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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 1978)
The Battalion Vol.71 No. 178 8 Pages Tuesday, July 25, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 egents may frove plan pr growth By DOUG GRAHAM . Battalion Staff Las A&M University’s future seems ■Lit for at least the next five years Jic University system board of regents Ipeclcd toapprusc toil.o i niastn pl.m University development over the next ■years. The hoard's huildiuiy committee foved the plan Monday, fcemaster plan is a llexible outline lor re development, said Or. < h.ti les landless. University director of plan- tind services] He said the p an man fdbv the Coordinating Board of lexas leges and Universities, will guide La&M s expansion m an organi/.ed Ithoughtfiil manner. PI state-supported universities and co - pmust suhinit master plans lot lunld and improvements to the Coordinatmg rd. . exas A6rM s master plan covers ected student growth, construction, building budgets for both the main Ls at College Station and other eom- ,ents of the university sx stemMich as Texas Agricultural Extension Service. : b are headquartered on the College lie plan includes a projec t,o„ that stu- J population will level oil at ai m, DO by 1983. That is an increase of H I cent over 197, 'acuity would increase In lo. l perce nt, McCandless said that was due to the that a greater portion of the student illation will be at the graduate level; duate courses have loner stm <n Star ratios than under yy - u 'ucte c"ors< fne cons’inicVion program wiM Ue ‘ noi- As. McCandless said that ne xt year exm- Bction will be proceeding on over SM ■ion in projects that arc now m prog- K These projects include a nenv wo- ■sdorm, the expansion ol kvle I n-lci. a Hical science building an( M BofLegett Hall- ■other $17.8 million is planned tor ■/projects in 1981. Koded transportation improvements ■lude elevating U rdlborn Road locate d ■bind Kyle Field. That is part of a con- ' tinning effort to make the I eexas Iranipus pedesfrian-oriented rathei t >an ■hicle-oriented. Also planned are a sei ies ■speed bumps near Sbisa and in front ,> th ZachryEngineering Center. That will ■w down traffic, McCandless said He Tied that the humps are an inexpensive lernative to completely closing roads [it go through campus- JConstruction of new buildings and Bilities, while the mainstay of the plan, ~re not all included in it. ilated for destruction by 1983. are the creamery, Goodwin Hall, The Old iglish Annex, the oilseed, wool and rnhair, and animal reproduction fcoratories. Tlie temporary buildings that border dand Street will also be removed. Floating free Kirk Francis, a member of the Texas A&M Sport Parachute Club on campus, was one of several members who participated in the club’s jump dem onstration Monday afternoon on the main drill field. The parachute club staged these jumps to help recruit any people interested in joining the club. Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley Briscoe s ranchland assessed below market property value Ini ted Press International UVALDE — Gov. Dolph Briscoe’s South Texas ranchland is worth an esti mated $362.50 per acre, but according to county records, the property is assessed at an average of $28.20 per acre. Despite a constitutional mandate that all Texas land be taxed according to its fair market value — or what a buyer would pay for it if it were for sale — most agricultural land in South Texas is taxed according to what it can produce for the farmer or rancher who owns it, according to a story in the Sunday edition of the Dallas Times Herald. The South Texas system produces prop erty values significantly lower than those assessed by tax officials in most urban areas of the state. The varied assessment approaches has led the Legislature to con sider tax reform as well as tax limitation during its current special session. Briscoe, the biggest landowner in South Texas, owns 57,910 acres in Uvalde and according to studies conducted by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, land in Uvalde County and its environs is worth $362.50 an acre. But Briscoe’s land is assessed at an aver age of $28.20 an acre. E.F. Williams, who owns 9,009 acres in Uvalde County, much of it adjacent to Briscoes land, is assessed at $15.47 an acre. The Horton brothers, who own 7,815 acres east of Uvalde, are* assesed an average $24.78 an acre. Briscoe’s 1977 tax bill totaled $92,130 — $663,340 less than what he would have owed had his land been assessed at what the Research Center claimed is its true market value. The governor and his fellow ranchers were not cheatifig the taxman but only paying what the local government said was owed. Local officials maintain agricultural land cannot he taxed as the law requires. “You couldn’t tax them at what it’s (the land) worth, ’ said McMullen County Judge Claude Franklin Jr. It would bust them. “It takes 20 acres of land in this part of the country to run a cow. Now' when that rancher goes to sell the calf at the end of the year, he’s going to get a few hundred dollars, probably less this year than last. So how is he going to pay $30, $40 taxes on each of those acres it took to raise that calf?” Firemens training school opens Dark, oily clouds hang over practice By SCOTT PENDLETON Battalion Stall The cloud cascaded upward, drenching ■esky with its oily blackness. As I drove ■wards Easterwood Airport, orange Kies surfaced intermittently in the poke, above and behind the control to- Ifrr 11 knew, however, that an airport disas- p wasn’t the cause of the smoke. Instead, originated on the grounds where the 1th annual Texas Firemen’s Training chool is in progress. I turned onto the road leading up to the aining school. The shoulders of the road ad become a parking