Wednesday, July 3, 1985/The Battalion/Page 5 *£| City prepares j homecoming >11 for hostages ? 0Ve i'aiii ny of i t - m build s -be said, will i boost | ects the required )lve ion water dt] ' early o n. He Hy had I 50 feet s a dept] •n-Galvet ’ 'he liott iin two eepers. ) Dianne, ' to rete ey arrive 1 spokesn conferes He and ■e hijacl 7 which lece. ilhed brit t before that hei e was hap me with, 'N IES! or takinc afe jping 4 tigators , Inc, I 'er londj ^eps; (Of s IS IN E Dr. Associated Press LAREDO — Yellow ribbons, marching bands and a drill team await freed TWA hijacking hostages Vicente Garza and Robert Traut- mann when they return home, city officials said Tuesday. “We are overjoyed to have them back,” Mayor Aldo Tatangelo said. Garza, 53, and his son-in-law, 37, were due back home late Wednesday after their 17-day ordeal in the hands of Shiite Mozlems in Beirut. They were among 39 Americans held in Lebanon for 17 days by the terrorists, who commandeered a TWA jet bound from Athens to Rome. Garza’s brother-in-law, Javier Santos, said three jets provided by two Laredo banks would be sent to New York’s Kennedy Airport Wednesday to pick up Garza and Trautmann. TWA (lew some of the released Americans to Andrews Air Force Base Tuesday and reported Garza was on that flight. But Santos said his brother-in-law was not on the T uesday flight and would arrive in the United States with his son-in-law Wednesday. Garza’s wife Irma, 48, her daugh ter Irma Trautmann, 31, and other family members were to leave early Wednesday for New York for a re union. Both Mrs. Garza and Mrs. Traut mann, (Robert Trautmann’s wife), and their daughters Adriana Garza, 13; Ashley Trautmann, 4; and Kath erine Trautmann, 3, also were aboard the hijacked jet. They were released shortly after the incident began. Santos said the freed Laredoans would hold a short news conference at the local airport once they arrive, then go home for a private family re union. The tnavor said Laredo residents were stunned by the hijacking and held 24-hour prayer vigils at local churches. “Every mailbox and doorknob on city businesses had a yellow ribbon,” he said. Funky Winkerbean A THIRTY-DOLLAR WAVV^INS TICKET FOR (WJ BAND .V? NOOd m X GOING TO EXPLAIN THIS BACK AT SCHOOL? by Tom Batiuk QOO OUGHT TO TRO WRITING IT UP ! Rowlett residents waiting for water Youngest U.S. battleship sees a lot of idle time Associated Press The Battleship Wisconsin, slated for renovation and reassignment at Corpus Christi in the next decade, is the youngest of the nation’s battle ships hut nas been idle for more time than it’s been in service. The ship, launched Dec. 7, 1943, was commissioned April 16, 1944. Just 15 years later, it was taken out of commission and relegated to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where it has remained part of the Navy’s mothball fleet. Emblazoned with the No. 64 on its bow, the vessel has nine 16-inch guns, capable of a top speed of 35 knots, and when in service, carried 95 officers and 2,270 enlisted men. It's 887 feet long, nearly the length of three football fields, and its en gines can put out 212,000 horse power. According to Jane’s Fighting Ships, the definitive reference book of warships, current Defense De partment estimates indicate it will cost $60 million a year to operate the Wisconsin after expenditures of $458.4 million to relit it. The reno vation is expected to take about two years. Among the changes are an addi tion of electronic warfare systems and modernized radar systems, re placement of four twin 5-inch gun mounts with two quadruple Toma hawk missile launchers, and installa tion of Harpoon missiles. The Wisconsin, slated for reassignment at Corpus Christi, and its sister ships are “the most heavily ar moured U.S. warships ever constructed.” — Jane’s Fighting Ships Jane’s calls the Wisconsin and its sister ships Iowa, Missouri and New Jersey “the most heavily armoured U.S. warships ever constructed.” Its 16-inch guns fire 2,700-pound projectiles — about (he same weight as a compact car — to a maximum distance of 23 miles. Jane’s notes that the Navy no longer manufactures shells for the 16-inch guns, but has a stockpile of 21,300 of them at three arsenals around the country. The addition of the Tomahawk missiles will give it a firing range of more than 250 miles. A 1976 history of battleships indi cates the Wisconsin and similar ships were mothballed in the late 1950s because “these expensive warships had become obsolete for the mission for which they had been designed and built.” Robert O. Dulin writes in “Battle ships: U.S. Battleships in World War II,” that the Iowa and Wisconsin