Tutu much
Prospective prima ballerinas have been on their toes, practicing four hours a day. seven days a week to bring "The Nutcracker Suite" to the stage. Kristin Benjamin, founder of the Kaw Valley Dance Theater, said that four years ago her company was too inexperienced for this project, but now she barres no holds. See page 6.
Cold High, 30. Low, 20s. Details on page 3.
The University Daily
KANSAN
Vol. 95, No. 71 (USPS 650-640)
Thursday, December 6, 1984
First snow envelops Lawrence
The season's first significant snowfall covered campus in white yesterday morning, as students woke to a blanket of about 1-2 inches of snow.
The light snow began falling about 5 a.m. yesterday. But most of it had melted off from slick streets by about 10 a.m., and the walks and wet roads throughout campus.
But what looked pretty from a bedroom window proved dangerous for motorists in the city.
The KU police department yesterday reported three campus accidents that occurred between 7 and 8 a.m. at the Sunflower Road building in Sunside Avenue and Sunflower Road
The Douglas County Sheriff's department yesterday reported 18 accidents or vehicles in ditches. No major injuries were reported.
Police said the accidents may have resulted because cars going south down the highway hit a bridge.
THE WINTER STORM front that swept through Lawrence originated in the Texas pantheon and then moved east, said Ron Grandal, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Topeka.
The National Weather Service predicted temperatures of 5 to 10 degrees above zero last night. Today's high is expected to reach 30 degrees.
"I was busy all morning pulling cars out of ditches out in the county," he said.
High temperatures Saturday and Sunday should be in the upper 50s and lows in the 30s.
Lon Falter of Jayhawk Tow Service, 501 Maple St, said he had spent most of the morning towing cars that had been involved in minor accidents.
Faizer said he expected more problems today because he needed to be expected to work on the night.
HOWEVER, A DISPATCHER for the state highway patrol in Topeka said that no more weather related accidents were caused because most roads were already dry.
SNOWPLOWS AND TRUCKSpreading sand began clearing city streets yesterday at 5 a.m. 30, said Donald Farrer, street manager, and Lawrence Department of Public Works.
The snow ended about 2 p.m. yesterday, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Topeka said. No precipitation is expected today.
Jim Mathes, horticultural consultant to Facilities Operations, said ground crews spread sand on sidewalks while snow removal equipment cleared the streets.
Although roads became fairly clear by mid-morning, a few campus sidewalks were covered with slush most of the day.
"Sometimes we use fertilizer. It's less expensive, and it doesn't hurt the lawn or plant."
This is the first time this year we have
"We try to use sand without salt." Matters and "Salt damages the grass by leaving it stagnant."
See WEATHER, p. 5, col. 1
Steven Purcell/KANSAN
Jeff Randolph, Grand Island. Neb., junior, zeros in on a target and then deflects the return shot. Randolph, who lives at Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall, took advantage of yesterday's snow for a battle with residents of other scholarship halls.
Accident raises fear, doubts about plant
By United Press International
INSTITUTE, W. Va. — People in this small valley town have lived in the shadow of Union Carbide's chemical plant for nearly two decades. The city is around the world to bring the danger home.
"If we have a mass blowout like they had in India, it's going to wipe out the entire Kanwha Valley and 'Laifah Guthieh, who planted for 14 years until he was laid off in 1983."
About 40 of the town's 2,700 residents gathered Tuesday night to voice their concerns about the Carbide plant in their neighborhood in the heavily industrialized river valley.
THE PLANT, WHICH HAS been in institute for nearly 20 years, is one of two that produces a form of cyanide that was first discovered at least 1,600 people in Bhopal, India.
"Union Carbide really doesn't tell you what they are making." Guthrie said. "They don't sit down and tell you what this chemical is and what it will do.
"I don't think the community knows what really is in there. It's been there so long they've just accepted it," said Guthier, 30. He explained from the plant with his wife and two sons.
"Some of us had gotten used to living in a chemical valley," said Frank Walker, who attended the meeting. "We had accepted the dangers."
William White criticized the company for not sending a representative to the meeting.
"SOMEONE FROM CARBIDE should be here to hear us," he said. "We don't know what to do. We've always been scared to death but we can say anything about it.
"Now we're ready to make ourselves be heard."
Caribide, the state's No. 2 employer after the state itself, has about 1,450 workers at the Institute plant — of which about 40 work in the unit that makes the lethal substance — and about 9,000 total in the surrounding Kamwha Valley.
The residents want Union Carbide, which has temporarily stopped producing the chemical, to set up an emergency plan for Institute.
"People around here hear bell ringsing and sirens going off all day. Walker said. "We don't listen to them. If an emergency happens something to alarm us, not to toll us to sleep."
WHILE THERE IS A procedure for a Carbide emergency designed by the Kansai Valley Industrial Emergency Planning District residents said they know nothing about it.
"No one has ever been here to say, 'Lie down on the floor in the case of an explosion, or whatever.' Charles White said. "If there is a plan, it has not been communicated or discussed."
Institute residents said they would ask
Dreams live in print
See UNION. p. 5, col. 1
By SUSAN MCBRIDE Staff Reporter
Romance novelist says people like light touch
... Then, as his lips covered her own, she knew who he must be and clung to him, returning his kisses eagerly, even while she felt that they were drowning her out of herself, so that she was no longer a person, but only a part of him. This time, she knew she would never let him go ...
from "See No Love." by Monette Cummings
Romance novels, fiction that makes the heart beat faster and the eyes grow moist, depict love in a way that most people only dream about.
"They're light, easy reading," Lawrence writer Mona Cummings said about the popularity of romance novels. "There are so many downbeat things going on in the world anyway; I think that people want to read something pleasant."
