Texas A&M
Battalion
Serving the University community
Vol 75 No. 177 USPS 045360 12 Pages
b
College Station, Texas
Thursday, July 22, 1982
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Jim
Israel says
time running
out for PLO
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staff photo by John Ryan
On the dotted line, please
md Colonel Joe T. Haney, director of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band up to join the marching fleet. Fleitman will enter Texas A&M in
assists trombone player Don Fleitman, from Denison, as he signs the fall as a freshman.
United Press International
Israel warned it will wait only “one
to two weeks” before attacking PLO
guerrillas trapped in west Beirut and
shelled the city’s southern suburbs in
retaliation for one of its worst days of
troop losses since the siege began.
Five Israeli soldiers died and six
were wounded in clashes along cease
fire lines Wednesday, and Israel re
ported a Palestinian rocket hit north
ern Galilee for the first time since the
Lebanese invasion began nearly seven
weeks ago.
“The government is determined to
set in motion a military plan to take
Beirut unless an agreement to dis
lodge the terrorists from West Beirut
is reached within one to two weeks,”
said Israeli Cabinet minister Yitzhak
Modai.
Modai, Prime Minster Menachem
Begin’s minister without portfolio,
said the plan “takes into account
house-to-house fighting.”
Begin gave peace efforts slightly
longer — two to three weeks — to
avert a bloody confrontation between
the 6,000 Palestine Liberation Orga
nization fighters trapped in west
Beirut and 35,000 Israeli troops en
circling the city.
Moslem clergymen marched in
west Beirut Wednesday to protest
Israel’s blockade of fresh fruit, veget
ables and meat from the Palestinian-
controlled sector. The march to pro
test the three-week-old siege came on
the Fitr holiday marking the end of
the month-long Moslem fast of
Ramadan.
The PLO continued to press its
willingness for a mutual recognition
agreement that would acknowledge
Israel’s right to exist as a nation in
return for similar concessions from
the Israelis.
Wafa, the Palestinian news agency,
said the PLO was ready to “consider
anything, as long as it helps the Pales
tinians to obtain their rights, includ
ing their independent state within the
Context of a just settlement.”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel
Lewis briefed Begin on President
Reagan’s Tuesday meeting with
Saudi and Syrian foreign ministers
and apparently handed the prime
minister a personal message from the
U.S. leader, Israel Radio said.
Speaking to U.S. Jewish leaders in
Jerusalem later, Begin said Israel has
hesitated to attack Beirut for “huma
nitarian reasons” and for the sake of
its friendship with the United States.
“But we will have to take care that
all the terrorists leave Beirut and
Lebanon,” he said. “None of them will
be left, I can assure you. None of
them.”
/Vatt to sell more offshore land
Beauticians evicted
from White House
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United Press International
WASHINGTON — Interior Sec-
itary Janies Watt’s plan to release
early a billion acres of the nation’s
uter continental shelf to oil and gas
evelopment by 1987 brought cries of
rotest from Congress.
Watt said the plan “will enhance
[he national security, provide jobs,
nd protect the environment, while
aking America less dependent on
oreign oil sources.”
But Sen. Edward Kennedy, D.-
lass., and Rep. Edward Markey, D.-
dass., planned to introduce resolu-
ions of protest against the plan in
jongress on grounds it violates laws
irotecting the outer shelf.
“I’m introducing this resolution be-
ause the secretary’s plan lacks any
ienseof compromise,” Markey said in
a statement. “It lacks any concern for
our environment, and it has a poten
tially devastating impact on our coas
tal states.”
An aide to Kennedy said the sena
tor would introduce a similar resolu
tion.
The new program calls for 41 lease
sales through June 1987. About a bil
lion acres of OCS lands will be consi
dered for leasing during this period,
but only a small percentage of the
area is expected to actually be leased.
“The scope and emphasis of the
new five-year plan is a significant
change from the past programs that
allowed leasing of only two and one
half percent of the OCS over the past
28 years,” Watt said Wednesday.
Watt said 85 percent of America’s
id oil wealth is on publicly
owned hand, two thirds of which is
offshore. He said much of the new oil
is expected to be found off Alaska’s
coast. He noted of the 20,000 wells
drilled in the federal outer continen
tal shelf area, 19,000 are off Lousiana
and only 70 are in frontier areas.
