City studies compliance with Carter plan
Staff Reporter
City officials and public servants indicated yesterday that they were taking action to conserve energy, but the details of the president's latest strategy could be applied out before further steps could be taken.
Points in Carter's plan that apply to city officials and those providing public services include raising of thermostat temperatures, cutting of utility company oil consumption, calling for local energy conservation boards and calling for more mass transit systems.
The feasibility of a bus system from Lawrence to Kansas City is being examined by the KU Student Senate, according to Margaret Berlin, student body president.
Carter's plan includes a proposed $16.5 billion to fund development of public mass transit systems, but
they will be funded by other means.
IT WOULD COST passengers almost as much as it does for the gasoline to drive," she said, "but they would be assured of the transportation and it would save a lot of gas."
City manager Buford Watson said he did not know if Lawrence would get any of the funding Carter perfor- ments.
"Currently most mass transit grants are given to
cities with populations over 50,000," Watson said. "Lawrence has just gone on that mark."
Watson said Lawrence would not be reviewed again by the current administrator of funding, the Urban Matter group.
Lawrence's current approach to public transportation is a specialized one, Watson凯. KU on Wheels carries up to 9,000 passengers a day and is supplemented by long-range Greyhound and Trailways routes and by a bus provided by the Council on Aging.
PRESIDENT CARTER'S plan also calls for setting thermostats in public places to 78 degrees in the summer. Watson said the city had been in compliance with this order for three weeks.
But Ketth Russell, owner of Russell's East restaurant, 3400 W. 6th, said he had not received any notice of the order and did not intend to comply until he did.
"If the restaurant were full in the summer, it would be tough to run everyone out," Russell said of the 78 employees.
Although Russell said he understood the need for conservation, he said he thought it was unfair to leave it unchanged.
Hal Hudson, director of public relations for the Kansas Power and Light Co., said this request would put a strain on power companies that had not foreseen the oil shortage.
Watson agreed there was a big difference between thermostat readings and actual room temperature. The city offices are regulated according to room temperature, he said.
Besides trying to control use of electric power, the president's plan also calls for control of its production. Carter has asked that consumption of fuel oil by utility companies be cut 50 percent by 1980.
The Emergency Building Temperature Restrictions call for certification of compliance, to be posted in a visible place in public buildings, by August 15. In public places such as hospitals and hotels are exempt.
City Commissioner Bob Schumm, who owns restaurant downtown and he had kept temperatures below 75 degrees for a week.
"I THINK THE limit should be 80 degrees.",
"Schmurr said. "People better get used to it. It may be 85 before long, or we may not even have air conditioners. It might be back to the o'f fan."
"IT DEPENDS on what number they choose to cut by 50 percent," he said. "Last May, for instance, our plants used only 7 percent oil. If they used that number we'd be in trouble."
In 1978, Hudson used KP&L units used 10 percent fuel oil, 34 percent natural gas and 56 percent coal. He used KP&L's of coal was higher than most Kansas City power plants at a little lower than Kansas City Power and Light's.
He said, KPL had taken the direction requested by Carter when it built the Jeffries power plant south of New Orleans.
KPL POWER IS available to Lawrence residents
In addition to coal and natural gas, Hudson said Carter's order may cause KPL to buy power from the utility.
through the Jeffries plant and plants in Lawrence, Abilene and Hutchinson. Hudson said the Jeffries plant would take up the slack of the Abilene and Bellevue farms which do not burn coal, when the order went into effect.
"I't not enough feasible to upgrade a plant so it can burn coal," he said. "We'd be better off to use solar."
Hudson used the details of Carter's plan for utility companies could be a problem.
The Lawrence plant uses coal almost exclusively.
Saudian said that until it became necessary to tear down the plants, these operations would be used to pick up the stack of the Topeca and Lawrence plants before moving them for service on air pollution control equipment.
'THE AVERAGE middle class worker is not terribly hurt yet, they just shift their buying practices.'
However, Clyde Chapman, an official of the Lawrence Consumer Affairs Association, said the practice not be "ferribly concerned about conserving time and realize there is a crisis situation and price rise."
Hudson said Carter's plan was a worthwhile goal, but said people needed to be educated to the fact that "these things bring higher costs."
EVEN WITH HIGHER costs to utility companies, he said he did not expect it to be easier to obtain rate increase approvals from the Kansas Corporation Commission.
Besides the city's conservation of electric power, Watson said they had implemented a 13-point gasoline saving program this month. This was about $6 million in savings, his call for local energy conservation boards, he said.
"We have the same problem the president does," Watson said. "We have to rely on the willingness of the people."
Jordan rises; others in limbo
Chapman said a lot of state and local conservation programs would pop up if there appeared to be a retrial.
