Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 18, No. 100, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 29, 1983 Page: 1 of 24
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Gear up for industry
See, It Doesn't
Hurt A Bit
While Wal-Mart Manager Jim Pfeiffer looks on. Officer Jnlie Duckett of the
Burleson Police Department takes fingerprints from 16 month old Cody Wright.
About 1,200 children were fingerprinted and photographed Saturday at Wal-Mart.
Accompanying Cody to the store was his mother, Julie Wright.
1200 kids fingerprinted
The long line Saturday was reminis-
cent of Six Flags and the bag of M&M
candy in each little hand reminded you
of F&M Bank. Actually it was neither,
though. The place was Wal Mart Dis-
count City where 1200 children were
photographed. But it wasn't your typi-
cal photo package for 99 cents. Besides
having their pictures made for free,
each of the children was also finger-
printed on cards which were then given
to the parents.
They were there—most of them—be-
cause of two recent child kidnappings in
the Metroplex; one of them in Grand
Prairie and the other in Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth child, Cherie Kennedy,
had Burleson connections. Her grand-
parents live here. Here grandmother,
Jean Walker, was ai Wal Mart Satur-
day volunteering her time to finger-
print other children. She knows what
the heartbreak of a missing child is
like. If it was fear that brought people
there, though, the mood of the crowd
was anything but somber, despite the
wait of up to an hour. Adults visited
with each other and took turns holding
places in the line while the kids munch-
ed the refreshments provided by Wal
Mart and made some new, if tempor-
ary, friends. "I don’t know why I’m
here,” one parent commented to anoth-
er. “My kicte has left his fingerprints on
every wall in our house.”
The stated hours for the photograph-
ing and fingerprinting was 9-4, but that
stretched out until 6:00 that evening.
Wal Mart Manager Jim Pheiffer
expressed his appreciation to Mrs.
Walker and the police department vo-
lunteers who worked long hours that
day to get the kids fingerprinted. He
said the turnout was about 25 percent
higher than anticipated.
Despite the tremendous response,
there probably won’t be another finger-
print session scheduled, he said. “We
would have been glad to do it again if
there were no other way for parents to
get this service,” he said.
There is, though. Wal Mart has given
its extra forms to the Burleson Police
Department and Police Chief Don Max-
on says that the police will administer
the program on an ongoing basis. All
that’s required, he said, is to call the
police department before bringing a
child down to be photographed and
fingerprinted.
Burleson faces certain loss of quality
city services and facilities, the degra-
dation of a good school system, and a
general decline in the good life or faces
an intolerable increase in city and
school district taxes to keep up with the
growth. The only way out of this
predicament, according to Barbara
Gieser, executive vice-president of the
Burleson Chamber of Commerce, is for
Burleson to attract at least five major
industries over the next 10 years.
Toward this goal, Gieser financed
herself’W a' tour arranged by the
West Texas Chamber of Commerce to
three cities in California where indus-
tries had expressed interest in reloca-
ting to Texas.
As a result of 1,300 invitations sent to
California industries by Gov. Mark
White, 85 industries in Los Angeles, 74
in San Francisco, and 59 in Santa Clara
attended luncheons and meetings in
those cities to discuss the advantages of
Texas locations in 25 West Texas towns.
“Cleburne raised their ad valorem
tax by 1 cent to generate $38,000 for
industrial development,” Gieser said.
“They had eight people on the tour
including their city manager. I sent a
letter to Mark Sowa explaining the trip,
but I did not approach the city directly
to ask for funds. I also sent the letter to
the bankers and anyone else I thought
might be interested, but since no one
was, I went by myself to see what it was
all about.”
Gieser explained that the West Texas
Chamber had been conducting these
tours for the past five years and this
was the first year she felt ready to
participate. She found, however, that
Burleson was not prepared.
“CLEBURNE HAD a very nice infor-
mation package, professionally pre-
pared with easily read statistics on the
area,” she said. “It was in a very
attractive book-like format. I put to-
gether a package that was a poor
excuse, but it was all I had. I had some
folders left over from the building fund
drive and I included an aerial photo just
to get their attention. I threw in a chart
that shows our proximity to the metro-
plex and added a community profile
and a Burleson map which is the only
thing we have for a brochure.”
