Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1984-12-13

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STATE HISTORICAL ; r, ClE7f
HITT & LOIHY
COLUMBIA, MO. 65211
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78th Year No. 77 Good Morning! It's Thursday, December 13, 1984 2 Sections 14 Pages 25 Cents
Improvements for jail, courthouse
By tha MIourln ta f f
Boone County Court Presiding
Judge Norma Robb said she may
propose this morning that the county
establish a capital improvements
fund to finance courthouse and jail
Improvements.
the money would come from the
county's more than $ 3 million in re-serve
funds. Between $ 1.5 million
and $ 1.75 million could be allocated
for capital projects, Robb said.
After nearly three months of bi-weekly
budget hearings, Robb put
the final touches Wednesday on her
preliminary $ 8.6 million budget A
public hearing is scheduled for 10
a. m. today in the County Court
chamber.
At a time when some Missouri
counties are pinching pennies, the
Boone County Court has amassed a
substantial nest egg.
County officials estimate that $ 1.7
million will be left over in the gener-al
operating fund at the end of the
year. Another $ 2.1 million remains in
the depreciation fund and nearly
$ 700,000 is in the revenue- sharin- g ac-count
" We're not paupers by anv stan-dards,"
said hood, who is the coun-ty
s chief budget officer.
The county owes its financial
health largely to the half- cen- t sales
tax approved by voters in November
1979. The tax is expected to produce
$ 3.2 million this year, a 9- perc-ent
in-crease
compared to 1983.
Robb, who freely admits that she
prepares her budgets conservative-ly,
underestimated sales tax pro-ceeds
by $ 238,388. " Everybody
knows you underestimate revenues
and overestimate expenses," she
said.
Accumulating a surplus shows
good financial planning, she insisted.
What the federal government gives,
it can take away, said Robb, noting
that federal revenue- sharin- g monies
finance many of the county's capital
improvement proje cts.
State statutes require the county to
maintain an emergency fund total-ing
3 percent of the general fund.
The emergency fund acts as a cush- -
ion for items not budgeted.
As a safety measure, the Boone
County government also keeps $ 400,- 00- 0
in the general fund, the amount
needed to run the county for one
month.
County funds are expected to gen-erate
interest income of more than
$ 300,000 when ledgers are closed
Dec. 31.
Robb's willingness to spend part of
the leftover funds contrasts with the
court's stance a year ago. In Novem-ber
1983, the judges asked county
voters to approve a half- ce- nt sales
tax to finance jail and courthouse
improvements. Voters overwhelm-ingly
rejected the plan.
Ed Gaebler, who led the opposition
to the tax, had argued that the coun-ty
should use part of the surplus to fi-nance
the improvements.
Gaebler, the executive director of
the Central Columbia Association,
serves on the County Facilities Com-mission
appointed by the court to ex-amine
the county's building needs
and financing alternatives.
He said Wednesday that he has
suggested commissioners recom-mend
using the county's reserve
fund to finance the projects.
Another member, George Parker,
said the commission is close to mak-ing
a recommendation to the court.
" There are definitely space needs
that need to be addressed, but we
haven't made a final recommenda-tion,"
he said.
Parker said he hasn't had time to
study Robb's capital improvement
proposal. " I think she and the court
have done a pretty sound job in their
financial goals," he said.
Few county officeholders are seek-ing
new employees in next year's
budget The County Clerk's office
asked for one additional employee
and the Sheriff's Department re-quested
that a part- tim- e employee
be put on full time.
Prosecuting Attorney Joe Moseley
is asking for two new employees for
a victims assistance program.
Three- fifth- s of the almost $ 50,000
needed for the program will be paid
for by the state.
Personnel budget increases vary.
The greatest requested increase
came from the Sheriff's Department
at 21 percent
I 1 Boone County Departmental
Budget Requests
1984 Estimated 1985 Dept. Pet.
Department Expenditures Request Inc.
Sheriff $ 651,263 $ 785,625 21o
Jail 425.631 494.595 16
Auditor ... . 74.607 84.557 13 I
County Court 79.809 97.761 22 I
CountyClerk 122.405 127.953 5 S
Treasurer .... 55.356 63.202 14
Collector 166.906 202.123 21 1
Circuit Court 208.802 238.029 14 I
Circuit Clerk 59.735 79.804 34 B
Road & & idge Dept 1.767.997 2,082.983 18 1
Data Processing . . 116.935 117.625 1
Prosecuting Attorney .. . 374.308 445.915 19
Recorder of Deeds 143.170 154.644 8 I
Building & Grounds 120,202 135.618 13 1
Surveyor 1.400 970 -- 31 j
Improvements 550,000
Revenue Sharing 530.600 1.008.000 103 8
Under court guidelines, depart-ment
heads will be allowed to give
employees a 5 percent cost of living
increase and 3 percent merit pay in-crease.
