Cri 4ir4gan aisj
Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Moynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Beicher responds on airport issue
Vol. LXXVII, Not 146
.News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Ann AroHahBash
ain't, what it used to be
J
oNCE AGAIN the campus area has
survived the onslaught of 'the Tri-
State Invitational Dope-In. The Diag
is resiliant terrain, and the Vniver-
sity population is fairly resiliant as
well. We can put up with all this
nonsense. The question is why we
should have to.
The Hash Bash was initiated as
a political act, an expression of com-
munity opinion. At a time when dope
laws were idiotically repressive-and
often selectively enforced-mass- pub-
lic marijuana use was a form of civil
disobedience, and a minor act of cour-
age. Sub rosa organizers issued some
low-key local publicity. But media co-
optation and word-of-mouth distor-
tion have changed all that.
It's obvious that no one is willing
to take responsibility for this esthetic
eyesore and public nuisance. Nobody
publicizes, nobody organizes, nobody
sets up Porto-Pots or issues ven ing
permits. The city as a whole, a&d' the
University community and campus
town in particular, have to take the
rap for a semi-spontaneous infltix of
disgusting' non - local non - students
who leave their brains and their man-
ners elsewhere.
THE TICKETS, dog crap, litter, leer-
ing, arrests, and crowding are an
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Ken Chotiner, Lani Jordan, Jay
Levin, Martha lRetallick, Jim Tobin,
Shelley Wolson, Margaret Yao
Editorial: Ken Parsigian
Photo: Alan Bilinsky
Sports: Cindy Gatziolis, Mike Halpin,
Geoffrey Olans, Patrick Rode, Jamie
Turner
affront to all self-respecting dope
smokers, area residents, and thinking
people everywhere. This is Woodstock
without the music and good feelings.
Either some group must take a firm
grip on the reins of this quasi-insti-
tution (although why anybody should
want either credit or blame for this
rout is beyond us), or the Hash Bash
should relocate, immediately and per-
manently. Goodbye to all that.
Phoirgraphy Staff
ALAN BILINSKY ANDY FREEBERG
Co-Photographers-in-Chief
BRAD BENJAMIN-......-.-Staff Photographer
JOHN KNOX Staff Photographer
CHRISTINA SCHNEIDER Staff Photographer
Editorial Staff
By LOUIS BELICHER
OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS I have consistently
and publicly stated my views on the airport and
that is for a no expansion policy.' I have always fa-
vored realigning the existing runways. The airport has
two runways now and if realignment took place would
still have two runways. This view has been expressed
on Council floor beginning with Sept., Oct. and Novem-
ber of 1975 and was last stated in public at "Meet
the Candidates Night" at Bryant School on February
10, 1977. Moderating that public meeting was none
other than Ms. Perkins, a partner of Ms. Chessler
in the recent smear attacks on my integrity. My
public record is obvious and absolutely consistent with
my .private opinion that the runways should be re-
aligned to relieve the air traffic over Stoneybrook,
Forest Hills, University Townhouses, Pheasant Run,
Georgetown and Mill Creek.
Designing a master plan around the present run-
way pattern by no means implies that it is the best
configuration relative to noise and safety of residential
areas. I object to the current runway alignment only
for safety reasons as it makes more sense to guide
aircraft over open farm land ,than residential areas.
The February 24, 1977 vote on the airport was to
clarify the November 17, 1975' concept resolution with
the master plan. Council member Henry stated spe-
cifically before the vote was taken that the resolution
was not a vote on airport configuration but rather
a vote to bring the master plan in conformance with
the November 17; 1975 no growth resolution. This inter-
pretation was confirmed by the Acting City Attorney.
No attempt was made to, alter the runways as this
was not the issue at hand. Realigning a runway should
not be taken lightly and involves a great deal of citizen
input and technical considerations.,
MY SO-CALLED "PRIVATE" letter was in re-
sponse to Commissioner Bent Nielsen's concerns of
a lack of communications between City, County and
Township officials that encompassed a broad range
of mutual problems, particularly airport annexation.
