Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1981-04-17

              STATE HISTORIC L GOCtlTY 1
HITT & LOWRY ST . - '
COLUMBIA, HO. 65201
73rd Year No. 182 Good Morning! It's Friday, April 17. t98I 3 Section - 18 Pagr 25 ( enth
Officials see little hope for trapped miners
REDSTONE, Colo ( UPI) Rescuers inched
their way through a Colorado coal mine Thurs-day
night in an effort to reach 15 men trapped
more than a mile underground by a violent
methane gas explosion, but preparations at the
mine entrance indicated there was little hope
they would be found alive
A spokesman for the Pitkin County Sheriff's
Department confirmed Thursday afternoon
that body bags had been sent to the Dutch
Creek No 1 mine as a precaution About 9pm,
the sheriff's office asked the county coroner to
report to the mine within two hours.
The estimated tune for rescue crews to reach
the trapped miners was set back repeatedly
during the day as workers encountered water
at various levels of the shaft Pumps that nor-mally
would have emptied the water from the
mine were out of service because the explosion
knocked out electrical power.
Doug Bowman, environmental control officer
for Mid- Contine- nt Coal and Coke Co , the mine
operator, said one rescue crew progressed 600
feet ( 183 meters) in a four- ho- ur shift Thursday
evening
Bowman said the blast apparently was trig-gered
by a spark, possibly from high- volta- ge
heavy equipment, touching off a pocket of
methane gas in the mine The exact cause could
not be determined because no one had been to
the scene of the explosion since it occurred at
5 10 pm Wednesday
" From the size of the explosion, the feeling
now is that they hit some kind of pocket, Bow-man
said " I'd say it happened in an instant
They never knew what happened "
Bowman said speculation was that the pocket
of gas was caused by an ' outburst," which oc-curs
when more coal than is normally produced
in the mining process pops out from the coal
face.
Rescuer Lee McBnde, 27, who has worked in
the mine tor tour years, was in the mine when
the explosion occurred He escaped injury when
he felt a pressure change
Lloyd Miller, supervisor of the U S Steel
Mine at Somerset, Colo , brougnt a crew of nine
to help in the rescue A 40- e- ar veteran miner.
Miller said conditions in the tunnels were not
that bad, it's clear There isn t any gas or dust
It's cool, cold in fact "
Despite predictions by mine officials that the
missing miners probably were dead, some fam-ily
members, friends and fellow coal miners re-mained
outside the mine's gates in hopes of get-ting
good news
Pitkin County Deputy Sheriff Labby Hemts
confirmed that authorities had askea that body
bags be delivered to the mine entrance but said
no fatalities had been confirmed
The blast occurred near the end of the day
shift at the mine in the scenic Crystal River
Vallev of western Colorado The explosion was
so violent, officials held little hope for any sur-vivors
The trapped men, who ranged in age from 20
to an were working in two teams 1' 2 miles 2 4
kilometers j deep inside the mine when the ex-plosion
occurred
Traffic fatality
Columbian Elberta M. Eakin, 2212 Country Lane, was killed
Thursday in a three- vehic- le collision on Interstate 70 near the
Ann Youngling
West Boulevard exit. Two others were taken to University Hospi-tal
for treatment. ( Story on Page 7A. )
Hitler was not aware
of Hess' ' peace flight'
BONN, West Germany ( UPI) Ru-dolph
Hess, Adolf Hitler's nght- han- d
man, revealed Thursday that his mys-terious
World War II " peace mission"
to Britain 40 years ago was made with-out
the German Fuehrer's knowledge.
The ailing 86- year-- old Hess, serving
a life sentence in Berlin's Spandau Jail
since being convicted at the 1947 Nu- rembu- rg
Nazi war crime trials, also
disclosed for the first time that he
made three unsuccessful attempts to
fly to Britain before finally parachut-ing
into Scotland May 10, 1941.
Ever since, there has been specu-lation
that he was on a secret mission
to make a separate peace with Britain
to clear the way for Germany's attack
sis weeks later on Russia. Hitler al-ways
denied the suggestion and, in a fit
of rage, dismissed his deputy as mad.
Hess was captured on landing in
Scotland and spent the rest of the war
in the Tower of London. Last week,
Hess, who is suffering from pneumo-nia,
was transferred to a prison hospi-tal.
His story was published for the first
time Thursday in an eight- pag- e pam-phlet,
" Spandau Report," issued by an
organization campaigning for his re-lease
" Support Society for the Free-dom
of Rudolf Hess" is headed by his
son, Wolf Ruediger Hess, 43, a Munich
architect
Hess' story is told in the form of let-ters
to his wife Use in 1947, before be-ing
transferred to Spandau
In them, he said the flight was so se-cret
mat " higher- ups- " did not know
about it, nor did he tell his wife Hess
did not mention Hitler by name, but by
" higher- ups- " he clearly meant Hitler.
