Dole needs to disconnect his link to himself - 3-21-96

Bob Dole needs to have a chat with Bob Dole.

The Republican Majority Leader of the Senate should tell the shoo-in for the GOP presidential nomination to lose his penchant for speaking of himself as though he were somebody else.

It's annoying.

The tendency to speak of oneself in the third person has seeped into the American landscape in recent years. The first person personal pronoun "I' is becoming invisible.

Some of the nation's highest profile individuals from the political and entertainment worlds are following the pattern. The fad has literally gone berserk in the sports arena.

Former two-sport star Bo Jackson virtually dropped the pronoun "I" from his vernacular in television and print interviews. He redeemed himself, however, with his Bo Knows advertising campaign for Nike.

THE FOOTBALL and baseball standout's tongue-in cheek playfulness in the TV commercials - Bo Knows basketball, weight lifting and polo but Bo Don't Know (Bo) Diddley when it comes to playing the guitar - only added to his appeal.

"Neon" Deion "Prime Time" Sanders has taken speaking in the third. person to the next level. The Dallas Cowboys defensive back/wide receiver has actually taken to having conversations with his own 'Prime Time" persona during interviews with sports reporters.

It's imperative to have a level of self-importance in order for people to speak of themselves in the third person.

Perhaps athletes - with their multimillion dollar contracts, commercial endorsements and fan adulation can be excused (or at least tolerated) for their pompous third person references. Politicians can't.

In Dole's case, the tendency seems to detach and distance the Kansas Republican from the people he's trying to attract - the voters.

IN A recent appearance on CNN's "Larry King Show," according to an Associated Press report, the GOP frontrunner did it over and over:

• After giving his views on abortion: "That's Bob Dole's position."

• About a balanced budget: "Bob Dole got that through the Senate.'

• About welfare reform: 'It passed the Senate under Bob Dole's leadership by a vote of 87 to 12.'

• About obstacles to his ideas: "With Bob Dole in the White House, that will change."

It's difficult to believe that a politician doesn't want to use the pronoun "I" because of a desire not to appear egotistical or self-inflated. Anyone who would seek the most powerful job in the world has to have a healthy amount of confidence and self-esteem.

Dole, who has vanquished all rivals in the Republican primary chase and is certain to claim the nomination,,,. needs to tell voters what he will do to make a difference in their lives.

He needs to forge a link with Americans, not disconnect and distance himself, with stuffy third person references.

So just quit it, Bob Dole!

Today's consumers ignore the perils of huge credit card debt - 3-13-96

Today's consumers wield credit cards like there are no rainy days. And some may just be digging themselves a plastic pit if skies ever do get cloudy and threatening.

Many Americans are going into hock for everything from doctor visits to Big Macs, juggling credit card balances while sinking into a black hole of debt.

Credit cards do have a place in every consumer's billfold. Cards are invaluable during an emergency, and they also offer convenience when the cash is running a little low. Carrying credit cards instead of cash has also been touted as a deterrent to street crime in many of the nation's big cities.

But while in years past people only borrowed for large purchases, it's become common during the last 10 to 15 years to whip out the plastic for even the most routine spending.

OVERALL CONSUMER debt, according to a recent Associated Press report, has surged 39 percent in the last five years and now totals more than $1 trillion, a sum that exceeds the annual output of most nations.

The average household has four credit cards with outstanding balances of around $4,800, up from two cards and $2,340 five years ago. Consumers owe $360 billion on their cards, double the 1990 level. Credit card debt comprises a third of all consumer loans, up from less than a quarter a decade ago.

The run-up in debt is a storm cloud hanging over the U.S. economy and the nation's banks. If consumers whose wallets are stretched to the limit curb spending as they did during last year's holiday season - or if they default on loans, a recession would loom.

Consumers haven't gone on the credit card binge alone.

Financial institutions and companies like AT&T and General Motors must share some of the blame. Those lenders have encouraged the spending spree by bombarding consumers with credit card offers.

The frenzy to issue cards - which carry double-digit interest charges - has meant that every trip to the mailbox brings a new credit card come-on. Companies have even blitzed college students, who have no jobs and presumably no way to pay off the loans, with offers of pre-approved credit.

IT'S TIME for a reality check.

Most people can handle credit responsibility, but those who borrow to offset poor budgeting or overspending are putting a Band-Aid on the problem. Supplementing income with credit will only bring misery in the long run when the tab comes due.

A look back might provide some financial wisdom.

Americans who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s developed different spending habits while growing up. They lived through the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression, times that made them wary of spending like there's no tomorrow.

Many people would do well to take a lesson from their grandparents, a generation that knew the value of saving and the peril of too much debt.

Average fans offer a solid foundation for NFL franchise - 11-16-95

The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.

The National Football League is flirting with that reality with the recent trend toward franchise free agency As teams continue to seek sweetheart deals by packing up and moving to new cities, football fans' loyalty may eventually give way to apathy.

It's not the business big shot, sipping chablis in the climate-controlled comfort of his stadium luxury box, who provides the underpinning of a franchise's support through good times and bad. He doesn't bleed the home team's colors after a loss.

