Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 4, 1991 Page: 1 of 28
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1990 Texas Press Association Sweepstakes Award Winner
/
HONDO ANVIL HF
AVAILAtfl
Volume 105, Number 14
Thursday, April 4,1991
Published In Hondo, Texas
Our 105th Yea
*'
Medina County's Leading Newspaper
Two Sections, 20 Pages
50 Cents
HHS team
takes 2nd in
District UIL
S i
■A V
The Hondo High School Academic
team placed second in the District 25-
AAA meet, held last Monday through
Wednesday at Cole and Medina Val-
ley High Schools.
/ indent won the team champion-
ship for the district.
Twelve participants will advance
to regional competition, to be held
April 19-20 in Kingsville.
Results from the three-day meet
were as follows:
Monday
Tye Faseler, 2nd, Accouting and
5th, Feature Writing; Michael Char-
tier, 4th, News Writing; Stacey
Cameron, 4th, Editorial Writing and
5th, Headline Writing; Ruben Al-
caraz, 4th, Headline Writing and 5th,
Editorial Writing.
Tuesday
Alexia Ulbrich, 1st, Poetry; Mich-
elle French, 1st, Shorthand; Jennifer
Jones, 2nd, Prose; Tye Faseler, 2nd,
Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Jeff
Wurzbach, 3rd, Number Sense; An-
thony Bendeie, 3rd, Current Events;1
Jenny Haley, 4th, Calculator; Manny
Ortiz, 5th, Prose; and Brian Saathoff,
6th, Calculator.
Also, Jason Nester-Jennifer Par-
sons, 4th, Cross-Ex Debate; Anthony
Bendole, Andy Carlson, Tim
Mathews, 2nfi, Team Current Events;
Jeff Wurzbach and Jeb Brown, 2nd,'
Team Number Sense.
Wednesday
John Bryant, 1st, Informative
Speaking; Jennifer Modghng, 1st,
literary Criticism; Maggie Ortega,
3rd, Spelling; Kim Havel, 3rd, Liter-
ary Criticism; Daymon St. John, 5th,
Informative .Speaking; Tim Math-
ews, 3rd, Persuasive Speaking; Ve-
ronica Villarreal, 4th, Keyboarding.
The Hot do students placed second
overall w.ch 282 points. Bandera to-
taled 309.
MEDF annual
School finance
bill confusing
By Jeff Berger
Anvil Herald Publidier
THE ALSATIAN DANCERS... will be one of four groups to participate in a Heritage Dance Celebration
Saturday, April 6, at Landmark Inn in Castroville. Everyone is invited to come out and enjoy the fun
beginning at 1 p.m.See related story, on page 6.
Volunteers needed for aquifer study
Citizens of Medina County soon
will have the opportunity to help
protect their ground water from
contamination through a special
wellhead protection program or-
ganized by the Texas Water
commission in conjunction with the
Environmental Protection Agency.
"The Wellhead Protection Pro-
gram is a valuable tool that any lo-
cal government may use to protect
its drinking water source. Through
this program, the citizens of Med-
ina County have the opportunity to
positively influence the quality of
their drinking water," said Allen
Beinke, Executive Director of the
Texas Water Commission.
Medina County is one of seven
counties chosen to participate in a
regional aquifer protection program
aimed at guarding the Edwards
Aquifer from contamination. Local
governments, service organiza-
tions, and other citizens will have
the opportunity to take an active
role in protecting their public water
supply by conducting surveys of
possible sources of water pollution.
With TWC coordination and as-
sistance, Medina County volunteers
will be assigned an area surround-
ing a public water supply well to
survey for all potential sources of
ground water contamination. These
potential pollutants include aban-
doned wells, trash dumps, and un-
derground storage tanks. The infor-
mation obtained from the survey
will be used to aid local officials in
quickly .locating and cleaning up
any source of contamination,
thereby lessening the chance of any
adverse health effects.
Volunteers will be trained at a 1
to 2 hour orientation meeting on
April 24th at the Hondo Municipal
Building Council Chambers. Vol-
unteers may attend the 9 a.m. or the
See WATER', Page 16
meeting Apr. io Closed roadway discussed
Observing its first full year, the
Medina Economic Development
Foundation, Inc. will host a recep-
tion at the annual meeting sched-
uled Wednesday, April 10 at
Flightline Cafe.
The business meeting, including
election of new directors, will be-
gin at 5 p.m.
Guest speaker for the event will
be Bill Barry, director of Manage-
ment Services for the Texas De-
partment of Criminal Justice. He
will be accompanied by staff mem-
bers who will be on hand to answer
questions.
A reception with hors d’oeuvres
and drinks will follow the meeting.
MEDF members and guests are en-
couraged to attend and to invite a
guest
One Act Play
goes to area
The HHS drama department's pro-
duction of "You Can't Take It With
You" will be put before the judges
Saturday at area competition.
The One Act Play cast will perform
at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bandera HS.
