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Continued partly cloudy
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Che Battalion
I Inside
Rock Notes p- 7
Baseball p. 8
Sportfolio p- 12
Vol. 68 No. 118
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, May 14, 1975
Inflation doubles cost
Street assessments
By STEVE GRAY
City Editor
The recent doubling of assess
ments for streets paved under the
city’s petition paving program is the
result of skyrocketing construction
costs.
In late March the College Station
City Council amended the ordi
nance which sets assessment rates
for streets paved at the request of
residents by means of a petition.
Under the old ordinance adjacent
property owners were assessed $4
per linear foot for a 28-foot wide
street with curbs.
Now it will cost residents $8 per
linear foot if they wish to have their
neighborhood streets repaved. City
Manager North Bardell says the city
had no choice but to increase those
assessments.
“The costs of petroleum products
used in the paving materials have
just gone out of sight and we had to
make the adjustment in order to
keep the costs evenly distributed, ”
he said.
Under the paving program,
which began in 1957, property
owners on both sides of the street to
Council talks bids,
contracts, meetings
A proposed utilities contract ad
justment with the city of Bryan will
be discussed at a special meeting of
the College Station City Council
Thursday at 7 p.m. at the city hall.
Bids on switching materials for
Shady Lane substation improve
ments will also be considered by the
council. The Shady Lane substation
is a power relay station owned by
Bryan. College Station ties into the
substation to get its electricity to the
residents in the east part of town.
The council will also consider
bids on a tractor for the city’s parks
and recreation department.
Helicopter operations at St.
Joseph Hospital will also be discus
sed. The helipad at St. Joseph cur
rently is an open field located beside
the hospital and marked with
orange balls suspended above
ground.
The possibility of holding two
regular council meetings per month
will also be discussed.
be paved are assessed for construc
tion costs with the city paying for
any required intersections and
drainage facilities. Theoretically,
the program distributes the costs
evenly, in thirds, among the land-
owners and the city.
But this has not always been the
case. Bardell said the last project to
be paved under the old assessment
rate of $4 per linear foot was a
476-foot stretch of Thomas Street
between Hereford and Dexter
Drives. The cost distribution on
that project was anything but equal,
he said.
“It turned out that the total cost
per linear foot on Thomas Street was
$24,” Bardell said. “That meant the
city had to pay $16 for its share of the
costs.”
The paving program ordinance
specifies that 51 per cent of property
owners on a given street must peti
tion the city before it will hire a
private contractor to do the work.
The city paid more than $7,600 on
the Thomas Street project, about
two-thirds of the $11,424 total cost.
The Thomas Street petition was -
the only one received by the city in
1974. Repaving of the street started
in January but Bardell said the con
tractor has fallen behind schedule
because of bad weather and availa
bility of materials.
No petitions have been submit
ted yet this year, he said.
Bardell said the city has paved
about 84 streets or sections of
streets with about $1.6 million since
the program’s inception.
“Actually, the program is aimed
at improving existing streets in resi
dential areas rather than construct
ing new ones,” Bardell said. “We’ve
had good success with the prog
ram.”
H6 said residents along streets
that need repaving have responded
favorably to the program. Lee
Street was the first to be paved
under the program in 1959.
“I would prefer to call it a partici
pation paving program because the
residents are actively taking a part
in the improvement of their neigh
borhoods,” Bardell said.
Willma Norton, President of the TAMU Kayak Team, demonstrated her style for the 1976 Summer
Olympics Monday evening in the Rudder Center Fountain. Photo by Baidak
Sbisa undergoes transformation
Senate approves
SG appointments
Last Wednesday’s Student Gov
ernment (SG) Senate meeting was
highlighted by discussion on the
downfall of SG Radio and a resolu
tion giving the Executive Commit
tee power over the summer vaca
tion.
The Senate also elected a Speaker
and approved University Commit
tee, Senate positions and SG Judi
cial Board members recommended
by SG President Jeff Dunn.
