The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 21

Eight "Commune Members ailed for Trespassing When the trials ended, policemen escorted all eight West Palm Beach area at various residences since the eviction Wednesday. "We had another place in Lantana, but we were booted out of there three weeks ago," he said. The family's big problem at present, said Jay, is regaining personal property seized by police from the island at the time of the arrests. A spokesman for the police department said the personal effects will be returned after the eight in jail are released. Each one will be allowed to claim his own property if he can identify it, the spokesman said, and the reason for the delay is to prevent repossession of the articles by anyone other than their rightful owners.

By JERRY RENNINGER Put SUM Writer They sat side by side on the pew-like benches of the Palm Beach courtroom, quiet but apprehensive. The eight young people, arrested and charged Wednesday with trespassing after trying to start a commune on Fisherman's Island in Lake Worth, all. were found guilty and sentenced to stay in the city jail till noon Monday. A woman with bleached hair stared at the eight and the dozen long-haired spectators who also had been living in the commune, but who were not there at the "Flower children, Harrumph!" she muttered not-so-quietly to another woman. One by one they trooped up before the judge.

All but one pleaded guilty to the charge, and the lone dissenter was found guilty after a brief trial. Sharon L. Wynn, 18, the only girl among the accused, was present with her mother. She said she left home a week ago to the "family" of young people on the island. When told she would not have to spend the next three days in jail if she stayed at home with her mother, she said "For how long? The rest of my life?" back to the city jail.

Four of their friends may not be as lucky. At present they are in county jail on charges of grand larceny in connection with the theft of an electric generator from a construction site in Palm Beach. The generator was found by police on the island. Outside the town hall, the 12 companions milled about, wondering what to do and where to go. One young man, who said his name is Jay and that he's the founder of the "family," said the group's remaining members have been scattered around the v.

8 8 time of the police raid Wednesday morning. "Till you grow up a little, her mother replied. Local Front Sports Pages B4-7 Classified Pages 12-21 Palm Beach Post-Times, February 13, 1971 Bl U.S. To Try Making Rain In Florida Talks Seek Race Peace In St. Lucie MIAMI SPRINGS Plans were confirmed yesterday for federal rainmakers to begin a cloud-seeking program this spring over drought-stricken South Florida.

An aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will pour silver iodide into clouds over a 4,800 square-mile area north of Lake Okeechobee. Ed Dail, executive director of the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District (FCD) announced here yesterday Gov. Reubin Askew's request for seeding has been approved by NOAA. Dail told an FCD governing board meeting the seeding will begin in April and end in June. FCD officials said they will install and maintain 100 rain gauges in the drought area, and report all rainfall to NOAA.

FCD board chairman Robert Pa-drick, of Fort Pierce, yesterday reported a shortage of more than 2 million acre-feet of fresh water in South Florida. In other business, FCD officials terminated plans to build Canal 302 west of Pompano Beach. Biologists said the canal would have harmed fish and wildlife in southern Palm Beach and Broward counties. FCD officials also honored a West Palm Beach man, Edwin Earl Walker, for saving the life of a fellow FCD worker. Walker saved Richard C.

Harell from drowning in the Hillsborough Canal Dec. 28, when their boat used for spraying weed killer sank. Sf flHHHHBHHH fc row 1 1 iri in immtii Staff Photo by EdTancig Students Confer On Proposals To Ease Tensions That Closed Fort Pierce Central High Thursday Chiles Cuts a Ribbon, Chats About Issues By DEAN JONES Post Staff Writer FORT PIERCE Biracial committees, parents, pupils and school officials met here yesterday attempting to work out a solution to racial tension that erupted in fist fights and forced the closing of schools. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials were investigating cross-burnings throughout the city, including one at the armory Thursday night while an emergency School Board meeting was in session on the racial flareups. Last night a student biracial committee from Fort Pierce Central High School, composed of 30 whites and 30 blacks, still was discussing what recommendations it would make to the School Board.

The committee assembled yesterday afternoon to hear a list of grievances from black students at Central High School, where the fights first triggered the racial tension. "There are students on the biracial committee who are frustrated as hell," one teacher said, "because when they make a recommendation they have no assurance anyone is going to pay attention." The same white teacher earlier had urged a court-appointed community biracial committee to turn the grievances over to the student biracial committee. The list of 10 grievances had been drawn up Thursday night by the Rev. Richard Berry, in a meeting with representatives of the black students. The young blacks claimed they had not been allowed to become a part of Fort Pierce Central High School, which this year became an integrated school with the merger of black Lincoln Park Academy and white Dan McCarty High School.

The grievances included demands to end punishment by race, to adopt dress codes uniformly applicable to the races and to set up a racial balance in determining class-scheduling. The major complaint appeared to center on social clubs which the grievance group claimed were set up to keep students out. Former social clubs at Lincoln Park were banned at Central High School, they said, but whites were allowed to continue clubs which had existed at Dan McCarty High. One girl asked that all social clubs be disbanned and then re-formed, with no restrictions on membership. She also suggested the club requirement of a 2.8 grade-point average be dropped, because it eliminates most black students.

The students asked for better communications with the faculty, and that law enforcement at school athletic events be taken away from police and given to the students. The blacks also asked for equal representation on the Student Council, which now has 31 white members and nine blacks. Black athletes were united in their demand for more black football coaches, a black assistant band director and black counselors. At one point in the biracial committee meeting, a group of blacks threatened to walk out, but were persuaded to stay by Father Berry. "Concerned Citizens," a community group, has called a meeting for 3 p.m.

today at the regional library to discuss the racial issue. Meanwhile, School Supt. J. Walter Hebb said schools will reopen Monday morning. He had ordered all St.

