The Bastrop Advertiser and County News (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 12, Ed. 1 Monday, April 11, 1983 Page: 1 of 12
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Brandy Campbell, 3, (top) grand-
daughter of Jo Cude of Bastrop, was
greeted by a Ben Hnr Shrine Temple
clown Saturday at the Smithville Jam-
boree Parade, watched by 4,000 to 5,000
persons in 77 degree weather. At left,
Clyde Holdcroft auctions one of 45
animals and capons in the annual
Smithville Future Farmers of America
Auction. Sale totalled $58,89, down
about $4,000 from last year. Staff
Photo by Jack Fraser.
And County News
TEXAS' OLDEST WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
MONDAY EDITION
I ■ • IIJl'M. li.il] L llll..
1.1*53 Bastrop, Tex«786«r ^MondayyAprilt^lggy--^
<>•
Number 12
Money, manpower short to fight crime: Edwards
Bastrop County
Republican Women
pledged an effort to im:
prove the quality of law
enforcement in the county
after meeting Thursday
with Judy Edwards,
criminal investigator for
District Attorney's office.
Mrs. Edwards spoke to
4he women about the in-
creasing crime rate in
Bastrop County and
described an appalling lack
of resources in the
Sheriff's office to do
anything about it.
She noted that reported
major crimes in Bastrop
County increased from 567
in 1981 to 763 in 1982, a 29
percent increase. The
largest increase was among
burglaries, which went up
from 240 to 392. Mrs. Ed-
wards explained that the
statistics were compiled by
a DPS survey of reports
made in the Sheriffs office
and other cbunty law en-
forcement entities. She ad-
ded that officers do not
bother to make reports on
all the crimes they in-
vestigate.
The County Sheriff
Department's problems
are even more acute since it
must cover the entire area
of the county outside the
cities, with roughly the
combined population of
the county's three largest
cities with approximately
the same manpower that
each of the three city police
departments have.
This puts a heavy
workload on each deputy,
and they are paid only
$11,939 per year, she
noted. They have to
provide their own guns,
ammunition, flashlights,
batteries and in some in-
stances their own vehicles,
Mrs. Edwards said. By
contrast, a patrol officer
for the .City of Bastrop
makes $16,244 per year
More persons using food stamps here
-
By Ellen Moore
Figures comparing the
number of - "families
receiving food stamps in
Bastrop County in July of
1982 and January, 1983
indicate a "fairly good-
sized increase," according
to Doris Thomson,
Program Director of the
Income Assistance
program at the Depar-
tment of Human Resour-
CCS.
In July, 1982, 843
households including
2,158 persons, received
food stamps. The coupon
value for that month was
$81,489 in Bastrop coun-
ty- ' : w .'
In January, 1983,
households on food stam-
ps jumped to 919, or an in-
crease of 76 families. In-
dividuals increased 3S9,
1 totalling 2,517. The
coupon value of the stamps
totaled $106,432 in
Bastrop County .
"For a place like
Bastrop, that's a fairly
good-sized increase," Mrs.
Thomson explained, ad-
ding that BastfOp is fairly
stable in overall growth.
The increase "is in-
dicative of what's hap-
pening in the whole region
(Region 9 encompasses 30
counties)," she continued,
"we've all been affected by
theeconomy."
She^id point put that
with the food stamp
program, money is put
directly back into the
community. "It feeds the
dollars right bapk into the
local economy," she said,
"helping grocers and ven-
dors."
Mrs. Thomson added
that another program she
supervises also shows the
economy's impact on the
area, this is the Aid to
Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC). This is
basically a program for
children with only one
parent, usually the mother.
In January, 1982 there
were 153 families on the
program in Bastrop Coun-
ty, including 340 children
in those families. The
average grant was Only
$101 a family that month.
In November of 1982 there
Murder ID
expected
Bastrop County Sheriff
Tommy Moseley is expec-
ted to announce early this
week the identity of a
woman whose nude body
was discovered bound at
the wrists arid .ankles in a
shallow grave near Smith-
ville, in February.
Moseley and San An- •
tonio Authorities are vir-
uyilly certain on the iden-
tity of the murder victim.
Charlie Strauss, a
prosecutor in the Bexar
District Attorney's office
were 182 families, with 377
children, with a grant of
$102.78 per family.
"That tells us that the
case loads have grown and
are continuing to grow,"
sheadded.
"There's no end in
sight," she continued,
"but traditionally as the
economy gets better, you
see a decrease in the num-
ber using food stamps."
She cited construction
workers as one example of
"short-time4' users of the
stamps. As jobs become
available, the persons has
worked again, and goes of
the program. V '
The Department' will
also initiate a new program
beginning April I , to help
the long-term families
dependent on AFDC. The
DHR will work with the
Texas Employment Com-
mission in trying to get the
" mothers "job ready."
"We'll refer them to the
Employment Com-
mission, then we'll work
with local employers to try
to set up jobs for them,
said Mrs. Thomson.
Two killed near Elgin
Two men were killed
near Elgin Saturday
when their vehicle swerved
from its eastbound lane on
U.S. 290 into the path of
two oncoming westbound
pickuptrucks.
One of the victims,
Larry Matthews, 3Q, of Rt.
1, Elgin, was identified by
Department of Public
Safety officials Sunday.
He had been a passenger in
the car.
