Iowa Perspectives: Newsfive: Monday January 10 1979

News 5 Monday's show for the 15th Good evening I'm Phil Wilson, and I'm trial Yong welcome to Monday a news 5 special report tonight we're going to look at the kinds of problems that declining enrollment is causing one rural school district in the state and What that's that school district is doing to combat those problems? We'll also be checking into Iowa State University's exercise clinic keeping in shape is in these days And we'll find out what's going on at the clinic and what's special about it and we'll look at the phenomenon of Self-service gasoline stations there are more and more of them cropping up and more and more full service stations are going self-serve We'll find out what's behind that and why people brave the cold to pump their own gasoline tonight on Bob piles notebook We're going to visit one of the state's biggest tourist operations Bob reports that in the rush to get the tourist dollar the Amana Colonies have lost much of their old world heritage Many a man our residents realize this and they're working on a plan to get some of that heritage back Living in Iowa all of us have heard of at one time or another the Amana, Colonies These seven villages have gained the reputation of being one of the nation's biggest tourist attractions drawing people from all over to visit their fine restaurants and pick up on quality handmade goods The colonies didn't always cater to tourists originally they were comprised of about 1500 people who came to America from their native Germany to seek religious freedom from the Lutheran Church They made the trip in 1844 and settled in a communal society near, Buffalo, New York But Buffalo was growing so to escape the city ten years later the group moved to Eastern Iowa in search of space to let their religious community grow Today the Amana Colonies have grown up from a communal society to a corporation handling more than 20 million dollars a year business But instead of the community being run by church elders the Amana society corporate board is now in charge Giving up the Society's profits to its stockholders The Amana society took over in the early 1930s a depression was making the communal system Unprofitable about that time highway 6 and 149 were built through the colonies this brought the outside World to amana with people who were willing to pay a price for a man of goods originally the woollen mill Which is still in existence in the furniture shop and the meat markets and the bakeries? All produced products for use by the amount of people and then there there came the time when there were surpluses, and then these surpluses were sold and the people from without the community realized that the products that the amount of people they produce were very high in quality so the Amana church society fell by the wayside to the Amana Society which plays a dual role of being the spiritual leader of the community as well as the controller's of much of the business in the amana's the amount of society has assumed the positions of what ordinarily would be the City Council the city administration mayor Besides running the colonies government the Society also has complete control over all the production and sales of a man of furniture Foods and woolen products how does a society cope with combining business with the church? The visitors that come to amana a frequent amount of society businesses Get their money's worth There's no attempt to mislead or defraud and as long as as long as the society Plays it on the up-and-up with the visitors to the amount of community there. There is no problem with the church The tourists we talked to didn't seem to have a problem with the Society's combination of church and state We enjoy the food here. We come back two three times a year and Enjoy a good food. Then we always take home some bread some sausage and Maybe a bottle of wine and have a little fun when we get back home - it's fun to bring relatives and friends over here It was an interesting place to go - they. Have a good food here and It's kind of going back and they overworld I guess These are the things in the stores To aid the tourists in spending as money the Board decided to expand the Amman as - outside the colony's limits There is now a little amana, which is located on interstate 80 and there's several amana general stores two of the general stores are located in the Des Moines area these stores carry all the goods found on the Amana Colonies from handmade furniture to sweaters made out of a man of wool the Reason for that was that we felt that the Amana community was especially during the summer months at a point of saturation from the standpoint of people flow and for this reason we decided to try to export a manner to the visitor instead of Asking more visitors to come in - the amount of area during a period of time when when there is a problem Accommodating a large number of people that we see here but not everyone's thrilled with the commercial growth of the amana's a group known as our hope for our community has recently been formed the Organization is comprised of younger residents of the colonies who fear increased commercialization of the Amana way of life They want to take the colonies back to the ways of their ancestors. We contacted the group's spokesman Guy Wendler He refused to talk with us saying it's the groups policy not to talk with news media So with that we went knocking door-to-door to find out how some of the residents feel about the colony's increased interest in the tourist dollar I Really, don't feel the