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College Station, Texas
Wednesday, August 12, 1987
1,000 B-CS residents participate
in National Night Out festivities
the fulls
) Walker-
broke hisi
asize the B y Y vonne DeGraw
1. T |- Staff Writer
bAi first it seemed police offi-
ters and members of the local
-.jlnedia near Olsen Field would
] QS oiit number the participants.
Kut organizers of Bryan-Col-
Station’s National Night Out
I Ivl activities put on a happy face and
C3 Kl they weren’t disappointed
jpth the 1,000 or so people who
participated.
HrWe raised quite a ruckus to-
Bht,” said Officer Tony Taylor
’) ~ ^flme Bryan Police Department,
xiatior; n e 53^ they estimated that
1250,0( 10,000 people would attend be-
ic BIutluHse they wanted to “shoot high”
1st the Nt'tolhow the importance of neigh-
the AsDborhood watch programs,
he next Mjtill, the people who came
wlpresictseemed to enjoy the festivities,
meed M These included a mass balloon re-
free popsicles, noisemak-
xperattitWI, sirens, cannon blasts supplied
have an by members of Parson’s Mounted
reemer Cavalry and a visit from McGruff
r perioc tht Crime Dog.
fear than ; The balloons rising and drift-
debts string to the northwest made an im-
eagthytepressive sight, even if only a frac-
l. tion of the number planned were
:mnet Lfefeased.
itadium 2 mfheryl Restivo, who works in
is forthethe Academic Computing Center
below iat^Texas A&M, said she and her
This yefaniilv attended National Night
• 7p.ni. Mt because their neighborhood
■ finati-wasn’t planning anything,
et Bow
a corpora Others seemed anxious to re-
ates nucturn to their neighborhoods for
xn. ffi'cream parties, barbeques and
dost to block parties.
lent with Jt looked like a game of pick-
mthatcouup-sticks as the line of people
nt 10 <k' ; moved and stretched to lay as
havt e'tynanv popsicle sticks as possible
it.” end-to-end.
Feated Coi “Don’t be afraid of running
■’s gamt i-ouj,” someone said over the loud-
r itspa^Speaker system. “We’ve got
ilos ha\t 8O5OOO of those things.”
theirshtt laylor estimated the corn
ed to joic-pleted string was about one mile
)wl Aswdong. Whether this makes it the
wetnis! , “World’s Longest Popsicle Stick”
accessoi-Pr*not remains to be seen. The
HSA Pnsticks were collected and will be
rsaid. mailed to Philadelphia.
Bowl earif The home of tne Constitution
ear televs is also the home of the National
rial tele''Town Watch Association, the
glbup that sponsors National
flight Out. This group will eval-
uate the activities and partici-
Mition in each city and award the
.lAiNational Night Out Cup, for
Jlllvlfhich Brazos County was sup-
l|ed to be a top contender.
Rye Bfaylor said he felt there was a
jfery good turnout for the area.
fsr “You’re looking at about 1 per-
cent of the local population,” he
said.
f Another local statistic was less
- Houi®m|n expected.
nk V St !®aylor said Bryan’s burglary
pitcher declined 7 percent from last
et, p July to this July. Traditionally,
itart TL jjg area j ias more burglaries dur-
ng summer months.
W helll @ r y an has 20 qualified neigh-
oss tofS jorhood watch programs, Taylor
l ea ' , laid. Another 20 groups are
to undersfT & r
e ofmye"
or breat
ft meat
;aid. “I b 1
and do if
be eanif -
;t about''
Photo by Sarah Cowan
Katie Scott, 9, ties balloons to a fence in prepara- tracks. About 1,000 balloons were released dur-
tion for Tuesday night’s festivities across the ing the National Night Out celebration.
working toward that status.
To qualify, 50 percent of the
homes in the area must partici
pate by identifying their property
and attending a seminar.
Officer David Luedke of the
College Station Police Depart
ment said there are 25 qualified
programs in College Station. This
number is increasing by two to
three per week, he said.
Taylor and Luedke both have
plans to increase involvement in
neighborhood watch programs
by apartment dwellers.
Mockingbird Run in Bryan was
a major crime spot until it started
a watch program, Taylor said.
Luedke said College Station
police contacted apartment asso
ciations just before the spring se
mester let out. They receive many
positive responses, but he said
they decided to establish the
apartment watch programs when
students return this fall.
