Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • 13

ait See A bout Oakdale Mall 4 Banks The Evkninc Phkss Business FrL Feb. 15, 1974 6-B space at Oakdale could amount to a total of about 20 per cent of the Binghamttjn area's retail sales," said Kenneth H. Myers, president of the Savings Bank of Tompkins County. "We were attracted to the Binghamton area because it is the largest market adjacent to Ithaca," he said. "Our future growth depends on spreading out geographically." The Savings Bank of Tom- pkins County is anticipating a merger with the Elmira Savings Bank sometime during the summer of the year.

"Banks are an integral part of enclosed malls." said Saul Silverman of the Interstate Properties developer of the Oakdale Mall. He added that the 100-store center is scheduled for completion in August of 1975. If some of the smaller upstate banks can establish themselves before the huge New-Vork-City-based institutions move in, it may also discourage the giants from attempting to Lake over, Little said. Big banks will be able to come into almost any area and operate at a loss for a period of time without affecting the overall profit picture. The Ithaca is planning to open its first branch in Broome''County sometime during the spring of this year.

The new office is the second branch for the "THE LOCATION is ideal." Little said. The concentration of traffic and easy access from all corners of the Southern Tier may make the shopping center a focal point, he said. "The combination of retail ahead, but what will happen is still up in the air. "There is a strong danger that the area is over-banked," said Stuart McCarty, president of the First-City National Bank of Binghamton. First-City is one of the banks that will be integrated in the shopping mall.

McCarty added that the Oakdale area is potentially strong because of the size of the proposed shopping center. He also noted that although the population of the Oakdale area is not great, there is room to grow. JOHN CONSEY, vice president of the Binghamton Savings Bank, said that the shopping area is not over-banked. He explained that state and federal banking regulatory officials would not allow too many branch offices to be located in a confined area. ings Loan Association's bid for a branch office in the Oakdale area has been rejected by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

Charles Turner, president of Delaware Federal, said the Home Loan Board may have wanted the to sit back for a year. In the past two years Delaware Federal has had a 90 per cent growth rate, he said. Howard Warfield, vice president of real estate of the Marine Midland Bank-Southern, said, "We are like the rest, waiting to see what is going to happen. Right now only one thing has taken place Montgomery Ward." Warfield indicated that Marine Midland has not made any definite plans about locating in the Oakdale Mall. State and federal banking authorities have given a branch go- By STEPHEN CARPENDER The banking bubble at the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City is just about filled to capacity.

Two commercial banks, two savings banks and one savings loan institution have received permission from the banking authorities to rub elbows in the Oakdale area. However, only one of the institutions to date has gone in to the ground; the Ithaca Savings Loan Association. First-City National Bank of Binghamton, Marine Midland Bank-Southern, Binghamton Savings Bank and the Savings Bank of Tompkins County are taking a wait-and-see attitude before jumping in on the mall merry-go-round even though permission to build has been granted. DELAWARE Federal Sav the Ithaca Savings Loan Association, said the Ithaca took the opportunity to branch out before other banks and saving institutions thoughout the state are allowed to move into any area of the state beginning in January, 1976. Institutions may now branch only within specified districts.

But. beginning in 1976. commercial. and savings banks will be allowed to move out of their districts. He said that the regional concept of the shopping center probably will bring people from Northern Pennsylvania and many areas of the Southern Tier.

Besides bringing in more shoppers to the Binghamton area, the Oakdale Mall also brought an opportunity for non-Broome County-based banks to spread their wings. George Little, treasurer of 1r i f4t4P Beat si Busin ess 90 Miles a Gallon And Lots of Air ill. 'I MnShlW 'v -1 Sen. Hart Plans Car Industry Study DETROIT (AP) Sen. Philip A.

Hart, said today the time has come to determine whether the public interest would be best served by breaking up con- centration in the automobile industry. "One-sixth of all U.S. workers have depended upon this industry directly or indirectly for employ- lem. It's named Jutta after a German friend. "There is hardly anything that can go wrong even if it does it can be replaced easily," Fechter says.

The auto has a top speed of 55 miles per hour and has passed the state motor vehicle inspection. Flechter said that when he tells other drivers the kind of gas mileage he gets, "they say a nasty word and speed away." Fechter said he has no problems on expressways because other drivers slow down to get a close look at the Jutta. Although Fechter's car is unique, he says he can't patent it because all its parts have already been patented by other inventors. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -Aaron Fechter's answer to the gasoline crisis is an unlikely assemblage of a motorcycle wheel, bicycle chain and an assortment of nuts and bolts.