He said he disguised the notes he
made on maps for the flight in which
he offered Britain peace in return for
German dominance of Europe.
Hess wrote that while flying from
Munich over the North Sea he feared
he would have to return to Germany
because there was no cloud cover to
help him avoid British fighters.
He continued his flight, however, be-cause
he said he would have had to
make a night landing that might have
damaged his Messerschmitt 110
In town today
4: 30 pjn. High school baseball, Rock
Bridge vs. Mexico at Hickman field,
doubleheader. Admission $ 1 for adults,
50 cents for junior high students.
7: 30 p. m-- Theater, " A Separate
Peace," Gentry Studio Theatre on Uni-versity
campus Tickets 50 cents Lim-ited
seating ,
7: 30 pjn-- Theater, " Rimers of El-dritch,"
Fine Arts Building on Univer
sity campus. Tickets $ 3 50 for public,
$ 1 75 for students
7: 30 pan. Play, " Mass," Firestone- Baar- s
Chapel on Stephens College
campus. Tickets $ 3 for public, $ 1.75
students at Dorsey Street box office.
8: 15 p. m. Recital, Esterhazy Quar-tet,
Fine Arts Recital Hall on Universi-ty
campus. Free.
Before this couple moves to Arizona
for retirement, they must sort through
The ' Baggage of Life'
By Kathy Morrall
Missounan staff writer
Robert and Jane Habenstein are thinking of
the thousands of books they have to sort
through and the numerous drawers, closets
and cupboards they have to empty
They also are thinking about ending one life-style
and starting another a new lifestyle
that, despite all the planning, has elements of
uncertainty about it.
Before Habenstein, 66, retires from the Uni-versity
in September, he and his wife, 64, have
to rid themselves of what he calls the bag-gage
of life" in preparation for their move to
Arizona The baggage is considerable. For 30
years, they have been buying things at auc-tions
and garage sales.
" We come into this world with nothing and
we leave with nothing, yet we spend most of
our lives acquiring material possessions,"
says Habenstein, a professor in sociology.
" But there comes a tune when we must di-vest
ourselves of our baggage of life."
They'll keep some, however, to stock a shop
in Tubac, Anz , where they will open an art
gallery and oriental and Navaho rug shop
called East- We- st Galleries
The Habensteins are like thousands of cou-ples
who face critical decisions at retirement
tune Some are unprepared; others, like the
Habensteins, have planned for this day.
Mrs Habenstein, who suffers from arthritis,
started visiting Arizona six years ago during
the winter to see if she would like living there.
Last fall, the Habensteins bought a townhouse
in Green Valley, 15 miles from Tubac, for a re-tirement
home
But for Habenstein, a retirement home
wasn't enough
' I didn't want to just retire in nzona " he
says " I had to look for a second career I had
thought of opening a book store, but with art
and rugs, I'll have more excitement and a
chance to travel around and buy inventory in
the summer."
Auctions, garage sales and flea markets
have been so much a part of his life that he has
spent years studying people, especially the el-derly,
and how they function at auctions and
garage sales.
Habenstein is a small, slight man with gray
hair and glasses He will not have to change
his manner and dress to live in the Southwest
He dresses in chambray shirts and corduroys
and sometimes wears a turquoise necklace
Even his home reflects his love of the region
and lifestyle it represents It is a large two- sto- ry
house constructed with buff and melon col-ored
sandstone from southwest Missouri The
front of the the house is dominated by windows
that give the house an open and relaxed atmo-sphere.
Its large and airy rooms are filled with
paintings and art objects Most of the paintings
are considered Southwestern art, and the
sculptures and pottery on shelves and tables
have an Indian flavor.
