Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1983-06-29

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75th Year No. 246 Good Morning! It's Wednesday, June 29, 1983 7 Sections 52 Pages 25 Cents
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The missing 100- fo- ot chunk of the bridge looks as if it were cut away by a giant pair of shears.
Bridge collapses
3 killed, 3 injured on major artery in Connecticut
GREENWICH, Conn. ( UPI) A 100- fo- ot sec-tion
of a Connecticut Turnpike bridge collapsed in
pre- daw- n darkness Tuesday killing three people
and critically injuring three others in vehicles
that plunged 70 feet into the Mianus River.
State and federal investigations were on the
scene of the 1: 28 a. m. partial collapse that trig-gered
a massive traffic jam on Interstate 95 a
major artery that carries 90,000 vehicles a day be-tween
New York and Connecticut.
National Guard helicopters helped reroute traf-fic
onto U. S. 1 and the Merritt Parkway, but rush- ho- ur
traffic to New York was backed up 15 miles.
There was no immediate indication what caused
the section of the Mianus Bridge to collapse, but
investigators were checking a report one of the
pins used in its construction apparently was
sheared off. The 25- year-- old bridge was inspected
less than a year ago with no major problems re-ported.
Some residents in Greenwich an affluent bed-room
community 20- 3- 0 miles from New York City
had complained of strange sounds from the
bridge and vibrations they could feel in their
homes.
State police said two vehicles were on the sec-tion
of the three eastbound lanes when it plum-meted
into the river, and two other vehicles ran
off the bridge spanning the scenic Cos Cob yacht
harbor.
Twisted wreckage, chunks of concrete and as-phalt
and live power lines were knocked into the
water when the section dropped. The three west-bound
lanes remained intact but the entire bridge
was closed.
Gov. William O'Neill, at the scene, said the
State Transportation Department will inspect all
bridges on the turnpike. He ordered state police to
investigate the collapse as well as complaints of
odd noises from the span.
State Transportation Commissioner J. Williams
Burns said the section that fell was wedged be-tween
two expansion joints, and it was possible a
support hanger pin was severed.
The National Transportation Safety Board
headed by Chairman James Burnett also an-nounced
it would investigate.
Gilman said he had complained to the state of
noises emitting from the bridge and was told it
was soon due for a major overhaul. He and other
Buxton Landing residents suspected it may have
been unsound because of vibrations they could
feel in their homes, especially when heavy trucks
crossed.
" We always knew something like this would
happen," said Augie Caravella, another area resi-dent.
" People have been complaining here for
years," said neighbor George Raymond. " You
could hear the vibration in your living room."
No extras for state highway patrol's new drug and crime squad
By Nolan Clay
Mlssourian staff writer
JEFFERSON CITY The Missouri State
Highway Patrol will get neither additional
money nor manpower to begin its new drug
and crime control unit demanded by Gov.
Christopher Bond.
Bond termed legislation creating the unit
" the most important crime- fightin- g measure
of the session," when he signed the bill June
15.
The patrol's Division of Drug and Crime
Control goes into operation Sept. 28, but
much of its work will consist of criminal in-vestigation
activities already performed by
the patrol.
Superintendent Howard Hoffman said the
DraDraTr
main advantage of the new unit is that it
" adds some credibility and puts some em-phasis"
on the patrol's existing criminal in-vestigative
work.
Money for the unit to expand that work will
not be available in the 1984 fiscal year which
begins Friday. Hoffman said the unit will be
funded with a $ 2 million state allocation the
patrol received for its present investigations.
" That's what we'll have to depend on to
start this year and get the program in gear,"
he said.
Hoffman also foresees little chance of ad- -
ditional funding for the unit in fiscal year
1985.
" With the state of the economy, I don't see
much or any increase coming in that direc-tion,"
he said.
Bills establishing a state crime- fightin- g
unit have been before the General Assembly
for almost a dozen years. Passage of the bill
came this year despite objections from legis-lators
that the new unit would be too costly.
