Ttee choice sparks debate
Fake or real: Decision may be prickly for holidays
TREES from page 1
more than $ 140 for a fancy, 16-foot
tall fir.
Those big trees represent 15 to
20 years of grooming and care,
Bagley said. Artificial trees, al
though they require less care, just
aren’t the same, he said.
“They’re kind of a novelty that
people get tired of,” Bagley said.
Tammi Stock and Becky
Lowmack of Crete agreed.
“I always had the fake one at
home,” Stock said, who will join
Lowmack in taking home a real tree
for the second year this December.
Lowmack said, although a live
tree is messy, it gives her home the
holiday atmosphere she loves.
“It isn’t Christmas without a real
tree,” she said.
Nola Rhoades, of 2911 N. Sixth
St. said she missed the live trees she
used to keep in her home. She now
keeps a smaller ceramic tree to save
space.
“It just always seems more like
Christmas with a real tree in the
house,” Rhoades said.
But a real tree can be problem
atic, she said. One holiday night, she
and her husband awoke to the sound
of rain in their house. They laughed
when they found the “rain” was
needles falling off the tree branches
and bouncing off wrapped packages
underneath the tree, she said.
“By Christmas, we just had the
bare branches,” she said.
That can be a fire hazard, said
Barb Elstun, fire prevention coor
dinator in the Nebraska Fire
Marshal’s office. A dry tree can eas
ily catch fire near a heat source or
with faulty tree lights.
“Trees need to be taken care of,”
Elstun said.
Trees should be watered daily so
the tree can drink the water, and a
fresh cut should be made on the bot
tom of the tree prior to placing ft in
its stand, she said.
As for Elstun, she no longer
keeps a tree in her home. But if she
did get a tree, it would be artificial,
she said.
A self-described neat-freak,
Elstun “wouldn’t want the mess of
the needles,” she said.
Marian Tritch, who picked up a
new artificial tree Thursday at a
Kmart Super Center, said an artifi
cial tree is convenient and easy to
maintain.
Bob Schraeder, manager of the
store at 3300 N. 27th St., said hun
dreds of Lincoln residents agree
with Tritch. The store sold about
500 artificial trees last year, he said,
and he expects to sell just as many
this year.
“There’s a great advantage to an
artificial tree,” he said. “You pay for
it once, and then take it down and
put it up year after year.”
Kmart’s artificial trees range in
price from $14.95 to $169.95,
Schraeder said.
Store shopper Sue Donahoo
likes the one-time cost, she said. As
an allergy sufferer, it’s the only tree
she can keep in her north Lincoln
home.
Dr. Kirk A. Kinberg, a Lincoln
allergy and asthma specialist, said
many people who are allergic to
mold may experience congestion, a
runny nose and sneezing if they
bring a live tree into their home.
Mold grows naturally on the
branches and trunks of trees, he
said.
“An artificial tree is better for
those individuals,” Kinberg said.
But there’s a real tree in the
Kinberg home, he said.
He’s not allergic, he said, and he
loves the tradition.
Correction
A Dec. 3 Daily Nebraskan article
about former Nebraska football player
Riley Washington incorrectly stated
that Deputy County Attorney David
Stempson was disqualified from the
Washington case because of a conflict
of interest stemming from phone calls
he made to Jermaine Cole, a witness
in the case.
Stempson was disqualified from the
case because of a single phone call he
received from Cole in August.
UNIfe Rolling Storm basketball team
seeks volunteers to drive to games
From Staff Reports
Rolling Storm, UNL’s wheelchair
basketball team, is seeking volunteer
drivers for away games during the
1996-97 season.
Shad Dahlgren, a senior general
agriculture major, said volunteer driv
ers must be able to operate a 15-pas
senger van with a trailer.
Volunteers will also be required to
help load and unload the team’s gear.
Expenses will be paid, with a maxi
mum of $ 10 a day for meals.
Dahlgren said the team will travel
to such places as Minneapolis, Kansas
City and St. Louis.
The team’s next trip will be to Min
neapolis on Saturday and Sunday.
Those interested in becoming vol
unteer drivers are encouraged to call
Dahlgren at 467-5735.
Hagel to enter Congress
as a Senate Deputy Whip
From Staff Reports
Sen.-Elect Chuck Hagel has been
named one of the Senate’s Deputy
Whips for the 105th Congress.
Hagel joins the majority leader,
Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, and the
assistant majority leader Oklahoma
Sen. Don Nickles. A party’s whips
gauge support for legislation in Con
gress and lobby for legislation the lead
ership is backing.
“I am pleased Chuck Hagpl has
agreed to serve as a deputy whip dur
ing the 105th Congress,” Nickles said
in a press release. Both Nickles and
Lott stumped for Hagel’s campaign
against Democratic Gov. Ben Nelson.
Hagel, who was assigned to the
Senate’s Foreign Relations and Bank
ing, Housing and Urban Affairs com
mittees Wednesday, said he was hon
ored to help the Republican leadership.
“I look forward to working with
them in successfully moving our
agenda of a balanced budget, lower
taxes and a smaller federal government
through the United States Senate,” he
said.
I
«:
It can only mean
good things for Ne
braska. It gives us a
hefty voice in the
Senate”
Chuck Sigerson
Nebraska State Republican Party
Chairman
Nebraska State Republican Party
Chairman Chuck Sigerson said from
his home Thursday night that he
couldn’t remember a time when Ne
braska had a senator in a party leader
ship role.
Sigerson said Hagel has been la
beled a leader by the GOP brass, and
that speaks well of a small-state sena
tor.
“It can only mean good things for
Nebraska,” he said. “It gives us a hefty
voice in the Senate.”
---1
Law & Order ^T
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Lincoln police arrested two men
Wednesday night for using a Mis
souri man’s credit card to buy ste
reo equipment.
Michael Olsson of Kansas City
lost his wallet and credit card on
Nov. 9 when he was in Lincoln for
the Nebraska-Missouri football
game, Sgt. Terry Sherill said.
That same day, two men alleg
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$1,000 of stereo equipment at Ste
reo West, Sherill said.
After investigating, police found
the clerk who made the sale. In a
police lineup, the clerk identified
Walter Osmon, 39, and Larry
Welch, 21, as the men who used the
card, Sherrill said.
Osmon and Welch were arrested
at 8:30 Wednesday night
and jailed. _
i
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7 p.m. - Abel Hall Ballroom
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