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ServmS the students and the University community since 1893
Vol. 83, No. 21
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Friday, September 26, 1975
Weather: humid
Jennings suggests
thoroughfare plan
not include Rosemary
by Johnny Oliver
Staff Writer
Chapel Hill Planning Director Mike
Jennings said Wednesday night he will
recommend deletion of a Rosemary Street
thoroughfare from the state Department of
Transportation thoroughfare plan.
The proposed thoroughfare plan, which
outlines an extensive system of streets and
highways in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, was
adopted in 1969 and is now being revised to
accommodate the towns' and state's
standards. At the Planning Board's public
meeting Wednesday, Jennings proposed that
the Rosemary Street provision be deleted.
The proposal was supported by the
Planning Board's long-range planning
subcommittee in an effort to preserve the
Horace Williams House, located in the
middle of the town's planned historic
district.
Several objections to the state's plan were
voiced at the meeting.
Jennings said the state's proposed
thoroughfare plan does not assess the town's
bus system adequately. "We want more
analysis of the bus system in the plan,"
Jennings said.
Subcommittee member Ann Slifkin said a
cost-benefit analysis and an environmental
impact study should be done on the
thoroughfare plan.
The thoroughfare plan does not consider
the location of future schools, parks and
residential sections, subcommittee member
Charles Weiss said.
But former Planning Board member Don
Wells spoke in favor of the plan, saying it is
necessary because the existing streets cause
the "almost total inability for emergency
vehicles to move quickly through town."
Local realtor P.H. Craige favored the
plan, .saying the new roads built in the
thoroughfare system would increase the
town's overall value.
The state's proposed plan is intended to
accommodate increased traffic in Chapel
Campaign to encourage
voters begins Saturday
A campaign to encourage North
Carolina students to register to vote will
begin Saturday with a conference at
Duke University, Campaign for Student
Voters coordinator Gary Thomas
announced Thursday.
The Campaign for Student Voters
began earlier this year as a program to
educate high school and college student
leaders about voter registration. The
student leaders are then to inform their
fellow students on residency
requirements, polling places and other
voting procedures.
Approximately 600 letters inviting
student leaders to the Duke conference
have been mailed to all high schools,
colleges and community colleges. But
Thomas said he is unsure how many
students will attend, because many
groups have not had the opportunity to
reply yet.
The Duke conference is the first part of
a three-part voter registration series.
Additional campaigns will be held Oct. 1 1
in Kenansville at the James Front
Institute and Oct. 18 at UNC-Asheville.
by Lynn Medford
Assistant News Editor
Second of a two-part series
ASHEV1LLE The lobbying effects of
special interest groups and government
officials have helped obtain the acceptance
of a highway construction project w hich will
destroy Beaucatcher Mountain here,
Beaucatcher Mountain Defense Association
Chairperson Marylyn Gordon charged
recently.
The defense association has filed a
complaint seeking a court injunction to stop
construction of an open cut through the :
mountain, located in downtown Asheville
on U.S. 70-74.
The cut was planned by the state
transportation department to eliminate a
traffic bottleneck created by the highway's
two-lane tunnel. But the defense association
contends that twin-tunnels would solve the
bottleneck situation without the adverse
environmental impact the open cut would
have.
Gordon contends that certain Asheville
industrial groups would financially benefit
more from the open cut project than from
the tunneling project.
Since more than six million tons of rock
will be excavated from the cut and only two
Hill. But Jennings said, "I'm not convinced
that we're going to have the great increase in
traffic that they (the transportation
department) predict."
No actual estimates have been made of
Chapel Hill's projected traffic volume,
according to the town's planning staff.
The state's proposed thoroughfare plan
also provides that South Road, which runs
in front of Woollen Gym and the Bell Tower,
be widened to four lanes. Jennings suggested
the road remain as it is except for the
addition of turn lanes at intersections.
Jennings also recommended that Franklin
Street be widened and extended to meet a
widened Main Street in Carrboro. He said
this would relieve some of the present traffic
congestion.
Jennings disagreed with the state's plan to
create a one-way pairing of Rosemary and
Pittsboro Streets. He said one-way pairing
would hurt the downtown area, while the
proposed connecting roads in residential
areas would significantly increase traffic in
these areas.
The state contends in its proposal that
automobile pollution for a given number of
cars is reduced whenever traffic is permitted
to flow smoothly on thoroughfares. But
Jennings said the increased thoroughfare
traffic will also increase emissions.
