Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 74, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 3, 1980 Page: 1 of 32
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July 4 Activities
T o Begin T onight
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Barn Is Saved
A barn full of hay was threatened by a fire that burned a pickup at mid-morning tj
Wednesday. Bart Martin, of Rt. 3, said he had backed up to a trailer full of hay
when hay on the ground ignited and quickly engulfed the truck in flames. Fire
trucks from both Burleson and Crowley responded and were able to contain the
fire to the truck and hay outside the barn. Here, a Burleson fireman spravs
foam on the smoldering hay to extinguish all flames.(Star Photo
Bethesda Asks Cutback
Record Water Useage
Just like Butch Cassidy and the Sun-
dance Kid, record high temperatures
rarely ride into town by themselves In-
stead, they generally bring along with
them record water consumption levels.
And this year has certainly has been
no exception.
The old record of eight consecutive
record days, set in 1911, was broken
Monday and its been two weeks since
the day’s high reading was under the
century mark. Coupled with one of the
driest Junes on record, that spells trou-
ble for many water systems.
So far the City of Burleson has kept
up with the demand, putting its new
pump station to the test in the process.
Storage tanks have not dipped down to
a dangerously low level yet this year,
however, according to Rick Crowley,
assistant to the city manager.
Pressure has evidently been main-
tained even -io.the highest areas of the
city, he said, since no complaints have
been received.
Outside the city, however, customers
of the Bethesda Water Corp. have been
asked to curtail all outside watering
between 2-10 p.m. daily.
A' POST CARD WAS mailed to all
Bethesda customers this week stating
that ‘‘Due to the extreme hot, dry
weather, we are experiencing difficulty
in maintaining enough pressure to
serve the elevated areas at peak times
So that all may have enough household
water at these times, we are asking all
A one and a half day celebration of
the nation’s 204th birthday gets under-
way this evening at 6:00 in Bartlett
Park at Burleson’s annual In-
dependence Day Festival coordinated
by the Burleson Area Chamber of Com-
merce.
Activities slated for tonight include
entertainment under the big top, a car-
nival, a softball tournament,
SuperSports competition and BYA
playoff baseball games.
At 10 p.m. the celebration takes a
temporary breather until 6:30 in the
morning (Friday), but it’s non-stop
then until 10 p.m. when the festivities
are highlighted by a fireworks display
at the park.
Before the last flicker fades from the
grand finale of the fireworks display,
though, July 4th will have been an
event-filled day with enough activities
to please everyone.
First event on tap for the Fourth is
the Firecracker 5000 foot race. Con-
testants will run a 3.1 mile course (see
route and other July 4 information in-
side) beginning at 8 a.m. Trophies will
be awarded in various age groups in
both men’s and women’s divisions.
Registration and signups will be con-
ducted between 6:30 and 7:30. Each
persons participating in the event will
receive a cap.
THIRTY MINUTES BEFORE the
race starts (at 7:30), the lineup will
members to please cooperate by not do- begin forming for the July 4th parade,
ing outside watering in the evening; At 8:30 the parade will get underway
from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m." v and will include riding clubs, floats, the
Last Monday Bettessfe WBAP stagecoach and a large number
t an all time high of 3,046,000 gallons of decorated cars and trucks.
Trophies will also be awarded to the
best parade entries in several
categories. The parade route has been
Non-ABLES Members
Face Service Cutoff
* The June 30 deadline has come and
gone and now leaves about 10,000 area
persons unprotected by ambulance ser-
vice from Burleson.
So notes Don Robson, president of
ABLES, an organization of primarily
rural residents formed to maintain
prompt emergency ambulance service
to the area surrounding Burleson.
Mobile Life Support Ambulance Com-
pany of Burleson contracts both with
the city and with ABLES to provide
emergency ambulance service. Under
terms of the latest ABLES contract,
Goodspeed
Sentenced
To 7 Years
CLEBURNE—Gary Goodspeed, 23,
of Fort Worth was sentenced Thursday
to seven years in Texas Department of
Corrections by 249th Judicial District
Judge C. C. Cooke.
Goodspeed waived trial by jury and
entered a plea of guilty to the charge of
possession of a controlled substance.
Goodspeed, of Fort Worth, was ar-
rested with Michael David Delgado by
Texas Department of Public Safety
narcotics officers in Burleson on April
13 in what was called one of the largest
drug busts in Burleson history.
In a trial that ended June 6 in 249th
District Court, Delgado received a
15-year sentence handed down by a
five-woman, seven man jury.
Goodspeed entered his guilty plea in
the same court. Judge C.C. “Kit” Cooke
set Tuesday as the date for formal
sentencing.
In testimony at the Delgado trial,
$£0,000 worth-of cocaine at street value
was recovered after arrests in what
narcotics agents called an attempted
sale.
The testimony also told of previous
sales to drug agents working under-
cover.
MLS will provide service outside the ci-
ty limits only to those persons who are
ABLES members.
