and The ARROWHEAD PRESS
Member of The Associated Press
10c a Copy
VOLUME XVI
Wednesday, November 2, 1955
NUMBER 229
Sitka faces power shortage,
SPU board informs council
ANS plans program
which will limit
available power
Problems of providing suf
ficient power for use in Sitka
— until if and when a hydro
electric plant could ibe estab
lished — were discussed at a
joint meeting of the SPU
(board anil city council last
evening.
Lin Tbielke, chairman of the
SPU board, opened the session
by stating the power situation
,had developed to the point
■where an important decision
has to be made. With a pulp
mill just around the corner, it
will be necessary to provide
for a great additional load of
electricity.
He continued that the ANS
is contemplating a (building
and expansion program .as ear
ly as next September, at which
time the SPU will be limited
as to the amount of electricity
it can take from the island —
present source of power for j
the city. The problem, he out
lined, is how to prepare with
in 10 months not only for the
load the SPU has now but for
the normal increase of elec
tricity which can (be expected.
A hydroelectric plant. Mr.
Thielke pointed out, is at least
four years away. “The situa
tion we are faced with is pro
viding some sort of facilities
whereby we can meet the cur
tailment of electricity from]
the Island as' well as provide]
for the boom,” he concluded, j
Conrad Krantz, manager of.
the SPU, submitted a graph'
showing the local use of pow- ]
er since 1950 — indicating a]
steady growth in use for each j
V eatchcombfng
• That sun looks nice — but
you won’t catch me in swim
ming if 1 can help it.
• Listened to a man try to
get a dozen (people to algiree on
a night Ifor a meeting — but
with almost a hundred differ
ent organizations in Sitka and
Mt. Edjgecumibe — he didn’t
have much luck.
-1-1
• The council and SPU are
planning to “pour oil” on our
electric power situation. That
is one board that has more
headaches than any other in
the city government — and
gets cussed more because .the
only contact the public has
with it is the monthly bills.
-M
• Sitka’s delegates to the
constitutional convention are
off for Fairbanks and College.
■And after listening to Gruen
ing and Knowland they will be
really confused — those two
men are as far apart as the
poles in their outlook — pol
itcially. , _
year. He said, since he had
been here, the hijgh peak of
use was 930 k. w. during the
winter; however, at the pres
eni time the SPU is taking up
to 800 k. w. in peak loads, and
[ cold weather has not as yet
come.
Ted Harris of Mt. Edgecumbe
told the group the power plant
at Mt. Edgecumbe is rapidly
reaching its maximum output.
It can carry the SPU through
this winter but cannot meet ad
ditional loads of an expanded
boom. It can provide power as
at present until Sept. 1 of next
year and can safely carry peak
loads up to 900 k.w.
Diesel engines as a source of
power were discussed and it
was learned two 700 k. w. En
terprise diesels could be install
ed ready for operation in six
months, and possibly a little
sooner. The cost of a building1
to house the diesels would be
included in the price of a quar
ter of a million dollars. Mr.
Kran'tz gave as his opinion tha1
the cost of operation per killo
watt hour would be somewhat
less than aperage cost of power
from Mt. Edgecumbe, not in
cluding maintenance and re
pair. He felt there would be no
change whatsoever in existing
rates charged by the SPU
Hydro-electric possibilities
anil a wide range of costs were j
discussed and it seemed -to be 1
the feeling of the group the
diesels, if purchased, could
serve as a stand-lby plant for j
any eventual hydro-electric inj
stallation. j
Mr. Krantz will secure full
details, prices, guarantees and
finance arrangements from sev
era! companies manufacturing
diesel engines and present this
(continued on page two) i
i
Peron leaves for
unknown country
by plane today
. ASUNCION, Paraguay (/P)
Juan D. Peron boarded a Para
guayan army (plane today and
took off for Central America, j
Paraguayan officials said he I
intends to go to Nicaragua as a I
guest of his friend, President
Anastasia Somozia — 'but So
rnoza disclaimed knowledge of
Peron’s intentions.
The (planes route was given i
here as a/cross Bolivia for an
overnight stop at Lima, Peru—j
ibut the army DC3 apparently
headed up the east coast of
South America across Brazil.
A Brazilian air force man said
Peron reached Rio de Janeiro
and Was heading for Belem on
Brazil’s north coast,
j (The Houston Chronicle re
ported Peron is likely to go to
Mexico.)
Peron came here as a refugee
a month algo after he was over
thrown as dictator of Argen
tina.
Today he appeared at Asun
cion’s airport at diaiwn and took
' (continued on page four)
HALIBUT POINT FAMILIES
ASK BAN ON SPEEDING
S A petition signed by 15 fam
ilies. all residents of Halibut
Point Road in the portion ly
! ing within the city limits, is
being mailed the City of Sitka
today asking enforcement oi
the laws against speeding1 and
reckless driving on the high
way.
It was understood the peti
tion was the result of a near
accident involving a child re
cently, when a motorist said to
be traveling at an excessive
speed narrowly missed striking
the youngster near the plane
ramp.
Alaska contractor
killed in Wyoming
plane crash
SEATTLE (IP) Bror H. Reck
strom, 48, who died with his
wife, Irene, in the crash of an
air liner near Longmont, Colo.,
was active in the electrical con
traction .business in Alaska.
Beckstrom owned the Strom
beck Electric Co. in Fairbanks,
and two Seattle firms. He did
business in Anchorage, Juneau
and Ketchikan as well as Fair
banks.
