South Belt Leader (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 42, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1986 Page: 1 of 10
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: South Belt Ellington Leader and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the San Jacinto College.
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November 13, 1986
j^outh iSelt Ceafter
‘‘The Voice of Community-Minded People”
Vol 11 Number 42
- Physicians make close call
After 6V2-hour hearing
At least three physicians were on the scene of a wreck at Beamer and Astoria
on Saturday that saw two people taken to the Memorial Southeast Hospital emergen-
cy room.
Ironically enough, the accident occurred just yards from the emergency room
of the new Memorial Southeast facility which will be opening in early December.
As fate would have it, in celebration of the new hospital, a physicians party
was just getting underway when the wreck occurred.
The wreck involved a Memorial Southeast security guard who was on her way
to the function. As she stopped to turn onto Astoria from Beamer she was rear-
ended and thrown into the path of an oncoming pickup truck. ‘
The guard and the man whose car hit her were transported to Memorial
Southeast on Bellfort and were released shortly thereafter, said hospital spokesman
Bill McGlashin.
“It was frustrating knowing that the new emergency room was just yards away,”
he said of the incident.
He said some doctors witnessing the accident checked those involved and one
doctor made the call for an ambulance from his mobile phone.
Contest begins today
Beginning with today’s issue of the South Beit Leader, look inside for adver-
tisements containing a circle with a letter in it. This will be the start of your par-
ticipation in the Leader’s “Reading the South Belt Leader Ads Pays” contest.
During this and the next two issues, collect the ads containing the letters spell-
ing out the name of the contest. Take them to the respective advertisers to get them
validated. Bring them to the Leader to be eligible for a drawing worth $300 in cer-
tificates to be spent with the paper’s advertisers.
To be eligible, entrants must be at least 19 years old and have a “Reading South
Belt Leader Ads Pays” bumper sticker on their car. To find out where to obtain
a sticker, see the advertisement on page 8A.
Band club sets barbecue
The South Houston Band Parents Club will have a barbecue Friday, Nov, 14
and Saturday, Nov. 15 in the K-Mart parking lot on Spencer.
The barbecue will begin Friday at 5 p.m. and will continue throughout the day
on Saturday.
The club will sell brisket, sausage and chicken by the pound, plate or sand-
wich, beans and cold drinks.
Proceeds will help fund a trip to Florida in the spring. This will be the first
out-of-state trip in the band’s 30-year history.
Art group to meet
The South Belt Art Group will meet Thursday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. in Room
122S at San Jacinto South Campus.
This will be a three-hour watercolor workshop given by a leading Houston water-
colorist. A $6 fee per person will be charged to help cover costs. New members
and guests are welcome.
For more information, call 484-1900. ext. 299.
Drug awareness night set
There will be a drug awareness night for adults and high school youth Tues-
day, Nov. 18 from 7:30 to 9:30 at St. Luke the Evangelist Church.
Representatives from DAPA (Drug Abuse Programs of America) will be the
guest speakers.
The program will be in the social hall for adults and chapel for the high school
youth. The church is located at 11011 Hall Road.
The program is being sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Council 9201
and St. Luke’s Youth Ministry and Renew.
BH club to nominate officers
The Beverly Hills Civic Club will meet Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 7 to 8 p.m. at
the Beverly Hills Recreation Center, 9800 Kingspoint. Nominations of officers will
be accepted at the meeting.
The civic club is still accepting dues from Beverly Hills, Eastridge Terrace and
Palm Springs residents. The $10 annual fee can be sent to P.O. Box 34062, Houston,
Texas 77034. Deed restriction complaints can be sent to the same box number.
The civic club is still in the process of a newspaper drive. All area residents
are encouraged to bring their old newspapers to the recreation center. The proceeds
will go to purchase a flag pole for the recreation center.
The number to call for heavy trash pickup is 921-4130.
55 Plus Kirkwood topic
The Kirkwood Civic Club will meet Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Dobie
High School cafeteria.
Caroline Zaferro from Memorial Southeast Hospital will speak about the new
55 Plus program. The public is invited to the meeting.
The garage sale to raise money for the Security Fund will be Friday and Satur-
day, Nov. 14 and 15 at 9959 Kirkdale. Those with items to donate should call Jean-
nette Trimbur 481-4788 after 5 p.m.
Dobie Booster Club to meet
The Dobie Booster Club will meet Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Dobie
Automat.
Those in attendance will vote on a slate of officers for the coming year.
Coaching applications accepted
The Sagemont-Beverly Hills Little League will be taking coaching applications
in all divisions, except major, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at Stuchbery Elementary School
from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
This is the deadline to turn in an application to coach in any division.
Wood Meadow II sets meeting
The Wood Meadow II Civic Association will meet Thursday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m.
at the MUD 13 Building, 11610 Sageyork.
Plans for the upcoming year will be discussed.
In this week’s issue
• Take a tour of the new Memorial Southeast Hospital or find out about a
Mended Hearts program to attend . . . both are found on page 4A.