The resolution requires the pres
ident to get approval of two-thirds of
the Executive Committee before
enacting any policy or legislation in
the summer. The bill also requires a
report of all actions taken during the
summer. The report will be re
ceived by the Senate at an early fall
meeting.
An amendment to the resolution
setting a $300 limit on expenditures
connected with summer decisions
was voted down by the body. The
unamended resolution was ac
cepted by the Senate.
Three Executive Committee
members expressed their concern
over the recent failure of the radio
station to obtain time of KORA-FM.
This leaves the station to continue
its previous arrangement with
Midwest Cable. The station is pres
ently using the cable system to carry
its signals.
The position of Speaker of the Se
nate was filled by the election of
Fred McClure, College of Agricul
ture senator. McClure was opposed
by graduate College of Science
senator Joe Marcello. Marcello was
elected as Speaker Pro Tern, later in
the meeting.
Marty Clayton, last year’s
Speaker, was accepted by acclama
tion to the position of Parliamen
tarian.
In presenting his recommenda
tions, Dunn said they had been
made on a “discriminatory basis. ” “I
gave non-senators the best chance, ”
he said.
Karla Mouritsen was nominated
for the position of Director of Public
Relations. Graduate senator Payne
Harrison asked Mouritsen if her
position on The Battalion would
constitute a conflict of interest. She
replied that it wouldn’t and the Se
nate approved her nomination.
The Senate also approved the re
commendation of graduate student
Wesley Harris to the position of Jud
icial Board chairman. Harris is cur
rently serving on the board.
The following recommendations
were approved by the body. All the
recommendations will have to be
approved by the president of the
University.
By MIKE KIMMEY
Staff Writer
Sbisa Hall is undergoing the
transformation from pauper to pr
ince.
Director of Food Services Fred
Dollar says the renovation that
began at Sbisa during the spring
break has been in the planning
stages for eight years.
Phase I, consisting of the annex
and a portion of the main dining
hall, is currently a hard hat area.
When completed the renovated
area will boast a new fast foods line.
The area will contain modern
equipment to cook pizzas and other
“fast foods.”
“Even Shakey’s has only three or
four pizza machines as sophisticated
as ours. A representative from the
company said our pizzas were ‘first
rate,’ ” said Dollar.
Chicken, hamburgers, french
fries and other fast foods favored by
many students will now be cooked
and served with comparable indus
try methods. Seconds on chicken
are soon to be worked into the
menu.
Phase I will be dominated by a
modern decor, the most prominent
feature being a dropped ceiling
made of sound absorbent material
that will furnish indirect lighting.
The architect, Emmett Trant,
will serve as the interior designer.
Planned for the dining hall are large
red rugs to be placed between the
windows on the west side of the hall.
Phase II will bring significant
changes in the appearance of the
mainhall of Sbisa. Until its comple
tion students will eat in the com
pleted Phase I area.
“We have asked the architects to
think about making the two phases
into two different worlds,” com
mented Dollar. He expressed a de
sire for student input stating the de
sign could be colonial or whatever
the students and architects decide.
The Menu Board, the student
input to the department, is a group
of fifteen students — five per dining
hall. The board meets once a month
as a joint committee and another
meeting is held for the individual
hall committees.
These students are responsible
for changing the menus, recipes and
rearranging the dining halls.
Five or six “Full cafeteria lines
are planned for the serving
scenario. Dollar said that like
Krueger-Dunn’s, the serving lines
can be abandoned and cleaned as
business slows. This would cut labor
costs, he said.
Each cafeteria line will have five
hot plates with a shared bread area
where entrees and vegetables are
served. The students must then pat
ronize two, twenty-foot, refriger
ated, desert-salad bars. When asked
about possible traffic jams at the re
volving bars, Dollar said he did not
foresee any problems.
Beverages will line both a wall in
the Phase I area and in Phase II.
The dishwashing and food prepar
ing processes will be separated.
