THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Vol. 86 No.46
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
October 29.1975
Photo by JOHN P. THARIF
Pulling contest
A two-person rolling team dig in, dragging a weighted sled at a palling match Sunday. The tractor is used to pull the sled back into position for the next team.
Ponies compete in pulling matches
By JOHN P. THARP
Staff Writer
They came from northeast Kansas, wearing yards of denim, cowboy boots and hats and Coop and Acco Seed caps and driving pickup trucks loaded with Shetland ponies. The pitkest were common ponies, but "pulling ponies" specially trained to draug a weighted sled competitively at matches like the one held Sunday in East Lawrence.
Nineteen double-horse teams yanked a concrete-laden sledge before a crowd of about 10. Matches are usually held at county and state fairs or at events like Baldwin's Maple Leaf festival, but this meet was a "wildcat" invitational. The prize money ($5) came
from $6 entry fees. Sponsored pulls have purses of up to $2,000.
"I pull for the sport and to put on a show," said 21-year-old Ola farmer Gary Johnson from under his oversized poka-dok hat. "He's been piling has been piling with them for six years."
The ponies, noticeably smaller than standard farm horses, are weighed at the beginning of each match and range in weight from 200 to 400 pounds. Primary sled weight is then figured according to the horse's height. It usually starts abound 150 pounds.
Miniature powerhouses, the ponies dig eight hooves in the ground and surge forward, dragging the dead weight the six-foot minimum distance.
The harnessed teams are led to the front of the sled, and one man, "the hooker,"
secures the harness hook to the sled's cable.
His partner, "the driver," who is usually the owner-trainer, holds the steeds back and extends his arms. he flips these reins, the action erupts.
"Horses are smart; they know their stuff," said Ray Bendort, Louisburg. "You gotta have a lead horse (pony who breaks the water) to be safe, but the whole thing, less in the driver."
Bendorf explained that the driver had to know when to start his horses and that he would only start if he was ready.
would prompt the pennies. However, th.y.
cannot be touched. No rump slaps or
touching are allowed.
All teams rotate through the first round, then weight is added. As the pounds increase, the distance shortens. A team that lasts a longer distance than the last team moves to the sled is the winner.
The Jayhawk Pony Pulling Club is a Lawrence group with 90 members, and averages 25-35 teams at a club match. Warm weather allows two or three matches a weekend, and members remember many days of rushing from one contest to another. As the weather worsens, the number of matches dips, and they are moved inside
Commission hears employe group
Ralph Bayles Sr. said he pulls "just for the sport."
The Lawrence City Commission last night had a public hearing regarding recognition of the United Public Employees Associations Lawrence as a collective bargaining coalition.
BJAN KENNETH LOUDEN
The coalition includes the Lawrence Association of Firefighters, the Lawrence Sanitation Employees Association, the Lawrence Street Department Employee Association and the Lawrence Police Officers Association.
Carl Torneden, a member of the firefighters association, said that since 1967 when his organization was chartered and first asked for recognition it had never gone to the AFL-CIO for help. Even in 1973, when there was a slowdown because the league was equal with policemen, he said, the group still didn't ask for national help.
NONE OF THESE associations had been recognized by the city commission as a collective bargaining agent. Under state law an association must be recognized as a bargaining organization to be required to negotiate employment practices and conditions with city officials.
need for employees to talk with their national associates.
"NONE OF US refused to answer any kind of call then, except escaping cats out of trees," he said. "We have been more than concerning the issue of recognition."
Darrell Ward, a member of the Lawrence Education Association, said his group favored recognition of the city employees association.
The education association was recognized by the state in 1970 as a collective bar by the state.
"We seldom hear of the good benefits of local organization," he said. "Negotiation doesn't always mean conflict. It means a compromise that makes dignity and the worth of individuals."
Bayles, a retired steelworker who began pulling a year and a half ago, became interested through his son, Ralph Bayles Jr., who has been competing for 10 years.
WARD SAID the school system was better because of negotiation.
Commissioner Fred Pence asked why it
"It's all in the sport," Bayles Jr. said, echoing his father's sentiments about his truck accident in November 2015.
See Union page five
Pullers figure the sport started in Kansas around 1959. Besides competition, there is a lot of horsetrading going on at the meets. One puller claims never to leave with the same horses he came with. Small side bides are also made, usually under a dollar.
A Louisburg woman who goes to all the matches with her husband said, "Some of us have gone back.
Some meets have a special "powder puff" match in which women compete.
She works the horses at home and said she a team to teach her garden last week.
Alvin Samuels, president of the firefighters association, delivered the opening address to the commission. He said the workers had joined in common cause to save lives.
Union beer sale approved by city
By BRUCESPENCE
David Katzman, associate professor of history, said he favored an employees coalition. Katzman said, it was in the best interest of the employee, especially the boss, he said, when local unions are weak, outside forces such as international labor unions come into cities.
