Wednesday, June 2, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Oregon daily
Volume 83
Number 164
Athletic fee debate reaches impasse
By Dane Claussen
O/Mm Emerald
After months of meetings, ASUO
officials and the University athletic
department appear to have declared an
impasse in negotiations over student
incidental fee support of athletics for
next year
A May 28 letter from E M. Easterly, the
athletic department's business manager,
says that the department wants to stand
firm on an incidental fee subsidy of $15
per student per term
Representatives from both sides will
meet today in an effort to come to an
agreement
Easterly's letter was written in re
sponse to a May 20 letter from former
ASUO Pres Rich Wilkins and Karsten
Rasmussen, former Incidental Fee Com
mittee chairer, which says the ASUO is
standing firm on $14 per student per
term.
The $1 difference would mean about a
$40,000 difference to the athletic
department, which has already cut its
budget for next year by $60,000, ac
cording to Dave Gibson, ASUO vice pre
sident for administration and finance and
a member of the ASUO’s negotiating
team.
Gibson said the position of Easterly’s
letter was "expected.”
“It’s a tight issue because they (the
athletic department) are having prob
lems all the way around,” he says.
The athletic department has not asked
for as much money as in the past
because it has been receptive to the idea
that many students believe it receives too
much incidental fee support, Gibson
says.
"We basically feel that it’s still too
much,” he says.
Easterly says negotiations with the IFC
have been "fruitful and helpful” but the
ASUO and athletic department decided
to involve a third party — the administra
tion.
“Everyone has been amicable and
forthright all the way around,” he says,
adding that this is especially true in light
of past relations between the department
and the ASUO.
The exchange of letters between the
ASUO and athletic department was the
only major development in the negotia
tions since May 3 when the IFC approved
an overall subsidy of $563,586 and a
policy that the ASUO will assume no
responsibility for underrealized student
ticket sales. The figure is up 3.5 percent
from this year's base subsidy of $544,066
— or a total of $14 rather than this year's
$12 per student, per term — but excludes
this year's guarantee of an average of $5
per student, per term in student ticket
sales.
This year that additional $5 guarantee
cost the ASUO $130,000 from surplus
funds because of low attendance at ath
letic events — making the actual ASUO
subsidy about $15 per term.
Gibson said at the May 3 IFC meeting
that "at $15, they’d (the athletic depart
ment) actually make a profit of $10,000
(next year).”
MOSQUITO!
Control switch means bites
By Marian Green
OHmammM
Lane County residents will be slapping and
scratching away at more mosquitoes and bites this
summer than in 25 years, says a county mosquito
control supervisor.
A switch from synthetic pesticide methods
to natural methods of mosquito control is the
main reason for the increase, says John Callicrate.
vector (disease-causing organisms) management
supervisor at the county Environment Health
Department
Two years ago, the county controlled 22 different
species of mosquitoes "because that's how many
there are in Lane County," Callicrate says. But public
concern caused the county to examine the pros and
cons of synthetic control and to switch to alternative
methods, such as using bacteria and mosquito-eating
fish to combat the disease-causing mosquito popula
tion.
“Lane County is sort of unique in that a large
portion of its citizenry is interested in doing this,”
Callicrate says.
“This summer there will be more mosquitoes than
we've had in 25 years,” he says “It’s the first time in
25 years that we've used natural controls ”
For the past 10 years, the county has used
helicopters to spray malathion over thousands of
acres at a cost of $1 an acre to combat the various
mosquito species.
THE ALTERNATIVE METHODS are much more
expensive, costing $12.50 to spray each acre, which
means the department can control only those mos
quitoes that cause malaria and encephalitis, Cal
ficrate adds
The county still will retain the spraying ability in
case of a major outbreak of disease-carrying mosqui
toes,
“If we had more money, we could control more,
but we don't. Nobody's got money now," he says.
Callicrate says that unlike most county opera
tions, his budget received an increase from $100,000
to $150,000. "Even in the midst of these budget-cut
ting times, in order to do this reduced level of control
requires that our budget be increased 50 percent.”
He says the environmental health department
legally has “the responsibility to protect the com
munity from disease" but is not responsible for
allergies and infections resulting from scratching
mosquito bites.
"It would become a political issue far in advance
of a legal issue," he says. "There's always this hassle
between what the technician wants to deliver, what
the bureaucrat wants to pay for, and what the people
want."
LAST YEAR the department began cutting back
on spraying synthetic pesticides at Fern Ridge, Do
rena and Cottage Grove reservoirs, says Callicrate.
Those areas will “probably be worse” for mosquitoes
because the larvae laid there last year probably will
hatch this summer.
Pesky bugs plague nation
From Associated Prsss Rsport*
“It doesn't look like it's going to be a very good
year for humankind,” says state entomologist Marius
Wasbauer in California, where flocks of chickens have
been enlisted in a battle against the bugs "We've got
a bumper crop of mosquitoes.”
An unusually wet spring has brought similar
warnings from officials across New England, the
Midwest and down into Texas, where some areas had
their wettest May on record and the state health
department is predicting an insect population boom
unparalleled in recent years.
An April blizzard that dumped a foot of snow
which quickly melted is blamed for encouraging
heavy breeding of mosquitoes in Connecticut.
Money is part of the problem in California, where
Proposition 13 cutbacks have slashed the mosquito
control budget by 50 percent to $8 million.
All of California’s 63 mosquito control districts
have been alerted, and a statewide surveillance
program has been put into operation. In 1981, 582
cases of malaria were brought into California, alth
ough the disease has been eradicated inside the
state
Texas authorities said the a “psorophora," or
floodwater mosquito, which breeds in puddles, will be
one of the most prevalent species there. Texans also
can expect to see another type, Culex pipiens, which
carries the dreaded St Louis encephalitis The Culex
pipiens likes to breed in water that contains sewage
and in water standing in containers such as flower
pots, old tires and pet dishes.
In some areas, such as the marshes of coastal
South Carolina, a war against mosquitoes is waged
with airplanes, helicopters and four-wheel-drive vehi
cles.
Graphic by Michael Schafbuch
By next summer, the county could have "by far,
the largest mosquito population that anyone can
remember.”
Callicrate says the trend to switch from synthetic
to natural controls is just "evolution.” The United
States first banned the pesticide DDT, using malath
ion and similar pesticides instead, and now natural
controls gradually are replacing the synthethic pes
ticides, he explains.
What can residents do to keep from being eaten
alive?
Callicrate says the repellent business is booming,
with a host of items ranging from home remedies,
such as taking certain vitamins and eating garlic to
expensive electronic devices, which emit a high
frequency noise that repels insects.
“The problem with a lot of these is you end up
repelling everybody else,” says Callicrate, who does
not endorse the electronic or home remedies.
Callicrate recommends a mosquito repellent his
department uses called Muskol, which has the highest
concentration (95 percent) of an effective ingredient
called “Deet."
RESIDENTS CAN PREVENT mosquito re
production by ridding any containers of standing
water, changing water in troughs or wading pools and
stocking ponds where mosquito production is likely to
occur with Qambusia minnows — "mosquito fish.”
Mosquitoes reproduce in standing \*<ater, free
from wind or wave motion and can hatch in 3s few as
four days during a hot summer.
Free Gambusia fish are available from the envir
onmental health department, 125 E 8th Ave. from 8:30
a m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Residents must provide
their own containers, preferable one or two-quart jars.
For the business minded, Callicrate has other
advice.
"If you had stock in some repellent company,
you'd probably make a killing this summer."