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Thursday, February 2, 1978
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kanan editorial staff. Stamped columns represent the views of only the writers.
Signs create clutter
A Chamber of Commerce study committee has suggested that Lawrence's sign ordinance be revamped, allowing for larger signs and canceling a 1979 deadline for the removal of signs that do not conform with the ordinance.
The suggestion is atrocious. It goes against all efforts the Lawrence City Commission has put into combating visually distracting signs in an attempt to make Lawrence an attractive city. If the Chamber of Commerce has enough power to push its suggestion by the commission, Lawrence aesthetics would be set back 12 years. The way would be opened for sign clutter to flourish.
The city's sign ordinance, which was put on the books in 1966 and toughened in 1974, limits the size of business signs to 90 square feet in most cases. The Chamber's proposal would allow signs of up to 50 square feet to not exceed certain requirements, such as wall size. For example, wall signs could not exceed 10 percent of the businesses' front wall areas.
THE CHAMBER also has suggested entirely canceling the deadline after which nonconforming signs must meet present size regulations. Such a move would allow
oversized signs to remain indefinitely, as long as they were not rebuilt or relocated.
The effect of the proposed change would be far-reaching because it would weaken the present ordinance substantially. Mayor Marnie Argersinger has been brutally honest about the Chamber's suggestions, and Mr. Schoenecke has "castrating the present sign ordinance" and that it would "negate all of the progress we've made so far in cleaning up the city."
The Chamber contends that it would be too costly to remove all of the nonconforming signs when the October 1979 deadline is reached. It estimates that 150 sign would have to be altered or removed and that it would cost more than $200,000 to replace them.
THE ARGUMENT has a hollow ring,
however.
Lawrence businesses have known about the impending deadline for five years. There has been more than enough time for and make the necessary changes.
Huge, glaring signs leave ugly blemishes on a city's face. Lawrence, with a few exceptions, has a subtle appearance that is often hidden and maintained, rather than littered with signs.
The coal slurry pipeline is dead. Long live the coal slurry pipeline.
Benefits of coal pipeline costly
The Kansas Senate Transportation Committee last week Coalition officials hit hard because have given the power of eminent domain to a San Francisco-based energy company, Energy Transporta-
The plan is to lay a 38-inch pipeline from Gillette, Wyo., to White Bluff, Ark. about 1,030 miles. The line would enter Kansas in the northwest part of the state, and connect southeast region. A spokesman for the energy firm, William C. Farmer, estimated that installing the Kansas section of the pipeline would cost about $134 million. The total price of the project is estimated at $750 million.
Eiment domain is the right of the government to take private property for public use at a determined rate of compensation and the interests of the citizens. Energy Transportation Systems Inc has been lobbying at the statehouse for the past two legislatures, representing the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Parsons, compared feverish lobbying efforts to "trying to get a drink of water out of a fire" and added a fuel oil added a coal slurry neline?
NO SALES to Kansas energy
users of the granulated sugar-consistent coal and water mixture are planned. But Kansas Power and Light Co. has indicated it might be interested in building a spur pipeline to serve its Jeffrey Energy Center near St Marys.
Even if one views the issue as being granting of the power of eminent domain to a contract carrier, as Sen. Arnold Berman, D-Lawrence, does, the pipeline would use at least 2.4 million gallons of water annually. Some of the water would be from Kirkland to be extracted from Weyming's last potable reserves—the Madison acquifer formation.
Wyoming Gov. Edward Herschler has said he is "gravely concerned" about a pipeline that would drain millions of water underground from an already water-conscious region.
THE COAL will be needed to provide energy for power plants. There is little that policy makers can do about Americans' self-destructive energy appetite.
Railroad interests say that the coal can be shipped more ef-
Minutes symbolize stadium predicament
The following was excerpted—or could have been—from the minutes of the most recent meeting of the committee on commencement:
The meeting was called to order a few minutes later than scheduled. Representatives of the faculty, staff, senior and junior classes, Office of Admissions and Records, University of Kansas Alumni Association, School of Law and School of Social Welfare were present. The representatives of the Med Center and the School of Nursing were present. The branch of the School of Medicine called to say he was unsure which university to attend.
