Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1983-11-23

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Most families will continue tra-- WEB& UHEBKi I
dition and spend Thanksgiving HmH of roast turkey and visiting rel-- BhT- JB- B atives. However, some nave BBBpS$ fi9
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Bridge battle ilrr The City Council was already ' mJJgbSSBm& hll I
flooded with controversial is- - KiHHK& P sues at Monday night's meet-- wHnlBifBBffl! Bi
ing, when another problem JHHBHHbH arose: bridging the gap , be-- 3BHBE7? SBB tween the city's proposal of HgriSjK: VWH moving the Rock Quarry KisiSSi bridge and residents' concerns HHBilSiw"" that the move will only cause S3ffl8flpr'H " more traffic. See Page 8A. mTi'S
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ilJ? RICAL SOCIETY (
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When practice began in Au- - -- r' tiB3mi gust, many Missouri football Vw J& p ,
fans were disgruntled with -- VJSp jagf Ji Coach Warren Powers. But && TtfeyUWial
Powers, with a new staff and 4" ' wiPiB renewed zeal, rose head and " QV 8
shoulders above the crowd and Mm
was named Big Eight Coach of IH
the Year by The Associated StbF
Press Tuesday. See Page IB. Vs. -- rAfifll '
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76th Year No. 61 ! Good Morning! It's Wednesday, November 23, 1983 2 Sections 14 Pages 25 Cents
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First settlers
The pilgrims and the Indians played on the schoolgrounds at
Blueridge Elementary school, Tuesday. First- grader- s, Teri Flee- -
Jim Lemon
nor, 2502 Northridge Drive and Christie Stone, 47 Vicki Drive
dressed up as traditional Thanksgiving characters
Chopper crash doesn't stop air- ev- ac service
ByAIMarklln
MIssourlan staff writer
Nightmares usually happen in-doors
at night, but Sharon Charles
had one in her yard at mid- afterno- on.
." I heard it first I think everyone
could. It wasn't sounding right at
all," she said. " My daughter and I
had just walked in the house and it
seemed like it fell out of nowhere.
" The earth was quaking as it
came down. The whole house and the
earth shook ( at the impact). It rolled
and hit a tree in the yard and fuel
spilled all over the house. The people
inside were begging to be pulled out.
It was terrible."
On Monday, a University Hospital
Staff for Life helicopter, which is
used as an ambulance, lost power
and crashed on Main Street in Sweet
Springs, Mo., injuring three.
Columbia pilot Paul Calloway, 37,
was reported Tuesday in good condi-tion
at University Hospital with back
injuries. Flight nurse Sheila Re- lnha- rt,
22, of Columbia, sustained
back and leg injuries, and emergen-cy
medical technician Elton Rogers,
21, of Moberly, suffered back inju-ries.
Reinhart and Rogers were list-ed
in good condition.
Sweet Springs Police Chief R. C.
Acox said the helicopter, an AStar
350D, struck the sidewalk in front of
406 Main St. The aircraft then
bounced into the street, rolled and
skidded into a tree in the Charles'
side yard. Fuel sprayed from the
ship, dousing the house, yard and the
helicopter.
" The people inside ( the helicopt-er)
were begging, ' Please, God, get
me out,' " Charles said. They feared
the spilled fuel would ignite, she
said.
Charles, a registered nurse, said
she was afraid to move them be-cause
it might cause further injury.
" I said, ' No sir,' and told them help
was on the way."
Police reached the scene of the ac-cident
within two minutes, Acox
said. The injured crew members
were treated initially by Sweet
Springs Hospital staff and later
flown to University Hospital by a he-licopter
on loan from Kansas City,
Mo.
Cause of the aircraft's power fail-ure
has not yet been determined In-vestigators
with the National Trans-portation
Safety Board in Kansas
City, Mo., are documenting the cir-cumstances
of the accident, accord-ing
to Bob Johnson, a spokesman for
the board. A decision probably will
not be rendered for three to four
months.
Associate Hospital Director Jerry
Royer said air ambulance service
would continue at University Hospi-tal,
utilizing a backup helicopter.
Council goes west;
landfill locals vow
to continue fighting
By William Heaster
Missourian staff writer
The winds of City Council opinion
on the choice of a new landfill blew
west instead of east Monday night,
but the promise of a fight still hangs
in the air
Residents near the proposed west
landfill site vowed Monday that the
council's long- await- ed decision did
not settle the issue. The next battle-field,
according to leading west- sit- e
opponent David Sapp, may well be
the court
And if the issue required further
complication, the word " condemna-tion"
often heard since the city's
endeavor to find a home for the land-fill
began may itself take on new
meaning.
