l LTJ
Friday, September 3 1982
University of Nebraska Lincoln
Vol. 82 No. 1 1
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Taiwanese visit Lincoln to wrap up grain dea
Some 7 million bushels of Nebraska corn and wheat
will soon be on its way to Taiwan.
This is good news for Nebraska farmers, and for Ne
braska's economy, say officials from the state Department
of Agriculture.
Taiwan is on a $500 million shopping spree in the
United States. Besides grain crops, they also will purchase
communications and transportation equipment.
Today they will stop at Gov. Charles Thone's office
to tie the lose ends of a grain deal initiated about six
weeks ago by. Bernie Rowley, director of marketing at the
state Agriculture Department, and Joe Chu, director of
international marketing at the department.
Rowley and Chu traveled to Taiwan in July. They in
vited the country's trade mission to buy Nebraska grain
when they came to the United States. Nebraska had not
been on their shopping agenda before that.
Taiwan has agreed to buy about 5 million bushels of
corn and 2 million bushels of wheat from Nebraska,
Rowley said.
The trip was part of an overall U.S. effort to improve
relations with Taiwan, as Taiwan has not been pleased
with U.S. policy toward mainland China, he said.
After Japan, Taiwan is the most important U.S. trading
partner in Asia, according to U.S. Department of Com
merce statistics.
What does the sale mean to Nebraska farmers?
Bill Dobbs, assistant statistician at the state Depart
ment of Agriculture, said the sale will only amount to
about 1 percent of the total amount of corn (some 476
million bushels) and about 3 percent of the wheat (some
67,500 bushels) Nebraska has in storage. These figures
do not include this year's harvest.
Even though it sounds like only a drop in the bucket,
Dobbs said the sale is a positive step in dealing with the
states's huge grain surpluses.
"Even though it's not the answer to relieve all of our
troubles," Dobbs said, "the sale is a positive step. Now we
just need to keep on making deals like this."
Today, several U.S. grain companies will meet with Tai
wan's trade mission officials. The companies who will
contract grain from farmers will submit their bids to the
Taiwanese officials for the price they would be willing to
accept on the grain.
The Taiwan mission will accept the lowest bid on a
prearranged amount of 5 million bushels of corn and 2
million bushels of wheat. Contract letting ceremonies
will be at noon, with Thone signing as a witness to the
deal.
Trendwood residents oppose
group home in neighborhood
By Ctois Welsch
A Kansas City cousluting firm may be
hired to conduct a study on the impact
of group homes for the mentally retarded
on real estate values in Lincoln. The Lan
caster County Board will negotiate with
the firm today.
County Commissioner Joe Edwards said
the firm of Touche-Ross will be in Lincoln
to work out details of possible contract.
Edwards made a motion to delay a de
cision on the proposed Lancaster Office of
Mental Retardation group home in Trend
wood. The delay will last as long as it takes
to complete a study on the impact the
other 26 LOMR group homes have had on
real estate values in Lincoln.
Edwards said he hopes the study can be
completed within 30 days.
The proposed group home would be lo
cated at 1425 S. 77th St.
Mike Rierden, an attorney hired by
some of the Trendwood residents, present
ed a petition to the County Board Aug. 24
with signatures of 400 Lincoln residents
opposed to the group home.
Rierden said the developer who built
the Trendwood subdivision never intend
ed the houses to be used for anything but
single-family swellings.
A protective covenant cited by Rierden
and the Trendwood residents was drawn'
up by the developer. The covenant stipu
lates that no dwelling should be used as
anything other than a single-family resi
dence. Rierden said the covenant represents
sufficient legal grounds to prevent place
ment of the group home in Trendwood.
County Attorney Mike I leavican said
"nobody knows for sure" if Trendwood's
protective covenant is legally feasible to
prevent placement of the group home.
"No similar case that 1 have heard of
has come up in Nebraska," he said.
"In cases in other jurisdictions, pro
tective covenants have held up sometimes,
and haven't other times."
Edwards said the question about the
protective covenant goes far beyond
Trendwood.
"The city zoning law and state ordin
ances say we can have a group home in
Trendwood," he said. "Can a covenant
supercede state law?
"This U a communitywide issue -what
happens here will affect other group
homes," he said.
Dorothy Barnes, a Trendwood resident
opposed to group home, said the rights of
the home owners are being neglected.