lot for every kind of Iscue or emergency vehicle imaginable, ich sporting a town insignia. On the school grounds, men and women it in open air classrooms and listened irefully while fire-fighting techniques 'ere explained. Instructors and students like wore thigh-high rubber boots and eavy coats. After parking my motorcycle ■ext to the communications tower, l 'alketl over to a class in progress. “Now I want to emphasize this idea of a ower cone,” the instructor was saying. Keep your spray at a 30 to 60 degree an il it’s wider than that, you’re on de- “And another thing is teamwork. Just He man will give directions. He looked around. No one had any Uestions, so the class walked over to a eel platform on stilts with stairs on either nd. This had been the source of the fire I ad seen on the way to the training center. I picked boots, a helmet, and a coat out a pile of extra equipment and slipped lem on. “Remember, an instructor said to me. If you go into this thing, you go at your wn risk. ” I took my place with one of the fire hose ^ rews, as third man on the hose. Other refighters were putting on gloves or hos- f each other down for extra protection. The head instructor walked hack and rth between the crew chiefs, repeating Je instructions. Then, an assistant in- Iructor opened a valve to a pipe supplying structure. Another man ignited the struc ture with a long torch. Instantly the metal structure disap peared, engulfed in flame and smoke. The prevailing wind picked up the inferno and dangled it over our heads. Nevertheless, the protective clothing cut the heat to a tolerable level. The plexiglass visor did this particularly well. The firehose, taut with water pressure. Firemen school treats women, boys like men Women are found among the ranks of firemen in increasing numbers. “There are more here than I’ve ever seen before,” said Mason Lankford, com munications supervisor for the 49th annual Texas Firemen’s Training School. Lankford has been involved with the school for 27 years. “It’s impossible to know exactly how many (women) there are,” Lankford said. “They don’t have to write down anywhere whether they are man or woman.” Women were anything but a rare sight at the Brayton Firemen Training Field on Monday, the opening day of the school. They rushed into burning buildings with the same enthusiasm that the other trainees displayed. Between classes they joked and talked to the men, who accept their presence as a natural occurrence. Two of the women denied being fire men. “We re firefighters,” they said. Why did they join the fire department? “We live in a small community,” one said. “The men are away all day, which leaves us without fire protection.” The women don’t deny that they are not as strong as men, but they do not see this as a disadvantage. “We may not do the job just the way the men would do it, but we ll get it done one way or another,” the firefighter said. jerked as the lead man opened the nozzle. Crews to the right and left of us worked their way down either side of the struc ture, worrying the lower flames along be fore them. These they cornered and extin guished, while our crew and another sprayed the source of the gas to keep it from reigniting. The other two erews then returned, tak ing ovqr the spraying of the lower fuel source. Our crew sprayed the metal stair way to cool it off. When the instructor judged it to he safe, we advanced up the stairway to attack the flames at the top of the structure. Two of the ground crews continued to spray the lower fuel source, to keep it from exploding beneath us. The third crew di rected its water jets along with ours to the upper flames. Visibility was especially bad here. The cooling effect of the water caused the oil fumes to condense. It rained tar, not only next to the fire but hundreds of yards away: My visor rapidly became opaque under an oily film, leaving me sightless. I looked under the edge of my visor where I could just see my arms holding the hose, and adjusted my grip. Everything else was white. Then I realized that the roaring I heard all around us was no longer flames but jets of water. The fire was out. The job was not over though, because a careful, slow with drawal was necessary to cool the metal structure and to be ready in case the flames erupted a second time. After the exercise, I discovered that the two men behind me on the hose were 13 and 11 years old. Scotty Seeton, from Mansfield, and Scott Howard, from Dal las, had come to the school with their fathers. Though too young to be certified as firemen by the state, they are being al lowed to participate in the program. “I like it,” Howard said. He’s participat ing just for the experience, and hasn’t made up his mind to be a fireman yet. How do people react to an 11-year-old at the school? “I get treated the same as everyone else,” Howard said. “Everyone is having a good time. area In fact, it looked like everyone was hav ing a great time. In a world growing ever more impersonal, the firemen seem to have retained their traditional good na tures and esprit de corps. Classes had bro ken up for lunch, and people were talking and laughing on their way to their cars. An occasional water fight cooled off those who had been closest to the scorching flames. Despite this occasional play, the Fire men’s Training School is serious business, a business that each participant knows ex tremely well. “Second to none,” said Mason Lankford, communications supervisor of the school. “Firemen come here from all over the world to be trained.” The training school, which began Monday, takes place at Brayton Firemen Training Field, about one mile from Eas terwood Airport. The 60-acre facility is di vided into dozens of sites containing simu lated aircraft, ships, trucks, and refinery situations as well