The Boerne Star & Recorder (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 101, No. 76, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2007 Page: 4 of 32
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PAGE 4A
THE BOERNE Star & Recorder
Friday, September 21, 2007
Star Editorial ...
School buses already
safest way to ride
This week Boerne Independent School officials decided to
speed up their replacement schedule for school buses to try to
beat a new law that goes into effect in 2010.
That law, among more than 5,000 bills passed during the 2007
session of the Texas Legislature, will require all new school buses
to have seat belts for all passengers.
The problem, aside from the added costs cited by school board
members, is that there is a lot of doubt as to added safety of hav-
ing seat belts on buses. There has even been some evidence to
suggest that lap belts may increase the risk of injury to bus pas-
sengers in a wreck.
According to a 2002 report from the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, students are nearly eight times safer riding
on a school bus than in private vehicles with their parents.
The fatality rate for school buses was only 0.2 fatalities per 100
million vehicle miles traveled compared to 1.5 fatalities per 100
million for cars, according to the report. This was despite laws in
every state requiring all passengers to wear a seat belt.
On school buses, occupant protection is provided by “compart-
mentalization,” instead of safety belts. Compartmentalization is
the name for the protective envelope created by strong, closely
spaced seats that have energy-absorbing high seat backs that pro-
tect occupants in a crash.
School buses also have other features that contribute to the level
of safety, such as emergency exits, reinforced roof structure, fuel
systems and body joint strength that make the bus stronger, larg-
er, heavier and safer than most other vehicles on the road today.
Research by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration found that lap belts appear to increase the inci-
dence of serious neck injuries and possibly abdominal injury
among young passengers in severe frontal crashes.
And, lap and shoulder belts don’t seem to make kids safer either.
That same research found that the misuse of lap and shoulder
belts also could result in serious neck injury and possible abdom-
inal injury.
So, how safe are today’s school buses.
The 2002 study looked at school bus crashes over the preceding
11 years. The study found an average of 26,000 wrecks annually
across the nation resulted in 10 deaths per year.
Even one death a year is a tragedy, but in this case it looks as
though the Legislature has had a knee-jerk reaction that will
only end up costing taxpayers more money with, at best, ques-
tionable results.
THE BOERNE Star
Online Poll
Do you support the City’s denial of a rezoning
request for S. School Street to commercial?
■ Yes, traffic is already too heavy - 51%.
■ No, commercial zoning fits the master plan -
40%.
■ No opinion — 9%.
Results of 100 votes cast as of Thursday morning,
Sept. 20 at 11:39 a.m.
Visit www.boernestar.com and cast your vote today. .
Worth Quoting ..
Defining and analyzing
humor is a pastime of humor-
less people.
- Robert Benchley
Bible Verse ...
When words are many, sin is
not absent, but he who holds
his tongue is wise.
- Proverbs 10:19
The BoERNE Star & Recorder
www.boernestar.com
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
Brian Cartwright
News Editor
Sports Editor
Copy Editor
Typesetter
Writers
EDITORIAL
Mark J. Armstrong
Kerry Barboza
Kit Brenner
Molly Meckel
Dave Pasley
Elena Tucker
BOOKKEEPING
Office Manager Sandra Pfeiffer
CIRCULATION
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ADVERTISING
Dana Smith
Graphic Design
PRODUCTION
Rachel Schulz
Rebecca Kirsch
Marketing Director
Sales
Sales
Frank Shubert
Kolleen Roe
Karen Morris
DISTRIBUTION
Circulation Manager Stephen Bartell
Reserve Driver
3ob Clark
Contributing Photographers
Brandon Cheek, Chris Woerner
Contributing Writers and Columnists
Mary Alice Yelverton, Dr. John Kelly, Natalie Morgan, Jan Wrede, Elena Tucker,
Ed Davis, Anita Porterfield, Vera D’Spain, Sharon Benedict, Paula White,
Ken Nietenhoefer, Dr. James Dobson, Ellen Damstra, Regina Alexander,
Tom Harris, Tom Lanier, Lynn Pendley, Kathy Senkbeil, Ron Warden,
Krysta McDaniel, Bill Ward, Peary Perry and Oscar Garcia.
