Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 3, Ed. 1 Monday, October 27, 1980 Page: 1 of 16
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MICROFILM CL.LflP OF TEX., INC.
P.O. »OX i+52+3^» t
JALLAS, TX 7W
On The Inside
SECTION A
Folks..........................2
Sports....................... 3-5
Classified....................«-7
SECTION H
People. Etc.......... I
Church News..................:t
■tain Makers............. I
lluguley Report................«
Kendon Banquet...............7
Water, Sewer Rate Study OK’d
A two-year water and sewer rate
study will be conducted for the city of
Burleson by Willis, Graves and Assoc.
Cost of the study is not to exceed
$3,400, without further approval accor-
ding to terms of a contract approved
unanimously Thursday night by the
Burleson City Council.
The company conducted the last
water and sewer rate study conducted
for the city—a three year study for the
fiscal years 1978-80.
An increased rate will be necessary
for the upcoming year for two reasons,
according to City Finance Director Joe
Barrett. First, the city has absorbed
higher costs for both water and sewer
treatment from the City of Fort Worth
and , second, Burleson has to maintain
revenue equal to at least one and a half
times its bond requirements or risk loss
of its bond rating.
Last year’s revenue was just 1.58
times the bond requirements, he told
the council, and would have been even
closer than that except for the hot, dry
summer which resulted in heavy water
consumption by residents.
Two areas of the present rate struc-
ture sure to get lengthy looks in a rate
study are reduced rates as water usage
increases and the ratio between rates
for water and sewer.
BOTH WATER AND SEWER should
be self-supporting, the council was told
by a representative from Willis, Graves
and Assoc., and presently the sewer
revenue is subsidized by water reven-
ue.
As for reduced rates per gallon as
consumption increases, the council was
reminded that the city's cost per gallon
actually increases during periods of
peak demand. “A decreasing rate is
just not justified anymore,” the council
was told.
The study should be completed within
a month, but new rates probably won’t
go into effect until early next year. Two
readings will be required on the ordi-
nance increasing rates.
However, the sooner the rates can go
into effect, the lower they will be. When
revenue requirements for the year are
See Water, Page 2A
Accident
Injures 4
Four Burleson residents were in
jured in a collision on the South
Freeway Friday afternoon that caused
two cars to overturn.
Freddy Middlebrook, 25, of 600 San-
dra was apparently the most seriously
injured. He was in intensive care at
Harris Hospital in what was described
as stable condition
Also hospitalized was Judie Parton
Beam, 40, of 244 NE Taylor who
suffered a hand injury and remained in
Harris Saturday.
Mattie Gayle Beam, 31, Of 617 NW
King was treated ana released at
Harris and Edward Murry Berry, 30, of
701 Sunnybrook was treated at the
scene but did not wish to accept
treatment, police said.
Police said Berry, the driver of one of
the cars, suffered lacerations in the
accident.
Investigating officer J D. Farmer
said the Berry vehicle struck the rear of
the car containing the Beam women
and driven by Judie Beam in the 12500
block of the South Freeway just south
of the 1187 overpass.
Middlebrook was a passenger in that
car.
After striking the rear of the car
driven by the women, police said the
Berry vehicle went out of control and
overturned, landing upside down about
150 feet from the point of impact.
The Beam car overturned also and
landed belly up on an embankment
along the freeway. Investigators said
Judie Beam was pinned in the
wreckage briefly.
For Renfro Project
Applicants Are Sought
For City Commissions
The City of Burleson wants you!
That may not sound quite as forceful as the old recruiting slogan of Uncle
Sam wanting you, but the city is in need of volunteers to serve on several city
boards.
Vacancies now appear on the zoning board, the park board, the mechanical
board and the zoning board of adjustments. Additional vacancies on these and
other boards occur from time to time.
Application forms for city boards and commissions can be picked up at the
Burleson City Hall or from the Burleson Area Chamber of Commerce or the
Burleson Star.
There are nine city boards which function year-round plqs an equalization
board which meets after the tax assessor has prepared the tax roll for the year.