Gieser said the city and the chamber
have no funds for anything resembling
the Cleburne package or the number of
representatives that were sent. How-
ever, funding for a PR package is not
the most difficult hurdle for Burleson to
overcome.
“Burleson is falling short somewhere
because we are losing out on these
industries,” Gieser said. “We do not
have glamorous industrial sites. We
will have to annex some land and get it
ready to support an industry. The new
land we got in the swap with Fort Worth
would make a good industrial site
because it goes right up to the rail, but I
would be concerned about the types of
industries that moved into it. The
buildings would have to be extremely
attractive because this would be the
first thing people would see of Burleson
as they were coming in.”
Gieser said that Burleson needs to
offer industries land that is very rea-
sonably priced, serviced by water,
electricity, and other utilities. She also
said that Burleson needs to begin acting
now.
“ALL THE TOWNS around us are
See Chamber, Page 2A
More discussion on CR 600
Johnson County may be ready to talk
seriously with the highway department
about improvements to the old Alvar-
ado Highway.
County Judge Tommy Altar as has
written a letter to Les Frenoh, district
design engineer for the Texas Depart-
ment of Highways and Public Trans-
portation, requesting a meeting on the
county road situation in the county.
Specifically mentioned in the letter was
CR 600, the Old Alvarado Highway.
Although the road is already designa-
ted a farm-to-market road almost to the
city limits in Burleson, city officials are
still interested in seeing the road im-
proved at least to FM 917, if not all the
way to Alvarado. The subject of the Old
Alvarado Highway is one of only four
items on the agenda at a special council
meeting tonight.
At that meeting, the council will
consider approval of a letter to Altaras
concerning his proposed meeting with
French. The council instructed the city
staff to prepare the letter at its last
meeting
IN THAT LETTER, the city will ask
for representation at any meeting held
with highway department representa-
tives in regard to CR 600.
The city is also expected to point out
problems with the road in its current
state, such as the condition of the
pavement, the traffic count, and the
hazardous conditions for school buses.
It may also be pointed out that the
greatest population growth in the coun-
ty is in the northern portion of Johnson
County and that use of the road will only
increase as the population grows.
Last month, in an update from State
Representative Bruce Gibson, the fate
of CR 600 looked anything but rosy. He
said he had been advised that the
highway department was updating a
20-year plan for new highway construc-
tion which was scheduled to be com-
pleted by April, 1984.
Priorities may not be determined
until the completion of the plan, he said.
However, he added, “because of the
project’s estimated cost ($3.7 million to
widen the entire 12 miles), traffic
count, and lack of available funds, I am
told the project may be assigned a low
priority.”
CITY OFFICIALS obviously want a
number one priority on the project and
would like to see the county intensify its
efforts to convert the road to the FM
system.
It was pointed out in January during
testimony in Austin that Johnson Cou-
ty has been inconsistent in the acquisi-
tion of right-of-way on farm-to-market
and bridge improvement projects.
The county’s share of the estimated
$350,000 to widen the Twin Bridges
would be about $70,000 since the county
is responsible for 20 percent of that
cost. The county would also have to
purchase the right-of-way before wi-
dening of the road could take place.
Should county commissioners em-
phasize their desire to participate fi-
nancially in the improvement of the
road, the project might be looked upon
with more favor by the highway depart-
ment, city officials believe.
Chum hor Cum . Barbara Gieser, executive vice-president of the Burleson Area Chamber of Com-
MjUUIllUVr \jumpieies merce, shows Board Member Gordon Cockerham the new board room (top photo)
Afnnv Tu Nmti rn/.;i;K, and then carves the date in wet cement in front of the new building. Although
1TEUV tr MU IJKIMJ V Utility telephone service has yet to be transferred, the chamber is now operating out of
the new facilities on Highway 174.
Kennard blast accidental
An accidental butane explosion Fri-
day evening resulted in considerable
damage to the home of Carlton Ken-
nard, former adult probation director
for Johnson County.
