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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1989)
The Battalion STATE & LOCAL Tuesday, February 21,1989 MSC council discusses proposals Constitutional change, grant topics presented at regular meeting fflHCWCHf&T By Fiona Soltes STAFF WRITER The MSC council discussed a con stitutional change and suggestions fora prospective grant at its regular meeting Monday night. Cathy Valenzuela, vice president of student development, presented a proposed constitutional change that be voted on March 6. The change concerns the break-up of the directors of the student devel opment leadership training into areas based on experience within the organization. The directors of the apprentice, craftsman and mas- ierareas will be responsible for coor dinating sessions for their group — biweekly for apprentice and master groups, and weekly for the crafts man group. Sara Wall, executive vice presi dent of MSC Marketing and Person nel, introduced four proposals made to a prospective donor for a grant of $500,000 to the MSC. The first proposal for the grant concerns the establishment of an in stitute for visual arts enrichment, to facilitate exposure to the visual arts and present opportunities for stu dents and others to see and experi ence fine art on a first-hand basis. The second proposal involves a leadership fellowship, to encourage exceptional young men and women to hold major leadership positions in the MSC. Financial assistance from the fellowship would ensure stu dents would not be denied devel opmental opportunities because of personal financial limitations. The third proposal suggests an in stitute to heighten awareness of in ternational business careers, provid ing programs and services to enlighten the Texas A&M student body concerning opportunities, re quirements and rewards for an inter national business career. An interna tional business speaker series, support for the international busi ness programs and a resource center also are included in this proposal. The final proposal involves a lead ership institute to provide endowed support to preserve and enhance student leadership training and per sonal development programs for student leaders, including programs like Fall Leadership, Spring Lead ership and the MBA/Law debate program. An update on the prospective grant will be given at the March 6 meeting of the council. In other business Student Body President Jay Hays, Corps Cmdr. Todd Reichert and Residence Hall Association President Trey Jacobson gave reports from their prospective groups. Announcements included future programs for MSC Political Forum and multicultural sessions for Stu dent Development. Student body elections are set for the month of March and a resolution will go be fore the Student Senate Wednesday to reaffirm a 1987 referendum sup porting student service fees given for a future intramural recreational facility. The Texas Residence Hall Asso ciation Conference 1990 will be held at Texas A&M February 15-18, and this weekend A&M will host the Conference on Student Government Associations, which includes student governments from across the nation. Gas company merges to avoid take over ays me way to run ov • devoted myself ti^ gle. I assault thi eir skis and have even grabbelj,, eople are allowed# (o' it nightmare, ter when I hit never wrap myst! I’m alone. Theoi lo that is whenl eople skiing by ow off my form d ski instructor, an invitation tojoi inal fee. ty on the slopes beaches of Cancm ik can be deadly lucky to have lift is I have. I undci robability, and ck. I’ll leave it toil in the tradition. to know where! ing break, justdro ng is a senior jot! 1 : columnist for Jk HOUSTON (AP) — Texas Eastern Corp., bat- ng a takeover attempt by Coastal Corp., on Ulonday signed a merger agreement with Pan handle Eastern Corp. after the company outbid Coastal with a $3.2 billion cash offer, officials id. The merger, subject to approval by federal gulators, was accepted by the Texas Eastern ward just hours after the $53-a-share offer was ipproved by Panhandle Eastern’s board of direc- :ors, company spokesman Jim Hart said. The combination of the two Houston-based latural gas companies would create a 27,000- nile system and result in the nation’s second- argest pipeline company in terms of total miles. Hart said. “We expect the combination of the two compa- lies to result in significant operating synergies appreciably enhanced operating income of ic combined companies starting in 1990,” said ibert Hunsucker, chairman, president and :hiefexecutive officer for Panhandle Eastern. “In addition, we believe the combined compa- lies will benefit from significant growth oppor- lHunities available in the Northeastrn United Itates,” Hunsucker said. Coastal Corp. spokesman Fred Wichlep said Honday that the company will study the Panhan- Eastern offer before deciding whether to ntinue its pursuit of Texas Eastern. P aid He ‘We are going to consider our options, includ ing possibly raising our offer, dropping our bid or other courses of action open to us,” Wichlep said. Under the agreement executed Monday, Pan handle Eastern plans to begin a cash tender offer Tuesday for up to 80 percent of Texas Eastern’s outstanding shares at $53 per share, Hart said. The Panhandle Eastern bid came five weeks after Coastal offered $2.6 billion, or $42 a share. That offer was rejected by Texas Eastern