Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 74, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 15, 1985 Page: 1 of 42
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LIVINGSTON - A Texas Depart-
ment of Water Resources hearing
examiner will be in Livingston
Thursday to conduct a public hear-
ing on an application for a
wastewater discharge permit for the
proposed Kickapoo Landing
Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The proposed plant will serve ap-
proximately 83 townhomes at the
Fountain Lake development on
Kickapoo Creek.
The public hearing was called at
the urging of several members of the
Sandy Ridge Property Owners
Association, who claim there are
several discrepancies in the permit
application, filed by Robert Kay of
B&B Developers in Point Blank.
Site of the proposed plant is about
1,700 feet northwest of the intersec-
tion of U S. 190 and FM 3152. The
permit application indicates treated
effluent will be discharged into the
Trinity River Basin.
Residents in Sandy Creek have
cited six areas of protest in written
report submitted to the Texas Water
Commission, among them failure to
notify all affected persons in the sub-
division. Residents contend only 31
of the affected 172 property owners
were notified of the proposed
wastewater plant.
Pointing to another alleged error
in the permit application, the pro-
perty owner’s association contends
the nearest point of the proposed
plant site is approximately one mile
from the Onalaska sewage lift pump
station, rather than the 2>* miles
stated in the application. They in-
dicate it would be feasible for the
developers to tie onto the Onalaska
sewer system.
Property owners also dispute the
distance of their subdivision to the
U.S. 190 bridge over Kickapoo Creek
and the size of the subdivision as
depicted on the applicant’s map.
See SANDY pg. 2A
For Goodrich
Tax hike ahead
GOODRICH -- A 7.9 percent in-
crease in taxes may be in the offing
for the Goodrich Independent School
District Board of Trustees. The
school board met in special session
Friday night to propose a 1985-86 tax
rate.
A public hearing on the proposed
increase will be held at 7 p.m. Mon-
day, Sept. 23, in the Goodrich School
Library. The proposed new rate, 7.9
percent above the district’s effective
tax rate of 73.3 cents, is 79cents. The
district’s 1984-85 tax rate was 67
cents.
Superintendent Ray Elam said the
district lost some $4 million in pro-
perty value this year, primarily in
mineral evaluations, according to
figures from the Central Tax Ap-
praisal District.
Those voting for the tax increase
were trustees Rufus Ibison, Johnnie
Kolojacko, Everette Lawson and
Douglas Melton. No negative votes
were cast, but three board members
- Wayne Coker Jr., Q.R. Duff and
Freddie B. Wright - were absent
from the meeting and did not vote.
FAILURE TO YIELD - This Monte Carlo,
driven by Phang Quoc Vo, 18, of Houston was
attempting to cross the southbound lanes of
the U.S. 59 bypass Thursday when it collided
with a 1983 Mercury driven by Judy Kayl
Hathcock, 38, also of Houston, according to
the Livingston Police report. Hathcock’s
vehicle, shown in the background, wait
control, ran through a sign, then ov
Hathcock and her 5-year-old son, Da
were taken to Livingston Memorial
with “possible” injuries. Vo was
failure to yield right-of-way.
In Fontenot murder trial
MEET THE PRESS - Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin (left)
and his client, Hurley Fontenot (second from left), are con-
fronted by newspaper and television reporters as the leave the
Polk County District Courtoom Thursday morning. Fontenot
is charged in connection with the April 12 shooting death of Bil-
ly Mac Fleming.
Judge accepts evidence
By GREG PEAK
Area news editor
LIVINGSTON - While the
possibility that the trial will be mov-
ed out of Polk County still lingers on
the horizon, State District Judge
John Martin ruled Thursday that
evidence obtained during searches
of Hurley Fontenot's office and
home will be admitted during his up-
coming murder trial.
During a hearing in Livingston,
the judge rejected defense attorney
Dick DeGuerin’s argument that
warrants were improperly issued to
search the former Hull-Daisetta
junior high school principal's office
and living quarters.
The Houston attorney argued dur-
ing a pre-trial hearing on July 25
that the warrants authorizing sear-
ches of Fontenot’s office, home and
two houses where he sometime
stayed were too general. DeGuerin
said the warrants allowed the Liber-
ty County Sheriff’s Department to
perform a "general ransacking" in
an effort to obtain evidence.
