The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 3

3 High cost of feed may rise The Boston Globe Monday, January 1975 force in milk prices .1 I II III I Ill II, 'I i 3 3 4- A iiV, -r Fh (Tlu lllllli i 's if vfL -1 -nt tH A i 1 By Stephen Curwood Globe Staff The high price of cattle feed and the low price of beef are combining to provide pressure for an increase in what consumers will pay for milk. A special hearing on milk prices from 130 to 180 pounds of feed grauiT by selling 100 pounds of milk. How-J." ever this picture has changed? Farmers can now buy little more than 100 pounds of grain with 100, pounds of milk." Other farm costs have increased by about 15 percent, Webster said. "With the price of feed up and the price of milk down, farmers usually cut down the supply of milk" -by culling out their poor producers1' and extra calves," Dr. Stanley Gaunt, a dairy expert and animal science professor at UMass said.

prices are too low for the dairymen to sell," Gaunt said. Statistics provided by Gaunt show that the live-weight prices for-- New street lighting brightens the Uphams Corner area in Boston. (Globe photo by George Rizer) New lights brighten but some are taking Boston intersections a dim view of them Plain resident, said he thought the decision to install sodium vapor lights was "the result of some hasty decision-making" at City Hall. "Without checking out the technological drawbacks of the lights, they decide to put them in the areas of the city where they don't want to invest money," he said. One drawback, according to both Gardner and Zaitzevasky, is that the lights may harm plants and trees.

Dr. Henry Cathey, a researcher at the Agriculture Agricultural Environmental Quality Insitu-tute in Beltsville, agreed that the lights can be harmful to plants and trees. "I won't call it a death ray," Cathey "but the high-pressure sodium lamps do affect trees and shrubs." Because the lighting level with the new sodium vopar lights is higher than the system they replace, Cathey said, they destroy the ability of some plants to tell when days begin to grow shorter and nights longer. Trees and plants become more resistant to the lights as they grow older. Certain species are more sensitive than others.

The sensitive plant fails to produce the hormones it needs to stop growth in the winter, and then it can be damaged by frost, Cathey said. He suggested using another light, metal halite, which has been put into use in other cities and at the White House. Although its lighting is slightly less efficient (which makes it a little more expensive By Mary Thornton Globe Staff A five-year plan by Mayor Kevin H. White to light all of Boston with high-intensity sodium vapor lights is getting mixed reviews. Although the lights are popular among merchants and police officers, as well as some residents of the newly lit areas, the residents complain that the bright yellow color is ugly, and a US Department of Agriculture researcher says the lights may be harmful to plant life.

"The mayor plans to light the whole city over the next five years first the commercial areas and then the neighborhood areas, depending on whether or not people want them," Barbara Kopans, an aide to White, said. "With the yellow color they are different from anything that was there before a visible sign that' the city is supporting its neighborhoods and its local business districts," she said. "It's mainly an attempt to keep small business from moving out of. the neighborhoods, because the business areas tend to reflect the viability of the neighborhood. Boarded-up windows reflect a depressed area," Mrs.

Kopans said. The first lights were turned on Oct. 30 in the Codman Square section of Dorchester. Since then, they have been installed in Uphams Corner and Fields Corner in Dorchester, Roslindale Square, Cleary Square in Hyde Park, Centre street in Jamaica Plain and along Blue Hill avenue and Morton street in Mattapan. Three other areas are scheduled for lighting in the early spring under the original lighting grant.

Ten areas are scheduled to have the lights installed during the summer at a cost of another $2 million. Mrs. Kopans says the lights save energy. "You get twice as much light for the same amount of energy. And it's not costing the city any more," she said.

But the main advantage over the old mercury-vapor lighting is in crime prevention, she said. "The lights make you feel secure. They get rid of all the shadows. And we think that kind of security will bolster local business and encourage people to stay in the neighbor-' hoods," she said. Dorsey Gardner, a leader of the Jamaica Pond Assn.

in Jamaica Plain, disagrees. "I think they're he said. "One of the things we especially resent in this neighborhood is that they're relighting the Back Bay with very nice-looking, very expensive cast-iron lighting. They're spending a tremendous amount of money on it, while they tell the poor slobs in the neighborhoods that they have to save money and have the ugly sodium vapor lights," Gardner said. "They tell us that they're going to be great put an end to crime but we're not even a high-crime area.

Back Bay has a higher crime rate than we do," he said. Nik Zaitzevsky, another Jamaica than the sodium vapor), it does not harm plants, he said. Mrs. Edith Flaherty of Hyde Park is one neighborhood resident who favors the sodium vapor lights despite the drawbacks. "I think they're just great," she said, adding that she doesn't worry about her children as much now when they're out after dark.

Police also like them. "I never really was scared before out in the square," said Patrolman Francis Connolly from Hyde Park, "but now you can see everything." A patrolman from the Mattapan district said: "I think they're great and I think everyone in the country should like them. They cut down crime." Another policeman from the Dorchester district said he thought the lights might just, be moving crime from one street to another. "When you leave the new lights, it's like going from day to night when you walk down a street with the old lights," he said. Merchants have been one of the major proponents of the lights, but Joseph Egan, manager of the Dorchester Little City Hall, says that most stores are closed at night when the lights are on.