Supporters of the measure promised costs
would be kept to a minimum.
The law establishing the unit authorizes it to help state law enforcement officials in
criminal investigations if they request it. Re-quests
for help can come from police chiefs,
sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys, the state at- -
torney general or tne Highway Patrol super-intendent.
The new unit also will take over the pa-trol's
use of undercover agents in drug inves-tigation
and its work against auto- the- ft
" chop shops," Hoffman said.
The unit will be staffed with 40 to 50 em-ployees
already working for the patrol. Most
of the unit's planned staff already are in-volved
in criminal investigation work, Hof-fman
said. " If we do ( hire) at all, it will be
very, very few," he said.
The unit will be unable to hire outside spe-cialists,
such as accountants or computer
technicians, to help with investigations. The
original version of the bill gave the unit that
authority, but the General Assembly remov- -'
ed that provision before final passage.
Despite the budgetary constraints, Hof-fman
thinks the unit is a step forward in
crime fighting. He said the state needed a
centralized agency with the authority to con-duct
investigations across several jurisdic-tions.
Federal agencies, such as the Drug
Enforcement Administration, also ai e more
willing to work with a central agency, he
said.
" We see it as a way to do the job a little
better than we have," he said.
Members of the unit will be located at each
of the state's nine Highway Patrol troop
headquarters. The administration's head-quarters
will be in Jefferson City. Hoffman
said that applications for the director of the
new division have come from both inside and
outside the patrol.
Neighbors concerned,
decry cross burning
By Mark Bowes
Mlssourian staff writer
HALLSVILLE Residents of Sun Valley
Estates, a rural subdivision 10 miles north
of Columbia, are angry and concerned over
recent events that have portrayed their
community as racist and insensitive.
Reaction in the subdivision follows crit-ical
remarks made by Helen Jackmon fol-lowing
the June 4 cross burning on the front
lawn of her home. Mrs. Jackmon and her
four children have been the subdivision's
only black family for the past six months.
According to other residents, including
the neighborhood association president and
one of several single black residents in Sun
Valley, trouble- makin- g teenagers are to
blame for the cross burning, not commu-nity
racism.
They say Mrs. Jackmon's repeated alle-gations
that the community opposes her
family are not true; residents say they sym-pathize
with the Jackmons. They also
f
blame the press for sensationalizing the in-cident
Jack Jones, president of the Sun Valley
Neighborhood Association, says Mrs. Jack-mon's
comments about the neighborhood
are presumptuous.
" I would have handled the interview dif-ferently.
She blamed the whole community
and I think she was rash about it. I don't
think I would have been so bold before I
knew exactly what was going on."
Jones says he has made several efforts to
communicate with Mrs. Jackmon, both be-fore
and after the incident, but the family
has been generally unreceptive.
" I told Mrs. Jackmon that if she has a
problem to let me know and we'll address it
at the next ( neighborhood) meeting."
Jones did say, however, that Mrs. Jack-mon
seemed to appreciate his recent ef--
forts to reassure her that the neighborhood
supports the family.
The trouble in the neighborhood revolves
around a number of ungovernable teen-agers,
Jones says, and has nothing to do
with racism. According to many residents,
the community experienced frequent juvenile-
- related disorders before the neighbor-hood
association was formed three years
ago.
Most of the neighborhood trouble- make- rs
have either moved away or reached the age
where they now have jobs, Jones says. In
the future, the association will confront the
parents of adolescents who cause problems,
he says.
Jones also says he thinks Mary Ratliff,
president of the local chapter of the Nation-al
Association for the Advancement of Co-lored
People, seems determined to make a
racial incident out of it. " I know a lot of
people that aren't pleased with Mary Rat-liff,"
he says.
Kevin McDaniel, one of two single blacks
living in Sun Valley, says he was surprised
to hear about the cross burning. " I haven't
experienced any overt hostility," he says.
McDaniel says " an inability to commu-nicate"
is the probable cause of the inci-dent,
adding that teenage boredom proba-bly
fuelc ' the conflict.
