The Bismarck Tribune from Bismarck, North Dakota • 15

North Dakota The BISMARCK TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 28, 1383 Page 15 Mom ton er yo vi rm up waver use plans MILES CITY, Mont. (AP) State officials have mailed questionnaires to five companies that have applied for industrial use of Yellowstone River water. "The state government is not going to stand around and let industrial companies tie up water for long periods of time if they have no intention of putting that water to use," said Gary Fritz, administrator of water resources for the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. All but one application was filed between 1973-75 when there was a rush to tie up water in the region for use in synthetic fuel plants, coal slurry lines and other coal-related industrial uses. The state's query follows the decision last October by a panel of three federal judges in Intake Water challenge of the state's water use laws.

Intake argued that a provision in the Yellowstone Compact imposes' an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce. The provision requires the unanimous consent of the states of Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota before water may be diverted out of the Yellowstone Basin, which Intake had proposed to do for a proposed Tenneco synthetic fuels plant at Wibaux, which is across the border from Beach, N.D. The judges ruled that the compact, because it was ratified by Congress in 1951, was federal law immune from Commerce Clause objections. Intake's right to 80,650 acre-feet of water a year from the Yellowstone at a diversion point northeast, of Glendive is not subject to the permit process because the company filed for the water just before Montana's water permit system was instituted in 1973. Intake has two applications for water under the permit system, for 564,000 acre-feet a year for off-stream storage on the Powder River, filed in September 1974, and for 36,000 acre-feet a year from Beaver Creek in Wibaux County.

The other applications were turned in by Mobil Oil Gulf Mineral Resources Utah Inter national and Yellowstone Pipeline Co. The DNRC says that after reviewing the response to the questionnaires, the agency will decide on each application. Administrative hearings would be held on any applications the agency decides should be terminated, and the process is liable to end up in court, said Don Maclntyre, chief legal counsel foiDNRC. us Pair found safe in stalled truck service csi inro rL i 1 WILLISTON (AP) Two Willis-ton teen-agers who "did everything right" were found by searchers after their pickup stalled in subzero temperatures in the badlands area south of Williston. Jeff Underhill, 16, and Dean Woodhams, 17, were missing about 10 hours before they were found in their truck 10 miles from Williston, Williams County Sheriff Stanley Lyson said Tuesday.

The youths had left Williston about 1 p.m. Monday to check their trap lines, Lyson said. "Their pickup stalled on them" about a half hour later, Lyson said. "They were supposed to be home at 4:30, and when they didn't then-parents started looking for them. "They didn't really notify law enforcement people until after 10 o'clock, when we got involved in the search." Eight officers from the Williams and McKenzie county sheriffs' departments, along with about 15 volunteers, started searching for the pair, Lyson said.

They were found about 2 a.m. Tuesday. "The boys stayed with their vehicle," Lyson said. "They did everything right. They were cold, but in good shape." The boys "were dressed for the elements.

They were out checking trap lines, they were dressed well and they did have some survival things with them," he said. "The wind was blowing to the point the roads became very heavy. They only had a two-wheel (drive) pickup and they became stuck. It's a prairie trail, a gravel road that becomes clogged very easily," he said. further complicated by a shortage of parts throughout the country.

Roger Hacanson, service man- ager at Eide-Kirschmann Ford Lincoln Mercury in Bismarck, said his department has depleted its supply of block heaters and other parts for some models. He said it will be the first part of January before any more parts are received from Ford's parts department because the department is. closed between Christmas and New Year's. HACANSON SAID he can't remember a winter when there was more demand for repairs and parts. Icy road conditions have also caused an increase in traffic accidents in the area during the past month.

However, owners of area body shops say they haven't been nearly as swamped with business as the service shops. Carl Jacobsen, of Norby Rath Ford Mercury body shop in Man-dan, said business there has picked up only slightly since the cold weather arrived. DUANE VETTER, owner of Duane's Body Shop in Bismarck, said the number of estimates his business has written during the past several weeks has doubled. However, he said most people are electing to put off repairs unless vehicle damage is major. "Everybody says they have to pay their heating bills first," he said.

ByGREGSELLNOW Tribune Staff Writer The cold spell that plagued the area in December has caused a heavy repair backlog at service stations, and service managers are urging car owners to wait their turn and to be patient. In some cases that turn could be a couple of weeks away. Joe Beckler, service manager at Ivan Gandrud Inc. in Mandan, said his department has a repair backlog of about two weeks. "The cold weather caught people totally unaware," Beckler commented.

