The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 216, Ed. 1 Monday, July 10, 1989 Page: 1 of 12
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Classified...........
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Comics/Crossword.
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Dimension...........
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Editorial.............
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Markets.............
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Movies..............
Obituaries...........
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Police Beat..........
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MORE THAN 70,000 READERS EVERY DAY
WEATHER
MONDAY NIGHT: Partly
cloudy, low in the mid-70s.
Tuesday: Partly cloudy, 20
percent chance of rain, high in
the low to mld-90s. From 8
a.m. Sunday to 8mn. Monday,
high of 89, low off?. (
Volume 67, No. 216
Telephone Number: 422*8302
Monday, July 10, 1989
Baytown, Texas 77520
25 Cents Per Copy
Matt Closs hearing open
By DAVID MOHLMAN
A hearing before Baytown
school trustees for Matt Closs,
the school district’s suspended
maintenance director, is slated
to start at 7 p.m.
Tuesday at the
school admini-
stration build-
ing.
Closs’ attor-
ney has asked
that the hearing
be open, rather
than behind
closed doors, ac-
cording to Inter-
im Superintendent Ralph
Pearce. Closs’ attorney, Mike
Ramsey of Houston, couldn’t be
reached for comment Monday
morning.
Closs, who is under indictment
for alleged theft of school
district property, has been on
leave with pay since January
from his $47,475 per year post.
In April, school trustees
started the dismissal process
against Closs by voting their in-
tention to fire him, upon the
recommendation of the school
district’s legal investigators.
The hearing before trustees
gives Closs the chance to present
his side of the story.
Onefeindictment handed down
in January accuses Closs of tak-
ing two vacuum cleaners, a sew-
ing machine and a generator
from the district. Another ac-
cuses him of theft in connection
with an $11,000 insurance claim,
unrelated to the district, after
the destruction of his hunting
cabin on Trinity Bay.
Two indictments handed down
just last week also accuse Closs
in connection with the alleged
theft of a lowboy trailer and
building materials belonging to
the district.
Investigations by the Harris
County District Attorney’s Of-
fice and the Texas Rangers
started last year after Kathy
Closs, now divorced from Matt
Closs, told authorities of alleged
theft and bribery in the school
district involving her husband
and his father, C.H. “Bud”
Closs, the district’s associate
superintendent of services.
Baytown police and the
Chambers County Sheriff’s
Department have assisted in the
investigation.
‘Comp’ compromise backed
Baytown Chamber of Commerce supports substitute for bill
L.D. BONIN, 115 Bolster, Is concerned about children playing
around storm sewers, especially after a 7-year-old girl in
Houston narrowly escaped death when swept into a storm pipe.
Public Works Director Norman Dykes says the city vp look in-
to the situation on Bolster. Safety is Important to the city,
Dykes said, and he urges parents to help educate children about
danger areas to avoid. Among most hazardous areas, he noted,
are flood control ditches.
(Sun staff photo by Angie Bracey)
Baytown Chamber of Com-
merce has joined the Texas
Chamber of Commerce in sup-
porting the House Substitute for
Senate Bill 1, dealing with
workers’ compensation reform
which passed the House by voice
vote on Wednesday.
Tracey S. Wheeler, president,
said that the bill contains major
concessions by the business
community and does not com-
pletely please anyone, but “It is
a workable solution to the pro-
blem and we urge the Senate to
accept the House’s good faith
compromise so that workers’
compensation reform can be
completed during their current
special session.”
Wheeler said that reform is
vital to the local economy. “We
deserve a system that will give
local businesses a chance to sur-
vive,” she added, noting that
“For us, this is not just a
technical issue, it is jobs for
local citizens.”
Rep. Richard Smith, sponsor
of the House version, told the
media that he was “cautiously
optimistic” that the changes
made by the House would be ac-
ceptable to a majority in the
Senate. Because the bill is
technically a Senate bill, it will
require only 16 affirmative votes
to pass the upper house.
Larry Milner, president and
chief executive officer of the
Texas Chamber, said, “The
Texas Chamber supports the
House version and is strongly en-
couraging members of the
Senate to concur in House
amendments to Senate Bill 1. . .
failure to do so will likely bring
the process to a halt and force
another special session, pro-
bably in November.”
The amended bill provides for
limited access to jury trials for
either side in the process, a pro-
June bustin’ out with rain
By DAVID MOHLMAN
Compliments of Tropical
Storm Allison, Baytown’s rain-
fall average for June was more
than four times the normal
amount.