The Planning Board received the state's
proposed rough draft on Sept. 5 and
Jennings said he will send his
recommendations to the Department of
Transportation next week. He expects to
receive a formal report from the state
concerning his recommendations in
October.
Both Chapel Hill and Carrboro must
approve the thoroughfare plan before it can
be implemented. Chapel Hill's planning staff
expects that it will take at least 20 years
before some form of the thoroughfare plan is
initiated.
If constructed, the thoroughfare system
will cost approximately $30 million, to be
divided between the state and the towns.
"In the 1972 election, less than 50 per
cent of those students eligible to register
registered to vote," Thomas said. "While
that was a very poor percentage, even
fewer voted."
Thomas said the committee's task is
tremendous, because the consolidated
University of North Carolina system has
approximately 90,000 students alone
with an additional 80,000 high school
seniors being eligible to vote this year.
Thomas said the campaign will work
closely with the State Board of Elections
in trying to persuade universities to hold
registration on their campuses.
The Campaign for Student Voters will
bring together bi-partisan statewide
groups including the North Carolina
Student Legislature, the North Carolina
State Youth Councils, North Carolina
Comprehensive Community College
Student Government Association, North
Carolina Association of Student
Governments, North Carolina
Federations of College Democrats and
Republicans and North Carolina
Teenage Democrats and Republicans.
million from the tunnels, "the cut equals
money for interest groups such as those with
earth moving equipment and dirt movers,"
Gordon said. "We've been given no
explanation of where all that rock will go."
Bill Caddell, state transportation
department assistant secretary for planning,
explained that "most of the material coming
from the cut will be used on the east side of
the mountain" for building access roads.
"Anybody in the state, or the United
States for that matter, is allowed to bid for
the construction project," Caddell said. "By
law, the lowest bid that meets the legal
requirements gets the contract."
Gordon contended that past actions of
government officials, both state and local,
reflect questionable motives on their part.
She said government officials prevented
public input on the highway project to stop
complaints about the cut.
In August 1974, the Asheville City
Council passed a resolution to ban public
hearings on the Beaucatcher project. In the:
resolution, the council said the issue in
question was actually the method of
construction, not the environmental impact
and should be decided by the state and local
governments.
Gordon said local officials led her to
believe that a hearing on the open cut and.
interests
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Umbrellas and students accompanied one
another to class again Thursday as the sixth day
of what seemed to be 40 days of rain ran its
course.
by Bruce Henderson
Staff Writer
Increased telephone service rates may
result from the proposed sale of UNC's
telephone utility to Southern Bell Telephone
Co.
Southern Bell applied for a rate increase
July 19, 1974, requesting higher charges for
monthly service, installation charges, and a
new charge for directory assistance.
Rate increases would vary locally
according to the size of the calling area, a
utilities official said. For a town the size of
Chapel Hill, he said, the local service rate
would increase from $6.40 to $8.25 per
phone. University rates are now $6.50 per
month.
John Temple, assistant vice-chancellor for
business, said Tuesday a 1974 University
analysis showed that Southern Bell rates
were then slightly less than the University's
rates.
Donald McKinsey, Southern Bell chief
engineer in Charlotte, said Wednesday the
sale contract stipulated that Chapel Hill
rates must be equal to those of any other
municipality of the same size.
Sale contracts for the telephone utility to
Southern Bell for $24 million were approved
by the UNC Utilities Study Commission (the
Church Commission) Sept. 11. The sale
must now be approved, in turn, by the UNC
Board of Governors, the Governor's Council
of State, the state Utilities Commission and
the Federal Communications Commission.
If all steps are made, Southern Bell could
take over the UNC system April 31, 1976.
Utilities Commission hearings on the
increase application begin Oct. 7 and a ruling
is expected sometime before the year's end.
Utilities officials added that, if the increase is
twin-tunnel alternatives was closed to the
public, when it was actually open.
Asheville town officials told Gordon that
a hearing scheduled in Raleigh for Aug. 22,
1974 was closed to public oral comment,
although complaints would be recorded in
meeting minutes, she said.
To assure herself the defense association's
written complaints were recorded at the
Raleigh hearing, Gordon said she called
Phillip J. Kirk, administrative assistant to
Gov. James E. Holshouser, asking him to
make sure the complaints were handled
properly.
Several weeks after the hearing, Kirk
replied in a letter that the hearing had not
been open to the public, Gordon said, adding
that Kirk also sent a copy of the meeting's
minutes.