But early American pieces from Mrs
Habenstein's family are also present In a
hack bedroom is the four- post- er bed her father
was born in Next to it is his spindle cradle In-side
the cradle, dressed in white nightgowns,
are Mrs Habenstein's childhood dolls
For a couple whose many possessions are
rich m sentimental value, it's not easy to de-cide
what to keep and what to sell
" We don't like to talk of getting nd of it,"
( See MOVING, Page 7A)
n yi m mnH 1i IHflTiWTimBMi MlfBBiWK n ? Vt aSB B7 1 Mb SBHwi
Jerome Delay
Ruling may cost
county $ 20,000
By Marynelle Hardee
Missounan staff writer
A recent Missouri Tax Commission
ruling not only will delay county reas-sessment
efforts but could reduce state
reassessment funding by up to $ 20,000
county Assessor Don Fenton said
Thursday The county s loss would be
the state s financial gain
Several weeks ago, the commission
ordered Boone County officials to have
reassessment maps redrawn accord-ing
to the state's system of numbering
land parcels State specifications re-quire
a property owners adjoining
tracts to be combined in a single
boundary within each 640- ac- re ( 2,560- hectar- e)
mapping section The Boone
County maps which alreadv have been
returned from the aerial photography
firm, placed boundaries around each
tract
The state s system will reduce the
number of land parcels in Boone Coun-ty
from 41 298 to about 35 000, Fenton
says Since state reassessment re-imbursement
to counties is based on a
per- parc- el rate of up to S30, the state
stands to reap a benefit at the county's
expense
In addition Fenton says waiting for
the maps to be redrawn could cost the
county in time as well as money The
Pennsylvania- base- d mapping compa-ny,
L Robert Kimball and Associates
now estimates it will take from six to
eight weeks to rev is the maps accord
ing to state specifications This would
put the county several weks behind
the May 1 target date for beginning
property appraisals The reassessment
ground crew can t operate without the
maps
Meanwhile, the assessors who are
the most highly paid members of the
ground crew, are already on the coun-ty's
payroll They re not wasting
time," Fenton says I mean they re
doing things now that would hav e to be
done eventually But, with this weath-er,
I hate to see them sitting in the of-fice
when thev could be out in the
field "
If delays continue Fenton says
Boone Countv could wind up spending
even more money Time pressure to
finish the job bv 1984, as ordered by the
state Supreme Court, could force the
hiring of additional ground crew per-sonnel
While this would serve to speed
up data collection, it also could create
superv isory problems and increase the
risk of error, Fenton says
Even so the situation here is less
crucial than it is in some otner coun-ties.
For example, Fenton says, Worth
County, in the northwester-- , part of the
state, couldn t afford to Keep its court
house open during the last few months
of 1980 Even a small decrease in state
financing could impair the reassess- -
( See BOONE, Page 8A)
Guns easily obtainable here with proof of residency
Ik uns: To bty r n?
By Larry AHen and JadiGoIding
Missouriau staff writers
If John W. Hinckley, alleged assailant of
President Reagan, had paid taxes in Boone
County last year, be would have had no trouble
buying a handgun in Columbia
It is likely that local officials would have dis-covered
neither the fact that he was under psy-chiatric
care nor that he had once been ar-rested
in Nashvide, Tenn , and charged with
carrying a weapon
In Missouri, permits for handguns are issued
only in the requester's home county To buy a
handgun from a Columbia dealer, Hinckley
would have been required to show proof he was
a Boone County resident
1
Insight
Had Hinckley been able to do that, he might
have started his search at Midway Arms Inc.,
the largest gun shop in the area, and the one
with the most conspicuous advertisements
Larry Potterfield, Midway Arms' 32- year-- old
owner, would have been Hinckley's first hurdle
" You are going to have to show' evidence of
where you live," Potterfield tells new custom-ers.
" The whole idea is that ( the county) is
where you should be known, and if there are
any records of any type on you, even minor re-cords,
they've got them on you there."
Had Hinckley been able to show proof of resi
dence Potterfield usually requires a driver's
license with a local address he would have
been given the form Sheriff Charles Foster
needs to issue a permit.
But it would not have been the cheap Rohm
handgun Hinckley was able to obtain in Texas.
Potterfield does not carry the Rohm line
" There are literally hundreds of thousands of
them over here being used by sportsmen,' Pot-terfield
says of the German- mad- e weapon he
estimated would sell for between ( 49 and $ 99
" They use them to shoot beer cans and to shoot
rabbits. They use them for plinking They use
them for leisure- tim- e activity
" We don't carry the gun in this store because
they break pretty regularly, and we don't in-tend
to service the things "
i
The least expensive handgun Potterfield car-ries
is a $ 120 Ruger he say s will last five gener-ations,
maybe five centuries Prices go up to
the $ 470 44- calib- er Magnum made famous bv
Quit Eastwood in the " Dirty Harry" movies
Neither does Potterfield carry the Devasta-tor"
brand of exploding ammunition Hincklev
used. That bullet, filled with lead aade much
like a blasting cap was originally designed for
police work
' That has been on the market for a number
of years," Potterfield says " It has always been
our contention basically that we not deal with
the police marketplace There are a lot of po-lice
in Columbia and the central Missouri area,
( See TAX, Page 8A)
1