Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1981-07-23

              I
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
HITT & LOWHY ST. --.tRV
COLUMBIA, MO. 65201
73rd Year - Io. 26:5 Good Morning! It's Thursday. July 23, 1981 u Pa 25 Cent
" mmmmmmmmmm""ammiammmm''mm'm'mmm'
David Fox of the Columbia Public Works Department makes
good on the city's promise to cart-of- f debris from Monday s
storm Any limbs or tree trunks cut into sections shorter
Keith Myers
Without power since Monday's storm.
Wilbur Haseman, 806 Greenwood
Court, keeps his deep freezer working
by running an extension cord to a
neighbor's house
Leon J C Hsiao
than 6 feet (1 8 meters) long and left by the curb will be
picked up For tips on how to save damaged trees see story
on Page 14
Powerless
Residents rough it after storm
By Susan James and Louis Trager
Missourian staff writers
Wilber Haseman has found an easy outlet for
solving a common problem many Columbians
face this week: salvaging food from refrigera-tors
and freezers left powerless following Mon-day's
storm.
Using a 100-fo- ot (30-mete- r) extension cord,
Haffrwn, SOS Greenwood Court, plugged his
'freezer into an outlet at next-doo- r neighbor
Gene Hensley's home.
For several hundred residents, Wednesday
was Day 3 of a mini-energ- y crisis. Most are cop-ing
in true pioneer fashion.
Margaret Johns, 822 Greenwood Court, threw
away the contents of her ref ngerator Tuesday.
Otherwise, the family is" coping
Kerosene lamps and flashlignts provide light,
and Ms. Johns said she consults her car radio
several times daily "so I don't feel like I'm real-ly
isolated." Ms Johns said this experience has
made her and her daughter realize how depend-ent
they are on electricity . I said it's really hot
washing dishes and my daughter said, 'I'll go
buy you a fan.' "
Bedtime is earlier these das for the Johns
family. "This is just like 'The Waltons,' " Ms
Johns said.
City electric utility officials Wednesday night
couldn't provide hard estimates of the number
of homes still without power more than two days
after the storm
"We're using numbers like 200, relatively
small numbers in the low hundreds," said Dick
Malon, city, water and light department direc-tor.
At 9 pa, houses on Westport Drive, Lee
Street, Bouchelle Avenue and Ross Street
lacked power, said Cliff Robertson, distribution
superintendent for the city's electric utility.
"We'll be working again all night long," Ma-lon
said "We're seeing the light at the end of
the tunnel."
Officials hoped, but did not promise, to have
the job done before Friday.
As some homes lit up, others fell dark. Often
it was because of tree limbs "deciding finally to
fall down," Jwo days or more after the storm,
Malon said.
Even with help from other city employees,
private contractors and workers from as far
(See RESIDENTS, Page 14)
Insigtti
Can ban
on cans
survive?
By Paul M. Keep
Missourian staff writer
Despite the state Supreme Court's
approval of the can-ba- n ordinance,
and despite the City Council's agree-ment
to put it into effect Oct. 5, do
not be misled. The fight over the can
ban is not finished
The opposing sides in the four-ye- ar
struggle remain the same. So does
the fact that neither side has much
solid evidence for support.
The difference is that the next
round will be fought over an amend-ment
to the ordinance, backed by lo-cal
beverage bottlers, distributors
and retailers, which would exempt
aluminum cans from the require-ment
of a 5-ce- nt deposit.
City Counselor Scott Snyder, who
wrote the initial draft of the ordi-nance
in 1977, says the amendment
would cause aluminum cans to domi-nate
the local beveraee container
(See CAN, Page 13)
ii .
I In town
today
9:30 a.m.County court meet-ing
in court chambers, fifth
floor, County-Cit- y building
7:30 p.m."The Fantastiks,"
Maplewood Bam Community
Theater, Nifong Paik Tickets
$2 adults, $1 for children, sen-ior
citizens and students.
8:15 p.m. 'The Rainmaker,"
Summer Repertory Theatre,
University Theatre. Tickets $4
general public, free for Uni-versity
summer students
i
Recession brews
as GNP drops
in 2nd quarter
New York Tunes
WASHINGTON Although infla-tion
abated in the second quarter of
1981, American economic activity re-acted
to the tight money supply with
an unexpected decline that raised
the spectre of a new recession
The Commerce Department's pre-liminary
report of the Gross Nation-al
Product released on Wednesday
showed an annual decline of i 9 per-cent
in April, May and June, a sharp
reversal of the strong 8 6 percent
growth the economy experienced m
the first three months of the y ear
Weaknesses showed up in housing,
autos, exports, investment and just
about every other major economic
sector combined with an unusual-ly
sharp accumulation of invento-ries.
