The condition of the laundry facilities,
right, at the Eastgate Apartment
complex reflects some of the prob
lems the new management has run.
into in trying to correct housing code
violations such as the missing fire
alarm in the photo in the lower left.
Eastgate
By CORLISS BACHMAN
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Housing code violation notices have been served
to Eastgate Apartments by State College Housing
Code enforcement officer James Pettingill which
require that by Thursday repairs be made to
prevent water seepage into apartments and that
heat be supplied to any apartments without heat.
“We’re trying to do what we can;” Eastgate
manager Gene Parenzan said. i“We want to have
repairs made by tomorrow or Thursday at the
latest, ” he said Tuesday.
The biggest problem for several. Eastgate
apartments has been with water leaking under
sliding glass doors. Because of the severe weather,
snow and ice have been accumulating on the
balconies. When the temperature rises the ice melts
and the water seeps under the doors and into the
carpeting. The floors are cement, and in a few cases
water has gone down to the apartment below,
Parenza said.
A few apartments have had problems with heat.
Tenants in one apartment told Pettingill when he
visited Eastgate for inspection Tuesday that they
had been without heat for almost two months,
Pettingill said.
Another tenant, Michele Burnett, said the apart
M
< tk
m
Task Force says parking shortages will increase
By TONY GRECO
! Daily Collegian Staff Writer
A few years ago, the borough of State
College attempted to make its new
downtown parking garage popular by
setting aside a day when patrons could
■ipark there free.
| Borough officials placed an ad in a
I local newspaper the day before the free
parking day. Because of an error, the ad,
as published, said there would be free
parking in the State College Borough’s
parking lots.
' “By 8:15 that morning,” State College
i municipal manager Carl B. Fairbanks
pays, “there wasn’t a single parking
| space available downtown. Penn State
| students and employees parked at
j “free” meters on College Avenue.
| Downtown employees who went to work
| early found space, but those who went at
s[Uieir usual time couldn’t find parking.
JTThe only difference between that day
ft-*nd any other day was that most of the
|l;i7o parking spaces provided by the
| borough were taken earlier than usual.
| On Jan. 9, the long talked-about
[downtown parking problem was made
when it was described to the
State College Municipal Council by
wames J. McClure, chairman of the
State College Parking Task Fprce, set up
Past year at a cost of about $5,000 to study
|he downtown parking situation. The
lask force report savs-there is a shortage
P f parking downtown,_and reports the
problem wiLLgrow_oveiLthenexT five
pears.
James H. Miller of the Pennsylvania
rransportation Institute at the
Jniversity, consultant for thetask force,
>ays 50 to 60 new spaces a year will be
leeded “if there is a continuation of past
the
daily
has code violations
ment has been without heat since Thanksgiving.
Because the apartment downstairs is vacant, the
heat there has been turned up full blast, she said,
and their heat comes up through the floor. “Now our
floors are always hot, but on cold days it’s still
cold,” Burnett said.
“For those tenants who say they have been
without heat, I have offered them heaters or put
them in another apartment that has heat,” Parenza
s,aid. “I don’t want the kids to be in a place without
heat.”
Much negligence in management had been taking
place before this month, under Eastgate’s former
management, Pettingill said. The maintenance
man who worked for the previous management
tried to comply with housing code office requests,
but was handicapped by tight purse strings, Pet
tingill said.
Alpha Management Co. has recently taken over
temporarily as mortgagee in possession of Eastgate
Apartments.
“I’ve only been here 11 days,” Parenzan said.
“I’ve been bombarded with maintenance com
plaints. We’re trying hard, but we would need 50
people on board to get this stuff done as quickly as
possible.”
—■iii
trends with respect to automobile travel
to the central business district. ’ ’
According to the task force’s report,
the problem can be solved by improving
the management of existing parking
facilities and taking steps to increase
parking capacity.
State College Mayor Arnold Addison,
who is pleased with the report, says, “It
provided us with a planning document,
and that’s a big start.” Council member
Ronald F. Abler says the council will
have to consider the~report very
carefully.
Stricter enforcement of parking laws
is one of the proposed management
improvements. At present, a major
P
mown
parking meters for a longer period of
time than allowed by law. Of the 275 on
street meters, 94 percent have a one
hour time limit, and the remaining 6
percent have 15-minute limits.
According to the borough’s laws, a car
can’t be parked at a meter longer than
the limit specified on the meter, to allow
.O®.
Apartment management
had too many problems
By ANDY RATNER
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
. The Eastgate Apartment Manage
ment Corporation has left town leav
ing the status of about $60,000 worth
of security deposits and rent money
uncertain.
Tenants of the complex may have
to file a class action suit to get this
money back, said Jeremy Abrams,
Organization of Town Independent
Students.
According to Abrams, $43,000 iri
security deposits, originally thought
to be frozen in court, is hanging
between the shuffling managements.
After a conversation with Arthur
Unger of Alpha Management,
for a rapid turnover of the parking
spaces.
