The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 2

Montgomery Advertiser 2A Thursday, November 9, 2000 EMERGENCY ROOM Baptist Medical Center South is today's designated trauma center until 7 a.m. Friday. Ballots: Voting machines can cost as much as $5,000 each From Page 1A 1 1 LOTTERY Wednesday's numbers Florida Cash 3: 1-3-0 Play 4: 5-9-1-0 Lotto: 43-42-7-25-49-38 Fantasy 5: 19-25-17-8-5 Georgia Cash 3 Midday: 0-8-9 Cash 3 Evening: 3-0-1 Cash 4: 2-0-2-7 Fantasy 5: 6-7-9-11-28 "I went Democratic all the way and voted a straight ticket. I've al- ways been a Demo- Cra t. Ella Hawthorne of Greenville abama had ballot box hangovers Wednesday as they tried to recover from standing in long lines to cast their ballots or watching television returns until the wee hours of the morning.

Yvette Bullard and Cynthia Arnold of Montgomery both teach at Selma public schools, and they recharged their batteries at Ed's Pancake House Restaurant, where they ordered pancakes, sausages and plenty of coffee following their 50-mile commute Wednesday morning. "I stood with friends for two hours in the rain at the Alder-sgate voting place," said Arnold, who teaches special education. "We had an umbrella, but it was still a long time to wait to vote." Joanne Sorrells said she has State: Ditch east of Coliseum Boulevard with 80,328 votes cast. It topped the 1996 general election by 1,989 votes. Vice President Al Gore was the leading presidential candidate with 40,371 votes, followed by Texas Gov.

George W. Bush with 38,827 votes. Six minor party candidates split the rest. "When you have a huge turnout like we had yesterday and you don't have enough voting machines, the lines will back up," Bert Estes, chief clerk in the Montgomery County Probate Office, said Wednesday afternoon. "It was an incredible turnout." Voting machines similar to the ones being used in Montgomery County can cost as much as $5,000 each, Estes said.

The decision to buy more would be up to the Montgomery County Commission. Commission Administrator Donnie Mims said he has not received any requests from county election officials to buy more voting machines. He said a meeting will be held next Monday to critique the election. Estes said he was impressed by how understanding voters seemed to be in the face of long waits in inclement weather. "It's so gratifying that so many people were willing to stand in line for an hour or two to cast their votes," Estes said.

"I think it says something really positive about our community." Baptist: Hospital closed in 1999 From Page 1A about the closing of the sale," Derrick said. Baptist Health closed the hospital July 1, 1999, citing monthly losses of $800,000. The hospital will cost the RSA between $6 million and $7 million, Bronner said. That money has not exchanged hands, but a contract is signed. The late-September purchase came "a day or two" after an Alabama State University's board of trustees meeting, Bronner said.

The RSA had been talking with Alabama State on a proposed joint venture for the building. That deal seemingly stalled when ASU trustees removed it from the agenda of a Sept. 26 meeting. "We had talked with Dr. (William) Harris about it, they had a board meeting and it all fell apart," Bronner said.

"Until ASU gets all of its ducks in a row, it doesn't make sense to do things at this stage." State Rep. John F. Knight, D-Montgomery, said ASU has been interested since it went up for sale. The university had thought of sharing the 400,000 square feet of space in the hospital with Lister Hill Health Center and the state Department of Forensic Sciences. Other portions of the building would be used for classrooms.

ASU missed a "golden opportunity" by not taking action on the issue at the board's last "I voted the straight Republican ticket. I wonder about problems with the vote totals, though. We have the technology to count them a lot faster. Jason Holladay of Rutledge Voting turnout records also were set in Autauga and Elmore counties, according to officials there. In Autauga, 17,240 votes were cast topping the 1996 general election total by 1,832.

In Elmore County, 23,648 votes were cast, beating the 1996 total by 2,697 votes. Autauga County Probate Judge Cordy Taylor said the total in his county exceeded his own prediction, "but everything went well and we didn't have any major problems." "The only problem to speak of involved those meaningless write-in votes for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and others," Taylor said. "Quite a few people also wrote in their own names." Elmore County Probate Judge HOSPITAL Baptist Medical Center Downtown was Montgomery's oldest hospital. Its 98-year history includes: 1901: Daughters of Charity authorized Montgomery's first full-service hospital to be named for Sister Margaret of Scotland Sept. 23, 1903: Saint Margaret's Hospital is dedicated.

Land and construction cost is $175,000 1957: Hospital builds 100-bed expansion July 19, 1966: Ground broken on a $2 million Saint Margaret's Hospital School of Nursing June 26, 1967: The city's first intensive and coronary care unit opens March 6, 1971: Troy State University begins its nursing school there Aug. 29, 1972: Hospital begins "emergency room of the day" rotation April 29, 1989: Humana buys Saint Margaret's. Name becomes Humana Hospital-Montgomery meeting, Knight said. "Once Baptist has sold the property, it takes away the incentive for the gift of property to our Trust for Excellence," he said. In the joint talks with Baptist, Knight said, it was proposed that part of the deal would include an outright purchase by the RSA and ASU.

