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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1975)
Commercial zoning nixed by P&Z Monday night A request for more commercial zoning the the North Gate area was recommended for rejection by the College Station Planning and Zoning Commission at its meeting, Monday night. “This area is already too con gested,” Commission Chairman John Longley said. Longley cited a lack of control over land zoned com mercial as another reason for the P&Z’s vote. The request was for permission to build an office building, but once it’s zonedcommercial, thq' couldbuilda beer joint there, Longlq' said. The application for a change from singlef amily residential to commer cial will now go before theCityCoun- cil. In other action the P&Z recom- mendedapprovalofavacatingplatfor Southwood Subdivision. If ap proved, the plat will allcw the land to revert to the owner, with no restric tions on building there. The owner plans to use the three acre plot for apartment building, Longley said. The P&Z also recommended ap proval of a zone change request from singlef amily to general commercial in Lakeview acres. The request comes from six Lakeview land own ers, who had appeared separately before the commission. They were asked to submit all the requests in one package for the commission’s consid eration. The common curse ofmankind: fol - ly and ignorance. —William Shakespeare, 1564- 1616. Battalion This view from the top of the Academic Building dome demonstrates how empty the campus was over the Spring Break. Students departed for their homes for the week’s rest from the rigors of college life. College Station, Texas Wednesday, March 19, 1975 News briefs International JERUSALEM (AP)—Both Israeli and Egyptian leaders gave gloomy assessments Tuesday of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s chances for a new Sinai agreement in his current Mideast negotiations. But Kissinger, asked if his drive for a settlement was at a dead end, replied: “That is not my view. ” He spoke with newsmen after giving a three-hour briefing to the Israeli negotiating team in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s office. Earlier in the day he had been in Aswan, Egypt, meeting with President Anwar Sadat. National WASHINGTON (AP) — Reps. Jim Collins and Bill Archer, both Texas Republicans, cosponsored welfare reform legislation Tuesday they predicted would save at least $1.5 billion annually. “We are long overdue in attempting to end the abuses of the current welfare program,” Collins said. He predicted that the bill, introduced by 55 Republicans and 7 Democrats, would reduce spending in public assistance prog rams and redirect the funds “to those who truly need them.” WASHINGTON (AP)—The House Ways and Means Com mittee began considerationTuesday of an energy bill that would hike the gasolin e tax by up to37 cents agallon by 1980butalso would providesomerebatetoalladult Americans, includingnondrivers. Oil depletion debate bogs tax ‘rebate’ State Basement gets addition Jeff Davis works at a new addition to the Base ment. When completed the new area will provide Photo by Will Anderson a balcony for tables. Tables will also be set among the columns. AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Coastal and Marine Council has received final approval to sink 12 ships for artificial fishing reefs, Sen. A.R. Schwartz, D-Galveston said, Tuesday. The negotiations began two years ago, Schwartz said. “By this time next year Texas will have four of the finest artificial reefs in the world for the benefit of scientists, fishermen and divers,” he said. Want a better dorm life? RHA group takes student gripes AUSTIN (AP) — Sen. Bill Patman’s unrelenting campaign against a bill to raise interest rates paid offTuesday in a dramatic showdown that hinged on a single vote. The emotional issue of what Patman referred to as the ‘ granddaddy ofall th e loan shark bills ” over shadowed the adoption of two potentially significant proposals to cope with the energy shortage. The crucial vote to debate the interest hike rose to 20-11, and only 21 were needed, but no one budged. Afterabriefdelay, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby announced the vote at 19-12, or two short, as someone apparently changed his mind. By JOHN A. BARONE Special to the Batt Today. Inside Movie review p. 4 Department head. .p. 7 Basketball p. 9 Weather High today in the 80’s, low tonight 50; high tomorrow in the 80’s. Partly cloudy and mild Thursday. Hopson contract extended to ’78 The contract for superintendent Fred Hopson of the A&M Consolidated School District was extended through June, 1978 by the board of trustees, Monday night. The board met in executive session to consider the contracts of two assistant superintendents and principals currently em- ployedby the district. Decisions will be announced at the board’s April meeting. Textbookrecommendationsfrom Hopson