Hie Hondo Radar Station reports the follow-
ing weather information for the past week:
Date High Low Rain
Wed., March 27 83 59 .00
Thu., March 28 86 57 tr.
Fri., March 29 74 53 .00
Sat., March 30 71 42 .06
Sun., March 31 69 40 .00
Mon., April 1 74 40 .00
Tue., April 2 79 55 .00
Total rain for the week: 0.06 in.
Total rain for March: 0.55 in.
Total rain for April: 0.00 in.
Total rain for 1991:5.49 in.
Rainy days in 1991:29
High temp, for 1991:96° on Mar. 6
Low temp, for 1991: 28° on Jan. 31
Avg. high temp, for the week: 76.6°
Avg. low temp, for the week: 49.4°
Rain in i990, thru April 2: 7.50 in.
Rain in 1989, thru April 2: 5.76 in.
With confusion reigning supreme
among Texas lawmakers, Hondo
Independent School District officials
are doing their best to try to hash out
the current school finance situation.
In a nutshell, the whole problem
revealed by the suit filed in 1984 by
the Edgewood ISD is inequity.
Where H of sales tax in the High-
land Park ISD in Dallas generates
$326 of revenue, the same penny in
the Edgewood ISD generates $3.
It's been in and out of the Texas
Legislature and State courts many
times since then.
Most recently, a bill submitted to
the House of Representatives was
defeated by 13 votes after it passed
the Senate. The court-ordered dead-
line for action was April 1, or else the
threat existed that state funds would
be cut off to local school districts.
Hondo ISD Supt. NJE. "Bud"
Woolls feels that something will
come out of the Capitol in the near
future.
"They'll probably need to make a
decision by about April 15," said the
superintendent. "Normally, state
funds start flowing out to the school
districts between the 25th and 27th of
the month.
"We have enough to meet the pay-
roll through the end of April, with
about $700,000 in operating funds."
Half of the district's career ladder
checks was payable in March, and the
other half will be due later this month.
A major problem for the local dis-
trict is that most of its expenses ut
tied up in contracted salaries, so that
cutting away at programs and non-
salary expenses would not alleviate
the problem.
"In a worst-case scenario," said
Supt Woolls, "if the state doesn't help
When is a road a public road? Or
when is it not a public road?
These questions proved to be the
cfux of the discussions at Commis-
sioners Court Monday, March 25,
when residents gathered to com-
plain about locks closing down ac-
cess to their property in northern
Medina County.
The road in question is in the
area where the old Peach Tree
School used to serve as the educa-
tional focus in that area and goes
left off of Highway 173 about 12
miles north of Hondo.
County residents and others have
used this road "many, many years”
according to the landowners pres-
ent at Monday's meeting.
But not too long ago Jim Evans
who lives on the old Joe Short
Ranch, which was owned by his
grandfahter, placed pad locks on a
gate across the road and put an
abrupt hault to travel along that
way.
Riva Boubel told the Court "they
just put the lock on without warn-
ing and for more than a month we
were not able to get to our place
which is completely surrounded by
the Short Ranch. We had to have a
man in that area take care of our
cattle because we could not get in
to do it ourselves." "
Floyd Koch was present to dis-
cuss the same land and he said he
just "couldn't see where Evans has
a right to lock people off the road."
Russell Peters said that Evans
also had placed a lock on the gate
where the road re-enters Highway
173 on the upper area."
Clara Koch said, "This road is
and has been traveled by all our
families. It has been a through road
for many, many years, and I know
that at least eight county commis-
sioners have maintained it."
Adele Burger said, "all of this
was originally part of Burger land,
and when it was sold the deed defi-
nitely states that all access is there
for all landowners."
The group mainly wanted to”
know what can be done about
Evans locking off what they feel is
a "public road."
Precinct Commissioner Henry
Santos said "since we have main-
tained the road as a county road for
many years, I felt we need to do
something about this question. If it
is a county road or a public road no
one has the right to lock the gate."
County Attorney Maida Modg-
ling said that the main question is:
"Is this a public road?" From what I
gather in talking to you this road
has been in use a long time and you
have the right to use it. But, that
does not actually make it a public
road and the county does not have
the authority to declare it a public
readjust because of its use.
"Now if the land was dedicated
to the public the county could seek
an injunction against the obstruc-
tion."
She continued: "However, to get
it declared a public road would re-
quire the problem go through dis-
trict court."
Gaylon Boubel wanted to know
See ROADS, Page 16
It's time to
Spring Forward
It s that time of year again.
Daylight Savings Time will go
into effect for the next half-year
beginning at 2 a.m. this Sunday.
Before you go to bed Saturday
night, be sure to set all your
clocks forward one hour.
You’ll lose an hour of sleep,
but gain an hour of daylight
us meet our payroll, we might have lo
borrow money.
"But," he quickly added, "I person-
ally don't think that will happen.I
can't see a judge putting us in that kind
of a predicament."
The possibilities for the state's de-
cision are seemingly endless.
