B4 Sunday. March 8, 1992. 'South Bend Trihnnsrlt "1 INDIANA Elkhart INDIANABREFS COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS Ohio County farmers oppose closing office without their OK Some Ohio County lamiers don't like the idea ol being the first victim of efforts to streamline the Department ol Agriculture The three-person agricultural office in Rising Sun is the first to be tabbed lor closing in an el-lort aimed at saving the agency stm million a ear Sen Richard Lugar. the ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, had hoped that picking Ins home state lor the first dosing would make Ins ellort more credible The tanners' committee is ex- peeled to ote soon on the proposal to close the office and RISING SUN consolidate with neighboring Dearborn County a move that would save an estimated a year. The Rising Sun office isn't the only one in Indiana slated for closing.
Lugar aide Kevin Kellems said Thursday that the USDA office in Whitley County will close May 13. He said fanners served by the office who live in Whitley County will be sewed by the Noble County office and those in Allen County by DeKalb County. I Federal jury awards $570,000 to fired Lake County employee A lederal court jury. 'agreeing with lormer Lake County Fairgrounds Superintendent MurkO Jansen that he was fired illegally. has awarded him S3 To min in damages.
It was one ol the largest judgments given to a fired county employee, court observers said Fnday Alter lour days ol testimony, the jun deliberated lour hours before returning the verdict Friday Jansen sued Lake County Commissioners alleging he was Ex-president of explanation for The forcibly retired president of a Lutheran seminary says he wants the board ol regents to explain its defiance of a church ruling ordering his reinstatement Robert Preus. the president of Concordia Theological Seminary Irom 1974 until the board removed him in 1989. said he has asked to meet with the regents when the board convenes this week. On Tuesday, the seminary board voted 6-2 against restoring Preus to the presidency. The action rejected a decision by the synod's Commission on Appeals, which ruled in December that the regents acted im- Built in 1987 as a temporary solution to the contamination of Elkhart's North Main Street Well Field, this "air-stripper" facility will continue operating for many more years.
It will continue to be needed to remove chemical contamination which is entering the well field from the industrial area to the west. Cleanup of water supply in Elkhart wont be easy man is held in contempt By MARTIN DeAGOSTINO Tribune Stall Writer ELKHART A man convicted in the gang-war shooting death of an Elkhart teen-ager in 1986 now has a new conviction on a con-tempt-of-court charge and is awaiting a judge's decision on a probation-violation charge. However, lawyers for Jeffrey Small portrayed their client last week as the victim of police harassment. They were defending him on a probation-violation charge that could result in a long prison sentence. The lawyers, Lee Mellinger and Carlos Razo, documented 39 times that police have stopped Small for traffic violations in recent years.
Police ticketed Small 17 of those times. One of those traffic stops resulted in a pending cocaine-possession charge that is the basis of the state's probation-violation case against Small. If found guilty of probation violation, Small could be ordered to prison for the remaining years of a 10-year suspended sentence he received for voluntary manslaughter in 1988. That conviction stemmed from the gang-war shooting death of an Elkhart teen in 1986. Elkhart Superior Court 1 Judge Donald Jones took the probation violation charge under advisem*nt Friday, but not before sentencing Small to 45 days in jail for contempt of court.
Small. 23, earned that citation by refusing to answer a series of prosecution questions about his actions on Jan. 22. Small cited his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination as the grounds for his refusals. But Jones said those protections apply only when defendants are compelled to testify.
Since Small was testifying voluntarily, Jones said, he had waived his Fifth Amendment rights. Police testified earlier this week that they stopped Small on Jan. 22 after seeing him pull his car sharply to the right and park without using his traffic signals. Police said it was daylight at the lime, that Small pulled ioto a legal parking area, and that they were 100 yards to 200 yards behind him. Police said Small ran when asked to produce his drivers license, and threw a small bag of cocaine to the ground while fleeing.
Police arrested Small after a chase that involved Small's use of two other cars and a brief struggle with police. Smalls lawyers maintain that police stopped Small's car illegally, which makes all evidence seized after that point illegal. While evidence obtained illegally may generally be introduced at probation violation hearings, the lawyers say, it cannot be introduced if it was the product of police harassment. Elkhart police openly believe Small is a cocaine dealer, even though he never has been charged with that offense. Defense witnesses testified Friday that Small was the subject of frequent stops and searches by police.
even when no warrants or arrests were involved. One witness, who rented a house to Small's wife, Jackie, said Elkhart police asked him once for permission to search the house. The man said he did not give that permission, although he and Jackie Small testified that the house was later ransacked by some unknown persons. Small has been jailed since his Jan. 22 arrest, so the contempt sentence Jones ordered Friday will have no immediate effect on Small.
