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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1982)
12, ds The Battalion Serving the University community fol. 75 No. 187 USPS 045360 16 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, August 18, 1982 ) deluxe locking ■ewind, ng lor d more, staff photo by David Fisher Final relief There’s not much a teacher can do to make a final jearable besides giving blanket As, but Charles Warren, Business Analysis 303 professor, tried last Friday. He passed out popsicles to his students during his final to take off a little of the pressure. Chandru Krishna from Lusuka, Zambia gives his popsicle a contemplative lick while trying to figure out the answers to his final. Krishna is a freshman studying business administration. American climbers must end |xpedition to find Noah’s ark I United Press International NKARA, Turkey — A dozen erican climbers — led by a former m-walking astronaut — have only at a week before the first snows :e the suspension of their search the wreckage of Noah’s ark, be- sd perched atop a peak overlook- the Soviet Union. U.S. Embassy officials have not rd from the expedition in nine s and are worried they will not irn before the expected snow next Climbing the 17,000-foot Mount irat during the first three weeks of just is difficult enough even for most experienced climbers. But embassy source said the last week \ugust is “impossible.” The Ankara embassy has not heard from the 12 mountaineers — led by former American astronaut James Irwin, who walked on the moon 11 years ago — since they boarded a bus for eastern Turkey to start their long climb to the north face of the moun tain, which overlooks the Soviet Union. Climbers have been barred from Ararat’s north face for several years because of reported Soviet protests and claims that previous expeditions were run by spies. The peak is only 18 miles south of the Soviet Union andT2 miles west of the Iranian border. Mount Ararat’s snowcapped cone has long fascinated tourists motoring down the hot and dusty road to east ern Turkey’s holiday spots. Even under a sweltering 99 de grees Fahrenheit summer spell, the mountain retains its snow, drawing awestruck watchers who willingly be lieve the legend of Noah and his ark. Among the Moslem Turks, Noah is revered as a prophet. “Various people have said they have seen the ark, yet there has been no real proof,” an American source said. Satellite photographs of the peak had been inconclusive, but the “Ark- on-the-Ararat” lobby maintains the Bible gave sufficient indication that the vessel was left in northeastern Turkey after the Great Flood. A team of Turkish climbers from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara went on an evidence gathering expedition atop the snow capped peak last year, but made no headway. A Turkish military command spokesman in Ankara said he was un aware of the new expedition. But an American source said Turkish head of state Gen. Kenan Evren personally gave the go-ahead for the attempt, the first in about eight years. Turkish authorities do not under estimate the potential for boosting the country’s sagging tourism if even a shred of the Ark is found atop the peak. Despite the lack of news from the American team, the U.S. Embassy said it expected the climbers to return Aug. 23 to Dogubeyazit, the nearest village to Ararat. The team’s Turkish military escorts were believed to be in touch with the nearest base camp. PLO withdrawal to start soon United Press International Israel pulled back slightly along the Lebanon War front to allow the coun try’s Parliament to vote in this week’s presidential election, with all sides predicting an imminent Palestinian withdrawal from Beirut. “We have reached the end of our sorrows, at least on paper,” Lebanese Prime Minister Chefik Wazzan said Tuesday, after meetings with U.S. en voy Philip Habib. The Lebanese Cabinet was sche duled to meet today and approve the final draft agreement for the remov al, possibly starting this weekend, of the Palestine Liberation Organiza tion’s battered forces from west Beirut. Habib was taking the draft to Jeru salem today, while U.S. Undersecret ary of State Morris Draper goes to Damascus to secure the exit of Syrian and allied Palestinian Liberation Army troops from Beirut, Israel Television said. With Israeli troops already pulling back from several main crossing points between Christian east Beirut and the Moslem west, a senior Lebanese source said only two issues remained outstanding. The Palestinians want some of the 7,000 prisoners Israel captured dur ing the war in return for handing over a downed Israeli pilot and the remains of nine Israeli soldiers mis sing since Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon, he said. The Israelis also are still deman ding some method of insuring that all the PLO guerrillas in Beirut will actually leave, the