Tuesday, February 11, 1986TThe Battalion/Page 3 State and Local _ Barton: Law won't 'devastate' economy Gramm-Rudman in Brazos County By FRANK SMITH Staff Writer Republican Rep. ' told an audience of Joe Barton _ 75 in Bryan 1 Monday night that local cuts re- ^ suiting from the new Gramm- Rudman-Hollings deficit reducr tion law won’t devastate Brazos County’s economy. I Barton’s visit to Bryan was part of a week-long tour of his 6th Congressional District. By Friday he will have visited each of the 14 counties in the district. At each stop he is delivering his “State of the District” message and taking questions from his audience. I “Now you’ve heard all of the horror stories about how Gramm- Rudman is going to really cut ■ ograms, how it’s going to really cm into muscle, how it’s really going to hurt people,” he told the Bryan audience. ■ But what it will really mean for Brazos County, Barton said, is ||hai the federal government’s “I think it’s a good law. I think it will help us. I don’t think it’s going to decimate the programs that we really need at the federal level. ” — Rep. Joe Barton spending for the county will probably be cut from $148 mil lion to somewhere between $135 million to $ 140 million. “There are a lot of programs that we can do without at the fed eral level,” he said. Barton asked his audience how many of them had rode on pas senger trains, sought legal serv ices counseling or tried to get a loan from the Small Business Ad ministration in the past year. No more than two people said they had done any of those things. “Those are good programs,” he said. “But if (the United States is) running $200 billion a year in debt . . . we’ve got to do some thing. And that’s what Gramm- Rudman does. “It says that, over the next six years, we’re going to go from bor rowing 20 percent of our federal budget to balancing the budget.” Barton was an original co sponsor of the Gramm-Rudman bill in the House of Representa tives. “I think it’s a good law,” he said. “I think it will help us. I don’t think it’s going to decimate the programs that we really need at the federal level. I do think it will make us take a closer look at how we’re spending our money.” Barton said that overall, Brazos County’s economic outlook for 1986 is good but not great. The first-term congressman from Ennis acknowledged that plummeting oil prices are taking their toll on the area’s economy. But he said other economic in dicators for the region look good. “The inflation rate is below 4 percent, the prime (interest) rate is Q'/a percent, (and) home mort gage rates are down around 10'/a percent,” Barton said. “Those are all lower than they were a year ago.” Mexican relief taskforce plans fund-raiser Associated Press ■USTIN — A state task force try ing to help Mexico recover from Tistating September earthquakes s to send Texas schoolchildren I groundbreaking for a Mexico Sty school to dramatize fund-rais- ^fforts. Bfhe Texas Response-Citizens for lican Relief set as its original goal September $15.5 million, or $1 Dn every Texan. Leaders of the volunteer task orce estimate that $5 million in 1 'I, goods and services already has fen donated by Texans, and it is ■Teking another $5 million to build a ■ifStool and a clinic-hospital in Mex- ofjtity. It was reported Monday that 18,365 has been donated toward that goal without an organized fund raising effort. The school groundbreaking in March was presented as an opportu nity to underscore the campaign to raise money. Former congressman Bob Krueger, co-chairman of the task force, said Texas already has given more money to the Mexican earth quake relief effort than any other state, and he pledged that Texas would provide “concrete and visible symbols” of friendship between the two countries. Betsy Todd of the Austin public relations firm GSD&M said, “We talked to people in the secretary of education office (in Mexico) about having a groundbreaking ceremony . . . and what we talked about was bringing some Texas public school- children to Mexico and having those children break ground with their counterparts in Mexico City. “They were excited about the pos sibility,” Todd said. Tom Walker, special assistant to Gov. Mark White, who organized the task force, said, “All of this is somewhat tentative, pending the (of ficial) response of the secretary of education in Mexico City, which I expect we will have this week.” Krueger said he felt the ground breaking would be important in “re viving the consciousness of the peo ple of Texas.” According to the task force, earth quakes on Sept. 19-20 killed over 7,000 people and left 150,000 home less. In Mexico City alone, 1,132 buildings were seriously damaged and over 5,000, or 45 percent, of the city’s hospital beds were destroyed. Hundreds of schools were dam- aged ’ • , “I wished we could have moved faster but the need is still great, and as long as there is a need I think the people of Texas will respond,” Krueger said. Walker, who visited Mexico City in January, said, “I’m impressed with the way Mexico is moving for ward with its reconstruction efforts.” He said destruction of so many hospital beds, most of them in down town Mexico City, had convinced Mexican health officials to decentra lize and set up clinics in the “periph eral areas — get medical services closer to the people who need them.” Commons snack bar renovation approved By STEVE THOMAS Reporter The Texas A&M Board of Re gents approved a $286,000 renova tion of the Commons snack bar at its previous meeting. Col. Fred Dollar, director of the Food Services Department, says most of the snack bar’s equipment needs to be replaced. Construction is scheduled to be gin this summer and the new snack bar should be completed by the fall semester. Dollar says. During the facelift, the snack bar’s rear wall will be moved back provid ing more space. He says the bar will get a new paint job and brighter lighting to make it feel “like your favorite fast food restaurant.” The menu will also be revised. Pizza, chicken-fried steak, French fries and packaged sandwiches and salads will be added to the menu. With the new improvements. Dol lar says, the hours may be extended. The snack bar currently is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Mon day through Friday, and from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Dollar says when students come off a hard day of classes and need a place to relax and unwind, that place should be up to date and have an at tractive atmosphere. Dollar says another snack bar is on the drawing board for the northeast ern part of campus. There are plans to build a snack bar in conjunction with the new Civil Engineering/Texas Transportation Institute building near the Zachry Engineering Center, Dollar says. 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