Non-members in Johnson County will
now have to depend on service from
Johnson County Memorial Hospital in
Cleburne. Those in Tarrant County will
apparently have to call Everman.
“We don’t like to cutoff anybody,"
said Robson, “but we feel that they
(non-members) are making that deci-
sion instead of us.”
He pointed out that no one would pay
their money to join if service were
available to everyone without restric-
tion. Then there would be no money to
pay a subsidy and no service to anyone,
he explained.
ABLES pays $2,000 per month sub-
sidy to MLS to provide emergency am-
bulance service outside the city. The Ci-
ty of Burleson pays $6,000 per month for
service inside the city. Both contracts
call for an increase of $500 per month in
subsidy payments for 1981
A booth will be set up between 10-6 Ju-
ly 4 at Bartlett Park to signup new
members—both for the remainder of
this year and for 1981 Current member-
ships are $26. Memberships for next
year are $32.
In order to raise the $30,000 needed in
subsidy for 1981, ABLES will need 1,000
members, Robson said. “We’d like to
have at least three-fourths of them sign-
ed up before the first of the year,” he
said.
So far the top year for members was
1979 when the group, then known as
Save Our Service (SOS) had approx-
imately 900 members. Currently,
ABLES has about 650 families signed
up, leaving some 3200 families un-
protected, Robson said.
The ambulance company will con-
tinue to provide service to accidents on
area roads since it would not be prac-
tical to attempt to find out an accident
victim’s membership status before
calling an ambulance.
Any non-members wanting protec-
tion for their families for the remainder
of this year is urged by Robson to join
immediately since it takes about a
week to get new memberships process-
ed.
hit an all time high of 3,O46,00o gallons
of water and-during the peak usage
period— water was being used faster
than the pumps could pump. June was
the biggest month ever in water con-
sumption, Moore said, with a total of
65,336,500 gallons
The corportation has a 4,350,000
gallon storage system, but none of those
tanks are full any longer and some “are
pretty low,” said Moore. During peak
periods, customers in the high eleva
tions have been without water, he add
ed.
An additional well has been dug since
last summer, Moore said, but noted
that while consumption was frequently
near the two million gallon level last
year, it stays closer to three million
gallons per day this year. The city has
built a new pump station and connected
it with the storage' tank on Turkey Peak
in an attempt to improve service to city
residents. j
FOR THE MOpjlTH of June, the city
pumped over 56 million gallons of water
compared to 38 million gallons last
June. The peak day last June was June
25 when just under two million gallons
of water was consumed in the city. The
last day of the month this year set a new
record with over 3.1 million gallons us-
ed.
On only one day -the first day of
June—last month was water consump-
tion below a million gallons. On 12 occa-
sions, it topped two million gallons. In
June of 1979, water usage never passed
two million gallons.
See Water, Page 2A
changed due to the construction on
Summercrest Blvd. but will still pass
by both nursing homes in Burleson. See
inside this section for the new route.
At about 10:00, the parade will wind
down at Pauline G. Hughes Middle
School and Bartlett Park will take
center stage for the remainder of the
day.
Events that started on the previous
night will continue throughout the
day—softball and‘baseball games, car-
nival, entertainment and SuperStar
competition—plus a host of new ac-
tivities will begin.
GAMES AND COMPETITIONS will
be conducted from noon to 6 p m. These
will include a homerun hitting contest,
a three-legged race, an anvil toss, a
sack race, obstacle course and water
balloon toss. Participants in the
homerun hitting contest must provide
their own pitcher and bat.
Entry fees are $1 for adults and 50<
for children in the individual events and
$2 per team fn team events. There is no
limit to the number of times a person
can enter the homerun hitting contest,
the anvil toss or the obstacle course.
Fund raising booths operated by area
clubs and organizations will be in
operation on the midway between 10-10.
Entertainment under the big top tent
will be continuous throughout the day
beginning at noon and will consist
mainly of gospel or rock music
(schedule inside).
From 10-11:50 there will be a model
airplane exhibition put on by the Golden
Triangle Model Club of Grand Prairie.
Seven members of the club are slated to
fly planes.
And for those who atually want to get
Dallas Cowboy placekicker Mike Clark.
THE BALLOON WILL BE teathered
to the ground to assure that riders don’t
get too far off the ground, though.
Parachute jumps into Bartlett Park
will again this year be a part of the ac-
tivities
j£H|
m
Just prior to a softball team pitting
the Fire Eaters of the Burl
Volunteer Fire Department and
professional football Wranglers, tMF* |
will be two separate jumps into’dia-
mond number one.
The first, scheduled for 6 p.m , wBLbn4
from 4,000 feet and will be a demonstra-
tion of the emergency cutaway pro-
cedure with a malfunctioned ..
parachute. Bob Swainson, an instructor
with 870 jumps, will be making that
jump.
Ten minutes later, John Estell, Ran-
dy Sanderson and Steve Deming will
jump from around 7500 feet and make a
star formation.
All jumpers will carry white smoke
cannisters so they can more easily be
seen by spectators on the ground.