Baptist would also donate a portion of the property to Alabama State's Trust for Excellence the value of which would be matched by the state. "We're losing the donation to the trust and the match of the donation to the trust," Knight said. The RSA had no interest in the property until it was visited by contractors representing the From Page 1A tected concentrations of TCE. We don't want anyone in the ditch," said Dixie Beatty, ADEM spokeswoman. The ditch is east of Coliseum Boulevard and about 100 yards north of East Gardendale Drive.

"We are being very cautious. We don't want kids playing in a ditch that has solvent in it," Beatty said. "You can only be exposed by breathing, eating or drinking, or skin contact," the flier said. TCE is a probable carcinogen, Beatty said. "We don't want to scare people, we want them involved.

We are asking them to come to the meetings," she said. The contaminant was discovered underground last year. Health Department Toxicologist Dr. Neil Sass said it was not a health threat while sealed below ground. Wednesday, he said the chemical degrades rapidly in the open air.

"We are not as concerned about it getting out as we are about people getting inside the fence (around the ditch)," he said Bruner said the greatest concentrations have been discovered 48 feet below ground in the Chisholm Street area. Alfa, which developed the area, stopped construction on homes in Vista View while ADEM began tests to determine the source and size of the plume. Those tests continue. Alfa has since completed unfinished homes and continued commercial development. Residents of the area who are concerned about loss of property value have filed lawsuits against Alfa and the State Department of "I voted for Bush be- cause I thought he would do a lot more for the military." Heather Cooper of Troy never registered to vote, but it didn't keep her from watching returns at her house in Greenville.

"If I voted, I'd have voted for Bush," she said, as she got out of her car and walked toward the Butler County Courthouse. "At 1:30 this morning, I thought he had won and I was tickled. Then, I found out later they were holding up the results and were going to count them again." Alvin Benn, who covers state news for the Montgomery Advertiser, can be reached at 240-0111 or by fax at 261 1521. E-mail him at abenniazebra.net. INFORMATION SESSIONS Three information sessions are scheduled on chemical contamination in Vista View, Eastern Meadows and Chisholm neighborhoods: Tuesday, Nov.

14:5 p.m. -7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16: 12 p.m. -2 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 16: 5 p.m. -7 p.m. Where: ADEM main office, 1400 Coliseum Blvd. Questions: ADEM: 394-4380; Health Department: 206-5973 Transportation.

One suit seeking damages alleges that Alfa should have tested more thoroughly before selling residential property in the area, said Misha Mullins, an attorney for the plaintiffs. Another in state court seeks damages from the Department of Transportation and charges that it is the likely source of the contaminant, Mullins said. "We are not aware of property values decreasing in the Coliseum Boulevard area," said Paul Till, an Alfa spokesman. "We have sold homes at or near full price in Vista View in recent months." The ditch is just behind the home of Gary Smith, a Vista View resident and plaintiff. "I would hate to find out 10 or 20 years from now that I had cancer," he said.

Mike Sherman, who covers business for the Montgomery Advertiser, can be reached at 240-0131 or by fax at 261-1521. "We're not going to accept this lying down," Holmes said. He argues that white leaders shouldn't have run candidates against the two black incumbents because it looked good for the state to have two black members on its high court. "It was greatly wrong and unfair and racist for the two blacks on the Alabama Supreme Court to be taken off by efforts led by the Republican party," Holmes said, noting that every state in the South has a black member on its high court. Sallie Owen, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, can be reached at 240-0114 or fax at 261-1521.

E-mail her at polling places and other possible irregularities. Jesse Jackson said he got calls on Election Day complaining that blacks had difficulty voting in Florida and other Southern states. Bush said he was confident the total would stand and promised that he and running mate Dick Cheney "will do everything in our power to unite the nation to bring the people together after one of the most exciting elections in our nation's history." He chose a relaxed setting outside the Governor's Mansion. Gore opted for a stern-looking lectern and a row of U.S. flags as his backdrop, promising a dignified transition "no matter what tje outcome." "I like Bush for his character and moral leadership.

What you see with him is what you get." Jimmy Cope of Goshen Jimmy Stubbs said there were some long lines and echoed Stringer's sentiments in Montgomery County that some precincts may need to be divided because of the county's rapid growth in recent years. WVAS-FM News Director Tina Joly Long said she waited about two hours to vote at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts "and it was obvious they needed more machines." "They also had a weird system of voting because they split us up by last names," she said. "Some people behind us wound up voting before we did. It was a little disheartening, but we all had fun as we waited to vote." Voters throughout central Al- HISTORY 1995: Columbia buys the hospital. Name becomes Columbia Regional Medical Center 1996: Columbia becomes Columbia HCA.

Name changes to Montgomery Regional Medical Center September 1998: Baptist Health buys Columbia Regional. Name becomes Baptist Health Center Downtown Oct. 1, 1998: Baptist removes the downtown hospital from the emergency room rotation April 16, 1999: Baptist Health announces the hospital's closing June 30, 1999: The final two patients are transferred to other hospitals and the doors are closed to the public September 2000: Retirement Systems of Alabama signs agreement worth $6 million to $7 million for the purchase of the hospital complex Federal Bureau of Prisons. Those contractors were evaluating the property for a potential federal prison site, Bronner said. Tracy Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said they were "aware of the availability of the property, but are not interested in it at this time." "We didn't want a federal prison that close to the Capitol," Bronner said.

