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, O'tJ~'5"~ ~ two minor amendments were adopted, one of them to meet the objections of Yuma interests. The controversial "blank check" provision was left untouched. But as the bill beg~n to move. doubts about it became in- creasingly audible. Roy Elson, administrative assistant to Sen- ator Hayden, s~id during ~. visit to the state that the senator was dubious as to the state's ability to go it alone "without imposing some tremendous burdens on the taxpayers." "He's not opposed to the st~te doing it this way, if it comes to that," said Mr. Elson. "But he's always believed the federal way is the best way." Legislators were more apprehensive, too, about "open-end" financing. Their misgivings were made acute' by the recently revealed plight of the State Fair Commission and the Veterans' Memorial Coliseum which the Commission had built under legis- lative authorization. Yet the legislators found themselves truly on the horns of .adilemma. They wanted to put some limit on the bonding authority, but they knew thllt if they did, it might make, the sale of the bonds difficult and drive the interest rate up. At H hearing- on the, House version of the, CAP go-it-alone legislation, Ted Willey, counsel for the, Power Authority, pro- posed a "middle way" amendment. Under its provisions, the. bond,ing authority would be required to submit a feasibility report to the legislature before the bonds were sold. The author- ity.could proceed then only with express approval of the law- makers. A second amendment was proposed to forestall the creation of a huge state water-and-power mechanism in case CAP finally was passed by Congress. This amendment would provide that the st~te prog-rllm would not go into effect until two weeks after the opening of the 1968 legislature. Chairman William Lyman (R-Yavapai) of the House Natural Resources Committee s:lid this would permit the legislature to deal with. .any action that might be taken by Congress. Although spokesmen for the Sierra Club attended both hearings and spoke out against the legislation, they were heavily outnumbered by proponents. Mr. Willey seemed to speak the sense of the maj ority when he called the go-it-alone bill "Ari- zona's declaration' of independence from the national political strength of the Sierra Club and the unreasonable demands of the California representatives in Congress." Measure Clears Senate The Senate passed the bill a few days later, amending it to include the feasibility-report feature but deciding not to tamper with the so-called "ope,n end" provision. Five senators voted against it. One of them, Sen. Glen Blansett (D-Navajo) , said he opposed it because he anticipated that the federal gov- ernment would never permit the building of the two contro- versial dRms. "We're, only kidding ourselves and the people of -49--,