He also contended that there was
insufficient probable cause to in-
dicate that any evidence would be
found at the places searched
Following the July hearing. Assis-
tant District Attorney David Walker
said he felt there was a "50-50
Chance" that the judge would grant
DeGuerin’s request. However dur-
ing Fontenot's pre-trial appearance
Thursday, the judge denied the
defense motions without comment.
Fontenot, 48. is charged in connec-
tion with the shooting death of Billy
Mac Flemming, a junior high coach
with the Hull-Daisetta system and a
former coach at Corrigan-Camden
High School in Polk County.
Flemming, 36, disappeared April
12 from the parking lot of the
school's athletic field house in the
small Liberty County community of
Raywood. His badly-decomposed
body was discovered 10 days later
along a rarely traveled logging road
in southern Polk County. He had
been shot twice in the back of the
head with a small-caliber weapon
Investigators believe that a so-
called “love triangle” involving
Fontenot, Fleming and school
secretary Laura Nugent, 36, was an
underlying motive for the murder.
Change of venue?
After leaving the courtroom with
his client Thursday, DeGuerin told
reporters that the question of a
change of venue motion is still up in
the air. He indicated that there may
be some difficulty is obtaining an
impartial jury due to the massive
publicity the case has obtained -
particularly from the articles that
appeared recently in both Texas
Monthly and Houston City
Magazine.
“This case is not going to be tried
in the press,” DeGuerin said “It
will be tried in the courtroom. When
it is. hopefully we will get a fair trial
and Mr. Fontenot will be declared
innocent ”
DeGuerin said while he has not yet
decided if he will seek a change of
venue, the attorney did indicated he
may conduct a poll of potential jury
members to determine how much of
an impact the newspaper, magazine
and television reports have had.
Walker later told reporters that he
forsees no problems with selecting a
jury in Polk County, “The judge
plans to use a careful jury selection
process for this case. It’s more time
consuming but I feel this county is
far enough removed from Raywood
to present no major obstacles ”
The system outlined by Martin for
jury selection is similar to the one he
used during a Trinity County capital
Indians seeking tax-exempt status
LIVINGSTON - A lawsuit seeking
to regain a tax-exempt status on
reservation lands was filed in
district court last week by the
Alabama-Coushatta Indian tribes
against the Polk County Appraisal
District and the district's Appraisal
Review Board
The suit seeks to "set aside" a
$1,008,020 appraisal of oil and gas
properties within the reservation
Such an appraisal would mean that
the reservation would be required to
pay a total of about $11,500 to Polk
County, the Big Sandy Independent
School District and the Livingston
Hospital District.
According to papers filed in state
district court here, the tribes con-
tend the appraisal district erred
when it appraised the property and
that the district's review board im-
properly rejected the tribes' protest.
The lawsuit states the district
issued the reservation a Notice of
Appraised Value on June 27 setting
the taxable value of two oil and gas
properties on the reservation. The
first - operated by Natural Energy
Co. - was appraised at $5,620 while
the second - operated by Union Oil
of California - was valued at
$1,002,400.
That notice also listed the
estimated tax on the property totall-
ing $10,372.53 including $3,628.87 to
Polk County, $6,451.33 to the Big San-
dy ISD and $292.33 to the hospital
district.
However, since the issuance of the
appraisal notice, both the Big Sandy
ISD and Livingston Hospital District
have adopted their 1985 rates - both
of which were slightly higher than
the amounts estimated on the ap-
praisal notice. Under the tax rate of
74 cents per $100 valuation set by the
school district, the reservation
would be required to pay $7,459.34
while under the 3.33 cent rate set by
the hospital, the tribes would be
murder trial conducted earlier this
year. Long, detailed questionaires
will be handed out to persons sum-
moned for jury service. After the
forms are completed, copies will be
provided to both the defense and pro-
secuting attorneys prior to the in-
dividual questioning of prospective
panel members.
Blood and hair samples
In other action Thursday,
DeGuerin also was denied access to
information concerning the pro-
cedures used to test traces of blood
found in Fontenot's pickup as well as
hair found at the site where the body
was discovered.
DeGuerin said that because there
wasn't a sufficient amount of blood
found in the pickup to allow him to
have his own analysis made, he felt
he should be informed regarding
who obtained the sample, the techni-
que used to remove the blood from
the pickup’s undercarriage and
camper top and the methods used to
analyze the sample.
He indicated that he wants “an in-
dependent expert” to review the pro-
cedures used in collecting and
analyzing the sample to determine if
an error could have been made.
