Duval County Picture (San Diego, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 18, 1992 Page: 1 of 21
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Imral (tantu Pirturp
Vd. 7 No. 46
Wednesday, November 18,1992
San Diego, Texas
Freer makes Prison project clouded by
garbage deal need for water district tax
^ AN IMF fiO . rk.x/ttl f Vu i nt 11 'IV _ - ■ *1 it j r •• ’IVii mill rti 11 hat/O
FREER - The Freer City
Coun-cil became the first Duval
County City to contract for its
garbage collection services, when
it accepted a proposal from
Garbage Gobblers on Monday,
Nov. 16.
The San Antonio based com-
pany was the only bidder and of-
fered to pick up residential
garbage in the city once a week
for $7.90 plus 350 for billing.
Company representatives said
they would be ready to begin
garbage pick-up as of the first of
December.
Duval County is scheduled to
stoppicking-upgarbageon Nov.
30.
County Commissioner Bob
Lee asked if the bid included the
tipping fee at the San Diego
landfill and was assured by a
company representative that it
did.
The service will be started
with San Antonio personnel until
local crews are hired and trained.
The City of San Diego is ex-
pected to act on a similar proposal
from Garbage Gobblers at a
meeting tonight._
County 9-1-1 back on
track, dispatchers get
raise for added work
SAN DIEGO - Duval County
Conservation and Reclamation
District Directors agreed, on
Tuesday, Nov. 10, to apply for a
$750,000 EconomicDevelopment
Administration grant to help pay
for part of the costs of running
water and sewer lines to the
planned state prison.
In other business, the water
board put off adecision on whether
to go along with a request by the
City of San Diego to act as billing
agent for garbage collection.
In an application submitted to
EDA, the water board asks for
$750,000 to pay for a new water
tower for San Diego as well as two
new wells and other related items.
The total cost of the proposed
improvements is $ 1.2 million. The
water district is supposed to issue
bonds for the other half million
dollars.
This, in fact, will present a
problem for the district because it
has already been notified by the
Texas Attorney General’s Office
that K cannot sell any bonds until
the question about its taxing
authority is resolved.
The water district is authorized
to levy taxes solely for the purpose
of paying initial bonds approved
nearly 20 years ago. Instead, the
district has been taxing amounts
which far exceed that needed to
pay the bonds. In essence it has
been collecting a **de facto"
maintenance tax which it has no
authority to do.
The Attorney General * s Office
has now told the water district that
it must resolve this situation before
it will be allowed to sell additional
bonds. Water district board
members are considering calling
an election to authorize collection
of a maintenance tax.
The prison project, meanwhile,
may hang in the balance. The EDA
grant application will address some
aspects of the prison needs, but not
all. In fact, the proposal itself points
out that “infrastructure require-
ments of the prison unit are not a
part of this... request.”
The district will still have to
look at another $1.3 million for
this infrastructure as well as a water
tower for Benavides. This too
would, ostensibly, be paid by
bonds.
Water district manager Rodolfo
Bazan asked consultants Tommy
Molina and Poncho Hernandez Jr.
how the district would pay for
these improvements. District
Engineer Donny Rehmet told
Bazan that estimates provided by
prison officials indicated the prison
usage would pay for the bonds.
Bazan categorized the esti-
mates as “baloney.” He told
Rehmet he wanted more concrete
See WATER TAX Page 2
Hancock makes recommendation to count\
by Alfredo E. Cardenas
and Roy Salinas
Alter a standstill lasting several
weeks, the Duval County 9-1-1
emergency system appears to be
back on track. County Commis-
sioners agreed to give sheriff
dispatchers a $200 monthly raise a
piece in order to satisfy Sheriff
Santiago Barrera Jr. who had asked
that the 9- M office be moved out
of his department.
100 per cent of an employee's in-
surance or $172 per employee.
That, said Uresti, would be more
equitable.
Currently the county pays 65
percent of the employees insurance
as well as 65 per cent of family
coverage. This results in some
employees seeing insurance
benefits of as low as $17 and others
as high as $260. This, pointed out
Uresti, "is unfair."
