Wednesday, July 16, 1986rrhe Battalion/Page 3
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State and Local
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Construction budget to hit $75 million
I
V
By Tom Ownbey
Reporter
Construction spending at
Texas A&M will be at its highest
levels in fiscal 1987, Vice Chan
cellor of Facilities Daniel Whitt
says.
Whitt estimates the 1987 build
ing budget will reach $75 million.
The record-breaking spending
appears to contradict a Battalion
story of July 1 1, which reported
that a stabilizing Permanent Uni
versity Fund may cause a slowing
of construction on the A&M cam
pus. Keith Chapman, manager of
facilities construction in the Fa
cilities Planning and Construction
Department, says he expects a
spending slowdown sometime in
the future.
“Next year (1988) construction
is probably going to drop off
about 25 percent, but 1 don’t
think that has anything to do with
the economic conditions,” he
says. “It’s just a matter of what
was needed and when.”
Chapman predicts the con
struction budget for 1989 will
match the 1987 budget.
Six projects have been or will
be completed by the end of this
year, Chapman says, but con
struction starts are down for the
same period. Three contracts are
expected to be awarded by the
Board of Regents and several
dormitories are being renovated.
Chapman says the new chemis
try building is scheduled for com
pletion in November but won’t be
ready for occupation until later
because the chemistry depart
ment must move its research
equipment.
The Texas A&M Research
Park, located between Highway
60 and Jersey, also is approaching
completion. Contractors finished
their work on the park last May,
completing the road system and
establishing plots for buildings.
The Facilities Planning and Con
struction Department is still
working on park landscaping.
The park’s first building, The
Ocean Drilling Program facility,
will be completed early in Sep
tember, Chapman says.
He says a new poultry center
on F.M. 2818 south of Eas-
terwood Airport was finished by
contractors June and its inhabit
ants have moved in although
some minor work still needs to be
completed.
The department also works on
campus renovation projects. The
Halbouty Geosciences Building
renovation should be finished
Summer 1987.
Chapman says although con
struction starts are on the decline,
three contracts will be awarded by
year-end. In November a con
tract will be awarded for the ren
ovation of Duncan Dinning hall.
“At the July Board of Regents
meeting, we expect to award a
contract for additional green
houses at the Horticulture For
estry Sciences Building,” Chap
man says. In addition to these
projects, he says, a small paving
contract will be awarded this sum-
Texas deficit forecast
passes $3 billion mark
AUSTIN (AP) — A lawmaker
called for a state lottery Tuesday as
the comptroller worked on a revised
revenue forecast that will peg the
deficit at more than $3 billion.
The new forecast will be an
nounced late this month, after July
sales tax collections are reported to
Comptroller Bob Bullock, said Tony
Proffitt, a spokesman for the comp
troller’s office.
“All Bullock says is he is sure it’s
over $3 billion, but he has not set a
number to it,” Proffitt said.
In February, as oil prices plum-
metted, Bullock predicted a $1.3 bil
lion shortfall in the current budget
period, which ends Aug. 31, 1987.
Last month, he raised it to $2.3 bil
lion.
“It’s going to be reflective of
what’s happening in the Texas econ
omy in unemployment, construction
and manufacturing and the other
sectors in the last six months,” Prof
fitt said. “There’s not an ounce of
good news in any of those economic
indicators. I think it’s called a reces
sion.”
Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston,
said Tuesday the state should look
for ways to raise money, not cut pro
grams. Wilson is a long-time backer
of a state lottery.
Wilson told a news conference a
lottery could eventually mean as
much as $600 million a year for state
government.
He wants the special session to at
least place the lottery idea on the
November ballot as a non-binding
referendum.
e
Austin advised to stop making nuclear project payments
AUSTIN (AP) — An advisory
commission has recommended that
Austin stop making weekly pay
ments of $2.5 million to the South
Texas Nuclear Project, put the
money in escrow and take steps to
cancel the plant.
The Electric Utility Commission
voted 6-1 Monday for a motion from
commission member Albert
Fairweather, who said the payment
on the long-delayed project was
“playing havoc with our rate base.”
Fairweather said he doubted that
bond companies would consider
Austin a bad risk “for exhibiting fis
cal responsibility” in withdrawing
from the project, in which the city
holds a 16 percent interest.
Commission Chairman Merle
Moden said Austin’s situation with
the project “is a different world”
from the days when most calls for
cancellation came from anti-nuclear
activists.
Since then, auditors hired by the
Public Utility Commission have said
that between $1.1 billion and $1.3
billion was wasted on the project be
cause of bad management by Hous
ton Lighting & Power Co.
Austin and three other partners
have settled a lawsuit against the for
mer builder, Brown & Root, for
$750 million.
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What’s up
Thursday
STUDENT GOVERNMENT: applications for External Com
munications and Public Relations will be available through
the summer months. Please come by 221 Pavilion from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. to pick up applications. For more informa
tion call 845-3051.
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Beginners are welcome.
Items for What’s Up should be submitted to The Battalion,
216 Reed McDonald, no less than three days prior to de
sired publication date.
Jury deliberation continues
in kidnapping-slavery case
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Ju
rors deliberated Tuesday for a sec
ond day in the state’s case against
three men accused of conspiring to
kidnap and kill a drfter who pros
ecutors say was enslaved on a Hill
Country ranch.
The state district court panel,
which began discussion late Monday
after nine weeks of testimony and a
full day of final arguments, retired
for the night about 7:25 p.m. Tues
day after a total of 12 hours of delib
erations.
Attorneys said they did not expect
a quick verdict in the case, which fea
tured often-lurid testimony and tape
recordings of purported torture ses
sions.
“I think we’ll be here a while,” said
defense attorney Ray Bass, who rep
resents Walter Wesley Ellebracht Jr.,
33.
Ellebracht, along with his 54-year-
old father and ranch worker Carlton
Robert Caldwell, 21, are accused of
violating the state’s organized crime
statute in the March 1984 death of
Anthony Bates.
Late Monday, the jury asked to
hear portions of testimony by Darryl
Hunsaker, a former ranch worker
who faces a separate trial on a mur
der charge. Hunsaker testified the
three defendants helped torture
Bates.
Bush lauds
oil industry
in Beaumont
BEAUMONT (AP) — Vice
President George Bush, speaking
in the birthplace of Texas’ eco
nomically depressed oil industry,
said Tuesday the way to cure the
energy business’ ills was to get the
government off its back.
“That means repealing once
and for all the windfall profits
tax,” he said. “That means dereg
ulating— immediately — natural
gas.. . . And that means taking the
steps today so that our stripper
wells won’t be capped forever and
lost forever.”
Bush, in a campaign appear
ance for 9th District Congressio
nal candidate Lisa DuPerier,
touted the Reagan Administra
tion for lowering interest rates,
bolstering the nation’s armed
forces and restoring pride in
America.
inema/~
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