The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 139, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 16, 1992 Page: 1 of 24
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Texas’ Oldest Weekly Newspaper
Since March 1, 18S3
Vol. 139, No. 39
Bastrop. Texas
Thursday, July 16,1992
Shanks to
relinquish
SISD post
Smithville school trustees Mon-
day accepted the resignation of
Superintendent Jack Shanks ef-
fective July 31.
Shanks will stay and help see
the school district'd!rough the up-
coming budget drafts, but plans
to be settled into a new position in
the Sweeny Independent School
District in time for the fall
semester, he said.
“Smithville has been great and
I have enjoyed my three years
here,” Shanks said.
“The board, faculty and ad-
ministrative staff here has been
supportive and the kids have met
every challenge, but Sweeney has
offered me a chance to move up
career-wise,” he said.
“The opportunities for me and
my 15-year-old son, James,were
to good to pass up,” Shanks
added.
According to the superinten-
dent, he visited with Sweeny
representatives Friday after-
noon. Saturday they called him at
home and made an offer. He
Jack Shanks
“I’ll miss Smithville, but I am
looking forward to the new
challenge,” he said.
“It’s a nice community and the
district is in great shape as far as
facilities are concerned,” Shanks
said.
Sweeny is a large 3A school
district with about 1,000 more
students than SISD, he said.
“It’s a bigger challenge for me
with a lot more responsibility,”
Shanks said.
Tahitian plan eyed
Service contract may cut costs
In searching for alternatives to
operate the water district more
efficiently, board members with
the Bastrop County Water Control
and Improvement District No. 2
have asked two local water supp-
ly operators to consider contrac-
ting services from the water
district.
Meter reading, billing and col-
lection and operations and
maintenance are services now
provided by WCID No. 2, the
district that serves Tahitian
Village residents.
However the costs of these ser-
vices, combined with employee
salaries and benefits, is far more
than the income from water
sales, leaving the district with an
annual deficit, according to board
president Norman Hansen.
He said the total annual
budgeted salaries and benefits for
employees is $144,089.56 and the
total annual budget for water ser-
vices is $104,300.
“Before the WCID began con-
tracting out road maintenance,
some of the employee pay and
benefits were absorbed within
that budget, but now it is not and
has left us over budget,” Hansen
said.
“Besides income from water
sales, funds from the 5000 stand-
by fee accounts also pay a part of
the employee salaries and
benefits. And that is what we hope
to avoid in the future by contrac-
ting out the services,” he added.
In mid-June, board members
formally asked Aqua Water Supp-
ly Corporation and the City of
Bastrop if eitherwere interested
in submitting a proposal for the
services.
Both Aqua General Manager
John Burke and Bastrop City
Manager JoAnn Wilcoxen in-
dicated interest when they met
with the board July 9.
“The WCID No. 2 well has been
well designed and maintained
and we are definitely interested in
negotiating a bid for you,” Burke
said.
Aqua Water is highly qualified
Ho provide the services and
because Aqua supplies water to
the surrounding rural areas, tie-
ins would be fairly inexpensive,
he said.
Mrs. Wilcoxen said the city is
not interested in competition with
Aqua but is interested in submit-
ting a proposal for the services.
“We have considered our
strong ties with the water
district...and feel that it would be
See WCID, p. 2
River cleanup to start
The Smithville Adopt-The-
Colorado River outing is schedul-
ed Saturday with canoes for 32
people furnished.
Volunteers are asked to meet at
9 a.m. at the VFW boat ramp on
Loop 230 in Smithville. ^ -
“We are striving to have 50 peo-
ple show up. Some will be in
canoes. Some will walk along the
banks,” said Smithville’s contact
person Dorothy Richards.
“Volunteers will clean up trash
as we see it, but we will basically
do an assessment of the rivet; tak-
ing water samples, looking for
structure barriers and looking at
the habitat,” she said.
According to Mrs. Richards, the
three-hour river excursion is bet-
ween two and three miles long.
The Bastrop Colorado River
outing is slated for July 25.
Volunteers are to meet at 9 a.m.
at Fisherman’s Park where
- -Friends of the Park members are
completing Texas Parks and
Wildlife funded improvement
projects.
The outings were originally
scheduled for early June, but
were postpones when heavy rains
created unsafe conditions on the
river, said Mrs. Richards.
“In case of rain, the outings
will be held one week later,” she
added.
Poor lining up for health care
County's health program cost exceeds $250,000
By Davis McAuley
Editor
Daily they call or come to the
Bastrop County judge’s office,
sick, desperate and poor.
Without insurance coverage
and ineligible for other state and
federal health programs, many
are too ill to keep working.
Many have never sought public
assistance before but have run
out of alternatives.
Some find a measuie of relief
from the county’s indigent health
care system, a state-mandated
program which will cost local
taxpayers close to $250,000 this
year.
But others, almost as
desperately needy, must be turn-
ed away, according to Martha
Goldfarb who directs the pro-
gram as part of her job as ad-
ministrative assistant to County
Judge Randy Fritz.
Mrs. Goldfarb recently inter-
viewed a 58-year-old woman, suf-
fering from heart disease and
diabetes, whose husband is a
mechanic without health in-
surance. Because he earns more
than $75 a month, she doesn’t
qualify for county aid to pay for
medical treatment and drugs.
