Monday, November 30,1987/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
■hristmas in the Park’ provides
ictriy glimpse of holiday sparkle
By Anne Neidinger
Reporter
.■Having Christmas spirit while
^ uggling with final projects and
ims may seem impossible, but
hristmas in the Park" at College
don’s Central Park can provide
liday sparkle to lift tired spirits.
. The College Station Parks and
I creation Department sponsors the
pgram, which includes displays of
tr 40,000 Christmas lights, va-
|us holiday mechanical scenes and
tnts such as bonfires, carolers, a
|e log hunt and choirs, program
penisor Sheila Walker said.
The free event, in its fourth year,
include new scenes of a
liristmas Village and “Ski-boat San-
Ito be placed in the park’s pond,
baid.
3ver 20,000 cars entered the 43-
Ire park last December to view the
:orations, Walker said, but more
jple are expected to attend this
ir since the program is gaining at-
/ don. Also, better weather as corn
ed to last year’s rainy December
y help increase the turnout, she
Graphic by Robbyn L. Lister
I
id haw
m only
[ should
percent
d ra
he lighting display begins Tues-
and continues every night this
nth from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at
park located just east of Highway
b and south of Harvey Road (High
way 30).
On every Friday, Saturday and
Sunday evening, Walker said, there
will be walk-around, life-sized char
acters such as Rudolph and the Polar
Bear, who will distribute candy to
the children. Santa Claus also will be
at the park each weekend at 7 p.m.
and pictures may be taken with him.
Some of the special events at
“Christmas in the Park’’ include
Tuesday’s opening ceremony, a mu
sical by the Allen Academy on Dec.
11 and one by the Brazos Valley
Chorale on Dec. 13, Walker said.
On Dec. 18, 19 and 20, Stage-
Center, a community theater group,
will present “The Runaway Toy,” a
play produced and staffed by chil
dren. Tim Rogers, a guitar vocalist,
also will perform on those dates at
the park’s pavilion, she said. Most of
the events will begin at the park by
6:30 p.m.
“Christmas in the Park” began in
1983 with a $6,000 donation from
Jack Lester Jr., a Bryan merchant,
Walker said. Lester again donated
$6,000 in the second and third years.
The program also gets funding from
the city and it has received a dona
tion from Texana Bank. This year’s
program is funded by Lester’s dona
tion of $4,000 and $4,000 from the
parks and recreation department’s
budget, she said.
Because of this increased funding,
the program has grown consider
ably, Walker said, from a display of
15,000 lights to one with over 40,000
lights. New scenes also have been
added to the event, such as a $4,000
nativity scene with 7-foot-high,
hand-crafted figures donated by
Fred Brown Mazda in Bryan, she
said.
Setup of the lights and decora
tions began on Nov. 1 by the city’s
forestry department, but planning
has been going on since June by for-
esty and the parks and recreation
departments, Walker said.
Forestry Department Superinten
dent Ric Ploeger oversees the hang
ing of the lights in the trees and the
setting up of the displays through
out the park, Walker said. He also
masterminds special lighting pro
jects, such as the “Sesquecentennial
Flag” displayed last year on the
backstops of the softball fields, she
said.
A display celebrating College Sta
tion’s 50th anniversary will be cre
ated this year in the same area.
Although the number of lights
used may suggest a great increase in
the cost of electricity, Walker said,
there is no noticeable difference in
the park’s electricity bill and it
usually increases by only $10. How
ever, she said, the program uses all
of the power at Central Park and a
new transformer had to be added
this year to help light up the pond
area, she said.
Walker said not many A&M stu
dents seem to attend the program,
perhaps due to many last-minute se
mester obligations and activities.
However, she encouraged Aggies to
at least view the lighted display be
fore leaving town for Christmas va
cation.
“It’s so quiet and peaceful thartr
really does fill you with the
Christmas spirit,” she said.
Attorney: UH research
on superconductor
may be unprotected
HOUSTON (AP) — A patent
attorney says he’s not sure the
University of Houston is doing all
it can to protect its advances in su
perconductivity research through
patent applications and other
strategies.
