Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1979-06-05

              STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 19334
HITT 4 LOWRY ST. 5ERV
COLUMBIA, MO. 65201
71 si Year No. 225 ( ootl Worm'".' It's 7' w. sfriv. June o. 1979 14 I'ajjes 15 Onts
Roof of Kemper Arena collapses
KANSAS CITY, Mo. ( UPI) The
roof on the Kemper arena, weighed
under by a torrential storm that
dumped up to 4 inches ( 10 centimeters)
of rain in parts of the area, -- collapsed
Monday night. No injuries were
reported.
A policeman at the scene said the rain
storm and possibly a small tornado
were responsible forjhe collapse. The
center part of the roof gave in, sending
piles of metal and debris throughout the
entire area.
The National Weather Service said
mere were no reports of a tomadic
activity in the area.
Police said a few security officers
were inside the building at the time of
the disaster, " but all of them have been
accounted for," the officer said.
Charles Gray, news director for
WOAF, was at the scene. He said " a
huge section of the center ceiling has
fallen. There are piles of debris all
over.
" The scoreboard is on the floor.
There are mountains of debris in the
center. Kemper arena is literally a
mess. There is water several inches
deep on the floor, and debris is piled up
into the seats."
An officer at the scene said he had
never seen a sight like it before.
The arena serves as the home of the
Kansas City Kings of the National
Basketball Association. It was also the
site of the Republican National Con-vention
in 1976.
Sgt. Bob Kinser, the first officer on
scene, said, " When I got here the whole
ceiling had already collapsed." He said
the only persons in the building were
some maintenance and security people.
The Kemper arena, constructed in
Pupils at Two- Mil- e Prairie Schi
gymnasium and cafeteria. Passa;
Columbia Public Library,
Columbia Fifth Ward. Precinct C.
Paquin Tower, Columbia Sixth
Ward, Precinct B.
v Columbia Fire Station No. 5, Route
PP, Columbia Precinct No. 2.
the early 1970s, was a controversial
structure from the beginning because
of its roof design. All support girders
and beams of the structure are on the
outside rather than the conventional
arena design of inside beams.
Kinser said, " They told me that they
heard a creaking noise in the roof and
then the lights and the scoreboard
started coming down first. Then the
ceiling started to fall. The roof is now
down on the floor and in the seats.
There's no roof at all. It all came down
except around the edges."
Kinser said he was unsure of the
ool use this room as a library,
ge of the school bond issue would
West Junior High School,
Georgetown precinct.
Ashland High School, Englewood
and Hartsburg precincts.
y' Midway Heights' C-- 7 Elementary
School, Rocheport and Woodlandville
precinct',.
exact cause of the collapse.
" I don't know, there was a hell of a lot
of snow on it last winter and it didn't
fall. I wouldn't expect the rain to be on
there long enough to make it collapse,"
he said.
Police have cordoned off the building,
and officials will come in Tuesday to
have a better look at it.
The building is located in the
historical stockyard area on the Kansas
City west bottoms.
Mayor Richard Berkley said he had
no idea why the roof collapsed. " We're
mean a new gymnasium as well s
and cafeteria.
Two- Mi- le Prairie Elementary
School, New Haven and Harg precincts.
Hallsville Community Center.
Brown Station Precinct.
Centralia City Hall, all Centralia
precincts.
going to try to get that information as
quickly as we can tomorrow," he said.
" Shortly after it opened we had one
set of doors that developed kind of a
wind swirl around them," Berkley said.
" But I think they got that taken care of.
It tended to pull them ( the doors) off."
He said that when the inspectors
arrive Tuesday the city will ask that the
structure be thoroughly inspected for
possible structural flaws and to try to
determine whether a structural flaw
contributed to the roof collapse.
" It's a tragic situation." Berkley
said.
is separate rooms for the library
Sturgeon City Hall. Harrisburg
voters.
v The althletic club on Route E. New
Providence precinct.
Golden International Inc., U. S. 63
N.. Prathersville precinct.
Voters to decide
on bond issue
for local schools
ByLisaGoller
Missourian staff writer
The financing of a 53.5 million school
bond for Columbia public schools will
be decided in an election today.
Also to be voted on are directors of
the Boone County water supply sub- distric- ts,
the Centralia Special Road
District tax levy, and the school tax
levy increase for Sturgeon and the
Midway Heights school districts.
If passed, the Columbia school bond
would not increase the present tax rate
of 69 cents per $ 100 of assessed
valuation, but it would extend that rate
for three years.
An estimated $ 2.1 million of the
revenue raised is slated for main-tenance.
Repairand -- repl-acement
of
instructional equipment, such as
typewriters and film projectors, would
cost about $ 150,000. In addition, at least
15 district schools need some type of
roof repair.
