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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1987)
Tuesday, November 24,1987/The Battalion/Page 7 5 Handicapped JYI s the syn| ds topr^l isms wiikl ir enerpl her ' ■vater," hi taneistkfl the I has beerl tional Sol ice of Nil Sea Gel e Mineral New Oil lists frail siana Stall inographi sonian, a| nvolvedi: 7 ds : display .scovered | rucifrxes. marbles I Shehom thing I 1 Letter- : is note- features and Let- lies. “Gizzard rontacted n she iefine stnpl oil general i Stnfl H6.0 oet v De3iRf| U\K6£. ! (Continued from page 1) moved — so I could park and go to class!” Schoonover said he has had par ticular problems with the vehicles of the A&M Physical Plant. “The University Police don’t ticket them,” he said. “I always use the (handicapped) parking space behind the (A.P. Beutel Health Center), and the Physical Plant trucks constantly park halfway in the handicapped space and halfway in the no-parking zone, or right next to them.” Dunlap said the campus officers aren’t always able to catch all viola tors of handicapped parking re strictions. “A lot of times we don’t have an officer on hand to tow,” Dunlap said, “and sometimes by the time we get there — if they were there for just five minutes — they’re gone.” Physical Plant Director Joe J. Es- till said Physical Plant policy is that the trucks should not park in the handicapped spaces. “Physical Plant trucks are just like any other illegally parked vehi cle,” Estill said. “They get fined and towed. Our people have instruc tions not to park in the hand icapped spaces and the drivers have to pay all fines and towing fees. We haven’t had a vehicle towed in 18 months.” Estill admits the drivers will act just like the students, though, thinking “I’ll only be a minute.” Schoonover said it’s a shame when these trucks don’t get tick eted, because the University, on the majority of occasions, is excellent at ticketing abusers. “The police will pull all holds to make sure someone parked illegally in reserved staff will get a ticket, but a Physical Plant truck can stay as long as it wants,” he said. Another handicapped student, David Brashier, doesn’t quite agree. He said the problem is not as much with multiple violators, but with too few handicapped spaces on campus. “It’s not so much the delivery trucks (that fill up the handicapped parking spaces), he said. “They’re full all the time with handicapped students and faculty.” Brashier, a senior majoring in secondary education, said he would like to see 20 to 25 more hand icapped spaces on campus. There are now 142, including those on both the main and west campuses. Brashier would also like the spaces to be wider. Handicapped spaces are usually 12 feet wide, while regular spaces are eight to 10 feet wide. His biggest problem is with the motorcyclists that park beyond Dmos] their areas into the handicapped spaces near Hart Hall, where the campus Handicapped Services Of fice is housed. “We’re constantly calling to get them (the motorcycles) moved,” Brashier said. “Students don’t seem to realize when they’re blocking a handicapped space, and then it’s ‘Oh well — I’ll only be here five or 10 minutes.’ ” Brashier said he doesn’t have trouble getting where he wants to go because A&M is so compact, but he doesn’t mind waiting to get an il legally parked vehicle towed, ei ther. Brashier said he thinks the cam pus is accessible to handicapped people most of the time. The University and the students are fairly good about following the rules, he said, but there is a prob lem in front of the MSC. “People just pull up and park in a us,” he said. “Someone without a sticker was parked in the hand icapped space in front of the police station, and there was a security guard standing out front directing traffic. “I went up and told her ‘Look, this person’s here and not hand icapped.’ She said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do? There’s a foot ball game on.’ That’s the attitude the University takes toward it.” Brashier agreed that hand icapped spaces are hard to come by during big events on campus, but he said they’re not necessarily taken by violators. “Football games, any big func tion, OPAS, whatever — you can’t find any handicapped spaces,” he said. “To find one for the games, you have to go an hour early. They’re usually taken by the hand icapped, though.” Schoonover said he hears people “During one football game I had to go to the police sta tion on campus. Someone without a sticker was parked in the handicapped space in front of the police station, and there was a security guard standing out front di recting traffic. I went up and told her ‘Look, this per son’s here and not handicapped.’ She said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do? There’s a football game on.’ That’s the attitude the University takes toward it.” — Charles Schooner, handicapped A&M student handicapped spot to go get their paper or whatever,” he said. “People have just ignored me, and then come back and seen I was in a wheelchair and tried to apologize to me. “They think ‘Well, I’m only gonna be a minute and there’s not gonna be any handicapped people needing this.’ ” Schoonover said he has found Coca Cola delivery trucks are viola tors, too. Parking in a handicapped place, even “just for a minute,” he said, is still against the rules. “One driver in particular (uses handicapped parking spaces ille gally),” Schoonover said. “He al ways pulls up behind the hand icapped spaces by Harrington to unload his Cokes, and if anyone needs to get in or out while he’s there, they can just forget about it. I’ve been blocked in by his truck.” Schoonover said football games and other activities on campus make it difficult to find hand icapped parking spaces. “During one football game I had to go to the police station on camp- say there are too many hand icapped spaces, and admits that the spaces are empty most of the time. But he said he’s also gone places and found the spaces full. Abuse isn’t restricted to people without handicapped stickers, ei ther. Schoonover thinks that the stick ers should be restricted to the mo bility-impaired. “You can get a handicapped parking space for respiratory prob lems and stuff like that,” he said. “Pretty much, I feel if you can walk, you don’t need this space.” Coordinator of Handicapped Services Charles Powell said that the people with respiratory prob lems have a more urgent need for handicapped parking spaces. “An asthmatic that can’t walk a few feet without stopping needs the space more than someone in an electric wheelchair,” Powell said. Schoonover said that when peo ple without wheelchairs use hand icapped spaces, they may give oth ers the wrong impression, encouraging people to violate the rules. “Other people see (a person without a wheelchair using the space), and they assume that the person who got out of the car and walked into the store is not hand icapped,” he said. Schoonover said he has heard stories about handicapped permits being given to people who ob viously don’t need them. “I was even told by one of the members of the University Police that one lady had a handicapped sticker so she could leave class early to go breastfeed her baby,” he said. “That lady had hers revoked.” Powell said enforcing the law is a difficult problem. He said in the be ginning, A&M charged only a $10 fine for parking in a handicapped space, just like parking anywhere else on campus without the proper permit. “We found that 60 percent of the time, 60 percent of the spaces were occupied by non-handicapped peo ple,” Powell said. “The Coke Build ing employees were notorious for this. “Now that it’s a $50 fine and au tomatic tow, it’s difficult to catch anyone, but they still do it — Til just be a minute,’ they say.” Powell said the Handicapped Services Office used to issue the handicapped stickers, but now the state does it. He said temporary permits are available from the state, but they of- . ten are abused. “You get someone who sprained his ankle skiing, and uses the sticker for two weeks,” he said. “They’re good for up to six months, and these people just keep them. There’s a lot of cheating. All you need is a doctor’s signature that one is needed, and doctors will sign any thing.” Powell said most of this kind of “cheating” is done by people who just don’t have any consideration for the handicapped, and he’s bitter about it. “I got a snotty letter from the at torney general one time telling me there wasn’t anything I could do about it,” he said. “The typical ex cuse is ‘Well, I’m just gonna be a few minutes.’ That’s the biggest lie.” Schoonover said the police offi cers will check with the state if someone should possibly not have a handicapped sticker, but someone has to bring it to their attention. Schoonover’s main complaint is with University Police not making enough of an effort to ticket and tow the Physical Plant and delivery trucks. He feels that the police need to do something about the delivery trucks that come in for “a few min utes” and don’t worry about park ing in a handicapped space. MEET THE AUTHOR QUENTIN STEITZ in the Patio Bookshop Lower Level MSC at 4:30 p.m. THANKSGIVING DAY When she will be Autographing her book “Grasses, Pods, Vines, Weeds:” Decorating with Texas Naturals.” Quentin Steitz harvests the graceful foliage of redroot near her ranch in Colorado County. She shows readers how to use native and naturalized plants like redroot in or namental arrangements in her new book. Grasses, Pods, Weeds: Decorating with Texas Naturals. The book is available for $24.95 in hardcover in the Pattio Bookshop and comes lavishly illustrated yvith more than 150 full-color photographs. Lack of parking space, unsafe driving heats up controversy about mopeds By Kathy Crawford Reporter Mopeds run into cars, cars run into mopeds, mopeds run into bicy- des, mopeds run into pedestrians and mopeds run into mopeds, Bob Wiatt, director of University Police, says. As mopeds and scooters have be come increasingly popular, they have created various problems on campus. Because there are so many mopeds, accidents are a problem, Wiatt says. “There are a number of accidents simply because of the number of mopeds around here,” Wiatt says. “Many of them are not reported to us insofar as they are not major or of considerable damage other than the moped sliding out from under the person.” Diane Vaughn, a junior industrial engineering major, says the prob lems are caused by moped operators who don’t follow the rules. “They drive