Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 9, 1981)
page 2 Road improvements topic of Monday's city council BY FRED SPEARMAN If more money is not given for streets, Lincoln will have reached its limits of growth, said Joseph Hampton, city coun cil chairman, at a hearing Monday on street improvements. Hampton said the present network of streets may be in seri ous jeopardy if proper concern is not taken in the near future. The open hearing at the Lincoln Lan caster County Building centered on one year and six-year street improvement plans. The council heard comments on $19.5 million in street improvement considered for the next six years. Main comments by interested individ uals concerned the amount spent on safety factors. David Hunter, 5939 Rolling Hills Blvd., said the council should consider in creasing the total of $125,000 for safety factors. Hunter cited the school board's efforts to stop school busing in the Old Cheney Road area. He said children would have to cross roads in this area and no budget ing has been made for lights or cross walks. But, he said, his concern was not just for the Cheney area, but the entire city. A meeting between the council and school board to discuss changing bus pat terns and possible safety factors has been scheduled for July 14 at Willard School. The one-year program included $2.1 million for regular street maintenance. Project needs are not determined until winter or early spring when engineers conduct an inspection of streets to deter mine winter's effects. A bridge replacement project is sched uled for the coming year at 27th and Salt Creek. Cost to make a four-lane divided roadway bridge with eight-foot bikeway will be $1.8 million. This project will tie in with widening north 27th Street. Included in the one-year program is completion of the computerized traffic control system which was started three years ago. The computerized system has been completed for the entire city east of 27th street. The computer is located at the Traffic Engineering Mainenance Shop at 1001 N. Sixth. Still to be completed are computeriza- . tion from Ninth to 17th; K to Van Dorn and the downtown area. According to Taylor Withrow, traffic engineer, the $706,500 project will bring all of Lincoln's traffic lights, except those west of Ninth Street and at school inter sections, under a central control. Problems in traffic control are auto matically fed to the computer and the in formation is shown on a large map of the city. The computer will select the amount of time to allow for flows either way. The system has room for expansion for the next 15 years, Winthrow said. The life of the computer is estimated at 20 years. Two to three traffic engineers handle peak load time. The six-year improvement program includes two intersection improvements and four repaving projects. Cost for the six-year plan is $14.9 million. The two intersection improvements include: 48th and Pioneers, at a cost of $910,000, and 48th and Leighton, at a cost of $695,000. Designs for both are completed and are awaiting federal fund ing. Cost to the city will be $301,250. Scheduled for possible 1983 construc tion will be 27th, from Potter to Arbor Road. The environmental impact state ment for this project has been approved and design is underway from Potter to Superior Street. Funds have been requested for a rail overpass at Center Street to Theresa and a bridge at 27th and Salt Creek. Cost of the entire project will be $9.5 million. Tied in with widening of State High way 2 will be Old Cheney Road from 52nd to 62nd. Right of way acquisition is presently being carried out and there will be a new roadway crossing at 56th to avoid railroad problems. The Old Cheney improvements are estimated at $1.5 million. The initial building will be for a two-lane divided roadway which will eventually be widened to four lanes. An environmental report is being pre pared for 48th Street, from Newton to Pawnee. Cost is estimated at $2 million and includes recplacing 48th and Ante lope Creek bridge and a bikeway under-crossing. jr. y.'Utot' v v ' J . . ' V. a I 1 1 f" ( t 0 i Hivf Pin a ' , ;-T. .vt, Vi photo by Chris Hodges Mrs. Kay Krimbenis, 6541 Burlington Ave., celebrates her 100th birthday in July. Krimbenis, a widow, came to America from Tripoli, Greece in 1917 and settled in Lincoln. Roll call attendance vote published by Landis BY LORI MERRYMAN A study done Sen. Dave Landis' adminis trative staff shows seven state senators missed more than 20 percent of 559 roll call votes during this year's legislative session and seven senators missed less than five percent of the roll call votes. Comparing the top misser, Sen. Ernest Chambers of Omaha, missing 33.3 per- Graduation ceremonies Graduation ceremonies for about 375 UN-L students receiving baccalaureate and graduate degrees will be at 4 p.m. Friday in Kimball Hall. Dr. Ned Hedges, former vice chan cellor for academic affairs will preside at the ceremony and Regent Edward Schwartzkopf of Lincoln will be the guest speaker. & mm PLACE AN AD IN THE NEXT SUMMER NEBRASKAN ISSUE i ii J li the bill. It is important to be in on these cent of the roll call votes and the top at tendee Sen. Landis of Lincoln, missing 1.1 percent of the roll call votes, there is a difference of 180 votes. Chambers missed 186 votes (of which 85 he was present and not voting.) The second highest absence for roll call votes was by Sen. Loran Schmit of Bellwood, missing 28.4 percent or 159 votes, compared to the Sen. Lowell John son of North Bend missing 3.8 percent or 21 roll call votes. Chambers said there are a lot of insig nificant votes wasted on in-house strug gles and aggravations. These insignifi cant votes are just "a test of water," he said. He misses a lot of the roll call votes because he spends time in his office re searching important matters, he said. Speakers in each senator's office allows senators to work in their office and still hear discussion on the legislative floor. The insignificant votes this year were just "efforts by the Republican Party to control the legislature," he said. If a vote on abortion, the death pen alty or anything related to human rights comes -up, "check me on those," he said, "cause I'm there." Johnson, a first term senator, said he feels it is important to be present and voting on most of the issues. From the time a bill is first introduced a series of procedural votes can change changes to really understand what the bill is about, he said. Being on the legislative floor for all the votes enables Johnson to see how all the other senators are voting, he said. If a senator knows ahead of time that he is not going to vote in a particular in stance, then it is not as important to be on the legislative floor, Sen. Chris Beut ler of Lincoln said. Beutler, who missed 18.6 roll call votes, said when senators are not voting anyway, there might be im portant work that can be done in their offices. The other top seven missers were : Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly and Sen. Bernice Labedz of Omaha, each with 23.6 percent or 132 votes missed; Sen. Robert Clark of Sidney, 22.7 percent or 127 votes missed; Sen. Sam Cullan of Hemingford with 21.5 percent or 120 votes missed and Sen. Maurice Kremer of Aurora with 20.2 percent or 113 votes missed. Following Landis and Lowell for the fewest votes missed was Sen. Larry Stoney of Omaha with 4.1 percent or 23 votes; Sen. Wiley Remmers of Auburn, 4.3 percent or 24 votes; Sen. Richard Ma resh of Milligan and Sen. George Bur rows of Adams with 4.8 percent or 27 votes each and Sen. Howard Lamb of An selmo with 4.8 percent or 27 votes missed. Sixteen senators missed from five to 10 percent of the roll call votes and 19 missed from 10 to 20 percent of the 559 roll call votes. Before You Choose An Engagement Ring... visit with Wright's Diamond Experts WirMits (JEWELERS TTie Bright Idea" 13th &P St. Lincoln Nebraska 68508 MEM8ER AMERICAN GEM SOCIETY