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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 1978)
^irtin, niotii tilings and (I The Battalion Vol. 71 No. 182 8 Pages Wednesday, August 2, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Inside Wednesday: Maintenance men use gas cannon and distress calls to scare birds from trees - p. 3. New coin to bear image of suf fragette Susan B. Anthony - p. 6. Rose’s trek to record stopped - p. 7. Texas A&M to hire more staff to meet requirements Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. [Lady Bird Johnson explains the judging procedures used to choose the [winners of her annual highway beautification awards. ady Bird at A&M or project judging By DERBY KRENEK Battalion Editor SNPHighway beautification is uppermost in n Ftlie mindoi Lidy Bird Johnson these days. Mrs. johnson was at Texas A&M Tues- day in conjunction with the judging for the ■jH j|ghway Beautification award that she es tablished eight years ago. began this award to highlight the l| work of the Texas Highway maintenance \ Bremen of making their highways more ^jBautiful,” Mrs. Johnson said. “Highways ■fi are the biggest public works, bigger than pyramids of Egypt, and they have the sst garden potential in the world, ven judges, members of the Lady Bird Johnson Highway Beautification ;Wards Committee, will study the jects entered from the state’s 24 high- districts today. Dr. Robert Dewers, is A&M professor of forest science is of the judges. The entries are judged from photo- phs and descriptions of the work that i highway maintenance foremen submit. 3y are judged on the basis of the fore- n s attention to propogating flowers and ubs, and his efforts to beautify roadside •ks. The foremen put together a notebook their stretches of road, ’’ Mrs. Johnson d. “We need before and after shots of at they’ve done if it’s possible. But we have to remember that nature plays a great hand in what they can do.” First place prize is $1,000. The runner-up receives $500. Winners will be announced Oct. 12 during a barbecue luncheon at the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park. “We have had many interesting visitors to the luncheons over the years,” Mrs. Johnson said. “The Secretary of the Inter ior has accepted this year.” “But Lyndon was always my most faith ful guest,” she said. Mrs. Johnson said her beautification program has been picked up by a number of states when guests from these states came down to see Texas. She added that Mrs. Jimmy Carter came to Texas when her husband was governor of Georgia and took back some ideas for a program of her own. “Our program stands very high both blessed by nature and the intentional ef forts of the highway department,” Mrs. Johnson said, comparing Texas’ beautifica tion program with that of other states. Currently there are 1,100 roadside parks in the state with 40 more on the drawing board and 12 actually under con struction, Mrs. Johnson said. “We feed on a world around us whether ugly or beautiful so why not make it pleas ant for everyone. ” By DOUG GRAHAM Battalion Staff Federal regulation is forcing the Texas A&M Univer sity system to hire additional personnel, said Chancel lor Jack Williams. Williams was speaking to the Legislative Budget Board Tuesday at Texas A&M University about the system offices budget from September 1979 until Au gust 1981. Williams said the system needs to hire three additional staff members simply to cope with federal requirements. Two persons will be hired for the Af firmative Action office and one person will be hired for the University’s legal office. Williams said the present legal staff is close to being overworked. The University has to have legal advice on all dealings with agencies outside of the system, too, he said, which also contributes to a heavy load on the legal stall. Affirmative Action is administered by the Depart ment of Health, Education and Welfare which recently conducted a compliance review of Texas A&M and 17 other Texas colleges. HEW was checking for civil rights violations, and required a great amount of infor- Gold price rises; dollar value falls United Press International TOKYO — The battered dollar crashed to another low against the Japanese yen and skidded on European money ex changes Tuesday, sending gold to its high est price in history. The greenback hit a low of 187.(X) yen in hectic trading before rebounding slightly to close at 188.00. The Japanese govern ment called the drop “noteworthy" and said it might tighten foreign exchange con trols to stem the dollar’s decline. The U.S. currency also sank in Europe and investors, worried over the dollar’s fu ture, shifted their funds into gold, a tra ditional hedge against economic uncer tainty. In London, precious metal dealers fixed the price of gold Tuesday at $207.50 an ounce, its highest price in history. It was a jump of $6,875 compared with the official closing price Monday night. Demand for gold was so strong that the price inched upward 12.5 cents after the formal fixing. Considerable buying orders came from the Far East, dealers said. The dollar crashed to yet another low of 187 yen on