The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 20, 1976, Image 1

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Che Battalion
Vol. 68 No. 79
College Station, Texas
Friday, Feb. 20, 1976
Public’s vote to decide
city’s election method
The April 3 municipal elections will in
clude a referendum asking College Station
voters to choose between two methods of
electing councilmen.
The College Station City Council last
night added a referendum to the ballot,
which asks voters to choose between the
present method of electing six councilmen
at large, or adopting a method in which
councilmen are elected from six wards in
the city.
The council acted on the recommenda
tion of the Charter Revision Commission.
Councilman Jim Dozier, who is a
member of the commission, said, “The
commission does not favor changing the
present system. We thought that because
of the furor that has been raised by some
people, we should put the question before
the public. ”
Councilman Jim Gardner said he did not
think the referendum offered voters much
of a choice. He was the only councilman
present who voted against putting the full
ward system on the referendum.
“I thought it was the consensus of the
council, although we haven’t voted on it
before, that we go with the more moderate
half-and-half proposal, ” Gardner said.
He was referring to the proposal where
half the councilmen would be chosen at
large and the other half would be chosen by
a ward system.
The original recommendation of the
Charter Revision Commission was to have
both the full-ward system and the half
ward/half at-large system on the ballot.
It was discovered that this could be in
conflict with Texas law because there was a
chance that both systems could be ap
proved by the voters.
The referendum will read: “Do you favor
an amendment which would provide that a
Mayor shall be elected by the qualified vot
ers of the City at-large, and each of the six
Councilmen shall be elected by the qual
ified voters of the district in which he re
sides?”
“It is possible, and it has happened in
other places, that the students could take
over the council, ” said Councilman Homer
Adams in voting for the full-ward system.
Adams said the full-ward system would
guarantee the on-campus students one rep
resentative, but would not allow them to
overrun the council.
Winship
Jackie Williams indicted
waters of the Bryan municipal lake. This peaceful
scene was captured just at sunset.
Athlete faces pot charge
proof,
myth continues
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By ROD SPEER
Bigfoot has been part of th
folklore of the Pacific Northwest for
unrlreds of years; several Indian
tribes had names for such a creature
and had its head etched on totem
poles.
Despite the numerous sightings
d footprints, solid proof is lacking.
There are no Skeletons, hair, fecal
samples, or specimens of the animal
which can, without doubt, be attrib
uted to Bigfoot, thereby confirming
its existence.
However, when two Washington
State University professors set out to
disprove Bigfoot stories, they en
countered events that could not be
easily explained.
In October of 1969 in Bossburg,
Wash., a butcher named Joe Rhodes
stumbled upon a large human-type
print. Bigfoot enthusiasts went to
Bossburg and subsequently found a
trail of 1,089 footprints that
stretched for more than half a mile
over a muddy, harsh terrain.
The tracks were 17-1/2 inches
long, seven inches wide and spaced
nearly five feet apart. The impact of
the prints showed the heel-strike,
toe-pushoff walk characteristic of a
creature walking upright on two feet.
The left foot appeared and similar,
except in size, to a man’s foot. The
right, however, had the abnor
malities of a club foot, indicating that
if the print did belong to a Bigfoot,
the animal was crippled.
Texas A&M anthropologist Dr.
Vaughn Bryant Jr., who was one of
the Washington professors who tried
to disprove Bigfoot, said, “Only a
well-trained physical anthropologist
or orthopedic surgeon could really
do such an excellent job of faking
some of the footprints attributed to
Bigfoot. ”
He considered the Bossburg
tracks some of the most convincing
evidence of Bigfoot’s existence.
Bryant said whatever made the
Bossburg prints weighed about 600
pounds and had a consistent stride
about two feet longer than a large
man can stretch while walking.
Bryant said that in order to fake
the prints, a 200-pound man with
400 pounds of concrete on his back
would have to had to leap gracefully
in five-foot strides over a rocky,
(See DISPROVING, Page 5)
By STEVE GRAY
and
C. E. COWART
A&M football safety Jackie Williams has
been indicted by the Brazos County Grand
Jury on a charge of felony possession of
marijuana.
Index
Track team travels to SWC
Championships. Page 6.
A&M was punished by SWC for
alleged recruiting violations. Page 7.
Aggies beat TCU, 111-70. PageS.
Tennis court location proposal
investigated. Page 4.
THE FORECAST for Friday
is mostly cloudy and mild with
20 per cent chance of rain today
and tonight, becoming 40 per
cent Saturday morning. The
high today, 79; tonight’s low,
59; Saturday’s high, 73.
Dist. Atty. Tom McDonald this morning
said Williams’ attorney has posted $5,000
bond for the football star who probably
will be arraigned before 85th Dist. Court
Judge W. C. Davis in Bryan on March 1.