These boards, and a brief description of each, are as follows:
—Planning Commission: Sets long-range plans for the city; approves land
development and plats; and recommends policy to the city council
—Zoning Board: Recommends policy to the city council in all phases of park
operation.
—Zoning Borad of Adjustments and Appeals: A quasi-judicial board which
hears appeals concerning zoning matters.
—Mechanical Board: Recommends changes and additions to the mechanical
ordinance and provides technical advice to the building official upon request.
—Housing Board of Adjustments and Appeals: Resolves questions concern-
ing building permits.
— Plumbing Board: Recommends changes and additions to the piuipking or
dinance and provides technical advice to the building official upon request.
- Electrical Board: Recommends changes and additions to the electrical or
dinance and provides technical advice to the building official upon request.
—Library Board: Recommends policy concerning the city library to the city
council and provides advice to the librarian upon request.
—Equalization Board: Checks the tax roll to see that equalization of property
taxes from one parcel to another has been accomplished.
Interested persons are asked to return the forms as soon as possible as vacan
cies will be filled at the next council meeting on Nov. 6
Burleson City Council members
weren’t in a bargaining mood Thurs-
Uy night and passed the final reading
On a condemnation ordinance despite
an offer of a compromise from the
landowners.
The land in question lies along the
proposed route for the extension of
N.W. Renfro St. to Farm-to-Market
Road 731 near Crowley. Approximately
six acres are involved.
It’s not the right-of-way, however,
that is in question. Rather it’s what the
zoning will be on either side of the road
once it is built the landowners, Wes and
Lynda Roodhouse, want at least a
portion of the road frontage to be
general retail. Area homeowners want
the present zoning of single family kept
on the land.
The Zoning Board rejected a zoning
change on the property and the city
council failed to override that decision
by mustering only four of the six votes
necessary.
AT THAT TIME, however, Rood-
house was requesting that almost all of
the frontage be zoned general retail.
Thursday night, he made a compromise
proposal with only a portion of the
frontage zoned general retail and said
he would go along with whatever buffer
zoning the city wanted between that
zoning and residential zoning.
No home would be within 2000 feet of
the area he proposed for general retail,
he told the council.
Roodhouse and his planner, James
Toll, maintain that the 200 foot strip of
property on the southwest side of the
proposed road is not suitable for
residential development. "You don’t
find many residential lots that are 200
feet deep,” he told the council at a
previous meeting.
Originally, the route was proposed on
Roodhouse’s property line, but the
adjacent landowner was not willing to
sell the right-of-way necessary to ex-
tend the street.
Roodhouse reiterated Thursday that
he felt the road would be beneficial to
Burleson and that he would be willing to
sell the right-of-way, but did not feel he
should “take all the risk” by being left
with a 200 foot strip of property zoned
residential the length of the street.
HE ASKED THE council to defer the
final reading on the condemnation
ordinance until he could make his new
zoning compromise to the Zoning
Board. With some general retail zoning
permitted, the city could be saved the
expense and time of condemnation
proceedings,, he said.
He repeated hi£ earlier promise to
put deed restrictions on the property
which would limit aldlM consumption
and prevent bars or other undesirable
establishments to be built.
The compromise proposal was not
well received by the homeowners who
were at the meeting. Only four from
that area were present Thursday night,
but they again voiced objections to any
general retail zoning on the Renfro St.
extension.
One resident also brought up the
oft-repeated question of why the street
was even being extended in the first
place. Jarel Amox told the council that
he had done some research into the
city’s “Obligation” to build the road
and found that there was none.
Some council members have main-
tained that the city is obligated to build
the street since it was specifically
memtioned when street improvement
bonds were passed.
AMOX ALSO ECHOED a sentiment
expressed by some residents at an
earlier meeting that the extension of
Alsbury toward IH 35W should be a
higher priority than Renfro toward
Crowley Rd.
Mayor Robert E. Abies, a strong
supporter of the Renfro St. project,
disagreed.
“First of all,” he said, it was voted on
(by residents in a bond election) and
passed. Also, the feeling of this council
is that the street is needed.”
He added that “I feel anytime the
council makes a commitment it should
be kept.”
