Globe-Gazette from Mason City, Iowa • 1

THANKS Si 1 VA 1 i vi I METZENBAUM 'MOST LIBERAL' Page 17 Nation, Page 6 Snow A 60 percent chance of snow today and tonight with several inches accumulation likely. Highs today will be around 5 below zero. A good chance of snow Wednesday with highs around 5 above. Weather details Page 2 Tuesday, December 20, 1 983 Copyright 1983 Lee Enterprises, inc (Soldi -tightons Jl Mason City-Clear Lake, Iowa Cold work The Osage municipal utility was forced to use backup electricity generators Monday night after the city's supplier, Dairyland Cooperative, notified officials it would have to curtail its sale of wholesale power because of an approaching peak demand. The high demand was caused, in part, by extensive use of electricity by farmers to thaw water heaters, and heat and light livestock bams.

Wes Birdsall, head of Osage utilities, said the generators were started at 5 p.m. and said that, Kanawha cafe damaged by fire KANAWHA Hartwig's Cafe was heavily damaged by a fire here Monday night which required the services of several area fire departments. Firefighters were called to the business owned by Jim Hartwig about 9:30 p.m. and brought the blaze under control before midnight, authorities said. However, firefighters were expected to be at the scene all night because heavy smoke kept them from getting to the basement of the brick building, they said.

Firefighters had not determined the cause of the blaze. No injuries were reported and damage estimates were unknown, according to fire officials. U.S. military loaders faulted in Beirut torrorist bombing firefighting efforts were hampered by ice and the bitterly cold weather. It was 14 below zero Monday in Chicago.

(AP photo). Steve Klotz is covered with ice as he and other Justice, firefighters battle an apartment house fire in the Chicago suburb. There were no serious injuries from the blaze, but Council OKs lease plan for mall site WASHINGTON (AP) A House Armed Services subcommittee concluded Monday that the terrorist truck-bombing which killed 241 U.S. servicemen in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 23 resulted from the failure of senior military commanders to protect their troops against "the full spectrum of threats." The panel found "serious errors of judgment" by the top Marine commander on the ground, and faulted others higher up in the military chain of command for failing to anticipate the possibility of serious attack.

The subcommittee on investiga grip while it wasn't necessary, he was considering running them all night as well as into today. Birdsall said the situation was "just unbelievable" and said it was the first time he recalls having to run the city's generators because of a peak alert in the winter. "It's something we've never had before," lie said. The entire state continued to suffer under the cold snap as the mass of arctic air which moved (Please turn to Paee 21 tions voted 9-3 for the report's conclusions reached after several days of testimony from witnesses ranging from Marine infantrymen assigned to Lebanon to Gen. George Vessey.

chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff. It found there was less security for the 300 troops inside the Marine headquarters building which was bombed than has been provided for the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the scene of an earlier terrorist attack. Moreover, the report said, "Serious intelligence inadequacies had a Beirut (Please turn to Page 5) However, the Pittsburgh plant will serve as a sales and distribution facility for now. Casey said, "Every indication is it (the reopening) went according to plan.

We got done what we had planned and we are happy about it." He said "a number" of former Armour union workers applied for new jobs but ConAgra does not know how many. "It was not anything we focused on, so we don't have a number available," he said. Some workers were hired by ConAgra. Others filed for unem-. ployment benefits Monday.

Casey said the base salary for the unskilled workers was $5.50 to $6.50 an hour, with experienced workers paid more. He could not give a plant-by-plant breakdown as to wages. Casey said no special event is planned here to mark the takeover by ConAgra. because most of the other expenses in the district are fixed, such as utilities. Dr.

Worner noted. At this point, the actual number of employees to be cut was not (Please turn to Page 3) Foodstuff 13 Dear Abby 15 Kitchen Kapers 15 Comics ,18 At Wit's End 17 Giants of Faith ..18 Clear Lake 19 FarmBusiness 20 World 21 Council approves croation of calondar parking plan Bv Paul Holltv Staff Writer MASON CITY The City Council on Monday, in response to ice, snow and cold temperatures, approved the creation of a calendar parking ordinance. The measure, which is to face its first of three readings at the council's Jan. 3 meeting, would allow parking on only one side of the street during the winter months. The ordinance probably would not take effect until sometime next month.

City Engineer John Erickson, Streets Superintendent Jerry Wymore and Police Chief Gene Klienow worked out the measure as a solution to snow removal problems. If approved, the ordinance will work like this: at the first snowfall of the year, the mayor will declare calendar parking is in effect. on even-numbered calendar days, parking will be allowed on the north and west sides of streets; on odd-numbered days, parking will change to the south and east sides of streets. the hours of p.m until 8 p.m. each day will be the time for owners move their vehicles to the proper side of the street.

the 100 miles of streets currently with parking on one side only will be converted to calendar parking with the rest of the city's streets. The no-parking signs on these streets will be covered during the winter. calendar parking in the business district (Connecticut Avenue to Adorns Avenue and 4th Street South to 5th Street North) will be in ef- Calendar (Please turn to Page 3) ConAgra takes over Armour MASON CITV Brutal, record-low temperatures continued into their fourth day here early today as the mercury dipped to 20 below zero just after midnight Monday. That broke the previous Dec. 20 record of 17 below set in 1916, ac-' cording to Globe-Gazette weather records, with even colder temperatures likely before daybreak.

