Weather
Mostly cloudy mornings with
partly cloudy afternoons. 20%
showers today, 30% showers on
Thursday. Minimum low 74,
maximum high of 88 today.
Tomorrow’s minimum low 75
with maximum high of 89.
Winds gusting at 12 to 20.
Cbe Battalion
Vol. 68 No. 119 College Station, Texas Wednesday, May 21, 1975
Inside
Quarterback p 4
Calhoun p 2
Public Transit p 8
CS council protests utility hike
By JERRY NEEDHAM
City Editor
At a special meeting Thursday
night, the College Station City
Council voted to send a letter to the
Bryan Council protesting the prop-,
osed utilities rate increase Bryan is
asking.
T don’t see any justification for
the increase on the basis of the
reasons given, said Councilman
Gary Halter.
The council agreed to meet with
the Bryan Council in the near future
to discuss the proposed increase. A
tentative date for the meeting has
been set for May 28.
College Station City Manager
North Bardell conducted a study of
the proposed rates and found that
based on the past year’s demand,
the proposed rates would increase
College Station residents’ total util
ity bills by 13.9 per cent, which
amounts to almost $200,000.
Under the new rates, the costs
would increase 20 per cent for
water, 25 per cent for sewer service
and 12.6 per cent for electricity.
Bryan also wants College Station
to extend the expiration date of the
utilities contract to cover the life of
the bonded indebtedness being as
sumed by the City of Bryan. The
Bryan Utilities System has some
bonds that expire in 2004. Bryan
City Manager Lou Odle said the
length of the contract would be
negotiable.
“I think they want to tie us down
because of the risks they are taking
on lignite,” said Councilman Larry
Bravenec. He added, “I think we
should become a member of the
power pool.’’
Bardell said College Station is
eligible to become a member of the
pool but only if the city has its own
power generating facilities.
The council appointed a three-
man committee to discuss General
Telephone’s rate increase request
with a committee from Bryan.
Councilmen Larry Bravenec, Jim
Dozier and Gary Halter will meet
with a Bryan committee composed
of Mayor Lloyd Joyce and council-
men Jim Wright and Henry Seale.
The date for the meeting has not
been set.
The council accepted the Wes-
tinghouse bid on materials for the
Shady Lane power substation im
provements. Westinghouse submit
ted the lowest bid at $27,083.90.
A bid of $57,050 was accepted on
a tractor for the Parks and Recrea
tion Department. The International
distributor won the contract.
College Station will contribute
$400 toward the construction costs
of a helipad at St. Joseph Hospital.
The cost of materials for the project
will run to $1,600 with the Jaycees
Volunteering the labor.
Starting in June, the council will
hold two regular meetings per
month. The second and fourth
Thursdays were approved as the
meeting dates.
The council approved an experi
mental plan whereby the Texas
Highway Department will install
new signalization timing on the
lights on Texas Avenue. The new
signalization will regulate the tim
ing of the lights according to traffic
flow. The system will be in opera
tion by April 1976 and will be mas
terminded by a digital computer.
The formal dedication of the
swimming pool at Bee Creek Park
was set by the council for May 31.
The public will be admitted free on
that day.
The pool will be officially named
the Art Adamson Pool in recogni
tion of public services rendered to
the community by Art Adamson.
Consol school board
Banks, Bibles discussed
ms-
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The A&M Consolidated School
Board received two bids for the
school district’s depository contract
at a four-and-a-half hour meeting
Monday night.
The depositor acts as the treas
urer for the school district and must
be a bank. Every two years the de
pository contract comes up for re
newal with Monday night’s bids
being taken for the period of Sept.
1, 1975 to Aug. 31, 1977.
The Bank of A&M and University
National Bank were the only eligi
ble bidders because of a state law
stating that the banks must be lo
cated within the school district.
Mr. Dan Warden of the A&M
Church of Christ expressed his de
sire to see an accredited Bible study
program started in the high school.
The program suggested by Warden
is now being used in the Dallas
The ever present statue of
“Sully” stands watch over the
now empty campus with the
dome of the Academic building
in the background. One lone
unidentified person (below
right), however, has re
mained behind to keep “Sully”
company during his lonely vigil.
Things should begin to pick up
in the next couple of weeks,
however, as students once again
start arriving for the first
summer session scheduled to
begin June 2.
