The Battalion
Vol. 71 No. 5
16 Pages
Wednesday, September 7, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
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ransformer blowout shuts down power
Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley
south of Highway 30, across from Sausalito Apts.
The blow-out occured at approximately 6:20 p.m.
By JULIE SPEIGHTS
and
LEE ROY LESCHPER JR.
Battalion Staff
Forty per cent of College Station’s resi
dents were without electricity for at least
three hours last night when a main city
power substation shorted out.
City officials didn’t know last night why
two of the station’s three regulator-
recloser units shorted out, causing the fail
ure.
The area bounded by Dominik St. on
the north, the East Bypass on the east,
Anderson St. on the west and the south
city limits on the south was without power
during the failure.
City Manager North Bardell said the af
fected area contains about 40 per cent of
the city’s residents.
The city began restoring power at 9
p.m. by drawing power from Bryan elec
tricity lines, Bardell said. He said last
night that all power should have been re
stored by midnight.
Bryan’s city council agreed last night to
allow College Station to again take elec
tricity from lines that were de-energized
when College Station converted part of its
electrical service to Gulf States Utilities.
The 137,000-volt station, on Hwy. 30,
shut down at 6:18 p.m. yesterday after the
two units shorted out in a burst of electri
cal sparks and flames.
The two station units were completely
burned out, with arcing electricity and
sparks hot enough to partially melt their
heavy metal cases. The fire extinguished
itself as soon as the station’s automatic
shut-off device cut off its power.
The station handles the portion of Col
lege Station’s electricity which the city is
purchasing from Gulf States Utilities. The
station had been switched from Bryan
Utilities power during the summer when
College Station switched part of its elec
tricity supply to Gulf States.
utional ■
th New
rganization may help to lower rates
Cable costs some students more
By KIM TYSON
Battalion Staff
:nts in the Commons • dormitories
Ire than $7 a semester more for cable
than other dorms at Texas A&M
ner sa Jthese residents may not have to pay
tena ■ they organize, said Howard Vestal,
Sresident for business affairs.
id I four Commons dorms, Krueger-
1 < w IMosher-Aston, pay $6.50 for FM
, a " , lahle, $13.00 for television cable, or
aniini » ’ K
ft witl
down
i time
$18.00 for both per semester, approxi
mately equal to the $4 per month city rates.
Other residence halls, however, pay a
rate of approximately $5.50 for either tele
vision or FM cable, $10.50 for both per
semester. Some dorms vary this charge by
about 50 cents to go into dorm funds.
These rates have been consistent since
the two local cable companies, Midwest
Video Corp. and Community Cablevision,
began serving the dormitories in 1972.
The different rates are a result of the way
the cables were put in, Vestal said.
Vestal worked with the two companies to
have cables installed when the Commons
dormitories were built.
“We wanted to give the students a choice
of cable companies,” he said.
This choice is the reason for the higher
rates, said Dr. Charles Powell, director ol
student affairs.
Powell explained that in these dorms the
students are given the individual’s rate -
not the discounted group rate.
Ron Blatchley, associate director of stu
dent affairs, said in the other dorms the
dorm councils decide on one company to
provide cable service for the entire dorm,
then arrange to sell the cables, collect the
money and have them installed.
In these dormitories the companies had
to wire around existing buildings, Blatch
ley said, but the Commons area had theirs
installed during construction.
Vestal said there was never any agree
ment between the cable companies and
A&M for specific rates to be charged.
He said that if a dorm or group of dorms
want to organize to negotiate with the
companies there would be no restrictions
to keep them from it.
“Technically, everyone in Krueger could
get together and go with one company.
Students would initiate it. I wouldn’t.”
Vestal said.
“I would have to intervene if one com
pany came in and tried to take over the
business in one of those dormitories, ” Ves
tal added, “But if all the students go to
gether I wouldn’t object to that.”
He said this would not violate the origi
nal agreement with the companies that
each company would be treated equally by
the university.
Glenn Ferris, Commons area coor
dinator, said he would approve of organiz
ing to lower the rates.
