University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, October 8, 1986
9
Bell office in Lawrence to close
By BILL RAYNOLDS
The Lawrence business office of Southwestern Bell Telephone, 816 W. 24th St., will close March 1, 1987, to reduce overhead and operating costs, a phone company spokesman said Monday.
"We have to take steps to become economically efficient to keep basic phone service rates down," said Dave Nichols, local community relations manager for Southwestern Bell.
Nichols said initial projections indicated that the closing would save Southwestern Bell about $2.5 million
to $3 million a year.
Southwestern Bell has not increased basic phone service rates in Lawrence in three years.
Thirty-nine service representatives and clerical workers will be affected by the closing, and they can transfer to existing business offices in Mission, Topeka or Wichita, take early retirement or resign, Nichols said.
Nichols will remain in Lawrance as community relations manager.
Fifty-five maintenance, repair and technical workers will remain in Lawrence.
"We're not laying off 39 workers." he said. "We care for Lawrence."
Nichols said Southwestern Bell had invested several million dollars in fiber-optic telephone cables that would run from downtown Lawrence to west Lawrence.
The fiber-optic cable should be ready for use by early 1987, Nichols said.
Lawrence customers can pay their phone bills at the First National Bank of Lawrence, 900 Massachusetts St., or at the Douglas County Bank, Ninth and Kentucky streets.
Shari Raybern, who is an assistant
manager of the Lawrence business office and a 16-year employee at Southernwell Bell, said, "I'd like to stay in Lawrence, but I understand why they chose to close the Lawrence business office.
"It's too expensive to run several different offices when the Lawrence workers can work at business offices in other towns."
Raybern has not decided whether she will transfer, take early retirement or resign.
Floodwaters smashed a levee and cut off a Missouri town yesterday, forcing residents to rooftops until rescuers arrived by boat and helicopter
Meanwhile, President Reagan declared parts of waterlogged Illinois and Wisconsin major disaster areas, clearing the way for federal aid.
Water continues to ravage Midwest
In Kansas, the flooding has caused $60 million in agricultural losses.
Over all, the latest flooding has killed 12 people and ravaged the nation's heartland from Illinois to Oklahoma. It came on the wedge of land just above the convergence of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers.
United Press International
The rampaging Missouri poured through a levee and cut off the town of Portage des Sioux with a population of about 500 people.
"A two-mile route of the levee is gone," said Coast Guard petty officer Gavin Wente. "From there all the way to Portage Des Sioux is virtually under water. Numerous people are stranded, many on rooftops."
Farms cover most of the six-mile long expanse, and some officials feared the Missouri might try to cut a new channel to the Mississippi.
"If in fact that does happen, it will cause the town of West Alton to go under from the backwash. As of now the levees are holding," said Capt. Wes Simcox of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department.
Most of the new evacuations by
nine Coast Guard rescue boats and a helicopter were from mobile home parks on the outskirts of Portage Des Sioux. Twenty-two families were asked to evacuate their homes in Cape Girardeau in southeast Missouri.
The Missouri River crested at St. Charles yesterday, and the Mississippi was expected to crest Wednesday at 40.5 feet in St. Louis, which is more than 10 feet above flood stage, the second highest on record at that point.
Some 6,000 to 7,000 people in Missouri still were homeless yesterday. About 800 people in St. Charles County, a few miles from Portage des Sioux, were advised to leave their homes Monday. The American Red Cross set up temporary shelters in churches in St. Charles and Orchard Farm.
Gov. John Asheroff yesterday asked the Reagan administration to declare Missouri a federal disaster area. The declaration would allow people to seek low-interest loans for flood-damage assistance.
President Reagan's disaster declaration for parts of Lake, McHenry and Cook counties came only three days after Illinois Gov. James Thompson submitted initial damages estimates of $34.6 million to the administration. Five Wisconsin counties also received the declaration.
The declaration will make low-interest federal loans and temporary accommodations to thousands of homeowners in Illinois and Wisconsin.
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Chinese Culture Exhibition
October 10,
1:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Big Eight Room,
Kansas Union
- Folk Arts
- Paintings and Caligraphy
- Music Instruments
- Traditional Costumes
- Documentary Films Life in Free China, The Old and New in Harmony Chinese Folk Arts
Sponsored by Free China Club—Student Senate Admission Free!
Chinese Folk Arts
Son helps campaign of father
By BETH COPELAND
He wants his dad to win.
His father, John Montgomery Sr., is Lt. Gov. Tom Docking's running mate in the Nov. 4 election. He is pitted against Republican Jack Walker, the running mate of House speaker Mike Hayden.
The younger Montgomery emphatically spoke of his family's tradition, noting that five generations of Montgomery's have published the Junction City Daily Union newspaper. This tradition, coupled with three generations of Dockings in the Kansas statehouse, will make the Democratic candidates the likely winners, John Jr., a Junction City junior, said.
The student took this message on the campaign trail this summer, which included parades and picnics.
"At parades, Dad usually rides in the convertible while I walk alongside the car and pass out campaign literature," John Jr. said.
"It was very patriotic," John Jr. said. "I was scared, but it went well. They were all Democrats so I had a friendly audience."
When Montgomery, the candidate,
was in Washington, D.C., this summer,
his son delivered a speech at a
Marysville rally.
This weekend, he is planning to drive his father to a Salina fundraiser. This arrangement allows John Sr., who is president of Montgomery Publishing Inc., to work on the newspaper publishing business.
"He's spending more time on the campaign now, so he has given up a lot at the paper," the younger Montgomery said.
Going to school at KU has allowed him to see his father more often.
"Dad bought season tickets, and we went to all the football games." he
He has spent five summers in Junction City working for his father's newspaper — a business that he hopes to run someday.
The governor's race, however, has taken some time away from them.
"I'll be glad when the campaign is over," John Jr. said. "We'll have more time together."
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