The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 15

The Billings Gazette CITY STATE Friday. January 8. 1993 5B Pompeys Pillar budget will be tighf, BLM official says By CLAIR JOHNSON Of the Gazette Staff Budget cutbacks at the Bureau of Land Management mean there will be little new money to operate Pompeys Pillar this year, according to BLM officials in Billings. Bill Mcllvain, BLM area manager, told the Pompeys Pillar Association on Thursday that this year's budget for the historic landmark will be minimal There will be enough to staff the monument with five people for four months, about the same as in 1992, and to address health and safety needs. The BLM will install a well and water system to supply hot and cold water and will landscape around the new visitor's cabin built last spring, said Dick Kodeski, also of the BLM.

The agency also plans to produce one high-quality display. But improvements beyond that will be determined by the budget and the hours the site is open, Mcllvain said. Also, he said, there will be no new picnic tables and the grass probably won't be mowed as often. the workshop are non-governmental representatives. Kodeski also said the BLM will hold open houses in February to gather comments and suggestions from the public on how to manage the area.

Pompeys Pillar Association President Esther Bengston also presented Huntley Project Schools Superintendent Ramona Stout with a $1,000 check as payment in lieu of taxes. Bengston said the donation comes from the association's concern for the school district's tax base and its desire that Pompeys Pillar be of value to the community. When the BLM purchased the 366-acre site, it was removed from the tax rolls because federal land is exempt from taxes. Stout thanked the organization for the donation and said she would report back to the group on how the money is spent. She said it would probably be applied to an educational program.

Stout also extended the school district's help to Pompeys Pillar, saying that staff members volunteer time at the landmark. "It's really a great place," she said. If the site is open 12 hours a day from mid-May to October, then the BLM will have to look to more volunteer help to make it through the season, Mcllvain said. If the site has shorter hours, then the agency may be able to make more improvements. Last year, the BLM received $290,000 to open and operate Pompeys Pillar, the landmark the agency purchased in late 1991 from private owners.

The allocation was used for initial development, which included building stairs to the top of the pillar and to the location where Capt William Clark carved his name in the sandstone on July 25, 1806. It also included building the visitor center, maintenance and staffing. Mcllvain said he didn't have the dollar amount allocated for this year, but that final figures are due next week. In other business, Kodeski said the BLM is holding a planning workshop for the pillar on Jan. 19, 20 and 21 at the Billings Sheraton Hotel for about 40 people representing various groups and individuals interested in long-range planning for the site.

About two-thirds of those expected to attend "V- 0- Gazette file photo The Bureau of Land Management expects to have little new money to spend on Pompeys Pillar operations this year because of budget cuts. MONTANA IN BRIEF DUI suspect leads cops to gold nugget Certainly, the nugget represents part of our mining legacy and is obviously something that can't be replaced." Lindsay Norman Montana Tech president from either the applicant or the game farm industry," said Jerry Wells, regional supervisor for the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Even so, under existing law, "we didn't have the authority to deny it," Wells said. He said the department received 35 written comments and a petition with 167 signatures all opposing the idea. However, the permit has five conditions, including a requirement that Christison surround the 55 acres with two fences each at least 8-feet high and higher in places.

Wells said the double fence is required because of concerns that escaped animals could breed with native animals or spread disease. Restraining order renewed BOZEMAN A temporary restraining order has been continued to keep abortion protesters away from the only Bozeman clinic where abortions are performed. Dr. Francis Balice wants the protesters, who have been demonstrating outside his offices weekly since 1986, permanently banned. After a hearing this week, District Court Judge Larry Moran gave attorneys for Balice and protesters Thomas Brueckner and John Yankowski 10 days to file final briefs.

Moran issued a temporary restraining order Dec. 21 and it will stay in effect until Moran rules on the issue. During the two-day hearing, Brueckner said a permanent restraining order would "devastate" the demonstrators' crusade. But Balice said patients have been confronted by pickets. He said protesters have handed out anti-abortion literature in his office and have harassed his office workers with phone calls.

Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle before moving to Montana. Ex-housing official charged MISSOULA A former employee of the Missoula Housing Authority made his initial appearance Tuesday in Missoula Justice Court on allegations that he stole more than $6,000 from the authority. Steve Teifel, who was fired from the authority on Dec. 3, was read his rights and had a public defender appointed after telling Justice of the Peace David Clark he didn't have money to hire a lawyer. Teifel handled rent collection and preparation of daily bank deposits for the authority.

According to a court affidavit Teifel "had developed a scheme in which he would alter the appropriate rent for certain tenants, continue to collect from the tenant the appropriate amount and pocket the remaining money A total of $6,326.93 allegedly is missing from the authority. A representative of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development also participated in the investigation. Game farm bid approved HELENA A game farm license application from Jerry Christison has been approved even though the state didn't have time to properly analyze the proposal and there was strong public opposition, an official said Tuesday. Christison wants to build a 55-acre game farm off Grizzly Gulch Road south of Helena. "We didn't hear a word supporting the idea Glacier visits top record GLACIER NATIONAL PARK Nearly 2.2 million people visited Glacier National Park in 1992, a record.

