’age 12
20,1982
>s
Serving the University community
Vol. 76 No. 15 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, September 21, 1982
Research projects destroyed in fire
by Beverly Hamilton
Battalion Staff
More than $ 1 million worth of re
search projects on the Texas A&M
west campus were destroyed Monday
night when the building in which they
were housed was gutted by fire.
The experimental engine equip
ment which was destroyed was being
used to test alternative fuel sources,
said Dr. Edward Hiler, head of Texas
A&M’s Agricultural Engineering De
partment. Several other alternative
fuel projects and a water project
being conducted by graduate stu
dents also were destroyed.
Hiler said the fire quickly spread
throughout half the building after it
apparently started in the south end.
He said the fire could have been
fueled by the foam insulation in the
walls.
He said the other half of the build
ing was badly damaged by smoke.
The cause of the fire, which started
about 6 p.m. in the Agricultural En
gineering Research Lab on Agro
nomy Road has not been determined,
said Charles Yeager, College Station
assistant fire chief.
“The fire destroyed everything on
the south end of the building includ
ing projects and equipment,” Yeager
said.
Yeager said the building contained
several drums of oil, cylinders con
taining experiments and alcohol
propane. All of the eurothane foam
insulation on the building burned, he
said, as well as wood and storage con
tainers.
“They had quite a bit of combusti
bles in the area,” he said.
College Station firefighter Jon
Mies was taken to St. Joseph Hospital
for heat exhaustion and smoke in
halation. He was treated and re
leased.
Several other firemen were treated
at the scene of the fire for smoke in-
halation and heat exhaustion.
No one was in the building when
the fire erupted, Yeager said.
“The fnajor loss was to some of the
graduate students,” Yeager said.
“They had a year or two tied up in
those projects.”
College Station firemen were in
vestigating the scene of the fire today
and expect to determine the fire’s
cause by later in the week.
staff photo by David Fisher
A College Station fireman takes an oxygen break
proposed tax increase
/eekend
)St Missi
get unit
by Hope E. Paasch
Battalion Staff
, The 1983 Brazos County Appraisal
ri i' 1 District budget was disapproved
en Monday night by College Station
school board trustees. Earlier this
month the board approved the
budget.
k . Board members said they voted
\ for the disapproval at least partially
because they were concerned about
the rationale behind the 47 percent
inn disti increase over the 1982 budget. Since
s, pm property reappraisal was supposed to
to LSI
have been completed in 1982, trus
tees said they did not understand the
increase requested in the 1983
budget. The proposed budget calls
for six additional employees, includ
ing four appraisers.
Trustee John Reagor said the
appraisal district has not provided the
board with enough information to
justify the budget request.
“We have asked (the appraisal dis
trict) for the information and we ha
ven’t received it,” he said. The infor
mation sought by the board includes
estimated expenditures for 1982,
reasons for the wide range in salaries
of field appraisers, basis for car allo
wances and documentation of other
appropriations.
Several board members said they
wanted to disapprove the budget be
cause the appraisal district has not
been cooperative in completing a cer
tified tax roll.
Trustee Bill Wasson said: “This is a
vindictive vote on my part. I don’t
care if they get a budget at all. As far
as I’m concerned, they can go to the
district judge for their budget — and
I understand that is one of their op
tions.”
For the budget to be nullified,
three of the five taxing entities in Bra
zos County must vote for disapproval.
The City of Bryan has voted for dis
approval, and Reagor said he expects
the City of College Station to with
draw its approval of the budget, too.
If the budget is nullified, the
appraisal district will have 30 days to
submit another budget. If that budget
is not approved, the appraisal district
will have to take its budget request to
the district judge for approval.
In other business, the board voted
to hold a public hearing for a prop
osed 19.5 percent increase in tax re
venues. To gain the extra revenue,
which is needed to balance the school
district’s budget, the tax rate would
rise from 77 cents per $100 to 92 cents
per $100.
The hearing will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 4
in the Oakwood Middle School lib
rary.
The board also adopted a policy for
drug-sniffer dog use lor possessions
of school district employees and visi
tors. A policy regarding sniffer dog
searches of student possessions was
adopted by the board in August and
board members said it was necessary
to have a similar policy for others who
may be on campus.
