Waterloo Courier (Newspaper) - March 6, 1979, Waterloo, Iowa 38 Tuesday March Waterloo Iowa 25 cents World oil prices keep climbing NEW YORK AP Industry sources said Tuesday that one of smallest members is ing a 25 percent boost in oil prices The increase would be the largest of all the hikes announced so far by members of the oil cartel Libya said meanwhile that it was 1 ing from 5 percent to 10 percent the size of the increase it announced last week and Venezuela increased prices on several petroleum products it exports to the United States There was no immediate indication as to what such increases might mean to American service station prices The Organization of Petroleum ing Countries had scheduled total 1979 price hikes in its base price for oil of 14.5 percent But several nations have taken advantage of the supply squeeze caused by the Iranian revolution to impose tional increases Most of the rises have been in the neighborhood of 9 percent THE OIL-price increases and the back in supply already have caused for American consumers The price of gasoline has gone up by about 2 cents a gallon since Jan 1 and new government pricing regulations are ex- to add 10 cents at the pump over the next two years Prices for regular leaded gasoline at full-service stations now average about 70 cents a gallon although the price varies widely with location A federal judge has been asked to halt implementation of the new rules until the government determines whether they would encourage motorists to use cheaper leaded gasoline which could in- crease pollution Industry sources who asked not to be identified by name said that Algeria which accounts for about 3 percent of total OPEC oil production wants to raise its price on April 1 Algeria now gets about a barrel for its oil higher than the OPEC base price of because of the quality of Algerian crude and its to major markets The Algerians reportedly want to push the price up to about a barrel Sources said Algeria also wants to cut production by 10 percent to 15 percent apparently because of technical problems in its oil fields Iran resumed exports on Monday ping its first load of oil since December BUT ENERGY Secretary James R Schlesinger said in Washington Tuesday that it is quite possible that other OPEC members will cut back tion gradually as Iran comes back on stream Iran is selling its oil at auction with bidding starting at a barrel And the Los Angeles Times said Tuesday that several major U.S oil companies have decided to boycott this week's auction because it would force price boosts The newspaper quoted an unnamed spokesman for Standard Oil of California as We believe these prices are excessive It said Gulf Atlantic Richfield and other oil companies which it did not identify had similar reactions Ashland Oil which last week purchased some Iranian crude said however that it would buy oil at auction Libya which had announced a 5 percent price rise for March 1 reportedly told customers Monday that the increase would be more like 10 percent Venezuela also is planning large in- creases on selected products The Venezuelans already have increased prices on heavy fuel oil used to heat some apartments and power factories and generating plants but last week backed Carter hoping to witness signing of Mideast pact WASHINGTON AP President Carter's unannounced hope u to witness the signing of an treaty as the climax of his dramatic Mideast peace mission This historic possibility broached day by both Egyptian and Israeli leaders was reinforced by U.S officials When a Carter aide who asked not to be named was questioned about a possible treaty signing during the trip he replied cryptically We have said on several occasions we would hope to bring this treaty search to an early conclusion IN CAIRO Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Khalil said Carter's trip most likely lead to a signing Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin noting his government's tance of U.S suggestions for wrapping up a treaty told a congressional Let us hope Egypt will join the effort Then if this happens in a short period of time we may have the ceremony of signing analysis in a telephone in- with The Associated Press was pointed and When an American president puts down all his stakes it is natural that it has to have a result White House press secretary Jody Powell said Carter will arrive in Cairo Thursday afternoon for talks with dent Anwar Sadat and proceed to Jerusalem Saturday evening for talks with Begin Although Powell said there were no current plans for a three-way meeting among the leaders the U.S official who asked anonymity did not rule out a vening in the Middle East of the summit started last year at Camp David Md Carter will be away from Washington at least a week officials said and longer if there are three-way talks or treaty ing- Mrs Carter who will accompany the president postponed for five days a trip to Massachusetts Ohio Missouri and California that was to have begun March H Begin before going to New York City Monday night told reporters he will fly home Wednesday to prepare for the memorable visit WHILE expressing optimism the Israeli prime minister noted that a Middle East peace seemed at hand several times since the Camp David talks last tember The world was happy and then came the Begin said Egypt and Israel have been stalemated since November over the future of the Palestinian Arabs and other controversial issues surrounding the treaty After a series of meetings between Carter and Begin beginning last day the U.S mediation effort appeared near collapse But late Sunday after their fourth session there was a sudden re- versal Carter gave Begin new and U.S proposals for breaking the deadlock They were submitted to the Israeli cabinet which voted Monday to accept them Begin then reported the cabinet action to Carter at a White House meeting which was