The meeting began with a group singing of "Solidarity Forever, for the Stadium Will Be Strong." A representa-
tion by the muncitor's office led us in hopeful prayer.
THE REPORT from the stadium renovators was heard. The wooden seats are being removed on schedule. The are
First on the agenda was old business. We reaffirmed our commitment to holding commencement in Kansas Memorial Stadium. The team, which has not evaluated for evaluation, was approved as read except for a deletion of the passage, "We stand behind the stadium site completely, incontrovertibly and unalterably, to ensure that our team members objected that the passage might not have the right impact."
John Mitchell
Editorial writer
underlying concrete, which was found to be in worse shape than originally thought, will require a more complete treatment. After it is repaired, the new aluminum seats will be ready to install. This is important because that the new seats will be ready in May.
Next a letter from the insurance company was read. It stated that, because of the construction work, if the company had not stadium before completion of the project, the company adjuster would "move a million miles *way*." The junior class representation noted that we get the number of numbers. The motors were second and passed.
The law school representative suggested that we consider an alternative plan. He said we have to consider the possibility of commencement could not be held in the stadium. The chairman looked at him. The vice chairman looked at the admissions office representative. There was no need for commencement. An alternative plan should be devised.
The junior class representative proposed a complete break with tradition—a commencement ceremony
in Fraser Hall. Each graduate, on hearing his name called, would take the elevator to the top floor, process across to the south cupola, where Chancellor Archie R. Dykes would hand him his diploma. Parents and faculty would look
THE RELATIVE wind speeds around Fraser Hall, possible acrophobia on the graduates' part and the difficulty in taking pictures were brought up as possible objections. The representative defended his plan by saying that there had to be some use for the Fraser Hall. A group of students studied a study of the speed of Fraser elevators showed that comminencement ceremonies could last five hours.
The senior class representative suggested that each school hold its own ceremony in the building housing that teachers, which did not from the schools of nursing and medicine, which did not want the Kansas City and Lawrence students separated, and by law students who were afraid their graduates did not find their way out of new Green Hall.
A plan was proposed by the School of Social Welfare to have students meet at the chancellor's residence and shake his hand, then march to their diplomas, which would be arranged at the feet of the bronze Jayhawk in front of Strong Hall. This motion was debated at length and was tabled only when someone
pointed out that it never had been seconded.
ASTAFF representative proposed that commencement be held in Wescow Terrace. Parents and guests would be seated at the checkered tables as the graduates filed into the cafeteria线. As they passed through, their diplomas would be available, filed according to their schools.
At the end of the line—thought an apt metaphor by many—Dykes would man the cash register, assess the graduates their final fees and dispense sugar, matchbooks and handshakes. The plan was scuttled well before they had to stand waiting for hours. They argued it would be too much like normal.
Finally one of the faculty representatives proposed holding the ceremonies in Allen Field House, the way it had been done in past rained-out years. He was shouted down by the student representative and the student angrily shouted that he couldn't sit in there without shooting something obscene.
An English professor on the committee replied that perhaps students who were habitually obscene should not be allowed to graduate anywhere. With that, the student representatives and the faculty and staff members engaged in a loud, obscene argument, and the meeting was considered over.
Student lobby's appeal minimal
fictively by rail than by pipeline. Unit trains, which haul vast quantities of a single commodity, have been proved a more efficient means of heavy-weight transport than coal pipelines.
made more immediately relevant to the concerns of ordinary citizens—as relevant for home repairs, home maintenance.
THE PROPONENTS of nuclear energy have long appreciated the importance of relating their case to citizens' daily lives. In addition to laying out their version of the facts,
BY MICHAEL MARCO
N.Y. Times Features
By MICHAEL MARGOLIS
It is time that opponents of the nuclear-power program made their case with equal effectiveness. Instead of attacking into your another letter, why not present them in a pamphlet in large type but with a subtle change of emphasis? The pamphlet ought to be titled "What to Do in Case of Nuclear Accident" or something similar.
truth, the dangers still seemed remote. Nuclear contamination would occur somewhere else. It might not even happen. It might not even happen.
