Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 30

Decatur, Illinois, Wednesday, June 25, IMS Page A6 Central Illinois- Board increases Roadmaster property value r'y XWM-rl Ml K-s iI8 hc? I 1 1 I The tax appeal board ruled that the Roadmaster property has a fair market value of $4,150,000... Richland County had estimated the fair market value at $13.1 million. about $103,000 from Roadmaster's 1983 tax payment and similar amounts in succeeding years. However, Roadmaster has paid its taxes under protest since the dispute began and the monies cannot be distributed to taxing bodies until the case is settled. Any party may file for an administrative review of the property tax appeal board decision within 35 days.

East Richland School District Superintendent Jerry Ritchey said Tuesday the board of education Monday night instructed him about the state assessment ruling, but he would not reveal the- decision because he had not yet contacted board attorney Tom L. Weber of Olney. Richland County Supervisor of Assessments Donald Foil said Tuesday he doubted the Board of Review would ask for a review because the Property Tax Appeal Board had increased the valuation considerably compared with the company's By DAVE PETRINA Herald 4 Review Staff Writer OLNEY The Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board has raised the value of Roadmaster Corp. property in Robinson for 1983 taxes, but failed to grant much higher values sought by Richland County and the East Richland School District. The tax appeal board ruled June 16 that the Roadmaster property has a fair market value of $4,150,000 and should be assessed at $1,407,680 for tax purposes.

The. assessed value rate in Richland County is equal to about 34 percent of market value. Richland County had estimated the fair market value at $13.1 million and East Richland School District, which intervened in the case in 1984 and hired its own appraiser, estimated the value at $6.1 million. Roadmaster appealed to the Richland County Board of Review in 1983 and then to the Property Tax Appeal Board, alleging the property's fair market value was about $1.4 million. The company claimed an assessed value of about $450,000.

The company based its valuations on two separate appraisals of $1.4 million and $1.3 million, made when the new company purchased the former AMF Wheel Goods Division Inc. in 1982. The school district intervened because a lower assessed value would cut its tax receipts at a time when the district is attempting to overcome a large deficit. The school district was to receive Photo by Cheryl Frank You can trim your beard, but not shave it, in Mount Pulaski, and barber Frank Wade does the honors for Scott McKinney Don't expect a close shave here Family files lawsuit against other driver "It even went so far as having some men dressing as Keystone Cops and arresting those who didn't have a button or worse for those who had shaven," he said, adding, "I suppose we'll start seeing some action this year when July or August rolls around." One participant in the fun is Tom Kennedy. Kennedy, who is retired, likes the contest because it takes him less time to shave now that he has an excuse not to.

"The most amusing thing about growing a beard," Kennedy said, "is when the wind starts blowing, especially this time of the year. The wind just picks up my beard and it tickles." One bad thing, Kennedy says, is that beards get hot and itchy as the summer heats up. A first-time moustache-grower is school Superintendent Bob Mueller, who says his beard hasn't been all that itchy. But Mueller's wife, Julie, says she hates the beard contest. "It feels like porcupine quills but it does look nice." After the sesquicentennial, whence all that hair? Said Ohler: "Maybe we'll have a shave-off at the celebration or maybe we'll auction off all the hair, but then again who knows when some full-bearded men didn't want to start from scratch, so to speak.

Ohler says they are still working out a way to solve the dilemma. The contest also involves categories, such as the funniest and longest beard, Ohler said. This part of the contest can be entered on the spur of the moment, he added. The final part of the contest involves the Brothers of the Brush. The brotherhood, connected to the Mount Pulaski Anti-Shaving and Anti-Horse Thief Society, is asking contestants to buy buttons for $5 and wear them during waking hours.

A member caught wide-eyed without a button will be slapped with a $1 fine. Those with a permit to shave are issued an ID to be carried at all times and made available for inspection by any member of the bearded brothers. "This is when the fun actually starts," Ohler said. "In 1961, the contest was taken pretty serious we had the men on their guard for either wearing their buttons or carrying around a shaving permit. By JEAN ANN GEYER For the Herald A Review MOUNT PULASKI Some men might consider a beard law a big hairy deal.

But in Mount Pulaski, the new beard law is in style. The April 1, bars men from shaving. For those who can't stop their every-morning ritual, shaving permits cost $10. Sound like nonsense? "Well, kind of," said Tom Ohler, a bearded participant and chairman of a group called Brothers of the Brush. Beard-growing is one way to have fun and promote the city's ses-quicentennial, or 150th year, to be celebrated Sept.

4-7. "Actually, the beard law is nothing new," Ohler said, explaining it was in effect for the 125th birthday celebration. Obeying the law is easy: Don't shave. But Ohler says there's more to it than just laying down the razor. At first, men who wanted to compete were to show up at the city clerk's office beardless.

