The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

V I'Kneurya W Since 1875 aindealer 2 Sections 44 Pages 25' # Shaw fr t Pratt May 9, 1984 Number 79 Volume 108 7 Council wrestles with policy on overtime By Anthony Oliver Plaindealer staff writer • „ ® - Employee wages and benefits have cost the McHenry City Council long hours of discussion and Monday night's regular meeting was no exception. This time the talk centered on overtime pay for supervisory personnel. As the clock ticked past the midnight hour, the net result of the night's debate was to hold the matter until the next meeting. ^ That decision came after more than an hour-and-a-half of executive session cc personnel. Finance Committee Chairman Aid. William Busse (2nd) broached the issue when he brought up the proposed change from the merit pay plan to the step salary program. Before the overall plan could be adopted, there remained the question of raises over and above the $1,600 compromise package approved at the last meeting. In particular, the council was considering an additional raise for the public works foreman, but eliminating the overtime provision. Aid. William Bolger (1st) came out in favor of retaining the overtime status of the position. "If we don't, then we should compensate, the public works foreman at somewhere near what he's at in overtime," Bolger said. He added that the foreman was putting in over­ time amounting to about $2,800 a year. Bolger favored $2,000 extra if the overtime were eliminated. Mayor Joseph Stanek, who supported a $1,000 raise in lieu of overtime, said, "We expect the job to require extra effort." "Are we now, again, going to the salary of employees or just the one position?" asked Aid. Ray Smith (3rd). "A lot of people are not satisfied with the wage increase. Are we# going through all the complaints or just one?" Busse said the matter simply concerned overtime for supervisory personnel. He also commented that the city council had no review procedure for v" • . Miles away from the Byron nuclear station the twin 485-foot cooling towers loom over the farmscape. This photograph was taken from three or four miles away from the plant. It shows the Photo by Jim Nash contrast in modern industrial architecture and contempory farm structures. Utility bills support nuclear power fHJCLEtt Editors Note: Commonwealth in-depth examination of Com Ed's rate atrudim wing a of Con structure. Other stories to be run in the two following issues, will include an examination of the utility company's nuclear power program, and an interview with an area resident employed at the Byron nuclear power plant. By Kurt Begalka Plaindealer News Service • Commonwealth Edison may seek rate increases totalling about 50 percent over the next three years to finance its $9.8 billion nuclear power building program. ComEd officials have already said they will need at least two more rate hikes of about 20 percent to pay for the second reactor at the LaSalle County station and the first reactor at the Byron plant. The LaSalle request is pending and the other was delayed because the Byron plant was not given a federal operating license in January. The licensing case is on appeal. If the proposed two-stage increase request is granted, average residential electric bills for a home in the Crystal Lake area using 500 kilowatt-hours a month will rise to $56.33 by next year, a $8.39 boost from curre levels. And ComEd estimates it will continue to > seek rate hikes averaging about 10.5 percent each until the two- unit Braidwood station in Will County is brought on line in 1987. By then, homeowners would *pay $71.35 for the same amount of power that today costs $46.94, if the requests go through. Underlying these rising electric bills, which follow record rate increases of 45.3 percent from 1979 to 1982,» are massive costs incurred by ComEd from plans to build its LaSallt, Byron and Braidwood nuplear power plants. The escalating costs of the program have led the ICC to consider a proposal to halt the project. The commission says it will schedule hearings to determine whether can­ celing the Byron or Braidwood stations would save consumers more money than completing them. The company argues that rather than scrapping the remaining plants in the program it would be cheaper for ratepayers in the long run to continue building because nuclear plants generate electricity far more cheaply than coal'operated plants. Critics claim that costs rising from an original $2.5 billion estimate for the three * plants to $9.8 billion, along. with faltering consumer demand for electricity, makes the program a huge mistake that will leave customers paying for un- needed power. "What the company is going to saddle the con­ sumer with js a number multibfllion dollar powe plants that are unneeded to maintain reliable electric service," according to David Stahr, research director for Illinois Public Action Council. "They're saying don't worry in three to five years it'll be OK. But we've heard them say that for the last decade, and all we've ex­ perienced every five years is about a doubling of the cost of electricity," Stahr said. ComEd officials agree that completing the plants will likely result in excess power today. But with $3 billion already invested in the two plants, canceling them would stick consumers with paying for electricity they will never get. Moreover, according to utilities analyst Thomas Halligan with the securities firm of Duff and Phelps in Chicago, utility executives are forced to walk a thin line between having too much power and getting caught short. He said some experts expect a power shortage in the 1990's. Since building a nuclear plant takes sometimes up to 13 years, waiting until it's absolutely needed could be disastrous. "There's always the possibility we'll be short of energy within the next 10 years. All we need is a big boom in the economy, and then everyone would blame the utility for not building enough nukes," Halligan said. "The economic effect of not having enough