Galveston Daily News (Newspaper) - December 22, 1987, Galveston, Texas No trace of First The Right Response Member TUESDAY MORNING DECEMBER MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS Fine TEXAS OLDEST NEWSPAPER THE SAN LUIS HOTEL VOL 145 NO 256 c 1987 Galveston Newspapers Inc RIOTING SPREADS to THE SANTA PROBLEM can help kids with ERAS COLLIDE INSIDE Clat allied 58 Entertainment Log Opinion TV Weather SB 2A 1 38 48 2A PASSING PARADE Anniversary Wishes to Michael and Sandra Martin on your Or and LL Starling and Gwen and Guzman on your wedding anniversaries A special day is being observed by Bernadette Banks Bambam Atkins Robert Layva William Ander son Taya Vodovar Thompson ROM DAmbra Maria Martinez Terri Palmar Lopez Ruby Douglas Lll Mac Phillips Carry See WEATHER AREA FORECAST Mostly sunny today with a in the mW 60s North wind near 10 mph Fair tonight with a tow in the upper 40s Partly cloudy Wednesday In the tower 70s North to northeast winds 10 to 15 knots through tonight Bay waters choppy to choppy WATER 58 degrees More Weather 2A CLASSIFIEDS JOB DONE SEARS Frost fret re 900 running condition Call I got HK tml to Sou li mt lint to ffw lint for tnl in fV Nnn Mn A 1 7445611 Park Board called corrupt Change urged in track action Ron Only 26 survivors are found MANILA Philippines AP Three ships searched Tuesday for people whose Christmas trip to Manila ended in a collision with an oil tanker that sent their packed interisland ferry to the bottom of a flaming sea Only 26 people many of them badly burned were plucked from the fiery waters Sunday night after one of the worst maritime disasters The Philippine coast guard said one of its ships and two vessels of the Sulpicio Shipping Lanes owner of the ferry resumed their search at dawn Tuesday but found no survivors At Clark Air Base Air Force spokeswoman Maryellen Jadick said three helicopters were standing by in case Philippine authorities ask for their assistance in the operation Jadick said the request must be renewed daily On Monday the three helicopters joined five commercial vessels and a Filipino naval ship in hunting for survivors We covered about 100 miles of sea area and except for maybe a piece of driftwood or two we saw absolutely nothing as far as a ship wreck oil spill signs of life or signs of an said Staff Sgt Cliff Davis a spotter on a SHIP The Daily News GALVESTON The Galveston Park Board of Trustees is corrupt and the chamber should recon sider its endorsement of the board overseeing the proposed dog track a local businessman has charged Ring Cherry owner of Islander Trolley and Islander Advertising sent a letter including this and numerous other allegations to board members from both the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and the Park Board The fact that the Park Board is corrupt is a mat ter of public Cherry wrote in a letter dated Dec 12 The Chamber of Commerce City Council and others may overlook the Park Boards corrup tion but our mainland competitors for the dog track will A proposal that has won chamber and city ap proval is to construct the dog track on land near Scholes Field Under that proposal the Park Board will be responsible for overseeing operation of the facility Dan Vaughn Park Board attorney said the mere unsubstantiated allegations concerning Park Board corruption would not hamper the islands chances of getting the dog track The letter he charged was written by Cherry for eco nomic advancement He and his brother have property interest in an alternate Vaughn alleged adding that the proposed location is near on Seawall Boulevard Due to the large amount of money in a dog track and incentives for entrepreneurs to keep profits I wouldnt be surprised to see all sorts of things happen in terms of allegations being Park Board trustee Ron termed the letter almost slanderous He makes a blanket statement that the Park Board is corrupt He alludes to a lot but I have not seen any con crete later added La the letter Cherry charges that from 1985 to a pow committee of the Park Board met 8 See CHANGES Money Hospital employees carry survivor of illfated ship verified The Daily News GALVESTON The district at office has confirmed there was a theft of funds from the Galveston Park Board of Trustees but there is not enough evidence to make an arrest There has been a theft of Galveston County District Attorney Michael Guarino said The investigation is open and there are several suspects but there is insufficient evidence at this point to charge In October the district at office began probing allegations that about in funds was missing from The Pirates a city golf course Guarino said Many employees had access to the funds and several people have been investigated We dont know if additional ev idence will come forward but the investigation is not he said This is the only Park Board in his office is involved with Guarino said According to information from a recent Galveston City Council meeting See THEFT Holland says worker replacement policy amounts to union busting The DaHy News GALVESTON Wharves trust ee Benny Holland called a board policy on replacement of employees union busting at a Wharves committee meeting Monday The policy as originally pro posed would have permitted the general manager of the Wharves to replace any employee who fails to report to work to perform as signed duties including those who refuse to cross picket lines Dick Dent a Port of Galveston attorney in