News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 24

4 yyiy iBy.ifi.Het 2B Fort Myers News-Press, Monday, February 4, 1980 Pine Island recognizes two dedicated residents I '55N i- pv- if I if the people oh, they were wonderful to me," Mrs. Miller said. Her activities on the island are varied and include former service as president of the civic association, a position on the school advisory board and volunteer work at the island library, where most of her current efforts are devoted. "We're trying to get the children more interested in the library and reading in general. You know I'm afraid they only watch the television and don't care anything about books.

It's crippling not to be able to read," she said. Mrs. Miller hesitates to talk about herself. "You won't print anything about me, will you?" she pleaded. "Write about the library or the wonderful people here -those are much more interesting stories." 1 island station into a county department.

Slater plans to leave Pine Island as soon as he sells his house. "Pine Island is changing and I want to leave before it gets worse." He said he fears developers will ruin the island's unique atmosphere. The Woman of the Year is also concerned about the island's future. "If it develops naturally when people come and build homes Pine Island will be fine. But I'm frightened of developers building huge complexes and destroying the simplicity here," Mrs.

Miller said. Mrs. Miller, 62, left her Fort Myers Beach house seven years ago to live on the island because she and her husband wanted a quiet atmosphere and were tired of seeing high-rise development' at the Beach. Fort Myers department for $1. It was better than what we had because we didn't have nothing," he said with a chuckle.

Slater, who will be 50 in March, came to Pine Island 25 years ago, bought a gas station and began a business of repair work. "There wasn't much gas to sell so I did a lot of fixing and even made some fishing rods," the chief said. Two years later Slater became a firefighter. The chief helped build the department from a group of unskilled volunteers who "learned to fight fires by experimenting and burned fingers" to a 50-man volunteer unit with three paid officials and an ambulance service. "You don't want to know about Marty Slater, this department is what's important," the chief said.

Slater's life revolves around the de- By ELIZABETH SADD Cape Coral Bureau -Pine Islanders Marty Slater and Hazel Miller have a lot in common. Each is modest, camera-shy, dedicated to island activities and concerned about Pine Island falling prey to indiscriminate developers. rfhe two also are distinguished with similar titles they are The Greater Pine Island Man and Woman of the Year. Slater is chief of the Matlacha-Pine Island Fire Department, which, he virtually founded in 1955. He joined his stepfather and a few other men to organize some kind of local fire protection for the island.

that time the closest station was Fort Myers and when a house was burning it was pretty well gone bytnhe time they got here," the chief said. "Our first engine was a 1924 La France I bought from the HAZEL MILLER busy volunteer "My favorite aspect of Pine is the people. We were newcomers when my husband died, but iff. v. Easy answer to water woes decades ago now costly headaches MARTY SLADER island fire chief partment and he has actively battled Lee County commissioners to stop them from incorporating the 1 Tarnished silver That's the feeling most residents have V.

By KAREN BAIR News-Press Staff Writer The digging of a well was purely a ijiatter of necessity a half century ago when Southwest Florida was a pristine picture of farmland. Phrases such as "saltwater intrusion" were as rare as condominiums. 'But today, thousands of dollars arid such modern techniques as infrared photography are being mustered by government to locate and plug the artesian wells innocently dug decades ago. Corroded well casings and wells that were capped although their depths were left open are creating enormous headaches for geologists, who say just finding the abandoned wells is a massive task. The problem is that saltwater from deep saltwater aquifers is being forced by pressure up into and around the old wells, mixing with the freshwater supply and affecting drinking water, as well as that which is used to water the lawn and accommodate agriculture.

"In those days they didn't know all that was involved with ground water and digging a well," said Bruce Mackelduff, supervising hy-drologist with the South Florida Water Management District. "There have been literally thousands of those wells that have been dug in the past for agriculture or private homes or nurseries, and they have been abandoned either Dateline: Southwest Florida bad sewers dumping right into the river plague the area, and the residents, some elderly and on fixed incomes, are at a loss to know how to go about fixing them without using funds from their own limited resources. They have formed the Russell Park Civic Association to help solve this modern-day problem. After all, says Larry Zuliani, a director of the association, borhood on the south bank of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers. But Masked bandit robs convenience store CI 1- il Ik I 1 1 News-PrestDon Ruane just the way it was presented.

