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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1982)
Texas A&M Battalion Serving the University community 176 No. 59 USPS 045360 32 Pages In 2 Sections College Station, Texas Monday, November 22, 1982 laze estroys Duilding ■V fire at 313 College Main Sunday night destroyed the building which brmerly housed the Plasma Center. ■Harry Davis, College Station fire marshal, classified the fire as a suspi cions fire, which means arson may be the cause. He said the fire depart ment is holding the case until all evi dence is gathered. ■No estimates have been made yet oij the damage. No injuries were re- wried. ■The building, located on College Haiti between Church Street and moss Street, was being remodeled nto a game room. Porter said no one vasin the building at the time of the ire, but said someone could have been in the building earlier in the evening. ■ The fire was reported at 11:20 p.m. and five fire trucks, one rescue vehicle and an ambulance were called to the scene. ■Joey Porter, deputy fire marshal, said it took College Station firemen allost an hour to control the fire and a few more hours to put it out. Fire- ban (ought flames which reached nearly 25 feet in height, he said. ■The old brown building, which has Sander block frame, burned quickly, |orter said, because it had wood Kneling inside. He also said the age ofthebuilding made it difficult to put the fire out. ■“It was difficult to put out because it jjan old building and has more than one ceiling inside,” Porter said. Houston tents house jobless A blaze at 313 College Main Sunday night destroyed the building which formerly housed the Plasma reported staff photo by Jorge Casari Center. No injuries the blaze. Regents take no action on proposal United Press International HOUSTON — A makeshift tent city under a bridge near the San Jacinto River east of Houston is the home to about 150 unemployed, homeless people who say they are lucky to have even that much shelter. “This is better than being out on the road worrying about where you are going to lay your head,” said Michael Hammac, 21, who moved to Tent City USA last week with his wife, two young children, sister, step brother and brother-in-law. Weekend rains swept the area, soaking beds, clothes and food, but when it cleared, the residents spread out their belongings in the sunshine to dry over the leaky tents and old cars that serve as their homes. The settlement looks as though it sprang from the pages of John Stein beck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” and is re miniscent of the “Hoovervilles” of The Depression. The community’s “mayor” J.D. Dunn, 37, a former construction worker from Liberty, Texas, said as many as 300 people have lived in the settlement at one time. A similar col ony is located in Beaumont, where several hundred people live. “They come in every day,” Dunn said. But, he said, residents of nearby affluent Houston have not forgotten the less fortunate. Fancy, expensive cars drive down a rocky, dirt road to the colony each day to drop off food, clothing and household goods. Local churches, informed of the economic hardships of the residents, began donating food and helping them find employment. Fresh milk and meat must be brought in daily because there is no refrigeration. Among the donated gifts are live geese and chickens; one resident is fattening a turkey in a cage for a Thanksgiving celebration. Some campers say the gifts have provoked greed, but not all the resi dents accept charity so readily. “A lot of people have had to swal low a lot of pride,” said Herb Shondel, 46, a former data entry supervisor from St. Paul, Minn., who is in charge of dispensing food. “But then they get hungry enough and start looking at their kids. Then they take their share.” A school bus stops daily near the bridge to pick up children who live in the encampment and take them to nearby Sheldon schools. Critics ofthe area say residents are there more for the attention than out of economic need. But, people like Dunn or unemployed truckdriver Floyd Gibbons do not plan to stay in Tent City USA forever. “I never thought anything like this would happen,” said Gibbons, 50, nursing a bad ankle and recovering from a heart attack and stroke last August. “Within the next three to four weeks, I’ll be out of here one way or another.” “The idea is to get out,” said Bill Williams, who with his wife and infant baby have lived for eight months in the tent commune. “It’s a losing battle, mister. That’s all I can say.” Oil firms want to lease University land by Denise Richter Battalion Staff Bflocal oilmen have their way, cows grazing at[the Texas A&M dairy farm soon will have |ore to look at than cars on the highway. Those cows could be sharing their peaceful pastures with drilling rigs if the Brazos Valley oil boom hits the University campus. I At least three oil companies have express ed an interest in leasing land owned by the Texas A&M System, W.C. Freeman, execu- Itivevice chancellor for administration, said at [he regents’ meeting Sunday. I Emil Ogden, head of Chaparral Minerals, said the campus may lie on the Bryan Wood bine field, which was named after the Wood line, an oil-rich geological formation. The 60 wells in the Bryan Woodbine field re producing an estimated 20,000 barrels of oil a day. More than 3 million barrels, valued at $96 million, had been produced through Sept. 30. “This is probably the largest oil field discov ery in Texas in the last 15 years,” Ogden said. Freeman said Lyons Petroleum Inc. and Getty Oil Co. also have expressed interest in leasing the land. The three areas that the companies are in terested in are the north part of the dairy farm; the Hensel Park area, adjacent to the Bryan city limits; and the area behind the College of Veterinary Medicine. “Six months ago we wouldn’t have given you a nickel for (the land),” Ogden said. “But there’s