The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 62, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 11, 1989 Page: 1 of 18
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REL, RSS girl hoopsters win district openers
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Your
Hometown
Paper
Volume 67, No. 62
Telephone Number: 422-8302
MORE THAN 70,000 REAPERS EVERYDAY
Wednesday, January 11, 1989
Baytown, Texas 77520
25 Cents Per Copy
No cut favored in employee benefits
Pension, insurance plans intact,
according to trustee candidates
By DAVID MOHLMAN
A recent school employee meeting, which has
become a topic of conversation this week at schools
and in the community, was also discussed Tuesday
during the first school trustee candidates forum.
Candidates were asked if, in reducing spending
By the district, they’d cut benefits such as the
district’s pension plan, insurance plan and career
ladder contributions.
. The question was asked during the forum hosted
by Baytown Education Association and Baytown
Classroom Teachers Association. In the wake of
the special meeting Friday afternoon, word has
Been circulating that the election of non-incumbent
school trustees would jeopardize school
employees’ pension plan.
Each of the 11 candidates — incumbents and
challengers — indicated Tuesday he or she doesn’t
favor cutting benefits.
, Wanda Ellis, school board president; and
Richard Heyen, board secretary, neither of whom
is up for election, said they acted as individuals in
asking school district employee groups to send top
level representation to the meeting Friday at
Heyen’s law office. The approximately 25 people in
attendance included representatives of
Secretaries, food service workers and the district’s
two teacher groups. «
Mrs. Ellis indicated her purpose at the meeting
was to counter statements in candidates’
newspaper stories, along with questions raised by
Citizens, regarding an alleged “loss of integrity”
by the board.
'“That’s not easy to listen to,” Mrs. Ellis stated.
j‘I haven’t lost my integrity.”
Heyen said he intended “to correct some misin-
formation and to try and quell some of the gossip
and rumors that were going on” regarding board
action or apparent lack of action since the in-
vestigation started into possible theft and bribery
in the district.
“I felt it (the meeting) was the right thing to do
at the time,” Heyen said. “I don’t feel any dif-
ferently now, because this is a difficult situation.”
Mrs. Ellis and Heyen said they told people at the
meeting that the only specific, official item
trustees saw was the subpoena to furnish certain
records to investigators. They said they weren’t
told and aren’t required to be told why the records
are*needed.
When employee leaders began asking questions
on the pension plan, test scores, career ladder and
other topics, the meeting became an “information
sharing session,” according to Heyen.
Heyen said he noted the district contributed
nearly $3 million last year to the district’s pension
plan. He said he also noted future boards have
power to eliminate the pension because the pension
isn’t required by law.
Mrs. Ellis said she made no statement that other
candidates were planning to eliminate the pension
plan. “Nobody said anybody wanted to do that,”
she stated.
Mrs. Ellis said she encouraged the employee
representatives to get to know all the candidates,
what their positions are and who’s supporting each
one before forming their own opinions without rely-
ing on gossip and rumor.
Mrs. Ellis also said she and Heyen several times
made the point “loud and clear” that they spoke as
individuals and'that no one was trying to tell
anyone who to vote for.
At one point, a list circulated that was identified
as the membership list of a political action group
working in the election. Although Mrs. Ellis
couldn’t say she’d verified the list with the
Baytown Citizens League or received the list from
that group, she said she has “no doubt” it ac-
curately represents the group’s membership.
MODERATOR DON COFFEY, center, reviews the
candidates forum format before the event Tuesday
with Rachel deLeon, left, Baytown Education
Association president-elect and Gayla Townsend,
Mrs. Ellis said she later got telephone calls about
the meeting from Position 4 trustee candidate Jim
Maple and current Position 7 trustee Manuel
Escontrias.
Maple said from midday Saturday through Sun-
day he got “a dozen or more” telephone calls from
people who had heard things about the meeting. “If
they (Mrs. Ellis and Heyen) wanted to dispel
rumors,” Maple said, “the meeting should have
been an open meeting for the general public with
the whole board present...”
Escontrias wasn’t invited to the meeting
Baytown Classroom Teachers Association presi-
dent. More than 100 people attended the forum,
held at Sterling Municipal Library.
