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.