The higher stocks could signal a
further decline in output in the third
quarter, some economists said, as
companies trim production sched-ules
to sell more from their ware-houses
'Business is going to be in lor a
rough time for the rest of this y ear,"
commented Commerce Secretarv
Malcolm Baldrige He told a news
briefing that he saw no significant
pickup in economic activity until
late in the y ear or early 1982.
As in the case of the strength of the
first quarter, the weakness of the
second quarter had been largely un-expected
Earlier indications from
Commerce had pointed to a flat or
zero growth rate.
The report also showed a marked
abatement in the rate of inflation
The so-call-ed Gross National Prod-uct
Deflator, measuring prices that
businesses and consumers pay for
all goods and services, rose by an
annual 6.0 percent during the quar-ter.
It was the smallest rate of gain
since tbe second quarter of 1978
when prices went up by 5 8 percent
The Deflator is a broader measure
of inflation than the Consumer Price
Index, recording only what the con-sumer
pays, which rose by an an-nual
rate of 8J2 percent through
May.
Although the latest numbers are
subject to revision, they heighten the
possibility that the country could be
headed into another recession
technically defined as two succes-sive
quarters of declining overall ac-tivity
.
One administration economist,
who asked not to be identified, pre- -
J (See FED, Page 14)
Chrysler Corp.
climbs back
into the black
WASHINGTON iUPL - Declar-ing
we re on our way back, Chrys-ler
Corp Chairman Lee Iacocca
announced Wednesday tne automak-er
earned $12 million in the second
quarter of this year its first profit
in more than two years
Since its last profit in tne fourth
quarter of 1978 Chrysler lost more
than $3 billion and was forced to ac-cept
$1 2 billion in federal loan guar-antees
to av oid bankruptcy
In the second quarter, Chrysler
earned a net profit, after taxes, of
$12 million " Iacocca told a National
Press Club lunch gathering Our
pre-ta- x profit w as $21 million
We e got our act together, and
we're on our way back '
In the same three-mont- n period
last year, Chrysler lost $535 million
In the first Quarter of this year,
losses amounted to $298 million And
analysts epect it to slip back into
the red in the third quarter
Iacocca dismissed speculation the
profit was a fluke or was the result
of Chry sler juggling its books "
He said the profit was achieved by
reducing expenses by $2 billion a
year through better management
and by producing the best product
line for the best pnee "
He said the industry needs to get
nd of unnecessary regulations, such
as air bags, bumpers that absorb a 5
mph impact and stricter emission
standards; achieve a stable US.
monetary policy with lower interest
rates; and reduce labor costs.
Asked if Chrysler intends to call
back its 40 000 laid-o- ff employees
soon, Iacocca said, I think we'll
have a big '82 and '83 and, if we do,
we'll call back a lot of those workers
If we don't hae big years, we won't
be able to call them back "
He also called for a national gover-nment-
business policy to offset un-fair
foreign competition in the Unit-ed
States He said a Toy ota that sells
for $8,000 in Japan sells for onh S7,-6- 00
in the United States because of
an export incentive tax break pro- -
ided by the Japanese go ernment
Trade-of-f wipes out county property tax
By David Bender
Missourian staff writer
The Reagan Administration isn't
the only tax-cutti- ng government
around. Your Boone County officials
are happy to announce that the coun-ty
government is abolishing its gen-eral
property tax for this year.
Of course, as is true with Washing-ton's
tax cuts, there are some trade-offs.
The reason you won't have to
pay so much in property tax is that
you have paid a lot in sales tax
The county only intended to levy a
general revenue property tax of 6
cents per $100 in assessed valuation.
For the owner of a house assessed
at $10,000, the saving comes to a
grand total of $6
State law requires counties to re-duce
the amount of money they col-lect
through property tax by an
amount equal to half of what they
collect through a sales tax.
Last year, the first year Boone
County charged a sales tax, the tax
rate dropped from its legal maxi-mum
erf 50 cents to 33 cents. For this
year, the County Court had intended
to lower the rate from 33 to 6 cents.
But during the first half of this
year, the county collected $1 4 mil-lion
in sales tax equal to what it
collected for the entire year in 1980
and nearly three times what it col-lected
for the same period last y ear.