It's the average factory Joe who plunks down his 30 bucks and sits in wind-swept 30-degree cold who provides a team's sound footing. When the average fan's faith and loyalty is rewarded with the specter of moving vans, cynicism and complacency will eventually follow.

THAT MEANS empty seats. After all, what reason is there to go out and cheer on the home team when it may pull up roots for a better deal 'from the latest city to open its checkbook?

There's no reason.

Money doesn't talk when it comes to wooing a pro football franchise, it screams. Team owners have been lured by promises of new stadiums, luxury boxes and increased revenues from parking fees and concessions.

At least Depression era gangsters Bonnie and Clyde used guns to stage their stickups, NFL owners hold up cities with threats of pulling up stakes and moving.

Lately, the threats haven't been empty.

The Rams deserted Los Angeles for St. Louis and the Raiders, returned to Oakland from L.A. this season. A few years ago, the Cardinals left St. Louis for Phoenix and are now chewing on the possibility of loading up the moving trucks for a trip down Interstate 10 to L.A.

MEANWHILE, THE Houston Oilers are talking about Nashville and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are looking at Orlando. Denver, Chicago and Cincinnati also .want and need new stadiums, along with Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington.

This growing gridiron pattern of playing hopscotch, skipping around the country and selling out to the highest bidder, has come to a head with the announced move of the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

The Browns, who went to six straight NFL title games from 1950-55 while capturing three championships, are one of the league's storied franchises. The team has boasted some of the NFL's most steadfast fans.

Owner Art Modell has said Cleveland officials have turned a deaf ear to pleas for a new stadium to replace "The Mistake on the Lake" (cavernous Municipal Stadium). He says he had to accept Baltimore's offer of a $200 million stadium and $50 million cash to remain competitive.

DOES MODELL, who says he's beset by debt and more than $20 million in losses the last couple of years, have the right to move his franchise? Of course. Should Cleveland have had the opportunity to match Baltimore's offer? More than 40 years of devotion demanded it.

Cleveland's last NFL championship provides an ironic twist to today's story. The Jim Brown-led Browns met Baltimore in that 1964 title game, handing the Colts a 27-0 shutout.

Thirty-one years later, it's the Browns fans who are being shut out.

Courts should slam the gavel on prison inmates' more frivolous lawsuits - 10-4-95

Some of the nation's prison inmates have been courting trouble by dreaming up loony lawsuits complaining about their treatment.

During the last 20 years, federal and state prison inmates have been crowding courtroom dockets with inane complaints about everything from melted ice cream to ill-fitting jeans.

Appealing to the courts for redress is a right in America, but it should also bear a burden.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., is proposing legislation to curb what he has called an "alarming explosion" of meatless lawsuits filed by state and federal' inmates

DOLE CITED melted ice cream, being forced to listen to country western music and having to eat chunky peanut butter rather than smooth as 'examples of prisoners' legal complaints.

He said the number of prisoner lawsuits spiraled from 6,600 in 1975 to more than 39,000 in 1994.

The lawsuits would approach a legal burlesque show if they didn't steal valuable resources and tarnish the quality of justice for more pressing legal concerns.

The Top Ten frivolous lawsuits filed in Nevada, according to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. include complaints that a prison chaplain refused to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony, that a prison mail delivery schedule interfered with an inmate's sleeping patterns and that jeans fit a prisoner improperly, causing him to suffer an epileptic seizure.

THE PROPOSED legislation would:

• Require inmates who file lawsuits to pay the full amount of their court fees, and other costs.

• Require federal judges to screen any civil complaints filed by prisoners against the federal Government. The judges would be allowed to dismiss lawsuits immediately that they deem to be without merit.

• Allow federal courts to revoke any good-time credits accumulated by prisoners to reduce their sentences if they have filed lawsuits deemed frivolous.

• Require state prisoners to exhaust all administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit in federal court.

• Prohibit prisoners from suing the federal government for mental or emotional injury unless there was a previous showing of physical injury.

Breakthrough inmates' rights have been spawned by individuals, complaining of inhumane, conditions, but the direction of many of the grievances now being pursued borders on lunacy.

In some cases, the prisoners seem to be running the asylum.

Some inmates just have entirely too much idle time on their hands. The inmates who insist on clogging the courts with these goofy lawsuits should be willing to ante up by paying costs and fees and gambling good-time credits on the validity of their complaints.

It's time for these inmates to approach the bench.

The wait may be over for dose of courtesy from health-care providers - 9-14-95

The waiting room in a doctor's office is aptly named.

It is a rare visitor to a doctor's office who hasn't experienced the frustration of being kept waiting for an appointment, all the while fuming about having to control a squirming child or the thought of explaining to the boss about a late return to work.

Now, The Farmer's Almanac is calling on physicians, dentists and other health-care providers to go on a wait-loss program. It's about time.

The almanac would treat the ailment of wasteful waiting in a doctor's office with a Patients' Bill of Rights.