the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market Tuesday, and Japan’s chief cabinet secretary described the drop as “notewor thy.” The dollar ended the day’s trading at 188 yen, down sharply from the previous low of 190.30 and the close of 190.80 on Monday. Immediately after opening at 188.50, the dollar slumped to the new, lower rate. It has lost 26.7 percent in value since Jan. 4, when it was traded at 237 yen. Com pared to the long-established postwar rate of 360 yen, the ratio of depreciation came to 92.5 percent. mation. Texas A&M requires the additional manpower to cope with the program. Williams requested two other employees. Other proposals before the board included a pay in crease request. The panel reviews the budget requests of Texas universities and colleges. Williams requested an 11.9 percent pay increase the first year, and an 8.5 percent raise the second year for the classified category of jobs which includes se cretaries, clerks, and janitors. He also requested a 10 percent first-year and an eight-percent second year increase for the professional job category which includes the administrators. Williams cited the increased cost of living as one reason for the raise, which he said he hoped would be given on merit, not on an across-the-board basis. He also requested that the state pay the workers’ social security contributions. Williams also requested that the state increase the amount it pays into employee insurance from $15 to $30. He also requested that the coverage be extended to retired employees. Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration Clyde Freeman said the proposal would effect 164 employees system-wide. Williams said he felt it was mandatory, lor "good conscience,” to have the insurance for the retirees. Williams requested funds sufficient to give sabbati cals for four percent of the Texas A&M system faculty. He said this would improve the level of teaching. He said sabbaticals were for work, not vacations. Faculty would recieve full pay for one semester, or half pay for a year. He said legislation permits the sabbaticals, but that there is no money available for them. Freeman added that overall, the system’s travel costs had been kept down, saying that people think twice about taking trips when money is tight. Otherwise, if money is easy, he said people will travel at every op portunity. Nonetheless, he said that system employees were required to travel more per month than before. Other changes included the shift of the Texas A&M University Press to the system office. Williams said he hopes the press will continue to be funded through the general fund. Freeman said the total budget request was $1,633,496 for 1979-1980, and $1,768,373 for 1980- 1981. William« said that the budget request was less than those ot other comparable organizations. Taking a break Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley A romp through the construction area of the new who is shown taking a rest break before continuing library addition was tiring for this small black cat on his way. Senate nears final agreement on inheritance tax reduction United Press International AUSTIN — Backers of a major revision in Texas property tax administration con ceded Tuesday that their bill is dead, and a House-Senate conference committee neared final agreement on a sales and in heritance tax reduction that could save taxpayers about $500 million in the next three years. Speaker Bill Clayton said Tuesday he will push a compromise plan to lower property taxes for homeowners, farmers and ranchers and mandate reform of tax administration in an effort to end an im passe in the special legislative session on tax relief. Clayton said he is willing to drop propo sals to limit local tax increases, ban a state income tax, and authorize initiative and re ferendum in order to win House and Se nate approval of a proposed constitutional amendment to submit to voters Nov. 7. The amendment would lower property taxes on homes, farms and ranches $450 million, he said. Clayton said he thinks the compromise will end difficulties in obtaining the 100 votes needed to approve a constitutional amendment in the House. In addition, he said the compromise could resurrect a property tax reform plan rejected by the Senate Monday. Commission to decide if A&M must reduce natural gas use Battalion photo hy Pat O’Malley These cooling towers are one part of the University power plant whose use may have to be curtailed if Texas A&M is not granted an exception to the Gas Utility Docket 600 by the Texas Railroad Commission. By SCOTT PENDLETON Battalion Staff The Railroad Commission of Texas will decide soon whether Texas A&M University must reduce its natural gas consumption. The Commission ruled in 1975 that, starting in 1981, gas suppliers must cut by 10 percent gas delivery to all consumers who use more than three million cubic feet per day. By 1984, gas delivery must be cut 25 percent. Texas A&M uses about 10 million cubic feet of gas per day. Three University officials and an outside engineering consultant ap peared last week before the Railroad Commission in Austin to request an exception to the ruling, called Gas