The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 13, Ed. 1 Monday, April 14, 1980 Page: 1 of 10
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Jamboree Queen Tracy Sorenson [right] and nominees Rita Rabel [left] and Beverly
Dunk had smiles for the Smithville Parade Saturday despite a chilly storm.
Bitter cold failed to stop
the 23rd annual Smithville
Jamboree parade Saturday
as an estimated 5,000
persons gathered to watch
chilled but cheerful march-
ers, vintage autos, mounted
units, floats and bands.
“At least you can’t
complain about getting a
sunburn," one of the
Jamboree organizers said
over the loudspeaker before
the parade, late to get
started, made its way to
First and Main streets and
the reviewing stand.
Out of some 55 units, the
historic Texas A&M Univer-
sity mounted cavalry ROTC
unit was awarded first place
for a mounted group.
Judges said the Smithville
Garden Club’s gazebo design
was the most beautiful
hometown float while the
Smithville Chamber of Com-
merce had the most original
hometown float.
Dick Burdick, driving a
yellow Rolls Royce roadster,
took first place in the auto
class.
Flatonia had the most
beautiful out-of-town float
while Austin's Aqua Festival
float, a giant red and blue
boat design, was selected as
the most original out-of-town
float.
Bastrop and McDade were
the only other nearby cities
to brave the cold, both
bringing floats to advertise
their hometown spectacles,
the Bastrop Homecoming
and the McDade Watermel-
on Festival.
QUEEN RIDES
Riding on the Smithville
Chamber float, with its
railroad motif, was Jam
boree Queen Tracy Sorenson
and the Royal Court who
were installed last Thursday
night. The other nominees,
who helped grace the city
float, included Rita Rabel,
Vashon West, Beverly Dunk,
Nellie West and Karen
Feytik.
Politicians were out in
force with Robert Saunders,
a Smithville High School
graduate and candidate for
the State House of Repre-
sentatives District 30, as
parade marshal. Paul
Cooper, one of his opponents
at the May 3 Democratic
Primary, drove a van while
Earl Galipp, Republican
seeking the same seat,
appeared in a buggy. Also in
the parade were Henry
Grimep and Jill Turner,
running for Tax Collector-
Assessor, Tommy Moseley,
sheriff candidate; Bastrop
Mayor James P. Sharp,
Councilman Charles Mc-
Keown on a donkey, and
Representative J.J. Pickle
who threw pickle souvenirs
to the kids.
SHRINERS
Austin’s Ben Hur Shrine
Temple added to the parade
with a band, motorcycles,
clowns and a drum corps.
Deputy Potentate Ted Guy-
ton Jr. of Smithville was one
of the Shrine officials to
appear.
The rural community of
Upton, which likes to put
something humorous into
the parades, sent a jeepload
of self declared “officials of
the unincorporated city.”
Owl Ranch Supply of
Rosanky used a flatbed with
feed sacks and a truck horn
that played Dixie. The
Children's World day care
nursery bundled small fry in
warm coats and. surrounded
Continued on Page 3
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Bastrop (.aunty's Loading Newspa - Since March 1, 1853
MONDAY
Iedition :
Monday, April 14,1980
Bastrop, Texas
Number 13
Localites object to
lignite questions
Bastrop residents object
ed last week to rating what’s
the most important envir
onmental area that lignite
mining at Camp Swift could
effect.
The residents told Radian
Corp. of Austin that the
rating form being used to
help make an Environmental
Impact Statement is simplis-
tic.
The company which will
study the environmental
effects of mining Camp Swift
lignite has the "responsihil
ity to take an objective,
unbiased look" at the
proposed lease of 6740 acres,
Lee Wilson of Austin's
Radian Corporation said at a
public meeting last week.
Radian, awarded the con
tract to write the Environ
mental Impact Statement for
the proposed action, "has the
tools to calculate and relate
mining to the environment
and mining impacts in
certain areas of the envi
ronment,” said Wilson.
But at two meetings
Wednesday in the District
Courtroom, Wilson met
vigorous resistance frpm
county residents when he
asked them to “help decide
what is most important" in
the local environment.
Asked to help Radian
technicians decide "what's
most important to focus our
efforts on," a number of
citizens protested against
ranking one part of the
environment as more impor
tant than another.
Wilson passed out a list of
17"environmental features”
including air quality, quiet-
ude, water quality, ground
water, wildlife, scenic quali-
ties, transportation system,
future land use management
and taxes and budgeting. He
asked residents to rank each
"feature" on a five-point
scale.
IDIOT’S FORM?
A lively discussion
ensued and at the 7 pm
meeting part of it retreated
to the courtroom lobby
where County Democratic
Party Chairman Stanley
Smith declared, "This is an
idiot’s form."
