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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1988)
Tuesday, January 26, 1988/The Battalion/Page 3 State and Local ryan council rejects landfill site ecause of possible risk to water By Todd Riemenschneider Staff Writer I The Bryan City Council voted B)nday to withdraw from a pror Ised landfill site east of Bryan. Ifhe landfill, which was to be lo- cfed at the intersection of Sandy Hint Road and the Old San Antonio |ad, drew much opposition be- pse the location is near existing ter wells for Bryan-College Sta in and Texas A&M. There was lo opposition because the Bryan Bilities Lake is located on Sandy int Road. City Manager Ernest Clark said city and an independent hydro- jst found the site to be safe. However, an analysis by Texas A&M showed there might be a threat to the water supply. “The data and analysis provided by Texas A&M indicate a risk to the public water supply,” Clark said. “While these are professional dif ferences of opinion, we must weigh them very, very heavily,” he said. Dr. Kirk W. Brown, a professor of soil sciences at Texas A&M, believes the council made the right decison. “There were wells within a mile to a mile and one-half of the site,” Brown said. Brown also helped Citizens Against Water Contamination in studying what could happen if the landfill was placed over the aquifer. “There was a potential, if the landfill was placed there, it would have leaked and contaminated ground water resources,” he said. The citizens group, which col lected over 4,000 sigmtures on a pe tition, did not believe the land was suitable for its intended purpose. CAWC also sought alternatives to the landfill problem. “Composting is an option suited for a community this size,” Brown said. He said composting is the taking solid waste and removing the metal and glass from it, which can be re cycled. The leftover refuse is then ground and it sits for six to eight weeks and is turned about once a week. The refuse becomes a stab- lized product which can be reground and used. Brown said composting does not threaten the water resources. “This also cuts the possibility that a landfill will contaminate a water supply,” he said. James Bond, deputy chancellor for legal and external affairs for Texas A&M, said he was pleased the council had withdrawn from the site. “We feel like the right decision was made,” he said. “We will want to be as helpful as we can, so while we are grateful they have chosen not to pursue that site, we want to be as supportive as we can in helping them to solve the problem,” Bond said. brker fired after helping elderly flee fire tur le honon mmitmenl'l na triage'! eciate om heating 1 o knowi| io are saii^ hment, I tudy fonj lumps, of sort to r’s papal aintance t a mani ; oppord is way "1 cquainiil onorabkl ginary, lity. Gni t they ar| when stiii ating a« icians ;r they) nachroni ?where ( a shredl express] uch as f rystifyusS • historjl mist fot] SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A hotel laintenance worker says he was Bred because he helped evacuate el derly residents after smoke from a learby fire filled the hotel. But his bosses say he was fired for eing unreliable and because he |ung around with the evacuees hav- ig breakfast instead of helping with Eleanup efforts. J Rodney Feese, 51, said he re- Jjyrned to the downtown Travelers [otel after helping evacuees from a (unday morning fire only to find his >ss was angry. “He was mad at me, saying I Biouldn’t have left the hotel,” said 'eese, who had worked as a mainte- lance man at the hotel for about |hiee months. “He said he didn’t need me any- lore,” Feese said. “I told him I was idping some people, and he said I [houldn’t have left.” Martin Vega, the hotel’s mainte- lance supervisor, said Feese was fired because he didn’t help with Cleanup work after residents were al lowed to return to the hotel. The maintenance man said he ac companied the guests he evacuated to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and had breakfast with them. Vega and hotel manager Clark Gillespie said Feese should have re turned to the hotel immediately and helped in the cleanup effort instead. “Everybody else was pitching in to help, but he just wanted to stand around here and drink coffee,” Vega said. The hotel suffered smoke damage in the fire, which destroyed three nearby businesses and caused an es timated $550,000 in damage. About 84 residents in the 106- room hotel were evacuated but al lowed to return about two hours later, hotel officials said. Investigators believe an arsonist may have started the fire in a nearby business. Feese said he was just getting to work Sunday morning when he saw the fire and smoke and began help ing guests out. “I carried one gentleman about two