Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1979-03-31

              1 STA
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Pj-- f S Candidate profiles
1 pv r-- Meet the candidates
I I -- S of the Sixth Ward on Page 1 6
TE HI5TCHIC. V-- SOCIETY
T & LOWRY ST. -- nv
. UUBIA, BO. 65201
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Learn April Fools' Day w&
I origins in Sunday's Vibrations p
7Ul Ycsir No. 170 (. tunt Varnhil ll'sSa: unla. Munh.' il. I7 16 1- - !.) Cents
Engineers disagree on Sturgeon dangers
ByMflteDeMott
Missourian staff writer
The Environmental Protection Agency's
handling of the Sturgeon chemical spill has
come under sharp attack by an environmental
engineer. The engineer says the agency is not
moving fast enough, nor does it have the ex-pertise
to handle the problem. The EPA strongly
disagrees.
D. W. Ryckman, a consultant hired by Norfolk
and Western Railroad to examine the spill site,
said Friday there is an environmental health
hazard to the Sturgeon community as well as to
all persons who have come into contact with the
spill area.
Harry Gilmer, an EPA chemical engineer,
said there is no danger to the people of Sturgeon
and that the EPA has and will continue on a long
term basis to monitor the health of the com-munity.
" I feel appropriate steps are being taken.
Work is proceeding and is being adequately
handled," Gilmer said.
Ryckman's other criticism was that runoff
from the chemically contaminated area and
especially the two polluted ponds will spill into
nearby Saling Creek and eventually reach the
Mississippi River.
The toxic chemical orthochlorophenol spilled
into the area following a Jan. 10 Norfolk and
Western train derailment. Sturgeon residents
were forced to evacuate their homes in the early
morning bitter cold for almost two days.
Containment of the two ponds and control of
runoff water is also the major concern of the
EPA, Gilmer said. The EPA engineer, who has
been involved with the Sturgeon crisis since the
beginning, said there is currently no discharge
from the area into the creek and estimates that
99 percent of the toxic material has been
removed from the area.
Gilmer said that as a result of his inspection
Tuesday the simple earth dikes built by the
railroad to stop further pond discharge have
been reinforced with an additional two feet ( .6
meter) of packed earth and clay. Ke said the
improvements raised the level of the dike an
additional two feet ( .6 meter).
Ryckman also criticized a lack of adequate
structures to divert runoff from reaching the
spill site, but Gilmer disagrees.
" Diversionary devices are in the process of
being completed to prevent runoff from
reaching the area." Gilmer said.
Ryckman is president of Ryckman's
Emergency Action & Consulting Team, a St.
Ixmis- base- d firm brought in Monday by the
railroad to investigate the extent of toxic con-tamination
and to make proposals for site
restoration. The consultation was completed
Friday.
" We brought them in to hear their expert
opinion and we got it." Lou Phelps, a Norfolk
and Western Railroad spokesman said.
The railroad has since brought in another
consulting firm from Ohio to serve in the same
capacity. Phelps said.
Ryckman said the containment of the two
ponds should have been taken care of at the time
the derailment occurred.
" You can't take 80 days to find chemicals in a
pond. There should have been containment of
the entire area on Jan. 11th, with constant
monitoring of the stream," Ryckman said.
Insigfet
Extension
takes M. U.
to public
By Kathy Brady
Missoorian staff writer
Ten percent of the University's
operating funds are spent for programs
that often are invisible - at least on the
four campuses.
The money is spent on extension
services; a $ 28- miIlion- a- y- ear division
offering expert advice, short courses
and correspondence programs to
" spread the knowledge" gleaned from
research to Missouri citizens who are
not formally enrolled at the University.
The Extension Division, with its roots
in farmers soil, rural homemakers
clubs and 4-- H youth groups, has centers
located in all 114 counties and the city of
St. Louis. Advice on agriculture and
home economics is complemented by
programs to help small businesses and
communities solve their problems.
In 1977- 7- 8, extension programs of-fered
enough courses to fill the
schedules of 22,000 full- tim- e students.
Extension is unique because those
enrolled in its programs are not
working toward academic degrees but
toward increasing their economic and
personal well- bein- g, says Carl
Scheneman, University system vice
president for extension.
But at a time when every University
dollar spent is scrutinized closely, top- lev- el
officials now are asking if the
extension program has grown too big.
Does the knowledge extension brings to
the private citizen justify its cost?
Farmers applying knowledge
provided by agricultural extension
specialists sometimes raise their in-comes
$ 6,000- 57,0- 00 a year. But the
benefits are often intangible,
Scheneman says.