J.S. officials: Iranian jet ignored warnings
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy Tomcat
ihter that fired two missiles at an Iranian jet
jt ofthf' er weekend did so after the Iranian plane
jurthes! P eate dly ignored radio messages to change
1 not »c 4Urse > Pentagon sources said Tuesday,
use wht# e sources, providing more details about the
ioid ’em over th e Strait of Hormuz, said the Ira-
lasn’t bet®FT Phantom that was fired upon was one of
-ertainl' Vera * monitored by radar on Saturday as it took
’ he said *M om l h e Iranian naval base at Bandar Abbas.
A Navy Aegis-class cruiser, the Valley Forge,
Jp a Navy P-3 Orion surveillance plane both
:ons ^ el [ 1 ® e d the Iranian jet throughout its flight, the
yan inLyrces said. The confrontation occurred when
“er-tyin( ! e Iranian jet began flying directly toward the
.armed P-3 aircraft, they said.
r it a ;The Valley Forge was steaming through the
}. “I coal
y Childtf
lings at d 1 '
n bring
ildn’t fin
;rson aa‘
strait at the time, helping to protect a convoy of
three Kuwaiti tankers and three other Navy
warships. That convoy went through the strait on
Saturday and arrived safely in Kuwait on Tues
day, Pentagon officials said.
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, in a
meeting with reporters, refused to discuss the in
cident on Tuesday.
The Pentagon sources, commenting only on
condition they not be named, said it was only af
ter the Iranian pilot ignored radio warnings
from the Valley Forge and from the F-14 Tom
cats flying with the P-3 that two American jets
moved to intercept him.
According to one official, the Navy had four F-
14’s in the air near the P-3 Orion.
The Iranian jet was on a course taking it di-
Kuwaiti ships
leave escorts,
start for home
KUWAIT (AP) — Three Kuwaiti
ships left their U.S. escorts and en
tered the emirate’s waters Tuesday.
Helicopters, meanwhile, searched an
anchorage south of the Persian Gulf
where a mine damaged a tanker and
others have been found.
Britain and France ordered mine
sweepers to the region but said they
would not be used in combined op
erations with the United States.
Washington said it was seeking sup
port for an international mine
sweeping force in the gulf, where
Iran and Iraq have been at war since
September 1980.
The Kuwaiti tankers, flying
American flags, “are now ip Kuwait
territorial waters and under escort
by Kuwaiti ships,” Defense Depart
ment spokesman Robert Sims said in
Washington.
He said they had left the four U.S.
Navy warships guarding them by
4:35 p.m. and headed for Kuwait’s
main Al-Ahmadi oil terminal to load
cargoes for the return trip down the
gulf.
Arrival of the 46,723-ton Gas
King, 81,283-ton Sea Isle City and
79,999-ton Ocean City ended the
second Navy-escorted trip up the
gulf by Kuwaiti vessels and the first
without trouble. On the inaugural
trip last month, the supertanker
Bridgeton hit a mine near a fortified
Iranian island 120 miles from Ku
wait.
Witnesses at the crowded
anchorage off Fujairah, a United
Arab Emirates port in the Gulf of
Oman, said four U.S. and Omani he
licopters swept back and forth at low
altitude looking for mines.
An American-operated super
tanker, the 274,347-ton Texaco Ca
ribbean, was damaged there Mon
day and four more mines were
found Tuesday, one of them close to
a tanker.
Iran has been accused of laying
mines in and around the Persian
Gulf. Iranian leaders have said they
are planted by “invisible hands” but
also that the gulf will remain “full of
mines” until the superpowers leave
the region.
Tehran radio quoted Hashemi
Rafsanjani, speaker of Iran’s parlia
ment, as saying the Iranian navy
would be sent to the Gulf of Oman
to clear mines, but there was no elab
oration. Rafsanjani said the United
States may have planted the mine
that damaged the Texaco Carib
bean.
One mine spotted by an Omani
helicopter was about 100 yards from
an anchored tanker and two others
were in the vicinity, a shipping
source reported.
U.S. Navy helicopters joined the
search at Oman’s request, a diplomat
said privately.
“There’s a little bit of panic”
among tanker crews at the
anchorage, said a shipping source.
Another added: “It’s a bad situation.
The other tankers are now afraid to
move.” Both spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Fujairah’s anchorage is one of the
main points for transferring oil from
one tanker to another. Up to 50 ves
sels are there on a given day.
The Texaco Caribbean, which
had just arrived with a load of crude
from Iran’s Larak Island terminal in
the Persian Gulf, was holed about a
yard below the waterline.
Informants said about 10,000 bar
rels of oil leaked, forming a slick
about eight miles off the coast.
An important current use of the
anchorage is as a staging point for
convoys of U.S. warships and empty
Kuwaiti tankers for the 550-mile trip
through the Strait of Hormuz and
up the gulf to the emirate. Hormuz
is about 30 miles away.
