The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 137, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 1990 Page: 1 of 48
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Vol. 137, No. 1
Two Sections, 22 Pages
Texas* Oldest Weekly Newspaper
Sine* March 1, 1853
Bastrop, Texas
505
Thursday, March 1, 1990
Bastrop county officials facing new subdivision problems
A recent flurry of new subdivi-
sion activity in Bastrop County
may suggest an upturn in the area
economy and is forcing county
commissioners to grapple with
some problems they’ve seldom
faced since 1987.
In response the commissioners
court acted Monday to limit for-
Smith ville
Hospital
costs up
The Smithville Hospital Authori-
ty listened to pros and cons of con-
tinuing their expensive worker’s
compensation coverage at Mon-
day’s meeting.
Kevin Reed, an Austin attorney
with the law firm of Davis and Da-
vis, updated board members on
current worker’s compensation
laws. Administrator Jim Langford
said premiums are now $6000 a
month with a hefty increase expect-
ed in April.
If the board drops coverage for
its hospital and nursing home em-
ployees, the Hospital Authority is
required by law to be self-insured.
No decision was made at the Feb.
26 meeting, he said.
Langford said that although
revenues wire up last month, ex-
penses were also high because a
quarterly worker’s compensation
premium of $18,000 was made in
January. He said it was a busy
month with 391 patient-days
logged—almost double the total one
year ago.
In other business, the hospital
purchased a $7000 chemistry
analyzer for their lab and spent
$14,000 for an additional cardiac
monitor.
Board President Charlie Jones,
Vice President Norman Pottsch-
midt and Secretary/Treasurer Leah
Edwards were reelected to serve
one-year terms as board officers.
Elgin buys
ventilator
Elgin’s ambulance is now one of
two emergency medical services in
the region to become equiped with
a ventilator that automatically mo-
nitors and controls a patient’s
breathing rate.
According to Ed Biggs, Elgin
EMS paramedic, only Starflight,
the Austin helicopter emergency
medical service, and Elgin EMS
can boast an automatic ventilator.
The $1,200 ventilator was paid
for by the City of Elgin.
Continued on Page 3, Section I
mally the role of a recently named
subdivision review panel and estab-
lish a new fee schedule for de-
velopers seeking approval of plats
in order to recoup engineering
review costs.
At the same time the court ques-
tioned plans of one developer to
subdivide a 430:acre tract west of
Bastrop into five-acre parcels, each
slated to have an on-site wastewater
system and a domestic water sup-
ply well.
Developer Robert Ingrum said
subdivisions similar to his pro-
posed 67-lot The Woodlands south
of Texas 71 and west of FM 20
have proved successful near Cedar
Creek.
Commissioners Jim V. Mogonye
and Johnny Sanders separately
voiced concern that so many wells
and septic tanks so close together
could pose water contamination
problems in the future.
Ingrum said state water officials
report an abundance of ground-
water in the area.
The plat was accepted for
preliminary review.
Ingrum has not approached Bas-
trop about his development in the
city’s extra-territorial jurisidetion,
officials said.
Also accepted for preliminary
review Monday was J.E. Wolf’s
DEAR TEC
Advertiser Photo/Sherri Baker Levens
Antioch Baptist Church members Blanche Davis (left to right), Wilma Davis, Lillie Veal
and Mildred Martin write to state officials at BCEN letter-writing clinic Monday.
Letters launched
Incenerator questioned by area writers
The Bastrop County Environ-
mental Network is up and running
although it isn’t officially or-
ganized.
Tonight activists and concerned
county residents will meet at 7
p.m. in the District Courtroom on
the second floor of the courthouse
to elect officers and set bylaws.
Getting a head start on work
Monday, organizers met with
members of the Antioch Baptist
Church for a letter writing clinic.
Church member Mildred Mar-
tin, who lives 400 yards from a
proposed transformer burner, said
her letters to four state officials
asks them to “take control and
see...that we’re safe and (don’t
have to) worry about toxic chemi-
cals, fires and ways to put out
fires.”
The Texas Electric Coopera-
tives, Inc. of Austin has requested
a special permit from the Texas Air
Control Board to burn transform-
ers, some contaminated with poly-
chlorinated biphenyls (PCB), in a
furnace on FM 304.