officials who believed they could fetch a higher price. Panhandle Eastern has access to large mid continent supplies of natural gas, including the Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and the Gulf of Mex ico, and also operates a large liquified natural gas facility in Lake Charles, La. The company also has connections to Ca nadian gas through the Northern Border Pipe line, Hart said, while Texas Eastern has access to the rapidly growing New England natural gas market. “The combined systems will provide access to almost all the major gas processing markets in the nation,” Texas Eastern spokesman Fred Wichlep said. Dennis R. Hendrix, president and chief exec utive officer at Texas Eastern, described the merger agreement as “the result of a thorough, orderly process that has yielded for Texas East ern stockholders the best value among the pro posals developed.” Texas Eastern officials said Monday they had talked to several interested companies since Coastal’s surprise takeover bid, but would not disclose the number or the seriousness of other inquiries. However, Hendrix said the Panhandle Eastern bid, which included provisions for a share exchange, was by far the superior offer. “The purchase price is approximately $650 million higher than the Coastal Corporation’s tender offer, which our directors determined as inadequate and advised our stockholders to re ject,” Hendrix said. Those shares not purchased under the cash of fer will be exchanged for Panhandle Eastern stock at the same $53-a-share value, according to the Monday agreement. Coastal’s offer, when announced Jan. 16, was 40 percent more than the $30.25 Texas Eastern stock was bringing at the time. Since then, Texas Eastern stock has soared past $42 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s stock closed at $43.50 on the last day of trading Friday. The exchange was closed Monday in observance of President’s Day. Panhandle Eastern stock closed Friday at $24.50 on the exchange. Thousands evacuate Port Arthur to avoid gas from leaking tank PORT ARTHUR (AP) — Thousands of people were evac uated from their homes in this coastal city Monday evening after strong winds blew a noxious gas with traces of hydrogen sulfide from a leaking crude oil tank, au thorities said. More than 20 people were treated at local hospitals for mi nor reactions to the fumes, which officials did not consider life- threatening. Authorities described the pre cautionary evacuation as the larg est in recent history for the heav ily industrial city near the Louisiana border. “We’ve had some real bad fires at these plants where people were injured and killed, but even then we never had an evacuation of this magnitude and I’ve been here 28 years,” Port Arthur po lice Sgt. Cedric Clayton said. Sgt. Mark Blanton estimated late Monday that 5,000 to 7,000 people were evacuated from a densely populated 14- by 17- block area on Port Arthur’s west side. About 3,000 people were be ing housed at three schools that were opened as emergency shel ters, he said. Officials decided after a late meeting with Chevron officials that the evacuation would con tinue until at least 7 a.m. Tues day, Blanton said. “It appears the spill is under control, but the odor is still pre sent and we’re going to keep it evacuated until then,” he said, adding that Chevron tests show a mimimal amount of hydrogen sulfide is present. “We decided to evacuate the entire area simply as a safety pre caution,” he said. “There are a lot of elderly people who live in that particular area and there are two or three (public) housing com plexes.” Chevron officials said they had been monitoring air quality in the area of the leak since early af ternoon, and described the gas eous release as a miminum risk but a terrible odor. “Most crude oils in Texas have sulphur in them, and that means their gas contains hydrogen sul fide, which is listed as one of the hazardous chemicals,” Chevron spokesman Art Spencer said. Hydrogen sulfide is a flamma ble, poisonous gas with a charac teristic odor of rotten eggs. “We’re doing continuous mon itoring and we’re finding that there’s nothing there that is haz ardous to health and we’re also finding that the hydrocarbon smell in the air is lessening,” Spencer said. “But the odor got so strong that the city emergency response unit decided to go ahead and evacuate people down wind of it.” At least 24 people were exam ined at local hospitals as a result of the leak, officials said. “We got 20 people this af ternoon and they were all treated and released,” Jody Roberts, spokesman for Port Arthur’s St. Mary Hospital, said. “Most of them were treated for fume inha lation and some were com plaining of headaches or watery eyes and some had breathing dif ficulties.” Roberts said some of the pa tients were elderly residents con cerned that exposure to the gas may complicate existing condi tions, but had not yet suffered ill effects. Four patients also were being evaluated at Doctors Hospital, in cluding a 97-year-old bedridden woman who was transported as a precaution, spokesman Dan Bleyhl said. A Chevron employee discov ered the leak around 1:30 p.m. Monday and reported it around the same time that the first calls began arriving at police head quarters, officials said. An Invitation to Luxury.*. The Jewelry Express Card The Jewelry Express Card... Sheer Brilliance! 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