"After last winter, people didn't realize it was going to be this cold. A lot of people didn't keep their vehicles properly maintained. was already booked for about four days before (the cold spell) hit. This threw a monkey wrench into things." IVAN GANDRUD, like many other service firms, has been accepting appointments first-come, first-served except in emergencies, according to Beckler. However, some service shops have been according priority to regular customers.

"Sometimes it's first-come, first-served," said Dave Ebenal, manager of DJ Auto Repair in Bismarck. "But if there's a major (repair) with a regular you do have to go with the regular customer." The servicing backlog has been 75 N.D. income tax taking bigger bite 1 Tribune Photo by Ted Quanrud THE COLD spell has kept mechanic Ron Jacobs busy at Corwin Churchill Motors, Bismarck. By The Associated Press Most North Dakotans can expect to pay higher income taxes when they send in their 1983 returns, state Tax Commissioner Kent Conrad said. The tax department Tuesday began sending out some 318,000 individual income tax forms to North Dakota wage earners, he said.

There are two main reasons for higher individual income taxes in 1983, Conrad said, noting that the 1983 Legislature "has made a number of changes" affecting individual wage earners. The Legislature discontinued the $100 individual income tax credit "for at least two years that's going to mean higher taxes for some people," Conrad said. "In addition, the Legislature raised the rates from percent of your federal liability to 10" a percent of your federal liability. "So those two changes working together will mean higher individual income taxes for most North Dakotans." Conrad said he expects a hefty increase in collections. "We're anticipating for the bien-nium an increase of about 125 percent in individual income tax collections," he said, adding that $68 mjjlion was collected during the last two-year period.

"In this biennium we're looking at about $157 million," he said. Conrad also said he expects his department will refund more than $3 million in taxes for 1983, with an average of about $80 per refund going to some 40,000 North Dakota taxpayers. Grafton superintendent to start in March Lick, who completed the hiring details Tuesday, said that in his current position, Meece oversees services for more than 500 clients in both institution and community-based programs. "That's one thing -we kind of liked, it gives him a perspective of not only an institution, but what it is like in a community setting." Meece will be in charge of more than 900 employees at Grafton and nearly 300 at its San Haven division. The institutions combined have more than 900 residents and are under a court order to reduce that population to 450 by 1987 and prepare a plan to move an additional 200 into community programs by 1989.

Lick said Meece straightened out visited the institution were wary of what they would find at Grafton. But, "until the end, all of the candidates were very interested in the job. That speaks well for Grafton State School and all of the things that have improved up there," he said. Meece succeeds Milton Wisland, who left Grafton in September to join the Minot State College faculty. Lick had hoped to have the new superintendent on the job earlier but said the March 1 date was agreed upon so Meece could finish some projects in Nevada.

Meece is married and has three children. He left on a brief vacation Tuesday and couldn't be reached for comment. a Nevada institution that was in disarray when he arrived there. "We're very confident Dr. Meece will work out well.

He exhibits a very good feel for staff people, and I think has a good feel for what they go through on the wards day in and day out." Meece was hired after a seven-member screening committee reviewed 20 applications for the job and interviewed four candidates. Lick said Meece scored highest in the combined ratings of the committee members and was also his own first choice for the position. Lick said that because of publicity surrounding the recent Associa- tion for Retarded Citizens lawsuit, some of the finalists until they KFYR radio planning to change news source KFYR-AM radio in Bismarck will become an ABC affiliate in March after spending more than half a century with NBC, a Meyer Broadcasting Co. spokesman said r. TtvI li, ft, A' 1 -7.

By BOB JANSEN Tribune Staff Writer New superintendent for the Grafton State School will be Henry Meece who is now chief executive officer for Southern Nevada Mental Retardation Services in Las Vegas. Director of Institutions Al Lick said Meece will begin his duties at Grafton March 1 and be paid an annual salary of $50,000. He also will be provided housing. Meece, 42, has spent his entire career in the field of mental retardation. He has a master's degree in special education from the University of Virginia and earned his doctorate in administration of special education in 1974 from Ohio State University.

Trees won't go to waste Old Christmas trees can help to make fish breeding reefs for the Heart Butte Reservoir and fertilize vegetation on the Mandan city landfill. Bismarck residents are asked to bring their used Christmas trees Sunday and Monday to the old McQuade Recycling Center, 1111 E. Broadway Ave. The Bismarck trees will be put into the Heart Butte Reservoir southwest of Bismarck to make artificial reefs for fish breeding habitat. Mandan's used Christmas trees are to go to both the, reservoir project and the city landfill.

