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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1998)
iary25, T e x as A & M University r 1 ' TODAY lp TOMORROW ptjf H YEAR * ISSUE 99 • 12 PAGES indsinta ardM* [oundsag y due to fmarijuan [ationofai he legal p [Riesdat |ingll.lg aronSw |isshootii| poregm COLLEGE STATION • TX THURSDAY • FEBRUARY 26 • 1998 ity council set to vote on Northgate garage Isiveteai ague-tej lure": I lay is l'er, , 'Ai By Amanda Smith Staff writer he College Station City Council will tonight on a citizen s petition aimed to planning and development of a $6.8 an Northgate parking garage, le council can vote to support the peti- which would scrap the garage project ,or tthe petition, which would allow voters bide on the garage in the May 2 election, dd McDaniel, College Station senior omic development analyst, said has been spent on preliminary de sign work for the garage. The council voted to approve the park ing garage in May 1997 by a 4-3 vote. Coun cil members Dick Birdwell, Swiki Anderson and Steve Esmond voted against the North- gate parking garage. Citizens responded to the council’s vote with a Jan. 30 petition with 577 signatures, but the petition was returned because it lacked birth dates. Birth information has been added and the petition has been vali dated, City Secretary Connie Hooks said. The proposed 750-space parking garage would be located on a 1.5-acre space at the mid block of College Main. Anderson said the garage is not a good economic project for College Station . “I am not in favor of the parking garage because I don’t think it’s a good economic situation,” Anderson said. “I am not sure there is a need for the parking garage. The need for parking (in Northgate) is primarily on Sundays during church ser vices and at nights around the Dixie Chick en area.” The churches, local businesses and stu dents could potentially benefit from the ad ditional Northgate parking, McDaniel said. Anderson said the city cannot assure taxpayers that revenues for the garage will be subsidized completely by municipal revenue bonds. Dr. Dan Barbee, a retired investor and a Texas A&M professor, said College Station taxpayers should be attentive to proposed funding for the parking garage. “When people try to say there’s going to be no expenses to the taxpayers, you have to pay attention to the details,” Barbee said. “There is the argument that a city should provide these services. If you think about city-sponsored projects, think about why (the city) should pick a parking garage and is it needed.” McDaniel said planning for the parking garage began after the city hired a parking consultant to evaluate parking conditions in the Northgate area. “We identified a need for parking in the Northgate area,” he said. We contracted with a parking consultant who determined that there was a need for off-street parking. The recommendation was moved (to the council) for the devel opment of a parking garage at the North- gate location.” the rich ; ? ers.Wtl I a mini ivnoil pecM ire it! PI mgs mm —_i .SMlBIBk. GREG MCREYNOLDS/The Battalion hvid Schmidt, a sophomore computer engineering major, selects a bow from the rack for his archery class in the Student Recreation Inter on Wednesday. Itudents celebrate black heritage I By Jennifer Wilson i Staff writer rhe official celebration of black history dates back to 6 when it was known as Negro History Week. It has Ce evolved to today’s month-long celebration: ^ |ckHistory Month. I terG. Woodson created the original celebra- ^ iduring the second week of February to coincide i the birthdays of civil rights pioneers Frederick i Jglas and Abraham Lincoln during the month. I Organizations at Texas A&M have joined together “ elebrating the heritage of black history this month, lichael Stewart, chair of PanHellenic Council and nior mechanical engineering major, said there is a d for black history awareness at A&M. The tradition-based environment at A&M poses a problem be- cai cause it is more exclusive than inclusive regarding culturally di verse issues such as black history,” Stewart said. Stewart said PanHellenic always offers programs regarding African-American issues, but they are more intensive dur ing black history month. Q “We have had about two programs a week this month to educate and entertain students about black history,” he said. “We have also done a lot of . community service to help spread awareness.” Earlier this month, Alpha Phi Alpha spon- sored Miss Black and Gold, a contest in which African-American women can represent them selves as leaders, Stewart said. The ninth annual Greek Olympiad, which will feature a dance style called “step,” will be in Rudder Theater Friday at 7 p.m. Please see History on Page 2. INSIDE “XX* Preventing shoplifting saves merchants and customers money in the long run. Meningitis lands student in hospital after Mardi Gras See Page 3 sports omen’s Basketball Team torious in its final game in IRollie White Coliseum. See Page 7 opinion frguson: United States lust stand firm in dealings |th Saddam Hussein. See Page 11 online |ttp://battalion.tamu.edu Ook up with state and na- pnal news through The f ife,AP’s 24-hour online vs service. HOUSTON (AP) — A Lon Morris College stu dent remains in critical condition today after falling victim to a virulent blood disease. The student had attended Galveston’s Mardi Gras celebration this weekend, when he began to feel ill. “He had some muscle aches and pains, noth ing very severe,” said University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston’s Dr. Victor Cardenas, who is treating the student. “He got worse through the night and in the ear ly morning felt bad enough that he had to come to the John Sealy Hospital emergency room, where he became very, very ill very quickly.” Physicians on Tuesday said the 20-year-old stu dent has less than a 50 percent chance of surviving. The man was attacked by a meningococcal disease that left him breathing with the help of machines and heavily dosed with antibiotics, the Houston Chronicle reported. Galveston County Health District officials are trying to track down anyone who came in con tact with the student, whose name and personal information are not being released at the request of his parents. Meningococcal disease is an infection of the blood stream. It can cause meningitis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the brain and the spinal cord, physicians told the paper. “It’s not really clear he had meningitis, but he was treated for meningitis anyway,” said UTMB’s epidemiologist Dr. C. Glen Mayhall. TCA