n n
thUrsday,may3, 1979
Hncoln, nebraska vol. 101 ho. 121
O
Legislature leaves East Campus chiller in the col'
By Randy Essex
the Legislature Wednesday refused to
finance the East Campus chiller unit, leav
ing university officials with the choice of
paying $35,000 In penalties and losing
$90,000 for work already done, or finding
more than $400,000 to buy the air con
ditioner. tf the university does riot cancel its con
tract and buys the chiller, about $1.1
million more would be needed to make the
chiller operational.
NU entered into the now-controversial
contract in November expecting the Legis
lature to finance the chiller, since the unit
was Ml top capital construction priority .
The Legislature- voted twice on the
chiller Wednesday and once Tuesday. The
first vote on Wednesday included the air
conditioner in an amendment to LB594,
which appropriates money-for capital con
structiOn projects next year.
The amendment Was defeated, however,
after complex procedure in an attempt to
amend the construction bill.
Eliminating furids
- Originally, Imperial Sen, ReX Haberman
proposed an amendment to the bill Which
would have eliminated funds for renovat
ion of the Temple Theatre building, the
Eppley Library at UNO and for the pur
chase of the Elks building On Centennial
Mall for Use by the State Historical Society
as a museum.
Bellevue Sen. Frank Lewis then
attempted to amend the Haberman
measure to eliminate funds for renovation
of the Agriculture Engineering building on
East Campus, funds to plan an addition to
the Kearney State College" Library tod
add the chiller, ."". i - j . -
Tuesday Lewis tried to fcet'the chiller
financed by taking half of the requested
$1.1 million from NU central administrate .
ion salaries, end the other half from other .
parts of the NU Operating budget. . - : .
After, Tuesday's attempt failed Lewis
said the 'Legislature should comply with
the wishes Of the NU Board of Regents and
the governor," fend give the University the
chiller and nothdng tlseV Lewis also was a
co-sponsor of a biH tOt-eriovate the 'Temple
Theatre building. ' . ,v ;'
Individual Votes ' 'I : -
The Lewis amendment to Haberman's
amendment. Was adopted, and the Lc-is- ,
lature then .Voted on tach of the tlx pro
jects contained In, the Haberman amend
ment. : ' "
Apparently dissatisfied with the form
his amendment had taken, Haberman asked
to withdraw it. but was ruled out of order,
Voting on the individual projects took a
surprising turn, as none of the Ave projects
already included in the bill were cut, and
the chiller was added on a 25-19 vote.
The Legislature then voted on the
amendment as a whole. Since members had
already voted not to cut any of the pro
jects Haberman and Lewis proposed to cut,
the vote was actually on whether the
chiller would be financed. Funds were
denied on a 13-23 vote,
The Temple ' building survived yet
another attempt to reduce the $6 million
appropriated for it. Sen. Loran Schmit Of
Bellwood proposed to renovate the existing
structure at an estimated cost of $2.8
million, without adding to the building.
Proposed delay
But Lincoln Sen. Dave Landis, who
combined with Lewis to sponsor the bill to
renovate and add to the Temple building,
said the Schmit amendment only proposed
a delay in getting the project financed.
Schmit proposed that only $100,000 be
spent next year for planning the renovat
ion. Landis argued that the question of
Whether the project should be financed
would have to be faced again next year be
fore any construction could begin .
Schmit's amendment failed, 1245.
So, following three hours of debate on
the construction bill, the Legislature ad
vanced the bill without any amendments
in the identical form in which the bill was
introduced by the Appropriations Com
mittee.
The Temple renovation was not
included in Gov. Charles Thone'i budget,
so the bill will require 30 affirmative votes
for that and any other project included in
the bill actually to be approved,
Legislative Fiscal Analyst Bill Brunson
explained that construction projects not
included In the governor's budget must be
included in bills that pass with at least 30
votes, of the projects are dropped from
the bill.
In addition, Gov. Thone could veto
specific projects in the bill if they are not
to his liking.
The bill only received 26 votes Wednes
day when it was advanced to final reading,
The vote was 26-1 U
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Ptioxt by MkIc fciJIingslty
iPost-April showers bring blossoming umbrellas and a soggy UNL campus.
s
dlecisioB coinmended by semiator
i3y Uocky Strunk
wiIebraskans Icnew he Kiame iRon
Gardner three Weeks igo,but, because f
his .tecefit stand against . the- Nebraska
Public Power District, he tnay become
known as very brave man Xvho xvasnU
afraid to speak tout in torder to save tate
t5ayers money i n '
" That is what freshman Sen.-? Tom
Vickersr of ' Farnam said about the site
manager for the Cerald Oentleman Station
tinder construction meat Sutherland.
