Palacios Beacon (Palacios, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 1985 Page: 1 of 12
twelve pages : ill. ; page 22 x 16 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
PALACIOS, TEXAS
VOLUME 78. NO. 5
.
;
4
•V
w
Avoid penalty and interest
&UVSTtfNE/ AWARDS
UR . X*
Property taxes become delinquent on Friday
For most property owners in
Texas, Feb. 1 is the day unpaid
property taxes become delin-
quent. They should realize that
delinquent taxes can become an
expensive proposition.
In addition to penalty and
interest charges, nonpayment
can lead to lawsuits, clouded land
titles, and even seizure and sale
of the delinquent taxpayer's
property if he makes no effort to
pay.
It pays to pay on time, which in
most cases is by Jan. 31, but
special circumstances in some
local taxing units result in later
delinquency dates. For example,
the Feb. 1 delinquency date is
postponed when taxing units
mail tax bills after Jan. 10.
In all cases, the delinquency
date is indicated on the tax bill,
and taxpayers must be given at
least 21 days after the bills are
mailed to pay their taxes before
the taxes become delinquent.
Some property owners may fail
to receive their tax bills, but
these people should be aware
that the law still holds them
responsible for paying on time.
The claim, "I never received a
tax bill,” does not excuse the
taxpayer from liability for all
taxes, penalties and interest
charges.
Before the delinquency date
passes, a property owner who
fails* to receive a tax bill should
contact the appraisal district or
his taxing units to determine his
tax liability and make sure the
correct name and address in-
formation is on record.
The first expense the tax-
payer avoids by paying on time is
penalty and interest charges.
Regular penalty charges can go
as high as 12 percent, and
interest is charged at the rate of
one percent per month. Someone
who pays his taxes a year late, for
example, would have to pay not
only the total amount of taxes
due but also an additional 24
percent in penalty and interest.
Taxing units that hire outside
attorneys to collect their delin-
quent accounts can charge an
additional 15 percent penalty to
cover attorney fees.
Taxing units notify delinquent
taxpayers at least once. Many tax
collectors will send additional
notices and warning letters to
encourage payment.
By heeding these warnings
and paying his bill, the delin-
quent taxpayer can avoid more
drastic and costly consequences-
namely, a delinquent tax suit and
subsequent seizure and sale of
his property to pay the taxes due.
The law provides protection
irom tax suits and seizures for
homeowner age 65 and over.
These people can choose to post-
pone paying taxes on a home
stead by filing a "tax deferral”
affidavit with their local appr-
aisal district. Taxes will continue
to become delinquent and accrue
penalty and interest, but there
can be no lawsuit to colletet the
taxes as long as the over-65
person owns and occupies the
home. If a tax suit has already
been filed, the suit can be
suspended by filine an over-65
tax deferral affidavit with the
court. However, once the proper-
ty changes hands, the taxes
become due immediately.
Some tax collectors will allow
delinquent taxes to be paid in
installments for up to 36 months.
Before signing an installment
agreement, the delinquent tax-
payer should know that his
signature is considered an “irr-
'evocable admission” that he
owes all the taxes covered by the
agreement. However, he will not
be sued for back taxes as long as
he makes his payments on time
and keeps other taxes paid up.
[See TAXES, Page 4]
Feb First Follies
on stage Friday
The "Feb First Follies”
talent-variety show to benefit
PIN-TV will be held at 7 p.m.
Friday in the Fine Arts
Complex. Tickets are $4 a-
dults and $3 children.
Public invited to
EAC meeting
The Economic Action Com-
mittee of the Gulf Coast will
hold a meeting today (Thurs-
day! at the Second Presbyteri-
an Church Annex at 900
Morton at 7 p.m. to discuss
the weatherizafi-.n program
and the energy crisis inter-
vention program. The public
is invited to attend.
Airport master
plan discussion
The City of PalacLs will
hold a worksession on the
Palacios airport master plan at
6 p.m. Thursday in City Hall.
All interested persons are
invited to attend.
Still time for
class signup
Registration for continuing
education classes will contin-
ue up until the first day the
course begins. Interested per-
sons may still register for any
class with the exception of
computer, art and conversa-
tional Spanish. Registration
may be done at the PHS
office. For more information
call Leon Bullock at 972-2571.