effects of it During most of the year but most of the visitors are quite respectful of the property in Amana Schafer's house is a stone throw away from the beaten tourist path His comments were common to many of the people we talked with in the colonies who feel the monetary profits made from tourism more than Makes up for the hassles they caused The Society says they're also sensitive to the preservation of the old ways and they say prove it they've conducted a study Which suggests ways of restoring the colonies back to their original form? there are indications of The beginnings of a tourist trap if you will Within the community, but it is not too late To solve as the community and keep it genuine in effect If the board approves the restoration project Shoop says it'll not halt the commercial growth of the colonies He says it'll just make new business architecture a little more compatible with the traditional a man of style For Monday this is Bob Pyle from a mana From the Amana Colonies we go to another rural part of the state There's been a lot of concern lately about the financial problems that declining enrollment is causing public schools in this state the amount of state aid available to schools is raised is based on the number of Students in that school when the number goes down the money shrinks declining enrollment is a statewide problem And it hits hard at large districts, but it threatens the very existence of small schools tonight We're going to look at how one district United Community School in Boone County is dealing with the problem And how the people in that district feel about the changes this year United has about four hundred students in five years It will have three hundred the people here think they give their children a pretty good education and they're eager to protect their school Bango you've got to use all the kids you have you can't Say you can't be in the chorus if you're in the band Or you can't cheer and not be out for basketball these sorts of things so you have to develop plans that involve Full use of all of your students and consequently we like to feel that they become much More a well-rounded individual as a result of the variety of experiences rather than just being centered on Me perhaps one thing that they show some talent in what at one particular time then seeing them daily They become individuals to us. It's much more possible for that to occur Then we can deal with them as individuals and talk with them about their things and when we have 200 customers to deal with as against a thousand why? There shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't get a little bit closer to those people The hard fact of life were united though is that? Fewer students make it more difficult to justify the number of teachers and the number of programs So the board and the administration have made a series of recommendations for next year that will change the way United looks some of the changes will actually expand programs for instance the Librarian who this year works only in the high school will be able next year to spend time in the elementary school up Until now the library for the lower grades has been pretty much just kept up but with fewer students needing the aid of a Librarian in the high school that faculty member can begin overseeing and developing the library for the elementary grades The same arrangement will be possible for the art teacher to better justify the personnel in these different areas say our we'd like to offer art as well as Strengthening the elementary art program in these areas it will draw some time commitment away from the junior senior high school art program, but we feel that this would be better balancing out of By making such a move But perhaps one of the most difficult changes will come in the elementary school where some classrooms will be eliminated United has always prided itself on its small classes and its low teacher pupil ratio This year with 31 students in the third grade United has two third-grade classrooms one with 15 students one with 16 Next year when these youngsters are in fourth grade there will be one large classroom The change may be defensible in terms of the financial situation and the educational needs of the group of children as a whole But for many in this school community. It is a cause of concern Ronald and Kay Santi have three children in the united schools Tammy a freshman a Sixth grader Shawn who will be part next year of a newly organized middle school instead of the more traditional junior high his sister was part of and Shane who this year is in a small third grade classroom and who is destined next year for a large fourth grade classroom obviously given our preference You know we would like to see the 16 to 1 ratio 16 pupils per first teacher Given the fact that we don't have adequate budget Then we would need to look at what the alternatives are and obviously staff is where the the biggest budgetary Consideration would be right now. I am concerned about the student who has trouble in a and I feel that he would have more trouble in a larger class and One of the proposals is to have a teacher's aide, so I'm hoping that that would Definitely help the class that is larger The problems facing United Community Schools are not unique to this district and the solutions being proposed here Represent the same kind of hard decisions that are facing districts all over the state with appreciating cost of fuel oil salaries social security etc Textbooks They become very attuned to the need to critically analyze the budgets and assess When you're