I promised nothing more than to cooperate with town-
ship officials in solving mutual problems. I did not
need to reverse my public airport position as it al-
ways favored realignment. The reference to the Mayor's
seat and a possible Council majority referred to my
intention to improve relationships and communications
with the Pittsfield township area planning process. Hav-
ing seen my entire letter to the GOP County Commis-
sioners, Ms. Chessler conveniently overlooks the multi-
tude of issues discussed including super sewer, the
83D plan, airport annexation, township islands within
the city,' police powers, water supplies, the proposed
county/city court house, the old jail site, the old post
office site, drains and GOP council/GOP. commissioner
communications. If Ms. Chessler reads only "airport"
in my letter she is missing the point my letter ad-
dressed itself 'to and that is the fact that I will make
every effort to improve our relationships with all town-
ship governments.,
As to the taxpayer's subsidizing the airport one
must note that the majority of debt incurred and now
being paid was incurred by Democrat Robert Harris
and his Democrat/HRP Council majority in March
of 1972. Currently the airport debt repayment is $236,175
per year and of this amount $151,875 goes to retire the
1972 1.6 Iillion dollar bond issue (It should also be
noted that $875,000 of the 1972 bond issue remains un-
spent and in the bank drawing interest).
" There are no plans to spend any of the remaining
$875,000 and this sum plus- interest accrued will be
used to pay off the bonds at the earliest permitted
momnt sometime after 1981. The $87,000 Ms. Chessler
refers to for repairing runway 6-24 is not coming from
local taxes but from a State approved rebate to the
airport of 1.2 million dollars which includes a fourth-
coming $200,000 rebate for previous airport land ac-
quisitions that could be used for'the $87,000 local match.
The remaining $113,000 could be used for the local
match to pave the sod 12-30 runway or the $80,000
needed to realign 12-30 into a 10-28 runway. So in fact
Ms. Chessler is wrong. Also included in the annual debt,
retirement of $236,175 is $72,540 for airport land pur-
chases and $11,750 for the administration building debt.
All but $29,000 of the $72,540 land debt disappears after
next year and the remaining $29,000 terminates after
the next year. The other important point is that the
airport will have an operational surplus of around $5,000
this current fiscal year.
port as' an irritant and
at all the benefits from
airpark land contains:
" Four major city water wells providing 1 5
of our total usable water supply.
" A ten-acre tree farm that provides all new tree
plantings for the city.
" Income producing farm land that is leased
to area farmers.
* An important green belt buffer zone and open space.
The "additional" runway that I am said to favor
building is already there! It is unpaved and dangerous
to pilots and passengers. I have no intention of adding
any runways as implied. I only favor' realigning the
current sod (12-30) runway into a paved east-west
(10-28) runway when financially and technically feasi-
ble. We would end up with two runways 6-24 and 10-28
instead of the present 6-24sand 12-30. This is not ex-
pansion! It must be stressed that while the prevail-
ing winds on runway 10-28 might not be as advantage-
ous to aircraft, the approach over the dump would be
safer for area residents. Regardless of what motives
Ms. Chessler attributes to me, my main concern has
been and will continue to be safety!
If Ms. Chessler has indeed attended countless meet-
ings, public hearings, etc., etc., one wonders why she
hasn't been able to get it straight. The timing of these
personal attacks on my integrity by Ms. Chessler and
Ms. Perkins is purely political and is intended to side-
track my campaign. Mr. Wheeler and I have agreed
to run an issue-orientedfcampaign and we, have. The
only "Red Herring" so far seems to have come from
those who consider themselves above issues.
Editor's note: Mr. Belcher has been publicly attacked
for taking -two' different stands on the expansion of
the City Airport. One of those critics was Ms. Chessler:
to whom this response .-was written. Since we have
also attacked Mr. Belcher on this issue, we are print-
ing his reply to Ms. Chessler as a response to our
charges also.
