The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 59, Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 25, 2000 Page: 1 of 14
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PVANCIRA@
GMC ANII/BuIC
MOTORHOMES
1-800-299-1199
HELPING TO SHAPE
THE FUTURE
Thanks to the vision of Roy Maas,
Meadowland is still going strong.
See page 7 for details.
Making a
lifetime
commitment
SP
Boeri
Burdic
ne
See
for
Page 7
Hometown of Jennifer Szymarek
Published Since 1906
E BOERNE
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uesday, July 25, 2000
Boerne, Kendall County, Texas
5
BRIGHTS
E-MAIL ADDRESS
CHANGE
The Boerne Star has changed
its e-mail address. Send e-mails
to boernestar@boernenet.com
Affordable housing
report due today
BY Hal Braswell
A CENTENNIAL
BIRTHDAY PARTY
Riverview Care Center is hav-
ing a Centennial Celebration
from 2-4 p.m. in honor of three
residents celebrating their
100th birthdays. This year is a
very special time for these resi-
dents and their families. The
public is cordially invited to join
the residents and staff of
Riverview on this day. There
will be music, dancing, food
and fun for all who attend. The
RANCH radio station (95.1
FM) will be present with DJ
Linda Allen playing "oldies" for
all to enjoy. Other area digni-
taries have been invited and
are expected to attend.
Staff Writer
BOERNE - A special joint meet-
ing of City Council and the Planning
and Zoning Commission is sched-
uled to receive a report this evening
on affordable housing from a task
force appointed by Mayor Patrick
Heath about a year ago.
New homes under $100,000 in the
Boerne area - and most other areas
of the country - are fast becoming a
CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA:
• Affordable housing report,
6:15 p.m.
• Balous Miller annexation
hearing, 7:30 p.m.
• Budget discussion.
• Water briefing.
GET READY TO TEE OFF
FOR THE CHAMBER
The Greater Boerne Chamber
of Commerce golf tournament
will be conducted Oct. 2 at The
Buckhorn Country Club. Prizes
for holes-in-one are a 1999 RV
from Ancira and a two-year
lease for a 2000 Ford Explorer
from Jennings Anderson Ford.
For more information call 249-
8000.
thing of the past, with many new available - commute to suburbs for
homes costing at least $120,000. jobs on the moderate or lower end of
One of the problems faced by the pay scale.
Boerne - and many other suburban For many public sector jobs, small
areas - is the ability of moderate businesses and businesses that have
income households to find afford- a large number of emplo’yees, avail-
able housing reasonably close to ability of affordable housing is a
jobs they hold in the city, such as factor in the ability to hire the best
school district personnel, city qualified personnel.
employees, or private enterprise The 12-member task force, chaired
jobs that are on the lower end of the by Jim Pendley, has been meeting
pay scale. regularly during the past year. The
A frequent nationwide pattern is group includes realtors, bankers and
that many residents of affluent sub- others knowledgeable of the hous-
urbs commute to high-paying jobs ing industry and economic develop-
in a metropolitan area such as San ment.
Antonio and that often residents of Figures from the Kendall County
the metropolitan area - where a __________________________________
wider price range of housing is Please see HOUSING, page 6
CITV OF BOERNE
HAS TEMPORARILY
I DISCONTINUED OPERATION
| OF THIS RECIRCULATING
WATER FOUNTAIN DUE TO
WATER SHORTAGE CONDITIONS
James Hurd stands on the fountain. However, unlike many other children earlier this summer who played in the foun-
tain to stay cool, Hurd cannot because the City of Boerne has turned the fountain off.
Boerne water use declines
WANTED
This person sells drugs to anyone
and/or
Sells alcohol to our minor children.
County approves
burn ban measure
as restrictions take effect
BOERNE
Commissioners
For information which leads to
the indictment of drug sellers and/or
the arrest of person who sell alcohol
to our minor children, and help your
community to be safer, healthier,
happier.