talking students teachers the ratios or relationships when you're talking programs the need versus you know another need whether you're going to a lot of fun one program or another I think the Budgetary limitations, yes, it's it's a great concern to us, but I guess that our Own feeling is that were both optimistic about where this school is going the potential I think we have to be certainly do the very best with the resources that we have Although the problems here are enormous There is a vitality in these small schools a sense of community the people who live here and work here believe in the value of their kind of education and their ability to make it survive The folks that United have already had one meeting concerning the problems and recommendations That's been made And I'm sure they're going to have several more at least a lot more discussion before those recommendations are put into effect next year you think it's likely we're gonna see some other meetings throughout the state coming up I Don't think there's any doubt about it because it's a problem. That's that's facing schools all over the state Well coming up next phil is going to take a very personal look at the iowa state university Exercise clinic and a special test they have there to tell you how well your body works? According to legend when someone once asked the author Mark Twain if he ever did physical exercise plain replied no I never saw any prophet and getting tired well some people share those sentiments But many others do not they're enrolling in regular exercise programs Mark Twain probably wouldn't like our next story, but we hope you will For years they've been telling us we eat too much drink too much watch TV too much and get too little exercise They say we become thick bodied full buttock and putt gutted Well that may be changing millions of Americans have taken up jogging and others like these folks have begun rigorous exercise programs These are some of the 110 people who have joined an exercise clinic at Iowa State University They come here three times a week for an hour-long workout their progress is charted in 10-week intervals The head of the program is dr. Wallace Hutchison we teach the participants the exercises and Then once we have taught them the exercises and we have given in their program Then we are here to supervise that to see that they're doing the exercises correctly and also to make any changes that we steam Necessary as they are exercising And then in the exercise program then they progressively over a 10-week period Increase the various exercises and also increase the jogging So that they can reach as high a level in ten weeks as we can get them But rigorous exercise is not for everyone especially for older folks in this case meaning anyone over 35 There's a danger in over exercises from some people and that's one of the reasons Why we give the tests if they go out and start to exercising and they are not They don't know what tolerance they can Withstand then they may then initiate cardiac arrest To guard against such a possibility people 35 or older are subjected to what is called a stress test It involves walking and running on a treadmill as the speed and steepness of angle steadily increase what we're seeing is can the cardiovascular system Tolerate this exercise that we're asking it to do now many times in a resting state We're not asking. You know the heart to really Perform a lot of work, but if we're going to have someone exercise and exercise close to their maximal effort Then we want to be able to determine if they can handle that Since this reporter is among the overfed and under X er sized We decided to try the stress test in This case it began with having a part of the chest shaved and then being fitted with a series of electrodes Right on I-70 right leg huh is this they why the way they wire them when they electrocute them in sing-sing not really not really yeah You can just stand up now yeah, they use a Headroom We better not have any electricity coming in here I'm not sure the public is ready for the displaying of this alabaster frail body You're not huh? Kitty's blood pressure Meaty to understanding 71 at rest and with that it was on to the treadmill at the start the treadmill is level and moving in a moderate pace It will get worse every Three minutes it will increase the workload By increasing the treadmill slightly every three minutes every three minutes, and I'm sorry there's more than three minutes How we'll see? The heart rates gone up Yeah, that's what it should do With an increase in workload would break you up if we didn't we be concerned The same way with the systolic blood pressure. I need to take your blood pressure again now a 196 over 90 well we got stepping out there yeah right now on the monitor for monitoring the limb leads 1 2 & 3 now we can switch to the Augmented leads AVR AVL and a bf and we want to then we can monitor the 3 leads from the chest v1 v2 and v3 And then if we want to see v4 and v5 and v6. We can just switch it there. It's going to increase the workload Increase the speed in the elevation here now this will make you really step out there If you feel more comfortable jogging you can go ahead and job Hey, that's just kind of in between a walk and a jog How you feeling little tired a little tired there you go another minute? Yeah, hey? Now we got you up to 170 now. It's about what we want you to be Ended up not quite You want to go another minute. Oh, okay, we'll stop it now Now let me take your blood pressure we will take you off the treadmill we'll start it back again slow