“I would think that if the dorm councils
A Gulf States representative told city
engineers after the failure that Gulf States
had had some “high power line problems”
about the same time the station shorted
out. Whether this related in any way to
the damage to the station was not clear.
George Ford, director of public works
for College Station , said some of the sta
tion’s power could have been switched
back on immediately, through the one
remaining regulator-recloser unit, but city
officials were reluctant to do so without
making repairs.
No one was certain last night why the
regulator shorted out.
“Right now we’re not concerned with
what happened,” Bardell said. “We’re just
interested in getting it back on.”
Bardell said there is an apparent fault in
the transformer connected to the two units
which shorted out, although the fault may
not have caused the failure. It will be
checked out before the transformer is put
back on full power, he said.
A city employe is determining what
parts will be necessary to repair the dam
aged units. If the needed parts are im
mediately available, the station could be
back in service within 48 hours, Bardell
said.
At dusk many students had their apart
ment doors open and had retreated to bal
conies to get relief from the heat.
Others were throwing frisbees and par
ticipating in other outdoor activites and
seemed unaffected by the lack of electric
ity.
Two Plantation Oaks Apartment resi
dents were eating in 3-C-3, restaurant
vvhich was also without power.
They said they would be very incon
venienced by the outage, but planned to
manage with one candle and hoped the
power would be restored before long.
One of the girls commented that she
would be extremely distraught if she
couldn’t use her blow dryer in the morn
ing.
Mike Vrana, manager of 3-C-3, said his
customers had been very nice about the
problem. He served customers by
candlelight who were in the restaurant at
the time of the blackout. He said his re
frigerated perishables would not be af
fected for about 5-6 hours.
A spokesman for the Safeway store in
Culpepper Plaza said the store closed
about 15 minutes after the outage.
Cashiers checked out the remaining cus
tomers by using manual levers on the cash
registers.
He was dismissing employes for the
evening, but hoped to reopen the store
whenever power returned.
Some 20 compressors for refrigeration
units were shut off at the store, but the
spokesman said being without power for
about two hours would not hurt the mer
chandise.
take on the responsibility to negotiate with
both companies and the job involved, it
would seem the way to go,” Ferris said.
Ferris said working for a group rate
would probably be more feasible on a trial
basis, possibly in the spring when the dorm
councils have time to organize. He also said
he would like the residents of the dorms to
vote, to approve giving up cable company
choice for lower rates.
Gordon Gregg, vice president and man
ager of Community Cablevision, said his
company would be willing to negotiate
with a dorm for cheaper rates if it wanted to
buy as a group.
Leroy Jakubik, general manager of
Midwest Video Corp., also said that his
company would be willing to negotiate, but
said he would have to look into the original
agreement when the dorms were wired to
serve both companies.
Ron Blatchley said the one problem he
could foresee with organizing is the size of
the Commons dorms. The number of
rooms in each dorm ranges from 237 in
Dunn Hall to 342 in Mosher Hall. Other
dorms on campus average about 130
rooms.
Of the four dorm presidents in the
Commons, only one knew there was a rate
difference.
“What a rip-off,” exclaimed Carolyn
Brothers, Krueger Hall president. She said
she was planning to meet with her execu
tive council to consider organizing to get
the group rates.
Lisa Howe, Mosher Hall president,
echoed the other presidents: “We thought
the rates were set and that’s just the way
the cables came.”
Some of the administrators interviewed
knew there was a rate difference, but none
knew how much.
Powell also said that if representatives in
the Residence Hall Association decide
they’d like a group rate, the Department of
Student Affairs would negotiate for them.
Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley
A policeman directs motorists on Highway 6 yesterday evening after the
transformer blowout cut off traffic lights.
Engineers predict
solar air-cooling
United Press International
Solar powered air-conditioning based on
current evaporative cooling systems will
be the cooling method of the future, ac
cording to a team of researchers at Texas
A&M University.
Solar powered hot water and space heat
ing currently cost the same, or more, than
other forms of energy. But a team of com
puter scientists and mechanical and elec
trical engineers at A&M’s College of En
gineering are working on a solar-powered
cooling system they hope will be economi
cally superior.
