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Volume 101, Issue 79 A century of editorial freedom mm Serving the students and the University community since 1893 IN THE NEWS Top stories from the state, nation and world Investigators Say Towboat Radar in Working Order MOBILE, Ala. Radar aboard the towboat MV Mauvilla should have been able to detect the bridge where Amtrak’s Sunset Limited crashed, but investigators said Tuesday they didn’t know if the equip ment was turned on. The towboat reportedly had two licensed pilots aboard when it got lost in fog on Sept. 22. Investigators say one of the barges being pushed by the towboat might have struck the railroad bridge. The towboat’s radar was in operating condition when checked by a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, agency spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said Tuesday. The radar had a range of 24 miles. Senate Votes Down Funds For Abortions for the Poor WASHINGTON The Senate, in a defeat for abortion-rights supporters, re fused to lift the 17-year-old ban on feder ally financed abortions for the poor Tues day. By a 59-40 roll call vote, senators voted instead to slightly liberalize current restric tions. Medicaid can now be used to pay for abortions only for women whose lives are in jeopardy; under the bill, funds also would be provided when pregnancies result from rape or incest. The vote signaled defeat of this year’s effort by abortion-rights advocates to use the ascension of President Clinton to the White House to dramatically expand the use of federal funds for abortions. The abortion language ispartofabillproviding $261 billion for health, labor, education and other programs for fiscal 1994. Pipeline Explosion Rocks Busy Venezuelan Highway TEJERIAS, Venezuela A natural gas pipeline exploded beneath a busy high way during rush hour Monday, engulfing a passenger bus and cars in flames and killing at least 50 people. The pipeline apparently was ruptured by a state telephone company crew laying fiber optic cables, officials said. The state news agency, Venpres, said 50 people died and 40 were injured in the explosion, which occurred shortly before 8 a.m. EDT on the Central Regional High way in this town 30 miles southwest of Caracas, the capital city. Thirty-eight bodies were recovered, ac cording to Capt. Egui Martinez of the Aragua state fire department. The actual toll might be higher, he said, because some bodies might have burned completely. Georgian Leader Escapes, Blames Russia for Strife TBILISI, Georgia Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze escaped Tuesday from the city of Sukhumi after it was cap tured by separatists and accused the Rus sian military ofplotting against his govern ment. He said Gen. Mikhail Kolesnikov, the Russian army chief-of-staff, appeared on television and predicted the day that Sukhumi would fall. Georgians previously have accused hard-liners in the Russian army of trying to gain control of Abkhazia because of its strategic location on the Black Sea. Shevardnadze fled Sukhumi, Abkhazia’s provincial capital, by plane on Tuesday, ignoring the threat of Abkhazian missiles aimed at the airport, which was still under the control of Georgian forces. Clinton Calls for Set Date To Pull Out of Somalia WASHINGTON There must be a “date certain” for withdrawingtroops from Somalia, President Clinton declared Tues day, and the White House said the govern ment was negotiating with the United Nations for replacement of some U.S. troops. Without setting a deadline for U. S. with drawal, the president said he wanted the United Nations first to develop a political strategy ensuring that starvation and chaos would not revisit the East African nation after U.N. troops pull out. Clinton’s push for an exit comes under pressure from Congress, where concern is growing that the United States could be come mired in a long military engagement. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Weather TODAY: Sunny; high 73. THURSDAY: Sunny and cool; high 65. (Hip Daily (Tar HM Herzenberg Opts Against Campaign BYTIFFANY ASHHURST STAFF WRITER Former Chapel Hill Town Council member Joe Herzenberg, who resigned lastweek, dispelled recent rumors on Tues day by announcing he would not launch a write-in campaign to regain his post. Although Herzenberg said he had con sidered seeking another term after resign ing Thursday, he decided at noon Tuesday not to remain a local elected official. Herzenberg held a press conference Tues day at town hall to announce his decision. “I can’t answer in a way that satisfies me yet, but I just weighed the two options and decided to do this,” Herzenberg said. “It was nothing dramatic, and it wasn’t a bolt of lightning out of the blue that