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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1979)
The Battalion Vol. 73 No. 14 Friday, September 21, 1979 USPS 045 360 12 Pages College Station, Texas Phone 845-2611 Weather Fair to partly cloudy skies with mild temperatures. High today low to mid 80’s with the low tonight near 60. Winds will be 8-12 m.p.h. diminishing in the evening. 1 A crane which broke Thursday at the Kyle Field Construction site is supported by another crane in the foreground. Project Superintendent V. W. Hall said the accident will not cause any major setbacks in the construction schedule. Duplex foreclosures causes trouble for tenants By NANCY ANDERSEN Battalion Reporter Some Texas A&M University students living in duplexes on Georgia Street in College Station are having trouble figuring out where to send their rent checks for September. The 28 duplexes are owned by Personal In vestment Properties (PIP), a California-based firm. They are managed by A&M Realty. On Aug. 29, tenants found letters taped to their doors stating the duplexes were being foreclosed on. They told the tenants their status would not be affected, but that all future rent should be made payable to Jerry Bishop and Lenard Millsap. Tenants questioning A&M Realty about the letter were told to ignore it and pay their September rent to PIP. Tenants who paid PIP received a second letter from Bishop and Millsap on Sept. 10. It said that unless tenants paid the two men immediately, they would be evicted. The only explanation for the change in ownership was a quote from the Deed of Trust, stating the holder of the mortgage may collect rent in the event of any default in the payment of the note. Tenants’ reactions to the letter differed. “I thought it was a big joke — someone trying to get some money and skip town,” tenant Bill Heath said. “I just blew it off.” Ted Krum said he was upset and didn’t know what to do. Kim Elliston, a junior Animal Science major, said she was scared by the letter, and went to A&M Realty for an explana tion. A&M Realty associate Marielene Far rar, who also manages the duplexes, told tenants that Bishop and Millsap were entitled to the rent and their checks would be held until the matter is settled. Bishop and Millsap hold a wrap-around mortgage on the duplexes, Farrar said. This, she explained, means PIP makes payments to Bishop and Millsap and they, in turn, pay the note to the bank. Farrar said she first told students to con tinue to pay A&M Realty because neither she nor PIP were informed of the foreclo sure until Sept.6. After being notified of the foreclosure, Farrar said, she told ten ants to pay Bishop and Millsap. “They are entitled to the rent, ” Farrar said. “But it could have been settled with out any tenants becoming involved.” Millsap refused to comment on the mat ter, and his attorney, W. Tyler Moore, merely said his clients were trying to pay off the note. Several students contacted student legal adviser James W. Locke about the prob lem. Locke said the tenants had three op tions: — ignore the second letter. — stop payments on the first check and pay Bishop and Millsap. — file an interpleader with a court ask ing it to decide who to pay. An interpleader is a formal request to the court to decide who is entitled to re ceive payment for a disputed service or property. While Locke said his advice is confiden tial, he did say the first option might not be wise and the third was impractical for students. Student Government finances ‘Realistic’ budget in works By MERIL EDWARDS Battalion Staff The Texas A&M University student government finance committee spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights accepting, rejecting or revising the budget propasals presented to them by the vice- presidents of the five other committees in the senate. Finance Committee Vice President George Black said he was pleased with the committee hearings as a whole. “They went real smooth,” Black said. “Everyone was cooperative. We re all try ing to make cuts in the budget where we Uranium United Press International ERWIN, Tenn. — The possibility that someone has stolen enough enriched uranium to make an atom bomb strengthened Thursday with a statement by officials that chances of clerical error were “diminishing.” A routine inventory at the Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. plant revealed that at least 20 pounds of the substance was missing and the plant was ordered shut Tuesday until a complete check could be made. Seven investigators have been sent to United Press International WASHINGTON — Grim Senate lead ers met with President Carter Thursday and told reporters the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty will not be ratified un less nearly 3,000 Soviet combat troops are pulled out from Cuba. “I don’t think the SALT treaty has a prayer in Hades unless the Russians do something to de-escalate their presence in Cuba,” Senate Republican Leader How ard Baker, R-Tenn., said after the White House meeting. “The Senate will insist that combat troops not be in Cuba. The combat forces do not belong in Cuba,” said Senate Crane breaks at Kyle Field The main boom of a crane being used on the Kyle Field renovation project broke Thursday morning, but the job’s superin tendent says the accident won’t affect the expected completion date. The boom broke while being used to hang a large concrete beam. Project Superintendent V.W. Hall said the accident, which occured at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, caused considerable damage to the crane and the concrete beam but that there were no injuries. Hall said he doesn’t expect the accident to set back the expected completion date of Nov. 17. He also said it will not cause postponement of the University of Hous ton game, scheduled for Oct. 13. “Parts are already on order for the crane and it should not be too long before it will be back in service.” Although the falling beam hit a portion of Kyle Field, Hall said there was no major damage done to the stadium. The crane is one of 10 being used in the work. can. If everyone remains this cooperative, I think we can have the best managed se nate yet. Black said the total budget allocation is $36,254. He said this is the largest budget ever allocated to the Texas A&M student government. It is an increase of $9,000 over last year’s budget. “We’re looking to have a more fiscally responsible budget this year,” he said. “We want to try to keep up this attitude. The senate has not been known for top fiscal management in the past. Black, the other vice presidents and the senate as a whole are concerned with beef- probably the installation, which processes fuel for atomic submarines and specially equipped aircraft with detection devices were as signed to fly over the site. “As the reports come in, we re more and more thinking that there is less probability of a simple mistake. The probability of a simple error is diminishing,” said Bob Burnett, a director of safeguards with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “The simple mistakes usually flow in rapidly.” Burnett said, however, he has uncov ered nothing in an investigation at the Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Frank Church, D-Idaho. Baker said he wanted to speak out fur ther on the subject, but at Carter’s request has agreed “to give him a little more time while U.S.