Ms. Chessler views the air-
nuisance, but we must look
this 650 acres of land. The
L.
ANN MARIE LIPINSKI
Editors-in-Chief
JIM TOBIN
MSA NOTES:
KEN PARSIGIAN---------....-Editorial Director
LOIS JOSIMOVICH......-......---..Arts Editor
JAY LEVIN -Managing Editor
GEORGE LOBSENZ------------.Managing Editor
MIKE NORTON---------Managing Editor
MARGARET YAO--------------.Managing Editor
Weater Forecasters
MARK ANDREWS and MIKE GILFORD
SUSAN ADES nELAINE FLETCHER
Magazine Editors
S AFFW WEII'ERS: Owen Barr. Susan Barry.
Brian Blanchard, - Mlchael Beckman, Phillip
Bokovoy, Linda Brenners, Lor Carruthers, Ken
Cl-otiner. Eileen Dale : Ron DleKet, Lisa Fish-
er, David Goodman, .Marnie Fleyn, Robb Halm-
es, Michael Jones, Lnni Jordan, Janet Klein.
U: egg Kruppa, Steve Kursman, Dobilas Matu-
iis, Stu McConnell Tom MeyerJenny Mil-
er, Patti Montewurri, Tom O'Connell, Jon
Panasius, Karen Paul Stephen Pickover, Kim
Potter. Martha Retallick, Keith Richburg, Bob
Rorenbaurn, Denis o,. umreSha
Elizabeth Slowik, Ton Stevens, Jim Stimpson,
?.like Taylor. Pauline Toole, Mark Wagner, Sue
Warner, Shelley Wowin, Mike Yellin, Laurie
Young and Barb zahs.
The" lowdown
on
By IRVING FREEMAN
THIS COMING Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday; April 4-6; is the All-Cam-,
pus Election conducted by the Michigan
Student Assembly (MSA). In addition to
choosing among twenty-nine candidates
for nine vacancies on the Assembly, the
students also have the opportunity to
vote on numerous ballot questions.
There are four proposed amendments-
to the All-Campus Constitution. The first
amendment would add sexual preference.
as one of the unreasonable, discrimina-
toy considerations that are prohibited
by the Bill of Rights. The section would
then prohibit discrimination on the basis
of race, color, sex, social class, political
views, national origin, -religious creed,
and sexual preference. Another amend-
ment clarifies the duties of the MSA
Steering Committee and its members and
makes the committee more accountable
to the full Assembly. The third procedur-
al type amendment changes the Pream-
ble and Article I of the constitution. It
asserts the right of students to partic-
ipate in University decision making and
sets up some safeguards to ensure that
student governments are democratically
constituted.
THE FINAL constitutional amend-
ment is designed to make it more diffi-
cult for outside groups to take student
money by the use of an initiative peti-
tion. Currently, any group which receives
' a certain number of petition signatures
can put a question on the ballot which
then requires a majority for passage.
This amendment would increase the vote
needed to 75 per cent whenever the bal-
lot question would give student money
to an outside group.
\ There' are two ballot questions that
ask the students to temporarily assess
themselves small sums to be used for
specific MSA projects. One would au-
the MSA
thorize the Assembly to collect twenty-
five cents per student per term to con-
tinue the MSA Housing Law Reform Pro-
ject and for related housing oriented is-
sues. This highly successful program was
originally funded from surplus monies
left over from the Student Legal Advo-
cate Program which the students abol-
ished in a previous election, but now
needs this funding in order to continue.
The other proposal asks for fifteen cents
per student per term for a comprehen-
sive University wide course evaluation
project. Both fees would last for one
year beginning in September 1977. /
THE CHILD CARE ACTION CENTER
put an initiative on the ballot (by peti-
tion) to allocate themselves $7,500 of stu-
dent money. This sum represents ap-
proximately 90 per cent of MSA's an-
nual budget for allocations to outside
groups. The Child Care Action Center
takes care of approximately thirty chil-
elections
dren some of whom are not the children
of University of Michigan students. The
$7,500 is equavalent to the MSA fee of
10,000 students for. one semester. Need-
less to say, the Assembly does not feel
that the money of so many students
should go to benefit so few and encour-
ages a "NO".vote.