The reduced kitchen will have a
new 24-foot charbroiler grill that
will be located where students can
watch their steaks, pork chops, or
sausages cook while waiting in line.
There are fryers for fish and french
fries located in the kitchen that are
more efficient and strategically
placed.
$13,000 in prizes
given top 3 AQS A&M researchers seek solution
Steve Eberhard, Antonio Pel
letier and Curt Marsh received
A&M’s top student awards Satur
day.
Eberhard and Pelletier received
Brown Foundation-Earl Rudder
Memorial Awards at Commence
ment. Each included $5,000.
Marsh was named for the $3,000
Doherty Award to the outstanding
graduating senior of the Corps of
Cadets. It was presented at TAMU’s
commissioning program.
The Brown Foundation Awards
honor A&M seniors who exemplify
qualities and traits of the late Gen.
Earl Rudder. A World War II hero,
statesman and educator, Rudder for
11 years was president of the Texas
A&M University System. He died
in 1970.
The Doherty award was endowed
in 1971 by W. T. Doherty of Hous
ton in memory of his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. William Doherty. He in
dicated it should go to a graduating
senior who earned a reserve officer
commission, believes in God, loves
his family, has strong feelings of pat
riotism for the U.S. and Texas and
possesses a strong Aggie spirit and
love for Texas A&M.
Marsh majored in marketing and
was operations officer on the Corps
staff this year. The 3.4 grade point
average student was commissioned
in the U.S. Marine Corps. A
member of the Texas Aggie Band
until this year, he earned numerous
military honors and was a Student
Government and Student Senate
leader. Marsh was in the top five
percent of Marine Corps training
last summer, qualified for airborne
service the same summer and began
preparation toward becoming a
military pilot through the Flight In
struction Program.
eberhard completed his TAMU
undergraduate career as Student
Government president. A 3.94 GPR
student in math, he plans to con
tinue studies toward a degree in
law. Named a TAMU President’s
Scholar and White House Presiden
tial Scholar while still in New
Braunsfels High, Eberhard devoted
much of his time to student prog
rams and activities while maintain
ing top scholastic marks. From his
corps unit to the Student Y Associa
tion, Memorial Student Center,
College of Science and SG, the
many-times honored cadet is known
and respected by other students.
He was Corps staff scholastic officer
this year and was commissioned in
the U.S. Army.
A mechanical engineering major
and also a Distinguished Student,
Pelletier commanded the Second
Wing. He was commissioned in the
U.S. Air Force. Like Eberhard a
member of the Ross Volunteers,
Pelletier participated in Student Y
and MSC activities and served on
the Student Senate. Winner as a
sophomore of the Daughters of
Founders and Patriots of America
Award, the 3.25 GPR student was
chosen by Dallas Power and Light
as a project engineer last summer.
Weekly Batts
Beginning with today’s issue,
the Battalion will only publish
one issue per week until the be
ginning of the fall semester.
to structure cave-in problem
Last year 39 persons died in ditch
cave-ins in Texas, and in California
83 died between 1963 and 1974.
From 1968 through 1973, 677 dis
abling work injuries resulted from
excavation cave-ins. Cave-ins are
the single biggest killer in construc
tion and yet many could be pre
vented.
A team of researchers from Texas
A&M University has been funded
by the Associated General Contrac
tors of America to find better ways
to predict where cave-ins could
occur so they can specify when and
where supports will be required.
“We need to determine the safe
limits for unsupported excavations,
and analyze the need, location, and
load requirements for supports once
these safe limits are exceeded,” exp
lained project head Dr. L. J.
Thompson. “Fatalities have occur
red in ditches as shallow as 2Vz feet
and the majority in excavations less
than 20 feet deep. So there is the
whole spectrum of ditches, trenches
and excavations where fatalities
have occurred and where study is
needed.