'This neighborhood was originally
zoned as R-l (residential class 1)," Barnes
said. "We have a legal right to retain this
neighborhood as a single-family area."
Barnes said the study being conducted
won't change her mind about the group
home.
"Our main concern is the covenant,"
she said. "The study won't have an impact
on that."
Gerald Mueller, LOMR director, said
not all Trendwood residents are opposed
to the group home.
"I think that once the clients (who
would be living in the group home with a
host family) have a chance to prove them
selves, the idea might not appear as a bad
one to Trendwood residents," he said.
Mueller responded to charges of govern
ment wastefulness in recent letters to the
editor in both the Lincoln Journal and The
Lincoln Star by saying the clients pay their
own room and board.
"All our clients receive Social Security
income, and many who live in group homes
also have regular jobs," Mueller said. "If
they (the clients) can afford this quality
of living, they should."
Jan Gauger, county commissioner, said
that studies concerning the impact of
group homes on real estate values in such
places as Illinois and Lansing, Mich.,
showed little or no impact on such values.
"Lincoln is not all that different from
those areas where studies were made,"
Gauger said.
Mueller agreed that the group home
shouldn't have an effect on real estate
values, according to studies he has read.
Rierden said the property values would
diminish in proportion to the distance
from the group home.
"The house next door would take the
greatest loss, then the effect would dimi
nish in proportion to the distance from the
group home.
Realtor Joan Tews was quoted in the
Aug. 25 Lincoln Journal as saying the "va
lues of houses next door and across the
street would drop 25 percent." Tews
spoke to the county board Aug. 24.
County Commissioner Bob Colin said,
"Those people (the Trendwood residents)
have a right to be concerned, they have
bought a home with a protective covenant
that they thought would protect them.
"A lot of people are afraid of the
mentally retarded," he said. "They aren't
sure what they (the mentally retarded) will
do next."
Colin said there have been problems
with other group homes.
"Some of the clients have become con
fused and knocked on doors wanting
in; that kind of thing scares people," he
said.
Colin said the County Board shouldn't
try to force the Trendwood group home
issues.
"If that particular neighborhood doesn't
want the group home, then we shouldn't
try to force it on them," he said. "LOMR
will have to be able to deal with the
neighbors - to force the issue would be a
black eye on LOMR, so to speak."
Mueller said if the home was eventually
placed in Trendwood, it wouldn't be
easy going.
"It would be tough for a while," he
said. "I think the idea would take some
getting used to."
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Dick Kurtenbach
Staff Photo by Dave Bentz
Resisters offered legal aid
By Linda Howard
Legal assistance to Nebraskans who have
refused to register lor the draft will be pro
vided by the Nebraska Civil Liberties
Union, said Dick Kurtenbach, executive
director of the NCLU, Thursday.
The union's board of directors unani
mously voted to offer legal assistance in
cases that present an opportunity to chal
lenge the constitutionality of the registra
tion system, he announced.
"I want to make it clear at the outset
that our policy should in no way be inter
preted as advocating that young men in
Nebraska refuse to register for the draft.
To be sure, such a decision is strictly a
personal one. Young men considering this
option should seek assistance from organi
zations involved in draft counseling,"
Kurtenbach said.
"With regard to procedural rights, there
are none available under the cunent draft
registration law. The law simply provides
that upon his 18th birthday, a young man
must register;" Kurtenbach said.
Kurtenbach raised the question of
young men who for religious beliefs or rea
sons of conscience do not feel they can
make themselves available lor military
service.
There are no provisions for the con
scientious objector (when he registers),
Kurtenbach said.
The NCLU maintains that these rights
should be recognized at the point when a
man is asked to make himscll available for
military service and not await the draft
itself.
With the registration compliance rate in
Nebraska at 95.4 percent, there are those
who questioned the importance of pro
viding legal assistance for the remaining
4.7 percent. Kurtenbach said this small
percentage represents thousands of young
men, and that it is important for young
men facing prosecution to have access to
legal council.
"That is why we are offering our assist
ance to young Nebraskans who may face
prosecution for refusing to comply with
the draft registration law," Kurtenbach
said.
Kurtenbach said they would rely on
volunteers, since there are no attorneys
on the NCLU staff. He said national help
would be available to local lawyers since
they might not have faced this problem
before.
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