Leader-Telegram from Eau Claire, Wisconsin • 13

LEADER -TELEGRAM FRIDAY, DEC. 18,1981 j. -B MsawmiB-sew SECTION i XV- w-barron geology protessoi villi aso turning people skyward By Gene Prigge shares the campus. it be nice to set up something here." it be nice to set up something Leader-Telegram correspondent Before viewing the skies throughthe Patraw's program has been in full operation since 1975, and thousands have viewed the skies through the school's telescope. On certain Wednesday up to ISO people will show up, but a usual Wednesday night brings IS to 23 people, he said.

On cloudy nights there is no viewing and only the lecture is presented. Patraw said the most recent space probes, Voyageurs I and II, cost about $600 million each, but adds that "since 1978, Americans have spent 560 million on pickles and $800 million on chewing gum. And for four weeks of boose consumption nationally, you could outfit another Voyageur." His enthusiasm for the space program and for the heavens matches that of his colleague Sagan. "It's just a grand thing to do on a winter night," he said. "People will come, look through the telescope, and say 'Wow, It's real.

It's really in There are some araas-Ing things In space." telescope, Patraw gives a classroom presentation on one of several subjects suitable for that night's viewing. One presentation Involves Saturn, while others may explore Mars, Venus, the constellations, black holes or warp space time. Patraw explains not only the basics of astronomy but also the Intricacies of what may be viewed on a particular night. Interest began on river trip His interest in astronomy began shortly after he returned to Rice Lake in 1871 after working as a geological engineer. He now teaches geology and astronomy at Rice Lake.

"I took a Grand Canyon float trip and we had an astronomer along with us," Patraw said. "The younger kids started asking him questions, and as I was standing there listening I became more and more interested. "I started reading everything I could get my hands on and thought, 'wouldn't 'Y -vh -HVv- Wintertime The weather so lor has not been cold enough to freeze over some of the streams In northwest Wisconsin. The water is still flowing in the North Fork of the Clam River in the Town of Dewey, Burnett County. Fresh, unmelted snow on the tree limbs adds to the placid early winter scene.

Photo by Gen Prigg RICE LAKE James Patraw is a geological engineer but his interests are anything but earthbound. Patraw is the director of the University of Wisconsin Center-Barron County observatory and likes nothing better than turning people on to the heavens, and beyond. Each Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Patraw opens the campus observatory to the public, enabling anyone to view the planets and stars through the school's 14-inch telescope. Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" television series has increased the interest and participation in the Wednesday evening programs, he laid.

"A lot of scientists shudder at some of his oversimplifications, but he's a great popularizer and that's precisely what's needed for support of the sciences," Patraw said. "Sagan has brought the ivory tower to the people." Home of 'the big eye' The Barron campus observatory houses the "big eye," as Patraw calls it, a Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. It is the largest commercially sold telescope and is the largest telescope on any of the 13 campuses in the University Center System. Patraw said that when he initially wanted to set up an observatory in 1973, he considered a nearby farm silo, but that building was too close to a railroad track, and the vibration from the passing trains would interfere with the telescope. Another problem was that conventional observatory domes frequently freeze shut, or worse yet, open, In northern climates.

The present observatory Is the result of a collaboration with the Wisconsin Indianhead Technical Institute, which i asm PssBBKK 'rvsn Protests Chippewa parking ban Mr-' a i on owner si lences ea rly pol ka show' Bushland's request to change the no-parking hours from 1 to 5 a.m. didn't make any headway with city officials. The protests caused by the later sign-on time provided Bushland with some marketing Information. He said he discovered that WCFW has much more of a regional audience than he had thought. The discovery was a factor in his decision to at least temporarily suspend broadcasts of Chippewa Falls and McDonell Central High School basketball games.

-7 By Jim Daly Chippewa News Bureau CHIPPEWX FALLS Music lovers who like to start their day with polkas will either have to do without at 5:30 a.m. or stay In bed until 6 a.m., thanks to a dispute between radio station WCFW-FM and the city over a winter parking ordinance. The disagreement heated up after the ordinance became effective last month. It prohibits parking for more than 30 minutes on city streets between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

The ordinance apparently creates problems for the polka-music station, Roland Bushland, WCFW owner-operator, said his engineer, Larry Seidling, reports for work about 20 minutes before the station goes on the air. area'really isn't for employee parking. A company truck is kept in part of it. driveway is a sidewalk. It looks like a parking lot when there's no snow there, but it's really not." He also said part of the sidewllk is on the adjoining property owner's land, who happens to -be his father.

Bushland said his station was founded before Well Street and the nearby industrial park existed. "This building used to house cows. That used to be a cornfield," he saidpointing out -the station window to the factories. Appeal to farmers "We used to sign on at 5:30, as a service to our listeners." The station would play polkas and broadcast road-condition reports and school-closing announcements, Bushland said. The In- I 1 j.