Also on the ballot are two survey
type questions from which the Assem-
bly hopes to gauge the sentiments of
its constituents. One asks the students'
opinions of various types of priority sys-
tems for,CRISP. The results of this will
be used in negotiations with the admin-
istration for better registration proce-
dures. The fnal queston on the ballot
asks student opinion of allocations such
as the one proposed by the Child Care
'Action Center.
For further information concerning
the election or MSA in general, please
call our office at 76.-3241. Also, please
vote on April 4-6.
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Letters
to
the Daily
To The Daily:
Yur article concerning the
Tenants' Union application f o r
CDBG funding which was print-
ed March 22 contained some in-
accuracies that should be re-
tracted. First, your article stat-
ed that the Tenants' Union had
applied and been granted CDBG
funds previous to the application
that came up March21. This is
not true. The application which
was voted down was our first
try at CDBG funding. Secondly,
your article, by stating that the
"T.U.'s current CDBG contract
expires August 21", implies or
at least leaves open to question
the possibility, that we may be
having financial difficulties at
that time. This also is not true.
We were unsure about receiving
CDBG funding and therefore
never depended on this poten-
tial funding source to meet our
costs. The CDBG money would
have gone to expanding o u r
services in the most needed
areas of the City, not to fund-
ing activities already - existing.
The Tenants' Union will not suf-
fer organizationally from not re-
ceiving CDBG money, the in-
creased number of tenants we
could have aided. will.
-Kim Keller,
TU Legal coordinator
Belcher
To the Daily:_
In your March 31 issue, you
recounted some charges and
countercharges concerning mis-
leading literature in the mayoral
campaign. You quoted several
remarks I made. However, you
did not quote my response to the
major accusation by Mr. Bel-
cher's camp, and this made the
article incomplete.
Belcher claims that we mis-
lead by comparing his pot stance.
on campus with his vote on city
council. He says he changed his
mind and admitted that. The
point is, he had admitted it only
one place; on campus, where the
admission will- get him votes.
Mr. Belcher has had hundreds of
lines of ads and literature on
dozens of issues going out to
nonstudent voters. Not once has
the pot law .issue been mention-
ed!. Thus people in town natur-
ally assume that his position is
the same it always was -
against the $5 fine. This is what
he wants. He is saying one thing
to students and letting the rest
of Ann Arbor think the oppos-
ite. If this isn't misleading, then
Richard Nihon was St. Francis
of Assissi.
This sort of thing summarizes
Mr. Belcher's whole campaign.
His student literature is design-
ed to portray him as ' a fighting
liberal, only coincidentally a Re-
publican. This is not the man
the rest of Ann Arbor knows. We
have simply been trying to place
these two images side by side,
for everyoneto see, so that they
know about both Belchers when
making up their minds.
-Dave Ettinger
correction
To the Daily:
In Elizabeth Slowik's report on
the LSA Faculty meeting of
March 28 I was accurately quot-
ed, but I was inaccurately de-
scribed as an "opponent of the
plan" offered by Professor Fad-
er.
I urged the faculty to seek, in
the long term, means of improv-
ing student writing skills via in-
creased effort at the secondary
school level. At the same time. I
expressed my support for the
Fader plan as a significant step
for the present, and I voted in
favor of the plan..
-Martin Stiles
THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL / -j /
DIST 4ILDIWSPA P PSYMDICATE.1977 / ,/ 'K///4/////lj
'Why don't we discuss your campgn to eliminate government
frills'over hire, Mr. President? personal $12,763 a year cook
makes a marvelous standingrib roast!'
Editorials and cartoons that
appear on the riqht sidehof
the Editorial Paqe are the
opinion of the a utior or
artist, and not necessarily
the opinion of the paper.
