Port Bidding Lack Laid to 'Tight Cash' Plaza Pays Third Cash Dividend Oakland Ate Tribune April 12,1966 LEANDRO The 000 pay-as-you-go downtown plaza redevelopment project returned its third annual cash dividend last night when County Auditor Eugene V. Waring sented the city a $22,472 check. The refund brings to $53,701 the tax increment on the fiveblock area the city set out to improve in 1960 after rejecting rederal. and state aid. Private enterprise has invested more than $1 million in the area by remodeling and improving business property.
The increment this year is more than $5,000 higher than last year and William C. Rugg, redevelopment director, said the return next year will be even greater in view of extensive upgrading of property in recent months. In other action, the council approved planning commission recommendations, with slight modifications, for a new T-1 and T-2 zoning to control development in the vicinity of the two rapid transit stations. The council set an executive session for April 25 to fill vacancies on the planning commission and Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District board. They will replace John L.
Castro, who, resigned after four years on the planning board to take a trip to Europe, and Howard Bronstein, who was chairman of the mosquito board when he died March 27. Accused Slayer Is Ruled Sane MARTINEZ Theodore R. Knox, 45, yesterday was declared legally sane to assist in his defense for allegedly murdering a Concord woman and attempting to murder his wife. Following the declaration by Superior Judge Robert J. Cooney, Knox, of 2751 Broadmoor Concord, pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity to the charges.
Judge Cooney appointed two psychiatrists to determine whether Knox, steelworker, was insane at the time of the shooting. A report is due when he is tried May 9. He is accused of murdering Mrs. 1 Helen Frazier, 40, of 1821 Second and attempting to kill his estranged wife, Mrs. Bernice Mae Knox, 35, of 2751 Broadmoor Ave.
Police said the two women drove into a downtown service station for gas after getting off work at a. nearby restaurant when Knox drove up. Knox got into a family argument and then suddenly jerked open the car door and fired several revolver shots at the women, police said. Ship Union Aide Starts Jail Term NEW YORK (UPI) -Henry F. (Buster) Bell, International Longshoremen's Association vice president, surrendered to federal marshals today and started serving a five-year jail sentence on a jury-tampering conviction.
The 56-year-old Bell, of New York, was convicted in 1964 in Nashville, for tampering with a jury in the 1963 conspiracy trial of James R. Hoffa, head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Oakland port commissioners believe the Federal Government's new "tight money" policy is the reason the Port received no bids on its proposed $4 million apartment project at Jack London Square. The April 4 deadline for bids came and went without any offers from prospective developers. Port commissioners had in mind a development including a high-rise apartment building of from 10 to 15 stories, on a fouracre site the Port owns at the foot of Alice Street, on the Oakland Estuary.
Last December the called for bids. When no bids came, commissioners and Port executives generally felt a federal tightening on loans may have a major factor. Ben E. Nutter, the Port's executive director, recommended that the Port board of commissioners "hold off" on any, decision on the project- whether to scuttle it or to week bids again the money market changes." Commissioner Peter M. Tripp, a banker, moved to table the proposal for two to three months "until the financial picture jells into something substantial." The proposal was tabled.
Civil Suit Charges Prejudice MARTINEZ Superior Judge Richard E. Arnason today has under submission a civil suit alleging that the West Contra Costa Board of Realtors denied membership to a broker because of racial prejudice. William D. Martin, owner of a realty firm at 10749 San Pablo El Cerrito, complained he was voted down a year ago because he is a Negro. His attorney, Joseph R.
Grodin of San Francisco, called two other Negro brokers who testified they were similarly rejected. Grodin drew from Earl W. Cornelius, executive vice president, that none of the board's 124 member brokers is a Negro. His final witness, Bill Jemison, a real estate salesman, testified that "most white brokers do not show Negroes their properties." Jemison is employed by Mira Vista Real Estate, of Richmond, El Cerrito and Pinole, which has filed a separate suit against the board. It is set for trial May 4.
