The Texan (Bellaire, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 19, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 21, 1983 Page: 1 of 16
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Merry Christmas !
• West University Place* Stella Link* Bellaire
• Southside Place • Southampton # Southgate
• Linkwood e Meyertand e Maplewood # Robindeli
# Sharpstown # Braebum Glen * Braebum Valley
• Bonham Acres • Lark wood
VOL 29, NO. 19/DEC. 21,1983
New shopping
mall opening
Bellaire Santa Claus Norman Gauerke asks Rossi Martinez, left, and Susana
Rosales If they’ve been good girls this year. Gauerke, who each year makes
appearances throughout Bellaire as Santa Claus, talked to the two girls at the
Texan’s Christmas Toy Drive party last week at InterFirst Bank SW. Texan
photo by Nick Herrera.
Santa loves his work
The University Village
is getting a new
shopping mall.
Ground was broken
this week for the $2-
million 20,550-square-
foot Morningside Center
building in the 5500 and
5600 blocks of Morning-
side Drive between Rice
and University boule-
vards in the Village.
The retail center,
which is already 35
percent pre-leased, will
open in spring of 1984
with about 15 specialty
shops, boutiques, de-
sign studios and profes-
sional offices.
The architecture of
the two-story mall, by
Barry Moore, is in
native Southern style
with textured stucco
walls, shutters and iron
balconies. It features a
landscaped courtyard in
front and covered park-
ing for tenants and
shoppers.
The development is
being managed by
Christopher S. Smith for
the owners, Morning-
side Center Ltd. The
general contractor is
Schneider Construction
Co. Financing is by First
National Bank of West
University Place and
River Oaks Bank &
Trust Co.
The building is on the
site of former retail
shops S. Frosting (which
will go into the new
building), Kate Frost’s
and Village Antiques. It
is the first major
construction logo into
that area of the Village
in recent years.
A 15-block area
bounded by Kirby,
Morningside, Tangley
and University make up
the area known as the
Village. Built originally
in the 1930s, it was
Houston's first shopping
center.
Following the ex-
ample of the successful
redo of River Oaks
Center on Gray three
miles north of it, the
Village is experiencing
“a similar renais-
sance,” Smith says.
"Shoppers from the
surrounding areas of
Southampton, West
University, Shadyside,
Southgate, River Oaks
and the Texas Medical
Center are eschewing
more distant malls,
crowded highways and
the traffic-locked
Galleria in favor of the
friendly small-town
atmosphere in the
Village.”
Morningside Center, a new shopping mall In the Village, Is
In spring of 1984. It will be located in the 5500 and 5600 blocks of
Drive between Rice and University boulevards.
By Karl Doemer 111
Throughout Bellaire
and the surrounding
area he is known as
Santa Claus.
His real name is
Norman Gauerke, a
longtime Bellaire resi-
dent.
A burly 6-foot-tall
230-pound balding man
sporting a big smile,
Gauerke each year at
Christmas time dons an
artificial big white beard
and red velvet suit to
• • X t - £ C H M 4 A
piay me iuu. jnmu
Claus at special oc-
casions in Bellaire and
surrounding areas to
raise money for the
Bellaire Cancer Society.
He also pays a visit to
each of the 600 cancer
patients at M.D. Ander-
son Hospital in the
Texas Medical Center
each year to bring them
Christmas cheers.
One recent afternoon
Gauerke took time out
from his hectic Christ-
mas time schedule to sit
down in his one-story
brick house in Bellaire to
tell his story to a visitor.
Sitting at a table in
the sun room in his
house munching on
cheese and crackers
brought to him by his
"helper,” wife Dorothy.
Gauerke says he got
involved in playing
Santa Claus through his
volunteer work at M.D.
Anderson, where he and
his wife operate a snack
trolley throughout the
year for the hospital's
outpatients.
“I got the job because
of my beautiful figure,
the bulky Gauerke says
as he pats his large
stomacn, i’ve got the
natural build for being
Santa. I’ve got the pot
belly. I don't have to
wear a pillow.”
Soon after he began
playing Santa at M.D.
Anderson 6 years ago,
Gauerke began doing
special appearances as
Santa in the Bellaire
area for the Bellaire
Cancer Society.
He appears before
groups as well as makes
house calls on special
request. He averages
about 15-20 appearances
each Christmas season.
His appearances bring
about $750 in donations
per year to the cancer
society.
A retired insurance
agent who has lived in
Bellaire since 1946,
Gauerke, 76, calls him-
self “a professional
volunteer.” He says he
has been involved in
volunteer work in Bel-
laire since 1949, when
he got active in the
BcUaire L1 ”nc 1 ■ 1 ^
community service
organization.
in audition to the
Lions Club, Gauerke has
been involved in the
Southwest YMCA and
the Greater Bellaire/
Southwest Houston
Chamber of Commerce
as a volunteer since
1952.
He has done almost
every job available for
all three organizations.
‘‘When they need help,
they call Norm. They’ve
Continued on Page 7
Bellaire...
Tax rate set
By Ned Pedersen
With a certified tax
roll finally in hand, the
Bellaire City Council
Monday night set the
1984 fiscal year tax rate
at 43 cents per $100 of
assessed property value.
The rate is unchanged
from the previous fiscal
year.
The Harris County
Appraisal District on
Nov. 23 belatedly pro-
vided the city with a
certified appraisal roll of
$866,576,526 in taxable
property values, an in-
crease of about seven
percent over the 1982
roll.
This was the first year
that the county office
has responsibility foi
municipal and school
district assessments
throughout the county.
Its task of providing all
the local taxing juris-
dictions with their
respective tax rolls
proved cumbersome,
proceeding far behind
schedule.
In Bellaire's case, the
tax roll arrived ‘‘from
four to eight months
late,” City Manager
King Cole said. Ideally,
the Bellaire tax roll
should have been ready
no later than August,
when city council budget
discussions began.
The 1984 Bellaire
budget was adopted on
schedule, taking effect
last Oct. 1, despite the
absence of a certified tax
roll. The council passed
its 1984 budget based on
the 1983 tax rate of
43 cents with the as-
sumption that the 1984
tax roll would be large
enough to produce the
previous year’s tax
revenues if the same tax
rate applied.
With the new tax roii
being about seven per-
cent larger than last
year's, the council
Monday night conceiv-
ably could have lowered
the tax rate by two cents
without undercutting its
budgeted tax revenues.
“The 43-cent rate will
raise about $170,000
more than we antici-
pated when council
adopted the budget in
September,” Cole said.
But rather than cut the
tax rate, Cole rccotr.
mended that the extra
$170,000 be put into the
capital improvements
budget “as seed money
for the sanitary sewer
lateral replacement
program.”
The council followed
this recommendation.
1 he tax roll, as pre-
sently certified by
countv appraisal dis-
trict, is not very accurate
and is certain to be
adjusted in the months
ahead, city officials say.
“It contains a lot of
gliches,” Cole said,
“property that's been
missed, some that’s
been counted twice,
some that’s in
Houston.”
It is expected that the
appraisal district will
Continued on Page 4
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Herrera, Nick. The Texan (Bellaire, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 19, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 21, 1983, newspaper, December 21, 1983; Bellaire, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth638351/m1/1/?rotate=90: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bellaire Friends Library & Historical Society.