Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 25

4 INSIDE" SECTION 0 OT" Deaths, B8 Sunday, May 21, 1989 Austin American-Statesman 41 Group may use rare toad to argue against cutting pines5 0 By David Matustik American-Statesman Staff the fray. A 5.7-mile stretch of Texas 21 lies within a federally designated 12-square-mile habitat of the toad. Fries is scheduled to speak before the commission Wednesday. Opponents of the tree destruction have chartered a bus to Austin for the meeting. Highway Department spokesmen said that the loss of human lives on the highway outweighs other considerations.

"This should not be a debate about trees. This should not be a debate about highway beautification. It should be a debate about safety," Highway Department spokesman Randall Dillard said. "There have been numerous severe accidents on this roadway that have claimed 16 lives in the last 15-year period," he said. "We feel we have the knowledge and the funding to reduce the severity of the accidents." Of those 16 deaths, 11 occurred when vehicles hit trees, Dillard said.

An environmental assessment would take a minimum of 10 months to complete and could put the federal Highway Safety Improvement-Hazard Elimination Program grant in jeopardy, Dillard said. A Highway Department environmental coordinator said an environmental impact statement is not necessary for this project. "The way we plan on clearing the trees is to cut them down and grind the stumps to below ground level," said Stacey Benning-field. "It would have minimal effect on the habitat." Besides cutting trees, the state Highway Department wants to put up guardrails and make other improvements along the highway for safety reasons, Dillard said. A contract is scheduled to be awarded in August.

Construction would take six or seven months. An initial plan called for cutting down up to 1,000 of the 3,475 trees that are a minimum of four inches in diameter. A revised plan limits the cutting to 359 trees. But that compromise is not good enough for the Save The Pines Committee which wants the Highway Department to study whether warning signs on the roads could be added or crossovers closed to add safety but not lose trees. "Let's do these alternative engineering things and study them for 12 to 18 months in lieu of cutting the trees," Fries The group wants to buy time for the road and the pines to be protected by a scenic parkway or historic designation.

The highway is part of El Camino Real (King's Highway) that joined Nacogdoches and San Antonio in the early 1700s. Dillard said Texas 21 is scenic now and will remain scenic after the safety project is completed. He said the Highway Department will at some time replace each of the trees that are cut down with 10 pine seedlings, 12 to 18 inches tall. Dillard said more trees could be saved if property owners along the highway would agree to have the Highway Department close some crossovers. and driveways.

BASTROP A Bastrop group may count on a rare toad to save the lives of hundreds of historic pines along Texas 21 slated to be cut down by the state Highway Department, which says the trees cause fatal auto accidents. If the Texas Highway Commission does not agree to delay the $800,000 project so alternatives to tree-cutting can be studied, the Save the Pines Committee will likely file a lawsuit calling for an environmental impact study, said Don Fries, spokesman for the group. The Houston toad, an endangered species, would then become a central figure in Building up to graduation enate bill i' 1 4 adds 38,000 to Medicaid I 4 Sponsor says measure will help rural hospitals 71 tt L1QI8LATUR1 Black lawmakers oppoa bud-get languagt Labor officials claim 'double croat on bill B2 '3 By Bruce Hight and Laylan Copelin American-Statesman Capitol Staff The Texas Senate approved legislation on Saturday to add as many as 38,000 women and children to an expanded Medicaid program that its Senate sponsor said should also help struggling rural hospitals and clinics. The unusual Saturday sessions of the House and Senate were conducted by lawmakers hoping to get their bills through the Legislature and to the governor before the end of the legislative session on May 29. Sen.

Chet Brooks, D-Pasadena, said the Medicaid bill he sponsored in the Senate would broaden coverage for impoverished pregnant women, mothers and children by raising the caps on how much income their families can have to qualify for the aid. In addition, he said, while aid under the program is now limited to children 3 years old and younger, the age limit will be raised to 4 next year and to 6 in 1991. The bill also restores part of a 1986 reduction in how much money is reimbursed to hospitals and doctors for providing Medicaid coverage, with additional money to go to hospitals with disproportionate numbers of charity cases. Brooks estimated the expanded program would cost the state about $60 million a year but would bring in about $80 million from the federal government. However, he said, the $60 million includes part of the cost of an expansion of the Medicaid nursing home program, which Staff photo by David Kennedy Joe Melomo, with the high-rise on his mortarboard, blows bubbles with Paul Light, center, and Jim Steele while waiting for graduation.

UT grads urged to 'reinvigorate America' was passed in a separate bill on Friday and sent to the governor. The author of the bill, Rep. Brad Wright, R-Houston, already has won House passage, but the Senate amended the bill, so it now returns to the House for concurrence. Brooks said he expected no problem and that he had worked "closely with the governor's staff" on the bill. In other legislative action on Saturday: The Senate voted without dissent to strengthen the open-container law so that it would no longer be necessary for a police officer to witness a driver drinking an alcoholic beverage in order to secure a conviction.

