Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 24, No. 83, Ed. 1 Monday, July 24, 1989 Page: 1 of 18
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18 PAGES IN 2 SECTIONS
MONDAY
EDITION
Vol. 24 No. 83
July 24, 1989
/
BURLESON^STAp
I
F
COPYRIGHT® 1989 BURLESON STAR
..i Delivery
.45-0486
4fti
State changes
to benefit local
Crimestoppers
BY SALLY ELLERTSON
The state legislature has made
some changes in how the Crimestop-
pcr program is run and those changes
are positive.
"I think they're all needed and
appreciated," Burleson Crimestop-
per President Dick Nash said. "It's a
recognition on the part of the state
legislature that Crimestoppers is
working and they are wanting to
keep it around."
There are three changes as of
May. All Crimestopper programs
must undergo certification in order
to be eligible for state grants for
training. A set of guidelines for cer-
tification has been constructed with
an annual audit by an independent
accounting firm being the only thing
that Burleson doesn't already com-
ply with.
The other two changes involve
the offender. A judge can impose a
fine of up to $50 to be paid to the local
Crimestopper program as a stipula-
tion of probation for any offender
convicted of anything above a class
"C" misdemeanor. The second
change gives the judge the leeway
to order an offender to pay back to
the Crimestopper program the
amount of money that was paid out
for a reward to arrest and convict him
or her.
"THE BILL specifically ad-
dresses assessing fines and gives the
judge that option," Crimestooper
Coordinator Lt. Dorrita Keefer said.
The Burleson program is on an
upswing with more publicity and
more involvement in the commu-
nity. It boasts 11 voting members
including Nash, Allyne Middleton,
vice president, Nick Kerr, secretary,
Bill Stribling, treasurer, Marlene
Kilbum, J.T. Bartce, Dennis Key,
Ed Minor, Sue Tice, Dora Ussery,
Howard Wright, Keefer, and Sally
Ellertson, publicity.
"Our main goal this year was to
get more people aware of Crimestop-
pers," Middleton said.
Crimestoppers raised the most
money ever in this year's jail-a-thon
with $5,065.93 plus more in pledges
coming from Bealls Department
Store.
Twenty business people agreed
to be on the Most Wanted List and
donate $200 and still more were ar-
rested by "friends."
Crimestoppers constructed an
eye-catching float for the Fourth of
July parade in this, their first year of
participating. The parade sported two
telephones, a giant telephone dial
with 295-LEAD on it, and a jail,
complete with convicts, a judge, and
a bailiff.
"WE APPRECIATE the pub-
lic response with the parade and with
the jail-a-thon," Nash said.
But, Crimestoppers is not all
fun, it's a lot of hard work too. Three
months of preparation go into the
jail-a-thon with the board of direc-
tors meeting once a month and some-
times more.
"We utilize the different talents
of the different members on the
board," Nash said. "The rewards are
suggested (by Keefer), the cases are
reviewed, and it is voted on."
Rewards of up to $ 1,000 are paid
to informants who call a tip into 295-
LEAD (295-5323) that leads to the
arrest and indictment of a suspect.
The informant remains anonymous,
receiving only a code number to iden-
tify him or her in future conversations
and his or her name is never asked.
"It gets right down to the citi-
zens. You can call Crimestoppers
and help them solve a crime. It's a
legal way to give good information
and help stop something or solve
something without getting directly
involved," Nash said.
Of course, it takes training to
know how to deal with topics raised
by the board. That training comes in
the form of schools for basic Cri-
mestoppers, advanced Crimestop-
pers, the state convention, interna-
tional Convention, and specific con-
ference topics such as interviewing
techniques.
"WE LEARN WHAT laws we
have to abide by, the best way to
promote Crimestoppers, and ways
they give rewards," l^iddleton said.
The training involves the techni-
cal and legal aspects of the Crime-
stopper program. It also gives local
programs qn outlet to learn different
ways that other programs handle in-
formants, reward amounts, and the
way that money is exchanged.