blocks. He can walk but he’s real slow,” Feese said. “I helped four people, and the firemen came and got everyone else.” “I guess I’m gone,” Feese said later. “I’ve always believed in help ing someone. I guess I’ll look for an other job.” Assistant Fire Chief Charles Shaw said more than 100 firefighters worked about two hours to extin guish the blaze, which is suspected to nave been started by an arsonist. Regents approve merit pay raises in new fiscal year By Richard Williams Senior Staff Writer Many Texas A&M employees will find their paychecks getting fatter later this year. Monday the A&M Board of Regents approved merit pay raises not to exceed an average of eight percent for faculty in the general academic institutions and for faculty-equivalent profession als in the services and agencies. The Board also approved pay raises not to exceed an average of five percent for professional staff, including non-classified ad ministrative personnel and classi fied personnel. All system employees, except those paid in whole or in part from teaching salaries appropria tions, will receive a state man dated two percent salary increase. The policy guidelines for the 1988-89 operating budget as adopted by the regents state, “The basic salary schedule for classified employees and student workers should be increased by two percent.” The raises will become effec tive at the start of A&M’s fiscal year which starts Sept. 1. The regents set reimburse ment rates of $0.21 per mile for personal auto mileage and a max imum meals and lodging re imbursement for in-state travel at $70.00 per day. During the meeting the re gents also: • Authorized the chancellor of the Texas A&M University Sys tem to negotiate the purchase of porperty adjacent to the campus of A&M-Galveston. • Appropriated $512,000 for the purchase of two parcels of land adjacent to the Tarleton State University campus. • Adopted resolutions in ap preciation of the A&M and Tarle ton football teams. The A&M squad won its third consecutive Southwest Conference championship in 1987. The Tar leton football team won the 1987 Texas Intercollegiate Athletic As sociation championship. Officials try to return beach to parks systems BRAZOS ISLAND (AP) —Nego tiations begin this week to return a 216-acre piece of beach near the mouth of the Rio Grande to the state parks system, but a developer appar ently will retain a road easement granted by the General Land Office, a parks official said. The Brazos Island area was the subject of controversy in 1986, when Land Commissioner Garry Mauro attempted to lease it to Brownsville- based developer Playa del Rio Inc. Playa del Rio plans a 12,500-acre, $8 billion resort development to in clude areas north and south of Bra zos Island, which actually is a penin sula. “We would very much like to take it (Brazos Island) back and manage it on some basis as a park or a pre serve,” said Andrew Sansom, coordi nator of land acquisition and man agement for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Sansom described Brazos Island, known locally as part of Boca Chica Beach, as “one of the nicest sets of intact sand dunes anywhere.” Environmentalists have fought development of the area, which they maintain is a sensitive wetland and part of a shrinking wildlife habitat in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Others, however, see the ambi tious development as a source of jobs and economic stimulus. Yet the developer, as well as a leading South Texas environmental ist, welcomed news that the parks department hopes to take it back — even though they envision different uses for the island. The state Legislature in 1957 pro claimed the area as a state park, and it has been known since then as the Brazos Island State Recreation Area. But in 1986, the General Land Office, whose purpose is to earn money from state lands, took the land back. The 1957 transfer to the parks system had been deemed invalid be cause the parks department never paid the land office for the property, as required by the state. Then in May 1986, after the land office’s plans to lease the Brazos Is land area to Playa del Rio brought sharp protests from environmental groups, the company revised its plans, and Mauro offered to return the land to the parks department. RENT •A'FRIDCE REDUCED TO. soon rf ing.' tes? ave bed t. ifya 11 to fOR SPRING SEM. 2.8CU.FT. HOLDS MCA NS OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINK SIGN UP AT THE PA VILION RM. 221 we deliver to your dorm roomhiih CALL: 845-3051 m If you feel the need for speed. $2199. The new CA 386 is 22 times faster than the IBM PC. And even though the CA 386 comes with more standard features than any 80386 based computer, it costs thousands less. 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