Page 14/The Battalion/Wednesday, September 12,1984
Business turns gator into gift
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS —David
Rubenstein knows there’s noth
ing unusual about turning Loui
siana alligators into belts, wallets,
luggage tags and watch straps.
What’s unusual is doing it BYOA
— Bring Your Own Alligator.
Rubenstein has invited hunters
participating in the state’s annual
alligator season to bring him
catches. In return for a healthy
piece of cash, he’ll have their per
sonalized gator gifts ready in time
for Christmas.
Rubenstein Brothers, a men’s
clothing store in downtown New
Orleans, will take an alligator
skin, make sure it is properly
cured, then send it off for a string
of processes from tanning to cut
ting to buckling.
“There’s a lot of people who
just like the macho thing,” said
Rubenstein. “Of course, I’d better
avoid saying macho, in case
there’s some girl gator hunters
out there.”
Alligator season opened Satur
day and runs through Oct. 7.
Louisiana is the nation’s largest
producer of alligator hides, with
an expected harvest of 15,000 to
17,000 this year. Florida is the
next largest producer with 2,000
hides.
Gator skins usually are sold to a
wholesaler, who then exports"
them to Spain or Italy where they
are manufactured into items for
import back into the United
States.
Rubenstein said Louisiana
hunters should skip this multi-na
tional nonsense and come away
with an item that’s intensely per
sonal. Each item will carry the
name of the person who did the
catching.
The one thing a self-caught ga
tor gift will not carry is a cheap
price tag. A belt will run $135,
and that’s with an everyday sort
of buckle. Custom buckles can
run as high as $10,000.
“There are no savings for
bringing in your own skin,”
Rubenstein said. “There’s actu
ally a lot more expense for us to
handle it on a custom basis. The
uniqueness is really what you’re"
getting out of it.”
Lest an amateur wish to join
the fun, Rubenstein warned that
catching an alligator legally is no
easy task.
Would-be hunters must either
own the land they plan to hunt or
secure the owner’s permission,
then apply for permits from the
Department of Wildlife and Fish
eries. Tags are issued according
to the number of acres being
hunted.
Boating around the bayous,
hunters set out lines with big
pieces of chicken attached to
hooks. If the sportsmen find the
line has been pulled from the
stake on which it is hung, they
know only there’s something at
the other end. They do not know
how big that something is.
The method of skinning is
changed each year to prevent
poachers from passing off last
year’s overkill as this year’s legal
catch. The procedure dictates
notches cut into the skin.
“Please bring your alligator in
properly handled,” Rubenstein
said. “We don’t want anyone
dragging a live alligator in on a
rope.”
Subcommittee approves
land exchange on border
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A House sub
committee Tuesday approved a
compromise proposal to allow a land
exchange designed to end a nine-
year dispute involving the Toledo
Bend Reservoir Project on the
Texas-Louisiana border.
The House Agriculture Subcom
mittee on Forests, Family Farms and
Energy approved the bill authoriz
ing the land exchange between the
government and the Sabine River
Authorities of Texas, sending it to
the full panel for consideration in
the near future. A similar measure is
pending in the Senate.
The bill would settle a long-run
ning controversy involving whether
the Sabine River Authorities of
Texas and Louisiana must apply an
nually for exemptions from the Fed
eral Energy Regulatory Commission
land rental charges for the hydro-
power project.
The charges have been assessed
every year on about 34,000 acres of
Sabine National Forest land in Texas
that was inundated during creation
of the 65-mile-long reservoir — the
nation’s fifth largest manmade body
of water.
Under current FERC regulations,
the authorities are exempt from fees
as long as the hydropower project is
operated without profit, but they
must apply for the exemptions an
nually.
“Our fear is that if a federal de
mand or ultimatum is issued to the
authorities to make payment of the
accumulated land rental fees which
began in 1970, the authorities of
Louisiana and Texas would be un
able to pay,” H. David Smith of the
Louisiana authority said.
“A most likely alternative would
be for the Federal Energy Regula
tory Commission to revoke our li
cense and place the Toledo Bend
Reservoir’s operation and mainte
nance in a federal role, thus making
the property a federal liability.
“The escalating rental fees have
increased to the point that the rental
fees for 1983 are expected to be over
$440,000, which exceeds the overall
cost of operation and maintenance
of the Toledo Bend Reservoir,” he
said.
Sam Collins, Sabine River Author
ity of Texas general manager, said
the authorities became concerned
the land might be sold if the Forest
Service decided that the 34,000 acres
were no longer needed.
Under the exchange, the govern
ment would transfer 31,000 acres of
inundated lands, 100 acres of flood-
plain land and a 10.95-acre recre
ation area to the Sabine River Au
thority of Texas. In return, the
authority would give the govern
ment 586 acres of valuable flood-
plain lands and $650,000 in cash.
Originally, a bill was introduced
allowing the exchange that did not
include monetary compensation.
Quality First
SKI CLUB MEETING
TIME: sept. 13
DATE: 7.oo pm
THINK
SKIING
PLACE ; PM. 510 RUDDER TOWER
ACTIVITIES: TRIP SIGN UP, SKI MOVIE,
DOOR PRIZES
Dallas 3,600-acre park
proposed by developer
United Press International
DALLAS — Developer Trammell
Crow announced Tuesday a propo
sal for the city to create a 12-mile-
long, 3,600-acre park studded with
13 small lakes in the greenbelt area,
through which the usually sluggish
Trinity River flows near downtown.
