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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1985)
I' Wednesday, September 11,1985/The Battalion/Page 9 Lockdown Prisoners still confined, 4 more deaths occur Sen. Sharp enters Railroad Commission race Associated Press AUSTIN — State Sen. John Sharp, saying he has no ties to the in dustries it regulates, on Tuesday en tered the race for the Democratic nomination for the Texas Railroad Commission. “The sound regulation of oil and gas and the assurance of adequate transportation for all areas of I exas are matters of critical concern at this Associated Press ARLINGTON — For 10 years, Gary Finley has armed himself with a gun, gas mask and slew of chemi cals to combat a million-year-old menace. One could describe him as a di luted version of “The Terminator." But Arnold Schwartzenegger he isn’t. Rather, he’s “The Exterminator," a pest controller equipped with fu migating munitions, an old-fash ioned sense of adventure and a knack for encountering the unusual. Oddly enough, the 34-year-old Arlington resident and owner of Finley Pest Control often stumbles into scenarios which might be found in a motion picture. He’s confronted “mounds of fire ants as large As compact-car hoods,” attacks by hundreds of swarming bees, hordes of ticks chewing up point in our history,” Sharp said. The Victoria lawmaker lias served two terms in the Texas House and has been in the Senate since 1982. He also said he has about $ 1 mil lion pledged from backers and esti mated the primary race will cost from $500,000 to $900,000. "While I have no industry ties re lated to the commission’s regulatory authority, I have a good working knowledge of the agency’s work and sides of houses, roaches the size of mice, a haunted house foundation and nude clients. The firm handles an average of 25 service calls per day. The exterminator has fought pests on almost all battlegrounds. “Bugs have no economic distinc tions,” ne said. “They can infest any where, from the most af fluent places to the most humble.” Finley is outfitted with hefty water spray-guns, gas masks and more than two dozen different insecticide chemicals capable of destroying more than one million different in sects. He is currently testing a new innovation in pest-control called the Insectiscope which detects the sound of termites behind walls. Contrary to popular belief, Finley is not bugged by his tiny nemeses. “If anything, I’ve gained a great deal of respect for insects,” he said. of state government in general,” he said. > Sharp said the most important area of oil and gas regulation the commission can become involved in is “conservation . . . doing those things that are necessary to get the most oil and gas production over the longest sustained period of time.” He also said public officials have “a sacred trust” to protect water sup plies from pollution. “They never cease to amaze me.” And besides, they are responsible for Finley’s lucrative business of late. He said Arlington has had “the bug- giest summer in the last 10 years.” Moreover, Finley emphasizes that combating pests is “a lot of fun.” He describes the adrenalin rush he receives during bumblebee am bushes. “Bumblebees are the most fun we’ve had,” he said. “Everybody fights for that job. It’s like a World War II movie.” Finley said two exterminators will advance to the scene of an ambush, both heavily armed with 200-gallon and eight-horsepower spray guns. Then they surround the hive. Finley said a dense fog will usually form around the hive and the bees will become extremely aggressive and start nosediving. “They (the bees) line up in front Any well operators who consis tently pollute underground supplies or above-ground water such as rivers and streams “should not be per mitted to do business in the state of Texas,” he said. While Sharp said he believes in a free-market transportation system, he said he also recognizes the need for regulations that assure service to rural areas. of you and attack you like German bombers,” he said. “When we spray they get gravely perturbed. They’ll try to get you.” He said he doesn’t wear any spe cial protective clothing during the maneuver because vulnerability “makes it more sporting.” However, it’s important, he said, that some body cover the back side of the nest to ward off other bees, such as ones away from the hive. “It’s exciting — like an anti-air craft gunner on the battle-scene of World War II,” he added. He said he frequently arrives at a scene where a woman is screaming on top of a kitchen table or chair af ter seeing a cockroach or a rat. And, “Folks from New Jersey