"This Bill of Rights will help show doctors, dentists and other health-care providers that we mean business and are tired of wasting valuable time in their waiting room," says the almanac's 179th edition, just off the presses.

THE ALMANAC, not to be confused with the Old Farmer's Almanac, contains a mixture of calendar data, one-line jokes, recipes, quizzes and inspirational messages. Other positions espoused by the almanac have included colored money, hugging and chivalry.

Patients understand that health-care providers, especially doctors, will be called away from their regular appointment schedule to deal with emergencies.

Patients know that a doctor's office is no longer just a place where old magazines go to die. They realize that health-care providers have made strides to make the waiting less annoying, enhancing the rooms with such distractions as televisions, aquariums and toys for children.

What patients don't have patience for is overbooking, a charge often leveled against the airline industry. Overbooking is the seemingly common practice of stacking appointments, while taking into account that some will go unkept or be canceled late.

ESSENTIALLY, THE almanac is urging doctors and other health-care providers to mend patients' irritation at waiting by becoming better communicators.

If health-care providers sign the almanac's Bill of Rights, they would agree to the following:

Article I: Take our weight, but don't make us wait.

Article 11: Phone home. If a health-care provider is more than 20 minutes behind schedule, his staff will call so the patient can reschedule or leave home or work later.

Article III: Tell us about it. If for some reason you are running behind schedule, take the time to explain why. This will help make patients feel important and not ignored.

Article IV: Three strikes and you're out. If the patient has to wait more than 20 minutes for three scheduled appointments, offer a discount or an additional consultation at no charge.

UNJAMMING THE lines of communication could stem waiting patients' rising blood pressure. Most patients really just want a dose of a caring bedside manner in their doctor's office.

The almanac recommends that people give the medical manifesto to their doctors - and if it goes unheeded, hit them where it hurts: "We suggest you hand your medical professional an invoice for your time." '

The almanac's prescription may just help cure the problem.

Cooperation best remedy to create equal playing field for males, females - 8-24-95

Lawsuits have been filed against several school districts throughout the state aimed at leveling the playing field between girls and boys high school athletics.

Lawsuits filed against Fremont, Minden, Holdrege and North Platte school districts claim that the districts have violated Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972, the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and Nebraska's educational equity statute.

Parents have filed the lawsuits, alleging that the school districts have discriminated against female athletes in, among other things, number of sports offered, equipment, scheduling of games and practice times, travel, provision of locker rooms and facilities for both practice and competition and publicity.

PROVIDING EQUAL opportunities for male and female high school athletes is the law. It's also fair play.

Holdrege settled its suit, opting to offer girls softball. Fremont's school board voted to add girls softball this week, with officials saying that scheduling, locker room and other facility inequities bad also been addressed. The board's action didn't settle the pending lawsuit.

While the lawsuits have pointed out the foul play of some school districts in the treatment of female athletes, they don't necessarily herald a spurt in similar court actions.

The school districts that have been the target of discrimination lawsuits have been unusual cases, said James Riley, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association. He said he doesn't expect an upsurge in similar actions throughout the state.

"Most schools are doing what they need to do to comply with Title IX," Riley said. Schools like Columbus, seeing an interest in such sports as soccer and girls softball, have added those activities, he said.

COLUMBUS MIGHT serve as a model for other schools facing the issue of achieving equity among varsity boys and girls athletics.

A group of Columbus parents approached school officials about 18 months ago and petitioned for the addition of girls softball. Officials then took over, surveying athletes' interest, contacting area schools about scheduling and compiling cost figures.

More than 40 girls expressed an interest in playing softball. School officials OK'd the addition of softball this fall, and more than 30 girls are trying out for the Discoverers' team.

CHS now offers 18 varsity sports, nine each for boys and girls. Boys can participate in football, cross country, tennis, basketball, wrestling, swimming, track, golf and soccer. Girls can go out for volleyball, cross country, golf, softball, basketball, swimming, track, tennis and soccer.

"OUR PARENTS worked with us and gave us help," said Chuck Francis, CHS activities director. 'It was never once confrontational. We are firm believers in gender equity."

. Threatening or actually going ahead with lawsuits may get results, but a courtroom is not the ideal playing field for curbing athletic discrimination.

A willingness to compromise, mixed with a dash of cooperation and sprinkled with some common sense, will provide the best recipe for evening the score in high school sports.

For some, Father's Day not time for cards, gifts - Delinquent dads  - 6-21-92 By JIM OSBORN Telegram Staff Writer

COLUMBUS - Fathers Day may be getting a cool reception in some Platte County households this morning.

For some, it's not a day for cards or gifts.

"It's just like any other day. We won't be celebrating Fathers' Day," said Linda Kadlec, who has twins from her marriage that broke up five years ago. She also has an older son from a man she did not marry.

Kadlec doesn't get regular child support payments, which are supposed to total more than $225 a month, from her former husband or from the father of her oldest child. She receives state assistance with living and medical expenses to make ends meet.

Stephanie Haney had a six year relationship with her 3 year-old son's father. The father, who is a construction worker, is about five months behind in his $175-a-month payments, she said.

