Wednesday, August 3, 1977
Staff photo by RICK PADDEN
KANSAN
Vol.87,No.171
sparks new at the Old Bowersock grain elevator yesterday as Bob Hirschler, a millwright with Grainland Service Inc., cut away the steel beams of a truck lift within the structure. The Wichita-based equipment company has purchased the machinery and structural steel of the elevator at Sixth and Massachusetts streets.
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Steel removed
Bowersock renovation too costly; report recommends new building
Staff Writer
By JANE PIPER
After hearing a building structural report from a consulting firm, city officials agreed yesterday that it might cost the city less money to put a new city hall in a new building. The city would pay $36 million in it a renovated Closeout Carpet building already there.
The consulting firm, Black and Veach, Kansas City, Mo., was retained by the city last June to conduct a study on the suitability of renovating the carpet building as a riverfront property. The firm focused on the strength and the structure of the building.
The firm's testing showed that it would cost more to save the building than it would to construct a new building, accruing $75 million.
He said that excessive deterioration and cracking, especially in the third floor columns and walls, not only would increase the costs, but also would severely limit an aesthetic desim.
"There would be a world of restrictions in what could be done there." he said.
Mayor Marrie Argeringss and Commissioners Don Binns and Barkley Clark reached a tentative agreement that would halt further study by Black and Veatch until vacationing commissioners Ed Carter and Jack Rose were informed of the developments at next week's commission meeting.
The commission has been considering the possibility of establishing a city hall on the Bowersock site, at Sixth and Massachusetts streets by the Kansas River Bridge, for about a year. A contract signed last April gave the city
control of the land and would enable the city to proceed with city hall plans.
McMullen said that Black and Veach would have to conduct more extensive testing on the Closeout Carpet site before final conclusions on its suitability could be made. He recommended concrete samples and a solid test be done. However, the commissioners indicated the final testing was cancelled because the preliminary report was so negative.
The city has spent about $4,000 on the study thus far.
A major problem with the structure, McMullen said, is that a natural cement that was used is much weaker than a synthetic cement.
He brought several small samples of the cement, which the commissioners easily could crumble by hand.
Research done by the firm indicates that the building was built before 1927, McMullen said. The fact the third floor was used to store flour, sometimes weighing up to 600 pounds per square foot, contributed heavily to its deterioration. Normal office use puts about 80 to 100 pounds on each square foot.
The weight apparently cracked many third story columns. Other columns in the building can't be moved for aesthetic purposes, McMullen said, because the move probably would cause extensive damage.
McMullen said the study also uncovered a common wall on the first and second floors between the east wall of the building and the main entrance.
"It just wasn't designed for that," he said. "Any removal of walls is going to call for costly shoring."
is removed, new columns and beams will have to be provided, he said.
"I'm afraid the end product would be forced into a framework," he said, "and there are some things we can't even foresee. The cost of total demolition with complete renovations and site planning may be more desirable and economical."
Buford Watson, city manager, reminded the commissioners that the original idea behind renovating the carpet building was to save money. Although the carpet building is not considered a historical site, he said, the main concept of a city hall there is to turn the city's attention back to the river.
"We have the freedom to start on a site with a new structure," he said. "It's an opportunity we might want."
Argersinger said, "My first inclination is to put the money in a new building instead of going on with the study."
Design Build Architects, headed by Robert Gould, will be the principal architect for the Bowersock outlier this year. City commissioners indicated that Gould and other area architects would be able to submit designs for a new building, if possible.
"It is definitely easier to design a new building than it is to work with the other one, even if it is in perfect shape,"
Carter recommends decriminalization of pot
McMullen suggested that if a new building were constructed, the city should demolish the carpet building and build a new one.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Jimmy Carter asked Congress yesterday to eliminate all federal criminal penalties and substitute civil fines for possessing up to an ounce of marijuana. However, Carter also advised a crackdown on narcotics dealers.
CARTER DECLARED that the 40 years of
"We can, and should, continue to discourage the use of marijuana," Carter told Congress in a message that outlined a broad plan to curb drug abuse. "But this can be done without defining the smoker as a criminal."
stringent laws against marijuana had been a failure because more than 45 million Americans have tried it and an estimated 11 million are regular users.
The current federal criminal penalty for a first offense possession of marijuana is a $5,000 fine and up to a year in prison. The prison sentence is optional.
PETER BENSINGER, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said Carter's proposal was a "presidential recognition of what is really the present federal prosecutorial practice. There's not a federal prosecutor in the
United States today who would prosecute a case of possessing an ounce or less of
A DEA spokesman said federal drug agents did not actively pursue investigations for the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
"WHEN WE GO in thinking there might be heroin or coccine and find small amounts of marijuana, we normally refer to that the state or local authorities," the spokesman
Carter's proposal would substitute a civil
court order with a traffic ticket, for existing
criminal penalties.
Congress is considering one measure that would attach $100 fine to a possession violation. A second bill contains no provision for a fine.
THE ADMINISTRATION will not be sending Congress a bill of its own, but from the House to the Senate.
