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Opening weekend Fruits of your Labor Day August 29,1997
The Nebraska football, soccer and volleyball Get giddy this weekend with a generous smatter
teams all open their 1997 campaigns this week- ing of suggestions for your big, four-day fun. MUY CALIENTE!
end. PAGE 7 PAGE 9 Partly sunny, high 92. Partly cloudy tonight, low 71.
VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 6
Matt Miller/DN
A LONE BIKER crosses the bike bridge over Nebraska Highway and 27th Street. The
bridge, which opened last winter, helps pedestrians and bike riders cross the busy inter
section and also helped get Lincoln’s trails named one of the nation’s 10 best by the
American Hikers Society.
Bike trails provide easier,
inexpensive path to travel
By Josh Funk
Assignment Reporter
For many students the headaches
involved with parking meters, tickets, per
mits and bus exhaust are a thing of the past.
And those students have found a way to
get nearly everywhere in Lincoln at the same
time.
Their secret lies in Lincoln’s 72-mile
network of bike trails. A haven of sorts for
both commuters and recreational users,
Lincoln’s trail system was recently named
one of the top 10 in the nation by the
American Hiking Society.
Some students who use the trails agree
with that assessment.
“I do a lot of commuting on the trails to
work and school. They’re a good way to get
around town,” said Eric Peterson, a senior
construction management major.
For Trampis Wrice, a senior nutritional
science major, just having trails on which to
ride is something to appreciate.
“The trails here are real nice,” Wrice
said. “Many other places don’t even have
trails at all.”
Mark Janike, a senior education major,
said the trails still have a lot of potential.
“The trails here in Lincoln are pretty
good, and they keep getting better,” Janike
said.
In the last 10 years the trail system in
Lincoln has grown with the conversion of
several old rail beds, said Rich Rodenburg,
owner of Bike Pedalers.
Jim Morgan, director of Lincoln Parks
and Recreation, said that trend would con
tinue.
A trail from Van Dorn and Ninth streets
to Pioneers Park, just west of Van Dorn
Please see TRAILS on 6
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World 1
Summit on dump
gives alternatives
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Gov. Ben Nelson said Thursday that calling
President Clinton into the struggle over a low
level radioactive waste dump was appealing
because Clinton would be sympathetic to
Nebraska’s plight.
At what was billed as a summit of the five
states trying to build a new low-level waste
dump, panelists suggested a federally spon
sored national system for storing wastes and to
end states’ efforts to build dumps.
Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma
and Louisiana are now trying to build a dump in
Boyd County. Nelson called the summit to talk
about alternatives to the dump, which is four
years behind schedule and more than $ 120 mil
lion over projected costs.
Nelson, despite invitations, was the only
governoi'to attend the summit, something he
dismissed as a result of busy schedules.
Only two of the five commissioners on the
Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive
Waste Commission attended the summit:
Nebraska representative F. Gregory Hayden
and Louisiana commissioner J. Dale Givens.
The summit is another chapter in the trou
bled story of the compact. Progress has been
slowed since 1989 when Boyd County was
selected for the dump.
Two states - Arkansas and Nebraska - are
now studying whether or not their states should
withdraw from the compact.
Nebraska State Sen. M.L. “Cap” Dierks of
Ewing proposed a bill last session that would
have pulled Nebraska out of the compact. The
bill stalled, but Dierks said he would bring the
issue back up in the next session.
Dierks, who represents Boyd County, said
the county has been torn apart by the project
and hard feelings have formed between neigh
bors.
“I don’t think anything can be done to repair
the damage,” he said. Dierks said the nation
does not need a new dump.
Nelson, who has been one of the compact’s
most ardent opponents, said calling Clinton
was an appealing idea because Clinton was
governor during the early stages of the five
state compact.
Please see SUMMIT on 6
UNL stands by Pepsi
Administrators say Coke got fair chance
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
offered Coca-Cola Co. the same opportunities
as Pepsi Cola Co. to bid on the exclusive right
to sell beverages on campus, a university offi
cial said Wednesday.
James Main, assistant vice chancellor for
business and finance, said both companies bid
on a 10-year contract last October, but Pepsi
was asked to bid for an additional two years
during final contract negotiations in May.
“When Coke said it wasn’t given a fair deal
... that’s as erroneous as can be,” he said.
Both Pepsi’s 10-year and 12-year bids beat
Coca-Cola’s bids, Main said.
Last week, a local Coca Cola representative
told the Daily Nebraskan that his company was
not given the option to bid on a 12-year con
tract, and that an additional two years “could
have made a difference in (Coca- Cola’s) pro
posal.”
Allen Baird, Coca-Cola sales center manag
er in Lincoln, later told Main he did not mean to
imply contract negotiations were unfair, and
Baird did not have intimate knowledge of con
tract negotiations after last October, Main said.
Baird was unavailable for comment
Thursday.
Both beverage companies submitted origi
nal bids last year on an exclusive right to sell
their beverages for 10 years on the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
In December, the university heard extended
presentations from both companies on their
beverage contract proposals. At that time, Main
said both companies’ interest in signing a bev
erage contract with the university exceeded his
expectations.
Main said the companies asked, “What’s it
Vide Web at http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb
u
When Coke said it
wasn’t given a fair deal...
that's as erroneous as can be."
James Main
assistant vice chancellor
going to take to get this deal?”
The university increased its expectations of
what it could receive from a beverage contract,
he said.
In March, after continued contract negotia
tions, both companies asked that the university
choose between them and finish negotiations
with one beverage provider to prevent needless
bickering between the companies.
“We told Coca-Cola that we decided to pick
Pepsi and negotiate,” Main said.
But Coca-Cola said that was “unaccept
able,” he said, and asked the university for
another opportunity to bid on the contract.
The university then accepted another pro
posal from Coca-Cola. The company offered a
contract worth about $19.5 million over 15
years, but the university would have considered
that proposal only if negotiations with Pepsi
soured, Main said.
But the negotiations with Pepsi did not sour,
he said. They got better.
After a meeting with Coca-Cola and Pepsi
officials in Minneapolis, the university knew
Pepsi was its best choice for a profitable bever
age contract.
“We came back. We evaluated the circum
stances. We chose Pepsi,” Main said.
The university then contacted Pepsi offi
Please see COLA on 2