recent squabbles with union employees of the ports switching railroad told Holland that the employees under the pro posed policy being considered would not be they would simply be replaced for not showing up to protect their jobs The policy was agreed upon after some discussion and will be presented to the Wharves trustees at their meeting today without the provision on picket lines I was told no one was out to break the Holland said I resent he added If someone is not doing their job Doug Marchand general manag er and port director has the authority to fire them During the recent picketing by Wharves railway employees who were members of railway unions members of the ports security force crossed the picket lines ac cording to Oury Selig senior dep uty port he asked what if they had not Could the general manager have replaced them without such a policy All of this led Holland an of of the district International Association to say What we have at this table is the philosophy of J Ross Dunn once head of the West Gulf Mari time He used to say longshoremen were only worth an hour but he wouldnt work on the docks for There was also considerable discussion about secretarial salaries Holland urged that the port adopt a policy stating its reasons for cutting secretarial salaries The Port of Galveston has recently proposed changes that would restructure salaries of some port employees Some secretaries will receive cuts in pay of up to 48 percent if the program is adopted today A Galveston Wharves payroll expense summary shows the port had an actual payroll of million in 1986 The 1987 projected total payroll is The 1988 budgeted payroll being proposed is There are some reductions in the proposed 1988 expenditures for executive salaries but there are no cuts in them The reductions Marchand ex are because the Wharves has paid off Chuck Devoy See HOLLAND package clears major hurdle WASHINGTON AP The deficit reduction package promised by Con gress cleared its first major hurdle Monday night when the House approved a billion tax and entitlement The compromise legislation was passed by a vote of 237181 and sent to the Senate The House then moved to consider the second half of the budget agenda a record billion spending to fund the gov through next September Together the bills would reduce the fiscal 1968 deficit more than billion fulfilling an agreement with President Reagan designed to reassure financial markets We need desperately to send the country a message tonight that the president and the Congress can govern this said Rep Leon Panetta one of the lawmakers who drafted the The consideration of the budget packages began despite lingering disputes in a veto showdown with the president on the broad casters fairness doctrine which brought top White House officials back to the Capitol Monday night But lawmakers were eager to go home for the holidays With the government facing another shutdown threat Tuesday the president and congressional leaders pressed for final action I think great progress has been Reagan said as he met with Republican con gressional leaders earlier Monday Copter crashes on offshore rig killing 14 LAFAYETTE La AP A helicopter carrying 13 offshore oil workers to begin a Christmas week shift in the Gulf of Mexico crashed and burned on the deck of an oil rig Monday killing 12 of the workers and both pilots the Coast Guard said The lone survivor was flown by Coast Guard helicopter 100 miles to the burn unit of West Jefferson Medical Center in suburban New Orleans He was reported in crit ical condition Dabney Forestall a rig worker who witnessed the accident said the helicopter appeared to be ap proaching the pad normally until he had some kind of problems and he skidded off the heliport and hit the leg It looked like the tail section possibly hit the leg and he fell off the heliport and fell on the deck They had a major said Forestall Chuck Kalnbach a spokesman for the Coast Guard said the rigs operators confirmed 14 fatalities and said the bodies would be flown to Abbeville where a morgue was setup Edward L Villarreal division manager of Forest Oil Corp which operated the rig said the 13 oil workers were employed by Penrod Drilling They were flying to the rig to begin a Christmas shift he said It was landing on the heliport and apparently emphasize ap it hit one of the legs on the rig and crashed onto the said Villarreal I dont know the exact weather conditions I can only speculate it The fire from the crash was quickly controlled before it spread to the rig he said The rig identified as Penrod 83 is located about 60 miles south of Morgan City in the area of the Gulf known as Eugene Island block 190 The pilots were employees of Petroleum Helicopters Inc of Lafayette Villarreal said A per son who answered the telephone at the company refused to talk about the crash The survivor was identified as Anthony Farm 23 an oil worker from Destrehan La Hospital spokeswoman Beth Dutcher said he suffered bums over 95 percent of his body When the hands got around to him which was probably 15 or 20 seconds he was crawling on the deck He had all his clothes burned off said Forestall Most of the bodies were all laying here and there For some reason the Lord was just looking after Jim Pittman spokesman for West Jefferson Hospital said Fann suffered burns over 60 percent of his body Penrod spokesman David Vi viano said all of the dead Penrod employees were from Louisiana and Mississippi
