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502 Dawson Rd. 474-7239 “SHIM111111r 9 Don’t spread it around! We’re not telling everybody. .. but if you’re the kind of person who’s looking for a plush, sophisticated place to have a tall drink after a fast day .. . intimate music in the background so you can talk. . . or just listen, and a location in the heart of downtown >’… Stephen’s just may be what you’re looking for. Stephen’s 4:-` Keep it to yourself. ST HEN’S Congress and 7th. t il Stephen F. Austin Hotel. Up against the wall For the fourth time in eight years, the city of Austin’s participation in the South Texas Nuclear Project under construction at Matagorda Bay faces a test at the polls. Staggering cost overruns have forced the city to decide what to do about its 16 percent share of the projectin 1973 voters authorized $161 million in bonds to finance it. but the city would need another $160 million to cover it now. So Proposition 14 on the January 20 ballot asks voters to allow the city to sell off the portion of its share that can’t be financed by the original bonds. \(Only 12 propositions precede this one on the ballot, but the city council warily chose If the proposition sounds confusing, it is. And the battle being waged over it is more so. Many Austin citizens have been rethinking their commitment to the project in light of the overruns, and the odds on voters’ favoring additional bonds seemed so low that STNP backers sold the city council on presenting only this limited option. The city electric commission came up with the “compromise” solution. Herbert Woodson, a commission member who favors full 16 percent participation, said that “political realities” had to be taken into account and he doubted the council had the courage to ask voters for authority to borrow another $160 million. The wording of Proposition 14 represents a last-ditch effort by city staff and other nuclear advocates to keep Austin involved in the STNP. Austin citizens have been fairly evenly divided over nuclear power, and elections have been decided by narrow margins. In 1972 when voters were first offered a chance to participate in STNP, they turned it down. A year later, after a winter of fuel shortages by Lo-Vaca Gathering Company, the city’s natural gas supplier, nuclear proponents \(with vocal support from the city electric devote again, arguing that generation of electricity with nuclear power would be cheaper than with fossil fuels and that Austin needed to diversify its fuel sources. By a margin of 122 votes, Austinites agreed to join the project. In 1975 the first economic cloud settled over STNP’when Westinghouse reneged on its contract to supply uranium for $10 a pound and announced it was quadrupling its price. Austin filed suit against Westinghouse, but the new fuel costs prompted a referendum in August Printers Stationers Mailers Typesetters High Speed Web Offset Publication Press Counseling Designing Copy Writing Editing Trade Computer Sales and Services Complete Computer Data Processing Services */MYNA NUM{ in t 4 w.r.:171t=rt ti=1:1 FILIPTILBIRIA 512/442-7836 1714 South Congress P.O. Box 3485 Austin, Texas 78764 Steaks, Spirits, Tues.Sat. YVACIIW.01111C11f3 irm.11 -11 o USE. Lunch 1 1:30-2:00 Tues. Fri. & Sunday Brunch Dinner 5:30-10:00 Tues.Sun. 14 JANUARY 19, 1979