State Mediator Summoned in Lowell School Negotiations
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THIS WEEK'S CHUCKLE "I need • holiday," Mid the pretty cashier. "I'm not looking my belt." "Nonsense," said the bank manager. "It isn't nonsense, the men are begin- ning to count their change." r-SukrbaServing Lowell, Ada, Cascade and Easternn Kent lifCounty e THURSDAY. AUGUST 13, 1970 10 cents State Mediator Summoned In Lowell School Negotiations Negotiations between the Lowell Area Schools Board of Edu- tor, the board isn't going to go any further." cation and the Lowell Education Association (LEA) were at a Thaler, who is a chemistry, general science and physics teacher standstill this week after the teacher's group told the board it was ai Lowell High School, is the LEA's outgoing president. As the going to ask for a state mediator. new school year begins. Ed Rankin, a social studies teacher will become president. Contract negotiations have been in progress since last March, the LEA said. "We'd like to make up a little bit and get on a level with the other school districts," Thaler said. "Lowell has never had any in- The teacher's association, which represents all of the system's surance plans paid for by the school. We have a very low base pay teachers and claims a membership of 105 of the Lowell's 113 and .f we pay .mr own hospitalization insurance too, we're very teachers, asked the Michigan Depanment of Labor's Employment low!" Relations Commission to mediate the dispute. Thaler said more federal funds are available to the school dis- Reached in his office in Grand Rapids. Robert G. Mason, who trict this year and added, "the millage that's been voted, if this has been assigned by the state to the talks, said, "We'll meet has been levied, can take care of us very easily-even with the Thursday night. I presume the hangup is money." (new state regulations regarding) free text books." Or R. D. Siegel, uhainnan of the school board's negotiating Under the terms of last year's contract, a teacher with a bach- committee declined to comment on the negotiations or the Thurs- elor's degree starts at S7,000 and reaches SI0.500 aftei 11 years day night meeting with the teachers' group and Mason. with the system. A teacher with a master's degree starts at $7,600 "I just don't think it would be appropriate to say anything at and reaches S11.400 after 11 years. this time," he said. "When our teachers retire," Thaler said, "they retire with a Superintendent Carl Hagen likewise declined to discuss the ne- lower pension because they (have a lower base salary than other gotiations. districts). It would make a difference of up to $14,000 a teacher But the teacher's union-or, more properly, the teacher's pro- because of our lower salary if it were projected on the lifetime fessional organization-was not so tight lipped. of a teacher." The group's chief negotiator, Orion Thaler, told the Ledger-Sub "We've been accused of reaching for the moon, but we're on urban Life that the hangup was money. "The board and the the bottom and we've go' a little bit of making up to do." teachers can't seem to get together on the money we should be The decision of Mediator Robert Mason is binding on neither paid for working there" he said. Lowell's teachers have been con- party and his meeting Thursday is designed primarily to get a dia- sistently low in salaries in the past three years." logue ^oing between the two sides again. He said that the system's teachers are below the state average. Last year, the Forest Hills School District negoated a three- Thaler said a member of the school board's negotiating team year contract with its teachers and is not involved in bargaining told him at the last meeting, "You might as well call your media- sessions this year. Cascade Township Seeks Plan Bieri Fund To Control Pressure Levels Still Growing The township board Monday night in cision on the ordinance," Heemstra said. A fund established two weeks ago for a Cascade has authorized the development of It Is anticipated that the ordinance will local man Is growing as hundreds of resi- a master plan to provide data on which to be administered by township Fire Chief dents. businessmen and organizations join evaluate further requests for extension of Grover Buttrick. the drive to purchase an artificial kidney Water ahd !te\ver transmission lines. machine. In a community such as Cascade where The Kenneth C. Bieri Dialysis Fund at there is an extensive number of hills and midweek had collected more than $2,400. valleys, water