Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

ttwit Today's Chuckle We hope that when the in- -sects take over the world they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics. WW rw all illt'f i i i THE SECOND FRONT PAGE Page 3, Section A Monday, June 30, 1975 Oasis Amid Urban Blight middle class to suburbs, it has, to its credit, attracted many residents who could afford to live almost anywhere else they chose. ACCORDING TO 1970 census figures: The average Lafayette Park household earned $23,000 a year. With six years of inflation and salary increases that figure probably is closer to $30,000 now. In 1969, 15 percent of the residents earned over $50,000 a year.

Both the average income and percentage of people earning top salaries may underestimate the aiea's true wealth since neither measure the savings and investments of the many wealthy retirees living there. The average Lafayette Park adult has 15.9 years of formal education. Blacks, who make up about a fourth of the population, averaged 16,1 years of school, a figure topped in southeastern Michigan only by a single census tract in Livonia. In 1970, a fifth of the households owned two cars, but a fourth owned none. Educational levels and average incomes in Elmwood are, somewhat lower, due to the Martin Luther King Jr.

low-income housing project, but are still substantially higher than the rest of Detroit and on a par with most suburbs, including the Grosse Pointes. So many well-known Detroiters live in Lafayette Park and Elmwood that a list of them reads like a who's who of politics and government. Please turn to Page 5A, Col. 1 This is the first of two articles exploring Detroit's extensive east side redevelopment project, the Lafayette Park-Elmwood community. BY DAVE ANDERSON AND ELLEN GRZECH Free Press Staff Writers About a mile from downtown Detroit, surrounded by aging factories and decaying neighborhoors, is an oasis of green parks, shiny new high rises, neat townhouses, tennis courts, swimming pools and backyard barbecues.

More than 7,000 people live there, ranging from the unemployed and underemployed to hundreds who earn in excess of $50,000 a year. It has schools, churches, shopping centers, library branch and police mini-station in a little more than a square mile between the Chrysler Expressway and Mt. Elliot, East Jefferson and the Vernor Highway. IT IS CALLED the Lafayette Park-Elmwood area a city within a city. Originally known as the Gratiot redevelopment area, the Lafayette Park and Elmwood area was first proposed in 1946 as a means of wiping out urban blight and saving the downtown, which was then seen in danger of becoming surrounded "by an ever increasing zone of slum and poverty." The first section, Lafayette Park is now a pocket of affluence.

Although Lafayette Park has not halted the flight of the PACT THREATENED Macomb Co. Urges Split With Detroit Fire Dept. THE MACOMB COUNTY Association of Fire Chiefs, which represents all fire departments in Macomb County, has decided to recommend that cities cancel mutual aid agreements they have with Detroit, because of layoffs in the Detroit Fire Department. The pact between the Macomb fire chiefs and Detroit allows for a review of the agreement if there are reductions in manpower. One Detroit fire official said the city hasn't needed pact members since 1967.

A Detroit Fire Fighters Association member says the action of Macomb County fire chiefs shows their support for the fire fighters union. A Job Nobody Wants GOV. MILL1KEN is apparently having a tough job finding someone to head up the Public Service Commission. Insurance Commissioner Dan Demlow was Milliken's second choice. Demlow turned it down, considering it a dead-end job.

The first person to say no to the job was William Meek, former Free Press Lansing bureau chief who is now a utility company executive in Arizona. Commissioners Sav Aunf EVEN THE WAYNE COUNTY Board of Commission ers, long a male stronghold, has surrendered to fem-i i forces. The 27-person legislative body, womanless six years ago, now boasts five. And, of the 11 commissioners who left Detroit last week to attend the National Association of Counties meeting in Honolulu, four are women. $28,000 of Arbitration WAYNE COUNTY TAXPAYERS will have to pay al most $28,000 in damages to Local 502 of the National Union of Police Officers, which represents the county sheriff's deputies.

The damages, awarded by an arbitrator, represent costs the union bore in 1972-74 because the county failed to settle its differences with the union short of arbitration which is expensive. Ac-according to the arbitrator ruling, the county's excuse for procrastination in handling grievances in the pre-arbitration stage ranged from planned vacation for attorneys to the busy workload of the county labor relations staff. Free Prer.s Photo BY BOB SCOTT Store owners Cecil and Ruth Malach say the area's income level has fallen. orkweek ants Shorter UAW Layoffs Tr DO Black TV To Debut Here Soon New Pusli gi BY RALPH ORR Free Press Labor Writer A plan to shorten the auto industry workweek and spread jobs around almost certainly will be advanced by the UAW. when Big Three contract talks open a year from now.

