Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 47

10D DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, ROCHESTER, N.Y.. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1984 nnfcQ nnn norjEY nnmiET dates This week's money market account interest rates offered at area institutions are listed on 7D. Democrat ana (fbronirk X.i in hundreds 60' Domestic-aj 50 45 I 40 35 30 25 Car sales improve Democrat and Chronicle Business Local new-car sales rebounded last month after a slowdown in September, according to figures from the Rochester Automobile Dealers' Association. Dealers in Monroe County registered 3,954 domestic-model cars for the month, up 23 percent from a month before and the highest total since July. Sales of imported autos rose 18 percent to 737 for the month.

Compared with October 1983, domestic sales gained 18 percent and imports were ahead by 17 percent Chevrolet models were the most popular in October among American-made cars with 1,205 sales, followed by Ford (710) and Buick (447). Datsun led imports with 197, along with Toyota (191) and Honda (152). So far this year, 48,247 cars have been sold 41,095 domestic, up 19 percent from the 1983 period, and 7,152 imports, off 3 percent. The RADA predicts 56,200 cars will be sold this year, which would be 15 percent more than 1983 and the best annual performance since 1977. 10.

-Imported- Stock market ends mixed Associated Press The stock market closed mixed yesterday after a quiet, meandering session. Only a few big-name issues, responding to corporate developments, posted more than fractional price changes. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down about 4 points at midday, wound up with a .33 gain at 1,206.93. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to 73.94 million shares, against 69.79 million Tuesday. In the five trading days after last week's election, the Dow Jones industrial average had recorded a net decline of 37.55 points.

Analysts said that brought stock prices down to levels where they began to attract increased buying interest. But they also said traders remained uneasy about the outlook for the federal budget and the economy in 1985. Meanwhile, there has been growing talk on Wall Street of a possible economic slump. American Express led the active list, down $1,125 at $34,625. The company said it made a $200 million contribution to the surplus of its Fireman's Fund subsidiary, adding that the transfer would not affect fourth-quarter earnings.

Dorsey Corp. tumbled $3 to $27,375. The company said it bought back 1.06 million of its shares for $33 plus $1 in expenses apiece from an investment group. General Mills lost $2.25 to $51,625. The company expects lower earnings and plans to make a "substantial reduction" of employees at its Izod Ltd.

business. LOCAL STOCKS 1983-84 Salee High Low in 100 High Low Cloee Chg 55 40 American Can 635 49', 49 49- 69 45 Assoc Dry Goodi 1253 56V, 55 56 29V, 17 BauschaLomb 1479 27 26H 26- 59 44 Burroughs 645 54 54 54 36 25 Canandaigua Win 1 34 34 34 4- 17 12 Champion Prod. 1 14 14 14- 39 27 Citicorp 2627 35 35 35 66 49 Coca-Cola 1245 64 63 63 57 39 Colt 341 52 52 52 24 8 Computer Consoles 198 8 8 8 28 21 Curtice-Burna 3 27 27 27 54 42 OuPont 2509 47 47 47 78 60 Eastman Kodak 6001 74 73 74 -f 14 8 Fay'a 169 12 12 12 48 33 Gannett 556 44 43 44 82 61 General Motors 4607 78 77 78 54 39 General Signal 427 47 46 46 17 11 Gleason 22 13 12 12- 13 8 Graham 2 10 10 10 42 22 Harria 734 27 26 26 88 69 Minn. MiningMfg 995 82 81 82 32 23 Mobil 5286 29 28 28 V. 45.

31 Pennwalt 43 36 36 36 18 12 RGE 162 17 17 17 33 27 Rochester Tel 144 32 32 32- 42V, 29 Seara 4439 31 31 31- 25 16 Sybron 131 20 20 20 15 9 Voplex 52 33 Xerox 2119 37 37 37 52 week high; 52 week low; ex-dividend i i i i i i i i i i i i ONDJFMAMJ JASO '83 84 Sourct of data Rochester Automobile Dealers' Association Democrat Chronicle Dow Jones Industrials Wilshire value of 5,000 stocks $1,694,125 billion $1,344 billion Prime interest rate 11.75-12 percent unchanged Federal funds rate, near close 9.5 percent unchanged Gold price, New York $346.00 unchanged 1,206.93 A 0.33 OPEC cutback stabilizes prices, says Saudi oil minister OFEC-member Nigeria cut prices of their nations and resists the temptation to cheat Jobless rates fall in most states Unemployment rates in most states in September were lower than the levels of a year earlier, although joblessness did rise slightly in Alaska, Hawaii and North Dakota, the Labor Department said yesterday. Only three states Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia had double-digit unemployment. Michigan's jobless rate fell below 10 percent for the first time in more than two years. The national jobless rate for September was 7.1 percent, compared with 8.8 percent Countries may resume pumping at former levels Associated Press RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia's oil minister said yesterday that OPEC's production cutback appears to have stabilized world oil prices and that the cartel might be able to pump more oil starting next month. The minister, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, also said oil prices in the open market, which are not bound by long-term supply contracts, could rise "well above" official levels before OPEC's next scheduled meeting, Dec.

