The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 62, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 27, 2014 Page: 3 of 10
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Thursday, March 27, 2014
News
The Baytown Sun
Baytown Sun photo/Albert Villegas
Roger Guenther, executive director of the Port of Houston
Authority, spoke Wednesday during a Rotary Club luncheon
at the Goose Creek Country Club in Baytown. Guenther
graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in 1979.
GUENTHER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The Port Commission ap-
pointed Guenther, 53, to his
new role in January. He re-
placed Col. Leonard Water-
worth, who stepped down to
pursue other opportunities.
During his Rotary ad-
dress, Guenther spoke of the
port’s history, the Houston
Ship Channel, and the mis-
sion and goals of the Port of
Houston Authority.
“More than 150 public
and private terminals along
the ship channel make up
the Port of Houston,” Guen-
ther said.
Since it opened in No-
vember 1914, the port has
become a large economic
engine for the region. In
2013 alone, 36 million tons
of cargo moved across port
docks and it handled nearly
2 million cargo containers.
“Our mission is pretty
simple. It is to facilitate
commerce and maintain
safe waterways that are au-
thorized by the federal gov-
ernment,” Guenther said.
“Promote trade and gen-
erate economic prosperity
for the region, state and the
nation. We are also here to
create jobs,” he said.
Another responsibility is
to make sure the Houston
Ship Channel is maintained
for efficient flow of com-
merce. That means mak-
ing sure it is at its proper
depth and continues to be
dredged.
One challenge on the
horizon is making sure the
port is prepared for what’s
to come, which will include
potential opportunities re-
lated to expansion of the
Panama Canal, a huge proj-
ect that will allow larger
ships to utilize that water-
way.
In response, the Houston
port must update its facil-
ities as well as deepen and
widen the Barbours Cut and
Bayport channels in order
to handle increased traffic
as a result of the Panama
project.
During questions, an
attendee asked about the
weekend oil spill that caused
the temporary closing of the
Houston Ship Channel.
The channel had been
closed since Saturday, when
a barge carrying 900,000
gallons of oil collided with
a ship.
Officials said upward of
170,000 gallons of oil may
have spilled into waters
south of Houston.
The Coast Guard partially
reopened the ship channel
on Tuesday.
“I understand the clean-
up is going well,” Guenther
said. “The Coast Guard has
done a fine job at expediting
the cleanup.
“This is very costly to
all of the industries up and
down the ship channel,” he
added. “Traffic is moving
and it is daylight only now,
but I am hopeful it will
(soon) be back to nonnal
with 24-hour traffic.”
SCHOOL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
cut the number of high school stan-
dardized tests from 15 to five while
scrapping the algebra II mandate for
most students.
What remains to be seen, though,
is what the new curriculum will look
like once it’s fully in place. Listen-
ing to all of its facets, Rep. Harold
Dutton, also a Houston Democrat,
was only half-joking when he said,
“I don’t think anyone up here under-
stood all of that.”
The law abandons previous re-
quirements that most students take
four years of math and science, in-
cluding algebra II. It’s instead de-
signed to provide teenagers hoping
to land high-paying jobs right out of
high school the flexibility to focus on
vocational training.
But some school districts will have
to offer new courses, or retool exist-
ing ones. Also, there’s no require-
ment that all schools provide every
course the law lists as meeting new
standards, meaning students with
specific academic focuses may have
to travel to other campuses to take a
class like auto repair.
And committee members ex-
pressed alarm that counselors will
have to meet with eighth-graders for
all-important discussions on what
kinds of courses they will take all
through high school to ensure they
stay on track to meet all the new rules
- an especially daunting task since
some counselors in urban school dis-
tricts are assigned to as many as 400
students each.
Still, the committee’s chairman,
Killeen Republican Jimmie Don
Aycock, said
Wednesday that any tweaks to the
law won’t be discussed until later
this year. Until then, he said, the fo-
cus remains implementation.
Meanwhile, the debate over alge-
bra II continued to rage - though in
a different form.
Previously, education experts and
even powerful members of Texas’
business community complained
that the new academic standards
weakened curriculum since studies
have shown that completing alge-
bra II can be a key predictor for a
student’s success in college and be-
yond.
But Raymund Paredes, commis-
sioner of Texas’ Higher Education
Coordinating Board, told the com-
mittee that taking four years of any
math could actually be more import-
ant than taking algebra II. He point-
ed to statistics on college readiness
compiled by the ACT college en-
trance exam and showing that Tex-
as students who had three years of
rigorous math were no more likely
to be considered college-ready than
those who took three years of math
including algebra II.
