Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1942 [PAGE 250]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1941]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

247

IMPROVEMENT IN POWER AND HEATING PLANT AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (8) T h e Director of the Physical Plant Department recommends the assignment of the balance in the State appropriation for the new Power and Heating Plant and distribution system for purchase of material and the installation of a 12-inch low pressure steam main from the new power plant to Sixth Street and Gregory Drive, to the extent that funds are available for this improvement, and requests authorization of the expenditures for this purpose. T h e estimated cost of material, and of the labor to place it in the tunnel is $19,600; the balance of the labor necessary to put the equipment into operating service is estimated at $3,200, or a total of $22,800. T h e following balances are now available or will be available for this improvement when the assignments and appropriations have been authorized: 1. Present balance in Power and Heating Plant appropriation $ 7 500 2. Reduction of encumbrance on contract for services of Sargent & Lundy, resulting in a release of 3 700 3. Reimbursement of Physical Plant Department budget from General Reserve fund for part of the cost of installation of a steam conduit south of the Auditorium (see separate recommendation for steam line, paragraph d of item 7, page 246) 6 coo' 4. Reimbursement of the Physical Plant budget from General Reserve Fund for expenses of extending and improving electric distribution system to College of Engineering buildings (this appropriation to be made later) 4 500 Total $21 700 I recommend authorization of this improvement as here indicated.

On motion of Mr. Adams, this improvement was authorized as recommended.

PLAN FOR USE OF THE CAMPUS FOREST PLANTATIONS (9) T h e following plan for the use of forest plantations on the campus of the University at Urbana, prepared by Professor J. Nelson Spaeth, H e a d of the Department of Forestry, and concurred in by the Dean of the College of Agriculture and the Director of the Physical Plant Department, is submitted to the Board with my recommendation that it be approved. T h e Director of the School of Physical Education and the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics have advised that this plan would not interfere with the proposal for the use of a part of this area for the development of the program of athletics and physical education. T h e Department of Forestry has completed a stand inventory of the forest plantation on the University of Illinois campus which is commonly referred to as " T h e Forestry." A technical report on the development and growth of the plantations is contemplated. These plantations, provided for by legislative action in 1869, were established in the early days of the University. T h e planting extended over a period of approximately thirty years. T h e oldest trees arc seventy-one years from seed. Nowhere in the cornbelt is there a plantation on prairie soil comparable in age or variety of species. It represents a substantial investment for research, the major benefits of which still lie in the future if the area is properly maintained. T h e original purpose of the experiment was to demonstrate the usefulness of tree planting on the prairie. In a report made to the Board of Trustees of the University by its Committee on Horticulture, November 18, 1868, the experiment was recommended for the following reasons: " T o bring these useful trees within the bounds of culture and to utilize them is one of the objects of this industrial institution. T o teach the people of the state how to add these

2 The total cost of this improvement was $10,000, of which $4,000 was paid from the new power plant appropriation, and $6,000 is chargeable to the Physical Plant Department maintenance budget. The work was done last year but was not completed before June 30, 1940, the end of the last fiscal year, when the funds earmarked for this purpose in the Physical Plant appropriation for that year lapsed. Consequently an appropriation for this is necessary.