If the Union of Concerned Students is ever to gain popular support for its concern for nuclear safety, it needs to improve its tactics. The dangers it describes might be
PITTSBURGH—The kids need new clothes for school; the car needs repair; the house needs more insulation. As if the car had been damaged, the other day a letter arrived from the Union of Concerned Students advising me of the need for new nuclear-radiation accidents.
Popular support and financial contributions might be stimulated most effectively by taking populations, such as those living downwind from present and proposed nuclear power sta
The letter, four pages thick, detailed the dangers—radiation leaks from shoddy installed equipment, more radiation leaks from improper radiative wastes and large-scale contamination from fires caused by failure of the unprompted emergency core cooling system. The letter also warned of inadequate fire doors for plutonium from hijackers intent on making atomic bombs.
the proponents' arguments contain implicit threats of losses of jobs, declining income and deteriorating standards of living if nuclear power is not adopted.
Appleis to intellect alone are not sufficient to halt the spread of nuclear power plants because they accustomed standards of living require the energy that these plants can provide. Demands for safer standard power plants will efforts to develop other sources of energy will come only when people realize that satisfying energy requirements with nuclear power means on-going their lives and prerty.
The letter spoke of threats to world peace as well: Not only does the nuclear-power industry intend to expand its operations at home, but it intends to increase sales of reactors abroad. Once in foreign hands these reactors will generate plutonium for new atomic bombs. Worse yet, some reactors might be fueled by plutonium from the start.
rates drive utility rates up. The cost is passed on to the consumer. Constituents' pressures on representatives and senators may force that will lower the rate at which energy costs increase. Anti-railroad invective usually cities plan by roads to doubledown, and that regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
HAVING ENUMERATED these and other hazards, the letter went on to describe the Union of Concerned Students, a national publicity group in its lobbying efforts. Instead of supporting increased reliance on nuclear power, it advocates conservation of fossil fuels and increased efforts to convert to electric cars included by soliciting a contribution to support its good work.
Gil Sweet, an official of Santa Fe Railway, told members of the transportation committee that a coal slurry pipeline built in Ohio in 1956 was unable to continue operating after railroads demonstrated that unit trains could haul coal more efficiently on a coaster by predicting that the amount of coal needed to supply the nation with energy could not be supplied by railroads alone.
Despite my inclination to support the anti-nuclear cause, I found myself unmoved by this high-minded appeal. Neither its factual presentation nor the appended list of prestigious sponsors from the scientific community distinguishes this good cause from dozens of others for which I am regularly solicited. In
To bring about this realization, the Union of Concerned Students and other opponents of nuclear power must stimulate an emotional response. Their appeals may be crucial for nuclear safety as urgent as the concern for meeting next month's bills.
Federal mandates on conversion from oil and natural gas to coal for electricity generation have forced leaders from coal-supplying states to face pressures from coal-consuming states. Coal-consumers regard Wyoming as a control that obligates coal-rich states like Wyoming to simultaneously deplete their water and coal resources. An unfortunate act by the Wyoming Legislature in 1974 approved issuance of water permits for the pipeline company, the provincial authority at least of 15,000 water already has been signed by a former Wyoming state engineer.
Much of the battle consists of skirmishes between pipeline and railroad interests. Proponents of the pipeline assert that competition is needed in the energy transportation business, but that the pipeline would provide some of that competition.
FARMER SAID work on the pipeline had been delayed for a year or more because of the committee's vote against the pipeline bill. As the nation turns to coal in an attempt to trim a carbon tax, there is deficit, much of which can be attributed to our profligate use of imported oil, the pipeline conflict will flare again.
The coal slurry pipeline has been forced into dormancy in Kansas. But the loblobs will be back at the statehouse next year. If they're not successful, they'll be back the year after.
INCREASED RAIL transport
Michael Margolis is associate professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh.
"I have never seen such a determination of a company to have its own way," said U.S. Rep. Teno Roncalio, D-Wyo. House Interior Committee member.