Uresti had tried to get
commissioners to change the
The 9i- V; 1 personnel have been
below the sheriffs department for contribution for all employees. At
the last couple of weeks. Under
the new budget adopted by the
county last month, four new
dispatchers were to be hired to
handle 9-1-1 calls. Three have al-
ready been hired but Barrera re-
quested that the salary for the fourth
dispatcher be used to supplement
the salary of existing dispatchers.
: The county commissioners
agreed with this proposal on
Thursday, Nov. 12, and voted to
give raises to five sheriff depart-
ment personnel, including Com-
munications Specialist Ruben
Trevino, dispatchers Silda Spill ers,
Jody A. Garcia and Zenaida Mon-
temayor and Secretary Eva M.
Collins.
As ateaubofthis action, the 9-
1-1 staff wifi now be moved back
upstairs.
The additional pay will be for
the "added burden" caused by
emergency call responsibilities,
said County Judge Gilberto Uresti.
By contrast, the City of Freer
implemented their 9-1-1 system
over a year ago and existing
dispatchers took on the responsi-
bility without an increase in pay,
according to the Freer Police.
In other business this week,
commissioners again held off on
making changes to the method of
contributing to the county's group
health insurance program. Uresti
recommended that the county pay
that time Commissioner Jose Noe
Martinez joined the judge in voting
for the change but they were
outvoted by Commissioners
Richard Barton, Alejo Garcia and
Bob Lee. Barton and Lee were not
present at Thursday 's meeting, but
Martinez decided that the county
should wait until a new insurance
program is approved in January
before the change was made.
"I agree with you," Martinez
told Uresti," but we've waited this
long we might as well wait until
January when we get the new
insurance."
The county did agree to let out
bids for a group i nsurance program.
The current plan expires at the end
to the year.
The Court also heard from
Kathleen Morrison on the county’s
delinquent taxes. Morrison, oneof
the county's delinquent tax at-
torneys, told the court that there
are over 11,000 delinquent ac-
counts which total over $4.2
million of which $1.2 million are
Clinton Manges taxes. She also
told the court that this amount does
not include penalty and interest.
County Tax Collector Fernando
Caballero told the court that there
are also some 100 accounts which
are in payment agreements. Tax-
payers are given up to 36 months if
they wish to enter into payment
See 9-1-1 Page 2
Hancock Construction spokes-
man Pete Perez told Duval County
Commissioners, on Monday Nov.
16, that it was their recommend-
ation that the county sell off all its
existing heavy equipment and
replace it with all new leased
equipment.
The Hancock proposal calls for
the county to sell at auction all of
the equipment that each precinct
has and for it to be replaced with
new equipment which the county
would acquire from a lease/
purchase contract which will cost
the county an estimated $1.2
million over die next five years.
The county at the present time
has budgeted $150,000 for
with the rental/lease plan the
county can use these funds for the
new equipment, said Perez.
Perez also proposed to the
county that each precinct have a
maintenance crew for "daily re-
pairs" to roads and that the county
create a new countywide depart-
ment which would take care of
major road improvements.
The proposals call for each
precinct to get two small dump
trucks, atoader and a scraper. The
central yard would have 10 large
dump trucks, a loader, a dozer and
other needed equipment.
Duval County commissioners huddle with Hancock Construction representatives.
"How many miles will we be
able to scrape in a day with this
equipment?,” asked Precinct Two
Commissioner Jose Noe Martinez.
"We are not going to be
scraping roads," responded Perez,
"we aregaing to be building roads."
Commissioners expressed
concern over how much they could
get if they auctioned off their
current equipment. Some items.
such as dump trucks, would not
bring in much. Said Perez, but
dozers are getting "prime dollar"
at the present time. The commis-
sioners asked Hancock to come up.
with an itemized list as to what
will be auctionedoff and how much
they are looking at, getting for the
item from the auction.
Perez wanted input from the
court as to what other equipment
each precinct would need so mat
they could finalize their cost
projections. *
No action was taken on these
matters, since the deliberations
took place as part of a workshop
session with commissioners.
Hancockhas a two-month, $25,000
contract with the county to find
ways at improving efficiency in
county road operations.