“This is an outgrowth of the old
evaporative cooler which has been used
for decades in West Texas,” said Dr. Jeff
Morehouse, one of the principal inves
tigators on the project. “The concept is
simple: produce desert-like air and then
cool it by using an evaporative cooler.”
Morehouse said a dessicant (moisture
absorbing substance) is used to remove
humidity from the air prior to evaporative
cooling. The solar energy is used to drive
off the moisture in the dessicant so that it
can be used again to absorb more mois
ture. Natural gas also could be burned for
additional drying if not enough solar
energy is available, said Morehouse.
“The components of the system are
available,” he said. “We just have to work
out a continuous system for residential
sized units.
“We think two or three tons of air-
conditioning could be produced with
$2,000 to $3,000 of raw equipment,” he
said. “Spread out over several years, this
cost would be competitive with current
air-conditioning. ”
Morehouse said an analysis of dessicant
cooling systems will be computer simu
lated while a simple working system is
built for both verification of the simulation
model as well as gaining actual operating
experience with the equipment.
No one hurt in bomb blasts
Explosions near
Soviet Embassy
/Daniel to
White House,
laid to Cubans
Battalion photo by Jim Crawley
Standing as a memorial to our fallen students, the Academic Building flag
is lowered to half-mast. Last night, A&M students paid tribute to eight
students who died during the summer vacation.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Two bombs were
set off early today, one just 90 feet from
the White House grounds, rattling the se
curity conscious nation’s capital where doz
ens of foreign dignitaries were gathered
for the signing of the Panama Canal
treaties.
No injuries were reported. An anony
mous caller told United Press International
the bombs were planted by a commando
group to protest Russian support of Cuba
and human rights violations in Cuba.
Police said one of the bombs went off at
about 3 a. m. in a cluster of eight large
cement flower pots at an intersection
along the Elipse, a grassy area connecting
the White House grounds with the Wash
ington Monument.
The other bomb was set off about 20
minutes next to a Russian airline office
building — adjacent to the Soviet Em
bassy.
The flowerpots where the one bomb
went off are located about 90 feet from an
iron fence surrounding the White House
grounds. The fence itself is about 150
yards from the White House.
“It just blew one of them (a flower pot)
apart,” Police Lt. Albert Johnson said.
The bomb at the airline office shattered
windows in the building and in nearby
structures, including the Capital Hilton
Hotel located across the street.
Shortly before the second explosion the
anonymous caller told UPI that bombs had
been placed in the city, including near the
airline office.
William Edwards, manager of the Hil
ton, said the blast knocked out about 60
windows in the hotel, but there were no
injuries. Glass from the office building
littered the street.
Edwards, who was asleep at the time of
the explosion, said the blast sounded “just
like a huge clap of thunder. ”
Police units were sent to the National
Press Building as a precaution because the
official Russian news agency, Tass, is lo
cated in the building. No threats or ex
plosions were reported there.
Police Inspector Raymond Remick, in
charge of the investigation at the first blast
site, said only that an “explosive device”
had been used, but the type was not
known. “We’re going to sift the area” to
determine what explosive was used, he
said.
Fragments of a device were found at the
White House location.
announce
for attorney general
AUSTIN — Former Speaker
Price Daniel Jr. yesterday called
news conferences for today to an
nounce he will be a candidate for
Texas attorney general.
Daniel, 36, was speaker of the
House from 1973 to 1975 when the
legislature passed a series of reform
bills as a result of the Sharpstown
scandal which fored the resignation
of the previous speaker and impli
cated a number of other high ranking
state officials.
Attorney General John Hill has
said he will not be a candidate for
re-election, and is expected to chal
lenge Gov. Dolph Briscoe for the
party’s nomination.
Daniel scheduled news confer
ences Wednesday in Austin, Dallas
and Houston. His announcement
said the conferences would concern
his political plans for the 1978 elec
tions, but there is little doubt he will
be a candidate for attorney general.
Secretary of State Mark White
also is considering entering the cam
paign to succeed Hill, but has made
k no formal announcement.