Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 31

BEST AVAILABLE COPY Editor: Tim Konski Telephone 520-573-4101 Fax 573-4107 Sunday September 2, 2001 SECTION ARIZONA DAILY STAR SERVING PIMA, COCHISE, SANTA CRUZ AND PINAL COUNTIES Your vote: going gone, for 31 Cap for publicly funded council hopefuls so far, with $49,698 in his account through Aug. 22. Democrat Gayle Hart-mann, Ronstadt's opponent in the Mid-town Ward 6 race, had raised $42,012 through that date. After combining their contributions with city matching funds, both candidates will have more than enough money to reach the city's $80,082 general election spending cap which works version of Animal House im (t i out to about 31 cents per eligible voter. Donations listed on Ronstadt's latest financial report include $340 from car dealer Jim Click $1,280 from the families of El Con Mall owners Foster and Lee Kivel and $200 from gun show promoter Joan McMann.

The majority of Ronstadt's money, though, arrived in increments of $50 or less. Hartmann also received a large num Photos by Chris Richards Staff commit to a particular fraternity. Tucson Fire Department crewmen Scott Palmar, left, and Mario Carrasco assist a partygoer who had too many drinks. The Southern Arizona DUI Task Force targeted the UA area on Friday, the start of the Labor Day holiday. Some fun-seekers took to a balcony at the Sigma Chi fraternity, below.

house to house during bid night, when pledges Greeks party hard secmity on hand Bonnie Henry On the beach, it it well, let's just say it's California restaurants go, it was your usual plethora of UU perkiness. "Hi, my name is mevrrra and I'll be your server tonight." "Excuse me," I said. "Your name is Melva?" "No, it's Nova. Like the car?" Lordy, I hope not. "Young woman," I wanted to shout over the canned Don Henley, "surely your mother didn't name you for a cheap Chevrolet.

Don't you know that a nova is a bright, shining Instead, I ordered a glass of chardonnay. "Y'know, maybe her mother did name her for the car," my husband, would later say, giving a broad wink. Yeah, yeah. Maybe. And maybe we should all give thanks it wasn't a Yugo.

Then again, this being Southern California, there are probably a few two-legged Yugos running around, too. As we do just about every summer, the two of us recently escaped to San Diego, trading 107 in the shade for the naturally cool air pockets that seem to occur there most notably between the ears. This time of year, half the beach is filled with Zonies (by their sweatshirts shall ye know them). The other half filled with ah free spirits. My favorite is, for lack of a better label, Watermelon Man.

Last time we ran into him, he was inline-skating down the walkway in full Indian headdress and loincloth. This time, he had his entire head stuck in a giant papier-mache watermelon slice, adorned with an empty beer can. Bud, I do believe. A pair of sunglasses and a thong bikini were his only other articles of adornment. Only the Zonies stared.

We stayed at the same spot we've been coming to, on and off, for the last three decades. It's the kind of place where families scattered 'round the country reconvene once a year to refresh and renew. Beginning of the week, a gaggle of them threw a kid's birthday par- ty out in the breezeway, complete withpinata. By the end of the week, a new group had moved into the very same cottages. This bunch threw a wedding something we discovered after blundering up a stairway decorated with silk tulle.

"You never know what's going to happen around here," allowed the desk clerk. Fine with us. After you've seen Shamu and the koalas, oh, a half-dozen times or so, it's time to turn to people watching and guessing. Standing in line at a popular seaside breakfast spot, I notice one couple ahead. She's wearing bell-bottom jeans, a yellow tank top and dangle-to-the-shoulders earrings.

He's wearing dress pants, long-sleeved shirt and tie and a look that says, "I gotta get to the office." By the adoring glances she's throwing his way, one thing's for sure: They're not married. Later, while eating our breakfast, we eavesdrop on a threesome at the next table. The two women, sisters perhaps, are sizing up an earnest young man. Objective: taking in a roommate. The conversation progresses from stereos, playing of, to incense, burning of.

Not sure if he got the room or not. Our last night, we literally stumbled into a walk-in movie, right on the beach. While some no-name band strummed and thumped its way through the usual whine, an obviously homemade video of a kid on a skateboard filled a nearby screen. I never did figure out whether there was any connection between the music and the skateboard imagery. Then again, here on the beach, it hardly seems to matter.

I Contact Bonnie Henry at 434-4074 or at bhenryazstarnet.com or write to 6781 N. Thornydale Road, Suite 239, Tucson 85741. ber of small checks. Some of her more generous donors include environmentalist Richard Genser attorney Michael McNulty environmental consultant Brock Tunnicliff ($330) and tour leader Barbara Bickel Neither Hartmann nor Ronstadt, though, can hope to match the spending power enjoyed by the two Democrats running for the South Side Ward 5 seat That race will end after Councilman Steve Leal and challenger Jesse Lugo SEE YOUR VOTE B6 tft TBACHIHO children. School volunteer pledges catch on By Sarah Garrecht Gassen ARIZONA DAILY STAR Tucson's drive to get volunteers involved in education is being felt all the way to the high desert southwest of Prescott.