“Ditch collapse fatalities are a na
tional disgrace, because there are
text book ways to predict unsafe
conditions and structural methods
to prevent collapse,” Thompson
said. “When a ditch wall fails, the
engineering profession has either
been ignored or the profession has
ignored its responsibility.
“Ditch collapse is not only a tech
nical, legal and moral problem, it is
also an economics problem,” he
continued. “As a contractor lowers
his number of accidents, he lowers
his workman compensation insur
ance premiums which are a signific
ant part of his overhead. ”
“The law puts the government
into the engineering business by
prescribing one solution for an infi
nite number of ditching problems, ”
said the other project member Ron
Tannenbaum. “The engineering
profession should resent this! The
ultimate solution to this problem at
first glance seems to be
this: contractors should refuse to
bid on work where the engineer has
not specified where and how the
ditch will be supported. This will
require that the engineer do more
investigation and analysis. Then the
responsibility will be placed where
it belongs; legally, morally and
technically.
“What we have found so far is that
engineers and architects have tradi
tionally pushed the responsibility
for ditch collapse on the contractor
by specifying that the contractor
should support the ditch if it were
needed, when it is only the en
gineer who could predict whether
or not the support was necessary,”
he observed.
“Our aims in the study are to edu
cate the engineer to his responsibil
ity, educate the contractor of the
consequences of not using engineer
ing expertise, and, finally, educate
the government and get it out of the
practice of engineering, ” Thompson
stressed.
Dishwashing will be done at a
dish pantry that will stand just in
front of what is now Sbisa’s central
entrance. There will be twelve slots
all around this pantry. Students will
set their trays on a conveyor belt
which spirals around the structure.
Waiters and waitresses stationed in
side will clean the dirty utensils.
The pantry will also decoratively
fit in Sbisa’s new environment.
Hanging, spherical lights are cur
rently planned to surround the pan
try near the ceiling.
Upon completion of Phase II, the
entrances that now open into the
Annex will be used for emergency
exists only.
There will be two one-way entr
ances on Sbisa’s south side. These
entrances will have an increased
number of turnstiles, each manned
with improved stamping machines.
These entrances will be composed
of a small waiting room that will en
able a limited number of students to
come in out of the rain. These rooms
will be blocked off similar to the way
attractions are at Six Flags, Disney
land, or Astroworld.
A handicapped ramp is now being
built on one of the entrances.
The center doorway will become
a one-way exit. It will be next to the
dish washing area, making it handy
for students to bus their trays as
they leave.
One of the main selling points of
Sbisa renovation is it will “Decrease
the cost per unit of food served,”
Dollar said. In a study Dollar per
sonally made, he found that labor
would cost $40,000 a year to bus all
students’ trays.
“So far this year we have spent
around $20,000 bussing trays stu
dents left behind,” said Dollar.
The separation of dishwashing to
cooking activities will increase
Sbisa’s efficiency; therefore de
crease labor costs, he explained. We
have found through experience at
Commons, said Dollar, that a con
veyor belted washing area near the
exit induces more people to bus
their trays. He added that having
cooking facilities separated from the
kitchen enables entrees to be
cooked on the spot. This cuts down
on prepared food that is wasted and
labor to precook the entrees.
As long as long range projects go,
Dollar did not know how Peniston
would be used after Phase II was
completed. He said that outside
landscaping all “depends on what
the students want and how much
money we have.
Sbisa renovations will not expand
seating capacity which is now ap
proximately 1400, but are to better
serve the approximate 4000 stu
dents that eat there daily. Dollar
said.
The new Sbisa renovation is a
thoroughly student coordinated
project, said Dollar. The Menu
Board voted unanimously in 71, 72,
and 73 to go ahead with plans for
renovating Sbisa. Right now the
Student Meno Board which is rep
resenting the students is constantly
reviewing and changing plans with
the architect, added Dollar.
“It’s selfishness on our part. We
are not happy unless the students
are happy,” said the director. “Our
ultimate goal for this project is to
have the finest dining hall in the
U.S.”