Concerning what the attorney
referred to as a “strange hair sam-
ple” found near Fleming’s body,
DeGuerin asked that he be informed
as to who recovered the sample and
what type of test was used to identify
the hair. He told the judge that the
report he received concerning the
sample indicated that the hair did
not match that of either Fontenot or
Fleming.
Objecting to providing DeGuerin
to the blood and hair test informa-
tion, Walker told the judge that the
defense counsel was attempting to
cross examine state’s witnesses
before the trial.
Acknowledging that the informa-
tion would be available from the
cross examination of the state’s
witnesses during the trial, DeGuerin
said he was seeking it now in an ef-
fort to save time during the trial.
“This may cause delays, your honor,
if I have to wait until the trial to get
this information and then have my
experts go over it.”
“Counsel has that problem with
any evidence presented during the
trial,” Walker argued. “This is
something he will have to deal with.
He may present a motion for a conti-
nuance (to give his experts time to
study the information) and the court
may or may not decide to grant it.”
Lawsuit settled
Waste permit questioned
assessed $335.67.
After receiving the appraisal
notice, Morris Bullock, chairman of
the Alabama-Coushatta Tribal
Council, formally filed a protest on
behalf of the tribe on July 15. Follow-
ing a hearing, the appraisal review
board rejected the protest and
upheld the appraisal pending the rul-
ing on a federal lawsuit filed by the
tribes. The lawsuit challenges an
opinion issued by Texas Attorney
General Jim Mattox.
That opinion, issued on March 22,
1983, contends the reservation no
longer exists and the state's trust
relationship with the tribe violated
the Equal Rights Amendment to the
Texas Constitution.
See INDIANS pg. 2A
LIVINGSTON - After nearly six
years of courtroom maneuvering, a
massive settlement in excess of $3
million has been reached to end the
six-year-old “road oil" lawsuits filed
against Browning-Ferris Industries.
While the exact settlement
amount was not listed in court
records, a total of $454,480.20 was
specifially allocated to 51 children
while the remainder was to go to
more than 125 adults who had joined
the lawsuit against the company.
As part of the settlement agree-
ment approved by State District
Judge Joe Ned Dean, BFI was ex-
onerated of all charges brought
against the company in the civil
lawsuits.
The first lawsuit was filed against
the chemical company in May, 1979
by Irvin and Pauline Scarbrough of
the Reily’s Village Subdivision in
Corrigan when it was discovered
that road oil containing hazardous
chemicals had been spread on the
subdivision’s streets.
The Scarbroughs, who brought
suit “individually and in behalf of all
other similarly situated”, charged
that the Nederland chemical com-
pany had knowingly provided the
subdivision with road oil con-
taminated with nitrobenzene, a toxic
industrial solvent and dye in-
termediate.
Problems concerning the road oil
mixture, which BFI provided free of
charge to the Corrigan subdivision,
came to light in April, 1979.
Residents of the subdivision com-
plained of irritated eyes and throats,
dull headaches and an increased
amount of general illness after the
roads were oiled in November, 1978.
Tests performed on the material
revealed the presence of
nitrobenzene and it was later learn-
ed that similar road materials were
used in 14 other East Texas areas in-
cluding the Shelter Cove Subdivision
near Lake Livingston.
After the initial lawsuit was filed
in May, 1979, a number of other
residents of both Reily’s Village and
Shelter Cove subdivisions join in the
lawsuit. A number of Polk County
residents affected by the con-
taminated road oil reached set-
tlements with the company earlier.
According to District Clerk Nell
Lowe, the final settlement agree-
ment in the case -- involving the
estate of one former Reily’s Village
resident - was reached Monday. Set-
tlements with about 125 others, as
well as the 51 children, were approv-
ed Aug. 9.
As part of the settlement, all par-
ties agreed that there was “no
evidence” that any deaths, injuries
or damages were-caused by BFI in
connection with the road oil incident.
Palestine 26 Shepherd 17 Coldspring 29 Liberty
Livingston 17 Trinity 14 O Cleveland
21 Diboll
4
14 Corrigan
19
Groveton
35
7
KirbyviUe
21
, f
This is
Constitution
Week
Sunday,
Sept. 15, 1985
Volume 108 Number 74
The Dominant New and Advertising Source In Polk County
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White, Barbara. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 74, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 15, 1985, newspaper, September 15, 1985; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth781597/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.