The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 90, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 13, 2000 Page: 1 of 38
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Weekend I What’s Inside
National News, 8A
Willis revealed
Actorgfres his
thagits on issues
Bulletin Board..
.2A
Obituaries...
... 6A
Classifiecis.......
,.5B
Police Beat...
...3A
Comics........
. .6C
Sports.......
...1B
Opinion.......
. 4A
Television....
...1D
Ventura quits Reform Party
Minnesotagmiorcuts ties, calls
party “hopelessly dysfunctional"
Pattern H>uti
Volume 78, No. 90
Telephone Number: 281-422-8302
Sunday, February 13,2000
Baytown, Texas 77520
$1 per copy
m
County to serve ExxonMobil notice of violation
tyMA BENGTSON
The Baytown Sun
Harris County Pollution Control
has determined ExxonMobil
Baytown was the source of “pun-
gent, heavy, burnt oil-like odors”
reported Jan. 18 in the area of
Crockett Elementary School.
A violation notice, dated Feb. 8.,
is being sent to ExxonMobil by
the Pollution Control Division of
Harris County Health and
Environmental Services, said Jim
Taylor, of the pollution control
office in Houston. The notice is
signed by Rob S. Barrett, assistant.
director of the division.
ExxonMobil has 10 days to
respond to the violation notice
and to inform the Pollution
Control Division of steps being
taken to eliminate the cause of the
violation.
The odor was reported Jan. 18 in the area of Crockett Elementary
School. Robert E Lee High School and Travis Elementary School offi-
cials also reported odors.
Under the provisions of the
Clean Air Act, ExxonMobil
could be subject to civil penal-
ties of $50 to $25,000 per day
and/or criminal penalties of
$500 to $100,000 per day for
each violation.
‘To our knowledge, we have not
received any formal communica-
tions from Harris County
Pollution Control,” said Charlotte
Howard, ExxonMobil spokes-
woman. “As we said on Jan. 19,
our industrial hygiene, environ-
mental and operations staffs con-
ducted a thorough investigation,
working alongside Harris County
Pollution Control and the city of
Baytown, and found no reason to
believe the source of the odor was
ExxonMobil in Baytown.”
The first report of the strong
odor came from Betty O’Sullivan,
principal of Crockett Elementary
School, at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 18. The
intensity of the odor was such that
students at the school were kept
inside at recess. Robert E. Lee
High School and Travis
Elementary School officials also
reported odors.
A temperature inversion and
fog trapped the chemical odor
close to the ground, prompting
the Goose Creek school district to
advise schools to shelter students
See ODOR on Page 2A
More auto dealerships planned] feb'te
By MA BENGTSON
The Baytown Sun „ .
Baytown’s automobile business is shifting
into high gear with Sonic Automotive’s plans
to invest $16 million in the facilities to be built
between Wade and John Martin roads on the
south side of Interstate 10.
“We’ve been in Houston since 1972 with
Lone Star Ford,” said Scott Smith of the com-
pany’s corporate headquarters in Charlotte,
N.C. •-------------------------
“The opportunity came up to buy Casa
Ford. That led to the other opportunities in the -
market.”
Those “opportunities” include Casa
Chrysler-Plymouth-Jeep, La Porte Ford (for-
merly Joe Camp) and Baytown Auto Center
Pontiac-GMC-Toyota (formerly Ben
Reading). -
Site preparation is under way at (he 34-acre
location that will house an all-new Ron Craft
Chevy-Olds-Cadillac, Casa Ford and a colli-,
sion repair center to serve all. of Sonic
Automotive’s dealerships, Smith said.
“They are working on it full speed” Smith
said adding Sonic is planning to open the
facilities in October.
The Sonic plan for the Baytown market
doesn’t end with the completion of the mas-
sive new facility.
Sonic is planning on relocating Toyota to
the existing Casa Ford location between John
Martin and Garth roads north of Interstate 10 .
after the building is retrofitted for the Toyota
image design, Smith said The name of the
dealership will be changed to Toyota of
Baytown. :
The current Reading Toyota location will
then focus totally on its Pontiac, GMC and
Buick dealerships.
Bruton Smith, Sonic’s CEO and owner of
Texas Motor Speedway in the Fort Worth area,
conference center
being negotiated
is fueling the high-octane growth of consoli-
dation in the industry, not only in Baytown,
but across the United States with 169 fran-
chises in 11 states and the District of
Columbia.
Bob Bomer, a San Antonio entrepreneur
who owns Oldsmobile and Chevrolet dealer-
ships there, is as sold on the Baytown-area
Graphic by Gemma TrujiDo
automobile market as the-Sonic operation.
Bomer recently purchased Liberty’s Auto
Country from WJ. Burnham.
“We were in an expansion mode. We looked
around at various marketplaces, the demo-
graphics,” said Bomer. Liberty presented the
See AUTD$ on Page 10A
By JIM WEBRE
The Baytown Sun
The Baytown Conference
Center and associated 123-room
Hiltoti Garden Inn on Tabbs Bay at
Bayland Park peninsula are still in
the negotiation {tee.
Consideration of a ground lease
on about three acres of the penin-
sula, a development agreement
and a facility management agree-
ment with developer Bill
Edmundson of Edmundson
Interests L.L.C. were pulled from
Thursday’s Baytown City Council
agenda to allow Edmundson and
the city to continue to negotiate
several critical items, such as time-
lines or “key dates” for completing
certain .design and financing
arrangements.
Edmundson told City Council
on Thursday he has a commitment
from Hilton Hotels Inc. to “guar-
antee 20 percent of the construc-
tion cost” of a $9.2 million hotel.