"Most merchants in Codman Square close at 6, so there's no reason for people to go there, even with the lights," he said. "I guess the hope was that the lights would stop the vandalism that goes on at night. They're not going to stop the hard-, core criminal they operate in broad daylight." is scheduled today at the US Department of Agriculture in Washington, at the' request of dairy producers who say that since last summer the price of feed for their cows has been too high and milk prices have been too low for them to operate without a loss. The farmers also say the possibility that they might save money by cutting back the size of their herds has been canceled by the plunge in wholesale beef prices since last year. They say beef prices are now below what slaughter and processing would cost them.

Herbert Forest, national milk marketing director for the Agriculture said Friday in a telephone interview that he expects the price increase request will be approved. If so, the price will go up about 10 percent at the wholesale level for fluid milk and it is ex- pected that processors will pass along the increase to consumers. The increase would take effect on Feb. 1. New England consumers, however, are not likely to be affected right away, Forest said, because the Regional Cooperative Marketing a milk producers organization, has set a wholesale premium price for fluid milk above the Federal levels.

"I would expect the increase in fluid milk prices to local consumers won't go up until June or July," said Dr. H.L. Wildasin, economist and bacteriologist for H. P. Hood and Sons, the area's largest milk processor.

"The co-ops will have to negotiate a new price." Butter, cheese and ice cream have already gone up in price. On Jan. 4, Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz approved a 10 percent rise in the Federal price for manufactured, milk products, and there is no cooperative's premium here. At that time Butz scheduled the increase for, drinking milk to be effective April 1, but producers said they could not afford the delay and want the increase In a petition to the Agriculture Dept. for the emergency hearing, the producers said Federal market order prices for fluid milk have dropped nearly 30 percent in the past year, while feed grain prices have risen by more than that amount.

Dr. Fred C. Webster, professor of marketing at the University of Vermont, described the problem for dairy farmers this way: "Farmers from 1967-1973 could always buy general, have refused outright support for its increased expense. They voted to defer to the wishes of the Town Meeting. John C.

Vincent chairman of Ipswich's Commuter, Rail Transportation Committee, said opposition is a result of confusion about the commuter subsidy. "We have been awfully lucky to have train service and pay nothing," he said. He has scheduled a series of information meetings this spring'. He views retention of service for the town's nearly 200 daily commuters as a holding action until service improves, cars are reconditioned and Federal funds increase. Rockport is likely to support continued commuter service, after a skirmish over its cost last all.

The dispute, according to Selectman Harold F. Beaton, arose because of what he called unfair and deceiving misrepresentation by the MBTA about actual rail service costs. The MBTA, he said, originally gave town officials a gross estimate of $7900 for 1974 service, later revised it to $17,900 and then finally submitted a bill of $36,000 for half a year. "We want the trains, but we didn't feel it was right to say thing and then double and triple it," he said. Beaton also questions whether the contract reflects the true cost of the run between Gloucester and Rockport, a four-mile run.

Peter Roehm, a member of Citizens for Rail Transportation, says the MBTA billing which covers Rockport's 13 round trips per day and 16 on weekends is a fair representation of costs. Roehm, a Rockport resident, blunted mounting opposition, to the contract by pressing for' a pecial referendum, held Nov. 26. The re cows and calves have dropped al-l most 40 percent in the last year. Veal is down from 51 cents a pound to 30 cents, and beef of utility ty is down from 30 cents a pound to.

22 cents'! 1 The recent round of increases in ice cream, butter and other manu- factured milk product prices is the first since milk jumped about 25 percent during 1973. Since last spring, however, the price for drinking milk has dropped about 8 percent at the retail from 76 cents a half-gallon to 71y cents. Two basic factors forced price of milk down over the past year reduced demand for drinking milk by consumers and overpro- duction by farmers. Prof. Gaunt cited two basic factors for the lowered demand for drinking milk.

"First," he said, "the cost of food has increased so much for almost everything that consum- ers are cutting back on all pur- chases. Second, there has been con- sumer concern about fat and terol in milk. But that's not a good: 3 reason, because the human body it-- -i self makes cholesterol, and milk is an excellent source of perfect pro- tein as well as calcium." v. Wildasin cited a surplus of pow- -dered milk as evidence of oversup-' ply in the dairy industry from pro-eduction stimulated by the cooperatives' premium prices. "When the (Federal) manufac- 1 tured milk price went up this month, the commercial price of but-' ter and cheese jumped right away, but powdered milk stayed the same.

That indicated there is too much powdered milk, and therefore, an oversupply of milk." Webster said: "The causes of higher milk production are mixed. Undoubtedly, the increase in last winter encouraged farm- ers to expand their operations. The lower prices of this last summer will doubtless reduce future production but farmers are slow to cull when beef prices are low and off-farm job opportunities discouraging." sults, 750 pro-rail to 100 against, showed the resort community's leaning. A week before the referendum, he said, it was learned that the 4 had quietly sold the Rockport railway yard to a private developer, who envisioned a shopping center. The land transfer contained provision for preserving the tracks' as long as commuter service re- mained, but some townspeople sus- pected a possible link between the end of service and the developer's.

plans, Roehm said. He said an article will be placed on the town meeting warrant to re- zone the property for rail transpor tation use only. Other contract communities hold -more enviable positions, especially Ayer and Littleton. They have received 1974 bills of $8200 and $12,300, respectively. Nei- ther has paid, but no service cutoff is threatened.

