The Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 5, 1989 Page: 1 of 10
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THE RIO GRANDE HERALD
Published weekly in Rio Grande City, Texas, every Thursday by The Rio Grande Publishing Co.
H.E.B.
Inserts
Inside
USPS 456-200
Vol. 79 Ho. 9 Thursday, January 5,1989
FIFTEEN CENTS
RGC Baby First
Born In 1989
RIO GRANDE CITY--A
seven-pound, 15-ounce baby
girl born at- Starr County
•Hospital earned the title of
"first Baby of 1989, edging
out a seven-pound, seven
ounce baby boy that was
born at Valley Baptist Med-
ical Center to gain the
honorary title.
The girl was born to Juan
and Dalia Pena of Roma,
gained the title at 2:37 a.m.
^Sunday, beating the baby
boy in Harlingen by a little
over a half an hour.
The baby at Valley Bap-
tist was born to Monica
RojasofSan Benito.
The babies birth was
relatively close to the
beginning of the new year in
comparison to others who
have claimed the title in the
past.
One baby born last year
did surpass the two born
this year, coming into the
world four minutes after
midnight on New Year's
Day, 1988, said Mario
Segura, house supervisor for
Starr County Hospital.
"We knew that Sunday
was the due date for this
baby, but we didn't know
exactly what time it would
be," said Segura. "I still
consider that pretty early."
Other hospitals reported
no births rivaling the two at
either hospital.
County Officials
Receive Oaths
k
m
i
Taking The Oath
Several elected county employees took the oath of office
administered by Alex Gabert recently. In the top photo, Romero
Molina and Heriberto Silva take the oath as district and county
attorneys, respectively. In the middle photo, new county
constables (from left to rightl Lito Garza, Cirilo Orta. Cornelio
Alvarez., Noe Pena, Aldo Medina and Honorio Garza lake the
oath from Justicr of the Peace Antqpio Trevino. In the bottom
photo, Maria Ofelia Saenz, Eloy Garza and Chema Alvarez
receive their oaths of office from Gabert. Saenz will serve as the
tax assessor, while Alvarez and Garza will return to their seats in
the Commissioners Court. (Herald photo", by Kenneth Roberts!
Bogus Money Investigation
Quickly Drawing To Close
Starr County Sheriff's Department officers were close to filing
arrest warrants Tuesday for at least one, and maybe three,
persons who are suspected of circulating nine counterfeit $20 bills
in the Rio Grande City area.
Chief Investigator G :r>dalupe Marquez said the department has
narrowed the field of possible suspects to three, and with the help
of the United States Secret Service, could file arrest warrants as
soon as the end of the week.
Although the bills have been circulated in the Rio Grande City
area, investigators believe the bills are being sent down to Dtarr
County from Central Texas.
"We think that the source of the bills could be in either the San
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r,
j
&
Fake Money
Antonio or Houston areas," speculated Marquez. "We are not
sure yet."
The investigation began two weeks ago, when five counterfeit
bills *ere found at firecracker stands in Rio Grande City and
Escobares from Dec. 26-28.
Since the investigation began, four more counterfeit bills have
surfaced, including four this week. Two of the fake bills found this
week were in conveniece stores in Rio Grande City, while the
other two were found at an auto parts store in Roma
According to Marquez, the fake bills may not only be identified
by the serial number B35866260C, but also by the look and feel of
the bills.
"The hair on (former President
Andrew' Jackson is whiter than it
should be," said Marquez. "The
paper is also different because it
feels like copier paper."
Since the suspects have yet to be
taken into custody, Marquez said
the possibility of finding more
counterfeit bills in circulation is
strong.
Local merchants are warned to
take extreme care when accepting
$20 bills. Although the serial
number will automatically show
whether the bill is authentic or not,
the easiest way to test the bill is by
feeling it
Counterfeit $20 bills with the serial number B35866260C have been circulating in the Rio
Grande City area since shortly after Christmas. The bills can be distinguished by an overly
light hair color on the picture of Andrew Jackson and by their feel. I Herald photo by
Gilberto Reyes Jr. I
Anyone v. ho suspects that are in
possession of or have seen one of
the counterfeit bills should contact
the Sheriff's Department at 487-
5571.
Drought May Continue In 89
Farmers and ranchers in
drought-plagued Texas should not
hold their breath during the next
three months because the drv soel!
may be a repeat of last year's
weather, officials said.
John Patton, a hydrologist with
the National Weather Service in
San Antonio, says the area around
Austin-College Station, south and
southeast of San Antonio are in
critical need of rainfall.
Parts of West Texas, around
Midland, Big Spring and San
Angelo also are experiencing dry
conditions, but south and southeast
Texas seem to be the area where
rain is needed the most
"The 30-day outlook is below
normal rainfall and the 90-day
outlook is pretty bleak, too,"
Patton said.
"With the exception of the
drought we had between 1950 and
1957, this is the worst that we have
faced," Patton said.
Farmers and ranchers in central
ana south l'vxas are siiii reeling
from last summer's drought, that
forced many to sell or move
livestock and to take losses on their
crops.
The last widespread rainfall of
between 2 and 6 inches in the area
was in July 1987.
Last year, San Antonio received
only 19.01 inches of rain, compared
to the normal 29.13 and the 37 96
inches of rain in 1987.
Houston suffered through its
second-driest year on record last
year, with just 22.93 inches of rain,
down from the normal 44.7.
Not all of Texas was dryer than
norma! last year. El Paso received
41 percent more rain than average.
though the desert city still was
parched: 11.06 inches of rain fell on
Sun City in 1988. compared to the
average of 7 82 inches.
And the majority ui reset'.>, <
across south and southeast Texa.'
are not far below conservation pool
level and the aquifers are not
seriously low.
At Sam Rayburn Reservoir the
major reservoir for Beaumont-Port
Arthur-Orange, the water level is
13 feet below optimum At some
marinas, boat docks sit in the mud
and boats normally in sheltered
slips dangle midair on mooring
lines or sit in the muck
More than 7,000 geese in five
southeast Texas counties have died
from an outbreak of avian cholera
aggravated by drought-like condi-
tions at low wetlands
"The only solution is for us to get
PAU-B Gets Accreditation
Dr Homer Pena announced that
Pan American University at
Brownsville has been granted
seperate accreditation by the
Commission of Colleges and Un-
iversities of the Southern Associa
tion of Colleges and Schools.
SACS, which accredits school's in
the southeast, granted PAU-B's
accredition during it s annual
meeting in Atlanta recently.
The accreditation cleared the
way for Pan American University
to become a member of the
University of Texas chain of
schools, becaue prior to the accred-
Childrens Art Shown
At Port Of Entry
The F.J Scott Elementary third
graders in Roma were actively
involved recently in creating,
drawing and coloring a picture or
scenery to display at the U S
Immigration Office at the Roma
Port of Entry
The theme of the art work was
the Thanksgiving holidays or the
month of November
The art work was judged by the
immigration inspectors The stu-
dents were awarded from first
place to sixth place ribbons Six
other students were awarded rib-
bons for "Honorable Mention" All
the children and their parents were
welcomed to pick their art work
and awarded ribbons at the 1m
migration office
The following students were
awarded ribbons:
Domingo Carrion, Melissa Garza,
Rebecca Brown, Nina Munoz,
Veronica Perez, Raul Edgar Hino-
josa. Leticia Pena, Sofia Hinojosa,
Diana Martinez, Raquel Elizondo.
Mauricio Barrera, Javier Lozano,
Raul Campos, Annette Ybarra,
Lisa (i«nzalez, Gisela Gonzalez,
Lauren Garcia, Guillermo de la
Garza, Marissa Ann Garza. Lauro
Tanguma III, Sandalio Garcia.
Gerardo Alvarez, Cindy Trevino,
Jose A Garza, Ma Isabel Garcia,
Jose Isabel Castaneda. Sandra
Hinojosa, Artemio ^opez, Elias
Perez III, Melissa Miranda, Mirtha
Maide Garcia, Tracy Riojas.
