Palacios Beacon (Palacios, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 15, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 8, 1992 Page: 1 of 14
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p,0. Box IX
Palacios, XX
PISD Students Perform
Well At Literary Meets
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Volunteers AreAsked To Lend A
Hand At Mad Island Preserve...Page 5
Management Of Palacios Airport
May Be Turned Over ND #1...Page 7
Are There Benefits To
Abolishing "City" Of Palacios?
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VOLUME 85, NO. 15
PALACIOS, TEXAS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1992
FOURTEEN PAGES
50 CENTS
Vandals cause
damage to
park gazebo
Only two weeks alter it was
erected, the gazebo in City Park
has already been the target of
vandals.
Damage to the gazebo, which
was erected by the PHS Con-
struction Trades Class, occurred
Qvcr the weekend. In addition,
vandals once again caused dam-
age to the restroom facilities in
the park and to shrubbery.
The City of Palacios is offer-
ing a reward for information
leading to the arrest and convic-
tion of those responsible for the
damage. Those with information
are asked to call the Palacios Po-
lice Department. Callers may re-
main anonymous and still be able
to collect the reward.
Building Safety
Week proclaimed
for April 12-18
Palacios Mayor Leonard
Lamar has issued a proclamation
proclaiming the week of April
12-18 as Building Safety Week.
The proclamation coincides with
National Building Safety Week.
The purpose of the obser-
vance is to highlight the services
provided by Building Depart-
ments in the insuring the public’s
safety in the building environ-
ment. It also calls attention to
sound building procedures used
by contractors working in the
City of Palacios.
The proclamation urges all
citizens to make a commitment to
safety by cooperating with the
local building codes.
"Loof Lirpa" took
some readers on a
an April Fool rule
For those of you who make
not have gotten it, last week’s
front page picture of the crusie
ship at the Palacios pavilion was
an April Fool’s joke. In fact, the
ships "Norewegian" name "Loof
Lirpa" is April Fool spelled
backwards.
Early voting now underway
Runoff election April 14
for sheriff, district judge
BY NICK WEST
Palacios Beacon
Publisher
Early Texas wedding
PALACIOS Junior High student Amber Cox will
portray the early Texas bride in one of four scenes to
be enacted Saturday during Matagorda County Heritage
Day activities at the Depot in Bay City. The groom is
Kevin McGehearty. Youngsters participating are
members of the Children of the Republic of Texas, the
Children of the American Revolution, or the Matagorda
County Junior American Citizens.
It’s back to the voting booths
once more for Matagorda
County's Democratic voters as
they cast their ballots Tuesday,
April 14 in the Democratic Party
runoff races for Sheriff and
District Judge.
The polling locations on April
14th will remain the same as they
were in the primary election last
month. Voters in Pci. 3A will
vote at the Courthouse Annex in
Palacios while those residing in
Pet. 3B will vote at the Palacios
High School Fine Arts Bldg.
Collegcport area voters will mark
their ballots at the MoPac House
and those in the Blessing area
will do so at the Blessing
Community Center.
The runoff election pits the
top two vote-getters from the
"Super Tuesday" Democratic
Primary for Matagorda County
Sheriff, Keith Kilgore and in-
cumbent S. L. "Sam" Hurta, as
well as the top two finishers in
the Democratic primary race for
123rd Judicial District Judge,
Dan Hayes and Vcmon Harri-
son.
The early voting period for
the runoff began Monday and
will continue through Friday.
Early voting may be done be-
tween the hours of 8 a.m.-5
p.m. at the Courthouse Annex in
Palacios or from 8:30 a.m.-5
p.m. in the County Clerk's office
of the County Courthouse in Bav
City.
None of the four candidates in
the runoff were able to obtain
more than 50% of the primary
votes necessary to avoid a
runoff. The winners of next
Tuesday s runoff will be the
Democratic party nominee in the
November general election.