The blast occurred shortly after Ken-
nard lit a match to check the hot water
heater at his home, located on County
Road 304 near Grandview. The force of
the explosion blew Kennard across the
room but miraculously failed to cause
serious injury to either he or his wife,
both present at the time of the explo-
sion.
“The man upstairs had his hand on
our shoulders. If we had been in a
different pert of the house, it might
have been a different story,” said
Kennard in a telephone interview Mon-
day. The explosion occurred in the
north end of the house near the kitchen
'~»A r • 'Y r
- - r—'. -■
at 8 p.m., with most of the damage
occurring on the south end.
KENNARD SAID AN insurance ad-
juster had completed inspection of the
home but that no official amount of
damage had been established yet. Ken-
nard feels, as do Johnson County Sher-
iff’s department officials, who investi-
gated the incident, that the explosion
was the result of accidental gas leakage
and is not attributable to any type of
foul play.
A new
had reportedly
pair work completed only days before
the Friday ex|dosi0n. The system had
been checked out and reported as sound
b” the plumbing company. Sgt. Ray
Luther of the sheriff’s department indi-
cated the explosion was probably a
result of either a malfunction of the
, I ■1 ' A' I1*1'!'1 '
safety switch on the pilot light of the
water heater, or an underground leak in
the butane system.
“Common wear and tear on the
underground system and the workings
of Mother Nature on the fittings of the
pipe probably caused a leakage some-
where in the system,” he said.
' Glass was reportedly blown out of
some of the windows as the force of the
explosion lifted the home off its founda-
... . tions. Brick at the south end of the home
underground butane system was knocked off, and the ceiling below
•tedly been installed and re- collapsed. A small fire In the insulation
was extinguished by the Grandview
Volunteer Fire Department, said Lu-
ther.
KENNARD IS NOT considering a
lawsuit. "I had insurance; I just want
See Blast, Page 2A
, .<*y.„. . «- M • ■ ' %. •*
“flAsy.. —
Chamber home
in new facility
The Burleson Area Chamber of Com-
merce is open for business in its new
location on south Highway 174, but
much of the business—at least for
now—consists of unpacking crates,
moving furniture around, and generally
getting settled in to the new facilities.
Most of the move was made Satur-
day, but the chamber staff has still
been shuttling back and forth between
the old and new offices this week. And
they’ll probably have to continue to do
that until the phones are installed at the
174 location.
“We would, of course have preferred
to move into a building that was al-
ready paid for,” said Chamber Execu-
tive Vice-President Barbara Gieser,
“but just being here is the realization of
a long term goal for the chamber.”
The $152,000 chamber office and visi-
tors center still lacks about $35,000
being paid for. There was $65,000 in the
building fund when construction began
back in the spring and a fund raising
drive this summer netted another
$51,880.
MONEY IS STILL trickling in to the
building fund and all donations will
gladly be accepted, Gieser said.
A formal open house will be held in
late October, after everything hopefully
settles down into a routine, Gieser said.
The building contains 2,994 square
feet and features a ramp to accomodate
the handicapped. There is a reception
area, secretary’s office, vice-presi-
dent's office, a general office, a board
room, small kitchen, and a lobby.
A flagpole will be erected in front
with a plaque dedicated to the memory
of three former chamber members who
had an interest in a new building for the
chamber. They are Wayne Hutson,
former publisher of the Burlenon Star,
Joe Gude, who was the head phar-
macist at Hilley’s; and Jimmy Schu-
macher, a developer and local busi-
nessman. Money collected in the
chamber memorial fund for each of
these men will be used to purchase the
flagpole.
“This new facility belongs to the
businesspeople of Burleson. I hope
they’ll use it and take advantage of
what we have to offer,” Gieser said.
Guardian Construction Co. construc-
ted the building under the construction
management method.
MICR0FIIM CENTER
PO KK 45436 ,
DALLAS tx 75245
BURLES0
24 PAGES IN 2 SECTIONS
THURSDAY
EDITION
For Mail Delivery
295-0486
Vol. 18 No. 100
September 29, 1983
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Moody, James. Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 18, No. 100, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 29, 1983, newspaper, September 29, 1983; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth760701/m1/1/: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Burleson Public Library.