The condemnation ordinance was
eventually passed by a unanimous vote
of the council, prompting Roodhouse to
say that he would attemptJottewe that
tha„city caused him residual damages
by leaving him with a strip of property
which could not emly be developed.
Passage of the* %idemnation ordi-
nance prompted continents from sev-
eral of the counciltnen, including Bill
Johnson and Bob Johnson.
Bill Johnson said he felt the street
through Roodhouse’s property would
increase the value of the property
rather than cause any damage and Bob
Johnson noted that he had never felt
that Roodhouse’s zoning request was
unreasonable.
CITY ATTORNEY J.L. Phinney ask-
ed the council for a concensus vote to
authorize him to request the Zoning
Board to defer any zoning change
request from Roodhouse prior to the
condemnation hearing. Otherwise, the
value of the property could increase
with the GR zoning and the city might
have to pay more for the right-of-way.
By a 5-1 vote, he was given that
authorization
Dr Abies cast the dissenting vote,
noting that if a zoning compromise
were to be worked out, the condemna-
tion hearing would probably be unnec-
cessary.
Should the zoning change request be
made, the zoning board could accept or
reject Phinney’s request that it be
deferred.
In other action in the Renfro area, the
council approved the location for an
intersection between the Alsbury St.
improvement and a county road. Action
was deferred, though, on the proposed
closing of a portion of County Road 1017
between Renfro and Alsbury.
Gunshot Victim
Listed As Stable
A shooting three miles south of
Burleson Saturday night has left a man
in stable condition at Huguley Hospital.
A woman is believed to have done the
shooting, but the Johnson County
Sheriff’s Department did not release
either the name of the victim or the
woman.
Sheriff’s deputies were given varied
accounts of just what happened, accor
ding to Sheriff Stuart Huffman The
woman was released after questioning,
he said.
The man, believed to be between
25-30, was taken into surgery at 4 a m
Saturday, the sheriff said.
Chief Deputy Larry Young and Sam
Love are investigating the incident.
16 PAGES IN 2 SECTIONS
MONDAY
EDITION
October 27, 1980
Vol. 16 No. 3
BURLESOI^STAR
Burleson, Johnson County, Texas 76028
20*
For Mail Delivery
Call 295-5278
Two Unharmed In Crash
Of Single Engine Plane
“I’m glad God was on my side,” said
a 19-year-old Fort Worth man Friday
morning as he surveyed the wreckage
of his small airplane that crashed north
of Burleson.
Steve Smith was the pilot of a crash
that lost power as it approached Luck
Field about 8:15 am. Friday, he
escaped the wreckage with minor abra-
sions
Philip Geiger of Everman, 18, a
passenger in the plane, walked away
without a scratch.
The two were returning home for the
weekend from Texas A&M University
where both the Everman High School
graduates are freshmen
Smith said he was about 400 feet off
the ground and a half mile from his
Luck Field destination when his engine
stalled.
He said the craft could not make it to
the Luck runway as it sailed into a
30-mile-per-hour north wind so he turn-
ed back south and tried to restart the
engine.
“I tried to start it for about 200 feet
and then I just tried to save our lives,”
Smith told The Star
He said he intended to land in a
relatively clear field on the north side of
Highway 1187 but couldn’t slow down
enough to land
“We went between the power lines
and the fence,” Smith said as he told of
his crash landing. The plane went down
about one-fourth mile north of 1187 in a
field laced with Mesquite trees
It also pulled up part of a barbed wire
fence before flipping.
See Airplane, Page 2A
World Upside Down
A pair of Texas A&M freshmen flying home for the weekend walked away from
the wreckage (right photo) of this Cessena 182 Friday morning after their plane
crashed in a field south of Highway 1187. At about 2:15 p.m. about a mile from
the crash scene, two cars overturned and four Burleson residents were hurt in
an accident on the South Freeway. The second overturned car is in the
background of the photo below.
Council Paves Way
r
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Hutson, Wayne & Moody, James. Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 3, Ed. 1 Monday, October 27, 1980, newspaper, October 27, 1980; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth761466/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Burleson Public Library.