capacity is far greater than having too much." Still, history shows the company has consistently erred in projecting future power demands and con­ struction costs. "They made mistakes, but a lot was because no one would lend them their crystal ball. If they knew what was going to happen when they started building these plants, they wouldn't have started," Halligan said. The cost of building a nuclear power plan^ today is about four times what it was in the 1960's when ComEd built its Dresden plant, the first privately financed nuclear plant in the country. That first reactor cost $30 million and was completed in just three years. Over the next 14 years, in addition to Dresden, ComEd built its Quad Cities and Zion nuclekr plants. Both reactors at Zion cost $582 million, or about $300 per kilowatt-hour of capacity. Estimated costs for the two-unit Byron plant hover around $3.8 billion and for Braidwood are $3.6, both about $2,800 per kilowatt- hour. Original estimates in the early 1970's pegged Byron at $902 million and Braidwood at $934 million. The reasons for these qost increases was a com­ bination of spiraling in­ flation, rising interest rates and increased regulations, which have delayed con­ struction, according to Jim Toscas of ComEd. Toscas said the year after the Three Mile Island scare that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued on average 1.3 new regulations per day. Halligan at Duff and Phelps estimates that these regulations add about Continued on pog* 5 supervisory personnel and suggested this be considered. After the council reconvened from executive session, the overtime question had not been resolved. Bolger still supported either keeping the overtime or giving the foreman more than $1,000, while other councilmen held to their positions. "Couldn't this wait?" asked Aid. Cecilia Serritella (4th). - The council decided it could and voted 6-1 to hold th$ question until the May 21 meeting. The city's department heads were also directed to bring discretionary raises before the council for approval. Stanek commented that the elected officials have ttr^'take the heat" and should be ap­ prised of the raises. The wording in the ordinance leaving the raises to the "sole" discretion of the department heads was changed. City Clerk Barbara Gilpin said the raises should still be left with the department heads because they work with the employees on a day-to-day basis. Coroners probe death of McHenry youth Plaindealer news service The McHenry County Coroner's Office is investigating the death of an 18-year-old McHenry area youth last Saturday. Steven Berry, 18,1913 S. High- wood, McHenry, was pronounced dead at 2:02 p.m. May 5, but authorities are un­ sure of a cause of death. McHenry County Sheriff's Police reported that Berry was helping to clean horse stables at the Jon Weidem^nn residence, ;mar 2207 S. High wood, McHenry, when the accident occurred. Police said Berry was stan- .ding on the window ledge of a truck when he apparently slipped and lodged between the truck and the wall" of the stable. Berry was taken by am­ bulance to^ Northern Illinois Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead. The results of an autopsy were inconclusive and the Coroner's Office is awaiting results of additional tests. Fire protection district estimates expenditures Plaindealer news service * The various companies of the McHenry Township Fire Protection District presented budgets to the board of trustees at a recent meeting. Board President James Althoff told representatives the former McHenry Area Rescue Squad and Johnsburg Rescue Squad to hold off any capital expenditure requests because of the tax situation. V Last November, voters of the McHenry Township Ifire Protection District approveo a referendum to provide U^funds for ambulance service. But, tax monies specifically for am­ bulance service will not be available until 1985. Company 1 told the trustees that one of their trucks would need to be replaced in the next few years and the district should start budgeting for it. A new 3,000 gallon tanker was sted by Company 2, in ohnsburg. Capt. Phil Bart-% mann said the tanker would support operations of the rceyo ladder truck, which will be housed at Company regu$ Johns oi mann No decisions were made concerning the budget requests. The trustees also decided to hold to the existing age limit of 60 years for activfe service on the department. "If people can do the job, then age shouldn't be a barrier," said trustee/Daniel Schmitt. Montini projects *5,000 increase over 83-84 budget The board of education of Montini Catholic Schools has adopted a budget of $383,137 for the 1984-85 fiscal year, an in­ crease of some $5,000 over the 1983-84 budget. Tuition rates were established at $530 for one child (grades 1-8) of families of St. Mary's and St. Patrick's parishes; $650 for two children (grades K-8) of families of the parishes; and $750 for three or more children (grades K-8) of families of the parishes,--- Kindergarten tuition will be $265 for an in-parish child; $390 for an out-of-parish child. For families with a kindergartener and one or more children in the other grades the tuition is the regular rate for two or three or more children. Out of parishes tuition for grades 1-8 will be $780 per child. The book rental fee was established at $45 per child. The tuition increases of some 15 percent were deamed necessary to balance the budget for 1984-85. Included in the budget is the addition of the Diocesan Standardized Testing program for all students in 1984- 85 as well as continuance of all existing programs. Again this year, the Montini Parents Association contributed some $15,000 to the schools, which greatly helps in the operation of the school system. Registration of new students to the system for 1984-85, grades K-8, is now in progress at both the Middle School and Primary Center. A look inside Agent Orange Ciw Band Concert Regular features So I Hear Crime of ttje Week Obituaries Section 2, Page 5 Section 2, Page 16