Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1984-05-22

              COLUMBIA, Ku. 65211
jffcfjl'-- Columbia
7SthYearNo. 210 Good Morning! It's Tuesday, May 22,1984 2 Sections 14 Pages 25 Cents
WASHINGTON President Rea-gan,
in message to King Fahd of
Saudi Arabia Monday, said he would
seek to provide American military
assistance to protect Persian Gulf
shippxig from future Iranian attacks
if requested formally by the Saudis,
administration officials said.
The tetter, officials reported, said
now is the time to begin detailed lo-gistic
planning on what would be
needed and what Saudi facilities
could be made available to Ameri-can
forces if the Saudis and other
Gulf nations desire U. S. naval or air
support.
The letter, which reportedly noted
that no such aid had been requested,
was being delivered in Riyadh by
Richard Murphy, assistant secre-tary
of state for Near Eastern and
Sooth Asian affairs. Murphy pre-viously
had said the United States
would be willing to discuss such as--
sistance if requested by Saudi Ara-bia
or other Persian Gulf countries.
One official said the Saudis had
been told privately that if they gave
permission for the use of Dhahran
air field, a squadron of 24 U-- S. Air
Force F- 1- 5s could be in Saudi Arabia
within two days.
At the same time. State Depart-ment
officials said. Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher is sending a del-egation
of British officials here for
consultations with State and Defense
Department representatives on pos-sible
joint allied efforts in case the
situation worsened in the Gulf.
White House and State Depart-ment
officials said, however, that
the administration's tactics for the
moment were to ha re the Arab coun-tries,
and in particular the Persian
Gulf Arabs, take the lead politically
and militarily.
Officials repeated that the Ameri--
Officials say U. S. prefers
a negotiated solution to the
war between Iran and Iraq
can preference was for a negotiated
solution to the Iran- Ira- q war and an
end to tiie increasing incidents in-volving
air attacks on tankers in the
Persian Gulf.
In recent days, the Saudis, with
their advanced American- mad- e F- 1- 5s,
which give them the best- equipp- ed
air force in the Persian
Gulf, have taken the lead in promot-ing
an Arab policy of confrontation
against the Iranians for their attacks
last week against two Kuwaiti tank-ers
and one Saudi tanker. -
On Sunday, the Saudis were able
to persuade the Arab League foreign
ministers meeting in Tunis to vote
by majority rule to condemn the Ira-nians,
overcoming efforts by Syria
and Libya, the two Arab backers of
Iran, to insist on all votes being
unanimous. Iran is not an Arab
country.
The Iranians launched the attacks
last week with American- mad- e F-- 4
Phantoms that bad been supplied
many years ago to the Iranian gov-ernment
of Shah Mohammad Reza
PahlavL The Iranians said they
were respondhg to Iraqi efforts to
discourage world shipping from tak-ing
on oil in Iranian ports. The Iraqis
for months have threatened to hit
any ship within a 50 mile radius of
Iran's Kharg Island terminal.
The United States is taking the po-sition
that the Iraqis are limiting
their attacks to ships in a defined
" war zone" near Iran's waters but
that the Iranians are hitting ships ei-ther
in international waters or in the
waters of non- belligeren- ts.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Sau-di
ambassador to Washington, in-formed
Secretary of State George
Shultz last week that the Saudis
might have to take military action
against the Iranians, and wanted to
know, administration officials said,
if the United States would be there in
case an emergency arose.
" The president's letter is meant to
answer that question.'- - n White
House official said. The official.
however, stressed that it w js not the
United States" intenuon to ' force it-self"
into the Gulf.
The United States since December
1980. shortly after the outbreak of
the Iran- Ira- q war. has flown AWAiS
surveillance planes on loan to the
Saudis.
Since Saudi Arabia began its mil-itary
modernization program 10
years ago, it has been a major pur-chaser
of American military equip-ment.
Norman Hooke. a spokesman for
Lloyd's Shipping Intelligence, a divi-sion
of the Ixindon- base- d insurance
company that keeps extensive data
on maritime incidents, said in a tele-phone
conversation Monday that 63
ships have been hit since late 1981.
when attacks began on commercial
shipping in the Persian Gulf.
Working
to keep
bridges,
roads safe
By Josh Rappapoit
M8ssorian stall wriier
It is a misty morning in early
ApriL On a gravel- covere- d county
road in southern Boone County, sev-eral
men lean their weight against a
20- foo- t, steel culvert pipe.
" Posh now!" one yells. Simulta-neously,
eight hands begin rolling
the pipe some six feet to the edge of
its destination: a freshly dug trough
cutting across the road.
" Counryl- ye- Us Bart Earner in ex-ultation
as the pipe falls' and settles
into its trough,
For the county's bridge crew, it
means another project started. For
Boone County dozens, it mean a
new culvert, and that means better
roads andtransportation.
