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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1983)
4 Page 4C/The Battalion/Monday, August 29, 1983 A&M a stable force for local economy by Jill Slayman Battalion Reporter Texas A&M University — the center of the Bryan-College Sta tion area — may be one of the main reasons the local economy is stable and the unemployment rate is the lowest in the state. Hampton Patterson, labor market analyst of the local Texas Employment Commission, says the unemployment rate for the Bryan-College Station area was the lowest in Texas at 4.1 per cent for the month of June. In May, the rate was 3.9 percent, the lowest in the nation. In con trast, the Highest unemploy ment rate in the nation in May was in Laredo at 26.2 percent. Patterson said government- supported organizations such as state-funded universities and military bases help stabilize the areas in which they are located, simply because there tends to be less lay-off within government positions. Mary Jo Powell, assistant dire ctor for public information at Texas A&M, said a rough esti mate of all University and Sys tem employees whose head quarters are at College Station is about 6,000. All of those are non-faculty members. There are about 2,100 faculty-ranked employees involved in either teaching or research. Powell said the 1982 payroll for Texas A&M was $184.3 mil lion, which was up $19.2 million from 198 1. The were 9,889 per manent Texas A&M employees in Bryan-College Station. Stu dent workers who list a Bryan- College Station permanent address are included in the fi gure. The employee turnover is seasonal, Powell said. A large number of non-faculty positions open following a graduation commencement. Powell said clerk/typist, sec retary and senior secretary posi tions are usually open all the time. Food service positions are seasonal; they are cut somewhat during the summer. There is a phone number which can be called to hear in formation on what University jobs are available. The jobline is up-dated every day, Powell said. Powell also said the University has a strong impact on the local economy. a alone contribute i year for food. “Students $95 million housing, and clothing,” she said. Charles Gillespie, assistant di rector of personnel at Texas A&M, said another major reason for the continued stabil ity of the local economy is the movement of new business into the area. to Bn' A member of the Bryan- College Station Chamber of Commerce, Gillespie said the area has high business ethics which helps draw new industry. The number of unions and wel fare recipients is fairly low, he said, and there is a sense of pride that industries look for. PRECISION HAIR DESIGNS FOR MEN AND WOMEN WELCOME BACK AGGIES Pat Mann, executive presi dent of the Bryan-College Sta tion Chamber of Commerce, said 65 new businesses were in corporated into the area in January, February and March. The figures have been about the same for the two preceding vears, he said. 696-3003 OPEN MON.-SAT. AT 9:00 WOODS TONE CENTER 909C Harvey Rd. (Hwy. 30) College Station We use F F M & recommend. ^1 Clip & Save this ad for $3.00 off any hairstyle. (Offer expires Oct. 31) The oil industry has slowed somewhat locally, but compared to other parts of the state, a lot of drilling is still done here, he said. Access to Houston for ship ment of goods is another factor to which Gillespie attributes the favorability of Bryan-College Station to industry. He said he feels that another industry drawing force may be the pros pect of recruiting high- technology employees from Texas A&M. Cable offers choice For families with cable tele vision, agreeing on a program to watch can be a difficult task. The list of cable programs seems endless compared to the limited choices during the early years of television broadcasting and the list just keeps on growing along with cable television. Bryan-College Station resi dents have been served for the past 13 years by two cable tele vision companies — Midwest Video and Community Cable- vision. Midwest offers the viewer 26 channels. Community offers 32 channels, many the same as Midwest. Both com pete for the same customers in Bryan-College Station. Both Midwest and Com munity offer local viewers a basic program package as well as premium services. ALL THIS AND SO MUCH MORE! LOCAL CABLE TV The basic packages of both Midwest and Community con sist of programs devoted to sports — FSPN, news — CNN, music — MTV, reli gious — CBN, and Spanish — SIN. The cable systems also car ry Bryan’s KBTX and Texas A&M’s KAMU-TV. All three major networks — ABC, CBS, NBC — are carried in the basic packages. The cost of the basic service is about $6 per month. elude the movie channels and special entertainment prog rams. The Movie Channel and Home Box Office are offered by both Midwest and Community. Community also offers the Playboy channel and Cinemax. The cost per premium channel is about $8 per month. limit the authority of states and cities to regulate cable televison. The College Station City Council donated $370 to the Texas Municipal League Cable Defense Fund to sup port its lobbying efforts against the bill. Midwest and Community offer services to all areas of Bryan-College Station includ ing the Texas A&M campus. Both Midwest and Com munity offer the supersta tions — WTBS in Atlanta