Yuma Daily Sun, The (Newspaper) - November 30, 1977, Yuma, Arizona ON MARTINEZ LAKE ROAD Driver escapes crash is electrocuted yuMA e tally SUN SUN 14th Issue 75th Year 15 Cents SENTINEL Issue Year Yuma Arizona Wed Nov 30 1977 Frederick Dale Bengel 34 San Diego was electrocuted early this morning when he stumbled over a power line after a traffic crash Yuma County deputies said Bengel was driving a 1970 Ford flatbed truck that hit and sheared off a power pole on Martinez Lake Koad about a west of U.S 95 Deputy Charles Miles said he found no evidence that Bengel was injured in the crash But when Bengel was walking back to the road he ran into a power line that was about waist-high Bengel wasn't shocked when he first touched the line because he was wearing rubber-soled shoes Miles said However when Bengel hit the line he fell forward When his head hit the ground in front of him the electrical circuit was completed and Bengel was electrocuted Miles said CANDIDATES The four city council candidates running in next Tuesday's general election spoke before the governmental affairs forum last night Seated from left are Everette Self Goldie Giss Mary Tellbuescher and Richard Ortega Chatting with them are Burl Stonum standing executive director of the forum and Pat Harvey chairman of the group City candidates ponder What will to lower By DUNCAN OSBORN The Yuma Daily Sun What will each of you do to lower property taxes if you are the four candidates for Yuma City Council were asked at an open forum The answers varied but one thing was None could promise that magic formula that could help swing the 6 general election their way Candidate Richard Ortega blamed the current city tax rate on residential real estate development moving outside the city limits which keeps the city tax base low Most of the developers and real estate people are causing this Ortega noted During his campaign he has been emphasizing the need to fill in vacant city lots with construction The higher tax base he says will lower everyone's city property taxes Mary Tellbuescher responded It city budget is rising but rising unfortunately She noted a rise in the city budget last year and explained that many local people get upset when the city budget gets larger What they don't know is that it was because of more federal Mrs Tellbuescher stated Incumbent councilman Goldie Giss said she feels the property taxes she pays are very unfair However she said the only way citizens will ever get taxes to come for the majority to lodge a complaint With enough pressure then you can see a change The fourth candidate Everette Self explained that only about of the city budget comes from the city property tax levy He said the city could hold down expenses by payroll I don't want to see any wages cut but I think some of our city departments are overstated He suggested not rehiring to fill some city positions when employees leave or retire The four candidates were talking to about 30 persons at the Yuma Chamber of Commerce mental affairs candidate forum at the Holiday Inn at Tuesday evening After a short talk by each candidate the audience showered them with questions until after 9 When asked all four candidates hoped for more cooperation than in past years It's very important for the city and county to work together and be more Mrs Tellbuescher told the group She explained that having identical building codes would lessen problems of conflicting building standards when the city annexes developments built in the county Ortega explained that many problems could be avoided by coordinating city and county building codes and planning When the city annexes developments in the county it should not be stuck with subdivisions built below city standards Mrs Giss said the council in the past has tried to cooperate with the city We have made overtures to the supervisors but we have been rebuffed to put it mildly However she said relations have improved over the past two years She went on to say that all local groups with related interests such as youth recreation should try to work together more I don't think it's entirely the work of the city council But I agree that we need someone to channel all these ideas together Self explained that cooperation is an uphill struggle Some of the supervisors in- terests aren't inside the city of Yuma and they could care he said Self looked forward to the day when the city limits extend far into presently undeveloped county land with growth plans U.S sending representative to peace talks WASHINGTON AP President Carter today announced the United States will send a high-level representative to a mid-December peace conference in Cairo and he called recent contacts a historic breakthrough in the search for a lasting peace in the Middle East Carter told a nationally broadcast news conference that Assistant Secretary of State Alfred L Atherton will head the delegation to the Cairo conference called by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt Carter said the conference is now scheduled for Dec 13 The president said that the im- Driver is cited in fatal crash The driver of the car that struck and killed fin boy Monday has been issued a traffic citation by Yuma County deputies Deputies reported that Fletcher Charles Richardson 26 3645 W 8th St was cited for speed greater than reasonable and prudent Richardson was the driver of a 1967 Buick that struck and Killed David Summers 872 Date Ave in the 3400 block of 8th Street David and another boy were on their way to a Circle K Market Richardson said he was bound and following another car The boy ran out into the street right after the other car passed by him Richardson said Richardson said he applied his brakes but couldn't stop in time Deputies said they estimated the Buick's speed at 45 mph by the car's skid marks Posted speed limit on the road is 35 mph The deputy estimated the accident occurred at about because that's when the Irrigation and Drainage reported that power went out At first it wasn't known that anyone had been killed Bengel wasn't found until an hour and a half later when a crew located the crash scene Bengel was dead at the scene Miles said the truck was bound when it ran off the right side of the road It traveled about 160 feet before hitting the power pole After shearing off the pole it flew about nine feet in the air over a drainage ditch near the shoulder After landing it continued for almost 50 feet more before it came to rest in a desert wash Miles said Bengel apparently got out of the truck and began walking toward the road Bengel stumbled over the power line after walking about 30 feet in the darkness Miles said he can't understand why Bengel tried to walk straight toward the road The deputy ex- that Bengel was an and should have known the dangers of downed high-voltage power lines Miles said if Bengel had circled around before walking toward the road he wouldn't have caught the