One son, Ronald, 20, is in
the Army’s Alaska Communi
cation System at Fairbanks.
The Beckstroms were return
ing to their Seattle home after
visiting another son. Howard,
22, who is on military iluty in
Albuquerque. N. M.
44 killed when explosion
wrecks airliner in Wyoming
United Air Lines
plane crashes on
flight to Seattle
! LONGMONT. Colo. (JP) A
four-engine United Air Lines
plane — some witnesses said
•' seemed to exiplode in the air
I —crashed in a northern Colo
j rado suigar beet field last night
killing all 44 persons aboard.
The disaster hitting the New
|York-to Seattle DC6B craft
/was the second major crash
| the air line has suffered in
I the Rocky Mountain reigion in
less than four weeks.
A UAL airliner smashed in
to Medicine Bow peak in south
ern Wyoming Oct. 6 for a loss
of 66 lives, the nation’s worst
commercial aviation tragedy.
Last night’s crash killed 39
passengers, including an infant
boy, and 5 crew members,
j An airline official declined
to speculate on what happen
ed to the plane, explaining
that the accounts oif witnesses
varied widely.
“Some say it exploded in
the air. others that it hit the
ground and exploded,” the
spokesman said. “It is difficult
Buffer zone plan j
turned down by i
Western powers
GENEVA (TP) The Western
.powers rejected tonight com
munist terms for gradual merg-)
er of the 'two rival German re- j
publics.- British .foreign secre-j
tary Harold MacMillan called!
Russia’s German unification
plan “an unplanalled diktat (die
tote).”
The three Western foreign
ministers repeated their de
mand fdr free elections to uni
fy Germany. j
But Soviet foreign minister
Molotov argued that his plan,
setting up an All-German coun
ci'l from the two parliaments
in Ease and West Germany,
Sen Knowland to
receive degree
FAIRBANKS f/P) University
of Alaska officials announced
yesterday that Sen. William K
Knowland (R-Oalif) will receive
an honorary doctor of laws de
gree "from the school Nov. 29.
The senate Republican leader
will address a University Con
vocation, at which delegates
to Alaska’s consfciututional con
vention will be special guests.
was the only way to tackle the
unity problem.
The Russian idea envisages
the continued division of Ger
many lor some unspecified per
iod. It also is designed to win
recognition for the East Ger
mans from 'the outset by the
establishment of an Al'l-Ger
man council consisting of repre
sentatives of both East and
West German governments.
Soviet foreign minister Mo
lotov’s proposal contained no
surprises and in its form was
regarded by Western quarters
as certain to be rejected by the
United States, Britain and
France.
Western officials earlier to
day said the British govern
ment is abandoning its plan for
an East-West German buffer
zone at the urging of the U. S.
government.
These officials said Molotov
therefore was trying to breathe
life into an already dead Tro
jan horse by his sudden sup
port of the idea of a semi-de
militarized zone along the East
West frontier.
The proposal was first put
forward by British prime min
ister Eden at the July summit
conference here. The United
States, however, feared the
Eden plan would freeze the di
vision of Grmany and fix the
present status of Soviet satel
lites in Europe.
(continued on page four)
for us to say what took place,
That probably will have to be
determined by the civil aeron
autics board.”
A farm 'boy. Lud Lang, 20,
told a reporter the plane pass
el directly over where he stood
in his farm yard and it “look
ed like a shooting star coming
down.”
The air lines reported that
/by 8 a. m. ((MIST) all of the bod
ies had been taken to an un
dertaking parlor at Greeey. 17
miles northeast olf the crash.
Although there was snow at
higher elevations, the ground
where the plane smashed in
pieces into the earth was clear
The temlperiature *was below
freezing.
A strike of flight engineers
was called against the air line
Oct. 23. One of the five crew
victims was a pilot who wias
making the flight as an engi
neer, a post he formerly held.
UAL said he was “fully qual
ified with many years exper
ience.”
A spokesman for the com
pany said ait New York there
was no connection between
ithe strike and the cratsh —
“By all means, no.”
Two witnesses told of hear
ing an explosion before the
craft struck in a field and an
other after it hit in near-freez
dng weather.
Jake Hell said he and his
family “thou/g'bt it was going
ito hit the house” on their farm
And John McNeill, night
marshall at Plattville, Colo.,
six miles distant reported he
saw tiwo flares in the air, “a
sort of an explosion — then a
big bright light.”
Chief Gilbert R. Carrel of
the Colorado highway patrol
and other investigators said
the accounts of an explosion
were being checked. None
would venture a possible ex
planation.
Unlike the UAL crash Oct.
6 this accident happened over
comparatively leveil country a
few miles east of the Colorado
Rockies.
Wreckage and bodies were
strewn for a mile over a plow
ed field and pasture six miles
east of Longmont. The scene
was about 32 miles north of
Denver’s city limits and about
30 miles eiast of scenic Rocky
■Mountain National Park.
The crash time was fixed a/t
7:03 p. m. (MST) by Hei-1.
The plane left Denver about
10 minutes earlier and was 20
minutes behind schedule, Uni
ted Air Lines reported. A com
pany official said it was on
(continued on page three)
| Marine forecast from Weclnes
day to Thursday.
Outside waters Dixon En
trance to Yakuta northeasterly
winds 15 to 25 mph.
Cloudy with brief snow Dix
'on Entrance to Cape Decision
otherwise CLEAR,