Albany Democrat-Herald from Albany, Oregon • 1

1 JllbanyBem Stxali (L. 117th year Saturday, January 16, 1982, Albany, Oregon 40 Pages-Price 25 cents iMi 'i t-- Aj- Nation sacrifices jobs to cut inflation Unemployment rises to 15 in Linn County Linn County's jobless rate rase to 15 percent in December, an increase tf 2 percent over the previous month, according to figures released Friday by the Oregon Employment Division The number of employed persons in Linn County dropped from 35,110 in November to 34.920 in December, pushing the unemployment rate up from 13 percent. State labor economist Jim Thomassen said the continued weakness of the wood products and housing market contributed most to the change. Oregon's jobless rate went from 11.1 to 11.4 percent for the same period. The national rate increased from 8.4 to 8.9 percent in December.

Thomassen said 6,160 Linn County residents were actively seeking jobs in December, compared to 5,260 in November. In December 1980, Linn County had an 11.6 percent unemployment rate. WASHINGTON (AP) An unemployment rate approaching the highest level since World War II is the "traditional trade-off" for the nation's declining inflation, conomists say. New government figures released Friday showed inflation at the wholesale level rising just 7 percent last year, well under the 11.8 percent of 1980. In fact, it was the best showing since 1977.

But other new figures showed production at the nation's factories and mines plummeting 2.1 percent in December, a drop almost sure to push the jobless rate to the highest level since World War II. And economists say there is a clear connection. One private analyst, David Cross of Chase Econometrics, describes the current situation as "fighting inflation with unemployment." Another, Allen Sinai of Data Resources agrees that "it's the traditional trade-off between inflation and unemployment now in progress." Government economist Robert Ort-ner won't go that far. But he concedes the better inflation record was at least partly due to sluggishness in the American economy. All three commented Friday after the government released inflation and production figures for December.

Labor Department officials said the 0.3 percent December increase in the Producer Price Index held wholesale inflation for the year to just a shade over the 6.9 percent recorded in 1977. However, the Federal Reserve Board also reported that production fell for the fifth month in a row. Almost all analysts are forecasting at least some economic recovery by late spring or next summer at the latest. But in the meantime, Ortner, the Commerce Department's chief Staff photo by Stanford Smith Dyrol Burleson examines an eroding bank at Freeway Lakes Park. The lakes are said to be dying.

1 H. 4 ITWiinirfl BailLnao Polluted ponds near freeway lyynillCjl DailieS p0Se problems in county park economist, said it would be "a fair guess that unemployment will increase somewhat further." The jobless rate is at 8.9 percent, just under the post-World War II high of 9 percent recorded in the 1974-75 recession. Just before World War II, during the Great Depression, joblessness peaked at nearly 25 percent of the civilian work force. WPPSS mothball effort dies; electricity rates could rise the lakes made installation of sanitation facilities difficult. Burleson said vault-type toilets finally were installed.

These require periodic pumping and are more costly to maintain than septic systems. The lack of available drinking water at the lakes is an intentional move to discourage camping, which could increase the health hazard. Because the band of land between the water and the road is narrow and steep in spots, the danger of accidental drowning is real, according to Burleson. In the case of 3 child, or a non-swimmer, a tumble off this narrow bank could lead to an immediate plunge into fairly deep Keith Matthews of Morse Brothers, a sand, gravel and construction firm, said the kind of pits that formed the Freeway Lakes no longer are legal as a result of federal mine-reclamation legislation. Instead of pits dug straight into the ground, there must be 3 feet of horizontal progress for every foot of vertical drop.

This assures a gradual slope, said Matthews. In addition, gravel companies must present plans for the eventual use of a pit before any gravel is extracted. No one is to blame for the Freeway Lakes fiasco, according to Burleson. He said a lot of "well-intentioned; fine people" acquired the property for the county to benefit the public. He believes the attitude of the times was the culprit.