Grants are used to send Cri-
mestopper board members to the
training. The only time that the
money raised in the jail-a-thon is
used for training is for the interna-
tional conference that occurs once a
year. At that time the board pays for
the coordinator and the president to
Please see MONEY, pg. 2
ip . "R1?
9
1
Fun In The Sun!
A group of Burleson youth kick back and relax as well as act like kids
while out on a break from the pool. The group gathered at a shady
pavillion at the community center Friday afternoon to dry off and mug
for the camera. The hot temperatures lately have driven everybody to
the water to cool off or inside under air conditioning. Photo by Mark
Smith.
Sales tax gains for July mirror
increases of 1st half of the year
The second half of the year has
started out a virtual mirror reflection
of the first half—and for a welcome
change, that's not half bad.
It's not bad at all, in fact, as 1989
has generally been a better year than
the previous couple. That's basically
true for Burleson as well as the re-
mainder of the Lone Star State.
For the first six months of 1988,
the city of Burleson received a total
of $559,947 in sales tax rebates from
State Comptroller Bob Bullock's of-
fice. That's 25 percent more than the
$448,502 the city received the previ-
ous year.
The payment for the month of
June amounted to $75,257, in itself a
23 percent increase over June of
1988. x
The most recent check received
by the city was the July check for
$73,256. It's only a 7 percent in-
crease over last July, but the year as
LITTLE BED .
SCHOOLHOUSE
PROGRAM 1
I wish to participate in the Burleson Ministerial
Alliance Auxiliary's Little Red Schoolhouse Pro-
gram as indicated below:
□ My child would be happy to have new shoes for school.
□ My child would be happy to have new clothes for school.
□ My child would be happy to have the school supplies.
he/she needs for the •_grade.
Child’s name
Sizes: shoe
dress
Child's name
Sizes: shoe
dress
Child’s name .
Sizes: shoe
dress
Parent's name
Address_
Phone _
Age
shirt/blouse
pants _
Age
shirt/blouse
pants _
Age
shirt/blouse
pants _
No. in family
Reason help is requested:
Deadline for return of application it Aug. 7. Mail to: Holiday Frienda, P.O. Box 1113. Burleson, Texas 76023. Distribu-
tion of clothes and school supplies will be Aug. 22. For questions call 295-3100 (before Aug. 1): or 295-0125 (after
Abj 1J r&OGKAM IS FOR CHILDREN IN THE B18D ONLY.
a whole is still up 22.5 percent—
more than twice the statewide aver-
age.
For seven months, the city has
accumulated $633,204 through the
sales tax. Last year's figure through
seven months was $517,083.
The sales tax gains obviously
benefit some more than others, and
Burleson has been among the big
winners in Johnson County so far
this year. During June, for example,
the county showed an overall gain of
$14,000 in sales tax payments—
exactly the amount of increase
shown by Burleson.
The gains were a little more
evenly distributed in July, but then
four losers numbered among the 10
Johnson County cities assessing the
optional one percent city sales tax.
Winners were Alvarado, Bria-
roaks, Burleson, Cleburne, Grand-
view, and Venus. The losers were
Godley, Joshua, Keene, and Rio Vis-
ta.
Joshua wasn't down much for
the month, from $7,108 last year to
$6,803 this year. The city is still 10.4
percent ahead of last year's pace with
$57,348 collected for the year.
_________Cleburne was up JiL2 percent
for the month with a check for
$113,235. For the first half of the
year, Cleburne was just barely level
with last year's pace but a good July
'Children at play'
check brought it 2.2 percent ahead of
the corresponding period of '88.
Briaroaks was 16.1 percent
ahead of last July's payment with a
check for $696. Through July, Bria-
roaks had collected $2,918, a gain of
6.3 percent.
For six months, Johnson County
cities were 9.7 percent ahead of last
year’s pace and that figure had only
changed .1 percent following July’s
round of checks.
Tarrant County is running about
a percent and a quarter behind that,
percentagewise. Through July, Tar-
rant County cities are 8.6 percent
ahead of last year.
Crowley is probably one city
that is glad to be reversing the trend of
the first half of the year. The July
check for that city was $8,079, which
is 27.5 percent more than last year's
$6,339.