"I’m not going to fill it
out," said First National
Bank President Cecil Long.
Dr. Jose Garcia of Elgin
wanted to know if the
environmental study would
be adequately concerned
with possible health effects
of mining, particularly for
chronic and acute asthma
patients and those suffering
from kidney disorders which
may be related to drinking
water.
Scientists have only "lim
ited information on how
industrial activity may be
related to patients of yours,"
Wilson responded, adding
that such problems are
"addressed through stan-
dards" which limit pollutants
put into the environment.
WHAT’S IN STORE
“Can you let us know
what’s in store in the next
two to five years in Bastrop
County” if Camp Swift is
leased for mining, Smith
asked.
"That's the purpose of our
Continued on Page 10
Murder suspect Edward S. Hollomon [right] is led into
courtroom last Friday by Sheriffs Deputy Verlin Hemphill.
Staff Photo by Davis McAuley.
By DAVIS McAULEY
After more than eight
hours of deliberation, a jury
of eight women and four men
m the “Roadside Rest”
murder trial of Edward S.
Hollomon returned with a
verdict of guilty early
Saturday afternoon.
Part of the morning
deliberations Saturday were
spent re hearing testimony
from the two-week trial.
At the request of jurors,
21st District Judge John L.
Placke had a court reporter
read aloud from the tran-
script of testimony by
ballistics expert Fred Ry-
mer, from Jo Ann McGehee
(Hollomon’s sister) and from
Mrs. Arleen Rape, the
Hempstead secretary who,
from Hollomon’s dictation,
typed out his confession to
shooting Robert T. Carter of
Brownwood and Carter’s
girlfriend, 18-year-old Mer-
lina Shippey.
RIFLE SHOTS
Rymer, a ballistics expert
with the Department of
Public Safety, testified that
bullet fragments recovered
from both victims were fired
from a rifle barrel.
In Hollomon’s signed
confession, the 27-year-o!d
Houston dry cleaning shop
operator said the couple was
shot with a “.22 calibre
Saturday Night Special.”
Hollomon’s sister testified
that when she talked with
him in the presence of Texas
Rangers June 25, after he
was taken to Travis County
Jail, he told her he fled after
running out of gas £t a
roadside park east of Elgin
and finding a man on a
blanket there covered with
blood.
Carter’s body was dis-
covered about noon June 24
some 4 miles east of Elgin at
a roadside park beside
Highway 290.
Mrs. Rape had testified
that Hollomon gave his
statement freely, narrating
events of the fatal night
faster than she could type.
After deliberating about
five hours Friday, jurors
reported they were divided
11-1 and Judge Placke sent
them home for the night.
During closing arguments
in the case, District Attor-
ney Neal Pfeiffer electrified
the courtroom with an
openly emotional appeal to
convict “a confessed mur-
derer."
Pfeiffer recalled the re-
ported words of the dead girl
to her mother who had urged
her not to stay over to rest in
the roadside park with
Carter.
“It'll be all right, mother,"
she said.
“Are we going to be all
right if we turn a confessed
murderer loose? Will it be
all right for our system of
laws if we let a confessed
murderer walk free?,” Pfeif-
fer asked.
“OUR WITNESSES”
In reply to defense
arguments that the state
relied too heavily on
“speculation” in presenting
its case, Pfeiffer cried,
“There are our witnesses!,”
as he flung down photo-
graphs of the victims’ bodies
on a table before jurors and a
stunned courtroom.
As he left the court after
Pfeiffer concluded, defense
attorney Frank Maloney,
shaking his head, said, “I
know what the verdict will
be. There’s no doubt about
it."
In his own final argument,
Maloney told the jury it
would take a “super human
effort” to “follow the law” as
laid down in Judge Placke’s
charge to them because the
case involved “two murders
and the use of drugs.”
During testimony, the
defense argued that Hollo-
mon’s confession was “invol-
untary” because he was in a
highly suggestible state of
toxic depressive psychosis
due to the use of prescribed
sedatives and pain relieving
drugs when he was interro-
gated by Texas Rangers in a
Hempstead hospital.
LCRA sees decision on Swift mining by mid'81
“We’ll make a decision
before the year is out” on
whether to build another
multi-million-dollar generat-
ing plant at Lake Bastrop,
the head of the Lower
Colorado Authority disclos-
ed here Friday night.
Charles Herring, General
Manager of the LCRA, made
the comment following his
speech to the annual Bastrop
Chamber of Commerce Din
ner at the Bastrop High
School Cafeteria.
