Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 73, Greencastle, Putnam County, 2 December 1981 — Page 2

A2

The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, December 2,1981

Michigan City firefighters picket against private fire protection

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. tAP) - The president of the International Firefighters says the union will launch an “education campaign” next week to convince Michigan City residents that a proposal to turn fire protection over to private businesses is a bad idea. Jack Gannon spoke Tuesday night at a rally of about 2,000 firefighters from around Indiana who joined Michigan City firefighters in protesting the plan. He said the union would distribute leaflets and run radio and newspaper advertisements condemning the city’s proposal. The proposal violates Michigan City firefighters’ contract with the city and may not be legal under Indiana law, firefighters said at the rally. But a city spokeswoman said the agreement may be legal and in any case the decision on whether to hire the private agencies “won't happen overnight.” After the rally at a hotel on the city's southeastside, the firefighters picketed in front of city hall Tuesday night. Meanwhile. Alan Austin, the president of Local 457 of the International Firefighters, submitted a petition signed by 7,000 people to the city council protesting the proposal to call in

Rules fight looms

Conference on Aging rigged?

WASHINGTON (AP) - Disgruntled delegates to the White House Conference on Aging, charging that key committees have been rigged by the Reagan administration, are threatening to reject all the meeting’s recommendations unless President Reagan’s proposed Social Security cuts are disavowed. For his part, the 70-year-old Reagan, the nation’s oldest president ever, says he has been wrongly portrayed as “an enemy of my own generation” and the elderly have been “needlessly and cruelly frightened" about his Social Security proposals. “We will not betray those entitled to Social Security benefits,” Reagan told the conference Tuesday. “And we will, indeed we must, put Social Security on a sound financial basis.... “What we can’t afford is supporting as disabled people who are not disabled or educating from Social Security funds young people from faimilies of affluence and wealth," he said. The nearly 2,300 delegates attending the conference were meeting again today in 14 sub-ject-oriented committees to develop recommendations for Reagan and Congress.

Mobile asks hearing on Marathon bid

CINCINNATI (AP) - Mobil Corp. asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to grant an emergency hearing on its ap? peal of a judge’s order blocking its attempted acquisition of Marathon Oil Co. Mobil, the nation’s second

Name your Christmas gift.. |j\_y Fashion Ifjr Jewelry Engraved Free | by B ROMAN I Beautiful jewe.ry engraved With | | name, initials or monogram says | | X \ | i "Merry Christmas!” in a very f l { \ I 1 personal way. j \ \ \II E ’ ji \ f | ENGRAVED FREE while you shop I 5 L=W=J i 1 \ A - 7541 Key R *ng $7.00 V J I j B. 4735 Floral Pendant 18” $9.50 \ 'i C. I jj) | jf* C. 5639 Filigree Locket 18” $12.50 i ; //V 1 fi D. 4606 Black Pendant 18” $9.50 \ j f # E. 6925 Stick Pin $9.50 & § ' Jewelry shown actual size. OPEN SUNDAY 1 "5 p.ITI.

Advocates of elderly rip scientists' report WASHINGTON (AP) Should a nuclear war occur, the survivors’ overall cancer risk could be reduced if older people do jobs and eat food that could expose them to more radiation than younger people, a new study said Tuesday. It was immediately attacked by advocates for the elderly. “I find this study absolutely revolting genocidal,” Maggie Kuhn, head of the Gray Panthers organization, told a news briefing. She and representatives of anti-war groups said the study by two scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory advocates exposing the elderly to excess post-war radiation to save the young. But the authors of the study, Drs. Kathy S. Gant and Conrad V. Chester, vigorously deny they are advocating the abuse of old people after a nuclear confrontation. “We are not suggesting sacrificing the older people,” Ms. Gant said. “We are not advocating a policy, but simply making a statement about how to lower cancer deaths after a nuclear war.” The report, published in the journal Health Physics, said older people could take a higher radiation dose because of the long latency period between exposure and the development of cancer up to 30 years. By the time many cancers would develop, said the report, older people those over 40 would have reached the end of their life expectancy and most would die from other causes.

