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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1990 • ATHENS, GEORGIA • VOLUME
98, ISSUE 35
INSIDE
David Rocker will keep it
all in the family for
Auburn against Georgia
this weekend.
8
Weather: Just hang on, Friday’s
almost here. Today, sunny, high
In the low 70s, tonight, low In the
mid 40s, Fri., mostly sunny, high
In the low 70s.
Harmonious
The University Men's and Women's Glee Clubs
are preparing for their annnual fall concert to
night at 8 p.m. In the Fine Arts Auditorium. The
two volunteer clubs, which have grown In recent
years, will present a variety of music and songs.
See story, page 7.
Chemical treatment
faces budget woes
By DAN POOL
Staff Writer
Men are working in green rubber suits and air
masks off Milledge Avenue in a thick concrete
building equipped with an explosion-proof roof, lights
and refrigerated storage compartment.
The building is surrounded by maples and oaks
showing the colors of fall. Inside the building there
are red striped diagonal signs warning, “Poison, Haz
ardous Waste, Corrosive” and “Flammable Solid.”
The employees in the University’s waste treatment
facility are treating, packing for disposal and redistri
buting University chemicals and chemical waste.
Last year the small building had more than 72,361
pounds of hazardous chemicals pass through it.
Most of the chemicals are separated according to
waste type into 55-gallon drums, sealed and placed
over wells, which hold any leakage, to await shipping
by a commercial hauler to their place of disposal.
Last year, the University handled more than 8,100
containers in its hazardous materials program.
The University’s Public Safety Division, like the
rest of the University, is trying to deal with budget
cuts at the treatment facility.
A key to dealing with budget cuts has been to redis
tribute many of the chemicals that end up at the
treatment center, such as alcohol and solvents.
Public Safety Director Asa Boynton said, “We don’t
consider it a waste when we first get it. It’s just a
chemical."
Boynton explained that if a laboratory doesn’t need
a chemical that it has and wants to dispose of it, the
treatment facility will send a list of excess chemicals
to other laboratories. If anyone needs it, they will be
given the chemical.
Justin Reese, the University System’s hazardous
waste manager, said not only does redistribution save
other departments from buying the chemical, it saves
Public Safety the cost of disposal.
Some labs will buy a 5-gallon container of a chem
ical because it’s cheaper to buy larger amounts. They
only use one gallon and the rest has to be disposed of
or redistributed, Boynton said.
Also, many times the chemicals are only available
in larger quantities, he said.
"A good percentage of the chemicals have never
been used or only used once,” said Steve Tinnemeier,
Public Safety’s hazardous materials officer.
The University redistributed about 540 containers
of chemicals last year — saving more than $15,000 in
disposal costs plus the cost of purchasing new chemi
cals, according to Public Safety yearly figures.
Tinnemeier said the price of disposal could range
from $75 for a 55-gallon drum of non-chlorinated,
easily burned waste that could be used as fuel for in
cinerators up to $550 for 55 gallons of certain chlori
nated wastes that have to be incinerated in plants
with scrubbers.
The redistribution program becomes even more im
portant as the Environmental Protection Agency cre
ates new regulations that will further increase
disposal costs, Reese said, holding up the book of re
quirements which is about the size of the Atlanta tele
phone book.
“When people hear the name hazardous waste, they
start thinking about toxic avenger type of stuff,” he
said. “Most people don’t realize they use or are around
the stuff everyday.”
University hires Atlanta firm to tackle air quality problem
By MICHAEL W. McLEOD
Staff Writer
The University’s latest effort to solve
indoor air quality problems in the Biolog
ical Sciences Complex began Wednesday
at an open meeting held by a consulting
firm hired to examine the complex.
Less than 30 out of more than 200
building occupants attended the meeting
in the College of Veterinary Medicine au
ditorium.
“I want to know where everybody is,”
said Biological Sciences Chairman
Leonard.
Some in attendance criticized the deci
sion to hold the meeting outside the bio
sciences complex, and said a meeting ear
lier in the year on the same subject held
at the complex attracted more than 200.
However, most agreed the University
is moving in the right direction to solve
health problems in the complex.
The hiring of Air Quality Services Inc.
of Atlanta follows nearly a year of health
complaints by faculty and staff in the
building. Complaints have also led to the
development of a new policy for reporting
and responding to health complaints.
