Western Front - 1976 March 5

              Western Front VOL.68 NO.33 FRIDAY, MARCH 5,1976
Stereo stolen, recovered
A stereo system valued at $130 was stolen from a Ridgeway
Kappa room at about 2:30 a.m. Friday and a suspect was
apprehended by campus security soon afterwards.
According to R.G. Peterson, director of Safety and Security,
the suspect apparently entered the dormitory through an
unlocked side entrance and found the victim's door unlocked.
Two Kappa residents saw the suspect leaving the room and
reported the incident to campus security. The stereo was
recovered. ,
The suspect was transferred to the Whatcom County jail.
Skagit nuclear plant foes
claim land fault nearby
by DICK MILNE
Hearings were reopened last week on Puget Sound Power and
Light's proposed Skagit nuclear plant, following testimony by
University of Washington geologist Eric Cheney that a major fault
lies within nine miles of the site.
Roger Polzin, executive secretary of the state Thermal Power
Plant Site Evaluation Council (TPPSEC), said in an interview
Wednesday that the hearings were reopened to permit new
evidence on both sides of the controversy.
Polzin said new evidence to be submitted will include
information on the geology and seismology of the area, Skagit
River flooding, project ownership and the effect of project delays
on the "need for power."
"Unless there's going to be a need for the electricity, there's no
need for the plant," Polzin said.
TPPSEC is a panel composed of the heads of 13 state agencies,
whose authority extends over the proposed site only, and not the
future operation of the plant, Polzin said. Ultimately, TPPSEC will
make a recommendation to the governor.
Also studying the proposal is the U.S. Geological Survey and the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which has authority over
site selection and operation of the plant. NRC project manager
Irving Peltier said the Geological Survey is studying the proposed
site and will compile its findings in May, when federal hearings on
the project resume.
. The proposed site is Bacus^Hill, five miles northeast of Sedro
Woolley near Lyman. Terry Galbreath of Puget Power's Nuclear
Information Center in Sedro Woolley said Monday that the site
chosen from 117 potential sites.
Acording to Puget Power's plans, the plant would contain two
1,288,000 kilowatt nuclear generating units, each with a cooling
tower 520 feet high. Owners of the plant would be Puget Power,
NUCLEAR REACTION — This mockup of Paget Power's proposed generation plant is one
attempt to cool public concern about the Bacus Hill reactor.
Pacific Power and Light, Washington Water
Power and, until recently, the Washington Public
Power Supply System (WPPSS). WPPSS dropped
out, however, and was replaced by Portland
General Electric.
The battle over the Skagit Valley site has
raged since Puget Power first proposed the idea
in 1973. Initially turned down in their request for
a rezone by the county planning commission in
June of that year, Puget Power resubmitted its
arguments and won.
Since then, opposition to the $1.7 billion
project has come primarily from Skagitonians
Concerned About Nuclear Power (SCANP), an
organization of Skagit County residents.
Reopening of the hearings has permitted new
opposition to enter the case. Canadian groups
including the Society for Pollution and Environ­mental
Control (SPEC), .the Greenpeace Founds
tion and the British Columbia Audubon Society
Continued on page 10.
Pro/ecf PerFECT under very intensive scrutiny
byANNLEGRY
The community didn't pay much attention to
Project perFECT when it was running smoothly,
but now after several incidents, everyone is
watching, according to Mark Lehmann, facilities
supervisor.
Project PerFECT, also known as Bellingham.
Training Release, is designed to ease prisoners
back into society before they are paroled. Eight
people are now living in Highland Hall and
attending classes while serving the remainder of
their sentences.
One of them, Frank Prill, has been named as a
suspect in a Feb. 22 tavern shooting. Prill, 35,
has been charged with second-degree assault
and with being a felon in possession of a deadly
weapon, according to the Whatcom County
Prosecutors's office. Prill failed to return to the
project's headquarters and is thought to be in
Portland.
