Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1984-03-13

              76thYear No. 149 Good Morning! It's Tuesday, March 13, 1984 2 Sections 1 4 Pages 25 Cents
" The good Lord was looking out for me," said Herb Bmsbacher after he escap-ed
injury when his truck overturned on Interstate 70. Bmsbacher was traveling
RobsctO MsEnm
from Kansas City to St Louis when his truck went out of control He was able
to bring it back into control; then he was hit by a truck
Snow, sleet, rain cause
havoc across the country
United Pras International
Spring- like- - gasgezstorms attacked south-east
Texas Maeday, pe& rag Victoria with a
foot of hall and Bowing cars olf the road. Snow
and freezing ram covered mast of Missouri,
where three deaths were blamed on the weath-er.
Winter persisted in the Northeast, with sab- zer- o
cold setting records from Minnesota to
Maine.
Eiecnon officials in Massachusetts said
snow and freezing ram could have an impact
an the primary election there today. Forecast-ers
said the ram and snow could arrive as vot-ers
left work to goto the pcBs.
Sodden tituaderstorms hit Baton Rouge, La.,
forcing the governor's inauguration indoors
and tearing a giant yellow ribbon from the
Louisiana Capitol building.
The Texas storms struck early Monday,
dropping 8. to 12 inches of marble- size- d hail on
Victoria, northeast of Corpus Chnsh. The pett-ing
riafl clogged fee town dramage system and
broke a gas mam, forcmg brief evacuation of
about 50 residents.
Winds gustmg to 50 mph blew a bam apart,
sheared the roofs from three businesses and
shattered windows throughout the coy. At the
height of fee storm, several cars were blown
off theroad
The hail and mgh winds sheared the sup-ports
from several carports and scrapped the
vinyl tops off cars, said sheriffs dispatcher
AbelArnazahi.
Hie storm system sent snow through the
Midwest, with northern and central Kansas
hardest hit Osborne, Kan., measured 8 inches
of snow, while Washington had 7 inches and
Mankato Sinches.
The storm, which brought i.- o- w and freezing
rain to most of Missouri, was blamed for the
deaths of three people in St Lotos. The storm
also clogged rusbhour traffic in Kansas City
and prompted the weather service to issue
travelers advisories
Three men were killed when a pickup truck
and a tractor- traile- r collided on ice- shc- k Inter-state
270 in St Louis County, officials said.
The pickup truck went airborne across the
median after the driver lost control of his vehi-cle,
said Highway Patrol trooper Herbert Loo- ne- y.
The truck was struck on the passenger
sideby the tractor- traile- r.
The three men in the pickup were pro-nounced
dead at the scene.
Snow amounts Monday afternoon ranged
from less than one inch over extreme eastern
Missouri and into the three-- to sec- in- ch catego-ry
over the central and northwest portions of '
the state.
An accumulation of snow mixed with freez-ing
ram in central and east Ozaris was ex-pected
to range from one to three inches before
ending Monday evening. Showers mixed with
snow at tunes in south sections of the state
Monday afternoon.
Snowpiows were out in full force in Kansas
City before the morning rush hour, but many
of the city's arteries stOl were covered.
i
The Columbia Fire Department was called to the parking lot at Nowell's, 900 N
Keene St , to put out a fire in Bill Heeney's car Firefighters were not able to
save the car.
In Kansas dry, a pohce spokesman Monday
afternoon was unable to estimate file number
of traffic accidents caused by the snow- covere- d
streets but acknowledged mere was an
above- averagenumb- er of accidents.
Although many Kansas City area schools al-ready
were closed for spring break, a number
of other schools closed for the day because of
the weather.
The Kansas Gty Municipal Court declared a
snow day. Those people scheduled to appear in
court Monday would be granted a rescheduling
if they were unable to appear because of
weather.
In St Louis, the storm did not begin drop-ping
snow until around daybreak but continued
to do somto the late afternoon.
Erosion strips away fertile soli
By Andrew J Sebel
and ( Covin Kasoankj
Mtetaurian staff antort ,
The Boone County landscape is
snow as far as file eye can see. As
the snow starts to melt, moisture
collects on me surface, forming tony
fingers of water." The fingers seek
each other out, tackling into small
puddles where water collects asm
cuppedhands.