Edmundson’s proposal was the
only one received by the city after
a December request for proposals
went out. The request came after
Edmundson was unable to secure
financing for the project within
several time extensions previously
granted by the council. Several
other developers have also seen
their concepts for various hotel
projects fail in the past several
years.
“We all want this to happen”
said Mayor Pete Alfaro, who has
promised Baytonians a hotel and
conference center.
The city has borrowed $4 mil-
lion against hotel/motel sales tax
t receipts to pay for a 500-seat con-
ference center that would adjoin
the hotel and serve as a place for
meetings, civic functions and as a
venue for the petrochemical indus-
try to host meetings and manage-
ment seminars.
Because of the risk of inflation,
the city wants to get under way
with design of the conference cen-
ter as soon as possible.
“We want to move this along as
fast as we can to coordinate the
conference center with the hotel,”
City Manager Monte Mercer said.
The pending contract between
the city and Edmundson calls for
strict adherence to certain dead-
lines.
For example, from the point of a
contract signing, a site plan for the
hotel is to be completed within
three months, while a financing
arrangement is to be completed
within 120 days.
Had the contracts for a ground
lease and facilities management
See CONFERENCE on Page 10A
Case of alleged stolen mobile homes delayed
By MA BENGTSON
The Baytown Sun
The case of stolen mobile homes, thought
to soon be heading a Chambers County
- Tgrand jury, is on nrad, Jefferson County
District Attorney Toni Maness said Friday.
Maness was appointed Monday to serve as
a special prosecutor in the case when
Chambers County District Attorney Mike
Little asked to be recused because of a con-
flict of interest.
‘We have just now gotten the file. There’s
quite a bit of information to go through, plus
I’ve got to clear time from my schedule
before I can get to Anahuac,” Maness said.
‘We have to complete some cases already
under way in Beaumont”
Maness is the first official to speak openly
about the case since an Oakwood Mobile
Homes salesman in Mont Belvieu allegedly
sold four homes to three Anahuac residents
for a fraction of what they are worth.
Information about the case was not being
released by Texas Ranger Frank Huff ofMont
Belvieu, who was investigating the case,
Mont Belvieu police Chief Jerry Whitman,
whose officers arrested the salesman,
Police say a salesman sold the
homes, pocketed the money and then
reported the trailers to Oakwood's insur-
ance company as having been stolen.
Armando Jaime Ortiz, or David Smotherman,
Oakwood’s general manager of its Mont
Belvieu sales center.
On Tuesday, Whitman refused The
Baytown Sun’s request to release the cover
sheet of the police report, an action that vio-'
lated a provision of the Texas Open Records
Act that allows media access to such records.
On Friday, The Baytown Sun ffleaan
Open Records request with the Mont
Belvieu Police Department, and Whitman
released die report.
The police report places a value on the
four homes at a total of $ 117,296, a figured
disputed by a company official at
Oakwood corporate headquarters in
Greensboro, N.C.
“The value of the mobile homes is closer to
$175,000,” said Jo Andrews, spokeswoman
for Oakwood.‘We need them back; we’re the
victim here. Oakwood hopes to get its money
back or what the homes are worth.”
The buyersrof the homes are identified as
Wesley King, Chambers County’s chief
deputy sheriff; Wayne Morris, superintendent
of the Chambers-Liberty County Navigation
District; and Charles Drake, a truck driver.
Police say Ortiz sold the homes, pocketed
the money and then reported die trailers to
Oakwoodk insurance company as having
been stolen. The theft was reprated to the
Mont Belvieu police Nov. 6 by Smotherman.
“This is highly unusual,” Andrews said. “I
understand the sales centra: was not open
(when die sales were made). The buyers
wet||^^^«ould have to find their own
delivery method. Normally, when a cus-
tomer buys a home from Oakwood, delivery
is included in the contract”
Andrews indicated the company is inter-
ested in pursuing the case either in the
criminal or civil courts in order to receive
restitution.
Ortiz, who has worked for Oakwood as a
sales representative since May 24, ha3 been
charged with felony theft He was arrested
Dec. 3 and is on unpaid leave from die com-
pany, pending the outcome of die district
attorney^ investigation and Oakwood^ inter-
nal investigation, Andrews said
Land use an issue
in gas well proposal
ByJIMVffEBRE
The Baytown Sun
Debate over substituting land for
Burnet Bay for a natural gas well may
involve a challenge to the city’s land-
use practices.
District 6 Councilman Coleman
Godwin made that point during a city
council work session Thursday when
he said the safety of residents in the
Wooster community would be placed
in jeopardy if the well were placed on
what is now the West Little League
ball park off Shreck Avenue.
“The people on Rue Orleans and
off Shreck bought those houses and
built those houses in a protected
zone,” Godwin said.
Sanchez Oil and Gas Co. has the
legal rights and is awaiting a federal
permit to drill a 14,000-foot deep
exploratory natural gas well in Burnet
Bay. City officials at first vigorously
opposed the permit in its entirety, but
within a matter of weeks discovered
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
will likely grant Sanchez the permit to
drill the well.
After pressure from Lakewood and
other area residents, District 3:
Councilman Calvin Mundinger began
looking for an alternative to putting a
well in the center of what many
Baytonians consider the city’s most
attractive waterfront.
One alternative site was west of
Rue Orleans in Lakewood. About 30
acres owned by a resident of
Lakewood and city-owned land next
See SANCHEZ on Page 2A
News tip? Call 281-425-80 T 8
www.baytownsun.com
For home delivery, call 281-425-8043
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 90, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 13, 2000, newspaper, February 13, 2000; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1020973/m1/1/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.