Tuesday, August 12, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3
2
'unselors prepare for freshmen
5th grader takes to the
skies with flying hobby
Fish Camp ’86 about to begin
By Kathryn Greenwade
Reporter
This summer 2,592 Texas A&M
eshmen will be introduced to Ag-
e tiaditions — and other treshmen
at Fish Camp.
On Friday, the first of four camps
ill leave for Lakeview Methodist
ssembly near Palestine for the tra-
itional four-day course in being an
■ e -
J'he freshmen have an opportu-
ty to start over again and set new
oals after evaluating all they did in
di school,” assistant director Da-
BLawhorne says.
Reci Reeves, another assistant di-
ector, said people make Fish Camp
ork The counselors have the most
ontactwith the freshmen,
jhis year 1,300 students applied
for the 648 counselor positions, she
said. They aren’t paid salaries and
pay the same fee to go to camp as the
freshmen do.
Reeves said the Fish Camp staff
wants every freshman to get some
thing out of camp.
“I think the most important thing
the freshmen gain is friends,”
Reeves said. “Not only do they gain
friends that are freshmen, but also
upperclassmen friends who they can
turn to for help.”
The summer is the busiest time
for the staff members as they regis
ter the freshmen and assign them to
camps, Reeves said. This year all the
registration is being done by mail.
She said the work actually begins
in September when the directors are
selected. There are 10 directors,
Htt
Texas officials back
^ 3 new banking bills
JS
each in charge of a different aspect
of Fish Camp.
Each session contains five camps
that are headed by a chairman and a
co-chairman, Reeves said.
The chairmen have the task of
choosing the counselors from the
thousands of applicants. Reeves said
the selection of counselors takes sev
eral months.
The counselors must attend seve
ral training sessions and spend a
great deal of time in the spring plan
ning for their camp, she said.
Each camp has a name, mascot
and color and is named after impor
tant people with ties to A&M.
This year, for example, there are
camps named after Shelby Metcalf,
the Aggie basketball coach, and for
mer Chancellor Arthur Hansen.
A new addition this year will be an
orientation offered for the parents
so that they will understand what the
freshmen will be doing for the four
days of camp, Lawhorne said.
The parents often seem a little
worried seeing their son or daughter
being greeted by counselors wearing
Kermit the Frog hats and acting
crazy, Lawhorne said, since they
were told their children would be
spending a week with responsible
young adults.
The directors stay in town for the
summer to work on plans for camp,
he said. Chairmen and counselors
also come in twice during the sum
mer to help out with some of the
work.
ARLINGTON (AP) — Fifth-
grader John Hill has to prop himself
up on three pillows when he takes
the controls of a Cessna 172, but he
says flying the four-seater is plain
sailing.
“It’s easy,” the 10-year-old Arling
ton elementary school student said.
“You just give it the gas until you get
to 60 mph, you pull up the steering
wheel and you go up.
“And, oh yeah. You got to keep
the plane in the middle of the run
way.”
John, who learned how to drive a
car when he was seven, says he wants
to be an astronaut when he grows
up. In the meantime, he drives a car
in the parking lot at his father’s busi
ness and flies airplanes.
His father, Johnny Hill, noted
that his son doesn’t drive without a
licensed driver along as passenger
and doesn’t fly without flight in
structor Mike Fields.
“He has to be 15 to solo legally,”
said Fields, who works for Cothran
Aviation. “If he were old enough,
John could complete the require
ments for a pilot’s license within a
year.”
John said he has trouble convinc- •
ing his friends that he flies an air
plane. He started in December 1985,
when he asked his parents for flying
lessons.
John now flies once a week during
the school year and three to four
times a week in the summer.
His mother, Patsy Hill says the
$52-per-hour flight instruction bills
make it an expensive hobby, but she
said the expense is worthwhile.
“If it were just a hobby, with no
future for him, I don’t think I’d be
supportive,” she said. “But this is
what he wants to do.”
John, a member of the Junior As
tronauts Association, said he would
like to work with the space program
eventually. Before then, he wants to
earn a place in the Guinness Book of
World Records by flying from Cali
fornia to South Carolina next sum
mer.
“It will be the longest trip for the
youngest person on a trip across the
country,” John said.
alters thd
louldbei
uistion
aen ifonk
eakersart
otomv o:
of klTO;
i is defat
e thatei-
ree speed
torapo
tant prott
t he caul
[ speediii
studeiti
avetode
lalismiM'
editor for
■ AUSTIN (AP) — Interstate
and branch banking got support
frjom state regulatory officials
Monday but some legislators still
rad questions.