$14 685 Debts $36 799 09 Donald and Jams Sutler. 1803 Heckalhorn Drive North Manchester Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets $114 555 Debts $99 057 71 Edward A and Jodi Swan 51908 Bittersweet Road Granger Chapter 7 Feb 20 Assets $2 965 Debts $14 003 95 Kevin Traver and Paula Traver, fka Paula Mann, 419 Logan St South Bend Chapter 7 Feb 21 Assets $43 800 Debts $51 946 34 Angela Vargo. fka Angela Smarr, 1307 Durham Way South Bend Chapter 7. Feb 20 Assets $2,757 Debts $33 899 75 Joan Vitou. 1005 Emerson St South Bend Chapter 7 Feb 19 Assets $286 Debts $18 435 Phillip Wallstead 1692 County Road 200 N.
No 61. Warsaw, and Pamela Wallstead, 527 Glenmore Ave Apt B. Baton Rouge La Chapler 7 Feb 19 Assets $11,775 54 Debts $45 869 58 Bill and Nova Wright Route 1. PO Box 85 Mentone Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets' $3,086 Debts $34,013 14 Jan A Wright 1405 Hillview Drive Syracuse Chapler 7 Feb 18 Assets $3 555 Debts $9 401 27 Bar association aiming to help victims of disasters know rights Victims ol disasters, such as the military transport plane crash that killed 16 people last month, need to know more about what their rights are. an Indiana Bar Association official says.
Without a program such as the one the organization is proposing. many victims or their relatives may act hastily and settle claims lor far less than the compensation they deserve, said Bloomington lawver Skip Harrell. "You can have claims adjusters in there trying to settle those claims quickJv." said Harrell. who heads a bar association committee seeking input from lawyers and others in Evansville about the handling of legal mat- HAMMOND illegally fired, was denied due process and was slandered by Commissioner Ernest Niemeyer. R-Lowell.
The jury awarded $320,000 in compensatory damages and $230,000 in punitive damages against Niemeyer. The county has the option of paying the judgment against Niemeyer. Gary attorney James B. Meyer said the verdict will be appealed. seminary seeks action by board FORT WAYNE properly in retiring Preus.
The commission last month voted 5-4 to order the 67-year-old Preus reinstated question whether the ruling was properly made." said August Mennicke, vice president of the St. Louis-based synod and a regent. David L. Mahsman, a synod spokesman in St. Louis, said some regents believed two Preus supporters on the appeals commission have close relationships with Preus and should have disqualified themselves.
EVANSVILLE ters in the crash. The Feb. 6 crash of the Kentucky Air National Guard C-130 killed nine local residents in a conference room at the Drury Inn motel, two employees of the adjacent Jojo's restaurant and the plane's crew of five. Indiana's program probably would resemble those in six other states the committee has studied. Those programs send bar representatives to disaster scenes to answer victims' questions.
Informative advertising and literature would also be used. INDIANAPOLIS car to avoid hitting a raccoon that was crossing the road. Out of control, the car left the road and went into Lake Terre Vista. According to court records, an investigation showed that the driver's side seat was too far back for Mindv Taylor to have driven the car. Investigators also found her arms under a seat belt, which was fastened in the wrong receptacle.
bankruptcy proceeding It is a hybrid between Chapter 13 and Chapter 1 1. A trustee is appointed, but the debtors remain in possession of their assets and propose to pay all or a portion of debts from future earnings over a three- to five-year period. John Biasko Ml 7 Union Si Mishawaka Chapter 7 Feb 19 Assets $45 125 Debts S72 238 93 Christine Branch 81 1 Mason Si Elkhart Chapter 7 Feb 19 Assets $30 355 Debts 534 119 53 Timothy Bilker and Melissa Butler also known as Missy Taylor 505 Pine St Piercelon Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets $18 715 Debts $38 809 89 Donna Carlson formerly known as Donna Hendrix 121 Second St. Apt Peru Chapter 7 Feb 19 Assets $215 Debts $15 659 65 Dallas and Lynda Draper Roule 1 Box 82 Knox Chapter 13 Feb 21 Assets $60 840 Debts $69 696 63 James and Ellen Duff 17595 Juniper tion of the "air-stripper" tower, which went into operation in 1987. The air-stripper removes the volatile organic contaminants (VOCs) from the ground water by blowing air through the water as it falls from the top of the three 50-foot towers.
