2
The Battalion
STATE & LOCAL
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Rudy
Cordova Jr,
Columnist
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Friday, August 10,1990
Congress reevaluates defense spending
Invasion may deter military cuts
DALLAS (AP) — The tensions in the Middle
East may make Congress look twice at wholesale
cuts in military spending, but defense contractors
in Texas aren’t speculating.
“The thing in the Gulf is a pretty worrisome
situation and certainly it would be very inappro
priate for a company to use that as some sort of
sales leverage,” said Bob Leder, spokesman for
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., in Fort Worth.
“We’re not walking around the halls of Congress
saying: ‘See, you need the V-22 because of Iraq.’”
The V-22 tilt-rotor craft was one program
jeopardized by Defense Department cutbacks.
General Dynamics and LTV Corp. also were con
cerned about Defense Department plans to cut
spending.
That was before Iraq invaded Kuwait last
Thursday and President Bush ordered U.S.
troops to Saudi Arabia.
Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s invasion
came days after the House Armed Services Com
mittee carved $24 billion from President Bush’s
defense budget request.
“These defense contractors, their spirits have
been lifted by what’s going on because many peo
ple have been concerned there was too much eu
phoria over this denouement between the East
and West,” said Ron Hatchett of the Mosher In
stitute for Defense Studies at Texas A&M Uni
versity.
The Iraqi invasion will make lawmakers “a
little less inclined to make such deep cuts without
further study,” Hatchett said Thursday. “It will
slow the rush to cuts, which means it will keep the
defense contractors like General Dynamics in
business. There is still a need for their business.”
Hatchett said the defense contractors may in
fact find themselves well positioned for the fu
ture.
With the end of the Cold War, superpower
conflicts are over and regional conflicts, such as
in the Middle East, will become the norm, Hatch
ett said.
The military’s reliance on ground troops will
have to shift to an ability to deploy troops and
equipment rapidly, he said. Many defense pro
grams in Texas would fit the bill, he said, includ
ing Bell’s V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, LTV’s C-17
transport plane and General Dynamics’ F-16
fighter.
Hatchett said he doubts lawmakers will undo
previous budget cuts, but said they will be more
careful about making future cuts.
“I think that Congress probably understands
now that even though the Cold War is over, that
the potential for regional conflicts is very high
and that they may have to rethink some of their
defense cuts,” said economist Harold Gross, asso
ciate director for the Center for Economic Devel
opment and Research at the University of North
Texas.
“How thar rethinking will affect the defense
industry in Texas is anybody’s guess,” he said
Thursday. “We may not like some of the deci
sions they come up with. They’re not going to
make the simple, straightforward decision of re
storing programs that have been axed.”
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State officials approve oil spill cleanup plan
Members discuss oil tax to pay
for special emergency equipment
AUSTIN (AP) — State officials,
overwhelmed by two major oil spills
this summer, endorsed an oil
deanup plan Thursday and dis
cussed a possible oil tax to pay for
emergency equipment.
Members of the Governor’s Oil
Spill Advisory Committee said the
state was not prepared to handle
spills from the June 8 explosion of
tne tanker Mega Borg in tne Gulf of
Mexico, and the July 28 collision be
tween a tanker and two barges in
Galveston Bay.
“It keeps getting worse and worse
and worse,” Texas Water Commis
sion Chairman Buck Wynne said.
“Somebody is trying to tell us some
thing.”
About 3.9 million gallons of oil
spewed from the Mega Borg about
60 miles off the coast from Galves
ton, while 700,000 gallons of oil
spilled when the Shinoussa hit two
barges.
The barge spill prompted a tem
porary fishing ban in Galveston Bay.
Environmentalists believe the sea
food-rich estuary may have suffered
heavy, long-term damage.
Committee members said Texas’
response to oil spills is slow, under
funded and confusing.
“We really suffered from the fact
that we did not have one general
(agency),” in the Galveston Bay spill,
said Andy Sansom, executive direc
tor of the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department.
Under a proposal by Land Com
missioner Garry Mauro, the respon
sibility for preparing and respond
ing to oil spills would be placed
under one agency. He said state laws
are vague and have led to a bu
reaucratic maze that slows down the
response time.
To prepare for an oil spill, the
state needs to stockpile booms, skim
mers, dispersants and oil-eating mi
crobe equipment at five centers
along the coast, Mauro said. A simi
lar setup in Florida cost $2.3 million.
