Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1983-10-21

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78th Year No. 33 Good Morning! It's Friday, October 21, 1983 2 Sections 16 Pages 25 Cents
House votes to end CIA aid to Nicaraguan rebels
WASHINGTON ( UPI) The House,
warned that the United States is " heading
straight for war" in Central America, Thurs-day
rejected Reagan administration appeals
and voted to stop CIA aid to rebels battling
Nicaragua's Marxist- le- d regime.
By a vote of 227- 19- 4, the House approved a
Democratic amendment ordering a cutoff of
funds for the anti- Sandinis- ta forces.
The roll call went generally along party
lines, with only 18 Republicans voting with
the Democratic majority.
The amendment to the intelligence author-ization
bill is identical to a bill that was ap-proved
by the House, 223- 19- 5, in July but ig-nored
by the Republican- controlle- d Senate
The latest vote ensures that the issue will be
dealt with by a House- Senat- e conference
committee
White House spokesman Larry Speakes
said: " The vote today was not unexpected
We knew it would be a difficult vote. We
think we will do well in the Senate We think
our position will be upheld in the Senate and
we hope our differences will be worked out in
conference."
House passage of the amendment followed
warnings by Democrats that the CIA- sponsor- ed
covert activity threatens to expand the
conflict in Central America
" The situation has never been worse,"
said Rep Michael Barnes, D- M- d., " We are
heading straight for war."
The GOP- dominat- ed Senate Intelligence
Committee has backed Reagan's efforts to
keep pressure on the Marxist Sandinistas to
stop the flow of arms to leftist rebels in
neighboring El Salvador.
Critics of the actions which have includ-ed
guerrilla raids against coastal oil depots
and some aerial attacks say the adminis-tration
actually seeks the overthrow of the
Cuban- - and Soviet- backe- d Sanduusta gov-ernment
Committee Chairman Edward Bo- lan- d,
D- Mas- s., said the Nicaraguan conflict
has intensified since the House voted in July
to halt the covert aid
" It is now an air and sea war," he said
Although Reagan has submitted a new re-port
to justify continued aid, Boland said,
" The bottom line is a continuation of the war "
Rep Henry Hyde, R-- Hl , said continued re-bel
pressure on the Sandinistas is necessary
" to drive them to the negotiating table "
He said helping the Nicaraguan rebels is
" just as just" as U S covert aid to guerrilla
forces fighting Soviet occupation forces in
Afghanistan
Boland's amendment, in addition to cut--
ting off funding for the rebels, would provide
$ 50 million to friendly governments in the re-gion
to use in halting the flow of arms to oth-er
guerrilla forces
It also calls on the president to seek action
by the Organization of American States to
stop Nicaragua's support of insurgents in
neighboring countries
In a later vote the House rejected, 223- 19- 4,
a Republican move to allow the covert aid to
continue until Nicaragua agrees to stop sup-porting
leftist rebels in neighboring coun-tries
The overall bill was then passed and
sent to the Senate on a 243- 17- 1 vote
House Democratic leader Jim Wright of
Texas, in an interview on NBC television be-fore
the debate began, said Reagan is follow-ing
a double standard
" If we believe that it's wrong for Cuba and
Nicaragua to try to export revolution and try
to overthrow governments in neighboring
countries, then . . I don't think we ought to
be supporting and raising and recruiting and
paying for armies to overthrow a govern-ment
that we don't like," he said
Secretary of State George Shultz warned
Wednesday a cutoff of aid to the rebels would
" virtually destroy" any chance the Sanduus-ta
government would agree to end its back-ing
of leftist guerrillas
Reagan defended his policy during his
Wednesday news conference without actual-ly
acknowledging the covert aid " I do be-lieve
in the right of a country, when its inter-ests
are best served, to practice ccrvert
activities," Reagan said
Congress voted in December 1982 to bar
any aid to groups trying to overthrow the
Sanduusta government, but aid to the rebels
has continued.
Lester L. Merrell Bill Wesfhoff Jr. Robert F. Rennick
Fire chief selection panel seems
to settle on a favorite candidate
By Valerie Mass
Misaourian ta writer
One of the three finalists for the
job of Columbia fire chief emerged
from Thursday's public interviews
as the overwhelming favorite,
according to City Manager Dick
Gray. But Gray isn't saying who the
choice is.
The six- mem- ber advisory commit-tee
interviewed the three finalists,
grading them on six questions.
Five of the six panelists chose one
candidate as their first choice, while
the sixth committee member ranked
that man second, Gray said.
-- No decision would be made for a
week, he said, because a background
check is needed.
The panel, however, seemed most
impressed with Bill Westhoff Jr., di-rector
of the University's Missouri
Fire and Rescue Training Institute
and a long- tim- e officer of the Boone
County Fire Protection District. He
spoke last but longest to the panel,
and stressed management, internal
communications and public rela-tions.
Gray has emphasized that the next
fire chief would be a fire department
" director," one skilled in manage-ment
After Westhoff s hour- lon- g
presentation, Gray shook Westhoff s
hand.
The other finalists are Lester L.