J
Spoiledath
I'VE ALWAYS BEEN an avid sports fan; both as a spectator
and a participant. I still love to participate, but I'm rap-
idly becoming soured towards the spectator side of athletics.
Professional dnd collegiate athletics have ceased to be fun
and games - they're now purely big business operations, and
the owners and players just don't give a damn about the fans.
Up until recently, I always attended athletic events. When
I lived in Detroit I'd .get to as many Tiger, Lion and Wing
games as I could. When I moved to New Jersey, I'd always
go to Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden when the
Detroit teams rolled into town.
A favorite sports memory is of my first trip to Yankee
Stadium -- the old Yankee Stadium - to see the Tigers in
a twin-bill. My friend and, I got lost on the New York sub-
ways, and we ended up at Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn be-
fore we realized that the Bronx was tptown. We missed four
innings of a Les Cain almost no-hitter. A friend of my mother's
had gotten us seqts in the president of Seagrams Liquor's pri-
vate box - front row mezzanine. We got kicked out of the
s'eats by two different ushers,. who couldn't believe that we
weren't ticketed for the bleachers. To this day, Seven and
Seven's are one of my favorite drinks. Anywa-y, the Tigers
etes,high t
Time was when I could name every player on every roster
of all the major sports, and probably give you his number,
batting average, yards-per-carry or free-throw percentage. But
since expansion, I probably couldn't even name half the All-.
Stars in the National Hockey League.
But now I won't go to a pro game anymore. I hardly ever
watch sports on TV or listen to games on the radio. When I
turn to the sports page of the paper, more often than not, I
thing I'm reading the business and finance section, or the front
page.
fcket prices
game or, about the fans that come to watch them and pay
their dividends and salaries.
All pretenses have ended. The rich owners decided that
if they couldn't produce a winning team through trading and
drafting, then they would buy a winner. The players used this
owner greed to their best advantage and salaries have sky-
rocketed beyond all reasonable bounds. As salaries, rise, own-
er expenses rise, and guess who pays the difference?
Now that the courts have declared sports a free market,
players can auction off their services to the highest bidder.
,The first annual baseball free-agent derby held this past win-
ter made millionaires out of some very meagerly talented ath
letes. And who pays these millionaires?
IT IS NO LONGER FINANCIALLY FEASIBLE to attend
a sporting event. It's no longer fun to attend either. I person-
ally have no desire to whip out twenty bucks to cheer for a
"team" of individual prima donnas who probably won't be
on the team next year anyway.
The feeling is that these people are entitled to get all they
can out of a relatively short career, and that if the owners
are willing to pay, its okay. But its not the owners who are
paying, its the fans. And soon, they won't be able to afford
ruin"sports
AND EVEN THE ARENAS that sports are played in are
changing. It seems that athletics have moved into the court
room. Instead of discussing the Super Bowl or the Masters,
major topics for sports discussion center around Finley ver-
sus Kuhn, Rudi versus Finley, National football League Play-
ers Association versus the Rozelle rule and the reserve clause.
If this keeps up all sports fans will have to become well
versed in constitutional history, and legal procedure just to
keep abreast with the pro sports world.
It's no different in college athletics either. College sports
are no longer for fun, they're big business also. Schools are
going to any lengths to put out a winner, including cheating
on recruiting and begging for super conferences. Here at
Michigan, we have one of the best (our teams win, win, win)
sports programs in the country. The fans are among the most
loyal in the country. How does the athletic department, re-
ward the students for their loyalty? In all probability students
will have to pay $4 a game for home football tickets, next
year - up from $3 - and $3 a game for basketball - up
from $1,
In effect, what they're saying to us with these price in-
creases is "we've given you the privilege of a winner, now
THE OWNERS AND I
sports out of me. Once it
team play and loyalty ar
PLAYERS have taken all love for
mportant ideals like sportsmanship,
re very difficult to find in sports
'l( Uir'1F7o If *AL