on the sidewalks and pull up beside cars at stop signs,” Vaughn says. “I’m afraid that one “There are a number of accidents simply because of the number of mopeds around here. ” — Bob Wiatt, director of University Police day I’ll hit a moped and, more than likely, someone will get hurt.” Students who drive their mopeds on the sidewalks are also a source of trouble. Last year, signs were placed on campus stating that no mopeds, motorcycles or other vehicles are al lowed in mall areas. “Quite often,” Wiatt says, “they (moped operators) think they have the same license as a bicycle. We do issue a number of justice of the peace citations to moped operators who are violating these signed areas. “They are a sense of aggravation to the pedestrian traffic. When you merge the moped operators with the bicycle operators, a pedestrian feels like he’s a potential skewered shish- kabob.” The large number of mopeds sometimes causes increased parking hassles on campus. Mopeds and scooters are required to park in areas designated for motorcycles, Wiatt says, but some students find more convenient places to park them. “Students will put them right up to their dorm rooms, run them into their hallways or chain them to a handicap ramp,” he says. “In those instances, we not only cite them, but where they are an obstacle, we will cut the chain and impound the mo ped.” Moped parking is a relatively new problem for the University because they have become more popular in the last few years. “Because the parking problem in the last several years has been signif icant for vehicles,” Wiatt says, “people think that to avoid that hassle they will revert to either bicy cles or mopeds. “However, because of their in creased number, they are now ag gravating the parking problem as well as the traffic congestion prob lem.” University police records show as of October, 2,125 moped permits were issued — about 25 percent more than the 1,695 issued last year. But Johnnie Lee, a junior animal science major, thinks the increased use of mopeds and scooters on cam pus has helped with parking and has not created many problems. “I think they’re an asset,” Lee says. Wiatt says his department has re ceived several complaints and sug gestions about the problems with mopeds on campus. A number of people suggest banning all mopeds while others say all cars should be banned and mopeds should be the only permissible vehicle on campus. “You have your two camps and they’re always contesting each other like the chicken and the mongoose,” Wiatt says. “And it’s going to be that kind of relationship as long as we have this total congestion of people and machines on this campus.” urloui SPRING 1988 BATTALION STAFF Applications are available in 216 Reed McDonald for the Spring 1988 Battalion staff. Applications for editors and assistant editors should be returned to the editor’s office, 222 Reed Mcdonald, 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25 Edi tor and assistant editor positions include: At Ease editor managing editor opinion page editor city editor news editor sports editor photo editor At Ease assistant editor assistant city editor assistant news editor assistant sports editor Applications for all other positions are due by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2. Other positions include: staff writers photographers columnists copy editors cartoonists editorial cartoonist graphic artist clerks reviewer sports writers At Ease writers At Ease photographer Applications must be able to begin work Sunday, Dec. 6 Large 16” One Topping Thin Crust Pizza Free Delivery 846-0379 Best Pizza in Town Northgate 99 S5 + tax L 1 Small 12” One Topping Thin Crust Pizza Free Delivery 846-0379 Best Pizza in Town Northgate 99 $4 + tax r; v; Coupon ^ INTERNATIONAL HOUSE ^BUCiSIS. RESTAURANT $2.99 Mon: Burgers St French Fries Tues: Buttermilk Pancakes Wed: Burgers & French Fries Thun Hot Dogs & French Fries Fri: Beer Battered Fish Sat: French Toast Sun: Spaghetti & Meat Sauce ALL YOU CAN EAT $2" 6 p.m.-6 a.m. No take outs • must present this ad Expires 12/1/87 mmmmwmmmwmmmmmm Rooty Tooty $2 49 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 sausage good Plon.-Fri. Anytime International House of Pancakes Restaurant 103 S. College Skaggs Center University Tire & Service Center 3818 S. College Ave.*846-1738 (5 Blocks North of Skaggs) End-of-School Special Prices good thru Dec. 15 FRONT END ALIGNMENT Adjust caster, camber, steering, and toe settings as needed. Small trucks and vans slightly higher. expires Dec. 15 $14.95 $54.95 FRONT OR REAR BRAKEJOB New brake pads surface rotors, repack wheel bearings, inspect master cylinder & brake hoses, bleed system, add newfluid, road test (American cars single piston system. Extra $12.00 for semi-metailic pads). expires Dec. 15 COMPUTER BALANCE 4 regular wheels, Custom wheels extra OIL, LUBE & FILTER $16.95 expires Dec. 1E $14.95 Lubricate chassis, drain oil, install up to 5 quarts of Pennzoil oil and oil filter. Most cars and light trucks. expires Dec. 15 ENGINE TUNE UP For Electronic Ignition Others $10 More $28.00 4Cyl. $34.00 6 Cyl. $39.00 8 Cyl. Includes: Replace Spark Plugs, check Rotor, Dist. Cap. & Adj, Carb. & Timing When Possible. (Molt Cars ancl Light Trucks). expires Dec. 15 saa