As the paddles merge, the water
jams hands. It begms to Bow off the
landta sheets. Each band scrapes up
soQ as it gathers momentum.
Gulhes form, and the muddy wa-ter
cascades into swirling black
cauldrons of pore kmeuc energy,
spurred only by gravity, and writing
only the shortest routetothe sea.
Boone County's ssH has come on- -
der a deluge another soQ erosion
victim a statistic.
In November, Missouri voters can
express their ideas on a possible so--
They will go to the polls to vote on
Constitutional Amendment No. 2,
which would increase the state's
safes tax to further soQ conservation
yffiwts. As most constitutional
amendments do. No. 2 has become a
poEtxcal issue.
. Barely do many people have a
chance to see soO erosion in a dra-matic
light White smgfe, intense
storms have produced sppyfrftnilar
erooaoa effects, to most people, it
seems like an invisible process. On
the average, it takes 10 to 15 years to
erode one inch of Missouri topsoiL It
gives one the impression of the rain
torturing the soil, drop by drop.
Yet according to the Missouri De-partment
of Natural Resources, at
least 55 percent of the state's cro-pland
is using sail faster ifam it is
bong replaced by nature. Missouri
already has lost half of its topsoiL
and the half that remains is not near-ly
as fertile as what washed away.
Tennessee is the only state that has a
higherrate of soQ lass eachyear.
University scientists have devel-oped
a model to show that crop pro-duction
declines as certain sous are
eroded. When the topsail is worn
See SOIL, Pagel
Temperatures
are expected
to bring relief
By Josh ftappaporl
and ban Horsef teld
Mlssounan slall writers
A snow storm that wouldnt quit
when weather service personnel
thought it would led to a flurry of
traffic accidents school buses stuck
in ditches and people stranded
throughout Boone Count Monda
afternoon
The storm dumped as much as six
inches of snow in some areas
Jimm) Lloyd Sapp the countv's
southern district road and bndge su
pervisor, said the persistence of the
storm foiled the county's efforts to
clear roads. He said that at 5 p m
Monday about three- fourth- s of all
county roads remained uncleared
Sapp said he hopes his crews,
which are available for emergence
duty and will start working formally
at 5 am today, will have all ' he
county's roads cleared by afternoon.
In Columbia, snow and ice re
mains on many of the streets Co-lumbia's
Public Works Director Ray
, Beck said Monday evening Beck
said his crews, which toiled Mondav
night to put down cinders, are on
emergency call and will be working
around the clock
City snow removal units are work-ing
on a priority basis. Beck said
The first priority is roads around
schools and hospitals The second
priority is hilly areas where people
tend to get stuck easily , a final prior-ity
is subdiv isions
Sapp said the county also does its
snow removal by priority, concen-trating
first on the main routes and
paved routes, and afterward on the
smaller, gravel roads.
Weather forecasts for today called
for temperatures that would melt
much of the snow and ice, with highs
inthermd- SQ- s
Several county school systems
shut down early Monday because of
the snow The Hallsville, Harnsburg
and Ashland school districts closed
about 1 30 p m School superinten-dents
for those districts said they
plan to open school today and will
announce on the radio if school is to
be closed.
Late Monday, Columbia officials
soil were pondering whether to open
or close public schools this morning
The storm didn't end without caus-ing
headaches for motorists In
Boone County, authorities reported
at least 78 traffic accidents begin
rung at 7 45a m Monday
Deputy Police Chief Ernest Bar- be- e
reported 21 accidents in the city
by nudaftemoon with no senous in-juries.
University Police Maj Jack
Watnng said his department han-dled
two accidents with no senous
See SOME. Page 8A
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Telephone fraud calls on N. Y. families
WHITE PLAINS, N. Y. ( UPI)
New Ycrk Telephone Co. said
Monday two Westchester County
families who received phone bOls
for $ 10,504 and $ 6U8are the vic-tims
of two of the largest telephone
frauds ever.
The telephone credit card num-bers
of bom customers apparently
were fraudutenSly used by more
than cete person. The carters
charged thousands of conversa-tions
to and from Europe, Sooth
America, Africa and the Par East
The 27& page bill for $ 109,50!
was sent by United Parcel Service
to Jane Landenberger of Bedford.
