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
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254
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