European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 28, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 2 the stars and stripes tuesday february 28, 1989 merchants Bank May have better idea easing of no Check Rule considered by Randy Mcclain financial writer it has t been easy for merchants National Bank to convince customers that they can survive without can celeb checks in their monthly Bank statements. A Slick to and print advertising Campaign promoting what the Bank Calls Check safekeeping has t convinced All the sceptics. And now merchants National Bank the department of defense s banking contractor in West Ger Many the Netherlands and Greece has come Forth with Alast minute suggestion that it Hopes can make the pro Gram that kicks off wednesday More palatable. Yvonne Wise Public affairs manager at merchants Headquarters in Frankfurt West Germany said the Bank has asked the department of defense to partially waive he is fee that customers arc to be charged for getting copies of cancelled checks. If the Bank has its Way the fee will not apply whenever customer needs a Check copied for a . Government Agency such As the internal Revenue service. In other cases the fee would remain in place Wise said. An official with the department of defense said Mer chants proposal has t been acted on yet. The spokesman said however that the fee will not be eliminated across the Board. If there were no fees he said some people might ask for every Check they write and fulfilling All the requests would consume too much time. Under the program cancelled checks will be Micro filmed and stored at the Community Bank s Headquarters. The checks will be retrieved and copied front Ansback Only when a customer requests it. The idea of mailing out Check less Bank statement originated with the department of defense and the program is being implemented worldwide. The pro Gram took effect in the United kingdom earlier this year. In West Germany Greece and the Netherlands March s Bank statements will be the first mailed with out cancelled checks. But Bank customers have complained that their checks belong to them and that the Dod has no right to withhold the material. Others say the $ 1 fee is unfair because it requires them to pay for checks twice once when ordering Blank checks and again when try ing to get a copy. Wise said merchants looked into several other adjustments to the Check less Bank statement program but some changes proved unworkable. Some consideration was Given to allowing customers one or two free Check copies per month for instance but Wise said the Effort necessary to keep track of who had used their freebies and who had t would have destroyed the Overall program s efficiency. The program will save time and Effort and it will Cost us fewer people Wise said. But it s not so easy to sell something to people that they say they Don twant. For people who want their checks there s really nothing you can  that s not to say the Bank has t tried. Wise said the no Check program Means monthly Bank statements will get to customers from three Days to one week faster. And it will reduce the number of Bank employees it takes to process Bank statements from the equiv Alent of 50 full time workers per month to just six she said. That s because customers checks will no Longe be sent to each Branch for processing As was done in the past. The processing will be handled by new machinery at Bank Headquarters. A defense department official in Washington who spoke on the condition that his name not be used said the Federal government is committed to the program. Another frequent criticism is that it will take too Long to get copies of checks from merchants Headquarters in Frankfurt after service members and their families have returned to the United states. The critics say they might not need a Check copied for years but when they finally do need one it should be sent quickly. Wise acknowledged that getting a Check across the Atlantic will take longer than if a customer is still overseas. But she said merchants has set up a special request line in the United states to make the system operate More quickly and inexpensively for .-Basedservicemembers. A toll free number 1-800-426-9520, has been established at merchants Home office in Indianapolis Wise said. The overseas Community Bank communicates with its Parent daily and requests for copied checks will be filled As soon As they Are received in West Germany she said. News updates aids in soviet Union Moscow a a world health organization official agrees with soviet conclusions that Anu sterile syringe infected More than 24 children with the aids virus Tass said. David Heimann chief of the who epidemiological depart ment came to the soviet Union to help authorities track the source of the virus discovered in 29 infant Sand six mothers in Elista a City near the Caspian sea. Tass said the virus was mos probably brought by a Man who worked in one of the african coun tries eight years  Italy gets moisture Rome a Snow and rain fell on drought stricken Italy Over the weekend delighting Farmers and resort owners who had not seen a wet weekend in months. The precipitation was expected to continue through most of the week weather officials said. Some regions of Italy have no Thad rain for 80 Days. Budget reductions could bring return to 6-period Day Dodds official says corrections an article saturday on Cost of living allowances was incorrect. The allowance is paid to All full Simenon appropriated fund and appropriated fund employees in Europe. Camp Lejeune . A a Story feb. 25 on the court martial of Amarine lieutenant said he was convicted