The owner and 23 salesmen, suspended for allegedly violating a board rule prohibiting the posting of "for sale" signs on occupied single family residential properties, even when the owner wishes such a sign, have sued to force reinstatement. Torme Divorce Case Settled LOS ANGELES (AP)-A bitter two-year divorce battle between singer Mel Torme and his ex-wife has ended. Torme announced the settlement Monday and wife, Arlene, received $10,000 cash as ty and $1,000 alimony her share of community properfor eight months. The divorce decrees were awarded in Superior Court Nov. 9.
Torme, 40, assumes all community debts and also retains custody of their son, Tracy, 7. Mrs. Torme, 35, now lives in Pittsburgh. The couple was married Oct. 31, 1956, and separated April 12, 1964.
Tribune photo by From the air this trailer the aluminum roof tops ments from an erector wreck. Actually, it's the people, potted plants Richmond Busing Plan Protested RICHMOND. Petitions against busing students as a means of ending de facto segregation in the Richmond Unified School District have been signed by 10,133 persons and more names are being added daily. That was the announcement of Robert Pelletreau, spokesman for the Citizens Committee for Neighborhood Schools, last night in the final school board hearing on de facto segregation. Pelletreau also said his group is unalterably opposed to unreasonable changes in school attendance areas or collecting all students in one grade in one school.
He listed these reasons: -None of the steps are required by law. -Busing in particular, would impose a tremendous financial burden on the taxpayers. our children around like pawns is an unreasonable imposition on our children that would get them far away from parental guidance and protection." The meeting was called especially to hear the committee, since other meetings have been devoted to Negro groups which have pushed hard for busing. New Staff Job At Peralta College A new Peralta CollegeS staff job, handling all applications for state and federal funds for capital improvements, has been authorized by district trustees. Supt.
Dr. John Dunn said the post has become "an absolute necessity" because of the variety and complexity of state and federal programs and the possibility of financial assistance for the district from them. Passenger Service by SP 'Downgraded' PUC Charges Southern Pacific Railroad is SP has for several years 26-hour Los Angeles-New Orengaged in a cycle of "down-. "consistently downgraded, leans "Sunset" train trip. It grading of service" to de- discouraged the use of and also refuses to take advance crease the number of its pas- eroded the quality of" passen- reservations for this train, the sengers -so it can use the re- ger trains, and asked a feder- PUC said.
sultant low figures to ask per- al investigation of the rail- The downgrading is "part of mission for abandonment of road's service. a systematic plan to passenger trains, the Califor- It charged that on Feb. 26, create intolerable service connia Public Utilities Commis- without notifying the ICC or ditions" the PUC petition sion charged yesterday. any state regulatory body of said, toward ultimate The PUC told the Interstate service changes, SP discontin- tion of all its passenger serCommerce Commission that ued Pullman service on the vice. Hayward Rodeo Set For May 7 HAYWARD Swivel- hipped Brahma bulls and bucking broncos will test the abilities of champion cowboys during the 38th annual Hayward Rodeo, May 7 and 8 at the Harry Rowell Arena in Dublin Canyon east of here.
Nearly 100 of the nation's top cowboys are scheduled to compete in the two day show, Art Palmer, rodeo chairman, announced today. A full schedule of rodeo events, approved by the Rodeo Cowboys Association, will begin at 1:45 p.m. with a colorful grand entry. Wilbur Plaugher, nationally known rodeo clown who began his career at the Rowell Ranch, will handle arena assignments and offer protection to participating cowboys. This year's special attraction will feature Louis Cabral who will perform his hair-raising flaming barrier and Roman hurdles acts with a team of six horses.
Precision drills will be presente by the prize-winning Alameda County Sheriff's Mounted Rodeo stock will be provided by Cotton Rosser and his Marysville Flying Rodeo Company. The annual show is sponsored by the Alameda County Sheriff's Reserve. Tickets may be obtained at the Art Palmer Paint Company, 1426 Grove Way, Hayward; and Rowell Saddle Company, 21012 Redwood Road, Castro Valley. Concord's Cops Want Pay Change CONCORD This city's police officers may join a union unless their pay rate averages are compared with those of larger Bay Area cities. Attorney Maurice Marcus, representing the 67 uniformed officers of the Concord Police Department, said pay scales in San Francisco and Fremont and the California Highway Patrol should be used for comparison rather than smaller cities: as Antioch, Pittsburg and Martinez.