Lucie County Schools closed yesterday after Thursday's flareup. Police Chief V. M. Christianson said there were witnesses to the cross-burning at the armory. "I feel sure it is the colored kids," Christianson said.

"But proving it is something else." By SHEILA TRYK Post Staff Writer U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.) yesterday said the issue of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal is not dead yet. And the "walking senator" laughed at reports he'll be Maine Sen. Edmund Muski-e's choice as a runningmate in the 1972 presidential sweepstakes.

Chiles, in North Palm Beach for the opening of the Old Port Cove condominium, talked informally with reporters who buttonholed him as he strolled around the posh $72 million layout on Little Lake Worth. Chiles, along with L. James Wade, chairman of the board of General Portland Cement, and E.Llwyd Ecclestone, co-developers of the project, wielded a pair of giant scissors to cut a yard-wide red taffeta rib- report he'd be Muskie's choice as vice president. "It's not anything I'm spending any time thinking about," he said with a laugh. "I'm just happy being the junior senator from the state of Florida." Chiles said the story got started because it was reported Muskie is interested in a southerner.

"So some enterprising reporter probably called Muskie's office and said would they consider Lawton Chiles, and they said yes. They'd have said yes to any name short of Barry Goldwater," Chiles said. Asked about Laos, Chiles said, "It's interesting the Foreign Relations Committee has not had much to say about the Laotian situation." bon that wrapped the building like a gift package. State Sen. Jerry Thomas (D-Jupiter) also was on hand for the ribbon-clipping, but Jack Nicklaus, who has been involved in public relations for the condominium and was expected to attend, didn't arrive.

There are many unanswered questions concerning the barge canal, Chiles said after chopping through the ribbon. President Nixon "hasn't signed an executive order stopping the construction," he said. "Apart from why the decision was made, Congress spoke by legislation, and the President counteracted Congress verbally. "It will go to court, I'm sure. It's in a legal never-never land," Chiles said.

The land for the canal was condemned and taken for "public purpose," Chiles said. "Should it be sold? Or be returned to the original owners or used for a park?" he asked. He didn't offer an answer. The severed red ribbon was flapping in the sunlight, and while board members of General Portland Cement heeded Wade's suggestion to admire the "warm glow" tan concrete on the terrace, Chiles ambled past construction workers still laboring on the building. And if the Palm Beach set didn't recognize the name Lawton Chiles the night before in the Norton Gallery, there was instant recognition among the workmen.

They grinned and waved, and called "Hi, Senator!" Chiles expressed amusement over the Dissent at Brandeis? Not Much The Can Communicate President Few Activists ByGAYLEMcELROY Post Staff Writer To Brandeis University President Charles I. Schottland, student extremism is something he would rather forget about. Chatting in his blue sitting room in the Palm Beach Towers yesterday, he tried to erase the connection of radical students with Brandeis. "The press has given the wrong impression of Brandeis. They have played up the activities of Angela Davis and the students who robbed a bank," he said.

"But that's out of 10,000 graduates." The 64-year-old educator leaned back in a plush royal blue chair and wrinkled his forehead in reflection. "Angela Davis was actually a model student while she was at Brandeis." Turn to BRANDEIS, B2, Col. 1 By SANDY WESLEY Pott Stiff Writer Allen Alter and Jerry Weinstein got a building moved at Brandeis University. Yet, they couldn't stop the university's board of trustees from raising tuition. But then, they really didn't care, because they had done something else something the two history majors think was much more important.

They had communicated non-violently. Jerry and Allen are the first undergraduates in the Waltham, university's 22-year history to serve on the institute's Board of Trustees. They were elected to the 40-member board last March after a committee of students, faculty and administrators recommended students and faculty be represented on the board. Turn to 'QUIETEST, B2, Col. 3 Official: Helicopter Use Okay A federal official said here yesterday he was satisfied with the method in which Sheriff William Heidtman is using a federally funded helicopter in law enforcement.

R. A. Youngs of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said he was in West Palm Beach "to evaluate, not to investigate" the use of the sheriff's helicopter. Heidtman received a $281,400 federal grant for purchase and maintenance of the helicopter in March 1970.

Renewal of the contract at the end of each fiscal year requires a review that conditions of the grant have been met. The grant specifies the aircraft will be used for traffic services. "The bulk of the time the helicopter is in use traffic control," Youngs said, after consulting with Heidtman yesterday. 1 I 1 IS Jrliii iri.TH JERRY WEINSTEIN a student voice ALLEN ALTER i in trustee decisions $30,000 to Mrs. Firestone in Life Suit The Firestones were divorced after six years of marriage.

She was the Palm Beach millionaire's third wife. Time magazine ran an article on the divorce, and Mrs. Firestone sued the magazine for $2 million, claiming the story was malicious. Last July, a Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury awarded Mrs. Firestone $100,000 in compensatory damages.

Time is currently appealing the verdict. Mary Alice Firestone, former wife of tire-fortune heir Russell Firestone yesterday was awarded $30,000 in damages by a Miami federal judge, in her $6 million libel suit against Life magazine. Judge Emett Choate ruled a May 20, 1966, Life article on wiretapping made statements which amounted to a bribery charge against Mrs. Firestone. The article, which appeared a few weeks before the divorce hearing for the Firestone couple, alleged Mrs.

Firestone induced a private detective working for her husband to work for her. A picture of the Firestones accompanied the article. Judge Choate heard the case without a jury last August. His final ruling yesterday awarded Mrs. Firestone $15,000 in compensatory damages and $15,000 in punitive damages..