In a letter to the council last week,
James Butcher, attorney for the
west- sit- e residents, says his cheats
are ready to take any legal action to
stop a landfill near their homes
That includes " inverse condemna-tion
to recover the depreciated value
of their properties,' the letter says
The city is " asking the landowners
in that area to subsidize that deci-sion
by having their property depre-ciated
m order that the city may
save a little money on the initial pru- cha- se
of the land," the letter contin-ues.
Real estate appraisers, it notes,
say the value of homes near the site
will dimmish substantially when the
landfill opens
The city would save about $ 50,000
by choosing the west site. The city
holds an option to buy the west site
from Boles Land Ltd for $ 400 per
acre while the east site has a con-demnation
price of $ 550 per acre.
But to judge savings purely by the
cost of the land is too simplistic,
Sapp said Monday.
The east site has 20 percent great-er
waste capacity than the west site,
he said, and thus would last much
longer. Transportation is another
matter that should be figured into
costs, he added The east site is
about seven- tent- hs of a mile closer
to Route B than the west site While
the difference may seem miniscule,
Sapp said, the savinp on fuel can be
great over the life of a landfill
Tune also is a key to the west site
argument
It was the threat of an extended
court battle over the proposed east
site that convinced the council to
change its tactics Monday. A refusal
by one owner of the east site to ac-cept
the city's offer of $ 550 per acre
and the urgent need to find a new
landfill before the old one reaches
capacity were all it took.
But before a landfill at the west
site becomes reahtv. the city must
purchase 1 9 miles of an old hauling
road so garbage trucks can get
there
The road, once used by the Pea bo-dy
Coal Co , crosses three farms
Sapp said Monday he doesn't think
the farmers will cooperate with the
city in selling that part of their prop-erty
Thus, the condemnation process
may have to start all over again, he
said, whde the city already is seve-ral
months into condemning the east
site
" The argument that going to the
west site is quicker than going to the
east site is wrong," Sapp said
R C Russell is one of the landown-ers
whose farm would be split in half
by the city using the haul road Con-tacted
last Saturday before the coun-cil's
vote on the west site, Russell
was upset that city officials had j et
to discuss the acquisition of the road
with him.
" No one has had the decency to
talk to me about it," he said " It ag-gravates
the devil out ofme "
Russell said a road that splits his
land would be a great inconvenience
in his everyday farming duties
Although Russell said he was tak-ing
a wait- and- s- ee attitude on wheth-er
he would negotiate or fight the
city on buying part of his land, he
was not enthusiastic about it " They
can do anything they like," he said
of the city government, " but I don't
have to like it "
A second farmer, James Heller,
also disliked the idea of seeing his
land split by a road for the city ' s use.
but he said last Saturday that he
would be willing to sell that part of
his land if a decentoffer was made
Heller added that any deal with
the city would have to include farm-ers
being allowed to continue using
the road " We use it all the time dur-ing
the farming season," he said
Karleen Crenshaw, the third land-owner
who would be affected by the
city's purchasing of the road, had no
comment when reached Tuesday
Columbia Public Works Director
Ray Beck said negotiations with the
landowners could not begin without
council approval
We're trying to keep the steps in
order," he said ' Once we get the
site nailed down, then we can start
negotiating with the property own- -
ers
Beck said he understood a road
cutting through farm land created
problems, " but the appraisers would
See RESIDENTS, Page 8A
Judges work hard to project image of neutrality
8y Margaret DeRosby
Mtosourlan stall writer
As far as Presiding Circuit Court
Judge Frank Conley is concerned,
there are only two people who ever
possessed all the desirable qualities
that make up an ideal judge. One
was in the Old Testament and
named Solomon; the other was Jesus
Christ himself.
. " Ideal to me is a plateau beyond
fair and impartial," Conley says.
" Fair and impartial is what we're
trying to achieve. Hopefully we do
that more so than we don't."
Conley and his four judicial broth-ers
and sisters of the court are the fi-nal
word in law enforcement for this
hajf of the 13th Circuit of Boone and
Callaway counties. They are the
judge and more often than not, the
Jury. Yet none of the five admits to
being entirely flawless.
" It's the same question as ' Is
there a perfect human being?' "
says Associate Circuit Judge Joan
PlnneD. " Who of us would ever
claim to be perfect?"
" All of us stride to be that ideal
person." Judge Ellen Roper adds.
" But ft would 6e difficult to be ev-erything
you consider ideal 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year. I'm sure
we're all human and that's probably
something that people do not recog-nize."