Homework must be daily routine, but fun
Museum opens
veterans room
» «
’ SAN DIEGO - The Duval
County Historical Commission has
opened a “Veterans Exhibit” at the
Duval County Museum. The open-
ihg of the exhibit was announced
at a Veterans Day ceremony held
at San Diego High School.
‘ The exhibit features photo-
graphs and other memorabilia on
loan from Carlos McDermott, a
San Diego survivor of the Bataan
Death March in the Philippines.
Also on display are artifacts of
Bruno Garcia who was a highly
decorated World War II Veteran,
aa well as other items commemo-
rating the achievements of local
veterans.
. The exhibit’s newest addition
was a collection of stamps de-
picting important events of World
War II. The collection was pre-
sented to the museum by the local
Post Office.
San Diego Mayor Alfredo E.
Cardenas issued a proclamation
urging citizens to visit the exhibit
to “gain a deeper appreciation of
the contributions made by ve-
terans.” He proclaimed the week
of Nov. 11 - Nov. 17 as Duval
County Veterans Appreciation
Week in San Diego.
“We all have a responsibility to
keep the faith and preserve the
promise of the American demo-
cratic ideas for future generations,”
Cardenas told over400high school
students at ceremonies held at the
school auditorium.
by Poncho Hernandez Jr.
Correspondent
SAN DIEGO - School age
children whose parents are career
oriented or who receive welfare
assistance face more pressure to ,
succeed at school than do students
of middle income families, says
Shari Duff, a counselor with the
Delos Center for Marriage and
Family Relationships in Dallas.
Duff, who spoke to parents and
teachers last Thursday at the re- •
quest of school and PTO officials,
said children on either side of the
financial spectrum face numerous
hardships because of their parents
desire that they succeed.
Because of their standing in the
community, career oriented pa-
rents can be extremely demanding,
expecting their children to act more
like adults than kids, said Duff,
whose topic at a Nov. 13 school
luncheon focused on learning tech-
niques developed to help students
with their studies.
Similarly, welfare parents place
an emphasis on learning because
they want their child to succeed
“so as not to depend on welfare,”
she said.
Students, however, would have
you believe that homework is a
device of torture, invented by tea-
chers who only pursued careers in
education in order to agonize
children. But contrary to this
misconception, homework is an
essentia] component of the edu-
cational process, she said.
Despite a learning disability
which causes her to see written
text in a mirrored image, Duff,
who is currently pursuing a
San Diego parents and teachers listen to presentation on the Importance of homework.
doctoral degree in psychology, said
parents can help their children
improve their school work by
making learning a fun, oriented
activity.
“The ideal situation is for a
student to get home from school,
have a snack, and do their home-
work. The trick is, how do we
make it fun?"
So what did Duff s parents do
to make learning a fun activity?
' As a child growing up in
Washington, D.C., she said her
parents quickly set out rules and
stuck to them - no matter what.
“If I wanted to go out I had to
do my homework first," she said.
"We expected that and It was more
ftm and easier than facing the
consequences.’
Her parents, she said, set aside
half an hour for study each night,
Sunday through Thursday. After
completing her reading assign-
ment. she’d go through the spelling
list and on Thursdays, had a
spelling Bee. At the end of the
week, she’d get a reward.”
By fourth grade, her study
habits had improved dramatically.
By eighth grade, they had become
routine.
“Children want their parents
approval,” said Duff, “they want
t to learn, to know that hey can
accomplish what they set out to
do. Wouldn't it be nice if our
Children grew up knowing “1 can
doit!”
Mayor Alfredo Cardenas, who
welcomed the special education
counselor to San Diego, said
parents must also be willing to
accept their responsibility in
helping children learn.
“We may not have a degree
hanging on the wall,” skid
Cardenas, ‘hut we are all educators
and share an important role in the
education of our children.”
The meet! ng. the first in a series
to be sponsored by the Parents
Teachers Organization, was hosted
by parent coordinators Dora Saenz
and Gloria Valerio and Junior High
Counselor Patricia Escobar, her
secretary, Elma Cantu, and As-
sistant Principal Adela Navarro,
of Archie Put Elementary.
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Cardenas, Alfredo E. Duval County Picture (San Diego, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 18, 1992, newspaper, November 18, 1992; San Diego, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1006225/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .