The Colony Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 49, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 25, 1989 Page: 4 of 39
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A The Colony Leader, Wednesday, October 25, 1989
Rollback
From 1A
so the insight of what can be done to
approach the cuts — and not what
-those cuts will be. Jacobs has no
crystal ball, but she has the pencil
sand paper.
“I’m approaching this a little dif-
: ferently than the other commission-
: ers,” she said. "I think instead of
- asking what should we cut, I ask,
r ‘what should we keep?’ ”
: Her approach sets her apart even
: from the fellow Republicans on the
: court — Precinct 3 Commissioner
, Lee Walker and County Judge Vic
Burgess. Each had his or her own
: views on where priorities should be
: made for the inevitable drastic cuts
- that would accompany a successful
, rollback.
, As the chief budget officer in the
: county, Burgess’ motion carried in
- September to freeze appropriations
$ and non-mandated services in the
i 1989-90 budget year. If he were to
- lead the court in his direction for
- cuts, there would be heavy support
$ to almost leave personnel as is.
: “Deep cuts in personnel would be
% a setback for this county,” Burgess
: said. “I would rather look in other
i areas first.”
- Those areas include all the depart-
- ments headed by elected or
* appointed county officials.
1 “Over the past three years, I’ve
- sat down with every department
. head,” during the budget request
. process, he said. “We’ve been
5 squeezing them all, but a lot has
- been accomplished without
- tremendous increases.
“There's just not a lot of margin
left without cutting into the quality of
services,” Burgess said. “And I’m
not interested in using fear as a
motivation.”
Burgess feels a cut in personnel
represents the worst blow to the
quality of services. Denton County
has always been “moderately” staf-
fed — minimally equipped to handle
the peak hours.
“You can’t deal with growth in a
community without having growth in
government and services,” he said.
Burgess has issued a letter to all
elected officials and departmental
heads to begin compiling lists of
possible cuts in their areas.
Walker was among those to re-
ceive the letter. It wasn’t necessary,
however, to remind her the crunch
the county could be facing.
“I talked to some county judges
from Houston who went through a
rollback,” Walker said. “One told me
that rollbacks just killed him. He
said, ‘Lee, it’s devastating. We just
can’t catch up.”
The rollback situation is one the
county could feel for years, she said,
both in the budget and in a divisive
nature among both sides.
The approach to the budget has
Walker wary of repeating past mis-
takes she said the court made.
One of the few untouchables will
be what others may gear for — fund
reserves.
“I can’t see a majority of the court
voting to completely deplete our
fund balance,” Walker said.
Peters Colony Principal Jan Quisenberry has promised to spend a day on the roof — if the students rise to her challenge.
Principal on the roof
Trick or Treat
From 1A
“Halloween is a time for costumed
fun with your friends. A time for
St trick or treating from happy ghosts
and goblins. Although most ‘tricks’
are innocent and most ‘treats’ are
2harmless, not everyone is nice,”
Murray tells youngsters.
- The best method to avoid “Hallo-
= ween horrors” is for parents to use
a common sense and follow a few safe-
2 ttips.
. For costume safety, Murray sug-
a gests using make-up rather than a
mask whenever possible. Children
a should also wear everyday shoes.
Oversized and costume shoes, as
= well as high heels, can lead to injury.
- Props should be made of lightweight
3 material and children should never
carry real guns, knives, clubs or
2 chains.
T Bags to carry treats should be no
larger than necessary. Large bags
= and pillow cases are cumbersome
i and could cause a child to trip, said
€Murray.
T For trick or treating Murray
# offers a six point list.
“•Parents should accompany youn-
ger children and have an agreed
2upon route and time limit.
E -Trick or treating should not be
E done alone.
i -Children should not go into a home.
E Adults should not invite or encour-
" age children to come into their
[Airplane
home.
■Use a flashlight. Light colored cos-
tumes and reflective tape, along with
a flashlight increase visability. Those
at home should leave their porch
light on and keep the doorway clear
of obstacles.
■Check treats before eating. Dis-
card any unwrapped treats. Contact
The Colony Police Department if un-
usual items are found in or on a piece
of candy.
■Save your homemade treats for at-
home consumption.
While caution should be exercised
the problem of tampered candy has
not been a major problem in The
Colony recently.
“To my knowledge we haven’t
had any reports of tampered candy in
the last couple of years," said
Murray.
There is a “rash of pumpkin
smashings” every year. But, the
biggest problem in the past have
been older youth stealing the bags of
candy from younger children.
“It may not seem like a big deal,
but it can be really frightening to a
smaller child,” said Murray.
Halloween parties at home are re-
commended by Murray.
“I would especially recommend it
for the older ones and the very
young — for the teenagers and the
preschoolers,” said Murray.
Principal Jan Quisenberry has
vowed to spend a day on the roof
of the school if Peters Colony
Elementary School students read
a combined 250,000 minutes by
Oct. 31.
Quisenberry issued a “reading
challenge” to the students with a
memo to the parents. The chal-
lenge, which started Oct. 17, is
meant to encourage free-time
reading among the elementary
school children.
“My hope is that this unusual
incentive will create an atmos-
phere of excitement which will
result in an increased interest in
reading,” said Quisenberry.
She added that the excitement
will have to be put on hold if it
happens to be raining on Nov. 3,
the day set for the roof sitting.
Preliminary calculatioiis indi-
cate that each child in the school
will need to read, or be read to by
a parent or older sibling, for at
least 30 minutes each day until
the deadline.
Parents must sign a form that
their child has read a certain
amount of time. The forms will
then be audited by the teachers.
“Encouraging students to read
more at home is vital to their
overall education. And, if they
meet this challenge, I guess I will
be spending Nov. 3 on the school
roof — reading,” said Quisen-
berry.
From 1A
Drugs
From 1A
: second," said Daniel.
* The return trip from Houston with
the two boxes containing what would
it one day be an airplane on the back of
- a flat-bed truck became the first air-
X plane-building adventure for Daniel
and his wife.
$ On the way down they “lost” the
trailer. It did not jump off the trailer
hitch, the ball came completely off
the hitch.
E Fortunately that was on the way
MI down and the trailer was empty, said
2 Daniel.
: “Coming back we ran into prob-
- ably the only ‘Force Five’ hurricane
Ein the state of Texas,” said Daniel.
* The couple then spent a very hec-
• tic number of minutes lashing a blue
i cover over the boxes containing the
investment Daniel hoped to some
• day fly over North Texas.
# “Sandy is real supportive. In fact,
I think she likes firing more than I do
=— and that’s a lot,” said Daniel.
E It is Sandy, in fact, who reminds
Daniel to leave the workshop on
occasion to go to the local airfield in
size car, looking something like a
wooden sports car with a tail fin.
“People sometimes look at this
and say ‘You’re going to fly this?’
Actually this (wood) plane, because
of specifications and design is stron-
ger than a (metal) Cessna,” said
Daniel.
He adds that you do have to “like
the person you fly with,” the side-
by-side seating is like two people
sharing one director’s chair.
Daniel said he knows that people
are building airplanes in their garage
all over the area, in Plano, Denton
and Dallas.
“I’d be interested to know who
else is building an airplane in their
garage in The Colony. I’ll bet there
are more than just me,” said Daniel.
Likely they have a two-car
garage.
Smaller departments such as Top law enforcement officials in tion targeted 107 people on 177 in-
Flower Mound, Highland Village, Flower Mound, Coppell and The dictments and utilized 65 state,
The Colony and Coppell are serious- Colony said they supported the idea county and local authorities,
ly handicapped by manpower limita- of forming a Metro Drug Unit. A In Flower Mound for 1989, police
tions. It is hard, they say, to dedi similar task force was organized last were able to make four arrests for
cated an investigator solely to narco- year at the county level and utilized possession of marijuana and seized
tics when they only have one to four officers from each department in De- eight ounces. In addition, eight
investigators assigned to all categor- nton County. arrests were made for possession of
ies of crime. Smaller departments seemed to synthetic drugs which are cocaine,
Capt. Mike Carroll of The Colony benefit the most from this type of amphetamines and methampheta-
said his department was handicap- organized effort. mines.
ped by manpower limititations which Denton County District Attorney Sgt. Art Wiltsie said each seizure
resulted in a slow year for arrests Jerry Cobb said he too supported the was for 28 grams or less.
and seizures. idea of a drug task force to tackle the In Highland Village, officers were
In one of their biggest seizures, mounting problem. able to seize 16 dose units of amphe-
The Colony police were able to re- "I think everybody would like to tamines, 2.22 grams and l/16th
cover 66 hits of LSD or acid and 20 see it reorganized,” Cobb said. “It is ounce of Cocaine, and 3/lOOth of an
hits of Barbituates. really up to the police chiefs in each ounce of steriods.
As far as more common drugs, department. I think they are begin- The lack of active narcotics divi-
they were able to seize 2.81 grams ning to think about the possibility of sions or officers in the departments
of marijuana, 2.47 grams of Cocaine, forming it again.” surveyed is surprising considering
and 1.77 grams of amphetamines. Cobb said the last Metro Unit was most departments blame drugs us-
Coppell Sgt. Pat Woods said 1989 dissolved because of budget con- age for a rise in a majority of their
was also an unproductive year for straints. Each department in the other crime categories.
drug seizures in the city. The de- unit, he said, must lend one of its Many times, burglaries and thefts
partment, he said, does not have an officers to the metro concept which can be traced directly to drug users
officer assigned fulltime to narcotics, pulls from their resources. The bot- who must steal to support their
“It’s out there, we just have to go tom line once again, he said, is man- habit. In Lewisville this year there
out and get it,” Woods said. “But I power limitations. have been seven homicides, four in
can’tjusthave one ofmy mendoit. I "I don’t know whether they can which drugs were involved.
think if he were assigned to narcotics get budgets through their city coun- In late September, Carrollton
that is what he would be doing all the cils to help reform this unit,” Cobb police arrested a Little Elm man who
time. There is definitely enough to said. “I’d be happy to talk with each has confessed to more than 400
keep him busy.” individual council member about it burglaries in communities through-
Woods said in the last five because I think it is necessary.” out a three-county area of North
months, the department has seized in March of this year, Denton Texas. He was arrested again last
three ounces of marijuana and five County authorities participated in a week and has been linked to at least
grams of amphetamines to top their massive roundup but no other large- 150 more burglaries.
list. Officers also seized 60 tablets of scale operations have since been The crime spree, he told police,
Lorcet, a drug similar to Codiene. conducted. The three-month opera- was to support his drug habit.
Council
Sgt. Woods said much of Coppell’s
crime can be traced back to drugs.
“Almost every burglary stems
back to drugs,” Woods said. “It’s
always been my theory if you get the
people using and selling drugs, you’ll
get the people doing your burg-
laries.”
Lewisville Sgt. Dan Cobb said
drug usage is a common thread in
many of the department’s arrests.
Those arrested, he said, are stealing
only to support their own habits.
“I’m not sure we can combat us-
ers,” Cobb said. “If we could totally
eliminate users on the streets, yes,
we could impact burglaries. But
realistically we can’t do that. Right
now, we can’t put somebody strictly
on narcotics and ignore our burglary
problem.”
Sgt. Cobb said the solution is not
simply to attack crime at the level of
its drug connection. Other crimes,
he said, cannot be totally ignored.
Galler said combating drugs is
frustrating for him personally.
“Of course I’m disappointed,”
Galler said. “We get farther and
farther behind every year, but we
are realistic. There is only so much
we can do from a law enforcement
standpoint. If someone really be-
lieves the police can combat this
problem on their own, they really
have no grasp of the situation.”
Most of the law enforcement offi-
cials surveyed about the drug war
said they too agreed that the prob-
lem was not simply a police matter.
From 1A
There are still several phases of
construction before it comes time to
add the wings. Daniel already antici-
pates the problem. His home is on
the market. Perhaps someone who
concern over the lack of an outlet at Through her contacts with the
the closed end of Twitty St. while Braums area office in Addison. Be-
realizing the need of the alleyway to dell said company officials pointed
satisfy state standards. out the trouble they had with the city
During citizen input, Vivian Be- in finalizing plans for a location in The
dell, owner of Classic Realty, ex- Colony.
pressed her disappointment in the Bedell said Friday that Mayor Don
decision by Braum’s to discontinue Amick assured her any problems on
plans for a store in The Colony.
the city’s part had already been cor-
- order to keep his license current. is interested in building a boat, or
; The KR-2 airplane fits easily into just wanting a place to park a car, will
the one-car garage — without the be interested. An airplane needs a
: wings. It appears shorter than a full- little more room.
As a representative of the Cham- rected.
ber of Commerce, Bedell was con- As part of the consent agenda, the
cerned with the system the city uses council passed an ordinance dis-
when a business such as Braums annexing a tract of land commonly
shows interest in opening a store in known as the Beach and Tennis
The 8.56 acre tract contains 26 providing utilities for the develop-
lots, 11 of which contain homes, and ment would exceed $100,000.
was annexed by the city in July of Residents of the development
1986. have requested the city to either
Under present annexation laws, provide the utilities or disannex the
the city is required to provide utility tract so they may take steps to pro-
service to the addition within four ride their own services.
and one-half years after annexation.
According to a memo prepared by In other action, the council unani-
City Planner Bob Van Til, the asses- mously approved an ordinance au-
sed value of the land is $1,026,000, thorizing the purchase of consum-
but produces only $7,590 in annual able supplies including: office sup-
tax revenue.
plies; gasoline and diesel fuel; brake
The Colony.
Club.
According to a memo drafted by pads and shoes; filters; spark plugs;
City Manager Bill Hall, the cost of belts; oil; chlorine and meter boxes.
T 9
Braum S
From 1A
The Colony Leader
minated from the residential duplexs and two single need to take care of that ‘inside us’
: process — handled with post- family dwellings on the commercially first,” said Bedelll.
: approval — that will in essence zoned property. The structures had The zoning situation had not been
: streamline the site plan process,” been model homes, built on com- addressed because the surrounding
said van Til. mercial property. They were later property had been vacant, said Hall
Some of the problems, that sold and occupied. at the time.
- Braum’s encountered included the “Something needs to be done to “I want us to have our codes — (I)
: spacing between the driveways, the make sure that two or three angry don’t want just a jumbled up city —
, radius of the drives and the set back citizens do not prevent something but a business coming to the city
$ from the street, said van Til. for the whole city. They (the prob- should take precedent,” said Be-
: Another problem involved three lems) need to be solved — but we delll.
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Ball, Jeffrey. The Colony Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 49, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 25, 1989, newspaper, October 25, 1989; The Colony, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1666616/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Colony Public Library.