■ “What does an old family bank
db if someone buys the Taco Bell
atross the street and puts in a
branch bank?” Rep. Stan
Schleuter, D-Killeen, asked at a
paiing of the House Financial
Institutions Committee.
■ Rep. Bill Haley, D-Center,
alked, “Who’s to say if the money
will come in here or go out to
other states if an out-of-state
bank buys a Texas bank?”
1 The committee held a long
public hearing on three measures
piesented by Rep. Bruce Gibson,
■-Cleburne, and supported by
■exas independent bank and
: holding companies.
Gibson said the three measures
one on interstate banking and
ittvo on branch banking — would
not be brought up for a commit
tee vote until, and if, Gov. Mark
; tyhite opens the special session to
banking issues.
1 Gibson said one measure
would allow nationwide interstate
^banking, meaning that any bank
ird
ditor
it iff ncM' SfW;
IS MMm
those of i/tf
essarilfif
itors, fM‘ l !
or holding company in another
state could buy a bank or holding
company in Texas, or the other
way around.
The other two measures, one a
proposed constitutional amend
ment, would allow banks to have
up to three branch banks within a
county.
Present law allows a bank to
have service branches only within
a certain distance of the home
bank.
State banking commissioner
James Sexton said, “Generally we
are a supporter of these bills.”
L.L. Bowman, commissioner of
the Savings and Loan Depart
ment, said, “We agree with Sex
ton.”
Bob Lane, speaking for the
Texas Bankers Association, said
there could be no “Taco Bell”
branch banks because a provision
in the bill would protect home of
fices for five years against new
competition.
Sexton urged that branch
banks be required to fulfill the
same requirements that a home
bank does when it applies for a
state charter.
FFA membership hit by economy
HOUSTON (AP) — Enrollment
in Future Farmers of America, a vo
cational club that was enjoying a
boom in secondary schools just a few
years ago, is going down because of
education reforms and the de
pressed farm economy, officials say.
For example, 136 students en
rolled in agriculture classes at Cy
press Creek High School in Houston
three years ago and the school
planned to add a fourth agriculture
teacher.
But last year, FFA enrollment
dropped to 92 students and agricul
ture teachers now are being forced
to teach other subjects.
Statewide, enrollment fell 3.5 per
cent from 55,336 students in 1985 to
53,380 students this year, said Jay
Eudy, the Texas Education Agency’s
director of agricultural education.
“We’re starting to feel like Cus
ter,” said vocational agriculture tea
cher Larry Cooper.
This fall. Cooper expects to teach
biology for the first time since join
ing the Cypress-Fairbanks Indepen
dent School District 22 years ago.
Under educational reforms
passed by the Texas Legislature in
1984, students were given an ad
vanced curriculum option that re
duced the time available for elective
courses.
The no-pass, no-play rule also
prohibits students who fail a class
from participating in extracurricular
activities, including FFA, for the en
suing six-week grading period.
Daryl Smith, a 1986 graduate of
Cypress-Fairbanks High School,
said, “When I first got into ag, it was
booming. That was the thing to do.
And once no-pass, no-play came in,
it really killed ag.”
Smith, 18, belongs to a family of
farmers, who in better times made
agriculture their lives work.
Company sends pets up, up and away
HOUSTON (AP) — Pets no
longer have to be left behind when
their owners travel by air, thanks to
help from a new company specializ
ing in animal shipments.
The 7-month-old company,
named Animal-Port-Houston, han
dles all the details involved in ship
ping pets, from picking up the ani
mal at home to delivering it to the
owners at the scheduled destination.
An affiliate company handles
ground transportation for the pets,
Animal-Port-Houston company
president Tom Schooler said.
The bulk of the company’s busi
ness is relocations. Customers mov
ing to Houston can arrange for the
pet to be shipped before the move
and the pet will be housed at the air
port kennels until the owners move
into their new home, he said.
“We house them overnight while
they’re awaiting customs clearance,”
said Schooler, who added that the
company is the only private com
pany of its type in the United States.
Since many foreign flights arrive
late at night, customers can arrange
to have the pet picked up, exercised
and housed in the airport kennels,
Schooler said. The animals usually
remain in airport warehoses until
they get customs clearance and move
on to their U.S. destination.
The cost to ship a medium size an
imal from Houston to Boston is
about $300, he said.