Merrell, assistant fire chief of the In-dependence
Fire Department, and
Robert F. Rennick, fire chief of the
Jefferson City Fire Department
Merrell's interview lasted for 20
minutes and Renmck's for 30 min-utes
Merrell, who has been with the In-dependence
Fire Department for 20
years, was the first to be inter-viewed
He said that he applied for
I. ! ' nmi H I.., i- - 1 Mm 1 11. ii. i. 1 . , pw. bm 1 1 mm 1mmmmmmm I
Thome E. McCanrar
Cable TV viewers and the advisory panel get a look at candidate Bill Westhoff Jr.
the job because it was " extremely
attractive."
" I think I am experienced enough
to deal with Columbia's close to $ 4
million budget," he said.
He told the panel that his manage-ment
philosophy is " to get the job
done with what you have to do it
with " He said the major areas he
would emphasize would be fire pre-vention
and training
" A well- traine- d department can
cope with any situation," he said
Rennick, who worked for the
Boone County Fire Protection Dis-trict
and the Columbia Fire Depart-ment
before joining the Jefferson
City Firs Department, said his back-ground
has prepared turn to take on
community challenges
" I feel that Columbia offers a big
challenge," he said, noting Colum-bia's
108- mem- ber force and its $ 3 6
million annual budget more than
double that of Jefferson City
" I've had a first- han- d grasp at de--
veloping a budget and maintaining
it," he said. He described his man-agement
philosophy as " seeing to
the needs of the personnel and
personnelmanagementisthekey "
When asked, Rennick didn't speci-fy
any particular area that a pro-gressive
fire department needs But
he said, " We must be able to handle
all emergencies. That requires train-ing,
education, key personnel, and a
See PANEL, Page 8A
Bond can't find sponsor for tax proposal
By Mary Kaull
State capital bureau
JEFFERSON CITY At the close of the first
week of the General Assembly's special session,
Gov. Christopher S. Bond still has not found a leg-islative
sponsor for his tax proposal package,
House and Senate leaders said Thursday.
Bond's controversial package faces universal
opposition from both chambers, despite a lunch-eon
meeting he held Thursday with legislative
leaders to discuss the problem.
House Majority Leader Tom Villa, D- S- t. Louis,
said when he asked Bond if he'd found a sponsor
for the tax bills, Bond didn't answer him. The gov-ernor's
press secretary, Nancy Vessell, confirmed
that the search is still on.
Sen. Roger Wilson, D- Colum-bia,
said Bond may
face real difficulty selling the the package, which
includes a 2 percent corporate tax increase, a dou-bling
of the franchise tax and a one- fourth- c- ent
sales taxincrease.
" I don't know that hell ever get one," Wilson
said of Bond's effort to find a sponsor.
But Bond remains committed to supporting the
measures. At a press conference Thursday morn
ing, he said the proposals were modest and work-able.
" The business community can and should bear
a portion of the burden," he said. " I feel it is a bal-anced
plan, and I hope it will have support."
Although some legislators feel other tax mea-sures
such as a flat- ra- te income tax increase
would be more fair, Bond remains opposed. " I do
not propose to take a further bite out of pay-checks,"
he said.
Bond's tax measures, together, would generate
$ 150 million in revenue for the state In his open-ing
address to a joint session of the Legislature on
Wednesday, Bond warned that unless additional
revenue is generated, the state will face deep mid-year
budget cuts next year and the possible clos-ing
of some state institutions.
In addition to defending his tax proposals at the
press conference, Bond attempted to mollify the
General Assembly's angry black legislators by is-suing
an invitation to meet with them " at the ear-liest
convenient time."
Bond said members of the Black Caucus misun-derstood
the strong language he used in his open-ing
address to the Legislature. His comments,
critical of the costly court- ordere- d St. Louis de-segregation
plan, triggered a walkout of 10 of Mis
souri's 12 black legislators
In his address, Bond said the plan was a " man- ma- de
disaster" that threatened to bankrupt Mis-souri
and raid the state treasury
While many black as well as white legis-lators
were offended by what they perceived as an
anti- desegregati- on stance, Bond said he was mis-interpreted.
" I was surprised and disappointed at the black
legislators reaction," Bond said The intent of the
comments, he said, was to emphasize the exces-sive
costs of the plan and the urgency for mea-sures
to replace lost state revenue
Regardless, some black legislators are still an-gry
with Bond and wary of any invitation
" The general consensus of the caucus is that we
must have an apology," said Rep Quincy Troupe,
D- S- t. Louis He said members will find it difficult
to talk with Bond until the apology is offered
But Sen. John Bass, D-- St Louis, said although
Bond's comments were tactless and undiplomatic,
the caucus would be politically unwise to respond
similarly.
