The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 302, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 24, 2002 Page: 5 of 12
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■
Tuesday, September 24,2002
5A
The Baytown Sun
>02
Community
Budget, tax rate passes in Chambers County
■5
principles," Turner said.
A
million budgeted in expendi-
Just the basics
int
Pouce Beat
he
res-
tic
edi-
s
I
I
I
I
t
Jim
Finley
to
lid.
a
don
; on
ion.
iga
to
sun,
wide.
The county's debt will be
an
Photo by Dwayne Litteer
A raccoon walks along a trail at the Baytown
Nature Center.
financial reports.
"Essentially, what we have
old man near a taco stand and
assaulted him and took his wal-
let before fleeing on foot, said
Sgt. Richard Whitaker of the
Baytown Police Department.
meeting, Chambers County
Judge Jimmy Sylvia said the
ful for many county resi-
dents.
"It's going to be a benefi-
>Ui<i
so
dull
«rce
own
Il-
in
>ea
I
Reach the newsroom:
Call 281-425-8028
ANAHUAC — Chambers
County commissioners adopt-
ed the 2003 budget and tax rate
after completing the sale of $2
million in certificates of oblig-
at
i-
mi
nith
own
By MATTHEW COOK
Staff writer
ats
ind-
that
I’m
ited
1001
trict
i us
uri-
i to
to a
the
reet
e a
as it
tion
Jewelry, cash stolen
from home
A woman reported that at 1
sin)
:cu-
vait.
to
ally
more information, call (281)
328-3535.
T
ein
ev-
i
th
is.
I
Wednesday
XYZ meeting—XYZ will
meet at 10 a.m. at Cedar
Bayou United Methodist
Church, 2714 Ferry Road, for a
covereddish lunch, games and
fellowship. All seniors are invit-
ed. For more information, call
(281)422-6604.
TOPS —Take Off Pounds
Sensibly No. TX 594 Baytown
will meet from 9 to 11 am. in
the Lonestar Room at Baytown
Community Center, 2407
Market St For more informa-
tion, call (281) 424-2310 or
(281)4249275.
House burglarized
A Baytown man reported that
at 9 a.m. Sept. 16 tools and
™ ^nymous. tor mon
him to appoint an additional
On Monday, commission- 20 reserve deputies. Kreuzer
Cavett and Turner. ■
Larry Turner, with Cavett things in order in case it does
taken from his home in the 300
is block of Red Bud Lane.
swallow, Northern rough-winged swallow,
bam swallow, Northern mockingbird, logger-
head shrike, bluejay, American crow, orange-
crowned warbler, Northern Cardinal, common
grackle, great-tailed grackle, brown-headed
cowbird, orchard oriole.
Animals: nutria, raccoon, Eastern cotton-
Stories — Stories ‘n’ Stuff
will be held from 4:15 to 5
p.m. for children 6 to 9 years
of age at Sterling Municipal
Library. For more information,
call (281) 427-7331.
GED classes — Free GED
classes are held from 5:30 to
8:30 p.m. each Tuesday and
Thursday at the J.D. Walker
Community Center, 7613 Wade
Road. For more information,
call (281) 4263551.
Uons Club —The Baytown
Lions Club meets at noon each
Tuesday at Ryan’s on Garth
Road.
ChBdren’s programs—The
Crosby Library, 135 Hare Road,
offers two children’s programs
every Tuesday. A new program
for 1836monthold toddlers
will be held at 10 am. For
Community Calendar______________
years will be held from 4:15 to
5 p.m. every Tuesday.
Happy Quitters — The
Happy Quilters meet at 10
a.m. every Tuesday in the
Baytown Seniors Recreation
Center at the Baytown
Community Center, 2407
Market St. There are games
and fellowship for all seniors
55 to 105 and free refresh-
ments will be served. For more
information, call (281) 420-
5735.
BMe study-Bible study is
held at noon every Tuesday at
Wayne Gray Recreational
Center, 5200 East Road.
Lunch will be served at 11:30
a.m. There is no charge for the
study. For more information,
call Pat Holmes at (281) 422-
REZONING
POLL
To get readers' feedback about rezoning
in Goose Creek, The Baytown Sun has
created toll-free phone and fax lines, and
an e-mail address for your convenience.