Congress, opened its first school three weeks ago, and parent Joanie Lason wants to get the whole town involved. She hopes to help her town embrace commitment by getting people to take the pledge to support schools first published last Sunday in the Arizona Daily Star and also sponsored by KVOA Channel 4. Her mother, a retired elementary and junior high school principal, read about the pledge and faxed it to Lason. "I was really excited about it and wanted to be able to use it for our community," Lason said. Congress Elementary School opened Aug.

13 and has 110 pupils in grades K-8. This is the first year those pupils don't have to take a 45-minute bus ride south to Wickenburg every morning for school, Lason said. Congress' claim to fame is it SEE EDUCATION B4 EDUCATION WISH LIST Calling all Tucson-area schools and teachers: Let us know what you need from volunteers. Please be specific, so potential volunteers can match their particular skills, interests and schedules with your needs. Send your list to Arizona Daily Star Pledges, 4850 S.

Park P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726-6807. We'll publish a roundup. METRO BRIEFING Saguaro Park run is Monday morning I The Southern Arizona Roadrunners will kick off the 2001-02 running season Monday with The Saguaro National Park 8 Mile Labor Day Run. The race begins at 6:30 a.m.

at Saguaro National Park East, 3693 S. Old Spanish Trail Road. A two-mile fun run and fitness walk also will be featured. Runners can register at the park's entrance between 5:30 and 6:10 a.m. Race day registration will be $25 for the eight-mile run and $13 for two-mile events.

The race, which will be featured in Runner's World magazine as the race of the month, is held on a paved road with rolling hills. Average temperature at start time is 75 degrees. For more information go on line at www.azroadrunners.org. By Joe Salkowskl ARIZONA DAILY STAR Could a council candidate buy your vote for 31 cents? Granted it's not a lot of money. But that's as nuch as publicly funded candidates for the Tucson City Council are allowed fc spend through the Nov.

6 general ejection, and only two candidates raised enough money so far to achievj even that level of spending. Republican Councilman Fred Ron-stadt is te campaign's top fund-raiser i A tamer Groups of young women traveled from By Inger Sandal ARIZONA DAILY SIAR I undreds of students danced and mingled at the Sigma I Chi chapter house near the heart of the University of Arizona's campus while Phi Gamma Delta President Dan Ford handled a crush at the gate with the private security the two fraternities hired to keep order Friday night. Unlike their fathers' generation, which publicly embraced the party-till-you-puke mentality glamorized in the movie "Animal House," today's fraternity leaders are acutely aware they need a responsible public image. Bid night when pledges commit to a fraternity remains the social kickoff for the Greek system, which draws about 13 percent of the UA's undergraduates. An estimated 700 of the UA's 6,100 new freshmen went through fraternity rush.

Police have paid extra attention to bid night in recent years because it's fallen on the start of the Labor Day weekend making the campus area an obvious destination for the Southern Arizona DUI Task Force. And at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Arizona's blood-alcohol concentration limit the level a person is legally presumed to be driving under the influence of alcohol dropped to 0.08 percent from 0.10 percent. The task force reported 84 DUI arrests in the Tucson area during the first night of its intensified Labor Day weekend patrols, slightly more than the 81 drunken-driving arrests made during the entire Labor Day weekend last year. While some fraternity leaders were open to questions about their parties and alcohol-control efforts, others were resentful of media coverage in the wake of highly publicized drinking-related deaths on oth-, er campuses and lawsuits.

Just last week the American Medical Association released a poll showing that parents nationwide worry about binge drinking by college students and the easy access to alcohol around campuses. The AMA also reported that binge drinking at least four drinks at one sitting is on the rise. The UA's fraternities recently voted to hold no more than four parties with alcohol at each chapter house this year. That's half the number of parties allowed last year, but the vote actually relaxed a policy the In-terfraternity Council approved in i 0 UA with P. ri j- A i the fall of 1999 that would have allowed on-site parties only at Homecoming this year.

The council anchored three of this year's parties to specific events Friday's bid night, Homecoming weekend and the last weekend before spring semester finals and can schedule a fourth with approval from the Greeks Advocating the Mature Management of Alcohol board. The UA's fraternities have adopted stricter rules since the Aug. 24, 1990, death of UA police corporal accidentally shot by another officer as he tried to subdue a gun-toting party crasher during bid night. Fraternities can only serve beer, but kegs are banned and partygoers must be on a guest list, under GAMMA policies. Private security Friday night banned guests from carrying drink containers into the parties and from crowding around the chapter houses.

The party at the Sigma Chi house, co-hosted by Sigma Chi and Phi SEE GREEKS B2.