Page 10-Friday, July 6, 1979-The Michigan Daily
Traffic
By TIM YAGLE
and PATRICIA HAGEN
Despite traffic congestion and chilly
weather, the Fourth of July Ann Arbor
fireworks prompted the traditional
ooohs and aaahs from an estimated
40,000 spectators at the Ann Arbor Air-
port.
Officials from the airport, police, and
Jaycees said they were generally
pleased with the staging of the state's
second largest display of fireworks,
held for the first time at the airport.
Ways to improve next year's show
and solve the traffic problems already
are being discussed.
OVERALL, "WE'RE really
pleased," said Ann Arbor Jaycee Gary
Stripp, who coordinated the display. He
attributed the traffic congestion to the
"larger than expected" crowd, which
he estimated at 40,000 "at least."
"One of the major problems was get-
ting people in and out," Stripp ex-
plained. This resulted in an "halacious
traffic snarl," he added.
Cars were backed up for miles on
State St. and other roads leading to the
airport before and after the show Wed-
nesday night.
"WE RAN OUT of (parking) space at
the airport," said airport director John
Rinehart. After the 11 acres planned for
parking were filled, about seven more
acres on the airport grounds were filled
with cars.
snarls fireworks
According to Rinehart, the fireworks
were delayed to allow more people to
park at the airport. He said parking lots
at nearby Research Park and Briar-
wood Mall also were filled, further
compounding the traffic problems
when the show ended.
Impatient groupe, clustered on the
grass with coolers of pop and beer,
began clapping and chanting when the
display failed to begin as scheduled at
10 p.m.
PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP Police
Chief William Holifield said some
drivers of the estimated 15,000 cars
grew impatient while waiting to park
and tried to turn around. The resulting
bottlenecks caused further congestion
on State St.
The 40-minute display ended at about
11:15 p.m. but exiting traffic was tied
up for over an hour, Pittsfield Police LI.
Frank Pesta said.
"I understand a lot of people were up-
set" about the traffic problems, said
Stripp. He said he hoped people would
be understanding, since this was the
first year the airport hosted the display.
"We're trying to get the bugs out," he
added.
THE INDEPENDENCE Day display
was moved to the airport because of
traffic and crowd problems at Buhr
Park in past years.
Some spectators complained that the
fireworks were launched too far away
from the viewing area. Stripp said this
was done for safety reasons, but added
next year the firing would be moved
closer to the crowd.
Funding the show is a major problem
the Jaycees face every year in putting
on the display, but money was tighter
than usual this year, Stripp said.
"We're about $3,000 short," Stripp
said. The show usually costs between
$11,000 and $12,000. He said the
remaining funds probably would be
made up from additional corporate
donations.
BETWEEN $1,800 and $2,000 was
earned by charging $1 per car to park at
the airport, Stripp said. "We wanted it
to remain a free show," he explained,
but the shortage of funds necessitated
the parking fee for the first time.
Stripp said the Jaycees hope the
parking fee will not be needed next
year.
No injuries or arrests were reported
at the event. According to Pesta, 20 of-
ficers directed traffic and patrolled the
crowds. Between $50 and $60 worth of
fireworks were confiscated from in-
dividuals, Pesta estimated.
DESPITE COMPLAINTS about the
distance of the display and the length of
time between launchings, most spec-
tators seemed to enjoy the night-
display
illuminating flashes and resounding
booms.
One spectator, LSA junior Harold
Bidlack, said he was pleased with the
display.
"Imthought they were neat," he ex-
claimed. "We were in a good position
(to see them)." Bidlack and four frien-
ds sat a few hundred feet south of the
airport.
COMPARING Wednesday's show to
previous displays at Buhr Park,
Bidlack said there was less of a traffic
problem and more open space around
the airport.
Duane Gall, a recent University
graduate, agreed with Bidlack on the
quality of the display but said he did not
like the tremendous crowds.
"It (the display) was neat but it was a
real mob scene," he explained. "The
most prominent feature of the display
was the crowd, not the fireworks. It was
so crowded," Gall continued, "that I
would not want to go again."
