Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations , which addresses financial accounting and reporting for obligations associated with the retirement of tangible long-lived assets and the associated asset retirement costs. The standard applies to legal obligations associated with the retirement of long-lived assets that result from the acquisition, construction, development and (or) normal use of the asset. SFAS No. 143 requires that the fair value of a liability for an asset retirement obligation be recognized in the period in which it is incurred if a reasonable estimate of fair value can be made. The fair value of the liability is added to the carrying amount of the associated asset and this additional carrying amount is depreciated over the life of the asset. The Company is required to adopt the provisions of Statement No. 143 for the first quarter of its fiscal 2003. Because of the effort that may be necessary to comply with the adoption of Statement No. 143, it is not practicable for management to estimate the impact of adopting this Statement at the date of this report.

In August 2001, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued FASB Statement No. 144, Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets (Statement 144), which supersedes both FASB Statement No. 121, Accounting for the Impairment of Long-Lived Assets and for Long-Lived Assets to Be Disposed Of (Statement 121) and the accounting and reporting provisions of APB Opinion No. 30, Reporting the Results of Operations—Reporting the Effects of Disposal of a Segment of a Business, and Extraordinary, Unusual and Infrequently Occurring Events and Transactions (Opinion 30), for the disposal of a segment of a business (as previously defined in that Opinion). Statement 144 retains the fundamental provisions in Statement 121 for recognizing and measuring impairment losses on long-lived assets held for use and long-lived assets to be disposed of by sale, while also resolving significant implementation issues associated with Statement 121. For example, Statement 144 provides guidance on how a long-lived asset that is used as part of a group should be evaluated for impairment, establishes criteria for when a long-lived asset is held for sale, and prescribes the accounting for a long-lived asset that will be disposed of other than by sale. Statement 144 retains the basic provisions of Opinion 30 on how to present discontinued operations in the income statement but broadens that presentation to include a component of an entity (rather than a segment of a business). Unlike Statement 121, an impairment assessment under Statement 144 will never result in a write-down of goodwill. Rather, goodwill is evaluated for impairment under Statement No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets.

The Company is required to adopt Statement 144 no later than its first fiscal year beginning after December 15, 2001. Management does not expect the adoption of Statement 144 for long-lived assets held for use to have a material impact on the Company's financial statements because the impairment assessment under Statement 144 is largely unchanged from Statement 121. The provisions of the Statement for