TEC officials said they plan to
begin operating the burner within
two months if the permit is ap-
proved.
County residents packed the Bas-
trop district courtroom Feb. 12 to
question company managers and
TACB engineers. Not satisfied
with the answers they were given,
some residents began forming an
organization to represent county
environmental concerns. The
letter-writing clinic was planned at
a previous session of the group.
In her letter, Martin said she is
worried about her property values
if the TEC burner is located near
her, but her main concern is the
health and safety of her family. She
has lived in the neighborhood for
17 years.
Wilma Davis, who has lived
there since 1945, said, “I’m scared
to try to make a garden this year.
I started and then stopped.” Mar-
tin pointed out that Davis’ family
depends on her garden for
vegetables.
Rancher Johnnie White ex-
pressed concern about the effect of
burning PCB-contaminated trans-
formers on the water table, area
gardens and his cattle which graze
three miles from the furnace.
White said he grew up in the
area, moved away and has been
back for five years.
About twelve area residents
joined activists at the Baptist
Church off Watterson Road Mon-
day night to write letters about their
worries to State Sen. Ken Arm-
brister and Rep. Robert Saunders,
Congressman Jake Pickle and U.S.
Senator Lloyd Bentson.
Letter writers were assisted by
typist Karen Kauffman, Ann Mes-
robian, Glenn Whitehead and
others.
proposed 100-acre High Pines sub-
division on County Road 338 in
southern Bastrop County.
Earlier this month commission-
ers received preliminary plans for
Dick Scheme’s Valley Creek
Ranch subdivision, and last month
Continued on Page 2, Section I
Adams lauds
county’s LEC
Backs Copeland stance
By Davis McAuley
Former Bastrop County Precinct
1 commissioner T. J. Adams ap-
peared before commissioners court
Monday to boost a controversial
project now strongly backed by a
former political foe, County Judge
Jimmy Copeland.
Adams, defeated for reelect ion
in 1988, also acknowledged Mon-
day he is boosting another project
which has drawn criticism on
Copeland as he seeks the
Democratic nomination for a se-
cond term against four challengers.
Adams, who chaired an appoint-
ed steering committee which deve-
loped plans for the new $7.5
million jail, appeared Monday as
a representative of the panel to
praise the project.
His sentiments drew added sup-
port from Copeland and Commis-
sioners Jim V. Mogonye—who is
also seeking reelection this year—
and Johnny Sanders.
Sheriff Con Kerisey also praised
the jail now nearing completion
near Texas 71 in Bastrop.
“My feeling is that Bastrop
County got a little bit more than its
money 's worth " in the new jail and
law enforcement office complex,
Adams said. “It’s better built that
what we’ve got here,” he added in
reference to the 20-bed jail on the
Courthouse block which was built
in 1974 under the guidance of
former county judge Jack
Griesenbeck.
Griesenbeck, who declined to
seek reelection in 1986 and sup-
ported Copeland then, has been
among the leading critics of the
new 144-bed jail since he an-
nounced his candidacy for a new
term as the county’s chief adminis-
trative officer.
“Those who criticize the new jail
don’t know what they’re talking
about or don’t understand,”
Adams said, “or they have an ax
to grind or some future personal
gain in mind."
The new jail should be efficient
to operate and should meet the
county’s needs for two decades, he
said. “No matter what anyone
says, you got a hell of a deal,” said
Adams.
The new jail has taken “a lot of
Continued on Page 2, Section I
LCRA fuel rebate goes
to Bastrop consumers
City of Bastrop electric cus-
tomers will be getting a cash rebate
in the mail for overpaid fuel
charges, the city council decided
Tuesday.
For a resident who uses an aver-
age 500 kilowatt hours of electric-
ity a month the refund will come
to $6.54. An average bill for 1,000
kilowatt hours will bring a $13.08
refund, said City Manager Henry
Cunningham Jr.
The money came last month
from the Lower Colorado River
Authority which returned $41,759
to Bastrop for overcollected fuel
charges between 1987 and 1989.
