The Desert Sun from Palm Springs, California • 3

-V I 4 I-' s' I 1 4 the Desert Sun Inside: Across the valley A4 6-7 On the record A5 News from back homeA8 10 A3 FRIDAY April 28 1989 Keith Carter Managing Editor News: 325-8666 Power plant foes cite smog risk i I I 1 By JEFFREY POTTS Staff writer Despite millions of dollars in modifications to a proposed waste-fueled power plant near Mecca opponents still claim it will pollute Coachella Valley air Supporters of the Colmac Energy Inc plant however said the $100 million plant has been scrutinized unfairly since its site was shifted from Coachella to Indian land The county and eight other cities in the valley remain opposed to the plant said Les Cleveland executive director of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments Reaction to the plant came Thursday one day after a ruling by the Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco The ruling gave El Centro-based Colmac the go-ahead to construct the plant pending a settlement on whether the plant will be monitored by the South Coast Air Quality Management District or the federal Environmental Protection Agency The plant would be built on the Indian reservation land owned by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians At the heart of the controversy is bow the agricultural waste-burning plant will affect the air quality in the valley Colmac has said four reviews including one done by the county have concluded there would be no significant air quality impact The company has said it will invest millions of dollars to purchase state-of-the-art emission control devices and engineering from the University of California Los Angeles will be a major new source of pollution She said emissions from the plant will increase the ozone level in the valley Ozone is an invisible gas that impairs breathing The valley ozone level exceeded national standards for 30 days in 1987 Figures for 1988 were not available John Paul Nichols tribal administrator for the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians said he believes the plant will not be a polluter Nichols said Colmac compared its project with the proposed Sun-terra resort project in Indian Wells and found air emissions that Sun-terra would create just from traffic would a far greater impact than this plant ever will" The proposed Sun terra project a major resort complex would include four hotels two golf courses as well as shops and restaurants Nichols said suspicion by county and local officials that Colmac moved the plant site to circumvent stricter air emission standards has stymied the approval process has no edge environmentally on Indian land" he said are meeting every substantive rule that would apply if it were on county The 45 megawatts of electricity generated by the plant will be sold to Southern California Edison The company in turn wi 11 feed the electricity into 50000 homes daily Household recycling gains momentum Senator skeptical on Imperial prisons SACRAMENTO The chairman of the prison committee is skeptical about a plan to build two state prisons in Imperial County Sen Robert Presley D-River-side said he would favor one new prison in the county but is unhappy with the Department of Corrections' decision Wednesday to build two one at Calipatria and a second at Mount Signal a small community eight miles west of Calexico and two miles north of the Mexican border too hot there for staff and inmates and it's too far for people to go to visit" he said Officers search for clues to fatal crash BANNING Three days after Walter Karl Schulz 29 of Thermal lost control of his car and swerved into the center divider of Interstate 10 investigators said they didn't know what caused the fatal accident Schulz was driving east along MO east of San Gorgonio Avenue at 2:50 pm Monday when the accident occurred CHP Officer Bob Siaz said A small van driven by Michael Lynn 61 of Morongo Valley struck the wreckage Lynn was uninjured Schulz who suffered multiple injuries died in surgery Monday at Loma Linda University Hospital a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Coroner's office said Candlelight march ceremony slated PALM SPRINGS A candlelight march in memory of the Holocaust and its victims is scheduled for 7:30 pm Sunday The Holocaust Memorial Committee of the Jewish Federation of Palm Springs is sponsoring the event which will culminate with memorial ceremonies at 8 pm Marchers will meet at the Bank of America parking lot at Tahquitz Way and Belardo Road The ceremonies will be at the Jewish Community Center at Temple Isaiah 332 Alejo Road Desert Hot Springs accident victim dies INDIO A Desert Hot Springs -man who was critically injured lin an April 1 auto accident died Desert Hospital in Palm Springs a spokesman for the TRiverside County Coroner's officc said Thursday Hector Mecca Sr 69 died Saturday from multiple injuries He -was injured in an accident at Cactus Drive and Seventh Street -in Desert Hot Springs students to attend conference Students from seven Coachella IValley schools will visit Riverside Saturday to talk with other Students on issues ranging from and abortion to gangs land peer pressure I The students will be partici-3ating in the annual Secondary -Youth Conference for Riverside middle schools at Gage Middle School About 900 students from 32 middle schools are registered for 3he conference said Benjamin 3aull assistant principal at Wilson Middle School in Indio and 3routh conference consultant Pauli said three schools in Dessert Sands Unified School District nd four in Coachella Valley X'nified School District will send jtudents