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Vol. LXXXIX, No. 124 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, February 27, 1979
Ten Cents
Ten Pages "
Council sti
By JEFFREY WOLFF
Six months after the controversial creation of Ann Ar-
bor's Economic Development Corporation (EDC), City
Council last week rejected the first project proposed by
EDC-an Elias Brothers Big Boy restaurant.
The Elias Brothers proposal, however, is regarded by
both EDC supporters and its largely Democratic opposition
as atypical of future EDC projects and its rejection is not
viewed as a shift in Council's partisan-based attitudes
toward the bond-issuing public corporation.
EDC IS A FINANCIAL tool through which the city can
issue low interest tax-Exempt bonds aimed at attracting
Il
1 _ 0 OL _
I
I spur overt
new businesses and encouraging expansion and/or
renovation of existing ones.
An-enterprise seeking EDC support, such as Elias
Brothers, must submit a description of its proposed project
to the nine-member EDC board, which was appointed by
the mayor and approved by Council when EDC was created
last July. If the board, and then Council, approves the ap-
plication, EDC may then issue the low interest bonds.
Because EDC is a branch of city government its bonds
are tax-exempt. A buyer does not have to pay taxes on the
EDC bonds and is therefore willing to accept a relatively
;DC, rejects
low interest rate.
IF COUNCIL had approved Elias Brothers' application
for EDC issuance of $800,000 in bonds, Elias Brothers would
have succeeded in acquiring the necessary capital at a
seven per cent rate, rather than the current over 11 per cent
prime rate it would have had to accept'from a bank.
EDC bonds are repaid with the revenues from the project
and the city assumes no liability.
A spokesman for Elias Brothers said Council's decision
will most likely mean the company will not build the new
restaurant in Ann Arbor.
trst project
Since the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce drew up the
specific articles of corporation, and proposed the EDC to
Council last summer, Democrats have viewed it as a blin-
dly prorbusiness tool. The emergence of EDC as -a partisan
issue was strengthened on account of its sponsorship by
then-Councilman Louis Belcher, who included it in his
Republican mayoral campaign platform.
AT THE SAME TIME, city Democrats were seeking the
establishment of a Downtown Development Authority
(DDA) to emphasize concerns in areas such as housing and
See CITY, Page 2
Hanoi claims
China suffers
severe losses
rnoto by DAVE GAL
This photograph of the sun at its point of maximum obscuration at noon
yesterday was taken from East Quad with the aperature at 32, a shutter
speed of one one-thousandth of a second and an ultra-violet filter.
Awesome solar vanishing
act enthralls thousands
By TIMOTHY YAGLE
With wire reports
Ann Arbor skywatchers joined the
rest of the country in witnessing one of
nature's most awesome spectacles
which won't be repeated until the twen-
ty-first century.
Animals milled nervously and con-
fused roosters crowed twice as the
moon slid in front of the sun yesterday,
and day turned into night briefly along
a 175-mile-wide path across the north-
western United States and Canada.
This is the last time a full eclipse will be
visible in the continental United States
until August, 2017.
ABOUT 40 eclipse enthusiasts
gathered in front of the Dennison
Building for about an hour starting at
11:30 a.m. yesterday. With two
telescopes provided by the Astronomy
Department, a homemade four-and-a-
quarter-inch reflecting model, and a
few simple pinhole projectors, the
chilly spectators observed the 75 per
cent locking of the sun over Ann Ar-
bor.
Though partly cloudy and quite hazy
skies, the sun reached its crescent,
moon-like shape at 12:01 p.m.
Ironically, after the spectacular portion
of the partial eclipse had ended, the sky
became brilliantly clear.
See AWESOME, Page 7
From Reuter and AP
Vietnam said yesterday that Chinese
troops have thrust up to 25 miles into its.
territory but were suffering severe
casualties in heavy fighting..
Radio Hanoi did not name the points
of deepest penetration, but said the
Chinese have committed five army
corps consisting of 25 divisions to their
attack - more, it added, than the
Americans ever had in Vietnam. It also
quoted foreign sources as saying the
Chinese have moved up seven army
corps close to the border "in
preparation for an intensificationof the
war."
THE RADIO said 2,300 Chinese were
killed or wounded in three border
provinces from Friday through Sunday,
bringing the total number of casualties
it has reported in the 10-day border war
to more than 18,000. Vietnam has given
no casualty figures for'its own forces.
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei
Gromyko said the Chinese were
"doomed to failure" in their conflict
with Vietnam and repeated the
Kremlin's warning that Peking should
"stop before it is too late."
Gromyko's comments, in a speech
before his electoral constituency in
Minsk, came as the Soviet government
newspaper Izvestia reported from
Vietnam that Chinese forces were
preparing to invade Laos in conjunction
with their move in Vietnam.