"I wouldn't dare ask Town Meeting for that amount; I'd get run out of town," Robert C. Bowler, chairman of the Ayer Board of Selectmen, said. Ayer has only 14 daily commut- ers, Littleton 21. Both towns for- merly paid about $1000 (or nothing to the MBTA "There would be no cost to Ayer, if we could arrange storage," Bowler said. Now the MBTA has to deadhead (transport empty cars) three trains out to Ayer in the morning to pick up passengers.

The trains are stored in Boston at night. The practice extremely expensive because employees are paid on a per-mile basis. Lo-v-Vi fr-1 Mlerka," T-thou-h under contract, pay no costs. 'eause t1' rr.ed rit'ershH exceeds 900 passen-ers per day -many from New Hai ipshire "tlie line shows a slight profit. MBTA puts bigger bite on 14 'outside' towns for rail costs lantM' TiirntiiffirimiflflTiMiiiin The cost of commuter service is going up for some communities.

By David S. Amory Special to The Globe The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is requiring 14 contract cities and towns outside its 79-community transit district to pay a higher share of commuter rail costs, or lose their service. Andover, Ipswich and Rockport are still considering whether the rising cost of a balanced transportation system is justified. If they refuse to pay, the MBTA will suspend Boston Maine service to those towns, which could affect more than 400 daily commuters. To date, eight other communities, have signed agreements, and Ayer and Littleton are negotiating.

North Andover has already, become a casualty of a get-tough policy which, MBTA official David Gunn says, is tailored to "make contracts or cut off service." Gunn, director of rail commuter service, has signed agreements with Gloucester, Newburyport, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, North Billerica and Acton, all on the Boston Maine line, and, to the south, Franklin, on the Penn Central. These cities and towns have agreed to pay 50 percent of the 1974 net operating costs (the state pays the other half) for extension of rail service from the next-nearest community. Indecision in the remaining three towns results partially from a limping economy, the ever-vacillating energy problem and confusion over the future of MBTA policy. Also involved in the decisions is the revision of the MBTA subsidy formula passed by the Legislature in 1974. Until 1972 the state picked up 90 percent of commuter rail costs for both'the district members and outlying contract towns.

From mid- 1972 to mid-1973, the state underwrote 100 percent. In December 1973, when the Legislature rewrote the MBTA subsidy formula, it provided up to 50 percent in aid for towns inside the district. At the same time, the state subsidy for commuter rail service to towns outside the district was placed on a 50-50 basis. Though beneficial to MBTA members, the new formula cut in half the percentage of state aid to non-MBTA towns and placed a substantially greater burden on contract communities. The cost of withdrawal social, environmental, and economic could be even higher, Gunn said.

"If they get out, they'll never get back in," he said, "and as the energy crisis deepens it (a regional transportation system) will give them a foot in the door." He admits that, because of "bankrupt railroad management," towns and cities are faced with keeping a service that in many cases is old, poorly maintained and not competitive with the automobile. The MBTA, however, is committed to significant improvement of tracks, rolling stock and efficiency ($75 million is available in state and Federal funds) if the commuter line can be bought at a reasonable price, Gunn said. Further complicating the issue is the remote possibility the MBTA may soon abandon commuter service altogether. If the bankrupt fails to negotiate the sale of its rolling stock and rights-of-way in this part of the state for $26 million by March 31, the M3TA Advisory Board has threatened immediate substitution of commuter bus service. Gunn has extended the deadline cf a threatened cutoff until voters hopes the town's 115 daily commuters can avoid the same fate as their neighbor in North Andover.

The MBTA halted rail service to North Andover on Nov. 18 after voters refused to appropriate $4000 to cover 1974 costs. Selectman Joseph Guthrie said their action, partially stemming from a tax revolt earlier that year, was "strictly an economy move." Only 12 commuters, most of whom find it more convenient to commute from Andover, were affected. Guthrie said an article will be placed on the April town warrant to rejoin the contract service. In Ipswich some officials are predicting a hard time for the passage of $24,000 MBTA bill to cover 1974 costs.

The selectmen, although they support a balanced transit system in decide the issue at the annual spring town meetings. The situation is most acute in Andover. A coalition of bankers, lawyers and townspeople have provided a private subsidy to continue once-daily round-trip service until the town meeting March 31. Last October, at a special town meeting, Andover turned down for a 1974 contract by only 4 votes. Faced with a cutoff by Nov.

18, commuters raised more than $6000 from passengers, local merchants and Atlantic Richfield Oil a booster of mass transit. "If it's voted down again, the train will close its doors and go right on through," Robert S. Zollner, organizer of the Andover Rail Committee, said. If the town reverses its stand, the subsidy funds paid by private individuals, now in an escrow fund, will be returned by the MBTA 1.