to the event Colmac officials are expected to reach a settlement with the county the EPA and the air quality management district to allow the district to regulate the plant That agreement could come as early as today officials said On Indian land the plant would fall in the jurisdiction of the EPA But Colmac has said it would agree to a Riverside County request that the air quality management district regulate the plant Despite those assurances Emily Nelson an environmental consultant for the county said she still believes the plant will add significant pollution to the valley "We are definitely going to experience more pollution from this Nelson said She has a doctorate in environmental science Sandy Geyer manager of the Rancho Mirage Mobile Home Park has a few concerns but supports Uu effort think a good idea as long as homeowners participate and 1 don't have a problem with broken glass or She was concerned about broken glass in the street because the park has opened to families She noted that the bins unlike regular trash cans do not have covers when it opens in September were in San Diego to find candidates for 80 district openings that must he filled for the fall "If we didn't recruit we wouldn't get enough applications to fill the openings we said James Workman the district's director of personnel services The district's enrollment is growing at a rale of 12 percent a year District officials are planning to open two new schools annually to keep pace By June the district will haw sent recruiters to almost all of Southern California's universities Besides filling jobs recruiting l' A i PETER WU Staf t'-rou'aphpr READY TO RECYCLE: Elmer Mercer stands in front newspapers aluminum and glass The city district his Rancho Mirage home with recycling bins tor buted the plastic bins Thursday to some res dents Rancho Mirage residents join in trial program By MARLENE MORGENSTERN Staff writer RANCHO MIRAGE Plastic bins were distributed to some residents Thursday as part of a three-month trial recycling program The program which will cost the city $7000 was approved last month by the City Council First pickups will be made on Monday If successful the effort could be expanded city wide Recyclable material will be sorted into three bins: one for newspapers one for glass and plastic and one for aluminum and cans "This program has been very successful in Palm Desert as well as many other California cities" Councilwoman Lee Karr said ton of recycled newspaper saves the lives of 17 trees This is combined with the fact that it gives a partial solution to the landfill and waste disposal crisis in our country" Bins were distributed Wednesday to all mobile home parks two country clubs and 100 single-family homes at the north end of the Magnesia Cove area The program was planned by the city's staff and Palm Desert Disposal which provides trash collection service in the city Rancho Mirage will pay $2000 for publicity and will split the $10000 cost of the program with Palm Desert Disposal think it's Rancho Palms Mobile Home Park homeowner Elmer Mercer said guess I think it'll help if they can recycle it and not dump that stuff in the However not everyone is enthu- War to hire By TERRY SPENCER Staff writer SAN DIEGO Tearhers especially good ones are a commodity in demand Faced with exploding enrollments and aging faculties California school districts are engaged in a recruiting war for the best and the brightest graduates of the state's universities The latest recruiting skirmish was fought Thursday at San Diego State University where 58 districts including Palm Springs Unified presented themselves to 900 future teachers at an education job fair siaslic about the program Rancho Palms manager Richard White has heard no response from park residents but is not enthusiastic about the idea were told to do it' he said the containers were dumped on us yesterday I'm anxious to see if it will work" He believes this is the city's job not the residents' responsibility doing their work" he said doing ail the separating" of the trash in valley Palm Desert plans to boost recovery effort By REZENDES-HERRICK Staff writer FALM DESERT Oily officials will examine ways to expand a pilot residential recycling program to include commercial and industrial trash recovery The City Council Thursday night unanimously appro I'd the concept of building upon the program's early successes pilot program is to sec if the community wants to participate" said John Wolmuth the administrative aide who coordinates the program it isn't a success then we can say the community isn't ready lor this Rut the opposite is happening" The program began in January in cooperation with Waste Management of the Desert holder of the city's refuse-collect ion franchise In the first month residents separated 53 tons of plastic glass tin and newspaper i nto containers and put them at their curbsides The second month the total went to nearly 64 tons and the growth is continuing Most beginning recycling programs shoot for participation rates of 40 percent to 60 percent of the residents Falm Desert's rate is hitting 80 percent of the households in the test areas got participation rates that San Jose and lrvi ne are jealous of Wolmuih said The city has been a pproached by businesses to expand the program for commercial serv i ce landscapers have asked the city to get into vegetation recycling through compost disposal and restaurants have responded favorably to overtures for commercial glass recycling he said The move would be an attempt to decrease the city's st ream of solid waste to dumps opera ted by Riverside