Small businessmen might increase
production efficiency, young mothers
may follow good nutrition rules and a
youth may overcome shyness through
4-- H activities. " These are hard things
to sell somebody," Scheneman says.
In recent years, federal and state
funding increases have not kept up with
inflation. About 100 members of the
extension field staff have been cut in
the pass three years. Almost 100 more
jobs will be eliminated in 1979- 8- 0 if
proposed federal and state budgets are
approved.
President Carter's 1979- 8- 0 budget
( See GRASSROOTS, Page 11)
BfHBBWBIliWiwB
Paula and Timothy Lee read to their daughter, Dawn Marie, 5,
while their 2- mont-h-
old son, Christopher, sleeps in a crib at a high
school which has become a Red Cross shelter due to radioactive
leakage from a nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa.
UPltekp!" 0
Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant
Family awaits news;
evacuation called off
FALMOUTH, Pa. ( UPI) Mark and
Julie Sipling shuttered themselves
Friday morning inside their farmhouse
half a mile from Three Mile Island
nuclear power plant, pacing nervously
in the kitchen and listening for the
latest civil defense bulletin on the radio.
Their packed bags, valuables secure
in a strong box, sat in a corner while 13- month-
- old
baby daughter Debbie
sucked on a bottle of punch, quietly
looking at the adults seated around the
large kitchen table drinking coffee and
talking.
" My husband and Merle Geber
( owner of the farm) were making a big
joke out of it yesterday ( Thursday) to
keep from getting scared," Mrs. Sipling
said.
" Today, we don't have to make any
jokes. We are all very scared."
Gov. Dick Thornburgh said late
Friday no evacuation will be necessary
from the area around the power plant.
Thornburgh also lifted a recom-mendation
that people living within ten
miles of the nuclear site remain in-doors.
The governor, who delayed a
news conference three times while he
conferred with Denton, said however,
that pregnant women and pre- scho- ol
children living within five miles of the
plant should remain out of the area
until sometime Saturday.
A major concern of the Siplings and
others in the immediate area of the
plant was the stillness in the air. A
gray, misty overcast hung over the site.
No winds had blown all morning and
some expressed concern the radiation
from the plant could " just hang over
the area without blowing away."
The mood earlier in the morning was
relaxed around the plant site in this
usually quiet Pennsylvania Dutch
contryside with its rolling hills and rich
farmland.
NRC sees
melt- dow- n
dangers
Engineers will try
to ' cool' reactor
WASHINGTON ( UPI) The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission said Friday
the Three Mile Island atomic power
plant in Pennsylvania faces " the
ultimate risk of a melt- dow- n" the
most serious type of nuclear
catastrophe within the next few days
as engineers try to cool down the
crippled reactor.
Dudley Thompson, a senior official in
the NRC office of inspection, said the
threat is posed by a steam bubble inside
the reactor that could increase in size
as pressures within the reactor are
lowered, leaving the core without vital
cooling water.
" We are faced with a decision within
a few days, rather than hours f on how
to cool down the" core)," Thompson told
reporters at an NRC news center.
" We face the ultimate risk of a melt-down"
depending on " the manner we
cope with the problem. If there is even a
small chance of melt- dow- n, we will
recommend precautionary
evacuations."
When a reactor core loses its cooling
water, temperatures caused by
uranium fuel can increase high enough
to melt the reactor core and at worst
melt through the thick protective
concrete shell of the containment
building.
No such accident has ever happened.
But if it did, NRC officials have said, it
( See SOME, Page 11)
Sixth Ward candidates take differing stands
By BJ. Martin
Missoorian staff writer
If, as one Sixth Ward candidate says,
" people are afraid of the unknown,"
voters in that ward may be somewhat
frightened.
Clyde Wilson, the councilman they
have elected four times, is running for
mayor, and none of the candidates
seeking to take his council seat
resembles him or any of the other
candidates very much.
The candidates have been reluctant
to directly criticize each other, but
there are substantial differences in
their approaches to election issues.
One such difference is downtown
parking. All the candidates agree there
is now inadequate parking area
downtown, but there the similarity
ends.
Lew Stoerker wants the city to erect a
combination underground multi- lay- er
parking complex and park downtown.
He says the extra business it would
encourage because of its attractiveness
and considerable parking capacity
could help subsidize its cost.
Dan Viets says the city could not
afford to build such an expensive
facility. He advocates maximizing
CBMPW6N 79
existing on- stre- et parking areas
downtown and supports city purchase
of the defunct Wabash train station
area for parking.
Ruth Eason thinks the parking
garage would be a " good idea," but
adds that she, too. questions its
economic " feasibility."