According to figures provided
by Baytown Emergency
Management, the city averaged
17.82 inches of rain last month.
Baytown normally averages 4.27
inches of rain during June.
Among the city’s measuring
locations, Exxon’s Baytown
Refinery recorded 19.56 inches
of rain, which was the most for
the month. The West District
Sewage Treatment Plant, on In-
terstate 10 near the Spur 330
(Decker Drive) exit, measured
19.46 inches.
Pearce Street Journal-- &
Are you asl
You might call this the acme
of small talk.
In a question and answer
period following a learned ad-
dress, a university president
was asked whether it was he or
his brother who died.
-FH
Least among the official totals
last month was the 15.38 inches
recorded at Chevron’s Cedar
Bayou Plant.
The greatest one-day total dur-
ing the month was the 10.98 in-
ches recorded at the refinery on
June 26. The greatest two-day
total was the 12.70 inches
measured June 25-26 at City
Hall, 2401 Market.
The deluge from Allison,
which came during the last week
of the month, roughly doubled
the year-to-date rainfall totals
for 1989 at the various measur-
ing locations.
The 19.46 inches during June
at the West District plant, com-
bined with the 18.49 inches that
location measured during the
first five months of the year, pro-
duced a 37.95-inch total as of the
halfway point of 1989.
The Central District Sewage
Treatment Plant on West Main
has recorded 37.40 inches of rain
for the year after 18.30 inches
during June and 19.10 inches
from January through May.
Chevron, with 29.33 inches, is
the only measuring location at
less than 30 inches of rain as of
the end of June.
The city’s rainfall average for
the first six months of the year,
calculated using year-to-date
totals from the measuring loca-
tions, is 34.62 inches. The city
normally has averaged 22.11 in-
ches of rain by the end of June.
Baytown’s normal rainfall for
the entire year is 47.84 inches.
Marker to be placed
One of Baytown’s newest developments, the recreational
vehicle subdivision Bay Oaks Harbor, will be the scene of a his-
toric occasion Saturday.
An official Texas Historical Marker will be dedicated at the
homesite of early Texas pioneer Henry F. Gillette. Called Bell
Prairie, the home was located where Bay Oaks Harbor has
been developed at 2000% Tri-City Beach Road.
Harris County Commissioner Jim Fonteno will give the wel-
coming address at the ceremony. Also participating will be
Jean Shepherd, director of the Baytown Historical Museum,
and Jean Epperson, who did the research for the historical
marker.
Longtime Baytonian Jim Nelson, who grew up at the site,
also will speak.
Mrs. Shepherd said the marker is made possible through the
efforts of Tom Aikin, developer of Bay Oaks Harbor. “When he
came across the old cistern and other things of interest, he real-
ized the historical significance of the site.”
After the dedication ceremony, the public will be invited to
tour the facilities at Bay Oaks Harbor.
vision chambers have resisted
because of the high legal fees,
usually 25 percent of the settle-
ment and the effect these costs
have on insurance rates. Milner
pointed out that the compromise
version limits access to jury
trials to only the issues of death
benefits, decisions on whether
the injury was job-related and
lifetime income benefits for
disability.
The Baytown Chamber of
Commerce is urging its
members to contact their
senator and urge a favorable
vote on the House amendments
to the Senate bill.
Bush pushes
Poland aid
WARSAW, Poland (AP) -
President Bush on Monday pro-
posed a $100 million aid package -
and premised to seek new loans
and debt relief for Poland,
declaring that the Communist
nation’s moves toward
democratic freedoms “show the
way toward a new era
throughout Europe.”
In the first address by an
American president before the
Polish parliament, Bush hailed
recent political and economic
reforms and said, “This genera-
tion’s calling is to redeem the
promise of a free Polish
republic. Poland has not been
lost so long as the Polish spirit
lives.”
Red Cross volunteer helping flood victims
Around Town
BOBBY ROUNTREE says it’s
OK over that hill .. . George
Cushman raises his leg high.
Ask Henrietta Manley about a
talent show . . . Walter and
Lillian Englert like to lick those
sticky fingers . . . John Daniels
feels the effects of a long layoff
from basketball.
Ralph and Mary Feniello com-
pliment runners from Robert E.
Lee High School for fine efforts
in the 5-mile Baytown Heat
Wave.