IN PEKING, Senior Vice Premier
Teng Hsiao-ping was quoted as saying
China hoped the fighting would not last
as long as the 33-day-long Sino-Indian
border war of 1962, but that the length
of the conflict would depend on Hanoi.
A Chinese official told American
reporters that China's invasion of Viet-
nam is not "that big an issue," and he
indicated Peking's leaders are not con-
cerned about U.S. criticism of their ac-
tions.
"We don't force our views on anyone
else," the official said, adding that
Vietnam still must be dealt "some
blows" before the fighting can end.
THE OFFICIAL spoke with the
reporters - who are accompanying
Treasury Secretary W. Michael
Blumenthal on his current visit to Chin~a
- on the condition that his name not be
used.
There were some signs yesterday
that Chinese leaders were annoyed by
Blumenthal's banquet toast Sunday
bluntly describing China as the "tran-
sgressor" in the war and warning that
it could hinder the growth of U.S.-
Chinese relations and risk a wider war.
This "message" to the Chinese was
said to have had President Carter's en-
dorsement.
One indication of Chinese pique may
be the lack of participation by top
Peking officials in the formal opening
ceremony of the U.S. Embassy here
Thursday.
AT THE United Nations, the Security
Council was in recess as delegates con-
ferred privately en a possible com-
promise resolution aimed at moving the
Indochina crisis to the negotiating
table.
Radio Hanoi reported fighting in
three of Vietnam's seven border,
provinces, the heaviest near' the north-
western provincial capital of Lao Lai
where it claimed 1,400 Chinese troops
were put out of action over the
weekend.
In addition to Lao Cai, a border town
whose fall Vietnam admitted last
Tuesday, the radio said fighting raged
around the northeastern provincial
capital of Lang Son and in the Hai Nung
district of Northeastern Quang Ninh
Province.
Daily Photo by DAN OBERDORFER
Mary Rebone, a Literary College (LSA) sophomore, shivered as she watched
the eclipse in this chilly wintery weather. On her left is Timothy Fox, LSA
senior.
CITY CQUNCIL DEBA TESISSUE:
Airport
By ELISA ISAACSON
The proposed installation of a new
navigational aid for Ann Arbor
Municipal Airport has brought to the
floor once 'again the issue of the air-
port's expansion - a question thought
resolved in 1975 by a 7-3 City Council
vote to preserve the status quo.
The city now has the opportunity to
accept the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration's (FAA) offer of a partial
instrument landing system (ILS).
The debate is basically divided bet-
ween the pilots and the residents over
whose homes the planes would be direc-
ted, should the system be installed.
OBSERVERS POINT out the airport
issue has become increasingly partisan
since the 1975 decision.
While aviators claim an ILS project
would provide a much needed safety
device for the airport, other observers,
say the airport is already perfectly
safe. There was also much questioning
whether the present 3,500-foot runway
might be expanded to provide full ILS.
At a council wrking session last
night, which hosted a standing room
only crowd of interested citizens,
several false impressions were
dispelled. But even the experts from the
FAA and Detroit Metropolitan and
Willow Run airports were unable to an-
swer all the questions citizens and*
council members proposed.
WHILE AVIATORS claim Ann
Arbor's airport goes back to the stone
Tuesday
Swimmer Bob Murray is aiming
for two individual Big Ten cham-
pionships this weekend in Columbus.
See story, Page 8.
* Rep. Charles Diggs (D-Mich.);
voted on legislation for the first time
since his criminal conviction. The
action could mean a move to expel
Diggs. See story, Page 2.
* Israel decides today whether to
accept President Carter's invitation
to a Mideast summit that doesn't in-
may get navigation aid
age in terms of safety techniques, since
it is the only tower-controlled station in
the state without an IL§. Other citizens
point' out the new techniques might
require expansion of the airport which
would cost the taxpayers money and
would benefit only the pilots.
Many citizens who live near the air-
port said they fear increased noise over
their homes.
There was some misunderstanding
about the exact character of the device -
to be installed. Some media sources had
neglected to mention that the system is
only a partial ILS. And a complete ILS
includes a vertical guidance component
as well.
MARGARET O'Connor, representing
Lodi Township near the airport, quoted
an FAA official as saying the Ann Arbor
airport's runway is too short to have the
full ILS. The runway is presently 3,500
feet long and O'Connor said she
believed a federal regulation is pending
which will require an airport with a full
ILS to have a runway of at least 5,000
feet. At present she said no Michigan
airport with an ILS has a runway shor-
ter than 5,000 feet long.