You may also receive cash rewards
for information leading to the
arrest/conviction of persons for
criminal offenses such as: Recovery
of stolen property, the advertised
Crime of the Week, arson, robbery-
burglary theft, narcotics, auto theft,
hit and run, indecency with a child,
child abuse, shooting, vandalism,
animal cruelty.
Your identity will not be revealed.
No one (but you) knows the identity
of the person who reports the crime.
Kendall County Crime Stoppers
1-800-348-LEAD
HAPPY...
... BIRTHDAY
July 19: Loretta Bernard
July 22: Scott Woods, Nelda
Culak
July 25: Punkie Page, Lynn
Somerville
July 26: Sally Sonneland, Olan
Kneupper
INSIDE
Community Calendar
Classifieds
Health
Lifestyles
Records
Sports
Viewpoints
6
11-13
5
7
2
9-10
4
Volume 95 • Number 59
Monday morning reinstated a coun-
ty-wide burn ban.
The action came following the
unanimous recommendation of the
county’s six fire chiefs last week,
when they cited concerns not only
about the large amount of parched
vegetation, but also about available
water supply with which to fight
fires.
Although tanker trucks carry a
load of water, they often must refill
for structure fires or large grass
fires. Numerous creeks and ponds
have gone dry during the current
Kendall County. April rainfall
helped moisten vegetation, but pro-
vided no significant improvement to
aquifer water levels.
More recently, concentrated rain in
June allowed the period without a
burn ban to be extended. Now, how-
ever, vegetation growth spurred by
the previous rain means there is
more vegetation that is now parched
and a fire hazard.
In the Boerne area, firefighters can
use a variety of water sources to
refill tankers.
Lack of rainfall results in surface
vegetation and soil becoming
drought, a situation that would force parched. When the soil becomes
trucks to travel further than normal extremely dry, any rain is absorbed
to get more water. by the ground but often does not
The burn ban comes at a time reach the aquifer and raise the water
when the county and much of the level.
region is in a worsening drought. Burn bans do not prohibit outdoor
Kendall County Water Control and burning activities related to public
Improvement District No. 1 has health and safety that are authorized
been in a Stage III water alert since by the Texas Natural Resources
July 10. Fair Oaks Ranch has had a Commission for firefighter training,
drought surcharge in effect since public utility, gas pipeline or mining
April 18. In an emergency meeting operations or harvesting of agricul-
last week Boerne City Council
declared a State II water alert which
severely limits outside use of water.
During much of the winter and
spring, a burn ban was in effect in
tural crops.
The following are ways to legally
burn during a burn ban:
Please see BURN, page 6
— By HAL Braswell _______________________
- Staff Writer
BOERNE - A city plan to cut water consumption by
residents and businesses by declaring a Stage II water
alert is having desired results, although officials are hop-
ing water consumption will drop more.
The city adopted the Stage II water alert at an emer-
gency City Council meeting last Tuesday, with the
restrictions taking effect Wednesday.
“Water use started to drop down towards the end of the
week,” Public Works Director Mike Mann said.
On the weekend of July 15-16 before the City Council
action, Boerne set an all-time city record for water
usage in one day, at 2.1 million gallons, more than dou-
ble the capacity of the city’s surface water treatment
plant.
All water used in excess of one million gallons per day
must come from city wells.
Mann said water use dropped from 1.98 million gal-
lons on July 18 to about 1.5 million gallons July 20.
During the weekend, Mann said, use dropped to 1.3 mil-
lion gallons per day.
He said he would like to get water use down to about
1.1 million gallons daily.
“I’m not sure we can get down to that level with the
stage of restrictions that we’re at,” Mann said.
In recent weeks, the water consumption rate has been
about 2.1 million gallons per day, or 339 gallons per
capita. During the week of June 9-15 when there was
significant rainfall, water consumption averaged about
860,000 gallons per day, or 139 gallons per capita.
What these figures mean, officials say, is that a sub-
stantial amount of the water usage is for sprinklers and
other outside usage.
The major thrust of the Stage II water alert is to reduce
outside use of water, although officials are also hopeful
residents will conserve water use indoors as well.
The water restrictions apply only to Boerne water cus-
tomers. People using private wells within the city limits
are not required to comply.