"I think it was a lot better for our city and state and everyone combined if we were to get it. That's why we signed the agreement." Ken Roedl, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, can be reached at 240-0118, or fax him at 261-1521. E-mail him at kroedVamontgomery 'advertiser, com. tive, there is no doubt about the loss of racial diversity. The current court includes two black members: Justice Ralph Cook, who was elected in 1994, and Justice John England was appointed in 1999 by Gov.

Don Siegelman. They made Alabama the only state other than Georgia with two black members on the supreme court, but both lost their seats to white Republican opponents. "This is now once again an all-white court in a state with a substantial minority population," said Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Even so, he was optimistic that the new court would be sen The Gore campaign hired Florida lawyers both to monitor the recount and to gather possible evidence in the event of a ballot challenge. Even before the recount, the campaign was eyeing legal options for forcing a new vote in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County, where confusion over how to fill out the ballot may have boosted the totals for Pat Buchanan, a senior Gore adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

County officials also announced that more than 19,100 ballots in the presidential race were tossed out before they were counted because voters chose more than one candidate. Bust's brother Jeb, governor JTlontoiomcrij Advertiser Visit the newspaper Madison Avenue Montgomery Washinqton Advertiser Downtown 'J 1 200 Washington Ave. Mail P.O.Box 1000 Montgomery AL 36101-1000 Call the newspaper (334) 262-1611 Presidentpublisher Scott M. Brown 261-1582 Executive editor Paula S. Moore 261-1509 Managing editor Andrew Oppmann 261-1516 Advertising director Terry Sullivan 261-1571 Circulation director Rufus Friday 261-1506 Marketing director Don Halleck 261-1558 Production director Mike O'Connor 264-1657 ext.

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The publisher reserves the right to change subscription rates during the term of subscription with a 30-day notice. The notice may be by mail to the subscriber, by notice contained in the newspaper itself or otherwise. Subscription rate changes may be implemented by changing the duration of the subscription. I Republican candidates get boost from arbitration ad members, who'll formally take office in January, will rule. "It's very difficult to know how an individual judge will vote on any given issue," said University of Alabama law professor Bryan Fair.

Members of the U.S. Supreme Court who were expected to be conservatives have consistently voted with non-conservatives, he said. The Republican slate campaigned as conservatives and strict constructionists. "I don't know what they mean by those terms. After we have seen them work we can better judge, and all of them will be up for election again," Fair said.

While it's unclear whether the court will be more conserva Diversity: From Page 1A Judge" Roy Moore as chief justice won seats for election. "The beauty of it is it's a two-party system," Hooper said. "No body excluded. Republican candidates got a boost from an arbitration-themed attack ad sponsored by Democrats that "blew up in their face," Andress said. "All the newspapers came out and said this (the ad) is a bald-faced lie, and it really discredited them," she said.

Efforts to reach the executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party were unsuccessful Wednesday. Court watchers say it's too early to predict how the new LOTTERY Tuesday's numbers Florida Cash 3: 1-9-4 Play 4: 3-3-0-7 Mega Money: 25-15-08-27 Mega Ball: 31 Fantasy 5: 3-17-7-5-15 Georgia Cash 3 Midday: 4-5-5 Cash 3 Evening: 7-8-9 Cash 4: 0-7-9-1 Fantasy 5: 1-10-15-27-33 Big Game 22-29-35-38-47 Big Money Ball: 27 sitive to injustices in the legal system. "These kind of issues tend to be so troubling and vexing that political parties won't be an issue when it comes to fair adjudication," Stevenson said. Despite his disappointment, Fair was matter-of-fact about the situation. "All of us now have to go forward and have to accept the selections of the people," he said.

Not everyone is willing to do that. State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, blames white leaders for the lack of black members on the Supreme Court and other state appellate courts. He said he's contacting leaders of black political organizations to plan a march and sit-in at the state Supreme Court. of Florida, said the recount would be completed by this evening, but Democrats suggested that might not be the end.

"I can't say with certainty when this will be over," said Gore campaign chairman William Daley. "This is the beginning of the process, not the end of the process." Earlier in the day, Daley said he doubted that a legal challenge would be made and that Gore was prepared to "move on" if he lost the recount. He rolled back on that, aides said, as evidence of suspected irregularities cropped up throughout the day. In Florida and elsewhere, Democrats grumbled about long lines at the polls, reports that ballots were te in arriving at Results: Democrats search for ballot abuses From Page 1A Calling this an "extraordinary moment in our democracy," Gore noted that the Constitution awards the presidency to the Electoral College winner, not necessarily the leading vote-getter. "We are now, as we have been from the moment of our founding, a nation built on the rule of law," Gore said.

But the vice president's aides were privately making the case that Gore's popular-vote lead gives him standing to contest the recount if state officials overlook voting irregularities. As Democrats searched for potential ballot abuses and questioned the motives of Florida's GOP secretary of state, Gore's staff said a 1 al challenge was one option..