A list of 20 jurisdictions are now being used as comparison base to establish Concord policesalaries. "Some people have got a little excited about stories in the papers about unionism," Marcus said, "but what the men do is their own business; it's not like 40 years ago. If they decide on unionism I'm sure the city, will wish them Godspeed. And affiliation would have nothing to do with their performance of duties." Police spokesmen earlier nounced they felt need to be represented by a professional since they were convinced city personnel officer Theron Nelson represented the city's point of view. Unions apparently under consideration are the teamsters or Local 1675 of the Contra Costa County Employees Association.
Mayor Norman Kestner answered Marcus for the council. He said the proposal must first go before the City Personnel Board, with the council to hear an appeal if any. "We are very aware of the need to hire and keep good workers but we also are concerned with finding ways to pay them," Kestner said. The election eve meeting drew the largest attendance in recent city history. Three times as many people as could be seated jammed the halls.
With several would-be councilmen and their supporters on hand, the council took the usual legislative recourse of shelving several hot issues for two weeks of cooling. Assembly OKs Tax Reform Amendment Tribune Capital Bureau SACRAMENTO The Assembly today approved a proposed constitutional amendment which would establish special property tax appeals boards in most California counties. The measure, by Assemblyman John T. Knox, D-Richmond, is part of an assessor reform package now being processed through the legislature. If the Senate approves the amendment, it will be placed on the November ballot for tance or defeat by the electorate.
In most counties, the board of supervisors now is the assessment appeals agency. Search on for Cessna Pilot, Wife: A search by Civil Air Patrol units from Reno, to Stockton started at daylight today for a yellow and white plane piloted by William Frank Miller, Stockton contractor. The plane, a Cessna, is believed down somewhere in the w-covered mountain area Miller had to cross after leaving Reno's airport late yesterday en route for his home. He had stopped there for fuel en route from Provo, Utah. The Western Air Rescue Center at Hamilton Air Force Base said Miller was accompanied by his wife, Katherine.
She is the sister of Henry Gillan of 844 Lexington El Cerrito. The CAP searchers today were operating from Reno and Auburn airports, officers at the Rescue Center said. They are expecting some T-6 planes, former advanced training planes, from Las Vegas and Fraud Case Pair Given Probation MARTINEZ-T southern Alameda county men were placed on probation yesterday in Contra Costa superior court for their part in a grand jury indictment involving furnace repair fraud. Jack T. Day, 67, of 31289 Meadowbrook Hayward, was placed on a year's probation and fined on a charge of conspiracy.
Larry Lovett, 22, of 608 Beatrice San Leandro, was fined $250 and placed on two years' probation on a count of conspiracy. They were two of nine men arrested following indictments by the jury for making false representations about the furnaces owned by county residents. They were accused of telling residents their furnaces were faulty and might cause. injury through fumes and flames. Independent checks found the furnaces to be in good working order.
Salesman hoped to persuade homeowners to purchase new units which cost up to $1,200 each. San Fernando, to join the air search tomorrow. He did not file a flight plan, according to Washoe County Sheriff's Deputy Jan the search will first follow the usual air route Miller would be expected to take, and if unsuccessful will branch out from it: The sheriff's office in Reno has alerted ground searchers.to go into the mountains if the. plane is sighted in their area, Meoli said. In Sonora today, the pilot of another small plane that crash landed in the snowy Sierra told rescuers he lived through the below freezing temperature because he found an unoccupied mountain cabin Sunday night.