“If you want to go to university,
you better take four years of math,”
Paredes said.
Committee members pushed
back, noting that many critics of the
new curriculum law had billed alge-
bra II as the “holy grail” or “silver
bullet” of primary education and
harshly criticized the Legislature for
de-emphasizing it.
“It’s not the end all,” Paredes con-
ceded, “but it’s an important bench-
mark.”
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COUNCIL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
As part of its rezoning
application statement, West
Bay Fabrication Park indi-
cated that it would dedicate
200 feet for a buffer zone
along the bayou to accom-
modate the watershed pro-
tection zone, and that there
would be limited outside
lighting.
It noted that the over-
all site falls outside of the
city’s public services, but a
water well and septic sys-
tem will serve the property
and that 40 percent of the
proposed area will remain
intact with natural vegeta-
tion.
West Bay Fabrication
Park asked for the zoning
change to allow them to
utilize Cedar Bayou for
shipping and use the por-
tion of the property that is
within city limits for a stor-
age and lay down yard.
Now in front of Baytown
councilmen, they will hold
the public hearing and take
action.
Since P&Z’s initial deni-
al, however, city staff has
discussed the option of re-
zoning the area as general
commercial, said Deputy
City Manager Ron Bot-
toms.
“From the beginning, we
told them the getting the
property zoned light indus-
trial would be difficult,”
Bottoms said. “What zon-
ing it general commercial
allows for is outdoor stor-
age, winch in their case is a
lay down yard.”
Bottoms said city staff
would now recommend
general commercial zon-
ing, winch is less intensive
but a more restrictive zone.
Under general commer-
cial, the company would
still have to adhere to buf-
fer zone requirements and
is subject to the city’s noise
ordinance.
“That way they can still
do what they want and it
affords protection for folks
in the community on the
other side of the bayou,”
Bottoms said.
Members of the Friends
of Cedar Bayou United
have said they would rath-
er see the banks of Cedar
Bayou remain as natural
habitat. However, FCBU
does not oppose new indus-
try along Cedar Bayou if
that industry will be a good
neighbor with no negative
impact such as loud noise
and pollution of the envi-
ronment.
In other action, council
will also conduct the first
and second public hearing
on the proposed annexation
of 28.2 acres of land to be
used for new development,
including a Kroger Market-
place.
The property sits south
of Interstate 10 and west of
Garth Road, between Hunt
and Archer Roads.
Under proposed plans,
Kroger Marketplace will
be the anchor store at a
170,000-square-foot retail
development.
Once constructed, Kro-
ger Marketplace will be
123,000 square feet and
will be double the size of
the existing Kroger store
at Garth and Baker roads,
winch will close.
Part of the proposed de-
velopment would include a
traffic signal and new street
that would help alleviate
traffic congestion along
Garth Road.
BAYTOWN POLICE BEAT
Burglaries
• Electronics and other
items were reported taken
from a vehicle in the 700
block of Briarclift Lane be-
tween 9:30 p.m. Monday
and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
• Household items val-
ued at $1,100 were report-
ed stolen from an apart-
ment in the 1600 block of
Garth Road between Satur-
day and Tuesday.
• A game system, sneak-
ers and jewelry were re-
ported stolen from a resi-
dence in the 200 block of
Hines Avenue between 8
a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Some of the stolen proper-
ty was recovered.
• A grass trimmer was re-
ported stolen from a build-
ing in the 200 block of East
James Avenue between
Saturday and Wednesday.
Thefts
• A black Ford Escape
was reported stolen from
the 600 block of Alexan-
der Drive between 8 p.m.
Monday and 7 a.m. Tues-
day.
• Unspecified property
valued at $4,400 was re-
ported stolen from a ve-
hicle in the 2900 block of
West Baker Road between
9:30 p.m. Saturday and 5
a.m. Sunday.
• A package valued at
$569 was reported stolen
in the 1400 block of North
Dakota Street Monday.
45 offenses
Between Tuesday and
Wednesday mornings,
Baytown police wrote 45
offense reports, includ-
ing two assaults, one auto
theft, five burglaries, four
vehicle burglaries, two
cases of criminal mischief,
one DWI, one forgery and
four thefts. They also made
16 other arrests and wrote
nine other reports.
During the same period,
officers responded to four
traffic accidents, including
one with reported injuries.
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Bloom, David. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 62, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 27, 2014, newspaper, March 27, 2014; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth745862/m1/3/?q=hamilton+county: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.