From Staff and Wire Reports
President Carter named Hamilton Jordan as White House chief of staff yesterday, but there was no word on the future of the ad. A former White House official who submitted resignations on Tuesday.
Resignation offers came from the entire Cabinet, all presidential assistants and special assistants, and from some officials. The United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young
Jordan, as chief of staff, will have overall responsibility for White House operations. It was the first time in the president's 30 years that a deputy deputy had assumed such a bread position.
White House Press Secretary Jody Powell said, "Mr. Jordan will have primary responsibility for ensuring that presidential decisions are carried out."
POWELL SAID THE decision was made to improve "coordination and efficiency in the White House" and between the White House and Cabinet. It will "relieve the president of the necessity of dealing with that can be decided at a lower level."
"It is not going to solve the problems by itself." Getted say. "I Carter wishes to convey a strong image, he ought not hide behind submitted resignations. If he wants to fire somebody, he should just go ahead and fire them."
Getter also said it was his guess that the resignations were suggested "by someone who is not a member."
SIMILAR MASS resignations were considered and rejoined by the Calvin and Gideon schools.
Locally, Russell Getter, associate professor of political science, said yesterday the appointment of Jordan was Carter's method of improving the way the office of the president was run, but the latest steps were a small contributing measure.
ministrations, according to Donald McCoy,
professor of history.
"I am amazed that the Carter ad-missionation would do something like this," McCoy.
However, he added, "If Mr. Jordan can bring some order to the White House, I am all set."
McCoy said the White House shake-up signals a feeling of crisis, because often when an extreme step. Carter or someone must have suggested the resignations. I have never been in any situation where more than once someone suggested the same time. These things just don't happen.
Although Carter met yesterday with a number of aides and at least one Cabinet member, there was no indication that he had spoken to any of the three Cabinet members considered most likely to have their resignations accented.
THE THREE, ACCORDING to Associated Press reports, were Energy Secretary James Schlesinger, Hew Secretary Michael Blumenthal and Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal.
White House press secretary Jody Powell denied knowledge of any of the resignation
"Whatatever decisions the president has made or will make regarding the senior staff or Cabinet, he is keeping his own counsel," Powell said.
But a top Schlesinger aide, who was not identified, told AP Radio yesterday. "It is inevitable that President Carter is going to accept Secretary Schlesinger's resignation and we heard that it would be before the day is out."
Schelinger told reporters at the Laptop,
he had no idea what Carter would accept his
leadership.
"I think the president will make some judgments over the course of the weekend
See RESIGNATIONS back page
KU energy research expanding with crisis
The University of Kansas will expand its already extensive energy program as a result of President Carter's speech on climate change, the fight, a KU energy official said yesterday.
Robert Riordan, applied energy research and public service program manager for the University, said KU developed an energy program last winter in anticipation of a serious energy problem. Riordan came to KU in June to manage the program, after serving as energy research and development coordinator for the Kansas Energy Office.
Riordan said his job at KU is to coordinate a program to assist the University, local government and private industry in research that needs to be done for the state of Kansas, and in helping acquire funding for the research.
KU's energy program is focused on applied energy research and public services, Riordan said. A number of projects that had been developed will be expanded as a result of Carter's speech.
The University is also doing extensive research in solar energy, Iordan said. An experiment being done at Stouffer Place apartments with two classrooms and cools one of the buildings in the complex. This project is being done in partnership with NASA and the Honeywell Corporation.
ONE APPLIED energy project the University is conducting in tertiary oil research. Riordan said this deals with bringing hard-to-reach oil to the earth's surface by using chemicals and pressure to force the oil up.
Another solar experiment is being conducted at Learned Hall with flat plate solar collectors, Riordan said. Pieces of glass on top of the flat plate collectors absorb heat from the sun. They are used to heat air or water.
THE UNIVERSITY IS also researching the use of wood as an alternative fuel to heat waste. Hirdon said. Wood is now being used to produce a natural gas in KU's solid-waste boiler system.
Kenneth Bishop, professor of chemistry and petroleum engineering, is in charge of developing a method to easily convert cellulose into synthetic fuel. Hydrogen atoms are added to the cellulose.
In the field of synthetic fuels, Riordan said, the University has been studying the conversion of cellulose to synthetic fuel since 1975, with good results.
The University has not been involved in much public service research to date, Riordan said, but he hopes to develop that part of the program. This will include a variety of research and industry how to use technology developed at UK and how to develop their own resources.
BISHOP SAID the conversion is not commercially feasible at present because it costs too much, but researchers are working on ways to make the process cheaper.
The result is a liquid that can then be refined into various types of fuel.
"It's very early to make an accurate assessment of his proposals," he said. "We must watch future developments very carefully."
"We must look at the total energy picture," he said. "No one form of energy will solve all our problems. We have to look at all the issues. We have that responsibility as researchers."
