Robesonian (Newspaper) - March 8, 1982, Lumberton, North Carolina Temperatures high 55 Low 33 degrees Noon today 56 THE ROBESONIAN Call 7394322 Have your Robesonian delivered at home VOL 19 ESTABLISHED 1870 COUNTRY GOD AND TRUTH LUMBERTON NC MONDAY MARCH 81982 PUBLISHED AND SUNDAY IN COUNTY FOURTEEN PAGES Price If Cents INSIDE TODAY Loan Cosigners Beware Tight credit has forced a growing number of people to turn to friends and relatives for help in borrowing money But cosigning a loan could leave you heavily in debt if the borrower defaults Page 2A Busy Weekend A shooting death burglary a search for a missing per son and a fire produced a busy weekend for law enforce ment officers in the county during the weekend Page IB Hard Time Ahead Students at Robeson Technical College who are receiv ing federal aid may face tougher times due to the cutback by the federal government Page IB News Alligator Visit WILMINGTON AP Some Wilmington children got a realistic preview of the movie Alligator Sunday when an gator crawled out of a storm drain near an apartment complex A parent called the police who in turn notified North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission officers who captured the alligator and released him near the Holly Shelter Game Preserve in Pender County without inci dent Faircloth a parent who lives in the Summerhill Apartment complex said several children told their parents there was an alligator in a drain about 2 pm It was so weird because everyone was standing around talking about the alligator movie on television tonight said Faircloth noting that the movie Alligator was to be shown on ABC television Sunday night Wildlife officer Tony Williams guessed that the alligator had been living in nearby Greenfield Lake where the storm drain empties He said the gator probably had been hibernating in the drains during the winter and had emerged because of the recent warm weather Residents of the area have reported sighting an alligator at times during the past four years Williams said the alligators normally do not attack peo ple Theyre not aggressive until people start messing with them he said TV Lawsuit RALEIGH AP Owners of a private Raleigh utility company have filed a lawsuit against six local residents and Capitol Broadcasting Co Inc charging that a newscast was false and defamatory Capitol Broadcasting owns In a suit filed in Wake Superior Court Thomas L Bailey and Margaret F Bailey of Baileys Utilities Inc took issue with a Jan 22 newscast about the quality of water the firm provided to a subdivision in Knightdale Steve D Grissom news and communications manager at Capitol Broadcasting declined comment on the suit un til he had a chance to study it Baileys provides water service to subdivisions in Raleigh Knightdale Selma and Garner Eat Your Art BATON ROUGE La AP Rutabaga sculpture green bean and strawberry jewelry collages of tuna fish chocolate pineapple chunks and whipped cream as long as its edible its eligible in a university eat your art out contest The spirit is just to be as tacky as possible But its all in fun explained Susan Davis publicist for the Louisiana State University student unions program department Some people may think that we just want pretty food But what we want is sculpture out of food Any bizarre sort of thing Also jewelry She said no ont is sure what to expect of Thursdays con test but Were hoping to make this a tradition with hun dreds of entries a year Art Advisory Board got the idea from a former staff member now working at Indiana University who sent a flyer about a similar contest there Ms Davis said The staff member Laura Hull described only one entry in a note to her former coworkers said Ms Davis Classified 453 Comics 6 A Editorial 4 A Entertainment IB Obituaries 2A Off Blotter Sports Television 7 A WEATHER Mostly sunny skies and continued cool temperatures are expected to prevail this afternoon with breezy conditions Fair skies and chilly temperatures are expected tonight with lows near freezing Fair and warmer is forecast for Tuesday with highs in the low 60s Winds will be northwesterly at 10 to 20 mph today diminishing tonight The level of Lumber River was measured at 1096 feet this morning Precipitation was recorded at 032 inch in Lumber ton and at 040 inch at the Federal Paper Board reporting sta tion Sunrise and sunset today am and pm Tues day am and pm Nuke Industry Setbacks Pose Future Doubts Tommy Patrick Photo FUTURE DAREDEVIL James Worley may be practicing to become a famous daredevil but most likely hes enjoying a break in the rainy weather His homemade ramp provides just enough lift to get his bicycle airborne WASHINGTON AP Nuclear power advocates who thought better times were coming when Ronald Reagan was elected president are reeling from a string of setbacks that cast new doubt on the future of the in dustry Three of them came last week after the Three Mile Island accident that was the worst in the history of commercial nuclear power The worst news came Thursday when the Tennessee Valley Authority voted 21 to stop building three nuclear reactors The decision leaves in limbo almost half of the nuclear system designed a ago to be the nations largest On the same day the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered a new review of earthquake safety at the Diablo Canyon plant in Califor nia a plant that has been the target of antinuclear forces One day later the NRC voted against the Reagan administrations request to speed up construction of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor The TVA decision means that in the past three years 30 reactors have been canceled or delayed including seven this year And from the viewpoint of nuclear power advocates things could get worse There are 72 nuclear power plants in operation and another 72 under construction not counting the three TVA projects ordered shut down last week But no new applications for plants have been received by the NRC in the past five years The main reason is economics In the late and early 1970s when most of the plants now in operation were built or planned the US economy was expanding by 4 percent to 7 percent a year The demand for power and thus electricity grew accordingly And nuclear power looked good in the as an alternative to OPEC oil But in the past few years while the economy and the resulting demand for power have slowed almost to a halt the costs of building nuclear plants has shot up The rise has been spurred by inflation and more str ingent regulatory review in the wake of various problems such as the Three Mille Island accident See NUKE Page 2A Guatemalan Military Candidate Takes Vote Lead GUATEMALA CITY AP The governments military candidate took the lead today over three civilians in the Guatemalan presidential elec tion after an apparently sizable voter turnout despite a leftist boycott and fears of violence Scattered violence was reported during the voting Sunday but the level ap lower than the daily average in the past year of civil strife between leftist guerrillas and the military dominated rightist govern ment With less than 1 percent of the expected