Opposed Finalist _____________________ ~ . - ' ’ ¥ ' % Opposition vocal Bast tops Man^he^er , Cuban says Castto to phone tower/3 in Rotary Club Classic/13 consider^ attack/7 HflanrhpHtpr Irralb Friday, Dec. 29, 1989 Manchester, Conn. — A City of Village Charm Newsstand Price: 35 Cents Top Stories Manchester: . rj. i- .'IW P P l Thousands ’89 a year of growth surrender It was a year for compromise and conflict, for development booms and disappointed Democrats. As the decade came to a close, Manchester found itself transformed from a small town outside Hartford to a in Romania regional city, complete with a glut BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The ruling council has assumed of development in the North End Thousands of members of the sweeping powers, changed the and all of the infrastructure dreaded secret police have sur­ country’s name and ordered the problems that created. rendered or been captured in the Communist emblem removed from While the town generated week since Communist dictator the national flag, the state news hundreds of stories over the course Nicolac Ceauscscu was overthrown, agency reported today. of 1989, several stood out as among Romania’s revolutionary ruling The National Salvation Front took O -n the most important in terms of their council said today. power Dec. 22 in a popular uprising impact on our readers. The follow­ The prisoners include some backed by the army, and promised ing arc the top 10 local stories for generals and high-ranking officers free elections next year. 1989 as voted by the editors of the from the security force, known as On Thursday it reorganized its ^ m Manchester Herald. the Sccuritatc, Deputy Foreign Min­ governing council as a leadership 1. When the Republicans captured ister Comelieu Bogdan said. The body headed by a president, who at a 5-4 majority on the town Board of total number was not immediately present is Ion Iliescu. It consists of Directors in the Nov. 7 election, Tne Associaiea Press di.sclosed. 145 members who will elect an 11- n they ended 18 years of Democratic Several hundred hard-line hol­ member Executive Bureau that will domination in Manchester and CON N ECTICUT’S TOP STORY — The 1983 collapse of the Mianus River bridge was douts remain at large in defiance of lake over the council’s functions be­ promised that their conservative tide voted the top state story of the decade by editors and broadcasters. the government’s ultimatum to sur­ tween sessions, the news agency would sweep in waves of reform. render or die, said Cazimir lonescu, Agerpres said. While it is not known whether the X m a vice president of the National Sal­ The governing council will ap­ h Republicans can attain the same lon­ vation Front. point the the head of the supreme Z 13 gevity as the Democrats, the effects State: collapse of bridge leads The revolutionary government court, the country’s chief prosecutor O X of their election have been im­ had given members of Ccauscscu’s and lop military ranks. It also will mediate. despised security police until establish an election system, appoint O^ O-T1 Republicans, in keeping with their Thursday to surrender or face execu­ a committee to write a new constitu- pledge of fiscal conservatism, have editors’ top stories of decade tion. Sporadic shooting continued i O m already squashed plans to im­ well after the deadline. Plea.se see ROMANIA, page 12 mediately begin construction on a HARTFORD (AP) — It \Jas 1:30 a.m. on a warm came the first person to be sentenced to die under the new firehouse at Tolland Turnpike June night in 1983. A car and two tractor-trailers state’s death penalty law. and Dcming Street and have delayed cruised along side by side, headed north out of Other top stories included the 1983 Stratford toll approval of a study on the feasibility Greenwich on a nearly deserted .stretch of Interstate plaza crash, which killed seven people and spurred Noriega pressured of reusing Center Springs Pond as a 95. the state to remove tolls from Interstate 95; the story skating area. Suddenly, there was a flash of headlights and the of battered wife Tracey Thurman of Tonington, Republicans also have promised whose federal lawsuit prompted the state to change bright glare of brake lights, which inexplicably disap­ > (/) to keep the increase in the town peared from sight. Simultaneously, the street lights its laws for handling domestic disputes; the de.ith of to leave on his own budget to the increase in the Grand on the interstate bridge spanning the Mianus River U.S. Rep. Stewart Mckinney from AID.S in 1987; the ^ > List, a pledge which will bear up to went dead. 1984 Ic ^ of deadly gas in Bhopal, India, the world’s VATICAN CITY (AP) — The leader