Monday's low, on the heels of records Saturday and Sunday, was 26 below, easily smashing the previous low of 16 below set in 1924. The high for the day was just 14 below. Compounding the misery is a 70 percent chance of snow today with some accumulation possible. The high will be just 5 below, with southeast winds of 10 to 15 mph producing a wind-chill factor of 40 below zero during the "warmest" part of the day. The temperature is expected to hold steady at 5 below tonight, and may finally crack zero on Wednesday as a high of 5 above is possible.

But there's a good chance of more snow Wednesday and each day through Saturday, with lows of 10 below to 30 below and highs of 10 below to 5 above, forecasters said. The unprecedented frigid temperatures have added another strange twist to the year's already-unusual weather picture in North Iowa. Romans reminded The Center Companies' Executive Vice President Jerry Amundson and the council Monday that he had often called for the developer to post a performance bond "to avoid surprises." "We are not asking fof something for nothing," Amundson replied. "We are willing to give remuneration for the land." Amundson said his firm had originally planned to buy the site, but its lender for the mall financing, the Norwest Insisted on a lease. He added that The Center Companies was anxious to get its financing completed before the end of the year because of possible changes in federal law regarding industrial development revenue bonds.

The vote on the lease proposal turned into a brief debate on the merits of the urban redevelopment project. Loeckle said he wanted to see the project's benefits and complained that the city was "giving literally millions of dollars in subsidy to a developer." Meanwhile, Shadle said the lease arrangement was set up in such a way that it wouldn't directly tax other city property owners. And, Thompson said the Southbridge's benefits are the reversal of a deteriorating downtowntax base. Southbridge is scheduled for completion in 1984-65. ating the school district, he lamented.

Cuts in the past five years have amounted to $1.6 million. And the Iowa Legislature probably won't come up with much more money for schools in the next couple of years, Dr. Worner predicted. The tentative list of cuts was discussed Monday and is to be acted on by the School Board on Monday, Jan. 23.

The budget must be finalized by March 15. Dr. Worner said educational groups in the city, such as the Mason City Education Association and parent groups, have been asked their opinions on slicing the budget. He added he also is interested in hearing from the public on possible cuts. By Paul Holley Staff Writer MASON CITY A lease proposal for the Southbridge Mall site was approved 4-2 Monday by the Mason City Council.

The proposal calls for South-bridge developer. The Center Companies of Minneapolis, to lease the downtown site for $200,000 a year. The council's two at large members Stanley Romans and Larrey Loeckle voted "no." First Ward Councilman Ken Shadle, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Mary Greeran, 3rd Ward Councilman Ed Chuck and 4th Ward Councilman Jim Thompson voted for the proposal. When the proposal takes effect about mid-January, the developer will lease the site bounded by 2nd Street South, 1st Street South, Washington and Delaware avenues for 30 years at $200,000 a year. The Center Companies will also make payments to the city equal to the amount of the site's annual property taxes.

The council is expected to issue $1.2 million in general obligation bonds early next year to pay for all of the mall area property. The annual lease payments will be enough to cover the bond payments (about $150,000 a year). The Center Companies, which is in the process of building a regional shopping center on the site, will also be given the right to buy the land outright at anytime during the lease period. tops goal Christmas Cheer Fund MASON CITY Without fanfare, the Armour Foods plant here began operation Monday under new ownership, ConAgra Inc. of Omaha, Neb ConAgra bought Armour from the Greyhound Corp.

effective Saturday. The plant was shut down and reopened Monday with a non-union work force replacing the some 300 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 38P. Those union workers voted to re-ject lower wages and benefits that' would have allowed them to keep working. Walter Casey, corporate public relations director for ConAgra, said some 250 workers started Monday, with more to be phased in over the next few weeks to bring the total to 300, where it had been. Armour plant managers were retained by ConAgra.

"We welcomed them with open arms," said Casey. All 13 Armour plants bought by ConAgra were reopened Monday. "We will re-review all of this," Dr. Worner said of the tentative list. "We will re-review our own thinking and we might change a few things But it will take quite a bit to take something off (the list)." The cuts hit personnel hardest Records 2, 3 Obituaries 2 Weather 2 Mason City 3 Opinion 4 Nation 5, 6 North Iowa 8 County Lines 9 Sports 10-12 City school budget cut plan could eliminate 44 positions Cheer Fund MASON CITY We declare it a victory but it doesn't mean the fight's over.

Once again, for the 56th consecutive year since the drive started in 1927, the Globe-Gazette Christmas Cheer Fund has gone over its goal. Today's contributions of $1,854.39 bring the annual fund drive for the needy to $15,140.88, 88 over the $15,000 goal with three days still to give. And those three days will be important ones. Maude Stackhouse, volunteer coordinator for the drive, ''said that despite what appears to be a recovering national economy, the need in North Iowa has proven to be greater than ever. She has said repeatedly this year that every dollar every penny will be important to help needy families have a better holiday.

Stackhouse said many people are out of work or have illness in the family with mounting medical bills. On top of that, she said, the severe early winter is straining many fam-ily budgets that already are stretched to the maximum. She said while the names of many needy people have been brought to the fund's attention, more are welcome. The Cerro Gordo Council of Social Agencies also helps identify those in need. In addition to cash, the Cheer (Please turn to Paee 3) Bv Patricia Morgan Staff Writer MASON CITY Mason City school officials grimly presented tentative budget cuts of $880,776 to the School Board on Monday.

The cuts mean as many as 44 positions could be dropped, resulting in larger classes. The district also will spend the next couple of years studying whether closing another building could save more money, possibly asking the public for an enrichment levy and seeking other sources of financial support, according to Dr. Roger Worner, superintendent. This is the sixth consecutive year the district has had to look for places to cut because state aid has not kept up with the costs of oper-.