Buffalo Criterion, 1987-03-12

              vol 62 — no 11 wny & necessary minority newspaper — featuring paid legitimate circulation thursday march 12-18 1987 rochester the buffalo criterion niagara region free spirit missionary baptist church to hold grand opening service blackwell opposes federal cuts affecting vets at the march sth legislative session county legislator roger i black well went on record in opposition to president ronald reagan's proposed cuts in veteran benefits in voting tor a resolution which expressed opposi tion to these federal budget cuts blackwell noted that they would scale back veterans ad ministraion medical care and increase tees for veterans when they buy a home with a va loan the reagan adminis tration has proposed to eliminate 3.810 va em ployees who are responsi ble tor providing medical care to veterans to de crease by 11,583 the number of veterans receiv ing in-patient treatment at va hospitals and other facilities and to decrease the number of va funded outpatients visits by 113 000 blackwell pointed out he added the federal budget proposal would also cut payments to veteran's survivors through the elimination ot the 150 allowance for a burial plot for 85 percent of all veterans the effect of these proposals would be disas trous to veterans and their families the number ot patients served by the va sponsored medical system would decline at a time when the va is already turning away 250.000 vet erans a year who seek medical care blackwell concluded in view ot the many sacrifices which have been made by our veterans our nation has an obligation to look after thei health and well-being county executive to deliver state of e c address county executive ed ward j rutkowski will present a report to the buswess community en titled the state o erie county on wed mar 25th at a noon luncheon at the hyatt reoencv pre sented by the greater buf falo chamber of com merce mr rutkowski will re view the past eight years he has served th 3 county highlighting 1986 and will discuss plans for me future tickets are available at 20 per person or 200 rvr tattle ot 10 for mann information or reserva tions contact linda reba dow at the chamber at 852-7100 singer selected • larry singer president of the ellis singer group advertising agency in buffalo has been named chairman ot the 13th annual president's schol arship dinner to be held on thursday april 30th announced dr robert s marshall president of daemen college in am herst this formal event will take place at the park country club in buffalo at 4949 sheridan dr wil tiamsville n v . with cocktails served at 6:30 p.m followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m the scholarship dinner to be chaired by mr singer will raise funds to benefit the daemen col lege scholarship fund mr singer joined mac ellis is 1969 to form the ellis singer group adver tising agency as the ellis singer group presi dent he has full responsi bility for all administrative and agency operations along with business devel opment he also serves as the account supervisor on a number of agency ac counts including the buf falo cellular telephone co blue cross of wes tern new york and coun try kitchen international lawrence larry singer is extremely active in local civic affairs including the small business adminis tration western new york better business bureau and food and drug ad ministration and the american marketing as sociaiton's leadership seminar he has also re ceived national recognition with the award ot two of the american federation's highest honors recently mr singer received the american ad vertising federation prestigious silver medal award for outstanding contributions to advertis ing and for responsibility in the areas ot social concern calvary to hold re-dedication a service of re-dedica tion will be held sun march 15 at 4 p.m at the first calvary baptist church 467 william st the theme will be a new day the guest speaker will be the rev james r banks pastor of the faith baptist church also invited are his choirs and congregation mrs bettye norward is chairperson w ruth beckham publicity chair person and the rev whitfield washington jr is pastor livingstone college choir to perform r the . prayer meeting choir of livingstone col _*_ salisbury north carolina will be in con cert at st luke ame zion church 314 e ferry st sunday march 15th at 6 p.m tickets are 10 00 for adults and 5.00 for youth 17 and under for tickets and more information contact the church office at 883-0961 the rev dr robert l graham is pastor lobby efforts aimed at benefitting local taxpayers state takeover of medicaid costs heads list state takeover of medi caid costs topped the list of several cost-saving priori ties erie county edward j rutkowski presented thursday to a gathering of western new york's state legislative delegation speaking at an early morning meeting in his rath bldg office rutkow ski asked the assembled group to give county taxpayers the relief they deserve by enacting legislation which would require the state to pay 90 percent of erie county's share of medical assis tance costs tor the needy he called medicaid one of our local taxpayers biggest , financial jbwr dens about 52.000 people are receiving medicaid bene fits in erie county rutkowski also urged them to push for current proposals aimed at con trolling medicaid costs such as nominal co-pay ments for non-emergency medical care and use of physician case manage ment at the county hospi tal the legislators also were also asked to adopt a law which would limit the county's financial respon sibility in subsidizing mass transit operating deficits rutkowski noted that the increase currently being proposed for the nfta means that erie county would have to come up with an additional 3.6 million out of the recently passed 1987 county bud get additionally he re quested legislation giving the county rightful repre sentation on the nfta's governing board in light of the sizable county subsi dies to the state agency some other measures pushed by rutkowski in clude * issuing photo identifi cation cards for food stamps and medicaid re cipients to eliminate fraud ulent misuse of current identification cards " amending the social services law with stiffer penalties for welfare medicaid fraud and abuse * adding funds to the state's division of equali zation and assessment to hasten updating of