L. I Photo by Gtn Prlgg opens the conservatory to the public each Wednesday night for special University of Wisconsin Center-Barron County observatory director James Patraw and the "big eye," the largest commercial telescope sold. Patraw exempt someone from something everyone else has to adhere to." Discretion applies in emergencies Coughlin said discretion applies to unusual, temporary circumstances. He cited the example of a car breaking down in a no-parking zone and the driver being unable to remove it for a time. The police, if notified of the situation, may use their discretion and not ticket It, he Coughlin said he wasn't aware of any.

parking tickets Involving the fire trucks, but did say the trucks should have remained close to the station while the work was done. He added that both he and another officer have received parking tickets in Chippewa Falls. to enforce ordinances, you're going to catch heat," he said. "I really think the issue here is 'Does the individual get a permanent City Attorney Gerald Sazama agreed with Coughlin. He studied a recommen- dation from Committee No.

3 that the city provide a parking stall on Well Street between Warren and North Streets for personal use by WCFW. He recently sent a letter to Alderman Evelyn Maloney, committee chairman, opposing the recommendation. Also political question "The council doesn't have power to exempt or to provide for private park Police ticketed Seldling's car, parked on the street, several times over the tent wf 4who tin An rl Whan tk aw nit a af a early. "When the past Bushland said. After fail up they put street In, that's when we started getting tickets." Cable co-op hopeful for new funding "We got little local support," he said about his fight with the city.

"The support we received was from the farmers, who are up at that time." WCFW played polkas from 5:30 to 9 a.m., from noon to 1 p.m., and from 5 to 7 p.m. "with the idea that the rural people are eating their dinner at that time and are out in the barn at night," Bushland said. "We discovered from' the phone calls coming in from Osseo, Lublin, Thorp, that, hey, we're not a little local station. We serve a regional The station plays "adult-contemporary" music at other times, and has wire-service news broadcasts. Bushland said sponsors had been signed for the sports.

However, he said that telephone costs for linking remote equlment to the station during away games are high. He did not say whether the suspension is permanent. can't condemn him (Coughlin) for-following the law," Bushland said. "Who am I to play God? We just wanted to continue to run our business as we have for the last seven years." ing in his appeal to the City Council's Committee No. 3, Bushland said he "caved in" and changed his sign-on time from 5:30 a.m.

to 6 a.m. beginning Dec. 7. Protests from listeners The move provoked a reaction from some of WCFW's listeners. Sixty-three people from Bruce signed a card expressing their regrets over the "sad news about your new hours." Other protests came from as far away as Osseo and Thorp.

Bushland acknowledges that he wants the law bent a bit. He said the police have discretion in enforcing the parking ordinance, and wondered about fire trucks parked in a no-parking zone on Bay Street in front of the fire station this summer and fall while the 'station underwent remodeling. Coughlin agreed that police have discretion, but said it must be applied evenly. "The City Council passes the parking ordinances as the council sees fit," the "We will have some tough choices to make where we expand the cable," he said, "but we probably will go where there seems to be the most Interest and the greatest number of Goal: full rural service When the project Is the n-nn hnni to iitv ill rural enuntv chief said. "For the police department WCFW Is located at the corner oi well ing on public streets," Sarama adding that the issue is "not only legal, it'i-polllicaTrtdo." Hesald he didn't know how exemptions could be denied once they are granted.

ana warren suxcis oa ine ciiy a cast vi kkvuiu cwuite iuc ui- side. There is an area on the south sldeSDinceliMLippropriateJJhereJs. of the station large enough to park two such a thing as police discretion, but vehicles in, Police' Chief Joseph this is not an. emergency situation. Coughlin said, but Bushland said the There is no way I can permanently residents, as electric and telephone co- ops do.

If the loan Is approved, and present indications are that It will be, Nelses-teun said, plans and specifications for expanding the system would be drawn up early in 1982, bids would be let In spring, construction could start In summer. The original $1.5 million grant was' used to construct the towers and to wire up the largest communities. The Kellogg Foundation through Its Rural America program provided the HAjm wlftk m.m1 CKCA AAA Area schools show en rollment declines or 2.6 percent; Ladysmlth-Hawklns, 41 students or 3.1 percent; Loyal, 15 students or 1.7 percent; Northwestern, 17 students or 1.1 percent; Melrose-Mindoro, 45 students or 5.7 percent; Menomonie, 45 students or 1.6; afondovi, 13 students or 1.1 By Arnie Hoffman Regional editor WHITEHALL The outlook for a $4 million loan from the U.S. Rural Electrification Administration is good, said Gehardt Nelsestuen, president of Western Wisconsin Communications Cooperstive. The co-op provides cable television -service JQ about- 2,500 residents of Trempealeau County and is a model for the nation.

Unaffected by budget cuts The co-op applied for the REA loan some time sgo, but the change In administration and cuts in some federsl programs cast doubt on whether the coop could get the loan. The REA provides low-Interest loans to electric and telephone cooperatives, allowing them to expand services to rural areas. Since the television cooperative Is the first of its kind In the nation to apply for an REA administration has. had no precedent to follow. Nelsestuen said this week that he has learned through contacts in Washington that the REA is looking more favorably on the loan than before.