They let the county commission and the City of Naples vote on it first and left us deciding for the county. It's a lot easier to vote yes than ho when someone else is going to make the final decision. This time I hope they let us vote first." John Galvin, another veteran of the council, said he is still opposed to the idea. "I never was for it and I'm still not for it. But I'm a' little more flexible than I was back then.

I can see a need for it. If I could be convinced the money was being spent wisely I might vote for it." The final member on the council, Carlton "Snapper" Butler, said changes have to be made in the proposal before it wilt receive his backing. "I just don't believe in punishing new people who move nto the area. The fee really hurts young couples who are trying to get started. If we need to raise money to build and repair schools, I say float a bond and let me and everybody else pay the price," he said.

JOHN HOWARD WOOD Gannett Company, owner of the News-Press. Miller is retired board chairman of Gannett. Dragging near bridge yields no body A 7-Eleven store was robbed early Sunday by a man armed with a knife and wearing a stocking the Lee County Sheriff's Department reported. The suspect entered the store on McGregor Boulevard near Deep Lagoon Marina about 5: 13 a.m. and demanded money, lawmen said.

He wore a blue jacket and jeans and is described as 5-feet 9-inches tall and weighing about 170 pounds. Lawmen would not reveal how much money was taken in the robbery and reported no injuries. No suspects were in custody late Sunday night. because people did not realize the damage it could do or they just didn't care. Some people have tried to plug them up, perhaps thinking the problem was solved when it wasn't." The water management district and Lee County have allocated $30,000 each this year to embark on a program to locate and plug the elusive wells, and Mackelduff hopes the program can be expanded to include other Southwest Florida counties.

In Charlotte County a similar program is currently being conducted on agricultural land by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in conjunction with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The Lee County effort is being focused on Buckingham, Alva and North Fort Myers where there are agricultural enterprises but no treated water supply. Mackelduff admits the $60,000 to be spent in Lee County is' virtually a drop in the bucket because it. costs about $3,000 to plug each well, and nobody knows how many there are.

The latest estimate pegged their numbers at between 3,000 to 10,000, he said. Although the U.S. Geological Survey has mapped some of the wells, the maps are inadequate, according to Mackelduff. "Usually when you go out looking for one, you'll find three or four Turn To WELLS, Page 3B Castle," a jocular but respect-edged allusion to the late Col. Robert R.

McCormick, founder, and publisher for years, of the Tribune. The "castle" reportedly had several electrically controlled doors in McCormick's suite which made it impregnable as a Sherman tank. McCormick was one of the most powerful press lords in U.S. newspaper annals. He fought Roosevelt's New Deal, and was an Anglo-phobe he detested and distrusted anything British.

Wood, the late Col. McCormick's heir apparent in the Tribune Company, remembers his longtime boss as a man of rock-hard convictions, unimpeachable integrity and a singular and steadfast devotion to and concern for what the Tribune called "Tribune Land" the steel, rail, farm and financial heartland of the Midwest. Wood enjoys talking about his start in the newspaper business. Born 79 years ago in Downers Grove, 111., he had just turned 11 when he landed a job as a carrier boy in Canton, where his father was editor of the old Canton Daily Register, later the Canton Daily Girl hit by car; suffers A search by firefighters for the body of a man believed to have leaped from the Edison Bridge Saturday was unsuccessful Sunday as crews dragged the Caloosahatchee River for the second day. Otto C.

Waidner, 59, of Coach Light Manor Park had been depressed and family members believe he may have jumped from the bridge, according to Fort Myers police. A search for his body started about 10:30 p.m and lasted past midnight, continuing Sunday for two hours with no success, police said. Waidner reportedly left home driving his 1972 Plymouth sometime Saturday and never returned. When his car was located near the bridge on Edwards Drive and his crutches found on the bridge by a bridge tender, authorities began the search. Waidner is described as 5-feet 9-inches tall, with medium build brown hair and wore braces on both legs.

A fire department spokesman said the search will continue for an indefinite period. A 12-year-old North Fort Myers girl suffered a broken leg Sunday when she was hit by a car, authorities said. Vickie Haller of San Souci Trailer Park ran into the path of a car at 1:03 p.m. while attempting to cross U.S. 41 near the Shell Factory, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Department.