(Sun staff photo by Angie Bracey)
although he, like Mrs. Ellis and Heyen, isn’t up for
re-election this year. The three other current board
members are candidates. -->*•
Escontrias said he wouldn’t have a problem with
one person having such a meeting, but a “teaming
up” of two or more board members while another
is excluded “brings about some problems from a
working standpoint for the board.”
Escontrias said the impression that’s been
created in the minds of some people he’s talked
with is that people are presenting one side over
another.
r
Sun dial
WEATHER
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WEDNESDAY NIGHT:
Comics/Crossword..
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Cloudy with a 40 percent
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chance of showers and a low in
* Editorial.............
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the low 60s. Thursday: cloudy
Markets.............
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with a 50 percent chance of
Movies..............
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showers and a high in the low
Obituaries...........
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70s with temperatures turning
Police Beat..........
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cooler in the afternoon. From 8
School Menus........
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a.m. Tuesday to 8 a.m. Wed-
Snorts...............
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nesday a high temperature of
Teen.........5-A.10-A.4-B.8-B
60 degrees and a low of 50 de-
Television...........
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grees were recorded with .02
Word of Mouth.......
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of an inch of rainfall mea-
sured. I
Salary study to be contracted
A salary and job classification
study will help school officials
make sure pay is appropriate for
the district’s auxiliary jobs, ac-
cording to Barry Nettles, assis-
tant superintendent.
School trustees voted Monday
to contract with the Texas
Association of School Boards for
the study. The maximum fee for
the study will be $14,500, ac-
cording to Nettles.
The study will evaluate skills
performed, tasks required and
responsibilities assigned to
employees such as secretaries,
clerks, aides, bus drivers, custo-
dians and food service workers,
Nettles said after the meeting.
Nettles told trustees the study
will include training for school
district people who, in the
future, will review and rank jobs
for placement on salary scales.
The board will have the authori-
ty to accept, reject or modify all
recommendations from the
study, Nettles added.
A memo from Nettles to
Superintendent Bill Kennedy
noted it’s been at least 15 years
since the district had a com-
prehensive review of this kind.
In recent years, the district has
updated job descriptions, chang-
ed pay classifications and mov-
ed employees to new classifica-
tions, Nettles wrote.
To provide pay raises for as
many employees as possible, the
board has adjusted salary scales
each of the past several years
before adopting the district’s
budget.
The Lubbock school district
paid $50,000 to KPMG-Peat Mar-
wick for a study similar to the
one TASB will do here, ac-
cording to Nettles. Odessa
schools paid $80,000 to Hay and
Associates for a “very com-
prehensive” study of their staff.
Pearce Street Joumal-
Job description
- We have a new job — market-
ing manager for Jim Kyle’s new
book, “Awhile With Kyle.”
--We especially recommend it to
relatives of Baytown people or to
Baytown people now being forc-
ed to live elsewhere.
-FH
Residents express concern about dump sites
AP news scan
By LOIS M. RODRIGUEZ
The Sikes Disposal Pits Superfund site in Crosby is being ex-
cavated at a cost of about $97 million and many nearby residents are
notpleased.
The site, just off of Highway 90, was closed in the late 1960s, ac-
cording to Environmental Protection Agency officials who say that it
was operating contrary to the existing laws and regulations. But in
September 1986, a record of decision was signed for a clean-up plan.
That plan will involve on-site incineration of sludges and soils.
Although EPA officials say that the project will not be complete for
another six years, local residents want to know what damage can be
done during the testing stage.
“I live about half a mile from the site and I am not pleased with the
MIKE BASS rooks Great Chinese way it is going to work, R.V. Williams said.
MIKE BASS cooks great^Chinese Duri an open house hosted Tuesday jointly by the EPA and
recovering nicelv MaJ! Texas Water Commission, lifelong Crosby resident Henry Miller said
recover ng n ce y • •• aiY that he did not find the answers he was looking for. He asked about
I
Around Town
Hargis listens attentively
John Dzak on a special diet.