"I hope people realize Frank Prill was just one
person," Lehmann said. "I think we have an
excellent program. It was an unfortunate
incident, but it doesn't destroy the viability of our
program.".
Lehmann said people on campus and in the
community are looking back in retrospect and
recalling other incidents.
Selective Service crew reduced
because of Ford's budget
by TERRY McGUffiE
Washington's Selective Service System (SSS)
is becoming more select.
The once thriving employer of hundreds has
been reduced to a skeleton crew of six, and by
next year will consist of one person — a non-paid
State Director. Western's SSS Advisor went out
of business three years ago.
"And that's the way it is," according to SSS
State Director Dick Marquardt in a letter sent
last month to the remaining employees. Mar­quardt
explained the Ford Administration's
proposed budget of $6.8 million would not allow
the Selective Service "to continue in existence as
we know it today."
He said there will be only a hundred employees
nationwide, with San Francisco as the nearest
Regional Service Center for the West Coast.
"I went out of business in the spring of '73,
when the draft ended," recalled Western's last
Selective Service Advisor Larry Nelson, in a
telephone interview this week. Nelson is mana­ger
of Student Programs at Ft. Steilacoom
Community College, Tacoma.
"Things were going pretty slow by then," he
said of his eight months as advisor. "The lottery
numbers weren't going as high. Most of the
problems were over procedural rights. They
(students) wanted to know how to buy time and
avoid the draft."
Nelson, a 1972 Western graduate, said the
advisor's job was part of his graduate internship.
"As an undergraduate, I had been in the same
boat," he said of avoiding the draft. "But for
many of the students who came to see me, it was
too late to do anything. All I could do was be
sympathetic."
According to an Oct. 10, 1972 Front story
announcing his new job, Nelson suggested "It
would be wise for draft-age students to consider
alternatives . . . such as reserves, enlistment or
Canada . . ."
President Ford ended draft registration last
April.
"I'm happy to see the end of i t . . .for the time
being," Nelson said this week.
Western has a Selective Service Information
number listed in the current campus directory,
but according to Roena Wendover, secretary for
the Associated Dean of Students, "we haven't
had a call in months."
"If one of our people was drinking or smoking dope at a campus
party," he said, "no one advised them, no one cared and no one
remembered until the latest incident."
Lehmann said the facility had an open house four months ago,
but only state officials came. No one from the Sheriffs office, the
police department or the community came, he said.
Lehmann is currently meeting with representatives of the
Sheriffs office, the Bellingham Police Department and campus
security. "They want to control the residents better, but they don't
know exactly what they want those controls to be," he said.
The state, which finances the program, is satisfied with current
controls, he said. They are as tight or tighter than those at the 94
similar programs in the state. Controls include bed checks,
breathalizer tests and strict time regulations.
Lehmann said law enforcement officials have been fairly
understanding. Their and the project's main concern is community
safety. Lehmann said the program has been successful to a large
degree in minimizing risks.
The meetings are focusing on the problems of sponsorship and
building security.
A sponsor is someone in the community who has temporary
custody of a resident. The sponsorship program was named as the
biggest fault in the Prill incident. A resident is not allowed to leave
a sponsor at any time, which Prill did, Lehmann said. The biggest
problem was the sponsor did not call the project when Prill failed
to return on time, he said.
"What we need to do now is to get closer to the sponsors so we
can use them as a monitoring device," he said.
Residents live on the lower floor of Highland Hall where security
is almost impossible. Lahmann said he hopes the project will move
someday to a better facility off campus.
In addition to security problems, the program has met
resistance from some Highland Hall residents who withdrew their
support from the program after the latest incident.
The program has voluntarily called a moratorium on screening
appliants until the problems have been ironed out.
The program began in March 1975. Residents attend classes at
Western, Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Vocational
Technical Institute. A continuing therapy program is at the heart
of the project. Residents are re-conditioned to function in society
by ridding themselves of negative ideas acquired in prison.
"With Frank Prill, we didn't succeed. You take risks." But
Lehmann added, if it could be done all over, the project probably
would again take Frank Prill.