line Bengel was an employee of American Electrical Construction Corp of La Mesa Calif The firm is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on a project at officials told The Sun this morning the blacked out the Martinez Lake area for nearly 4'-i hours Electricity in the Wellton area also was out for about 30 minutes while workmen switched to another power source body was taken to Yuma Mortuary where funeral are pending Preliminary hearing opens in citrus grove killing A preliminary hearing was held this morning in Yuma Justice Court for a man charged with killing a citrus grove worker and wounding his brother and another man Facing charges of murder assault with intent to commit murder and kidnapping while armed with a gun is Gilbert Centeno Vargas 39 of San Luis Ariz He was arraigned last week for the death of Roberto Luna Magana 53 of Somerton in a citrus grove shooting spree last Wednesday Magana a Golden Y Growers foreman was shot to death in an apparent dispute over a pair of work gloves According to Yuma County Sheriff's Sfjf Dick Hamilton the shooting began shortly after a picking crew arrived at the grove near County 13th Street and Avenue C brother Antonio Luna Magana 42 of Somerton was the most seriously injured of the two other victims in the shooting He was shot twice in the stomach and is reported in satisfactory condition at Yuma Regional Medical Center wounded man sustained a cut on his car when a bullet grazed him Deputies said Vargas was as the gunman who fired at least 10 shots as the Golden Y Growers crew was preparing to go to work He also reportedly forced another workman to drive him to San Luis Ariz after the shooting Four witnesses to the shooting were testify at today's preliminary hearing held before Somerton Justice of the Peace Herman Frauenfelder Present at the hearing were Vargas his at- torney Kirby Kongable and Jose de prosecutor for the county attorney's office Testimony at the hearing was tedious because all questions and answers had to be translated from English to Spanish and back to English If at the conclusion of the preliminary hearing Judge Frauenfelder finds there is evidence in the case Vargas will be bound over to Superior Court for trial Crane recall vote is March 21 4 trustees to run separately An election will be held March 21 to decide if four Crane School Dist trustees will be removed from the board Jon Jessen Jess Baker Karl Dennis and Elizabeth Keddie were notified they could resign instead of facing a recall election However none of the trustees has resigned Persons wanting to run against any of the four members can file petitions between Dec 21 and Jan 20 The opponents must have 51 signatures in order to run This figure is of the highest number of votes received by any candidate in the ast election for Crane School Dist trustees No opponents have yet notified Leon Maehling Yuma County school superintendent of their intention to file petitions Petitions will be available at the office in several days Persons signing the recall petitions can remove signatures from the petitions until Jan 20 A trustee will be removed only if his or her opponent receives a majority of the votes cast in the election for that particular seat Each of the trustees will have a separate ballot with an opportunity to have a statement of defense in- cluded on it The trustees have until Friday to give the statement to Maehling Jessen Baker and Mrs Keddie have turned in statements Dennis has told Maehling he will turn his in by Friday Warren Bartholomew of Crane Citizens for Quality Education said his group will not announce to the trustees until it is sure will not be removed from the recall petitions to stop the election Full employment through federal action is urged by union official portance of the meetings between Sadat and Prime Minister Menahem Begin of Israel is that there has been an initiation of direct to-person negotiations Turning to the U.S role Carter said I think it's much more im- portant to have direct com- between Egypt and Israel than to have us acting as a constant dominant intermediary He further characterized the U.S role as to encourage progress toward negotiations and an over-all We have no control over any nation in the Middle East he said He referred to the difficulty many Arab leaders have in agreeing to direct discussions with Israel after so many years of armed con- and said the United States is taking concrete steps to persuade Jordan Syria and Lebanon to enter the negotiations There is no doubt in my mind that President Assad of Syria wants peace with Israel said Carter There is no doubt in my mind that King Hussein of Jordan wants peace with Israel LOS ANGELES AP The president of the powerful member AFL-CIO Building Trades Department said today that federal action to force full employment is the only cure for the nation's economic ills He also urged union members to turn out of office congressmen who them by opposing labor legislation The issue is not unemployment versus Robert A Georgine told some 500 delegates in an opening address to the convention of the Building Trades Department the most powerful of six departments within the CIO The real issue is whether we can afford not to have full employment The real issue is whether we are willing to spend fax money on unemployment compensation and welfare These expenditures not the costs of federal jobs programs aimed at providing full employment are the biggest contributors to inflation Georgine contended The AFL-CIO leader also criticized Arthur Burns chairman of the Federal Reserve Board for placing too much reliance on monetary policy controlling the supply of money to bring inflation under control In urging union members to a fill B lively work to unseat unsympathetic office congressmen Georgine noted We are directly and indirectly responsible for the fact that there are some real counterfeits in public today High thin morning 11 am temp High today upper mid 70s High tomorrow 11 humidity Average high date low this 47 Forecast for Yuma Some high tin mostly sunny tnd mild today and Thursday good evening WRESTLERS at Arizona Western College opened the home season on a high note Tuesday The Matadors defeated Imperial Valley and Glendale in a pair of dual meets Page 13 PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE is the first step an organization must strive for This was the advice of a public relations consultant to participants at the regional meeting of Parents Without Partners held recently in Yuma Page 9 PRESIDENT CARTER IS AGING according to his friend Charles H Kirbo who said the president looked drawn and tired when he visited with him Page 17 FAILURE RATE of nursing exams has put some com- munity college programs on the trouble list But Arizona Western College's director of nursing tells why she feels there's more to the percentages than meets the eye Page 21 Accent on 25 Doctor 8 25
