V
Vol. 76, No. 24 Eugene, Oregon 97403
Fair through Sunday, morning
clouds, highs in the 80's.
Wednesday, August 21, 1974
Recycler revamps management, gets funds
BRING on those bottles and cans!
By PHIL WALDSTEIN
Of the Emerald
BRING, the community recycling agency that last week
seemed to be divisively split and financially on the ropes,
put itself back together during a meeting Tuesday night
and will reopen at the end of August with full recycling
services, county funding and a new formal management
structure.
At Tuesday's meeting the BRING membership
unanimously gave a vote of confidence to a BRING board
resolution that calls for a general manger and four
coordinators to run the recycling agency.
Joy Ledbetter, president of the board, said the Lane
County Commissioners grant of an additional $8,000 for
the warehouse facilities was conditional upon BRING
having a formal management structure. "They, in so
Noticed any extra-large moles lately?
Doubtless, many students have
cast curious glances at the big
holes that recently appeared at a
number of places on campus.
Contrary to rumors flying around
the Emerald's office, the Univer
sity is not constructing swimming
pools. The holes will become
underground homes for power
transformers to boost the Univer
sity's current electrical output.
The present system tends to
become overloaded during per
iods of heavy demand. The
transformers will also regulate the
circuit's output so that available
power could be more evenly
distributed.
Photo by John Dong
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many words, called for a general manager," Ledbetter
said.
The $8,000 from the county for recycling machinery at
the warehouse is added to a previously alloted $4,000 for
trucking the disposables to a recycling plant.
Before the vote, several members of BRING who had
earlier wanted a collective worker organization said the
important thing was to get BRING working again. They
voiced their support for the new management structure.
Ledbetter said that since last week, when reports of a
mass resignation and split of the board over a
management structure had been reported, she had
contacted all but two members of the board and gained
their agreement to the new structure.She said she was
sure the other two board members could be back in the
organization.
A personnel committee of the board will advertise the
five management positions in local newspapers and have
the responsibility of hiring and firing, Ledbetter said. The
committee will also act on workers' grievances against
the general manger. Tom Meek, a regula BRING
volunteer, will coordinate warehouse operations until the
positions are filled.
Board member Maradel Gale said the four coordinators
would be paid equally from BRING profits with a wage
goal of $2.25 an hour. The general manager would receive
10 per cent more than the coordinators.
The four positions under the general manager consist of
(Continued on Page 8)
Mobile field burners making hazy progress at best
Farmers in the Willamette Valley
are looking very quickly at
alternatives to open field burning,
since the ban passed by the 1971
Legislature goes into effect next
January 1. And they are looking at
mobile, self-contained burners.
Two of the propane-fuelled
burners were shown at work in a
field next to Mahlon Sweet
Ariport Tuesday as part of the
Oregon Seed Council's press tour.
A forced draft burner which can
Ford seeks
four more
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Presi
dent Ford “has every intention"
of running for a full term in 1976,
vice presidential nominee Nelson
Rockefeller said Tuesday.
Rockefeller said he and Ford
discussed the 1976 campaign
when Ford offered him the vice
presidency. The former New York
governor said Ford discussed his
own plan to run but did not talk
about whether or not Rockefeller
would be his running mate in that
campaign.
Asked if Ford told him that he
would seek a full term. Rockefeller
replied: "He has every intention of
it—that was my impression, and
that's what I urged."
"What he wants to do in regards
to a running mate is up to him,"
Rockefeller said, adding that Ford
"talked about himself but not
about me."
burn 3.5 acres per hour (100 feet
per minute) was operating well,
despite rain-dampened field.
Another type, called an induced
draft burner had problems with its
newly installed propane ignition
system.
According to Glen Odell,
engineer and coordinator for the
state field burning committee, the
name "induced draft" burner is a
misnomer since both burners use
large fans at the top to force air
into the combustion chambers.
Odell said that "under ideal
conditions, we only need propane
to ignite the burners." Since the
field was not dry, a propane torch
had to be held alongside the
burner to keep it going.
The burners are not entirely
smoke-free, however. Firing
stacks or chambers have not yet
been developed to withstand the
intense heat needed for clean
combustion. Insulation for the
present burners has proved too
costly, according to Ruby
Ringsdorf, wife of the farmer who
leases the field used in Tuesday's
experiments.
Farmers are seeking a lifting or
moratorium on the 1975 ban until
the burners can be perfected. The
forced draft burner logged only
about 100 hours burning time last
season.
Another alternative to open field
burning is baling and cubing of
straw. Several firms are mass
producing baled straw for local
livestock farmers and for export to
Japan. Individual growers are also
doing this, but Ringsdorf said it
might eventually become im
practical for her husband to bale
the straw. "Wire costs have
tripled, and our fuel cost has
doubled," she said.
There has also been opposition
in the past from cities affected by
inversions and wind shifts that
hold the smoke over the
Willamette Valley. Politicians have
also expressed opposition to a
permanent lifting of the 1975 ban.
Some, such as Nancy Hayward
and Wickes Beal of the Lane
Regional Air Pollution Authority,
have objected very strongly to any
lifting of the ban. They felt the
farmers have not made enough
effort to find alternatives.
Others, such as former
gubernatorial candidate and
current U.S. Senate candidate
Betty Roberts, have favored a
temporary lifting of the ban to
allow work to be completed on
the alternatives.
■a
Photo by Warren Morgan
Experimental field burning machine in operation burning would not be allowed after December 31,
Tuesday near Eugene's Mahlon Sweet Airport. The 1974.
1971 Oregon Legislature stated that open field