The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 20, 1976, Image 1
id i 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 39, m itire Mi aunt i« 43 sew gram n the jo A parhs Road p« ve-kiloc to 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.