it down and we'll have you walk for five minutes recovery period huh As If this weren't enough a further fitness test involves a device to check grip strength and a stationary bicycle tests endurance These are not fun part Our hot hot Hunter, that's it that's it harder while I relax Exactly All of this prepared us for the exercise period the next day after a 10-minute series of warm-up exercises We get into the heavy stuff While this was going on some of the exercise class talked about what they were getting from the program a lot of sore muscles No, actually I'm getting a pretty good shape I'm probably the best shape I've been in since I left high school I feel better when I exercise Keeping in shape you know trying to keep from getting older. I guess and lose a little weight Get me a little bit back in shape for softball whatever this spring Well, hopefully it's bodybuilding, but also Concerned about the condition of the heart and keeping the heart in good shape heart muscle physical fitness and Weight control and energy so it's increased my stamina and my endurance and Lung capacities better my heart. I think is in better shape You'd like to get more information About this program You can call Iowa State University Jim And tell you more about it The address and phone number Frankly I'm too tired Well just one out of thought about that the people we talked with in the class Seemed to sum up their thoughts by saying that exercise makes you feel better look better and in fact you are better catch your breath now You pump your own gas Alain, or do you let someone else pump it for you? Well if you still let someone else pump it for you. You're in the majority about 60% of the gasoline brought into this country Account bought in this country comes from full service stations, but it may not be true for very much longer According to the Iowa gasoline dealers association by the mid-1980s three-quarters of the gasoline pumped in service stations will be pumped by the people buying it and That means that full service stations are either going to have to close or change their style Well, I think basically to summarize it would probably be survival of the fittest It's not a bleak outlook by all means, but the major thing that I think service station operations Managers have to get out of the backroom get into the books and become a manager We have to become that good manager and present ourselves image wise and credibility wise Open to the public and not pump jockeys as everybody thinks we are Generally speaking most full service stations are franchised by an oil company and most self service stations are not says blixt That's part of the problem The problem you get into and we talk about independent operation versus a full service station operation The full service station operation is not able to buy surplus product from a major refinery He's locked into a supplier And so what it basically happens is the suppresses the market gas prices go down. That's good for the consumer I don't blame anybody for that But the problem is we have one segment of the business that can buy surplus product and another segment that cannot But we thought we'd take an unscientific sample ourselves to find out why folks buy one or the other? Can I ask you why you pump your own gas especially in weather like this? Any other reason? Can you tell me why you come to a full-service pumpin self-serve gas is cheaper? I usually go to the self-service, but it's too cool, so I went to full service Can I ask you why you buy your gas at a full-service pump when self-service cheaper because it's cold out today Do you in in the summertime when it's warmer do you buy a full-service stuff? most of the time self-serve The humane read weather right it's golden and or it's raining or something like go to full service But the cold weather alone is not enough to discourage some people from pumping their own gas Can you tell me why you pump your own gas in such cold weather well because I travel for my business And it's a using a few extra penny. He said every penny. I say you know it's more money in my pocket a Lot cheaper any other reap no Can you tell me why you buy your gas at a full service station instead of self sir Because they checked the oil once in a while look under the hood see if there's a battery left in the car You like that part about it man. Well. Yeah, if I've got to fill self-service. I'll fill out. I'm own barrel at home I'm 200 miles from home, and I let somebody else worry about it okay, I'll be willing to bet that there gonna be lots of so at least a few self of full service stations and customers for Them as long as Iowa has cold winters and especially when it's ten below zero I think I may be there with you well That's Monday for this evening will be back February 5 with a look at the popularity of what is sometimes called classical music sometimes called serious music and what is often called these days at least big business Bob piles looking into that situation and he'll have a musical report for us and we'll also be looking into special problems and circumstances of teenagers who become parents there are some startling figures about the number of young people who are having children Before they finish high school, and we'll examine genetic counseling what it is And how it can help? prospective parents many people are afflicted by genetic disease as Disorders that they inherit from their parents whether their parents had that disease or not so be sure to join us in three weeks for That program twily young and I'm Phil Wilson. Thank you and good night