Many communities served The co-op serves residents of Osseo, lev Strum, Independence, Whitehall, Blair. Arcadia, Taylor, Galesvllle, Ettrick and Trempealeau and others along the cable routes to those communities from the three towers near Galesvllle, Strum and Whitehsll. If the loan is approved, Nelsestuen said, part of the money will be used to cover the cost of buying the privately owned cable systems in Whitehsll and Arcadia and of expanding the cable to some of the smaller areas not yet served, including Pigeon Falls and Pleassntville in central and northern Trempealeau County. percent. i.

Also, Nelllfvllle. 33 students or ment, and some of that money was used to provide two-way communication hookups to eight school districts. Some courses are being taught over the system, and Nelsestuen said such classes have been going well. "Right now It looks hopeful," Nelsestuen said, adding that co-op officials will know for sure later this winter. Alma chronicle cited MADISON Enrollment in Wisconsin public schools this year is 3.1 percent less than in the 1980-81 school year, according to information released by Herbert Grover, state superintendent of public Instruction.

The 3.1 percent decline, compares, with a 3.2 percent drop in each of the two previous school terms. The most recentincrease in enrollment was 0.6 percent in 1971-72. The peak enrollment decline during the last 10 years was 3.5 percent in 1978-79. Enrollment- has declined steadily In Wisconsin since 1973. As reported by local school districts, total public school enrollment for this year is 804,262, a statewide net decline of 25,985 students from 1980-81.

Enrollment Increased in 45 districts, stayed the same in five and decreased in 383. Enrollments are defined as head counts of all students who are being taught by teachers employed by the district and who attend a facility operated by the district during the regular school term. Kindergarten percent; Alma Center, four students or 0.8 percent; Arkansaw, 11 students or 4.1 percent; Augusta, 35 students or 4.2 percent; Baldwin Woodville, 40 students or percent; Barron, 46 students or 2.9 'percent; BlrchwoOd, 22 students or 8.4 percent; Black River Falls, 69 students or 3.6 percent; Bloomer, 38 students or 3.0 percent; Boycevllle, 70 students or 8.2 percent; Cadott, 46 students or 4.3 percent; Cameron, 53 students or 7.4 percent; Chippewa Falls, 98 students or 2.2 percent; Clayton, 33 students or 9.5 percent; Clear four students or 0.6 percent; Cochrane-Fountain City, 44 students or 4.8 percent; Colby, 31 students or 2.2 percent; Colfax, 39 students or 5.1 percent; Cornell, three students or 0.4 percent; Cumberland, 18 students or 1.7 percent. Also, Durand, 51 students or 4.4 percent; Eau Claire, 128 students or 1.3 percent; Eleva-Strurri, 25 students or 2.6 percent; Ellsworth, 127 students or 5.9 percent; Elm wood, 49 students or 8.8 percent: Fall Creek, 84 itudents or 6.9 percent; Flambeau, 58 students or 6.8 percent; Gilman, 38 itudents or 4.7 percent; Gilmanton, six students or 2.2 percent; Glenwood City, 12 students or 1.4 percent; Hayward, 43 students and pre-klndergarten students attending schools operated by the dis-tricts are counted as full-time students) Enrollment figures, which are used for federal reporting and for -computing pupil-teacher ratios, differ from membership counts. Membership information is collected by the department's financial aids division and is used as one of the factors in calculating state aids.

Kindergarten and pre-kin-lergarten students are counted as half-time students for membership purposes. 1 In west-central Wisconsin, only seven districts showed enrollment Increases: Altoona, one student or ,0.1 percent; Blair, five students or 0.9 percent; Chetek, 18 students or 1.8 percent; Elk Mound, 10 students or 1.3 percent; Hudson, nine students or 0.3 percent; Owen-Withep, 11 students or 1.3 percent; Prairie Farm, 12 students or 3.2 percent. Enrollment declines in west-cen-. tral Wisconsin school districts: Abbotsford, 40 students or S.7 percent; Alma, 26 students or 5.S percent; New Auburn, one Student or 0.3 percent; New Richmond, 11 students or 0.6 percent; Osseo-Falr-chlld, 55 students or 4.5 percent; Pepin, 28 students or 6.6 percent; Plum City, nine students or 2.2 percent; Preicott, 20 students or 2.0 percent; Rice Lake, 121 students or 4.6 percent; River Falls, 10 students or 0.4 percent; St. Croix Central, 19 students or 2.1 percent; Shell Lake, 25 students or 4.0 percent; Somerset, 29 students or 3.8 percent; Spooner, 19 students or 1.2 percent; Spring Valley, 54 students or 6.9 percent; Stanley-Boyd, 40 students or 3.3 percent.

Also, Taylor, three students or 1.2 percent; Thorp, 15 students or 2.1 percent; Turtle Lake, one student or 0.2 percent; Weyerhaeuser, eight students or 2.6 percent; Whitehall, 13 students or 1.4 percent. ALMA An illustrated chronicle of life in the formative years of Alma has been awarded a certificate of commendation by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The 200-page book, "Alma on the Mississippi: 1848-1932" which was published last year by the Alma Historical Society, was cited as sn Impressive and exemplary local history publication. The Alma Historical Society was one of three local societies to receive such honors this year..