The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 1

Spring Fling calls lovers of fun, food to frolic -nt" riffiiMTaOTTliWaWilrfWw V. ftWurtTiifr f.1f fa mitt miiffii TBiijiritii '-1 unty seeks dismissal of suit By Betty Mallett and Michael Mercer Sun reporters Rescued climbers improve Doctors optimistic teens will recover May 9" filing of the lawsuit, the motion said. The county's move to dismiss the city's lawsuit was apparently a surprise to city officials. "I don't know anything about it," Mayor Bob Conger said this morning. "This is the first I've heard about it," said Lang-ford, echoing a comment by Commissioner Johnny Parham.

"I do not have any comments about this lawsuit," City Attorney Russell Rice Sr. said. The city commission did not discuss the county's motion at its meeting this morning. Thursday night, little was said about the lawsuit among six county commissioners who had gathered to review the agenda for their meeting at 9:30 a.m. Monday.

Please turn to Page 7A. The $2.1 million represents the amount the county had put in the general fund over a 10-year period for teacher benefits money the county has said the city was entitled to. Farmer's motion states the city of Jackson "knew or should have known of the alleged illegality during the 1975-84 period" covered by the lawsuit. Farmer submitted as an exhibit the minutes from the May 9 meeting of the Jackson City Commission. The minutes show that Education Commissioner Ben Langford "at least knew about the alleged illegality in April 1985," Farmer wrote.

"Obviously, even if (the) plaintiffs asserted a 'date of discovery' theory, it is apparent that the absolute latest date for the applicable statute of limitations to run was April 1985, more than a year prior to the Madison County Attorney Charles Farmer has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the city of Jackson against the county over $2.1 million in disputed school funds. Farmer contends in a motion filed Thursday that the city's lawsuit should be dismissed because its claims for damages are barred by a one-year statute of limitations. The city filed its lawsuit last week under the 1983 Civil Rights Act, contending the county discriminated against Jackson taxpayers and schoolchildren by depriving the city of its fair and lawful allocation of school funds. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Two teenagers who survived more than three days buried in a snow cave on Mount Hood with six companions were reported slowly improving today, and doctors said they were optimistic that both would recover.

Their companions, two adults and four youngsters, were pronounced dead Thursday after being found in the cave, dug in an effort to escape a savage snowstorm that enveloped the mountain during an annual school outing. The cave was discovered by a rescuer who poked through 4-5 feet of snow on the treacherous slopes, 8,300 feet up the mountain, and struck a back- Firefighters battle blaze on trestle By G.J. Yadamec Sun reporter 5 1 i iiti nig "I i said Ken Taylor, one of several ICG officials at the scene. "They were waiting to be scrapped," ICG Trainmaster R.L. Koonce said.

Two dozen cars were linked to the damaged flat car. The undercarriage, which provides the framework for the wheels, will have to be replaced before it can be moved, Koonce said. The boxcar next to the flat car was hot but didn't seem to be badly damaged. At 9:30 a.m., firefighters seemed to be making little progress against the flames, but the heavier line brought in by the city department provided water more quickly. At 11:45 a.m., firemen were cooling charred and smouldering timbers.

Railroad workers were waiting to check whether support timbers had enough wood left in them to be used. If repair of the trestle means only replacing ties and straightening rails, it could be fixed in a week, Koonce said. Complete rebuilding would take a month or so. While the smoke rose, north and southbound traffic on Highland in the vicinity of Jimmy Payne Volkswagen and Mazda was slowed. "We had some congestion" caused by people in cars gawking at the smoke, said Capt.

Thomas Acuff of the Jackson Police Department. Hoses also stretched across both lanes. The rails crossing the trestle were the "old main line for the IC Railroad," Koonce said. But the line was closed several years ago, and rails were removed. The line crossed Highland just north of the downtown area, crossing a trestle over the street.

The low trestle, which regularly clipped the tops of transport trucks, has been removed. The line's only connection now was to the Thomason Warehouse and Distribution Center and to The Jackson Sun, which uses it to bring in supplies of newsprint. Madison County firefighters struggled this morning to save a creosote-soaked railroad trestle over Cane Creek in the north Bemis area of Jackson. Driftwood piled at the trestle's base was also ablaze, adding to the thick column of black smoke that boiled into the sky. "With these little brush trucks, I don't think we're going to be able to do anything," County Fire Chief Kelly Holmes told Assistant City Chief Don Cole soon after the firefighters arrived on the scene.

The narrow access road to the trestle is pressed on one side by trees; on the other side is loose, rocky soil. "I'm afraid we'd tear the lights off' trying to bring in trucks bigger than the brush trucks, Holmes said. But soon after, the Jackson Fire Department managed to get a line from a hydrant on Highland Avenue to the fire scene. Three big pumpers made up the relay that helped keep pressure and volume up on the feeder line, which stretched about half a mile. Before that, the brush trucks' small pumps were used to pump water from tankers.

The call came in to the county fire department at 8:58 a.m. Holmes didn't know how the fire started, but said the Metro Arson Squad was investigating. The burning trestle heated air 30 yards away to searing temperatures before the first water was poured onto it. Illinois Central Gulf Railroad workers hooked an engine to a short line of rail cars that was partially on the trestle. When they pulled them away, one flat car was scorched and hot enough to set afire some of the high weeds next to the line.

"All of it's just stored equipment," II Hypothermia the loss of body heat kills an estimated 700 people every year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Page 5A. pack. It was just five feet from where the body of another member of the outing was discovered Wednesday.

