At Issue: 1977 The Last Look

good evening I'm Twyla young and welcome to this special edition of @issue a look at the year just finished and a look at the one coming up tonight we'll be talking about several of the things that happened during 1977 things that affected the way we live our lives the way we feel about ourselves in our communities we'll look at the land around us and some of the changes in it man-made unnatural good and bad 1977 was a year that held tragedy for some excitement for many scandal for others and we'll look at some of those events we'll also try to see where 1977 got us in terms of the quality of our lives what sorts of things happen during the year that made us feel good or bad about living the way we do where we do we'll look at some of the problems it began to crop up during the year problems that will be with us for a while and we'll look at some of the things that helped lend a little variety to our lives some of the things that helped give us a special sense of ourselves in central Iowa the drought that stole our crops and dried up our wells took over our lives early in the year as a dry winter slid into a parched summer and by the first week in July we reported to you that most of the corn in the very middle of the state was beyond hope many central Iowa farmers are frightened these days by what they see in their fields what they see are acres of corn stalks and very little corn take Jerry grant for instance he farms some nine hundred acres east of Nevada Iowa his corn has tassel but no ears have emerged and no ears means no crop a few describe it for real or is it beyond rain yes I don't think the rain is going to help feel like this at all anymore not a bit more farmers will be looking at badly damaged crops if rain doesn't come soon but for farmers like Jerry grant it's already too late you just take it as something that can happen it's one of the risk apartments right home prevent an extra life event next year they will be better next year before long attention spread from dying corn too thirsty stock as rural Wells began to fail and their owners called for help rural wells are drying up daily Bishop says immediate problems face livestock the county is attempting to implement a plan that will let farmers utilize water from for gravel pits to water stock there is a holdup on supplying pumps and tanks however a holdup bishop points to as just one example of inaction by the government in a time of need then on the first weekend in August the rains came to Central Iowa with a startling effect on town dwellers men effect will look out more closely in a moment but for those corn growers it was too late there were early June Central Iowa corn farmers would be glad to see all the rain has fallen in this part of the state in the last week but when it's early August the rain means very little because most of the cornfields here gave in to the drought several weeks ago the rain did help out the soybean crop and many parts of Iowa even had enough rain during the summer to harvest a record corn crop but in central Iowa the severely depleted subsoil moisture victim of a couple of years of dry summers won't be much help to the corn crop going into the ground this coming spring that crop will need a normal rainfall to make it to harvest it was the drought falling prices for agricultural products rumblings of a farm strike and plain old politics that brought President Jimmy Carter to Iowa along with several other Midwestern states in October he spent the night on a farm near Indianola than had breakfast and lots of talk with several farmers from the area although most were glad to get a chance to talk to the president and most felt he had listened to their problems it was clear that some were unconvinced that solutions for the woes of the Americans armored were at hand I never seen anything like it everyone got their say in everyone was sincere everyone had a I thought a very important point to make and the nice thing about it he's a farmer he understands farm language and he knew exactly what we meant and that is really something one of the things I brought up was a cost price squeeze and I told him and I felt the farm program I was basically a good program but I felt like it maybe should be a little higher price supports a little higher level than what it was what kind of response did you get from him well he he understands our problems I think of course who said that the cost of the government was going to be excessively high and he felt like maybe that was something we could live with those or easily and set it there I didn't really ask him a question I made a statement to him that I was concerned that the loan limit was too high perhaps in the forty and fifty thousand dollar range because why should a small farmer or a young farmer who's had his land that he would like to buy to make a home button away from him and then this same farmer turned around and wants the federal government to subsidized a large operation in that form bubbled over in the fall in the form of a farmer strike a movement that originated in the high plains wheat growing areas of eastern Colorado in western Kansas but which spread to Iowa 1,400 acres how is the problem with you well this year's been a pretty bad year who had a lot of dry weather bad drought then low cattle prices about the only thing prices really any good as home prices they're going down so I don't know I don't know what the farmers are going to do what they did in Iowa at least was to gather in Des Moines the day before the strike was to go into effect and ask for the support of Governor Robert ray we have a terrible public well and I don't want to find out I'm saying it will raise the price because what what tell me exactly what you plan to do I learned the withhold as much as we can for they wouldn't sign their statement of support although he said he was in sympathy with their situation December 14 the strike date came and went with little fanfare and a week later we reported to you that agricultural products grain and stock were moving at a normal rate for the time of year perhaps 1978 will tell us whether