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Photo by Tom G toner
Homecoming Royalty
Homecoming royalty during Nebraska's 42-0 victory
against Kansas were Tanya Harms and Clark Miller.
First attendants were Jennifer Smith and Jack
Clarke.
CONtact makes use of others' ideas
By Lynn Mongar
Karen is 24 years old, pregnant and Unmarried. She
needs help finding advice and medical care. She calls
CONtact Inc., which provides her with the names of
people and places that can help..
CONtact, an agency that connects people who need
help with human service agencies, receives more than 500
referrals for assistance and information each month. The
agency, at North 27th Street and Industrial Park Avenue,
is the only agency of its kind in the world, according to
Gary Hill, its founder and president.
Hill said the philosophy of CONtact is that every
community has the ingredients to meet all basic human
needs.
He explained that a person's life may be dependent
upon a prompt answer from CONtact. So, the agency,
which is open continuously , works under the clock's pres
sure. Crisis situations take less than 24 hours and other
calls for referral take about 48 hours.
"You have to perceive it through the eyes of a prison
er, or the person in trouble, Hill said.
A full-time staff of 40 people and more than 80 volun
teers organize and maintain three large rooms of resource
files identifyin g agencies, individuals and communities in
volved in various phases of human services.
Hill said that keeping the volumes of information and
files organized is not as hard as it might seem.
"We're just good secretaries," he said.
Hill said bureaucracy causes too much specialization in
government agencies. Sometimes, the paperwork can send
a person from one place to another without solving a
problem, he said.
wWe just coordinate everything," he said.
The agency receives calls from 'across the nation. For
example, if an inmate in Oregon needs housing and a job
in Illinois to be paroled, CONtact arranges connections for
the inmate. If a drug addict in Idaho needs to know where
to get free counseling, CONtact provides him with that in
formation. v
In June CONtact added a service for Lincoln's deaf
community. Tlie agency offers a telephone teletype
system to the deaf.
"We are their voice," CONtact employee, Connie
McKee said.
CONtact is a non-profit organization and supports it
self through its commercial printing shop, Hill said.
The agency also occasionally receives federal govern
ment grants. However, Hill said CONtact tries to avoid too
much government assistance.
"We're non-threatening that way. We can make sugges
tions and referrals without them appearing to be
commands."
"I think government agencies sometimes have that
image problem."
Hill said he got the idea for forming the agency while
doing some work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary for
the Lincoln Chapter of Jaycees.
Hill said that prison officials couldn't answer many
questions asked by inmates.
"This was because they couldn't get the information,
not because they didn't know."
"Our ideas all belong to someone or some other group.
We just make use of them."
monday, October 15, 1979
Atomic emergency
plan bad Fowler
Dy Rich Jurgens
There is no evacuation plan for Omaha residents in case
of a nuclear accident from the Fort Calhoun nuclear
power plant 25 miles away, Omaha civil defense officials
said Friday.
Adjutant Gen. Edward Binder, state civil
director, said Omaha does not have any plans for
evacuating Omaha residents in case of a nuclear accident.
Binder and others testified before the Legislature's
Public Works Committee to determine if Nebraska's
nuclear emergency plan is in the Interest of public safety.
Sen. Steve Fowler of Lincoln said the lack of an
evacuation plan for Omaha was one of the major flaws in
Nebraska's nuclear emergency plan.
Binder said that Douglas County and Omaha officials
can establish evacuation plans, but that the governor is the
only official empowered to order such an evacuation.
A state senator from Pennsylvania also testified at the
hearing. His testimony concerned Fowler's proposed
legislative bill requiring evacuation plans in case of a
nuclear accident.
Pennsylvania State Sen. George Gekas, told the
committee that the radiation leak at Three Mile Island last
spring has caused the Pennsylvania legislature to look for a
better evacuation plan.
NEBRASKA IS HEADING in the right direction
toward nuclear safety when it provides formalized plans for
evacuation, Gekas said.
He said although there was no formalized evacuation
plan for the Three Mile Island incident, he thought the
governor of Pennsylvania acted well, considering the
circumstances.
Binder told the committee how Nebraska's emergency
plan is organized, and that the evacuation would be used
only as a last resort.
Nebraska's emergency plan has been approved by the
federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and is one which
the NRC plans on using as a model for other states, Binder
said.
Fowler said the plan does not provide enough detail for
evacuation.
THE PRESENT REGULATIONS have serious
deficiencies Fowler said. He said it fails to provide
provisions to inform the public in case of a nuclear
accident.
He also said the plan has no provisions to shelter
people or evacuate, with transportation, people visiting
the area or people in hospitals and nursing homes. The
plan also doesn't have adequate detection devices for
amounts of radiation already leaked, and there is no
method of testing or drilling in case of a more serious
accident.
Gekas said Pennsylvania had mf direct lines of
communication with Three Mile Island and said he hoped
this would change, with the governor being the head of
communications in the event of an accident.
"At one point when we were ready to start evacuation,
there was a great deal of silence," Gekas said. He said that
up-dates on the problem should have been given every 1 5
minutes, whether there were any new developments or
not. Not knowing only makes the situation worse, Gekas
said.
SPECIAL OFFER EXTENDED THRU OCT. 31st
Full student membership
Good now thru May 31st
YOU GET:
CO-ED SAUNA AND STEAM ROOM
UNIVERSAL WEIGHT MACHINE
LOWER RATES FOR NON-PRIME TIME
ALL FOR ONLY $40.00
6a.m.- 12pjn.M -F
7tin.-12pjn.SAT
7 a.m. -10:30 p.m. SUN
VJALLOAHGERS
mutt be full-time students
330 f. "P"St. 475 - 3338
MUSIC AT The Zoo, October 1 5-20
Monday and Tuesday CHAflUE nilfCTON
AND ROCK THEHAPY
"It's rw. powerful rock from the midwest's finest rock group" $1.50 cover
Wednesday
Friday & Saturday tho HEAmTMUtlMUSlS
"Urban blues by Lincoln's own blues group. $150 cover
Thursday
A SPECIAL ONE NIGHT APPEARANCE BY THE
NIGHTHAVJEC!
Advance tickets on sale
at the ZOO
BOTfVUSS
TH2S ONE!!
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