The policy authorizes the use of the
dogs to locate alcohol and drugs on
school property.
y and sf . I *
^Reagan cutbacks force PBS
to look elsewhere for funds
as
by Rebeca Zimmermann
Battalion Staff
Cutbacks in federal funding for
public broadcasting have forced
many stations to find additional
sources of revenue.
KAMU-TV and KAMU-FM.
Texas A&M’s educational television
and radio stations, are no exception.
' Nationwide, the budget for the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
will fall from $172 million to $137
million in October, the start of the
new federal fiscal year.
It will fall to $130 million in 1984.
And the Reagan administration
has proposed elimination of all public
broadcasting funding by 1986.
At KAMU-TV, $70,000 was cut
from the station’s budget this year
and $10,000 was cut from KAMU-
FM’s budget.
KAMU plans to make up its losses
with fund-raising activities.
“We increase our goals in other
areas that provide income,” said Mel
Chastain, director of educational
broadcast services at KAMU. Auc
tions, on-the-air appeals, contract
production and underwriting are
methods used to raise money.
The radio and TV stations are
funded differently, Chastain said.
The TV station requires almost $ 1
million a year to function; the radio
station has a yearly budget of more
than $100,000.
The University contributes about
$450,000 to KAMU-TV for faculty
members’ salaries.
The radio station receives $25,000
a year from the University to operate.
The current community grant —
federal funds — for KAMU-FM is
$30,000. This leaves about $70,000 to
be raised to pay for staff members’
salaries.
Chastain said the radio station has
four on-the-air appeals during the
year. Underwriting and contract pro
duction also provide funds.
KAMU-TV receives a community
service grant — also federal funds —
of about $250,000. This leaves almost
$300,000 to be raised by the station.
The TV station holds an auction
and three on-the-air appeals or festiv
als to raise money. Underwriting of
programs and contract production
also provides funds.
Because of federal budget cuts,
goals for monetary donations have
been increased.
Chastain said the goal for the three
festivals is $50,000. During these fes
tivals, viewers call in and pledge con
tributions to the station.
One such festival held in August
raised almost $ 11,000 despite numer
ous telephone malfunctions, Chastain
said. The festival’s goal was set at
$15,000.
The goal for the April auction is
$47,000, he said.
The station also receives revenue
from contract production — prog
rams produced for outside commer
cial customers. The station’s goal for
contract production is $100,000,
Chastain said.
The football series — 11 Aggie
games and 2 local high school games
shown on KAMU-TV — is fully
underwritten by local businesses,
Chastain said. Before the show, dur
ing breaks and after the show credit is
given to those businesses, which pro
vide $13,000 to $14,000 for the series.
“Without underwriting, we
wouldn’t have a series,” Chastain said.
But he emphasized that under
writing a show is not the same as a
commercial for the business. The
underwriter’s organization, address
and services are given, but it is done in
an informational — not promotional
— way, he said.
Federal spending cuts in other
programs also affect the future of
public broadcasting.
Budget cuts in programs that
sponsor such television series as the
National Endowment for the Huma
nities’ “Great Performances” increase
the series’ costs to each station.
The Stations’ Program Coopera
tive distributes descriptions of prog
rams and their costs. After the show
has been underwritten, the remain
ing costs are picked up by stations that
buy the programs.
When prices become too high, a
station will drop out of the bidding
for the show.
“That’s what happened to us with
‘Nova,’” he said. “Some years we can
afford it, some we can’t.”
See CUTBACKS Page 9
Quick clinics
fast relief to
give
citizens
by Nancy Floeck
Battalion Staff
When Juanita Montgomery, her
husband and their four children
moved to Bryan from Tennessee,
they left behind a doctor familiar with
the children, their asthma attacks and
their chronic ear infections.
With little money in a strange
town, Montgomery said she panicked
the first time her children needed to
see a doctor.
“I didn’t know where to go,” she
said. “Every doctor I called had to
have the money right away. I couldn’t
afford that.”
Added to her worries was the high
price of emergency room treatment.
“If you go to the hospital, you have
to pay an outrageous charge, which I
had to because my little girl was hav
ing an asthma attack,” she said. “It
was in the middle of the night... I took
her to the hospital. They charged
$100 just to walk in the door, which is
kind of ridiculous.
“But they want their money right
on hand. People like me just can’t
afford it.”
Finally, she took her children to the
AM/PM clinic, a minor emergency cli
nic in Bryan that caters to walk-ins,
opens at 7 a.m., closes at 11 p.m. and
charges an average of $23.75 a pa
tient.
