The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Wednesday, March 9, 1983 Vol. 93, No. 114 USPS 650-640
Larry George/KANSAN
Jane Plummer says she moved to her house on Rural Route 2 to enjoy the quiet of the country. But her neighbor Robert R, Bigsby has asked to build a rock quarry on his dairy farm next door.
Sunset Drive-in's days are numbered
By SUSAN STANLEY Staff Reporter
The Sunset Drive-in's paved driveway, outlined by free-standing light poles, leads to the empty, peach, concrete ticket booth. From there, the road leads into the gravel lot and to a playground composed of two seatless swing sets rusty red, blue and yellow merry-go-round.
The concession stand is in the middle of the lot.
The doors are locked, and inside, the equipment is covered with dusty plastic.
The theater is the last remaining drive-in on the city, and its days are numbered, Elden Harwood, district manager of Commonwealth Theatres, said yesterday.
THE DRIVE IN HAS been in business since the early 1950s, he said. But now cable television and indoor theaters are drawing customers away, and Harwood wants to sell out
"Business has been consistently decreasing for the past 10 years." Harwood said.
"But we'd sell it now if we were offered the right price," he said.
He has received several offers for the land, but has found none of them acceptable.
The decline in attendance at the Sunset Drive-in reflects a national trend, said Francis Calbeck, of the Drive-In Equipment Manufacturing Company in Kansas City, Kan.
Calcek said that one theater in the East had sold for $12.5 million last year. The same land
See DRIVE IN page 5
Plans to open quarry anger rural residents
Staff Reporter
By NED STAFFORD
Six miles south of Lawrence, set back from a quiet country road and partially surrounded by woods, sits the 126-year-old home of Jane Kramer, who lived in the house and the 140 acres around it in 1954.
"We bought this place because my husband and I wanted a quiet home in the country." Plummer said. "We would live here and we would be buried here."
Plummer's husband died two years ago and was buried near the house in a small cemetery that became the final resting place of some of the first pioneers to come to the area.
PLUMMER'S HOME IS about one-quarter mile from a proposed site for a rock quarry that Robert R. Bigsy, the owner of a dairy farm next to Plummer on Rural Route 2, is seeking county approval to build. Plummer said the idea of a property that close to her home made her heartick
"I plan to die in this house," she said. "I would think of dying in a hospital."
"I'd never think of going anywhere else to live," Plummer said. "I'm '79, my roots are here. My husband and I had the happiest, most beautiful times of our life here."
Plummer, whose home is closest to the proposed site, and other landowners in the area are opposing the rock quarry, which must be approved by the Douglas County Commission before it can be built. The commission will consider the proposal later this month.
Bigsby and his attorney declined comment.
Bigsoy and his attorney declined comment. Elden Meyen, who has lived across the road from the entrance of the proposed site for nine years, said he was opposed to the quarry because trucks used to haul rock from the quarry would cause traffic safety and dust problems.
"ANYONE CAN APPLY for a rock quarry." Meyen said. "But government agencies are responsible for making good decisions on behalf of the public."
Meyen, associate vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, is on sabbatical this year.
He said if there were a need for another rock quarry in the county, a study should be made of its long-term consequences to assure that the site was chosen in the best interest of the county.
"If the establishment of a quarry in an area causes people not to build homes, one has to realize that a source of tax revenue is missed," he said.
Meyen said properly taxes were higher for houses than for farmland. He said that last year he paid $1,834.64 in taxes on his home and the 10 acres surrounding his home, $307.06 on the 109 acres surrounding his home.
MEYEN SAID THAT a quarry could reduce the value of his property, making it harder to sell. But he said that if the quarry were built and owned, the value of his property, he still would not move.
"I would not want to because of what we've created in terms of a living environment," he
The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission recommended two weeks ago that the rock quarry be allowed to be built if 13 conditions were met.
The conditions include prohibiting blasting and hauling rock from the quarry before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m.; prohibiting quarry operation within 40 feet of property lines; providing road access in the area before the commercial operation could begin, and using a chemical to keep dust down.
Another condition would prohibit quarrying closer than 1,000 feet to Plummer's house.
DAVID GUNTERT, A PLANNER on the Lawrence-Dougall County planning staff that recommended approval of the quarry to the Planning Commission, said a quarry was a
"There was no overwhelming information to lead us to the conclusion that it would not be compatible with existing land uses," he said.