vote tallied the government agen cy in charge of election com said Gen Angel Anibal Guevara had 3928 votes Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre of the Christian Democratic Party and the Na tional Renovator Party coali tion had 2682 Mario Sandoval Alarcon of the National Liberation Movement had 2575 and Gustavo Anzueto Vielman of the Authentic Na Center had 1238 Because of the leftist Police Communications Flap Heads For Council Robesonian Staff Writer Lumberton Mayor Furman K Biggs Jr said today that problems between the Lumberton Police Department and the Lumberton Communications Department boil down to misunderstandings about operational procedures Biggs authorized by the city council to in complaints which have led the council to consider putting the tions branch under police jurisdiction said he believes the problems can be the adoption of a set of formal procedures Both departments have been working on this he said The council meets tonight at at city hall and a consideration of organizational as the issue has been called is included on the formal agenda But observers say the matter may not be raised tonight in order to permit time for pro to be worked out Action was delayed at the last council meeting in order to give Biggs time to in the problems Questionnaires were sent to police officers who were asked to state the details of their complaints and their responses have been received by city hall No specific incidents have been made public and Biggs said this morning that a report may not be forthcoming I may not make a report because its my hope that we can work this out ad he said I have the in formation but I havent compiled any report Its mostly a matter of misunderstandings a little bit on both sides This whole thing has gotten out of hand Sources say the problems reveal per conflicts and a number of varied complaints about a lack of cooperation bet ween department personnel The mayor said he does not plan to make the questionnaires public if the issue can be worked out via administrative procedures The problem has been discussed by the council in executive session In other business tonight the council will decide whether to grant Cablevision a rate increase of 75 cents on the basic rate The company requested the in crease at the last council meeting boycott and the strife in which an estimated 500 people died in January not more than half the 23 million eligible voters were expected to cast ballots But Col Ruben Alvarez manager of said there was substantial attendance at the polls and people arriv ing from two northwestern provinces where leftist guer rilla activity has been heavy reported better than average turnout The president will be selected by Congress from the top two unless one emerges with ma A vice president a new Congress and a number of municipal officers also were being elected Police said gunmen opened fire at a polling place on the southern edge of Guatemala City wounding three people and government troops killed three guerrillas trying to burn ballots in the southwestern village of Vista Hermosa All four candidates who range from right of center to extreme right promised ac tion to end the leftist cy that appears to be growing in this largest most populous Central American country Guevara former defense minister under Lucas Garcia was the candidate of a coali tion made up of the tional Democratic Party which has been in power since 1970 the Revolutionary Party and the National Unity Front The leftists called the elec tion a farce designed by the government to present a facade of popular support The United States has indicated that resumption of US military aid suspended in 1977 because of alleged human rights violations depended on a fair election and a reduction of violence The leftists said they were also boycotting the election because any candidates they put forward would be assassinated by the paramilitary death squads that support the government and operate with impunity parties have held power in Guatemala since leftist President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown in 1954 in a coup Quiet Week Is In Store For Columbia CAPE CANAVERAL Fla AP Now that the loading of two caustic highly combustible propellants aboard the space shuttle is finished technicians should spend a fairly quiet week readying Columbia for its third mission officials said Late Sunday technicians stowed fuel lines and loading equipment that was used to pump two hypergolic propellants into the shuttle The liquids power the engines that maneuver the spacecraft in and out or orbit and a steering system that controls the craft in space according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials By 11 pm Sunday the upper portions of the launch tower at pad had been reopened said Kennedy Space Center spokesman Dick Young The tower was closed Friday when the operation started Next on the checklist was to pressurize helium tanks inside the orbital maneuvering pod said spokesman Mark Hess That process was to be com sometime today he said The helium helps feed the propellants which ignite on contact with the maneuvering devices under See COLUMBIA Page 2A Iran Said Getting Aid From Israel NEW YORK AF Iran is receiving military equipment and arms from Israel North Korea Syria Libya the Soviet Union and several coun tries in Western Europe according to unidentified sources quoted in todays New York Times Between million and million in arms spare parts and ammunition were delivered to Iran from Western Europe in the last 18 months Western intelligence sources told the Times Iran is using the arms to fight its war against Iraq the sources said About half of the arms were reportedly being sup plied or arranged by Israel and the rest by free lance arms merchants some of whom may have connections with Israeli intelligence The arms suppliers are struggling along with the United States for influence over Irans future and over the balance of power in the Middle East Almost all of the arms and equipment supplied by Israel are reportedly but the Times quoted Reagan administration officials as saying the transfer to Iran has not been approved by the US government The arms to Iran by Libya Syria and North Korea are largely of Soviet origin the sources said The Times reported Sunday that the United States is secretly financing paramilitary forces of Iranian exiles operating in eastern Turkey The United States is trying to form a coalition of Iranian exiles and is beaming radio broadcasts into Iran to report on the shortcomings of the Tehran government the Times said The sources said the program was designed to counter growing Soviet influence in Iran and give the United States a significant role in case the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini falters The goal of the program run by the CIA is to build a coalition of exile groups that could help shape the future of the country if given the op An unidentified State Department spokesman said in Washington he was unaware of any secret US aid to Iranian paramilitary groups and that any US help to exiled political groups is in direct
