Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 1

Austin Am -Statesman Titan Weather Cloudy. 50 percent chance of High, upper 80s. Low, -near 70. East wind near 10 mph. Details, A 16.

Thursday July 27, 1989 35 cents Saltwater used on Treaty Oak in last-ditch effort test results showed that the amount of herbicide poured around Treaty Oak, remained at a level "many, many times what is needed to kill the tree." "The tree is massively, massively poisoned," John Giedraitis said. Because of the dire test results, Giedraitis and several experts ordered the injection of 35 gallons of a saltwater solution into Treaty Oak in more than 100 places on Tuesday. There is no known antidote to the herbicide Velpar, but the best hope of the experts was that the salt would render the poison ineffective, Giedraitis said. "Well be able to tell if we did it or not pretty soon," he said. "If it isn't neutralized, the tree is dead," the forester said.

"There's no question about it." The tree is starting to put out its fourth set of leaves since March, and officials hope this set will survive. Previously, efforts to force as much Velpar as possible out of the tree and into Treaty Oak's third set of leaves were apparently working, but the poison level in the tree did not decrease enough. Knowing the fourth flush also would be lost if the Velpar was not neutralized, experts decided to try the saltwater solution. It took workers about 90 minutes using a low-pressure water pump to inject the solution through a system of pipes attached to the tree. "Hopefully it will alter the chem ical structure of the Velpar just enough so that (the poison) won't work," Giedraitis said "If we didn't act, the tree would die from the Velpar that was in its tissue." Workers on Wednesday finished wrapping burlap around some of Treaty Oak's upper limbs to protect them from the relentless sum-' See Oak, A12 votes to col fraidsi for Stealth i I i j1, -S if If if if By Jim Phillips American-Statesman Staff A last-ditch effort to save Treaty' Oak by neutralizing the poison that is trying to kill the Austin landmark began this week.

The Austin city forester in charge of treating the live oak said Wednesday that the most recent GEOs put Austin in top 10 Poll ranked cities to locate businesses By Michele Kay American-Statesman Staff Austin is among the top 10 emerging small cities listed by a national group of chief executives as a place to locate their businesses in the next five years, according to a study released Wednesday. The Texas capital finished just ahead of No. 10, Salt Lake City, on the list of 10 cities with long-term growth potential in the eyes of 404 chief executives surveyed by Louis Harris and Associates Inc. Topping the list was Charlotte, N.C., followed by Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Orlando, Indianapolis, Memphis and Nashville, Hartford, Jacksonville, Richmond, Austin and Salt Lake City. In addition to identifying emerging cities, the executives ranked the top 31 major metropolitan areas of the country on their access to domestic markets, the availability of manufacturing and warehouse sites, the government climate and the supply of skilled workers.

Leading that list of national heavyweights for the second consecutive year was Atlanta, which was followed by Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, Tampa and San Francisco. Without prompting, 4 percent of the executives chose Austin as an up-and-coming city. Three percent said they would include the city as a contender for a business location within the next five years. "The only reason Austin is not included in the top list is because of its size," said William Becker, vice president for Texas at Cushman Wakefield, the national real estate firm, which hired Harris to con-Sea Ranking, A12 A touch of gloss Johnny Brooks, with Safetygreen, puts finishing Wednesday. Tonight's Aqua Fest activities are touches on the BrigadierVIP section of a stage expected to draw 30,000.

Story, B1 4 Staff photo by Marc Fort savings institutions to put 55 percent of their assets into such housing-related investments as home mortgages, home construction and improvement loans, mobile home loans, mortgage-backed securities and home equity loans. The ultimate fate of the bill is uncertain, especially if the conferees add the cost to the budget deficit. They would do so by exempting Rep. Les Aspin, leads the effort to cut B-2 funding. reluctant at this point to sign up" for the 132-plane program the Pentagon wants.

Instead, Congress should force the Air Force "to come up with a program that's politically acceptable, more affordable and will still meet our national security needs," he said. "This amendment effectively gives the Air Force a chance devise a cheaper program or accept the demise of the B-2 program, prune it or park it," Aspin said in a letter to his colleagues. "We will have the opportunity next year to kill the B-2," he added. "But that life-or-death decision is better made next year than now." After the vote, Aspin said the Air Force has "a year to restructure the program, to prove through tests that it's worth buying and to make the argument about where the So-See Stealth, A13 Melon mania In the summer of '89, the melon scene Is a confusion of colors and varieties. LifestyleFood, E1 Today's sections Conferees near compromise on thrift bailout By Tom Kanworthy Washington Post Service WASHINGTON The House voted Wednesday to restrict purchases of the B-2 Stealth bomber during the next two fiscal years and warned that it might try to kill the program if its $70 billion cost is not reduced.

