The Battalion
Vol.87 No. 120 GSRS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, March 28, 1988
I'edml
&M cuts number of buses
or remainder of semester
By Richard Williams
Senior Stuf f Writer
jjJHStudmls who ride shuttle buses
be in for a wait — Texas A&M
Bus Operations is cutting the num-
■ s V«r of buses running on some routes
for the rest of the semester.
^■Bits Operations employees weie
told of the changes in a newsletter
| ley received Friday. That newslet
ter attributed the cut in the number
‘“■buses to a drop in ridership and
budget cuts.
■ The following is a list of bus
lutes that are losing one or more
S gHiw'' on the morning routes, fol-
Ived by the number of buses being
Kt: Lincoln, one; 2818, one; An-
f Irson, two; Parkway, two; Scarlett,
1 Be; Munson, one; Marion Pugh,
i Be; Dartmouth, one.
i l‘\Ve are just changing the time in
I Itweeen that the buses run, so that
I lere will be a little bit of a varia-
,|: Bn," Katheryn Mathis, assistant
nii'Banager of bus operations, said.
s^lBut drivers interviewed by 7he
toLBftaiio/J said the buses will not run
as often, meaning passengers will
have to wait longer in order to catch
a bus.
Another driver said students liv
ing on the ends of routes will have
more trouble finding a bus to ride
because the buses could be full be
fore they reach the stops later on
their route.
Mathis said most passengers
should already know about the
changes because bus drivers have
been instructed to tell the passengers
about the changes.
But no signs were posted in the
buses on Friday, and drivers inter
viewed said they were told not to of
fer any information to riders.
They would talk to /Tie Battalion
only on the condition of anonymity.
The newsletter article, written by
Mathis, said, “Doug and I both ask
that you handle this very positively
with your customers .... If your
passengers ask questions please be
very positive and assure them that
the service will remain consistent
with their needs.”
T hat was followed by a sentence
in capital letters saying, “THE LESS
SAID THE BETTER.”
Mathis refused to comment on
that statement, and Doug Williams
could not be reached for comment.
Mathis said drivers were asked “to
do a lot of public relations-type
things so that we will not have a lot
of rumors and things.”
But one driver said he was told
drivers were not to offer any infor
mation unless passengers asked
about the changes.
He wasn’t asked about the
changes, he said, “because no one
knew to ask.”
And another driver said that al-
t’hough he wasn’t told not to tell pas
sengers, that was the general under
standing all the drivers had.
One driver, however, said he told
passengers anyway because he felt
they should know about them.
Although the newsletter article at
tributed the changes in part to bud
get problems, Mathis denies that Bus
Operations is facing financial prob
lems.
She said changes were made be
cause of a drop in riders, not be
cause of budget problems.
. One driver, however, said he had
been told that if changes were not
made bus operations would “be in
serious money trouble by the first
half of April.”
The newsletter article also said
that budget problems are affecting
almost every A&M department and
that Bus Operations is not immune
to the problems.
“Beginning Monday, March
28th,” the article said, “we will begin
cutting service to weigh, the effects
on our operation.”
Mathis said she did not find out
about the change until Thursday,
and several bus drivers said they had
not heard of the change until they
picked up their checks on Friday.
Two bus drivers whose buses are
no longer running said they did not
know about the change until in
formed by /Tie Battalion.
Wright’s adviser
tried to sell arms
to Contra rebels
Take me to the river
Company E-2, along with Reveille V, runs down
Joe Routt Street at the beginning of the annual
March to the Brazos. The event raises money for
the March of Dimes through pledges and dona-
Photo by Jay Janner
tions. During the march, outfit competitions took
place and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders made
an appearance. Corps staff positions for 1988-89
were announced and the new staff took over.
WASHING; EON (AP) — An
“eyes-and-ears” adviser to House
Speaker Jim Wright tried to sell
weapons to the Contras through Lt.
Col. Oliver North’s private network
thr^e months before the Iran-Con-
tra disclosures ended the North op
eration.
Richard M. Pena, a former House
Foreign Affairs Committee staff
member, contacted North associate
Richard Miller in 1986 offering
materiel from two South American
companies. One would sell gre
nades, bombs and mines, and the
other had boots at $33 a pair,
according to a letter proposing the
sale.
Such activity would appear at
odds with the objectives of Wright,
who has opposed military aid to the
Contras and has taken an active role
in efforts to get a negotiated peace
agreement between Nicaragua’s
warring factions.
