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HARRISBURG, ILLINOIS • 35CWEDNESDAY,■ .* V ■ *. .V.'.'.V.V.V'. . ’ \ .V.W.*.V.V-.'.’.•.V.'.V.'.V.*. . • V ' ‘■■ ■. ,sv. '.v/’A'.v. -* •** ■ • . -. .w.*. •• ••... ....... .... .. ....'..... ..... n.. .................. ..... ....... .......... ..... ...... ■AUG. 26,1992 © Vol. 78, No. 49.’.V. . . . ...BUSINESS...,.Durable goods• ....... •....... ..»..... . .,...... ....SVA’.'.'.V.V.-.'.V.V.' V V.'.-.V.V.V.V.-.i'.V..VM. ■. A* .... . .. A ■ •. ..., - -a■SV* * *7*-■ V«x........w.\v. ■.... ■.... ■...■...■ v.'.'.v.v.-.'.... ...., ■•'.vX-x-;,.•..,2... ■,v.y.' • ■ . ...***« « *« «** «*;**9.,... . ........ ...... ,ClassifiedSgsv.syv.'.;.v.sv.v.-.v.v.vf—mrnmmmmm■ in..——■ ■■I. ■X LU /.SpolleisilllliBack in the 'Dome, the Astros lose to the Cardinals..*■ v. ,vv. .v.vo'.\v.v v '.y.v.y.;..y.;.y ■'• v V *.y. V.*._ ' v , \ ■ ; r—Sports, Page 6... *. ■, *MU. _ .....W.;.V. ••• •.-.• v.VAV.V.W,-.■ V.W.-.... ......,.. ..........Meeting calledconcerned parentsschoolchildrenJiii mi ii ■Associated Press WriterFRANKLIN. La.Hurricane Andrew threwsissippi River at St. Francisville, north of Baton Rouge, and a ferry was dispatched to rescue six crew members who were in the water, police said.I By CURTIS WINSTON]^■StaffWrJter^BA group of concerned parents will be getting together tonight to discuss the teacher’s strike that has postponed the start of schoolin Harrisburg.The meeting will be held at 6 tonight at the big baseball diamond at Harrisburg Park.If the meeting is like a gathering held during the teachers’ strike in 1990, it will feature people calling for both the teachers’ union and the Board of Education to end the strike and get back to the business of educating thechildren.No end is in sight to the strike, which is in its sixth day today. A bargaining session was held Monday, with both sides coming away from the table in a stalemate over contract language, salaries and insurance.Both the Harrisburg Education Association and the Board of Education have called on each other to initiate further negotiations.The last offer from the board was a three-year contract offeringraises of $400, $550 and $600each year. The board also proposed a $40 increase in insurance benefits.Contract language dealing with hiring for vacant positions also was proposed by the board,with the union giving up its allrights to extra-duty positions and exclusive rights to teaching positions.HE A wants the 21-year-old vacancy hiring clause kept intact. It restricts the board to hiring only internal applicants for vacant teaching and extra-duty positions.HEA’s last offer on salaries was a three-year contract of a $1,850 raise this year followed by 6.75 percent increases the following two years. HEA also wants the board to pay 100 percent of its insurance.No more bargaining sessions have been scheduled as Unit 3’s 2,300 students continue an extended summer vacation.its deadly fury into the heart of Louisiana, striking only a glancing blow at New Orleans before heading deep into Cajun country today. It weakened as it moved inland but still pounded towns and fields with hurricane-force wind.The storm, already labeled the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history with damage put at more than $15 billion, added plenty to the bill it ran up earlier this week in Florida and the Bahamas.“We’re really in bad shape,’’ Mayor Emmett Hardaway of Berwick said this morning after Andrew moved through. “I’d venture to say this is the worst damage Berwick has ever seen in a hurricane.”“It’s a lot worse than I though it would be.”Evacuees from the south-central Louisiana town, population 4,000, are being told not to return home because “we’ve had such damage here, there’s nothing to come back to right now,” Hardaway said.There were no immediate reports of deaths in Louisiana, but the toll in Florida, which Andrewraked Monday, rose to 15 today. There were also three deaths confirmed in the Bahamas.As Andrew moved inland, it flooded roads, uprooted trees, tore off huge limbs and started power lines popping throughout the region. A tornado spun off by the storm ripped through a New Orleans suburb, and 30 people were reported injured.Several hundred homes were inundated in coastal Terrebonne Parish, said sheriff s Lt Morris Duplantis. Residents had been evacuated as Andrew approachedThe water in the river is so rough that ‘ ‘they say it looks like the Gulf of Mexico in the Mississippi River,’ ’ said state police spokesman Capt. Ronnie Jones.Tens of thousands of people rode out the stormin shelters and boarded-up homes. But shelterswere not all unscathed.