-Soviet negotiations continue over a Russian combat brigade 90 miles from Florida. Carter briefed Baker, Church, Republi can Jacob Javits of New York and other key senators on the situation as Secretary of State Cyrus Vance arranged another meet ing later in the day with Soviet Ambas sador Anatoly Dobrynin. “The president brought us up to date,” said Church, but declined to elaborate on the options discussed by Carter. The Senate leaders said they agreed that the brigade poses no military threat to the United States, but called it a Soviet chal lenge to Carter and a provocation that should not be ignored. “I do not believe that this issue should be blown up into an international crisis, but it does offend U.S. sensibilities,” Javits, R-N.Y. said after the meeting. “I believe the negotiations are in mid career and one cannot tell how they will go. As far as the United States is con cerned, the administration policy has been set down — that the status quo is unac ceptable. And the status quo is un changed.” Baker was more blunt: “I think we have used too much time. It’s the president’s turn at bat.” Other Senate sources, also regularly in formed on the negotiations, said, “They are progressing slowly, just plugging away at it.” “The Soviets recognize that it is in their interests to find a solution to the problem, because the SALT II treaty hangs in the balance, one Senate source said. However, the source said: “They’re suspicious and they (the Soviets) are still inclined to think the U.S. administration thought up the whole thing. They have a hard time believing that U.S. intelligence didn’t detect the combat troops earlier.” ing up good public relations for student government. Each committee will have approximately $250 to spend on public re lations. In his opening talk to the senate last Wednesday night, student body president Ronnie Kapavik stressed the importance of putting across a good image and of letting the students know what the senate does. Black said one of his primary goals was “to let students know more information about senate activities. We want them to take advantage of the services offered.” Another one of Black’s goals is to man age the budget more professionally and mountain plant to indicate “a diversion took place.” Burnett said the search aircraft, a helicopter and one fixed wing plane, would make slow, low-levels passes over the search area. The idea is to compare the radiation readings of the area with a simi lar survey run in 1977, when presumably no uranium was missing. Burnett, in an interview, said data com ing in from the search that began Wed nesday at the mountain facility also indi cated the uranium has not been acciden tally released into streams in the area. He said the air search would continue for four or five days and would be ex panded to the hilly countryside around the plant if necessary. “It is like looking for a lost item in your home. You keep looking until you look in the final place — then you find it,” Bur nett said. William D. Dirks, head of the NRC’s office of nuclear materials and safeguards, said there is “no indication right now the material has gotten off site.” But he added, “We haven’t ruled out that possibility.” more realistically. For instance, last year the allocation for Muster was $1,500 and the actual cost was $2,048. This year the allocation is $2,300. “We are allowing for overfunds,” Black- said. “The extra money will be used to create a reserve. “I want to control excessive overruns, though. I’ve found some from last year. They are a result of poor managing or not realistically budgeting.” The exact figures for each committee’s budget are under revision now and will be available for publication next week. The plant was ordered shut down Tues day — the first such federal order ever issued — and NRG investigators moved in and began looking through records and re-checking stockpiles. Officials indicated the fuel could be missing through a clerical error or some other “paperwork” mistake. Authorities said, however, theft was not ruled out. NRC spokesman Ken Clark said the re cent publication of plans for building a bomb “further underscores keeping a tight rein on the material they are using at this plant. ” The missing uranium was the talk of the town along the streets of Erwin. “You would hate for some hoods to have stolen it,” said one resident, Mrs. Horace Roller. “Particularly when a paper printed how to make one (an H-bomb).” The NRC would not say exactly how much highly enriched uranium was miss ing at the plant, which makes fuel for the Navy’s nuclear submarines. But under the commission’s regulations, at least 20 pounds must be unaccounted for to war rant a shutdown order. Faculty, staff, students exchange ideas at lunch By MARY JO PRINCE Battalion Reporter A good meal and an exchange of ideas with students are the aim of a series of informal luncheons held by Dr. John Koldus, vice president for student services. Koldus held the first luncheon of this year Wednesday at the Memo rial Student Center. The lunches bring together Uni versity faculty, staff and students in an atmosphere outside the realms of usual academic conferences, Koldus said. The Association of Former Stu dents picks up the tab for these lunches. “A few years ago I initiated a se ries of these informal luncheons in an attempt to bring segments of the university community in closer con tact with one another, Koldus said. He described the noon meals as comfortable, adding that “the agenda is informal, the luncheon light, and the conversation steady.” Main objectives of the luncheons are to share interactions and over come the isolation that can come in an academic atmosphere he said. Koldus held the first luncheons at East Texas State University in Commerce where he was on staff. He carried on the practice when he came to Texas A&M. “I want the participants to share and use these luncheons as a growth experience. We can all learn from each other’s contributions,” Koldus said. Those attending receive a follow-up letter containing a list of the faculty members and students that were present and a brief sum mary of the topic discussed. The College of Medicine, the Of fice of Public Information, and the departments of aerospace engineer ing, civil engineering, education, English, environmental design, plant sciences, physics, and recrea tion and parks were represented at Wednesday’s lunch. Students representing service or ganizations, MSG programs, and the Corps of Cadets also attended. Participants discussed the new Q-drop policies. Many misun derstandings and communication breakdowns were apparant regard ing the new grad course-dropping policies. Both students and faculty had questions regarding pros and cons of the new policy. Even relatively minor topics such as reckless bicycle riders came up after a while. Not suprisingly,, no one could come up with a solution — short of putting campus police on bicycles and patrolling congested areas. SALT in danger, senators tell Carter not just misplaced