Tuesday • November 21, 1995
Page 5 • The Battalion
Dispute
Continued from Page 1
the Texas Instruments plant.
In exchange, any land an
nexed by College Station for
the next 16 years would invari
able fall under College Sta
tion’s utilities jurisdiction.
This agreement operated
smoothly until 1993, when Bryan
legal counsel realized the Bryan
city charter prohibited making
sales power contracts of more
than 10 years in length.
Bryan declared in 1994 that
the utilities agreement was in
valid and began negotiations
with College Station officials.
Joe Brown, Bryan public in
formation officer, said negotia
tions reached an impasse, and
Bryan filed a declaratory judg
ment lawsuit, which seeks only
a judge’s ruling and no mone
tary compensation.
“I don’t know what exactly
we’re asking for,” Brown said.
“But there’ve been a whole lot of
customers taken away from us
since 1980.”
If the agreement is declared
invalid, utilities of College Sta
tion areas annexed between 1990
and 1995 will once again be regu
lated by Bryan.
Skip Noe, College Station
city manager, said having dif
ferent power rates throughout
College Station would be con
fusing and unnecessary.
“Now, we have a say so in
what happens, and we are re
sponsive to all the taxpayers in
College Station,” Noe said. “We
just want to continue providing
service to all parts of our city.”
If Bryan takes control of util
ities in some College Station
annexes, Noe said, rates will
likely increase for all College
Station residents.
“The more customers you
have, the better rates you can
get,” he said.
Peggy Calliham, College Sta
tion public relations and mar
keting manager, said Bryan offi
cials are using the charter tech
nicality as an excuse to break
the contract because the deal
was not beneficial to them after
the Texas Instruments plant
shut down.
“Bryan just wanted to provide
power for them (Texas Instru
ments),” Calliham said. “It’s a
matter of dollars.”
Calliham said Bryan officials
protested the agreement be
cause they feared that in 1996
College Station would not renew
its power contract with Texas
Municipal Power agency of
which Bryan is a partner.
College Station, which does
not produce any of its own power,
did in fact sign a contract with a
different power company, Texas
Utilities, effective Jan. 1, 1996.
This contract will result in lower
utility rates for College Station.
The argument presented in
court by College Station officials
was that since both cities contin
ued business as usual after the
10-year limit had passed, the
contract was, in effect, renewed.
Noe likened the situation to
leasing an apartment. He said
that if a tenant’s lease runs out,
but the tenant continues to live
there and continues to make pay
ments, the contract is still good.
“If they never tell you other
wise, and you keep paying, basi
cally you’ve renewed your lease,”
he said.
Since Langley ruled to have
another hearing before making a
final judgment, Noe said the
court must have found some mer
it in College Station’s argument.
However, Brown said Lang
ley's judgment against College
Station was clear.
"Basically the judge said, ‘This
argument you made is not a good
one,”’ he said. "Tf you want to
come at it from a different way,
you can have one more try.’”
The power contract signed in
1980 states that if the agreement
was found to violate either city
charter, Brown said, the agree
ment would be void. Brown com
pared College Station’s argument
to people breaking the speed lim
it because they are unaware it
has changed from 65 to 55 mph.
“Just because the city of
Bryan continued to do it, doesn’t
erase what the charter and the
agreement state,” he said.
But Noe said, as a matter of
honor, the agreement should not
be broken.
“The world was all peachy
keen for 13 years, and then
someone said, ‘Hold on, the
agreement’s not good anymore,”’
he said. “We’re honorable folks,
and we entered into an agree
ment for 16 years, and we just
want to follow through on that.”
Budget
Continued from Page 1
the environment and aid to
working families from severe
reductions.
Panetta insisted that the ad
ministration had surrendered
little in accepting the OOP’s
timetable, saying it was spend
ing levels for important social
programs that really counted.
On NBC’s “Today,” he even
seemed to hedge a bit on the
timetable itself.
“If we can work out an agree
ment that protects those priori
ties, we can do it in seven years
or eight years,” Panetta said.
“But the important thing is pro
tecting those priorities, and
that’s what we got in the agree
ment last night.”
Sunday’s agreement sent
about 700,000 federal workers
back to their jobs Monday, fol
lowing another 100,000 who re
turned earlier as bills financing
several agencies were signed.
That meant that the Grand
Canyon and Smithsonian muse
ums reopened to tourists, the
Commerce Department re
sumed tracking economic statis
tics, and overseas embassies
could issue visas to travelers.
Library
Continued from Page 1
“Basically, we thought it would be very effective,” Taylor said.
“We’ve provided a great educational resource to the community.”
Taylor said the prison camp donated both resources and labor
to the effort.
“The federal women’s program and our affirmative action com
mittee sponsored the project through book donations,” she said.
“Also, our warden, Anne Beasley, was kind enough to authorize
the building of book shelves by our inmate construction work de
tail, so our inmate population actually built the shelves.
“We got other organizations involved in the project, and it be
came their community service project.”
Georgiana Vaccaro, a doctorate bilingual education stu
dent in the class, said the project was chosen for its merit in
the community.
"We entertained several ideas, and this one seemed to be the
only one that everyone could contribute to evenly,” Vaccaro said.
“We knew before we started that there were a number of school-
aged children in this project, and we thought this could help ad
dress a need and a concern.”
The group also focused on a multicultural aspect when coordi
nating the project, Vaccaro said, obtaining materials written in
English, Spanish and Vietnamese.
“Since this is a diverse population, we tried to get a diverse col
lection for the library,” she said. “We think this project is replica
ble in other parts of the community.”
Debra Mixon, Mockingbird Run complex manager, said she be
lieves the project will have a positive effect on both residents and
the surrounding community.
“I think it will have a tremendous effect,” Mixon said. “They
have books on many great levels.”
Mixon said there are 300 school-aged children living in the com
plex, 75 percent of whom attend schools surrounding the complex.
The library will benefit students as well as their families,
Mixon said.
“We’re trying to raise the level of reading,” she said.
In addition to the library project, the complex has a program
in which volunteers read to children, help them with school work
and serve as role models.
Volunteers are still needed for this program, and interested
persons can contact Mixon at Mockingbird Run at 779-0051.
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