William Kizziar, 42, of Exeter, was uninjured when he landed on a bare strip of ground and then plowed into a snowbank near Dodge Ridge. He had run into stormy weather at 6,800 feet and was unable to get out of a box canyon. Another flier, Leonard Strand of Columbia, saw Kizziar walking from his plane's wreckage. Strand dropped food, medicine and clothing to him yesterday, and a search plane headed by the stranded pilot's brother, John, of Los Angeies, reached him later. The bodies of three less fortunate fliers and the wreckage of their light plane were found north of Mariposa near the Tuyesterday in the mountains olumne County line.
They had been missing since Dec. 11. In the plane, which disappeared during a heavy snowstorm while flying from Bakersfield to Sacramento, were W. Millett 47, Eugene, contractor; George Robinson, 43, of Portland, and Paul R. Ganns, 21, of Bakersfield.
Millett was the pilot. Search for the missing Navy patrol plane from Moffett Field that crashed off the Mexican coast on anti-submarine maneuvers Saturday night was can-' celled yesterday. All aboard are believed dead. The body of one of the 11 crewmen was recovered, Navy spokesmen said, with personal flight gear of the missing men. The P3 Orion was on a night exercise with the submarine Bashaw when it crashed, and the sub's crew radioed for help immediately.
The plane's crewmembers are "considered lost at sea in line of duty," the spokesmen said. Russ Reed from plane flown by Warren Boggess, Pacific States Aviation park resembles a mosaic of planned confusion, glinting in the sun -somewhat like metal segset strewn casually on the ground or a train neatly planned complex of trailers, children and and colorful awnings at Concord's Four Corners. 59-Year Marriage Ended by Death BERKELEY Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Jay Gier would have been married 60 years next Oct.
13. They were busy, happy years in which he became known as an engineer, helped rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire and was an official of the War Production Board in World War II, and she was active in musical and club work. They were planning to celebrate their anniversary by flying to the Hawaiian Islands. But the plans were canceled when Mrs. Gier died in her sleep yesterday morning at their home at 2636 Warring St.
She was 86. "She was always so active, never stopped up to the end," said her husband, "from the time she was elected May Queen when she was a senior at Monmouth College in Illinois." As Bess Blackburn she had a 15-year professional musical career in the Wagner Ladies Quartet, which traveled all over the United States from high school days on. She also made many solo appearances. But she gave up her musical career to marry Grier in San Francisco in 1906. The Griers moved to Oakland in 1918, and to Berkeley in 1956.
Grier was at one time assistant chief engineer of the San Francisco street railways. He built the railway in- Alameda, left his WPB post to become regional director of the Civilian Production Administration, and helped form the Contractors Association of Northern California. Graveside services will be held in Monmouth, arranged by the New McNary Chapel of Berkeley. H. Paul Ahrnke MONTEREY-H.
Paul Ahrnke, builder of power houses and an Eastbay resident for many years, is dead at 87. He left his Lake Merritt apartment in Oakland last year to spend his last days on the Monterey Peninsula. He had previously lived in Piedmont, Berkeley and Walnut Creek. Born in Hoboken, N.J., he was graduated as an engineer from the Stevens Institute of Technology. He built power houses in many cities in the United States and in several countries abroad.
Mr. Ahrnke came to the Eastbay in 1918 and was planning engineer for the Creamery Package Mfg. Co. in San Francisco until his retirement in 1939. Surviving are a son, Russell C.
of Oakland; a daughter, Mrs. Ted Durein of Carmel, and two grandchildren. Private burial services were held here today. Ernest H. Haase Funeral services will be Thursday for Ernest H.
Haase, 72, former Oakland resident and longtime employe of the Southern Pacific Railroad who died Sunday. Mr. Haase left Oakland for Vacaville two years ago when he retired from SP. He had joined the railroad in 1924 at the Salt Lake Division, worked a short time in Tucson, then came to Oakland in 1947. He was a bridge and building supervisor.
Survivors include his widow, Gladys, and a son, Mark, of Glendora. He was a veteran of World War a member of A.F. A.M. Shenandoah Lodge, Iowa, and a 32nd degree Mason. Services will be at 1 p.m.
at the Charles P. Bannon Mortuary; 6800 14th St. George V. Walker Private family services will be held tomorrow in Walnut Creek for retired Navy Capt. George V.