Chili supper set
The Boy Scouts from Troop
1085 and Cub Scouts from
Pack 3047 will hold a chili
supper Feb. 10 at St. An-
thony's Church Hall beginn-
ing at 11 a. m. Price is $2 per
person and includes chili, rice,
beans and crackers. Desserts
arq also available.
New hours
for public nurse
New hours have been
established for visitation of
the public health nurse in
Palacios. The new hours are
Tuesday from 8:30 a.m.-12
noon and Thursday from
The Palacios Housing Auth-
ority accepted a bid of $1,775,000
from Minceberg Construction
Company, Inc. of Houston as the
low bidder in the construction of
the 44-unit SeaCrest Addition
low-income housing project.
The project will be built on
six-acres of property at the
south corner of University
and Gray Streets. Construction is
expected to begin during the first
week of February.
The low-income project will
feature 22 one-bedroom, 12 two-
bedroom and 10 three-bedroom
units along with a maintenance
and office building that will
include a community activities
room.
Three firms submitted bids on
the project which were opened
Jan. 15. Other bidders were
M&M Builders of Angleton
($2,255,562) and Attar Builders,
Inc. of Houston ($2,715,218). The
Palacios Housing Authority Boa-
rd of Commissioners officially
accepted the Minceberg bid via a
resolution Monday night, pend-
ing final approval from the
Housing and Urban Development
agency.
The project was designed by
Bell Mann Corporation, a Hous-
ton architectural firm. The hous-
ing unit will be of 100-percent
brick and feature cathedral ceil-
ing living rooms with high-
pitched concrete tile roofing.
Three to four different architec-
tural designs will be used
throughout the SeaCrest Addi-
tion.
The site layout calls for 26-foot
wide curbed and guttered con-
crete streets and extensive side-
walks connecting all units and
sections of the project. A maint-
enance office building, combined
with a community center will be
located on the northern portion of
the property. Adjacent to it will
be a playground area including a
basketball court and various
playground equipment. A small
pavilion covered area is planned
as another feature.
Instead of the more familiar
“row” look of housing projects,
commissioners say they have
designed the project so that units
are constructed at varying angl-
es. Berms with landscaping will
be utilized along the property
along University and Gray to add
to the aesthetic effect and
provide additional privacy.
During construction, commiss-
ioners will begin the task of
establishing a criteria for income
/tenant selection and the hiring
of an executive director. Those
two items, commissioners say,
will be the most important
function ihey wili handle as
commissioners. They note that a
strong and encompassing policy
on selecting tenants will be the
key to maintaining the integrity
off the project and assuring its
success in the community.
The Palacios Housing Authori-
ty was first established by the
Palacios City Council in Septem-
ber, 1964. Commissioners curr-
ently serving on the appointed
board are Robert Solis, Nick
West, Abel Lucio, Jr., Johnnie
Mae Haynes and Art Lang.
The commissioners have hired
Hallie Homeier to serve as
executive director for the Hous-
ing Authority. She will be in
charge of overseeing the daily
operation of the project both
during and after construction.
Reduced fuel cost factor results
in savings for CP&L customers
Central Power and Light Com-
pany customers will soon be
paying less for electricity. Accor-
ding to Bryan Hale, CPL local
manager, the Public Utility Com-
mission has approved the com-
pany’s request to reduce the
fuel cost factor, which accounts
for the major portion of the
electric bill.
In ruling on the company’s
request to lower the fuel factor,
the hearing examiner concluded
that the commission has exclu-
sive and original jurisdiction in
setting the lower factor for all
CPL customers.
asked the commission’s approval
to lower the fuel portion of
customer’s bills by reducing the
fuel cost factor applied to cus-
tomers' bills since October
1983, ” Haleisaid.
The company is also seeking to
refund $16.6 million in fuel
over recoveries, which have been
collected through September
1984. Application of a commiss-
ion-prescribed formula caused
the over-recovery. The PUC
hearing examiner took no action
on the refund, but indicated the
issue will be taken up during
hearings in Austin scheduled for
March 4.
