The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 10

Shp urlitiyl0tt Engineer Calls Montpelier Propane Leak a Threat By NEIL DAVIS Free Press Capitol Bureau MONTPELIER Propane gas leaks 'from Capital City Gas distribution system are a threat to the public, according to an engineer's assessment made Dublin rules into effect in the last few years, but this system has been running for nearly 80. "Judging from the position of the board's staff, we've got to fix these things (safety violations) up, but if we haven't got the money, we haven't got the money." Rowan said Capital City's last rate increase was two years ago. Currently, the utility has requested the board's permission to charge an additional 10.5 cents a cubic foot, and the board has-scheduled a hearing Thursday, when the safety issue also will be discussed. Chairman Richard Saudek said -the board is concerned about the system's safety but not necessarily alarmed. "What we don't want to see is an owner milking the system at the expense of safety," he said.

"If you have leakage of 23 percent, I think you can assume you may have a safety problem." The chairman said the board is going to hear the case of Capital City although it ordinarily would turn a small case over to a "Only after the contractor had begun tearing out the flooring above the cellar and in doing so broke the gas line did he realize the gas line had not been capped or cut off. "This type of action is inexcusable for any public utility, especially in a densely populated area," Crilly said. The board's files on Capital City contain dozens of letters between the utility and the board on safety issues and even more memoranda by Crilly to Saudek and others. The engineer had been complaining about safety violations for more than three years, and Rowan had been responding he was moving as rapidly to correct the problems as finances would permit. In one memo last year, Crilly wrote: "Since Mr.

Rowan does not see fit to respond to the serious violations in his company and by his actions is endangering the public safety, I urgently request a hearing be held before the Public Service Board and a citation be issued for these violations." hearing examiner because of the relationship between the utility safety and financial condition. The utility has 622 customers, of which 61 are commercial or industrial and the rest are residential. "As a board we have not yet ourselves done an extensive inquiry into the Capital City safety and financial situation," he said. "I felt it was important enough so the board should get into the case firsthand." In his prefiled tesimony, Crilly accused the utility of a "haphazard method of regards to finding gas leaks and repairing them." As an example, he said residents at 16 Liberty St. had reported to Capital City smelling gas in January and February "yet it was not until April 7 that the leak was rendered safe." The engineer said the company had assured a contractor it was safe to tear down a building at 60-62 State St.t but that proved a mistake.

Interviewed Mondaycompany President Donald Rowan said he was unaware four years ago when he acquired the 78-year-old system that its shortcoming were so serious, but he believes Crilly has "over-dramatized the problem." Rowan said Capital City Gas has no history of major leaks, nor have customers reported any widespread incidence of the onion-like smell of the gas. He said he is of the opinion that the 23 percent apparent loss of gas is in fact an accounting error caused by the utility's imprecision in mixing the gas with air before distributing it and the inaccuracy of meters where the gas is consumed. "My contention is that most of the gas is being used but not being accounted for," the company president said. By his explanation, the difficulties in making a system started in 1902 live up to 1980 requirements are compounded by the financial limitations on a regulated utility. "What they've done is put very strict muiiuay The utility, which delivers the fuel through underground pipes, is unable to account for 23 percent, said Public Service Board engineer Edward Crilly.

Capital City's operation "violates the primary tenets of safety and in doing so endangers the public with every day of operation," said the gas engineer in testimony filed in the utility's pending rate case. Among safety violations cited by Crilly are the utility's lack of an emergency plan at the time of an inspection last December, its failure to conduct required leak surveys, its high proportion of unaccounted-for gas, its failure to seal off abandoned lines and its "even less than a token attempt to replace old corroding service lines." 1 20 Workers to Be Laid Off At Business in St. Johnsbury Business Roundup I I 1iDDDI Briefs i New Orders At Factories Down 5.5 over the past two months, according to Emerson Barrett, vice president of employee and community relations. Fairbanks Weighing Division is the third company in the area to announce economic hardships within a week. Manchester Manufacturing Inc.

plans to close temporarily, and Vermont Tap and Die Co. of Lyndonville will release 17 employees Friday. The layoffs at Fairbanks will closing the second shift with the exception of the electronics testing department. Employees with seniority status will be moved to the first shift. The layoffs mainly affect the production crew, but about a dozen man agement status employees also will lose their jobs.