The city employees want to organize as a completely local organization. There are nine cities in Kansas that have collective bargaining units. They all follow the rules of Relations Board (PEERB). PEERB presides over elections of union leaders and mediation between city employees and city officials.
Much discard that is facing large cities can be avoided, he said, by allowing the employees to join in a local organization. Samuels said the city employers could provide the workers advice if they were exposed to the city management as a collective bargaining coalition.
Staff Writer
Mayor Barkley has said he is indebted to the FBI and the police belonged to the Fraternal Order of Police. Both are national unions. Thus, he said, it is unrealistic to say Lawrence can work as a law enforcement officer.
Crowds, however, still caused some problems Saturday, but last night the city had a series of brewer regulations another chance. The commission had indicated when the new provisions were considered last month, that it would take harris action if the new regulations were implemented.
BUFORD WATSON, city manager, said that he had talked with police since last Saturday and that they had indicated to him that the way it had been handled then was best.
AFTER SATURDAY'S homecoming game, measures were taken to enforce city commission orders in an attempt to contain the crowds at the Wagon Wheel Cafe, 507 W. 14th St., and the Jayhawk Cafe, 1340 Ohio St., but there were still some problems.
The city commission had ordered a fence built around land adjacent to the Wheel; more uniform policemen to arrest those who were crossing the 14th Street to traffic. The city commission also had asked John Wooden, the Wheel's owner, to place in employees a neighbor's yard to keep crowds off that property and ensure that driver wasn't carried off the Wheel's property.
The Kansas Union last night got the go ahead to sell beer when the Lawrence City Commission approved the Union's application for a cereal malt beer license.
With that move the city commission hopes to alleviate some of the crowd problems at two taverns at 14th and Ohio streets, which were damaged by flooding, to the city commission for three years.
Watson said that the police chief told him that some people had carried beer across the street but that there had been no property damage.
Watson said he thought that Wooden had done all he could to comply with the city
LAWRENCE 'city employees have said they don't want to organize according to PEERB. They think they have the resources to organize without state control.
Commissioner Donald Bunsa said, "I think we'd better approve this license quick to allow our staff to work."
Bimsa said, "I told you in the first place that the policemen would not be able to
Katzman said a strong local union would keep out the national unions and prevent the
orders and that it it was ordered and that it was ordered that it could not have been controlled that it had been held
If people continue to carry beer across the streets, he said, there might be some more problems. He suggested suggestions. He said that police had been instructed to use good judgement in writing
Mayor Barkley Clark said that one complaint he had heard was that the alumni had nothing to return to since the city cracked down on beer establishments.
The commission approved the beer license even though several structural changes in the Union that are necessary to pass inspection haven't been carried out.
Watson said that Frank Burge, Kansas Union director, said he wanted to sell beer before Saturday's football game and that was why Burge had requested the license approval before the require work was done. Watson said that he would need that the work would be done, Watson said, but the work couldn't have been completed in time for this week's commission meeting.
"WE HAVE four days of really thorough homework to do," he said.
Earlier yesterday, Burge said that if the necessary equipment wasn't ready in time for Saturday's game, the sales would begin within the next two weeks.
Beer will be only in the Union Dell and the Prairie Room, and beer sales will be prohibited in Memorial Stadium, in Allen campus or campus-services except the Union.
Bear hours in the Deli will be from 11 a.m.
to 6:30 p.m. weekdays and from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m. on Saturday, and in the Prairie Room
from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. weekdays.
paper cups or glasses, not in cans or bottles. He said that the Memorial Corporation Bank and its employees were studying the possibility of developing an area in the Union where beer could be sold
He said that he didn't expect Union beer sales to greatly affect the problems of this market.
KU student 1 of 2 charged with kidnapping and assault
The men, Robert E. Swanson, Bavaria freshman, and Michael Stuart McNamara, Heart, Tex., were being held last night in the Douglas County Justice on $20,000 bond each to the plaintiffs for the waived charges and $5,000 for the acquired assault charges.
Two 18-year-old men, one a University of Kansas student, were charged with the kidnapping and aggravated assault vesterday of a Lawrence woman.
The two men were apparently hitchhiking and were picked up by the woman about 9:15 yesterday morning, according to a witness. The man was with a knife, the police said. The woman with a knife, the police said.
woman reportedly escaped from the men after hitting a median strip near 150h and Iowa streets, running from the car and helping help from other motorists.
The suspects were arrested at the Union
Bus Depot, 63 Massachusetts St., at about 2
pm.
The men were arraigned yesterday afternoon in Douglas County Court. Mike Elwell, county court judge, set a motion to hear the case in the for 2,30 p.m. nov. 6.
Richard Stanwix, Lawrence chief of police, said details of the incident were still sketchy and the incident was still under investigation.
Closed SenEx meetings legal, counsel says
By SHERIBALDWIN
Staff Writer
SenEx and other University of Kansas governance bodies don't fall under the Kansas Open Meetings Law, according to Mike Davis, university general counsel.