Part of the maintenance fund covers
the remodeling of buildings to provide
access for the handicapped. The
schools involved are Blue Ridge
Elementary, Oakland Junior High
School, Rock Bridge High School and
either Parkade or Fairview Elemen-tary
School. West Junior High School
will be partly remodeled for the han-dicapped,
and Hickman High School
will be almost completely remodeled.
Because federal regulations require
mis remodeling, " the options are no
longer there," James Ritter, the
district's administrative assistant,
said. " We must do it"
If the bond issue fails, the repairs
would have to be budgeted in the
regular operation's account This could
affect funds for classroom instruction,
Ritter said.
Several multipurpose rooms these
are usually combination gymnasium- auditorium- cafeteri- as
also would be
funded by the bond. Receiving these
rooms would be Two- Mil- e Prairie
Elementary, Rock Bridge Elementary
and Shepard Boulevard schools.
The bond also would finance a new
office for the Board of Education at a
cost of about $ 365,000. Ritter said the
board would either purchase and
renovate the building or construct a
new facility.
In addition, the road tax levy for
Centralia will be decided. This levy will
assess an additional 35- cents- per-$-
100
tax rate for one year.
In an effort to save election costs,
county officials have changed many
polling places. New locations:
Parkade Elementary School,
Columbia First Ward, Precinct B.
Field Elementary School,
Columbia Second Ward, Precinct D.
Oakland Junior High School,
Columbia Third Ward, Precincts A and
B.
Benton Elementary School,
Columbia Third Ward, Precinct D.
Fairview Elementary School.
Columbia Fourth Ward, Precinct B.
Russell Boulevard School,
Columbia Fourth Ward, Precincts D
andE.
Ifi& sigM
Blue laws
confusing?
unenforced
By Barri Marsh
Missourian staff writer
When the leaders of the Plymouth
and Massachusetts Bay colonies
prohibited Sunday sales in 17th- centur- y
America, little did they know that it
would become one of the most con-fusing
and unenforced laws on record.
They couldn't know that 33 states
eventually would repeal it, or that
Missouri would become so embroiled in
the Sunday sales ban that efforts to
repeal it would repeatedly fail.
Missouri's present version of the
Sunday Sales Act, commonly known as
the blue law, was passed in Missouri in
1963 to prohibit Sunday sales of 17
categories of goods, including cars,
clothes, furniture, hardware and toys.
The law has been upheld twice by the
Missouri Supreme Court.
In the 1979 Missouri legislative
session, several, bills to repeal the blue
law in counties including Boone
wMch are not now exempt have been
introduced in the House and Senate.
The House approved a bill earlier this
session which would give these counties
an opportunity to repeal the law locally.
A similar bill has been introduced in the
Senate and will probably be voted on
thisweek. .
The Missouri Legislature previously
approved measures allowing five
northwest Missouri counties to repeal
blue laws. ,
In May 1977, the Senate approved a
WD allowing residents in Jackson, Clay
and Platte counties, including
metropolitan Kansas City, to vote on a
repeal of the law. Supporters of the
repeal argued that the area was taring
nates- ta- x revenue on Sundays to
( See FACTIONS, Page 11)
Vorster, mired in scandal, resigns
CAPE TOWN, South Africa ( UPI)
John Vorster resigned the presidency in
shame Monday, his long political
career shattered by government
charges that he played a major role in
covering up a multimillion dollar
scandal in his administration.
Prime Minister Pieter Botha, who
succeeded Vorster 10 months ago,
announced the resignation in
Parliament at the same time the
devastating report of the Erasmus
Commission was released, destroying
Vorster's image of honesty and in-tegrity.
The report charged that the 63- ye- ar-old
president who led South Africa as
prime minister for 13 years had
known about illegal operations within
the defunct Information Department
but failed to tell his Cabinet or the
public. Vorster repeatedly said he did
not know the full details of the scandal.
The commission found that by not
revealing what he knew, Vorster " was
not only doing the members of his
Cabinet an injustice but was par-ticipating
in action which in itself was a
serious irregularity the covering- u- p
of gross irregularities."
The scandal involved the illegal
payment of more than $ 70 million
dollars in South Africa and abroad for
projects to improve the racially divided
country's image.
As details of the scandal were slowly
revealed by local newspapers over the
past year. Information Minister Connie
Mulder and Eschel Rhoodie, secretary
of the department, were forced from
their posts in disgrace. Rhoodie
remains in hiding somewhere overseas.
The revelations have so shaken the
Pretoria government that a law is
expected to be ratified within a week
making it an offense for newspapers to
make disclosures of government in-competence
or abuse, without first
obtaining permission from an advo-cate-
general to publish their stories.
Botha told the Parliament that
Vorster had wanted to step down as
prime minister in 1977 but was per-suaded
to stay on, later taking up the
largely ceremonial office of state
president.
Vorster's resignation does not affect
the day- to- d- ay running of the govern-ment.