See MARIJUANA page three
Center goes underground for radiation care
Staff Writer
Rv.JANET WARD
A new radiation therapy facility at the KU Medical Center will be one of the best in this region in terms of equipment and the treatment that can be provided for cancer patients, according to Frank Zlim, director of the U.K. Cancer Institute.
Construction of the facility, which will have 20,000 square feet of space, will begin in October.
A new radiation therapy machine—a $215,000, six-million-volt linear accelerator—already has been installed at the Med Center. This linear accelerator, along with two others that still have to be purchased, will be moved into the new facility when it is ready. The two other linear accelerators will be 18MV and 40MV machines. The linear accelerators will aid in the treatment of cancer by being able to treat tumors deep within the human body.
The total cost of the project is $3.5 million. Zilm said, but the cost of the building is only $1.5 million. The equipment is more expensive than the building in which it will be housed, he said.
The 40MV linear accelerator—one of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment designed for radiation therapy of cancer—alone will cost about $1.5 million, he said.
Most of the facility will be underground, he said, because that will make the radiation shielding for the cancer treatment equipment easier. Most facilities of this kind are built underground.
"The amount of shielding necessary would be exorbitant if it were built above ground," Zilm said.
electrons and photons—allowing the therapist to select the appropriate mode of treatment for tumors at various levels within the body. The strength of the rays, combined with each machine's ability to rotate and direct a beam at different angles into the patient's body, reduces the concentration of X-rays on skin surfaces and other healthy tissue, nearly doubling the amount of radiation that can reach the tumor.
The concrete walls of the room for the largest of the linear accelerators will be five to six feet thick.
accelerators will be five to six feet thick.
The machines produce two types of treatment rays—
Much of the space will be taken up by the radiation treatment machines, but other rooms will include a computerized treatment planning area, enclosed control areas with closed-circuit television for observation of treatment by technicians, nine examining rooms, treatment rooms and a consultation room for patients' families.
The center will treat 30 to 40 patients a day, Zilm said. About 80 percent of these will be outpatients.
Staff photo by MARIANNE MAURIN
Plenty potatoes
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, many students at the University of Kansas should be healthy. About 7,500 apples a week are sold by Garrett and Son to KU residence halls. An average cost is $26.99.
wholesale and retail fruit and vegetable business, has provided fruit and vegetables to Lawrence area schools, families and restaurants for almost 50 years. The family
From our wire services
Wallace divorce petition found
Wednesday
MONTGOMERY, Ala.-Gov. George Wallace and his wife, Cornelia, were silent yesterday after an unfiled divorce petition appeared that listed聚
The petition, dated July 1977, cites "the complete incompatibility of temperament" and an "irritable breakdown of the marriage" as grounds
Copies were made available to the news media, and the Alabama Journal said the papers were authentic.
"There's nothing to that," Elvin Stanton, Wallace's assistant press secretary, said, referring to the petition. "I don't know the knowledge of any divorce proceedings."
The appearance of the divorce petition brought to the surface rumors of disharmony between the Wallaces that have been circulating since the governor ordered his dismissal. September that his bedroom telephone had been kept without his knowledge.
Court gags Listerine ads
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld an order that future Listerine advertisements must state that the mouthwash "will not help prevent colds or sore throats."
But the court said the ads won't have to include the phrase, "contrary to prior
advertising," as ordered by the Federal Trade Commission. The court said that such a ruling would only serve to disqualify the manufacturer, the Warner-Lambert Co.
In 1975 the FTC ordered Warner-Lambert to stop advertising that Listerine prevented, cured or alleviated the common cold.
Energy department is approved
WASHINGTON—Congress approved creation of a Department of Energy yesterday, consolidating most of the agency's diverse energy activities under one agency.
In votes that established the first new cabinet agency in more than a decade, the House approved legislation establishing the department by a vote of 353-7 and the Senate followed suit by a 76-14 vote.
Congress sent the bill to the White House, issued by President Obama, to sign it slightly even though it was not intended to be a law.
There was scattered GOP opposition to the final version of the bill. The opposition partly centered on the amount of money the federal government in energy matters.
does not grant all the powers he wanted for the first secretary of energy, who will probably be James Schlesinger, Carter's chief energy adviser.
The Senate Energy Committee was holding heartaches on the anticipated nomination of Schlesinger yesterday, and she appeared assured of confirmation.
Malpractice insurance a must
TOPEKA-A a district court's rulinary yesterday that Kansas doctors must carry mandatory malpractice insurance was hailed by state officials.
What the decision by Judge Frederick Wolesalagel of Lyons means, said Philip A. Harley, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice, physicians no longer will be allowed to practice medicine in Kansas unless they carry the mandatory malpractice injunction.
Byron Liggett, a Great Bend neurologist, had challenged the law, saying it violated his constitutional rights to require him to carry malpractice insurance in order to practice medicine in Kansas.
Under the 1976 law, persons licensed by the state board of Healing Arts are required to carry a minimum of $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 annual aggregate in malpractice insurance, and to pay into a state malpractice fund a surcharge by the state insurance commissioner.
Weather
Temperatures in the 90s today under clear or partly cloudy skies may give way to rain this afternoon and tonight. Evening temperatures will drop into the
tomorrow's forecast is for clear skies and high temperatures in the lower 98s, but no chance for rain.