Your responses will be heard.
Thoughts on the subject • how best to
handle the more than 700 extra students
expected in less than 10 years - will be
published In the paper as the rezoning
committee continues to meet.
To place your opinion, call
(281) 42S8020
or fax
(281) 427-1880.
You can also e-mail us at
poMbaytownMin.com.
Four options are being considered: creat-
ing a magnet school, district wide rezoning,
realigning the campuses to create one high
school, and a "leave as is" option.
in a 1999 certificates of oblig-
ation issue.
"This budget is balanced,'
Financial Director Bonita
McMurray told commission-
ers Monday.
Residents will see a tax
ation during a* commissioners increase of slightly more than
one haif-cent, 54 cents pgr
I
III
“ J
in
U
Gun, camcorder stolen
A man reported that between
feet 8 inches tall weighing 180 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday a
Photo by Jeff Scheldt
Tommy Nance teaches his students basic hand striking techniques during a Tiny Tigers
class at the Kuk Sool Won Martial Arts Academy on Texas Avenue. Practicing punching
forms Monday are students Elizabeth Powell, 4, Joshua Guajardo, 4, Joel Powell, 6 and
Shelby Grigsby, 5.
I still wonder what
ever happened to
Geraldine Connors
I’ve been thinking about Geraldine
Connors of late. I think I know why,
but I’m not entirely sure.
I’m not even positive Geraldine
Connors is the right name. Heavens,
it’s been more than five decades since
I recall seeing her. Maybe in the mid-
to-late-1940s.
(You’re thinking, "No way, Jimbo.
You’re too young.” But I look
younger in person than my actual
years on this earthly nugget. Thanks,
anyway.)
Geraldine was my neighbor for a'
few years in West Columbia, back in
the 1940s, when life was simpler for
kids, even if there was a war (WWII)
raging across the sea. She was good
friend, I know that.
We had moved to West Columbia
in the summer of '42 (sounds like a
good title for a movie), I believe it
was. My pops, J.P., was headed for
employment at Dow Chemical.
I missed my grandparents —
Mama and Papa Finley — we left
behind in Kilgore, but life goes on,
and I had to make the best of it. Even
at age 4 or 5.
Our house was on the corner of
Gray and Sweeny streets (shell roads
then). Geraldine lived just to our left,
across Sweeny Street. So we became
playmates.
Funny, she’s the only neighborhood
kid whose full name I think I remem-
ber. There were the Butler boys, but I
can’t recall their first names.
The McCanns lived just to the right
of us. But they were grown-ups, so
that doesn’t count.
Geraldine and I did everything
together in .those years. Fun was the
order of every day.
We played cowboys and Native
Americans (formerly Indians). We
played doctors and nurses (known
among today’s adolescents as urolo-
gists and either RNs, LPNs or neona-
tal nurses).
Sometimes, our parents would drop
us off at the old Capitol Theater (so-
called because West Columbia was
the first official capital of Texas) for
a Saturday afternoon “shoot-em-up,”
or western movie, as they are now
known in prim and proper society.
Try as I might, I can't remember
which of us moved first. Or exactly
when the friendship ended.
Wanting something better, and'
tired of small-town living, we moved
to Old Ocean, which had its own post
office, just a few weeks into my fifth-
grade year. West Columbia was locat-
ed nine miles away, and I never saw
Geraldine Connors again.
As fate would have it —years later
— my mama, Gigi, bought a house
located about a third of a mile or less
behind where Geraldine once lived.
I was by there the other day while
tending wretched funeral duties.
Drove right by Geraldine’s old
haunts, and where we used to play.
The house is different, but that does-
n’t change the memories.
Traveling by her old location is
why I believe I’ve been thinking
about Geraldine some. Mainly, like,
whatever happened to her?
Is she still alive? Where did she go
when she left ist Columbia? Did
she have a happy life?
Maybe, I thought, she moved to
Colorado, or even, heaven forbid,
New Jersey, and never again returned
to West Columbia.
What if she moved to New York,
married a guy named John and
became Geraldine Ferraro?
