Bedford Gazette (Newspaper) - September 9, 1997, Bedford, Pennsylvania Panther bounce Page Bedford Bedford Countys Own Daily Newspaper Published Continuously Since 1805 192 295 September 1997 TUESDAY School funding ruling may be delayed Decision in lawsuit by rural and poor districts may await Philadelphia cases Who has the longest bus ride in Bedford County The Gazette is looking for a student who rides the school bus for more than an hour before or after To participate in a news story about school trans please call reporter Brian Schrock at 6231151 1 Traffic on state Route 3008 will be detoured beginning Traffic from Route 3008 will be detoured to Route 31 beginning at The caused by bridge replacement is expected to last until officials in a press that the detour was necessary because the entrance to Route 3008 off Route 96 is near the bridge over Little Wills Creek that will be replaced as part of a million widen ing and resurfacing project for Route 96 between Bard and Traffic on Route 96 through the bridge work zone will be restricted to one lane and con trolled by a temporary traffic said Kevin Pen project Stern said the overall Route 96 project is expected to be complet ed by the summer of Paving operations will con near Roaring Workers have begun placing the final course of blacktop for an million project to widen to three lanes Route 36 between Interstate 99 and Roaring according to Engineer Richard Paving operations are expect ed to last throughout the week and possibly into depend ing on the Fox Traffic will be shifted from time to and because there are numerous driveway connec tions and several side roads there may be times when access points to and from Route 36 will be ly Later in the the tor will install a new traffic sig nal at the intersection of Route 36 and Cedar Street at Fox HARRISBURG AP Com Court Judge Dan Pel said Monday he may not issue a final ruling on the school funding lawsuit until two other lawsuits involving the Philadel phia school district are Deaths Obituaries on Page 12 Shirley of Weather REGIONAL Weather The one focused on fund the other on con tain some of the same He said they could affect the outcome of the lawsuit involving 217 rural and poor school which contend the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to On the full Com Court is scheduled to hear the states preliminary objec tions to school fund ing It could be two or three months before lawyers know the outcome and how it could affect the case for the rural and poor said state Deputy General Counsel Gregory In arguments on the segregation lawsuit before the state Supreme Court were post poned this month and may not be heard until the end of the Pellegrini If it takes them I wont wait to issue a but if its on Page 3 Brown Sprucing up Keith Larson of Deremer Painting applies a fresh coat to the western corner of the old Shoe Store in downtown Bedford Everett administrator not surprised by delay By Sharyn Maust Gazette Associate Editor Everett School Superintendent Edward Vollbrecht said he wasnt surprised that a Commonwealth Court judge has postponed ruling on a rural schools funding lawsuit until the court hears a similar case from They do relate in the sense of the states role in funding public Vollbrecht said Mon The Philadelphia situation had played a role in the rural school suit Commonwealth Court Judge Dante Pellegrini heard closing arguments Monday in the 1991 lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small a coalition of 216 school districts that feel the states find ing formula has shortchanged Vollbrecht was the first superin tendent to the plaintiffs last I really havent had any contact with the suit since last he noting that witnesses had an invitation to view the closing Voll brecht had other meetings sched Its frustrating the ra longterm v Mtr Its frustrating that the lawsuit is such a longterm he For in early Pel had ordered a commission to study the funding The governor appointed the commis which refused to propose a new state funding The two sides in the lawsuit bickered over the report and the judge scheduled the trial for August The judge then delayed the case until this past January while the state Supreme Court heard the states appeal of Commonwealth Court Judge Doris Smiths deci sion on the Philadelphia funding Smith had ordered the state to pay more of the costs of imple menting a desegregation on Page 3 Jury awards billion damages against CSX NEW ORLEANS AP A jury awarded billion in punitive damages Monday to about people who said they suffered mental and physical injuries when a tank car exploded and Five companies were ordered to pay por tions of the with CSX Transporta tion owing the biggest The lawsuit was filed shortly after a tank car parked in a switching yard caught fire in the middle of the night on a petroleum leaked through a faulty gasket and send ing thick black smoke into the Residents from roughly 200 city blocks were Some said they suffered breathing rashes and other health while others said the fire dam aged homes and caused mental One plaintiff said she still gets anxious every time she hears a train rumble The punitive damages are on top of the or about awarded to 20 plaintiffs on Mondays decision awarded damages to all members of the class action Wendell an attorney for the said the accident could have been Time after time in the months and days leading up to the many errors were made on the part of those who handled this hazardous he Defense attorney Brent Barriere called the award and said the plain tiffs failed to demonstrate