This transfers the VOCs from the water to the air, but the EPA believes the amount is so small that it does not represent an air pollution problem. One of the VOCs found in the North Main Street Well Field water is trichloroethylene (TCE), a widely used industrial cleaner. TCE breaks down into chloroform and highly toxic vinyl chloride, which is known to cause liver and kidney cancer. The air-strippers were built to remove the VOCs which entered the well field from American Electronic Components 1010 N. Main and Excel Industries 1120 N.
Main St. However, more recently, the EPA discovered VOC contamination entering the well field from the west. Consequently, the agency's recent order includes seven owners of properties west of the well field as being contributors to the contamination. On the AEC and Excel properties, small but highly contaminated portions of soil were found as a result of the improper disposal of cleaning solvents years ago. The EPAs plan calls for AEC and Excel to use "a vacuum cleaner-type system" to draw the VOCs out of the soil under their properties, according to Elizabeth Murphy, assistant regional counsel at the EPAs office in Chicago.
Meanwhile, the contamination west of the well field is at a lower concentration but more spread out. As a result, the EPA wants the seven property owners to pay for digging two interceptor wells which would pump out the contaminated ground water before it enters the well field. Earlier EPA studies show the Elkhart air-stripper removes 99.1 percent of the contaminants and Terlep said the facility is big enough to adequately process the water from the two west side interceptor wells. However, because the contamination to the west is not coming from identifiable hot spots," the seven property owners will have to pay for the operation of the interceptor wells and the air-stripper. The most difficult issue remaining for the EPA is dividing the costs incurred, including the $2.5 million spent for building the air-strippei and the $2,000 to $3,000 spent monthly to operate the facility over the last 4'2 years.
By JEFF KUROWSKI Tribune Staff Wrtter ELKHART There are no speedy or cheap solutions to ground-water contamination problems. That's evident after reading the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's report on Elkhart's most important water source, the North Main Street Well Field, Last month, the EPA ordered the owners of nine industrial and commercial properties near the well field to begin cleanup programs at their own expense. They are to remove the chemicals contaminating the well field, which supplies 80 percent of Elkhart's water. The work will cost about $1.5 million and the property owners have until March 27 to respond, according to Cindy Nolan, the EPA's remedial project manager who heads the North Main Street protection effort.
If the property owners cannot reach an agreement with the EPA. then the agency could sue them, which could result in a judge ordering the property owners to pay up to three times the cost of the cleanup. Regardless, the cleanup work ordered by the EPA probably will begin this fall, Nolan said. The goal is to provide a final solution to a contamination problem which was discovered in 1981. Separately, Elkhart Water Works employees are busy getting a new well field into operation this spring to reduce the city's dependency on the North Main Street field.
The new well field, which was financed by a 28 percent rate increase which went into effect in 1990, probably will go into full operation in April or early May, said Mike Terlep, the water works superintendent. After the new well field is in operation about a year, the city probably will seek another rate increase to pay tor operating the new field, located north of the Indiana Toll Road's Elkhart rest area. However, the water works will continue relying heavily on the North Main Street field even after the new well field goes into operation, Terlep said. The new well field will provide about 2 million gallons per day while North Main will continue to provide 3 to 4 million gallons a day, he said. On average, the Elkhart Water Works pumps 8 million gallons a day, so North Main will continue providing around 50 percent of all the citys drinking water.
Terlep said. The remainder of Elkhart's water comes from the well field along South Benham Avenue, between Hively Avenue and Mishawaka Road. To date, the most important step taken by the EPA to protect Elkhart's drinking water was the construc State Supreme Court upholds murder conviction in drowning A Terre Haute man convicted of murder alter his wile drowned has lost his appeal to the state Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision Fn-dav. the live justices rejected Earl Taylor's objections about the conduct of his Vigo Circuit Court trial.