that is merely a phenomenon of the marketing system or an indication that most farmers aren't interested in striking but the land we live in and from is only one element of a complicated environment an environment that was disrupted this year by the mysterious appearance in several places around the state of a deadly poison which we came to know as PCB storage tanks no transport truck in Fort Dodge contained PCB twelve sixty at a level of about fifteen hundred parts per million additionally the tanks contain another chemical hexa chlorobenzene and 12 other poly chlorinated hydrocarbons the eq director Larry crane says initial grab sampling techniques provided inadequate results that prompted the DEQ to announce on Friday no PCB was contained in the waste oil further testing by the Environmental Protection Agency turned up the contrary results over the weekend DEQ is now making provisions to dispose of the oil we want to transport the material and have it properly incinerated so we wanted to go through a combustion process rather than a land disposal process if such process can be found and that's why we need close identification of exactly what compounds are in there so we'll find out which disposal sites can and cannot handle it before long the PCB tanks and their contents had become a deadly white elephant for now the PCB is safely stashed at the Lehi cement plant in Mason City but what to do with it is a problem that still has to be solved stepping outside this year did not always mean being faced with a devastating drought or life-threatening poisons there was quite a bit of attention being directed in other areas like Saylorville reservoir the Corps of Engineers dam designed to save water for agriculture and recreation ironically the dam and its builders came through a controversy about flood plains and jurisdiction only to close the gates and begin filling the reservoir in the midst of the drought needless to say it took a little longer than usual for the reservoir to fill but Phil it did assistant park manager Andrew Davidson says the flow of water into the reservoir this morning was almost eight times more than usual he says 100 cubic feet of water is released into the Des Moines River each second and for the past few months more water was flowing out of the reservoir than in because of the drought today about 560 cubic feet per second of water was flowing into the reservoir more than was flowing out so this should help the level of the lake since the middle of June the lake has only risen about two feet and Davidson says the lake level needs to rise about 10 more feet to reach the projected level officials first predicted the projected level would be reached by the fourth of July but with the dry conditions this summer no future predictions have been ade I say that the lake is filling with water boaters are filling silikal Lake Conservation Commission water officer rod Pickens counted only eight boats on the lake last Memorial Day by last weekend about 150 boaters were out that figure should range even more on Labor Day because the lake is filling so rapidly there's not enough time for submerged lawns and trees to break loose and float to shore more and more debris is being pulled from the water daily but Pickens warns boaters to navigate carefully it takes several years of dry weather to so deplete the earth moisture that an entire corn crop is destroyed it takes several months of normal rainfall to fill a reservoir and it takes weeks of frustration and planning to pull off a farm strike but it takes just a few minutes to lose a life in a devastating fire like the one at this apartment house in Des Moines last February five persons died in that fire making it one of the worst tragedies of the year in central Iowa and certainly one of the most terrifying events in the lives of the people who lived in and around the coronado apartments on the afternoon of february 9th besides destroying lives and property the fire set in motion a long and bitter debate about the city's fire code and its enforcement a debate which finally ended in the adoption of a new fire code officials decided that the coronado fire was the result of arson and 24-year old ronald of avaricum a resident of the apartment house was charged first with manslaughter then with five counts of first-degree murder three-and-a-half months after the blaze the verrico faced a jury and heard their decision the verdict finds 42 year old Ronald the verka guilty of five counts of first degree murder in the February 9th fire that destroyed the Coronado apartment building the jury of five men and seven women handed the verdict down about 1:30 this afternoon the case went to the jury yesterday morning the decision follows about eight hours of deliberation but verka had maintained his innocence throughout the trial claiming the fire started in his apartment when a discarded mat touched off a sack of yarn in early May a different kind of catastrophe struck Fort Dodge two tornadoes set down in that city on the evening of May 4th as cleanup began we told you what had happened caused extensive damage to separate areas of the city the Southwest business district near the intersection of Highways 20 and 169 and the Northeast residential section of town which was the hardest hit as the bundles first touched down on the southwest side had damaged 13 commercial structures including the local television station storm tore through the rustlers rendezvous tavern where 15 customers watched as the ceiling and walls collapsed around them to a Vern owner Bob Howard was just on his way to work it was black I mean out of a gray guy just twirling you could just see it in the distance just like he was dropping down out of the West it looked like it was right over this place of business wrestlers around II when I was maybe half a mile away I thought I saw a bunch of birds flying around all it actually was was debris that this funnel had kicked up so high I'm just amazing that something like that then split and lift it later touching down on the city's northeast side officials say 40 homes were demolished another 60 heavily damaged crews were