||
45/35
ChiHy today and
tomorrow with a slight
chance of light rain.
Interest in UNI/s code-blue phones growing
K^SmHh City, colleges may buy similar emergency equipment ^Xncsywol°go%Tu^9cnyemer'
There’s a blue-light special on safety at
UNL, and it seems everyone wants to
follow suit, University Telecommuni
cations Director Ruth Michalecki said.
Since UNL’s code-blue emergency phone
system was implemented on campus in Sep
tember, Michalecki said, the University of
Nebraska at Omaha, Hastings College and
Doanc College have inquired about the code
blue phones.
The University of Nebraska at Kearney has
also bought two emergency phone units, fol
lowing UNL’s lead.
Outside interest in the phones, Michalecki
said, was spurred from their effectiveness on
campus.
l
“The reason (the phones) are working is
because most students lake them seriously,”
she said.
Michalecki said UNL was a groundbreaker
with the new system, and one of the first
campuses tocxpcricncc the effectiveness of the
code-blue phones, which arc placed in 36 loca
tions at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“UNL is one of the first campuses in the area
to have this type of system, she said. “It’s
definitely the first in the slate. They’ve worked
well so far.”
The City of Lincoln also wants to implement
an emergency telephone system downtown simi
lar to the code-blue phones.
Representatives from the city contacted
Michalecki in December to ask about where the
university bought the phones and for other
information about them, she said.
Michalecki said there were big differences
between the emergency phones at UNL and the
proposed city units.
When activated, the university emergency
phones dial straight to the campus operator, she
said. The operator then dispatches the appropri
ate assistance to the location. '
However, Michalecki said, phones on Lin
coln city streets would be more troublesome
than the UNL blue light phones, partly because
“For a person to use those phones, it would
have to be a real emergency,” she said. “Our
code blues are often used for less life-threaten
ing emergencies.”
Michalecki said the effectiveness of the
city’s emergency phones could be hampered
with the direct connection to 911. *
“I think the phones would be highly abused
in that respect,” Michalecki said.
But the system could be a lifesaver for those
who actually needed help, she said.
“There are plenty of places in town where
they could be used,” she said. “They would be
dynamite on bike paths.”
--
Night lights
ruin view of
star-lit sky,
official says
By Mark Baldridge
Senior Editor
The sky may not be fal ling, but
it is getting smaller, Erik
Hubl, a Lincoln amateur as
tronomer, said.
Hubl, who heads the committee
that operates the Hyde Observatory in
Holmes Park, estimated that the vis
ible night sky, as seen from the obser
vatory, has diminished IS to 20 per
cent in recent years.
The shrink ing-sky phenomenon is
caused by light pollution from hous
ing and retail developments south of
the observatory. Light pollution,
sometimes called light trespass, is
caused when light from one property
encroaches on another.
“We first began to notice (the prob
lem) when Edgewood Center was
being built,” he said. “What we could
see last year we couldn’t see this
vear.”
Light pollution usually is a result
of unshielded or improperly designed
lights, Hubl said.
“It’s basically wasted light,” he
said. “If you can fly above a city and
see the actual pinpoints of light fila
ments, that is light that is being di
rected out into the air.
“You have to ask yourself, ‘Why
did that person want to illuminate the
airplane?’ because that's all they’re
doing. It’s basically a waste of en
ergy,” Hubl said.
Hubl said anyone who had driven
into Lincoln at night had seen the
dome of “sky glow.”
That light interferes with astro
nomic observations just as the sun
docs. City lights obscure the night sky
by competing with the dimmer light
from stars.
“A hundred years ago, everyone
could look up and see the Milky Way
from anywhere on Earth, even down
town Paris,” he said.
“The skies our grandparents saw
were very different from the ones we
sec.”
Don Taylor, director of the Uni
versity of Nebraska’s Bchlcn Obser
vatory at Mead Field station, agreed
that light pollution can be a problem.
‘To find the best observation sights,
you have to find a place where the
atmosphere is relatively calm," he
said. ‘'The West Coast has a lot of
good places.”
What happens is that observatories
are built and then made obsolete by
light from rapidly developing cities,
he said.
Taylor said that from Behlen Ob
See LIGHT on 3
• . -—--r Stad McKee/DN
Getting into shape
Amy Eskridge, a junior at Lincoln Southeast High School, rests after completing 10 sets of running the Memorial
Stadium stairs. Sne was working out to prepare herself for mountain climbing this summer.
Solution to space shortage suggested
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Wilh various construction
projects devouring campus
classroom and office space,
at least one University of Ncbraska
Lincoln official is hoping an off-cam
pus building will ensure a little room
to work.
In a letter to the NU Board of
Regents, John Goebel, vice chancel
lor for business and finance, recom
mended approval of a plan to renovate
the UNL-owncd Union Insurance
Company Building at 14lh and Q
streets to accommodate offices cur
rently housed in the 501 Building, 501
N. 10th St., and elsewhere.
Goebel’s plan called for $600,000
generated by a contract with the City
of Lincoln to prepay a portion of the
cost of the Union InsuranceCompany
Building. The newly acquired space
would enable relocation or offce space
affected by construction projects, most
notably from the 501 Building and the
College of Business Administration.
On Feb. 13, the regents approved a
right-of-way contract wilh the City of
Lincoln for $600,000, enabling the
partial taking of the 501 Building,
which would be tom down to make
way forconstruclionof the 10th Street
overpass.
In November 1991, the regents
Union In toance Building
Recently at autrodt>yt^L, wlir
house form 0'501 Bui king
offices and C BA offices until
after their r * >ovations.
authorized the purchase of the Union
Insurance Company property for $ 1.45
million, which was to be paid for by a
contract with the University of Ne
braska Foundation.
Goebel said the payments for the
property would be made over several
years.
Goebel said other UNL officials
agreed with him that the purchase
would eliminate much of UNL’s of
fice-space shortage.
“Tnis is the most efficient way to
replace lost space," he said. “And we
arc working with peoplcat the state—
legislators and gubernatorial analysts
—to gel their approval on the project,
too.”
The building’s first floor and mez
zanine section, sprawling over23,450
square feel, would become the new
home of the University of Nebraska
Press, which currently is housed in a
smaller space in Nebraska Hall.
The building’s eastern end has
11,250 square feet and would tempo
rarily house CBA faculty and gradu
ate assistants.
Goebel said UNL student services
and support functions would be among
the potential permanent occupants of
the cast-end office space once the
CBA renovation was completed.
He said replacing the 501 Building
space with new construction would
cost almost double the amount neces
sary to acquire the Union Insurance
Company Building.
Some renovation of the building
would be required, Goebel said, in
cluding the connection of the building
to UNL utilities, modification and
repair of the restrooms, electrical and
mechanical systems and damaged
building finishes, the installation of a
passenger elevator and the addi lion of
university signs.
Sinclair, Hille & Associates Inc.
was selected to provide the architec
tural and engineering services for the
project, Goebel said.
The total cost of the renovation
project, including a $26,900 fee from
Sinclair, Hille & Associates, would „
be about $350,000, he said.
The University of Nebraska Press
would pay for the renovation, opera
tion and maintenance of the western
portion of the building, while the op
erations and maintenance costs for
the eastern half would be funded from
UNL’s operating budget.
The regents are expected to dis
cuss Goebel's plan at their meeting
Saturday morning.
Goebel said he was optimistic the
board would approve the proposal.
“We’ve been working on this fora
number of years and I think this will
just be business as usual," he said.