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Volume 97 | Issue 13
Sunny 71° / 51°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Police stay busy during recent winter weather BY M ATTHEW CARDENAS Staff Writer
NEWS: High fluoride levels found in water Page 2
SPORTS:
While schools closed and businesses took time off during the snowstorms over the past two weeks, local police departments worked to keep the city safe. The Denton Police Department responded to about 100 wrecks over the week, said Denton Police Spokesman Ryan Grelle. “It’s a lot for a week,” he said. Officers patrolled the treacherous streets, pulling cars out of ice and helping victims of traffic accidents. “I went from accident scene to accident scene,” Grelle said. He said Denton PD did not have to pull in any off-duty officers, but it was a full time job. The UNT Police Department also had to deal with an increased number of traffic accidents during the ice storms. “We stay open 24/7,” said UNT Deputy Police Chief Ed Reynolds. “When the school shut down, we stayed open. We were out there helping the people with wrecks.” UNT police had to deal with more than just auto accidents. There were two separate situa-
tions where pipes froze over and burst, Reynolds said. The department accommodated officers who had to commute to Denton. “We got them a place to stay overnight,” Reynolds said. Officers could also be seen around campus helping students jump car batteries that died because of the cold. Reynolds said jumping car batteries is a free service for all UNT students, but they had to jump a significant amount more during the storms. Applied arts and sciences junior Tyler Lohr was helped by UNT police officers during the storms. Lohr said he drove to Clark Hall to pick up some friends, stepped out of his car to use the restroom, and when he came back, his car battery was dead. Lohr saw an officer jumping another student’s car in the parking lot and called the officer over. After Lohr showed his UNT ID and answered a few questions, the officer jumped the battery with his car. “It’s great that they offer this free service,” Lohr said. “If they hadn’t, I would be in a real bind.”
Tennis team swept at home Page 3
PHOTO BY JAMES COREAS/SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER PHOTO BY JAMES COREAS/SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Skylar Prunar, a kinesiology freshman, receives a warning from the police officer not to slide into the street. Students took
Police said they responded to more than 100 accidents during the days snow advantage of the snow Wednesday, Feb. 2 and found several hills to slide down, many with cardboard boxes or laundry covered North Texas. lids like Prunar.
VIEWS: Student criticizes commercialized holiday Page 4
ONLINE: Visit ntdaily.com to read about the Mean Green track and field team
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Union reaches compactor goal Spring weather Solar-powered bins cost UNT $12,000
BY A SHLEY-CRYSTAL FIRSTLEY Staff Writer
UNT stays true to its green commitment as it treks down the recycling path and into new sola r-powered receptacles. T h i s s eme s t er, t he University Union purchased fou r sola r-powered recept acles w it h t he proposed budget, g iv i ng st udent s a new way to keep the campus green. “It would allow all students to see t hat t his is t he way that we recycle on campus because it would be the same ever y w here,” sa id Wendy Key, t he assista nt director of operations for the Office of Sustainability. “You wouldn’t have one type of Dumpster in one place, one type of recycling bin in another place, w h ich s omet i me s c au s e s confusion.” T he locat ions of t he solar compactors were preselected and placed where the majority of students walk, said Mike Flores, the associate director of the Union. The receptacles each cost $ 3,000 a nd a re f u nded by the student union fees in the tuition, Flores said. How it works T he s ol a r c omp a c t or s
contain a battery that charges from sunlight, Flores said. Despite any bad weather, Flores said the compactors would still work as long as enough energ y is collected. T he compactors ca n compact up to 40 pou nds of t ra sh, Flores sa id, a nd t hey a re on ly dumped out once a week, on Fr iday or Saturday. “ I t d o e s n’t c o s t y o u anything,” Flores said. “And
to do to get people on board,’” Key said. Spanish and history senior M a t t h e w Fou l k , a r e c ycl i ng a ssista nt, sa id he is passionate about recycling. “[The sola r compactors] fit into wider efforts here to recycle whenever and wherever possible,” Foulk said.
What’s here, what’s to come Flores said his goal is to eliminate paper usage.
“[The solar compactors] fit into wider efforts here to recycle whenever and wherever possible.”
—Matthew Foulk Spanish and history senior and recycling assistant
in time, it pays for itself.” Key sa id it reduces t he amount of work on the custodial staff, so it saves time, cost and work effort. The bins cut down waste collection trips by up to 80 percent, according to the Big Belly website, the company that sells the solar compactors. The compactors also have a paper receptacle attached on its lef t side for bot t les and cans. “R ig ht now, we’re rea l ly trying to engage the interest and the participation level of ever yone on ca mpus to figure out ‘what do we need
T here a re seven m i xedpaper bins, which are also made out of recycled material, throughout the Union to make recycling easy, Flores said. “We use so much paper, it’s crazy,” Flores said. “The paper receptacles are always full because people get something and then almost immediately throw it away. So the more we c a n re duc e t he amount of paper we generate, the better off we’ll be.” Flores said his next project is to have electronic touch s c re en s m aps to repl ac e paper maps.
sweeps through BY DREW GAINES Senior Staff Writer
After two weeks of recordbreaking lows and icy conditions, the meteorologists are forecasting 70-degree temperatures in Denton for the rest of the week. The skies over North Texas will remain partly cloudy to mostly sunny with little chance of precipitation through Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Nightly low temperatures are expected to fall to around 50 degrees. The spring weather arrived after DFW International Airport posted a record daily snowfall of 2.6 inches after a winter storm on Feb. 4 and a record low temperature of 15 degrees last Thursday, though cities north of Dallas-Fort Worth experienced harsher conditions. Kent McGregor of the geography faculty said such drastic temperature shifts are not uncommon for North Texas this time of year. The area’s climate concoction of cold air from the Rockies and warmer air from the Gulf makes for bizarre weather patterns that are hard to predict. Typically, North Texas is blessed with more mild days in late February — days “that would be unthinkable in the Midwest,” McGregor said.
For some, this week’s weather is an early sign of spring, which officially begins March 21. “I just got a new bike. It was perfect timing with the weather,” said Carl Solomon, a kinesiology senior. “I have noticed quite a few more people are out. They seem to be shedding their winter coats.” P u n x s ut a w ne y Ph i l, the groundhog famous for predicting spring’s early arrival every Feb. 2, did not see his shadow this year, thus sealing winter’s early demise for his followers. For meteorologists, forecasting spring’s arrival requires more science than superstition. McGregor said that little about weather conditions is certain beyond a weekly forecast. “It is almost impossible to do,” he said. Others too seem skeptical about welcoming warmer weather just yet. “I think we are going to get a couple more bouts of winter nastiness,” Solomon said. “Texas weather, I’ve been here my whole life and it’s pretty erratic. I don’t think it’s totally behind us yet.” The Weather Service is forecasting a mild cold front to breeze into North Texas follow ing the weekend, increasing the chance of showers.