Some delegates were unconvinced by Reagan’s assurances. “On those issues of greatest concern to older

largest oil company, asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear its argument by next Tuesday to avoid giving an edge to U.S. Steel Corp. in their bidding war for Marathon. The appeals court, which is in full regular session with cases

private businesses for fire protection. “We sure are not going to take this lying down,” Austin said earlier in the day. “We’ll take it to the people. The people do not trust that sort of thing.” He said the plan violates the union contract with the city. “We feel we have a collective bargaining contract. We attempted to begin negotiations last May, but the city wouldn’t do it.” The two companies being considered both pledge to cut $200,000 out of the $2 million annual budget for fire protection by cutting personnel from 82 to 62 and closing one fire station. But Austin said the only way they can cut costs so drastically is by laying off some firefighters and cutting $3,500 per person out of the department’s fringe benefit package. City firefighters currently earn $14,000 in starting base pay. The bids by two firms Wackenhut Co. of Coral Gables, Fla., and Fire Suppression of Savannah, Ga. could force city firefighters out of their jobs and would cut pension benefits for those firefighters who stay in Michigan City, Austin said. He also said the two companies under consideration are not qualified. “The Wackenhut Co. has no previous experience in this field,

Americans... the committees are clearly stacked,” declared Jack Ossofsky, executive director of the National Council on Aging and chairman of a 25-

scheduled through Dec. 18, did not indicate if it would grant an emergency hearing. Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Manos in Cleveland rejected Mobil’s request that he delay putting into effect a preliminary in-

group coalition called the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations. Most of the delegates were chosen by governors and members of Congress. “I have no legal proof it is stacked,” delegate Jacob dayman said of the committee on economic well-being, where Social Security is the major agenda item. “But you couldn’t haphazardly get a group like this that is so violently opposed to what is normally the majority view on Social Security.” dayman is executive director of the National Council of Senior Citizens Elderly groups have been planning a possible rules fight during Thursday’s final convention session if there is widespread dissatisfaction with the recommendations. Delegates will be given an opportunity 1 only to adopt all the recommendations made in 14 conference committees or reject them all. Paul Kers<;hner, associate director of the National Retired Teachers Association-America-n Association of Retired Persons, said if no change in the rules is allowed “we may have to recommend to our delegates to vote no on everything.”

junction barring Mobil from buying Marathon stock. Manos issued the injunction against Mobil on Monday. Marathon, based in Findlay, Ohio, is the nation’s 17th largest oil company. It has supported U.S. Steel’s offer.

AIM Ambulance Service Emergency and convalescent transport anywhere in surrounding area or long distance. Medicaid and Medicare approved. Transportation for Medicaid recipients available for in and outside the county by car. Insurance billing available. We accept assignments from Medicaid and Medicare. Any questions or if you want one of our emergency stickers call 653-9719 or drop by at 1147 Bloomington St., Greencastle, Ind.

THE FIORSHEIMJK

Tailor-made for the well dressed man. A genuine moccasin styled in the classic manner with the accent on comfort. So appropriate. . . anywhere. THE BOOTERY MAKE FLORSHEIM" 1 HIS CHRISTMAS GIFT!

in fact they said they wanted to make this a pilot project,” Austin said. “Of course, we call it a guinea pig project.” He said Fire Suppression had worked only in rural areas outside Savannah and recently in a newly annexed area of the city. Austin said Savannah’s fire chief told him he would terminate Fire Suppression services in the city when the current contract expires. Gannon told firefighters Tuesday that he knows of only one community in the nation, Scottsdale, Ariz., which has contracted out to private business for fire protection. “If it was such a good idea, why hasn’t it caught on across the rest of the country?” he asked. Tom Miller, president of the Professional Firefighters of Indiana, which is part of the International Firefighters association, said contracting out fire protection could become a “political payoff.” Kathy Dubie, an aide to Michigan City Mayor Clifford D. Arnold, disputed the firefighters’ claims, saying both firms are qualified. Pointing to Fire Suppression’s 18-year record in Georgia and the Wackenhut Co.’s experience with security operations at

world/^tate

But no return to towers

President may relax ban on air controllers

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Reagan administration, seeking to thaw relations with big labor, is considering whether to lift a three-year freeze on federal employment for air traffic controllers who were fired after striking against the government. President Reagan broached that possibility in a meeting with leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, White House aides confirmed late Tuesday. But chief spokesman David Gergen emphasized that Reagan “was not considering” returning the 11,500 controllers to the flight towers. Reagan was meeting today with AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and members of the federation’s executive council in a major administration peace-making offensive aimed at rebuilding ties to labor leaders. In a break with tradition, the AFL-CIO denied the chief executive an invitation to its biennial convention in New

