Ames Daily Tribune (Newspaper) - July 20, 1974, Ames, Iowa THE FINISHED Grace Piercy is shown above in back of her home on Meadow Glen Road She built the porch and a floored area under it virtually by herself over a threeyear period The work involved moving a rock retaining wall and digging out the area by the house in addition to the porch construction Mrs Piercy worked entirely From plans in her head At left is a view from the west wing of the porch above the stairs showing the railroad tie steps from the lower level to the patio Tribune photos by Wickersham New pay plan moves longterm employes up in pay grades Final revisions of a merit pay and job classification plans proposed for adoption by the State Board of Regents were outlined to the board today The systems would affect about 7000 nonacademic em ployes at the Regents institutions including Iowa State nonacademic staff Robert H Hayes and Associates Chicago will present its recommendations to the board at Tuesdays regular meeting in Des Moines R Wayne Richey the regents executive secretary said the new pay plan would provide substantial increases in salary ranges for general service employes at the three state universities and two special schools He said the plan represents a hike in salaries of more than 12 per cent in payment of disability insurance premiums begin ning next Jan 1 The recommendations include a plan to move long term employes up in their pay grades to recognize past service Most employes will also be eligible for a five per cent increase as they complete the necessary time on their steps during the year Richeys statement said The merit pay plan has been a center of controversy in recent months with nonacademic employes contending it would not provide fair salary increases About 150 Iowa State University workers staged a sick in last month to protest the plan A public hearing on the plan was held here June 29 and Richey said Hayes final recommendations took into con sideration employe complaints about the plan Richey said the proposed plan recommends a 75 per cent increase for all merit system employes who are within their assigned salary grades and a five per cent increase for others even hough they are at or beyond the maximum for pay grades In addition Richey said all regent merit system employes will receive necessary pay increases to being their salaries to the minimum steps of their pay scales He said the new plan also would improve pay in a number of positions traditionally held by women at the five schools The executive secretary said the plan also would provide shift differentials and guarantee fair pay adjustments for longtime employes who may not be at the top of the new pay scales Hayes whose firm was hired last December to help the regents staff in developing the plan said Our firm feels very enthusiastic about this proposed pay plan We feel it will fill the needs of employes and institutions alike on an evenhanded and equitable basis New laws appraisers reduce land Commission condemns By HARRISON WEBER The highway commission is acquiring a great deal more of its land through negotiation rather than condemnation Gordon Sweitzer commission director said only eight per cent of the 1471 parcels of land acquired by the commission in the years ended June 30 had to be con Even then only four per cent disagreed on price In cases involving the other four per cent condemnation was the only way to get title Five years ago 25 per cent of the land acquired by the commission came throught the condemnation process Highway Director Joseph Coupal Jr there are three basic reasons First the law was changed by the Legislature in Instead of a sheriffs jury setting the award in a con case a compensation commission now performs the task Under the sheriffs jury system six people were selected to decide damages in condemnation cases No more than one could be from the county where the property was located and there was no requirement that any of the six had to possess special qualifications Present law required each county board of supervisors in each county to select at least 28 residents for possible service as members of a compensation commission Onefourth of those appointed must be owner operators of agricultural property onefourth must be owners of city or town property onefourth must be licensed real estate salesmen or brokers and the remaining one fourth must be persons having knowledge of property values in the county such as bankers auctioneers property managers and appraisers The chief judge of the judicial district selects by lot six persons from the list two of agricultural property when the property to be condemned is agricultural property two persons of city or town property when the property to be condemned is other than agricultural properly and two persons from each of the other two groups A compensation commission has the respon of assessing the damages lo all property located in the county to be taken by the applicant A second factor in reducing the number of con Con pal said Is that the highway com mission has recruited and trained more qualified ap praisers The fact is that we highway commission are doing a better and more equitable job in appraising the property Coupal declared Were spending more time working with See Commission page 18 Little woman builds sunken dining area By HILL When workmen arrived one morn ing at the building site of Dr Kenneth Piercys new home they found Mrs Piercy tearing down part of a concrete wall The height of wall was incorrect on the building plans and when erected blocked the view from a window Late one night more than 20 years ago Grace Piercy armed with hammer and chisel decided she wanted the view Mrs Piercy takes more than average interest in her home on Meadow Glen Road The living room reflects the marshalling of different styles and periods of furnishings and art by a critical and eclectic taste The result is a feeling of casual decorum which seems lo recall an earlier was more important than chemicals in housekeeping Not A New Idea What the interior does not tell he observer is that Mrs Piercy did all the interior painting and refinished many of the furniture pieces an upright secretary with enclosed bookshelves that once housed the first volumes in the Jesup public library And a wooden porch across the back of the home with steps leading lo a sunken dining area carved into the hillside does not tell you that Mrs Piercy made it hand without draw plans and virtually without assistance I suppose she said 1 began forming the plans in my mind while we were still building the house By the lime I started the work on it four years ago the design was complete in my didnt change a tiling There was a practical reason for it too The old brick terrace we laid in shortly after the house was completed had become unusable The grass was coming up through the cracks between the bricks and the chiggers made it un comfortable It seemed a good time to begin on new project The project look the better part of three years and the hardest part came first The original brick terrace measured 22 feel by 16 feet II had required construction of a slone retaining wall approximately 30 feet long and three feel high across the itself lo prevent nature from eventually depositing he in the valley below The first slep of course was lo lake up the bricks and then move the retaining wall about 20 feel down the hillside Mrs Piercy ex Mr Charles Calhoun showed me how lo make a