"Somebody has got to explain to fathers that they've got to take care of their kids," said Haney, who works full-time. She receives state assistance for health care for her son.

SOME HAVE been labeled deadbeat dads, a derogatory tag placed on the growing legion of fathers who can't or won't support their children.

Climbing divorce rates combined with more children born out of wedlock and increased joblessness are societal pressures that have contributed to the rise in the number of fathers ordered to pay child support, said local and state officials who work in child supported' enforcement.

As the number of fathers paying child support balloons, the number who fall behind on payments also increases, they said. Some make payments for a while and then stop supporting their children.

"I don't know where my former husband is," Kadlec said. "The support payments were being taken out of his paycheck, but then he quit work."

Kadlec, who has had trouble finding a job because one of her twins has cerebral palsy and suffers seizures that make finding a baby-sitter difficult, knows her oldest son would benefit from having a relationship with his father.

"FOR 11 years he didn't want to know the child, but about 18 months ago he started wanting to visit," Kadlec said. "At first I thought he wanted a relationship with the child, but he only visited three weekends in 18 months."

The lack of regular visits took an emotional toll on her son, Kadlec said. "I'm the one who sees him when he cries and when he's mad. I just don't understand the lack responsibility among some fathers," she said.

Haney said she and her son's father had intended to be married, but the relationship broke up more than a year ago.

"We had planned a wedding," she said.

THE ISSUE of child support really comes down to a matter of responsibility, Haney said.

"If I know I could depend on getting the child support payment every month, we'd be fine. As it is, I'm thrilled when I get a check," she said.

Haney said it's the children who suffer when a father doesn't support his child.

"It's heartbreaking sometimes. My son will grow up without a dad. He'll just be another statistic," she said.

There were 962 active child support orders in Platte County as of May 9. That is probably double the amount of orders in the county five years ago, said Marlene Vetick, Platte County clerk of the district court.

OF THAT total, 136 orders are for parents who are receiving state welfare assistance in the form of aid to dependent children, medical services or foster care.

The county doesn't track specific numbers of delinquent cases.

Vetick said the parent who has custody of the child realizes now that the other parent has an obligation to support their children whether the couple was married or not. That means more and more people are going through the court system seeking child support payments, Vetick said.

THE LIST of parents whose wages are withheld from their paychecks for child support payments has really increased in recent years, she said. And for the most part, child support is paid by men. Vetick said about 30 of the total 962 active support orders have been issued to women.

Vetick said about half of her office staff's time is spent doing work involved with receiving, monitoring and disbursing child support payments to custodial parents.

Her office collected more then $465,000 in child support payments during the six-month period from October 1991 to March 1992.

THE THIRD Thursday of each month is reserved in Platte County District Court for hearings on delinquent child support cases. A typical docket will have at least 20 cases of fathers who have fallen a minimum of one month behind in their child support payments.

Platte County Attorney Bridgitt Brochtrup-Erickson had files on delinquent child support cases stacked more than 12 inches high in her office last week. The files were for the June delinquency hearings.

"Enforcing child support orders is probably the most frustrating part of my job," Erickson said.

THE COUNTY attorney's office works to locate absent parents, usually fathers, establishing paternity through blood tests and enforces support orders.

The state's interest in seeking and enforcing child support orders is twofold, Erickson said. The state wants to recoup welfare assistance that goes to custodial parents who are not receiving their support payments. It also has a general interest in the well being of the children, she said.

"The most common and serious problem I've seen is in families where there is no support is a lack of medical coverage," Erickson said. "I find an awful lot of children with no medical benefits."

Ericksons's office receives a monthly report of delinquent fathers from the office of the clerk of the district court. She files a motion to show cause with the court and the father must appear to explain the reason for the tardy payment.

"Far and away, the fathers' most common reason for being delinquent is that they don't have a job," Erickson said.

THE AVERAGE support payment is under $200 per month, she said. Every month, District Judge John Whitehead listens from the bench to fathers give their reasons for failing to meet their child support obligations. The judge has the authority to send a delinquent parent to jail for contempt, but in reality, he rarely does.

Seldom is there a situation when a parent has the ability to pay and - after being confronted with the threat of spending time behind bars - still refuses to pay, Whitehead said.

In most cases of chronic delinquencies, the absent parent is only marginally employable and unemployable, Whitehead said. The reasons for not having a job range from a lack of education to physical and mental disabilities, he said.

Sluggish economic times also contibute to the joblessness among delinquent parents, Whitehead said. Delinquencies are rising with downturns in the eoncomic climate, he said.

"I see stories every third Thursday," Whitehead said.

Business beats the clock  - 4-5-92 By JIM OSBORN Telegram Staff Writer

COLUMBUS - Many parents have felt that wave of anxiety as they scurry around home rushing to gather up children for that quick trip to school, knowing that the clock is ticking relentlessly toward the time to report for work.

As the pace of workers' lives off the job has become more harried, some companies have opted to loosen the traditional 8 a.m.-5 p.m. schedule.