19, in Geneva, Switzerland. Last month, after Norway, Britain and a 4.1 -million-barrel daily production level in October. Yamani indicated that the kingdom's production would not be reduced further. The production level he reported compares with a 4.34 barrel-limit Saudi Arabia agreed to at the October OPEC meeting and is 1.4 million barrels below the previous quota of 5 million barrels. "We do not need to do more," Yamani said.

"What we are doing now is more than enough We are not concerned about where our production level will be, but whether (spot market) prices will rise well above" OPEC's benchmark. He suggested that OPEC could decide at its December meeting to return to production of 17.5 million barrels a day. oil by as much as $2 a barrel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries opted to defend its official benchmark price of $29 a barrel for Arabian Light oil by reducing its production ceiling by nearly 9 percent. On the spot market, the price of Arabian Light has since climbed from about $27 a barrel to about $28. At the same time, a wave of price cutting by U.S.

oil companies appears to have ended, with the price of the main domestic grade of oil leveling off about $1 to $1.50 a barrel below the levels of last month. Oil executives and analysts have said that oil prices could stabilize if OPEC maintains production discipline among its 13 member on quotas and prices if market conditions improve. OPEC's cutbacks temporarily reduced the cartel's production ceiling to 16 million barrels a day from 17.5 million. Meanwhile, Yamani, in an interview, estimated that world demand for OPEC oil currently stands at 19 million barrels a day and predicted demand will even be higher in December and January. "If we continue producing like this, and you continue drawing from reserves, we should have no problem" maintaining prices, he said.

Yamani said Saudi Arabia's oil production is currently running at 3.6 million barrels a day, down from what he had said was UJWfiDIM Building owners seek takeover of downtown steam heat system P'ff rX4 i Mi 4 seller of long distance telephone service in the Rochester and Binghamton areas, has filed rate reduction proposals with the New York Public Service Commission. If the reductions are approved, ACC's $10 monthly subscription fee will be eliminated and the minimum monthly bill will be reduced from $75 to $10. The reductions are expected to take effect in December. ACC President Dennis B. Dundon said ACC has improved the quality of its service by connecting directly to the national long distance network, bypassing Rochester Telephone Corp.

He said this speeds up processing and produces a clearer call because there is one less step in processing. Briefly CPAC Inc. of Leicester, Livingston County, reported a $19,000 loss on sales of $689,000 for the second fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30. Year-earlier sales were $638,000, with a profit of $23,000.

On six-month revenues of $1.3 million, the company had losses of $124,000, compared with a $23,000 profit on $1.2 million in sales for the same period in 1983. CPAC manufactures equipment for silver and chemical recovery in the photographic industry. Associated Press Under cover A non-profit cooperative asks state PSC's ok to run service will abandon By Phil Ebersole Democrat and Chronicle Business The owners of some of the largest buildings in downtown Rochester have formed a cooperative that may take over the steam heat system that Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. plans to abandon next Oct. 1.

The non-profit group, the Rochester District Heating Cooperative, or RDH for short, has asked the New York Public Service Commission for permission to take over the system. But Steamco, a proposed joint venture between David Thurston, a Rochester mechancial contractor, and Time Energy Systems Inc. of Houston, which also has asked to take over the system, won't withdraw in favor of RDH, Thurston said. The PSC now must decide whether to allow either of the two to take over the system, as well as whether to approve abandonment plan. RDH hopes to serve the area within the Inner Loop, with extensions north to Kodak Office and east to Genesee Hospital.

In that area are 61 of fewer than 100 remaining steam customers, according to RDH. Armand A. Lartigue of Xerox spokesman for the cooperative's management committee, said RDH should be able to cut costs of service by concentrating on a small geographic area and by installing a new super-efficient gas-fired boiler at a location yet to be chosen. Lartigue estimated the cost of a new gas-fired boiler at $5 million. Without a central system, the 10 largest remaining customers would have to spend more than $12 million for individual boilers for their buildings, he said.

Customers outside the service area would have to make their own arrangements to replace service, probably by buying new boilers. RDH also has asked for unregulated status on its steam rates. Since the cooperative's owners would be its customers, they'd have no reason to allow rates to go higher than necessary. Steamco's proposal calls for acquiring Station 8 on Lawn Street as a source of heat. Thurston said Station 8 has the advantage of being already built.

