SPOBTS ABE_
Will they show up? Boom-boom April 29,1997
The Husker baseball team enters tonight’s game at “Volcano,” the second lava-laden disaster film to
Creighton without postseason hopes, but Bluejay hit America’s movie theaters in as many months, RlDERS On The STORM
Coach Jack Dahm said NU will be ready. PAGE 7 outdoes its earlier competition. PAGE 9 Stormy midday, high 70. Heavy rairi tonight, low 45.
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Fire consunes unfinished building
*' Jay Calderon/DN
A LINCOLN FIREFIGHTER helps put out a two-alarm fire that leveled a multistory apartment building near 14th and
Superior streets Monday evening. No one was injured in the blaze.
Firefighters unable to save
four-story Lincoln structure
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
A huge fire that was visible for miles
engulfed an apartment building under
construction Monday night near the
intersection of 14th and Superior
streets.
The two-alarm blaze raged for
hours, but the four engine companies
and two ladder companies had only
other structures to worry about. By the
time fire trucks arrived around 6:30
p.m., minutes after the blaze started,
the flaming building had already started
collapsing.
Wes Oestreich, general manager of
CCC Construction, said the building
was just wood framing. There were no
windows installed and no utilities con
nected in the 42-unit, four-story apart
ment building.
“It was quickly engulfed, and in a
matter of minutes, it was gone,” he
said.
Oestreich could only guess at the
damage estimate, a conservative num
oer ne set at $z:>u,uuu.
Acting Deputy Fire Chief Bruce
Sellon said fire crews could do little to
save the building. He said firefighters
took up defensive positions, protect
ing other structures near the fire and
themselves from fuel tanks.
Thirty-five firefighters focused their
attention on a small building that had a
pool inside of it and another apartment
building west of the burning rubble. The
foam-sheathing siding that covered the
east wall of the identical structure had
melted off.
Other concerns were a fuel-oil tank
that was near the fire and two propane
tanks nestled to the south of the burn
ing structure.
Also a concern was four pieces of
heavy equipment that were caught up
in the flames. A crane and three Bob
cat front loaders could be seen through
the smoke.
Sellon said that when the first alarm
was dispatched from 18th and Q
streets, he could see the flames.
Please see BLAZE on 3
Class I elementary schools may see refinancing
By Brian Carlson
Staff Reporter
Legislators unanimously advanced a proposal
Monday that is designed to change the way
money is distributed to the state’s Class I el
ementary schools.
Amendment 1754 to LB806 was sponsored
by Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings, chairwoman
of the Education Committee. The proposal in
cludes a formula for determining the per-pupil
cost for Class I schools, which are elementary
only public schools.
Currently, Class I schools are allowed to be
affiliated with any number of school districts
offering high schools. In past years, the Legisla
ture has attempted to restrict these affiliations
to one for each Class I school.
The amendment allows Class I schools to
maintain these affiliations, but contains a for
mula for determining per-pupil costs once an
affiliation has been entered into.
Under the proposed formula, the new per
pupil cost would be determined by taking the
average of the per-pupil expenditures of the
Class I school and the larger district. Per-pupil
costs currently determine the amount of state
aid a district receives.
Class I school districts have resisted propos
als that would limit their affiliations. Bohlke said
these school districts’ major concern was the in
convenience of holding a vote to determine the
larger school district with which the Class I
school would affiliate itself.
“It really keeps the pressure on Class I
schools to keep costs down without forcing them
to go through a vote,” Bohlke said.
Sen. Curt Bromm of Wahoo praised the
amendment as cost-efficient and fair to the Class
I schools.
“I don’t expect Class Is to be jumping up
and down, but they don’t want to go through a
vote again,” he said. “It leaves them somewhat
more intact as a district.”
Senators voted 28-0 to adopt Bohlke’s
amendment. They are still debating LB806,
which would consolidate the state’s 656 school
districts into 289 school systems.
Politics mixes with dinner
as students play mock roles
By Jim Goodwin
Staff Reporter
Mama may have said that politics does not
make good dinner conversation, but she prob
ably never understood international diplomacy
very well, either.
Five University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dents, all well-versed in the subject, proved
__ Monday that politics does go well with chicken.
The students — members of UNL Model
United Nations — simulated a U.N. Security
Council discussion following a luncheon with
Lincoln members of the United Nations Asso
ciation of the United States of America.
Both groups study the role and effects of the
185-member United Nations in world politics.
The mock meeting, at Northeast United
Church of Christ, 6200 Adams St., featured
stand-in delegates of the United States, United
Kingdom, France, the Russian Federation and
China — the United Nations’ five leading mem
bers.
For 20 minutes, the students presented to
about 35 audience members the delicate and
often tedious manner with which the U.N.
reached consensus in passing resolutions.
“We want people to learn about the negotia
tions that are inherently necessary when dealing
with the perspectives of so many different coun
tries,” Becky Gould, a junior history major, said.
As an example, the students discussed a pro
posal involving the current Albanian civil war
that urged the eastern European country’s
people to work toward peace.
Please see MODEL on 3
Future of citys inner core
focus of town-hall meeting
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Lincoln residents are being given a choice
tonight in how they want the city’s inner core to
look in the future, a member of an investment
study group said Monday.
Kent Seacrest said the Antelope Valley Ma
jor Investment Study was a road map to
Lincoln’s future, and citizens can influence its
direction.
The study group will have a town hall meet
ing on revitalization, transportation and organi
zation topics tonight at 6:30 in the Lincoln High
School cafeteria, 2229 J St.
The study is looselyjjased on flood control
efforts along the Antelope Creek flood plain,
which encompasses an area from about 27th to
16th streets along A Street and along
Comhusker Highway from 27th to First streets.
The area touches the University of Nebraska
Lincoln City Campus, the Malone and Clinton
neighborhoods, downtown, Woods Park, Ante
lope Park, Near South neighborhood and North
Bottoms neighborhood.
The study focuses on this 600-,block area in
the core of Lincoln and is being used as a com
munity improvement and revitalization vehicle.
Members of the study group have been gath
ering ideas from a series of meetings and have
put together 109 draft proposals, ranging from
redrafting zoning laws to moving the State Fan
Park.
The study is being sponsored by the city of
Lincoln, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and
Please see VALLEY on 3
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