Meters in the Beaver Avenue and
McAllister Street parking lots have 10-
hour limits 24 hours a day, while the
Fraser Street lot’s parking meters have
a four-hour limit, except between 10 p.m.
and 8 a.m., when there’s no limit. There
is no time limit in the Pugh Street
parking garage.
“An attempt is made to enforce these
limits, but it’s not as sufficient as we
would like it to be,” Fairbanks says.
“The parking garage was intended to
attract most of the long-term parkers.”
The garage does attract most of the
long-term parkers, but the municipal
officials would like it to attract all of
them. An interim report prepared by
Miller for the council last July contains
results of a one-day survey conducted
downtown.
The results show that 20 percent of the
cars parked at the on-street meters stay
there for more than four hours, while all
day parkers (seven hours or more) fill 20
percent of the Fraser Street lot, 22
• •'VVv * <<’"l’ ■ ' V "‘ ~-—-c,
The Organization for Town Independent Students
had received many complaints over the past few
days about the pile-up of snow on Eastgate’s
parking lot. Tenants said they could not get their
cars onto the lot because it had not been properly
cleared. Cars parked illegally on Bellaire Avenue
near the complex were ticketed by State College
police.
Snow removal equipment was hired, however,
and the lots were plowed Tuesday, tenants said:
There are other lesser .violations, such as broken
windows in fire exit ways, for which notice has been
served, but the time limit for these repairs is longer,
Pettingill said.
“Part of the problem in Eastgate has been the.
great amount of' vandalism,” Pettingill said.'
Windows are broken, "doors kicked in, and
emergency lights and fire alarms have been
damaged or stolen.
“I don’t know if it’s being done by disgruntled
tenants or unauthorized persons, but vandalism is
the cause of much of the damage out there,” he
said.
Tenant Marty Scarano said he believes that many'
of the vandals have been transient people, some of
whom have lived in vacant apartments.
currently in charge of Eastgate
Apartments, Abrams said he learned
that Alpha has no legal responsibility
for the deposit money.
Thus, Eastgate tenants might be
forced to file suit against the
Eastgate Associates and Joseph H.
Jaffee, a general partner in that
corporation, in order to regain their
money.
Maswest Inc., the corporation in
charge of Alpha Management, has
filed a slew of charges against Rojay
Co., , the former management of
Eastgate apartments, H. Denning
Mason, Eastgate’s lawyer, said.
Half of the 110 tenants paid their
Continued on Page 13.
percent of the McAllister Street lot, and
5 percent of the Beaver Avenue lot.
The task force, in addition to calling
for curbs on long-term parkers,
'recottimendeti'using-a maximum threeT
hour time limit in the three lots, and
removing the limit on the number of
monthly parking rentals in the garage,
which is now about 250.
The task force also recommended an
increase in parking rates to 25 cents an
hour at all parking facilities, and from
$l7 to $2O a month for a rented space in
the garage. Miller’s report, assuming
there is no decrease in utilization, in
dicates that the rate increases would
bring the borough an additional annual
income of $85,793.
Another task force suggestion regar
ding the management of existing
facilities is to experiment with compact
car spaces. The concept, if tried out,
would have to be tested carefully tb;
evaluate citizen and ■. en-;
forcement problems, McClure says.
The task force says the most direct
way to increase parking facilities is to
Ot’i‘ * '
if s "' ?;
.*>. ■•t i
Photos by Richard Holtman
Oswald orders
power savings
By ALLEN REEDER
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
University President John W. Oswald
has ordered electricity conservation at
all University campuses.
He directed the Office of the Physical
Plant to work with students, faculty and
staff to eliminate non-essential use of
electricity.
The action was caused by the dwin
dling coal supplies of electric utilities.
The United Mine Workers have been on
strike since Dec. 6.
West Penn Power Co., which supplies
roughly 80 percent of the University
Park campus’ electricity, has about a 38-
day supply of coal left today. It has
asked for voluntary conservation by all
customers.
Moderate temperatures and the pur
chase of power from the Pennsylvania-
New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection
have slowed the depletion of coal stock
piles, a spokesman said.
spokesman said.
Conservation by business and industry
is also helping, he said.
The University’s Executive Energy
Conservation Committee is working on
guidelines to reduce power consumption
by 10 percent, J. Carroll Dean, manager
of the energy conservation program,
said.
The guidelines are to.be developed
before West Penn orders further con
servation measures.
When a 30-day supply of coal is
reached, West Penn will ask the
Planned
dorms
By BRUCE ELLIS
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
If students in dorms cannot reduce
their energy consumption by 10 percent
starting about Jan. 30, then their elec
tricity could, be shut off for six or seven
hours a week, the Association of
Residence Hall Students recommended
last night.
The coal shortage is at the heart of the
recommendation. North Halls coor
dinator Carol Kelly said West Penn
Power, which supplies most of the power
to the University, predicts it will only
have about 30 days worth of coal by Jan.
