(i0 Dailrj press OwSooft off tie James Susan Friend Osprey chicks delay India-bound ship ships. And all of their young except for these two grew their flying feathers by July 4, said Hurt, who will check the nest again with Byrd on Thursday or Friday to see if the chicks are flapping their wings, a sign that they're about ready to fly. Upon their visit Monday morning, Byrd got within six feet of the chicks, Hurt said, and one of the chicks' parents called out, signaling the chicks to hide inside the nest. Please see ChlcksB2 James until late this week or early next week, when the federally protected birds may start flying, said Anthony Schiavone, super-, intendent of the mothballed fleet. Judging by the length of the birds' tail feathers, they should be ready to fly in six to eight days, said U.S.
Fish Wildlife Service special agent Daniel H. Hurt, who visited the ship Monday morning with well-known ornithologist Mitchell A. Byrd. "They're late bloomers," Schiavone said. About 10 osprey breeding pairs nest on the fleet's 2 protected birds nest on smokestack By Mark Di Vlncenzo Daily Press Two osprey chicks nesting atop the smokestack of a World War II ship in the James River Reserve Fleet kept the India-bound ship from leaving the James on Monday morning, as scheduled.
The 48-year-old ship, the Tulane Victory, will remain in the JT 1 Ospreys build their nests in high places. Power-line pylons Zv and to" trees located near or V. over large bodies of fresh or water are prime sites. They use the nests for years. Ospreys usually lay three -T ff eggs, which hatch within to six weeks.
Osprey chicks take their first flight at between six and seven 1 I weeks old. A mission to France Debts tows; sock schools Early-retirement bills 'shock' officials By Michael S.C. Claffey Daily Press TT 7 A. 9 Thomas Nelson Community College student Brenda Moore will travel to France to study ASKEW IGNORED. When the NN City Council OK'd participation in an early retirement program for school employees that could end up costing taxpayers millions of dollars, it was against the advice of City Attorney Verbena Askew.
Askew's office prepared ordinances covering the retirement deal for the council's consideration in March 1991. But in a cover letter, a copy of which went to City Manager Ed Maroney, Askew warned against their adoption. She noted she had not been told how the ordinances fit into "a larger program to deal with city budget difficulties," and therefore could not offer advice on potential "problems with the two retirement ordinances until I see the other components of the program." Askew recommended against adoption "until the legal analysis is done." Council adopted the ordinances anyway. MITTY'S TO MERRITT'S. Chef Ron Stuhm, after two years at Mitty's at the NN Omni, will be the man behind the menu at Merritt's, opening next week in Hampton.
David Merritt says Stuhm has been on board for a couple of weeks, perfecting fresh seafood and pasta dishes that will be the staples of Merritt's "casual gourmet" fare. You can see the restaurant's menu at a pool party from 3-8 p.m. Sunday at the Radisson, given to welcome the city's new business. Look for free food and a cash bar. HE PAID IT.
Former York Commissioner i of Revenue Joe Rigo was only joking when he told fellow Rotary Club mem-j bers that his recent European trip was paid for "with a little taxpayers' money that was left over." Somebody apparently i thought Rigo was serious, enough so that the story got around and some county officials got calls. Then, at a recent party, a woman approached Rigo to alert him that people were talking about his tax-j payer-financed vacation. He was amused, but that didn't keep him from setting the i record straight at his next Rotary meet- ing. "We had a wonderful time," he said of the trip that included stops in Vienna i and Budapest, "but no taxpayers' funds were involved at all." i i TOP COP, TOP K-9. Hampton Police Officer Eugene Motley and his dog, Alex, are the department's K-9 officer and dog of the month.
Good choice: Last week i the team helped collar William Paul Banfield, whose $16,000 in back child I support put him on the state's "Top 10" delinquent dads list. Banfield was hid-j ing in an attic and, even though it was I dark, Alex sniffed him out immediately, "We went up the stairs, and I told Alex to find him. He prances right across the insulation and goes right to him," locat-j ing Banfield behind a partition. Motley and friend have been together for four of the dog's six years and even share the same June 2 birthday with a 38-year difference. Alex's role in the family is i secure he even got a birthday cookie with his name on it.
On the job, though, Motley says Alex is "all business." MISSING A STATUE? The York Coun-! ty Sheriffs Department made an inter-! esting discovery Saturday night: a four-j foot plaster statue of Christ, lying I adjacent to the railroad tracks on Route 1 143 near Country Club Apartments in Williamsburg. Capt. Joe Adam says the statue "looks like it's been outside for a while," and the department theorizes it may have been stolen from a church. So far, though, there have been no "miss-i ing statue" reports. v' BLIPS, TIPS.
NN Fire Department spokesman Lynn James, who in August will add speaking for the police depart-i ment to her duties, is headed to Jack-I sonville, for a week-long seminar on how to deal with the media. Vir- ginia Country magazine is now just Vir-I ginia. Actor Richard Gere is on the cover I of the premier issue, and inside an arti- cle says he and Jodie Foster have been I filming a movie in Bath County since April. Look for stories on Wakefield and Norfolk's Town Point Park, too. I Have a tip? Radar wants to hear it.
Call 247-7863. ARISTIDE VISIT. Ousted Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide will speak in Hampton this September. B8. TIMBER SALE.
State Sen. Elmon T. Gray is selling three-quarters of his family's Va. timber holdings. Business, B4.