" As politicians, we can't become so volatile and
emotional so as to be bund to our role," he said
" The communications system needs to be open,
even to negative expression "
Times Beach may be site
of dioxin storage bunker
ST. LOUIS. ( UPI) A state
task force will hear a recommen-dation
that Tunes Beach be the
site of a $ 200 million concrete
storage bunker for dioxin- con- tanunat- ed
soil, a newspaper said
Thursday
The recommendation to the
state Task Force on Dioxin is con-tained
in the final draft of a re-port
panel members will consider
Monday, the St Louis Post- Dispatc- h
said in a copyright story
" I haven't heard any qualms
about it, except that Tunes Beach
is in a flood plain," said Sharon
Rogers, a member of the task
force. " But our hope was to con-solidate
the contaminated sod at
the site where the greatest
amount of material already was
" Tunes Beach, with its 23 miles
of contaminated streets, seemed
the likely place"
The 10- memb- er panel is sched-uled
to present its recommenda-tion
to Gov. Christopher Bond on
Oct 31. Bond established the
commission in February to study
ways to clean dioxin sites in the
state
Missouri has 33 confirmed diox-in
sites, including Times Beach,
which is being bought out with $ 33
million from the federal Super- fun- d
The task force report said
building the bunker and moving
the approximately 100,000 cubic
yards of contaminated soil there
could take up to five years and
cost $ 200 million, Mrs. Rogers
said
Hickman may divide academic day into 7 periods
By W. Kevin Armstrong
Misaourian stall writer
Tradition is a tough thing to let go,
but as Hickman High School's prin-cipal
Kenneth Clark is finding out,
sometimes it's necessary.
Hickman is the only secondary
school in Columbia that still oper-ates
on a six- penod- a- d- ay schedule.
Rock Bridge High School and Jeffer-son,
West and Oakland junior high
schools divide their academic day
into seven parts.
Teachers and administrators at
Hickman say rumors are circulating
around Kewpie halls that Columbia's
oldest and largest high school will
join the others by adding an addi-tional
class period next year.
Clark won't say for sure whether
that talk is well- grounde- d, but he
confirms that he's " gang to be tak-ing
a serious look at changing next
year."
Eliot Battle, director of guidance
at Hickman, says he's " pretty sure"
the new schedule will be imple-mented
during the 1984- 8- 5 school
year.
Hickman has been considering the
sevenienod plan for five years,
Clark says, but the school now is tak-ing
a more serious look at the idea,
frimarily because of increased col- e- ge
entrance requirements.
" Until the ( college) admission re-quirements
were increased, we
didn't have very many students who
wanted to take more than five
classes ( each day)," Clark says.
Implementing the plan, however,
will involve more than a break with
tradition. There are advantages and
disadvantages, he says
The extra period would increase
enrollment in most non- bas- ic
courses such as band, orchestra or
yearbook. Teachers in these subject
areas complain that there aren't
enough periods in the school day for
students to take their courses.
" I've counseled kids out of my
classes," says journalism teacher
Minerva Howard College- boun- d stu-dents
have a hard tune just meeting
admission requirements, let alone
taking courses like newspaper or
yearbook staffs, she argues.
John Patterson, chairman of the
fine arts department, also supports
the seven- perio- d plan. " It might be a
help m allowing more students to
take performing classes," he says.
" Sometimes in a six- perio- d day they
can't geteverythingin "
Clark says there are only 30 to 40
students interested in music who
might be forced out of fine arts
classes because of the schedule. " Do
you change the whole school just for
these students7" he asks
Classes at Hickman last 55 min-utes.
Classes at other area second-ary
schools have been shortened to
50 minutes to add the seventh period
and not lengthen the school day
" There is a real concern among
the academic departments about
adding a seventh period, unless the
school day is lengthened by 35 min-utes,"
Clark says. " It could affect
achievement on these levels."
It definitely would affect science
learning, says Richard Henderson,
science department chairman. " Sci-ence
teachers would not be in favor
of changing," he says. The short-ened
period would hurt lab periods.
" We're having to push as it is now."
The mathematics department also
opposes the shortened periods
" I think there is documentation
that indicates very clearly that
achievement in mathematics is pro-portionately
related to the time
given to it in class," says Harry Old- weil- er,
department chairman " If
we're concerned about achievement,
we won't shorten the penods "
Neither Henderson nor Oldweiler
would oppose the seventh period if
the day were lengthened rattier than
classes shortened.
" I see no problems with that,"
Henderson says. " We've always
been in favor of having a one- - or two- ho- ur
block for labs." Longer lab pe-riods
are out of the question on the
six- peri- od schedule.
Oldweiler says he feels the same
pressures with computer labs
" There's not enough time in the day
for that kid. He is pressured "
Administrators at other secondary
schools say the switch from six to
seven penods wasn't much of a
problem for them.
Jefferson Junior High added a sev-enth
period during the 1978- 7- 9 school
year, and according to Principal
Roy Willard, there have been no
problems
" We have hung in there real well
about this," Willard says The only
problem occurred with science lab
cumculums designed specifically
for the 55- min- ute period. " But teach-ers
have tiled to accommodate," he
says.
" If teachers will get the clerical
type of stuff done at the beginning
( of class), they'll find they have
plenty of tune to get through. Many
people are accustomed to thinking of
time in terms of boxes," Willard
says. " Most of us don't concentrate
in 50- minu- te segments "
Clark says adding the extra period
by shortening other classes is an ad-ministrative
decision that will be
discussed at the school this year.
Lengthening the school day to com-pensate
for the seventh period, how-ever,
would require approval by the
school board.