Throughout the year, come rain or
shine, the county's seven- ma- n
bridge crew performs manual labor
on the county's rural roads and
bridges. The crew is chiefly respon-sible
for bridge repair, but it also
works on the roads fixing culverts.
The bridge crew works on all of
the county's 346 bridges and on miles
and mites of county roads. Most of
the roads are graveicovered.
Earner, 22 and the youngest crew
member, says people the crew
meets on its rounds often suggest as-signments.
" A lot of the time, when we stop to
eat or get gas, someone will tell us
about some culvert that needs to be
replaced or a road that needs po-tholes
fixed," hesays.
Other assignments are made by
county residents who call the Road
and Bridge Department's main of-fice
at 449515.
The crew's most common tasks
are replacing culverts, building and
repairing low- wat- er crossings,
clearing trees from roads; cutting
brush from the sides of roads, and
replacing old railings and floor-boards
on bridges. When they are
not busy with a bridge or culvert,
crew members might be asked to do
other tasks, sacbas fix pothoks.
The crew likes to kid around dur-ing
its work day. Crew members
-- . Takinq a break are, from left, Jerry SSegel, Victor Sims. Leon Bise and Richard Bass.
compete for recognition as top jes-ter.
Describing the various duties of
crew member Harold Perkins, Barri-er
notes Perkins runs the backhoe,
the bulldozer and the road grader.
" Also his mouth," jests fellow crew-man
Pad Griggs, 53, who can't re-sist
the opening.
The crew members are asked to
identify their ages. Foreman Victor
Sims is non- committa- l. " Fifty- thre- e
or21," he says.
This spring, the crew has been
kept busier than usual replacing and
installing culverts. The heavy rains
have dislodged many of them, leav--
ing some roads impassable -- until the
crew fixes them within a couple of
days.
One county laborer said this has
been a " weird spring, just nasty,
nasty weather."
From fine to time, the crew works
on a major project for a week or
longer. Currently, it is repairing
Bridge No. 148 at Timmons Road in
northeastern Boone County. This
project win keep the crew occupied
for about a week.
In file last few years, the crew has
begun performing several more
complicated deeds. For example,
the crew has developed a use for as--
phalt dug up when it reapplies as-phalt
to a road. The crew uses the
old asphalt to reinforce gutters on
the sides cf roads.
Sims, who is 53and not 21, says the
bridge crew has come a long way in
the 14 years mat he has been work-ing
with it-- He says that when be
started, the crew labored manually
on many tasks now performed by
machines.
The crew used to dig up culverts
with shovels; today a backhoe does
the job. The manual method re-quired
about six times more time.
The crew's workday doss not al-ways
pass easily. During one partic- -
ular culvert repair, two trucks got
flat tires, the backhoe became stuck .
for 10 minutes on a narrow road, and
a pickup truck was delayed trying to
gain traction on a four- inc- h bed of
gravel.
One crew member, Richard Bass,
26, commented that it was " an aver-age
day."--
On the whole, county citizens seem
pleased with the bridge crew's work.
Robert Tufts of Route 7 in north-ern
Boone County, and Arley Per-kins
of Route 4 in the southern part
of the county, both say they have had
few problems with the' county's
roads and bridges.
Hotel- nospita- T
helps to cut costs
IByMWwFaOrYsmorRttTolem& oians
PHILADELPHIA This, the
patients said the other day, was
like no hospital theyhad ever seen.
There was a simple reason for
the surprise. Though" the patients
were still on the grounds of the
Presbyterian- Universit- y of Penn-sylvania
Medical Center, they'
were no longer in hospital rooms.
Latter Benjamin spent much of
his time as he recovered from sur-gery
watching television from an
easy chair white bis wife, Delia,
- sst nearby crocheting or reading.
They shared a spacious room in a
balding nextto the main hospital.
Besjsmin was one of the first
three wtyM'tR of Presbyterian's
PesseEl Care Residence, devel-oped
by L Donald Snook Jr., the
bsspgal's president B was de--
signed primarily for recovering
patients who need medical serv-ices
but not the constant care that
hospSals provide.
The main difference between
Benjamin's room and a hospital
room is the cost A room in the
" hotel- hOBpSal- ," as Snook calls it,
averages about $ 150 a day, com-pared
with eboot $ 50 for a regular
hospital room. Spouses or ether
family mmhm can share the
persooatcare rossss at a cost that
covers meals and linens, about $ 29
a day.
At the Personal Care Residence,
petieaia are cared for en an " a la
carte" basis. The hartal's doc-tors
and muses visit the residence
or fbe pieafe go to the hospital or
"" MI",,'"" """"
doctors' offices.
" It's a wonderful place to stay
white you are getting well," said
Benjamin, a general contractor.
Dressed in slacks and a sport
shirt, be often interrupted bis tele-vision
watching to phone bis busi-ness
in Charlotte Amalie. Virgin
Islands.
The residence is Snook's re-sponse
to ctBtrcutting measures
adopted by the federal Medicare
program that are to take effect in
Jury.
