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Arts & Entertainment
Broadcasting student has
late-night at the Blaze, Page 9
covering the university of Nebraska since 1901 February 7, 1995
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Mike Bullerman, a member of the UNL Wildlife Club, cuts away a tree stump near Pawnee Lake Sunday.Club
members were removing trees in preparation of restoring the area back to natural prairie grass.
Club gives nature a helping, healing hand
By Rebecca Oltmans
Staff Reporter
The sound of bulldozers and chain saws
pierced the air at Pawnee State Recreation
Area Sunday as about 15 volunteers were
cutting down, dragging and piling trees.
By late summer, that same area will be
filled with lush green prairie grass, and the
only sounds heard will be made by birds and
other wildlife that live in native prairie
grasses.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Wildlife Club is partly responsible for that
transformation. The Pawnee Recreation
Area is one of three areas the club is work
ing on for its Native Community Restora
tion project, said Todd Heyne, the president
of the club.
The project, which began in 1993, seeks
to restore land to its native state. So far the
club has worked only toward restoring
tallgrass prairie land.
The 50-acre project at Pawnee is similar
to the other two projects; however, the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is
helping out with the Pawnee project. The
commission provided the club with chain
saws for cutting down trees and a bulldozer
for pushing the fallen trees into large brush
piles.
Club members and other volunteers cut
down trees and tried to keep warm Sunday.
This was the second project for Chris Thody,
a sophomore fisheries and wildlife major.
Her 7-year-old son, Joseph, was the young
est volunteer, alternately playing and drag
ging smaller limbs to the pile.
Tree removal is only one step in restor
ing native grass; controlled burning is an
other. Pawnee State Recreation Area was
control-burned last spring and will undergo
one more controlled bum in April or May.
See WILDLIFE on 6
Local bar
has license
taken away
By Brian Sharp
Senior Reporter
The vote came (and went) in mere seconds
— and carried away the liquor license of
Montigo Bay.
Lincoln City Council members voted 5-0
Monday to revoke the license of the bar, lo
cated at 1435 O St.
Throughout the hour-long meeting, bar co
owner Chris Kugler sat quietly in the back of
the room with his lawyer. After the decision,
he left just as quietly. It was no surprise, he said
later.
The bar has had a history of problems, most
noticeably six liquor violations, including sell
ing to minors — dating back to September.
Police reports show officers being called to the
location 36 times over that same period.
Brett McArthur, Kugler’s lawyer, said he
would appeal the decision to the state liquor
commission today. Mayor Mike Johanns must
sign the decision before it could take effect,
McArthur said.
The decision had not been signed Monday
See MONTIGO BAY on 3
Seacrest family
sells interest
in Journal-Star
By John Fulwider
Staff Reporter
Monday marked the beginning of the end of
a Lincoln newspaper legacy that spanned more
than 100 years.
The Seacrest family of Lincoln announced
it has sold its interest in the Journal-Star Print
ing Co., to Lee Enterprises, Inc. of Davenport,
Iowa. The Seacrest family traded its control
ling interest in the Journal-Star Printing Co.
for Lee stock.
The $59 million deal was announced to
newspaper employees Monday morning.
The Journal-Star Printing Co. publishes The
Lincoln Star, the Lincoln Journal and weekend
and holiday editions of the Journal-Star.
Lee Enterprises, Inc., owns and operates
eight television stations —* including KMTV
(Channel 3) Omaha — and publishes 19 daily
See MERGER on 6
Minimum wage, community college funding debated
Business owner testifies
that doilar-an-hour hike
may raise unemployment
By Jeffrey Robb
Senior Editor
Brent Lambi didn’t like the effects of the
last increase in the minimum wage. He likes
even less the possibility of seeing that wage
- increase another dollar.
Lambi, chief executive officer of Spaghetti
Works restaurants, testified before the
Legislature’s Business and Labor Committee
Monday that a proposed increase to $5.25 an
hour could lead to firings at his business.
“We’re going to give people a great disser
vice,” Lambi said.
Sen. Tim Hall of Omaha, along with three
others testifying in favor of LB215, gave views
to the contrary.
The committee, however, voted 3-4 against
those views, failing to advance the bill to the
floor. The measure could be considered by the
committee later in the session.
Hall said even an increase to $5.15, which
was proposed last week by President Clinton,
would mean another $1,872 yearly in an
employee’s pocketbook.
“It’s a drastic improvement in that
individual’s situation,” Hall said. “It’s not
something I would try to live on. It is a marked
improvement for those individuals.”
LB215 would increase the wage in one step,
regardless of what happens to Clinton’s pro
posal — which would provide the increase in
two steps.
Hall’s bill would require the average tip
ping wage to reach $5.25, but the base pay
would stay at $2.13.
“We need to do this pro-actively, not wait
for the federal government to do this,” he said.
Hall said eight states had higher minimum
wages than the federal government required.
See WAGE on 3
Community college funding
may shift to state budget
if proposed bill approved
By J. Christopher Hain,
Senior Reporter —
By shifting the financial support of
Nebraska’s community colleges to state funds,
the state could offer property tax relief under a
bill introduced to the Education committee
Monday.
LB674, introduced by Sen. Bob Wickersham
of Harrison, would use state funds to provide
100 percent of the community college’s bud
get.
For fiscal year 1993-94, the Nebraska Com
munity College System received $46.7 million
of its $101.6 million budget from property
taxes. The difference was made up from state
aid, tuition and other sources.
Wickersham said Nebraskans would not
approve of supporting community colleges
with property taxes much longer.
Instead of using property tax, state funds are
created by taxing individual income, corpo
rate income and sales.
The bill would take effect in July 1997 and
would cost the state’s general fund $62 mil
lion.
Richard Gilliland, president of Metro Com
munity College in Omaha, said placing com
munity colleges under the state budget would
put them in direct competition for state funds
with state colleges and universities. A position
in which, he said, community colleges would
not be likely to fare well.
“Where that has happened, community col
leges have had a tendency not to be competi
tive,” Gilliland said.
The bill also would shift the oversight of the
state’s community colleges to the Board of
Trustees of the Nebraska State Colleges. Ne
braska community colleges now are controlled
See COMMITTEE on 3