Because the workweek already has been shortened to zero for thousands who are on indefinite layoff, a grassroots drive for a snorter one is gaining momentum. Adding incentive to the drive, which would create' more jobs, is Washington's prediction that unemployment will hover between seven and nine percent for a long time. And as the trend toward small cars grows, some in the UAW fear there could be further job losses because small cars require less labor input than large ones. UAW strategists never like to tip their hands this early, but they are reacting to pressure from the membership for changes that would brings about job-sharing. A subcommittee of the UAW executive board has begun a preliminary study of ways to.

shorten work time. UAW President Leonard -Woodcock, in a recent inter- view, made it clear that this BY CAROL BOWIE Free Press Staff Writer WGPR-TV, Chanrcl 62, the nation's firs: black-owned and black-operated TV station, is within-weeks of hitting-the-trirwaves here. William V. Banks, a handsome 72-year-old lawyer-minister with bushy white eyebrows and a deep-down belly laugh, is looking forward to the day with the pride and eagerness of an expectant parent. "This is my baby," Banks said.

"That's what I consider it my baby." "And," he said, with parental concern, "I want my baby to have everything to grow and develop." Banks, who has for years operated radio station WGPR-FM, needed much to get WGPR-TV off the ground: money, government assistance, advertising commitments an.1 an interesting mix of black oriented programs. So far. Banks said, more than $4 million has been sunk into WGPR-TV for studio facilities, equipment ond manpower. EVERY PENNY of the money, Dr. Banks said, has come from the coffers of the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons, a international black fraternal organization which he founded 25 years ago.

The group raised much of the money by liquidating real estate holdings across the country. Dr. Banks said the Black Masons, as they are also known, had wanted to get bank loans to finance at least half of the project, but couldn't. "We fooled around with that for about two years," he said. With Black Masons financing assured, Banks applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a license.

"When we made application we went to 4 Robert Is Rapid With an Autograph WHEN BOB FELLER was in Our Town, Don Durocher of Ken Drake Associates drove him back to the airport. On the way Feller conscientiously autographed a whole stack of pictures he'd promised people while he was here. He did not have time to sign them on the spot because of a pressing schedule. Next day Feller called Durocher (no relation to Leo) from Cleveland, said: "I think I missed one. Do you know who it is?" "Yes," said Durocher.

"Debbie the girl in our office who just took your call." Debbie had the picture and autograph in next day's mail. DEN1SE NICHOLAS of "Room 222," now appearing in reruns via Channel 9, was in Our Town doing a commercial for the National Bank of Detroit at Cass Tech. A school maintenance man watched the proceedings, during a break said admiringly to Denise: "Where did you get that beautiful sun tan?" She glanced at him, realized he was serious, and replied "From my mother and father, I guess." THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: No man ever learns to shop properly; if he likes the first pair of Free Press Photo by JOHN COLLIER Channel 62's Banks "1 want my baby to have everything to grow" essentially, ice are the 'real Detroit station." president of the United States at that time it was Nixon," Dr. Banks said. "He invited me down for dinner and he told me, 'Now, if you make he says, 'this is going to open this industry to black people throughout this And he says, 'I'm going to do everything I can to help "Well, after they got rid of him, then I Please turn to Page 12A, Col.

1 will be high on the union priority list in the wake of an auto industry slump that has cut UAW membership by 212,000. "The problem o( reducing working time, because of the tremendous unemployment impact, is going to have much -greater attention," he said. In the interview, Woodcock dwelt at length on a "bonus hours" plan Prankster Goes One Up on 'Candidate' shoes he tries on, he's likely to Duy them without going through two dozen more pairs. THERE WS THIS monthly meeting of the Presidents' Club of the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce at Fairlane. Mike Abel tf Blue Shield was explaining the various phases of a new insurance policy.

At one point he started to say "Now if you want tne Cadillac of this when he was interrupted by Aldo Mastro, di going on," he said later. "Hell, I've never had any political aspirations." ALTHOUGH there is talk of the Upper Peninsula becoming a 51st state, Heger said he will have to disappoint support- After his initial bewilderment, banker Heger knew that the governor thing was Ballard's way of getting back for a stunt that Heger pulled off earlier this month. Ballard, who owns a 19-foot sailboat, ran aground on nearby Butler's Island recently. He had mentioned cas- won by the UAW in the farm implement company negotiations in 1973. This program enables a worker with lis Sunday.

"No, wait, it's the second best. The best will be the one I play on Biake," he added. Blake is a prominent Gladstone dentist Dr. Blake Ballard, 41, generally now Known to be the perpetrator of the phony governor campaign. The dentist and the banker, both self-confessed practical jokesters, have been waging a battle of wits for some time now.

ers He will not be a candi-He never wanted fo be a date BY BILL MICHELMORE Free Press Staff Writer Upper Peninsula bank executive Herb Hegef returned home from an out-of-town meeting the other day to find all of Delta County plastered with stickers and signs announcing his candidacy for governor of the 51st state. Bewildered, Heger drove to his house in Gladstone, 10 miles north of Escanaba, and found a campaign party blaring in his backyard. Well-wishers from the twn of 5,000 waved signs that read, "Herb Heger for Governor 5 1st State." Friends and neighbors greeted him with, "Hi, Governor," and, "Make way for the governor." Heger was stunned. "I didn't know what was candidate. In fact, the idea never even occurred to him.