wereapprovedby the board for next year in speech, calculus, computer math, Spanish and music. The ’75-’76 school year will be divided into three 12-week sessions beginning August 20 and ending May 26. When showering, do you like hanging your towels on the nearest pipe? Do you like studying in the small dorm lounges? If not, George L. Lippe, chairman of the RHA’s Dorm Improvement Committee is the man to see. The two-month-old committee has been trying to recruit members and getsuggestions to improve dorm living. Currently only Lippe and RHA Secretary Maryan Hughes are members. The purpose of the committee is to serve as a student voice to the ad ministration. Inthepast, Lippe said, the administration did not really know the needs of the students. For example, he said, ash trays were placed in some dorm hallways when towel hooks andbenches in the show ers were needed more. In addition to trying to get student input from committee membership, each dorm has set up its own im provement committee. This com mittee inspects its dorm and gets suggestions from the residents. “The dorm president is in charge of getting it together, appointing a chairman. They (members of the committee) talk to each student through theirrampreps orhallreps,” Kippe said. The membership of the dorm committees range from one to ten students. After the dorm committees collect the suggestions, the RHA committee discussed the findings with them. They, then, both inspect the dorm to be sure nothing was left out. When every dorm is inspected, all the suggestions are put into a single proposal which is presented to Dr. Charles W. Powell. Powell takes the suggestions to the physical plant, which is in charge of improvements. Physical plant per sonnel decide how much the projects will cost. The Dorm Improvement Com mittee has little power to get the administration to act on its proposal. “The only power we have is to show the need to the administration,” Lippe said. So far, Lippe has received many ideas on how to improve the dorms. The most frequent one has been to increase the studying areas in lounges. Other suggestions are to supply desks with more space for books and to put in abetter drainage system for the showers. Thejobofthe Dorm Improvement Committee is not the same as that of the Resident Advisors’. The RA’s are concerned with the maintenance of existing facilities, whereas the com mittee wants to add to existing facilities. WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate debate on the largest tax cut in the nations’ history bogged down Tues- dayinaskirmishthatindicated failure for efforts to totally repeal the oil depletion allowance. However, senators favoring a re duction in the tax break claimed that two preliminary votes show they have the strength to pass a com promise. Mostof the first 6 V2 hours ofdebate on the $29.2 billion tax cut recom mended by the Senate Finance Committee were taken up by discus sion of the depletion allowance, which gives a $2.5 billion a year tax break to the oil and natural gas indus try. But one 58-38 vote indicated the Senate generally supports the size of the tax cut voted by the committee, rather than the $19.9 billion cut ap proved by the House and the $16.2 billion reduction favored by Presi dent Ford. The opening debate on the bill emphasized that the biggest fight in the Senate will come over the oil depletion allowance. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., leader of the bloc seeking to totally repeal the allowance—as the House earliervotedtodo—filed apetition to chokeoffan expected oil-statefilibus- ter against repeal. The first debate closing vote will come on Thursday. In two confusing votes which split party and ideological lines, the Se nate: —Refused on a60-35vote to table, or kill, two amendments aimed at reducing the depletion allowance. One amendment, by Hollings, would repeal the allowance entirely. The second, by Sen. Alan Crans ton, D-Calif., would repeal the al lowance for the major oil companies but permit an exemption for the first 3,000 barrels of oil produced daily by smaller, independent producers. — Rejected 49 to 41 an effort by Hollings to allow a 1,000-barrel-per day exemption for these indepen dents. It was generally agreed that any further efforts to repeal the 22 per cent depletion allowance outright will fail. Whatever depletion language may be written into the Senate tax-cut bill will have to be reconciled in confer ence with the outright repeal voted by the House. By a 58-38 vote, the Senate re jected a motion by Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., ordering the Finance Committee to reduce the $29.2 billion proposal tax cut to the $19.9 billion level voted by the House. FFA, 4-H show Photo by Will Andarson The agriculturally oriented youth of College Station and Bryan gathered this weekend on the TAMU campus. Their displays included cattle, sheep and poultry. The show was held in the Animal Pavilion.