He said that the conditions placed on the operation of the quarry would take care of some of the residents' concerns, such as traffic safety. If the quarry were approved and Bigsby did not follow the conditions, Guntert said, Bigsby's permit could be revoked.
He said that when people bought homes in an area zoned for agriculture, there were no guarantees that a neighbor would not start up a feedlot or hog farm.
"WE HAVE A LOT of nonfarm people who have moved out in the county." Gunter said. "Now that they are there they want to close the door."
Dellert Flory, a farmer near Baldwin City, said, "I, for one, as a farmer, cannot understand why another farmer would destroy his land. We try to make it better."
Flory grew up about five miles from the proposed quarry, where his father still lives.
Reagan seeks approval for aid to El Salvador
Budget problems silence several campus lecture programs
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan sought a consensus with Congress yesterday on emergency help for war-torn El Salvador, and lawmakers were told the administration might seek as much as $110 million in new military aid.
"I am willing," Percy said, "subject to a number of conditions: an ammecty program; reinstatement of a criminal justice system; prosecution after the election; and a sincere conversation between the government and the guerrillas."
PERCY, R-ILL., AND Zablocki emerged from the White House meeting saying there was a feeling an aid request will be granted, but with conditions.
At an hour-long White House meeting with congressional leaders, Reagan pledged that the United States would not "Americanize" his government in Valverde. He said swift action was necessary.
Charles Percy, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said after the meeting that one step being considered was to train Salvadoran troops in the United States.
The U.S. military assistance program for El Salvador the current year is $26 million, and any new request would be for this year.
WHITE HOUSE AND Pentagon aides confirmed the $110 million figure suggested by Weinberger — with the extra $50 million he wanted for repairing El Salvador roads and
"It is my impression that all $110 million will be military assistance and there will be an economic assistance package which will be as large or greater than that," Zablocki said.
REP. CLEMENT ZABLOCKI, D-Wis,
chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, said the amount mentioned
yesterday by Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger for new assistance to El Salvador
was $110 million — not the $60 million figure
for military aid the administration had been
expected to request.
carry Speaks, deputy press secretary,
said both the $60 million and $110 million
figures were being considered. He said,
however that Reagan would not make a final
decision until after a meeting with top aides
later this week.
By JENNIFER FINE
Staff Reporter
Budget problems have forced University officials to cut down on or eliminate their visiting speaker programs.
But the lecture series financed by endowments or private grants are still going strong.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences used to give money to departments from a special lecture fund, Robert Lineberry, dean of the College, said yesterday. However, the $20,000 annual stipends to be eliminated after last summer's 4 percent cut in the University's budget, he said.
Lineberry said he was trying to begin a new fund for next year.
"I hope to do everything I can within the resources of the College to rebuild the lecture"
He said he did not know whether the school could get as much money as it had before the
AND THE MONEY could no longer be given
automatically to the departments, said Lindy Eakin, assistant to the dean of the College. Instead, the departments would have to have a separate college administration before getting any money.
Robert Squier, acting chairman of the anthropology department, said his department sponsored a prosaemic every month, in which most of the speakers are KU faculty. Last year, the department received between $500 and $600 from the College, and more than that in previous years.
In the meantime, the departments are trying to compensate for their missing lecture series.
Brian Raleigh, chairman of Student Union Activities forums, said SUA had no money to pay for his work.
"The money situation has just closed SUA forums down," he said. "It's frustrating when people call up and say, 'This guy's in the area,' and we can't have him here."
He said SUA forums had asked Student Senate to use a special reserve account to help finance
But Lisa Ashner, student body president, vetoed a bill requesting $9,500 to pay for G.
Gordon Liddy and John Ehrlichman to speak
Asher said that it would be financially unwise to spend the money, because the Senate allocated twice the amount that was in the fund
One lecture series financed by the University escaped the budget cuts.
THE HUMANITIES LECTURE SERIES,
which is financed through the Office of Research
and Graduate Studies, receives money from te
mployees of Frances Horowitz, dean of the
Graduate School.
Edward Williams, chairman of the Humanities Lecture Committee, said the series consisted of three visiting lecturers and one lecturer from the KU faculty each year.