busy today clearing debris electrical wire and tree limbs from the city streets normal Lundberg was one of the many area residents who sought shelter as the storm approached my husband and I were there and we just grabbed each other and got down in the corner and pulled a black recliner chair right in and against us and hovered in the corner and stayed there sound like it was just tearing the whole house apart one person 47 year old Carl died as a result of that tornado earlier in the spring another kind of tragedy had touched the City of Des Moines a 25 year old Des Moines police officer was shot to death during a struggle at a disturbance to which he had been called while memorial services were being held for Bryan Melton a Des Moines man 22-year old David Welton was facing a murder charge because of that shooting the event touched off a campaign to get bulletproof vests for police officers demands from policemen for safer working conditions and charges of morale problems on the des moines police force Welton whose trial was moved to Scott County on a change of venue was acquitted scandal and controversy touch state government in Iowa this year in several forms shortly after the new year an investigation was announced that marked the beginning of a long and troubled year for the State Liquor Control Board the Bureau of Criminal Investigation joined the attorney general's office and the state auditor to announce an investigation into the bribery of a state liquor employee BCI agents today began to search for grand jury evidence of bribery over the leasing of state liquor stores as the year wore on there were charges of petty embezzling bookkeeping discrepancies and in June Liquor Control director Roland Gallagher was charged with illegally accepting from a liquor salesman a membership in one of Des Moines exclusive clubs those charges were later dropped but into the midst of the allegations came more charges this time that the Board held and illegally closed meeting to discuss all those other charges the first of those trials was just itíd in late july closing statement to the jury defense attorney Lawrence Colley said the open meetings law is so vague people must make judgments about closing meetings Scully said Kirk judge there was a compelling reason to close the March 25th meeting and he should not be penalized for making that judgment prosecuting attorney Chester Woodburn said Kirk made a bad judgment that there was any question about closing the meeting Woodburn said it should have been left open in late summer scandal touched the Statehouse when records surfaced that indicated State Controller Marvin Selden had visited a house of prostitution and in mid-september we reported Governor Ray's reaction Selden admits the visits and today governor ray indicated renewed confidence in Selden as a public official well I think he's performed very efficiently very effectively and very well over these past 16 years the mere fact that we might disapprove of something he did in his own private life does not seem to me to be cause for him no longer able to perform well ray says he is setting up a task force on government ethics to help decide policy for state employees in Selden situation the cloud of controversy spread to the state supported Iowa Public Broadcasting Network last summer when an audit discovered equipment missing and also alleged sloppy accounting in November new charges surfaced the network was accused of keeping a pornographic film library State Senator Bill Palmer who made the charges told reporter Craig King that that wasn't all the allegations that I made her charges I made today was the payment of expenses there were not for various types activities that would normally be covered through a reimbursement through state funds there is also charges that vouchers expense accounts invoices have been stolen the Legislative Council unanimously approved an investigation of IP bn3 senators and three representatives will be appointed to investigate the operation Palmer says he has documented evidence from IP bien personnel that will back up his allegations is that indicate three to five people are involved in illicit activities at the station there have been meetings and investigations and hirings and firings all fall at IP BN and the network faces the new year with some significant challenges in the areas of rebuilding morale and credibility scandal and distrust allegations and investigations of the public and the semi public among us do not make up the whole fabric of life there are more prosaic problems and joys that tell a lot more about the way we really live our lives and we'll take a look at a few of those things from the past year in just a moment actual community school it is only one of several around the state caught up in the problems of declining enrollment and the difficulties of the economics of public education those problems took center stage early in the year when over a thousand people from around Iowa showed up at the state capitol for a public hearing on what to do about schools that are small and getting smaller out of that hearing and other meetings and bill drafting came a proposal to force small schools to consolidate it had its supporters and its opponents and all with all of these kids some ninety percent of the districts the problem is going to be much worse not better five years and I think we have an obligation anticipate that problem instead of waiting until these students education is cut clear the bone a little a ssin of approximately 256 students in K through 12 and yet according to the Iowa Test of Basic Basic Skills a test which is applied throughout the state of Iowa in every school Lytton those grades of those students in those grades ranked in the 99 percentile that measure did not make it through the legislature and the controversy continues at a spring seminar dr. Wayne Truesdale told state officials legislators and school administrators that whatever solution they came up with it had better be workable and it had better be quick for the problem was here to stay our greatest loss is going to come in the next five years because we