Photos by Tom Kayser
Environmental group discusses
Brazos county strip mining
^ The Environmental Studies
Workshop (ESW) presented a spe
cial report on strip-mining in Brazos
County May 7 on the TAMU cam
pus.
The group did not take a stand for
or against strip-mining but tried to
objectively present the facts.
The study concentrated on ex
periences with strip-mining in
Texas and Brazos County and also
the options Brazos County has in
meeting future energy needs.
Coal will have to provide forty per
cent of the fuel for energy consump
tion in the United States from
1979-1985 and twenty per cent after
1985, according to the study. Coal is
now providing a negligible amount
of power.
Some of the arguments presented
against surface mining were:
1) Strip-mining destroys land,
forests, soil and water.
2) Deep coal outweighs surface
coal thirty-four to 1.
3) Due to improved deep-mining
technology, strip-mining isn’t really
needed.
4) There is no national legislation
controlling strip-mining.
The arguments for strip-mining
are:
1) Strip-mining is faster than
deep-mining.
2) Deep-mined coal costs about
sixty-three per cent more than
strip-mined coal.
3) Strip-mining is more efficient
than deep-mining.
4) Reclamation after strip-mining
sometimes improves the land.
Environmentalists basically
maintain that with all the deep coal
available in the United States, sur
face coal should be used only as an
emergency energy source.
Other information brought out in
the report included:
1) Texas has 8200 square miles of
bituminous coal as compared with
1500 square miles of surface coal.
2) Studies by the cities of Austin
and San Antonio indicate that it is
cheaper to buy coal out of state than
to mine Texas coal.
3) Environmentalists feel that
pending state legislation on strip
mining is inadequate.
The ESW report says there are
two areas in Brazos County desig
nated as probable strip-mining
sites. One area is in the southern
part of the county lying along a line
between Carlos and Singleton.
Another includes the Reliance and
Steep Hollow communities.
The ESW group concentrated
their study on a sample 13,262 acre
area in the Reliance/ Steep Hollow
area.
Using aerial photographs, it was
determined that fourteen per cent
of the area is densely wooded, eight
per cent is sparsely wooded and
seventy-eight per cent is meadows
and open fields.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department classifies the deer
hunting in the area as marginal but
all leases are usually taken up dur
ing hunting season. The soil in this
area is primarily a claypan type
which is susceptible to erosion.
The water table in the area varies
between forty and one hundred
feet. The effects of strip-mining on
the water table have not been
studied, but would appear to cause a
lowering of the table in the im
mediate area.
The land is presently being used
for livestock production and is sel
ling for $750 to $2500 an acre.
In accordance with current lease
agreements, a five foot seam of coal
will bring the land owner approxi
mately $2200 an acre and a ten foot
seam will bring $3900 an acre.
With the tremendous growth in
the Brazos County area, the prim
ary determinant of the land’s market
value will be its suitability for resi
dential purposes.
Considering the area’s growth
rate, it is highly likely that the de
mand for residential areas will raise
the land values above the $3,900
mark. Since the suitability of re
claimed land for supporting homes
or any other structures has not been
proven, it is highly likely that the
land can be used for both residential
and strip-mining purposes.
The ESW group investigated the
current strip-mining operations at
Fairfield and Rockdale and found
they both used the same reclama
tion procedures.
The top soil is not saved for re
clamation purposes. The top soil at
Fairfield was set aside for a time but
was shown by subsequent studies to
be unnecessary. The top soil is
mixed with the rest of the overbur
den material. It is believed that this
mixing makes for a better soil by
bringing up rich nutrients that have
been leached down from upper soil
levels.
The spoil banks from the opera
tions are then dozed to approximate
original terrain, seeded with
Coastal Bermuda grass and fer
tilized. The ESW team was told by
officials at the mining operations
that less fertilizer is required on re
claimed land than on unmined land.
The ESW team reported that the
reestablished grasses appear to be
doing well but it is too early to tell
how well the trees will do.
A study of the proposed strip
mining area in Brazos County was
made by the Soil Conservation Ser
vice of Bryan. In that study it was
recommended that the top soil be
saved during mining instead of
being mixed. The Soil Conservation
Service also suggested that Ber
muda, Coastal Bermuda and
Hahiagrass be used instead of the
native vegetation. Bahiagrass is
good for both deer and cattle. It is
uncertain what effect the clearance
of natural cover will have on the
deer population in the area.
