The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 154, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 27, 2000 Page: 1 of 12
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News,6A I ,What’s Inside
News, 2A
Zoning addressed
MB residents will
discuss zoning today
Bulletin Board..
. .2A
Obituaries....
... 6A
Classifieds.......
...2B
Police Beat....
.... 3A
Comics........
..5A
Sports........
...,1B
Opinion.......
,.4A
Television.....
...,6B
Going once, going twice, sold
Bidding at annual city auction set
to begin Saturday at stadium
Speed zone
Luster successful
in football, baseball
e Paptotott Ismtt
Volume 78, No. 154
Telephone Number: 281-422-8302
Thursday, April 27,2000
Baytown, Texas 77520
50 cents per copy
Early voting on track to surpass 1995 record
By JIM WORE
The Baytown Sun
BAYTOWN — Early voting for the
May 6 municipal election is running far
ahead of past years and might set a
record, officials said.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, 237 voters had
cast ballots in the election that will deter-
mine the mayor post and two City Council
Early voting continues from 9.a.m.
to 5 p.m. today, Friday, Monday and
Tuesday at City Hall, 2401 Market St.
seats as well as a referendum on collective
baigaining for Baytown firefighters.
“It’s been a fim election,” City Clerk
Gary Smith said of his first election as
the city’s chief elections official.
The early voting totals for past years offer
an indication of the issues being decided.
The largest early voting total in recent
history — 266 — was in May 1995
when Baytown voters approved a con-
troversial zoning ordinance that passed
by a slim margin.
The only other referendum that pulled
in more than 200 early voters came in
January 1996 when a mass transit pro-
posal went down at the polls.
Paul Munoz, president of the Baytown
Professional Firefighters Association
Local 1178, said he knew early voting
totals were up, but he could not say if the
union’s influence with voters was a factor
in the high turnout.
In addition to the referendum, Mayor
See VOTING on Page 3A
Early voting at record pace
Election Total early votes
May 1999 134
January 1998
(Crime Control, Prevention Dist.) 196
May 1998 30
May 1996 104
January 1996 (Mass Transit) 214
May 1995 (Zoning) 266
Source: Baytown City Clerk
New energy center breaks ground
$335 million
facility to be
complete in
two years
By MA BENGTSON
The Baytown Sun
BAYTOWN — Officials of
Calpine’s Baytown Energy Center
and Bayer Corp. officially broke
ground Wednesday on a $335 mil-
lion co-generation facility being
built by San Jose, Calif.-based
Calpine Corp.
Calpine, a partner plant at
Bayer’s Cedar Bayou facility, is
building the 800-megawatt facility
off FM 1405. Calpine will be
Bayer’s sole supplier of energy
and steam needed for the produc-
tion process.
Co-generation plants are so
named because they are located on
industrial sites and directly supply
energy to the host company. They
have become more common
nationwide now that the electric
energy industry has begun the
deregulation process.
“Electricity is what drives our
modem economy,” Calpine Presi-
dent and CEO Peter Cartwright
told the more than 200 officials,
guests and employees at the
groundbreaking.
“This huge basic industry is
undergoing a major change.
Deregulation is giving companies
opportunity to build efficient,
environmentally-friendly plants
across the country,” Cartwright
said. “Part of the whole deregula-
tion process is the change from
utilities who have a territory
where they were a monopoly to a
free market.”
^j|k
' • Artist’s rendering
Calpine Corp. is building this $335 million co-generation plant on the site of Bayer’s
Cedar Bayou facility.
Bush gets
double dose
of criticism
Residents and civil rights
groups voice their concerns
Construction of the plant in
Baytown will bring the number of
Calpine facilities in the Houston
area to five, including two co-gen-
eration plants in Pasadena and one
each in Clear Lake and Texas City.
Cartwright said the plant will
provide 300 construction jobs and
25 to 28 permanent operations
jobs when completed two years
from now:
Mike Shields, executive director
of the Baytown-West Chambers
County Economic Development
Foundation, said Calpine is exactly
the type of company his organiza-
tion strives to bring to the area .
“The major impact for the area
is the total investment Calpine is
bringing, and environmentally,
they are reducing Bayer’s overall
NOx (nitrous oxide) emissions
significantly,” he said. “Calpine is
a community-minded corporation
that has pledged to participate in
r a
Cartwright
community
projects that
benefit the
area,” said
Shields. “Bay-
town has
added another
good corpo-
rate neighbor.”
Bayer Plant
Manager Gor-
don Christ-
man said the completion of the
Baytown Energy Center will have
a significant impact on the cost of
energy and steam for the Bayer
site.
“This is another important part-
nership arrangement for Bayer
that we have completed in the last
two to three years that will allow
us to remain competitive on a
global basis,” Christman said.
Currently, Bayer is one of
Reliant Energy HL&P’s largest
customers in the Baytown area,
said David Baker, district manager
for Reliant HL&P. However,
Baker does not think the new part-
nership between Bayer and
Calpine will affect his company
adversely.
“By the time that plant comes
online, deregulation will be in
effect, and we expect to be selling
power throughout the state of
Texas,” Baker said. “We know
deregulation will be a completely
new way of doing business.
