The Bastrop Advertiser and County News (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 138, No. 85, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 27, 1984 Page: 1 of 28
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TEXAS'
OLDEST
WEEKLY
NEWSPAPER
tEijt ^astrnp JVMreritser
LARGEST
CIRCULATION
Vol. 138,Number 85
I
Microfilm Center, Inc.
Box 45436
Dallas Tx 75235
ntg
BASTROP
COUNTY
25*
Bastrop, Texas
Thursday, December 27, 1984
Regional sewer plant needed, examiner says
By Richard Goldsmith
A hearings examiner for the
Texas Department of Water
Resources recommended the cre-
ation of a regional sewage treat-
ment facility for Western Bastrop
County as a result of his consider-
ation of an application for a small
treatment plant in the area.
Carl X. Forrester reluctantly
recommended approval of a sew-
age treatment plant in far Western
Bastrop County, but only because
a regional treatment facility is not
available to handle the waste.
Saratoga Investments of Austin
applied to the Department of Water
Resources for a permit to build
what would be Bastrop County’s
first municipal utility district for a
development off of Pearce Lane
near the Travis County line. They
asked for a 350,000 gallon per day
plant based on initial plans to build
up to 1,000 homes in the develop-
ment, known as Elm Ridge Estates.
Later the number of homes
dropped to 350 and plans are now
uncertain.
Effluent from the plant would be
dumped into an unnamed tributary
of the Maha Creek, into the Maha,
hen into Cedar Creek and into, the
olorado River.
Attorney and Hearings Examiner
for the Texas Water Commission
t
Carl X. Forrester recommended
the 350,000 gallon per day treat-
ment plant be approved, but with
stricter requirements for the qual-
ity of effluent discharged from the
plant because the Colorado River
is already overburdened with dis-
charges from other sewage plants.
Forrester wrote in his seven-
page recommendation that because
of the “stressed” condition of the
Colorado River, a regional facili-
ty should be built to handle the
waste from the proposed subdivi-
sion and from other future de-
velopments.
Because no regional facility is
available, Forrester recommended
last week approval of the plant on
a short term basis.
Forrester wrote “Segment num-
ber 1402 of the Colorado River ba-
sin is presently under stress as a
result of inadequately treated ef-
fluent being discharged into it from
other permitted treatment plants.
The applicant was vague on many
issues which could effect down-
stream property owners including:
whether the plant will be in the
100-year flood plain, what the de-
veloper’s plans were for other
lands owned by the applicant in the
immediate area, what methods
would be used to insure that inade-
quately treated effluent would not
be discharged in the event of a
power failure, whether the appli-
cant would seek to enlarge the
treatment plant (in the event it were
permitted) to accomodate its own
future developments or other third
party developments in the area, and
who will be responsible for the
operation and maintenance of the
plant once the applicant no longer
has a proprietary interest in the
subdivision. Saratoga Investment’s
own vice president testified that the
decision not to use septic tanks was
an economic one, even though the
development would still be a
profitable one with the use of sep-
tic tanks.
“It appears in tax records that
this area in Bastrop County is soon
to be developed, either by the ap-
plicant or by other developers. If
each developer installs its own
treatment plant there would be a
proliferation of treatment plants
discharging into a stream segment
which Mr. McCarty (Robert
McCarty, engineer for Saratoga In-
vestments who designed the plant)
said was already not as clean as it
should be because of compliance
Continued on Page 4, Section fl
County highways deadly in 1984
Twenty-two persons have died
on the highways in Bastrop County
during 1984 according to the
Department of Public Safety, the
worst year since 1981 when 25
people died on county highways.
Nineteen fatal accidents caused
the deaths of 22 people in 1984 ac-
cording to DPS. In 1983, 11 per-
sons died in nine fatal mishaps,
eight persons were killed in 1982,
and 25 persons were killed in 20
fatal accidents during 1981.
A partial list of those killed dur-
ing 1984 shows that the two most
dangerous highways in the county
appear to be Highway 290 east of
Elgin and Highway 21 near Cedar
Truck hits signpost;
Bastrop man killed
A Bastrop man died in a one ve-
hicle accident Friday night when
his pickup truck struck a highway
sign at the T intersection of Farm
Roads 812 and 672 in Southwest
Bastrop County.
