PAGE 8, THE TOWNSMAN, Thursday, September 29, 1977

Grow your
own energy

GRAND MARAIS, Minn.
(AP) — They're bringin
the old pot-bellied wi
stove back to the
schoolhouse here, but it's
going to be considerably
more expensive,

A proposed wood heating
system ior the community's
750-student school will cost
$288,000. It will burn wood
chips instead of fuel oil,
saving the district about

$16,000 yearly in fuel bills, .

said Supt. Vern Lueth.

_ Grand Marais is about 100
miles north of Duluth in
Minnesota's timber country.
The community lacks rail
service, so all fuel oil must
be brought in by truck.

The school’s two con-
nected buildings have used
an average of 65,000 gallons
of fuel oil a year, at a cost of
$26,000 annually, for the last
three years, Lueth said. The
school board had been
worried about rising fuel

costs, plus hikes in the cost

of bringing it in.
“We saw the solution in

the tremendous resource we
have around here,’’ Leuth
said. “Just from trees that
have fallen, we could get
enough wood.”

FED BY LOWER

The-new heating system,
to be installed for use by the
first of next year, will burn
about $10,000. Two lumber
firms near Grand Marais
already produce the chips
needed for the heating
system. ;

“Nothing at all you can
burn is cleaner than wood,”’
Lueth said. “I foresee no
problems with pollution
control agencies,”

School officials estimate
the new heating system will
pay for itself in 18, years.
And they’re fairly’ certain
that oil prices will shoot up
much faster than the cost of
wood during the same

period.

whey

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. Challenge of the theatre

Focussing on experience

TORONTO (cP) —
Theatre grants are frozen
and funding councils will
soon start slashing. Will it
be large alternate theatres
that Jose funds or small
ones? ,

Paul Bettis, a former
English professor and
founder of Theatre Second
Floor, is untroubled by this
tumble from affluence to the

$100-a-week challenge of one -

of the few alternate theatre
companies both eXx-
perimental and respected.
‘After two years, Bettis
still seavenges chairs,
muskets and random junk

‘for his sets rather han

making them, rents a ware-
house for $750 a month and
never charges more than $1
admission.

‘Canada enlarges but
tends to lose focus,”’ he said,

I personally like a tight
focus on the experience of
theatre itself. I don't want to
get bigger and I don’t want
to charge more at the door.
“The Canada Council
seems to understand this. It
doesn't press me for box
oitice the way it does the
er theatres, ope
God it never does.”
FEWER RISKS TAKEN
Large theatres have been
under pressure from sub-
sidizing bodies to build up
their box-office receipts if
they want their grants in-
creased or maintained. That
means producing shows that
attract an audience-result-
ing in less risk-taking, ac-
cepting fewer plays by
own playwrights.
Mallory Gilbert, adminis-
trator and accounts-keeper
for the Tarragon Theatre,

which has been in operation
six years, said: “It’s harder
for us to take a chance on
somebody's first play than it
was at the beginning.”
Martin Kinch, artistic,
director at the Free
Theatre, in ration five
years, said: ‘“‘There’s a need
for us to become an in-
stitution. At least the

people will stop calling us ail ..

small theatre or alternate,
theatre or any of those con-!

descending terms.”
He added, rhaps
thinking of the tre's

owing subscription list,
‘We can't afford to be
perverse.”

Some observers have
spoken of alternate theatres
becoming established to
keep hard-won audiences
an buildings.

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