He says the contraption gets him 90 miles to the gallon. The one-passenger car also consists of a $170 lawn mower engine, a standard muffler and battery, plywood, and an iron angle frame to hold it together. "I began assembling the auto in November because of the fuel pinch," says Fechter, 20, a graduate of the University of South Florida. He estimates that after buying a fiberglass body the car will have cost him about $1,500. He drives his creation daily and says repairs are no prob- fa 46 Art.

St'. "4 i tsss? rAii U.S. Doesnxt Know Total of Resources, House Panel Told 1 i i ment," Hart said in an address prepared for the Anti- trust Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. "Now seems the time for some hard effort devoted jv- to finding out if the present structure best serves the public and if not, what possible alternatives there are," he said. Hart's Senate antitrust and monopoly subcom- mittee opens hearings on that subject Feb.

26. Macocca Hints Price Pleal DETROIT (AP) Ford Motor Co. President Lee A. Iacocca has hinted the company may ask the Cost of jj Living Council for another increase in 1974 model car and truck prices. Ford obtained a $192 increase last December, after jiji promising along with General Motors and American Motors Corp.

not to raise prices of '74 models again un- less there were "unforeseen major economic events." Iacocca said Thursday, however, "the terrible cost squeeze" from inflation and cost of living adjustments to workers had increased "way beyond" projections in December. "We are now seeing inflation bills on building new cars that we have never seen before," the Ford presi- dent said. "I imagine there might be some conversa- tions with the Cost of Living Council." Iacocca did not say Ford definitely plans to ask for jiji another price increase. ji GM Asks Data Secrecy jjij DETROIT (AP) General Motors has asked the ji jjij Environmental Protection Agency to delay release of ji 1975-model fuel economy statistics until September, jiji apparently for fear it would hurt sales of 1974 cars, the jiji Detroit Free Press reported today. The paper said GM had asked the agency not to re- ijij lease statistics until September.

It also quoted EPA au- ijji tbmobile regulations director Eric 0. Stork as saying ji-i the figures would not be made public until June or July jiji at the earliest. jiji The newspaper said such figures traditionally have i ijij been confidential for some period of time. It said Rob- ijij ert C. Stempel, special assistant to GM President Ed- ijij ward N.

Cole, refused to comment specifically on the unusual move of asking EPA for secrecy now. a ft'rtlftrtiiHiiiFoTllfllfwnnii Associated Press WIREPHOTO "JUTTA" CAR Aaron Fechter has built his own version of an economy car. The car gets 90 miles to a gallon of gas and has a top speed of 55 miles per hour. i Things Looking Up for AMC And, AMC President William V. Luneburg told the firm's board of directors last week the firm has all but decided to bUild a $125 million plant with the capacity to build 250,000 cars a year.

Luneburg said no final decision has been made on when to build the plant. AMC sold 380,000 cars in 1973 and predicts it will sell 400.000 cars this year. Its present facilities are capable of producing 500,000 cars per year at full capacity. That is just a drop in the bucket compared to the Big Three. GM sola 5.1 million cars last year, Ford's sales, topped 2.7 million and Chrysler delivered 1.5 million.

Although AMC appears' headed for a bright future, Jouppi recalled the last time market forces and AMC caught the Big Three flat-footed. The 1958 Rambler sent AMC to new heights through 1961 when it had the American- MARKET jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii li ii i in iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipiiiiiiiii. mi jiiiiiiiii IBAROMETEK did the only thing they could do," he said. Part of that "only thing" was the introduction of economy Hornets and Gremlins which helped AMC to an 18.3 per cent sales increase in the quarter ended Dec. 31.

This while the giants saw their sales tapering off. Goliaths like General Motors are hurting not so much because they failed a small car market, but because they are committed to develop ing the full spectrum of auto sizes, Jouppi said. "With the bigger cars not selling," he said, "General Motors is like a V-8 engine hitting only on three cylinders. "It is only a matter of time. Assuming the small car trend continues, it won't be long before the Big Three come down on American Motors.

"GM, Ford and Chrysler have what AMC is weak in: a strong dealer system. The great number of dealers mean a lot more selling power than AMC has." Chapin predicted this month that more than 60 per cent of U.S. domestic car sales will be smaller than standard size and "by 1980 that figure could be 80 per cent." CHAPIN HAS said AMC is now selling cars as fast as it can build them. To be sure to take a share of the growing market, AMC is expanding production. Feb.