Although Gardner tt21 holds the title of
site tnsner of the cosl-flred plsnt.he has
been transferred to Columbus and "there
has been discussion of tcrmm-tLi2 hLn
completsry according to NTTD .t::t
ant general manager Larry Kuncl. - . -. -'"He'i
m very brave individud vi'Ji hih
standards and it will be a territls shime if
he's forced to Xzkt emplcynicnt out of tv.e
state" ssid Vickcrs, tvho first met 'ith
.Gardner on March 31 about Grdnsr's
charges of exec Ive consuction costs at
Sutherland.; ' -m ' - .
. OvcrtiL p j" tent , ,
"Gardner has tzizzd ssversl qusstlons
concerning overtime psment by KTD
amounting to $43 million that Tnsy hivs
been liable to the contractor and cost over
runs totaling about $35.1 million. 1
The IS5t.overtLT.S deepen Vis what
finally broke the straw Cardner said.
There as tto teasoh that overtime should
bave been paid for the final six months
of construction of the first tmit.'
v He txplained tiiat because the unit was
operational, final completion tasks such as
painting Vand cleaning didnY need the ,
priority of completion. PPD had to buy
power in 1978 from Union Electric Co.
of StLouis amounting to tbout S30
'rnlllioaS because of "the elay in com
pleting' the first fcnit at Oentle, he said,
ianagement's response to my request
. to deny overtime was that it would be an ,
t hsinillcsnt amount compared to .the .
previous overtime expenditures, Gardner '
, Kid. lie claims that he has imemomtin
this accusation which is part of SCO paes
of documentation that was forwarded to
ths Attorney General! office.
' ASsnlnj overtime
Gardner also said overtime was allowed ,
becsuss management was afraid workers
, 9 - . . . I-,
y Thitvas the Whole problem,he said.
rxYZT threatened to terminate the
; ir.:;: :;I:r.c:d contractor and t lot of waste
and delay resulted
' Iticr.d Industrial Contractors was
avarded the, contract at Gentlemen"
v becsuss they were $7 million less than the'
next bid. Although it was their first job
and they were L-.:y;:rI:nd contract-
ing firm, NPPD was open to a lawsuit if it
did not accept the lowest bid .
If 1 could have enforced the contract, I
could have sped things up at Gentlemen
said Gardner who was supervisor for 100
employees.
Agreeing with Gardner was UNL fresh
man Paul Knight who worked under him
last summer in the testing lab at
Gentleman. ' "
If he Would have been getting the au
thority, things miit have been better,
said Knight, t business major from Suther
land, "lie was trying to stop 4 flood and
just couldn't do it " i v
Justirl waste "" ,
; Knight told of instances, when Gard
ner became upset with Waste that Was jus
tified by the necessity of finishing the job.
We knew there was communication
problems between Columbus and Gardner
and he had a hard time getting things
done, Knit sild;
Gardner Is the best boss rve ever
worked for, sdd Sam Peterson, -engineer
at Gentlcn-.sn and i UNX graduate. I was
very-tir.sppy to see him transferred.,
Petersen, a registered professional ta-J
tinccr in Cclorsdo and Nebraska, said he
also ' faces the r possibility of being
transferred because of his support for his
former boss.
;ie (Gardner) stands vp for What ha
thinks is right and supports his people even
if there's a chance of them being wrong,
said Peterson, who has forked wider ten
site managers. Tve never seen a boss do
that before." J
"Ratepayer ripofT
Kuncl supported NPPDs decision to
transfer Gardner to Columbusrdn had
been losing some effectiveness at the site
because of very negative feelings about the
contractor and the job.
. Gardner disagreed with KuncP asser
tion that he was losing effectiveness tt the
site. He said he was beginning to Fed nega
tive about the job but the contractor had
nothing to do with it. ,
lt was because management failed to
backtee on my decisions, he said.-' " "
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,lz2zt& sad bocps: lincoln to host
v croquet tocmnnient , ; pzz& 10
Mc2ow; tones: Lincolnite Silly
Cowsa featured , .ps 12
Calif oniii teport: Steve Oakley cf
the-UNL baseball team is
::-TctXured. .ps 1 4
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