McDaniel, who was raised in Chicago,
says he has been in situations where " the
novelty of confronting the black guy to see
how he will respond" is a common predica-ment,
and may offer some clue as to why
neighborhood youths harass the Jackmons.
In refnence to Mrs. Jackmon's critical
See NEIGHBORS, Pofle 17A
t
City attorney
defends session
held in secret
By Lee Dancy
and Scott Anderson
Missourian staff writers
Four final candidates for the mu-nicipal
judgeship were chosen and
interviewed behind closed doors by
three city councilmen Tuesday
morning, but those interviews could
be a violation of the Missouri open
meetings law.
A local First Amendment law ex-pert
said Tuesday that because the
interviews were not conducted by
the governmental body that would
hire the new judge, they could be a
violation of the open meetings law.
But Columbia's city attorney dis-puted
that claim.
One of the four final candidates in-terviewed
Tuesday will replace
Judge Nanette Laughery. They are :
.-- Kandy Johnson, an assista. it
Boone County prosecuting attorney.
Ms. Johnson has worked in the coun-ty
prosecutor's office since 1978, the
year she graduated from the Univer-sity's
Law School.
Bob Bailey, lawyer and director
of placement and academic counsel-ing
at the University Law School.
Bailey, 36, has worked four years at
the University.
v Jodie Asel, currently in private
practice in Columbia. Asel, 33, also
worked for the county prosecutor
and as a public defender for the 13th
Judicial Circuit serving Boone
and Callaway counties. She is a 1975
graduate of the University Law
School.
v Phillip Hoskins, a lawyer work-ing
for the Missouri Human Rights
Commission in Jefferson City. Hos-kins,
33, worked in private practice
for two years before joining the com-mission
in 1978.
The four candidates met in pre-viously
unannounced interviews
Tuesday with Mayor John Westlund,
First Ward Councilman Al Tacker
and Fifth Ward Councilman Dick
Walls. Whether those interviews
were legal was the subject of debate
afterward.
Dale Spencer, a lawyer and profes-sor
at the University School of Jour-nalism,
said Tuesday that since the
councilmen interviewing the candi-dates
were not the actual govern-mental
body hiring the judge, they
could not meet privately.
City Attornej Dave Evans, how ev-er,
said that since only three of the
seven- memb- er council met. it as
not a quorum and therefore not ,111
actual meeting.
According to Missouri's state stat-utes:
" All public governmental bodies
proposing to hold a closed meeting,
record, or vote shall give notice of
the time, date and place of such
meeting and the reason for holding
the closed session .... "
City Clerk Pat Scott confirmed
that no notice of the councilmcn's in-terviews
had been given because no
final decisions were made and a quo-rum
was not present.
Evans said there was no correla-tion
between the three councilmen's
gathering Tuesday morning in the
mayor's office and the state's onh
open meetings case decided by the
full Missouri Supreme Court Co-hen
v. Poelker. The city attornc
said the Cohen case dealt with closed
meetings of the St. Ixuis Board of
Estimate and Apportionment, which
the court said could not hold closed
meetings legally.
" Unless it is a duly appointed sub-committee
by the full ( city) council
to accomplish a purpose," the state
open meetings law does not apply to
Tuesday's interviews, Evans said.
" Any gathering of three councilmen
is not a meeting."
After the interviews. Tacker said
that he " has no doubt" that they
have the right to meet in private.
Tacker also said the full council
probably would meet privately be-fore
its regular July 5 meeting to de-bate
the qualifications of the four
candidates. Although he left the
Tuesday interviews early, he said
the understanding among the three
was that Westlund would post a no-tice
of the meeting.
Westlund, however, said Tuesday
he did not think the council would
meet before its regular meeting.
Tacker said he and the other two
councilmen narrowed the four candi-dates
from the list of eight appli-cants
by examining the quality of
their resumes and talking to other
people who knew the candidates. The
two other known applicants who
weren't chosen were local lawyers
Dewey Crepeau and James Rutter.