But another Raleigh official sent a copy of
the minutes that included two paragraphs
Kirk's letter had omitted, Gordon said. The
two paragraphs said an Asheville citizen
spoke in favor of the open cut, she said.
Kirk's secretary, Sherylle Cribb, said
Wednesday Kirk told her he does not recall
the matter.
Gordon also contended that the
transportation department, in an effort to
promote the open cut, led the public to
believe a prominent New York tunnel
by Dan Fesperman
Staff Writer
The Student Supreme Court, following a Wednesday
night hearing marked by a challenge to Chief Justice Darrell
Hancock, will decide the fate of the Media Board today when
it rules on the board's legal composition.
The hearing resulted from a restraining order granted last
week to nine members of the old Media Board. They
maintained that the new Media Board bylaws, written last
week by board chairperson Dick Pope, were illegally
approved by the Campus Governing Council.
The new bylaws had dissolved the old Media Board and
authorized Pope and George Bacso, treasurer of the old
Media Board, to act as an interim board until a new board is
established. The restraining order temporarily halted the old
board's dissolution.
The court hearing began with controversy when Ben
Steelman, representing Pope, requested that Hancock
disqualify himself because Hancock's roommate, David
Ford, represents the nine plaintiffs. But Hancock, refused to
disqualify himself.
Pope said after the hearing, "I just think that it is totally
unethical. Can you imagine if the chief justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court was a bachelor and the plaintiffs attorney
was the guy that he lived with? That would never be allowed."
Pope had said he wrote the new bylaws because he could
not find a verified copy of the old bylaws. The old Media
Board members sought to prove that existing copies of the
old bylaws were verified.
Mark Dearmon, former Media Board chairperson,
testified that he had introduced the Media Board bylaws for
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Bell applied for rate increase in 1974
approved, the exact allocation of the
increases will be up to the commission.
To generate the same amount of increase3
revenues, he said, the commission may
decide to raise charges other than those Bell
had proposed (such as increasing local
service rates less than proposed and
increasing installation charges more).
Controversy over pay scales and employee
seniority arose at the recent Church
Commission meeting. Mayor Howard N.
Lee, a member of the commission, said that
some University telephone employees feel
they would not receive pay reflecting the
number of years experience they have.
UNC Utilities Director Grey Culbreth
said Tuesday such a situation could possibly
arise. A University employee may be earning
$150 a week after four years here, he said,
and be paid $160 at Bell, even though a Bell
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Jimmy Wallace, candidate for mayor of
Chapel Hill
construction firm was hired to make a cost
analysis and comparison of the tunnel and
cut projects, when actually state engineers
made the estimates.
After several Asheville area news releases
reported that the highway department had
retained the New York tunnel engineering
firm. Highway Department Administrator
Billy Rose told Gordon during a radio
question-and-answer session in 1971 that
Singstad, Kehart, Nov ember and Hurkawas
the firm the department consulted.
After writing the firm to ask for the results
of their study of the Beaucatcher situation,
Gordon said she received a reply from the
firm, stating that the firm "entered into
negotiations with the state, but final
agreement was never completed."
Gordon said she then wrote Rose for
reaffirmation of the firm's name. In his
replying letter, Rose then denied that the
state employed Singstad and his associates
and said the cost analysis was done by state
engineers, she said.
"We do not doubt the state engineers are
good," Gordon said. "But they do not have
the expertise for tunnel drilling."
Gordon also maintained that the state cost
analysis omitted expenses such as buying
rights-of-ways in calculating the open cut
costs and padded the tunnel cost estimate
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employee with only two years experience
was paid the same rate. Culbreth said he
doubted this would happen, however!
McKinsey said the sale contract only
stipulated that all University personnel
retain their jobs at the same pay, or higher, if
the sale is completed. In some cases, he said,
salaries might be increased.
Some accounting employees of the UNC
system may be asked to move to new job
locations, Culbreth said.
Most workers here will be pleased if the
sale goes through, he said.
"The workers (here) are so worn out" by
the negotiations, Culbreth said, "that they'll
be glad to get it (the sale) over with. We'll be
glad to get the show on the road."
Temple said Tuesday he "expects to see
hardly a ripple" in local phone service if
Wallace announces
candidacy for mayor
by Richard Whittle
Staff Writer
Citing public health and safety as his top
priorities, James C. "Jimmy" Wallace
announced at a Thursday morning press
conference that he will be a candidate for
mayor here.