'Flex time has been a big plus for me," said Nancy Schwank, a medical benefits specialist at Nebraska Public Power District. Her schedule recently shifted from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. to 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Now she picks up two of her children from school and two from the baby-sitter in the afternoon. 'It gives me a chance to hear about their day and the evenings go so much smoother."

Carol Jacobs, a production worker at Tran-Tec Corp., has been working a flexible schedule for years. It was an advantage when her children were young and now that they're older, she said.

'I could drop them off at school in the morning when they were young," Jacobs said. Today she goes to work at 6:30 a.m. and gets off at 4:30 p.m., and there is always time during the week to make a doctor or dental appointment, she said.

MORE AND more companies of today have turned to flexible work schedules, relieving the daily pressures many employees feel while maintaining efficient and productive operations.

'I haven't heard a single complaint hours. from a supervisor that work wasn't getting done and I've heard many, many thank yous from employees,' said John McPhail, division manager of human resources at Nebraska Public Power District.

NPPD has implemented flex time for most of 700 employees at the general headquarters in Columbus as well as others scattered throughout the state. The program began March 1.

SO FAR THE program has appeared to appeal most to parents trying to coordinate child care and school responsibilities with a full-time job, McPhail. said.

The traditional work day at NPPD had been 8 a.m.-5 p.m.. Under the flex time program, employees can now put in their eight hours anytime from 7 a.m.-6 p.m.

All employees are required to be at their jobs during the core hours of 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The flex schedule also must be arranged with a department manager 30 days in advance.

THE ELECTRIC utility was expecting 30 percent of its Columbus employees to take advantage of the opportunity for a flexible work schedule.

I'm sure it's significantly higher than that, though I don't have any survey data to back up that feeling," McPhail said. He estimated that 50 percent to 60 percent of employees are participating, with that figure to go higher as warmer weather arrives.

'NPPD officials have said the company has also benefited from the new flexible hours.

The general office's telephones are manned from 7 a.m.-6 p.m. and, arrival times and lunch breaks are altered, traffic congestion in the area slackened, officials said.

BUT A large employer like NPPD isn't the only type of company that has seen benefits from bending work schedules.

Establishing flexible work schedules was triggered at Tran-Tec Corp. in Columbus by a story on the subject published in Reader's Digest magazine more than a decade ago.

'We're probably the first company in Columbus to put in flex time in 1979," said Cliff Schroeder, co-owner of the manufacturer of machined aluminum parts for the computer and other industries.

THE TYPE of operation we had lent itself to flex time,' Schroeder said. He said the company's manufacturing process doesn't require assembly lines that must have 10-20 employees to operate.

Tran-Tec's manufacturing process is done individually, with an employee performing one task and the product then moving on to another work station, Schroeder said.

"I thought we'd be a natural for flex time,' he said.

Schroeder said probably 100 percent of Tran-Tec's 40 employees have participated in the program at one time or another over the years. Workers can vary their schedule daily without notifying a supervisor, he said.

TRAN-TEC'S flexible schedule stretches from 6 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Workers are required to be on the job during the core hours of 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and must put in 40 hours a week.

'I think the program has also improved productivity,' Schroeder said. 'Workers have a feeling of accomplishment when they stay a little later to get a job done and are able to start something new the next day.'

Property tax mess looming  - 2-13-92 By JIM OSBORN Telegram Staff Writer

Farmers will be mailed tax schedules in few days

COLUMBUS - They're back.

Personal property tax schedules that Platte County farmers haven't seen in their mailboxes since 1977 will begin showing up in the next few days.

While Nebraska's lawmakers continue their attempts to patch together a solution to the state's personal property tax dilemma, local assessors no longer have the luxury of waiting.

The Platte County Assessor's office will begin mailing Friday about 4,500 schedules to farmers and businesses notifying them of the March 1 deadline for filing personal property tax schedules, Assessor Mona Moje said this week.

The assessor's office normally mails about 2,900 schedules to businesses in early January, Moje said. Farmers have not had to file personal property tax forms with the assessor's office since 1977.

"This is an unusual year," Moje said. If a farmer doesn't receive a schedule from the assessor's office, he should come in and pick one up, she said.

The office has held off mailing 1992 notices because the Nebraska Department of Revenue advised a delay in the hope that counties could avoid the expense if lawmakers hammered out a solution to the personal property tax crisis, Moje said.

Completed forms will be accepted in Platte County through March 31 without imposing a penalty on the taxpayer, Moje said. - She said the assessor's office is now mailing the shortest form possible for the March 1 deadline in order to curb mailing expenses. Farmers will only be asked to supply lump sum figures for the actual valuation for the separate classes of personal property.

A much more detailed schedule, with itemized valuations for each class of personal property listed, will be required if legislators don't come up with a remedy to the tax crisis, Moje said.

The Legislature's Revenue Committee was meeting in closed session today to try to hammer out a personal property tax plan.

In 1991, Platte County's personal property was valued at $85 million. Of that total, $73 million was made up of business equipment and $12 million came from such items as airplanes, boats, motors and improvements to leased property.