He also said the PSC should exercise some oversight on rates. steam system uses oil-fired Beebee Station on State Street as its main source of steam, and Station 8, which is fired by natural gas, for added steam during the coldest winter days. Lartigue said a preliminary study by Resource Develop-ment Associates of Dayton, Ohio, indicates that the RDH plan is practical. A final financial feasibility and legal-organizational plan is to be completed by Jan. 1.

Whether the RDH plan is successful, he said, depends on how many steam customers sign up, the terms for transfer of the system from and the price of natural gas. Lartigue is manager of facilities administration and services for Xerox Corp. and manages the Xerox Square complex. Other RHD directors are Lawrence E. Davies, Chase Lincoln First Bank; William Z.

Harper, Rochester Engineering Society; James E. Malone, Rochester city government; Gerald McDonald, Monroe County government; John Wolfe, Christ Episcopal Church of Rochester; Gerald Be-langer, Rochester Community Savings Bank; Elvin R. Cor-dingley, First Federal Savings and Loan Association; Carl R. VanNess, Temple building; Arnold Kovalsky, Kovalsky-Carr and Janice Chapman, YWCA of Greater Rochester. Eventually, Lartigue said, RDH would hope to shift to cheaper fuels, such as coal or solid waste.

But this won't be an option unless the steam system is retained. spokesman George Lappan said the utility will cooperate with "any legitimate proposal" for keeping the steam system going, although another rate increase probably would be required if it continues long after Oct 1. He said hasn't yet received any detailed proposal from RDH. The steam heating system was started by in 1889 to make use of steam from the boilers of its generating stations in downtown Rochester. In 1963, it served 621 customers, and was the fourth largest steam heat system in the United States.

Air pollution rules forced to change Beebee Station on State Street from a coal-fired plant to an oil-fired one. Increases in oil prices in the 1970s pushed steam rates up. Customers dropped off the system, and said this raised the cost of serving the remaining ones. But an RDH chart indicates continues to provide steam for such Rochester landmarks as Marine Midland Plaza, Lincoln First Tower, Xerox Square, the War Memo- -rial auditorium, the Civic Center complex, City Hall, Run-del library, the Wilder and Powers buildings, the downtown YWCA and Sibley's department store, not to mention own headquarters building. Last summer, the PSC decided that continuing the system wasn't feasible and ordered to submit a plan for abandoning it.

has submitted a plan, but the PSC hasn't approved it yet Workers about to be engulfed by top of tower of new impulse generator at Ftesearch Institute of Power Engineering in Soviet Union. A new software design firm, CAMDE has established an office at 46 Prince St. Founded in March by Craig McDonald, 31, CAMDE is developing software for the Apple Macintosh personal computer. The staff of four is now writing its first product, a software package for records and accounts in physicians' offices. McDonald, who lives in Penfield, previously worked as a product manager for EDMAC Corp.

Retail sales in October dropped for the third month out of the last four, raising concern about how good a Christmas merchants will have and prompting belief that the economy is mired in a period of very sluggish growth. The Commerce Department said retail sales dipped 0.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted $107.7 billion. Domestic auto sales fell 4.7 percent in early November compared with a year ago, the result of General Motors slow recovery from strikes. Ford Motor Co. sales were up 8.3 percent in the Nov.

1-10 period and Chrysler rose 18.4 percent. But GM so dominates the U.S. market that its 14.3 percent falloff for the period pulled down the industrywide figure. The U.S. government's Export-Import Bank posted a record loss of $343 million for the fiscal year ended Sept.

30, part of it stemming from Mexico's default on loans guaranteed by the bank. The bank encourages U.S. export sales of such items as Number of Kodak jobs here called 'unchanged' Democrat and Chronicle Business More people are now employed at Eastman Kodak Co. nationwide than at the end of 1988, and the number of Rochester jobs is "essentially unchanged," Henry J. Kaska, a Kodak spokesman, said yesterday.

He said Kodak is continuing to reduce its work force through attrition, but this is being offset by heavy hiring of scientists, engineers, technicians and skilled workers. The Los Angeles Times yesterday quoted Dave McCon-nell, coordinator of investor services for Kodak, as saying that "by the end of the year we expect employment to be down 4 percent or less" from the January 1984 level of 91,500, "mostly through attrition." Kaska said that state- ment isn't correct Take advantage of solar energy tax credit before it expires next year aVaiMaiiiiiiiiiiiiiMaiiiiiiiiiiMaiiMaiiiiiiiiiiiiKMaliiillllllli i i If VOllVfl Kppn thin Inner ah it inctalKnrr cMo U. iiaA neighbor from putting up a building that throws your roof- JflHE BRYANT QUlffll jet aircraft by arranging loans on subsidized terms to foreign businesses. Standard Poor's citing Con- itnental Illinois "significantly improved" financial situation, has upgraded Continental's debt ratings and removed the company from its CreditWatch list. Injuries and illnesses in workplaces occurred last year at the lowest rate in more than a decade, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday.

