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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 1990)
WEATHER INDEX Today, partly doudy, windy and warm, south News Digest.2 wind 20-30 miles per hour, high in the low 80s Editorial.4 Tonight, 60 percent chance of thundershowers, Sports 5 low in the low to mid 50s Wednesday, 30 percent Arts & Entertainment ....6 chance of morning showers, partly cloudy, 7 breezy and cooler, high in the low to mid 60s. . Vol. 90 No. 26 ButchIreland/Dally Nebraskan The shadow knows A student’s shadow falls Into the south entrance of the Nebraska Union on Monday afternoon. Soviet scholar speaks to UNL class By Rodney Brown The Soviet Union has taken a progressive step toward economic recovery with the consideration of a new plan, a Soviet scnoiar saiu ivionaay. Leongard Gontcharov, deputy director of the So viet Academy of Science Institute for African Stud ies, told an econom ics class at the University of Nc braska-Lincoln that the 500 day plan, proposed by Soviet economist Stanislav Shat alm last week, is necessary for economic progress. Gontcharov Last week, tne supreme soviet legislature voted to move toward a free market economy. Lawmakers have not chosen a specific plan to depart from the current central planning sys tem, although several, including the 500-day plan, are being debated. The Supreme Soviet’s vole marks a depar ture from seven decades of Communist eco nomics. During the first 100 days of the 500-day plan.Gontcharov said, the Soviet Union would see changes including the dissolution of collec tive farming, higher prices and large spending cuts. In 1991, the government would work to ward a central exchange rate, Gontcharov said, and wage indexation would occur as a result of higher prices. The plan would allow the formation of 1,000 to 1,500 private and joint-owned companies within the 500-day period, he said. More companies would be formed later, he said. The government also would strive to make the ruble convertible to foreign currency, Gontcharov said. The government hopes to have a large majority of land and companies in the hands of the people, he said. “The people of the Soviet Union are not so poor that they cannot afford joint-stock in companies,” he said. Under the 500-day plan, Gontcharov said, the government also would institute a stock exchange. Gontcharov is in Nebraska to attend the 13th National Third World Studies Conference at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He will participate in discussions about the Soviet perspective on ecological and environmental concerns in Africa Thursday, Friday and Satur day. Budget program could be slashed by 2 percent lid By Sara Bauder Schott Senior Reporter Nebraska farmers, ranchers and homemak ers will be without extension programs if a proposed 2 percent lid on government spending is passed next month, a UNL official said. Kenneth Bolen, dean and director of the Cooperative Extension Division at the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, said people would first notice the reductions when programs such as soil testing or 4-H were cut back. These programs are administered on the local level and cuts would be “disruptive” to the people who use them, he said. If proposed constitutional amendment 405 is passed, the cooperative extension program would have to slash $2.2 million from its 1990 91 budget. The budget total is about $25 mil lion, Bolen said. The cuts would affect the extension pro gram’s ability to do what it is meant to do, Bolen said. uur mission is 10 transicr researcn results from the land-grant universities to the people who need them,’ ’ Bolen said. “If405 is passed, our educational programs would be reduced. Our ability to help the economic development of farmers and ranchers would be reduced.” The S2.2 million which would have to be cut during the seven months remaining in this fiscal year represents about 10 percent of the program’s budget, he said. Because the Nebraska Legislature gave the extension program a budget increase in 1991, „ the program would have to make cuts well more than the 2 percent mark, Bolen said. The programs would be reduced because there would not be enough staff, Bolen said. During the first year alone, the equivalent of about 45 full-time positions would have to be cut, he said. About one-third of the extension program’s 385 agents, specialists and administrators are campus-based, he said. With support staff, the statewide program employs about 530 people. Campus extension specialists provide UNL research to county extension agents and their clients. Bolen said he could not speculate on which programs would be cut. “We would have to do a careful review of the whole program and then determine what areas would have to be reduced or cut,” Bolen said. One option would be to make extension agents serve more than one county. Bolen said the extension program tries to keep offices in See EXTENSION on 3 Negative puhlicity hurt ejjorts Exaggerated contamination problem is solvable By Pat Dinslage Staff Reporter The false image of a major con tamination problem could taint efforts to finance UNL’s re cently approved research center on the site of a former munitions plant, an official said. Darrell Nelson, director of UNL’s agricultural research division, blamed negative publicity for the failure to obtain financing for the planning and construction of the Agricultural Re search and Development Center at Mead, about 30 miles north of Lin coln. The center has been one of the NU Board of Regents’ capital construc tion priorities for financing for the past 20 years. But the center, which will contain research and computer labs, adminis trative offices, a maintenance shop and an auditorium for the outreach program, never has been high enough on the priority list to receive financ ing, he said. “The Legislature the last two years passed planning money, but it was vetoed by the governor," Nelson said. The regents made the center the eighth priority on this year’s capital construction list. It has a chance to be financed in that position, Nelson said. Financing resistance has been sparked by concerns about the soil and groundwater contamination found at the site, which was a World War II bomb manufacturing plant and an Atlas missile silo site, Nelson said. "It’s not an unsolvablc problem,’’ he said. "It’s a technological prob lem that can be solved. It’s getting a high enough priority from the federal government now as far as allocation of resources.” Alan Moeller, assistant vice chan cellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said that be cause the flow of contamination is to the southeast, there is no danger of future contamination in the area of the proposed center. "We’re not putting the building on top of a problem,” he said. Nelson said the area of groundwa ter contamination is on the eastern part of the university-owned site. The ARDC headquarters is to be located in the northwest corner of the land, far from the contaminated soil and groundwater areas. In 1988, a routine environmental test by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi neers revealed the presence of TNT and RDX, two explosive compounds, and TCE, an industrial solvent and degreaser at the site. Nelson said. According to a Nebraska Depart ment of Health report, the consump tion of TCE by humans can cause damage to the liver and increase the risk of cancer at levels above five parts per billion (ppb), the drinking water standard. After being notified of contamina tion, the university took soil and well samples and discovered three con taminated wells on its property. Nelson said the concentrations of TCE found in the three contaminated wells on the university’s 9,000-acre site are about 100 ppb. “These concentrations of TCE are very low, but above the drinking stan dard,’’ Nelson said. He would con sider high concentrations to be 100 See MEAD on 3 Agricultural Research Center at Mead