SET IN REGENCY, England, in the years 1180-1280, the books have a variety of female illustrators.
Cummings, who has written five Regency romance novels under the name Monette Cummings, called her books "light romances, nothing too serious."
for her latest novel, "The Beauty's Daughter," her third Regency romance to be published in hardcover by the Walker Publishing Company of New York. She said she expected the book to be available by next summer.
Cummings recently received the contract
"It's about a very selfish woman who pretends to be younger than she is, and has her daughter as her secretary so that no one knows how old she really is." Cummings said.
Consequently, both mother and daughter fall in love with the same man.
"I told my editor when I sent her this last one that I think most of my heroines are either nitwits or brats, or a little of both," she said and smiled.
CUMMINGS 70, WHO is single, said she
was living by thinking "what if?"
dslephingsforth 68, who's not
dslephingsforth 68, who's not
She developed the idea for her first hard-cover novel after reading a book in which "two women were talking, back in the Regency period, and one of them said, 'Why do you need a dress?'" and the other one said, 'my dear, no lady would spectacles in public.'"
And, Cummings said. 'I got to thinking,
what,艾 if this young girl was so
See ROMANCE, p. 5, col. 1
Judge rules in favor of Catholic Center expansion bid
By CHRIS BARBER
Staff Reporter
Judge James Paddock denied in a memorandum a motion asking him to decide on the validity of the site plan for the expansion. The motion was filed by B.G. Barr, president of the Crescent Engel Neighborhood Association, who included the residents in the area who oppose the expansion.
A Douglas County District Court judge yesterday ruled in favor of the St. Lawrence Catholic Center and the city of Lawrence in the latest stage of the center's battle for its proposed expansion.
JOHN NITCHER, THE attorney representing Barr, said yesterday that he did not want to comment on Paddock's decision or on his failure to have a chance to discuss the matter with Barr.
Barr could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon and evening.
City Attorney Milton Allen said yesterday that the judge's decision meant the site plan was valid. A site plan is one of the first steps toward construction.
If Barr decides to pursue the case, the matter can now go to a full trial.
memorandum, he was pleased with Paddock's decision.
The Rev. Bill Porter of the center, said yesterday that although he had not seen the
The City Commission in February approved the site plan for the complex at the southeast corner of Crescent and Engel Roads. The plan includes a 392-seat church and an expansion of the existing student center, 1631 Crescent Road.
"My initial reaction is, Yippee!" Porter
tells. "I am very happy if that is the
decision."
BARR FILED SUIT in February, claiming that the site plan was invalid because of violations of the city code. Later, Barr billed his motion for summary judgment, in which the judge makes a decision without the aid of a jury.
Robert McColl, professor of geography and neighborhood resident, said Paddock'sdeepest concern is the need to
"It is supposed to be an educational and church center." MeCol said. "You don't put the word on it."
"It's all right if a neighborhood grows around it, but not if you try to build it after you've had it."
Paddock heard arguments from all three parties in the case at a hearing Nov 27, 2016.
bearing was how the city code should be
estimated, so that it should be interpreted at all.
One of the key arguments at last week's
IN THE MEMORANDUM, Paddock addressed all three of the reasons Barr gave for declaring the site plan invalid.
Barr's first argument was that the site plan shows two principal uses on the property — a church and a student center. In the memorandum, Paddock first addressed whether two principal uses on a piece of property are a violation of city code, and then whether the site plan actually does show two principal uses.
Puddsack favored the city's interpretation, which allows the code at least one principal function.
Paddock cited a precedent that indicated had the city, as the hawking body, "should
"Judicial deference is especially appropriate where it is the legislative body itself and not an administrative agency that is giving effect to the interpretation." Paddock said in
PADDOCK ALSO FOUND that the entire complex would constitute only one principal
"The fact that two activities are to be utilized on the site, i.e. church services and student activities at the center, does nothing but expand the two activities presently"
existing at the site," Paddock said. "The two activities constitute one use..."
Barr's second argument was that the site plan does not meet city parking requirements.
First, Barr claimed that plan did not meet the city's requirement of one space on the lot for every four seats. The center has provided 98 parking spaces, which meets the requirement for the church, but Barr argued that in the student center should be included.
Paddock disagreed in his decision, citing a recent amendment to the ordinance limiting the parking requirement to only fixed auditorium seating.
Barr also claimed that the plan did not provide off-street parking for both buildings on the lot, and was therefore in violation of city code.
Paddock again referred to the city's interpretation that the parking requirement
"IF THE OFF-STREET parking requirement is construed as the plaintiff suggests, the results would be bizarre, to say the least." Paddock said. "It would be next to impossible to fairly calculate the seats to carry on the purity of a large area of a size that had no relationship to the use being made of the area."
only concerns buildings with auditorium seating. Therefore, the center must only have a high-resolution camera.
BARR CLAIMED THAT the church building infringed on the front yard of the church.
Barr's third argument was that the site plan violated city requirements for front and rear yards. City code states that there must be a minimum of 25-foot front yard and 50-foot back yard.
"The front 25 feet of the lot is unoccupied and unobstructed as is the rear 50 feet of the lot." Paddock ruled. "The code does not require the actual front and rear yards of the buildings on the lot to be unoccupied and unobstructed, but only the front and rear yards required by the code, i.e. the front 25 feet and the rear 50 feet."
Robert Van Cleave, attorney representing the Archiocheese of Kansas City, Kan., which owns the property, was out of town yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
Allen, the city attorney, said he was happy with Paddock's decision.
Area residents and center officials have been fighting since April 1983, when the center announced plan for expansion Residents have argued that the development would create traffic problems and would be too big for the residential area.