Since elected judges in Boone
County don't campaign on the basis
of their humanity, candidates must
emphasize tangible as well as intan-gible
aspects in their platforms.
When polled for qualities the
judges consider most desirable, im-partiality
and judicial, integrity
ranked at the top of the list
" You've got to have someone who
is trusted.' 7 Judge Gene Hamilton
says. " There's enough of a lack of
faith in our system of justice now.
And very often, one ( judge) can de-stroy
the reputation of a whole group
whodo have integrity." .
According to the judges, other de-sirables
include:
Patience.
k-- Thoughtfulness and intellectual
curiosity. " You don't want to sit
there luce a dunderhead," Conley
says. " You want to have a will-ingness
to occasionally get into
books andlook."
Total honesty, independence
and industry.
v A sense of humor. " You can
sort out quite a bit, what is actually
contempt of court and what is just an
unintentional comment," says Pin- nel- l.
" Frequently people say, ' Yes,
sir' to me but I don't pay any atten-tion
to that because they are just
taken up with their own problems."
Flexibility. " I don't think we
have to throw out everything from
the . past," Conley says. " But we
have to be willing to adapt." f " A good manager of time and
resources," Associate Circuit Judge
Stan Clay says. " A judge needs to
get cases bandied and decided
promptly. If not it gives the public a
bad image of the judicial process."
But wjofle fairness and impartiali-ty
rank as the most paramount ob-jectives,
the five judges admit these
qualities must be tempered by a cer-tain
degree of sensitivity.
" You have to be sensitive to cer-tain
things that occur or you're not a
human being," Conley says. " But
it's being sensitive without it inter-fering
with your ability to do what
you have to do."
Hamilton believes judges should
always have a sense of direction
11
when deciding cases since they often
find themselves choosing the best
answer from a limited number of al-ternatives.
" If a judge can keep that sense of
where he's going, I don't think he
can be too sensitive," Hamilton
says. " It's very important that the
judge try to envision himself in the
position of other people and not think
' I'm the greatest thing in the world
because I'm the judge.' "
But even an ideal judge, if he or
she existed, soil is a human being
and subject to human error, the
judges acknowledge. Particularly in
the most difficult cases, the right an-swer
may not always be the best
one.
" Certainly I do not feel good about
sending someone away for 20 or 30
years who is 17 or 18 years old,"
Roper says. " But nor do I feel good
about what they did to the victim. So
it's a double- edge- d sword. It is some-thing
you think about but it's not an
obsession with me.
Yet it is the admittedly fallible
judge who wields the power of af-fecting
people's lives both on a per-sonal
liberty basis as well as from a
property standpoint.
That sense of power carries with it
a charismatic quality which follow-ers
of the United States Supreme
Court sometimes call the " cult of the
robe."
Conley downplays that sense of su-periority.
" I suppose alot of people ascribe
more to us than we have," he says.
" But I don't think ( a judge) should
take the power or the trappings of
the office too seriously. I don't mean
that you should be disrespectful. But
taking yourself too seriously in the
role is a mistake."
Roper says she is guided by the
Canon of Judicial Ethics in every-thing
she does and is on constant vig- den- ce
never to abuse her judicial
power an act she finds particular-ly
disreputable.
" I would say that is the greatest
fault I have seen in some of my
brothers on the bench is that they get
a real high from power and being
able to tell someone what to do," she
says.
But Clay believes " Big Brother" is
always watching even where judges
are concerned
" Everybody's got a boss," he
says. " Certain judges have some
power but there's always some
check to it whether in the appellate
court or at election tune "
Hamilton emphasizes the impor-- i
tance of humility in performing
one's judicial duties
" I think I have a certain job to do
and maybe an important job but oth-er
people have important jobs, too,"
Hamilton says. " If you start think-ing
you're that important you very
quickly lose touch with reality "
The reality, Conley says, is that no
judge will ever acquire all the qual-ities
he thinks an ideal judge ought
to have. " The qualities that nec-essarily
make up a good judge are
probably qualities that make a good
person," he adds
But that doesn't stop him from
wondering aloud about the possible
physical characteristics of a " better
than good" judge,
" He might be a man or a woman
and he could be 5 foot, 2 inches, or 6
foot, 4 inches tall," Conley fanta--
. sizes. " He could have black hair,
blonde hair . ."
" He could be bald,'.' Hamilton
adds, picking up the train of thought
with a demure reference to himself.
" An ideal judge could come in any
size or shape," he says. " It's the
qualities mat are important After
all, justice is more than skin deep."
t