"Back then, there seemed to be this pioneer way of thinking," he said. "People believed there was limitless land and unending resources. That kind of thinking created a lot of liabilities." ByTHERESA NOVAK Democrat-Herald Writer Poorly planned, polluted and dying, Linn County's Freeway Lakes Park is a perfect example of how not to build a recreation area, according to Dyrol Burleson, director of the county Parks Department. The park, three miles south of Albany near Interstate 5, offers year-round fishing and day-use picnicking. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks the lakes with trout and bass and every year, fishermen pull a few real lunkers from those murky waters onto the banks.

At least a few dead fish can usually be found on the banks of the lakes, too. Dead from pollution. Freeway Lakes are the fastest-dying lakes in Linn County. The flow of Oak Creek, which created the lakes in an old state Highway Division gravel pit, is now killing them, according to Robert Ross, head of the biology department at Linn Benton Community College. Though all lakes are in a state of decline from lake to pond to marshland, the rate at which Freeway Lakes are changing is accelerated by Oak Creek.

The steam originates near Sodaville and winds through the farmlands of the Willamette Valley. High concentrations of nitrogen and phosphates, absorbed from fertilizers and animal wastes, flow into the lakes and create an overly-rich organic soup, Ross said. As a result, Freeway Lakes are second in pollution only to the Albany sewage treatment plant, Ross said. The excess nutrients accelerate the growth of algae, robbing the water of oxygen and strangling animal life in the lakes. The situation is worst in the summer, when the creek dries up and the lakes are stagnant ponds.

Ross has been studying the lakes since 1970. He believes their condition is terminal and predicts that 30 years from now, the lakes may be unable to support any animal life. The problem is caused by a lack of planning, according to Burleson. The lakes were created when gravel was extracted to build 1-5. The gravel pits were abandoned and filled with water from Oak Creek.

Soon the new lakes became popular with swimmers, boaters, water skiers and fishermen. When the state Highway Division deeded the lakes to the county in a 56.7-acre grant, Freeway Lakes Park was formed. Burleson, who took over as director of Linn County's parks in 1966, immediately saw a problem developing. Three gravel pits full of water do not necessarily add up to a good park. Burleson said the park has numerous shortcomings, including: The lake beds slope steeply from the shore, creating a sudden drop-off into deep water.

The steep slope also exposes the shore to constant erosion, from the lapping of water against the bank and from rapidly changing levels of water. Use of the lakes is restricted to fishing and picnicking, since they are too small and polluted to allow safe water skiing or swimming. A 10 mph speed limit was imposed in the early 1970s by the state Marine Board in Salem after a water-skiing accident occurred on the largest of the lakes, injuring one person. The high water table of the land surrounding SEATTLE (AP) Electricity bills for two million ratepayers in the Pacific Northwest may double and in some cases quadruple because of the failure of a plan to save two partially built nuclear power plants, experts say. Following the collapse of efforts to keep the two Washington Public Power Supply System projects ready for work to resume in mid-1983, the 88 participating utilities began a frantic struggle Friday to insure the orderly abandonment of the plants.

The alternative uncontrolled termination could leave WPPSS in receivership, force some utilities into bankruptcy and leave bond experts wary of any major construction project in the region. WPPSS is the construction arm of the state's public utilities, most of which had shares in the two plants. Also participating were public utilities in Oregon, Idaho and Montana. WPPSS managing director Robert Ferguson told his board of directors a $150 million plan to mothball the plants appeared to be dead. He recommended a vote to terminate the projects at a meeting next Friday.

Asked if he saw any way to save the plants, Ferguson said: "Not at the present time." During the next week, he said he would develop a formal motion to abandon the plants so as to "minimize the risks to all involved." Total cost of terminating the plants is $343 million. This does not include the $2.25 billion in construction bonds that will have to be repaid. 'Siberian Express' hits frozen Midwest Governor to announce recovery plan Monday ill nh 1 Ifc 41 if l'''Hr A blizzard with winds of 50 mph also closed highways and caused many traffic accidents across central and northern Indiana and western Michigan, where 11 inches of snow fell at Frankfort. Blowing snow was causing headaches for the Ohio Department of Transportation, trying to keep open the state's 16,000 miles of highways. "We can plow a highway and 15 minutes later, it'll be the same condition it was," said David V.