Moje said she has no estimation of how much will be added to the personal property valuation if farm equipment, inventories and livestock are added to tax rolls.

PROPERTY valuations are certified to the county clerk's office by Sept. 15 for use by the county board in setting levies for taxing entities. The taxes are due Nov. 1.

However, this year many farmers and other taxpayers are in a state of confusion over what personal property will be taxed-and what their bills will be for 1992.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has said in a series of decisions that state laws on taxing personal property have been unconstitutionally discriminatory. The high court has thrown out most the personal property tax exemptions granted by the Legislature during the last 20 years.

BASED ON the Supreme Court rulings, business and farm inventories, farm machinery and equipment, seed, grain, feed and fertilizer and livestock were returned to the 1992 tax rolls.

Farm machinery and equipment includes irrigation equipment, which many farmers think is part of their real estate property, Moje said. The grain and seed a farmer had on hand Jan. 1 is also subject to personal property taxes as of now, she said.

Business equipment was never granted a property tax exemption by the Legislature and will remain on the tax ledger. Boats and motors, aircraft and unlicensed vehicles, rental equipment and furniture, and earth-moving equipment also are slated to remain on the tax rolls.

HOUSEHOLD GOODS are still exempt from personal property taxes.

Many taxpayers are confusing what is now on the tax rolls as a result of the Supreme Court rulings with what would be on the tax rolls based on potential solutions that might emerge from the Legislature, Moje said.

The current property tax situation has posed problems at farm auctions and for businesses closing their doors.

Moje said 1992 personal property taxes must be paid on such things as inventory and farm machinery - before an auction is held or a business closes its doors. The tax payments will be refunded if the classes of personal property are eventually exempted by the Legislature, she said.

The provisions of the Revenue Revitalization and Restructuring Committee's recommendations for solving the personal property tax mess has caused most of the puzzlement among taxpayers, Moje said.

THE COMMITTEE has proposed placing income-producing personal property, primarily farm machinery and equipment and breeding livestock, on the tax rolls if it is being depreciated for Internal Revenue Service purposes.

The 3-R committee also recommended that the personal property be valued for tax purposes under a new depreciation method. The system would be based on the book value of property that is listed on federal depreciation forms.

The plan also calls for voter approval of a constitutional amendment to allow real estate and personal property to be treated differently for tax purposes.

Taxpayers are trying to keep abreast of what is going on in the Legislature, but the proposals under discussion aren't the law yet, Moje said.

"Right now, everything is assessed for tax purposes. All that could change, but we don't know what it would change to for sure," she said.

Building's fate uncertain  - 11-19-91 By JIM OSBORN Telegram Staff Writer

COLUMBUS - Rescued from the wrecking ball more than a decade ago, the former Gottberg auto dealership building appeared destined for new life when Mac Hull bought the downtown Columbus landmark in January 1981.

But the last 10 years haven't been kind to the building at the northwest corner of 13th Street and 28th Avenue, a structure that has been a mainstay of downtown Columbus since the early 1920s.

ONCE A SHOWPLACE for new models of Ford Motor Co. cars, the building that the Nebraska State Historical Society said had historical and architectural significance, now serves as a home for nesting pigeons and until recently featured windows with jagged shards of broken glass.

As bulldozers threatened to level the two-story brick structure 10 years ago, Hull said he wanted to preserve a piece of Columbus' past.

"I thought we ought to quit tearing our buildings down that were architecturally significant," he said.

However, Hull said, a combination of uncontrollable factors conspired to make efforts to restore the historic building economically unworkable.

SOARING INTEREST rates, rigid government rules against making changes to a historic building and an inability to sign potential tenants to long-term leases proved the undoing of what would have a $500,000 rehabilitation plan a decade ago, he said.

Times have changed.

Hull said he will unveil his new development plans for the historic building in 1992 after be has cleared all the necessary hurdles with the city government.

City Administrator Robert Freson said he is unsure what type of requirements Hull is referring to without knowing Hull's plans for the building, which is in a commercially-zoned area.

Hull said an announcement of his plans now would be premature, he said.

"I have plans for the building, but I'm not going to share them with you," Hull said.

HULL'S architect, Larry Mares of Reed Veach Wurdeman & Associates of Columbus, said today be would not comment on any renovation plans for the building.

But Hull hinted that plane for the building may include retail businesses and office space.

Restoration plans for the landmark will be highly controversial with many downtown businesses, said Hull, who recently removed broken glass and boarded up the building's street-level windows. He would not say why the renovation plans would be controversial.

The decline of the historic building, vacant since the mid 1970s, has not helped the image of downtown Columbus.

CITY OFFICIALS have been hearing complaints about the continuing decay of the building for the last couple of years, Mayor Larry Marik said. The complaints have stemmed primarily from downtown business interests concerned about the prospects of redeveloping the area, he said.

People complaining about the building - one of the first introductions to the downtown business district from the west - have called it an eyesore, Marik said.

"In its day during the 1930s and 1940s, the building was a showplace," he said. "Now it's a haven for pigeons."