The winner of the hotly con-
tested sheriffs race will face Re-
publican opponent C. S. "Chris"
Carr in the November election
while the district judge runoff
winner will go against Republi-
can nominee Jo Ann Ottis.
In last month's primary race,
Kilgore fell short of an outright
victory when he claimed 46% of
the votes cast in the five candi-
date race. Hurta nailed down the
runnerup spot, finishing with
26%.
Hayes pulled in the most
votes in the four-way race for
district judge, garnering 41.49%.
Harrison claimed a spot in the
runoff race alter drawing
29.25% percent of the "Super
Tuesday" vote. Incumbent Jack
Salyer missed making the runoff
after polling 26.54% of the
votes.
Early Files.......................Page 4
Lifestyles.....................Pages 8-9
Youth...............................Page 10
Sports..............................Page 11
Classifieds...............Pages 12-13
Thought for The Week;
"Droning on my fine command
of language, I said nothing."
Beacon Deadline: 12 noon Monday
Beacon Office Closed Wednesdays
Seawall Commission gets Grassy Point permits
BY MARC ALLEY
Beacon Staff Writer
After a lengthy permitting
process, the Palacios Seawall
Commission got the green light
to proceed with the construction
of a breakwater and bulkhead at
Grassy Point.
“Everybody is glad to get that
project started,” said Robert
Montgomery, chairman of the
Commission.
Montgomery said it has been
a, “long, worn-out battle," get-
ting the permits for this project
because of the type of rock they
arc using. The length of the rock
breakwater is 3,9(X) linear feet.
The project also includes 750
linear feet of timber bulkhead and
Beacon’s sports coverage
receives top honors from
South Texas Press Assoc.
The Palacios Beacon was judged the first place award winner
for Sports Coverage in the recent South Texas Press Association’s
(STP A) 1992 Better Newspaper Contest-Division One. Palacios
Beacon publisher Nick
West accepted the award
ai the STPA’s 65th an-
nual convention held at
the St. Anthony Hotel in
San Antonio.
In addition, the Bea-
con also placed second in
headline writing.
The Palacios Beacon
also won the Spoils Cov-
erage honor in 1990 and
has, in recent years, also
placed first in Division 1
for news coverage, news
pictures and headline
writing.
Judges commented
that the Palacios Beacon
provided “extensive cov-
Palacios Beacon publisher Nick
West with first place Sports Cover-
age plaque.
erage, impressive, especially for a paper this size” and “a least for
fans,"
During the convention, West was also re-elected to .mother
two-year term on the STPA’s boart of directors.
a rock revetment.
The work order for Grassy
Point was issued Monday, to
Galin Corporation. The
estimated cost of the project is
$1.6 million. Montgomery said
he is glad to be using rock for
this project, but said, “I don’t
want another project like it.”
“That is very important land
down there (Grassy Point), and
it’s worth the extra costs to save
it,” he said.
At its regular meeting last
Thursday (April 2), the commis-
sioners were given a breakdown
of the cost per linear foot for the
different types of materials which
were available for this and other
projects. A rock breakwater is
$380 per linear foot, making it
the most expensive option
shown. The others included: a
concrete wall, $376 per linear
foot; a Geoccll breakwater, $237
per linear fool; a Geomattress
breakwater, $215 per linear fool;
and an Aqua-Hab breakwater,
$167 per linear foot.
Montgomery estimated this
project will take five to six
months, and said, “that’s proba-
bly a little longer than usual.”
“It's kind of a difficult project
because you have to work out in
the water,” he commented.
Looking ahead, the seawall
will open bids on two more pro-
jects soon.
The first is phase XI at the
Turtle Point Area. There, the
commission wants to have 4,500
feet of timber bulkhead erosion
control constructed. Bidding on
that project opens April 9.