"It's because they don't direct receive or expand public funds," Davis said.
Questions remain, however, about whether Student Senate funds could be considered 'public funds' and university governance bodies receiving those funds could be considered "supported in part by public funds."
THE KANASS OPEN MEETINGS LAW states in part that meetings and business transactions by legislative and administrative bodies and agencies of the state, "receiving or expending and supported in whole or in part by public funds shall be open to the public and no binding by such bodies shall be by secret bellow."
Ed Rolfs, student body president, said that any group, organization or corporation receiving Student Senate funds was subject to the same laws as the Sarasaga Law, according to the Senate Code.
Zuther said SenEx and FacEx were open unless committee assignments and chairmanships were to be discussed, or any requests for the request requested to have the meeting closed.
Gerhard Zuther, chairman of SenEx and PacEx, said that open meeting policy was "one of the few things we can do."
Matters that might suffer from
HE SAID THAT THE TWO committees didn't fall under the Kansas Open Meeting Law because they weren't policy-making and that they make no final decisions.
premature publicity and visitors who consented to appear before SenEx or FacEx only if the meeting would be closed are called. Otherwise that would close a meeting. Zither said.
He said SenEx was essentially a regulatory board that guided the flow of information.
Zuther said SenEx closed its meetings to everybody except invited guests.
He said he did not favor allowing reporters in the room while sessions were closed, even with stipulations that the room be filled with no notes and report none of the content.
"We don't make the policy, but give
them permission only." Father said.
Even if a reporter's presence in a closed meeting would afford him a better understanding of the situation and possibly prevent misinterpretation, Zuther said, Senxib or PacXeb would have no power to suit if the reporter breeched the agreement.
Adrienne Hyle, SenEx member, said she thought a reporter would obtain no more understanding of an issue by observing a closed session than the information that could be obtained from committee members after the meeting.
"THERE ARE PROS and cons to have them three during closed sessions," she added. "They're not like ours."
Hyle said the presence of outsiders in closed sessions would definitely inhibit discussion and could possibly cause three or four decisions to come out of a meeting
James Seaver, chairman of SenEx from 1972 to 1974, said that when he first became chairman, the policy was that the meetings were not unless specifically opened for some reason.
SenEx began to experiment with open meetings at the beginning of his second term as chairman, Seaver said. Student Senate members were welcome, but non-Senators had to be agreed upon by the committee, he said.
GRAUDAILY THE POLICY changed to its current provisions that meetings are closed only when committee members are present. Membership is considered, Seaver said.
"We didn't feel that we were subject to the state meeting law, but we pretty well went along with open meeting ideas anyway," he said.
The question of whether funds such as salaries for members of University governance groups could be considered partial support was central to the issue.
The Student Senate allocates $250 to each student member of SenEx. Positions such as the chairman of StudEx are also salaried.
"SenEx meets more often and more regularly than most University groups." Hyle said. "The Student Senate felt that student members of SenEx should at some
paint be compensated for the time and effort spent."
Rolfs said, "Where individuals are paid for participation on groups not complying, there would seem to be some possible problems with laws and regulations of the Student Senate."
If University governance groups aren't under the open meeting law, Rolfs said, "we will have to go."
He said that all discussions of issues such as those by the Commission on Quality of Instruction in Classroom Teaching could have taken place behind closed doors, but that the Student Senate followed open meeting practices as a rule.
Devis said that he didn't want to give an advisory opinion on the issue.
The Student Advisory Board might want to request a ruling from Curt Schneider, a former president of the college.
FURTHER ACTION could include asking Davis for an opinion and talking with the Student Advisory Board, which is made up of students from the state schools. Rafa's said.
"If someone who is directly related (SenEx, StudEx, Student Senate) requests an opinion, I'll be glad to render one," he said.
Rolfs said that he would decide sometime today whether further action should be taken. If it is necessary, he said he would consult with the Student Senate vice president and treasurer and the chairmen of committees such as finance and auditing, and student rights, privileges and responsibilities.
Chancellor Archie R. Dykes said that there was no general policy concerning access to information at KU, but that each major committee made its own policy.
Bruce Woner, chairman of StudEx, said in a committee had never had a closed discussion.
"Reporters are often times gracious enough to leave out things we say which may include profanities and the like," Woner said.
"AS LONG AS it's accurate information, I
*don't have any bones to pick even if I have*
*everything I know."
Werner said that in only a few cases, such as elections of committee chairmen, have Senate committees ever closed their meetings.
"Very seldom is a reason that a student meeting should ever be closed," he
Woner said he thought groups such as SenEx frequently closed their meetings to make things seem more important than they really were.
" half of the time they have no reason to close those meetings at all," he said.
Woner said that if a committee had done its work on an individual basis, it could work out sensitive points in personal conversations before and after the meetings.
"Of course, there are exceptions to the rule," he said.