HULL SAID he thinks he has been unfairly singled out as the owner of a vacant downtown building. Similar complaints haven't come up about two other buildings, former discount and hardware stores, that have remained vacant for long periods, he said.

I'm tired of this town being on my butt about this building. I don't hear anybody complaining about the other empty buildings in town," Hull said.

Marik said the building would have disappeared long ago if Hull had not come forward with a renovation proposal. Marik said be is sympathetic to Hull's predicament, but that the situation goes along with the responsibilities of ownership.

I understand it's a very expensive building to fix," Marik said. But Hull has not been singled out for criticism about the deterioration of his building, be said.

MARIK SAID be isn't optimistic that the building will be renovated.

The building, originally 132-feet by 132-feet and now 92-feet by 132-feet, and land were valued at $101,495 for tax purposes in 1991, according to the Platte County Assessor's Office. The building was valued at $79,495 and the land $22,000. The 1991 tax bill on the properties is $2,440.36.

The building was built in the early 1920s in reaction to a call from Henry Ford, the founding father of the automobile giant, said Ron Saalfeld, whose wife's family owned the building for many years.

"Henry Ford wanted big showplaces for Ford dealerships," Saalfeld said. "Dealers had to respond if they could afford it. That's the story I got."

Ed Sr. and Effie Nielsen, longtime Columbus auto dealers, bought the building in May 1947. Roberta (Nielsen) Saalfeld inherited the building from her parents in October 1974.

STRUCTURALLY, the building remains the "Rock of Gibraltar," Saalfeld said.

During the last 70 years, the building has housed a variety of businesses, including the Gottberg automobile dealership, an auto parts business and a tire company. A roller skating rink operated on the second floor during the late 1940s.

Dale Electronics occupied the upstairs in the mid-1950s and took over the entire building from about 1959 until 1975. Dale eventually shifted its operation to another building on 13th Street and moved out completely in September 1975.

"The exact dates are a little hazy," Saalfeld said.

The building was later sold to the city, be said.

COLUMBUS received a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the late 1970s to level the historic landmark and convert the land to off-street parking.

Hull approached city officials about preserving the building. A deal was eventually worked out in which Hull traded other downtown properties to the city for conversion to off-street parking in exchange for the historic building.

"A DEMOLITION contract had been awarded. I physically went over and stopped them from wrecking it," said Lloyd Castner, city administrator from 1976-87. There was talk at the time about the building being converted to retail space, he said.

"It appeared 10 years ago that the city would get the offstreet parking it desired and the building would be restored to retail space," Castner said.

Government runs in family  - 9-1-91 By JIM OSBORN Telegram Staff Writer

COLUMBUS - Discussions of politics and current affairs were always swirling around the household during Kim Robak's childhood years in Columbus.

Now an attorney and legal counsel to Gov. Ben Nelson, she can trace her own political awareness to the age of 4.

"MY FIRST memory of politics is disagreeing with a 4year-old neighbor about the Kennedy-Nixon race. It must have been 1959 or 1960, said Kim, a Kennedy supporter and the daughter of State Sen. Jennie Robak of Columbus.

Kim, who joined the Nelson administration earlier this spring and advises the governor on legal questions, easily can recall discussions that centered on Columbus, state, national and international events.

Her mother and father, Columbus attorney Cleo Robak, always fostered a household atmosphere that encouraged the children to express their views, Kim said.

Jennie, who has represented Columbus' 22nd Legislative District since 1988, helped instill the same interest in politics and current events in her family that she had learned from her parents while growing up on a farm near the Butler County community Ulysses.

"MY MOM was a strong Democrat," Jennie said. "My father went to his grave without us knowing what he was. Politics was discussed continuously in our house and I was always interested."

Jennie, whose political philosophy was shaped by her years growing up during the 1930s and President Franklin Roosevelt's efforts to lift America out of the depths of the Great Depression, made sure her home was a forum for discussion.

"Cleo and I always discussed current events at home with the children," said Jennie, who serves on the Transportation and Government, Veterans and Military Affairs committees in the Nebraska Legislature.

And through the years Jennie has helped raise a family of staunch Democrats.

Only one of Kim's five siblings, brother Kurt, ever strayed from the Democratic fold, Kim joked. He flirted with the Republican Party for a while during college, but has since returned as a Democratic loyalist, she said.

In supporting the Democratic Party, Jennie and Kim have spent their share of time knocking on doors while stumping for political candidates.

JENNIE CAMPAIGNED for President John Kennedy, former Nebraska Democratic Govs. J. James Exon and Bob Kerrey and a variety of candidates for other statewide offices.

Her campaign work has been primarily for Democrats, but not exclusively, Jennie said. She has found herself entering tile voting booth and marking a ballot in support of some select Republican candidates.

"I've never voted a straight party ticket," Jennie said.

Kim received her political baptism during Kerrey's race for governor in 1983. She served as a field coordinator during that campaign and also has worked to help elect her mother and Lincoln State Sen. DiAnnia Schimek.

"I stayed out of the 1990 governor's race," Kim said. She said she didn't want to appear to take sides in the closely contested race between Nelson and Bill Hoppner.