Taylor. 39. was convicted after the body of his wife. Mindy, was found in her car at the bottom of a lake in Terre Haute in October 1987. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
He said his wife swerved the BANKRUPTCIES Road PO Box 9 Argos Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets S7 765 Debts $19 352 22 Benny Durrkel and Ruth Dunkel Ika Ruth Dickerson Roule 2 PO Box 133T North Judson Chapter 7 Feb 19 Assets $1,000 Debts $122 351 99 Billie Foster 1218 Hester Si Elkhart Chaoler 7 Feb 20 Assets $45 970 Debts $48 955 10 John and Nina Goble 607 Railroad SI PO Box 102 Hamlet Chapter 7 Feb 21 Assets $36 860 44 Debts $44 252 91 Julie A Hawkins 4400 Hickory Road Apt 3A Mishawaka Chapter 7 Feb 20 Assets $5 000 Debts $18 547 80 Steven and Linda Hickman 54615 27th SI South Bend Chapter 7 Feb 18 As sets S7 825 Debts $122 465 69 Phillip and Sandie Hood 1806 Howard Court Goshen Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets $11 777 68 Debts $17,127 Randy Hurd 413 Buffalo Si. PO Box 132 Burkel Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets $10 800 Debts $15 106 23 Michael A and Nora Mae Irving 30895 20 Elkhart Chapler 7 Feb 20 Assets $63 215 Debts $127 151 71 Gregory and Carolyn Jenkins Roule 3 PO Box303D Peru Chapler 7 Feb 21 As sets $1 783 55 Debts $38 117 45 Kay Katzenberger fka Kay Beckham 1439 Merriman Drive Mishawaka Chapter 7 Feb 19 Assets $17 002 Debts $19 757 85 Donald and Margaret A Lawson 428 Wellington Si South Bend Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets $33 414 Debts $80 750 03 Vicki Marks 1805 Plains Apt 7 Goshen Chapter 7 Feb 21 Assets $2 255 Debts $44 323 74 Robert A McCorkle and Verva McCorkle Ika Verva Slone 1827 Hepler Drive Warsaw Chapler 7 Feb 19 Assets $54 622 Debts $57 802 71 Richard McCreary Jr and Kimberly McCreary fka Kimberly Reed 211 Tanglewood Dnve Apt Goshen Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets $4 475 Debts $18 923 49 Jamie Miller fka Jamie Ross Jamie Ritchie 1450 Indiana 9 LaGrange Chapler 7 Feb 18 Assets $4 435 Debts $1 1 288 61 Rick A Monroe and Jackie Monroe fka Jackie Snowden 601 Linden Logansporl Chapler 7 Feb 20 Assets $1 355 Debts $6 434 18 Carol A Pryt 512 Si Joseph Si South Bend Chapter 7 Feb 20 Assets $4 215 Debts $10 641 58 Richards and LaQuitta Sasser 123 Filth St Peru Chapter 7 Feb 18 Assets $55 246 Debts $74 348 40 Charles A Secor and Vickie Secor fka Vickie Merritt 728 Bristol Apt E95 Elkhart Chapler 7 Feb 19 Assets $1 086 26 Debts $7 876 33 RobertaiHd Irene Seeley 3383 Valley View Drive SI Joseph Chapter 13 Feb 19 Assets $88 695 Debts $131 582 Timothy Shelton 1083 Indiana 3 Lol 534 LaPode Chapter 7 Feb 20 Assets $12 450 Debts $9 153 09 Yvonne Skelton 912 Lexington Ave Elkhad Chapler 7 Feb 20 Assets $73 700 Debts $94 368 52 Laura Slauf Ika Laura Craig 2125 Toledo Hoad Apt 80 Elkhad Chapler 7 Feb 18 Assets $270 Debts $4 734 55 Kevin Snook 1626 Clay St. Mishawaka Chapler 7 Feb 18 Assets $2 401 48 Debts $25 481 59 Virginia Solano 507 Vail Si Michigan City Chapler 7 Feb 21 Assets $47 412 08 Debts $50 171 70 Michael Stone and Vonda Stone fka Vonda Jessie 900 Harrison, Lol 229 Plymouth Chapter 7 Feb 19 Assets Here is an explanation of terms used in bankruptcy filings. CHAPTER 7: Liquidation. A court-appointed trustee liquidates the assets of an individual or firm and distributes them to creditors on a pro-rated basis.
CHAPTER 13: For individuals with regular income. Often called the "wage earner plan." Debtor retains assets and agrees to pay all or a portion of debts from future earnings over a three- to five-year oeriod CHAPTER 11: Business reorganization. Debtor retains pos-session of assets and attempts to 'emam in business by proposing -i plan of reorganization to pay all oi a portion of debts from future earnings. CHAPTER 12: The family farm.