TODAYS QUESTION: Should the government spend $6.4 million on the lifetime care of chimpanzees? Story, A1. CALL 247-7878 to give your opinion on today's question, Monday's responses: see B2. Ernie Gate, Metro Editor: 247-4628 HI II LfJJ Student studies historic tapestry By Ron Shawgo Daily Press HAMPTON The Bayeux Tapestry is 900 years old, more than 200 feet long and stands as a major source of information on the Middle Ages. But to Brenda Moore, a 38-year-old mother of 10 and student at Thomas Nelson Community College, it was just an old, long piece of needlework. "I thought 'How boring, embroidery.
said Moore, who is neither a history buff nor a needlework aficionado. That was before a counselor at TNCC suggested she study the tapestry for an honors project. Now she's going to Normandy, France, to see it for herself. The Battle of Hastings, in which the Normans defeated the English in 1066, appears on part of the 231 -foot-long, 900-year-old tapestry. world Book Encyclopedia Multimillion-dollar bills that have just come in for early retirement plans adopted in 1991 are causing consternation among some officials in Newport News and Hampton.
Faced with a recession, Newport News, Hampton and other cities and counties throughout the state cut their payrolls by sweetening retirement benefits for workers 50 and older who retired early. According to a schedule Newport News got in May, the city will have to eventually pay between $22.2 million and $39.7 million in supplemental payments to the Virginia Retirement System for school system employees who took the offer. Hampton's tab will be from $18.3 million to $32.7 million. "It absolutely stunned me," said Newport News Vice Mayor Marty Williams. "It puts the city in a heck of a bind." Said Newport News Councilman Vincent Joseph: "I was shocked." Joseph said he had assumed the increased benefits would be paid for by the state retirement system.
"I couldn't believe that we have to come up with the money. My understanding was that this was something that was coming from Richmond," he said. Although the Hampton school system estimates it may come out ahead in the long run, City Manager Robert J. O'Neill Jr. said "the numbers were a lot less" when the city considered the plan "than what the numbers are now." "I think we need to sit down with the VRS people and go through the logic of their formula," he said.
In Newport News, about 123 teachers and 10 administrators took early retirement. About 204 school employees took the offer in Hampton. Newport News City Manager Edgar E. Maroney sought to shift responsibility for the decision to the School Board. The early retirement plans for school systems had to be approved by both school boards and city councils or boards of supervisors.
Referring to the estimates of the long-term cost of the early retirement offer, Maroney said, "The school administration had it, they just didn't forward it to us. We just didn't get the information." Newport News Superintendent Donald S. Bruno, Hampton Superintendent Don R. Musselman and York Superintendent Judith D. Ball were among local adminis- Please see DebtsB2 The 231-foot-long, 19'2-inch-wide tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings that led to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
It was completed about 10 years after that decisive battle and has been kept for centuries at Bayeux in Normandy. Moore, who lives in Newport News, has traveled little, venturing no farther from home than Roanoke. But in the Bayeux Tapestry. Joe FudgeDaily Press 1 1 1 t- September she will fly to France to study the historic cloth that she only has read about in textbooks. TNCC's Student Government Association is paying for her plane ticket, and she will stay with friends.
By going to France, Moore hopes to broaden her knowledge of the piece and Please see MissionB2 Monday didn't know exactly why. "Chris didn't get along with them," Rico Pressey, 16, said of Morris' new friends. "He thought they were troublemakers." According to police and friends of Williams, Sunday's events started when a girl named "Cathy" knocked on a Please see FlghtB2 4 James City teen slain in fight in front of the Parkway Apartments complex on the 400 block of Merrimac Trail, said Williamsburg police Lt. Bruce Press. Christopher Allen Williams, 18, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
He is in the Williamsburg-James City County jail in lieu of $40,000 bond, according to Press and a jailer. Police have not established a motive behind the killing, Press said. According to several of Williams' friends, Morris and Williams were once buddies. But Morris began hanging around with others and Williams refused to befriend the others, they said. The two drifted apart more than a year ago.
Hostility developed between the two, but friends who spoke By Lucinda Couto Daily Press WILLIAMSBURG A James City County teenager was fatally stabbed Sunday in a fight with a former buddy, police said. Greg Morris, 17, was dead when friends brought him to Williamsburg Community Hospital at about 9 p.m., just minutes after the confrontation Boards may be gone from scenic Route 5 federal money to help solve this problem." Although Route 5 is the only road in the initial request, the county could ask that Richmond Road, Merrimac Trail, Interstate 64 and Route 30 be included in the future. Eleven billboards greet travelers on the James City County portion of Route 5, advertising hotels, restaurants, campgrounds and the Williamsburg Pottery. The program would affect signs that don't conform to the county zoning ordinance and are not on the business' own property. Under, the program, the state transportation department would negotiate with sign owners compensation for loss of the signs.
The state could condemn a sign if an agreement can't be reached, said Sowers. Sowers said the state had about $500,000 to spend around the state. Please sej. Route 5B2 JCC board to ask state to remove unsightly ads By Mark Steinberg Daily Press JAMES CITY Billboards may soon be coming down along Route 5, the scenic and historic road that connects Williamsburg and Richmond. The James City County Board of Supervisors Monday voted 4-1 to ask the state to include the scenic byway in a new federal program that would strip roads of unsightly billboards.
"It's very clear from our Comprehensive Plan meetings that our citizens don't like billboards," said Jamestown Supervisor Judy Knudson, adding that many billboards are left in a state of disrepair. "We'd be foolish not to take the use LINEUP. Students started getting in line before 4 a.m. Monday to register for the fall classes they want at Thomas Nelson Community College. Jo FudgDaiiy Press.