Ahhhhhhhhh!
Or what if she moved to
Hollywood, changed her name,
became the awesome Kim Novak and
made movies during the 1950s?
Could it possibly be that Kim Novak,
the blonde bombshell who tied all us
teen guys in knots with her stunning
beauty, was actually my Geraldine
Connors?
Wow!
Memory is a funny thing.
Especially as we grow older.
What happened to Geraldine
Connors? Guess I’ll never know.
Jim Finley's column appears
Tuesday and Friday. His e-mail
address is jfinleyll4@houston.rr.com.
Nature Center journal
The Baytown Nature Center Journal is a B <
guide to birds and animals recently spotted at
the center. The Journal is submitted by
Dwayne Litteer and Ron Ummel and appears
Tuesdays in The Sun.
Birds: mallard, mottled duck, blue- winged
teal, osprey, American white pelican, neotropic
cormorant, anhinga, great blue heron, great
egret, tricolored heron, little blue heron,
snowy egret, cattle egret, green heron, black-
crowned night-heron, yellow-crowned night-
heron, wood stork, white ibis, white-faced ibis,
roseate spoonbill, black-necked stilt, black-
bellied plover, killdeer, spotted sandpiper,
ring-billed dove, laughing gull, royal tern,
Forster’s tern, rock dove, mourning dove,
chimney swift, ruby-throated hummingbird,
belted kingfisher, red-bellied woodpecker,
Acadian flycatcher, great crested flycatcher,
Eastern kingbird, scissor-tailed flycatcher, tree tailed rabbit, cottonmouth (water moccasin)
Experiences: We saw birds in flight: 20
blue-winged teal, 35 bluejays, 40 American
white pelicans. We wished we had the right
camera with us. The marsh grass was tall,
thick and green.
The Baytown Nature Center is located on
W. Shreck Avenue, off Bayway Drive.
I ' I
BBflBL;?)
Today
Senior program — The Lee
College Senior Citizen program
will not have a morning pro-
gram today. Seniors are asked
to support one of
Commissioner Jim Fbnteno’s
annual fundraisers for the bus
program, the annual spaghetti
dinner, dessert and craft sale
tonight After the dinner,
seniors will attend the Astros
vs. Milwaukee Brewers game.
■ For more information, call
Lynne Foley at (281) 425-
6416.
Story time—Sterling
Municipal Library Preschool
Story Time for ages 36 years
will be from 10:15 to 11 a.m.
School Age Story Time for chit
dren K-third grade and ages 59 6587.
conditions are viewed in the and guidelines for the Trinity
financial markets," Polland Bay Emergency Squad. The
squad will provide paramedic
Belvieu's salt domes.
Revenues for the 2003 bud-
get were set at $30.1 million,
slightly less than expenditures, repaid over 20 years at
However, this is due to $1.57 interest rate of 4.41 percent.
Attorney Tom Polland, who are balance sheets that we
tures for construction at the assisted the county in the sale, believe do comply with gen-
county incinerator. Revenue praised Chambers County's erally accepted accounting that commissioners allow
Sexual assault under investigation
Baytown police are investigating a sexual assault that occurred early
Monday at a business in the 3600 block of North Main Street.
At approximately 3 a.m. Monday, a 25year-old employee went out-
side to take some trash to a dumpster behind the building. As she
approached the dumpster, a man grabbed her from behind and put his
hand over her mouth.
The suspect pulled her to a grassy area behind the dumpster where
he tied her hands with an unknown object. He forced her to the
ground and sexually assaulted her, then fled on foot.
Baytown Police Sgt. Richard Whitaker said investigators have little
to go on. The only description of the suspect is that he is a white
male, medium build, wearing an off-white shirt, blue jeans and a
mask.
Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to call the
Baytown Police Department at (281) 422-8371 or Baytown Crime
Stoppers at (281) 427-TIPS. - Matthew Cook
for that project was generated financial rating.
"We are very pleased with
the way the county's financial ers also approved the contract said the department benefits
frOm havjng fhg reserve
deputies.
"It doesn't burden the
county with any additional
equipment," Kreuzer said.