Clerk Marietta Romer would then verify that everyone started clean-shaven. This plan ran into some problems, though, and 8-year-old Erica Davis all were hospitalized. Two other Davis children, 11-year-old Tammy and 12-year-old Valerie, were treated at a hospital. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Macon County Circuit Court alleges McCormick failed to look out for other cars, failed to reduce his speed to avoid colliding with the Davis car, and failed to take any alternative action to avoid the collision. The suit contains five counts each asking for more than $15,000.

The family of a Blue Mound woman who was ticketed for running through a stop sign in a fatal accident April 27 is suing the other driver for injuries they sustained. According to police reports, Mary Davis, 33, of Blue Mound, did not stop at the intersection of Illinois 121 and County Highway 21, north of Warrensburg, and her car hit one driven by Norman E. McCormick, 56, of Chestnut. McCormick's wife, Arlene B. McCormick, 52.

died as a result of the accident. McCormick, Mary Davis New DeWitt farm assessments going omit Property Tax Appeal Board, an independent agency. The assessment board of review, where complaints are first heard, will hear only a few blatant cases of wrong assessments or calculation error, said Rossio. In return for not getting a factor, Birch said he agreed to turn down all the complaints at the county level except for the few most will see a decrease in property taxes, but there will be some who will have an increase over what they paid last year. Some have questioned whether the calculation mistake would have been found at all without the outcry from farmers.

County officials hope the new calculation will satisfy most people who complained. If they want a further hearing, though, they may appeal to the State the assessment furor of last spring had been worked out. Birch said the compromise answers complaints received when the wrong assessments were figured and sent out before he became supervisor of assessments April 7. The mistake was found two weeks later, but landowners have been waiting to see if the state assigns DeWitt a factor or multiplier that would still boost taxes. Rossio said much of the county a tentative agreement with the revenue department that it is to receive a neutral multiplier of 1.

That means, he said, that assessments are about on target, and the multiplier won't raise or lower property values. He confirmed the compromise worked out by Supervisor of Assessments W. Fred Birch and state revenue department officials. Birch said Thursday a tentative plan to handle ments this year. A factor can increase or decrease assessments and taxes owed.

In return for denying most of the farmers' earlier complaints, the county will not have a factor, Doug Rossio, deputy supervisor of assessments, said Tuesday. It was a miscalculated factor that sent farmers into a frenzy in April when some ceived sky-high assessments. There's more good news for county farmers, he said. The county has By CHERYL FRANK Herald A Review Bureau Chief CLINTON The DeWitt County supervisor of assessments has struck an agreement with Illinois Department of Revenue officials on how to handle some 780 complaints on farmland assessment received in his office. New notices of farmland assessments are being sent out today showing the county has no "factor" to be applied to farmland assess CLINTON The new DeWitt County supervisor of assessments may have About one-half of Illinois counties are having some problems implementing the law, Payne said.

But -DeWitt County could have acted to implement the law sooner, he said. "Ultimate responsibility for seeing the law is complied with rests with the county board," he said. He added that many counties that didn't have detailed soil survey maps have managed to phase in the law. He said county board members could ask for periodic progress reports to monitor proper compliance, for example. The board also may ask the revenue department to assess compliance.

dent checks on the supervisor of assessment's office. But Rae Payne, assistant director of government finance for the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington, says there is some check on the office of supervisor of assessments. Each year, he said, the state revenue department conducts a sales-ratio analysis to see if assessed valuations really are one-third of market value of houses actually sold, as they are supposed to be. And, he said, the revenue department occasionally audits real estate information provided on certain documents kept by supervisors of as- sessment. in a kind of "limbo" in mailing out correct assessments and tax bills before he came.

He's working to change that. Birch said he is an experienced assessor and knew the job would be a challenge. It was so challenging, apparently, that Birch's immediate predecessor stayed one working day before taking off, saying he couldn't take the job after all. County board Chairman Max Rockhold said board members are not specialists in assessing. This makes it difficult to monitor the county supervisor of assessment's job performance, Rockhold said.

He also said there are no indepen Job's a challenge for Birch They had expected their property assessments to go down. But assessments either did not decrease, or did not go down far enough for the farmers. The lightning rod for taxpayer anger was a letter, sent from the supervisor of assessments' office before Birch took the job, that turned out to contain mistaken calculations. The state's farmland assessment law, which uses productivity and other criteria to set taxable farmland values, was enacted in 1977 and amended since then. But DeWitt County has a long way to go to implement the law, says Birch.