Department heads may give
a bigger merit raise to one person
than another, as long as the total in- -
Mlitouilan Ch't
crease is not greater than 3 percent
of the department's personnel bud-get
This report was prepared by Mis- souri- an
staff writers Brad Gentry,
Kathryn Kranhold and Olivia Mayer.
11 ' l i ii a i I
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Wobbly window washing
Joseph Colbert of Sedalia balances precariously on his lad-der
as he washes the paint and debris off the University's
Wendy Csrtton
Swallow Hall Wednesday afternoon. The building's trim was
painted this week.
Fane! urges fats to be checked in toddlers
WASHINGTON ( UPI) - A govern-ment
advisory panel said Wednes-day
all Americans as young as age 2
should follow a low- fa- t, low- cholester- ol
diet to reduce their risk of coro-nary
heart disease.
The advisory committee said blood
cholesterol levels of about 60 percent
of the people in the United States are
too high, but that everyone over age
2 could benefit by cutting fat con-sumption
to 20 percent of food intake
from its current average of 40 per-cent.
" It has been established beyond a
reasonable doubt that lowering defi-nitely
elevated blood cholesterol lev-els
( specifically blood levels of lcm- -
density lipoprotein cholesterol) will
reduce the risk of heart attacks due
to coronary heart disease," the com-mittee
said.
The committee cited an earlier
study that found that for every 1- per-cent
reduction in blood cholesterol,
the risk of coronary heart disease
could drop 2 percent.
Coronary heart disease is a reduc-tion
in heart efficiency caused by
atherosclerosis, blockages in arte-ries
that supply blood to the heart
muscle. According to the National
Institutes of Health, it is responsible
for more deaths than all forms of
cancer combined. Coronary heart
disease affects at least 5.4 million
U. S. citizens.
The panel was one of those con-vened
by the NIH to compile stan-dard
guidelines for doctors and
health workers on topical issues. It
was the first statement on cholester-ol
from such a committee.
The panel, composed of doctors
and two lawyers, said physicians
should routinely test all patients'
blood cholesterol. Children, except
those with a risk of future heart dis-ease,
would need to be tested once.
Children under age 2 should be
exempt from the diet recommenda-tions
because they are in a period of
extremely rapid growth and need the
calories, the panel said.
Suzanne Haines, chief of the medi-cal
statistics branch at the National
Center for Health Statistics, said
quitting smoking could reduce
deaths from coronary heart disease
by 12 percent, while reducing choles-terol
could cut the death rate by 10
percent.
The panel's chairman, Daniel
Steinberg, an atherosclerosis spe-cialist
from the University of Cali-fornia
at San Diego, said recom-mended
fat reduction was set at 10
percent because it was considered
comfortable and possible. Other or-ganizations
have recommended a re-duction
to 20 percent of total cal-ories.
Weinberger agrees to defense spending cut
WASHINGTON ( UPI) Defense Secretary Cas-par
Weinberger agreed Wednesday to a cut of sev-eral
billion dollars from his department's budget
request of about $ 330 billion, administration off-icials
said.
The amount by which increases in the Pentagon
budget would be cut has. been a matter of conten-tion
in top White House circles for weeks, with
Weinberger initially resisting.
But after three days of budget meetings this
week he agreed to the cuts, the officials said.
After President Reagan told agencies to cut $ 34
billion from domestic programs to keep next
year's budget at this year's $ 968 billion level, $ 8
billion remained to be cut from defense to achieve
his goal of $ 42 billion fa spending reductions.
The officials said Weinberger agreed to some
cuts, but less than $ 8 billion worth, on Wednesday,
!
i 7
and that the intramural negotiations would contin-ue.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said
one way of cutting Weinberger's requested figure
is freezing an Oct i, 1985, pay raise for military
and civilian personnel working for the Pentagon.'
Military personnel are scheduled for a 7.1 per-cent
increase next year and civilians for a 3.5 per-cent
raise.
About 2.1 million uniformed men and women
would be affected, along with 1 million civilians.
Although Weinberger had been fighting budget
director David Stockman over the proposed cuts,
he apparently was pressured from within the
White House and from congressional Republicans
to accept some reduction on grounds the domestic'
cuts could not pass without a trimming of Penta- -
i
gon spending.
Weinberger's decision was learned after anoth-er
session of the White House budget advisers
with Reagan.
Weinberger was said to have pressed his case
" in general terms" against large cuts in the Pen-tagon
budget, White House spokesman Larry
Speakessaid.
Previous weeks of domestic budget cutting have
left the administration about $ 8 billion short of its
target for $ 42 billion in spending reductions next
fiscal year.
Another budget- cuttin- g idea surfaced Wednes-day
with word from the Office of Personnel Man-agement
that if Congress does not approve Rea-gan's
proposed 5 percent across- the- boar- d pay cut
for civil servants, the $ 3 billion savings could be
made by firing 125,000 of them.