"Everyone was expecting a busy year, and this certainly bears that out," said park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt The park attracted 5 percent more visitors than in 1991, the previous record year. The official count was up 102,801 from 1991. But this December saw a sizable decrease compared with the same month a year before. December had 5,500 visitors, park officials reported, down 20 percent from the 6,839 counted during the last month of 1991. Woman heads medical staff MISSOULA Dr.

Anne M. Murphy of Missoula has broken a 120-year tradition by becoming the first female president of the medical staff at St. Patrick Hospital An internist starting her 10th year of practice in Missoula, Murphy succeeds Dr. Warren H. Guffin.

The ranks of female doctors are growing, and several have been in Missoula for more than a decade, she said. "It's just become time," said Murphy. She was elected to her one-year term by fellow doctors. Murphy, a Phi Beta Kappa student at Stanford University, graduated with a degree in human biology in 1975. Four years later, she graduated in the top 10 percent of her medical-school class at the University of California at San Francisco.

She completed a three-year residency at BUTTE (AP) Montana's Highland Centennial gold nugget, a 28-o unce specimen, has been recovered from a residence in Anaconda, lawmen said Wednesday. The nugget was stolen from Montana Tech's Mineral Museum Dec. 11. It is considered the largest nugget found in Montana in 80 years. "We couldn't be more said Montana Tech President Lindsay Norman.

"Certainly, the nugget represents part of our mining legacy and is obviously something that can't be replaced." Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge officials said the case would be presented to the county attorney in Butte for filing of possible charges but no arrests had been made. The nugget's recovery began last Friday night when a Montana highway patrolman made a routine traffic stop near Interstate 15 and a suspected drunk driver told of holding the nugget a short time earlier. "He tried to trade information," Patrolman Bob Toombs said. "He said 'I held it in my hand' just prior to my stopping him." The man was taken to jail in Butte and Tom Green, a sheriffs detective, said questioning led authorities to an Anaconda residence. The nugget was found hidden in the house Tuesday afternoon.

"The Anaconda Police Department is very proud to have recovered what is a valuable piece of Montana history, and also to now be a part of the history of this gold nugget," said Jim Connors, chief of Anaconda-Deer Lodge Law Enforcement The Montana Standard said it had learned the nugget was taken from a museum vault during the lunch hour on Dec. 11. The culprits apparently used a power screwdriver to back out some 60 screws and removed the metal bars that support a thick plexiglas window. They passed up several precious gemstones, took the nugget and ran, the Standard said. Norman said security will be improved at the museum before the nugget is returned.

The building will no longer be left open when the staff is on lunch hour and other measures are under consideration. At $310 an ounce, the nugget would go for about $8,700, but it might be worth as much as $40,000 to a collector, said Edward RuppeL museum curator. The nugget was found outside Butte on Sept 23, 1989 the state's centennial year. There were two larger nuggets recorded in Montana history, the first a 15-pounder taken at Deadwood Gulch about eight miles southwest of Marysville in 1865 by De Foe and Co. A seven-pound nugget was found in Nelson Gulch near Helena a few decades later.

Both of those larger nuggets disappeared under mysterious Fort Peck tribal jury finds child abuser guilty members," Beaudry said. Beaudry said the pediatrician who testified for the tribes said that more than 95 percent of the time the statement of a child in such cases is accurate. He said the child victim in the case testified in the Tribal Court trial as well as in federal court All the witnesses who testified in the trial were sequestered and the press was not allowed to be present in the courtroom during any phase of the trial because the case involved a juvenile, ac- cording to Beaudry. Zemyan has not decided if she will appeal the jury's verdict to the Fort Peck Tribal Court of Appeals. Shyface will be sentenced on Monday by Spotted Bird.

The charge, a felony, could bring a sentence of up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. "Justice was served," Beaudry said. on a similar charge and in October 1992 was found innocent by a jury. Beaudry said that Shyface, if found guilty, could have been sentenced to seven years to life on the federal conviction. After the federal trial, Shyface returned to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and was arrested on the tribal charge.

He was incarcerated in the Bureau of Indian Affairs jail in Poplar until his triaL Beaudry said the two trials did not constitute double jeopardy because they were held in two separate jurisdictions. "This case illustrates that the reservation has sovereign power and concurrent jurisdiction from the federal court system," said Beaudry. Beaudry also said there were several differences between the two trials. "There were different witnesses, different attorneys, different jurors he was tried by a jury of his peers, all enrolled By IRIS ALLRUNNER For the Gazette WOLF POINT A three-woman, three-man jury on Wednesday found James Shyface guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child. The verdict returned at 6 p.m.