Preparations for a 150th anniversary celebration in September will continue but there will be some curtailment. The company still will offer a $2,500 prize for the best parade float entry. Vermont Tap and Die officials, in a prepared statement, said its layoffs are caused by economic conditions. They said a severe downturn in sales and production in the automotive and construction industries has affected sales at the Lyndonville firm. Officials say the firm hopes the layoffs will be brief.

By ANDREA ZENTZ Free Press Correspondent ST. JOHNSBURY Fairbanks Weighing Division of St. Johnsbury will lay off about 120 employees Friday. Two weeks ago, the firm laid off 32. President Kenneth Hammer said Monday this is the largest layoff since 1972 when the foundry was closed.

It had proved uneconomical to continue making cast iron pieces. This week's layoff is not the largest the company has ever experienced, Hammer said. i Reduction in employment is the result of "deteriorating" product orders From Wiri Rannrtc FCC Upholds Decision to Reserve FM Frequency for Public Radio The Associated Press The Federal Communications Commission said Monday it had upheld a staff decision to reserve for non-commercial use an FM radio frequency in Burlington, despite a request by a commercial broadcaster to use the frequency in Newport. The commission said it was convinced use of the frequency for non-commercial educational purposes would be "moriS in the public interest" because of the plans being made by Vermont Public Radio Inc. Vermont Public Radio is planning to combine the operation of the proposed Burlington FM station with its existing WVPR-FM in Windsor to form a statewide educational service that would reach 81 percent of the state.

The Newport Broadcasting Corp. tried to block the assignment, arguing the city of Newport should be allowed to gain its first FM station without the issue of commercial versus non-commercial programming becoming the deciding factor. Newport Broadcasting also noted the particular IVoui nrrlora raraivart Inv TT ft far. tories decreased 5.5 percent in April, the sharpest drop since the last recession. Outlays for new construction declined for Home Is Where the Heart Is, And Where the Money Goes are ineffective and unfairly burden housing with most of the weight in the I I Cuniff anti-inflation struggle.

Edwin B. Brooks league president, and president also of Security Federal Savings, Richmond, contends that tax-free savings accounts are needed to help first-time buyers accumulate downpayments. Such accounts have long been used in many other countries, sometimes coupled with bonuses from the government itself, to encourage and make possible private-home ownership. Another solution to the problems of the first-time buyer, Brooks and other league officials maintain, lies in greater cooperation between public and private sectors in improving housing in older neighborhoods. But in the eyes of the savings and loan people, it is mainly inflation and policies that encourage it that are responsible for the housing predicament, in which need rises while availability declines.

The first words in the report state that "The 1979 housing market is the story of inflation's harmful impact on the America economy." The impact, it says, was "traumatic," an effect that can be verified by the family that needed a house and couldn't afford it, and by those who bought houses and wonder now if they can continue to carry them. NEW YORK (AP) After examining the report on housing released today by the U.S. League of Savings Associations, which represents many mortgage lenders, you may conclude that home is where the money goes. It remains true, to some extent, that home is also where the heart is, but it now takes a lot of cash as well as a lot of heart to keep the home from dominating rather than serving its master. To begin with, the report states, it usually takes two paychecks today to support a newly bought home, because the price rose 32 percent in just two years, and monthly carrying costs jumped 37 percent to $550.