said, ‘Joe, go.’” Herzenberg was convicted in August 1992 of willful failure to pay state taxes. Although several council members had asked him to resign right after the contro versy, Herzenberg said it was his responsi Finance Chairman 3rd to Quit Congress BY JAMES LEWIS ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR Student Congress member JeffMatkins, chairman of the finance committee, re signed Friday, citing other time commit ments. Matkins, Dist. 19, said he was involved in other activities and congress work re quired too much of his time. “I’ve been involved in a major Bicen tennial project since October 92 and I was spending anywhere from eight to 10 hours a week on Student Congress," he said. “The time commitment was more than I could handle.” Officials said Tuesday that applications were now being accepted for Matkins’ dis trict 19 seat. The district is north and east of the intersection of Columbia and Franklin Streets and stops at Estes Drive. Matkins, who has served in congress since early last spring, said he had hoped to solve some problems within Student Con gress. “I regret that I cannot finish out this term,” he said. He said that while chairman of the Stu dent Congress Finance Committee, he had encountered problems with the student code and had wanted to work on correct ing those problems. “The process for the allocation of stu dent fees needs to be reexamined very closely,” he said. “It has been tinkered with on and off by a lot of congresses but the whole process needs to be re-exam ined.” A committee of students, administra tors and resource people outside the Uni versity need to re-examine the Student Codeanddecidea criterion for what makes a group an active student group and what makes a group deserving of an allocation of student fees from student government, he said. The Student Code was written to offer a set of rules to govern student government, but Matkins said many inconsistencies had been found in the rules. He is interested in trying to correct those to make congress function more smoothly, he said. Congress Speaker Wendy Sarratt said Andrew Cohen, Dist. 6, would be the act ing chairman of the committee until Con gresselectsanew chairman at next Wednes day night’s congress meeting. “He will be the acting chair by seniority until anew person can be found for the job, ” she said. Two members of the 75th congress re signed earlier this year. Derek Shadid re signed as Dist. 22 representative and Stu dent Affairs Committee chairman at be ginning of the month. Rick Lane also re signed from his office as representative of Dist. 4 this summer. Melinda Manning, elections board chairwoman, said that the application dead line had passed without any students filing for the two seats. “There are no official candidates, but students can vote by write-in and we strongly encourage that,” she said. The election for districts 4 and 22 will take place from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. next Tuesday outside the Student Union. Students can pick up applications for the vacant district 19 seat in Suite C. Appli cations are due by Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. The special election to fill the vacancy created by Matkins’ resignation will be held on Nov. 9. Chapel Hill, North Caroima WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29,1993 bility to continue serving on the board. “I think I have done quite well, and even at the height of controversy, citizens still asked me for help,” he said. Herzenberg said he decided to resign last week so that local residents, not the council, would be able to vote on his re placement. “I feel pretty good about this decision, and I know a lot of people who were worried about my physical or psychologi cal health, but I feel pretty good.” Herzenberg made his decision to resign from his seat with two years left ofhis term. “Resignation wasn’t easy,” he said. “But I’ve enjoyed the freedom the past few days. There is indeed more to life than service on the town council.” Chapel Hill resident James McEnery started a signature drive in August to recall Herzenberg. After collecting the needed signatures, he turned them in to the Or ange County Board of Elections for verifi cation. But board of elections members stopped Balancing Act DTH/ANDREA BROADDUS Johnny Knight, a sophomore from Greensboro, balances on a unicycle while juggling with Sandy Merritt, a 1992 UNC graduate from Wilmington. Passed Out, the UNC juggling club, practices every week on Polk Place. Council Hopeful Asks for More Police BYANUBHAANAND STAFF WRITER A proposal at Monday night’s Chapel Hill Town Council meeting could put more police on downtown streets. Rosemary Waldorf, chairwoman of the Law Enforcement and Support Commit tee, asked