Walker. Capt. Walker, 85 Byron Drive, Pleasant Hill, died Sunday in an Oakland hospital. He was 62. A native of California, Capt.
Walker was graduated from Hastings College of the Law in 1927 and entered into practice with his father in Oakland, He joined the Navy in 1929 as an aviation cadet, served two years and then returned to his law practice. Survivors include his wife, Dorothy, three sons, George V. II of Pleasant Hill, Richard E. of Mountain View; two brothers, Dr. Albert T.
of Seattle and Laurens of Paradise; and two sisters, Mrs. Veola Hyde of Spokane, and Mrs. Caro Sovulewski of West Orange, N.J. Harriet Smith Private services will be held tomorrow for Harriet Smith, 91, daughter of pioneer settlers in Lafayette and granddaughter of Aaron Melone, the state's controller general in 1858. Mrs.
Smith died Saturday after a long illness. She. was the widow of Simeon Smith, longtime traffic manager of the Maxwell Hardware Co. and a chatrer member of the Oakland Traffic Club. Survivors include three daughters, Mrs.
Ford Weissel of 2933 Greenlee Drive, Mrs. Eric Johnson of New Canaan, Conn. and Mrs. Alfred Ritterbush of Shell Beach, and a sister and two brothers, Mrs. Edward Keefe, Edgar and Fred Thomson, One- Way Dana St.
Traffic Approved BERKELEY The city council, acting as the Urban Renewal Agency, has abandoned a proposed three and one half block street in favor of making Dana Street southbound, to ease circulation the one way, south campus renewal area. The change last night at the third of seven scheduled public hearings was designed to appease Sather Gate Merchants who had opposed the new street. The merchants recommended the Dana Street southbound route "to the most reasonable conjunction" with Telegraph Ave. OPPOSITION PERSISTS Merchant opposition to. the new street persisted even when a compromise offered board added street south members proposed ending, the Avenue.
Merchants contended it was "not aesthetically correct" for the area because the street would "tunnel" under proposed parking structures to be built above it, and that the majority of structures on Telegraph Avenue would not have access to it. In connection with the Dana Street decision, the agency instructed staff members to estimate the cost of acquiring enough of the property immediately north of Dwight Way to en- able widening of Dwight Way between Dana and Telegraph. The Dana proposal, introduced by Councilman Roy Harris, is also designed to eliminate encroachment on residential areas while keeping within the south campus project boundaries. Dwight Way is the southern boundary. NEW TRAFFIC LANE Under the plan, one traffic lane is to be added to Dwight Way between Dana and Telegraph.
In order to do this land immediately to the north of Dwight Way must be obtained from the University of California. Agency staff members were directed to explore, projected parking sites and combination parking-apartment structures to be located between Bancroft Way and Durant Ave. east and west of Telegraph between Durant and Channing west of Telegraph, and West of Telegraph between Haste and Dwight Way. Staff members are to submit recommendations on undergrounding of parking structures; whether U.C. will agree to combination parking dormitory structures and the feeling of merchants toward the projected parking areas.
Soap Box Derby Track Dedicated FREMONT -City officials, Lions Club members and American Soap Box Derby officials from Detroit dedicated a foot track yesterday for use by Bay Area racers. The new soap box derby track is two miles east fo Fremont near the intersection of Mission of Mission Pass Freeway and Andrade Road. The three Fremont Lions Clubs have been working for years to bring the soap box derby to the area, and recently were awarded an official fran-1 chise. It covers Alameda, San Mate Contra Costa, Santa Clar Marin and Monterey counties. The track is being built similar to the All American Soap Box Derby Track at Akron, Ohio.
It will have a 975-foot down slope and a run out. The paved track, 30 feet wide, will have three lanes. The winner of the Bay Area race July 16 will receive a $500 U.S. Savings bond, a trophy and a paid trip to the national finals in Akron. Racing is open to boys 11 to 15 years old..