The Ch^in of Lakes project could
be completed on a step-by-step basis
for a total cost of about $46 million,
said Crow, who is not proposing to
build the development himself.
It’s an alternative to the long-dis
cussed Town Lake project city lead
ers have considered — and repeat
edly rejected — for half a century. A
new report on the Town Lake pro
ject is due to be submitted to the City
Council next month.
“We’re just proposing this as ac
tive citizens in the area (and the pro
posal) would seem an ideal solution,”
Crow, the nation’s largest real estate
developer, said.
The project would have to be ap
proved and funded by the City
Council. Money could come from
taxpayer revenues or private dona
tions.
At a news conference in his Loews
Anatole Hotel, Crow enthusiastically
asked, “How else could we get a
3,600-acre park for only $10,000 an
acre?”
Asked what his next step would be
to accomplish the project, Crow re
plied: “I don’t know. Something.”
The land — much of it donated by
the family of developer John Stem-
mons — already is held by the city.
Crow and a group of associates in
terested in the concept commis
sioned the Fort Worth engineering
firm of Carter & Burgess to draw
tentative plans for the Chain of
Lakes project. Carter 8c Burgess de
signed a similar project for the Trin
ity River in Fort Worth.
“Fort Worth did it one bite at a
time,” Gene Carter of the engi
neering firm said. “I have never
been so excited about i project in my
life and I have been at it for quite a
The total project would contain
between 12 and 16 softball fields and
15 to 20 soccer fields, and would bt
connected by 30 to 40 miles ol
hiking and bike trails. The trait
would cross the river at low wateili
dams.
iping,
wildflower fields also would be in
cluded.
Property in the area would been
hanced by the project, Crow said.Ht
has some holdings that now borde
on the greenbelt. He also visualized
residential areas springing up nea
the project after it is completed.
In addition to its recreational a>i
pects, the low dams and aeration
fountains planned in the Chain of I
Lakes project would improve tliei
quality of water in the river. Tlit
flood control function of the presem
greenbelt would be maintained.
Colonel vows to keep flogs flying
United Press International
ep
;d f
flying” is not an unusual creed for a
retired Air Force lieutenant colonel,
but John Tate does not have air
planes on his mind when he says it.
For the fourth time in three dif
ferent cities, thieves have come in
the night to steal Tate’s American
and Texas flags.
But Tate, 67, who discovered the
flags missing from his north San An
tonio home last weekend, vowed
Tuesday that his flags will fly once
.more and that he will make it diffi
cult for anyone to steal them again.
Tate’s flags were taken once when
he lived in Austin and twice in Ard
more, Okla., where he said police
caught the kids who did it. He sus
pects teenagers are responsible for
the latest theft as well.
“They’re probably hanging in
someone’s bedroom,” he said. “I
don’t like it, obviously.”
Tate, a retired lieutenant colonel
who moved to San Antonio in
March, said he paid $600 for a 30-
foot aluminum pole, the flags and a
rope.
“Whoever took the flags mus
have had to stand on their car
something, because they cut tk
rope above the clamp,” he said
“T heir knife was very dull. The
really sawed through the rope
stead of cutting it.”
Although the stolen flags flewfoi
only a few days, Tate said his n
bors already miss them.
“There are people I don’t evet
know who come up to me while thq
walk in the neighborhood and asl
what happened to them,” he said.
Abuse
(continued from page 1)
But, Hyden said, as long as it
seems to be safe the child should be
with the parents.
"However, when you have a situa
tion where it's confirmed or it’s abso
lutely certain that child abuse is oc
curring, you’ve got to stop it,”
Hyden said. “You can’t sit back and
think this is going to stop. If you and
I saw someone really abusing a child
it would be a grave mistake to think
that it is probably a one-time occur-
rance. You cannot just hold your
breath and hope it will go away.”
Detective Kevin Robv of the Col
lege Station Police Department said
they never give out information con
cerning who called in a child abuse
report.
“A lot of times people are not
going to give their names anyway, or
they will give some fictitious name
because they don’t want to get in
volved, but yet they don’t want to see
a child get hurt,” he said.
After the perpetrator is arrested,
the case is turned over to the Brazos
County District Attorney’s Office for
further investigation and prosecu
tion.
“In College Station we have
worked on several cases of decency
and sexual assault of a child,” Roby
said. “The perpetrators have a!
been arrested and prosecution«
pending at this time.”
Roby said that because childra
are more easily intimidated tha
adults, they are prime suspects f«
abuse.
"When kids are growing up, par
ents teach them to do what adultstdl
them to do,” Roby said. "Theyareto
respect their peers, so a kid is going
to do what an adult tells them to do.
“However kids are finally speak
ing out and they are not going tok
touched that way or have something
done to them that is not right or
doesn't feel right.
DELTA UPSILON FRATERNITY
presents...
RISKY BUSINESS PARTY
Sometimes you just have to say “what the —
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 8 P.M. at
Whiterock Hall, across from the Main gate of TAMU.
EVERYONE WELCOME
Call Donny 260-3681 or
Richard 693-1477 for info
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Aggie G.O.P.
Republican Party of Texas A&M
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Voter Registration
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Tables Located at MSC - 1st Floor
Blocker Bldg. - Lobby
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9 A.M.-3 P.M.
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Together we can make a difference
iVext meeting Sept. 18 7:00 102 Blocker
Speaker: T. Boone Pickens
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