and sewage systems must Old City Firm Contributions to the fund have come In have different pressure levels-one for low- large checks and small amounts. lying areas; another for higher areas. If •tn* vS?;' •v . -%A ^ . there were only one pressure level, it would Gets New Name Some of the groups actively participat- GOOD OLD RALPH GODFREY - Sent 11 of his best mules all Staff Photo by KEVIN SMITH be too high for the lower areas; too low for An old established Lowell firm recently ing in the drive Include Lowell's United Methodist Church. Boy Scouts Troop 102, the way from Crescent, Oklahoma, to help members of the Low- Gabrion (left) was on hand for the teachers and Al Eckman, Sgt the higher areas. With the master plan, added a new face; now it's going to add a American Legion and Auxiliary, Chamber ell Police Department and the Lowell schools faculty stage what James Hutson and Chief Barry Emmons had a chance to meet township officials hope to have a well de- new name. of Commerce. The Rotary. Alto United they called a "Donkey Ball" game at Recreation Park Tuesday Joe and Andy. Okay, which one is Sgt. Hutson and which one is signed system which will accommodate alt Beginning Monday, the Christiansen Methodist Church, Lowell WomensClub, night. In an afternoon practice session before the game, John Andy? homes in the township regardless of how Drug Co. will become one of the three Bowne Center Methodist Church and the high or low they are. stores of Llppert Pharmacies. Inc. Head- Lowell Congiegational Church. The Cascade Township Board also heard quartered in Lowell, the firm has stores in Members of the Lowell City Council the first reading of a proposed nuisance or- Cedar Springs and in Carson City In Mont- contributed $50 to the fund following dinance. The ordinance will be officially calm County. No Name, Board Okoys Milk Program last week's regular meeting. considered for adoption at the next board "Because we'll have more buying power The American Dair> Association may routes for the new school year, and heard meeting on Monday (Aug. ^4) at /:30 p.m. and wholesalers In larger quantities," Charles Kenneth Bieri, 846 Lincoln Lake Road, Lowell, was home this week after a suc- No Address, (or may not) send a bouquet of roses to a report by member Gould Rivette who The basic Intent of the ordinance, ac- Llppert, the firm's president, said. "We'll cessful surgery at Grand Rapids' St. Mary's the Lowell Board of Education. presented a plan for a footbridge over the cording to Supervisor Al Heemstra, Is to be able to buy at lower prices and pass the Hospital. His kidneys began falling about At its meeting Mond/y night. Hie board C&O railroad tracks near Lowell High control open burning (other than for do- savings on to our customers." Now, No Car a year ago. Tuesday afternoon, he return- recommended approval of a bid by High- High School football coach Al Rowe ap- mestic purposes and debris burning). Llppert acquired the Lowell store two Boy, if there's one thing Ware Story, a ed to the hospital for dialysis treatment. A land Hill Dairy of Lowell for enough white peared al the meeting to ask the school "We will be taking Into consideration years ago. Last month, the store and the salesman for McQueen Motors, Inc., Low- new machine to be Installed In his home and chocolate milk for the coming school board to "do something" about the prac- the physical characteristics of the property Lowell Chamber of Commerce building ell, won't do again, it's loan a car to a guy has been ordered. He was reported "feeling year. tice football field that his team begins using on which the fire is to be burned, other were the first two buildings on Main Street dressed in blue jeans who looks and talks a lot better" this week. The price will be (>.3 cents for white the day after the 4-H fair ends. conditions on the date of the burning, the to complete facelifting with the extensive like a farmer and says he's got a load of Contributions to the fund can be made milk and 6.6 cents for chocolate flavored "The garbage, manure, broken glass and extent of air pollution, the effect of burn- use of ornamental Iron. wheat at the King Milling Co. at the State Savings Bank In Lowell. milk. The Federal government will pay the cans and the damage to the field make it ing on wildlife and the health, safety and The Llppert Pharmacy In Cedar Springs, On Thursday (Aug. 8) Story did just schools 4 cents for each half pint of milk tough for football practice," he said. He welfare of the people, when we make a de- at 43 S.