Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 259, Greencastle, Putnam County, 9 July 1984 — Page 3

Indiana electric rates still below national average

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) tric rates are lower than the national average but have climbed faster than the U S. norm since the mid-1970’5, a Public Service Commission study shows. The monthly rates charged by the state’s five investor-owned utilities are also lower than the regional average but just barely. The study also shows that Northern Indiana Public Service Co.’s rates have more than quadrupled during the 1968-83 period, a factor responsible for boosting the state’s average rate. The PSC report compares the rates charged by the Indiana electric companies to the national average as well as to the average rates in a seven-state power region. Besides Indiana, the states are: Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Between 1968 and 1983, Indiana electric rates rose by an average of 231 percent. That compares to a 232 percent increase in

Six Flags ride fatal to Hoosier EUREKA, Mo. (AP) The new Rail Blazer stand-up roller coaster ride at Six Flags over Mid-America will remain closed during an investigation of a weekend accident that claimed the life of an Indianapolis woman. Stella Holcomb, 46, was pronounced dead at Normandy Osteopathic Hospital after the accident Saturday night at the southwest St. Louis County amusement park. Authorities speculated that Mrs. Holcomb may have fainted just before she fell from the roller coaster. But her husband, Carl, 48, scoffed at that theory. “She didn’t have any fainting spell,” he said Sunday. “We’ve been on rides in Europe that make this thing look like a miniature. I almost didn’t go, but she wanted to. She loves to go on all kinds of those funny rides.” Holcomb said his wife had been thrown off the ride by a whipping motion shortly after it started. The force of the roller coaster sucked her off the ride “faster than lighting a match,” plunging her to her death, he said. “We were holding hands, and the car suddenly whipped hard to the right,” he said. “I figure the force sucked her right out of there. I like to went out myself, she went away from me that quick. “It was faster than lighting a match.” County police said the woman fell about 50 feet from the Rail Blazer roller coaster. Holcomb said that when he and his wife were secured in the car’s restraints, he was concerned that they were inadequate and that the ride was not safe. The victim’s daughter, Bernece, 13, and her boyfriend, Rick Hansen, 16, said they thought Mrs. Holcomb might have been too large to fit securely into the compartment. The victim was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 210 pounds, the family said. “As far as I know, she fit into the ride,” said Michael Paladin, Six Flags manager of public relations. He added the park had a policy of not allowing people to get on rides if their size might present problems. An investigator with the St. Louis County medical examiner’s office said Sunday night that an autopsy had been conducted on Mrs. Holcomb’s body, but the results would not be available until today. The Rail Blazer roller coaster, which opened on June 17, has been closed pending an investigation by St. Louis County Police and the park’s security staff, said Paladin. A preliminary investigation revealed the ride did not malfunction, and all restraints were properly locked when the coaster train completed its 3V 2 -minute run, Paladin said.

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the region and a 254 percent jump nationwide. Electric rates outstripped the consumer price index, which rose by 193.4 percent during the same period, according to the report. Broken down by utility, here is the total percentage increase in rates from 1968-83: —Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co., 164.3 percent. —Public Service Indiana, 204.1 percent. —lndianapolis Power & Light Co., 205.8 percent. —lndiana & Michigan Electric Co., 224.9 percent. —Northern Indiana Public Service Co., 355.5 percent. The study noted that NIPSCO was the only Indiana electric company with a higher total percentage change than the national average. The era of double-digit electric rate increases began in 1973 in Indiana, about two years after the trend was evident in the

state

Black Muslim leader urges Jews to invest in black businesses

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, vehemently denying he made anti-Semitic remarks, challenged American Jews to invest their money in the ghetto and help end economic oppression of blacks. “You remember how they discriminated against you in Miami until you bought it out? Show us how to do the same thing,” he said, adding that Jews should “recognize the part that your fathers played in the slave trade.” Speaking to a standing-room-only audience Saturday at the Indiana Black Expo, Farrakhan insisted that he never referred to Judaism as “a gutter religion” and vowed to bring a sllO million libel suit against the “wicked liars” in the news media who reported that he had. “I announce here today that I am suing the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Times and all the other papers in American that have said that I said Judaism is a gutter religion,” Farrakhan said. “You’ll be forced to show cause why I shouldn’t sue you and all of the media combined. We must put a stop to this.” The spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam declared, “I never made no such statement, you wicked liars” and blamed the television networks and major newspapers for intentionally distorting his message. “I never, never, never, never could have said that the revelation of God to Moses was a gutter religion,” he said. “That thought is not even in the base of my brain to say it even if I was insane. But you wicked demons, you have learned well the teaching of Goebbels and Goering, the Big Lie.” The disputed comment came in a radio broadcast Farrakhan made last month. The Chicago Sun-Times obtained a tape recording of his speech and reported that Farrakhan used the word “gutter,” but he says he used the term “dirty religion.” Others who have heard the tape say the word used cannot be determined with certainty. The Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago

WVPA blames Marble Hill

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Wabash Valley Power Association is seeking a 47.91 percent rate increase to help pay the interest on the cooperative’s Marble Hill nuclear power plant loans. In testimony filed Friday with the Public Service Commission, WVPA corporate planning manager Rick Coons said the association needs to phase in the $58.1 million annual increase in wholesale rates because construction has stopped on the nuclear project.

region and the nation as a whole. Focusing on the period from 1974 to 1983, the study noted that the average growth rate in Indiana electric costs was 12.3 percent, compared with a national and