MEMBER OF Texas Press Association, National Newspaper Association,
South Texas Press Association, Texas Gulf Coast Press Association
941 N. School Street • Boerne, TX (UPS 059-740)
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where in Texas and $65 per year outside of Texas by The Boerne Star, 941 N. School St., Boerne,
Kendall County, TX. 78006. Periodical postage paid at Boerne, TX. POSTMASTER: Send changes
of address to THE BOERNE STAR, 941 N. School St., Boerne, TX 78006-0820.
The Boerne Star welcomes letters on any public issue. Letters may be mailed, faxed, e-
mailed or hand-delivered but must contain the writer’s name, address and phone number.
Letters should not exceed 300 words. Addresses and telephone numbers are for verification
purposes only and will not be published. Names and city of residence will be published. We
reserve the right to edit all letters for style and content.
points
"0207TheA VGVGTA CHRONICLE '
"FIRST RUMSFELD THEN TO GOT ROVE WA Now GONZALES,
WHO DO YOU THINK THEY’LL 60 AFTER NEXT, DICK?"
Letters to the Editor
Thank you
On Aug. 21, there was an accident involving our teenage children
riding on the tailgate of a pickup truck. On behalf of all the families
involved, we would like to thank each and every one of the people
who responded for their hard efforts that they perform day after day.
From Airlife, Boerne Police and Kendall County deputies to Fire
and EMS departments and the First Response team; from the very
kind person who called 9-1-1 to our agent at Diamond Insurance in
Boerne. Each person handled this situation with the utmost profes-
sionalism, dedication and respect for all parties involved - injured
or not.
Please parents, “again” explain the dangers of riding in the back of
a pickup, whether you’re standing up or sitting down, slow or fast,
the injuries could become the same. It is also against the law under
18 years of age.
What could have been a tragedy, thank goodness, turned out to be
somewhat of a positive outcome and a very scary lesson for every-
one involved.
Again from our families to yours, we say thank you for all that you
do for our community. God bless and thank you for your prayers,
- The Smith family
Boerne
Christians cannot support war
I am writing regarding the column under the byline of Kathy
Senkbeil appearing in the Sept. 14 issue of the Boerne Star. Ms
Senkbeil poses the problem many people have posed: can Christians
support the troops while not supporting their mission. Her answer is
that you can not have it both ways. If you support the troops you
must support their mission because the purpose of the military is to
“protect us from evil.”
The idea that armies fight evil is absurd. Armies fight wars to
impose the political will of one nation on another.
Her arguments are drawn from quotes in the Jewish Bible and cer-
tain text in the New Testament. The problem is that the texts she
quotes don’t support her belief. She cites Matthew 25 which has
nothing to do with war and peace.
No Christian can ever support war. Killing is prohibited by the 10
commandments (Thou shall not kill). No matter what Paul writes,
nothing supercedes the law which Moses brought down from the
mountain.
For followers of Jesus all violence is prohibited. (See Matthew 26:
52) When Jesus disarmed Peter, he disarmed all believers. Most
Christians aren’t taught this in church. The fact that the church no
longer teaches Christian nonviolence is witness as to how far from
their commission the church has strayed.
- Craig Clark
Boerne
Know where your money goes?
In order to get some idea of where Kendall County’s money was
coming from and where it was going, I made the following analysis
from the figures available and presented it at the Commissioners’
Aug. 30 budget meeting:
REVENUES
The proposed Fiscal Year 2007-08 Budget for the General Fund is
$16.9 million. Property taxes and sales taxes will generate 75 per-
cent, or $12.7 million. The remaining 25 percent will come from
fees, permits, fines, grants and miscellaneous other sources.
EXPENDITURES
There are over 50 different categories of expenditures to which
money will be allocated from the General Fund. Just five will
consume more than 53 percent of the budget. They are:
$4.1 million
Sheriff Department and Jail
Contingencies Commissioners Court
Roads & Bridges
Emergency Medical Service
Transfers Out (?)
$1.3 million
$1.3 million
$1.2 million
$1.0 million
The 10 departments receiving the least amounts, which represent
1 percent of the budget, include several volunteer fire departments:
Historical Commission
Alamo Springs VFD
County Surveyor
Veteran’s Services
Department of Public Safety
Waring VFD
Sisterdale VFD
Bergheim VFD
Emergency Management
Kendalia VFD
$1,000
$4,000
$6,000
$7,000
$16,000
$18,000
$34,000
$35,000
$41,000
$43,000
A sampling of some of the other activities includes:
Election Department (New)
County Judge
Parks
Animal Control
Court House & Bldgs
County Auditor
County Clerk
$125,000
$150,000
$403,000
$210,000
$686,000
$489,000
$419,000
County Treasurer
County Health & Welfare
County Conservation
$126,000
$90,000
$55,000
It is your money. If you have any questions, call your
Commissioner.
