The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, March 13, 1987, THE SOWER, Page Page 3, Image 11
Page 3 Ti Apparently UNL wants Hendrickson's land, and more, but it's unclear what they want to do with it. NL Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance, Jack Goebel said that although there are no specific projects planned for the area, UNL must be ready to respond to expansion opportunities that arise. UNL's expansion plan dates to 1968 when the NU Board of Regents passed a proposal that would extend UNL's City Campus boundary to 22nd Street. Since then UNL has purchased desired land as it became available, Goebel said. 1 f y arking is terrible on N through S streets. JJ We end up loading handicapped people into vans in the middle of the street -2-L because we can't get to the curb," said Christina Godfrey, director of the Malone Community Center at 21st and U streets. Godfrey said that as the university expands, it makes the Malone residents feel like they're living "on an island." "We know this big monster is coming," Godfrey said referring to UNL. "But when?" she asks. UNL officials are neither secretive or apologetic about "We know this big monster is coming, but when?" Godfrey UNL already owns 70 percent of the three block area between Vine and S streets, worth about $150,000, UNL Business Manager, Rudy Coffey said. Kim Todd, a landscape architect for UNL, said UNL's primary interest in the land from 19th to 22nd streets and from Vine to S streets is in attracting research to the university for a combination of public and private use. "The university would try to attract businesses it could use for research in the high-tech areas," Todd said. The university is a changing environment, Goebel said, and being prepared for change and growth is necessary. UNL always has to be thinking of where the university will be in the future, Goebel said. "Anyone who wasn't thinking of that would be derelict of their duties," Goebel said. Derelict or not, some Malone residents don't think UNL should be spending money on land for expansion, Hendrickson said. "I think they're too damn big for their britches. They (UNL) already have Whittier (Junior High School at 22nd and Vine streets) and they're just letting it sit there until it falls to the ground," he said. Charley Stephenn, 2 146 S St., agrees with Hendrickson. "They've been buying up all this land. Now all they have is a bunch of empty lots and they can't even keep grass on the lots." Stephenn, who has lived in the Malone neighborhood for 30 years, said he doesn't understand why UNL is buying the land. "If it took 100 years to get this side of 17th Street," he said, "It will take 400 years to get to 22nd." Carl Kopines, resident manager of the Malone Manor said that if the university expands its boundary to 22nd Street, it will engulf the manor and make the Malone area hard for residents of the manor to live in. Malone Manor, at 22nd and U streets, houses about 50 elderly residents, some of whom are disabled. Kopines said that for many years the Malone people have fought to preserve their community while UNL "seems to be nibbling away at it piece by piece." One hardship Malone residents face is the lack of parking space for UNL students and Malone community residents. expansion, Coffey said. "It's all in the eyes of the beholder," Coffey said, "the university is people just like them. Malone Community Center has only been around for 50 years and UNL has been here for 150. The city would be far worse off without the university." Last December, UNL purchased the Rock Island Right of Way between R and Vine streets along 19th Street for about $975,000. The land will be used for parking and possibly an expansion of recreation fields and bike paths , said UNL landscape architect, Kim Todd. While UNL has been acquiring land, Malone residents have continued to improve their community, Kopines said. Construction of the Malone Manor was finished in February, 1986 and the Malone Community Center was built in 1981, Kopines said. Before then the city had plans to build the Northeast Radial, a thoroughfare from Holdrege Street along 20th to downtown Lincoln, cutting a path through the middle of the neighborhood. Don Goei, Malone community resident, works as a repair man for the owner of the house at 2245 S St. f 7 4 if v J - JXVi V iiif A Mark DavisThe Sower o