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Latino group hosts four-day event Page 2 Students do peer-to-peer financial consultations Page 3 Texas leaders are wise to wait on high-speed rail Page 6
Men’s basketball team comes up short in Tennessee Page 4
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
News 1,2 Arts & Life 3 Sports 4 Views 5 Classifieds 6 Games 6
Volume 95 | Issue 9
Cloudy 52° / 36°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Rayzor Ranch may acquire second well BY MORGAN WALKER Senior Staff Writer
A second gas well could be in the making on the Rayzor Ranch development at the corner of Interstate Highway 35 and Highway 380. Range Resources, the Fort Worth oil and gas company, took the next step in the drilling process to determine whether the company will construct another well. “I believe things are going pretty smoothly,” said Rodney Wallace, senior vice president and chief compliance officer of Range
Resources. “I think it started off with a bumpy road, but once we laid out what we’re doing, everyone’s been very pleased.” It began the hydraulic fracturing process Monday on the drill site west of Bonnie Brae Street, and across from McKenna Park. The drilling procedure begins with a drill rig. Once a site is drilled, because there are tight formations, it doesn’t produce gas, Wallace said. The next step is to enter the site with high-pressure pumping equipment to pump water and
sand together and fracture the shale underneath the rock. This creates permeability that will allow the gas that’s in place to find a way to the well so it can be produced, Wallace explained. The controversial drilling began in October after many Denton residents and City Cou nci l members d isapproved. Jim Engelbrecht, a City Council member, said his thoughts have not changed since the permit to drill was approved by the group.
“It’s still an industrial use that’s too close to a residential area,” Engelbrecht said. After the fracturing process takes place, Range Resources will decide whether or not the company will begin a second well. The company set up Baffles, walls around the drill site to shield out noise. “It’s like if you had a gymnasium and if there was an echo, you would hang those to soften the noise,” Wallace said. The drilling process is highly regulated with a lot of
Staff Writer
Tw o w e e k e n d e v e n t s raised money to help start a program aimed at bringing the community together. Organizers of the Denton Com mu n it y Ma rket held f undra isers Fr iday at Ha n na h’s restau ra nt a nd Hailey’s Club to build a financial basis for the Community Market t hat w ill begin in April. “I’m a lmost speech less with the positive feedback and the generosity from local business and artists,” said Kati Trice, market coordinator for the organization. “It’s been over whelmingly positive.” Friday night’s event raised about $1,000 by silent auction. The restaurant owners also donated 10 percent of each person’s ticket. The market, which w ill open April 20, will run every other Saturday from April through November, featuring food, art and music from the Denton area. It will be on the corner of
PHOTO BY MARTINA TREVINO/PHOTOGRAPHER
Mean Green overcomes weather, Roadrunners BY ERIC JOHNSON Senior Staff Writer
The frigid outdoor temperatures forced the Mean Green tennis team’s home opener indoors, but the cold could not extinguish UNT’s firepower as it blew through UT-San Antonio 7 to 0. The Mean Green (2-1) took control of the match from the first point with the top three players dominating their competition, and the rest of the team feeding on their momentum. “We really want to be able to lead from the front and set the tone for the match,” junior Madura Ranganathan said. “That is the one of the advantages when you play first — you are able to help inspire your teammates. We got off to a hot start on Sunday and that was able to carry us through.” Ranganathan, along with sophomores Irina Paraschiv and Paula Dinuta, made up the top of the Mean Green singles card, and the trio dropped a combined four games en route to their straight-set victories. Paraschiv paired with junior Amy Joubert for a commanding
8 to 1 doubles victory, and Joubert carried that victory over to her singles match where she disposed of her opponent 6-3, 6-2. “Irina and Amy are really clicking, and I think that our doubles play has the potential to be our biggest strength with them at the top of the lineup,” head coach Sujay Lama said. UNT’s early success took the pressure off freshman Barbora Vykyladova, playing in her third match, and junior Narine Kazarova, who was returning from a shoulder injury. Kazarova fell behind early from the No. 6 singles position, losing the first set before battling back and winning in the tiebreaking third set. Kazarova found herself in a hole in doubles as well, as she and Ranganathan were down 3 to 0 before earning an 8 to 6 victory. “We expected Narine to be nervous and rusty, but she was able to fight through that,” Lama said. “Having her in the lineup gives us so much depth, and this was a great opportunity for her to get herself back into match shape before a difficult week.”