Wednesday, came at the conclusion of a two-day trial in the court of Fort Peck Tribal Associate Judge Leland Spotted Bird. The tribes' special child abuse prosecutor, Gary Beaudry, represented the tribes, and Mary Zemyan represented Shyface. The tribal jury heard testimony relating to an incident that occurred in October 1991 but was not reported by the child's mother until several months later, according to Zemyan. Shyface was originally tried in federal court April trial set for woman accused of killing husband Computer crash in Helena disrupts auto registration has pleaded innocent to all charges. The 25-year-old woman is accused of killing her husband with a single shot from a Magnum revolver on March 5.

An initial investigation by the Missoula County sheriffs department pointed to suicide, but authorities later decided that Jim Richards was murdered. Tests conducted at the State Crime Laboratory in Missoula indicated the shot was fired from 2 inches to 6 inches away from Richards' head. The bullet also appears to have traveled forward and down, suggesting the shot came from behind and above Richards. Tests also indicated that Jim Richards had not fired a gun. MISSOULA (AP) A Seeley Lake woman accused of killing her husband will go on trial April 5, but it still isn't clear what charges she will face.

Missoula County Attorney Robert Deschamps III has filed 60 charges against Becky Lynn Richards. But Richards' attorney is considering asking District Judge Ed McLean to separate the murder charge from 59 counts of theft, forgery and deceptive practices. Most of those charges allege that Richards stole about $85,000 from her husband's logging business. Richards, who said her husband's death at the couple's Seeley Lake home in March was a suicide, every 100 vehicles in the state are relicensed. Roberts said the computer failure meant that county treasurers' offices had to handle the paperwork by hand instead of on computer terminals for much of Wednesday.

Those records will be added to the computer files later, he said. Despite the ability to register vehicles by mail, about 60 percent of Montanans still show up in person for the annual chore, Roberts said. No data on registered vehicles was lost because all the information is copied onto tape daily and weekly, he said. Workers needed eight hours to restore the data from the tapes, he said. Roberts said the failure was the first since the system linking registration offices in all 56 counties went into operation five months ago.

The incident occurred at one of the worst times since January is the busiest month for registration, he said. This is the month when about 27 of HELENA (AP) Many people attempting to register their autos at county treasurer offices across the state may have found long lines after the state Motor Vehicle Division computer system crashed. A mechanical failure about 2 a.m. Wednesday wiped out all the files, but the problem was repaired by 3:30 that afternoon, said Dean Roberts, division administrator. Malmstrom colonels to be promoted 1990 Ford F-150 $10,900 I AtmflL 1 Ask DAVE RIDDLE will keep both of them at Malmstrom.

They said Marr is more likely to remain at Malmstrom longer than Neary, since the refueling wing is authorized to be led by a brigadier general and the missile wing is not The refueling wing serves as a regional headquarters for three other Air Force tanker units in the Pacific Northwest and is the host wing at Malmstrom, in charge of support units for both wings. Neary said he probably will be transferred to a new assignment just before or after he is promoted, perhaps this summer. GREAT FALLS (AP) Two colonels at Malmstrom Air Force Base have been informed they will be promoted to the rank of brigadier general. They are CoL Richard "Buck" Marr, commander of Malm Strom's air refueling wing, and CoL Thomas Neary, commander of the base's missile wing. The two are among 39 Air Force colonels selected for promotion to brigadier general.

They will receive their first gold stars later this year, but Neary and Marr said it unlikely the Air Force Men's Sweaters. Coroner rules murder in man's death Jantzen more. 1XB-5XB Regular $45 to Sportshirts 19-29W Arrow more. 1XB-5XB Regular $26 to $48 Dress Shirts Arrow, Enro more. 16-20 Neck, sleeves to 38" Bigs 17-22 Neck, sleeves to 35" Regular $30 to $45 Many More In-Store Specials "Right now we don't have any hard evidence, just speculation," Walsh said.

Walsh said Deluca, originally from Midland, Texas, was unemployed. He came to the Butte area in 1989. He said the victim had invited some friends from a bar to his residence for a party and it went until 4:30 a.m. His body was found about two hours after that, Walsh said. Silver Auctions Presents BILLINGS COLLECTOR CAR AUCTION SATURDAY, JAN 16 Billings Holiday Inn Trade Center 100 CAUSFOIt SALE voxsiGXxmvt 800-255-4185 BUTTE (AP) Robert Deluca apparently was strangled after being tied up in his home, Butte-Silver Bow Coroner Dan Hollis said Wednesday.

Chief of Detectives John Walsh said it didn't appear that anything was stolen from the 48-year-old victim's residence. "After the preliminary autopsy and based on the evidence at the scene, the death is being ruled a homicide until proven otherwise," Hollis said. Walsh would not say what was used to strangle Deluca. Dahle'sl 1.