The Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 19, 1981 Page: 1 of 20
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Hondo Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Hondo Public Library.
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Secretary Chris Groff,
i
In precincts 1, 3
Special election for commissioners' posts called
By Rosanne Doyle missioners positions will be Sessions. cently informed by the
A special election to fill held May 30 by order of U.S. The Medina County Com- Justice Department that the
the precincts 1 and 3 com- District Judge William S. missioners Court was re- county’s compromise redis-
Medina County’s Leading Newspaper since 1886
THE HONDO
ANVIL HERALD
The Hondo Anvil Herald (SECD 249 2»0> is pyblilhed weekly By Associated Texas Newspapers, Inc., 1401 Avenue
K. Hondo, Texas 7*861 Rales are U per year in county, *10 In state and *12 out ot state. Poetmaster Send
address changes to The Hondo Anvil Herald, P. O. Box 400, Hondo Texas 7M41.
95TH YEAR - No. 8
HONDO, MEDINA COUNTY, TEXAS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1981
20 PAGES IN TWO SECTIONS
SPARKS
“Forge thy tongue on an anvil of truth,
and what flies up, though it be but a
spark, shall have weight.”
--Pindar
This is a good opportunity for us to share with
you a letter which might be embarrassing to such
a hard worker as Burnis Lawrence. He is in
Washington. D.C. as this is written, attending a
national meeting of the Reserve Officer’s Associ-
ation. He is wearing his Colonel's hat, U.S. Air
Force Reserve, and also covering events of the
week for the Texas Reserve Officer’s Association
Reporter, a quarterly publication which he also
manages to edit in his spare time.
Mr. William Berger
The Hondo Anvil Herald
Box too
Hondo. Texas 78861
Dear Mr. Berger:
Small towns are indeed fortunate when they
have civic-minded business people who are
dedicated to improving the area which they
sene.
Hondo and Medina County have that good
fortune with The Hondo Anvil Herald as part of
the business community.
The 1980 Medina County Fair provides
excellent proof of this. The Fair and AirSho
proved highly successful and much of that success
can be attributed directly to the support of The
Anvil Herald.
Anvil Herald publisher Rurnis Lawrence
exerted dedication and hard work far beyond that
given by anyone else, and we are fully aware that
he had your complete support in bringing off the
first official Medina County Fair since 1932.
The Fail Association Board of Directors wish
to take this opportunity to personally thank you
for this support through The Anvil Herald, and to
Burnis Lawrence for all his interest, dedication
and hard work.
Sincerely,
Virgil Boehnie
I*resident
Medina County Fair Association
By Bill Berger
From January of 1965 until the end of
December. 1980. I have had the good fortune to
serve my adopted State of Texas in-several
interesting positions. Since I w anted to eventual-
ly finish out my years of involvement with the
publishing business where I began in 1946, The
Anvil Herald has remained as a major part of our
family activity. This was possible only because of
several dedicated and competent individuals who
have filled in the gaps for us during the years.
One man in particular has been on duty nearly
every day of that time, and has spent his entire
adult life with us - Tony Mendoz.a. He has had
many helpers, and I won’t try to name all those
who have contributed so much toward the
mechanical tasks of producing newspapers and
commercial printing, but they have done much
and we are grateful.
Except for time out due to service with the
military, Tony has continuously been one of our
most important associates since 1946, and I just
wanted all of you to know that I do appreciate
what he has done. And for that matter, I consider
military service just as important to us all as
routine daily work.
Serving as publisher, general manager and
factotum for most of the past 16 years has been
Burnis Lawrence. He worked for the Seguin
Enterprise before coming to Hondo, and so I had
a good idea as to what he could do.
Burnis and I don’t always agree on politics,
management methods, or even on how to comb
our hair, but Burnis has been a good steward in
many ways, and helped greatly in keeping this
newspaper thriving.
He believes in doing his part when it comes to
community work, and while there have been
times when I think Hondo may have overloaded
his broad shoulders, I admire him for his
willingness to take on what are too often
thankless tasks.
He has often been out of town on military
duties, as he serves the Air Force Reserve and
spends many days on duty at Randolph Air Force
Base. He can see the end of the line there,
—r- Please Turn to Page 2 .
tricting proposal was ap-
proved. The new commis-
sioners precincts give Mexi-
can-Americans a 66 percent
population majority in Pre-
cinct 3, which encompasses
the DTIanis area.
Approval of the plan by
the Justice Department
ends a legal battle between
the commissioners and the
Mexican-American Legal
Defense and Educational
Fund (MALDEF), which
filed a class-action suit
against the county officials
Oct. 25,1979.
Robert Zuberbueler is
commissioner of Precinct 1,
while John Tondre serves as
commissioner in Precinct 3.
It is not known at this time if
either plans to run for re-
election.
Approximately 1,800 to
2,000 persons have been
added to Precinct 3, which is
the largest geographically,
but previously had the few-
est people, Decker said.
The population shift was
made mainly from Precinct
1, which inqludes most of
Hondo, while some were
added from Precinct 2,
known as the Castroville
precinct. Some residents
from Precinct 4, the Devine
area, were subtracted from
Precinct 3 to balance the
number of people in each
precinct to between 5,500 to
5,600, Decker said.
The county submitted its
largest redistricting propos-
al for consideration near the
beginning of December, he
said, after the county and
MALDEF agreed on the 66
percent Mexican-American
population in that precinct.