are always asking us if we have un marked vehicles because they’re em barrassed to call us,” he said. “I think that’s kind of off-the-wall.” Associated Press HUNTSVILLE — Some 17,000 inmates at 13 Texas prisons re mained confined to their cells Tues day as corrections officials hoped the lockdown would quiet a war among rival prison gangs. The emergency lockdown order, the second in recent weeks, came Monday from Department of Cor rections Director O.L. McCotter af ter four inmates were stabbed to death within a 24-hour period. Eight slayings occurred in eight days, bringing the number of homi cides this year in the nation’s second- largest prison system to 26, beating the record set in 1984 by one. McCotter’s lockdown order was indefinite. Prison system spokesman Charles Brown said some previous lockdowns had lasted for a couple of weeks before the security precau tions were eased. “It’s been pretty quiet,” Brown said Tuesday. A lone incident overnight Mon day occurred between two cellmates at the Ellis 1 Unit and was not gang related, he said. In that altercation, one inmate suffered minor lacerations when his cellmate slashed him with a razor blade during an argument, Brown said. Prison officials, however, have la beled the entire system, which in cludes some 37,000 inmates, as very tense. Most of the recent violence has been attributed to a recruiting war between two Hispanic gangs known as the Texas Syndicate and the Texas Mafia. - “Part of the initiation rite is that you beat someonne or stab some one,” Phil Guthrie, an assistant di rector, said. Says Finley,“Everyday we have to calm people down.”. But once he lost his tenacity and had to be calmed down. His scariest experience, he says, is the time he crawled underneath the foundation of a North Arlington home built during the turn of the century and heard an ominous noise that raised the hair on the back of his neck. “I couldn’t see it, but something was down there with me,” he said. “It was something large rustling all around me. The other men heard it and refused to go under.” It’s not surprising that Finley con siders his encounters with people the best part of his job. Finley said he often warns people owning pets that when they go on vacation and return home, swarms of fleas will usually be hungry and waiting to attack them on their front porch. Officials estimate about 750 in mates are participants in gangs, al though Guthrie termed that number very conservative. “It’s the ones we don’t know about that scare the hell out of me,” Mc Cotter said. “We’ve got to put a stop to this now. And I’ll lock down every unit if I have to.” “I’m not going to let them (gangs) dictate how this unit operates,” Dar- rington Unit Warden Michael Moore said. Three inmates were stabbed to death Sunday night at Darrington, south of Houston, in an attack that lasted no more than 45 seconds, Guthrie said. Then on Monday, another gang slaying occurred at the nearby Ram sey II Unit. “In open dormitories, the only thing we can do is increase our vigi lance, make our presence known,” Ramsey Warden Lepher Jenkins said. The Ramsey slaying, which took the life of convicted burglar Leonel Perez, 31, occurred in a minimum security dormitory. Perez, serving an 8-year term, was stabbed 15 times with a metal rod, officials said. Sunday night’s victims included Lloyd Jacquez, 24, serving a seven- year sentence for three burglary convictions; Jose Arturo Garcia, 24, serving a 12-year sentence for aggra vated robbery; and Albert Carrillo Jr., 28, who was serving a 12-year sentence for burglary. Two inmates were in custody in connection with the Darrington stab- bings. One inmate was held in connec tion with the Ramsey Unit killing. Officials declined to give the gang affiliations of individual victims and attackers. Policyholders win $1.97 million in settlement Associated Press AUSTIN — A tentative set tlement with brokers who sold an nuities issued by an Ohio com pany that filed for bankruptcy will mean $L97 million for more than 10,000 Texas policyholders, state officials said Tuesday. Attorney General Jim Mattox and State Board of Insurance Chairman Lyndon Olson an nounced the Texas portion of the $157 million nationwide set tlement with brokers who sold Baldwin-United Corp. annuities. “With this settlement, 92 per cent of the Texans who bought these policies will see the interest earned on their investment in crease,” Mattox said. ‘The Exterminator’ battles with bugs in Arlington V GGI E\\\S///CINEMA/ LET VIVALDI INSPIRE YOU, TOO... Wednesday, September 11 Rudder Theater 7:30 p.m. your advertising dollars do better the classifieds