raises rates, adds channels By Colleen Kavanagh Staff writer TCA Cable TV announced yesterday that the basic service price will increase $0.88, to $11.30 and the standard ser vice price will increase $1.80, to $15.33 per month. The Disney Channel and Fox News have been added to standard service, Prevue to basic service and Galavision to the premier package. Disney and Fox News were added to the service package because of customer suggestions and requests, said Tom Way, TCA general manager. He said TCA tries to incorporate their customers’ com ments into their program. Rental prices for converter equip ment will also change. The monthly fee for the enhanced deluxe model SA8600X has decreased $1.39 per month, and the SA8600 series convert er increased $0.41 per month. Way said TCA’s new price structure meets federal price guidelines, remains consistent with the-federal Communi-, cations Commission’s (FCC) regula tions and follows the terms of the TCA’s franchise agreement with Bryan and College Station. Bob Biles, director of support ser vices for the City of Bryan, said the last cable price increase was in December 1996, when the basic system price in creased $0.29 and the standard service increased $2.34. “An FCC telecommunications act re lieved cities of the opportunity to regulate cable,” he said. “But TCA must fill out pa perwork with the FCC in order to increase cable rates. There is a formula that deter mines how much the rate can increase that is based on numerous factors.” Way said costs of operation have risen, but the cable rates are still below the national rates. Decisions to adjust prices are made on the management lev el at the corporate office in Tyler, Texas, and then passed on to the city systems. Over the past year, TCA has added channels such as TV Land, the Texas A&M University Channel and The Col lege Station Channel to its line-up. Mario Saldana, an electronics sales person at Circuit City, predicts that the cable price increase will increase sales of Digital Satellite Systems (DSS). “The number one reason for people switching to DSS is that they are not sat isfied with their cable service,” he said. “I think that a price increase will add on to people’s dissatisfaction.” TCA has provided cable television to the Bryan-College Station area since 1989. TCA Cable TV Inc. provides service to over 850,000 customers in 75 cable systems in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi and Idaho. Dr. Ralph Morris, Galveston health district di rector, said about six people who attended the celebration began taking medication Monday as a preventative measure against the potentially deadly disease. The ill college student rode on a Knights of Momus Mardi Gras float which passed thou sands. Officials say people who watched the pa rade are not at risk. “Given the rather transitory exposure that anyone may have, we do not feel that there would be any risk of obtaining the disease,” Mor ris said. “Just because you attended a ball or were part of the parade, there’s no need for concern.” Administrators at the man’s college in Jack sonville have been asked by state health offi cials to notify students who may have spent significant amounts of time with the sick stu dent last week. “The definition of exposure is spending four hours with an individual in the five-day period prior to the onset of illness,” Morris said.“We’re contacting those individuals that had even less contact than that, apprising them of the situa tion and letting them make a decision about whether they want to take treatment with their doctors.” The student first developed symptoms of the disease Saturday night. Since Sunday, he has suf fered kidney failure, dangerously low blood pres sure and other complications, hospital physi cians said. Berkeley bound Architecture master’s candidate wins design contest for historic marketplace addition By Travis Irby Staff writer A Texas A&M University master's candidate in the College of Architecture bowled over the competition to win the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Associ ation (BAHA) certificate of recognition. Susan Perkins won the prestigious honor for an addition she designed for the Berkeley Bowel Marketplace in Berkeley, Calif. The award is given to a project that enhances the historic and neighborhood aspects of the city. Perkins, who received her under graduate degree from UC-Berkeley, wasn’t even aware she had won the honor. “I didn’t know about the award until I received it in the mail,” Perkins said. Perkins said the design reflected her interest in the environmental-be havior al aspects of architecture. Her undergraduate work was half psychol ogy, half architecture. “I want to design buildings that do more than look nice,” Perkins said. “The people that work and live inside them need to feel good.” Perkins said the design for the Berkeley Bowl reflected those beliefs about architecture. “I wanted to keep with the historic feeling of the building, adding parts that were new but I felt like they be longed,” Perkins said. The Berkeley Bowl Marketplace was originally a bowling alley built in 1939. It now houses a variety of food dealers offering a multitude of produce, meats and spices. Perkins designed a 75-foot wide addi tion to Marketplace, adding space while integrating the building’s elements. “The Marketplace is a local icon so it as a very high profile job,” Perkins said. Leslie Emmington, of the BAHA, said Perkins’ work only strengthened the building’s appeal. “The distinguishing feature of this project is the way she worked with the qualities that were already there and BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion Susan Perkins, a master's candidate in architecture, won a design contest. made them stronger and more appeal ing,” Emmington said. The project took two-and-one-half years to complete. Before Perkins became involved with the project she studied with Chris Alexander, a world famous architect. Prior to her studies with Alexander, she lived in Europe and the Caribbean. She started her architecture studies at the elite Cooper Union, one the na tion’s premiere architecture colleges. Perkins has also won the New Mexico State Beautification Award for her work in saving a stream habitat in a Silver City, New Mexico historic district. Perkins is currently studying the de sign of nursing homes and its effects on the elderly. Perkins said these experiences de fine her desires and goals. “I want to bring environmental-be havior principals to modern design,” Perkins said. “It is important it looks good, as well as feel good.”