The Bastrop Advertiser and County News (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 2, 1983 Page: 1 of 22
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THURSDAY EDITION
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KsliblishcdMarch I, U53
Bastrop, Texas 78602
Thursday, June 2,1983
Nuitibcr27
County to tax videogames?
Boats enter and leave South Shore
resort at Lake Bastrop, signalling start
of active summer season. Staff Photos
by Eric Williams.
Video games, or at least
a tax on them, might prove
a salvation as Bastrop
County scrapes to meet the
budget for the 1982-83
fiscal year.
Bastrop County Auditor
James Schmidt says that
the County has plenty of
money to pay its June
bills, but what happens af-
ter that will be determined
on a month-by-month
basis.
Schmidt said that county
was $103,000 short of the
money it needed to collect
for taxes at the end of Mar-
ch.
However, since that time
collection of delinquent
taxes has improved
although totals will not be
figured up until early June.
Schmidt said he will make a
presentation on the coun-
ty's financial condition at
the Commissioners Court
June 13, meeting.
$15 per Machine
County Judge Lloyd
Ketha has pointed out that
a county has the right to
levey one-half of the state
tax on video game
machines. Since the state
charges $30 per machine,
Schmidt said the county
could collect $15 on each
machine. He estimates that
there could be more than
1,000 of the video game
machines in the county.
Commissioners have
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considered the tax, and
discussed possibly having
the county sanitation of-
fice handle the collections.
Bill Barton, County
Sanitation officer, has
recently doubled the size of
his staff with the addition
of a new inspector.
Schmidt said he does not
expect the hiring to strain
the budget since it is expec-
ted that increased collec-
tion on inspection fees will
make up the cost of the new
position.
Schmidt said that Ketha
might also be helping the
county's budget situation
with his handling of
misdemeanor Driving
While Intoxicated cases
that come before him.
Fines Increase
Schmidt said that over
the months, the county
court fine for DWI seems
to be increasing from a
standard approximately
$250 fine up to a $500 fine.
He added that more DWI
cases are coming before the
court, since it is operating
four days a month rather
than one day a month as
previously.
Schmidt said county of-
ficials are trying "to rake
and scrape every dime,"
they can get into county
coffers.
County Treassurer
Doris Oldfield said that
Bastrop County still has
some money in certificates
of deposit. The certificates
are cashed as the county
needs the money to pay
bills.
Since Schmidt has in-
dicated that the county
already has plenty of
money for June, income to
the county during the last
two weeks of May and
collections through June
can apply to the July bills
and expenses.
The county goal is to
reach October, when a new
fiscal year starts. Schmidt
will soon start drafing a
preliminary budget for the
county. Observers look
for taxes to increase as
county employees by next
Oct. 1 will have gone two
years without a pay raise.
Road Needs
In addition, com-
missioners have heard
many complains about the
condition of county roads.
Recently elected Precin-
ct 4 Commissioner Marvin
Markert said that many
taxpayers have come to
him and said they would
welcome higher taxes if it
led to significant im-
Continued on Page 2
Vandals hit Watterson
Watterson area residents
discovered last Friday their
community center had
been spray painted red and
black and they're angry.
"This is the one place all
of us can use for voting,
church services, weddings,
funerals and other even-
ts...That spray paint is all
over the place-it looks just
terrible," said Mrs.
Howard Whitworth. The
paint was applied on all
four sides of the building.
Residents are offering a
$100 reward leading to the
names of the vandals, she
said. "We're also starting
a fund drive to pay for new
paint and we will volunteer
to repaintshe said.
To offer contributions
or information about the
vandalism, telephone 321-
3226 or 321-2684.
The Watterson Com-
munity Center was once a
public school, before the
area joined the Bastrop In-
dependent School District.
The two-acre school site is
located off Watterson
Road between FM 535 and
304.!
Quail man out on bond
Lithe girls in swim suits (top photo) Bastrop. Sonny Lewis (at right) surveys
are attractions of the summer at Lake his domain as park manager.
Summer lake season hectic
By Eric Williams
Officials at Lake
Bastrop Parks are expec-
ting a busy summer,
perhaps busier than any
previous ones, according
to Park Manager Sonny
Lewis.
By Wednesday of last
week, every cabin, cam-
psite and hook-up
available in the park had
been reserved for the
Memorial Day weekend,
Lewis said.