sandwiched between two phone conversations Powell's announcement of the tial trip followed We'll talk after pullout AP BANGKOK Thailand AP Vietnam announced Tuesday it is willing to negotiate with China once all Peking's troops have left Vietnamese soil and ended a more than frontier war But a Vietnamese Foreign Ministry statement said if Chinese leaders were trying a withdrawal trick in order to escalate the war then Vietnam would fight on in the spirit of general mobilization The statement said Chinese troops had to withdraw completely and from Vietnamese territory before any negotiations take place It also said China was forced to an- it was withdrawing Monday because it found itself in difficult circumstances military losses port Russia and others were giving nam and even objections to the war in China It said any negotiations would take place at the vice foreign ministers level at a time and place to be agreed on at a later date HANOI radio reported fighting was continuing in Lang Son province north of the Vietnamese capital and claimed Hanoi's troops killed or wounded more than 700 Chinese in fighting Monday in Hoang Lien Son province in the northwest Nhan Dan the Vietnamese Communist Party newspaper said Peking's cement that Chinese troops began pulling out Monday 16 days after the invasion started was contrary to the real tion in the battlefields China is stepping up its aggression and its troops are frantically destroying Vietnamese said the paper The Vietnamese army newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan said Peking was feverishly pouring more Chinese troops in to and Who can believe that China will withdraw when its southward crusade has just Smoke and flames rise from an offshore gas well in UK Gulf of Mexico following an explosion Monday At least three persons were killed in the blast and Texas firefighter Red Adair was called to the scene to try to control the blaze Gas rig blast kills three NEW ORLEANS AP An offshore gas well exploded and burned in the Gulf of Mexico Monday killing three of 35 men on a drilling rig and leaving five missing and feared dead officials said The other 27 crewmen on the jack-up drilling rig escaped by jumping into a survival capsule which skidded down a cable into the sea There were four minor injuries and they have been taken to a hospital in Lafayette said James King a spokesman for Placid Oil Co in Houma The rig continued to bum like a blow torch sending smoke and flames high into the air The derrick melted about five hours after the well blew the Coast Guard said Home buyers swarming after cheap loans By MIKE KELLY Courier Staff Writer Home buyers in the metro area are swarming around a pot of low-cost mortgage money like so many flies but many may find there's just not enough in the pot to go around Almost million in mortgage loan money is being made available through seven lenders in Black Hawk County with money provided by the Iowa Housing Finance Authority Local lending officials estimate the money will cover about 175 mortgages The money provided by the state cy was produced by the sale of million in bonds last month and is in- tended to help individuals or families earning up to about annually buy homes The interest rate on the mortgages is 8 percent compared to the current to being charged for conventional mortgages IF A reduction in interest of from to percent doesn't sound too impressive consider this example With what lenders consider an mortgage of over 30 years a percent interest rate would produce monthly payments of principal and interest totaling With an 8 percent loan the principal and interest would add up to monthly payments of just a savings of a month Over the life of the loan those savings amount to more than 70 cent of the face value of the loan ALL THE lenders in the county ing the special low-interest mortgage money say they've had heavy interest shown by real estate brokers and be home buyers Although some of the lenders aren't yet accepting formal applications for the mortgage money there's Family Federal Savings and Loan Association of Cedar that has already exhausted the its main office by the state Mike McCullough a vice president of Family Federal said his institution began accepting applications for the 8 percent money on Feb 23 the day after the state announced the interest rate Within days the money was all spoken McCullough said He added however that the loan proval process of credit checks and related paperwork was and none of the tentatively com- mitted 8 percent money could be con- locked up by the home buyers who applied for it WE DON'T underwrite a loan until we have all the McCullough said and these 8 percent loans are no different If unlimited funds had been available McCullough said Family Federal could probably have doubled the 17 or 18 interest loans it arranged in the week after applications started pouring in Other lenders in the county have been slower to solicit loan applications primarily because they anticipated heavier demand the limited availability of funds would satisfy There had to be some sort of method to select the applications and be fair to all said Bredow vice president of Banco Mortgage which started taking the applications the same day Family Federal did We considered handling them on a first serve Mrs Bredow said but how do you determine who's THIS SEEMINGLY simple task could be complicated by the fact that some real estate brokers and builders accumulated several purchase offers before the loan program began then turned them all in at once following announcement of the 8 percent interest rate Banco decided to solve its selection problem by holding a drawing this day during which a set number of would be pulled at random from the sizable pile that has cumulated in its offices Applications will be drawn until their total amounts reach Banco's limit on 8 percent First Federal Savings