Quad-City Times from Davenport, Iowa • 59

dtaool Merger? A Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley To Talk About It fes iM Bob Bahrenburg Joyce Bawden Clark Stevens By Alma Nieland oi the Time It Is a bold, unpopular idea, but not unheard of: The possibility of combining the Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley school districts into one operation has been bandied about for many years. Some say a combined district would be cheaper to operate because there would be fewer administrators. And in view of Bettendorf's declining enrollment and Pleasant Valley's increasing enrollment and its need for more classroom space, why not combine the districts so Pleasant Valley students could attend Bettendorf's exisiting schools, they ask. Under that arrangement, the need for more schools in the Pleasant Valley area might be eliminated or at least decreased, and schools already built and paid for could be utilized, they say. Until now, no one has brought the idea to formal discussion because of two great stumbling blocks: Residents in both districts are proud of their own schools and want to keep them; and if the districts were combined, taxes would be equalized, and Pleasant Valley residents and Industries would be paying more than they did before.

But Bettendorf board member Robert Bahrenburg thinks it is time to explore possible mutual advantages, and he Intends to bring the idea before the board at one of its February meetings. Help in evaluating the districts in relation to each other might be forthcoming from the Missis sippi Bend Area Education Agency, regardless of whether the boards request it. A law that went into effect July 1 requires the states' IS education agencies to study districts in their areas and decide whether some sort of reorganization would promote greater economy, efficiency and quality. So far no agency has begun working on plans because Implementation procedures have not been developed, Clark Stevens, Mississippi Bend administrator, said. In addition, the law has generated backlash among people who think area education agencies should be supportive not regulatory bodies and that they have no business recommending what local school districts should do even though the districts would not be required to follow the agencies plans.

Pleasant Valley and Bettendorf board members agree there's nothing wrong with discussing the idea of merger. "It's unrealistic at this time, but it certainly looms as a possibility 20 years down the road," Joyce Bawden, Pleasant Valley board member, said. "It's a reality we eventually will have to face, and the sooner we start exploring, the better. We can't lose anything by talking." Right now, "Bettendorf enrollment is declining in the very area where we need space," she said. Enrollment is declining at Bettendorf's Jackson MERGER Continued on Page 4E Jan.

21, 1979 Quad-City Times ssones iii tiie limcs This is one of two bridges posted by supervisors for restricted travel In Scott County. It's In Princeton Township about seven miles east of the Eldrldge corner. (Times photo) mmm BRIDGE EMBARGO BY ORDER "Of SCOTT COUNTY Of JwehshtI 1 LIMIT 7 TONS MW SSr- jr i A fThe situation is going to get worse and worse until we absolutely have to solve the problem, and the cost will be enormous. 9 i t'if y- I TALlAi. How Sate Are 8,213 can be listed as either functionally obsolete or structurally deficient.

Iowa is one of only five or six states having reasonably complete records of all their bridges, including those not on the Federal Aid System. Iowa has filed a report in Washington on all bridges under the state transportation department Jurisdiction, he said. He believes it Is not fair to compare Iowa's bridge problem with that of most other states because the pertinent federal records are not as complete for other states as they are for Iowa. The DOT'S five-year construction program calls for replacement of 300 bridges at an estimated cost of $134 million, he said. Meantime, John Risen, primary maintenance bridge engineer for the DOT in Ames, said Iowa has only 96 bridges on primary roads deemed inadequate for the two-lane legal load limit of 36 tons.

Those are cases where two trucks loaded to the -BRIDGES Continued on Page 4E 'By Joe Sheridan and Rick Eck ol lh Tlmmi Herman Pitts, 54, of Clinton, Iowa, died from injuries he received almost four years ago when a bridge collapsed several miles northwest of Elvira, Iowa. He was driving a 16-ton gravel truck across a bridge with a posted limit of six tons, Clinton County sheriff's deputies said shortly after the accident. Another truck weighing 23 tons had crossed only moments before. Some say tragedies of that kind point up a widespread deterioration of the bridges throughout Iowa and Illinois as well as elsewhere. Others say the bridges in Iowa, Illinois and some other states generally are in much better condition than critics say.

The critics note these points: Some farmers In the Quad-City area often risk their lives hauling grain or equipment exceeding weight limits across antiquated bridges. Two Mercer County bridges on township roads near Aledo, 111., collapsed In 1977 under heavy grain loads. No injuries were reported. School officials on both sides of the Mississippi River have changed bus routes to avoid bridges with Inadequate load limits. Rural students sometimes have been asked to walk across bridges and wait for the unloaded buses to cross.

The decline of the rural population has forced, rural school districts to economize on the cost of transporting children by purchasing 66- and 72-pas-senger buses. A loaded school bus of that size often exceeds nine tons, and there are 4,400 rural bridges in Illinois and 4,490 bridges In Iowa that will not safely carry a loaded bus, according to a study by the National Extension Transportation Task Force. The task force estimates 80 percent of school bus travel In Iowa Is on rural roads. A nonprofit organization, TRIP (The Road In formation Program), says Iowa is tops among states for obsolete and unsafe bridges with 14,000. Illinois is listed 10th with 4,436.

The Federal Highway Administration has concluded one-fifth of the country's 563,000 bridges are in danger of collapse. The National Association of Counties says one-third of the 233,000 bridges come under county Jurisdictions are not safe. But Gus Anderson, director of the office of program management for the Iowa Department of Transportation, says the figure of 14,000 unsafe bridges Is much too high. He said such a figure could be altered, depending on the criteria. He said Iowa uses standards set by the Federal Highway Administration to evaluate the state's bridges.

Using federal guidelines, Iowa, puts the bridges Into two categories eligible for federal aid and non-federal aid. Of the 27,640 bridges in Iowa, Anderson said, 7 Smoke Screen How Powerful Tobacco Lobby Keeps Puffing Ahead 11 not turn back the tide, but seldom do they leave the beach without securing some measure of relief or compromise for the six big cigarette manufacturers they represent. Since the Tobacco Institute was created In 1958 to handle the Industry's lobbying and image-making, those companies have poured millions of dollars Into Its coffers, fueling a lobbying blitz that smoking critics say has hamstrung federal efforts to regulate smoking. In the stormy 15 years since Jan. 11, 1964, when the first Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health linked smoking to lung cancer, 30 million Americans have quit smoking, and only one-third of adults now smoke, compared with 42 percent then, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare says, The tobacco Industry has not only survived but flourished as population growth made up TOBACCO Continued on Page 4E tute would rather fight than switch.

And fight It does, against rising tide of government efforts to discourage cigarette smoking. In city halls, state houses and Congress, whenever the battle Is Joined over the hazards of smoking or the heated Issue of smoking In restaurants and other public places, the Tobacco Institute's army of lobbyists, lawyers and publicists enters the fray. Like King Canute, they may find they can- EDITOR'S NOTE The surgeon general hat Issued a new report on smoking and health, which has again stirred the wrath of the Tobacco Institute, the lobbying and Image making arm of the tobacco Industry. Here Is a look at that lobby, dene rl bed by friends and foes as one of Washington's most formidable. By OirU Connell WASHINGTON (AP) The Tobacco Insti.