The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 108, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 5, 2000 Page: 1 of 16
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Weekend I What’s Inside
Boost your brain
Some foods can
enhance brain power
Bulletin Board.
-7T-
..2A
Obituaries....
...6A
Classifieds.......
...4B
Police Beat....
...,3A
Comics........
..6C
Sports........
.....1B
Opinion......
. .4A
Television.....
____1D
Soccer strife
Lee girls lose
to West Brook
Iiat>toton Jj>un
Volume 78, No. 108
Telephone Number: 281-422-8302
Sunday, March 5,2000 «
Baytown, Texas 77520
$1 per copy
The Baytown Sun presents Forecast
2000, a celebration of the community
assets that make Baytown a treasure. In
today’s third of four installments, we
present our Community edition.
Officials say Texans will benefit from trade agreement
• Part one of a two-part series. Com-
ing Monday: The rice trade—
gummed up by politics
RyMABENGTSON
The Baytown Sun
Exports to China in 1998 were val-
ued at more than $1.2 billion and pro-
vided more than 33,000 job opportuni-
ties for Texans, according to a study
released by the Texas International
Trade Alliance.
The 175,993 tons of Texas products,
manufactured and agricultural, shipped
to mainland China through the Port of
Houston had a value of $234,850,803,
it was reported in the study.
Texas Sen. Phil Gramm and Bill
Hammond, president and chief execu-
tive officer of the Texas Association of
Business and Chambers of Commerce,
believe those figures could increase
dramatically now that the United States
has granted China Permanent Normal
Trade Relations status.
The study shows that with 1.2 billion
people in China, Texas’ agricultural
and manufactured goods and services
are in high demand, with only trade
barriers restricting fair and open trade.
“Agriculture will benefit tremen-
dously from new markets in China,”
Gramm said. ‘Texans produce some of
the highest quality food and fiber prod-
ucts in the world. What we need is an
opportunity to introduce Chinese con-
sumers to the wonders we have to offer,
from cotton underwear to beefsteak.”
Hammond believes that normalizing
trade between die U.S. and China would
benefit everyone involved.
See TRADE on Page 2A
Program unites students, nature Company hopes
fib hale mobile ;
homes returned
Salesman accused of selling
homes, reporting them stolen
Ry JIM WEBRE
The Baytown Sun
Baytown-area children will get a
chance to experience the Baytown
wetlands in a week-long learning
environment this summer.
Registration for the Chevron
Summer Science Program begins
Monday and space is limited, offi-
cials said. ""
“It’s first come, first served,”
said Laurie Hafflefinger, outreach
coordinator for the Eddie V Gray
Wetlands Education and Recre-
ation Center. Hafflefinger said the
program was expected to accept
only 40 children, but the likeli-
hood now is that as many as 80
can be accepted into the month-
long program.
A variety of activities are on tap
for the program. “We have some
great activities planned, including
a visit to the fish hatcheries at Sea ,
Center Texas and a field trip down
the Trinity River,” said Sallie
Sherman, education coordinator at
the Wetlands Center.
Sherman and volunteer Michael
Girrar have designed the program
that will include an overview of
wetlands ecology and wildlife and
local geography as well as lessons
on the food chain and binomial
nomenclature.
Outdoor activities will include
seining, bird and plant identifica-
tion, water-quality testing and
other environmental science. Par-
ticipants also will keep field note-
books and learn proper laboratory
procedures.
“It’s guaranteed to be an eye-
opening experience,” said Girrar, a
student at Texas A&M University
in Galveston who has a degree in
marine biology.
The Chevron Summer Science
Program 2000 is funded through a
$10,000 donation from Chevron's
Wetlands Center names
new outreach coordinator
Photo by Jim Webre
The Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Education and Recreation Center will host the Chevron
Summer Science Program 2000 this summer for Baytown-area students. Part of the
program will include the study of wildlife, including these baby alligators on display at
the Wetlands Center.
Cedar Bayou Plant.
The program runs through June
and July in four week-long ses-
sions.
The weeks of June 5-9 and June
19-23 are reserved for 10- and 11-
year-old students. The weeks of
July 10-14 and July 24-28 are des-
ignated for 12- and 13-year-old
students.
Each session will be from 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through
Friday. All classes will begin at the
Wetlands Center, 1724 Market St.
The cost is $100 per student.
Space is limited to 20 students per
week.
To register or to obtain more
information, call 281-420-7128.
By JIM WEBRE
The Baytown Sun
Baytown native Laurie Haf-
flefinger is the new outreach
coordinator for the Eddie V Gray
Wetlands Education and Recre-
ation Center on Market Street
Hafflefinger accepted the job
last month after four years
working as publications editor
for the National Association of
Conservation Districts in
League City and as an editor of
the Environmental Protection
Agency-funded periodical
“GulfWatch.”
As outreach coordinator, Haf-
flefinger will be responsible for
organizing programs, writing
grants and promoting fte center
to the public.
See WETLANDS on Page 2A
ByMABENGTSON
The Baytown Sun
Oakwood Homes is seeking the
return of four mobile homes that
figured in the Chambers County
grand jury’s indictment of Armando
Jaime Ortiz on Thursday.