Last year's master plan, which
would have turned everything over to
a court-appointed master in the event
that no decision could be reached, is
being updated for 1991, should an
impasse occur this time.'
"That's what scares me," said Supt.
Woolls. "We feel like the legislative
plan will work more in our favor than
the judge's plan."
One of the points addressed in the
current bill awaiting passage, is the
re-establishment of a county school
district, which would cut the number
of taxing entities from 1182 across
the state to 183.
Under the plan, Medina County,
with five school districts (DHanis,
Devine, Medina Valley, Natalia and
Hondo), would serve as one of the
entities.
The plan to distribute funds be-
tween ISDs within a county district
would entail a great deal of work. But
in an example cited by Supt Woolls,
if, for instance Alamo Heights voted
to raise its taxes by 10* per $100
valuation, the Alamo Heights ISD
would keep half of the revenue it
generated. The other half would go
into a Bexar County district pool, to
be divided among the rest of the dis-
tricts in the county.
He said that he has been in contact
with Dist 45 Rep. Tom Cate during
the ongoing debate. Rep. Cate voted
against passage because he felt it was
unconstitutional.
"I probably would have voted in
favor of it," Supt. Woolls told the
Wednesday meeting of the Hondo
Lions Club. "I just think it's a better
plan than anything the courts will
come up with."
He still feels that the Legislature
will come up with a plan, and that they
will do it by the 15th.
Supt Woolls, added, though, that
the biggest debates are still ahead.
"They haven't even talked about
funding," he said. "Right now, they're
only talking about a plan. The funding
alone, based on what would be re-
quired, would run the state into a $7
billion debt the first year.
"Hopefully, everything will work
out"
New business boosts Hondo rs economy
An established San Antonin him- inmL 1;^ H .n:<i ruj___«...
An established San Antonio busi-
ness, Payless Tire and Retreading,
is relocating to Hondo.
Owner Ira Giddens is renovating
and expanding the old Use Show-
barn next to the Hondo Livestock
Auction and said his truck tire re-
treading business will begin
operation this week.
In addition to retreading tires for
the trucking industry, the company
is a wholesaler for Kelly Spring-
field tires, selling only to commer-
cial accounts.
He plans to have the entire
operation here by September.
Beginning with four employees,
three of whom are from Hondo,
Giddens expects to increase his la-
bor force to 10 by the end of a year.
Giddens said his business -serves
primarily the trucking industry,
adding that it is not feasible to do
retreading on passenger car tires for
various reasons.-
The business deals mostly with
individual trucking companies, lo-
cated within a 200-mile radius of
Hondo, that reuse their tires.
Rudy Moreno, owner of
Moreno's Trucking, was the first
customer to deliver tires to the new
plant. He is pleased to have the
plant here in Hondo.
"This is a recycling process for
truck tires," said Giddens. "It helps
hold down the truckers' cost of
operation." A $350 tire can be re-
treaded for about $85 to $120, de-
pending on the tread.Another sav-
ings factor is that there is no federal
excise tax on reused tires.
While a tire can be retreaded as
many as three or four times, the
average tire is retreaded twice,
mainly for safety reasons, he said
Giddens described the process as
hot and noisy. He said his employ-
ees wear safety equipment to pro-
tect their sight and hearing.
The four-hour process begins
with a thorough inspection of each
tire. If it does not meet certain stan-
1
IraGiddens, left, and Rudy Moreno are shown with the first load of tires
to be processed at Giddens' new tire retreading plant which was
scheduled to begin operation in Hondo Wednesday. Giddens, a
Hondo resident for six years, is relocating his San Antonio business to
the Hondo airbase. Moreno, owner of a trucking business and
Moreno s Gulf station in Hondo, was the first customer to deliver truck
tires to the plant for retreading. The plant will begin operation with four
employees, three of whom are from Hondo.
dards, it will not be retreaded.
Those that pass go on to a buffi
station where they are prepared ft
application of adhesive and the nei
tread .The tire is then mounted on
special rim and placed in a pressui
ized heat chamber for a three-how
curing process at temperatures c
210° to 260° at 115 pound
persquare inch pressure.
The chamber holds 22 tires an<
is operated when full. Tum-aroum
on an order is generally about on
week, he said, because it is neces
sary to get enough tires of one sizi
to run the machine.
Giddens said yith seven peopli
working, he is able to turn out 6<
tires per day at maximum capacity.
Next to the main building, whicf
will be used as a warehouse, he hat
added offices and shop space.
Giddens believes in utilizing
Hondo's resources. All work has
been done by local contractors:
Bobby Ward for electrical, Dooley
Eckhart for air conditioning and
Gumecindo Santillano constructed
the office area, etc. Moreno's
Wrecker Service helped mount the
giant heal chamber on risers.
His wife, Sarah, keeps the office
running smoothly and their son,
Charles, helps out whenever he's
not in school.
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Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 4, 1991, newspaper, April 4, 1991; Hondo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth818597/m1/1/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hondo Public Library.