Under this bill any other witness, such as a passerby, could provide the testimony to convict. The bill also makes it illegal for anyone previously convicted of drinking while intoxicated to operate a vehicle in which any of the passengers has an open container of an alcoholic beverage. The author of the bill, Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said she wanted to eliminate all drinking of alcohol in moving vehicles, but the Legislature would not agree to such a measure. Asked if that were because of the fear of ballot box retribution from drinking "Bubbas," See Legislature, B6 UT'i 106th speaker for By Monty Jones American-Statesman Staff dient hard work," O'Donnell said.

"We have no choice. Either our productivity goes up or our standard of living goes down. "In short, we must reinvigorate our society. We must reinvigorate ourselves as individuals through education, and we must reinvigorate our institutions with motivated people and with incentives tochange and improve." About 5,000 degrees were conferred during the evening ceremony on the terrace in front of the UT Tower. The ceremony was preceded by convocations at each of the university's 14 colleges and schools except the School of Law, which will have its convocation today.

In a new tradition, all 27 stories of the UT Tower were lighted orange Saturday night in honor of the graduates. Except during the university's centennial commencement in 1983, only the top of the Tower had been lighted on commencement night. Much of O'Donnell's speech dwelt on changes that he said are See UT, B8 commencement. But O'Donnell said there is hope for the country if tax laws are changed to encourage savings, if corporate tax credits are increased to encourage technological research and development, and if education is seen as "a strategic investment in our future, not a wasteful use of public funds." "When these three areas are strengthened, it will substantially improve our productivity growth, provided we add one other ingre University of Texas graduates were challenged Saturday to help "reinvigorate America at every level" to restore the nation's productivity and international competitiveness. A decline in productivity of U.S.

workers since the mid-1960s has contributed to an erosion of economic strength that threatens the nation's role in the world, said Dallas investor and philanthropist Peter O'Donnell the 1 a giver, Austinites endure heat to enjoy Laguna Fiesta woman says while generating about $250,000 in proceeds for the museum, said Fiesta chairwoman Rose Betty Williams. "But it's really the volunteer effort that makes the Fiesta," she said. "This year, we issued 9,000 individual volunteer badges and have acquired at least 15 large corporate sponsors." The number of smaller corporate sponsors, she added, was "just too many to count." The Fiesta continues from noon to 8 p.m. today. In addition to the variety of art on display, virtually every type of food was available.

For the discriminating collector, an auction inside a tent on the shores of Lake Austin gave aficionados a chance to obtain an original work of art. Williams said, "We have one requirement: that each artist pay his entry fee and donate one self-ex-pressionistic work to the auction." And for the children, a Little Fiesta kept aspiring artisans busy at tables where, under the tutelage of art instructors from the Eanes and Austin independent school dis- 8m Fiesta, B7 By Morgan Montalvo American-Statesman Staff Would-be patrons of the arts braved near-record high temperatures Saturday to lend support to the Laguna Gloria Art Museum during its 39th Annual Fiesta. Fiesta visitors endured the heat and for some of them the occasional surprising crack of a confetti egg on their heads to peer into each of the tents shading the more than 250 art displays on the museum's grounds. With virtually every type of medium represented, from paint and pottery to sculpture and jewelry, the Fiesta succeeded in making its intended "impression" on those in attendance. "I don't know how to describe it, but I like it," said new art patron Terry Davis, a volunteer victims services counselor with the Austin Police Department.

"It starts out like water-colored paper and it has different colored pieces of paper stuck on it in a textured fashion. I think it has paint on it, too. And I bought a new tie-dye bow for my head." The art show is expected to draw crowds numbering at least 40,000 Volunteers, residents help clean up after Jarrell storm By Linda Latham Welch American-Statesman Staff JARRELL For 15 years, the small volunteer fire department here has plugged its annual July fund-raiser with the Blogan, "We come to your fire. You come to our barbecue." But after 1,500 volunteers turned out Saturday to help Jarrell clean up after last Wednesday's devastating tornado, this year's slogan may well be, "You cleaned up our tornado trash. Let us feed you barbecue." The twister killed one woman and injured 31 people early Wednesday in this north Williamson County town of 700, and damaged or destroyed 108 structures at a loss of $3 million.

"I don't know a soul here, but I'm excited to be helping this community. I feel like, as Christians, we're called to help our brothers and sisters," said Marguerite Wilson, 28, of Pflugerville. Wilson, along with eight other members of the Ten Road Baptist Church in Austin, were shoveling rubbish off the foundation of what used to be the home of an elderly woman. Many volunteers took time away from their families and skipped trips to the lake to help strangers haul off debris and look for treasured keepsakes among the soggy debris left by the Start photo by Taylor Johnaon Volunteers help clean up the remains of Dale Dotson's home In Jarrell on Saturday. storm.

gistered in the Jarrell Fire Station, headquar- Joan Rushing, 48, came by herself from near te for the cleanup. People came from Dallas to Waco to offer her pickup "and do whatever they tne north, San Marcos to the south, Johnson want me to do. City out west, Lindale to the east, and every- "I came because I'm a giver," explained Rush- where in between, ing, a computer operator at Texas Instruments Employees from a motorcycle shop in Belton in Temple. "I was in a serious head-on collision soldiers from the 502nd Fort Hood last August and it made me look at things a little Division. differently." Privately owned trucks and loaders joined By early afternoon, nearly 40 groups had re- 8t Jarrell, B4.