confidence Schemes Reported In Area One suspected confidence game was aborted Wednesday by Mexico Building Inspector Tom Herron and the Mexico Public Safety officers. Another may have been avoided by a rural resident. According to police reports, two men approached an elderly Mexico man Wednesday morning and offered to coat the roof of his home with a substance they said would prevent leakage. The work, they said, would cost $160.

After checking a city license issued to the Jefferson City men that morning, the homeowner told them to do the work. Shortly afterward, however, he became suspicious of a con game and phoned the LaCrosse Lumber Co. to determine the advantages of the roofing sealant. He was told that the oil-based substance would not only wash off in the rain, but it could damage the shingles as well. By the time Mr.

Herron was called, the workers had temporarily left the worksite, with 25-30 per cent of one roof slope coated. The building inspector verified that the coating had no value as a sealant and the two men were later told by the homeowner to stop work until they could satisfy city officials. They never returned. According to Mr. Herron, the coating used by the men was aluminum paint, possibly with a diesel-fuel base which is not supposed to be used with the asphalt material put in shingles.

In a separate incident reported to police Wednesday, a woman was approached at her home north of Mexico by a man who offered to install lightning rods on her barn. She refused the work, however, and the man left: According to police, the name given by the man is the same as that of a Moberly man who was convicted last year in a termite-control fraud case. Mexico Public Safety Dept. Sgt. Mike MacPherson warned other residents in the city and county to be wary of unknown roof painters, termite control men, asphalting workmen, lightning rod salesmen and electric company repairmen.

"This is the time of year that the majority of our fraud cases begin to develop," he said. "We would urge local residents to follow some basic rules to avoid being bilked: Deal with people you know and can contact again; make sure you get a price on the work before it is started; encourage elderly relatives and friends to consult with you or police before entering into agreements of this type; check the worker's credentials (city license) before allowing him to proceed; and report any suspicious activity in the neighborhood to police. "It is much easier to prevent this type of confidence game than it is to apprehend the perpetrators once they have completed the work," Sgt. MacPherson said..