expelled from the papal nun­ H H public scrutiny as the town prepares Another car following behind sjopped dead on the deadliest industrial accident that killed about 3,000 Vatican is urging Panamanian ciature, or embassy, so it can try him its budget in the coming months. road and both occupants fled the vehicle without people and resulted in the reorganization of Dan- strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega on charges of international drug traf­ 2. Voters of the Eighth Utilities turning on the car’s warning flashers. The driver bury-ba.sed Union Carbide Corp.; and finally, the to leave his refuge at its embassy in ficking charges. District on March 14 overwhelming­ waved his arms to stop an approaching car, but it stunning 1988 defeat of incumbent Republican U.S. Panama City, a Holy See spokesman In what has appeared to be a stan­ ly approved an agreement with the whizzed by and vanished into the darkness. Sen. Lowell Weickcr by Democratic Attorney said today. doff, the Vatican has insisted that town designed to end decades of The passenger of the stopped car returned to the General Joseph I. Licberman. “The nuncio is doing his best to the embassy can not legally turn the disputes over fire and sewer juris­ vehicle and switched on the hazard lights. Soon, a Other stories that received votes but didn’t make convince Gen. Noriega to abandon general over to U.S. forces since, diction. The agreement also paved tractor-uailer approached and stopped. Gradually make the Top 10 list included the ciise of Richard the nunciature on his own, by him­ under accepted international the way for the provision of essen­ more and more motorists found their trek north unex­ Crafts, convicted in November of killing his wife in self,’’ spokesman Joaquin Navarro procedures, an embassy is only em­ tial utilities for the regional mall pectedly halted. November 1986 and disposing of her btxiy using a said. “At the same time he cannot powered to deal with the govern­ under construction in Buckland. It was daybreak before anyone could clearly sec wood chipper; and the 1985 natural gas explosion force Noriega to leave nor can he ment of the host country. 3. Richard Sartor, South Windsor what happened. that leveled the River Restaurant in Derby, killing six consign him to U.S forces.” U.S. forces have staked out the Town Manager, accepted the posi­ What they saw shocked the entire nation and people. It was the first time the Vatican mission, frisked the papal nuncio, or tion of Manchester town manager on spurred major changes in state transportation The rise and fall of Coleco Industrie.s, which said publicly it was trying to per­ ambassador, when he has left the April 17 with a maximum salary of policies. All three lanes of a 100-foot .section of the brought out the amazingly popular Cabbage Patch suade Noriega to leave. However, compound, and have been blasting $81,900. Sartor, a former police of­ bridge had collapsed into the Mianus River, killing Kids dolls in 1983, was also cited in the survey. Navarro said the possibility had rock music from a loudspeaker in ficer in Manchester, promised three people and injuring three others. Other stories mentioned were a corruption scandal in been discussed with Noriega since the street in an effort to put pressure hands-on management that would The June 28, 1983, collapse was the top story in New Britain that resulted in 29 arrests; tlic high- he look refuge at the mission on on Noriega. lead Manchester into the future. He Connecticut during the 1980s, according to a poll of profile battle between suite [xilice and Chief State’s Sunday. Navarro denounced U.S. “inter­ replaced former Town Manager newspaper editors and broadcasters conducted by Attorney Austin J. McGuigan that led to McGuigan’s Navarro also said the Vatican still ference” in the embassy’s Robert B. Weiss, who had served for The Associated Press. ouster in 1985; and the state police taping scandal has not received a formal request autonomy. 23 years before retiring in June. The Mianus disaster narrowly edged the collapse that cost Public Safety Commissioner Lester J. Forst from the new ftinamanian govern­ “An occupying power cannot in­ 4. By a slim 37-vote margin, of the L’Ambiance Plaz.a apartment complex in his job in November. ment to turn over Noriega. terfere with the works of a voters on Nov. 7 dashed a $13.9 Bridgeport as the decade’s top story. Twenty-eight The violent Ku Klux Klan rally in Meriden in The United States has demanded million plan to renovate and expand construction workers were killed when the partially 1981 also received votes. That episode led to tlie that the Vatican order the ousted Plea.se .see NORIEGA, page 12 the town hall.