The Battalion
Vol. 71 No. 167 Tuesday, June 27, 1978 News Dept. 845-2611
8 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
r
Inside Tuesday:
Miller praises ag extension serv
ices - p. 3.
Women on liquid protein diets
run greater heart risks - p. 4.
David Brothers moves to fullback
position - p. 7.
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Sun, wind and water
Can there be a better way to spend a late afternoon Hwy. 21 on Farm Road 1687, has been receiving
than with fishing rod in hand beside a shining lake? more and more local visitors in recent months be-
Bruce Lyon of College Station was doing just that at cause of low water conditions which have hampered
Bryan’s Utility Lake. The lake, 5Y2 miles north of water sports on Lake Somerville.
Engineers working
to repair tanker
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — A team of engi
neers is working today to repair damage
done to a 784-foot tanker by a smoky
engine room fire that forced 35 crewmen
overboard into life boats for several hours.
The Liberian-registered tanker M.T.
Amoco Texas City was in the Gulf of
Mexico 210 miles southwest of New Or
leans when the fire broke out Monday. No
injuries were reported and damage was
limited to the engine room.
“We sent two cutters, but they never
got to the destination because they we
ren’t needed,” a Coast Guard spokesman
said. “Apparently the fire burned itself
out. ”
The ship’s captain originally said he
would not need help in fighting the blaze,
but requested Coast Guard aid about an
hour later and ordered his men to abandon
ship.
The crew of the Amoco Texas City spent
several hours in life boats while the fire
burned, but boarded the tanker again late
Monday when the smoke and heat
cleared.
Weather in the area was good, with
partly cloudy skies and temperatures near
90 as the men bobbed in the water.
The Amoco Texas City is a
“middleweight tanker” about half the size
of “super-tankers,” which have a capacity
of 150,000 deadweight tons. The tanker
had unloaded a shipment of cargo fuel at
Lake Charles, La., Sunday and was en
route to Aruba in the Caribbean Sea when
the fire broke out.
Two Coast Guard airplanes and two
helicopters flew over the ship as it sat in
the water. An Italian bulk carrier, Nai
Mey, and the Navy Supply Ship Sealift
Pacific were also in the area.
Carl Meyerdirk, an Amoco spokesman
in Chicago, said the 8-year-old ship never
had been involved in a serious accident
before.
Both Meyerdirk and Coast Guard offi
cials said cause of the fire was unknown,
but apparently the ship’s automatic foam
fire fighting equipment failed to function.
“They didn’t have any foam,” said Bob
Baeten, a Coast Guard spokesman. “Their
system (was inoperative).”
City council expected
to approve new budget
The College Station City Council will
complete and vote on adoption of the city’s
budget for the 1978-79 fiscal year in a spe
cial meeting, tonight at 7 o’clock.
The budget calls for a 4 cent tax increase
and an 11 percent increase in expendi
tures. City officials expect it to be ap
proved with only minor changes, City
Manager North Bardell said.
One major consideration the council
will deal with tonight is funding for special
services. The council will decide which
services will receive city funds in the com
ing year.
Representatives of the city service or
ganizations made their budget requests at
Thursday’s public hearing. These requests
include: the Retired Senior Citizens Vol
unteer Program (RSVP), for $2000; the
Arts Council of Brazos Valley, for $8200;
the Brazos Valley Mental Health-Mental
Retardation Center, for $9000; the
Museum of Natural History, for $3500,
and the Brazos Valley Senior Citizens As
sociation, for $10,000.
The budget, which was presented to the
council June 20, has been revised slightly.
“The changes were made, for the most
part, to correct errors and were mainly
cosmetic.” Bardell said.
Barring any unexpected occurrences,
the city of College Station will have an ap
proved 1978-79 budget tonight.
Hispanic director attacks
West Texas law officers
United Press International
PLAINVIEW — The weekend shooting
death of an unarmed Mexican-American
man by a reserve deputy emphasizes the
problems with West Texas law officials,
says the director of Texas’ largest Hispanic
organization.
Ruben Bonilla, director of the League of
United Latin American Citizens, Monday
urged the state attorney general’s office to
investigate the death of Tim Rosales, 25, of
Hale Center, Texas. Rosales was shot in
the head Sunday while allegedly scuffling
with Deputy Charles Cypert, 45, of Plain-
view, who was investigating a drunken dis
turbance call.
“With this one, there have been six
killings (of MexicanAmericans in the cus
tody of authorities) that are documented in
West Texas alone, which is most frighten
ing,” Bonilla said.
“This man being shot in the head to me
already is reason to suspect — whether it’s
accidental or not — and is further evi
dence that the standards set for law
enforcement officials in West Texas is low
and shoddy,” he said.
Hale County Sheriff Charles Tue said
Cypert, a volunteer officer, was hos
pitalized for observation of a heart condi
tion, but was released Monday. He has
been relieved of duties pending an inves
tigation by Texas Rangers.
An autopsy would help determine the
point of entry of the head wound, said
Bonilla, because “a struggle over a gun
usually results in a wound in the abdomi
nal region or the leg. ”
Tony Reyes, district director of
LULAC, told a Lubbock news conference
of LULA*C’s “shock and outrage” at the
“repetitive nature of such atrocities in
Texas” and said Rosales was “the sixth kill
ing in the last 13 months of a Mexican-
American at the hands of so-called west
Texas law enforcement officials.”
LULAC officials said the deaths started
in May 1977 with the slaying in Sierra
Blanca of Juan de los Zuniga and included
the widely publicized case of Larry Ortega
Lozana, who died Jan. 22 in the Ector
County jail.