John Willard Pearson, 64, of
1105 Hill Street in Bastrop, was
declared dead at the scene at 9:20
p.m. by Justice of the Peace Bill
Henderson.
Pearson went through the inter-
section at about 8:23 p.m. accord-
ing to Department of Public Safety
Trooper Robert Klaus.
Klaus said it appeared that Pear-
son ran tne stop sign where 672 Ts
into 812 without ever applying his
brakes or taking any evasive ac-
tion. His 1984 Ford pickup struck
the sign post and then went through
two fence lines before coming to
rest in a pasture.
The sign post caved in the roof
of the pickup, injuring Pearson in
the head. Henderson ordered an
autopsy to determine the exact
cause of death and to determine if
there were any medical reasons as
to why Pearson went through the
intersection without taking evasive
action.
Creek. Seven people died on High-
way 21 in 1984, six of those near
Cedar Creek. Five persons died on
Highway 290.
What follows is a list taken from
the files of the Advertiser of all but
two of those who died on Bastrop
Highways during 1984.
Dec. 21 — John Willard Pear-
son, 64, of Bastrop, at the inter-
section of Farm to Market Roads
812 and 672.
Nov. 26 — Robert Wayne Bur-
gress, 21, of Webster, on Highway
290 east of Elgin.
Nov. 24 — Oswald Emanuel
Mercer, 36, of Austin, on High-
way 290 east of Elgin.
Nov, 10 — Jerry Burns, 50, of
Lexington, on Highway 290 east
of Elgin.
Nov. 7 — James Allen Dean, 26,
of Elgin, on Highway 21 west of
Cedar Creek.
Sept. 23 — James Franklin Mad-
dox, 21, of Maxwell; Starlene
Schultze Wilder, 30, of Maxwell,
on Highway 21 west of Cedar
Creek. „
Sept. 11 — Jimmy Ray Jacob,
19, of San Antonio, on Highway
21 east of Cedar Creek.
Aug. 22 — Arthur Henry
Zanders HI, 28, of Giddings;
Michael Lee Brown, 16, of Paige,
on Highway 290 east of Elgin near
Paige
June 25 — Marciano Ortiz
Castaneda, 35, of Bastrop, on
Farm to Market 535 west of
Rosanky.
June 3 — Clarence E. Stewart,
28, of Austin, on Highway 95
north of Elgin.
May 29 — Paul Quick, 75, of
Clarksville, on Highway 71 west
t)f Bastrop.
April 23 — Marvin Haywood,
58, of Bastrop, on Highway 71
west of Bastrop.
Feb. 25 — Russell Wayne Pape,
25, of Seguin, on Highway 20 west
of Red Rock.
Feb. 16 — Norene Windham,
30, of New Braunfels, on Highway
21 west of Cedar Creek.
Feb. 13 — Monico De Nova, 27,
of Pecan Grove, on Highway 71
west of Smithville.
Feb. 13 — David Wayne Peters,
24, of Austin, on Highway 71 west
of Smithville.
Jan. 1 — Arbon Mack Murphy,
42, of Paige; Arbon Murphy, 21,
of Paige, on Highway 21 east of
Bastrop.
Gigi Hill’s battle ends
Spirit
of the new year
Vibrant Gigi Griffiths Hill, 39,
who battled cancer for four years
and never gave up, died at the
M.D. Anderson Hospital in
Houston Dec. 18.
Zachary Anderson, nine
months, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Kenneth Anderson of Bastrop, is
ready ts ring in the new year.
> practicing his dance steps at
Hideout Early Learning
He’s |
the
Center. Staff Photo by Richard
Goldsmith
Citizens Bank
orders expansion
Citizens Bank will build an ad-
dition to its 10-year-old bank build-
ing starting around Jan. 1,
President Steve D. Rivers said
Friday. I
Contractor John C. Burns of
Smithville said he expects the work
to take approximately 90 days for
completion. The 1,118 sq. ft. ad-
dition will add two offices for bank
officers in the front and more space
for bookkeeping functions in the
back of the bank at 808 Main St.