County While residential participation is encouraging Wolmuth said the program is making little more than a dent in the refuse totals Woman stops bandits from stealing money Staff raports PALM STRINGS Two men were arrested as suspects in attempted robbery of a woman who fought off an attat-ker as she walked to the bank with a bag of money Roland Taylor 43 of Palm Springs and Richard Apodaca 41 of Banning were arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery police said Both men were held in Palm Springs jail Thursday night on $20000 bail each The woman whose name was withheld was a bookkeeper for a gas station She was walking to Security Pacific Bank 750 Palm Canyon Drive at 9 55 am when two men drove up alongside her One man got out of the car and tried to take the money bag but was unsuccessful police said The men fled the scene The victim wu able to give officers a description of the vehicle and the suspects Later Thursday morning officer Mitch Spike saw a car matching the description at Tamarisk Lane and Miraleste Court and arrested Taylor and Apodaca hot teaching prospects heats up And more important the desert has an ant problem she said what I worried about is the hugs ants I think it 11 work out tine I hoping' Bins are colored for different uses Dark green bins are for newspapers only Yellow bins hold plastic and glass bottles or jars Residents should rinse clean the jars and remove the lids Lighter green bins will he for aluminum and Tin cans Tin cans also should he rinsed improves the quality of ihe teachers hired officials sdul "It makes it so we don I have to hire everyone who Snicker said And in the long run it saves money beginning teacher costs the district $35000 a year in salary and benefits" said John Nelson assistant superintendent for business services a 35-vear career a teacher will cost the district more than $1 million It makes sense financially to have quality people" A lot of other districts also are beginning to feel that way In math it scored a 191 up from a 188 Mitigating circumstances were listed for the district in the state report including an extremely high number of non-English-speaking students and the low average education level of their parents attribute the improved reading scores to more writing more discussion and more emphasis on literature in the classroom Principal Christine Hoffman said Hoffman said she anticipates further improvement In future years as a result of the school district implementing a new language arts next year part of the program we'll be using different textbooks that emphasize literature she said Test results credited to Thermal Airport officials sky-high on master plan talk to them a little bit about our openings and if they seem like somebody we might like to hire we invite them to said Darryl Stuckcr principal of Palm Springs High School Today's demand for teachers is a dramatic change from the 1970s when districts were laying off teachers and graduates were entering a glutted market Because so many districts need teachers university job fairs have become a battleground for recruiters Stucker and Diana Pichierri who will be principal at Desert Springs Middle School in Desert Hot Springs which owns the airport has taken the Coachella to court for residential development in Coachella that the county claimed would interfere with air traffic Palm Springs Regional Airport the largest in the Coachella Valley now has the area's longest runway 8500 feel Thermal's two runways measure 5000 feet Growth will be enhanced at the Thermal Airport Brown said not only by the proposed expansion but also by establishment of the Thermal Airport Enterprise Zone Assembly Bill 887 Introduced in the state Legislature by Assembly-men Steve Clute D-Riverside and Bill Bradley R- Escondido will be heard in the Revenue and Tax Committee on Monday Brown said By CHRISTINE MAHR Staff writer COACHELLA School officials credited greater emphasis on reading writing and math in the classroom for Coachella Valley High School's improved scores on state tests this year Results of the 1987-88 California Assessment Program test for 12th-graders were released by the state Department of Education this week Although Coachella Valley Unified School District remained in the bottom 5 percent of districts In the state based on students' scores reading and math scores of Coachella Valley High School 12th-graders were up slightly from the previous year The district scoped a 195 in reading up from 191 For the record The women in a photograph accompanying Fran Benes' Social column in Thursday's Living Section were incorrectly Identified 1 Pat Mannino chairman of the Xspana 1989 golf tournament at The Club at Momingside was hown presenting awards to pverall net winners Dorothy lorelli and Cheryl Athan The policy of The Desert Sun Is to correct errors of fact promptly and courteously If you nave a correction or clarification please call our city desk at 325-8666 fetaff and wire reports By NADINE RIVERA Staff writar COACHELLA Thermal Airport has the possibility of becoming the largest airport with the longest runways in the Coachella Valley Bill Brown told a Coachella Chamber of Commerce Mayor's Luncheon audience Thursday Brown is president of the Friends of Thermal Airport and manager of La Quinta Air Services which provides fuel and other services for corporate and private aircraft using the airport He said a task force now working on an airport master plan is making every effort to align the runways so planes fly over industrial and agricultural areas and avoid residential areas In the past Riverside County I I.