“I am very worried whenever I
see a project of this significance
being shepherded by academics
who may not know the commer
cial world,” patent attorney David
Allen Roth said. “From my expe
rience, universities are not very
good at this.”
Earlier this year, Paul C.W.
Chu, a University of Houston
physicist, disclosed dramatic ad
vances in raising the temperature
at which superconductivity can
take place.
The advances brought closer
some practical applications such
as mass storage of electricity with
out energy loss and better means
of transporting electricity.
Roth has sought documents re
garding the University of Hous
ton’s patent applications, patent
strategies, licensing, contracting
and other information under the
statels Open Records Act.
Roth says he’s asking for the in
formation as a citizen and tax
payer and not on behalf of a cli
ent.
The university has asked the
state attorney general whether
the information Roth seeks is
exempt from the law.
Roth said he is not seeking any
information that under law can
be kept secret, but rather is seek
ing access to Chu’s scientific pub
lications and explanations of what
discoveries are covered by patent
applications.
“Patent lawyers are like monks
in a medieval cell writing illus
trated manuscripts,” Roth said.
“They depend on their clients for
strategy and technological infor
mation, and most universities
don’t have the vision to supply it.”
He said patent applications
that are too narrow could leave
the university with a smaller
amount of the eventual benefits
of superconductivity research.
Scott Chafin, university coun
sel, said the reputable law Firm of
Pravel, Gambrell, Hewitt & Kim
ball is advising the university in
patent matters.
He said the law firm was in
volved before Chu published his
first article about advances he has
made.
late wants right to auction Connally’s historical papers
10USTON (AP) — Former T exas gov-
lorjohn B. Connally donated potentially
wble historical papers to a library before
lit card tgpersonal and business bankruptcy pa
te crel s,t ^ e H ouston Post reported Sunday.
ses,:
n a copyright story, the newspaper said
nrtally donated roughly three million
cesof paper to the Lyndon Baines John-
nlibrary in Austin last July. The papers
considered a nearly priceless historical
asure by archivists and collectors.
In the past, Connally, 70, a former secre-
rv of the U.S. Navy and Treasury, had
catted I
rvals f®
ancy
things'
r sugge<
d supfl
ime
d, moii
then, v»
•vice a 11 ;
at Amer
e Sovif
weeks
Unit^
n the St'
jsttogf ;
In
ier v/itt
turned away numerous requests from li
braries and archives to house the papers.
The donation, or transfer as it is known
in legal papers, has triggered a legal contro
versy over whether Connally was entitled to
donate the papers, or whether they should
be auctioned off to help pay Connally’s $93
million debt.
Among the historical papers is a letter
from Lee Harvey Oswald to Connally 20
months before the assassination of Presi
dent John F. Kennedy during a Nov. 22,
1963, Dallas motorcade. Connally was in
jured in the attack.
The staff of the LBJ library, which tried
unsuccessfully for 20 years to obtain the pa
pers, was surprised when Connally con
tacted library director Harry Middleton in
early July, the newspaper reported.
On July 14, a moving van and two rented
trucks arrived at the library’s loading docks
with 1,500 linear feet of Connally records,
the newspaper said.
with former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes.
Connally’s attorney, Myron M. Sheinfeld
said Connally would not have been able to
donate paintings or other property to a mu
seum within 90 days of filing for bank
ruptcy, but he said historical documents
may fall into a different category.
Archives, which is handling legal work sur
rounding the transfer of the papers, says
the case poses novel legal issues.
On July 31, Connally filed for protection
from creditors for his personal finances
and filed for liquidation of the Barnes-Con-
nally Partnership, which he had formed
“Paintings you acquire by paying some
consideration for them,” Sheinfeld said.
“There’s a difference in file cabinets full of
papers. You’re never going to know what
the value of those letters are going to be.”
Jill Brett, spokesman for the National
“Our lawyers couldn’t find any legal
precedent for personal papers being reach
able by creditors,” she said.
Connally’s attorney has argued the pa
pers are the property of the U.S. govern
ment.
The National Archives and the LBJ li
brary say the papers are Connally’s until a
formal deed is executed.
f scierf
7W5
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