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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1979)
he Battalion Vol. 72 No. 138 24 Pages in 2 Sections Thursday, April 19, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Senior countdown Now is that awful time of year when graduating seniors let you know they’re just that. Slouch comments, page 2. o © , <3r^‘ marshal deny a speed trap [ By ROBIN THOMPSON Battalion Reporter ut 26 miles northwest of Texas A&M [•sity on Highway 6 sits the quiet Calvert. It looks like many other Texas towns with one main street, a |xaco station and a city cafe. But a through Calvert should be wary hakes nearly half of its income from |ng tickets. ng with Calvert, Navasota and |e earn a significantly higher per- |e of their income in municipal court lo Bryan and College Station. The [share” of this is from speeding tick- pys Val Robertson, city manager of pta. jlavasota, 11.4 percent of the general Revenue came from municipal court 5,152 of $595,529) in a period iuly 1978 to January 1979. j year in Hearne, 7.4 percent of the fund revenue was gathered in lipal court ($37,700 of $504,700). [in Calvert, the smallest of the three [with a population of 2,072, 47.6 pt ($31,755) of the total general rev- pf $66,637.03 was earned by court ■ contrasts with College Station, ■ earned 5 percent ($177,800 of an |ated $3,071,487.90) and Bryan, earned 3.8 percent ($211,248 of B,270) of its revenue in municipal five ipite the high amount of revenue Irt earns in court. Mayor Cooper P denies that the town is a speed trap, re is what he terms a “unique situa- ln Calvert. have a wide open, four-lane high--- d only one traflEic light, ” he said. He that there is not as much congestion vert to slow traffic as there is in ■ towns like Hearne. e Highway 6, which divides the n two, is owned by the Texas High- epartment, the city of Calvert does t the speed limit on it. But Weise lalvert is completely within its rights ticketing speeders within the city ■ we ask them to do is abide within v,” Weise said. Calvert records show ikat, as time goes on, fewer and fewer law-abiding folks have been driving on Highway 6. The amount of money Calvert gathered in court fines went from $2,187.90 in 1974 to $24,637.75 in 1977. That is an increase of 1,026 percent. It was in 1975 that the town of Calvert started cracking down on what Weise deems “traffic control.” That was the year the city hired Tommy Singleton as city marshal. That same year, the amount of court fines increased by more than $4,000 and has been growing ever since. Singleton was born and raised in Calvert and returned there after retiring from the night club business in Houston. He said the town folks thought he was too young to retire so they put him back to work as the city marshal. One of the first changes Singleton made as the new marshal was replacing the old Please see related story Page 9. handheld radar gun with a K55 radar like that used by the Department of Public Safety. He said he bought the new radar equip ment because his arm got tired of holding the handgun and “you work better if you have something good to work with.” Although Singleton says his duties are varied, he and his two deputies are in complete charge of keeping law and order in Calvert. He apparently spends most of his time patrolling Highway 6. “You’re not doing your job if you’re not working,” he said. As for being a speed trap, Singleton de nies that this is the case for Calvert. “We’re protecting lives,” he said. “You can imagine what this town would be like if I weren’t here. ” Singleton has developed ways to con fuse citizens band radio users and beat radar detecters. To mystify CBers, he says he drives his police car back and forth to each end until they do not know whether he is coming or going, northbound or southbound. He says he never hides from CBers and it makes him angry when he hears them talking about.!tim on the radio. “How can I hide between two parked cars in the middle of downtown?” he asked. Singleton’s trick to beat fuzzbusters works best at night. He uses a squelch but ton to turn his radar signal off, and flips it an quickly when he sees the headlights of an approaching car — when it is too late for the driver to slow down. Both Weise and Singleton agree that strict enforcement of the speed limit is not meant to be a revenue-producing proce dure, but is solely for traffic control. Weise said that before 1975 all the city did was stop speeders and ask them to slow down. He said the city gave out few tickets and a warning was of “no value whatsoever. ” He said he was “a little surprised that so many people are breaking the law.” “We’re not doing anything to them,” Weise said. “They’re doing it to them selves. ” Singleton says he regularly sets his radar on 67 mph and does not issue tickets un less drivers are going at least 10 miles over the speed limit. The cost of a ticket in Calvert is $9.50 plus $1 for every mile over the speed limit a driver is going. This is less than