1 it announced it was adding a second shift to its La-kefront plant in Kenosha and would hire 1,500 workers there. The new shift could add 250 Gremlins and Hornets a day to AMC production. By ROBERT L.PEIRCE Associated Press DETROIT The 20-year history of American Motors Corp. "has been 85 per cent disaster," says one Detroit auto industry expert. Perhaps.

But right now the nation's No. 4 automaker is enjoying the other 15 per cent. Buoyed by small-car demand which began before the Arab oil embargo and gasoline shortages, the firm which specilaizes in compact autos announced its first cash divi-dended in eight years Feb. 6. The dividend was 10 cents per share on AMC's 27.1 million shares.

It came as a result of sales that hit a record $479 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Earnings for the quarter were .1 million or 32 cents a share. That's a sharp contrast to 1967 when the firm's new board chairman scurried around the country trying to convince 24 banks to forclose on loans. BIT THE BOOM may not last, said auto analyst Arvid F.

Jouppi. senior vice president of Delafield Childs, New York institutional research firm. But whatever happens, AMC still poses little threat to the Big Three automakers. Jouppi said. AMC has touted the foresight of AMC Board Chairman Roy Chapin in choosing to hit the small car market big when he took over in 1967.

But Jouppi said the move "was not so much a gamble. "They simply did not have the resources to compete against the Big Three. They strategy," Morton said, including the help of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in finding new ways of getting coal out of the ground and converting it to gas, at least by 1990. Ventured that the Trans-Alaska pipeline would be finished by late 1977. depending largely on the weather.

Touted the Land-Use Planning Bill, passed by the Senate and now before the House, as a principal route to freeing the nation from itsad-diction to the automobile and the superhighway, a habit he said has drained away much of its energy base. Promised that he would not compromise his obligations to the environment under the pressure of the energy shortage and demand by some for instant development of resources. Pointed to six Interior leases for oil shale development on federal land that would give the government the benefit of new information obtained as evidence that private developers were not reaping all the technological benefits at public expense. Annex OKs Negotiated Rate Plan NEW YORK (AP) The American Stock Exchange's Board of Governor's approved Thursday a plan to allow competitively negotiated brokerage commission rates on securities transactions of $2,000 and less in value. The New York Stock Exchange previously had approved a similar plan which, like the Amex program, is slated to begin April 1.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, when it allowed the exchanges to increase the rates in their fixed commission schedules last year, set a May 1, 1975, deadline for an end to fixed rates. The SEC said that in the, meantime the higher fixed rates could continue beyond April 1 of this year if the exchanges would agree to experiment with negotiated rates on some orders alter that time. Commissions now are fixed on all orders of up to $300,000 in value, with competitive negotiation above that point. The NYSE and Amex plans both must be approved by exchange members and the SEC. By JOHN E.

SIMONDS Gannett News Service WASHINGTON Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton says he is fully aware that his department doesn't really know how much oil, gas, coal and other energy resources it is sitting on, but says it would take billions of dollars to find out. In an appearance Thursday before the House Appropriations subcommittee on the Interior, he agreed that the mineral industry and university experts would probably know more than the government for some time to come about petroleum sources, even those located under federal land. Chairman Julia Butler Hansen, told Morton that the situation "makes us nervous" during the current energy shortage, and Rep.

Sidney Yates, who is expected to succeed her as chairman when she retires next year, pressed Morton as to why Interior operated in what he called a state of ignorance. MORTON SAID the department was monitoring some of its raw materials through the use of the Earth Resources Observation Satellite (EROS) and limited geological surveys, "But a good geological survey would cost billions of dollars. 10 or 15 times what we're doing today," he said. If that is the case, Yates asked, how did the department know with such certainty that the nation would run out of fuel some day if it did not conserve? Morton said Interior did not have to "bore holes and tunnels all through the earth's crust" to get that information. He said estimates based on mathematical models helped.

Morton also: Urged development of at least 160.000 barrels of oil a day from the Elk Hills, Naval Petroleum Reserve, as a short-term aid in the fuel pinch. "I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill at Elk Hills." he added, in reference to the fight with the Navy over releasing the oil. Warned against too hasty development of geothermal heat, work on which has begun in California's Imperial Valley, because "This is the only planet we've got. and I'd hate to cool it off too quickly." CALLED FOR an entirely new national coal policy, a "Coal Mining Ethic" that he said would make the "sexy idea of coal gasification" more than just a clever notion by making coal fashionable, profitable, safe to mine and clean to use. We need a coal been hindered by concerns over inflation, the international monetary crisis and Watergate, analysts said.