The bank will front on the east
side rather than the north side when
the work is done;
A walk-up teller window more
accessible to motorists and a new
night depository will be provided
in the back of the building, ..~f
The bank will also be redecorat-
ed including new carpeting.
Rivers pointed out that the
76-year-old bank is adding services
and personnel to meet customer de-
mands in fast growing Bastrop
County. The new offices will al-
low the bank to make staff addi-
tions in 1985 for its new home loan
department and other services, he
said.
She was the wife of Yerger Hill
III, Board Chairman of First State
Bank and Smithville Bankshares.
Mrs. Hill, who visited Smithville
often with her husband as he tend-
ed to his business and real estate
interests, received the Betty Ford
Award last October from the Su-
san G. Komen Foundation in Dal-
las. The other recipients were
Happy Rockefeller and Betty Ford.
Hill said that his wife's only com-
ment, ori receiving the award, was
she dedicated it to women who
have the courage, desire and will-
power to fight cancer.
Funeral services were held Dec.
20 at St. Michael's Church in Dal-
las and burial followed at
Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial
Park.
Gail (Gigi) Griffiths Hill, a
fourth generation Texan, was bom
in Dallas in 1945. She graduated
from Hockaday School in 1963 and
from the University of Texas,
where she was an active member
of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and
majored in communications and
speech therapy, in 1967.
She married Yerger Hill,
descendant of a pioneer Bastrop
County family and Smithville High
School graduate, in 1967 and they
lived in Austin until his graduation
from law school.
Upon returning to Dallas in
1970, Mrs. Hill commenced her
charitable and community services
work. She served on the board of
St. Michael’s Episcopal School,
Hockaday Alumni Association,
T.A.C.A. Hesitation Club, the Su-
san G. Komen Foundation and the
Junior league of Dallas.
She was a member of the Crys-
tal Charity Ball Committee, Cat-
tle Baron’s Ball Committee,
Sweetheart Ball Committee. Dal-
las Women's Club and Bacchana-
lia Dance Club. She was active in
the Kappa Alpha Theta Alumni As-
- sociation of Dallas and received the
1984 Theta Twin Star Award. She
was a retired member of the Crys-
tal Charity Ball Best Dressed list
and was active in the Women’s
Auxiliary of Children’s Medical
Hospital and the Christ Child So-
ciety. She was an avid tennis player
and accomplished skier.
She is survived by her husband
Yerger Hill IH, daughters Gigi, 14,
and Debbie, 13, her mother Muriel
Griffiths and brother T.C.
Griffiths, all of Dallas.
The family requests that anything
done in the memory of Gigi
Griffiths Hill be contributed to the
Gigi Griffiths Hill fund at the
Hockaday School, M.D. Anderson
Hospital. The Susan G. Komen
Foundation or St. Michael’s and
All Angel’s Episcopal Church.
Mighty effort By Bastrop area
churches and citizens to aid
starving humans in Africa col-
lected over $5,000 given Friday
at First National Bank to Pam
Bell (second from left) to take to
American Red Cross that night.
Pictured (from left (^Bernice
Lewis, Mrs. Bell, Mrs^X’ather-
ine Robinson, Mrs. AlJ.jHyder,
O.D. DeShay, RevT David
Stewart, Mayor David Lock, Lucy
Blakeley and Rev. R.D. Smith.
Staff Photo by Brent Reich.
Hearts respond to famine
The spirit of Christmas came to
Bastrop in a big way this year as
citizens rich and poor raised over
$5,000 to aid famine victims in
Africa.
The money was turned over at
First National Bank Friday to
American Red Cross representative
Pam Belljffeastrop and she took
.he money that mghi u> the relict
<3
R.D. Smith of Bastrop, pastor of
Ml. Pleasant Baptist Church in El-
gin who helped organize the drive,
that Bastrop (pop. 4,200) raised
$5,000 and Austin (pop. 400,000)
$19,000 for the particular appeal.
The amount that «*■»
Bastrop is
however.
r
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Goldsmith, Richard. The Bastrop Advertiser and County News (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 138, No. 85, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 27, 1984, newspaper, December 27, 1984; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth746346/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bastrop Public Library.