“We’re just now breaking even,”
said Schooler, who plans to expand
the company by offering service to
12 other U.S. cities within the next
two years.
Legislators
warned of
MHMR suits
AUSTIN (AP) — The attorney
general’s office reminded legis
lators Monday that federal court
suits must be considered when re
viewing appropriations for the
Texas Mental Health and Mental
Retardation Department.
Two federal court settlements
have been made in suits filed
against MHMR, one involving pa
tient-staff ratios and another in
volving treatment of the retarded
in state mental hospitals.
“The department has asked for
an additional $5.5 million, not a
cut in funds,” Patrick Wiseman of
the attorney general’s office told
the Senate in a committee-of-the-
whole meeting. “That much was
committed in these agreements.
“If these commitments can be
made, it would be a valid attempt
to comply with the federal court
orders. If we do not comply, it
could cost us ten-fold or a hun
dred-fold.
“All we can do is give you our
best hunch of what will cost less
or more money.”
Central Texas officials want pipeline route moved north
[ aUST IN (AP) — Public officials can Pipeline Go. would put the pipe- an out-of-court agreement was source of drinking water for much She said she hoped the bureau zales, said there is no such th
USTIN (AP) — Public officials
jrom Central Texas on Monday
tied up in support of an alternate
prpposal to move an oil pipeline
fjith of the Edwards Aquifer, a key
element of the region’s water supply.
P'lf we continue to allow pipelines
tolbe built over this aquifer in this
Ba, the result, I believe, is clear,”
Ben. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin,
told a Bureau of Land Management
Raring. “The future water supply
of Central Texas will be a disaster
waiting to happen.”
■The route proposed by All Ameri
can Pipeline Co. would put the pipe
line from California to McCamey,
Texas, 460 miles through Central
Texas to Webster, south of Houston.
C.M. Hoffman of Austin, area su
perintendent for All American, said
the pipeline will move up to 300,000
barrels a day of surplus crude oil
from the West Coast to refineries on
the Texas Gulf Coast.
What William Haigh of the fed
eral Bureau of Land Management
called a “flurry of lawsuits” halted
the McCamey-Webster segment of
the 1,700-mile 30-inch pipeline, and
an out-of-court agreement was
reached between the bureau, state of
Texas and pipeline company.
Haigh, who works out of the bu
reau’s Riverside, Calif., office, said
All American had agreed to abide by
the bureau’s environmental impact
statement in the pipeline route.
The hearing Monday was the first
of 10 public meetings in Texas this
month as the first step in preparing
a preliminary statement by January,
and a final statement early next sum
mer.
The Edwards Aquifer is the
source of drinking water for much
of Central Texas, and Rep. Anne
Cooper, R-San Marcos, said she was
concerned about oil spills seeping
through the overlying limestone for
mation into the aquifer.
“Unless you can assure the people
who live in that area that you can
clean up something or that this kind
of thing won’t happen, you know
you’re talking about two or three
years without water and this is not
acceptable to people, and it’s not ac
ceptable to me,” she said.
r.V77Wl
The Bawl'
(in'.
Bring this ad to save
50°/o when you bring
a friend to lunch!
Buy 1 entree,
get the second
entree for
1/2 price.
Pelican's Wharf is starting a new
tradition: lunch. For a limited time,
buy one entree at regular price, get
the second entree for half-price.
Bring a friend for lunch and enjoy
seafood treasures like shrimp etoufee,
sauteed flounder, Alaskan king crab salad,
seafood fettucini and other de/ectables.
Pelican's Wharf for lunch.
It's a great way to begin the afternoon.
Monday through Friday 11:30 cum.-2:00 p.m.
(Offer expires August 22, 1986)
2500 Texas Ave. S./College Station 693-5113
She said she hoped the bureau
would recommend an alternate
northern route, which would loop
near McGregor in McLennan
County, before turning southeast to
Webster.
Barrientos said, “There are just
some places an oil pipeline should
not be built and over our water sup
ply is one of those places.”
He also suggested moving the
pipeline north.
Rep. Phyllis Robinson, D-Gon-
zales, said “there is no such thing as a
leak-proof or break-proof pipe.”
Hoffman said the pipeline “will
provide additional tax revenue for
the state and counties crossed by the
pipeline (and) will serve the public
interest and enhance national secu
rity.”
He also said pipelines historically
“have provided the safest, most cost-
effective way to transport oil with
less environmental impact than
other transportation methods.”