and WGN in Chicago plus Hous ton’s KTXH. T hese supersta tions c^rry such programs as old, classic movies and sport ing events. The superstations are included in the basic pack ages. Each fall, the cable firms have sign-up booths on cam pus. This year both Midwest and Community will set up booths in the Commons. Mid west also will have booths in the Corps dorm lounge areas. A provision of the bill would allow the FCC to eli minate the cities’ authority to restrict subscription rates for basic service if the commission determines there are “reason ably available alternatives to the basic service.” The three superstations were added to Midwest Cable Co.’s program in July after they were taken off in March of this year. In order to assure prompt service, students should sign up when arriving for the fall semester. WTBS-TV Atlanta, WOR- TV New York, and WGN-TV Chicago were dropped in March when Copyright Royalty Tribunal increased the cumpulsory license fees for long distance signals. The premium services offered by the cable firms in- Midwest Cable Co. will have new rates for this year. The College Station city council approved rate changes of $4 to $6 for regular service and $2.50 to $4 for the supersta tions. A provision of the bill is a redefinition of basic service. Previously, basic service in cluded public, educational or governmental programming. It is now only defined as “the retransmission of broadcast signals.” Currently any rate in creases requests must be approved by the city council. However, if Senate Bill 66 is approved, that may change. The controversial bill would Also, the bill would require cable systems with 20 or more channels to reserve 10 percent of available channels for use by public, educational or gov ernmental programmers only. Midwest Video Corp. will have a government access channel starting next month. The access channel will be 13, which now is a duplication of Channel 3 in Bryan. The gov ernment access channel he used for such thing an nonncing city councilm ings and special electa Midwest also hasaccessw channel. Not only viewers arc cerned with a cable ct panics’ programming, FCC also is concerned. FCC has to be keptuptoi on programming. “The FCC is not soi concerned with what type programs you arecarnin it is with where you arc rying them,” Midwest's! tant manager Steve said. “Some bands are set special things like avia and if you leak into oik those signals you can and possibly have yourla taken away.” Cable companies not have to have a license, also have to be franchise^ the city council. Mid* which is franchised by the council every ten years,is for refranchising in 1988 “1 don’t anticipate problem in having ourlt chise renewed,” Beasley “We try to keep in touch,! the city council about programs and any proti that they might see. Ik one reason I think wedi have any trouble getting rate increase.” ,o< HIGHEST Quality NAME BRANDS \\ o% O J <s> 5? ELECTRONICS HOMECRAFT m m mEm m W m mm : mEm. EE 893-8097 1931 *. TKXAS-C.9. BUD WAf&vQtXSWAGEN) “ONE STOP SHOPPtm FOR ALL TOM AUDIO A VIDEO NEEDS* lay-a-way HOURS 9-3 Sat. 9-6 Mon.-Fri. YOUR FULL SERVICE DEALER with SELECTION AND LOWER PRICES O ^ *x%% * ° * <s> -A v® xp -Q •?- Chamber continued from page 1 meet visiting celebrities who come to Texas A&M. “The community informa tion committee is an effort to form a bridge between Texas A&M and the rest of the com munity,” Bell said. The College Station branch also plans the Brazos De Dios Rodeo and festival scheduled for April 19-21 and the Texas Triathlon, a competition involv ing swimming, running and cycling that is co-sponsored by the Texas A&M Extramurals Department. The Bryan branch of the Chamber of Commerce is geared more toward the busi ness community. Besides the seminars pro vided by the small business council, the Bryan branch is in volved in stimulating growth in agriculture, industry and educa tion for Bryan-College Station. , The agriculture division se cures buyers for the Brazos County Youth Livestock Show held each March. The division also provides information to area farmers and ranchers on improving the quality and quan tity of hay and beef. Pat Siegert, agricultural divi sion vice president, said the ob ject of his division for 1983 is to provide recognition for the agri cultural community in the Bryan-College Station area. He said he also wants to enhance the role agriculture plays in the local economy and encourajt community’s youth tocoi careers in agriculture. The industrial division dinates the effortsoftheft County Industrial Foura the Bryan Development ation, the College Station dustrial Development Fo« lion and Texas A&Min»| ing new industries tothe^t Ben Hardeman, vice] dent commercial division, the primary goal of his® is to increase involvement awareness of the small bin community in the clia®! activities. A second goal, he said increase minority business! cipation and produce tht Bt azos Valley Econoniif| look conference for LOl Bosi Mar Nor Uni uc: Uni Gee New Rates show < A 3.5 oz. serving of FROZEN YO GURT is just 130 calories. Although our frozen yogurt reminds man) people of the finest ice cream it has 40% less calories and one quarter the cholesterol, Look Through This Battalion For Several Buy One Get One Free Coupons!! ONE LITTLE TASTE IS ALL IT TAKES. Woodstone Center 913 E. Harvey Rd. 696-5311