the cost of a ticket in Hearne, Navasota, College Station and Bryan. Weise and Singleton stress that they are not out to get Texas A&M students. “Tell them down at A&M that we’re not picking on the Aggies,” Singleton said. “That radar doesn’t know who it’s picking up.” Conroe anticipates flood, evacuates United Press International Civil Defense teams and local au thorities Wednesday evacuated Conroe residents along the San Jacinto River in an ticipation of a 25-foot crest that would send the rain-swollen river 7 feet over its banks. Waves of moist sea air slamming into a stalled wall of low pressure dumped more than 8 inches of rain in 12 hours on Conroe Wednesday, flooding homes, businesses and schools, blocking roads, stranding some residents and forcing the evacua tions. Rainfall totaled 10 inches by late Wednesday. “It’s getting deeper by the minute,” said Police Capt. Mike Arthur. “The rains have stopped but the concern now is the river, which will crest sometime in the morning. Arthur said seven shelters had b&en set up to house those evacuated and many children had remained at their schools rather than trying to go home on the city’s rain-choked streets. “There are so many subdivisions there’s no way to get an accurate number of how many families we re talking about, ” Arthur said. “We’re still working to get the rest out and will be through the night. The National Weather Service reported that at 3 p.m. the river was at 23.4 feet, its highest level in several years. By early today it was to reach 26 feet, 7 feet over its banks. The weather bureau predicted more rain for the area Wednesday night and to day. “I was told we have a cool front bringing more showers tonight,” Arthur said Wed nesday. “We sure don’t need more rain on top of what we’ve got. ” There were no reports of deaths or in juries from the flooding and damage esti mates were unavailable. Reports of tor nadoes also were unconfirmed. School was dismissed for Thursday and a school district spokesman said some citi zens were renting helicopters to get their children. Gene Medford of the National Weather Service in Houston said the heavy rain started around 4 or 5 a.m. “It’s an isolated circumstance up there at Conroe really,” he said, “but it’s raining east and northeast of there in Liberty County, a little west of Cleveland, and it extends into San Jacinto County. “The reason it rained so much is it moved slowly. It’s real weak, but it doesn’t take much this time of year. ” The San Jacinto River runs just south of Conroe, but Medford said the flooding ap peared to be occurring because “it’s just flat as a table up there. It hasn’t got any where to go when it rains hard.” The thunderstorms were part of a vast system that crossed Texas Wednesday, dumping more than IV2 inches in some areas and adding to flooding problems that had already made streets impassable and evacuated residents in low-lying areas in the Edinburg area. Earlier, about 30 persons in the lower Rio Grande Valley city of Edinburg were told to leave their homes due to 4- and 5-inch pools of water entering houses and closing streets on the city’s east side. Some 6.92 inches of rain fell in the city early Tuesday turning streets into streams and forcing cancellation of classes at Pan American University. City manager Ralph Garza termed the flooding the worst in several years, but there were no reports of injuries. In other areas of the state, rain or fog was reported in temperatures ranging from 50 degrees in the Panhandle to the 70s in southern Texas. Forecasts called for widespread thun derstorms to continue today with warm temperatures. They ‘got the show on the road’ Senate meets, despite rule By DIANE BLAKE Battalion Staff The new student senate suspended rules to “get the show on the road” Wed nesday night. Senate rules prohibit a meeting less than 14 days after the election of new members certified. The newest senate members, including the new president, were elected only Monday. No one, however, made an objection to having the meeting. Ronnie Kapavik, new student body president, addressed the 1979-80 senate and said it can re establish the purpose and credibility of student government. “We have to be committed to the pur pose of student government,” Kapavik said. He told senators they must put aside selfish desires and work for the good of Texas A&M University students. The senate elected Robert Van Winkle as speaker and Dorothy DuBois as speaker pro tempore in its first order of business Wednesday night. Van Winkle was elected by a vote of 39-26. In remarks to the senate, the junior ag education major stressed fairness and impartiality as qualities he would strive for as speaker. He also said that each side of an issue can be heard in senate debate without dragging the meeting on endlessly. DuBois said as speaker pro tempore she would try to improve communications within the senate. The junior political sci ence major was elected by a 42-21 vote. In other business, the senate passed an emergency resolution