Pena has been one of Wright’s ad
visers on Central America over the
past few years. As recently as Jan
uary, he was Wright’s paid emissary
to the region while jockeying toward
peace talks was under way, said
Wright aide Marshall Lynam. He
said Pena was on the speaker’s pay
roll for a few days on each of three
occasions, in August and November
last year, and in January.
Pena’s Aug. 15, 1986, letter was
addressed to a Cayman Islands front
company, World Affairs Counselors,
set up by Miller' and his partner
Frank Gomez to handle their Contra
transactions for North.
Through Lynam, Wright denied
any knowledge of “anything he
(Pena) might have had to do with
arms sales or anything like that.”
“Jim Wright was not aware of any
of these activities,” Lynam said. “He
knew Richard Pena as a Texan, a
man who had extensive connections
and acquaintances in Central Amer
ica, a person who was acquainted
with the Contra people in Central
America.”
Wright, he said, “had confidence
in his advice . . . and had no reason
to think there was any reason why he
should not use him in an eyes-and-
ears capacity.”
Sandinistas
free prisoners
under pact
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) —
The Sandinista government freed
100 political prisoners Sunday un
der an amnesty program, fulfilling
the first part of a cease-fire pact with
Nicaraguan rebels.
Interior Minister Tomas Borge
called the gesture “possibly the be
ginning of the end of the war.”
Tearful family members em
braced their loved ones vvho were re
leased from the Zona Franca jail on
the outskirts of Managua. But amid
the joy was an air of doubt.
“They say I don’t have anything to
fear,” said Feliz Pedro Chavaria Go
mez, 32, holding a plastic sack con
taining his belongings. “I’m happy,
but I hope it doesn’t fail.”
Chavaria said he was arrested in
1980 and charged with being a coun
ter-revolutionary.
Cesar Augusto Flores Mireando,
25, was arrested more than two years
ago in Managua. “The majority of
the peasants here are innocent,” he
said.
The release of the prisoners was
the first step in an amnesty plan the
Sandinistas agreed to Wednesday
when they signed a cease-fire accord
with leaders of the U.S.-backed re
bels known as Contras. The sides de
clared a truce March 21 and a a 60-
day cease-fire is to begin April 1.
partments want discount
gain for ‘sub-meter’ units
By Mark Gee
Staff Writer
H The managers of seven College
lation apartment complexes are
challenging the city council’s June
, v Hecision to revoke a 10 percent dis
count on electicity that has applied
since 1978 to complexes on the
u , "sub-meter” system.
..■At Thursday’s College Station
ulity Council meeting, Mayor Larry
linger sent the issue to be in vest i-
.[Bated by a committee and in
structed the city manager to pre
pare a report.
([il Apartment complexes that re-
julort electricity usage to the city with
■ single master meter were given
a,lie 1() percent discount on electric-
itv 10 years ago by the city as an in-
‘ Intive to install individual apart-
nient meters.
■ The city reasoned that if each
Bpartment was billed for its electric-
. pty use — as opposed to operating
on an “all-utilities-paid” arrange-
tnent — residents would use less
electricity to keep bills down, thus
lonserving energy.
Apartment complexes that con-
it Betted from a single master meter
Bo individual meters became known
Id f as sub-metered complexes.
,iB Managers at these complexes
)[ Bead their apartments’ electrical
nieters, maintain the meters and
[residents.
The seven complexes involved in
the issue are Treehouse, Briar-
tvood, Plantation Oaks, Viking,
Taos, Scandia and Doux Chene
apartments.
Fiske said the seven complexes
make up about 15 percent of the to
tal leaseable units in Brazos County
and that about 75 percent of the
residents in the complexes are Uni
versity students.
Deborah Fiske, Bryan-College
Station Apartment Association’s
chairman of the subcommittee for
equitable rates for residential cus
tomers, requested the 10 percent
discount be reinstated because she
said the discount offsets the apart
ments’ cost of performing a service
the city provides for residents and
other apartment complexes that
have city-owned electrical meters.
“All the city does,” Fiske said, “is
read the master meter and give the
apartment complex one bill for the
entire complex.
“Then we (apartment managers)
pay an outside contractor to read
the individual apartment meters
and produce bills for our residents.
The residents are are being
charged twice (for maintaining,
reading and billing), once for an
outside contractor and once by the
city.”
F'iske said the city is charging for
something it is not doing and that
the extra cost ends up being passed
on to the residents.