• San Jacinto College South has an early spring registration and there’re im-
portant numbers to clip and save on page 6A.
• Calligraphy display runs through November. See page 9A for details.
• Page 10A tells where to go see the “Odd Couple.”
• Page 4B tells about Pasadena’s Park and Recreation Department’s regis-
tration.
• A local resident earns a golf title. The story is on page 10B.
PISD food services director fired
Director Charles Ketchum ended hi^
7 Vi -year tenure with the Pasadena ISD
Food Services department following a
marathon hearing beginning Tuesday and
extending into Wednesday morning.
Several Food Services employees re-
mained at the 6 Vi-hour hearing, offering
their condolences as the PISD Board of
Trustees voted at 1:30 Wednesday morn-
ing to dismiss Ketchum.
Ketchum was dismissed on the grounds
that he failed to comply with district direc-
tives and policies and did not meet accepted
standards of conduct.
At issue at the open hearing was
Ketchum’s payment of overtime compen-
sation to an employee that did not actual-
ly work overtime.
PISD administration charged successful-
ly through attorney Kelly Frels that
Ketchum had violated a district policy on
overtime compensation, a policy Ketchum
said he interpreted differently than did the
administration.
The policy states that employees “shall
be eligible for extra compensation for
time worked beyond the 40-hour work
week . . .”
Records submitted during the hearing in-
dicate that Ketchum had been paying junior
bookkeeper Barbara Rhea overtime begin-
ning in June 1985 and ending in September
1986 when an investigation of the Food
Services department was conducted.
The investigation was spurred by prob-
lems surfacing this summer in the depart-
ment’s bidding process for food service
contracts. Supt. of Schools Dr. E.T. Lon
Luty asked the board in September to ter-
minate Ketchum. He was dismissed without
pay pending a hearing.
The amount paid Rhea, a 109 level
employee, equalled pay she would have
received had she been at a 111 level.
Ketchum had asked in May 1985 that
Rhea be elevated to the 111 position, but
Jack Donnell, assistant superintendent of
Operations, denied the request, based on
budgetary reasons, Donnell testified. Rhea
had been promoted from a 107 to a 109 the
previous August.
“You were finding a way to pay over-
time to Mrs. Rhea when she didn’t work
it,” Frels told the witness. “What you did
was pay Mrs. Rhea through this practice
the amount she would have gotten had she
been put at 111.”
Throughout the hearing, Ketchum main-
tained that he was paying Rhea “for the
task she was performing” and that this was
common practice in the food service
industry.
Ketchum said he had been granted per-
mission from Donnell to pay overtime “if
needed.” Donnell said wfcen he made the
statement, he assumed thrmWtime would
be worked.
Rhea testified that she had been perform-
ing the duties of a 111, or lead bookkeeper
for about two years. She said when she
asked to be compensated Ketchum told her
to figure out what it would take to get her
salary to aY 11 level. She said Ketchum had
told her Donnell had approved the over-
time.
Rhea, who signed a promissory note
stating she would return the $1,500 she
received in overtime during the 15-month
period, said that she was told by Luty that
her job “would be threatened if I didn’t
sign it.”
Ketchum’s attorney, Gerrard Swonke,
maintained throughout the hearing that the
policy violated pertained to paraprofes-
sionals and that there was not significant
documentation to classify Rhea as a para-
professional and that Ketchum was un-
aware of her category of employment.
Board members, in their response to the
testimony, described such argument as a
“smoke screen” and a “fakish ploy” to
condone Ketchum’s actions.
Ketchum also stated that he knew of
other similar incidents in the district but
could not relate a specific one to the board.
Frels classified the incident as a “master
plan to get her (Rhea) to a 111. It was simp-
ly a way to pay her at the 111 category over
the denial of Donnell. It was a gift to her
of public funds.”
Trustee Vicki Morgan cast the only op-
posing vote to terminate Ketchum, stating
that she felt he did not knowingly violate
board policy.
Ketchum said he may consider appeal-
ing the board’s action to the state commis-
sioner of education.
Locals looking for action
on overpass widenings
Local businessmen say they’re tired of
hearing promises and would prefer to see
action on the proposed widening of over-
passes in the South Belt area.
Meanwhile, state highway department
officials say that the plans to widen the Fu-
qua and Scarsdale overpasses are 95 per-
cent complete and that the projects will be
out for bids in the spring of 1987.
“We’re almost there, if they’ll wait a lit-
tle longer,” said Chuck Mylius, the
engineer with the State Department of
Highways and Public Transportation who
is in charge of the projects.
The two overpass widenings, which were
pulled out from an overall Gulf Freeway
improvement package for expedition pur-
poses and more recently turned over to the
Harris County Metropolitan Transit
Authority for the same rea.ton, have'
repeatedly been delayed.
Turning the project over to Metro,
Mylius said, was done to cut down on some
six months of paperwork involved in hav-
ing the design work contracted. This week,
however, he stated that had the work been
contracted to a private company, “we
probably would be as well off as we are
now.”
Metro was to have delivered the plans to
the state by the first of the summer, but
other projects of higher priority caused
Metro to delay the overpass design plans,
Mylius said.