Visitors to the park will
find the facilities in the
North Shore and South
Shore facilities in the best
shape they have been in
years. Lewis and his crew
of seven persons installed
new walkways around the
boat ramps at the North
Shore area as well as
building a new fishing
barge.
Aesthetics at the park
have also been improved as
crews have painted all the
structures a coordinated
seal brown.
With 66 campsites
available on its North
Shore area, accessible by
FM 1441, and 82 campsites
on the South Shore, two
miles from Highway 21,
the LCRA owned and
maintained park area has
more campsites available
than either Bastrop State
Park or Buescher State
Park. v
The 906 acre lalce,
designed as a water cooling
structure for the Sim
Gideon power plant, is a
spot for swimming,
fishing, boating, water
skiing and sailing. Lewis
said it is among the top 10
lakes in the state as a site
for bass fishing tour-
naments.
Lewis said that the
power plant runs less than
it used too, since much of
its function has been taken
over by the recently con-
structed and cheaper to
run coal-fired generating
plants owned by the LCRA
near LaGrange.
Still the plants keep the
water temperature up, and
the water is now at a
pleasant 78 to 80 degrees,
Lewis said.
Campers going into the
park must pay $4.50 for a
campsite with both elec-
tricity and water connec-
tions or $3.50 for one with
only water. Cabins go for
$8 per night.
Entrance to the park
with an automobile costs
$2 and entitles a person to
swim, and use the picnic,
fishing and boat ramps.
Year's Pass
Local persons who use
the lake area frequently
can obtain a pass for the
year at a cost of $24. The
pass is sold on a pro-rata
basis, according to Lewis,
thus someone who pur-
chases one in June will
have to pay only $12 to
have access to the park and
facilities through Decem-
ber.
While there are usually
plenty of parking and pic-
nic areas, Lewis said that
the cabins and campsites
are full just about every
weekend and holiday.
Reservations can be made
well in advance, however.
Lewis, who has been an
LCRA employee for 18
years, and took over
management of the park
when the LCRA began to
handle the operations itself
four years ago, has an eight
member staff to operate
the park.
In addition, the area is
frequently patrolled by the
LCRA Rangers, which
Lewis said do an excellent
job of maintaining
security. Employees of the
park in addition to the
Rangers are trained in car-
diopulmonary resuscitation
and other emergency first
aid.
Indicted Bastrop
businessman Tom Miller
turned himself into the
Bastrop County Sheriff's
office following his indic-
tment by the Bastrop
County Grand Jury, and is
now free on two $10,000
bonds.
District Attorney Neal
Pfeiffer, when contacted
Tuesday, said that the case
would probably be set for
arraignment on June 6.
While "all sorts of
things could happen
then," according to Pfeif-
fer, "probably nothing
will," explaining that
Miller will have to appoint
a lawyer and the attorneys
will probably have to go
through pre-trial hearings.
Pfeiffer added that if the
Miller case comes down to
a jury trial, "we'll be
looking at October or
November, and that's kind
of optimistic."
The local game bird
operator was indicted in
mid-May on charges of
theft, theft by check and
misapplication of property
by the Bastrop Grand
Jury.
Criminal Investigator
for the DA's office, Judy
Edwards, said she has been
working on the case for
approximately the past
three months.
Miller was charged with
taking $5,000 from John
Braziel, an Austin in-
vestor in a corporation
known as.pird Game Inc.,
organized by Miller.
Also, he was charged
with theft by check based
upon a check received by
S&S Quail Farms (a quail
supplying company) in
Jan. from an account on
the Miller Quail Farm Inc.,
drawn by Miller on a com-
pany which he and his wife
owned. Charges saw there
were insufficient funds in
the Miller account to cover
the $533 check.
In addition, Steve
Braziel and a group of
Austin investors have filed
a civil lawsuit against
Miller charging that some
$40,000 advanced to Miller
to buy birds for the
Thanksgiving/Christmas
season,toas not used to buy
the birds.
SISD trustees eye lease solution
Appraisal district
sues software firm
The Bastrop County Ap-
praisal District has filed a
long-threatened suit in
District Court against two
computer companies it
claims failed to provide it
with more than $20,000
worth of software contrac-
ted for.
' *
The suit seeks triple
damages from First
Municipal Leasing Cor-
poration and the Fulcrum
Computer Group Inc.
which owned 80 percent of
Management Decisions Inc.,
a corporation that went
bankrupt before installing
purchased computer sof-
tware for the Bastrop
County Appraisal District
and four other districts.