The dazzling rapid-fire finale
drowned out even the enthusiastic
cheers and applause from the
somewhat restless audience, as 20 per
cent of the fireworks were set off at the
end.
The Ann Arbor Film Cooperative Presents at MLB
FRIDAY, JULY 6
INTERIORS
(Woody Allen, 1978) 7.8:40, 10:20-MLB 3
Often compared to the works of Ingmar Bergman and Eugene O'Neill,
INTERIORS is Woody Allen's look at the turbulent interrelationships be-
tween an artistic domineering mother, her estranged husband and their
three daughters. Stars DIANE KEATON, GERALDINE PAGE, and MAUREEN
STAPLETON.
Tomorrow: RETURN OF THE DRAGON and
CHINESE CONNECTION
CINEMA II
PRESENTS
THE HARDER THEY COME
PERRY MENZELL, 1973
An exotic glimpse of Jamaican life in this first film from the isle of reefer. A
violent tale of a young innocent who comes to seek his fortune as a pop star
and ends up as a renegade desperado. Based on a true story. Reggae music by
Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, the Slickers, and others throbs with vitality
throughout the film. "The Harder They Come" has more guts, humor, and sheer
exuberance than most movies you'll see in any one year of moviegoing."-
Vincent Canby. (100 min)
7:30 & 9:30 Aud A AngeLHall $1.50
i
1
1
i
i
Bill may guarantee state
input on new power plants
LANSING (UPI) - Legislation "The decisions result from a costly
giving the state a better grip on the con- non-system, a crazy-quilt mixture of of-
struction of power plants and increased ten redundant permits and hearings
input into determining whether new which take years to complete but work
plants are needed was introduced against sound decision making," he
yesterday in the state House. said.
"At the present time, about the only "If you pay utility bills you have a
decisions on behalf of the public made stake in whether a multi-million dollar
by a public agency about public utilities plant is needed or, for example,
are how high the rates must be," said whether the same energy need can be
the bill's sponsor, Rep. H. Lynn Jondahl met by a program of energy conser-
(D-East Lansing). vation. Today, such an alternative is
"The original decisions concerning a not reviewed."
plant, such as is it necessary, how large Currently, he said, the public has lit-
it should be, what fuel it should use and tle input in site selection and there is no
where it should be located, to a large mechanism to review the combined ef-
degree determine what electricity price fects of power piant construction -
consumers will be charged once the such as environmental and economic
plant is operating. aspects.
ONCE IT IS operating or even once
the construction has begun, however, A (I I
mistakes previously made in the sACLU es
decision process are enormously dif-
ficult - sometimes impossible - and F B I . v
always very expensive to rectify." er
Jondahl said utility plant construc-
tion decisions - for which every elec-
trical user pays - now are made "in a
variety of places by a variety of people
with no cohesive nor coherent con-
sideration of need or of possible alter-
natives."
w±1 I ~ :~ :] :~Dustiniloffinan
5th Avenue'st LibertySt. 761-9700o
Formerly Fifth Forum Theater
Vanessa Redgrave
3rd and FINAL WEEK!
"AGATHA' is a good movie, very slick, very stylish
entertainment'"
-Ann Arbor News
Friday 6:00-8:00-10:00
Friday, $1.50 til 6:30
Sat-Sun 1:50 3:50 6:00 8:00 10:00
Adults $1.50 til 2:15
-L
activist's
slaying
'Continued fromwPage 3)
the killing and is slated to stand trial in
Alabama this fall.
ACLU attorney Jack Novik said the
statute of limitations has not run out on
the case because "the FBI concealed
evidence."
Simon said FBI documents released
under the Freedom of Information Act
at the ACLU's request showed Rowe
was hired to infiltrate the Klan in 1959
and also played a major role in assaults
on Freedom Riders in 1961 and the
bombing of a black church in Bir-
mingham, Ala., in 1963.
THE DOCUMENTS also included in-
ternal memos from Hoover instructing
FBI investigators to make Liuzzo's in-
volvment with her black passenger
"look like a necking party" and or-
dering sperm and drug tests as part of
her autopsy.