Riordan said that although Carter only spoke for a short time, he addressed a broad audience.
Riordan said he was hesitant to make a judgment on the effectiveness of President Obama's policies.
"I THINK HE was trying to say that it's not so simple." Ilordan said.
Riordan said he agreed that it is not easy to solve the energy problem.
4
"in order to solve the energy problem, we must have a mixture of conservation and development. There's no one key to the problem."
Vol. 89, No.161
KANSAN
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
free on campus
Thursday, July 19, 1979
Staff photo by KEVIN KING
Elizabeth Brown, 1148 Indiana and Levi Sakind, 1235 Tennessee, members of the Ordeal Neighborhood Association, voice their anger at a press conference called just hours before the mass shooting.
night after the city commission decided not to down-zone the neighborhood. They say the present residential-dormitory zoning allows too dense a population which will lead to increased crime and traffic and fewer parking spaces.
City disappoints Oread group, defeats neighborhood rezoning
A group of grim-faced Lawrence residents gathered outside a house at 1012 Alabama St. last night to protest a city ordinance banning downzoning in the Neighborhood.
The residents, members of the Oread Neighborhood Association, met for a press conference to say they were "enraged" at the commissioners who had voted Tuesday to let the Oread neighborhood remain zone RD-2.
This zoning, residential dormitory, allows landowners to build multi-person living units which the residents said would make their homes more attractive for older homes in the area. They said the zoning would also cause a dense population of homeowners to lead to crime, too much traffic and too few workers.
Elizabeth Brown, ONA member, said the house on Alabama was a prime example of why the down-zoning should have been approved as part of the Oread Neighborhood Plan, which took the Association two years to complete.
"IAM STANDING HERE on the steps of a beautiful old house," she said. "And I see a mowed lawn, fresh paint and flowers blooming. But then I look around and I see three structures that bear no relationship to this street or this neighborhood."
The structures, new four-plexes, are a bone of contention for the Resident areas.
Ralph Lischer, owner of the house at 1012 Alabama St., has lived there for 35 years and said he never expected his house to be surrounded by the four-plexes.
The ONA members released last night a hundred ballad symbols "balling" the all hot air of the city commission." But they may have been even more upset Tuesday, when Commissioner Bob Schumm cast the deciding vote against the down-zone.
A SOMBER SCHUMM, who had remained silent through more than an hour of debate over the down-zing portion of the plan, broke a deadlock between the other commissioners when he motioned for Commissioner Ed Carter's vote.
The motion was to approve the neighborhood plan with the exception of the down-zoning. Commissioner Don Binn voted for the motion, but Mayor Barkley Clark and Commissioner Marci Francisco voted against it.
Schumm said yesterday that he had spent all last week talking to appraisers, realists and residents to get enough information to make the right decision.
"It was not going to achieve the enro-
product they wanted," Schumm said of the
down-zoning. "If it is too severe and too
penalizing to try to reverse the trend of
an area which is already back on the road to
stabilization."
SCHUMM SAID down-zoning would hurt three groups of people:
- single family dwelling owners who bought property with the assumption that they could develop it into a multi-family unit in the future.
- People whose homes would have to be ruled non-conforming and uses under the plan. The Oread plan would have allowed existing multi-person units to remain, but Schumm said that the property would take on a stigma and would lose value.
- People who are getting ready to deploy an umbrella it right away because of financial risk.
"PEOPLE SAY strict code enforcement won't work and never has. That's the bullshit. If it is written down there and workable, it will work," he said.
But Leni Salkind, ONA member, said last night that the high population density in the neighborhood was causing problems for the community from a lack of code enforcement, were a
Schumm also said the traffic, parking and crime problems could be solved by strict code enforcement, which was approved as part of the plan Tuesday.
"It would have less value because a rider would be attached to that property," he said. "Realtors have told me it would be better to sell the non-conforming property."
result of the neighborhood's proximity to KU.
Salkind asked, "Have you ever tried to find a parking place here at night, when classes are even in session?" It is difficult for me to remember, but we got together two years ago to do something about the deterioration of broken windows and trashed-out houses.
"NOW, TWO YEARS later, we come to a city commission meeting where the commissioners don't even understand what zoning is. They are confusing downzoning with taking away rights. I don't know whose rights they are taking away."
Mayor Barkley Clark agreed with the ONA that the down-zoning would improve conditions and bring more single-family homes into the area.
But Schumm said he thought a new market would deter the building of more mills.
"The market mechanism works won-
durally, if people would just keep their
hands off."
With KU's projected declining enrollment, he said, there would be less demand for residential dormitory housing in the Oread area. The reason Oread was zoned for dormitory use in 1966, was that the growth of Lawrence made it seem as if
See OREAD page seven