The program generally has re-imbursed
hospitals for whatever
they spent on patients covered by
Medicare. Under the system to go
into effect in Job, hospitals are to
be paid a flat rate, often less than
they now receive, depending on
the diagnosis of each patient cov-ered
by the program.
" Most hospitals are going to be
losing racney,'' Snook said in an in-- j
tervfew hi the Personal Care Resi-dence
spacfarB patientlounge.
He predicted that many hospi-tals
were E& efy to adopt a pro-gram
like the one at Presbyterian.
Gompgaeg& of tog Presbyterian
See KOSCTTALS, Pago 6a
shooting
Incident
' bizarre'
Stray bullet
killed woman
By Evan Miller
Mlssouruwi staff writer
FULTON Saturday afternoon, a
Fulton area hunter took aim at a
rabbit on a hill 35 feet above him m
Callaway County. He missed the
rabbit. Monday afternoon, the Mis-souri
Major Case Squad said his bul-let
had struck and killed Donna Sue
KuDman.
Roger Rice, a spokesman for the
investigating squad, said the case
was " about as bizarre as they
come."
The hunter, unaware he had shot
anyone, was found during a canvas
of the area Sunday afternoon. Dur-ing
questioning he said he had fired
four shots at a rabbit on a hill ap-proximately
1,000 feet north of the
Show- M- e Nursery, off Interstate 70
at the Millersburg exit.
The bullet crossed 1-- 70 and struck
Kullman in the head. She died in-stantly.
The incident occurred near the
Callaway County and Boone Countv
line, a few miles northeast of Mil-lersburg.
Investigators confiscated the hunt-er's
.22- calib- er rifle and ammuni-tion.
He later was released but not
identified by authorities.
Ballistic tests determined that the
weapon and the ammunition have
" similar characteristics" to the ones
that killed Kullman.
The results of the investigation are
to be turned over to Callaway Coun-ty
Prosecuting Attorney Diane Garb- e- r
to determine if criminal charges
will be filed against the hunter. She
was unable to say when that decision
will be made.
Rice said the hunter would be
identified only if charges were filed.
The Major Case Squad planned to
conclude its investigation Monday
afternoon. The squad followed more
than 50 leads to find the hunter. Rice
said.
The squad, composed of mid- Missou- ri
police and Missouri State High-way
Patrol officers, was assembled
Saturday night at the request of Cal-laway
County Sheriff Ted Salmons.
ByStevoVisssr
and Laura Quest
Mtesourian staff writsra
The dry Council Monday night
unanimously approved a measure to
tax property owners in the Forest
HOI Court area for routine street
maintenance.
The measure calls for property
owners in the area to pay a maxi- nm- m
of $ 2 per foot of property that
abuts the streets. Public Works Di-rector
Ray Beck called it a " one shot
deal" and said the money will go to-ward
major road maintenance be-fore
winter.
The cfty's position has been that
property owners benefited from the
improvements and should pay for
part of the costs for road mainte-nance.
Nonetheless, problems with tax
billing arose when Columbia extend-ed
t& 3 pokes' from the city's devel-oped
areas to Gndevekped cues,
mbish are rccstiy farmland, making
the taxes cs2rsordmarfly high.
BeS jpsJslSe cpiaSsa expressed at
Energy program proposed
Monday night s meeting was gener-ally
in favor of the maintenance tax
inside the city. Steve Scott, 201 West- woo- d
Ave., called the project " very
much needed." He also said his
neighbors favor the tax.
The council also unanimously
amended the bill that gives banks
the option of renting on- stre- et me-tered
parking spaces to include sav-ings
and loans institutions. Mayor
John Westiund said be thought the
amendment was necessary to create
more equal treatment for savings
and bans associations, which pro-vide
many cf the same services as
hanks.
Water and Light Department Di-rector
Dick Malon explained to the
council a proposed energy load man-agement
system to be installed on an
experimental and limited basts in
volunteer homes in Columbia next
summer. Malon said the system will
use radio controls to cut power deliv-ery
to air ccadiHoners M hemes for
seven minutes every nour.
The council also unanimously ap-proved
a recommendation dealing
with sewer bids in the Grindstone
Drainage Area. The city staff sug-gested
that the $ 1.4 million contract
with J. C. Industries of Jefferson City
be handled in two phases to maxi-mize
state grants for the project
The recommendation calls for the
first phase to focus on the
Grindstone Park area. The second
phase will begin after the current
fiscal year, which ends Sept. 31 .
In addition, the council voted
unanimously to consider a proposal
from the Boone County Court to pro-duce
$ 60,000 of the $ 300,000 needed to
replace the bridge on Business 63.
The county is entitfled to 80 percent
state funding for bridges if it pro-vides
the other 20 percent.
County officials say they are will-ing
to share their funding allocation
with the city if the city provides the
20 percent since the bridge is within
the city's jurisdiction.