For the first half of the year,
Crowley was 11.8 percent behind the
1988 pace. July marked the second
straight month of gains, however.
Bullock noted that sales tax re-
bates continued to climb across the
state, increasing by 12 percent over
JastJuIy'spaymems.---------——
"National economic indicators
seem to be showing a slowdown, but
the trend in Texas remains upward,”
Bullock said. "Our diversifying eco-
nomic base should ensure that we
continue to do well."
Bullock added that Texas' eco-
nomic growth is becoming apparent
in almost every sector of the econ-
omy.
"Oil and gas, construction, bank-
ing, and real estate appear to have
bottomed out. And some of the areas
in Texas that lagged behind in eco-
nomic growth are beginning to show
signs of improvement," Bullock said.
Rebate checks totaling $68.7
million were sent Monday to 939
cities that impose local sales tax at
either one or one and one-half per-
cent, BuJlock said.
Houston's allocation of $11.2
million was the largest in the state.
Dallas' check was the second largest,
with a payment of $7.6 million.
The state's six metropolitan tran-
sit authorities and one city transit
department received $34.5 million,
an increase of 16.1 percent, accord-
ing to Bullock.
Another $6.9 million was allo-
cated to 92 counties that collect the
one-half percent county sales tax.
Neither Johnson nor Tarrant
■Gountyimposesthc tax. --------------
July's checks represent taxes
collected by monthly filprs in May
and reported to the comptroller's of-
fice by June 20, Bullock said.
Residents concerned about signs
BY JOHN FLORES
For the second time in 15
years, a young child was struck by
an automobile on Northwest Wood
street in Burleson. But the second
lime—a child was killed.
On May 29, 1989, Shea Jobe
w;is struck by a vehicle while
playing on the street, and two
weeks later, she died from injuries
sustained in the accident.
Since that time, residents of
the street have voiced concerns
about their children, aware of the
possibility that an accident could
easily happen again.
Beth Anderson, a Wood Street
resident, went before the Burleson
City Council after the accident and
requested that the council allow a
sign to be installed on the winding
street, providing motorists the
opportunity to realize that children
are often at play in the area.
But City Engineer Kenneth
Griffin responded to Anderson's
initial inquiry by saying the city
could not allow the installation of
any type of sign not* covered by
new guidelines.
Bill Page, of the State
Department of Highways and
Public Transportation in Fort
Worth, said "cities sometimes have
variance on the issue of signs...but
die state is governed by guidelines.”
Page was quick to concur with
the city engineer's assessment that
sign placement would not "do much
good if you can’t enforce it (the
law)," he said. "A lot of it (the
problem) just goes down to the
enforcement of speeding," he said.
Griffin said he sees the
problem (on Wood Street) being the
reverse curve, and overhang trees.
(We're) trying to put up some
reverse curve signs, and trim the
trees back,” he said.
Griffin stated in a recent City
Council Agenda Report addressing
the subject of the installation of
"Children at Play" signs, that "It is
my recommendation that the
"Caution children at play" signs not
be insulted on Wood Street."
Griffin based his recommendation
on the Texas Manual of Uniform
Traffic Devices, which states that
"die use of warning signs should be
kept to a minimum because the
unnecessary use of them to warn of
conditions which are apparent tends
to breed disrespect for all signs.”
Since Jobe's death, Anderson
has been struggling to gain some
preventive measures to ensure other
children are spared the grief of
having a child hurt or even killed.
But Anderson is not the only parent
with a strong opinion in this case.
Robert Moorhead, a 15-year
resident of Wood Street, expressed
favor for the signs.
"We have so many small
children on this street," Moorhead
said. "1 think there's a real need for
it (a caution sign). Personally, L
would like to see a sign go up, just
to kind of warn the drivers...I've
caught them coming up the street
pretty fast. I'm all in favor of it
Please see Sidewalks, Page 3A
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Moody, James. Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 24, No. 83, Ed. 1 Monday, July 24, 1989, newspaper, July 24, 1989; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth761128/m1/1/: accessed July 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Burleson Public Library.