The firm, hired for $32,000, plans to
have recommendations for action or fur
ther study available by the early part of
next year, said Public Information Di
rector Tom Jackson. The money will come
out of the University’s general operating
funds.
AQS has been in business about two
years, according to its co-founder and
chief scientist Marilyn Black, who has
been involved with environmental health
studies with the Research Institute at the
Georgia Institute of Technology for al
most 20 years.
Black outlined the steps AQS will take.
After meeting with occupants, AQS will
examine the existing data on the bio-sci-
ences complex and review health ques
tionnaires issued to building occupants
Wednesday.
They will then conduct one-on-one in
terviews with selected occupants and re
view the structure of the building,
including the workings of its ventilation
system.
AQS will also examine the type of ac
tivities that go on in the bio-sciences com
plex.
The questionnaire issued to depart
ment heads today is due back to Mor-
tenson by noon Friday.
Gene Michaels, director of Special Aca
demic Programs in the complex, said he
would prefer that the deadline be post
poned because he will be leaving on a
field trip with two other faculty members
early today.
Others at the meeting also criticized
the decision to issue the questionnaire
with such short notice, but Black said the
questionnaire must be filled out in a short
period of time to ensure that they are
filled out individually, not as part of a
group effort, and to accommodate AQS’s
time schedule.
“We all need your cooperation in this,"
Black said.
Zoology professor Karen Porter, one of
many occupants of the building who have
complained of various health problems
connected with the bio-sciences complex,
asked Black for a more specific descrip
tion of the methods AQS would be using
to sample the air in the complex.
“We can’t give you specific examples
yet." Black said. ‘There isn’t a defined
methodology; we aren’t yet sure of what
we’re going to find. You can be assured we
will document the methodology used.”
Porter also wanted to be sure air sam
pling wouldn’t take place over the holi
days, when labs weren’t in operation and
less people were in the building. The sam
ples wouldn’t reflect the true levels of con
taminants in the complex, she said.
Bullock
endorses
O’Looney
Former candidate for Chief
Elected Officer of the Athens-
Clarke County unified govern
ment George Bullock said
Wednesday he will support
Gwen O’Looney in the Nov. 27
runoff election for that office.
Bullock said he thinks
O’Looney will head an open and
fair government.
“When I think of the two can
didates for that position,” he
said.T feel that Gwen O’Looney
is the best choice.”
O’Looney and Culpepper were
both unavailable for comment
Wednesday.
Bullock said his decision came
afler a week of deliberation.
Bullock took third place in the
Nov. 7 election with 20 percent
of the vote. 0‘Looney captured
42 percent while E.H. Culpepper
took 21 percent.
Bullock told reporters on
Nov.8 that he would not support
either candidate and would no
longer involve himself in poli
tics.
“I felt like I had to take a
stand," he said Wednesday. “I
feel very confident with my deci
sion."
Bullock also retracted his ear
lier statement about future po
litical involvement.
"If the opportunity comes I’ll
take it," he said.
The three other former CEO
candidates — Jim Holland, Na
than Williams and John
McGown —have not announced
support for either candidate in
the runoff.
Williams and McGown were
unavailable for comment
Wednesday and Holland said he
does not support either candi
date.
—Patrick Flanigan
Deadline set for vote on Athens tree protection ordinance
By LANCE HELMS
Staff Writer
The Athens City Council’s Finance Com
mittee has until Tuesday to develop a work
able version of a tree protection ordinance
proposed by the Athens Tree Commission
and vote on it.
In any case, the unified government will
face the issue when it takes over in Jan
uary.
If the ordinance fails before January, the
ATC could bring it before the new commis
sion. If it passes, the commission members
still must consider it as they combine
existing Clarke County and Athens ordi
nances.
“If it should pass, the new unified govern
ment’s going to have to go through the en
tire planning and zoning process,” said 2nd
Ward Council Member Cardee Kilpatrick, a
finance committee member. s
Opponents have said if existing ordi
nances were enforced they would protect
trees.
If that is true, Kilpatrick said, the unified
government will have to reconsider them in
its review of the existing ordinances.
“I can’t imagine (they) won’t have public
hearings on these ordinances," she said.
Kilpatrick said the city attorney, admin
istrators and Brian Kent, a local landscape
architect, will review the ordinance, which
Kent severely criticized at Tuesday’s com
mittee meeting.
“First of all, you need to talk to your at
torney about whether it’s too general," she
said. “And you need to talk to the people
who’ll be administering it."
