Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier (Newspaper) - May 12, 1998, Waterloo, Iowa Jim Ross Lightfoot goes up against Republican challengers at debate Page A3 Pork rice and cherry tomatoes combine in this quick meal Page B4 Just short Cedar Falls girls finish second in district track competition Page Dl Low Low 50s High 80 WEDNESDAY'S FORECAST Sunny and warm Complete weather on D6 WATERLOO CEDAR FALLS TUESDAY MAY 12 1998 50 cents 40 pages 6 sections Courier Online 1 Plan to close West Middle next year advances By JIM STANTON Courier Staff Writer WATERLOO West Middle School would stay open for one more school year based on preliminary action taken Monday by the Board of Education On a voice vote the Board of cation unanimously set in motion the process for closing West Middle in the spring of 1999 and opening the Bunger building in Evansdale that August as a middle school In so doing the board ruled out a controversial proposal to close the year-old school this spring While the closing could have been accomplished this year there would realization that would unfold far more naturally if it were spread over a Superintendent Arlis druber said There is no reason to hastily do this if we can do a better job with the longer time board member ol Teare said Built in 1964 Bunger served many years as a junior high before closing and reopening in 1995 for one year as a technology school It's now an intake and transition center for Bosnian and Hispanic immigrant dents The English as a Second Language program would move but that may be the easiest of a long line of questions to be answered from logistical issues to politically controversial decisions Reorganizing school boundary lines would fall in the latter category Since Bunger isn't large enough to accept all West Middle students some of its students would be transferred elsewhere probably to Central and Logan middle school As new students enter those schools others may need to be displaced or moved around Thus boundaries for middle schools would have to be redrawn across the entire district Several options for the tion were drawn up by administrators in advance of Monday's meeting but the board did not discuss them much Fleshing out the pros and cons of each option may follow fairly quickly Even with the yearlong delay Swartzendruber said he would push forward promptly with the process for closing West Middle so educators can begin work on the transition The sure process involves a public ing followed by a final board vote While the delay vote was mous Monday member Lyle Schmitt said later he would not support the final closing until there's a plan laid on the table that clearly illustrates that it's in the best interest of the district to close that school and relocate He wants the district to undertake a thorough examination of the capacity of each school before making deci- sions The board decision came despite the fact that two weeks earlier most board members spoke in favor of closing West Middle this year citing an urgent need for safety repairs Member Robert Smith said he would not feel comfortable sending his children to an unsafe school and did not want to ask that of other ents However since then district determined that with certain minor repairs West Middle could be See SCHOOLS page A5 BRANDON Courier Staff Photographer Rate ng a cloud of dust a farmer takes advantage of dry planting conditions Monday north of But the area received 12 Inches of rain early this morning Early projections point to big corn soybean crop WASHINGTON AP With wheat prices in the doldrums ican farmers will harvest a winter wheat crop down 9 percent from last year at 1.71 billion bushels the culture Department predicted today Early predictions for the nation's corn crop meanwhile indicated farmers will bring in 9.64 billion bushels which would be the largest on record Soybean production is tentatively projected at 2.8 billion bushels up 3 percent from last year's record Farmers are expected to harvest more than 1 million acres less winter wheat than last year when average prices topped a bushel This year's crop could sell at just over a bushel leading many growers to switch to other crops Kansas the leading winter wheat state expects a crop of about 377.4 million bushels down from 506 lion bushels in 1997 Winter wheat is harvested in spring and summer and is primarily used to make bread Three-quarters of the winter wheat crop rated good or better as of May 3 its best condition at this stage of development since 1993 Scattered freezes have had very little impact overall yields are estimated at 42 bushels per acre Including spring wheat just now being planted total U.S wheat duction this year is projected at 2.3 billion bushels a 7 percent drop from last year Despite the Iowa farmers er crop estimate pick up prices will remain inS pace depressed because more wheat remains in storage from last year and See CROPS page A4 Elderly man's license renewed before crash Vision test only requirement for renewal of Iowa licenses By ERIC STERN Courier Staff Writer DENVER The state renewed a drivers license a month before he drove a mile down the wrong way on a highway and crashed into another car killing himself and two others Unlike neighboring Illinois where drivers older than 80 must take a vision and road test every two years and every year after age 87 Iowa's drivers older than 70 only need to pass a vision test every two years And compared with drivers under 24 drivers 75 and older cany the ond highest accident rates in the state according to the Iowa Department of Transportation In fact Henry Eggena of Denver who died May 8 