Finley, a department spokesman. Blowing snow also shut off many highways in South Dakota where the mercury dropped to 24 below at Rapid City, Murdo, Aberdeen and Milbank. Temperatures dropped six degrees an hour in Michigan where the fierce winds and snow caused "white-outs" on the highways. Wind gusts of 30 mph with the temperature at minus 18 made the wind chill factor 74 below zero in Rockford, 111. Chicago reported a wind chill of 67 below.

Icy roads caused a pileup of 20 to 30 cars on the Freeway in suburban Detroit. Police also reported about a dozen smashups on Interstate 94 on Detroit's east side. Midwesterners, remembering last weekend's record cold, began stocking up Friday on groceries, fuel and other By Tht Associated Prvis A surge of polar cold nicknamed the "Siberian Express" blew into the frozen Midwest with paralyzing blizzards Saturday, and the mercury sank to painful lows deep into the Sunbelt. The frigid winds sent the chill factor to 75 degrees below zero in places and the death toll reached 237 in a wintry assault that began writing weather history last weekend. "It is one of the most severe outbreaks of cold weather mid-America has seen since the 1800s," said meteorologist Nolan Duke of the National Weather Service in Kansas City.

While temperatures Saturday stopped shy of last weekend's records, such as the all-time low of 26 below in Chicago, readings were close to minus 30 degrees below zero across parts of Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, with wind chills below zero as far south as San Antonio, Texas. More than 320,000 people remained without power in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. Freezing rain closed many highways again in north Georgia and snow fell in the Texas Panhandle. Snow was common from the Great Lakes across the Ohio Valley into the Northeast, where New York City got its third plastering in four days. He said one step would be easing the procedures but not the standards for permits.

He said this would involve speeding up the time it takes to act on permits and perhaps forming a special panel of agency officials as a clearinghouse to facilitate the permit process. Kelly also said perhaps the governor should have authority to intervene when there is an emergency that hangs up plans for a company to move here. The economist said he thinks the Departmennt of Economic Development needs to provide more recognizable assistance to companies thinking of coming to Oregon. "There's got to be someone to assist when the company hits a roadblock," said Kelly. House Minority Leader Paul Han-neman also supported the idea of troubleshooters in the Department of Economic Development to help businesses "get through the bureaucratic mess." Hanneman said the House GOP caucus has prepared at least six bills for the special session aimed at helping the state's economy.

Related stories, page 5 SALEM (AP) Gov. Vic Atiyeh's economic recovery plan may feature a streamlined permit process designed to change Oregon's anti-business image, sources say. This could include speeding up permit procedures and giving the governor power to override permits in an emergency situation. The governor will announce details of his $2 million program in a state-of-the-state address Monday at the start of the special session he called to balance the state budget. Atiyeh has said that while lawmakers take steps to prevent a projected deficit caused by Oregon's ailing economy, they also should take steps to revitalize the economy.

"If we're going to sell the state to high technology companies or others, we're going to have to make it very clear that changes are going on," said Portland economist Kevin Kelly, a member of the governor's panel of economic advisors. "Whether deserved or not, the state's image is bad," added Kelly, who has discussed his ideas with the governor's office. "We need to make dramatic changes to indicate we're moving in a different direction." AP Lasvrphoto Icicles hang off a building at Bretton Woods, N.H. supplies. Lines at three cash registers patterns in which the systems move at one supermarket in Columbus, Ohio, across the warmer waters of the were 50 deep at midnight, Pacific, the present air is taking a nor- Duke said the cold is coming from the therly track across the polar regions of )lar regions of Siberia, prompting one Canada, meteroiogist to dub it the "Siberian Express." Unlike normal winter weather Related story, page 6 Agencies that complained about United Way allocations will get a chance to appeal.

See page 3. An Albany woman celebrates her 100th birthday Monday with family and friends. See page 3. Sweet Home, West and South Albany all were winners in basketball action Friday. See page 16.

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