Tuesday’s standing-room-only meeting
was a work session, called outside the coun
cil’s regular meeting schedule to hear the
ATC’s proposal and citizen comments. No
action was taken.
At the meeting, Kent attacked the pro
posal at length for, among other things,
being vague about the proposed city arbor
ist’s jurisdiction and the permit process for
developers, which is designed to keep a min
imum tree density on developed property.
“We’re not asking you to cofnmit to the
hiring of an arborist,” said ATC Chairman
John Waters, an associate professor of envi
ronmental design, at the meeting. The new
government could decide that.
The proposal’s standard for tree density
is more than 60 percent higher than those
in Gwinnett County and Decatur.
Tree density is based on the diameters of
the trees on a property. Each tree trunk is
measured and standard values given in the
ordinance for each tree size are added to
gether to obtain on “existing density” factor.
“Culturally significant” trees like the mag
nolia recently removed from the site of the
Hull-Snelling House count more than other
existing ones.
If the existing density factor doesn’t meet
the ordinance’s standard, the owner must
supply the difference. But replacement
trees don’t count as much ns existing ones.
At the meeting, Kilpatrick pointed out
that developers who nappen upon land
lacking the required density would be held
responsible for supplying the difference.
The ordinance would exempt all single-or
double-family residences and include only
the “front setback area” of non-exempt
property, which is the area up to the front of
a building.
Former Mayor Lauren Coile appointed
the ATC in 1980, and its original function
was to solicit donations for the planting of
trees on public land. By 1984, the members
decided they weren’t doing enough, so they
began designing a protection ordinance.
The ATC brought its proposal to Mayor
Dwain Chambers in May, but when it drew
fire they asked that it be put on hold while
they made it more workable. In September,
the finance committee received the new ver
sion and begun work on it again.
Givarz settling in as Hillel director
By LISA GILMORE
Contributing Writer
Although he rooted for the Gators in the football
game last weekend, he said his blood is slowly turning
red and black.
Jay Givarz, former assistant director of the Univer
sity of Florida B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation, is
serving his first quarter as director of Georgia Hillel.
“Athens is the friendliest town I have lived in —
within and out of the religious community,” Givarz
said. “Within my first three weeks in Athens, I felt
like I had been here two years.”
Givarz replaced ReubanRodriguez, who resigned in
June.
Sam Barcus, Hillel advisory board member, said
Givarz was chosen because he is energetic, full of
ideas and extremely organized.
“He has the type of personality that works well at
this University. He understands the mentality of the
Southern Jewish student," Barcus said.
B’nai B’rith sponsors world-yide Jewish student
centers to facilitate religious, cultural, social and edu
cational aspects of Jewish life.
“My goal is to form an enthusiastic Jewish commu
nity," Givarz said. “I ei\joy working with the Campus
Ministry Association, the University community and
campus student leaders in and out of the Jewish com
munity."
Givarz, 26, is the second youngest Hillel director of
440 Hillels in the United States. He applied for the po
sition because he wanted a challenge, he said. And the
successes of Florida’s Hillel made him want to try sim
ilar things at a different university.
The University and the University of Florida have
several things in common, Givarz said. Both schools
ore located in towns where the university is the main
focus of the community, he said. And they both have
large Greek systems.
“I have very good feelings about the enthusiastic at
titude of the Jewish Greek community on campus,"
Givarz said.
Another similarity is that students at both schools
come from all sects of Judaism, he said.
However, the similarities end when it comes to size.
Florida has 40,000 students. Of those, 4,300 are
Jewish. Out of 28,000 students at the University, 1,-
600 are Jewish, he said.
Because the homes of many Jewish students are as
far away as South Florida, about 2,000 students stay
in Gainesville for services during the fall Jewish holi
days.
Givarz has been involved in other religious activ
ities as well. He served as Florida regional advisor for
B’nai B’rith Organization, and this past summer, he
served as administrative director of Camp Coleman in
Cleveland, Ga. Sponsored by the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, the camp hosts elementary-
aged children.
While an undergraduate at Florida, Givarz served
as student director of Stop Children’s Cancer, vice
president of the Interfraternity Council and vice pres
ident of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.
Georgia Hillel offers weekly Sabbath services and
meals. In addition, there will be forums dealing with
personal, regional and international issues, Givarz
said.
Art appreciation
AJ McAllister, senior geology major, looking at an untitled work at
the Georgia Sculpture Society exhibit at the Tate Student Center.