In addition, commission-
said. < ” ■ ■”“ "2 ' 2’
County Auditor Jerry Sparks service to West Chambers
said he was pleased with the County as part of the county's
first responders program.
Also during^ Monday s ers officially named a newly
ri””"K constructe(j t,oat ramp jn
Cove the Hugo Point Boat
Ramp and Park.
County Commissioner
Bill Wallace said the Hugo
family had one of the first
houses in the area.
"The original homestead
was the Hugo homestead,"
Wallace said.
Sylvia said the boat ramp
crepancies in the county's The site also includes* infor- would Prove t0 be verY use'
mation about evacuation
routes and storm survival kits.
Chambers County Sheriff
Monroe Kreuzer requested cial asset for the county," he
said.
cent decrease in the general
fund, from $15.9 million to
$14.4 million. The decrease
was the result of a 5 percent
decrease in property values, following a*$2 million certifi- cials that the county's
specifically in the value of cates of obligation sale. Money accounting practices were in
products stored in Mont used in the sale will go toward
building renovations county- standards, and there did not mation about the storm, and
appear to be any major dis- will be updated frequently.
o..^ 1 way the sale went.
court meeting Monday. one half-cent, .64 cents per "Things came out a lot better
The overall 2003 budget was $100 of property valuation: than we anticipated," he said.
7 mtn:™ The county received more __ _ v
good news Monday from it's county was taking precautions
The budget was approved and Turner, told county offi- turn this way," Sylvia said.
following a $2 million certifi- cials that the county's The Chambers County Web
’ site, http://www.co.cha-
accordance with accepted mbers.tx.us, has current infor-
approved at $31.7 million, The current tax rate is 52.855
with an approximate 9.4 per- cents per $100 of property val-
uation. The tax rate will independent auditing firm, for Tropical Storm Isidore,
increase to 53.495 cents per Cavett and Turner. "We are starting to get
$100 of property valuation. I
Robbery, assault
at night club
A robbery occurred at
2:30 aim. Monday outside the p.m. Saturday her home in the
Mi Estrellita night club at 3321 4900 block of Ripple Creek
Market Street. Drive was burglarized and
Three Hispanic males approximately $5,000 in cash
sneaked up behind a 25-year- and jewelry were stolen.
a slender build, short hair and a
goatee. He was last seen wear-
is responded to 133 calls, iriclud-
I.
10
J
IM
MH
Rims, tires stolen
A man reported that between
10 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m.
Three women attempting to Sunday his four chrome rims
aid the victim were also assault- and tires valued at $3,200 were
ed, Baytown EMS were called taken from his 1995 Buick
and treated the victims for automobile while parked in the
minor injuries at the scene. All 600 block of Yupon Avenue,
victims refused further medical
attention, Whitaker said.
The first attacker is described
as a Hispanic male in his 20’s, 5
pounds. He has a spider tattoo stainless steel Ruger 9 mm pis-
on his neck and tattoos on his tol valued at $500 and a cam-
arms. He was last seen wearing corder valued at $500 were
a white shirt and blue jeans. taken from his home in the 300
The second attacker
described as a Hispanic male in
his 20's, 5 feet 4 inches tall with
a slender build, short hair and a
goatee. He was last seen wear- Between 6 a.m. Sunday and
ing blue jeans and a white shirt. 6 a.m. Monday, Baytown Police
The third attacker L , AJ *'
described as a Hispanic male in ing 11 alarms, two auto thefts,
his 20's, 6 feet 3 inches tall with seven burglaries, one call of
a slender build and a dark com- criminal mischief, 14 distur-
plexion. He was last seen wear- bances, one robbery, one sexual
ing a brown shirt with black assault, one shot fired, three
stripes and blue jeans. thefts, one major traffic acci-
dent and two minor accidents.
Police Beat is compiled from
Baytown Police Department
reports. Crime Stoppers pays
other items valued at $322 total cas^ f°r ^Ps anc^ callers
■ r >
while he was at his home in the information, call (281) 427-
900 block of North Jones TIPS. The Baytown Police Web
Street. site is police.baytown.org.
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 302, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 24, 2002, newspaper, September 24, 2002; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1184647/m1/5/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.