Williams was expected to turn himself over
to authorities before the end of today.
Williams’ name was included among 56
indictments returned by the grand jury
late Thursday afternoon.
The indictment was the result of a five-
day investigation conducted last month by
local law enforcement officials who raided
a post-basketball game party in a unit of
the Monaco II Apartments complex on
the night of Jan. 20. Police, acting on a
tip, later recovered about 10 pounds of
marijuana found in another apartment
rented by a woman, Kevin Grant Gunter,
Another bid expected
in CS race for mayor
partments
evaluation or list?
PM
By SUZANNE DEATHERAGE
{lore of an evaluation or more of a list-
lervice is the question facing organizers
lie “Apartment Guide and members of
| College Station Apartment Owners
ciation (AOA).
lApartment Guide”, which will be pub-
Jedby the end of the month contains an
Illation of different apartment com
bs. The evaluation is derived from a
ey taken during pre-registration last
ember. Twelve student members of
|ie Fair Housing Commission, a branch of
Tdent Government, compiled the guide.
The guide is published annually. Two
Irs ago, the evaluation included ratings
Individual apartment managers. Due to
aplaints and threatened law suits from
rtment owners and managers, however,
lent Apartment Guides rated only
Irtment services.
Apartment owners have two main con
cerns over the Apartment Guide — “That it
is done in good taste and that it lists all
apartment complexes, said Dr. Roy Hann
Jr., president of the AOA.
He referred to last year’s guide, which
had a drawing of an outhouse on the front
page.
“The Apartment Guide should be a
guide for finding apartments, not just
rating them,” Hann said.
Shannon Walker, chairman of the Fair
Housing Commission, said the evaluation
is done as a matter of student interest.
“All it takes is three responses to get in
the Apartment Guide,” Walker said. “Why
list apartment complexes if the students
don’t use them? This (the guide) is not a
commercial item.”
In the past, limited funds have pre
vented a complete listing of all apartment
complexes in the “Apartment Guide ”. Last
year, the Fair Housing Commission re
ceived $1,000 from Student Government
to cover printing costs.
This year, however, Barron Publishers
Inc. is printing the guide at no charge. The
company expects to cover costs by selling
advertisements in the “Apartment Guide”
to College Station and Bryan apartment
owners.
Ron Winton, a representative for the
publishing company, spoke about the
apartment guide at the last meeting.
“An effort was made to have every possi
ble student fill out an evaluation,” Winton
said. He mentioned that the next survey
might include faculty and staff responses.
Shannon Walker said surveying faculty and
staff is a far-fetched possibility since “our
mechanism is pre-registration.”
Winton also told apartment owners that
it is Barron’s policy to discard 10 per cent of
the highest and lowest ratings for each
apartment complex in such evaluations as
used by apartment guides. This is done to
obtain a truer evaluation, he said.
The Fair Housing Commission was un
aware of the policy, however, and no
changes were made in the evaluation re
sults, Walker said.
Beside the apartment evaluation, the
guide will contain information on Hassle
Free, the Student Legal Advisor and the
Housing Office. A city map and a map of
day student parking are also included.
An office number for the AOA will be
printed in the guide so that tenants may
register complaints with the association’s
new tenant relations committee.
Lorence Bravenec, College Station
councilman, is expected to announce his
candidacy for the position of mayor later
today.
His announcement and expected resig
nation as councilman would open up
another position on the six-man council.
This would leave five council positions
and the mayor’s seat up for election on the
April 3 ballot.
Councilman Bob Bell announced his
candidacy for mayor last week. He has al
ready resigned as councilman, effective
March 21.
So far, the only positions which officially
have attracted any candidates are the
mayor’s and councilman, Place 4.
Jim Gardner, the incumbent in Place 4,
has announced he will seek that position
again.
Incumbent councilmen Jim Dozier and
Homer Adams, whose positions are also up
for re-election, have indicated an interest
in the mayor’s race. Neither has announced
whether he is seeking a council position
again.
The deadline for filing for office is March
3.
Lorence Bravenec
Inquiring Battman
and
her
‘What do you think about the way the SWC handled the Godine-Williams incident?’
who was no-billed by the grand jury.
A no-bill absolves an individual of any
wrongdoing.
If convicted, Williams could face up to
ten years in prison and/or a fine of up to
$5,000. Possession of more than four ounc
es of marijuana is a third degree felony
under Texas drug laws.
Two other football players who were
charged Jan. 26 with misdemeanor pos
session of less than two ounces of mari
juana as a result of the same investigation,
cornerback Pat Thomas and halfback Skip
Walker, have not yet been arraigned be
fore County Court Judge Bill Vance.
County Attorney Roland Searcy this
morning said former A&M basketball play
er Cedric Joseph, who also was charged
with misdemeanor possession in the same
case, has entered a plea of not guilty.