18—The Daily Collegian Thursday, Dec. 16, 1982 OPEN \IGHTS U\TIL 8 30 V VISA MC & AMERICA\ EXP=ESS Drunk and Drugged Driving Week set Thornburgh signs drunken driving bill with mandatory jail sentences New Year's Eve can be one of the most fun nights of the year; it can also be one of the most dangerous nights•to be driving, even if you are sober. To make people more aware of the dangers involved in driving under the influence, Gov. Dick Thornburgh has proclaimed Dec. 12-18 as Pennsyl vania's Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness Week. The awareness week got a big boost at 2:45 p.m. yesterday when Thornburgh signed a tougher drunken driving bill. The law requires mandatory jail terms for all levels of offense and stricter enforcement of fines and license suspensions. Centre County's drug and alcohol specialist, Bellefonte By BRIAN MAGEE Collegian Staff Writer Because of the results of a comput er-aided study, Centre County will no longer have a regional office of the Department of Environmental Re sources after Dec. 20. The DER is consolidating four of fices, including the one in Bellefonte. They Will be temporarily relocated in Philipsburg until construction of a permanent office in Hawk Run, five miles north of Philipsburg, is com pleted. The DER expects the new office, now being converted from a water Michael J. Barrett, said, "Drunk and drugged drivers on our county's roadways cause death and injury to innocent victims and to themselves." Centre County's Drug and Alcohol Program in Bellefonte has used local radio publicity to caution against drunken driving. Area citizens can help by raising public interest to combat the problem, he said. 'Barrett encour aged all citizens to: • Use safety belts, which have been proved effective protection in accidents. • Designate a driver who will refrain from drinking to ensure group safety, • Remember that "Friends don't let friends DER office to close Dec. 20 treatment plant, to be completed in llk years. The Hawk Run and Bellefonte of fices will be consolidated with offices in Dußois and' Coudersport, in Potter County, for "budgetary purposes," said Richard E. Ayers, DER regional business manager. The decision to consolidate was the result of a computer study that deter mined the best location with respect to the work being done in the region, Ayers said. Some regional offices only had two or three employees, he said. No jobs will be cut because of the consolida tion. However, the general feeling at the Bigatel said the computer study Bellefonte office is that service in this may have been weighted toward relo area may suffer from the move. cation in Philipsburg because of the "It will be inconvenient for all of . mining work done there. But monitor mg such things as water quality, air us," said Alan Bigatel, air quality quality and solid waste in the whole engineer at the Bellefonte office. region may be more difficult from the Bigatel said the move will decrease new location, he said. efficiency in Centre County because Bigatel was also concerned about of the time it will take DER employ- the costs of converting the water ees to travel to and from Philipsburg. treatment plant to office space and of mean will be more difficult to respond renting temporary space in the mea time. to calls or to make routine inspections in the State College-Bellefonte area The new office is at 103 Presqueisle where most of the region's population St., Philipsburg. The phone number is lives, he said. 342-6421. KERN CLASSICS MOVIES*MOVIES*MOVIES*MOVIES*MOVIES neo Thursday Evening a g If 6 8:00 PAC ONO' 1 t ° 1 5 drive drunk." The National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis tration reports that 250,000 Americans lost their lives in alcohol-related crashes in the last decade. More than half of all fatal crashes involve a drunken or drugged driver, Barrett said. The county's alcohol-related accidents numbered 166. Of those, 163 people were injured and 10 were killed. "Impaired driving costs the public as much as $25 million each year," he said, "but emotional cost to the family of the victim is incalculable." —by Bonnie Mortar
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