Tribune declined comment on Farrakhan’s remarks. Leonard Harris, corporate relations director of The New York Times, said he would have no comment except that “we stand by our story.” Farrakhan said Saturday that the Jews couldn’t claim to be “the people of the promise.” That title belonged to blacks, he said. “You cannot leave the Palestinians out of their own future. You cannot take away their land and claim it to be he said. Farrakhan, who came into the national spotlight as a supporter of the presidential campaign of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, conceded that “unfortunately, Jesse made the ‘Hymie’ remark.” But he said Jackson was only speaking ghetto slang and didn’t mean it in a mean-spirited way. “Jesse was talking to his brother. He said, ‘Let’s talk black,”’ Farrakhan said. Referring to his 23-year-old son, who stood behind him on the platform, Farrakhan said, “he's never heard me in my entire life to define any race or ethnic group in my house. I have never used the word ‘kike’ or ‘spic’ or ‘wop’ in my house. You know why? Because growing up hearing people call us ‘nigger’ made me know the pain of those names.” f ;r-old Farrakhan compared himself to Jesus and said he was being crucified, figuratively, because of his strong message on behalf of American blacks. “I have become, in one year, the most censured black man in the history of the United States,” he said, noting that he has been criticized by President Reagan, Vice President Bush, the U.S. Senate, the leadership of the Democratic Party, the NAACP and “my beautiful brother,” Jackson. He denounced black professionals for being the paw2))the white establishment and said the only way to return them to their black roots is to have an economic revolution that will loosen the hold of the “slavemasters.” Farrakhan described America as a “modern Sodom and Gomorrah” and predicted the nation would fall of internal decay.

Coons said the utility, which owns 17 percent of Marble Hill, had been anticipating a rate reduction this year, but because the nuclear project has been put on hold, an increase is needed. The utility, which serves 24 membership cooperatives, needs the additional money to repay funds borrowed for the unfinished nuclear power plant, 83 percent of which is owned by Public Service Indiana, according to WVPA general manager Edward Martin.

regional average of 11.2 percent. But the PSC said that if NIPSCO’s rates weren’t considered in calculating the statewide average, the growth rate would

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Having a ball during her weekend visit to grandma's house is Rhonda Lynch, 2 Vi-year-old daughter of Gerry and Karen Lynch, Kingman. The family was visiting Marion

MISS BLACK INDIANA GARY, Ind. (AP) Jacqueline Y. Slatter, an Indiana University student from Indianapolis, is the new Miss Black Indiana. Miss Slatter, 20, was named Miss Black Indiana Saturday night during the fifth annual pageant at Indiana UniversityNortheast in Gary. In addition to SI,OOO in prizes. Miss Slatter won the right to compete in any one of three other pageants Miss Black Galaxy, Miss Black World or Miss Black America. Patricia Greer, 22, of Gary, was named first runner-up. Miss Greer is a graduate of Indiana University at Bloomington. The second runner-up was Crystal Reese, 17, of Gary, and the third runner-up was Benita R. Johnson, 18, of Fort Wayne.

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be 11 percent below the regional and national averages. The study also included rankings of the Indiana utilities by the Edison Electric Institute, comparing their rates against those charged by the other 220 investorowned electric companies in the country. Based on the 1983 rates for 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, NIPSCO was the 16th most expensive in the country, followed by PSI which ranked 134th; SIGECO, which was 181st; I&M, 185thand IPL, 189th. Using the rates charged by the five Indiana companies, the average rate for 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in this state was $60.56 as of Jan. 1, 1983. The average for the region was $60.57 a penny less and for the nation, it was $64.72. With the 1983 figures, Indiana ranked fourth of the seven states in the region. Kentucky had the lowest rate, $46.42, followed by Michigan, $56.44; and West Virginia, $57.59. Indiana was next, followed by Illinois, $64.64; Ohio, $68.56;

O'Neal, 101 Liberty St., Greencastle, until Sunday and the nice weather had Rhonda kicking up her heels in the front yard. (BannerGraphic photo by Bob Frazier).

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July 9,1984, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

and Pennsylvania, $69.75. The report also gives a look back to 1968, figuratively the good old days of cheap power. Back then, the national average for 1,000 kilowatt hours was $18.27. The regional average was $18.24 and the Indiana average was $18.25. In 1968, Indiana ranked fifth. Kentucky was still the lowest, with a monthly average of $16.96, followed by West Virginia, $17.20; Pennsylvania, $17.75; and Michigan, $18.15. Indiana was next, followed by Ohio, $18.85; and Illinois, $20.54. “National policy with respect to oil prices, deregulation of natural gas, environmental controls and inflationary pressures in the economy in general have adversely affected the electric utility industry’s costs, just as they have other industry in the U.S. during the past few years,” the PSC report concluded. “The inevitable result is rapidly rising prices that the consumer must pay.” PCBs don't bother all in Bloomington BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) Government efforts to protect Monroe County residents from PCB contamination have gotten Ed Pelfree a little upset. But unlike many who complain too little has been done, Pelfree’s unhappy because he believes officials have gone too far. He wants free use of the two acres of his land fenced off by federal Environmental Protection Agency officials who discovered the soil was polluted by PCBs polychlorinated biphenyls. Pelfree has lived beside a PCB dumpsite for 23 years, drinking water from a pair of backyard wells and eating vegetables grown ten yards from a red sign warning of the contamination. “If the PCBs was going to kill us, they would have killed us 20 years ago,” he said in a recent interview. Pelfree hasn’t sued anyone, but he has asked the government to move back the fence and give him free range over all his four acres. The Westinghouse Corp. in Bloomington used PCBs in the manufacture of electrical capacitors from 1958 until 1977, when the federal government banned the compound suspected of causing cancer. Westinghouse dumped electrical capacitators containing PCBs at several Monroe County sites later closed by health officials. The company is negotiating with local government officials who want the manufacturer to pay the costs of cleaning up the sites. Pelfree and Leonard Siscoe, a long-time neighbor, say that years ago they salvaged the abandoned capacitors and sold them to scrap dealers.

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