“They have given us real good ser
vice and, really, they’re at a minimum
price to what other doctors are,”
Juanita said.
Unlike Montgomery, Nancy Janc-
zak has a family physician. But she
also prefers the convenience clinic.
“I’d rather come here than to a
family doctor, because you get in and
out twice as fast,” she said. “You don’t
have to wait another two hours for an
appointment that was two hours ago.
“I don’t know if it is necessarily
cheaper but my time is money, and
that makes a difference.”
Often called “Docs-in-the-Box,”
the number of minor emergency cli
nics in the United States has
flourished in the past few years, in
creasing from 50 in 1978 to about 600
today and attracting patients and con
troversy along the way.
These convenience clinics often
can be seen along U.S. highways, con
veniently located off exit ramps or in
booming cities filled with transients
— Houston has 35 convenience clinics
— and filled with people who don’t
want to spend several hours waiting to
see a private physician.
“This is sort of like a 7-11,” said Dr.
L.L. Nigliazzo, one of six doctors at
the Bryan minor emergency clinic.
“We see patients sometimes before
their doctors come into the office,
when they can’t get hold of him, or
after he’s gone.
“They’re walk-in clinics. You don’t
have to have an appointment. You
usually get seen within 15, 20 minutes
or less, whereas if you go to a doctor’s
office, you have to sit all day.”
Broken bones that don’t require
surgery, minor cuts requiring stitch
es, burns, rashes, routine shots and
physicals, electrocardiograms and re
moval of small cysts are a few of the
medical problems convenience clinics
are equipped to handle.
Patients with more severe or ur
gent medical problems are referred
to their private physicians, local
emergency rooms or specialists con
tacted by clinic personnel.
Susan Reem, a spokesman for the
National Association of Freestanding
Emergency Centers in Dallas, said the
cost for medical services — including
laboratory work — at a minor
emergency clinic averages about $30
or $35.
Comparatively, the average cost of
an office visit to a private physician
often costs up to $45.
When compared to emergency
room rates, the cost differences grow.
Reem cited cost comparisons of
several typical emergency room ail
ments:
See CLINICS Page 8
inside
Classified 10
National 10
Opinions 2
Sports 9
State 4
Whatsup 5
forecast
Today’s Forecast: High of 81,
low in the high 60s tonight. Partly
doudy skies, drier, cooler day with
less humidity.
Succeeds brother at post
Gemayel elected Lebanon’s president
United Press International
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Amin
Gemayel was elected Lebanon’s new
president by an overwhelming major
ity today, succeeding his brother
Beshir exactly one week after his
brother was assassinated by a bomb.
Amin took 77 votes on the first
ballot by members of Parliament,
easily exceeding the 62 required from
the 92 deputies. There were three
blank ballots and the rest of the mem
bers were absent.
The session opened with five mi
nutes of silence for Amin’s slain
brother and the chamber burst into
applause when Amin’s total passed
the 62 mark.
Amin was made the overwhelming
favorite to take the election when his
only serious opponent, former presi
dent Camille Chamoun, withdrew
from the race Monday.
Amin will succeed President Elias
Sarkis, whose term expires Thursday.
Chamoun, 82, the right-wing lead
er of the National Liberal Party, had
backed President-elect Gemayel but
originally said he would contest the
new vote.
Intensive efforts began immedi
ately to prevent a split in the rightist
Christian ranks. The pressure
mounted on Chamoun to drop out of
the contest when Amin won the en
dorsement of influential Moslems on
Sunday.
Chamoun told reporters Monday
he was withdrawing because of “my
keenness on preserving the unity of
Lebanon and the unity of the
Lebanese people.”
The Moslem community had ini
tially opposed the parliamentary
meeting that elected the slain presi
dent-elect, but the 34-year-old leader
quickly won its confidence.
Amin was always considered more
acceptable to Moslems and in the out
pouring of rage over his brother’s
i assassination, there also was automa
tic sympathy for another member of
the family.
The Moslems distrusted Beshir be
cause of his ruthless conduct as a
Christian militia leader in the 1975-76
civil war, both toward his enemies and
his rivals.
Amin has no such handicap. “I
know Amin was never involved in vio
lence,” Salam said.
Amin was also believed to have
disagreed with his brother’s close ties
to Israel.