Even if the refund is only $10 to
$15 for many city residents “it
sounds like a lot to the people,”
said Council Member Willie De La
Rosa. “It’s their money.”
Council Member Dock Jackson
agreed. “A lot of people have con-
tacted me,” Jackson said. “They
want their money back.”
“I say give it back to the peo-
ple,” said Mayor David Lock who
Continued on Page 2, Section I
Judge candidates speak
at environment forum
Four of five candidates courted
the questions of a small gathering
of environmentalists at a county
judge forum Tuesday in the com-
missioners’ courtroom.
Rancher M.R. (Pete) Smith did
not appear during the hour and a
half forum sponsored by the Bas-
trop Audobon Society . Candidates
Andy Blaschke, Judge Jimmy
Copeland, Randy Fritz and- Jack
Griesenbeck exposed their views
on Bastrop’s environmental policy
to the 25 to 30 county residents
there.
Copeland was grilled about the
tax abatement given to Texas Elec-
tric Cooperatives, Inc. which plans
to move its Transformer Division
to a site on FM 304.
He said TEC met county tax
abatement guidelines which require
a company to hire at least 10 em-
ployees and make a capital invest-
ment of at least $250,000 to
qualify. TEC said they will hire 68
employees and build a facility in
excess of $4 million, Copeland
said.
He said TEC was given a 25 per-
cent tax abatement for 10 years, but
added that the company did not
mention their sweat furnace when
talking to county officials.
Copeland said he will meet with
TEC managers and representatives
of the Texas Air Control Board
soon.
Fritz said, “We’ve gotten off on
the wrong track” offering tax
v::
INDEX
Classified....
.....II, p. 2
Coining Up......I p. 16
Deaths.......
Letters.......
People........
Sports........
.....I p. 12
Conflict denied by trustee
abatements to lure prospective bus-
inesses to the county. He said it
was unfair to existing property
owners.
“We ought to give tax abatement
to someone who’s paid his taxes on
time for 50 years,” Fritz argued.
He said he would offer a small
abatement to busir ses as a last
Continued on Page 3, Section I
Conflict of interest charges sur-
faced quickly in one race for a Bas-
trop school board position while
another candidate criticized plans
to name a new superintendent be-
fore the May 5 trustee election.
In the Elgin school district one
incumbent has drawn an early op-
ponent and another announced her
reelection bid.
In Smithville only incumbent
SISD trustee Cherrell Rose had
filed for reelection by Tuesday.
Jeannie Krell placed her name on
the ballot for incumbent BISD
trustee Ray Long’s^Place 3 board
seat. Long also filed for reelection.
Krell said Long holding a seat on
the school board poses a conflict
of interest with his position as a
director of First National Bank of
Bastrop, the school system’s
depository bank.
Long, a 10-year veteran of the
board, rejected the charge.
“There is no conflict of interest
in the way we’ve done business on
either end,” Long said. “I do not
participate in the discussion and I
abstain from voting” on deposito-
ry bank contract awards and other
school board business involving the
bank.
Long said he also makes it a poli-
cy not to vote as a bank director
on issues related to the school sys-
tem, though that is not required by
law.
Krell said the conflict is inher-
ent in Long holding the two po-
sitions.
“For the conflict of interest,
which ‘they’ say doesn’t matter—
the conflictors just abstain from
voting on such items. Why are
‘they’ allowed to run when the con-
flict is there going in?” Krell said.
Long, 47, said during a new
term he hopes to continue expand-
ing the school curriculum and to
“look for other ways to improve. ”
He is part owner of the Chrysler-
Dodge-Plymouth dealership in
Bastrop.
Krell, 69, said her candidacy will
“champion ‘they’ for the children
to be treated as live human beings,
rather than cattle to be herded for
slaughter.”
“We’ve had so nice to see you,
so Long, maybe dreaming of Jean-
nie could now be the song,” she
said. “I’m just going to be for the
youngsters.”
Krell said she is retired after
working with computers and audit-
ing, chiefly in the oil business.
Continued on Page 3, Section I
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McAuley, Davis. The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 137, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 1990, newspaper, March 1, 1990; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth747387/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bastrop Public Library.