After a heated four-hour debate featuring congressmen brandishing a chunk of the B-2's wing and paraphrasing Shakespeare, the House voted 257-160 to limit procurement to four bombers in the next two years half of what the Bush administration had requested. It also voted to cut $800 million from President Bush's $4.7 billion 1990 request for the radar-evading plane. The House also said no aircraft could be purchased next year until Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney develops a less expensive program. Procurement would also be restricted until the bomber meets performance tests and the Defense Department certifies that it can achieve its mission of penetrating Soviet air defenses. Forty-nine Republicans joined 208 Democrats to pass the measure, which was sponsored by Rep.

Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The House vote put it at odds with the Senate, which Tuesday voted to proceed with procurement of the bomber provided it meets flight and performance tests. A conference committee will have to resolve the differences in the two bills. In the House on Wednesday, Aspin said, "A lot of people are very it from the automatic spending cuts of the Gramm-Rudman-Hol-lings budget balancing act. Several Bush administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady and the White House budget director, Richard Darman, have warned that they will recommend that the president Sea A12 square feet to the computer giant's current facilities.

Although no one would say what IBM's timetable is for completing the expansion, city officials said they were led to believe construction could begin as early as next year. As outlined for Frank Ivy, who reviews plans for the city permit center, the project would include several multistory office buildings, several single-story retail buildings and two major parking garages on the east side of Burnet Road. Ivy said he met Monday with an architect from CRS Sirrine, a Houston architectural firm, and an engineer representing IBM. "They're in the preliminary stages of developing their plan right now," Ivy said. "I think they're talking about including the retail and office space in an area of 1 million square feet and the park- See IBM, A11 By Nathaniel C.

Naah New York Times Service WASHINGTON In a breakthrough of a week-old stalemate, congressional conferees agreed Wednesday on compromises on the Bush administration's multibillion dollar savings and loan bailout plan. The compromises would restrict between the House and Senate conferees to put the cost of the bailout in the fiscal year 1990 budget, said Henry B. Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, chairman of the House Banking Committee. That would reject the Bush administration's insistence that the financing be kept out of the budget. The conferees also adopted a compromise that would require the industry's investments in high-yielding "junk bonds," guarantee the top savings regulator a job for two years and allow the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to continue regulating state-chartered institutions.

The proposal would give the nation's thrifts five years to get rid of junk bonds they hold. The compromises could also pave the way for an agreement Diving into a hobby Expansion in works for IBM in Austin News Section 1-26 City State Section 1-5 Business Section 7-12 Sports Section 1-11 Classified Section 12-26 Onward, Arts Section 1-11 LifestyleFood Section 1-12 Index Austinite likes sinking feeling in his homemade submarine By Scott W. Wright American-Statesman Staff One man thought it was an airplane. Another said it must be a missile. The Travis County tax collector's office insisted it was a sailboat, and promptly demanded $200 in taxes.

No, Dale Flatt told them all patiently, it's a submarine. "Nobody wanted to believe me," said the 31-year-old Austin firefighter, who was stationed on a nuclear submarine during his four-year stint in the U.S. Navy. "This one guy was sure I was building a UFO," he said. But on Wednesday, Flatt proved that the wood and metal contraption he had been building in the garage of his Austin home for the past two years definitely didn't fly or float.

It sank. To the bottom of Lake Austin, with Flatt and about 600 pounds of lead weights stowed safely inside. "It was great," he said afterward. "Today's my See Submarine, A11 By Kim Tyson American-Statesman Staff International Business Machines the city's largest private employer, is planning to expand its North Austin facilities by more than a million square feet. The expansion which would include office and retail space is planned for land IBM owns across the street from its plant on Burnet Road.

IBM officials on Wednesday declined comment about the plant expansion and whether it would mean an increase in the company's Austin work force. Officials have scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. today. Austin planning and building permit officials confirmed that they have met in recent months with IBM representatives about proposals that one city official indicated could add about 1.7 million Ann Landers Lifestyle E2 Bridge Lifestyle E7 Comics City State B6 Crossword Lifestyle E7 Deaths C26 Diane Holloway D12 Editorials News A14.15 Horoscope Lifestyle E7 Jumble Lifestyle E7 Lee Kelly Lifestyle E5 Newsmakers News A16 Personalities Lifestyle E2 TV Log Onward D12 Weather News A16 Staff photo by Marc Fort Dale Flatt emerges from his own submarine..