Jim Nelson picks up several
copies of The Sun which featured
the History Highlights on Bell
Prairie. Nelson grew up on the
site on Tri-City Beach Road.
Elton Rodgers discusses
polyester and cotton . . . Tod I.
Geaslin and his trusty steed still
bringing up the rear in Baytown
parades . . . Garry Nelson and
family enjoy Independence Day
festivities.
By LOIS M. RODRIGUEZ
While some Liberty County
residents are stranded through
no choice of their own, there are
people who will subject
themselves to the hassles of a
catastrophe just to help others.
Red Cross volunteer and
disaster team member Dennis
Jester has gained experience as
a volunteer through the string of
rain-related problems that have
plagued the Liberty and
Baytown areas.
He has been a volunteer for six
months, and in that time, he has
seen more than usual.
In May, the heavy onslaught of
rains created a need for Red
Cross assistance in various parts
of the area. Jester set up a
shelter in Cleveland and worked
to give displaced residents a
place to sleep, food to eat and
first aid assistance.
Although he has received
much training from the Red
Cross, he said, “I learned a lot,
that time, just by having to do
it.”--------------
That experience prepared him
for something even bigger. The
effects of torrential rains from
Tropical Storm Allison forced
Liberty County residents out of
their homes and into shelters.
Jester made his rounds from
shelter to shelter, supplying all
the necessities.
■. According to Barbara King,
Baytown Red Cross Director,
after more than five families are
affected by a natural disaster,
the American Red Cross comes
in. At that point, Jester handed
the situation over to the
American Red Cross.
“I am still very concerned for
the people in Liberty County,
though. Everytime I would walk
into a shelter, people would bom-
bard me with all sorts of ques-
tions. I did my best to answer
them, but I was sorry I didn’t
have all the answers.
“Everyone wanted help at
once. It takes time, but everyone
wants to be first. We are going to
help people out one way or
another,” he said. But he did his
best and takes pride in knowing
that he has been able to be of
some use to the people.
It bothers him, however, that
while he was trying to help the
people, there were looters doing
additional harm to them by tak-
ing whatever may have been
salvagable. To Jester, that is a
crime worthy of severe punish-
ment. i
Jester still marvels at some of
his experiences as a volunteer in
Liberty County, including some
regarding the media.
“I went up on Channel 13’s
(KTRK-TV’s) helicopter and got
to see the area (Liberty). It look-
ed like one big lake,” Jester
said. ,
He said he also watched as a
Channel 26 (KRIV-TV) crew
lost one of its expensive cameras
in the swollen waters of the
Trinity River.
Jester has earned certificates
in cardiopulmonary resuscita-
tion (CPR) and first aid, and
continues to receive Red Cross
training.
“I’d like to get my shelter
management certificate and all
that I can get through the Red
Cross,” he said.
He first became interested
through his brother, Wayde
Jester, who serves as first-aid
safety service manager and who
coordinates the teams.
Mrs. King said anyone who
wants to help can train for and
join the disaster teams.
According to Mrs. King, the
members meet once a month in
the evenings and receive free
training on how to deal with
disasters at the family and mass
casualty level.
Although some may worry
that volunteering on a disaster
team may be time consuming,
Mrs. King said the teams are
seldom called out.
“We try to have five teams,
with one on call per week,” she
said. These past few months
have just been an unusual situa-
tion, she added.
After considerable flood
damage had been done in Liber-
ty County, the Baytown Red
Cross responded by opening the
shelter at the Hardin Volunteer
Fire Department on June 27.
Jester went there and stayed
through July 2 when the
American Red Cross moved in to
assist.
Mrs. King said the Baytown
Red Cross has 21 people to work
on the disaster teams, but a
minimum of 30 volunteers is
needed.
Training is especially needed
for nurses, emergency medical
technicians and other people in
the medical profession.
“We definitely need a
registered nurse to be on call for
shelters,” she said. An emergen-
cy medical technician or a
paramedic and an on-call
registered nurse are required
before the Red Cross can set up a
shelter.
For more information or to
volunteer, call the American
Red Cross Service Center at 422-
9319 or 427-3114.
.A
..............._...... i«ar
RF.n CROSS Volunteer Dennis Jester arms himself with some basic <****'
first aid equipment used for mass emergency care. Jester, who set
up a shelter to assist residents of Liberty County, dons the many
badges and pins, denoting his efforts and achievements.
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 216, Ed. 1 Monday, July 10, 1989, newspaper, July 10, 1989; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1052771/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.