Area Firms The following quotations are furnished by E.F. Hutton Co and represent merely an indication of current market value in trading as of about II a.m. made economy car markets to itself. IT LASTED only long enough for GM's Corvair compact to steal the market. After that the public's preference shifted toward larger cars, he said.

The ensuing tailspin put Chapin in the driver's seat. Known as a quiet, reflective problem solver, Chapin slashed the price of the Rambler in 1967 well below other American economy cars and only $200 ncre than the Volkswagen. And, he engineered the sale of AMC nonautomotive interests, such as Kelvinator, a refrigerator manfacturer, and bought Kaiser Jeep. That action was the opposite of the course chosen by Stu-debaker, the previous low man on the automotive totem pole. Studebaker sold its auto interests when bad tunes hit.

Despite reservations by critics, AMC insists the future is bright. "This is totally different than the Rambler era in the late 1950s," said an AMC spokesman. There won't be a return to the big car preference of the '60s, he said. He predicted the public will want economy cars with plenty of options, sort of "luxury economy cars right up our alley." In addition, AMC plans to introduce what it calls a "radically different" small car in 1975. It hopes to grab a fair share of the market in spite of stiffer compact car competition.

Industry sources say the car will be powered by a rotary engine. Even so, experts like Jouppi think the firm is going to have to do something about its present dependency on outside suppliers for 80 per cent of its parts. And critics think the 10 cent dividend could have been better spent improving some AMC plants, which they say are less efficient than those of the Big Three. "I guess the dividend could have been a little of an image builder. AMC has not had a lot of money for a long time," said Jouppi.

-ft 5 -1 I 1 hit nil NEW YORK (UPI) The stock market faced with many uncertainties, opened slightly higher Friday in moderate trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.70 at 810.62 shortly after the opening. Advances led declines, 227 to 125, among the 526 issues crossing the tape. Turnover amounted to 430,000 shares. Analysts said investors were disappointed over a statement by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger not to expect a quick settlement of the Arab oil embargo against the West.

Further, a meeting of the Organization of Arab Producing Nations has been postponed Indefinitely. In addition, the market has Big Board Seat Price Doicn NEW YORK (AP) The New York Stock Exchange said Thursday a seat on the Big Board was sold for $86,000 down $4,000 from the previous sale Monday. The exchange quoted the current market for memberships at $82,000 bid, $88,000 asked. Bid Asked 7 34 48'-S 33 24 13'4 27 4 4' 9' 29' -t Z't 3V4 229 94 10V 13' U'- 25 3' 21 7V. 8'.

9 19A4 154 161i 30V 83' 36 Ti ri 3' 4 34 354 4Vj ROY D. CHAPIN JR. Allegheny Bank of NY Bankers Trust NY Becton-Dickmson Bendix Champion Products Charter NY Columbia Gas Crowley's Fays Drugs GAP Gannett GE Gladding IBM Keith-Clark Kroehler Lincoln First Good Maple Press Marine Midland McOonouqh Melville Shoe Morton-Norwich Raymond Robtntech Sears-Roebuck Singer Spaulding Subaru ot America Union Universal Instruments Victory Prime Rate Slide Continues in the rates charged on such loans and interest charges in general. Money analysts and economists say the prime's decline in 1974 is very much tied to the state of the economy, just as its rise to an all-time high of 10 per cent was linked to the economy in 1973. Bankers trust the nation's eighth largest commercial bank, announced Thursday it was dropping its prime rate to 9 per cent from 9'4 per cent.

The smaller First National Bank in and Manufacturers Bank in Los Angeles did the same, as did Cleveland Trust Co. last week. The lower rate was expected to become industrywide. Money analysts add that there is little doubt that there will be more drops shortly. NEW YORK (AP) Commercial banks' prime lending rate is going down after last year's controversial gains, and many analysts contend the severity of the nation's economic problems will determine how far it fails.

The prime rate, the base lending fee on loans to top business customers, isn't directly tied to consumer and small business loans. But it frequently is a guide to trends Yesterday's Stocks NEW YORK AP) Dow Jones closing stock averages: 30 Indus. 809 92 3.05 or 0.37 per cent MTrans. 182.57 or 1.02 per cent 15 Utils 92 79 0.23 or 0 24 per cent 65Stocks 261 35 1.16 or 0.44 percent Sales 12.230,000 shares. 4.