Councilman Gerald Bell (R-Fifth
Ward) commented he thought not one
of the current council members would
approve expansion of the airport. "My
feeling is that no one has ever wanted to
expand the runway - not in length,
anyway," he said. The councilman ad-
ded, however, that he himself has been
in favor of realigning the runway. Bell
predicted it (the ILS) is shown to be
safer, it will pass.
JAMES KENWORTHY, Democratic
candidate for mayor, addressed coun-
cil, saying he did not feel the airport
should be expanded. Referring to the
1975 Council decision to preserve the
airport's current size, Kenworthy said,
"Nothing has happened since then in
terms of airport finances, city finances,
city taxes, and city services. Land use
and airport operations leads me to
think it would do so (expand the air-
port)."
Kenworthy pointed out that last year
the city spent thousands of dollars from
the general fund budget to reconstruct
the runway. "That runway, which is
used by a few, is in better shape than
the city streets used by the rest of us,"
he said. The former Fourth Ward coun-
cilman said he fears that the in-
stallation of the ILS would result in ex-
pansion of the airport.
New
managerial
outin e
for 'U' Cellar postponed,
By RON GIFFORD
"In recognition of concern expressed
by a number of employees," the
University Cellar Board of Directors
has postponed implementing a new
managerial structure that has caused
controversy during the last two weeks.
Iranians free American captive
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Islamic Iranian Oil Co., said Iran would resume
revolutionaries arrested an American, oil exports next week but did not say
a Belgian and two Britons employed by exactly when or in what amounts.
an oil-drilling company, a company But Prime Minister Medhi Bazargan
spokesman reported, but British of- told Robert MacNeil of public
ficials said later the men were television's MacNeil-LehrerReport
questioned and then released, that exports would start in about two
The company spokesman said the months to any country except Israel
four were detained yesterday on willing to pay the price. He said exports
charges of plundering the wealth of would eventually reach 50 to 60 per cent
Iran by charging exorbitant prices." of the pre-revolution level of 5.4 million
IN ANOTHER development, Hassan barrels a day. f
Nazib, new director of the Nationaly There was speculation some Iranian
Thnousands have fled, but
-many Iranian Jews stay
oil sold on the "spot" market, which
does not involve long-term contracts,
could bring up to $24 a barrell, about $10,
a barrel more than the official price of,
the Organization of Petroleum Expor-
ting Countries (OPEC).
THERE WERE few details about the
four arrests. The American Embassy
said it knew nothing of the matter and
spokesmen for Iran's new government
declined to comment.
Spokesman Jim Mackin of the Irvine,
Calif.-based Fluor Co., the drilling and
construction firm employing the four
men, identified the American as John
Cassiha, 49, who went to high school in
South Carolina but describes himself as
a "perennial expatriate."
The Britons were identified as W.W.
Walsh and K. Thompson and the
Belgian as P. Detrez. No hometowns
were available. They were employed in
the. southern city of Aghajari, Mackin
eaid
Employees of the Cellar had ex-
pressed a fear that their ability to in-
fluence the decision-making process at
the store would be taken away by the
new structure, which called for two
more assistant manager positions and a
supervisor to head each store depar-
tment. Currently, most of the decisions
made in those departments are reached
collectively by its workers.
Store manager Tudor Bradley posted
a notice outlining the board's proposed
structure change on Feb. 16. This action
was met with immediate displeasure
from the employees, who felt it
destroyed their input into the store's
decisions. On Monday and Wednesday
of last week a large number of workers
called in sick to protest the move, and
last Friday the board met with a group
of employees to discuss the plan.
IN A MEMORANDUM posted
yesterday, the board said it "genuinely
desires the input of store employeeston
the structure of the store" and directed
the management to receive specific,
constructive written input from the
employees, including proposed alter-
natives. However, the memorandum
also stated "the board cannot com-
promise its responsibility for making
the final decision on this matter."
Employees have until March 8 at
noon to deliver their plans to the store
management. On March 13 this input
will be forwarded to thj board for
.,:an i a af inl darinn i ..ll ha
HE ADDED, however, that the struc-
ture will not be negotiated when the
workers' union, Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW) Local 660, negotiates
its contract.
"It's clear that the decision is up to
the board," Pulkownik said. "As a
board of student representatives, we
can't give up the rights of the students
to govern the store."
He also said a key point is that the
40
'The U' Cellar Board of
Directors genuinely de-
sires the input of store em-
ployees on the structure
of the store but the board
cannot compromise its re-
sponsibility for making
the final decision on this
matter.'
-Memorandum to
store employees
issue is strictly between the board,
management, and the employees, and
they are trying to keep it that way. "I
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Thousands of
Iran's Jews left the country during the
bloody upheavals of the Islamic
revolution. But now, many Jews insist
religious freedom and protection under
his Islamic republic.
THERE ARE no accurate figures on
the number of Jews who recently have