source said. Despite occasional outbursts of shooting and several Israeli recon naissance flights over the Lebanese capital Tuesday, Lebanese leaders emerged confident after their meet ings with Habib. “Implementation will begin after tomorrow’s (today’s) Cabinet meet ing,” Wazzan said, after discussing the PLO removal with Lebanese Pres ident Elias Sarkis, Foreign Minister Fuad Butros and Habib. “I think the negotiations are at their very end now,” former Lebanese Prime Minister Saeb Salam said. Even Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, a hard-liner throughout the negotiations over the Palestinian pull out, agreed: “We are very close to a solution,” said Sharon, who met sepa rately with Habib in Beirut Tuesday. Two Beirut newspapers said the PLO withdrawal would begin Satur day, or even possibly Friday. The pro-Syrian newspaper A1 Sharq said the first guerrillas would leave by road for Damascus after de ployment early Saturday of a 2,000- man U.S., French and Italian multi national force. Military sources in Washington said a U.S. Marine amphibious force now moving toward the eastern Mediterranean was expected to be off the Lebanese coast by late Thursday or Friday. Some 800 U.S. Marines from forces that left Naples, Italy, Monday, will join 800 French paratroopers and Italian troops in monitoring the PLO’s departure. To further ease tension in the be sieged city, Israeli forces pulled back from crossing points between the Christian and Moslem sectors of Beirut at Galerie Semaan and the na tional museum. Lebanese troops took their place. The Christian Phalange forces were given control of the sprawling Beirut international airport area, an Israeli television report said. The pullback at the museum was in preparation for Thursday’s election of a new president in the bullet- pocked Parliament Building, situated on the front lines of the war that ex ploded June 6 with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Pro-Israeli rightist military leader Beshir Gemayel is so far the only de clared candidate. Salam, a key figure in the Moslem community, said Lebanese Moslems were opposed to the elections being held now with the Israeli army still in Beirut and with the complex evacua tion of the PLO still not under way. He said he and his supporters would not take part in Thursday’s scheduled parliamentary session. Ticket books ready for Monday pick up Student coupon books for all sports and football may be picked up beginning Monday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Gate 1 ticket booth at the north end of Kyle Field. A paid fee receipt and a current Texas A&M ID are necessary to pick up or purchase coupon books. Student coupon books may be pur chased at the cash windows of the tick et booth beginning Monday. Student coupon books are $38.50 for football and $50 for all sports. Guest coupon books may be pur chased by married students begin ning Aug. 26 at the Kyle Field ticket booth. Proof of marriage (driver’s license, joint checking account) must be presented at the time of purchase. Guest coupon books are $77 for football tickets and $88.50 for all sports. Master plan in the works it s Board studies by Carol Smith Battalion Reporter Doug and Connie Weedon have three sons who play Little League seball in Bryan. They live in the jonham area on Tabor Road, and they drive across town to Henderson :Park to take their sons to practice and mes. At the end of last season, they formed the Bonham Little League oard, of which they are both mem bers. The board located 50 city- ned acres in north Bryan that they tought could be converted into an hletic complex. The complex would |low the Bonham children to play dose to their homes. I “We’re ready to play next year,” tonnie Weedon said, ” but we need file land.” [ The Bryan Parks and Recreation Advisory Board has been hearing Complaints for the last few years ab out poor maintenance and inadequ- [te facilities within the parks system. The board is now evaluating the parks system and developing a long- range master plan. I Developing the plan will take a [ear, Mike Reuwsaat, a Recreation Ind Parks graduate student at Texas A&M, said. | Reuwsaat, who works part time for uie parks department and has been putting together material for the planning process, said there is a need lor a comprehensive park plan. Bryan City Councilman Ron Blatchley agrees with Reuwsaat. “I am a strong believer in not just running out and doing something makeshift,” he said. Blatchley said the parks director and parks board should stay abreast of concerns and needs of citizens as they relate to the parks. The only way to do that adequ ately, he said, is to have a plan on paper. But a comprehensive park plan will take time, Weedon said. She will sup port the plan, but says it won’t help solve current problems. “The plan will take one year,” she said, “and it could be two years before anything