A questionnaire was given to four
leasors (those now leasing their land
for strip-mining), fifteen non-
leasors, four city officials, twenty
realtors and forty-two city residents
in Brazos County to determine their
feelings toward and knowledge
about strip-mining.
All the leasors expect their land to
be suitable for ranching purposes
after reclamation is complete.. The
leasors questioned seemed to feel
that they will not profit significantly
from the coal on their land,
please see group, page 4
Correction
In the May 7 issue of the Battalion
it was incorrectly stated that radio
station KORA did not possess ade
quate facilities or disc-jockey opera
tion. It has been learned since that*
time that KORA does have facilities
for disc-jockey operation. The Bat
talion regrets the error and wishes
to apologize for any inconvenience
to the owners of KORA.
schools. The classes in Dallas are
held after regular school hours in
area churches. The teachers are
furnished by the church where the
class is held.
The Board expressed an interest
in the program and may have
further discussion at a later meet
ing.
For six weeks this spring, the
elementary schools in College Sta
tion have been engaged in an en
richment program through mini
courses. The children were able to
choose or suggest an area in which
they would like to learn more about.
Student evaluation surveys of the
mini-courses released during the
Board meeting indicated a majority
of the children approved of the
courses and learned something from
them.
Superintendent Fred Hopson re
ceived a letter from the Texas Edu
cation Agency informing him that
the state will not be able to make
scheduled purchases of textbooks
until such time as the final appropri
ations act is passed.
The implications of this action are
that the district will begin next year
with the same textbooks with no re
pairs on existing texts, Hopson said.
The Board adopted a contract
with Region VI of the Education
Service Center and appropriated
$2565 for fulfilling the contract. The
contract allows the district to use
over 11,000 films, tapes and other
items in the Regional Instructional
Media Library.
Supt. Hopson also reported that
last Thursday religious materials
were distributed to Middle School
students during the noon hour
without notification of school au
thorities. The action occurred on
Holick Street, which bisects the
Middle School campus.
In the absence of any policy con
cerning such actions, Hopson has
instructed the Middle School au
thorities to advise such distributors
to terminate the activity or to call
the police upon refusal to do so.
In this particular instance the dis
tributed materials were Gideon
New Testaments, but Hopson asked
the Board to establish a general pol
icy to cover all instances.
The Board voted to allow the
Superintendent to draft a policy to
present to the Board concerning the
areas and times under district
supervision in order to establish
guidelines for the distribution of
such materials.
Services provided for in
TAMU budget increase
The House Appropriations
Committee has approved its final
version of the House Appropria
tions Bill, Committee Chairman
Bill Presnal said. With some minor
increase, the Committee accepted
the recommendations of the Legis
lative Budget Board (LBB). Texas
A&M University’s Main Campus
received $119,301,530 for the next
biennium.
“There were some changes in
formula items such as operating ex
pense and faculty salaries, as a result
of enrollment increases at Texas
A&M,” Presnal said.
The Texas Agricultural Experi
ment Station received about
$500,000 per year over the LBB
amount. This increase was mainly
for water and natural resource re
search, and Crop and Crop Pro
ducts. The Agricultural Extension
Service received $300,000 per year
over LBB for new positions.
An increase of approximately
$160,000 per year is allocated to the
Forest Service. “Most of the in
crease is in the Forest Management
Program,” Presnal stated.
The Veterinary Medical Diagnos
tic Laboratory would receive a
$55,000 increase in 1976. The in
crease is for the purchase of the Col
lege Station Laboratory.
“The increases to the A&M
budget should provide for the in
creased student enrollment and the
essential services the University
provided, Presnal concluded.
MSC operation slows
during intersession
Minimum curtailment of Memorial Student Center
services will occur during Texas A&M’s intersession period.
Spring classes and final exams ended last week. Regis
tration for the first summer session in June 2.
With student activities at minimum, the bowling-games
area of the MSC will be closed through June 1. Hours of oper
ation of the browsing library and snack bar have been curtailed,
according to Business Manager Sanders Letbetter.
The browsing library will be open 9 a. m. to 5 p.m. week
days. It will be closed Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25,
and open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 30 to June 1.
MSC .snack bar hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.