Senate President Marais Viljoen
was sworn in as acting president until
an electoral congress could be con--
( SEE OPPONENT, Page 11)
One million greet John Paul
in joyous holy city celebration
CZESTOCHOWA, Poland ( UPI) --
An ecstatic throng of a million Poles
gave Pope John Paul II a welcome
Monday that made him weep. At
times the scenes in Poland's holiest
city resembled an American
presidential convention, and he tried
to hush the crowd by softly calling, " I
am here, I am here."
The pope was clearly moved and
wept during his mass. But he was
stern, too, and indirectly chided the
communist regime for refusing to
allow Pope Paul VI once a Vatican
diplomat in Warsaw to visit Poland
before he died.
" We all know how much Pope Paul
VI wanted to come here . . . he was so
closely connected with Poland ... be
was the pops that did so much for the
ncrmalizacs! tl fte Kfe of the church
in Poland," the pcaSff thundered.
" He was the pope of our millen-nium."
John Paul, who met Communist
Party chief Edward Gierek in
Warsaw in a coolly formal exchange,
has been slowly building up the force
of his criticisms of communist
repression of religion. However, he
has limited most blasts to nations
other than Poland and has criticized
Gierek's regime by innuendo only.
Czestochowa gave the Polish pope
his most delightful reception since he
arrived Saturday in the country on a
nine- da- y visit It was also the biggest
single crowd to honor him, although a
total of 2 million persons turned out
for all the events that took place in
Warsaw on the first day.
A brass band composed of white- robe- d
monks from the turreted,
castle- lik- e monastery of Jasna Gora
played Polish airs as pilgrims from
rural areas spread to the horizon on
the slopes around the monastery
known as the " Hill of light"
Jasna Gora is the shrine of the
hauntingly beautiful icon known as
the " Black Madonna," considered
the " queen" of Poland by its 32
million Roman Catholics. The pope
will stay there for three days to show
his special devotion to it.
When the 59- year-- old pontiff
arrived in his white helicopter from
Gniezno, thousands threw themselves
prostrate on the ground. Mothers held
babies aloft and beseeched the pope
for a blessing. Flowers rained on the
pope's gold and scarlet podium.
The pope lost his smile when he
took Poland's rulers to task for
refusing the late Pope Paul VI per-mission
to visit during the 1,000th
anniversary celebrations in 1966 of
the adoption of Roman Catholicism in
Poland.
But John Paul was soon grinning
again and began the ad- libbi- ng that
has irritated government officials.
Wherever the pope has gone, he has
used humor to pull bis fellow Poles
doserlohim.
En town
today
6 a. m.-- " p. m. School bond
election.
9 a. m. Human Rights Commis-sion,
Council Chamber, County- Cit- y
Building .
9 a. m. Boone County Court,
fifth floor, County- Cit- y Building.
7 p. m. Housing Standards & Ap-peals
Board, fourth floor, County- Cit- y
Building.
8 p. m. Peter Haynes, " Working
for Peace on the Peace Caravan,'
Community Room, Farm and
Home Savings building.,
Broadway at Guitar Street, free.
shortage slows business,
local station owners say
By Chuck Cantor
Missourian staff writer
Shrinking gasoline allocations and
fewer operating hours aren't the only
problems affecting service stations
because of the nationwide gasoline
crisis. Many local service station
operators are reporting adverse effects
in their automobile maintenance and
repair business, also.
Ray Bennett, owner of Ray's Stan-dard
Service, 1704 N. Providence Road,
and 1-- 70 Standard, Interstate 70 and
North Providence Road, said the gas
shortage has cut into his service
business.
" Sure, it's affected the service side of
it," he said. " People that figured on
taking long vacations the price of
gas goes up or gas gets scarce . . . they
decide maybe they don't need that set
of tires or that tune- u- p. . . ."
Bennett said the cutbacks have af-fected
his employees as well.
" I've bad to lay off acme people,
which cuts down my hours, and the
boys are getting cats in their salary."
Harold Lake, owner of Harold Lake
Standard service, soi fc.. tsroaaway,
said his service business is also being
affected. " I would say inside work is ail
down."
He said one reason for the decrease in
business is that fewer vacationers are
traveling outside the state.
" We reduced our operating hours by
37 hours ( per week). I had to cut out one
part- tim- e man and one full- tim- e man
altogether," he said.
The gasoline shortage seems to be
causing a ' vicious circle' effect The
reduced availability of gas is causing
dealers to shorten their tours, end
shorter hours mean less business.
" We used to do work an Saturdays.
Now we aren't even open Saturdays,"
Lake saia. " The gasoline shortage is 88
percent of it. We're not available
anymore. After we dose, everybody's
gone till the next day."
Richard Henmng, manager of Foraas
DX, 1330 West Blvd. S., said he taaaf
detected a drop in repair boagacga." 2
cant notice any decline ia rejsJj
work," he said, adsSng, " K sny2& B&:
( See REPAIRMEN, Page 14) '?. '