Eleven of Kuwait’s 21 tankers are
being registered as American ships
so the Navy can protect them.
Loose bricks fall
off top of library;
cause not known
rectly toward the four-engine, propeller-driven
P-3, and was judged to be making “hostile
moves” because it was moving within missile
range, another source said.
The sources said one F-14 fired two Sparrow
missiles at the Iranian. Although the American
and Iranian jets were at least 50 miles apart, “that
is well within the Sparrow’s range and he was
shooting to kill,” one official said.
The sources said the Iranian jet banked hard
after the missiles were fired and managed to
evade both of them before quickly reversing
course and flying back to Iran.
“We didn’t just go off half-cocked and open
fire,” one official said. “The ship and our planes
broadcast warnings repeatedly and he didn’t
heed them.”
By Kirsten Dietz
Senior Staff Writer
Three loose sections of brick and
concrete around the top of the Ster
ling C. Evans Library were removed
Tuesday by physical plant employ
ees after one section unexpectedly
fell Monday night and shattered on
the ground.
The section fell from the north
east corner of the building about
7:15 p.m. and landed near the side
of the library, University Police
Chief Elmer Schneider said. No one
was injured.
Certain areas around the library
will be roped off until the cause of
the loose sections is determined, said
Joe Estill, director of A&M’s physical
plant.
Workers used a crane Tuesday to
check the rest of the library over
hang for additional loose pieces.
Two loose sections were knocked
down on the south side of the library
and one section was knocked from
the east side of the library, Estill said.
He said the three pieces measured
about 4 to 5 feet by 18 inches. The
piece that fell Monday measured
about 6 feet by 18 inches, he said.
The bricks were laid in a horizon
tal direction, so the panels had to be
constructed on the ground then
raised and secured, he said. This
places stress on the joint and suspen
sion system, he said. The loose sec
tions were due to a failure of this sys-
Photo by Robert Rizzo
tern, but Estill said he’s not sure why
it failed.
He said his department is trying
to determine how the pieces became
loose and what corrective action
should be taken. The library is the
only building on campus with any
bricks that have been laid horizon
tally, Estill said.
Estill said he doubts any legal ac
tion can be taken against the con
struction company unless negligence
is proven. The addition was built in
1979.
Estill said he doesn’t know if the
sections will be replaced. After the
investigation is finished, a consultant
will be called in and the alternatives
will be discussed, he said.
Veinberger cites Central American peace plan problems
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense
[pary Caspar W. Weinberger
limited Ldjjruesday the peace plan put for-
:, he has fd by five Central American pres-
.stros Wilts has “some problems,” faulting
in each 1 lack of a deadline for democratic
th amiMorms and the removal of Soviet-
rs with ; »c advisers from Nicaragua,
he has 1 ' 1
l|einberger, in an interview with
a gantf tUagon correspondents, gave his
when 'st detailed comments about the
peace plan signed last Friday in Gua
temala at a summit that included Ni
caraguan President Daniel Ortega.
The White House has voiced no
criticism of the regional plan, citing
the recent agreement with House
Speaker Jim Wright of Texas to
avoid rhetoric while the peace proc
ess plays out. On Saturday, Presi
dent Reagan issued a statement say
ing he welcomed the regional plan,
but sidestepped a clear-cut endorse
ment of it.
In the interview, Weinberger
praised the peace proposal put for
ward by Reagan and Wright, con
tending it “made a start” towards
democratic reforms.
Weinberger also argued that any
proposal should allow the Contras to
be kept as a military force in the
field, to provide “leverage ... on the
Sandinistas.”
Under the Reagan-Wright propo
sal, the administration has delayed
seeking renewed aid for the Contras
from Congress, as long as the Sandi
nistas accept a cease-fire and certain
democratic reforms by Sept. 30. The
administration had been expected to
seek some $150 million to fund the
rebels after the U.S. aid expired at
the end of next month.
Speaking of the regional plan.
Weinberger said, “I think there are
some problems with that plan. And I
think everybody recognizes them. . .
. But I wouldn’t claim that that it’s in
final form or in the form . . . that we
could unequivocally endorse it.”
Asked what troubled him about
the accord, Weinberger said, “the
lack of the requirement that the So
viets leave, the lack of assurance that
there will be sufficient support to
keep the Contra force in being as a
military force.”
“There was no timetable for elec
tions, there is no timetable for demo
cratization,” he said. “All of these
things are important to get into.”
The Central American pact calls
for an end of aid to the U.S.-backed
Contra rebels, but makes no demand
for cutbacks in the Sandinista mili
tary forces, their Soviet support or
removal of Soviet or Cuban advisers.