The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 1, Ed. 1 Sunday, November 2, 1997 Page: 1 of 42
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Obituaries
lTI)e ^aptoton Bun
Calendar
Classifieds.
Grid action
Ganders.dinch
title with win
Lovetoleam
Ken Bums on a
Jife ofexploration
Opinion.....
Police Beat...
Wanda Orton
Bible verse..
Jim Kyle:
Deer hunting season
with the Queen
Volume 76, No. 1 Telephone Number: 422-8302
Sunday, November 2,1997
Baytown, Texas 77520
$1.00 Per Copy
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the dilemma, DaviSsaid.
southern United Stated. >
Trfin derailments in'June near San
By CHRISTIAN MESSA
The Baytown Sun
Union Pacific shipping snafus, accidents ■
causing slowdowns in some area plants .
town plant to order more feedstocks
than are actually needed.
A shipping and transportation
spokesman said 30 to 40 rail cars full of
material have been kept at Bayer to en-
sure the plant has adequate supplies
throughout the rail disruptions. —•-
' Chevrons Cedar Bayou plant over the •
last several months had difficulty ship-
ping plastics and chemicals to their cus-
tomers, said public affairs manager Jer-
ry Barlow. . '' *
“For a while, we hadn’t been getting
cars in here on time,” he said. “There
were delays getting in, and that was the
headache we were getting.”
Barlow could not offer the extra costs
the company has incurred as a result of
the rail problems.
“It’s difficult to put a loss on the de-
As Union Pacific officials continue
to correct numerous shipping and safe-
ty problems that have plagued the rail-
road company this
year, rail-dependent I
Baytown companies
are anxiously await- ■
ing 'signs that the II
“headache”
soon end.
Operations
SAW Pipes, USA
have drawn to a. halt ■HlSL—JI
until the metal plates Ken Bentsen
used to fabricate
pipes arrive by rail car.
Arun Gaur, a SAW Pipes quality as-
surance manager, said Friday the delays lays because what happens is the prod-
have doubled his company’s shipping
costs since his company has resorted to
having materials arrive by truck.
“I’m taking it as best I can. What am
I supposed to do? I’ve got to keep my
place going,” he said.
An extended period of rail delays
could ultimately result in layoffs at the
facility, Gaur said.
At die urging of regional officials, in-
cluding U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, the na-
tional Surface Transportation Board,
which monitors the U.S. rail service, on
Friday declared a “transportation emer-
gency in the West,” and ordered Union
Pacific to allow a competitor, Texas
Mexican Railway, to begin using Union
Pacific tracks to alleviate some of the
backlog in the Houston area.
Bentsen, who represents eastern Har-
ris County and Baytown, applauded the
move.
“These are reasonable steps that give
some much-needed relief to shippers,”
he said. ,
According to the Texas Railroad
Commission, the rail disruptions have
cost Texas companies $300 to $400
million in additional freight charges,
lost production and sales and will in-
crease ter $100 million per month if the
problems continue. ~ f
As a result, Bentsen and U. S. Rep, a summer hurricane that knocked tracks
Gene Green recently dispatched a joint out of commission in some parts of the
letter to the STB, urging federal action
to resolve the rail situation. ' ____________________________________
Unpredictable delivery schedules Antonio and Fort Worth contributed to
have forced officials at Bayer’s Bay-
uct eventually gets out to the customers.
The loss is more in customer confi-
dence, and we value that highly,” he
said.
Barlow admitted he has seen some >
improvement in Union Pacific’s rail ser-
vice within the last few weeks.
Not'all companies have been severely
affected by the delays.
Exxon refinery spokeswoman Marti
Woodard said operations continue rela-
tively unscathed. u
“Most of dttr product leaves by
pipeline, so, in a sense, that is a big part
of the reason,” she said. “We still rely
on rail but not as in years past.”
Union Pacific representative Mark
Davis said a plan’ to ease track conges-
tion has been implemented™ which----
railroads like the Kansas City Southern
and Burlington Santa Fe will pick up
some train traffic.
In addition, about 30,000 cars — cur-
rently using the Union Pacific system
but belonging to other rail companies
— will be taken off the rail line.
“All these fairly drastic measures are
beginning to pay off,” said Davis, who
estimated service should return to nor-
mal by Thanksgiving.
He cited numerous reasons behind
the delays, including spring floods and
Rail problems
affecting local [
manufacturers
Photo by Carrie Pryor-Newman
Kimball Hill crews work on a house in the Country Meadows subdivision Friday night. This week, 243 Harris County home-
owners have filed suit against the home builder, citing a multitude of problems with their Kimball Hill-built homes.
By EMILY ELSEN
The Baytown Sun
Broken homes?
Area homeowners vow to join Kimball Hill lawsuit
...... ■’ , - ‘ ,
high electricity bills experienced by some
Kimball Hill homeowners.
“My bill for last month was $388,” said
Anthony Strokes, a Country Meadows
homeowner.
