Palacios Beacon (Palacios, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 52, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 27, 1989 Page: 1 of 8
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fl
fell
Palacios frostbitten
as Arctic front brings
single-digit readings
BY NICK WEST
Beacon Publisher
When Mother Nature says its time for winter, she doesn't kid
around. Palacios, as well as the rest of Texas, was locked in a
deep freeze over the weekend as a massive Arctic cold front bar-
relled through, sending temperatures to record setting lows.
Temperatures plummeted to a record low of 9-degrces Saturday
morning as recorded at the weather station at Palacios airport.
Making things even worse had been a mixture of sleet and snow
(sneet) which had fallen Friday. Although it provided a glimpse of
an authentic "white Christmas" the sneet was also a headache as it
coated roadways and made driving treacherous.
Toss in a strong north wind which topped 30-mph and those
having to be outside found themselves having to contend with a
(See COLD, Page 4)
mnHMiiMPr °
DRIVERS tread cautiously over ice-covered Main Street early Friday morning with temperatures in the
mid-teens. The low Saturday was a frigid 9-degrees.
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VOLUME 82, NO. 52
mm
§
"*■ o»>By
PALACIOS. TEXAS
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 27, 1989
3 PAGES
30-CENTS
Frangullie
files for
JP 3 post
Retired Drug Enforcement
Administration special agent
George C. Frangullie, Jr. has
become the second individual to
file as a candidate for Matagorda
County Pet. 3 Justice of the
Peace in the March 13 Demo-
cratic primary.
A native of Palacios, the 51-
year old Frangullie, filed for the
position last week. He joins
Palacios Assistant Police Chief
Emmett Greene on the ballot to
fill the office being vacated by
Margaret McElrath. She had been
appointed to fill unexpired term
left by the death of Jack Dooley.
"I feel that this is something I
can do which can help the com-
munity," Frangullie said in ex-
plaining his reason for running
for elected office. "All my expe-
rience is in law enforcement and
I think I’d like to stick with
something I know about. It will
be a challenge for me and I think
that what I do and what I say can
have a positive impact on the
(See FILE, Page 4)
Final check helps
Palacios ’89 sales
tax rebate picture
Junior snow plow
MATTHEW BRENNAN scoops up and tosses a pan
full of "sneet" into the air Friday morning. The
combination of sleet and snow remained on the ground
over the weekend until temperatures rose above the
freezing level around noon Sunday. (Beacon Photo by
Nick West)
It was a somewhat early, and
welcomed, Christinas present for
the City of Palacios as its
monthly rebate check of the city
sales tax showed a gain of nearly
81% over the one received last
December.
The rebate check for $11,462
far surpassed the check the city
received 12 months earlier of
$6,325. Although still below last
year's total level, the December
check improved the city's
showing for the year, down only
2.74% from its 1988 levels.
For the 12 months of 1989,
Palacios has been rebated a total
of $115,684.98. That compares
to the $118,938.12 rebated last
year.
The city sales tax is collected
by merchants and business aiong
with the state sales tax. Both are
then submitted monthly and/or
quarterly to the State
Comptroller's Office which in
turns rebates the the local tax
back to the city in which it was
collected. The December checks
reflect taxes collected in October.
Bay City, the only other city
in Matagorda County to levy a
city sales tax, finished the year
down 5.83% from its 1988 lev-
els. For the year, Bay City had
been rebated a total of
$1,030,106.
For Port Lavaca, 1989 was a
very good year indeed. The eco-
nomic activity associated with
the expansion of the Formosa
Plastics plant has helped that
city's sales tax rebate figure for
the year to climb to $856,058.
That represents a solid 48% gain
over the previous year's level of
$578,282. Even Point Comfort
got in on the action with its re-
bates climbing over 12% to
$17,458.
In neighboring Jackson
County, Ganado's rebates
showed a gain of 14% on the
year to $75,885 while those for
Edna climbed 9.6% to $280,528.
More modest gains were reg-
istered in Wharton County where
El Campo's rebates were up
7.50% to $818,195 with those
for Wharton up 3.72% at
$541,127.
County still has 2-year wait for 911
Service fee, surcharge added to bill starting in January
People in Matagorda County will be able to dial
9-1 1 on their telephones to summon help in case
of fire, health, crime, or other types of emergen-
cies by January of 1992 according to plans laid by
th£ Houston-Galveston Area Council and rep-
resentatives of Matagorda County emergency and
telephone service providers.
The plan and its implementation schedule are
pari of a statewide effort to set up 9-1-1 emergency
communications systems throughout Texas. State
legislation is requiring larger counties to participate
in 9-1-1 systems, but counties with less than
120,000 people, such as Matagorda County, have
the option to participate in a regional 9-1-1 system.
The Matasorda County Commissioners Court
and the city councils of Bay City and Palacios,
along with eight other counties in the upper Gulf
Coast region, worked together with the Houston-
Galveston Area Council, the area's planning
agency made up of over 150 local governments, to
set out a set of plans for 9-1-1 operations in each
of the counties. After completion in August, the
Plan was approved by the Texas Advisory
Commission on State Emergency Communications
in October.
January of 1992 is the
date expected for the life-
and property-saving emer-
gency 9-1 -1 telephone sys-
tem to begin in Matagorda
County.
It will take H-GAC planners, local officials, fire
departments, law enforcement agencies, emergency
medical services, and telephone company
technicians 24-months to put the Matagorda County
system together.
When service begins in 1992, people across the
entire county will be able to save valuable time in
any type of emergency situation by simply dialing
the digits 9-1-1. 9-1-1 telephone calls will be
routed over special emergency telephone lines.
The calls will be identified and answered as emer-
gency calls in the Matagorda County Sheriffs De-
partment. The appropriate law enforcement, fire,
or ambulance service
gjgjjg ]
will be notified imme-
diately and dispatched
to the scene of the
trouble.
Money to finance
the 9-1-1 system will come from the proceeds of
an emergency service fee and an equalization
surcharge to be a part of each Matagorda County
telephone subscriber's monthly bill. These fees
will be added to telephone bills beginning in
January, 1990. The service fee, set by state
legislation and approved by the Texas Advisory
Commission on State Emergency
Communications, is 50-cents per telephone access
line per month. In addition, the equalization is 2/10
of 1 percent on all intrastate long long distance
calls.
The region-wide plan, completed under the
auspices of the Houston-Galveston Area Council,
was developed through an H-GAC advisory com-
mittee made up of 21 representatives of emergency
service-providing agencies across the 9-county
area without their own independent 9 1-1 seivice-
Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Lib-
erty, Matagorda, Walker, Waller, and Wharton
counties.
Matagorda County's representatives on that ad-
visory panel are Bay City Volunteer Fire Depart-
ment's Garlan Hinman, Palacios' Tramcl Hunter,
(See 911, Page 4)
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West, Nicholas M. Palacios Beacon (Palacios, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 52, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 27, 1989, newspaper, December 27, 1989; Palacios, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth731132/m1/1/: accessed June 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Palacios Library.