the council for a mid-year bud get amendment allocating money to hire more police officers. Waldorf, also a can didate in the upcoming council election, said the town should act before the in crease in local crime worsens. “If we wait until the next budget cycle (to hire more people), those officers won’t be on the street until March of ’95,” she said. “That’s 18 months.” Chapel Hill police Chief Ralph Pendergraph said the council was trying to fill six vacancies in the department now. But it takes six months to train recruits, so those officers won’t be available until March, he said. That’s why Waldorf wants the council to take action now. “If we can already Town Invited to Help With UNC Bicentennial Project BY BILL BLOCKER STAFF WRITER In an effort to bring together the com munity and the University, a student leader invited the Chapel Hill Town Council Monday night to participate in a Bicenten nial project for the community’s children. Kevin Moran, chairman of the Student Bicentennial Planning Committee, ap peared before the town council Monday night to announce the committee’s plan to leave a lasting impression on the UNC community. “The theme we chose was ‘commu nity,’” he said. “The students (involved) seemed to be particularly interested in working a project that would involve the children of Chapel Hill.” I would prefer not to. Herman Melville verifying the names last Friday when they received word that Herzenberg had re signed. Mayor Ken Broun said Herzenberg’s seat would be filled for the remaining two years by the candidate who finishes sixth in the Nov. 2 election. On Nov. 8, the council will appoint the highest vote-receiving non-incumbent to serve for the month of November. After all of the new council members are sworn in at the council’s December meeting, the ap pointee will begin a four-year term. Herzenberg said he was in the process of paying the back taxes he still owed the state. He plans to send more than $12,000 to Raleigh this week but wasn’t sure how much more he owed. “I apologize for this, and there is no excuse for what I did, and I never offered one,” Herzenberg said. “I had no idea it would take this long. I ask the people of Chapel Hill to judge me for all that I’ve Please See HERZENBERG, Page 2 make a decision that we need more police, why don’t we hire them now and not wait until June,” she said. Waldorf s proposal has been forwarded to Town Manager Cal Horton, who will study the crime problem and make a report to council on the feasibility of the plan. Chapel Hill Finance Director Jim Baker said the council could amend the budget at any time, as long as it was balanced. According to the Uniform Crime Re port, assaults, rapes and robbery rates have soared in Chapel Hill during the last year. Those figures, as well as the recent rash of downtown beatings, prompted Waldorf to make the recommendation. Pendergraph said Tuesday he agreed that the town needed more police. He said the workload for current officers was more than they could handle. “When there are regular events that require you to double or triple your on duty staff, it gets difficult,” he said. Pendergraph cited the recent Florida State game against the Tar Heels and up coming events, such as Festifall and Hal Chapel Hill Mayor Ken Broun said Monday night that he was pleased with the proposal. “I don’t know when we’ve heard a better offer,” he said. Chapel Hill Town Council member Art Werner said „ . Tuesday that he Council Denies also thought it Permission for was a great idea. Granville Party “It will be pretty story on page 3 exciting,” he said. “I’m sure there are lots of things we could do together.” Moran said the committee’s options in cluded refurbishing a community center or improvingapark. He added that theproject still was being discussed. “There have been a lot of ideas for project. We wanted to make sure we would Former council member JOE HERZENBERG resigned last week. loween. “Our base population is about 39,000 on paper,” he said. “But that num ber changes daily when you have people coming in and out to work or for parties. ” Jeff Snyder, a candidate for town coun cil and a Durham police officer, said he agreed that something should be done about crime. “I agree with Rosemary (Waldorf) that we need to do something, but we need to look at resources before spending any money,” he said. Snyder, who used to be a Chapel Hill officer, proposed hiring citizens with mini mal training to handle non-emergency calls so that experienced officers would be free to handle serious crimes. But Waldorf said the police department already used civilians to handle non-emer gencies. “I still think we need more bodies out there,” she said. Town council member Joe Capowski said he would support Waldorf’s