Yesenia Alaniz
itation, PAU B was only a two-year
college for juniors and seniors
According to Pena PAU-B's
academic programs were pre-
viously accredited as an extension
of the Edinburg campus
Pena explained that the adminis
tration and staff have been working
on getting PAU-B seperate acered
itation since 1984. when a commit-
tee was established to prepare an
initial report for SACS
A SACS team visited PAU-B in
1986 and 'tgain in 1987 and made
recommendations suggesting how
the school's programs could be
improved After the recommenda
tions were implemented, the wa\
was clear for seperate accred
itation.
SACS accreditation to the school
was important because PAU-B's
will now be reviewed seperateh
some good, steadv rain," said
weather service meterologist Jose
Garcia of College Station.
"We need the rain that will soak
need great amounts of it in a short
period because that would mean
_flash floods," he said.
Garcia said cotton, corn and
small grain that have been planted
will be adversely affected if there
is no rainfall.
"The soil moisture will not be
adequate for them to grow,"
Garcia said "This is generally not
one of the wettest times of the
year, but if we get thunderstorms
before we get steady rainfall, there
will be problems."
Also, the Lower N'eches Valley
Authority request last month
nearly 1.8 billion gallons of water
from Lake Steinhagen, which gets
its water from Rayburn, to keep
salt water from backing up into the
Beaumont-area's water system.
The water authority also is
putting up $100,000 worth of salt
water barier^ across the Neches
River to keep Gulf of Mexico salt
water away from the pumping
stations.
Harris Count;, agricultural agent
Bob Cooper said next summer he
probably will be inundated with
calls about tree problems.
"There will probably be a lot of
tree losses .tiid shrub losses, and
we could even have some lawn
losses from people who didn't do an
adequate job of watering," he said
Cotton, chilis and pecans are
grown in the El Paso area.
Virtually all crops are irrigated
with Rio Grande water, so the
excess rain had little effect on far
West Texas agriculture except to
throw irrigation schedules into
disarray
Rio Reps Sworn In
Court Rules Against
School Funding Case
AUSTIN- The 3rd Court of Ap
peals, which earlier upheld the
state's school financing system,
today denied a request for a
rehearing in that case
Poor school districts that filed
the original lawsuit against the
state financing system sought the
rehearing last montn after the
Austin-based 3rd Court issued a 2 1
ruling in favor of the state
Today's rejection clears the way
for an appeal to the Texas Supreme
Court
Lawyers for both the state and
the poor school districts have said
they expect the case to go to the
high court.
The 3rd Court of Appeals on Dec
14 overturned a 1987 ruling by-
District Judge Harley Clark, who
had declared the system un-
constitutional, saying it denied
equal access to state funds by all
districts
The lawsuit was filed in 1984 by
school districts with low property
values
Judge Fred Biery of San Antonio
and Judge Ron Carr of Crystal
City, both of whose districts serve
Starr County, were officially sworn
in to the office of Justices of the
Court of Appeals, Fourth Judicial
District, on Thursday
Judge Biery holds a J D from
Southern Methodist University
School of Law, where he graduated
in 1973 He is a former judge of the
County Court At-Law No 2, and
judge of the 150th District Court of
Bexar County
Biery, currently acting as im-
mediate past president of the San
Antonio Bar Association, ran un-
opposed in the Nov 8 election
Judge Carr is a 1969 graduate '>t
the University of Texas School of
Law Before becoming Zavala
County Judge in 1981, Carr served
as Assistant Attorney General of
Texas, City Attorney in Austin. i '
local Justice of the Peace in Zavala
County.
He is the founding president of
the Zavala County Bar Association
which was founded in 1978
In addition, Judge Carr is the
first rural. non-Bexar County resi-
dent t > be elected to the office of
Justice of the Fourth Court of
Appeals in almost 25 years
The joint, ceremonial swearing-in
took pi,ice at 3 p,m Thursday in
the Central Jury Room of the
Bexar County Courthouse
Notice To
Headers
The Rio Grande apologizes for
the poor quality of the stones that
appeared in last week s newspaper
The poor type face was the result
of technical problems which have
since been repaired
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Roberts, Kenneth. The Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 5, 1989, newspaper, January 5, 1989; Edinburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth195166/m1/1/: accessed July 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rio Grande City Public Library.