Lecture series that are financed by grants and endowments have not felt the budget crunch.
ADKINS SAID THAT about $6,000 from Pearson was placed in an endowment fund which provided $2,800 to the University.
David Adkins, former student body president,
said the Senate had earmarked $5,000 from the unallocated account for the James Pearson
bank. He said the account was not in Pearson, a former U.S. senator from Kansas.
pay for things such as promotion and travel expenses, he said.
Adkins said the Senate hoped to build a prestigious series which would gain regional attention, instead of focusing mainly on student attention, as SUA forums did.
University-wide lecture series such as the Kenneth A. Spencer Series, the J.A. Vickers Series and the University Lecture Series are funded by the Boyle Foundation funds established through donations.
Elizabeth Goetz, chairman of the University lecture committee, said that getting money for lectures not financed through endowments was difficult.
"There just isn't much available," she said.
SHE SAID A GREATER problem for the committee was getting approval from the people in charge of the donations.
Other lecture series sponsored by various schools and departments get money through
Michael Davis, dean of the School of Law, said that the school had two lecture series, the Nelson Timothy Stephens Lecture Series, and one just starting, the Donna Stephenson Lecture Series.
General assistance aids victims of economy
By DIANE LUBER
Staff Reporter
Paul Berry leaned back in his chair at Ballard Community Center and between sights rattled off half a dozen reasons why people sought general assistance benefits. He recited the circumstances in a way that only someone who encountered them every day could.
"They could be displaced workers from within or outside of the state. Due to the economic unfairness, have either abandoned their families or had them necessary to go elsewhere to work."
"People find themselves on general assistance for a variety of reasons," said Berry, executive director.
"SOME ARE PEOPLE who had good jobs, but were laid off and have exhausted unemployment benefits and supplemental benefits and now require assistance as the court of last resort," he said.
Some are unskilled people who were hired to
entry-level jobs and were the first to be fired when
the company found a better fit.
He is most concerned about the older workers who, because of age or lack of skill, are unable to use computers. He said. Health problems often prohibit them from working and may limit opportunities for part-time work are scarce.
Students who are unable to finish their education because of reductions in financial assistance are turning to general assistance, he although he hasn't heard of any such cases here.
Many recipients of general assistance are worried and have been calling him because they received notices with their March checks that this month's check might be their last, he said.
GOV. JOHN CARLIN signed into law yesterday a bill that will allow the secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to reduce the number of people receiving general assistance benefits. Robert Harder, state SRS secretary, has said that if the Legislature does not allocate enough money to the program, he will stop payments to able-bodied people between the ages of 18 and 51 who do not have dependents.
The Senate, however, has passed a bill that would add $9.5 million for general assistance to the governor's SRS budget. The bill would provide medical assistance and $100 monthly payments to those who might be eliminated from the program as a result of the new law. Harder regulations could have exacerbated the situation beginning April 1 unless the governor veiled the bill
Ernesti Dyer, income maintenance section chief for the Lawrence SRSE office, said that
The Senate proposal would also prohibit those receiving the $100 monthly payment from participating in the SHS community work and participation in any other activities. Participation would become voluntary on May 1.
AND IN A TRAINING session on Friday, he said, he learned that even if the Senate bill became law, some recipients could receive less than $100 a month.
either measure would affect 131 of the 188 households in Douglas County that had received March benefits.
All able-bodied general assistance recipients are now required to work for agencies and institutions to receive their benefits. In Lawrence, they work for the county, the University of Kansas and community organizations, such as The College and Ballard Community Center, Dyer said.
"Out of the hundreds we see, I can recall only two or three times having a person come in with an attitude of 'You owe it to me.' Most are timid.
WORKING FOR THEIR benefits has allowed the recipients to maintain their self-respect, he said. Handouts are hard for them to accept.
Berry said, "It's appalling to me that they won't have to participate. I don't say that because we'll lose help, but because they'll lose dignity."
See WELFARE page 5
Weather
Today will be mostly sunny with a high in the mid- to upper 40s, according to the National Weather Service in Topela. Winds will be from the northwest at 12 to 55 mph. Tonight will be clear and cold with a low in the lower tueses to low 90.
Tommorow will be sunny and a little warmer with a high around 50.
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