The bumper stickers, window signs, placards, lapel buttons, radio spots and front nane story in the local paper ually that he was trying to think of a name for his boat. So Heger decided to help him out. He ran a contest coupon in a local newspaper inviting people to submit names for the dentist's boat. The prize for the best name, the advertisement said, was a free sailboat ride to Butler's Island on Ballard's boat and a free ride back on a Coast Guard rescue cutter. Hoodwinked readers submit-t hundreds of names.

"Tooth Fairy" was probably the best," a gloating Heger recalled. When no prize materialized and people caught on to the joke, Ballard was embarrassed to say the least. He retaliated by whipping up a frenzy about Heger's gubernatorial campaign. And a lot of people swallowed it. Heger confided to a fiiend that the next joke he pulls on Ballard will be downright diabolical.

"I may spend the next year just planning it," Heger was overheard to say. rector of therapy for the Ford Glass House. "Just a minute, Mike," said Aldo. "You're in Ford Country. If you want to make any points around here, you'd better refer to the Lincoln Continental." IDLE THOUGHT: Wonder what would happen to a guy in a crowded baseball stadium who caught a foul ball and then threw it back on the field? Torn apart, maybe? Hail and farewell to Freddie Smith, head mixologist at the Sheraton-Cadillac, who has retired after 23 years there, with his last long tour of duty in the Motor Bar Remember the bit here tbout how Evelyn Bashur was honest enough to tell Ray Haldenbnnd of Livonia that she was holding a $30 000 winning lotcery ticket for him? She made another rail last week.

He's won $25 more Bob Creene at o' Gloria Bol'e at 278-634 hnve the details on the Fordson High Class of 1955 upconung reunion. IT WASN'T SO LONG ago the waterways around us were alive with passenger ships running regularly from Our Town to the St. Clair Flats to Algor.ac and Marine City and St. Clair and Port Huron. No more.

Thats' why the annual trip of the S.S. Columbia to Port Huron and back on July 4, leaving the Bob Lo dock at 8 a.m., is such a treat for nostalgia nuffs and the kids alike. The journey past Harsen's Island alone is pure delight, a constant saluting from shoreby cannon, horns, bells, signs and flags. announcing the candidacy of Herb Heger were the work of a practical jokester. "I am the victim of one of the best practical jokes ever played," Heger, 37-year-old executive vice-president of the Gladstone State Bank, said perfect attendance to accumu-; late up to three days a year -in bonus hours, which he can take off with pay.

AT THE other end of ths idea spectrum is the plan being touted by the new" Na- tional Four-Day Work Week Committee formed by officers of 63 UAW local unions. Tha committee is talking about a four-day, 36-hour workweek with no reduction in pay- While the committee right now is pushing for four nine- hour days, there is room for compromise, according to co- chairman Frank Runnels, president of Detroit Local 22. "But there has to be a positive program for cutting the Please turn to Page 6A, Col. 1 Heal Buckles Southfield Freeway All three lanes of the northbound Southfield Expressway buckled Sunday afternoon in the 87-degree weather, snarling traffic and reauirine emer iltH EX-HOPEFUL Heger: "I am the victim of one of the best practical jokes ever played." THE STATE OF Burglar, 17, Slain By Police at Store A 17-year-old burglar was killed by police early Sunday outside a West Side market. John R.

Kalleja, 17, of 8076 in Allen Park, was killed while fleeing from police at Nick's Market, 2529 Woodmcre. According to homicide detectives, police officers Ronald Connel and Kenneth Vicchio of the 4th (Fort-Green) precinct were hiding inside the market on a stakeout when Kalleja and another man entered through a broken window and began looting the store. Connel told the men to halt and identified himself as a police officer. Kalleja and the other man fled through the window and ran north on Woodmere, according to police. Connel again ordered the men to stop.

When they did not he fired his shotgun, striking Kalleja in the back. Kalleja was dead at the scene. Police are still looking for the other man. Freedom Festival Today gency repair work by the Wayne County Road Commission. The road buckled at 5 p.m.

between the Michigan Avenue and Ford Road exits of the expressway. At one point traffic was backed up almost 2V2 miles to the Oakwood Blvd. exit, according to Dearborn police. Wayne County Road crews closed off two lanes at 8 p.m. while they worked to patch the read surface.

A spokesman said repairs should be completed by Monday June 28 (gold) 684 June 27 (gold) 150 June 26 (green) 552-216 Millionaire (green) 580664 Triple Play (gold) 252995, 23960 June 25 (gold 250 June 24, (gold) 256 June 23 (gold) 310 For information on earlier lottery numbers, write to the Michigan Lottery, 940 Long Lansing, Mich. 48913. Multicultural Program 1 p.m. CJeary Auditorium-Windsor. International Square Round Dances- 6:30 r.m.-8 p.m.

Senior Citizens; 8 p.m.-11 p.m. Intermediate Advanced Dances; Ballroom-Veterans Building-Detroit. MONDAY, JUNE 30 Freedom Train i a.m.-lO p.m. Penn Central Depot-Detroit. World Two Ton Sailing Championship Race 10:30 a.m.

Lake Huron-Port Huron. Freedom Festival Beer Tent 12 nocn-lam Mic Mac Park-Windsor. i.