Paula Jonda, Briarwood man
ager, said the discount helped to
cover the complexes’ cost of main-
tainence and billing.
“(Under the sub-meter system)
the city doesn’t have to read the in
dividual meters, and if a trans
former explodes, we have to pay
for it,” Jonda said. “If someone
doesn’t pay their bill, we have to ab
sorb the loss.”
Fiske said representatives of the
apartment association have talked
with city leaders but the apartment
association has yet to get a clear ex
planation of why the discount was
discontinued.
Gollege Station City Manager
Ron Ragland said the apartments
have a legitimate issue that needs to
be investigated.
“They are incurring some cost,”
Ragland said. “But there is a differ
ence between what they are arguing
and what we did.”
F'iske argues that the original
1978 ordinance that gave the apart
ments the 10 percent discount was
to offset the cost of installing, main
taining and owning the electical
meters, so the apartments should
continue to get the discovint.
Ragland said the discount was
not originally meant to apply to the
costs of maintenance.
“The 10 percent discount was for
the specific purpose of helping
them for the installation of meters,”
he said, “and what they are trying
to do is apply the discount to the
cost of service, because they have a
cost of servicing their equipment.”
Ragland said 10 years of discount
was sufficient time for the apart
ments to recover the cost of instal
ling the electrical meters.
Ragland said the discount for
sub-metered apartments was lost
when the electrical rating system
was restructured last year.
Sub-metered complexes are no
longer in a separate category.
Last year, College Station’s elec
trical rates were structured on a
“customer class” basis rather than a
cost-of-services basis.
Now all apartment complexes
are in the customer classification.
“We are not making a distinction
if you sub-meter or not, because
that doesn’t apply to a class-rate
structure,” Ragland said.
College Station Utilities manager
Bruce Albright said all residents
should be billed on the same basis
because they are all in the same
classification and that the cost of
the meters is the responsibility of
the apartment complexes because
the complexes own the meters.
Ragland said the apartments’ re
quest will be considered in light of
the city council’s overall rate evalua
tion for next year and should be re
solved within six months.
He said the situation will be stud
ied to see if the complexes that
maintain meters should be compen
sated with a discount.
“The question now is first, how to
restructure the rate and second is if
the 10 percent discount is equitab
le,” Ragland said. “The 10 percent
may be high or too low. We won’t
know until we study it.”
Students rebuild
apartheid shack
after destruction
By Richard Tijerina
Reporter
Texas A&M’s Students Against
Apartheid rebuilt an anti-apart
heid shanty for the third time
Sunday afternoon, and organiza
tion members say they intend to
keep it standing this time.
The group obtained a conces
sions permit to legally place the
shack on campus between the
Academic and Harrington Tower
buildings Friday.
SAA president Susan Vint said
the organization might not have
decided to rebuild it had it not
been destroyed by vandals on
March 10.
“We rebuilt it mainly as a direct
result of the vandals who tore it
down,” she said. “We were going
to meet and vote on rebuilding it
after the break, but we probably
wouldn’t have decided to put it
back up. We had already made
our statement.
“We didn’t want to overdo it,
but the vandals who tore it down
made up our minds for us.”
The shanty again has anti-
apartheid messages painted on it
saying “Bothabusters,” in refer
ence to South African President
Pieter W. Botha, “End Oppres
sion” and “Free South Africa.”
Members stressed that they
didn’t want the messages to
sound political, because it was the
issue of the apartheid problem
that they wanted to convey.
Earlier attempts at building the
shanty during the semester have
met with failure.
It was originally built on Feb
ruary 21 and sneaked onto cam
pus late at night, but Director of
Traffic and Security Bob Wiatt
ordered University Grounds
Maintenance crews to dismantle it
on Feb. 22 because the group had
not obtained a legal concessions
permit to place it on campus.
A second shanty was built after
the organization obtained A&M’s
approval.
Built March 6, the group
blames vandals for the shack’s
dismantling two days later.
After rebuilding the second
structure, vandals again dis
mantled the shack during Spring
Break, one day before organiza
tion members had decided to take
it down.
The current permit for the
shanty allows it to remain stand
ing until April 4, and SAA mem
bers say they feel more secure
about the shanty’s safety because
of increased patrols by campus.
Although they say Wiatt has
been especially supportive of the
shanty, the group is still not en
tirely willing to leave its protec
tion in the hands of the police. A
group is planning to sleep inside
the shanty Monday night.