of dereliction of duty and appearing drunk. The Story failed to mention that he also was found guilty of disobeying an order. The charges against 1 St it. Allen Law son stemmed from the death of Lance Cpl. Jason Rother who had been left behind in the Mojave desert in augus Tafter being posted As a Road guide during a training exercise. Lawson was acquitted of wilfully Dis obeying an order. He was however convicted of the lesser charge of disobeying an order to Post Road guides in pairs and to submit a list of the guides to the offi cer charged with picking up the marines. By Dave Walczak education writer bad Kissinger West Germany the director of the military s Over seas school system said monday that proposed cuts in the fiscal 1990 budget May derail plans to hire More teachers and May result in a return to the six period Day for High school teachers and students. John Stremple cautioned however that the funds could be restored if department of defense dependent schools officials successfully plead their Case in Pentagon budget meeting Slater this year. Stremple made the comments in a 25 minute address opening the Germany Region s annual administrators Confer ence scheduled to end Friday. We had hoped to hire More staff in the areas of special education advanced placement counselling and Host nation but there s some question about that now he said. Stremple said Pentagon officials told him last week about the cutback proposal. He said the five regional directors will meet in Washington next no discharged for sex harassment Stuttgart West Germany an  staff sergeant stationed in Heilbronn has been Given a bad conduct discharge and reduced to the lowest enlisted Grade for sexually harassing his subordinates. Staff sgt. Hugo c. Adams he Btry 4th in 9th Field arty 56th Field arty come was convicted in a feb. 10 trial on six counts of maltreatment of a subordinate one count of wrongful indecent exposure and two counts of wrongfully soliciting to commit a crime. Adams was convicted of making direct and indirect comments of a sexual nature to subordinates and committing indecent assault on a subordinate by grabbing her with sexual intent said capt. Denise r. Lind Vii corps senior trial counsel. Week to discuss it. In his speech Stremple said he had hoped that the added staff would allow for High school teachers to have two pre Paratory periods and Only five classes As opposed to the current schedule of on preparatory period and six classes. But in an interview following his address he said the school system would have no Choice but to revert to a Day with six longer periods one preparatory and five teaching if $20 million is slashed from the proposed fiscal1990 budget. If we lose that we lose those teach ers he said. To get to $20 million input you get to  according to a published report school system officials had expected a fiscal 1990 budget of about $915.8 Mil lion a $110 million increase Over the current budget. The seven period Day has been a sore Point with teachers unions since it was ordered enacted by former school system director Beth Stephens five years ago. Stremple said monday that the enact ment has resulted in subterfuge by teachers since it was dropped on  Stremple devoted part of his speech to defending the skillful teacher program scheduled to begin this year. The plan Calls for teachers and administrators to undergo 30 hours of training much of which will outline effective teaching skills. He said he and Germany Region director Joseph Blackstead would join school administrators in undergoing the training. In other remarks Stremple said teachers in american school systems including Dodds Are under going severe morale prob Lens caused in part by a Lack of professional development and teamwork. He pointed to the skillful teacher program As a Means of raising morale. Confirmed his commitment to the Dodds educator career program which mandates that administrator shave a minimum of three years of class room teaching experience and specialized postgraduate course credits. In the interview he said longtime administrators who Lack classroom teaching requirements probably would be allowed to remain in their jobs. Vowed to seek More avenues by which parents can become full participants of our schools. We want them to be inside not just peeking inside he said citing the creation of advisory panels As a key Stepin adding parental input into the school system. Predicted that the school system would receive High Marks from Parent report cards due out later this year. Parents of schoolchildren will have the Opportunity to evaluate schools Ina variety of areas. Stremple said the report cards will be a landslide that every politician would love and predicted that 80 percent of the report cards would give a favourable evaluation of the school system. Air Force no Dies in Accident in Italy Naples Italy an air Force ser Geant died Early saturday morning when the car he was driving crashed into a tree North of Naples. Sgt. Mark Alan Ostaszewski 36, worked with the air Force element at Allied forces Southern Europe in Naples an air Force spokesman said monday. Ostaszewski who was off duty and alone at the time of the Accident apparently was driving North on a Highway in pin Tamare 20 Miles North of Naples when his car left the Road. A passer by discovered the Accident about 4 a.m., and Ostaszewski was pronounced dead at the scene by an italian doctor the spokesman said. A native of Highland ind., Ostaszewski joined the air Force in 1983and was stationed at Lindsey air station West Germany before coming to Naples in june 1986. He is survived by his parents also of Highland