All the affected appraisal
districts are joining in the
cost of the first test case,
according to BCAD Chief
Appraiser Roy Humble.
Smithville school
trustees indicated they're
giving serious con-
sideration to a lease-
purchase plan to get a new
school when they met
Monday night for well over
an hour behind closed
doors with an Austin
businessman.
William P. Corbett of
Corbett Services Inc. asked
for the secret or "executive
session" so details he
revealed about his lease
plan wouldn't put him at a
disadvantage later if the
Smithville Independent
School District calls for
bids on a lease package.
Sonny Veenstra, SISD
board president, said the
session was held "more to
educate us on what we'd
Mass of knives taken
Approximately $2,000
worth of pocket knives
were stolen in a Thursday
night burglary of the
Yerger Hill & Son Har-
dware store in Smithville.
v Smithville Police Chief
Frank Calabrese said that
the burglars entered the
store by breaking the glass
out of the front door.
Exit was made through
the rear door of the store,
which was simply un-
bolted. r '
Calabrese said that as
far as he knows, no other
items were taken.
Merger OK'd
First State Bank shareholders last week approved the
bank's merger into Smithville Bankshares, a holding
company that is also locally owned,
Around 45 to 50 of the bank's approximately 75
shareholders turned up for the meeting and all voted in
favor of exchanging their bank stock for stock in the new
holding company, according to Yerger Hill III, the
bank's board chairman. Those voting held 84 percent of
the pioneer bank's stock.
The merger should be effective around July 1, Hill told
the shareholders, subject to final approval by the Federal
Reserve System, the FDIC (federal bank deposit insuran-
ce corporation) arid the Texas Department of Banking.
^Hill said the holding company will allow "the bank to
assumed additional functions such as leasing, ownership
of property and its development, offering securities and
diversified mortgage lending. These are things that
should help the community. We can iake advantage of
the bank's earnings and invest them back into the com-
munity," he said.
face by leasing a building.
All we're doing is looking
at options." Asked if the
board is also considering a
bond issue (favored earlier
this month by several
trustees), SISD Superin-
tendent Don Hestand's
plan for a $1.5 million
building program or other
approaches, Veenstra
said: "It's all under con-
sideration." He added
there would be full
discussion in public by the
board before action is
taken.
"But we know we have
to do something" and
quickly, he said. Trustee
Rosemary Kalina said she
agreed.
Trustee Jack Hancock
Jr. said "If a bond issue is
not passable, this (the lease
plan) is an option the board
would have to consider.''
Bond Issue Preferred
He said, however, "I
would like to try a bond
iSsue first" A lot people
seem favorable to it...May-
be a bond issue of $1.5 to
S2 million would have •'
chance of passing."
' Under the plan discussed
with Corbett, the district
would meet with him to
plan what it needs and
Corbett would have the
modular (in sections)
school designed to those
specifications. Corbett
would own the building
until the-lease payout was
through:*
Out Of Budget
Yearly lease payments
would be made out of the
district's operation-
maintenance budget. The
district can raise school
taxes by eight percent each
year without an election
and that money could go
toward the lease. Veenstra
has also said he thinks
money for a lease or other
building plans can come
out of the operating budget
that will be drawn later this
summer.
Savings Claimed
According to, Corbett,
over a seven-year period,'
SISD would pay ap-
proximately $185,000 a
year to get a $1 million
building compared to
$203,000 a year if it passed
a conventional bond issue
with a 9.75 percent interest
rate.
Over 10 years, the lease
would cost $146,000 a
year, $132,000 for a 12-
year payout or $118,000
over 15 years. Corbett said
this would be less in each
case than using bonds. He
said there would be com-
parable savings in $1.5, $2
and $2.5 million lease
projects.
In addition, SISD would
save time, he said.
The lease building could
be ready for use within 18
months compared to three
years under a bond
program, he claimed.
State law allows a school
district to use the lease
method to acquire only
portable or moveable
structurts but in practice
the lease school can be of a
modular design, sturdy
and similar to conven-
tional buildings, according
to Corbett.
Critics of the lease
method claim the owner
could move the school off
SISD property on short
notice but supporters point
out the way investors get
theiT money back is to leave
the building on the site and
collect the lease payments.
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Williams, Eric. The Bastrop Advertiser and County News (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 2, 1983, newspaper, June 2, 1983; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth601941/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bastrop Public Library.