is done.” Bryan has grown by 30,000 people in 30 years. It is located in the sixth- fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States, and its parks sys tem has not kept up with the growth of the city. The problem is not just long range, Weedon said. Maintenance at most of the facilities, she said, is terrible. Dr. Jay Williams, Bryan parks and recreation director, agrees that maintenance has been inadequate, but, he said, there are several reason for it. First -he listed personnel. Since April 13, 1982, when an agreement with an outside contractor was ter minated, the parks department has been in charge of maintenance for the Bryan Utilities Lake Park, in addition Bryan parks problems to the 207 acres of park land in the city, Williams said. “It took most of our 14 people two or three weeks to clean up and do repairs on equipment out there,” he said. “Cleaning that up put us behind and right about that time our softball fields began to give us trouble.” Another problem, Williams said, is frequent equipment breakdown. He said most of the equipment is six, seven and sometimes eight years old. The life expectancy on most of the equipment is usually about five years, he said. “We had one tractor down, and it needed a distributor cap,” he said. “The part had to be ordered out of the factory and it took one month.” He said once a piece of equipment is lost for one or two weeks, it is diffi cult to catch up. In April and May, he said, the spring rains cause a problem because the only maintenance that can be done is edging and trimming. In the meantime, he said, the grass con tinues to grow. These three problems, he said, have caused most of the complaints, but, he said, with the dry weather and properly working equipment, the de partment is finally getting caught up. Williams said he has submitted proposals to the council for more money to help alleviate some of the current problems. One of his propos als would divide the parks system into three zones. Each zone would have five workers to take care of mainte nance in their zone and a special crew of four which would work from zone to zone wherever help is needed. Williams also said he would like to see the utilities lake park out on con tract again because that would free personnel for work on maintenance within the city. The immediate problems are recti fied, he said, but now something must be done about additional facilities. “We don’t want to start anything until a complete plan is done, though,” he said. Jan Winniford, a member of the advisory board, said the board had been hearing for several years that the parks needed some renovations and more adequate maintenance. “The parks department has not been keeping up with the growth of population and demands of the com munity that have resulted from that growth — like the number of softball teams and the growth of soccer,” she said. Blatchley, who was a member of the board before he was elected to the city council, said that hearing com plaints about park conditions doesn’t mean that more parks are needed to alleviate the problem. “What it really means is, what is wrong with our system now?” he asked. “Do we have adequate supervi sion, adequate employees, adequate direction from the parks director?” This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t recognize a need for softball and soc cer playing fields, however, he said. “I wouldn’t want anyone to say I’m sidetracking: them, that I’m reducing the significance of a need by saying ‘show me the plans,”’ Blatchley said. “But, I frankly don’t feel that I can personally react very well to anybody — notjust parks, but streets, sewers or whatever else — without seeing a plan.” Winniford said a plan must be de veloped to get the parks back on the right track. “All of a sudden,” she said, “we’re realizing that we need to do some thing about our parks system. We need a master plan. We need to figure out what we are doing now, what our existing needs are and what the needs will be 10 years down the line.” In the past, Blatchley said, rather than having a plan and updating that plan every year, a plan has been de veloped out of necessity at the last minute. “That happened with the 1977 bond issue that failed,” he said. “We asked ourselves very quickly, ‘what is it we need?’ See PARKS page 12 inside Classified 6 National 8 Opinions 2 Sports 14 State 3 Whatsup 8 forecast Party cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain today. High in the mid-90s; low in the mid-70s. Thurs day’s forecast calls for a slight chance of rain. almanac United Press International Today is Wednesday, Aug. 25, the 237th day of 1982 with 128 to ; follow. j The moon is approaching its first quarter. The morning star is Venus. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. Pianist-composer Leonard Bern stein and actor Sean Connery were born Aug. 25 — Bernstein in 1918, Connery in 1930.