“This house is falling apart around me,” said Ken Perry, manager of an airport in Patterson, 60miles west of New Orleans. “I’m standing in water right now in the house, and we’re 10 feet above sea level.”A high school in Patterson where 120 people took refuge lost its roof to the wind, said Sheriff Huey Bourgeois of St. Mary Parish. He said noone was hurtThe hurricane’s leading edge came ashore about 11 p.m. CDT and scraped along Louisiana’s coast, a marshy area dotted with cypress trees,Spanish moss and fields of sugar cane. The storm center came ashore four hours later, 55 miles south-southeast of Lafayette.In Franklin, a town of 22,000 some 40 miles southeast of Lafayette, Bourgeois said the losses to cane farmers would be severe.As the storm passed near Baton Rouge, power was knocked out at the state Capitol and offices were running on emergency generators. A flash flood closed a section of Interstate 110.At 10 a.m. CDT, the center was about 25 mileswest of Baton Rouge, and the storm was movingnorthward about 8 mph. Its top sustained winds had dropped to 75 mph. When it came ashore, it had winds of 140 mph and gusts of 160 mph were4 ‘Loss of energy from the warm gulf waters is going to kill this thing. It will die a slow andpainful death,” said Roger Edwards, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center.Forecasters warned of inland flash floods, but the threat of storm surges on the coast subsided.Up to 10 inches of rain were possible.‘‘The rain was whipping really bad. We could see it, but you couldn’t see outside because the rain was hitting the window in sheets,” said Junius Crochet, assistant police chief in Morgan City.A tornado cut a swath seven miles long through LaPlace, a town of nearly 20,000 people 20 miles west of New Orleans. Nine homes and some offices were destroyed, said Arnold Labat, St. John the Baptist Parish presidentthe north, a tugboat was sinking in the Mis- reported, the weather service said.By NICK MARIANO Staff WriterOfficers of the Saline County Sheriff’sDepartment left for a drive this morning toNevada.Leaving at 7:40 a.m. with Sheriff GeorgeHenley were deputies Jerry Linsay and William Summers and Captain David Underwood. The four are driving to Nevada to escort auto theft suspect Joe W. Jordan, whosigned a waiver of extradition Tuesday afternoon, back to Saline County.Jordan, 19, was arrested Friday, Aug. 21, in Nevada when the vehicle he was driving, a 1989 Ford Mustang belonging to murder victim Ralph Thompson, ran out of gas in Austin, Nev. Jordan asked a gasoline attendant for assistance who then called Nevada authorities to see if he could get help forJordan.They ran a check on the car and discovered an all-points-bulletin had been issuedon the car.Thompson, 54, of Carrier Mills, wasshot three times and killed Aug. 11. His body was discovered two days later covered in a quilt by a neighbor passing his home. It was then that the sheriff’s department discovered the car missing.In addition to the charge of auto theft, Jordan has also been charged with residential burglary and theft of Firearms. Furthermore, Jordan is suspected to have knowledge about the death of Thompson, who waskilled with the two weapons allegedly stolen by Jordan, police say.Police anticipate the trip to take six days,and they are expected to arrive back in Illinois early next week. Before leaving for the desert state, the sheriffs department arranged with other jails along their path back to Illinois to house Jordan during the evening hours while the officers rest tor thenightThey will also be driving the Mustang back to the county as evidence.In other developments, Gary Gene Reed, who was arrested in East Prairie, Mo., after turning himself in to authorities for a charge of auto theft by possession, posted $500 bond and released Monday of this week. Bond was originally set at $2,500, but ithad been reduced with the provision that if he fails to appear in court, then a waiver of extradition will automatically apply withouthim having to sign the waiver.Reed was staying at his grandmother’s home in East Prairie where Jordan was reportedly staying with him following themurder.“There’s nothing left but splinters,” Lucille Perilloux, 46, said of her home. “All I heard was a loud, loud noise. I turned to go into the house andit picked me up and threw me. It rolled me across the ground, almost to the street.’ ’Thirty injured people were taken to River Parishes Medical Center, which was without power, said hospital spokeswoman Rose McDuffie. She said three of them, all seriously hurt,were being taken to New Orleans-area hospitals.Parts of Grand Isle, a 7-mile-long barrier island 110 miles south of New Orleans, were under water, and power was out. The 1,452 residents had left in the fust wave of evacuations Monday.In all, at least 200,000 people in the southeast part of the state were without electricity this morning, with that number expected to increase as reports from south-central Louisiana came in.Bridges across the Mississippi River were closed south of Natchez, Miss., about 200 miles north of New Orleans, because of high wind.See ANDREW, Page 4Economic development: ‘Where do we go from here?’The Department of Commerce and Community Affairs recently felt the brunt of sweeping decreases in its funding.The Southern Illinois Coalition is concerned that Southern Illinois will be dramatically impacted by these decreases and see a substantial decline in service and economic support.The funding problem creates a host of issues facing Southern Illinois that must be addressed and cannot be ignored.The coalition will hold its annual meeting Aug. 27 at 9:30 a.m. at John A. Logan College, Batteau Room to discuss its goals and directions in view of the budget cuts.