The warfare between railroad and pipeline interests obscures the fate of the Western semi-arid regions. Tapping the West's last reserves of water for the short-term benefit of profligate energy users, many of whom are in the so-called Sunbelt region, would be consistent with mismanagement that has seduced Americans during the past few decades.
Herschel suggested at House Interior Committee hearings last week that the U.S. Geological Survey study the water reserves stored in Wyoming's Madison Formation.
That might take two to three years, enough time to develop a defense against the broadens of energy-starved interests that care little whether the semi-arid West becomes truly arid.
"Okay, kid, you want to talk about us political animals," he paused for a belch, "we'll talk. This life is really a lot of fuss with people and infrequent. But the payoff comes when you're in the position to give a slap on the . . , er, back to someone you really think deserves it. This Anita makes it what all worthwhile."
"Shoot, I would have sponsored this resolution myself, if my wife hadn't threatened to come to Topeka while the Legislature was in session. She's jealous—do you blame her?" I suppose just about any amount of data that I got from most of our wives couldn't put her oranges," the senator said, wiping his brow.
YURKINK said that he was aware that only a few Kansans could probably identify his work in the Legislature. "But that doesn't mean I'm not in danger," he said, of 100 percent of the way, "he said."
After he wrote the bunny's phone number down on the back of a business card, the senator began to talk again.
Yorkkun went on to say that the Senate did consider seriously the controversy it would
'Say, did you hear Anita's latest cut? Catchy little number all about the love between a man and a woman. Whoee!'
Gratitude for Anita trite
"I'M TELLING YOU, Miss Anna it's what it all about. Like we say in that resolution—Kansas is grateful to her for her work and way of life. Instead I wanted it to say 'Miss American way of life' but they said that wouldn't be right since she was just a second runner-up in the Miss contest," Yurikun added.
For the umpleth tone in the afternoon's conversation, State Sen. Hli Wattas Yukirk, Istanbul, told the topic to singer Anna Bryant. Although the interview had been scheduled to collect information for a civics book about Kansas government, the president Bryant was one of the key issues in the 1978 legislative session.
"What do you mean you can't see how she's any of Kansas business?" his mythical senator shrieked. His voice hoarse, he motioned to the officer and ordered another lime ruckey.
start by attempting to put the Kansas Legislature on record in support of Bryant's crusade against homosexuality.
“But there’s no getting around it,” Yurkink continued. “Anita’s got what it takes to make a man feel like a man. No wonder she is so high-spirited because they’re missing,” the senator said, licking the lime rickey taste off his lips.
"SAY, DID you get a chance to read that letter one of us wrote asking her to come and testify?" Yurkink reached into the front pocket of his leisure pants and pulled out a soiled paper towel with writing on it. He began to read.
"May I express to you my long-standing admiration of your music and beauty but also your voice, and we promise that if you appear you won't have to sing—indeed it's much easier to speak—just let us slick such a little.
""P.S. You have done for orange juice what Madame Curie did for radium, whatza Janssen did for violette Jane Withers did for Golly Gee
Whiz!!!! Yurkink carefully folded the paper towel and returned it to his pocket.
Commenting on the letter, the senator said, "Oh, I grant you his letter was a bit stuff in places but, after all, in this correspondence we are representing the people of Kansas. I still wonder who Zasu Pitts and Jane Witheres are, though.
"YOU KNOW," Yurkink looked far away as he spoke, "this resolution is going to look straight." Why, I bet straights from all around will make a beeline straight to the Sunflower State. Yes sir, the gay population will run for cover in the closets."
All too soon, the senator ended the interview.
"You'll have to excuse me," Yurkink said. "I've got to go earn my keep. Kansans aren't paying me for nothing, you money." He heartily hearted as if he had just cracked a Zasu Pits joke.
Yurkink then walked away with a lift in his gait that even Anita Bryant would approve of. Anita Bryant never gets written, it probably will have to include at least a chapter on the Anita Bryant resolution—the resolution that Kansas Senate.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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