Mauro said a 1-cent-per-barrel fee
on petroleum products unloaded in
Texas ports would produce $8 mil
lion per year, enough to pay for
equipment and trained personnel.
The committee Thursday en
dorsed the one-agency concept and
said details could be worked out by
next month. A proposal could go to
the Legislature in January.
Mauro said he would present his
fee proposal to the Legislature sepa
rately.
A Florida legislator told the com
mittee that such a plan upsets strong
lobby groups, such as oil, shipping
and port interests.
But state Sen. George Kirkpatrick
said, “Texas dodged a bullet. It’s a
true paradise and nothing can de
stroy it quicker than a major oil
spill.”
Perfect symmetry
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Henry Villarreal, a senior building construction major, positions
himself underneath Albritton Tower in order to etch out a one-
point perspective drawing of the Academic Building for his final
in Environmental Design 111, Design Media.
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A&M to take
cold showers
next week
Texas A&M’s main campus will
do without hot water from
Monday through Wednesday.
The heating water system will
not operate for three days as the
physical plant does necessary
maintenance work on the utility.
The system will be shut down
from 8 a.m. Monday to 11 p.m.
on Wednesday.
Any questions about the (outage
can be directed to 845-5511.
Teachers give ‘A’ to reform, ‘F’ to salaries
AUSTIN (AP) — Teachers gave high
marks to smaller class sizes and the no pass-no
play rule, but said their salaries are too low
and their jobs too restricted in a survey re
leased Thursday.
“There’s a good news-bad news story
here,” said John Cole, president of the Texas
Federation of Teachers, as he released results
of a survey measuring progress in Texas
schools since reforms imposed in 1984.
“The good news is that some of the re
forms have worked,” Cole said.
Teachers gave an ‘A’ to smaller classes in
lower grades. They gave a ‘B’ to requiring stu
dents to pass their courses before participat
ing in extracurricular activities, and to pre
kindergarten and kindergarten programs.
“The bad news is that the exchange that
we’ve made for those took away something
from teachers, took away their ability to deal
with children as individuals, took away their
freedom to teach and it’s shackled them with
tons of paperwork,” Cole said.
The salary level for teachers — an average
$27,000 in Texas, compared to nearly
$30,000 nationwide. Cole said — got the only
‘F’ on the statewide survey, which included
about 50,000 responses from 55 school dis
tricts.
Teacher autonomy, career ladder, evalua
tion system and paperwork load each got a
D.’
“We urge the Legislature to consider keep
ing the good parts and discarding the bad
parts of these reforms,” Cole said.
“We think it’s time to stop and listen to the
real experts, the classroom teachers, who are
on the front lines every day,” he said.
The survey was completed in April, before
lawmakers passed an education reform law
that affects school funding and administra
tion.
Cole criticized a part of the new law that al
lows model school districts to be exempt from
a number of state regulations.
Cole also responded to criticisms this week
from state prison board Chairman Charles
Terrell of Dallas, who criticized the job public
schools are doing.
Terrell said inmates arrive with an average
6th grade education but catch up quickly once
they take classes in prison.
“We’ve done the best we could with the
materials we’ve been given,” Cole said.
“Who knows, had we had a prekindergar
ten program and the smaller class sizes in
1969, that 18- or 19-year-old thug might have
been kept in school,” he said. “We are doing
some things now that should show up ... down
the road.”
“But I would be less than candid to say that
the things we are doing are adequate,” Cole
said.
Restaurant Report
The restaurants listed below were inspected by the
Brazos County Health Department between July 9
and July 13. Information is from a food service es
tablishment inspection report.
SCORED BETWEEN 95 AND 100:
Confucius Chinese Cuisine at 2322 S. Texas Ave.
Score — 97. Points were deducted for inadequate
food protection during storage and unsatisfactory
design of non-food contact surfaces. It was a regu
larly scheduled inspection.
Emilio’s Pizza at 2418 S. Texas Ave. Score — 96.
Points were deducted for unclean food-contact sur
faces and unclean floors, walls and ceiling. It was a
regularly scheduled inspection.
Pizza Hut Delivery at 1103 Anderson #103.
Score — 95. Points were deducted for inadequate
food protection during storage, not using hair re
straints, unclean non-food contact surfaces and walls
and ceiling in bad repair. It was a regularly sched
uled inspection.
Mt. Aggie Snow Cones at University Square Shop
ping Center. Score — 95. Points were deducted for
an unsafe water source (major violation). It was a
regularly scheduled inspection.