Another upcoming project is
Phase XIII at Turtle Bay. Like
Turtle Point, the commission
wants to construct a limber bulk-
head for erosion control, and
stated it must be at least 2,150
feet. They arc opening bids on
this project April 16, and will
release the cost estimate after the
bids are received
\
Great Texas Beach Trash-Off nears
Volunteers to hit Texas coastal area on April 25
Texans have the opportunity
to protect one of Texas’ greatest
natural resources by participat-
ing in the Great Texas Beach
Trash-Off to be held from 9 a.m.
until 12 noon on Saturday, April
25.
“I encourage each of you to
come out on April 25 and bring a
friend—better yet, bring two—
and get involved in protecting
one of Texas’ greatest natural
resources,” said Texas Land
Commissioner Garry Mauro.
“Then contact the President and
Congress about the importance
ofenforcing the Gulfof Mexico’s
pending special area designa-
tion."
More than 77,000 volunteers
have collected more than 1,800
tones of marine debris from Texas
beaches since the first Great
Texas Beach Trash-Off was held
six years ago.
"When we started the Adopt-
A-Beach program and had our
first beach cleanup, we really had
no idea how much fun picking up
garbage in the sun for three hours
could be,” Mauro said.
The ramifications of those
cleanups extend far beyond just
three hours, twice a year, said
Mauro. Because of the data col-
lected during these cleanups, an
international treaty called
MARPOL Annex V has been
enacted to ban the dumping of
plastics in oceans of the world.
Also, as part of that agreement,
the International Maritime Orga-
nization gave “special area des-
ignation” to the Gulfof Mexico
and Wider Caribbean which pro-
hibit dumping of any trash ex-
cept for finely ground food scraps.
Mauro said the Adopt-A-
Bcach program has just tx’gun
and educational campaign called
"The Gulf is Special—Bring it
Back!”
For more information on par-
ticipating in the Great Texas
Beach Trash-Off, call toll-free 1 -
800-85-BEACH.
STP, agencies show good response
in emergency mangement rehearsal
BY MARC ALLEY
Beacon Stall Writer
Although the emergency at the
South Texas Project (STP) last
Wednesday (April 1) was only a
drill, how the workers handled
the situation was no April Fools’
Day joke.
This drill, an annual event,
was a dress rehearsal for the
graded exercise scheduled for
April 29. The graded exercise
involves about 200 people, in-
cluding officials from local, state
and federal governmental agen-
cies. It is graded by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC),
and to keep its license, STP must
receive a passing grade.
“It’s not a game, but you have
to play it like it’s real in every
aspect or you will get graded
down,” said Glen Walker, man-
ager of public information at
STP.
Although plant workers knew
what was happening was a drill
and not an actual emergency,
Walker said they were not told
the day or the time when the drill
would occur. Walker also said it
is better to tell the workers it is a
drill, because if the plant officials
did not, “something unfortunate,
like an injury, might occur,” he
said.
Houston Lighting and Power
Company (HL&P) issued an
“Alert” for an electric generating
station at STP at 8:15 a.m.,
Wednesday. Emergency situa-
tions at a nuclear power plant are
classified into one of four cate-
gories. These arc Unusual
Event, Alert, Site Area
Emergency and General
Emergency. An Alert is the
second least serious of the four
classifications, and plant officials
said it usually indicates potential
failure of safety systems at the
plant, but no hazard to persons
outside the plant.
HL&P declared a Site Area
Emergency at die STP generating
station at 9:30 a.m., and declared
a General Emergency at 9:44
a.m.
Residents in the 10-mile
planning zone around the plant
were asked to tune their radios to
the local emergency broadcast
stations, KMKS-FM (102.5) and
KIOX-AM (1270), just after the
alert was announced.
Because officials at HL&P
and STP wanted to make sure all
the information being released to
the public was accurate, they set
up a special room to monitor ra-
(See DRILL, Page 14)
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West, Nicholas M. Palacios Beacon (Palacios, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 15, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 8, 1992, newspaper, April 8, 1992; Palacios, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth725738/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Palacios Library.