BOWLING FOR BOOKS: UNIVERSITY CLOSES LANES, STORES TEXTS

Area bowlers now have one less place to perfect their game since the University Center lanes closed earlier this month.

Southeast Missouri State University is removing its bowling alley to make more room for the textbook rental program.

"We do about 50,000 rentals a year so we need the space," University Center director Loren Rullman said.

The rental area is moving from the basement of Kent Library to the former bowling alley in the basement of the University Center.

The bowling alley equipment was sold to American Bowling of California who will refurbish it. The bowling lanes will be reassembled in China.

The sale of the bowling lanes will pay for the cost of the removal and renovations, Rullman said. The regents approved $55,000 project in April.

Removing the bowling alley has been discussed earlier, but no decision was made until this year.

"It's not in a good location and it's somewhat hidden," Rullman said.

A company in California bought the lanes and has sold them to a city in China. Rullman said there has been a 50 percent increase in bowling in Asia over the last few years.

Disconnecting the machines and removing the lanes isn't an easy task. Rullman hopes the work will be finished by the end of the week.

It takes about two days to remove one lane, said Bill Baize, a contractor from Indiana who is working on the project. The work might continue through Saturday.

Each lane is cut into three sections before it can be removed. All the machines are taken apart and loaded onto a truck that will take them to California to be reconditioned, Baize said.

Many of the college students didn't seem upset about the University Center change. Rullman attributes the diminished use of the lanes to the fact that interest in bowling has decreased nationally.

Sandy Staples, a sophomore at Southeast, said she rarely used the bowling lanes. She works as part of the crew disassembling the machinery.

The cost of operating the bowling alley was twice the amount of revenue, Rullman said.

The bowling alley began operating in 1975.