Ortiz, a former sales manager of
the Oakwood Homes outlet in
Mont Belvieu, was indicted for
second degree felony theft for
allegedly selling four homes to
three Chambers County residents,
pocketing the money and then
reporting the trailers as stolen.
Purchasers of the mobile homes
said they were told by Ortiz that the
damaged homes they were buying
had been repossessed by the com-
pany and titles would be sent to
them from the Oakwood corporate
headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.
The titles were never received.
Ortiz, out on $50,000 bond,
faces trial in the 344th State Dis-
trict Court of Judge Carroll
Wilbom and a possible sentence
of two to 20 years if convicted.
The buyers face losing the
mobile homes they purchased from
Ortiz, the cost they incurred mov-
ing tile trailers from Mont Belvieu
and whatever they have spent on
repairs, according to Rick Daly, the
attorney representing Oakwood.
“As of this day, we are in the
process of regaining the home®,” *
I Daly said. “I think the buyers are
going to turn them back over to us.
We are in negotiations with the
buyers and believe we are going to
get them all back in a short period
of time.”
When asked if tfre buyers would
be reimbursed, Daly said reim-
bursement has not been an issue.
“I think both the alleged buyers
and Oakwood Homes have lost
money. At this time, we are just try-
ing to do what’s best for Oakwood,”
Daly said. “Oakwood still has title
to the homes.”
Ed Lieck, attorney for the buyers,
said the negotiations are continuing.
“We understand Oakwood’s posi-
tion because they have a dishonest
employee that has cost them a lot of
money,” Lieck said. “But their sales
manager cost my clients a lot of
money. He made representations to
them as an Oakwood employee that
turned out to be untrue. Because of
that, my clients have suffered a
great amount of money damages,
$30,000 to $35,000 collectively.”
Lieck indicated his clients would
like to reach an agreement that
would force whoever is criminally
prosecuted to make restitution.
“We’re trying to reach an agree-
ment that is fair, where everyone
absorbs some of the loss. This way,
we can be assured if there is any
criminal restitution made, we will
all receive some of the restitution.”
24-year-old time capsule opened at Lamar Elementary
ByMABENGTSON
The Baytown Sun
On Friday afternoon at Lamar
Elementary School, the lid came
off a bright red, white and blue time
capsule filled and sealed by Lamar
first-graders in 1976.
More than 130 current first-
graders were on hand to see what
their peers had packed away 24
years ago when the country was
celebrating its bicentennial birth-
day. At that time, five classes of
first-graders Wrote letters about
themselves, and collected an odd
assortment of things to put in the
barrel to be opened in 2000.
Cheryl Abshier, a former
Lamar student and now the
school’s counselor, had the honor
of pulling out. the items that a pre-
vious generation of first-graders-
had deemed important.
Primary interest of the kids who
participated in the project must,
have been eating. The most promi-
nent items in the barrel ranged
from soup to M&Ms.
TWo of the teachers involved in
the bicentennial project, Park
Anderson and Mary Margaret
Armstrong, both now retired, were
at Lamar on Friday for the capsule
opening.
“I had each one of my children
bring something,” Anderson said.
“It was so long ago, Mary Mar-
garet arid I didn’t remember what
had gone in there, but we recog-
nized things as they were brought'
, out. I was amazed at how many t
cans of food they brought.”
“I was a little surprised that the
first thing I puffed out was a pack-
age of waffles,” Abshier said.
“Apparently, we let the children
bring something of interest to
them,” said Armstrong. “Some of
the things kind of surprised toe.”
The contents, besides the food,
included toys, school books, a copy
of The Baytown Sun, a Baytown
telephone directory and a city map,
in addition to a TV Guide, comic
books, a bicentennial quarter and
even a bag of dog food.
Most of the toys were what
Anderson described as boys’ toys
—cars, trucks, even a yellow Jeep.
Photographs of all five classes
were in the capsule, along with let-
ter? from each student with their
names, ages and what they liked to
do — things like riding bicycles,
watching television and playing
football, v .
Abshier said the capsule also
contained half-pound bags of
M&Ms, priced at 50 cents, and
wrappers from bubblegum that cost
2 cents. The bags and wrappers
were all empty. Apparently, not
even the excitement of a making a
bicentennial time capsule could
convince first-graders that stashing
a full sack of M&Ms instead of
eating them was a good idea
The capsule itself was made
from a trash can.
“I had that can at home in my
garage. It was just an old green
metal wastebasket and I painted it
red, white and blue,” Armstrong
said.
“Everyone was doing things for
the bicentennial.” _...... ........... . . , .
.^Tbejwswngjtytime’c^^ vr - _ . * n . J • ontributedphoto
scheduled to find new life as a mil- -Julie Cross Gaines and David Dabney, first-graders^t
lennium capsule for the first-grade Lamar in 1976, show the letters and their crayon self-por-
classes who witnessed the capsule traits they contributed to the contents of the bicentennial
opening Friday. capsule that was opened Friday.
News tip? Call 281-425-8016
www.baytownsun.eom
For home delivery, call 281-425*8048
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 108, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 5, 2000, newspaper, March 5, 2000; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1020028/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.