Strokes said he’s upset because he was
promised when he bought the home that
the “Good Cents” designation meant his
bill would be about $200 monthly.
But high utility bills are just the begin-
ning, according to Strokos, the Sambilays,
and the Coplin?.
In the year since they moved in, the
Sambilays have seen cabinets fall apart,
Last summer, after analyzing records,
looking at home construction ratings and
hoping to save on electric bills, Arce and
Melanie Sambilay bought a new home in
the Country Meadows subdivision, jus:
northeast of Baytown.
Located in Chambers County near Inter-
state 10, the subdivision seemed to offer
everything the young couple needed. They
would save on property taxes and electrici-
ty, live near other young families and be
just far enough away from Houston and
close enough to Baytown. ' •
A year later, the Sambilays are among a
fast-growing group of dissatisfied Kimball
Hill homeowners in Chambers, Harris and
Montgomery counties.
On Wednesday, a group of 243'Harris
County homeowners filed suit against the
home builder and Houston Lighting &
Power for alleged civil fraud and breach of
contract.
The lawsuit alleges that Kimball Hill
misled consumers by marketing the
Thtee months before Marshea and Bob
Coplin closed the deal on their new Coun-
try Meadows home, the excitement of
moving into their home was quashed when
they noticed their front porch was crooked. ,
“The day we were supposed to close, he
put a level up to it, and it was crooked,”
she said. “They had to tear the front porch
down.” It was only the beginning. Now,
months later, their front door is literally
splitting in two.
Kimball Homes work crews have come
to check the problem. “They brought out
the door people, who are saying it’s the
varnish people’s problem,” Marshea
•Coplin said. ;
Meanwhile, the door sits, unrepaired.
............................She and her husband, after hearing some
nails poke through walls, a roof leak con- of their neighbors’ complaints, consider
tinuously, their yard flood and paint flake themselves lucky.
off bathroom walls. To fix a leaky roof in “Our problems are kind of minor,” she
one part of their home, Kimball Hill repair said.
-■ ' Pholo by Carrie Pryor-Newman
Melanie Sambilay points, out several problems she has experienced since she
moved into her Kimball Hill homsii Country Meadows subdivision one year ago.
Hill homes are comparable to any built in crews added a thick layer of putty, which is
the Houston area. still visible from the outside of the house.
Meanwhile, HL&P officials contend that It’s enough to make Melanie Sambilay
the lawsuit unfairly blames the utility for grind her teeth,
structural problems created by the builder. “
Those structural problems, according to
$100,000-fto-$ 140,000 homes as high- HL&P — not deficiencies in the “Good
quality. HL&P is named in the lawsuit be- Cents” program — are to blame for the
cause the homes had been designated as
“Good Cents” homes by the utility.
Homes with the “Good Cents” seal of
approval are marketed as energy efficient,
but the homeowners contend that is not the
case with many of the houses.
That all sounds frustratingly familiar for
Melanie Sambilay. She and her husband
are .among the dozens of Baytown-area
couples who bought Kimball Hill homes
in the new Country Meadows subdivision.
They’ve had similar problems — and
they’re planning to take similar action.
In the midst of the growing legal contro-
versy, Kimball Hill Houston Division'
President Lance Wright stood firm in de-
fense of his company’s product. Wright
told The Baytown Sun Friday that Kimball
w
Weather
Saturday: Partly cloudy
with chance of showers.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy
and cool with highs near
70.
Art by Jakob Metzger
Suspect in murder-for-hire insurance scheme to face trial Monday
By EMILY ELSEN *
The Baytown Sun — .
The capital murder trial of 43-year-old Bruce
Allen Gilmore, who 'is accused of hiring Richard
In a Videotaped confession, played for the jury
this week, Richard Williams said he was paid
$5Q0 by Bruce and Michelle Gilmore to kill the
woman.
He stabbed the woman 13 times, slitting her
by Jeanette Williams from which the Gilmores ex-
pected to collect $12,000.
According to her family, Jeanette Williams, who
was paralyzed from the waist down after being
shot by her husband in 1974, was just becoming
self-sufficient in the months before her slaying.
In the last years of her life, according to her
family, Jeanette Williams turned to drugs for relief
from the bouts of depression she suffered from be-
ing confined to a wheelchair.
Head Williams to kill a Baytown woman, is sched-
uled to begin in a Houston courtroom on Monday.
Williams was convicted and sentenced to die-
earlier this week for the March 24 slaying of 44-
year-old Baytown resident Jeanette Williams.
throat. She was left to die on a Houston street, east
’ of downtown.
Richard Williams, who"was not related to the
victim, claimed the couple had promised to pay
him with money from an insurance policy owned
>
News tip? Cail (281) 422-8302
For home delivery, call (281) 422-8302
9 ;
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 1, Ed. 1 Sunday, November 2, 1997, newspaper, November 2, 1997; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1176555/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.