and Loan of Waterloo just started accepting tions Tuesday and is asking Realtors to submit an informational form along with a signed purchase offer for each loan Then the applications are numbered in the order in which they're received and will be considered in the order of their assigned numbers according to First Federal President Jack Miller FIRST FEDERAL has approximately million of 8 percent loan money available Farmers State Bank of Jesup is the third lender in the county taking tions and Vice President Ed Enright said since applications started rolling in about a month ago We've gotten a lot and we've turned a lot down Enright said Farmers State is not drawing names out of a hat like some are but is considering each plication and selecting only the most qualified buyers Of the approximately million located to Farmers State Bank about has been committed Enright said Home Federal Savings and Loan of Waterloo which has million People's Mutual Savings and Loan of Waterloo and Leavitt and Johnson Co are not yet accepting applications for the mortgages and officials of the three lenders say they aren't sure when they will Mike Hutchison vice president of Leavitt and Johnson said his firm is delaying to give itself time to set guidelines for spreading the money around in the most equitable fashion WE HAVE so little it won't last long so we want to be sure to try to do the most we can with what we have to benefit the largest number of he said While lenders try to determine the best way to dole out the mortgage money Realtors are warning their customers not to count on getting any of the money Some are saying that only one out of five home buyers that want the 8 percent money is going to get said Robert Smith owner of Gibson Partners realty firm I think it'll be more like ooe out of two but even that will be a problem for those that can't get it Mike Ott a partner in Ron McGee and Associates said his sales people don't stress the possibility of getting the 8 percent money but do point out that it may be available We go at it kind of he said First we find out whether they qualify for regular mortgage money then if we can get this for them it's kind of a bonus There's so little money whoever gets one is one of the fortunate ones HOME BUYERS aren't the only ones that could run into disappointment cording to Bruce Normandin a sales associate for Granger and Associates Realtors A seller could think he has a deal with an offer made and he said Then when the buyer can't get the 8 percent money and can't afford a more expensive mortgage the deal falls through and the seller has had his home tied up and off the market for quite a while Although the program will undoubtedly benefit many home buyers locally and throughout the state Smith said the limited funding is reason enough to hope it ends quickly The quicker this money is opened up drained out and closed up the he said Qualifications for the low-interest mortgage money include an adjusted in- dividual or family gross income of less than and a target home costing less than Tlie adjusted income is determined by deducting 10 percent of the gross family income any income earned by children under 18 for each child and for a working wife Today's Quick Comment WHAT distinguishes Albania from all other tions in the According to Sen Harry F Byrd Jr the small Balkan country is the only nation that does not owe money to the Un- States Byrd told the Senate that 169 nations and territories owe money to Uncle Sam including China Russia and Vatican City Thank you Albania Inside St of Independence and Tripoli have won trips to the boys state basketball meet Page 17 Weather Partly cloudy and somewhat cooler Wednesday with high in mid 30s Complete weather page 2 Capitol quips American intelligence cies can now predict any im- portant world event within 24 hours after it happens off of a plan to raise crude oil prices by 9 percent Venezuela reportedly will raise the price of naphtha an important ingredient in gasoline and chemicals from 45 cents a gallon to 65 cents a gallon April 1 The price of distillate oil used primarily for home heating will go up 16.5 cents a gallon to 60 cents That will probably mean further increases in the price of heating oil on the East Coast which relies heavily on imported distillate from sources such as Venezuela j In a related development Exxon I U.S.A the gasoline marketing arm of Exxon Corp said today it would limit gasoline sales to dealers in March to the amounts the dealers received last year Nuclear plant to reopen PALO AP The Duane Arnold Nuclear Plant can resume operations after being shut down since June 1978 Iowa Electric Light and Fewer Co was told by federal regulatory authorities Tuesday Jan Strasma spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation in Chicago said the utility had been notified of the approval for resumption of tions late Monday ASKED when the plant would resume operations Strasma said That is up to the Iowa Electric schedule The company has received several threats concerning the resumption of operation and both the company and law enforcement officials have asked that we not discuss the schedule until the plant has resumed full operations The plant has been the target of de- monstrations Iowa Electric would not comment day morning on when the plant will reopen THE PLANT closed when cracks were found in eight called which join circulating water cooler pipes to the reactor vessel The permission to resume operations follows approval of newly designed replacement and the welding that connected the to the water cooling pipes and the reactor vessel Strasma said the office will require augmented inspection grams of the welds Federal inspectors have been at the plant every week since it shut down about nine months ago when the cracks were discovered and one of them was found to be leaking a small amount of cooling v