recommending the defeat of a bill now in a Texas Senate committee. The bill would limit items sold in uni versity bookstores to those which are re lated to education. The resolution says many Texas A&M organizations, such as the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, Fish Drill Team, Residence Hall Association and Debate Club, receive funding from book store profits and “most probably could not function without this funding.” The bill is backed by College Station bookstore owners who feel the Univer sity’s bookstore unfairly competes against private business. Other legislation that received first readings but no vote were a visitation hours recommendation, a financial aid practices investigation act and a semester honors revision resolution. Vice presidents from each of the senate committees — academic affairs, external affairs, finance, rules and regulations, and student services — encouraged the senators to get involved in committee work. John C. Calhoun, academic affairs committee vice president, said that com mittee has worked on issues such as Q-drops, night examinations, teacher re tirement, professor evaluations, and qual ifications for distinguished students. The external affairs vice president, Jeb Hensarling, said his group is responsible for representing Texas A&M in local, state, and national government and in the local business community. Three primary concerns are business and consumer rela tions, city council liaison work and na tional student group affiliation, he said. The finance committee’s work centers on student government budget and stu dent service fees, said its vice president, George Black. He told senators that one of his goals is to conduct a survey to deter mine where students want most of their money to go. Paul Bettencourt’s committee, rules and regulations, is a “dynamic” one, he said, and concerns issues from constitutional rewrites to parking rules to student elec tion regulations. The “catch-all committee” is student services, said its vice president Brad Smith. Next year this committee will look into creating a student government magazine, off-campus food cooperatives and a campus escort service. Peace treaty may prompt widespread terrorism United Press International WASHINGTON —- U.S. embassies around the world have been instructed to be alert for a wave of terrorism sparked by the Egyptian-Israeli settlement. Anthony Quainton, director of the office for Combatting Terrorism, told UPI that U.S. embassies and consulates have been put on a “heightened alert status” after threats from Palestinian groups and sev eral recent terrorist attacks. “We are entering a period of potential problems and we are on the lookout,” he said. “What else can we do?” Each embassy has a “security watch committee, ” made up of representatives of all the main agencies and offices of the in stallation. The committees have been or dered by Washington to step up their re view and reinforcement of security mea sures, including the use of Marine armed guards. A U.S. cultural office in Beirut was heavily damaged by a bomb early Monday and the Beirut Embassy was slightly dam aged earlier by a rocket-propelled gre nade. Quainton said the killing of an American serviceman in Ismir, Turkey, apparently had no connection with the U.S.- sponsored negotiations which led to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. b Hearne bank r College Station United Press International STIN — The Texas Supreme Court esday overturned a lower court de- and ruled the First State Bank of e cannot move to a new location in . Station. ! bank had applied to the State Bank- d in 1976 for permission to move Dege Station and change it named to £e Station Bank. banking board by a 2-1 vote ap- d the change, although the member g the deciding vote had not read the fd of the hearing in the case. existing banks in Bryan and Col lation filed suit in district court chal- ig the board’s decision, and the dis trict court overturned the board’s decision authorizing the move. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed the case again, ruling in favor of the Hearne Bank. Wednesday’s decision by the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Appeals deci sion and ruled the trial court was correct in prohibiting the bank’s move. The Supreme Court decision said the board foiled to consider the impact that moving the bank would have on banking business in Hearne, and also said the board should not have allowed a member who had not read the record in the case to cast the deciding vote on the requested bank move. Splashing among drops of sunlight Some recent summertime weather drew swimmers, splashers and sun- ners to Wofford Cain pool. The pool is now open from noon to 1:30 p.m. and 3-7 p.m. Monday through Friday; and 1-7 p.m. Saturday and Sun day. The area forecast calls for cloudy and humid weather today, with a high temperature near 80. There is a 50 percent chance of precipitation. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper