Tampa Bay Times du lieu suivant : St. Petersburg, Florida • 95

t.petcraburg Stmcs fco gOIfiOBMJ SEMINOLE EDITION St. Petersburg, Fla. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1993 v-ij bS)lo(rg) Tough laws. safey payoff? EDITOR'S NOTE ll DOB HENDERSON By KEVIN WASHINGTON Timet Staff Writer The steady decline of boating accidents in Florida during recent years is attributed to education, laws and better enforcement of those laws on the water. South Florida decreased boating activity for much of fall 1992.

The economic downturn also has kept some recreational boaters at home. The Florida Marine Patrol also has begun screening some statistics better. For example, they are not counting a natural death such as a heart attack on a boat as an accident. Coast Guard Petty Officer Lionel Bryant said officials there believe education is the biggest reason for the decrease. Florida has more than 700,000 motorboats and an untold number of boats without engines: sailboats, dinghies and canoes, he said.

With so many boats on the water, people are learning that a boat is a lot like a car, and boaters Please see BOATING Page 3 number had dropped to 1,004. Statistics for 1993 won't be available until late this year. While 1,004 accidents is nothing to cheer about, officials including Lt. Maurice Radford of the Florida Marine Patrol are pleased with the steady decline. Radford said boating seems to have become safer in recent years thanks to better education, stricter boating laws and efforts to enforce laws on the water.

"We've found that like other problems, education is the key," Radford said. "Most people would comply with the laws if they just knew what the laws were." Radford said other statistics have had an effect on decreases in boating accidents as well. Among them. Hurricane Andrew's trip over Failing to follow the rules of the road and horsing around seem to be the leading causes for accidents on the water in Florida, law enforcement officials say. But take heart, boaters: The number of boating accidents has been decreasing in Florida and the nation during the past five years.

In Pinellas County, the news is mixed. Accidents increased slightly between 1991 and 1992, the most recent year for which figures are available. But boating deaths have declined here, contrary to the national trend. According to the Florida Marine Patrol, the state had 1,279 accidents in 1988. In 1992, that Officers diffuse a tense situation Nudity ordinance draws protests But the Largo restrictions win tentative approval from the City Commission.

i By AMELIA DAVIS Timet Staff Writer LARGO Lingerie models and others who work in the adult entertainment industry accused city officials Tuesday night of trying to regulate them out of business. "When you take away our income, what are we supposed to do then?" asked Michele Cashman, manager of Unforgettable Lingerie on Ulmerton Road. "Are you willing to retrain us?" Artist Roger Bansemer will cover the canvas with undersea images first, then go back to add details. GEarat of doBphiirBS needs rniallO for studco Ms. Cashman and others who spoke during a public hearing said a proposed ordinance would hurt business.

The ordinance, which was tentatively approved, would ban T-backs and G-strings in businesses that sell alcohol, and would require lingerie shops to separate models from customers with partitions. A final vote and public hearing is scheduled Oct. 5. Chuck Boyd, with the city's Community Development Department and the writer of the ordinance, said it was drafted "to protect freedom of expression while still protecting the health and safety" of patrons. Resident Rick Horsch questioned Please see NUDITY Page 3 Clearwater artist Roger Bansemer is attracting lots of attention from shoppers as he paints an underwater scene at Countryside Mall.

We all saw TV reports of police officers confronting Rodney King in Los Angeles. We're still reading about police officers confronting Jerome Bunch in Crystal River. But that's about as close as we want to get. Ken Hamilton, former chairman of the Greater Clearwater Chamber of Commerce and part owner of the Palm and South Beach pavilions on Clearwater Beach, got a lot closer last week. And he couldn't wait to call police Chief Sid Klein about what he It was daylight on the beach's main thoroughfare last Thursday morning.

Hamilton had left a Chamber of Commerce board meeting on the mainland and was headed to work at the Palm Pavilion when he became a captive audience for a real-life police drama. Hamilton had just turned onto Mandalay Avenue when traffic was halted in front of the Surfside Holiday Inn and Barnett Bank. His car was second in line, so he had a "front-row seat." Two police cars were parked at different angles to block northbound traffic. A fire truck had come from the beach station to block southbound traffic. And in the middle of the street he saw two white police officers attempting to restrain a black man.

The skin color of the participants is relevant only because, in the wake of the Rodney King and Jerome Bunch incidents, we instinctively flinch, and perhaps expect, real trouble. Although Hamilton didn't expect to see any improper activity, he said later, he did realize that the struggle he was witnessing could escalate into something bigger. The police officers, Charles Cro-nin and Margo Gustavson, had arrived in separate patrol cars after getting two calls that a man was in the middle of Mandalay screaming and wielding what appeared to be a razor. Officers don't know what to expect, Cronin said later. It could be a "nothing call," or it could be a potentially dangerous situation with someone getting hurt.

Cronin got out of his car and saw the man running "zig-zag" in the street at full speed and then coming right toward the patrol car. He apparently had dropped a screwdriver that he had been holding, not a razor as reported earlier. Cronin said the man told him he was high on drugs, later admitting he had just smoked $100 worth of crack cocaine. Cronin told the man he was there to help, not hurt, him, but the man still resisted when the two officers tried to get his hands behind his back and handcuff them together. "He was very strong," Cronin said.

This is the struggle that Hamilton witnessed. "I sat there and watched in amazement," he said. "It would not have been uncalled for if the officers had thrown him to the ground that's probably what I would have done but they maintained their cool." He said the officers, after finally handcuffing the man, led him over to a patrol car but did not slam him up against it like you see on television. Hamilton recalled seeing police officers remove someone at Tampa Stadium during a Bucs game and twist the person's arm so high up his back that it appeared his shoulder was dislocated. He didn't see that here.

He was so impressed with the firmness and professionalism he saw that he called the police chief. "Sid hears so much garbage," Hamilton said of the chief. When you're in business, whether it's the police business or operating beach pavilions, you always hear if your people do poorly, Hamilton said, but seldom when they perform well. The 35-year-old man was not charged but taken to Morton Plant Hospital for treatment. A subsequent computer check revealed an outstanding warrant for violation of probation stemming from a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer.

"The man needed some help and we gave it to him," Cronin said. "It worked out well for everybody." Good turn by teen draws another An official with Mercantile Bank says a scholarship fund for the Boca Ciega High senior might help combat 3 cii I negative stereotypes about black people. By ERIKA N. DUCKWORTH Time Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG Andre Gant still was adjusting to being called a hero every day by friends, classmates and strangers.

The 19-year-old had been slaDned By LAURA T. COFFEY Timet Corraepondent CLEARWATER Some stand with packages in their arms. Some stand holding tiny babies. But most people strolling through Countryside Mall do stop and stare for a long time. A 14- by 18-foot acrylic painting of bottle-nosed dolphins swimming through an underwater paradise is attracting the attention of many passers-by, much to the delight of Clearwater artist and author Roger Bansemer.

"It's fun having an audience," he said. "I'm so accustomed to painting on my own." Bansemer arranged to do the painting at the mall because he needed the space. The painting next to Dillard's entrance on the mall's upper level reaches from floor to ceiling. "It's exciting. It's wonderful," said Suzanne Salmon, marketing director at Countryside Mall.

"People are standing there and watching and talking to him. He's approachable." Bansemer said he will be working on the painting from about 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day for the next couple of weeks. When completed, the painting will hang in the home of a Clearwater businessman who prefers to remain anonymous.

Bansemer said he had to order the gigantic linen canvas from New York. "The canvas alone is over $1,000," he said. "It took me days to stretch it out." The canvas is in two pieces, stretched over plywood partitions that bolt together. The pieces will have to be taken by truck to the Clearwater home. "They will have to take his (the owner's) sliding glass doors off to get the painting into the house," Bansemer said, Bansemer said he wants to cover the entire canvas with images first and then go back and add details.

While the size of this painting is staggering, it is not Bansemer's largest project The 100-foot mural of a hot air balloon emblazoned on the side of the Spyglass Motel on Clearwater Beach is also a Bansemer creation. Bansemer has written and illustrated five Time photo V. JANE WINDSOR Bansemer is painting a 14- by 18-foot underwater scene in the Countryside Mall because the average studio won't accommodate a work of these proportions. books, including The Art of Hot-Air Balloon' ing, Southern Shores and At Water's Edge: The Birds of Florida. His most recent book.

Mountains in the Mist: Impressions of the Great Smokies, was released two weeks ago and features a foreword by James Michener. Michener, who has a home in St. Petersburg, and Bansemer became friends a couple of years ago after Michener read and enjoyed Southern Shores. This year the two camped in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Michener recently asked Bansemer to illustrate his newest book, which has not been released.

"The nicest thing that happened to me was when Michener took me under his wing," Bansemer said. "As an author, that gave me a stamp of approval." with that moniker since he was featured in a St. Petersburg Times story for pulling Joe Laipsker from his smoke-filled 1973 Mercury. Laipsker, 88, hit a car in front of Gant's 1965 Chrysler Newport, bounced off the Newport, smashed into three parked cars and slammed into a building Friday afternoon. Laipsker was trapped in the car before the Boca Ciega High School senior broke the car window, pulled the door open and carried the man to safety.

Gant's deed touched many people, but he never expected a bank to reward him by offering to set up a scholarship fund for him. Gant said he was doing his homework Tuesday afternoon when the call came from Mercantile Bank in St. Petersburg. "It's shocking," Gant said. "I never thought it would lead to that.

I just thought I was in the paper, and that's it." Please see TEEN Page 3.