Herring told around 175
persons that LCRA has
three “options" on construe
tion in this area: 1. Building
a new coal-fired plant at
Lake Bastrop. 2. Conversion
of the Sim Gideon plant at
Lake Bastrop to either a coal
fired plant (it uses natural
gas now) or to the new
Australian conversion pro-
cess which burns lignite in a
gas plant. 3. Adding a third
generating plant at the giant
Fayette County plant near
La Grange.
Bastrop County civic
leaders have told LCRA they
would like to See lignite coal
that is mined here also
burned in a new plant here.
MOPE LEASES
Herring also made it plain
LCRA is moving to acquire
additional lignite mining
rights in Bastrop County
beside the 6,740 acres it is
seeking from the federal
government at Camp Swift.
“We’re trying to acquire
other areas in Bastrop
County," he told the
Chamber audience. Real
estate sources at the dinner
said this means Texas Power
& Light which holds the
rights to option mining
leases on former LaVaca
properties.
Meanwhile LCRA is alre-
ady "tracing the thermal
plume" through Lake Bas-
trop to help set up baselines
for a required investigation
of the environmental impact
on the lake of additional
generating, John Babcock, in
charge of LCRA’s environ-
mental protection work,
confirmed. "We have
started the basic work,” he
said after the dinner.
Herring said LCRA now
things it "will have a chance
to bid on the Camp Swift
mining rights by the middle
of July, 1981." The
necessary environmental
work would have been done
by them, he explained.
“Within three years of
acquiring the lease, we hope
to have at least some mining
underway at Camp Swift,”
he added.
But, “It would take six or
seven years to put in a new
generating plant,” he ex-
plained.
“My own idea is that we’d
start by blending lignite in
with Western coal (from
Montana and Wyoming) that
we’re burning at the Fayette
plant now," said Herring.
CONTROLS PLEDGED
“If we do acquire it (the
Camp Swift lease), we’ll
have the cleanest surface
mining operation anyone has
ever produced,” Herring
promised.
"We don’t want to go into
an area and destroy an
environment - that’s not the
way we want to act.
"We have a good record
established with the EPA
(Environmental Protection
Agency)” and work in
Bastrop County “will be
done under the strictest
regulations. It would be our
objective to exceed those
Public hearing called
on $1.6 million bonds
The public will get a
chance Tuesday night to ask
questions about the $1.6
million school construction
bond issue facing Bastrop
Independent School District
voters April 26.
The BISD School Board
will conduct a public meeting
to explain how the funds
would be used.
The problem of selling
construction bonds in the
current unsettled bond mar-
ket is expected to be bne of
the topics. It’s possible,
according to district sources,
that part of the authorized
bond money would be used
for repairs and part kept for
later sale for land purchase
and/or new classrooms.
The meeting will be held
April 15 at the Bastrop High
School cafeteria around 8:15
p.m., after the PTA meeting
at the same location closes.
School architect Joe Steel-
tje and bond advisor Curtis
Adrian will be on hand to
help answer questions, ac-
cording to school trustees
who set the discussion
meeting.
regulations...”
Herring mentioned that,
‘Tve always had a soft part
in my heart for Bastrop"
since he once represented it
as a state senator. Further,
he said he found “the nicest,
kindest, most genteel people
I’ve met" in Bastrop.
“You may be sure that
every known device in the
state of the art technology
we’U employ to protect you
and your community,” he
said.
CHAMBER HONORS
The Chamber presented
certificates of appreciation
for work in the recent
city-wide clean-up and beau-
tification project to: Dr.
Curtis McDonald, Bastrop
PTA, Bastrop Hardware,
Bastrop Advertiser, Wright
Distributing Co., Citizens
State Bank, First National
Bank, Maynard Agency,
Long’s Food Market, City of
Bastrop, Bastrop Lions Club,
Gus’ Drug Store, Calvary
Baptist Church, Kiwanis
Club, Harmony Club, Judy
and Tommy Hoover and a
downtown group, Commis-
sers Court, Reading Circle,
Lost Pines Garden Club,
First Mexican Baptist
Church, Pine Forest Civic
Association, First United
Methodist Church, the Pot-
ter Group, Mt. Rose Baptist
Church, Bastrop Girl Scouts,
Bastrop Cub Scouts, Pack
187, Spanish Club, Watter-
son 4-H Club, Rockne 4-H
Club, Macedonia First Bap-
tist Church, Elm Grove 4-H
Club and the Bastrop 4-H
Club.
Outgoing Chamber Presi-
dent Byron Kibby was also
awarded a plaque for »
“fantastic year" from incom-
ing President Tony Jackson
and outgoing Chamber Trea-
surer Henry Schuyler w*|
thanked for serving from
1965 to 1980.
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McAuley, Davis. The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 13, Ed. 1 Monday, April 14, 1980, newspaper, April 14, 1980; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth738861/m1/1/?q=%22~1%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bastrop Public Library.