The company had sought to
reduce the fuel factor effective
December 26, but the PUC staff
considered the filing "preceden-
tial”, requiring additional time to
study the request. “We estab-
lished a precedent because we
did not request a simultaneous
increase in base rates as other
Texas utilities have done,” Hale
said.
The current ruling allows CPL
to implement the lower fuel
factor on January 26 and will first
be realized on customers' Febru-
ary bills. The impact on resi-
dential customers using 750 to
[See CP&L, Page 31
Serious studying for academic competition
BY DONNIE HORTON
Why would a student spend
hours each week studying math
and economics, preparing spee-
ches and reading such literature
as "Great Expectations”, "Fut-
ure Shock”, and "Megatrends”
when it is not required as part of
the academic program?
Students participating in the
Academic Decathlon to be held in
Houston Feb. 1-3 were asked this
question and they all expressed
their interest in “learning more
about the subjects they study in
school and learning about things
they don’t study in regular
classes.” They expressed the
hope that the research required
to prepare for this competition
would be beneficial when they
got to college.
The six team members, three
alternates and their sponsors,
Susie Joyce and John Rother,
accompanied by High School
principal Travis Washington, will
be greeted Friday night with an
informal press reception. Satur-
day's competition will take place
at Deer Park High School South
Campus and the awards banquet
Sunday at the Stouffer Hotel will
feature guest speaker, Ron Fran-
klin.
Students will be interviewed,
write an essay and give two
speeches in addition to taking
tests in six academic areas:
economics, fine arts, English,
math, science, and history. The
alternates will participate in all of
the competitive events but their
scores will be used only if one of
the team members must drop
out. These nine students are
certainly not typical.
Competing in the honors cate-
gory are Michelle Elliott, daugh-
ter of Cliff and Anna Mae Elliott,
and Virginia Lee Sexton, whose
parents are Roy and Mary Ann
Sexton.
Michelle said she thought that
learning research techniques wh-
ile studying for the Decathlon
would be helpful when she enters
the University of Texas where
she has been accepted into
pre-law and accounting. The
most influential person in her
life, according to Michelle, is her
father-” I’ll probably follow in
his footsteps.” Michelle’s favor-
ite school activity is editing the
school annual.
Virginia Lee Sexton, better
known as Lee, is another team
member who attributes the in-
fluence of her father, as well as
her mother and an aunt, to her
[See DECATHALON, Page 4]
44-Unit complex
Housing Authority
awards construction bid
Hitting the books...
MEMBERS of the Palaclo*
Academic Decathlon team do
some final minute studying as
they prepare for the major
Academic Decathlon event this
weekend at Deer Park High
School. Students who will be
representing PHS are Michelle
Elliott, Virginia Lee Sexton,
Tom Dahl, Patrick Mills, Mich-
elle Boykin, Tina Clark, Lidia
Acosta, Betty Cunningham and
Flavlo Gonzales, Jr.
Striking up the hand.
THE LOVELY Miss Esther
Smith on piano and the dashing
Dan Kauffman on trombone
get their act together In pre-
paration for Friday night’s
‘‘Feb First Follies”. The two
are members of the Bayl'est
Brass Band which will be
among the groups and Indi-
viduals performing at the tal-
ent-variety show to be held at
the Fine Arts Complex starting
at 7 p.m. Friday. Admission
will be $4 for adults and $3 for
children. Proceeds will help
fund the non-profit Palacios
Information Network [PIN-TV],
Tickets are available at Phil’s
Shellarama, Palacios Area Fu-
nd, Paiacios Beacon and at the
door. A drawing will also be
held for a beautiful coral and
shell centerpiece, donated by
Phil’s Shellarama. Drawing
tickets are SI each and are at
City State Bank, Palacios TV &
Video, Pier Drive Inn and
Phil’s Shellarama.
Weather:
Date Max. Min. Prec
THURSDAY. JANUARY 31,1985
TWELVE PAGES
Decathalon:
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Palacios Beacon (Palacios, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 1985, newspaper, January 31, 1985; Palacios, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth725130/m1/1/: accessed June 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Palacios Library.