SCORED BETWEEN 90 AND 94:
Carney’s Pub at 3410 S. College Ave. Score — 94.
Points were deducted for poorly maintained non
food contact surfaces, unclean food-contact surfaces,
toilet doors were not self-closing, inadequate hand
drying devices and improper toilet area waste recep
tacles. It was a regularly scheduled inspection.
B.B.’s Oriental Restaurant at 2402 S. Texas Ave.
Score — 93. Points were deducted for improperly la
beled containers, inadequate food protection during
storage, improperly constructed non-food contact
surfaces, unclean food-contact surfaces and unclean
walls and ceiling. It was a regularly scheduled in
spection.
International House of Pancakes at 103 S. Col
lege. Score — 91. Points were deducted for inaccessi
ble toilet and handwashing facilities, unprotected
outer openings and poor repair of walls and ceiling.
It was a regularly scheduled inspection.
SCORED BETWEEN 85 AND 89:
Long John Silver’s at 1808 S. Texas Ave. Score —
88. Points were deducted for improperly con
structed non-food contact surfaces, unclean food-
contact surfaces, unprotected outer openings and
improperly stored toxic items (major violation). It
was a regularly scheduled inspection.
David Jefferson, a registered sanitarian at the de
partment, said restaurants with scores of 95 or above
generally have excellent operations and facilities. He
said restaurants with scores in the 70s or low 80s
usually have serious violations in the health report.
Scores can be misleading, Jefferson said, because
restaurants can get the same score by having several
minor violations or a few major violations. He said
the minor violations can be corrected during the in
spection. Point deductions or violations in the report
range from one point (minor violations) to five
points (major violations).
Jefferson said the department might close a res
taurant if the score is below 60, the personnel have
infectious diseases, the restaurant lacks adequate re
frigeration, there is a sewage backup in the building
or the restaurant has a complete lack of sanitization
for the food equipment.
The department inspects each restaurant every
six months.
AM/PM Clinics
• Minor Emergencies
• General Medical Care
• Weight Reduction Program
10% Student Discount with I.D. Card
(Except for Weight Program)
846-4756 693-0202 779-4756
3820 Texas 2305 Texas Ave S. 401 S. Texas
(next to Randy Sims) (next to U Rent M) College Station (29th & Texas)
CLINICS
OUR PRICES ARE
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EAST GATE
APARTMENTS
693-7380
Closed waterway costs $20 million
HOUSTON (AP) — Delays in re
opening the Houston Ship Channel
after a tanker-tug collision in Galves
ton Bay has cost shipowners as much
as $20 million, an industry official
said.
The July 28 accident, which
dumped an estimated 700,000 gal
lons of oil into the bay, has disrupted
traffic in the busy ship channel for
nearly two weeks.
Ted Thorjussen, president of the
West Gulf Maritime Association, an
organization of shipping lines, esti
mates that closing the channel has
cost the lines between $15 million
and $20 million.
Deep-draft traffic through the
ship channel was stopped between
July 28 and Aug. 3 — a move that
cost the average shipowner up to
$17,000 a day plus docking fees of
up to $3,500 a day.
Two-way barge traffic has been
permitted in the channel for nearly a
week, with one-way traffic allowed
for tow-escorted ship traffic since
last Friday.
But efforts to clean up the oil spill
and remove a submerged barge
damaged in the accident have de
layed the full reopening of the wa
terway.
Williams’ proposal hits
4 mathematical pothole’
AUSTIN (AP) — Clayton Wil
liams’ proposal to save $25 million a
year by giving private engineers
more state highway department de
sign work appears to have hit a
mathematical pothole, it was re
ported Thursday.
The Republican gubernatorial
candidate’s numbers differed from
those provided by the Texas Depart
ment of Highways and Public Trans
portation, the Houston Chronicle
said.
Williams said savings could be
made by giving at least half of the
department’s road design work to
private contractors rather than the
state’s 5,000 engineering workers.
But the Chronicle reported that
the highway department already
pays engineers in the private sector
to design more than half its projects.
Department spokesman Pete
Haight said that in 1989, $30.5 mil
lion of the $51 million in design
work for state projects was handled
by private firms.
During the last three years, design
work represented 3.3 percent of
project costs when done by engi
neers on the state payroll, compared
with 6.1 percent when done by the
private sector, Haight said. How
ever, the costs of personnel benefits
for state workers apparently wasn’t
included.
Williams said the state spends
$125 million a year on the work of
state engineers.
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