In a survey of 280,000 businesses, the Labor Department bureau said there were 7.6 incidents of injuries and illnesses for every 100 full-time workers in 1983, down from a 7.7 percent incidence rate the year before. Work-related fatalities also continued to decline, dropping to 3,100 last year compared with 4,090 in 1982 and 5,340 in 1973. Chrysler Corp. will delay its planned $250 million renovation and expansion of a Fenton, plant to continue producing the large, rear-wheel-drive "M-body" models now made at the plant, instead of starting to produce front-wheel-drive minivans. iiMvuuuig ct suioi uiis naici heater, try to do so in the next few months.

Solar energy makes financial sense for many only because of the federal income tax credit that sharply cuts the system's cost and that credit is due to expire at the end of 1985. Afterward, solar energy may not be worth the price. It is possible Congress will decide to extend the credit or phase it out over a number of years. But a bid to continue the tax break for solar energy failed last spring. If you wait until next summer to buy a solar heater, you may run into last-minute demand that will raise prices and cause shortages in the type of equipment you want.

Solar hot water systems cost an average of $4,100 plus installation, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The federal government lets you subtract 40 percent of the price from your income tax bill, up to a total tax credit of $4,000. The average system, then, would save you $1,640 in taxes, reducing its effective cost to $2,460. (The same credit is available for installing wind and geoth-ermal devices.) About half the states give you an additional credit against state income taxes, or some other form of incentive. Even with tax credits, the efficiency of solar heating depends on where you live.

If you heat your water with low-cost natural gas, you probably cannot save enough with solar to make it worthwhile. But if you heat with high-cost oil or electricity, the larger savings may give solar an edge. If you could save $300 a year in electricity bills by going solar (and you might, in areas where electricity costs are high), you would pay for the equipment, after taxes, in wy suiar collectors into me snaae. Although active solar heating systems are not as popular as proponents had hoped, passive solar techniques are spreading rapidly. More and more new houses are built with big windows facing south, small windows on the north, and interior heat collectors like tile over six inches of concrete or extra stone around a south-facing fireplace.

Some super-insulated designs rely entirely on the sun, with no back-up heating units except a fireplace. But most of these homes are put up by small custom builders. You get a 40 percent tax credit for engineered systems of passive heating, which distribute warmth from a solar-storage mass. On houses built before 1977 there's a 15 percent credit (maximum write-off is $300) for such additions as insulation, caulking, a more fuel-efficient burner and storm windows which are a lot cheaper than buying solar. These credits also expire in December 1985.

If energy prices stagnate, solar will look less attractive, Charles Ebinger, director of the Energy and Strategic Resources unit at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University, told my associate, Virginia Wilson. For this reason, he thinks that Congress should renew the solar tax credit For the foreseeable future, oil and gas are in glut and solar energy isn't essential. But renewable forms of energy remain a necessary part of the country's long-term energy conservation needs. Write to consumer columnist Jane Bryant Quinn care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St W. Washington, C.

20071. about eight years. Depending on the cost of the system and where you live, it might be paid off in a shorter time, even as little as three years. Without the tax credit, the pay-off period might be so much longer that few consumers would find solar worth the money. It's tough to figure out exactly what your savings are.

Two similar houses can produce very different cost figures, depending on energy efficiency, how much hot water is used and what other steps are taken to conserve energy. Suppliers of solar products come equipped with computer programs that claim to measure your energy savings. Asked whether these devices are accurate, solar expert Donald Watson, a professor of architecture at Yale University, answered a "cautious yes," at least when they're used to measure the efficiency of one solar collector against another, and solar in general versus other forms of heating. But they cannot predict what the actual savings will be in anyone's home. Nor do these calculations include maintenance costs.

Solar hot water heating (and swimming pool heating) has been the most popular in California, Colorado, New York and other states with strong tax credits. Generally, the units are far more reliable than they were five years ago. Solar heating for all the rooms costs an average of $10,000 and usually isn't cost efficient, so it's rarely used. Solar air conditioning is still in the experimental stage. One risk any solar user runs is maintaining his legal right to the sun's rays.

Only five states have laws preventing your Bond prices fell. Silver price on the New York Commodity Exchange, $7,667 per troy ounce; Handy Harman, $7,620 per troy ounce. Compiled from reports by Democrat and Chronicle. Astociated Press and United Press International.