proposal if the police department wanted the same improvements. “We need a reaction from professionals. Otherwise there maybe some unknown negative effect.” do something more permanent. That would be our last- jflT ! ™ The committee f®jP wanted to work |L with the town to ft Sw-P”’ j| ensure the project mk*®**' would be both prac tical and useful. “Wealsowantto KEVIN MORAN, be realistic. That is Student Bicentennial why we want to Committee chairman work with the town,” Moran said. Moran said he hoped students would begin discussions with the To wn of Chapel Hill immediately. “We would like to have News/Features/Aits/Sports 962-0245 Business/ Advertising 962-1163 01993 DTH Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Campus Y May Join 200th Year Celebration BY HOLLY STEPP ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR Campus Y officials said Tuesday that they had submitted a proposal to make their Bicentennial activities part of the of ficial University Observance. Campus Y co-president Michelle LeGrand said the Campus Y executive cabinet had met with Kevin Moran, chair man of the Student Bicentennial Planning Committee, to discuss the feasibility of including the Campus Y events in the offi cial Bicentennial Celebration. “We have submitted a proposal to them to include our project in the official obser vance,” LeGrand said. “We never said that we didn’t want to be a part of the University’s events,” she said. “But whether they include us or not, we are going to still hold our own events.” Moran said he was pleased that the Campus Y was willingto be included in the Bicentennial Observance. “I am very excited that the Campus Y has submitted a proposal to our commit tee, and we are going to review it as quickly as possible and let them know our deci sion,” he said. LeGrand said the Campus Y activities would help balance the official Bicenten nial events already planned by the Univer sity. “The official Bicentennial events don’t center on some of the oppressive events in this university’s history,” LeGrand said. Some of the specific groups that will be included in the Campus Y’s events are women on campus, the UNC housekeep ers, the Black Cultural Center and several other ethnic groups on campus. “With the women’s issues, we want to focus on their struggles,” LeGrand said. “Women weren’t allowed to come to the University until 1969; the University is 200 years old, but women are celebrating their 20th anniversary of their graduation. ” Other events Campus Y officials are planning include a keynote address by a representative from the UNC Housekeep ers movement and a graffiti wall to allow students to express their concerns on social issues, said Ed Chaney, Campus Y co president. “We plan to have some of these event lead up to the week of University Day,” Chaney said. “The graffiti wall will be on display the week prior to University Day and will display problems students cite, as well as solutions,” he said. Ribbons also will be available for stu dents to wear to show that they support social change, Chaney said. Chaney said that events will build upon the community theme of the Bicentennial Observance. “We need to look at the definition of community and celebrate it and recognize it,” he said. “We want to look at some of the prob lems in the University and determine how we can improve the community.” The Campus Y also is planning to set up booths in the Pit for the housekeepers and open mikes on different parts of campus for students to voice their concerns on campus issues. LeGrand said she hoped the Campus Y events would be a catalyst for change for years to come. “We are looking towards the future as well as reflecting on the past,” she said. “We felt that these issues were impor tant enough to be seen on University Day,” she said. “These are events that will deal with campus issues now, not in the coming eight months.” a substantial portion of the project com pleted by the end of the year.” The University population has enor mous resources it could use to benefit the community. “We realized there were a heck of a lot of people to get involved on campus,” Moran said. “We could pull all the talents we have together.” The whole University can play a role in celebrating the Bicentennial, he said. “The dream would be that every student organi zation would play a role in this with no real emphasis on the amount (of contribution). “(Student Environmental Action Coa lition) could work to ensure the building was environmentally sound, (Carolina Ath letic Association) could donate old athletic equipment and music groups could go on and teach basics of music.”
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 29, 1993, edition 1
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