The Banner
Volume XIV, Number 9
Proudly serving the UNCA community since 1982
March 30, 1989
Justice pool back
in operation
by Michael Gouge
Assistant News Editor
The Justice Gymnasium
pool is back in operation
after a brief shutdown for
repairs.
Jim Efland, facilities
planner, said the filtration
system for the pool "blew
about five holes in it." The
pool was closed during spring
break because of the
filtration system failure.
Efland said replacing the
damaged parts of the
filtration system will take
considerable time and
expense. To get the pool back
in operation, Efland said a
"special repair kit was
patched on (the system) to
give us time to get a new
filtration system in."
The new filtration system
would "take about 6-8 weeks
to get here," Efland said.
"We’re getting the prices now.
The whole thing will probably
cost fifteen to twenty
thousand dollars."
The current filtration system
is the original one installed
when the gym was
constructed in the late ’60s,
Efland said.
The new filtration system
would be installed over the
summer. The patching done
to repair the system is "only
to get us throu^ this period,"
Efland said.
Due to the age of Justice
Gym, several maintenance
projects are needed. Efland
said the filtration system
failure was not a surprise.
"We’ve known we’ve had this
problem, but we haven’t had
the money" for the repairs.
Dede Allen, assistant
athletic director, said the
filtration system failure
caused little inconvenience
for students and faculty who
use the pool. The pool "was
closed down almost a week
until they could patch the
leaks in the filtration system,"
Allen said. During that time,
Allen said, life-saving classes
that use the pool were given
lectures. The pool was closed
down near the end of spring
break, so students actually
suffered very little
inconvenience, according to
Allen.
Allen said they lack the
funding to c^omplete
several gym projects. Allen
said in one instance
emergency funding was
granted to improve a
hazardous sidewalk.
"We had a deck with a
smooth finish that was very
slick. We were able to get
emergency funding to put a
sidewalk finish on it," Allen
said. The smooth finish
See GYM, page 12
Park bench theft
costs $2000
by Melissa Church
Staff Writer
Security reports for the
month of February have been
published, and one case of
"larceny in general" resulted
in the loss of $2000 worth of
goods.
"The $2000 was the theft of
two of the new park benches
that were still in boxes from
behind the physical plant,"
Dr. Eric lovachinni, vice
chancellor for student affairs,
said.
The other cases of larceny
consisted of things being
stolen out of cars and dorm
rooms. This added up to $975
worth of stolen goods.
A change machine in the
Highsmith Center was also
broken into. "There is some
way that someone got $150
out of the change machine,"
lovachinni said.
This is an unusual case,
according to lovachinni.
"Maybe once a year a change
machine will get ripped off.
This has happened twice in
the matter of a month or two.
It might have been the same
person or persons, we just
don’t know."
There was only $10 worth
of larceny from motor
vehicles in February.
According to lovachinni, this
decrease may be due to
an arrest made by the
Asheville Police Department.
"There was a fairly major
arrest made of people who
have been breaking into
automobiles in the city,"
lovachinni said.
Denms Gregory, Sergeant of
Investigation for UNCA
Security, also commented on
the arrest. "We had some
leads that tied into the same
thing that Asheville police
had (concerning the arrests),
but we just could not prove
that the people were guilty.
We think that the arrest has
solved some of our problem."
lovachinni also said that
robbing the UNCA campus
is not that difficult. "Our
campus is an open place. If
a person wants to steal
something,they are going to
figure out a way to do it in
a short period of time.
"Campuses are a security
nightmare. You just cannot
shut down the whole school
at ten o’clock and do the
things that need to be done,"
lovachinni said.
There is a way that some
stolen goods can be found,
according to Gregory. The
UNCA security has access to
the Police Information
Network (PIN). This is a
computer network that links
all of the police departments
in every state to each other
and to the National Crime
Information Center (NCIC)
in Washington D.C.
"Using the PIN system, you
can type in serial numbers of
larceny. If your computer
from your dorm is stolen, for
example, and you have the
serial number, we would
enter it in to the pin system.