- Frank Wetzel
Boerne
Council members deserve applause
Council members (Bob) Manning, (Judy) Edmondson and (Rob)
Ziegler are to be applauded for voting against a plan to rezone prop-
erties in the South School Street area. One doesn’t need a degree in
traffic management to realize this area is totally unsuited for com-
mercial use on any scale. Vehicular access is presently limited from
the I-10 and Highway 46 intersection at exit 540 and off of Main St.
up through Highland Street, a residential neighborhood.
The former is presently a traffic nightmare at all hours of the day.
Try to imagine all of the additional traffic trying to get across this
intersection to reach the south entrance to School St. No thanks.
I’ll bet the residents on Highland Street would love all of the
increased traffic such a development would bring. Enhancement to
access in this area would be quite costly and take untold time, not to
mention undue delays to citizens while the revamp was underway.
Boerne’s infrastructure is tapped out. Residential areas in south
Boerne experience frequent power outages. They are short-lived, but
occur nonetheless.
I often times find myself wondering how much of Boerne’s Master
Plan was drafted by locals with the interest of everyday citizens in
mind and how much has been altered by out-of-state influence look-
ing to make a quick buck.
We need to focus on rebuilding our existing infrastructure before
the developers suck anymore life out of what’s left.
Thank God for the likes of Bob Manning, Judy Edmondson and
Rob Ziegler.
- Mike Murrell
Boerne
Solving Boerne’s wastewater
treatment needs
Boerne’s City Council and staff are wisely preparing to expand the
city’s wastewater treatment capacity. Here is a proposal to minimize
the costs and maximize the benefits of increasing that capacity:
1. Build a new plant; don’t merely expand the existing one. Per
city estimates, constructing a new plant will cost at least $8 million
less than retrofitting the existing facility. In addition, a new plant
located farther downstream than the existing plant would require
less dependence on “lift stations” and thereby minimize the threat of
spills.
2. Build the new facility on donated land. The City of Boerne owns
100 acres of pristine Cibolo Creek property. It generously leases the
land to the Cibolo Nature Center (CNC) virtually cost-free and even
mows the center’s grass and collects its trash.
The CNC recently received a $2 million donation to purchase
more than 60 acres of land adjacent to its existing 100-acre lease. In
gratitude for the city’s longstanding, no-charge lease to it, why does-
n’t the CNC lease 15 acres of its recently acquired property to the
city at no cost?
A 15-acre donation would represent less than 10 percent of the
center’s land and would provide the city with an ideal location for a
new treatment facility. What a great opportunity for CNC leaders to
show their genuine concern for the city’s welfare and save Boerne
citizens huge increases in monthly utility bills!
3. Make the new water treatment facility a natural, educational
oasis. Finishing ponds of wastewater treatment plants attract many
kinds of birds and wildlife. Just like covered landfills make incred-
ible golf courses, the new facility can provide an excellent place to
observe wildlife and monitor water quality. This idea fits squarely
with the CNC’s mission to preserve and educate. Plus, it turns
lemons into lemonade for our entire community.
This proposal gives a local community organization a chance to
benefit all citizens of Boerne, including itself. City leaders should
invite the Cibolo Nature Center to participate in solving one of the
City’s most pressing problems.
- Bill Taylor
Boerne Forward
Letters to the Editor Policy
The Boerne Star welcomes letters on any public issue.
Letters may be mailed, faxed, e-mailed or hand-delivered but must contain the
writer's name, address and phone number.
Addresses and telephone numbers are for verification purposes only and will not
be published. Names and city of residence will be published.
Letters should be short and concise, long enough only to make your point.
We reserve the right to edit all letters for style and content and refuse letters that
would be objectionable to readers. We also will not publish anonymous letters.
Priority will be given to letters 300 words or less that concern local topics and
written by people who’ve not published a letter in the last 30 days.
Call 249-2441 with questions regarding the submission of letters to the editor for
publication.
Letter to the Editor • PO Box 820 • Boerne, TX 78006
news@boernestar.com
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Cartwright, Brian. The Boerne Star & Recorder (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 101, No. 76, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2007, newspaper, September 21, 2007; Boerne, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1667286/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Patrick Heath Public Library.