Wholesale and retail sales (resi-
dential, commercial and industrial)
will no longer have the limited
geographical boundaries we had in
the past,” Baker said.
“So Reliant will be selling die
electric commodity in a much
larger market.”
Bayer is expected to use a little
See CALPINE on Page 3A
By CONNIE MABIN
Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN — Gov. George W,
Bush, who was on the campaign
trail Wednesday, got a double dose
of criticism in his home state.
Some Republican women urged
Bush to block new pollution permits
in Houston, the nation’s smoggiest
city, while civil rights groups
demanded Bush seek the resignation
of the state health commissioner
over his comments about teen preg-
nancy and Hispanics.
Several Republican women from
Clear Lake voiced opposition to a
new state emissions permit for a
chemical plant in Bayport, which is
near Clear Lake and Houston,
which last year topped Los Angeles
in ozone pollution.
“Let us clean up our air first
before we add additional pollu-
tion,” said Arlene Polewarczyk.
“It’s inconceivable to me that
George Bush is allowing more air
permits to be issued Mien the Clear
Lake-Houston area cannot comply
with the Clean Air Act now,” said
Lucille Griffith. “Bush needs to be
concerned about the health and
welfare of Texans.”
Houston’s ozone levels have sur-
passed federal requirements three
times so far this year, including
April 17, when it had the highest
I have a message for
George Bush: Come home
to Texas and clean It up.”
Tamara Maschino
Clear Lake resident
one-hour ozone level in the nation.
The women oppose a permit for
a new Elf Atochem North America
Inc. plant. They said the Texas Nat-
ural Resource Conservation Com-
mission has continued to grant per-
mits to polluting plants despite
deteriorating air quality.
“Despite this worsening air,
Governor Bush’s appointees at the
TNRCC continue to permit almost
every industry that comes before
them. Bush’s commissioners have
never met a permit that they did not
like,” said Tamara Maschino. “I
have a message for George Bush;
Come home to Texas and dead it
up.” 7
Bush’s spokesman defended the
governor’s record, saying Texas has.
reduced toxic releases more than
all other states combined
“The governor expects the
TNRCC board to work with local
communities to address their con-*
cems and make independent deci-.
sions that are right for Texas,”!
See BUSH on Page 3A
Last two armed robbery suspects plead guilty to federal charges
BYJIMWEBRE
The Baytown Sun
The last two defendants in the
Feb. 10,1999, robbery of the Baric
of America and Kroger grocery
store on North Alexander Drive at
Ward Road pleaded guilty this
week in federal district court.
Aaron Louis Edwards, 22,
pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal
charges of bank robbery and use of
a firearm in a violent crime. Rus-
sell Williams, 22, pleaded guilty to
the same offenses Monday.
The third defendant in the case,
Gregory B. Mosley 22, also plead-
ed guilty to charges of bank rob-
bery of a federally insured bank
and use of a
firearm in the
commission of
a violent crime.
Mosley
pleaded guilty
April 6 and was
prepared to tes-
tify against
Williams and
Edwards,
should they
have gone to trial, Assistant US.
Attorney Don Calvert said.
A jury pool from which a jury
would have been picked to begin
trial Tuesday stood outside the
courtroom as Edwards made his
plea, Calvert said
Edwards
Mosley
Williams
Sentencing for Mosley is set for
2 p.m. July 10, in Judge Kenneth
Hoyt’s U.S. District Court in
Houston.
Edwards and Williams are
scheduled for sentencing in the
same court July 24.
All three men face sentences of
up to 20 years for the bank robbery
charge and up to life in a federal
prison for the weapons charge, a
spokesman for U.S. Attorney
Mervyn Mosbacker’s office said.
Bank of America teller Danny
Sartor was cooperating with the
robbers when Edwards turned and
shot him in the chest at point-blank
range, nearly killing him. The near-
fatal wounding was captured on
security cameras.
Mosley was accused of standing
near the door of the Kroger market,
effectively holding the customers
and employees hostage while
Edwards and Williams took about
$70,000 in cash and checks from
both the Kroger courtesy booth and
the bank’s in-store branch.
Williams was accused of being
the robber who robbed the courtesy
booth, while Edwards took money
from the bank drawer, then turned
and shot Sartor.
Six months of investigation by
the Houston Area Bank Robbery
Task Force and Baytown police
led to the trio’s arrest in Houston
in June.
Calvert said work by Baytown
detectives Kelly Sinclair and Bra-
non Coker led to Edwards" guilty
■plea.''
“They did a great job,” Calvert
said
“Mr. Edwards had to admit he
was the one who shot Danny Sar-
tor,” Calvert said. “We told huff
there would be no plea unless he
did so.
“The judge made him go into the
specific facts of what he did,’-
Calvert said. *
In his statement before the court;
Edwards said he shot Sartor by
accident and “out of ignorance." .7
“I was nervous and just sort of
yanked the trigger. It was an acci-i
dent,” Edwards said in court. I
The victim and his family were
present in the courtroom, Calvert
said In the weeks after the shoot-
ing Sartor, who lives in Houston,
and his family thanked Baytown
residents for their expressions of
concern. -‘7
■ V-. - :7v:'V; ':;77*7
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 154, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 27, 2000, newspaper, April 27, 2000; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1019305/m1/1/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.