The program calls for 12 offerings
in the Gulf of Mexico, 16 off the Alas
ka coast, four off California, eight off
the Atlantic coast, and one reoffering
sale. Five of the offerings are sche
duled for 1982, beginning in August,
eight in 1984, seven in 1983, nine in
1985, eight in 1986 and four in the
first half of 1987.
Of the 28,000 wells drilled in feder
al and state waters, many have been
dry holes, and less than one third are
producing today.
Watt said lease processing time in
frontier areas will be cut by one-half.
“The market will select lease tracts
instead of the government,” he said.
“Fair market value of the resources
sold will be based on competition, not
solely on government economic
models.”
Drilling in federal waters began in
1954 under the outer continental
shelf Lands Act, with only about 50
million acres of the area offered for
leasing to date. About 22 million acres
have been leased and about 13 million
currently are under lease, almost all
in the Gulf of Mexico.
The program announced today re
places a 1980-1985 program
approved in June 1980. Its adoption
was delayed by court litigation.
n
SISD names new principal
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Reagan
administration has scrubbed plans to
build a $9,000 beauty shop and in
stead decided to evict the beauticians
from the White House entirely.
Yves and Nancy Graux, a hus
band-wife team of beauticians who
have worked in the White House two
days a week for almost five years,
were abruptly ordered to pack up and
leave Wednesday.
The decision will leave Milton
Pitts, a barber, as the lone official ton-
sorial occupant in the White House.
Pitts and the Graux couple had
shared the small salon in the base
ment of the White House in a stormy
relationship.
It was reported last week that the
administration planned to separate
the two facilities, moving the Graux’
operation into a new $9,000 facility in
the Executive Office Building across
the street from the White House.
Nancy Graux said the news that
they must leave came in a sudden
meeting with John Rodgers, a pres
idential assistant. She said that when
she and her husband arrived at the
White House Wednesday for their
usual work, they found all of their
appointments had been canceled.
Rodgers met with them and went
over the content of a letter that stated
that since the president and Vice
President George Bush prefer a diffe
rent barber “and the alternate facili
ties will not be established,” the ser
vices of the Graux couple were no
longer required.
Mrs. Graux said the president was
not involved in the decision, but that
the order came from chief of staff
James Baker. It was Baker who com
mented during a press club speech
last week that the new beauty shop
would be built.
by Hope E. Paasch
Battalion Staff
During Wednesday night’s
emergency session of the College Sta
tion school board, trustees voted to
offer the principalship at A&M Con
solidated High School to assistant
principal Sandra Parker.
Parker, who has served as assistant
principal for the last four years, was
offered the one-year contract by a
unanimous vote of the trustees.
Before becoming assistant princip
al in charge of scheduling, Parker was
an english teacher at the high school.
Also during the emergency meet
ing of the board, trustees directed the
superintendent to hire a local en-
tneering firm to investigate new in-
'ormation for a possible suit over ex
pansion work at A&M Consolidated.
The firm, Walton & Associates in
Bryan, will also inspect all other
school buildings in the College Sta
tion Independent School District to
determine if they meet city building
and fire safety codes.
Earlier this summer, an inspection
of the vocational wing at the high
school, which was added in 1979,
showed that the building did not meet
city fire codes. The CSISD school
board hired a law firm to investigate
whether or not grounds exist for a
suit against either the contractor or
architect for the failure to meet fire
codes.
Board president Bruce Robeck
said a report from the lawyers should
be complete within a month. After
reviewing the report, the board will
decide whether or not to file a suit.
The board has spent $650,000 so
far to bring the addition up to city
standards. At Wednesday’s session,
Jim Ratcliff, a representative of the
architect firm that is handling the re
visions, recommended spending
$112,310 more to put the addition
within fire code specifications.
Ratcliff said $92,000 would be used
to put in new ceilings. A sprinkler
system is being installed at the high
school and the installation procedure
may require replacement of ceilings.
Installation or replacement of door
closers and replacement of glass
panels next to corridor doors is ex
pected to cost $20,310. This figure is
significantly less than the $186,250
previously quoted to the board. Ratc
liff said the original recommendation
had been to replace all doors, closers
and frames.
Cost of modifying windows in the
library, gymnasium and office area is
estimated at $31,950. Again, this fi
gure is down from the $57,600 given
in the original estimate, when re
placement of the windows was
thought to be needed.
Action on Ratcliffs recommenda
tions was delayed until the board
could discuss the plans in detail.
The next session of the board will
be Monday at 7 p.m. in the Oakwood
Middle School library. During the
meeting, trustees will discuss the
search for a new superintendent.