30.
At that date, she said, students would
be asked to voluntarily decrease their
energy consumption by 10 percent.
ARHS president Dave Roth said that
students could do that by simply turning
their lights out one hour early every
night.
But, Roth said, if students do not
reduce their consumption, and nothing
else is done, the University could close
Spring Term.
To avoid that possibility, the ad
ministration has been looking for ways
to reduce energy consumpiton. If the
University did not find a way to reduce
it, then West Penn Power would prob
ably cut off power themselves, Kelly
said.
If the ARHS proposal is adopted the
administration is also considering
construct an additional multistory,
multimillion-dollar garage with space
for at least 350 cars.
> The best site for the garage is on
borough-owned land adjacent to the
municpal building on Fraser Street,
where the police department-water
authority building now stands. The
building is to be torn down after the
municipal building is remodeled.
“Land in the downtown area is one of
the hardest commodities to obtain,”
Fairbanks says. McClure says the task
force considers the Fraser Street site a
“very prime” location, primarily
because the borough owns the land.
Council member Richard E. Kummer
says the location looks very attractive.
“I don’t think it’s too far from the
business district," Kummer says, “and
a garage there would give the municipal
buildjng much-needed parking.”
. The task fbree says the proposed Allen
Street mall and a new parking garage
could be united in a joint project. Under
such a plan, pedestrian amenities would
W 202 PATTEE
4 " COPIES
I 15 °
Wednesday, Jan. 25,1978
Vol. 78, No. 108 14 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
I Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University
governor to order curtailment of certain
activities. Museums and similar
buildings will be closed and nighttime
sports and entertainment will be cur
tailed. Stores will be required to operate
no more than six days a week with a
maximum of 54 hours of operation.
This step cannot go into effect without
Gov. Shapp’s approval. He is expected to
decide this week whether he will order
these conservation measures. West
Penn said they will probably be needed
starting the week of Feb. 6.
Dean said the University’s goal of 10
percent reduction of power use was
decided upon within the University and
is not part of West Penn’s energy plan.
Members of the University com
munity will be asked to comply with the
guidelines set by the energy committee.
If this does not result in a 10 percent
reduction, “there will be specific
directions issued on how and where
activities will be curtailed,” Oswald said
in a letter to University personnel.
Starting today, measurements of the
University’s power consumption will be
made to determine the effectiveness of
the various conservation efforts, Dean
said.
Shapp announced Monday that he
would not provide police escorts for coal
shipments to power companies. The
Duquesne Light Co. in Pittsburgh and
Pennsylvania Power Co. of New Castle
had asked for such protection. West
Penn told Shapp that escorts would be
necessary if coal became available, but
did not go so far as to request them.
blackouts
is possibility
several other programs including turn
ing off all elevators and most outside
lights and scratching all cultural and
athletic events the power would be
shut off during the daytime for a pre
planned, well-announced time period.
Roth said the blackouts were a good
idea because students would know when
they were going to be without power and
could plan accordingly. He did concede
that blackouts could be inconvenient and
upsetting to some people.
East Halls president Kathy Howe said
students could use the union buildings if
they desperately needed electricity.
ARHS debated several specific times
for the blackouts, but finally decided the
administration could make the best
judgment. They did agree that the
blackouts could be daily or bi-weekly
until the UMW strike is resolved.
Rain today, hut ...
Mush and slush should give us a rush.
Occasional cold rain today and tonight
will melt at least some of the snow.
Temperatures should hold in the upper
thirties, so it will feel rather mild for a
January day. However, winds will whip
up and temperatures drop noticeably
during the day tomorrow. Look out for
snow flurries and occasional squalls by
tomorrow night and into Friday, that
will refreeze everything.
include a direct walkway from the
Fraser Street garage to Allen Street.
The municipal council has been
hesitant about the mall because once
construction-on it began, 29 “prime”
parking spaces on Allen Street would be
lost.
Carol M. Herrmann, a member of both
the State College Planning Commission
and the parking task force, says 70
percent of the cost of replacing the lost
parking would be paid for by the federal
government/
Ronald N. Short, regional planning
director, says the federal funds would
total about $lOO,OOO, and could help pay
for the garage, which Miller says would
cost between $2 million and $4 million.
Abler says the question of whether or
not to build an additional garage can’t be
answered until costs and alternatives
are thoroughly considered. Council
president Ingrid P. Holtzman says she
has never been in favor of an additional
garage, but could probably be talked
into favoring one if more parking is
needed.
The task force recommended that a
garage study committee be appointed,
and that $l,OOO be spent immediately to
hire a design consultant to develop a site
analysis. The task force hesitated to
recommend a “full speed ahead"
solution.
McClure told the council it’s important
to study the garage idea thoroughly.
“We didn’t put council on a one-way
street (with our recommendation),”
McClure says.
The task force also suggested that a
surface lot be constructed on the Fraser
Street site “as soon as the site can be
Continued on Page 12.