also caused a car collision in 1995 according to his driving records The Bremer County Sheriff's office said Eggena was after he smashed into a car three years ago Eggena and the driver of the car he hit suffered minor injuries Eggena who failed to stop for a car turning left was ticketed for speeding On Friday Eggena was driving south in the northbound lane of U.S Reno expands Herman probe Investigator to look at labor secretary's actions during time she served as White House aide The Washington Post WASHINGTON eral Janet Reno Monday requested the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate allegations that Labor Secretary Alexis M Herman took part in an dling scheme while she served as a White House aide during President Clinton's first term The decision followed what senior officials characterized as an week-long debate within the Justice Department about whether to recommend an outside prosecutor A preliminary inquiry found some cor- roboration for the allegations but as See HERMAN page A4 Alexis Herman Inspectors find abrasion problems in 737 wiring WASHINGTON AP When Boeing designed the 737 in the late it figured fuel pump wires could last a lifetime if they were coated with Teflon and sealed in a metal tube The government agreed and did not require inspections after the planes rolled off the assembly line Now 30 years later reports of frayed wires and punctured tubes have disproved the initial tions The Federal Aviation ordered the oldest grounded until emergency tions can be completed The initial results were not Of the 192 fuel pump tubes inspected on 96 planes by Monday night about half showed signs of wire abrasion The severity of sion varied but the FAA reported chafing in 50 of the inspected tubes six of them down to bare wire Each plane has two fuel pump tubes This is a pattern that we expected and this is holding true to form so we'll see as we continue with the inspections what else we'll be able to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said in an interview on PBS The with Jim Lehrer The inspections had minimal impact on travelers Continental Airlines had to cancel about a dozen flights Monday as the last of its inspections were begun but that was less than 1 percent of the daily flights Critics say authorities have long ignored wiring problems in civilian and military aircraft which could cause problems as benign as a ering reading light to as serious as a fuel tank explosion such as the one suspected in the crash of TWA Flight 800 The Federal Aviation tion says that isn't so although it admits it has worked to better understand the wiring around fuel tanks since the TWA accident in July 1996 By the end of this mer the agency also plans to initiate a comprehensive inspection gram for all of the operating tems on older aircraft One of the things you can't do when you engineer a new airplane is guess everything about said Michael Barr a former Air Force fighter pilot who now heads the ation safety program at the sity of Southern California You need an airplane to actually fly and See page A4 Grounded aircraft the Boeing and 200 there are four power lines running through fuel tanks to power fuel pumps Extensive wear on wiring was found officials are concerned that air and electricity could mix and explode PARTS AFFECTED Wire bundles in piping running through wing and center fuel tanks prompted Electrical conduit and wiring Electrical conduit and wiring THE INSPECTION If the mechanic finds signs of wear wire bundles will be replaced If there are signs of electrical sparks both bundle and piping will be replaced Mechanics must remove the wire from piping chafing or pinholes After inspection slip a sheath of Teflon over the entire bundle for protection Piping Federal Aviation Administration State laws How Iowa and neighboring states license elderly drivers license renewal and vision test every four years every two years after age 70 license renewal and vision test every four years every two years for ages every garages 87 and older driving test also required for drivers 75 and older when renewing license license renewal and vision test every four years no restrictions for elderly drivers license renewal and vision every three years no restrictions for elderly drivers Caslello Fox Hoffmann State license departments Highway 63 when he collided with a by Floyd and JoAnn Kirk of Waterloo All three died Last year drivers older than 75 were involved in 58 fatal car accidents in Iowa according to DOT data Drivers between 65 and 74 caused 47 fatal crashes in 1997 With fewer drivers in the oldest group that means older drivers are causing even more accidents said Scott Paid a DOT traffic safety The number of fatal crashes per drivers almost doubles between the two groups from 2.37 for drivers in the group to 4.05 See page A4 School leaders about effects of veto By JIM STANTON and JON ERICSON Courier Staff Writers Local superintendents had been counting on money from the state education reform but now find themselves caught in a political standoff between Gov Terry Branstad and the Legislature Branstad Friday vetoed most of a special school reform package for early elementary education and other proposals crafted by leaders of his own Republican party Under the The Waterloo district would have seen an extra ally starting this fall for early hood education with an additional in the fall of 1999 The Cedar Falls district was in line for annually starting this fall with more in the fall of 1999 Branstad vetoed nearly lion of the million package saying it did not match his aims for school reforms in his final year in office See VETO page A5