Locksmiths petition
police to end policy
By Kevin McDonnell
Mlssourian staff writer
Columbia locksmiths, frustrated
by Columbia police opening car
doors for people locked out of their
cars, will present a petition asking
local police to stop the lockout serv-ice.
Eight Columbia locksmiths signed
a petition Monday and Tuesday that
will be delivered today to Police
Chief William E. Dye by their attor-ney.
The petition asks that police
" cease opening automobiles at no
charge to anyone calling for the
service."
" Less than two years ago the peti-tion
would not have been necessary,
but the Columbia police have cre-ated
a welfare mentality," said peti-tion
author and locksmith George
Thomas, 53, of 1401 Paris Road.
" The police have increased the num-ber
of lockouts they respond to by
about 70 percentin the last year."
If the petition does not change po-lice
policy, several locksmiths said
they will refuse to accept service
calls referred by police.
If neither the petition nor the serv-ice
stoppage works, then the locks-miths
will consider filing a class- actio- n
lawsuit against City Council
members responsible for perpetuat-ing
the service, said Michael Moo- ne- y,
group spokesman. Locksmiths
will fay to recover the money they
have lost due to the police lockout
service if they have to go to court, he
said.
City Council members were un-aware
of the locksmiths' petition un-til
they were contacted for comment
Wednesday by the Missourian.
Three council members were in fa-vor
of continuing police lockout serv-ices;
two, against it; and one was
hesitant to take a stand before the is-sue
came to the council. Mayor John
Westlund was unavailable for com-ment
" Opening locked car doors is a
good community service, and I don't
think it is an incursion into the pri-vate
sector," Fourth Ward Coun-cilman
Pat Barnes said.
Don Mosby of the Second Ward
said, " I haven't heard one complaint
from a locksmith, but I have heard a
great deal of positive feedback from
appreciative citizens."
Barnes said, " The Police Depart-ment
should not be looking for less
things to do, and I don't like the city
government looking for ways to de-crease
services. Let's look for ways
to increase service."
Fifth Ward Councilwoman Barba-ra
McDonald said unlocking car
doors has nothing to do with police
work. " The Police Department
should not be involved in work that
could be handled by the private sec-tor.
We don't ask the private sector
to handle our police work.
" We have a fine Police Depart-ment
with professional skills and I
think their duties should be of the
caliber of their professionalism, and
that doesn't include opening car
doors," McDonald said.
Sixth Ward Councilman Matt Mc- Cormi- ck
said, " I think that if there
is a service that can be handled in
the private sector, that is where the
work should be done. Knowing the
chief fairly well, I wouldn't be sur-prised
to see him come into the next
City Council meeting and say that
the department will no longer open
lockouts."
Third Ward Councilman Rodney
Smith said police should handle
nightime calls, but locksmiths
should get the daytime business.
I Bush dedss, justice I
as two bodies returned
WASHINGTON ( UPI) The
bodies of two Americans mur-dered
by hijackers returned
home Wednesday in flag- drape- d
caskets to full military honors,
with Vice President George Bush
demanding that Iran bring their
killers " swiftly and surely to jus-tice."
" Wanton murder of the inno-cent
is terrorism that no amount
of incantation can disguise,"
Bush told survivors and friends of
Charles Hegra and William Stan-ford
gathered at Andrews Air
Force Base outside Washington.
" So let us renew again our call
I for all nations to uphold justice
before mankind . . . and to de-mand
that governments have the
decency to bring to justice terror-ists,
bring them swiftly and sure-ly
to justice," Bush said.
The brief ceremony, held just
after dawn in near- freezi- ng tem-peratures,
was attended by a doz-en
family members and friends of
the two men, whom Bush de-scribed
as " husbands and fa-thers,
good and decentmen."
" We bring home to the firm soil
of America two of her sons brutal-ly
murdered as they served their
country," Bush said after the
matching steel gray caskets were
ft
carried amid full military hon-ors
from an Air Force cargo
plane that carried them from
Rhein- Mai- n Air Base in West
Germany.
" On behalf of the president and
all Americans, we mourn the loss
of Chuck Hegna and Bill Stan-ford,"
Bush said. And he prom-ised,
" We shall remember them
with honor."
Hegna and Stanford, auditors in
the Agency for International De-velopment,
were killed by Arab- speakin- g
gunmen who hijacked a
Kuwait Airlines plane with 155
passengers and 11 crew members
and ordered it to Tehran last
week. j
The last of the hostages, includ-- j
ing two Americans, were re-leased
Sunday after a six- da- y or-deal.
It ended with Iran claiming
it had pulled off a daring rescue
and with the White House com-plaining
about Iran's earlier
handling of the situation.
The two released Americans,
AID auditor Charles Kapar and
New York businessman John Cos-ta,
were being treated Wednes-day
at a U. S. Army hospital in
Frankfurt, West Germany.
Iran has pledged to put the hi-jackers
on trial.
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