He said DeWitt County had been walked into the proverbial lion's den when he started his job April 7. Soon after W. Fred Birch of Decatur was appointed to the post, some 780 irate farmers W. Fred Birch showed up at hisoffice to complain. Pair held in check scheme am charged: Regional Scene in ittte teeM The father and son, who said they were born in the Soviet Union but carried drivers' licenses from British Columbia, had unsigned travelers' checks and about $1,100 in cash in their possession when arrested, he added.

Three travelers' checks were cashed in Harrisburg at a dress shop, a vegetable market and a discount store, Childers said. Police in Ottawa, 111., reported last week that someone cashed a 100-franc travelers' check at a pizza restaurant there and collected change for $100. Someone also cashed a 100-franc check for $14 worth of clothing in a Spurgeon's store at a mall south of Ottawa, officers At least two 100-franc checks were cashed in Mount Carmel, police said. Childers said his office had received inquiries from Ottawa, Mount Carmel, Grayville and Clinton, from Lo-gansport and Princeton in Indiana and from Springfield, Mo. "Apparently, from the calls we got this morning, they pulled it in quite a few places," Pelhank said.

HARRISBURG (AP) A Canadian man and his son face charges of theft by deception in a scheme to pass off 100-franc travelers' checks worth about $14 each as being worth $100, police said Tuesday. Albert Finonov, 52, and his 19-year-old son, Taras, of Vancouver, British Columbia, were arrested Sunday on U.S. 45 near Ozark, Police Chief Kenneth Childers said. They were being held in the Saline County Jail pending formal charges, Assistant Police Chief Dee Pelhank 3 deled "There'll be at least two different counts in Saline County and several from other counties," Pelhank said, including DeWitt County. Three Clinton businesses reportedly were victims of the deception Thursday.

The Finonovs apparently would buy some small item, cash a travelers' check worth 100 French francs and then collect change for $100, he said. "They'd say, 'This is worth or 'This is worth the assistant chief said. "In fact, here in town, they gave two different amounts they were worth and then got the change for them "If you do that long enough, you can get loaded." nois State Police who confiscated the marijuana. The couple were indicted by an Effingham County grand jury in February 1985. The Reeds each were sentenced to 30 months probation and were fined $3,000 plus court costs in a negotiated plea hearing Tuesday.

A charge of unlawful possession of marijuana over 500 grams against each was dismissed. wrestling camp to start CLINTON The YMCA wrestling camp will begin Tuesday in the Clinton Junior High gym. The camp, will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays through July. Registration is at the YMCA until Tuesday. Camp fees are $10 for members and $17 for others.

The cost includes the camp, official T-shirt and daily refreshments. For more information, call the YMCA at 935-8307. three years in prison for setting a fire that destroyed the South Side Conservative Church in Robinson on Feb. 16. Raymond Allen Ault pleaded guilty to arson in return for burglary and theft charges connected to the incident being dropped.

Crawford County Circuit Court Judge A. Hanby Jones approved the plea agreement and imposed sentence Friday. The case had been set for trial on Monday. Robinson police arrested Ault on March 7, and he has been in Crawford County Jail under $50,000 bond since then. Pair plead guilty in drug case EFFINGHAM An Eldorado couple arrested more than a year ago with 600 grams of marijuana in a garbage bag have entered guilty pleas to unlawful delivery charges.

Lewis and Paula Reed were traveling Jan. 8, 1985, on Interstate 57 when they were stopped by Illi VANDALIA An investigation of thefts at the Witte Hardware Corp. warehouse has led to the arrest of a 23-year-old Vandalia man. Bruce Rosenkoetter has been charged with theft over $300, according to the Fayette County Circuit Clerk's Office. It is alleged he stole tools including a Hanson drill set, a grinder, an impact wrench, a drill press, a sander-polisher and a cap set.

The charge says the thefts occurred between Dec. 1 and June 10. Rosenkoetter has posted $500 cash bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing July 21. Vandalia Police Chief Carrol Dugan acknowledged thefts at the warehouse are being investigated, but neither he, Assistant State's Attorney Rick Day nor Witte President Neil Marglous would comment on the investigation. Man sentenced in arson ROBINSON A 22-year-old Palestine man has been sentenced to 12, 1985, from the store.

The suit says the milk was produced at the Hillfarm Dairy in Melrose Park, the same dairy associated with a major salmonella outbreak a year ago. Jewel Companies Inc. is the defendant named in the case. The Klasens' suit contains four counts, each asking in excess of $15,000 in damages. A Decatur couple's lawsuit alleges the woman became sick with salmonella poisoning after drinking milk sold by Jewel Food Store, 1135 Wood St The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Macon County Circuit Court by Mar-dell and Ronald Klasen, 254 N.

Woodlawn says Mardell Klasen bought 2 percent milk April soft (HbtO I.