Then, anywhere in the nation
if someone finds the
computer and the serial
See SECURITY, page 12
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Chancellor David Brown led a tour of the site
of the proposed parking lot beneath the
Highrise dormitory on March 27. Brown
answered questions from campus
Staff Photo-Susan Dryman
environmentalists, and heard their concerns
that the lot would destroy the "buffer zone"
between UNCA property and the Botanical
Gardens.
Petition fights proposed lot
by Scarlet Bell
News Editor
Five hundred students and
100 faculty members have
signed petitions urging the
UNCA administration to
reconsider the construction
of a parking lot that would
eliminate two-thirds of the
buffer zone" between UNCA
property and the Botanical
Gardens, according to Gary
Miller, professor of
environmental studies.
"We feel like we’re dealing
from a position of strength,
not a position of weakness
when we advocate that other
options be explored and that
we do not, in fact, invade the
buffer zone," Miller said.
A buffer zone. Miller said,
is essential for insuring a
"Botanical Gardens
experience," both visually and
acoustically, and , once
the zone is destroyed, "it is
virtually impossible to ever
re-resurect it."
"I view the botanical
gardens as a very special
sanctuary...We don’t usually
allow obtrusive invasions into
sanctuaries, so I don’t think
in this particular case we’d
allow a bulldozer to go into
the buffer zone that is the
green space buffer between
the campus and the botanical
gardens," Miller said.
Another area of concern is
the potential "run-off of
motor oil, gasoline, heavy
metals, asbestos and litter
into the gardens from the
proposed 153-space new
parking facility (which will be
located below the current
Highrise parking lot),
according to Miller.
In addition, the area that
has been proposed for the
new parking lot already
serves as a buffer zone for
litter absorption between the
present parking lot at the
Highrise dormitory and the
Botanical Gardens, according
to Adrian Boros,
enviroimiental studies major.
"If you remove two-thirds
of the buffer zone, there
won’t be space for litter
absorption," Miller said.
Though Miller said an
additional parking facility was
"unnecessary" at this time, a
suggestion he offered to try
to alleviate some of the
parking "pressure" at UNCA
is to prohibit freshmen
resident students from
bringing automobiles their
first year.
"My first choice would be
to limit dormitory-based
freshmen students from
bringing cars to campus their
first year. That, to me, is
sensible,- it’s done throughout
the world, so it’s nothing that
UNCA would be initiating.
It works everywhere else;
otherwise everyone else
would do away with it,"
Miller said.
Also, Miller said the
recently-constructed parking
lot near Mountain Trace
Apartments is "rarely ever
See PETITION, page 12
New sewage treatment reviewed
by Tina Moore
Staff Writer
The League of Women
Voters and UNCA’s
Environmental Quality
Institute presented a public
review of a new sewage
treatment process March 21
at the Owen Conference
Center.
"The process, which is the
only one of it’s kind approved
by the EPA, will cause
odorless heating to occur
which pasteurizes the sludge.
It will do this without killing
beneficial soil bacteria," said
John Schmidt, sales director
of Carolina N-Viro which
presented the process.
The board of directors of
the Metropolitan Sewage
District viewed the
presentation earlier at the
request of the Buncombe
County board of
commissioners and asked
that the presentation be
made to the public.
The MSD board is currently
committed to an $11 million
sludge incinerator being built
near UNCA.
Schmidt believes this kiln
dust process would be more
beneficial to Buncombe
County.
'The process has capital and
operating costs below the
$2.5 million start-up cost to
Buncombe County for
building a sludge incinerator,
which the MSD estimates to
have a 20-year lifespan," said
Schmidt.
"Communities such as
Toledo, Ohio; Cayce, South
Carolina and Bristol,
Tennessee are currently using
alkaline stabilization to treat
sewage sludge. Greenville,
South Carolina, which
produces quantities of sewage
sludge similar to Asheville’s
annual output, has an
alkaline stabilization facility
under construction," said
Schmidt.
Asheville’s current facility
for disposing of sewage waste
is filling up, and options of
a new facility or process are
under consideration. Some
area environmentalists are
concerned that toxic fumes
would be emitted from the
proposed sludge incinerator.
The kiln dust, which is an
ingredient in the treatment.
See SEWAGE, page 12