Utility Docket 600. Ed Davis, University associate vice president of business affairs, said he feels confident that the re quest will be granted, as similar ones have in the past. Davis was one of those present at the meeting. “We believe we’ve made a good case,” Davis said. “We believe that Lone Star has done a good job of supporting our case. ” The Lone Star Gas Company, Texas A&M’s supplier, supported the University’s request before the Railroad Com mission. Texas A&M isn’t the only natural gas user requesting an exception to GUD 600. ALCOA aluminum applied for and received such an ex ception based on the argument that compliance would harm the com pany economically. The cities of Bryan, Denton, Gar land, and Greenville have all re quested exemptions on the basis of economic hardship. Decisions on those requests are still pending. GUD 600 was written in light of dwindling supplies of natural gas. But Alan Tarrant, of Lone Star Gas, says that supply is more of an eco nomic question. “Yes, we have the ability to con tinue service,” Tarrant said. Lone Star discovers and develops re serves as is economically justifiable. “We are currently maintaining a 12-year reserve,” Tarrant said. One reason that Texas A&M wants to continue to rely solely on natural gas is the efficiency of the present power plant. Since 1932, the University has been employing the concept of “total energy” — get ting the most energy through effi cient production techniques. For instance, Texas A&M has a boiler that uses waste heat from other boilers to produce part of its output. And the exhaust steam from the generators is used to warm cam pus buildings. “Of the alternatives available to us right now, the present system is far more efficient, Davis said. He said the federal government now is promoting a “total energy” concept called “cogeneration.” Cost is another reason for remain ing an all-gas user. Fuel oil can be used in the power plant in an emergency. But to use fuel oil full time, the boilers would have to be modified at a cost of as much as 10 million dollars. The waste heat boiler can’t be converted to use fuel oil, which would result in loss of 2 of its prod uction. Counting the cost of fuel oil alone, Texas A&M would have to spend over $7,000 a day more for power. The boilers can’t be converted to burn coal. Building another power plant off campus is financially im possible, University officials say, not only because of the high building cost but because there are still $20 million worth of bonds outstanding on the current power plant. Tarrant told the commission there are other reasons to grant Texas A&M an exception to GUD 600. He said that the University is an ideal customer because its absolute peak use day is in the summer. This helps smooth out the gas company’s deliv ery curve, which financially benefits other customers. Industrial users such as Texas A&M are lowest in priority on the list of gas users. On winter days when gas demand peaks, gas supplies for industries are some times curtailed so that priority users will have enough. Texas A&M, which only uses 10 percent more gas during the winter than summer, hasn’t had its supply curtailed in the last two years. "Everybody we’ve run it by seems to like it,” Clayton said. Clayton’s plan is close to a compromise suggested earlier in the afternoon by two Dallas representatives who opposed his earlier efforts to win approval of a constitu tional amendment calling for new re straints on government taxing and spend ing authority. Mayor s tight pants attract old lady’s boot United Press International LOCHBUIE, Colo. — Ina Norstrom Zimmerhackel, 88, was upset and Mayor Joe Leurquin was too close for his own good. “We’ve argued and talked and where have we gotten? No place,” Mrs. Zim merhackel said. “I’m a rather small per son. And the seat of his pants was stretched so tightly over his rear end, it attracted my attention.” So she kicked him in the seat. Mrs. Zimmerhackel said she became upset with Leurquin last week when he adjourned a hastily called meeting to select a new police chief because he ob jected to a citizen’s comment. The citizen had complained that the meeting was “ hush, hush . “I walked up to his (Leurquin’s) table and told him that he didn’t own that build ing, that he had been elected to the office to serve the people, and I let him know I didn’t think he was doing a very good job of it,” she said. Mrs. Zimmerhackel, who has lived in Lochbuie 15 years, said as the meeting ended and the crowd of more than 100 persons left the building, she walked be hind and delivered her first blow to Leurquin’s rear end. She said the mayor turned and glared and she kicked him again. “I didn’t change my expression,” Mrs. Zimmerhackel said. “When he turned around, I thought, heck, I didn’t know I could kick that high. Just to be sure, I kicked him again,” she said. “I’m not the least bit sorry for it.” Leurquin, who said he closed the meet ing because of the “hostility” he saw among some citizens gathered in the au ditorium, said he thought the kicking inci dent was “funny.” “I felt this bump and there’s this little old lady and she’s got her knee in my fanny, he said.