In addition, county officials under-estimated
sales tax revenue in the
second half of 1980 by $300,000. Half
of that amount must be applied to
rollbacks, too The total is more than
enough to offset the property tax,
said County Clerk Chris Kelly.
County officials predicted such
changes when they urged residents
to approve a sales tax in 1979, Kelly
said.
In fact, more than the general rev-enue
property tax could be affected
With current" estimates, the rollback
could be enough to knock four cents
off the 35-ce- nt road and bridge tax
charged to county property owners
for each $100 of assessed "property
value, he said
Although state law says that the
road and bridge tax must be rolled
back if credit remains after elimi-nating
property tax, the Boone Coun-ty
Court is wary of making such a
change The judges fear that resi-dents
of the Centraha Special Road
District would be indirectly pe-nalized
by the tax rollback.
The road district pays for its street
maintenance with a special 35-ce- nt
tax along with reimbursements from
the county for road tax paid by dis-trict
residents. If the road and
badge tax is lowered because of
sales tax rollbacks, less money
would be reimbursed to the Central-l- a
district.
At their meeting Tuesday, the
County Court judges decided "to ask
their legal counselor to look into the
matter
U.S. critical of Israeli
aggression in Lebanon
s. New York Times
WASHINGTON - Two high-rankin- g
Reagan administration officials
criticized Prime Minister Menac-he- m
Begin of Israel Wednesday,
suggesting his recent actions had set
back promising U S. diplomatic ini-tiatives
in the Middle East and had
made it difficult to resume sus-pended
deliveries of F-1- 6 fighter-bombe- rs
to Israel.
The White House pointedly an-nounced
that Secretary of Defense
Caspar W. Weinberger's critical re-marks
on an early morning tele-vision
program reflected White
House views.
Deputy Secretary of State Wdham
P. Clark told a group of reporters
that Begin had caused "disappoint-ment
and maybe some embarrass-ment"
in ordering last Friday's
heavy air striices on Beirut "on the
heels" of a visit to Israel by State
Department Counselor Robert C.
McFarlane McFarlane had im-plored
Begin to recognize the United
States' broad strategic interests in
the Middle East
Israeli officials were, in turn, crit
ical of U S policies Ambassador
Ephraim Evron said, after a meet-ing
with Secretary of State Alexan-der
M Haig Jr , that he had express-ed
"our deep disappointment" about
a deferral of delivery of 10 F-1- 6 jet
fighters, saying, "we think it is a de-cision
that will destabilize the area."
A number of developments
Wednesday made it clear that Israel
was demanding more than an "im-mediate
cease-fire,- " as proposed by
the administration, and wished to
achieve an arrangement providing
safeguards against a resupply and
redeployment of artillery and rocket
emplacements and other positions of
the Palestine Liberation Organiza-tion
forces near the northern Israeli
border.
One high-rankin- g official who de-clined
the use of his name said that
Israel had emphasized to the US
that Israel was deeply concerned
that tne PLO armed forces were in
recent months beginning to attain
the arms and character of a "regu-lar"
army and wished to see these
forces withdraw from present posi-tions
within artillery and rocket
range of Israel
J
To 'die as an American'
NEW YORK (AP) A 99-year-- old Russian immi-grant
previously denied U S citizenship because he
cannot speak English was granted his dream Wednes-day
after telling a judge he wants to "die as an Amer-ican."
After U S. District Judge Henry Bramwell ordered
Gabnel Isahar Isaharov sworn m as a citizen, the old
man turned and waved to a cheering courtroom
"Thank you very much God Bless America," he said
Howard Baum of the Immigration and Naturaliza-tion
Service had told the court the INS did not consid-er
"a general inability to read, write and speak the
English language as a result of the aging process"
reason enough to be excused from a requirement that
new citizens know English.
"While we are personally sympathetic to his desire
to become a citizen, we must enforce the law as writ-ten,"
he said.
In response, Isaharov, a short, dignified man with a
gray goatee and moustache, said through his inter-preter
he was very old "and it's very hard for me to
speak English. I want to die as a citizen of America "
Bramwell, presiding in federal court in Brooklyn,
said he believed age was a disability, and accepted
Isaharov's citizenship application
Isaharov raised his right hand, listened to the oath
of citizenship read m a language he does not under-stand,
and said "I do."
"I am not a dog on the street eating out of some-body's
hands," Isaharov said through an interpreter
before the hearing. "I want to live like a human be-ing,
with pride." Gabriel isahar Isaharov up..,,,