“Do you mean that if I divorc-
ed (my husband) I could get
help?” the woman asked Mrs.
Goldfarb. “In fact the answer is
‘yes,’” Mrs. Goldfarb said in an
interview this week.
Only “the poorest of the poor”
are eligible, she said. “These peo-
ple have nothing. People who can
still work don’t qualify,” she add-
ed, almost no matter how little
they earn or the medical needs
they face.
But their number is steadily
growing, Mrs. Goldfarb reported.
“We’re feeling it (at the Cour-
thouse),” she said. “People are
getting poorer.”
Some are homeless. Others find
See HEALTH AID, p. 2
Elgin trustees adopt discipline rules
By Janice Butler
Staff Writer
Elgin school officials plan to
crack down on high school
discipline problems this fall.
At the request of Elgin High
School Principal Janie Simmons,
trustees Monday approved the
purchase of a portable building to
be used exclusively as an alter-
native school for middle and high
school students with behavior
problems.
In addition trustees agreed that
the high school campus will be
closed during lunch periods and
approved a demerit.system and
tardy policy for students.
“I am a firm believer in the fact
that all students can learn,” Ms.
Simmons said. “I want each
teacher to have the opportunity to
teach and each student to have
the opportunity to learn.”
“In order to accomplish this
Elgin High must have a school
discipline plan that is enforced
and supported by all,” she said.
Infractions of rules, general
NIGHT LIGHT
Advertiser Photo/Max Butler
Fireworks lit up the sky in Bastrop Saturday to cap the annual Loblolly Days fun.
Delegate: Don’t ask about the room
Her hotel accomodations are
far from acceptable and she ex-
pects to be on the losing side of a
looming political battle, but Pat
Mitchell of Bastrop is having a
great time as a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention
in New York this week.
Not least, she was bouyed by
the opening remarks Monday
from Texas Gov. Ann Richards
who is chairing the convention.
“Ann is always excellent,” said
Mrs. Mitchell, a delegate pledg-
ed to former Massachusetts Sen.
Paul 'Kongas. “Everybody loves
her in New York.”
Before Monday night’s opening
convention session, Mrs. Mitchell
reported picking up her creden-
tials and meeting with other
TSongas delegates to hear the
candidate endorse Arkansas Gov.
Bill Clinton who will be formally
nominated for president
Wednesday.
“(Tsongas) was real grown up
about it,” she said in reference to
the endorsement.
At the same time she backs a
Tsongas proposal for a party plat-
form plank calling for a
moratorium on tax cuts until the
federal budget deficit is under
control. “We probably won’t win,”
she added.
Off the convention floor, Mrs.
Mitchell has been giving press in-
terviews, telling the Associated
Press, for instance, that the main
issue in this year’s presidential
race is the economy.
And then there are the parties,
including;
•A welcoming bash at Lincoln
Center for the Texans. They danc-
ed beside the fountain.
•A breakfast hosted by Texas
Sen. Lloyd Bentsen.
• A Tkongas party at Ibvern on
the Village Green at Central
Park.
•A parrty slated for the Lone
Star Roadhouse with Gov.
Richards, as hostess.
“New York is being fabulous,”
said Mrs. Mitchell.
“They’ve done an absolutely
beautiful job of* restoring
Madison Square Garden (the con-
vention site).”
But accomodations set aside
for the Texas delegation, a Day’s
Inn across from the Garden at $99
a night where the air conditioning
broke down, drew less than a rave
review from Bastrop County’s on-
ly convention delegate.
“It not adequate,” she declared.
misconduct and tardies all lead to
detention, in-school suspension,
the alternative school and
ultimately suspension if a student
continues to violate the rules.
The alternative school is a new
step initiated in Elgin this year to
keep students in school, accor-
See EISD, p. 2
City delays
river bank
sewer job
The Bastrop City Council
delayed action Tuesday on per-
manent repairs to a sewer main
under the Colorado River which
ruptured under flood water
pressure in January.
Mike Fisher, city director of
water and wastewater, said the
low bid on the work is more than
double the city engineer’s plann-
ing estimate.
The lowest bid. for trenching
and laying 120 feet of sewer pipe
up the steep east bank of the river
is $58,300, said engineer John
Bartle of Neptune-Wilkinson
Associates.
Bartle’s preliminary estimate
was $25,000. But that figure did
not include any premium for the
difficulty and danger of the work,
he said. 0
The low bid* by Bay
Maintenance Co. is reasonable,
however, because the line must be
buried on a slope which averages
45 degrees and is almost vertical
in places, Bartle said.
“The bids are good ones and
reflect the difficulty of the work
and the risk involved,” he said.
Fisher said the city may be
eligible for 75 percent of the cost
from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency which
previously qualified the repair
job as flood related.
However FEMA estimated the
cost at $11,000 and has already
paid Bastrop based on that
amount.
Fisher said he has won state
See REPAIR, p. 2
INDEX
■
Classified......................p. 14
Coming Up...................-P* 6
Deaths............................p. 6
Letters...................-.......P- ^
People............................P- 7
Reunion,.......................JL 10
Sport*..... **P* ®
.
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McAuley, Davis. The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 139, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 16, 1992, newspaper, July 16, 1992; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth747506/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bastrop Public Library.