The target date for receipt of the plans
now is the middle of this month, he said,
adding that they are now about 95 percent
complete. The projected bid date is March.
Local community leaders, however, are
wary that the construction jobs will be bid
in the spring.
“I would certainly like to believe it,” said
South Belt-EIlington Chamber of Com-
merce President Bill Morgan. “But I view
the present position with skepticism /’
"The Chai#her was told a year ago: that
the jobs wound be bid in June. That date
has subsequently changed at least three
times.
Larry Wright, president of First City
Bank-Almeda Genoa, several months ago
Continued on page 3A
Auto theft has bizarre ending
An auto theft in the area Tuesday led to
bizarre consequences for the suspect who
was held at gunpoint by the boyfriend of
the car’s owner.
Dwaine Earl Miller, 20, 7410 Rampart,
was arrested by police around 4:30 p.m. in
the Eckerd parking lot on Scarsdale and
later charged with auto theft. Police had
been called to the scene by the Eckerd
manager who reported that a man was
holding a gun on another man.
Miller was also charged with burglary
after the woman, a resident of Windmill
Lakes Apartments, whose apartment was
burglarized a week earlier, identified the
keys found in Miller’s possession as the
ones taken from her apartment.
Miller, who was on parole on another
burglary, was charged in connection with
a second unrelated burglary and with
violating his parole.
The boyfriend told police he was en route
to his girlfriend’s apartment after she
called about her car, when he saw her car
entering the Eckerd parking lot. He said he
followed it into the lot, hid behind his car
until Miller came out of the store and then
pulled a gun on him.
No charges are expected to be filed
against the boyfriend, police state.
mm
i
Animal instinct
Photo by Sharon Goudy
Frazier Elementary first-grader Marisa Ramirez learns how to get a calf to drink
from a bottle. Students also learned how a cow is milked. The cow made a
visit to the school from the Harris County Agricultural Extension Service.
Photo by Sharon Goudy
Miss Houston U.S.A.
Dobie graduate Lee Anne Locken was recently crowned Miss Houston U.S.A.
The San Jacinto South student was chosen out of 92 girls and will now ad-
vance to the Miss Texas U.S.A. pageant. Locken is the daughter of Margaret
Wallace and granddaughter of Melvin and Doris Hicks of Sagemont.
Price granted probation
Former Dobie football player Wendell
W. Price, 21, is on probation following a
conviction last week of aggravated sexual
assault.
Price was granted a 10-year probation
and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine in the
180th District Court presided over by
visiting state District Judge Robert
Montgomery.
A 10-man two-woman jury found Price
guilty of assaulting a 22-year-old clerk in
March in the Sagemont Subdivision. The
conviction followed four days of
testimony.
The woman testified that she awoke in
her bedroom around 6:30 a.m. to find
Price naked and holding a knife over her.
During a struggle, the victim testified, she
was cut on the throat and hand and was
beaten on the face.
She said Price fled when her landlord
heard her screams and came into the room.
Price, a former all-district fullback for
Dobie, denied knowing the victim.
Prosecutor Dan Rizzo termed the out-
come of the trial “the worst loss I’ve ever
had.”
“I was shocked and surprised at the ver-
dict,” he said.
The maximum penalty Price could have
received for the first-degree felony is life
imprisonment.
Price was arrested twice last summer,
both arrests involving sexual assault related
incidents. Another woman he was accused
of having attacked dropped charges against
Price after she moved out of state.
Capital improvement hearings set
The city of Houston has scheduled a
series of capital improvement plan hearings
to allow citizens to discuss capital projects
that they would like to see undertaken in
their neighborhoods in the 1992 fiscal year/
The hearing for City Council District E,
for which Frank Mancuso serves as coun-
cilman, will be Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 7
p.m. at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church,
8150 Park Place Blvd., in the adult educa-
tion room.
The hearings are held annually to update
the city’s five-year capital improvement
plan. The current CIP covers 1986-1991.
The city is now developing the 1987-1992
plan. The city’s finance and administration
department this year is holding the meet-
ings during the second quarter of the fiscal
year rather than the third quarter to allow
the city more time to develop long range
plans that affect the budget prior to the
start of the development of the city’s
operating budget, according to the mayors
office.
The hearings are held in each of the nine
city council districts and are chaired by the
district city council member with represen-
tatives from the City’s Finance and Ad-
ministration Department. A presentation
is given on the CIP process and the meeting
is open to citizens with suggestions for long-
term capital projects.
Capital projects include major in-
frastructure improvements such as the
widening and paving of streets, construc-
tion of libraries and fire stations and im-
provements to the city’s water and sewer
drainage systems. They do not include
general maintenance improvements such as
the repair of potholes, cutting of high
weeds or removal of dangerous buildings.
For more information about the CIP
public hearings contact the Mayor’s
Citizens Assistance Office at 222-4005.
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South Belt Leader (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 42, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1986, newspaper, November 13, 1986; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1074170/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting San Jacinto College.