are replacing 63,000 senior versus a year with 40,000 kindergarten verse we've got to accept it the Iowa State Education Association has long contended that the problem facing Iowa schools is not the number of pupils in them but the formula by which they get state money the ISDA conducted the survey to find out what sort of financial situation Iowa schools are in and this fall they issued this report it indicates 20% of district superintendents had to eliminate or curtail programs during the present school year 35% said money woes were forcing them to cut back teaching staff and 27% reported they would delay making building repairs and purchasing non instructional materials Gilchrist says the serious trends can be reversed with funding reorganisation we have introduced this last session some modification of the school finance proposals and those modifications then we would hope Legislature would enact one of them would be that the percentage growth factor that's allowed each year to the school districts be allowed the previous year's budget rather than on the per pupil cost the problem of providing a good education at a cost that Iowans can afford will be on the minds of legislators as they reassemble in Des Moines next week one of the aspects of this year that touched many of us closely and forced quite a few people to change the Matta tude and habits was a widespread lack of water in the middle part of the state the drought that proved so devastating to area farms brought smaller towns around Central Iowa face to face with dried-up Wells and water hauling Des Moines drawing water from the shrinking Raccoon River appealed for voluntary cutbacks and the city of Ames decreed water rationing outdoor watering became illegal and the stiff penalty went into effect for anyone using more than their allotment all this in the face of a population that would double with the opening of Iowa State University we do not have a way of checking on the individual student and we're hopeful that there will be enough students very supportive of such a program that the social pressure and the willingness to work with us will cause the whole system to in fact support the conservation the university has reactivated its water treatment system a move that could provide an extra 1 million gallons of water a day still many campus buildings rely on the city water system which obviously has its own problems even before several thousand students arrived on campus then the rains came on the first weekend in August and the drought broke but all that water brought some problems of its own to Squaw Creek it runs through the center of Ames and up until yesterday it was nothing but a dry creek bed but now with a few more inches of rain it could become a flood threat important thing was that moisture had become to return to central Iowa in the future of our lawns and gardens as well as our field crops is a bit brighter because of that and how did this water shortage affect us in the long run well for some it left water savers and our showerheads buckets to catch our air-conditioner drips and a habit of turning off the faucet when we don't need the water running that could prove extremely beneficial in the long run ironically into the midst of this water short area came scientists and engineers and Arabian Prince and an iceberg all gathering at Iowa State University to see if they could figure a way to solve the world's water shortage why aims why icebergs you ask it all started when Iowa State University professor AAA who sunny met over a year ago with Prince Mohammad al-faisal of Saudi Arabia the prince was enthusiastic about moving giant icebergs like these to his hot dry water short country so he put up $50,000 and the conference was planned over 200 participants will discuss everything you wanted to know about icebergs during the five-day conference on the ISU campus what at the beginning some people felt this is just a far-out idea but many of them when they start to think of it they feel right I mean engineers have done lots of things which have you know thought at that time they are impossible but you know these things have been realized as part of the event officials plan to move a one-ton iceberg from Alaska to Ames it will fly it into Minneapolis and then truck it down it'll be on display Tuesday during a social hour at the union group organizers say if they can move a small iceberg all that way maybe someday they'll be able to move a large one the Arabian Prince involved in all this both scientifically and financially was Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia it was essentially his conference and after it was over he talked about how he felt it went Prince Feisal says he got more than he anticipated from the three-day conference and aims although he says the fanfare created by bringing an iceberg to a cornfield interfered with the conference more than he would have liked as for the practicality of towing icebergs to his arid country as a freshwater source faisal says he still thinks it's a good idea but that the engineering aspects will still have to be looked into the only question is when is it feasible and that might be the difference between some of the scientists and others and remember also I think the engineering side of this project has not been presented too much in this conference so the engineers have to say their word about it to the Saudi prince says the thousands he invested in the conference were not wasted because for the first time people are looking at iceberg utilization more seriously although the iceberg conference was a serious scientific endeavor it was a lot of fun too especially for those who got to see the iceberg and fun was what we managed to have a lot of this year as well there were parades and get-togethers some for big important reasons historical celebrations and the like and some for probably the best reason of all to have fun just because you want to like this celebration in the Hamilton County town of Stanhope you shouldn't have missed it watermelon days in Stanhope it was a lot of fun and that's that issue for this evening I'm Plyler young good night