Opal Silvey decorating T-
shirts . . . Marion Hoffman
wears a pretty wine-colored
Sweater . . . Jeff Baker leaves
tsarly.
_ Nina Shoemacher always
eheerful. . . Dick Atkins makes
everyone laugh . . . Blanche
Weiler getting everything
straight.
; Charles Hebert knocks on a
car hood... Gayla Townsend of-
fers tin idea ... Maria Cumm-
ings says hello.
Ask Mike and Cindy Moore
about their trip to the Cayman
Islands ... Tim Sartor is a ski-
ing machine ... Carol Flynt
drives through Houston without
getting lost.
the effect of flood waters in transporting the waste. Although the
answer indicated that is impossible, Miller said that flood waters
have transported wastes before.
EPA representative David Neleigh said that the main waste pit is
protected by a 100-year flood plain.
“All safety factors are built into the system so that nothing will go
wrong,” Neleigh said.
“It (dump site) used to be a baptism pool. We also used to mud
crawl and fish in that pool. You go down there now and try to mud-
crawl and fish and see if your skin don’t come off when you get out,”
Miller said.
But EPA and Texas Water Commission representatives are assur-
ing residents that every precaution will be made to prevent hazards.
Among the precautions are a 24-hour monitoring system for the new
incinerators that will be installed.
The contractor selection process has begun for the construction of
the incinerators. Depending on the capacity of the winning bidder’s
incinerator, it is expected that only one or two incinerators will be
needed.
After proposals are received, only the qualified bidders will be
looked at and from that group, the bidder with the lowest bid will get
the contract. That becomes necessary because the money going
toward the site is coming from federal funds. *
The incinerator(s) will have the capacity to burn 15 tons of waste
per hour. The groundwater contamination, restricted to site boun-
daries, will dissipate naturally without harmful effects, according to
a TWC report.
“Jlive about half a mile from the site and I
am not pleased with the way it is going to
work. ”
R.V. Williams
These incinerators will not be put to full use until they have passed
a test. Waste from the stockpile area will be tested. If the EPA deems
the incinerator fit, waste from the site will begin to be burned.
EPA representative Robin Gelston-Walls said that no waste will be
transported to the site from other Superfund sites. Instead, she said,
there will be an effort to excavate the site and incinerate the waste.
Dave Shade, an 18-year resident, said, “I am not going to be happy
until it is removed. I know burning is the only way to dispose of the
waste, but it should not be done here. It is too close to residents and
schools.”
The site is 1.7 miles from Crosby High School and 1.75 miles from
Shade’s home.
“In their opinion, it is cost effective. You can’t put a price on
somebody’s health,” Shade said.
“I have lots of stomach problems and surgeries and I know it is
from that site,” resident Nelldean Miller said. “You can’t even drink
the water,” she added.
A tentative remedial action schedule for the project is set. The
TWC and EPA plan to begin contractor selections on Feb. 21, but do
not plan to award a contract until August. By December 1990, the
contractor is expected to have completed detailed design, mobiliza-
tion of equipment and a test burn.
Once the test burn has been approved, the excavation of waste and
incineration will begin. The site is expected to close in August of 1994.
WASHINGTON - The Reagan
administration’s parting shot on
the savings and loan crisis — a
recommendation to curtail
deposit insurance — landed with
a thud on Capitol Hill and at the
president’s own Treasury
Department.
MEXICO CITY - Striking
workers cripple the nation’s oil
industry after their union boss, a
powerful political broker, is ar-
rested by troops who blow open
his house with a bazooka. The
boss is charged with gun-
running and authorities say his
union intended to try to
destabilize the government.
LONDON — Investigators to-
day focused on why the ap-
parently undamaged starboard
engine of a Boeing 737 was shut
down before the jetliner crashed
while the port engine, which had
fire damage, remained in opera-
tion.
AUSTIN — Speaker Gib
Lewis, the second represen-
tative elected to serve four
terms as Texas House leader,
urged lawmakers to pursue such
issues as excellence in education
but reminded it would have to be
done without a tax bill in 1989.
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 62, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 11, 1989, newspaper, January 11, 1989; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1052044/m1/1/: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.