Current superintendent Bruce R.
Anderson has resigned effective Jan.
1.
Regents to discuss
design appropriations
Appropriations for several con
struction projects on the Texas A&M
campus are expected to be primary
items on the agenda of next week’s
meeting of the Texas A&M Universi
ty System Board of Regents.
Discussion for appropriations in
clude:
— A detailed design for the prop
osed Medical Sciences Library
— A preliminary design for the
renovation of the Academic Building
— A preliminary design for a
If
if
proposed engineering/physics
building
—- A design for a new parking area
(PA 71)
— The purchase of land for a tap
facility and transmission line ease
ments for the first phase of the elec
trical utilities expansion.
Also, San Antonio Mayor Henry
Cisneros is expected to present a
proposal to the board to establish a
branch of the Agricultural Experi
ment and Extension Service in San
Antonio.
Area growth creates traffic problems
tza
un
by Rosemary Griffith
Battalion Reporter
As Brazos County continues to
grow, residents are faced with in
creased traffic congestion. Carol D.
Zeigler, district engineer for the
State Department of Highways and
Public Transportation, lives with
this problem every day.
“It has become very difficult for
the transportation business to keep
up with the rapid growth we are ex
periencing here in Brazos County,”
he said.
Public transportation in Texas is
administered through 24 districts
across the state. Each district is re
sponsible for designing, building
and maintaining highways and farm
roads.
The district office in Brazos
County is responsible for 10 coun
ties. Boundaries extend to Harris,
Waller, Washington, Walker and
Freestone Counties. The district has
about 2,800 miles of roadway.
Two major problems have occur
red because of the increased popu
lation in Brazos County. First, there
have been tremendous increases in
load weights and in the number of
vehicles.
“These increases have created
structural difficulties,” Zeigler said.
“The last general highway system in
Texas was constructed in 1950 and
the roads are reaching the end of
their structural life.”
The second problem for Brazos
County is rapid industrial growth.
The oil industry alone has experi
enced phenomenal growth during
the past four to five years.
“The highway system is not cap
able of carrying the heavy loads of
oil trucks,” Zeigler said. “These
trucks are doing much of the dam
age to the highways here in the area.
Each new industry is a traffic con-
gestor of its own.
“It is impossible to repair high
ways at the rate necessary to keep
them in good condition.”
Although no new routes are
being considered, Ziegler said there
are plans to expand existing roads,
including major improvements on
U.S. Highway 290 and State High
ways 21, 6, 36 and 79 in this district.
The State Department of High
ways and Public Transportation re
ceives its funding from the state
gasoline tax and from the Federal
Highway Trust Fund.
The principal source of revenue
is the state gasoline tax, currently 5
cents on the gallon — the same as it
was in 1955.
“That 5 cents a gallon tax is a con
stitutional item,” Zeigler said.
“Approximately one-fourth of the
gasoline tax collected by the state
goes to the public school fund. This
means that out of the 5 cents a gallon
tax collected, the highway depart
ment receives only 3.75 cents a gal
lon from the state gasoline tax.”
Some federal aid comes to Texas
from the Federal Highway Trust
Fund, which is mainly derived from
a 4 cent federal gasoline tax.
“For every dollar that the federal
gas tax generates in Texas, 76 cents
comes back to Texas,” Zeigler said.
“That means that the other 24 cents
goes to finance drivers in other
states. >
“Texas is a major contributor to
the Federal Highway Trust Fund,
but half the states receive more
money than they pay in.”
Transportation takes up less of
the state budget than it once did. In
1967 approximately 27 percent of
state appropriations went for public
highways, but in 1981 the share fell
to only 10 percent.
“There are many demands for in
creased budgets before the state
Legislature from various public
groups,” Zeigler said. “The Legisla
ture faces an increasing problem
with balancing state funds to these
different groups.”
He suggested that one possible
solution would be for the Legisla
ture to look at increased vehicle re
gistration rates or higher sales taxes
dn cars and accessories, such as tires.
“Another solution could be for
the Legislature to raise the sales tax
on gasoline,” he said. “This would
increase our funds for improve^
ment, but politicians seem reluctant
to raise taxes.”
inside
Classified 6
National 7
Opinions 2
Sports 9
State 3
Whatsup 12
forecast
Partly cloudy with a 30 percent
chance of rain today and tonight.
Highs in the mid-90s; low in the
70s.