The trees designated for the landfill are to be chipped for spreading. In Mandan, trees may be dropped off at the Lions Club's collection pen in Burlington Northern Park downtown or left on the boulevards, where crews will pick them up. The crews will be collecting on the city streets Friday and in the mobile home parks Saturday, with a last sweep Jan. 6. The Bis-Man Reel and Rec Club is sponsoring the Heart Butte reef project under supervision of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

The club is handling the Bismarck collections and helping the Mandan Lions Club, Mandan Squires and Mandan public works department with their collections. Milk output dips FARGO (AP) Milk production In North Dakota totaled 73 million pounds in November, the North Dakota Crop and Livestock Reporting Service said In a prepared announcement. The total production represented a decrease of 3 percent from October. Wednesday. Tom Barr, general manager of Meyer's radio division, said KFYR-AM and KIZZ-FM, Minot, will switch to ABC beginning March 26.

Meyer Broadcasting owns both stations. As a result of a separate agreement, both stations will carry Paul Harvey news, he said. The current ABC station in Bismarck, KBMR-AM, will lose its affiliation, Barr said. KBMR-AM and KQDY-FM will also lose Paul Harvey. Other Meyer radio stations, including KYYY-FM in Bismarck, and the Meyer television stations will not make the network change, Barr said.

KFYR-AM, which now broadcasts news from the NBC network, will carry hourly news from the ABC Information Network. KIZZ-FM, which now has news from NBC's the Source, will switch to the ABC Contemporary Network, Barr said. The KFYR-AM change could spur affiliate changes at other local stations. "I'm sure NBC is out shopping around," he said. Barr said the changeover is the result of 18 months of negotiations.

"We are not unhappy with NBC. We think, generally, NBC is a good network and we had been with them for 52 years," he said. "We think that ABC Information, or ABC-I as it is called, at this point in time may be the best of the hourly news networks, although NBC is right up there. "But we thought ABC was as good or better than any of them," Barr said. "It's part of an ongoing commitment to provide more and more news and information." There will be no internal changes at the stations, he said.

Andy Anderson, owner of KBMR-AM, said the station will affiliate with some network, but which one has not been decided. "We have several opportunities," he said. In dropping KBMR-AM, ABC exercised its 90-day cancellation privilege as a two-year contract ends, he said. Anderson said construction will begin next summer to increase KBMR's power from 10,000 to 50,000 watts. North Dakota's first Capitol and the Liberty Memorial Building Capitol destroyed 53 years ago The fire couldn't have happened at a worse time.

The Legislature was preparing to begin its session. The legislative houses and state agencies were quartered in public and private buildings downtown. Gov. George Schafer established his office in what is now the old post office building on Broadway Avenue. State officials in that Depression year complained bitterly that combined rent for the space came to about $1,800 per month.

Cause of the fire was never determined. At first it was attributed to oily rags in a storage closet but a custodian claimed they had been removed. The possibility of arson was raised but no proof ever turned up. The accompanying photo showing the old Capitol and the Liberty Memorial Building is thought to be a rarity because the two buildings coexisted for only a short time. The Liberty Memorial was built in 1924, just six years before the Capitol burned.

The photo was given to The Bismarck Tribune by Bernice Leuwer of Bismarck, who obtained It this year from her sister on the West Coast, Lucille Leuwer Gorman. It had been in the possession of the family of her father-in-law, the late Ed Gorman, who formerly worked for International Harvester in Bismarck. Fifty-three years ago Wednesday, North Dakota's first state Capitol burned to the ground. Bismarck's small firefighting force three full-time firemen and a dozen volunteers battled valiantly and futilely against the conflagra-' tion in 16-degree temperatures, with an 18 mph northwest wind' bringing the wind chill down to 13 degrees below zero. Within a few hours that Sunday morning, Dec.

28, 1930, the four-story brick structure was reduced to a mass of rubble. There were only two minor injuries. That, said Al Ode, retired longtime Bismarck fire chief, was something of a miracle because a number of people went into the burning building to save precious state documents and mementos. He was one of them. Then a 12-year-old living near the Capitol, he was boosted into a window of the governor's office by Russell Reid, state Historical Society director, and handed out the pictures off the wall.

Secretary of State Robert Byrne cut his hand while retrieving the original document of the state constitution from a vault in his office. Jennie Ulsrud, a state treasurer's employee, Injured her hand when it was struck by a heavy book as she gathered up papers from the capitol grounds..