Of the 13 climbers who began hiking up the mountain Monday, four survived, including an adult and a girl who walked out Tuesday seeking help. The teen-agers who survived in the snow cave were identified as Giles Thompson, 16, of Longview, and Brinton Clark, 15, of Portland. Thompson was "somewhat surprised that he was alive" when he woke up at Providence Medical center, said Dr. Gregory Lorts. The youth was taken off a heart-lung machine Thursday night, and Dr.

Duane S. Bietz said he had an 80 percent chance of surviving. "When he did awake from the anesthetic and the cardiac bypass he related some information that he thought he was dead," Lorts said today. "In questioning him, I understand he is able to nod, blink his eyes in the affirmative, he does understand what's going on. As you may know, he is on a ventilator, which means he is unable to speak because of the breathing tube.

Hopefully that will be removed as the day goes on." Thompson, whose core body temperature was 71.6 degrees when found, was returned to the operating room this morning to reduce the swelling and pressure in his hands and legs, hospital spokeswoman Cherie Ashcraft said. He remained listed in critical but stable condition. Please turn to Page 5A. I 1 i It A Sun photo by Larry Atherton At first it was almost like spitting on a campfire as Fire Chief Kelly Holmes, in the white helmet, and other Madison County firefighters battled a fire that charred a trestle early today. Links in chain continue to grow School bullies extort big bucks from victims Hands Across Tennessee Scores to line road to aid U.S.

hungry Here's where the South Fulton Hands Across America route i 1 passes through CitviY ww. lennessee. 1 Union Union Dyersburg kids are beaten up and robbed. It's not an epidemic, but it's not going away either," Pioggia said. "They either beat up the kids or threaten to beat them up.

They use knives or whatever means adults use to rob people. "But 10 years of age is kind of young to be doing this. This is spring fever. As soon as the weather gets warm, the kids go wacky." On Tuesday, Pigeon helped arrest an 11-year-old boy on extortion charges in the rent money case. A 10-year-old reported to be an accomplice was issued a summons to appear in court to face an extortion charge.

Please turn to Page 7A. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) Playground bullies not content with stealing lunch money are demanding a share of parents' rent money and in one case made a young extortion victim walk on thin ice across a frozen pond, police say. "It happens right across the board from slum areas to schools in good areas," Detective George Pigeon said this week of a case in which a 9-year-old who feared a beating gave up part of his parents' rent to older schoolmates. Detective Lt.

Anthony Pioggia who heads the Youth Aid Bureau in the state's third largest city, said a crime wave by youngsters is no surprise. "It happens on a regular basis that I Covington Uy Lmmi mm mm mm Cfort" ll Jackson Memphis I Com I J.C. Penney said. Schools are planning to fill a mile, and "there'll be a merchant's mile and an industry mile," Rice said. The Tennessee State Highway Patrol expects 165,000 people to line 130 miles of highway.

Wal-Mart stores will participate together. The two Jackson stores plus those in "Humboldt, Milan, Camden, Huntingdon, Paris, Dyersburg, some more stores in Kentucky and some east of us in Tennessee will have a mile, somewhere between here and Dyersburg," said Fuller. Stores from Covington, Ripley, Brownsville and Millington will set up near Covington, Fuller said. Customers will be urged to sign up in Wal-Mart stores Saturday. Tyler, who is state board president of the Tennessee Hunger Coalition, will be in the line, too.

She expects coalition members from Nashville, Knoxville and Clarksville to send busloads of people. Organizations, such as the Greater Jackson Churches Emergency Relief Fund, will gain if the fund-raiser is successful, Tyler said. "The money is important," she said. "But I think even more important is the public education and awareness. We still have people who refuse to acknowledge there is hunger in the United States.

Please turn to Page 7A. By Mary Grunwald Sun reporter When busloads of rich and poor pour on to Highway 51 in West Tennessee May 25 to hold hands, Jackson nursing aide Barbara Leonard will be there. So will Mary Tyler, who helps the poor locally through the Greater Jackson Churches Emergency Fund, and Dan Fuller, manager of Wal-Mart North, and Clyde Tilley, professor at Union University and an estimated 165,000 more. The human chain will form at 2 p.m. on Highway 51's northbound emergency lane from Memphis to South Fulton, part of a Hands Across America line from New York to Los Angeles.

Tennessee's link is the designated drawing point for participants from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. People are donating money for the privilege of being part of the chain. Ten percent of the funds raised will go for emergency relief, organizers say; 40 percent will go for short-term projects, up to two years; and the rest will go for longer, "somewhat self-supporting projects," coordinator Jerry Roberts of Cmptvcs by Tr Jtettson Sun Showers Inside Dyersburg said. USA for Africa, which raised money to ease famine in Africa with its recording, "We Are the World," created Hands Across America to help ease poverty at home. National corporations such as Coca-Cola Co.

and J.C. Penney, as well as local businesses, took over the organizing work and expense so the money raised can all go to help the poor. The Jackson area is responsible for 10 miles from where Highways 51 and 20 meet and Halls, coordinator Kay Rice of A 30 percent chance of thundershowers tonight. Low in the tower 70s. Wind south: 10 to 15 mph.

Cloudy Saturday with a 70; percent chance ot thunderstorms. High in-the mid-80s. Wind south 15 to 20 Details on Page 2A. Opinion 2B People 3C-4C Record 8B Religion 6C Scoreboard 4B Sports 3B-5B Business 8C Classified 9B-14B Comics 6B Dear Abby 2C Leisure Magazine Living 1C-2C Obituaries 5C.7C.