any personal injuries or longterm health Barriere said he planned to This jury heard no evidence of reckless conduct and no evidence supporting the damages he It should have been about damages for 36 hours of Trading in CSX stock was halted on the New York Stock Exchange on The jurys decision was announced after the exchange During closing defense attor neys said the plaintiffs exaggerated their problems and sought excessive and fied The people in the class action law suit must now go back to court and prove their injuries and a judge will determine how much each person is entitled to Five of the nine original companies that were sued in the case were determined to be responsible for punitive In addi tion to they Mitsui million GATX Terminals million Illinois Railroad million and Alaba ma Great Southern The other four companies were only held liable for their portion of last months million They were Phillips Petroleum General American Trans portation Latex and TODAY Mostly Chance of afternoon High 70 to Wind southeast 5 to 10 Chance of rain 30 per Tonight Some rain Low 55 to Chance of rain 70 TOMORROW Cloudy with still some High around Chance of rain 70 per THE OUTLOOK Thursday Still a chance of Low in High in Friday Mostly Still maybe show ers north and Low 45 to High in Saturday Partly Low in High in Hundreds feared drowned in Haitian ferry sinking Haiti AP A severely overloaded ferryboat capsized when passengers rushed to one side as it was com ing into port on central coast killing as many as 400 people trapped inside the survivors Hundreds more made it to The 60foot boat was certified to safely carry between 80 and 260 according to varying About 700 had been jammed police and coast guard Thousands of Haitians wailed in grief on the pebbled beach of this fishing village as divers and a fishing boats searched 200 yards off shore for Others helped carry bodies from coast guard boats to Coast Guard and helicopters hovered above the spot where The Pride of disappeared in 75 feet of water as hundreds of its passengers screamed below The boat was When it maneuvered to everybody ran to one side and the boat tipped said survivor Benjamin a 38 yearold civil The brand new ferry it had gone into service only 10 days earlier had no life and doors that were bolted shut pre vented many passengers from Joseph and other sur photo Haitians and members of coast guard carry out res cue operations near where a ferry capsized Mon As many as 400 people may have The ferry sank early this morning in the Saint Marc Channel off 50 miles northwest of It had left from on Gonave about 12 miles to the Haitian coast guard crews pulled 24 survivors and four bod ies from the said Coast Guard Steve Banks in By divers had retrieved 25 more Weve gone from a rescue operation to a recovery opera The United States announced it was giving to help rel atives of disaster Ambassador William Swing released a statement expressing our deepest regret on the sion of this tragic There were conflicting reports about the numbers of victims and Haitian police and coast guard officials said about 700 people were on the An estimated 400 people made it to leading Haitian authorities to believe as many as 300 people had Banks But Joseph and other sur said they believed about 400 people went down with the ferry and that 60 at made it to on Page 3 Everett may ease permit requirements By Jim Brown Gazette Staff Writer Everett Borough Council debat ed Monday whether to revise the existing building permit ordinance to allow certain repair work to be done without a permit in the bor ough but took no action on the As it reads a building per mit is required not only for a con tractor doing but also for a homeowner making certain The borough council discussed waiving the building permit fee for the homeowner who repairs his house Kevin council said he is very uncomfortable with current language in the permit application and wants to allow repair work to be done without a If Im going to fix a hole in my Ill be doggone if Im going to come down here and pay for a per Smith But Dwight borough said that allowing some residents to make repairs without requiring a permit would be unfair to those who Youve got the guy whos 25 and can paint his own porch and a guy 75 and he What about someone thats hand The issue was tabled until the on Page 3 Jones swaps attorneys LITTLE AP In a sign of turmoil among her advis the two top lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones sought Monday to withdraw from her sexual harass ment lawsuit against President Clinton citing fundamental dif ferences on the Jones spokeswoman in Los Angeles brushed off their request to a Little Rock judge If they they quit and accused the lawyers of misleading Joseph Cammarata and Gilbert Davis expressed full confidence in the legal merits of Jones claims in papers filed in Dis Court here but cited funda mental differences of opinion which have arisen as to the future course of this Cammarata and who filed a lawsuit against Clinton on Jones behalf three years said they would further explain their reasons to a preferably in The rift developed after Cam marata and Davis urged their client to consider settling the claim against Clinton for and a vague apology for any dam age done to Jones reputa The attorneys thought these were potentially the best terms they could get from Clinton whose attorneys had not made a formal offer and it represented close to what Jones sought when she said officials familiar with the case but not tied directly to Cammarata and Jones and began on Page 3