proper ty equalization rates to improve local revaluation efforts * allowing snowmobile clubs to get reimbursed directly from the state for trail development * funding the county's urban park ranger pro gram to renew and expand the highly successful pro gram * increasing state reim bursement for state in mates serving time in county facilities to more closely meet local costs during the meeting rutkowski reiterated his opposition to the gover nor's plan to increase the welfare shelter allowance which rutkowski said would cost county taxpay ers 3 million more next year and proposed county payments for acute care patients in state psychi artic institutions costing 1 million more in iybb also he explained that the shift from a sales tax to a personal property tax on the purchase of new automobiles would not only dramatically affect county revenues but would mean a decrease in funding to school districts the legislators will be approving the state's bud get for fiscal year 1987-88 to commence april ist public invited tho frae spirit mission ary baptist church is inviting the public to worship with them in the grand opening sprvicp sunday march 15th at 11 a.m free baptist is located in its new edifice at 1242 jefferson aye guest speakers soloists and the free spirit choir will all be participating in this ac tion packed program the photo shows some ot the members as they oposed for a criterion photographer at their wednesday mar 11th prayer band meeting — criterion photo twitty endorses gorski philip twitty chairman of the 11th zone democra tic committee in buffalo has endorsed democratic assemblyman dennis t gorski tor erie county executive today i philip twit ty chairman ot the 11th zone democratic commit tee would like to an nounce my endorsement of dennis t gorski tor the office of erie county executive an office that has been held by the republican party since its creation for the past 12 years assemblyman gorski has proven himself to be an effective leader and has been most helpful to our community by voting for those issues that atfect our city and all ot western new york i believe that assem blyman gorski will be a full time county executive who will devote his efforts to serving the needs of all constituents as a demo cratic party leader i be lieve that assemblyman gorski can unite the great democratic party behind his candidacy by bringing all of the diverse groups together and leading the democrats to victory in november therefore i gladly and wholeheartedly endorse assemblyman gorski for the democratic nomina tion for erie county executive and i urge all of my fellow zone leaders and committeemen all over this great county to do likewise birthday observance on friday march 6th mrs arta davis celebrated her 61st birthday at the colored musician club of buffalo along with the wednesday nighters who celebrated their 7th annual cabaret shown in lower photo from left are seated helen roddy-gray parlimentarian the honoree arta davis c m c member rita wiggins treasurer and catrena wright presi dent standing from left are dixie gilbert entertainment imogeneculley secretary catherine wiggins treas urer doristine blackwell financial sec retary and martin blackwell mascot the upper photo shows seated from left ms gloria mcgowan willie gillespie mrs mary johnson and mrs dorothy clark standing from left are ms clara mencer the honoree mrs davis mr vivian corum mrs bessie washington and mrs dorothy harris mrs davis a retired r n is a member of the club she has one daughter kathy and lives in williams ville with her husband harlan the wednesday nighters are a group of ladies who belong to the colored musicians club of buffalo they are instrumental in promoting and supporting the musical efforts of the club due to their expertise in dance they were coined the grandmother and great grandmothers chorus line by jimmy lyones in 1982 this year the theme of the cabaret was show time ms gilbert in a rare form as usual introduced the chorus line dressed in white pants black shirts and black silk top hats they danced in to the tune of celebration by kool and the gang also on hand to make the evening most enjoyable was the burgjard boys with their magnificent rendition of break dances the club's own alfred johnson offered favorite tunes of billy eckstein which were enjoyed by all ms elaine was also on hand to offer her showtime . rita is always entertaining but she out did herself this time much to everyone's delight the reward of the evening was the skit presented by doristine entitled ms heroin it was a timely subject and was well presented the public is invited to plan to attend the cabaret next year plan also to go to atlantic city in october with this fine group visit the colored musicians club and keep in touch — criterion photos the surface of the moon has about the same area of africa nfta chairman presented report to task force the chairman of the ni agara frontier transporta tion authority raymond f gallagher friday pre sented a report ot a newly created senate majority task force the task force is studying the niagara falls international airport which is owned and operated by the nfta the task force conduct ed public meetings in the earl brydges lirary in niagara falls march sth and 6th to obtain testi mony concerning airport operations gallagher's statement outlined the position of the nfta and the niagara falls international airport as being one similar to that ol a landlord he said the nfta is acting like a landlord and our tenants include airlines and other commercial businesses we can make the site clean safe and efficient but the maior factor in the equation of airport devel opment is the passenger it's the passenger who purchases airline tickets buys newspapers rents cars and eats m restau rants gallagher went on to outline population shifts the economy and inade quate promotion of the niagara falls area as contributing actors in the lack of use of the airport he said the decline of the economy has a direct impact on both airline traffic and air cargo tonnage gallagher said that des pite the economic and en vironmental constraints the nfta is making a con centrated effort to attract business and people to the airport we have pur chased advertising pro moting the niagara fron tier which includes ni nfta see page 2 serving working leading in wny inner cities since 1923 price only 20 c per copy