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- <text id=89TT2596>
- <title>
- Oct. 09, 1989: Business Notes:Local Economies
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Oct. 09, 1989 Want A Baby?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 80
- Business Notes
- LOCAL ECONOMIES
- They Love Their Balloon
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Bigger towns might consider it a boondoggle or an eyesore.
- But the depressed West Texas ranching town of Marfa (pop. 2,500)
- is delighted about the economic benefit of a 240-ft. radar
- surveillance balloon that the Customs Service has tethered
- nearby and plans to fly at an altitude of 14,000 ft. One of six
- in a planned network along the Mexican border, the
- helium-filled aerostat can spot suspected drug-smuggling planes
- up to 200 miles away, then flash data to authorities who will
- try to intercept the aircraft.
- </p>
- <p> The Marfa installation alone will cost $18 million. Its
- benefits include some 30 new technical jobs, an annual payroll
- of $1 million and perhaps a few carloads of tourists drawn to
- the remote prairie for a look at what townsfolk fondly call the
- "big, pregnant whale." Says local newspaper editor Robert
- Halpern: "This is a real shot in the arm for retail sales and
- real estate -- and community pride too. We used to get attention
- for our cow pastures. Now people know we're doing all we can to
- fight the drug war."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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