no geology to define the field. We define as we drill.” The question of leasing University land was brought before the committee for mineral leases as a discussion item — no action was taken. And H.R. “Bum” Bright of Dallas, re gents chairman, cautioned the oil company representatives against expecting quick ac tion. “The minerals committee needs to familia rize itself with whafs going on out there,” Bright said. “They probably will want to try to develop information ... and decide what would be the most advantageous way to hand le it. “The University’s basic function to provide education for the youngsters of the state. We will act deliberately and what we hope w ill be effectively from the University’s standpoint.” A $1.65 million facelift for the Academic Building was discussed by members of the the planning and building committee. Two years ago, the cost of renovating the Academic Building was estimated at $1 mil lion. “The extent of the repairs needed was not fully known,” said H.C. “Dulie” Bell of Au stin, committee chairman. “We found condi tions much worse than anyone expected. “It’s a grand old building. It must be pre served and maintained as an A&M land mark.” But Architect Chartier Newton of Austin said that preserving and maintaining the structure will take much time and work. The building is structurally sound, but the building’s masonry is deteriorating, Newton said. Some of the building’s masonry is crack ed; when it rains, water seeps into the mason ry, which accelerates the rate of deterioration, he said. Cast stone on the building also is coming apart and falling off, and the roof and dome have been damaged. Planned renovation includes repairing the masonry, replacing cast stone, re-roofing the building and repairing the skylight at the top of the building. An access ramp will be con structed on both sides of the front entrance and the entrance doors will be replaced by replicas of the doors originally used on the Academic Building. During the meeting of the committee for academic campuses, a request was made for a revolving account in the Department of In dustrial Engineering. This account would help finance regular maintenance, a compu ter operator-programmer, supplies and ma jor repairs not covered by service contracts for hardware and software. ' But the request sparked a discussion of Sys- See REGENTS page 6 Bartering for books by Angel Stokes Battalion Reporter [An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. An arm and a leg for a book? If you need textbooks for next emester and want to save your limbs ■Johnny Flores wants you tojoin the extbook Exchange Service. The Textbook Exchange Service is Bsystem for bartering books designed by Flores, a mechanical engineering iajor from San Antonio. The system ilses a computer to compile a list of students wanting to buy, sell or trade textbooks with other students. “It’s like an exclusive subscription for books,” Flores said. The sopho more entrepreneur said a student can list eight books that he has or needs by class and course number for $1. His name can then be matched directly to another student whose needs corres pond. The forms will be available begin ning Nov. 29 until Dec. 1. for business majors in the Memorial Student Cen ter and the Academic and Agency H Building. Flores said the system will be limited to business majors as a test market to work out the bugs in the system. Flores said he had the idea after reading an article in The Battalion about Barter Systems Inc. in Hous ton. Bartering should work for tex tbooks if big industry can use the bar ter system efficiently, he said. “The hardest part has been finding a sponsor,” Flores said. The Society for Entrepreneurships and New Ven tures will sponsor the Textbook Ex change Service, he said. reshman falls out window A Texas A&M freshman is in satis- ^ctory condition in the intensive care nit at St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan her falling from a third floor dorm indow Saturday night. William Bryan Bell, a freshman ectrical engineering major from ichardson, is under observation at )e hospital but apparently suffered o injuries after falling out his Moore window Saturday night. local National Opinions Sports State What’s up forecast Today’s Forecast: Cloudy skies today with cool temperatures. High in the mid 70s, with tonight’s low in the lower 60s. “He’s fine,” said Greg Creeser, Bell’s roommate. “He’s just sore. “There’s no concussion, no broken bones,” he said. Creeser, a freshman petroleum engineering major from Austin, said when he left the room, Bell was lying on his bed. When he came back into the room, Bell wasn’t there. “The only place he could’ve gone was out the window,” Creeser said. Creeser said Bell had been drink ing and apparently leaned out the window, passed out and fell. A tree below the window probably blocked Bell’s fall, he said. Creeser said Bell has a sore shoul der and sore feet but otherwise feels fine. Spokesmen at St. Joseph Hospital say Bell probably will be released sometime today. Conductor short knocks out lights An electrical short caused a power failure on campus Saturday, the Uni versity Physical Plant director says. “We lost one of the major buss runs in the power plant,” Director Joe J. Estill said. Estill said the buss — or conductor that serves as a common connection for several circuits — shorted out be cause of wear and tear on the system. The entire campus suffered a pow er blackout at about 11 a.m. Saturday. Power was restored to the Memorial Student Center and Kyle Field by ab out 1 p.m., but other parts of the cam pus were without power until about 10 p.m., he said. Santa Claus is coming to town staff photo by John Ryan Santa Claus ushered in the season Sunday afternoon when he came to town for the Holiday Parade in Bryan. Santa will be checking his list between now and Christmas to find out who’s naughty and who’s nice, so be careful!