A professor at North Carolina State
University and member of the N.C.
Environmental Management Commission,
Wallace said he decided to run "as a result of
with such things as an unnecessary
ventilating system. 1
"I don't believe our staff or an outside staff
tried to bias the cost analysis," Rose said.
"We didn't have tunnel experts so we
brought in outside ones."
At any rate, Gordon said, "Tunnel boring
equipment designed in the last few years has
been able to cut down on time and cost,"
therefore the state's cost estimate is
outdated.
Gordon also said the major local
newspaper, the Asheville Citizen-Times, did
not give full coverage to the arguments
raised against the cut.
"We've had a very one-sided press
locally," defense association co-chairperson
Mart,. Coggins said. "Filing the complaint
can inform the public of the actual extent of
the cut's damage "
Announcements of public hearings on the
Beaucatcher open cut were buried in the
legal notes column, Gordon said. "They
didn't want to take the chance of anything
being stirred up."
Luther B. Thigpen, executive director of
the Citizen-Times, said he feels the
newspaper has covered the controversy
fairly. "We've published both sides of the
story for 1 5 years, as far as I know," he said.
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approval at the Dec. 3, 1974 meeting of the CGC.
Johnny Kaleel, then CGC speaker, also testified that the
bylaws had been introduced.
Dearmon said the bylaws were then passed by the CGC
after only slight discussion and without any amendments
proposed.
But Kaleel said amendments were definitely proposed, and
as he recalls, some of them were passed. "I would not make a
firm statement that there were positively amendments added,
but only because I can't definitely remember," Kaleel said.
Steelman also presented an affidavit from former Media
Board Secretary Melissa Coles, saying she had been notified
that bylaw amendments would be made but none were ever
presented to her.
Ford argued that the student constitution does not give the
CGC power to create organization bylaws. He said Article
IV, Section 2, states only that bylaws shall be approved by
the CGC. "The power to approve does not imply the power to
create," Ford said.
Steelman said, "It (the constitution) also does not say that
the Media Board can write its own bylaws. Therefore I don't
know who the hell would write Media Board bylaws."
Ford's argument over the semantics of "approve" was
superfluous, Steelman said. "The Media Board was created
to provide expertise in financial management, not to subvert
the financial power of the council."
Supreme Court justice David Carpenter said after the
hearing the court would probably reach a decision in 15
minutes. But Hancock said he will not announce the decision
until he has written the court's opinion.
Southern Bell assumes control. The
limitations of the University system
equipment would force Bell to operate
initially, the way the University system now
does, he said.
The sale contract includes the sale of all
telephone equipment and the telephone
exchange building on Rosemary Street, he
said, but not the Manning Drive building.
"They (Bell) haven't indicated
renovating," he said, "but that's the trend. I
believe you'll see something in the next 10
years or so."
McKinsey said Southern Bell has no plans
for renovation there is a very fine system
there; there's no reason to renovate." He
said, however, that as the company
introduces new electro-mechanical systems,
future renovations may be made.
having been asked to by literally dozens of
citizens from all walks of life in Chapel
Hill."
He stressed that he is running as an
independent candidate. "I am not running as
a representative of any faction or group." he
said.
Wallace said another reason he is running
is so that more than one part of the political
spectrum will be represented in the Nov. 4
election. The only other announced
candidate for mayor is Chapel Hill
Alderman Gerry Cohen.
An outspoken environmentalist, Wallace
said Chapel Hill "has fallen behind in waste
water treatment and must do something
about it."
The Environmental Protection Agency is
currently pressuring the town to lower the
level of ammonia in its waste water, and
Wallace said that if the town fails to find a
solution soon, it could be forced to build an
expensive nitrification plant.
Wallace said he aims to decrease the
amount of time spent by the mayor and
Board of Aldermen in board meetings.
"I've had the feeling that the presiding
officer needs to use his gavel more," Wallace
said. He added that he believes he could
shorten board meetings by controlling
debate strictly.
He also said he feels the committee and
report systems should be put to use more in
Chapel Hill so that board decisions could be
made more quickly.
A former member of both the Chapel Hill
Board of Aldermen and the tow n's Planning
Board, Wallace came to Chapel Hill in 1940
as a student from Martin County.
He holds degrees in mathematics, physics,
history, public hea! h and law. Except for a
three-year period in he 1940s, Wallace has
resided in Chapel Hill since he was a student
and has served as a visiting professor at both
the Duke University and UNC law schools.