Attorney General John Hill was urged
by LULAC to send a team of investigators
to Hale County to look into the shooting.
Hill’s “prompt response to the most recent
erosion of police-community relations will
have a positive effect in maintaining tran
quility in the Mexican-American com
munities of Texas,” said Bonilla.
Hill’s office has not entered the case but
there is a possiblity it might, a spokesman
for the attorney general said.
“It’s going to cause a lot of problems,”
said Gilbert Herrera, West Texas prime
minister of tbe Brown Berets.
Herrera said the Mexican-Amerian or
ganization had vowed it would not wait for
a Justice Department investigation if there
was another death.
-
Consumers protest preferential rates
given to large volume electricity users
United Press International
AUSTIN — Consumers from five Texas
dties converged on a Public Utility Com
mission hearing, chanting and demanding
a change in the method used to determine
futility rates.
“Two, four, six, eight, we want lifeline,
|we won’t wait,” the demonstrators
shouted Monday as they filed into the
hearing room.
An estimated 200 members of the Texas
chapter of Association for Community Re
form Now — representing Houston, Dal
las, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Marshall
—— jammed the hearing room to support
the “lifeline” rates, which would provide a
small amount of electricity at low rates to
each consumer.
“We re not here looking for welfare. We
just want fair rates,” said ACORN spokes
woman Lena Hodge of Dallas. “We want
electric rate reform, so that everyone will
pay their fair share. The present rates put
the heaviest burden on us, the small resi-
Customers flock to female-operated
gas station for helpful service, tips
United Press International
1 LINCOLN, Neb. — Guys who
know the gas station business say it’s
financial suicide to buy a station on a
street with no traffic. But four Ne
braska women thought they could
pump life into a service station any
where if they set their mind to it.
Kathy Allen, 25, knew how to
make repairs on her MG. Deb
Stephen, 22, figured she had
mechanical ability. Candice
Robacker, 25, and Susan Bartow,
28, were hired to help out.
On April 1, 1977, the Amazon
Amoco gas station quietly opened
for business in Lincoln.
Nobody drove by it much and no
body wanted to run it, Ms. Allen
said. “A string of men lost money
there for the last 20 years.
A year later, the station has cars
backed up three deep, a phone ring
ing off the hook and customers as
loyal as those women in TV ads are
to their favorite detergent.
Men apparently like the station
because they can ask dumb ques
tions and learn about cars without
losing face.
. Customer Brad Thiel, 27, said
“most mechanics assume men know
, so I like coming in here. They’ll
explain to me, like in the last two
weeks I ye learned a hell of a lot
about that car. Like where the
thermostat is. It’s not leaking any
more. ”
Women patronize the station be
cause they aren’t treated like dumb
bunnies.
“The first day I drove in here I
learned to check my oil, what brand
to put in, and how to do it myself,” a
woman customer said.
The station charges top rates for
gas but is generous with time and
tips on car repair.
“I spent six hours helping this
woman, til 1 a.m. the other night,”
said Ms. Allen, station manager. “If
it takes her three hours to adjust her
valves, I will stand there and help
for three hours.”
Women may be known for their
patience, but not for fixing cars. Ms.
Robacker, the station’s only
mechanic, said some customers
never give a woman mechanic a
chance.
“You have a mechanic here?
When will he be in?” they ask.
“Well, she’ll be in in an hour.”
“Oh, she will.”
And then they don’t come back,
she said.
The owner of Nebraska’s only
female-run station, Dick Salem, said
the women make mistakes, but he is
pleased they are turning a profit.
One woman customer who de
clined to give her name said the
girls have shock value going for
them.
“Men find it exciting to see a
woman scramble under their car,
see she knows how to adjust the val
ves or put it on a jack and accurately
diagnose it,” she said. “Plus it’s neat
to see she doesn’t give a damn her
hands are all greasy and black. ”
dential users, and on small business users,
who also have the deck stacked against
them. ”
The media and representatives of
utilities and industry have misrepresented
the lifeline system, said Angela Moore of
Houston.
The demonstrators urged Texas rate
regulators to prohibit price discounts to
large volume electricity users such as in
dustries and commercial businesses.
“We are sick and tired of seeing prefer
ential rates given to large electric users,
while the people who can least afford it
pay the highest per-unit rates, Ms.
Moore said. “Not only is it unfair, but it is
neither sound conservation nor sound
economics.
“Although lifeline would help low and
moderate income people economically, it
is not a welfare proposal, ” she said.
The ACORN proposal calls for eliminat
ing service charges and establishing in
verted rates for electricity use, with lowest
unit costs charged for least usage and
higher rates charged for increasing vol
umes of power consumed.
“The customer charge is like a grocery-
store charging an entrance fee to all cus
tomers, and has little basis in economic
theory,” said Pearl Ford of Houston. “It is
a convenient way for the utility companies
to gouge a little extra money out of small
users under the guise of cost of service.”
Mrs. Ford said the current practice of
allowing discounts for large volumes of
electricity usage is designed to promote
energy consumption rather than conserva
tion.
“Offering discounts for large volume
users is a poor policy when we consider
the limits of our energy resources, and the
increasing costs of generating electricity,”
Eleatha Swift of Fort Worth said.
Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley.
Kyle Field seating refurbished
One of the first new aluminum benches was installed Monday at Kyle
Field. The installation of the remainder of the benches will be completed
in plenty of time before the fall football season begins.