Citizens Journal (Atlanta, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 111, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 23, 1991 Page: 1 of 12
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See Schedule on
Former Queen City
Coach Found Guilty
of Involuntary
Manslaughter
See Story on 2A
: Get Your
: Car in
: Shape £or
Summer
See Car Care Special Section
• •••••
Citizens jc
10785
CI
Dec 31 901
ATLANTA MEMORIAL.. LIBRARY
101 W HIRAM
ATLANTA
Jjm
Home ot
Burton Cook
a subscriber
TX 75551
USPS NO. 114-160 VOL. 112, NO 111
SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 1991
50 CENTS
CASS COUNTY, TEXAS
1 SECTION, 12 PAGES
1
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Journal Staff Report
When the Atlanta Independent
School District moves to the
single-member district election
method, it will do so with the same
number of school board members
it now has: seven. But, beginning
in May 1992, five of those posi-
tions will be elected from specific
districts and two will be voted on
from throughout the district, at-
large.
The school board also agreed
by resolution Tuesday night to
seat the first minority trustee in
the May elections. That will tie in
with their plan to rotate in school
board trustees under the new
plan, rather than electing a whole
new board at one time.
"In other words, there are two
seats on the school board coming
up for election next spring," said
board president George Welch,
Jr. "One of those will be desig-
nated the predominantly-minority
ward. If there are two such wards,
the second one will come up the
next year."
Welcn said he did not know
how it will be decided which dis-
trict is designated. Superintendent
7 think it's one of
the better things
(we've) done...'
— George Welch
of Schools J.D. Cox said he had
attempted to contact the demog-
raphers to get them to explain
how that process is implemented,
but said they could not be
reached before the board meet-
ing.
"Not fully understanding how
that works, I don't feel we ought to
go beyond deciding tonight how
many trustees the board will have
and how many of those will be
from single-member districts," Cox
told the board.
"I appreciate the board's
foresight in moving into this. I
think it's one of the better things
this board's done and I commend
Mr. Cox on helping to get it
going," Welch commented. Welch,
along with trustee Brenda Ellis,
are the two board members
whose seats on the panel come
up for election next spring.
The Atlanta school board voted
at its May meeting to go to the
single-member system of electing
future trustees in order to provide
the minority and rurai areas with
representation on the board. Two
demographers, Drs, Ronald
Claunch and Leon Hallman, of
Stephen F. Austin University, will
be surveying the district soon to
divide it into the five districts.
Each district must have ap-
proximately an equal amount of
population and be formulated so
that at least one district has a
majority minority census.
Residents get little or nothing from taps Wednesday
Well repairs, use demands
reduce water to a trickle;
situation now critical
By JOHN COLEMAN
Journal Editor
City officials in Atlanta had to
bite their tongues to keep from
saying "I told you so" as city hall
was flooded with phone calls early
Wednesday from residents who
were experiencing very low water
pressure or, in some cases, no
water at all.
The temporary shortage of
water came less than a week after
city manager Jim Long issued an
appeal to water users to conserve
their extra use of water because
of ongoing water well and storage
tank repairs.
Long reiterated the seriousness
of the situation late Wednesday
when he requested that all Atlanta
water customers to eliminate all
outdoor watering until further
notice. He stressed the need for
further conservation by saying
"that includes residences and
businesses where sprinklers are
left on all night. We need that time
to let the tanks fill back up."
Long said that heavy summer
demand on the city's water supp-
ly, coupled with an inoperable well
and a water storage tank that is
down for maintenance, caused
the supply to drop to the point
where customers on the east side
of the city awoke Wednesday to
water that was barely a trickle.
Some residents reported having
no water at all around 7 a.m.
Wednesday.
The Atlanta City Council met in
an emergency session Thursday
evening to proceed immediately
with repairs on the citv's Reed
Street well. Declaring the situation
an emergency that "threatens the
prayer.
City officials aren't exactly sure
about the exact problem with the
broken well, but the primary
"symptom" is that water is pulled
up from the ground through a ver-
tical shaft and after it reaches a
'We are asking everyone to please
refrain from all outside watering until
further notice.'
— Jim Long, city manager
safety and well-being of the
citizens of the city", the council
was able to move forward with
plans and bypass the lengthy bid
process.
When the emergency meeting
was called, the city added anothe'
item to the agenda for considera-
tion at Tuesday night's meeting.
The discussion there centered on
acquring materials for resurfacing
some city streets that in the worst
need of repair.
(See separate story on this
page).
The well on Reed is one of the
city's three water wells and is the
only one that is inoperable at this
time. The water well on Massey
Street is operating normally and
the one near Ellington Clinic is
operating "on a wing and a
certain height, won't go any fur-
ther and actually begins to fall.
A preliminary diagnosis is that
water is leaking through rusted
See editorial on 3A
out spots in the shaft's casing.
Regardless, technic s say that
the well's pump was doing twice
the work for half the results and
has subsequently been damaged
"It was iimping along until Tues-
day," said Long, "then we just had
to shut it down."
Quick phone calls to three com-
mercial water well companies
Wednesday produced telefaxed
estimates on what it would cost to
pull the existing pump and related
equipment and either repair it or
Please see WATER
page
2A
Street repairs to begin next week
Journal staff photo by JOHN COLEMAN
This 500,000 gallon water tank sits empty on Grandvlew Street as contractors sandblast the Interior
to prepare It for repainting. Atlanta water users' normally high demands on the city's supply of well
water Is being compounded by the empty tank and an Inoperable pump on one of the wells.
Future Atlanta school boards
to represent five wards; two
more to be elected at-large
Atlanta City Council members
approved the purchase Tuesday
of three truckloads of road surfac-
ing material and crews plan to
begin repairing some of the city's
streets next week.
The material, which is
scheduled to be mixed Wednes-
day, consists of a special road oil
called SS-1 and sand and gravel.
A "pug mill" that is preparing a
similar mixture for Cass County
Commissioners Freddie Tyson
and Robert Buzbee to use on their
roads will churn out the city's mix.
"We can do from three-quarters
to a mile of 16-18 foot wide
streets with one load," city
manager Jim Long told the coun-
Please see STREETS page 2A
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AJH students tour capital
U.S. Rep. Jim Chapman (D-Sulphur Springs) Is shown with teachers and students from Atlanta Junior
High School who recently toured the nation's capital. The local group was In Washington, D C. from
June 5-8. In addition to touring the nation's landmarks, Rep. Chapman also talked to the group about
the workings of Congress.
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Coleman, John. Citizens Journal (Atlanta, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 111, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 23, 1991, newspaper, June 23, 1991; Atlanta, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth348256/m1/1/?q=%22Places+-+United+States+-+Texas+-+Cass+County%22: accessed June 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Atlanta Public Library.