After growing up in Columbus Central Catholic High School in 1973, Kim went on to earn her bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

KIM TAUGHT in the Lincoln Public Schools for several years and remained active politically while working on educational issues. She switched course in 1982, opting to enroll in the university's law school.

While attending law school from 1982-85, Kim spent a couple of summers working as a clerk in law offices in San Francisco, Calif., and Washington, D.C.

A move was on her career agenda until she met and married her husband, Lincoln attorney Bill Mueller, in 1986.

Woman bitten by rattlesnakes-twice - By JIM OSBORN Telegram Staff Writer

2nd attack creates seven-month ordeal

COLUMBUS-Just before Phyllis Hansen felt the fangs bury deep into the soft flesh of her hand, she beard the ominous rattle.

It was a Sunday evening, June 27, 1989, and Hansen was clearing weeds out from under some peonies bushes in her backyard near Columbus. With only an instant's warning, a coiled rattlesnake struck and quickly slithered away into the brush.

"I REALIZED it was a rattlesnake," said Hansen, who lives along Kluever Lake several miles northwest of town. "My hand instantly started swelling."

This was not the first time Hansen felt a rattlesnake's bite. Hansen, 50, had been bitten a month earlier, but had not heard the snake's rattle because she was operating a weed eater while doing yard work. The bite only pierced her forearm and was treated with antibiotics.

SHE WASN'T so lucky a month later.

As soon as she was bitten a second time, Hansen bolted for the telephone in her lakeside home. But her alarm only served to send her heart racing, hastening the progress of the venom moving up her arm and into her bloodstream.

"I got very excited," Hansen said.

HER HUSBAND, Jim, was away from home when she was bitten.

"I could just feel the venom going into my bloodstream and spreading up my arm," Hansen said.

After calling Columbus Community Hospital, Hansen left a note for her husband, jumped in the car and started driving. On the way, the swelling, tingling and numbness continued to move up her arm and into her shoulder.

"I could feel it all the way up into my neck," Hansen said. "The arm started to turn black on the way to the hospital."

When she arrived at the hospital, medical personnel applied a tourniquet on her arm and called the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. UNMC had four vials of anti-venom serum and quickly made arrangements to send it to Columbus.

A police officer was dispatched from Omaha with the vials. The officer met an officer from Columbus about half way and handed over the vials.

The anti-venom arrived about 10 p.m., 3 1/2 hours after the snake bite, Hansen said. "I was watching the clock pretty closely," she said.

HANSEN WAS placed in the hospital's intensive care unit overnight and returned home the next day. About a week later, she broke out in hives, suffered chest pains and had trouble breathing.

"I was miserable," Hansen said. "I had an allergic reaction to the serum. it's pretty bad when the cure is worse than the bite."

Hansen spent the July 4th holiday in the hospital. After being released, she continued to suffer pain from the massive swelling and had periods when she felt flushed, weak and would suddenly have blurred vision.

"I COULDN'T drive or go shopping by myself because I'd suddenly feel weak and I wouldn't be able to focus my eyes," Hansen said. "It took seven or eight months to fully recover."

On both occasions when Hansen was bitten, the snakes crawled hastily away toward a vacant lot east of the Hansens' property. An inspection of the lot revealed an abandoned septic tank that was suspected as the snakes' den.

"WE FILLED in the septic tank with two truck loads of sand. We buried the snakes," Hansen said. "Rattlesnakes can't burrow."

Hansen, a retiree from Becton Dickinson and the owner of the home-based Hansen's Ceramics, said she was unaware that rattlesnakes crept as far north as Nebraska. Like many others, she believed the myth created by countless movie westerns that rattlesnakes prowled the parched, dusty deserts of places like Arizona and New Mexico.

THERE ARE 25-26 species and sub-species of rattlesnakes in the United States and they roam from Florida to southern Canada, said Dr. Dan Keyler, a clinical toxicologist with the Department of Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minn. He consulted on Hansen's case.

Prairie rattlesnakes are the most common in Nebraska, Keyler said.

Rattlers like to stay in the shade - like under bushes - during the heat of the day because they can't regulate their body temperature and would die lying in direct sun, he said.

Keyler said rattlesnakes hibernate during the cooler months of the year, usually from about mid-April to mid-October.

There are about nine-15 fatal snake bites a year in the United States, with most of the deaths caused by rattlesnakes, Keyler said.

"Most of the deaths are children or the elderly," he said.

Hansen's family really pulled together during her ordeal.

DURING HER recovery, her three daughters, Denise Mustard of Columbus, Deb Konwinski and Deanna Martin of Silver Creek, and stepchildren, Steve of Milford and Lori of Fremont, all helped out around the house along with her husband.

"Everybody pitched in," Hansen said. "My husband has got unbelievable patience."

Fully recovered today, Hansen hasn't been eager to do any gardening out in the yard. This is the first year she has done any at all, and now she always wears gloves, boots and jeans.

"And needless to say," Hansen said with a smile, "the peonies bushes are gone."