retaining wall without mortar when we built the first one she said So I dug a trench for new wall dug out the slones from old wall and rolled then downhill into position Use For Everything Each spade full she dug for the was carried back up hill for later use as fill Each of small plants which had laken root in he old retaining wall were preserved and replaced in new wall See Room page 14 Ames Iowa Saturday morning July 20 1974 Volume 17 J Bush comments on Nixon Republican National Chairman George Bush in Des Moines Friday for a dinner honoring retiring US Rep H R Gross attempted to exude confidence about Republicans chances in next Novembers national might be expected In presenting his case Bush ticked off GOP successes in fundraising this year and the clean of health given national GOP by the Senate Watergate Committee Bush who met wilh news reporters before the Gross festival was inun dated with questions aboul the partys attitude after Watergate The televising of any impeachment proceedings would be a matter for the committee lo decide he thinks No he is not concerned about partisanship in the committee vole theyve given me heartburn along the if proceedings should become partisan I think the people would be resentful Turning thankfully to other topics Hush said Republican Parly cannot support price controls the other major answer is to curtail Federal government a very answer to inflation and is strongly supported by the Republican Party The economic issue is number one but problems is world wide When we assign the blame lo US my is theres plenty of blame to go around Democratic Parly congressmen are the major spenders and should get some of the blame in fall Ratings such as those Americans for Democratic Action ADA and Americans for Con Action ACA give are a valid index of spending he said The RNC is 30 per cent ahead of last year in fund raising last year it raised million this year Bush hopes for million enough to run a successful program Is the RNC attempting to separate itself from the President Were for the good stuff and against the bad Is Vice President Gerald Ford talking too much Since the RNC pays for the vice presidents travel it takes a very direct in terest in his political appearances I dont agree that he is traveling too much And finally back lo Watergate and all ils confusions In days there is more of a feeling in Washington lhal President is not going to be im peached But not based on the evidence before the Congress and we will know soon enough During the afternoon sessions the platform committee decided not to recommend a study of state laws dealing wilh smoking in schools The vote was 148 on a resolution suggested by two Waterloo high school students Gilette and Larry Williamson Williamson The Committee discussed references to President Nixon which were to be included in the platform and decided to expand a list of his accomplishments particularly those in foreign affairs But it also decided to retain part of a paragraph in the draft of the platform which suggested those See Convention page 18 GOP National Committee chair man George Bush left and Iowa Republican chairman John McDonald met newsmen Friday at the opening session of the GOP state convention in Des Moines Bush said he was in Iowa to deliver a note of going to do better than has been predicted Tribune photo by Rod Riggs Evidence doesnt show definite tie between funds decisions WASHINGTON UPI Six volumes of material released Friday by the House Judiciary Committee contained little evidence supporting charges that President Nixon ordered favorable government decisions in return for campaign contributions from the milk industry and ITT But the committee noted that the White House had ignored its subpoenas for 66 tapes on the milk and ITT cases and Democrats have said there is enough evidence available to include the two matters in articles of impeachment the will debale week The material included tapes of six previously White House conversations When they heard the evidence several weeks ago Republicans and Democrats agreed there was little to substantiate charges that the administration settled its antitrust suit against ITT after receiving pledges of to defray cost of the 1072 Republican National Convention While Republicans fell there was little evidence that Nixon raised milk price supports in 1971 in return for a million campaign pledge several Democrats agreed with Rep Elizabeth Holtzman who said we have a case for bribery here Democrats drafted possible impeachment articles this week that included both the ITT and milk mailers The six volumes included Iwo by James D St Clair Nixons chief Watergate lawyer St Clair maintained that Nixon played no role in settling the ITT suit and that price supports on raw milk were raised because of economic and traditional political because of the campaign pledge One newly published transcript shows Nixon his speech punctuated by profanity ordering that his antitrust chief abandon all efforts to block the biggest corporate merger in history But there was nothing in the tape linking Nixons action to ITTs offer Pressure Hard The Presidents demand on April 19 1971 that the case be dropped followed months of relentless pressure by ITT executives on numerous high government officials and came on the heels of the firms offer to defray convention expenses According to the transcript Nixon spoke brusquely to Richard G Kleindienst then deputy attorney general Nixon ordered Kleindienst to tell Richard McLaren head of the antitrust division to drop the suit against ITT I want something clearly understood and if it is not understood McLarens ass is to be out within one hour The the hell out of it Is that clear Thats an order The order is to leave the Now Ive said this Dick a number of times and you fellows apparently dont get the message over there I do not want McLaren to run around prosecuting people raising hell about conglomerates stirring things up at this point Now you keep him the hell out of that Is that clear Or either he resigns Id rather have him out anyway I dont like the sonofabitch later nominated to succeed John N Mitchell as attorney general said at his confirmation hearing the following March I was not with by anybody at the White House I was not importuned I was not pressured I was not directed On May 16 Kleindienst pleaded guilty to false testimony and was given a suspended sentence However none of the material shows Nixon was aware Kleindienst was lying But statements were covered fully by news media at the time and caused the White House such concern that a special committee was formed to make sure the nomination got through the Senate St Clair argued that there exists no testimonial or docu mentary evidence to indicate that the President had any part directly or indirectly in the settlement of the ITT antitrust cases McLaren had lost his attempt to block ITTs merger inten tions in lower courts but was confident of winning in the Supreme Court When Nixon learned that the next day was the last day for an appeal to the high court he acted swiftly I dont know whether ITT is bad good or indifferent he told Kleindienst But there is not going to be any more actions as long as I am in this damn it were going to stop it See Evidence page 1 8 Weather A little cooler tonight and tomorrow with a chance of thun High Saturday in mid 90s Fair Saturday night with lows In mid 70s Sunny and hot again Sunday 8 15 Saturday Rain chances 20 per cent