On the subject of the rental housing
ordinance, the differences are more
pronounced. Some city officials have
called the law " impossible to enforce"
with present manpower, but
representatives of tenants rights
groups insist it is too important an
ordinance to be tabled.
Viets advocates strictly enforcing the
ordinance, believing it is necessary to
protect the rights of renters. " It's a
positive, enforceable ordinance." he
says.
Mrs. Eason says " more teeth are
needed" in the ordinance to protect
both landlords and renters. She
believes there are enough city em-ployees
to renew inspections of rental
property even more frequently than at
present, but says the city is not working
up to its capacity.
Stoerker does not support active
enforcement of the ordinance as it
stands and offers a much different
approach to monitoring renter com-plaints.
He says that, since most
complaints come from students,
students themselves should establish a
committee to review housing com-plaints
and decide if they should be
referred to the city administration, thus
reducing the city's workload.
" Why couldn't students police their
own housing?" he asks. " I would if I
( See CANDIDATES, Page 11)
Robbery victim no hero, follows orders of gunman
By Laddie Hirsch
Missoorian staff writer
Dave Dunn acted by instinct Thursday night
when he saw a masked man with a gun approach
him as he got into his car at 9 Dorado Drive.
" I jumped in the car, pulled the door shut and
locked the door," said Dunn. " He ran up to the
side of the car, crouched and held the gun
pointed at me and said, ' Get out of the car or I'll
shoot you,' or words to that effect"
The armed man ordered Dunn back into the
house which he said is owned by Dr. Roy
Stambaugh, a physician, who is away on
business. Dunn, 35, of Ashland, is Stambaugh's
business manager. Two men, Ben Ames, a pilot,
and Mark Cory, who looks after the house, live
there now, said Dunn. Neither was home at the
time the robbers confronted Dunn.
During the next 20 minutes Dunn found out
exactly how it feels to be robbed. He was or-dered
to lie on his stomach with his hands behind
his back. He felt his hands and legs being bound
with tape by an accomplice of the armed man.
Dunn then was put in the dark as the accomplice
stretched aluminum duct tape over his eyes.
When the tape on his eyes did not stick the first
time, the robber was quick to dispel any notions
Dunn might have had about escape or
resistance.
" He wanted to impress upon me the fact that
his gun was loaded," Dunn said. " He got behind
me where I couldn't see him and he held the gun
with the chamber open to show me that there
were bullets in it I wasn't going to be any hero
to try to tell him that the gun wouldn't work very
well that way."
As the robbers were leaving, the man who
first had approached Dunn told him to wait a
specified time before he made an attempt to get
free and call the police. Dunn said he did as he
was told.
" The guy said. ' We're going to leave this way
and you wait 10 minutes before you get up,' "
Dunn said. " Yeah. I waited, absolutely."
Dunn said he called the police at about 7: 30
' p. m. and they arrived quickly. Police still were
with him just two hours later when two arrests
were made in connection with the robbery.
Police arrested Duane R. Schierbaum. 23, and
Joy Lynn Watson, 22, both of 704 Hunt Ave., at
Skaggs Thrifty City. Schierbaum was charged
with armed robbery and fraudulent use of credit
cards and is being held on $ 17,500 bond. Miss
Watson was charged with fradulent use of credit
cards and is being held on $ 2,500 bond. Police
said the pair had been under surveillance on
suspicion of other robberies.
Police said Dunn's credit cards had been used
at two stores in the Parkade Plaza and were
being used at Skaggs when the suspects were
apprehended. In addition, a third suspect, Kevin
Cooley. 22, was arrested Friday by Columbia
police and charged with armed robbery. Cooley,
who also lives at 704 Hunt Ave., is being held on
$ 15,000 bond.
Dunn said he made a tentative identification
of the man who robbed him in a police line- u- p
Friday. Dunn said he is not sure exactly what
items were stolen, but said the robbers took his
wallet containing cash and credit cards, and a
.22- calib- er handgun.
" Whoever trussed me up was pretty good at
it." said Dunn. " They taped my arms very
tightly. I would say they were not rank
amateurs. That seemed very apparent. That
guy handled that gun like he'd been doing it all
his life.
" They really seemed slick. They were very
careful about what they said. They didn't
mention any names. They didn't shout at each
other they were careful to whisper.
" They started rummaging through the house
and they started going through my pockets took
my wallet and took my keys then they started
rummaging through the vehicles. There just
wasn't anything worth taking."
There was a Mercedes, a- Dats-un
280-- Z and a
Corvette parked in front of the expensive home
near American Legion Park, and a Cadillac
parked in the garage. But the robbers chose to
leave those, said Dunn.
' They were looking for cold cash or jewel or
something of that nature," said Dunn.