The name of the other
victim was withheld unttt
his family in Mexico can be
Continued on Page 12
Trailer fire kills
former resident
Linda D. Hunnicutt
said that h? is awaiting
fingerprint results or some
other certain identification
Continued on Page 9
A former Bastrop
resident was killed Sunday,
April 3, when the
mobile home she Was living
in with a girl friend burned\
to the ground. Linda
Dianne Hunnicutt, 32, died
of smoke inhalation, ac-
cording to; authorities in
Katy, Texas, where the ac-
cident took place. x-Jf 4
Secretary ;.y .ft
Miss Hunnicutt was a
1969 graduate of Bastrop
High School, and had
worked as a secretary for a
number of $sars at Hun-
nicut's Cabinet Works on
Cypress Street in Bastrop,
She was born Nov. 9,
1950 to Calvin and Bonnie
Hunnicutt. ,
, Funeral services were
held Friday, April 8, at 1
p.m. at the Oakley-Metcalf
Funeral Home of
Nacogdoches. Burial was
in the Blue Springs
Cemetery at Etoile, Texas.
She is survived by her
father, Calvin Hunnicutt of
Bastrop; her mother, Bon-
nie Clark of League City,
Texas, a grandmother,
Virginia Adams, of
Bastrop; a sister, Janet
Dale QuintinUla of
Bastrop; and a half-sister,
which is owned by her Karen Clark of League !
father. City, Texas.
and has all his equipment
furnished.
"They do it out of
dedication and because
they love their work,"
Mrs. Edwards said of the
deputies. She added that
qualified law enforcement
officers will starve for only
so long and they eventually
have to leave the Sheriff's
office and get a job where
they can make a living.
Only two deputies remain
on the Sheriff's staff that
were on it this time last
year.
Shocked
Several women in the
audience of the Republican
women ineeting at the
Citizens State Bank Thur-
sday said they were
shocked at the low pay that
deputies receive. Several
added that they are very
thankful that the deputies
continue to do it.
Mrs. Edwards, who was
chief deputy when I.R.
Hoskins was sheriff, said
deputies are forced by their
workload to work almost
24 hours per day with every
other week-end off. Law-
officers working for other
entities work 40 hour
weeks and are paid over-
time if they have to work
extra, she said.
One woman in the
audience^complained that
she had once tried
desperately" TO~"Call the
Sheriff's office but the
telephone line had
remained busy so she could
not get through.
Overloaded Lines
Mrs. Edwards explained
that the Bastrop County
Commissioners Court has
provided money for two
lines into the Sheriff's of-«
fke and one of the num-
bers is unlisted so it will
stay open should officers
need to call out. She added
that the other line can be
overloaded since the
Sheriff's office handles
dispatchmg for the Depar-.
tment of Public Safety,
Bastrop City Police, and
most of the county's
volunteer fire department.
Asked what citizens
can do to increase funding
for the Sheriff's officc,
Mrs. Edwards said that all
the money must come
through the County Com-
missioners Court.
She noted that the com-
missioners are already
being put under tremen-
dous pressure to budget
enough money to improve
the county road situation
and similar pressure would
have to be applied before
they will budget additional
money for law enfor-
cement.
Road Needs, Too
She noted that virtually
everyone in the county is
affected by the road
situation while only
five percent or so of county
residents are affected by
crime.
The commissioners have
repeatedly indicated that
they don't feel county tax-
payers can afford much
more than the county's
current 23 cents per $100
.valuation of property taxes
that are levied.
One woman complained
that when she called for an
officer, it took a long time
for one to arrive. Accor-
ding to Mrs. Edwards, if
someone in Rosanky or the
Smithville area were to call
for a deputy late at night,
they would have to wait un-
til a man living in Bastrop
was called, awakened,
dressed, grabbed his
equipment and drove out
there. That could mean a
responses time of 45
minutes to an hour, she
said.
Mrs. Edwards said the
workload in the District
Attorney's office is also
heavy. She said that the last
time the Grand Jury met it
disposed of almost 50 cases
in a single day. -
Coordination
Mrs. Edwards said there
are also problems of lack
of cooperation and coor-
dination between various
law enforcement agencies
in the county, which in-
clude constables, city
police departments, the
sheriff's office and the
DPS.
West's Role
She said that part-time
criminal investigator
George West has been used
by the Sheriff's depar-
tment less than he is
available. West, a, veteran
investigator with more
than 30 years experience,
was hired by District At-
torney Neal Pfeiffer
largely to help the man-
power-short Sheriff's of-*
fice with complicated in-
vestigations of major
crimes.
Mrs. Edwards added
that local officers miss out
on many excellent training
programs, put on by the
state that would help them
conduct burglary, larceny
and homicide in-
vestigations more effec-
tively. She said that in
many cases,, the Sheriff's
office is so busy that no one
can be spared to take ad-
vantage of the training op-
portunities.
Second arrest
in artifacts case
Dawn Fry, 22, was
arrested and charged with
exercising control over
stolen property Thursday
in connection wk|gj» case
where Indian artifacts
valued at approximately
$35,000 were stolen from
John Youngof Upton.
Mrs. Fry; is the wife of
Larry Fry, 41, of Kingsland,
who was arrested on burg-
lary charges in connection
with the same theft last
Monday.
Bail
Both are being held on
$l5,OOObond.
J
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Williams, Eric. The Bastrop Advertiser and County News (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 12, Ed. 1 Monday, April 11, 1983, newspaper, April 11, 1983; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth602057/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bastrop Public Library.