were cannabalized in the mid 1960s to speed up the renovations of the New Jersey, which was assigned to Vietnam duty. During its war career, the Wiscon sin was in the west Pacific immedi ately after it was commissioned and joined the Third Fleet Dec. 9, 1944. It participated in all major Pacific naval operations until the Japanese surrencfer. It was inactivated July 1, 1948, then recommissioned March 3, 1951 and sent to Korea. On March 15, 1952, it was hit by a 152 mm shell fired from an enemy coastal battery. The damage, the only combat damage the ship ever sustained, injured three crewmen and left a 24-inch by 30-inch hole on the second level deck on the star- hoard side. Four days later, the ship left Ko rea. On May 6, 1956, it collided off Norfolk, Va., with an escort de stroyer, Eaton, which sank. The Wis consin’s bow section was replaced later. On March 8, 1959, the Wisconsin was placed out of commission and assigned to Philadelphia. Associated Press ROWLETT — Some residents in this Texas town are finding it hard to live a clean life these days. Dawla Boyd says she can’t wash her clothes on the weekend and some week nights. And other residents mostly in the western parts of Rowlett said Mon- day that their water pressure is so low that they have problems flushing toilets, taking a bath or just washing their hands. “It takes five minutes just to fill a glass of water,” Boyd told The Dallas Morning News. The problem stems from inordi nately small pipes that allow only a small amount of water to pass through at any one time, officials said. City officials acknowledge there is a lack of water pressure in some areas but say that the problem should be resolved by July 15 when the first water lines are run to a new two-million gallon ground storage tank for Rowlett, located northeast of Dallas. Meanwhile, residents primarily in the western part of this small city continue to face water pressure problems. Resident Kathy Ladebauche said, “We kept sticking to the pool slide because there wasn’t enough water to keep it wet.” The town’s growth is partly re sponsible for the water pressure problems, officials said. John Schroy, a Rowlett City Coun cil member, said, “We’re working as fast as we can and in a few weeks, the water should flow easy again. Our town is just growing faster than an ticipated and the hot summer kind of creeped up on us.” Schroy told The News that census figures predicted the city would have about 10,000 residents this year but the actual number is closer to 13,000. The new ground storage is supposed to accommodate a popula tion of 30,000. “Our problem is not with the sup ply of water — because we’ve got plenty of it — but it’s the bottlenecks in the distribution system,” he said. Public Works Director N.L. Stew art said pipes carrying the water are not big enough to carry the volume of water needed during peak morn ing, evening and weekend periods. Schroy said if the current system is strained in the case of a fire, water from nearby Lake Ray Hubbard could be used to control the blaze. The city first became aware of a water pressure problem last sum mer, when they started making plans for improving the lines. Cable group’s delay costing Austin money Associated Press AUST IN — Austin city officials say the delay of Austin Cablevision in installing a cable network de signed to help operate traffic lights is losing the city an annual savings of about $5 million. Austin Cablevision said the net work has been delayed because of a five-year plan to expand its services from the current 23 and 33 channels to 54 channels. According to a consultant’s recent report, the city could save $4.8 mil lion yearly in costs of operating traf fic lights if it had access to the cable network. That access was part of the franchise agreement made by Austin Cablevision. Don Smith, city cable officer, said an additional $1 million could he saved if the city telephone system is hooked into the network. Ching Wu, assistant director of the Austin Urban Transportation Department, said the city has traffic lights at 480 intersections and only 250 are controlled by a central com puter because telephone lines are not available for the signals. Independence Sale Mon. July I thru Sat.July 6 (Closed on July 4) All books 10% Off North Face 10199896 3 piece set Carry-on, Garment £ Brief. 289°- Tents Great Wstn 10 Timberline Z Pine Bluff Nic Dome 5phinx H VE Z4 '85 Sleeping bags Twilight Centaur Req. Texas Sleeper, Junior Texas Sleeper, Adult All others 10% off Shoes $ boots FWban a*Asolo Med.Wt. Hiking Boot Woodies 159^? 109°-? SO** 39** cT? Breeze Hiking Boots 5900 cT Herman’s Walking Shoe 59^