“We’re trying to keep the water treatment plant at
about full capacity, or about 900,000 to 1 million gallons
per day,” Mann said. “We make up the difference
[between actual use and water plant production] with
wells.”
Mann said the city is currently using just two water
wells, rather than the three or four normally used at this
time of year.
If necessary, additional wells can be brought online,
Mann said.
Boerne’s water restrictions come as much of south
Texas is in the throes of a drought. Last week, a new his-
torical low of 1447 feet above Mean Sea Level was
established at a test well in Cypress Creek, in Ken-
County, while a test well in Comfort was a mere one-
tenth of a foot above the historical low of 1283 feet.
Fair Oaks Ranch has been under a drought surcharge
since April 18.
The following is a summary of the water use restric-
tions under the Boerne Stage II water alert that went into
effect last week:
• All restrictions from Stage I, including limiting con-
sumption to 175 gallons per capita per day.
• Restaurants may serve water only upon request.
• Irrigation utilizing individual sprinklers or sprinkler
systems for lawns, gardens, landscaped areas, trees and
shrubs prohibited except on designated days (once each
week) between the hours of 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
to 10 p.m. Watering is allowed at any time if: (a) a hand-
held hose is used, (b) a hand-held, faucet-filled bucket of
five gallons or less is used, or (c) a drip irrigation system
Please see WATER, page 6
Heath reports city faces opportunities, problems
BOERNE - Mayor Patrick Heath told a large
meeting of civic and business leaders last
week that Boerne faces the opportunities and
challenges of a growing community, but that
in the next few years the city could potentially
be adversely affected by activity beyond its
borders. .
A potential problem looming on the horizon,
Heath said, is that the air quality in San
Antonio continues to decline and raises the
specter of federal transportation monies being
withheld because of non-compliance with
environmental standards.
“What I am concerned about is that when the
census results come out, we will be included
in the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical
Area,” Heath said. “Since federal transporta-
tion funds are allocated by MSAs, a finding of
non-compliance could shut us off from feder-
al transportation funds.”
The major air quality problem in San
Antonio, Heath said, is exhaust fumes from
motor vehicles, particular from older model
vehicles. He said the situation is important to
Boerne because of several reasons, aside from
potential loss of transportation funds, includ-
ing the fact that many Boerne residents com- dents is a planned new 1-10 interchange with
mute to San Antonio and because prevailing The Dominion that - during construction -
winds essentially send air from San Antonio could interfere with traffic flow in the 1-10
towards Boerne. corridor, just like other projects along Loop
Heath said that because of the declining 410 and Loop 1604 have been adding to traf-
quality of air in San Antonio, that the best that fic congestion.
city can hope for during its current review is The planned interchange is one of several
for a finding of nondetermination, and the infrastructure projects being studied by a con-
city’s best hope for that ruling would be to sultant for the Texas Department of
submit by Dec. 31 an early compliance docu- Transportation as part of a long-range plan for
ment that would likely include more stringent the 1-10 corridor between Loop 1604 and the
- and more expensive - auto exhaust testing.
Another potential impact on Boerne resi-
Please see CITY, page 6
The Boerne Star • P.O. Box 820 • Boerne, Texas 78006 • 2 82 N. Main Street • 830-249-2441 or 830-816-2532 • e-mail: boernestar@boernenet.com
BARKLEY'S
INTRODUCING
NEW NURSERY
4
P
.
little smiles
- Denistry for Children
Nannie Behnke Tatum, D.D.S.
RENT A NEW
vc
Barkley’s Landscape & Nurses
830-249-8894
1414 E. Blanco Rd.
Boerne
249-9888
0/070
Cars • Trucks • Vans
Pick up & delivery in area.
Insurance Replacements • Daily - Weekly
249-2536 • 1-800-299-5000
IH-10 across from Industrial Park, Boerne
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Keasling, Edna & Fierro, Jennifer. The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 59, Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 25, 2000, newspaper, July 25, 2000; Boerne, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1626585/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Patrick Heath Public Library.