She first found oat about the bill
while talking on the phone March 5
whena phone company supervisor
broke in, saying she wanted to dis-cuss
her buL
Landenberger said the supervi-sor
told her bill wasexcessive
" I said, ' It was excessive last
month, too. How excessiveis it7 "
" Shesaid, Itis $ K, 5M.' "
" I thought, ' Oh, my god. This is
something eke,'" Landenberger
said. Landenberger was given a
new credit card number and credit
for the balance;'
A bill for $ 81480, which num-bered
505 pages, was sent to John
and Connie Weinstock in Golden's
Bridge, N. Y , Wednesday
When the family saw rt, the reac-tion
was " a combination of shock
and amusement," said Lisa Weins-tock,
20
" On Feb. 19, the operator called
and asked whether someone had
permission to make a call to Peru.
My father said, ' Absolutely not,'
and canceled the credit card,"
Weinstock said.
She said the card has not been
missed.
By Cindy Montaen and Tony Lemons
MteMMrtangteMwMaro
The Missouri branch of the American Med-ical
ftfffftt- Safae- n is considering the adoption
cf a freeze oa physsdans' salaries similar to
one veceranended by the national group last
If passed by the Missouri State Medical
AsocMtoc at its March 2S- Ap- rfl 1 meeting,
it wBS become non- feiwbn- g policy for the or- ganimrinn'fljSSC- qmctaBS.
ftmw C& snbia doctors indicated they
pkatocamprywimtheAMA'sreqnefitfora
oooysfffreonpJrfins'fees. aKhough
gnostcf tire ccmmuaMy's 690 doctors have
not increased fees recently, said Robert
Thomas, preskteatoff the Boone County Med
ical Society.
The state association's freeze proposal is
essentially the same as the one made by the
national organisation last month, said CC.
Swarens, assistant executive secretary of
Okstate association.
In addffion to the one- ye- ar freeze in fees,
Swarens said the association is considering
reduced charges for the ekterjy, oneriyioyed
and disadvantaged,
H paaed by the 4Ataaember Boose of Del-egates,
the proposal wfH beeome the pcJky
of the state group. ParUcktaSioa vnH be vol
antatyvhowever.
Stnrezn said there is a good chance for
passage.
The state association's leadership baa not
givenaccMshouldertotbe freeze, be said.
" The leadership of the ( state) association
was pleased with the AMA's decmoo," Swa- reosss- kL
Swarens saed be has seen pos& ve support
for the freeze across Missouri " Most of the
press cjgaiaga I have seen have been very
supportive of the freeze..
Several doctots in Commhia also have ex-pressed
support for She freeac.
1 haven't raised my fees in a year and a
hah becauseof the recession," ThcmassaldL
Jama Roller, a Gohsobja dmnitotogfst,
said be has no plans to raise bis fees. " I
won't raise zny fees, as requested by the
AHA," be said.
BoBer d he onh; has increased This foes
twteeiaSse last sue years.
Although Glen Garrett, a Colombia ear,
nose and throat doctor, has not increased his
fees in more than two years, he said they
eventually will go up with inflation. If the cost of Irving rises, TH be forced to
goup," he sakL " Everyone has to uve."
Garrett said he feels an obligation to help
the economy, hot be does not believe the
freeze wm mate much of a dent m the na-tion's
financial problems.
'' HosptiaEzahon, by far, has the greatest
effect ( on costs); doctor's fees are only a
small percentage," be said. ' It's better pub- I- k
relations than anything else. 1
James ScheH, an internal roed trine spe- daTd- st,
said, " The AMA is saying that infla- bo- n
is low, so there is no need for fee in-creases.
I agree." ScbeU said he has no plans
to raise his fees this year.
1
The Boone County Medical Society proba-bly
will make a recommendation to follow
the freeze, ScheU said.
Thamas said the freeze win be a topic at
the society's April 3 meeting.
AMA spokeswoman Jean Breicogel said
the freeze is designed to help keep down
health care costs. She sand individual com-pliance
is preferable to government regula-tion
ofphysicians' fees.
National regulation of fees is not needed
because doctors' fees account for only 19 per-cent
of health care costs, she said.
" The government is not asking for pnee
control oa linen supply houses and pharma-ceutical
suppliers," Breicogel said, " so why
should theyask for control of doctors' fees?"