They will be traveling at a speed of
25-30 miles per hour when they reach
the ground.
Playing on the fire dept, team follow-
ing the jumps will be John Crocker,
Mike Roden, Steve Nelson, Jimmy
Johnson, Butch Smith, Bob White, Bob
Hall, Tommy Davis, Charles Whitlock,
Bill Leader, Randy Crawford, Chuck
Newby, Bob Green and Ernie Parker.
Wranglers who will be playing in-
clude Greg Bowling, Steve Beck, Steve
Klosa, Ronnie Brannon, Calvin Portley,
Ron Allen, Johnny Holland, Joe Jordan,
Chuck Gaggens, Earl Carson, Bobby
Estell and Conway Wheat.
Fire Dept, personnel will also be
manning the first aid station at the en-
Sto the Park and will be givi
day.
Another demonstration planned on
July 4 is a free flight liftoff of a hot air
balloon from the park. Richard Conn,
newsletter editor of the North Texas
Ballooning Assoc., will takeoff and free
fly for about an hour, wind permitting.
Two Men Are Charged
On 3 Robbery Charges
Thfl tu/A CllcnAnio n m — I I___ • • ..... .
The two suspects arrested by
Burleson police Friday in a high-speed
chase that ended in Everman face
bonds totalling $155,000 a piece after be-
ing charged with armed robbery in
three counties.
Benny Ray McAlister, 31, and Lonnie
Gail Janes, 27, remain in Tarrant Coun-
ty jail where bond was set at $25,000
each.
They were charged with the Friday
armed robbery of the Quick Stop conve-
nience store on Hardgrove Lane east of
Burleson.
It was shortly after that robbery was
reported to Burleson police that a
pickup truck fitting the description of
the one seen leaving the Hardgrove
Lane store was pursued by Burleson
police as it left the Burleson city limits.
Burleson officers Joe Oakley and Ken
Stevenson chased the truck down In-
terstate 35 to the Garden Acres exit
where they went on a winding chase
through back roads to Everman where
the chase eventually ended.
The suspects went east on Everman
Parkway and doubled back, striking a
police car driven by Oakley. Oakley
said he jumped out of his car and fired a
pistol at the fleeing pickup, striking one
rear tire.
OAKLEY AND STEVENSON con-
tinued pursuit and were about 50 feet
behind the pickup when it went out of
control on a residential street in Ever-
man and overturned in an apartment
parking lot.
. • &
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Summercrest
Construction
* 1 ■ ^ % .
Motorists found they had to detour around Summercrest Blvd. the first part of
the week as old pavement on the street was torn up to make way for a new
resurfacing job. The project, costing more than $60,000, will be paid for from
state funds. Construction oil the street caused a change in the route for both the
parade and the Firecracker 5000 foot race scheduled tomorrow (July 4). New
routes are inside this issue. Star Photo
The pursuing officers estimated the
truck was still going 70 to 80 miles per
hour and traveled four blocks on the flat
tire before flipping on its side.
The suspects were arrested without
additional resistance, and appeared
before a magistrate in Everman before
being booked and placed in Tarrant
County jail.
Neither of the suspects or the officers
involved in the pursuit were injured but
two Texas Highway Patrolmen attemp-
ting to aid Burleson police were injured
when their car went out of control while
trying to avoid a collision on the
Johnson-Tarrant County line in the
Burleson City Limits.
Officer Roy Kneese was hospitalized
overnight after the crash and officer
Roy Forsberg was treated and releas-
ed.
The highway patrolmen said a vehi- „
cle in a military convoy for a Fort 3
Worth reserve unit changed from the •
right to the left lane as the highway
patrol unit was approaching. • /
THE HIGHWAY PATROL unit
swerved into a guard rail and went
across the freeway, landing in a median
between the highway and service road
in front of Burleson Wrecking.
Both Stevenson and Oakley reported
seeing items being thrown from the
fleeing vehicle and Tarrant County
Sheriff’s officers reported ffnding two
pistols along the route taken by the
suspects.
One of the pistols was identified as a
gun taken during an armed robbery of
th^ Crossroads Grocery at Highways
1902 and 917 near Joshua at 2:42 p.m.
Friday.
At about 10 a.m. that day the same
pair and a woman were believed involv-
ed in an armed robbery of a conve- $1
nience store at Acton near Granbury.
Officers in Tarrant and Johnson
Counties do not believe the woman was
with the men in subsequent armed rob-
beries that day.
Bond was set at $25,000 on the men in
Tarrant County, $30,000 in Johnson
County and $100,000 in Hood County
BOND WAS ALSO &et at $100,000 on a
21-year-old Fort Worth woman in the
Hood County case. Sheriffs deputies in
Tarrant and Hood Counties say a report * ‘
that published in a Fort Worth
See Robberies. Page 2A
,1
JJ
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Hutson, Wayne & Moody, James. Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 74, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 3, 1980, newspaper, July 3, 1980; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth761227/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Burleson Public Library.