as houses, apartments, and other municipal-type buildings. This week 1,820 men and women are participating in the annual Texas Fire men’s Training School. “This is the largest attendance you’ll have during the year, Lankford said. The school is conducted by the Fire Protection Training Division of the Texas Engineer ing Extension Service. Various kinds of fire training go on 50 weeks a year at the school. “You look over here year round and you’ll see black smoke going up,” Lankford said. This week firemen are being taught municipal and industrial fire-fighting techniques. “Why teach municipal firemen indus trial techniques?” Lankford asked. “Any where you go in Texas, especially along the gulf coast, 99 percent of the industries rely on municipal firemen. They have to know what they’re doing when they get there.” Realizing this, over one hundred corpo rations and organizations have donated to the school thousands of dollars worth of instruction equipment and materials, in cluding the fuels burned as part of the training. Inside Tuesday Weekend rains scattered over state - p. 3. Corps teaches leadership - p. 4. Martin resigns - p. 7. Ad valorem tax amendment OK United Press International AUSTIN — The House Constitutional Amendments Committee late Monday voted overwhelming to submit for floor consideration a constitutional amendment providing changes in ad valorem property taxation, limiting increases in property tax revenues and granting a homestead exemption. Rep. Tim Von Dohlen, D-Goliad, the committee’s chairman, said he felt the proposed constitutional amendment, which passed 8-1, reflected the common sense of the committee. Under the proposal all real property would to be taxed equally and uniformly across the state, and agricultural land would he taxed on the basis of its product ive value rather than on market value. The committee also voted to provide a homestead exemption to homeowners, hut did not specify the amount of exemption. Rep. Boh Henricks, D-McKinney, suggested a provision that left the amount of the exemption open-ended. Von Dohlen said he expects that provi sion to be substituted when the House considers the amendment, which could he* as early as Wednesday. The proposal also prohibits local gov ernments from raising property taxes without giving proper notice to citizens and conducting a public hearing. The proposal does not include three provisions that Gov. Dolph Briscoe wanted the Legislature to enact: a two- thirds vote by the Legislature to impose new or additional taxes; a tax limitation provision, and an initiative referendum clause enabling voters to approve all new or additional taxes. Small town in U.S. sights UFOs often Uni It'd Press International DENVER — University of Wyoming professor Leo Sprinkle says there is a small town somewhere in the nation which has had more than its share of UFO sightings in recent months. Sprinkle, 49, a psychology professor who devotes much of his time to inter viewing people who have sighted UFOs or who say they have talked with aliens from other worlds, says he will not identify the community. The townfolk don t want the publicity. “There is a town we call Clearview, be cause its residents don t want the identifi cation of the community known, where all sorts of sightings have taken place re cently, Sprinkle said. “There have been cattle mutilations, humanoids encounter ing people and all sorts of inexplicable things going on. Sprinkle made the comment while in Denver Saturday to address the Interna tional Speakers Congress. Sprinkle said he personally has interviewed hundreds of persons who claim to have seen or spoken with aliens from other worlds. “These people are, normal, average people who genuinely believe they have had communications with aliens from outer space,” Sprinkle said. “1 think we are being shown that there is a life out there. The question is who is showing us.” Sprinkle said he also has observed the spaceships. He said he sighted his first UFO when he was a college student in Boulder 27 years ago. “At first I scoffed at it, he said. “I fig ured it was a balloon or a helicopter, some kind of government deal, so I dismissed it. But six years later, my wife and 1 saw another one near the Flatirons in Boulder, and I was puzzled because there was something going on that 1 couldn’t figure out. Sprinkle said he now hypnotizes people who spot UFOs and studies their psychological reaction. He said people who make such sightings could he dream ing or fantasizing, hut through hypnosis and polygraph tests, he has determined that most of the people lie investigates are telling the truth. “That is what’s exciting lor me,’ he said. “Many people I have spoken to have said that once aboard the ship, the crea tures ask all kinds of questions about nu clear energy. They seem to say that man is polluting the world with nuclear power and better get his act straight or else. One Wyoming hunter told Sprinkle he had zeroed in on a hull elk and watched with amazement as the bullet stopped in mid-air and floated gently to the ground. The hunter, Sprinkle said, told him a spaceship then appeared and he was in vited inside the ship. Once inside the craft, the man saw a cage filled with elk. Sprinkle said. The man said the aliens placed an X-ray-like machine in front of his chest and then told him: “You re not what we re looking for. You can go home. Sprinkle said the man was extremely nervous after the experience, but “calmed down considerably through hypnosis. He now jokes that he is a UFO reject. The drenching rain that hit College Station Monday afternoon did not deter fire fighting exercises at the Firemen’s Training School. Municipal firemen from all over the state are here for their annual weeklong training session. Battalion photo by Scott Pendleton