Murder is year's fourth

Stabbing nets prison lockdown

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) Prison were confined to their cells today following the fourth fatal stabbing of the year at the 120-year-old maximum secuirty institution. Warden Jack R. Duckworth ordered the lockdown until a search for weapons is completed. “It’s not possible to keep an eye on every piece of scrap

■bike m .■■■■ MMX n *

LANE KIRKLAND AFL-CIO meets Reagan

York last month. And it demanded that Reagan end his “demeaning vendetta” by rehiring the controllers, whose union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, has been decertified by the government and has filed for reorganization under the Federal Bankruptcy Act. Speculation about an ad-

metal that comes out of the machine shop we operate here,’’ Duckworth said Tuesday. “But we obviously are going to have to do a better job of it.” It addition to the four killings this year, there have been two other knifings in recent weeks. “We are unable to determine any link between any of these incidents,” the warden said. Prison officials said James H.

Cape Canaveral in Florida, Ms. Dubie said, “If they re not qualified, I don’t know how they’ve stayed in business so long. The major reason Michigan City has sought private fire protection is the money crunch, she said. “It’s rough. We’ve had to really cut back,” Ms. Dubie said “Everybody in Indiana is suffering from a tax freeze; we don’t have any way of raising income. ” She said the question of breach of the firefighters union contract is “very much up in the air.” “We’ve only been given an unofficial letter from the attorney general” authorizing the plan, and the official ruling has not been made, she said. “With the existing contract, we must honor it, but if the department no longer exists, the contract is obviously null, Ms Dubie said. While Michigan City is still operating in the black, Ms. Dubie said services have been cut in garbage collections, street lights and other areas. The mayor was in Detroit Tuesday attending a meeting of the National League of Cities and could not be reached for conrrment.

ministration show of mercy toward the dismissed air controllers has surfaced several times since the president fired controllers who ignored his back-to-work order in early August. Despite repeated administration denials of any plans for a general amnesty, Reagan told the Teamster leaders that he was “considering the question of whether or not the controllers who have been fired should continue to be barred from any employment (with the federal government) for a three-year period, as is currently the case,” Gergen said. But the spokesman also quoted Reagan as saying, “Our first responsibility is to the controllers who stayed on the job, working long hours to keep the planes flying safely.” Gergen suggested, however, that because Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis is out of town, Reagan could not make a decision in time to announce it to the AFL-CIO leaders. Lewis

Traylor, 27, of Evansville, was killed Monday afternoon with a homemade knife. They said Ralph E. Dodson, 37, formerly of near LaFontaine, was held in the slaying. Officials said a correction officer whose name was not given could not prevent but witnessed the stabbing. They quoted him as saying Dodson chased Traylor down a hallway, caught him, then thrust a piece of metal angle-iron sharpened at one end into Traylor’s left side. Duckworth said the wounded man died en route to a Michigan City hospital. The incident “was confined to these two individuals. They had a personal misunderstanding resulting in an altercation,” Duckworth said. “One explanation is that violent men, prone to violence, bring violent habits into prison

ALL Power Toots mifcLUMtytMll 10% OFF A gift every man would love! SKELTON-SKINNER LUMBER COMPANY 1221 S. Bloomington St., Greencastle 653-9705

is in Japan for talks with auto industry executives and isn’t expected to return to Washington until Tuesday. Administration officials maintain that federal laws bar for three years the employment by the government of any federal employee participating in a strike a position that organized labor contends has never been tested in the courts. Meantime, J. Lynn Helms, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, was urging a congressional panel today to approve $57.5 million in special pay and benefits for air controllers and other agency employees. Roughly three-fourths of air controller union’s membership participated in the Aug. 3 strike. The administration has relied on non-striking union members, new recruits and military personnel to police the flightpaths while it rebuilds the air control system.

and continue them here. I don’t see crowding as a clear cut sac tor. We’ve had more people in here at times but less violence. We can’t rule that out as a contributing factor altogether, though.” A prison employee who asked not to be identified said he has observed an increased of violence during the last three holiday seasons. He said prisoners become despondent at being away from their families during the holidays. Trayler was serving two consecutive 30-year terms for attempted murder at a gasoline station and for being a habitual criminal. He was sentenced in Vanderburgh County in May 1980. Dodson is serving life for a Huntington County murder. The prison has 1,884 prisoners.