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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 29, 2000)
Page 2 Monday. May 2), High fuel costs force Coast Guard cutbacks Coast Guard patrol missions cut by 25 percent SEABROOK (AP) — Coast Guard boats that should be patrolling the Texas coast for safety violations are docked in Galveston. In Houston, helicopters that usu ally fly daily searches for drug smug glers are on the ground. All along the Texas coast and into the Midwest, rising fuel costs have forced the Coast Guard to cut back nearly every type of patrol but search-and-rescue missions by about 25 percent, officials said. "I had no other recourse," said Rear Adm. Paul Pluta, whose Eighth Coast Guard District covers 26 states and in cludes 1,200 miles of Gulf Coast and 10,300 tniles of navigable rivers. Oil prices have in creased dramatically in recent months, reaching $34 a barrel in March, al most $10 higher than in less frequent maintenance of channel markers and less time sp'ent enforc ing environmental regulations for fishing and shrimping boats, officials said. In Galveston, the marine safety unit has reduced offshore flights and consolidated harbor patrols from three days a week to one, Lt. Marie Byrd said. In general. Coast Guard units have stopped routine safety"patrols, but are responding to any reports of wrongdoing, Byrd said. The effects stretch beyond the id With all the budget surplus out there, the Coast Guard should be given the money to do their job” In New Orleans, Benton Brown, harbormaster for the Southern Yacht Club, said his yacht club can rely on the sheriff's department patrolling the northern half of Lake Pontchar- train and local police patrolling the southern half. Search and rescue operations will remain the first priority, Pluta said. In the Pacific Northwest, Chief Warrant Officer Chris Haley said the shortage is theoretical, so far. "They've told us to be prepared for operational cuts, and right now we're looking at our budget to see where we can cut, what we can cut, and still provide the best service to the public," Haley said. He said his 13th District had some fi- nahcial cushion built in. "That enables us to think about it rather In the depths Vlonday. May 29, 2( College Station resident Jim Woosley SCUBA dives in the diving well at the Student Recreation Center on Wednesday. Woosley, who has been a SCUBA instructor since 1 975, teaches basic SCUBA diving at the Rec Center as part of the Rec-sports program. — Frank Reynolds motorboat owner State Attorney to try teen as adul iShuon Madde teammate Du January. Prices were down to about $28 a barrel this month. Covering the cost of the higher fuel prices for the Eighth District would take between $700,000 and $1.3 million, Pluta said. It's just the latest funding problem for a Coast Guard that's still using boats and planes dating back to the Vietnam era and before, he said. Congress is discussing the possi bility of appropriating more money to make up for the shortfall, but it could take weeks, Pluta said. "With all the budget surplus out there, the Coast Guard should be giv en the money to do their job," said Frank Reynolds, 51, who keeps a : 54- foot motorboat in Seabrook. The cutbacks will mean fewer pa trols for boating safety violations. Texas coast. "If the buoys aren't maintained, it could cause us problems," said Dave Harms of Lake City, Minn., who boats on the upper Mississippi River. "The barges are having enough trou ble with low waters." Shrimper Jody Collins, 53, said a lessening of the Coast Guard's pres ence around Seabrook may not be such a bad thing. Shrimpers already comply with environmental regulations, he said, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife De partment duplicates many Coast Guard services, anyway. "This is just a way for the Coast Guard to get more money," he said. In some areas, other safety patrols and police organization will be able to make up for the cut backs. than immediately start making the cuts like they are in other parts of the country," he said. Haley noted that in Woods Hole, Mass., the station involved in the re covery of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane had used so much of its budget it was sending patrols only in emergencies. Coast Guard Commandant, Ad miral James M. Loy, said in his State of the Coast Guard address in March that he was working with Congress and government agencies to increase funding for the Coast Guard. "A lot of our problems are the kind that can be solved by throw ing money at them," Loy said. Peter Davidson, director of the Corpus Christi Marina in Texas, said the Coast Guard's presence is necessary. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Scores of grieving children, parents and colleagues brought flowers and notes Saturday to the middle school where a popular English teacher was fatally shot on the last day of classes. In a courtroom across town, a judge ordered that 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill remain in ctistody while a grand jury considers what charges should be brought against him in Bar ry Grunow's death. State Attorney Barry Krischer, known to back zero tolerance attitudes in dealing with juvenile crime, said he decided to charge the teen-ager as an adult, the Miami Herald reported in its Sunday edition. "It shouldn't be so easy for juve niles to get a gun," Krischer told the newspaper, "just because they have no impulse control." The seventh-grader had been sent home by an assistant principal Friday around 1 p.m. for throwing water bal loons in class. According to police, he rode his bicycle back to school about two hours later with a semi-automatic pistol in his pocket. The pistol — a compact, 5-inch “It shouldn't be so easy for juveniles to get a gun.’ — Barry Krischer State Attorney Goc Univer. model called a Raven — was loaded with four bullets he had stolen from his grandfather's dresser drawer a week before. Police Chief William Smith said. Brazill was trying to talktol girls in Grunow's class. When the teacher told himtole police say, he pulled out the gw shot Grunow in the head. Grunoi was the father of two and had woii at the school for seven years. Police say the boy rode away or bicycle, but flagged down a ficer about a quarter of a milefroir school and surrendered. He tolc vestigators he liked Grunow. "Everybody's talking about the but we need to try to figure outre made him do that," said CoreyJacks a pastor and neighbor of Brazil's. : j ketball coach E Early Saturday, Brazill, wearr jl Knightmusta] two-piece khaki jail uniform, his si jances and be " shackled, appeared before Palm Bln times. He nuis County Circuit Court Judge \merance" policy LaBarga and a courtroom packed" versity official cameras and reporters. Goodbye, L Distance Bench Chair Throwin Au revoir, o Bobby Knight! Say hello to must-be-good, new Indiana U versity men's I Cc>C>l<Z Qb&IQtl *die f (O'&cat, ** Steal. 'Btet S<tw AkLT fee o^ky' toew caesCo. r\ G 0*v» p-5c.'t- y^rvcAjor... Ho, OceWokUvj T‘vv\ cx. OuU"r>oA- - i sv»-> NNoyjorJ \J k cx."tev/elA n-ij i 5r\'i -hwr*. "f-cx-fernoj Ike. wHe clivers’+9 \vFHe. 4 OO -f — m atwioo x-^ Amc>vW<^c>^ Wkvss v i o v coach. 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