Vykaladova continued to build momentum as she moved into the No. 4 spot for singles, and she looked like a savvy veteran in her 6-3, 6-0 win. Lama rested his captain and only senior, Catalina Cruz, during singles play, but Cruz did earn an 8 to 2 doubles victory with Vykyladova. The duo has meshed well through the first two weeks. “She is like my older sister,” Vykyladova said. “She has that same kind of character, and she has helped make me less nervous, and she helps me to be more self-confident.” UNT gets a true measure of where it stands nationally over the next five days as the Mean Green challenges Oklahoma at 3 p.m. tomorrow and No. 74 Texas Tech at noon on Feb. 7. “This week will be huge for our program mentally to see if we can get over that hump,” Lama said. “Every step for us has to be a positive one, and I feel like we have done that through our first three matches. We know we are as good as those teams and now we have a chance to prove it.”
let the pressures work naturally on it,” Wallace said. Greg Rowlett, 57, lives across the street from the drill site at the corner of Bonnie Brae Street and Panhandle Street, and he said he is one of the two property owners receiving royalties from the drilling. “I don’t have a problem with it,” Rowlett said. “Unless you’re outside or coming and going, you don’t even notice it.” Range Resources should have the hydraulic fracturing results within several days, Engelbrecht said.
Fundraisers help launch new community market BY TIM MONZINGO
Junior Amy Joubert fires a backhand in preparation for Saturday’s win against UT-San Antonio.
blowout preventers and other technology so there’s no risk of high-pressure issues here, Wallace said. “If you were out in West Texas and drilling conventional wells that have very deep high pressures, those need casing and blowout preventers,” he said. Blowout preventers put a stop to pressure between the lower reservoir and the surface, he said. “In Denton, it’s a very tight rock and all the gas is in place, so we have to artificially induce the permeability of the gas to
Sycamore Street and Carol Boulevard. “The point is just to get more people involved in our com mu n it y a nd to br i ng more attention to our farmer’s ma rket,” sa id A l lison Flannigan, a development and family studies junior. The market is also intended to showcase what Denton citizens are capable of. “There is so much energy and activity around art being created a nd music bei ng created, a nd just people b ei ng r e a l l y pa s sion at e about what they’re involved in,” Trice said. “I just want to bring it all together and showcase it in one place, and that’s really what the market is.” The planners of the market are working with the existing farmers market to expand it and offer residents an array of goods. “I think it’s great. It’s really hard to find good, local food a round here,” sa id Cla ire Morales, a communication design sophomore. Buy i ng loca l products,
especia lly foods, is benef icia l for t he communit y, Morales said. Aside from things that can be bought, some members plan to offer instructional courses at the market. Br yc e Benton, a U N T alumnus, said he plans to teach people practical skills for living. “We a lso pla n to have s ome w or k s hop s w he r e people can learn hands-on how to fix a bicycle, how to capture water and how to filter water,” Benton said. “Just different practical skills that are helpful for people of all ages.” From teaching sk ills to offering food, music and art, Trice said that the market will bring citizens together for something that she hopes will be a destination for the area. “I see it as everyone giving a little piece of themselves to support something greater than themselves,” Trice said. “It’s an opportunity to show all the beauty that Denton is in one place.”
Student veteran enrollment increases under new GI Bill BY LISA GARZA
Senior Staff Writer Despite a sha k y sta r t in the fall, the number of student veterans increased this spring because of the faster processing time of money earned under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. “If t he numbers hold, we will most likely see a jump of around 20 percent in the number of students cer tif ied under t he new Post-9/11 GI Bill for spring f rom fa l l,” sa id Bobby Lothringer, associate registrar, in an e-mail. About 70 percent of the 103,000 claims have been processed for spring enrollment, according to the U.S. Depa r t ment of Vetera n Affairs. T he benef it prog ra m became effective on Aug. 1, and payments are based on the amount of service competed since Sept. 11, 20 01. Benef it s i nc lude tuition and fees payments, a monthly housing allowance and a yearly textbook stipend of $1,000. T he long pr oc e s si ng period forced many student veterans to wait until long after the fall semester began
GI Bill Facts for 2009 -739 Student received federal VA benefits -52 percent of those received money under the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. -More than $1 million in payments received from VA for students certified for fall 2009 Courtesy of the Registrar’s Office & Student Accounting
for money to be available, officials said. Russell Serna, a 26-yearold sociology senior and Navy veteran, said he did not receive any payments until December. The cost of tuition and other related expenses came out of his pocket. “I have a job, so I have income coming in, but there are veterans who are disabled or have just come out of the military and don’t have a job yet,” Serna said. “It hurt them pretty bad.” The delays in disbursing money was likely because of a n over whelm ing nu mber of applicants who qualified for benefits under the bill, sa id Christina Pratt, treasurer for the Student Veteran Association, art junior and an Army veteran. “T hey sta r ted receiv i ng applications early last year,
but they really didn’t start doing anything until August, wh ich was probably t heir first bad move,” Pratt said. “They should have just started processing them as they were get t i ng t he a ppl ic at ion s because people were applying that early.” Devin Townsend, a 27-yearold engineering junior and navy veteran, said he had to resort to covering his expenses from the money he receives f rom u nemploy ment a nd disability benefits. Townsend said he anxiously waited for his money, but it was not available until October. “I called just about every week to check on the status of my application,” he said. “It was an inconvenience because I had to live off the money I had saved and credit cards.”
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