“I Saline County Industrial%Development ('ompanv directors talk economic development.—Pam? 12HARD LABORJakes and Kevin Vinmatesall under the watchful eye nant. (Nick Mariano photo)Inmates pay back society with sweatBy NICK MARIANO HStaff Writer*It was polluted, it was dirty, trees grew there where they were unwanted, parking blocks were deserted evident by decaying paint, but the lot behind the former Channel 3 building is now clean.Thanks to a pilot program involving Saline County convicts behind in paying their fines to society.Four inmates have been working for the county, pulling weeds, painting and cutting trees since July 22 paying back fines they owe with the $4.25 an hour they earn for their full-time work.Otherwise, those fines may never be paid, according to Capt. David Underwood, Saline County jail administrator.“Fines have been a serious problem in the county for a long time. They have no desire to pay those fines. This way, the fines are being paid back with hard labor,” Underwood said.Jeff Ward, Kevin Wallace, Mike Jakes and one other inmate who wished not to be named, have been working seven hours a day, five days a week, ‘‘paying back their debts to society, with sweat,” as Underwood describes the payment“If the\ doni work, (hen%the\ lt;hack to jail. Tlu\\can cither sit in a cell, or the\ can he outside work-in ii.* *—( apt. Da\id I nderwood. Saline lt;oiintv jail administratorBut the difference between this program and other public service work is that the inmates are working under the watchful eye of jail personnel to ensure that theydo work.“If they don’t work, then they go back to jail, Underwood directed. “They can either sit in a cell, or they can be outside working,” something in this country one needs to do to survive, Underwood explained.So, not only are the county and crime victims being paid back for crimes against them, but inmates are being rehabilitated, either by them being able to say, “Hey, I can do this,” or by embarrassing them at the sites where they may have violated the law.“You’re not coins: to rehabilitate a person in the pen. That’s a last stop. (Thework program) is going to embarrass themas people drive by. He’s not going to do it again. It’s a deterrent,” Underwood said.Since the program began, Harrisburg has received the benefit of this program; but, it being in its infant stage, Underwood said he would like to see the program expand into other municipalities, so all of the county can benefit.However, the jail does not want to eliminate other people’s jobs with its inmates, therefore, he said, the jail staff will check with businesses and cities before choosing a site.“When the new jail is built,” Underwood began, “I’d like to do this on a monthly basis. A month in Harrisburg, a month in Eldorado, a month in Carrier Mills, so everyone can benefit.”So far, according to Underwood, the public looks favorably upon the work program.And the inmates, they don’t seem to mind the work. Corrections officei HarryHinant, supervising the four Tuesday afternoon under a humid blanket of sweat, said, “They’re a hard working bunch, they’re doing a pretty good job.”The coalition recognizes that economic development issues facing southern Illinois will only become worse if action is not taken now by our legislators.All candidates for state senator and state representatives in districts that cover the Southern Illinois Coalition’s 20 coun-tieshave been invited to participate in a panel discussion of economic development issues.The topic of the discussion is “Where Do We Go From Here In Economic Development In Southern Illinois?” Candidate will have five minutes each to present their positions and directions for economic development.Following the presentation, the coalition will question candidates on their presentations. Candidatse will have three minutes each to respond and may refuse to respond if they choose. Time permitting, memebers of the audience will have a chance for their questions to be answered.All concerned citizens are urged to attend this important meeting to determine the position and direction our candidates have for economic development in Southern Illinois and the direction the coalition will take.
Newspaper Details
Harrisburg Daily Register
Harrisburg, Illinois, US
Wed, Aug 26, 1992
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Kat G.
NA, NA 20 Jan 2023
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