No less than 46 percent of 14,000 buyers examined last year needed to apportion more than one-quarter of monthly income for principal and interest repayments, real estate taxes, utilities and insurance. So expensive has the house become that only 18 percent of purchases last year were by first-time buyers, despite rapid family formations. Existing owners, with equity, were better able to meet requirements. Nevertheless, nearly 43 percent of all home buyers last year put down less than 20 percent of the purchase price, choosing or being forced to carry 80 percent mortgages at extraordinarily high rates. Housing costs, therefore, seem to have pre-empted the paycheck, leaving much less for savings, travel and entertainment, to mention just three of the activities that a second paycheck was we secona siraigni monin, me commerce Department reported Monday.

April factory orders dropped to $143.8 billion, the Commerce Department said. The decline in orders for durable goods, items with a usefulness of three years or more, was the most pronounced at 6.6 percent. Meanwhile, factory shipments dropped 4 percent in April to $144.1 billion. The current recession in Western countries will be shallow and short-lived, the authoritative Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation said. The prediction came in spite of the 135 percent increase in oil prices by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that caused Western industrial growth to sag.

Interest rate ceilings have not accomplished "their main purpose and should be eliminated as quickly as possible, Anthony Soloman, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said. Since the ceilings are not shielding thrifts from the heavy cost pressures of high and rising interest rates, they should be eliminated on consumer deposits at commercial banks and savings institutions, he said. Newsprint supplies became tighter in 1979 as demand grew more quickly than production capacity, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association said in its annual statistical report on newsprint. Venezuela's Mines and Energy Minister Humberto Calderon says no collapse in oil prices is threatening the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, differing sharply with remarks made last week by his Saudi Arabian counterpart. Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani said that a collapse could occur in the last semester of this year because of a glut on the world market.

i i The Norfolk Western Railway and the Southern Railway announced plans to merge under common ownership and control. An unspecified number of Chrysler Corp. dealers soon will be selling cars produced by the French" automaker Peugeot-Citroen, Chrysler said. Chrysler owns about 14 percent of Peugeot. Brazil's coffee harvest is expected to drop 2.1 million bags in 1979 to 19.5 supposed to finance.

But while costs have risen, so have values, and many homeowners, have learned to tap them. In that sense, the house has also become a bank. Sellers in 1979 took $31,000 in equity from their homes, but used only two-thirds of that amount a down payments on their next homes. The study, "Homeownership: Coping With Inflation," is viewed by the savings and loan people, who hold more than half of all outstanding home mortgages, as evidence of an inflation-induced crisis in housing. Inflation, the report contends, not only focuses with particular intensity on housing markets but also depresses household savings, the primary source of home mortgage credit.

It blames government policies. "It is imperative that the federal government incorporate a balanced set of fiscal and monetary policies in the fight against inflation," the report states, adding: "Anti-inflation policies which rely solely on high interest rates obviously radio frequency at issue the only one currently available that would not interfere with Canadian stations was originally reserved for commercial use. The commission said, however, it found compelling that use of the frequency by Vermont Public Radio would provide the first non-commercial service to 285,866 potential listeners in a area. Inflation Agency Hike Rejected WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate on Monday rejected by a lopsided margin President Carter's request to triple the budget of the federal government's chief inflation-fighting agency. Most of the extra money would have financed a tougher program to monitor price increases.

In a second vote that also apparently reflected dissatisfaction with the government's anti-inflation effort, the Senate voted to repeal the law under which controls were imposed on consumer credit earlier this year. A third Republican effort to weaken the authority of the Council on Wage and Price Stability, which runs the anti-inflation program, was narrowly defeated. The Senate still faced a final vote on the amended bill. By a 54-26 vote, the Senate approved a Republican amendment allowing the council to spend no more than $19.1 million during the next 16 months. The vote apparently reflected dissatisfaction with the council's efforts in reducing inflation.

Shelburne Group 'Revitalized' SHELBURNE Directors of the Shelburne Business Association are working to bring new life to the organization and may publish a newsletter and undertake promotional advertising of the town outside the state. "We're just trying to revitalize the group to take a more active interest in the affairs of the community," said Stephen A. Unsworth, the association chairman. He is a lawyer in the town. The association also will be a "unified voice of businessmen in the town" that might speak out on legislative issues and other matters affecting business, he said.