She was reported in fair condition at Lee Memorial Hospital Sunday night by a nursing supervisor. No charges were filed against the driver of the car, Pamela M. Mims, 32, of Westberry Court in North Fort Myers, but lawmen said they are continuing an investigation. of Russell Park, a once-grand neigh broken leg won the commendation of the Economists National Committee on Monetary Policy, the National Economy League and other financial organizations. Now it was time, in Wood's career plan, to leave the editorial department and join the cash-register arm of the Tribune.

Successively, he became assistant auditor and controller, then auditor and controller, then treasurer, then business manager and a vice-president and director. In 1955, Wood was named Tribune general manager and in July, 1960, president and publisher. The carrier boy had climbed to the top of Tribune Tower. But he never forgot those he had passed on the way up; his generosity was known as far back as the early days of the Depression, a generosity wrapped In compassion. He was remembered around Chicago for always reaching in his pocket when a friend, or a stranger, was stone broke and pounding the bricks.

Wood himself doesn't mention this quality in his makeup. Another facet of Wood's sharing: "This is old Florida." Changing they haven't given the impact fee issue much thought since it last was brought up in town. And all said they are willing to consider the issue if it's brought up again. "I can't make any decision until I know all the facts," Herman Askren, the new mayor, said. "I really haven't given the issue (of impact fees) much thought." Don Barton, one of the newly elected councilmen, said: "People change and are more in favor of growth paying for growth.

If the money is justified, I might be in favor of it (impact fees), but they'll (school board) have to prove its needed." Another new council member, R.D. Hancock said: "I think we would consider it. I havent thought much about it but at the time I felt like the council did when it voted against the fees." Doug House, who was on the council when it turned down the impact fees, said, "I haven't even thought about, it. I have no new feelings. I wasn't against the idea, He has a lifelong fondness for ice cream.

And when Wood bought ice cream, everybody around him ate ice cream, courtesy of Wood. In the early 1960s, the Chicago Tribune, like many other major U.S. dailies, embarked on an expansion program through acquisition. Under Wood's guidance, research and using his business acumen, the Tribune Company, in succession, bought Hearst's Chicago American, the Fort Lauderdale News, Orlando Sentinel Star and a daily in Pompano Beach. And more recently it has aquired a number of smaller papers in Florida.

Wood said he couldn't help but be amused at the News-Press seeking an interview with him. "I wanted to buy the News-Press a few years ago," he said. "But we waited too long. My friends Paul Miller and Allen Neuharth came down here and bought It. They traded stock, but our Tribune stock is tightly held and that's what delayed my move to buy the News-Press." Neuharth Is board chairman, president and chief executive of the Sanibel man wasted no time in becoming Tribune head By MILLER DAVIS Special to the News-Press Jphn Howard Wood takes the shortest course between two points.

Oh an early morning on Sanibel Island, the 6-foot-l ex-police reporter strides the few feet from his home to the beach. There he casts a line-into the surf. Often, he catches his breakfast. This is the kind of direct, no-nonsense action that propelled Wood into: the ranks of America's most distinguished newspaper publishersMake a plan. Follow it faithfully.

1 And don't waste time. For the nearly eight decades of his life, Wood has loved the outdoors. Its wild beauty has been a reward for the substantial achievements he hammered out indoors in the confines of a towering building at 435 N. Michigan the Chicago Tribune Tower. The tower is the flagship of the Tribune Company and its holdings in New York and Florida.

in the first four decades of the 20th century, the structure frequently was called the "Colonel's Ledger. Soon he moved into the circulation mail room, and at 16 became a cub reporter for the paper. He was graduated from Lake Forest College before attending Harvard. The dawn of the Depression found him editor of two weeklies on Chicago's North Shore earning tuition funds, but he still had to borrow money to get to Harvard. He taught at a boarding school near Cambridge while at Harvard.

His Tribune career began after Harvard. He became a police reporter In the bloody era of Chicago violence that marked the gangland murder of Tribune reporter Jake Lingle, the only newsman in the city's history to be killed by the mob. Wood began his steady, uninterrupted climb up the ladder of achievement at the Tribune. He left the police reporter job to become an idea man as financial editor. He showed a remarkable capacity for understanding and explaining banking, federal reserve affairs, economics and general business.

In 1935, he wrote a 48-page booklet, "Inflation and Your Money," which He can wear that memory proudly as he rises each morning in his home at 3723 W. Gulf Drive, Sani-; bel Island as he rises, sniffs the weather, and shoulders his fishing gear..