The town has no chamber of commerce and the association also serves the functions normally carried out by such an organization, including answering letters, Unsworth said. The association traditionally publishes the "Welcome to Shelburne" booklet introducing the town to visitors. More Metric Gasoline Sales Seen The Associated Press By the end of 1982 more than half the service stations in the country will be selling gasoline by the liter, the executive director of the U.S. Metric Board predicted Monday. In an update on metric conversions, the board released a report showing that currently 8,000 stations nationwide have switched from the traditional gallon measurement to liters.

That represents 5 percent of the nation's 173,000 service stations. Dr. Malcolm E. O'Hagan, the board's executive director, said a year ago virtually no gasoline stations sold by the liter and in October the figure was only 600. "It appears that by the end of 1982 sale by the liter will be the predominant means of dispensing motor fuel in this country," O'agan said.

He said one thing speeeding up conversion is the growing number of states outlawing half-pricing. John Cunniff is a business analyst for the Associated Press. Market Falls Off in Late Trading Stock Market Losing issues outnumbered gainers by a 7-6 margin at the NYSE close. Precious metals stocks generally followed the trend of metals on bullion markets. Gold prices rose $21.20 to $566.40 on the Commodity Exchange Inc.

in New York, the highest closing price in weeks. The dollar also rose against most major foreign currencies in New Yorkand short term interest rates rose a bit. Among gold and silver stocks, Benguet Consolidated gained to 10 yz in active trading. Dome Mines, less actively traded, added 28 to 70 V4; Hecla rose Wz to 28; and Homestake rose to 54 V4. ASA, however, slipped la to 44.

International Business Machines, rose Ya to 56, as the most actively traded NYSE issue as of the 4 p.m. close. Tosco Corp. jumped Zlt to 27 also in active trading. Fluor Corp.

gained 1 to 56 in less active trading. The oil se rvice company reported higher second quarter earnings. The Standard Poor index of 400 industrial stocks fell .50 to 124.53. NEW YORK (AP) The stock market turned lower in late trading Monday as news of a sharp drop in new factory orders helped undercut its fragile rally. Gold and silver mining stocks were generally higher as precious metals scored gains on bullion markets.

Some takeover candidates also were big movers. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks closed off 3.50 at 847.35. The blue chip index had fallen by more than 4 points early in the session, recovered to post a gain of more than 2 points, then faded again to finish with a small loss. The final drop for the session coincided with the release of a Commerce Department report showing the largest monthly decline in new factory orders in about five and a half years. Factory orders dropped 5.5 percent to $143.77 billion in April, the report said.

Separately, the Commerce Department reported that new construction spending fell 3.6 percent in April to an annual rate of $221.7 billion. That was the third consecutive month of declines in such spending. While the severity of a recession million bags this year, the government estimates. Octavio Rainho, president of the government coffee agency, IBC, said Monday that the smaller harvest and subsequent decline in world supply would strengthen the position of coffee-producing countries in international markets. Arthur D.

Little, a Cambridge, consulting firm, has joined with Continental Telephone to modernize and expand the Egyptian telephone system. U.S. steel production is declining while the nation imports more and more steel, confronting U.S. industry with "an intolerable burden," William J. De Lancey, chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute said.

I appeared to be a renewed concern on Wall Street, some selective buying continued. Financial Federation jumped 9 to 38 as the biggest gainer on the New York Stock Exchange. The company said it was studying a merger proposal from a unit of Great Western Financial Corp. offering $52.65 in cash and notes. Great Western Financial slipped Vi to 19! on the NYSE.

Big Board volume came to 32.71 million shares, down from 34.82 million in the previous session. Nationwide turnover in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, came to 37.15 million shares..