MALDEF filed the law-
suit against county officials
because it claimed the coun-
ty had violated the one-man
one-vote principle and had
diluted the minority voting
strength by the way the
precinct lines were drawn.
A redistricting proposal
was submitted to the Justice
Department in July 1979
which would have moved
about 200 people from Pre-
cinct 1 to Precinct 3, raising
the Mexican-American popu-
lation to a 56.88 percentage.
However, MALDEF op-
posed the plan and the
Justice Department did not
approve it.
Decker earlier said he
objected to reapportioning
the districts now because
the precincts would have to
be redistricted after the
risults of the 1980 Census
were knowji.
To file for commissioner, a
candidate must either
submit a petition signed by
50 registered voters in the
commissioner’s precinct or
pay $200, Sessions said.
The period to vote absen-
tee by mail is April 28
through May 23 and ballots
must be received by the
county clerk’s office by 10
a.m May 28.
Absentee voting in person
will be conducted at the
courthouse between 8 a.m.
and 5 p m. weekdays begin-
ning May 11 through May
26.
Voting will be conducted
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m at 13
locations on election day.
Five killed in nearby plane crash
By Rosanne Doyle
Members of the Medina
County Sheriff’s Depart-
ment participated in the
search for the remains of a
single-engine plane which
crashed into Round
Mountain, about 15 miles
north of Hondo, and the
bodies of the five persons
killed in the accident.
Chief Deputy Alvin
Santleben said the county
officers were called by the
Civil Air Patrol Saturday to
help search for the plane
that burned on the Joe Short
Ranch, about five miles west
of Highway 173. The land is
currently owned by Short’s
grandson, Jim Evans.
The leased plane was pi-
loted by Pearsall resident
Ron Smith, 31, who perished
along with his four passen-
gers, a Jourdanton family.
They were Julius Riley, 32,
his wife, Charlotte, and sons,
Julius Jr., 8, and John, 6.
All were found inside the
Piper four-seater which was
about two-thirds burned,
Santeleben said. “It seems
they knew they were in
trouble because each parent
had a child on their lap,”
Santleben said.
He blames the low cloud
ceiling that day as the cause
of the crash. ‘They started
to turn around," Santleben
said, “they were headed
south-southeast" when the
accident occurred.
“One wing hit a tree and it
tore the wing off," the officer
described. ‘Then the plane
hit part of the mountain and
slid up.”
He said the pilot, the
younger boy and the father
were burned beyond recog
nition.
The crash site was discov-
ered Sunday about 11:30
a.m. after an all-night search
Saturday by the Civil Air
Patrol with daytime assist-
ance from the Medina and
Bandera counties sheriffs
departments.
Santleben said the search-
ers first examined Medina
County, then had begun
looking in Bandera County
on Saturday. The first lead
as to the remains of the
charred aircraft was a report
by a rancher of hearing a
southbound airplane.
One of his employees also
reported hearing an explo-
sion on Friday about the
same time.
Santleben said he was
among the first to reach the
wreck and was lowered by
helicopter into the rough
terrain. Other searchers
parked their vehicles almost
a mile away and approached
the site on foot r
. The RjJajakwere on their
way to Mineral Wells to visit
Mrs. Riley’s two sisters. The
pilot was then going to
continue to El Reno. Okla.
Chemical meeting
closed to public
A meeting to discuss how
to dispose of 1,000 barrels of
toxic chemicals stored at the
Hondo Airbase originally set
for 9 a.m. Wednesday morn-
ing was postponed to 10 a m.
The Anvil Herald was told
shortly before the meeting
was to begin that the
meeting was closed to the
public according to Beverly
Katy of Gary Aircraft Corp.
Representatives of Gary,
the Defense Contract Ad-
ministration, the Texas At-
torney General’s office and
the City of Hondo were to be
present at the meeting.
The barrels contain
cyanide compounds, sulfuric
acid and heavy metals Gary
Aircraft and previous con-
tractors have used in clean-
ing aircraft parts and paint-
ing airplanes for the United
States Air Force.
City to hold
public hearing
RUBBLE... That's all that
was left of the single-engine;
airplane that crashed about
15 miles due north of Hondo
Friday killing a Jourdanton
family of four and the Pear-
sall pilot. Janies O. Evans
Jr. who owns the property
where the plane crashed,
said the aircraft lay just 20
to 30 feet from the top of
Round Mountain. (Photo By
Janies O. Evans Jr.)
The City of Hondo will
hold a public hearing at 7:30
p.m. March 3 at City Hall to
decide how to spend
$25,456.09 in revenue
sharing funds left over from
last year’s allottment and an
additional $50,944 to be re-
ceived between Oct. 1, 1980
and Sept. 30, 1981.
The city has also an-
nounced that it will accept
bids on the purchase and
installment of a low fre-
quency non-directional radio
beacon at the Hondo
Airbr^e.
FFA Week proclaimed . 21-28
the Hondo Future Farmers
of America watch Mayor
Woody GJasftfock (seated)
sign a errificqf^ proclaiming
Vr • •
._ f
begins Feb. 21. Shown are (I
to r) President Will Weber,
Sweetheart Andrea Saat-
hoff, Sentinel Elmer Smith,
Treasurer Gary llalbardier.
Reporter Brian Boehle and
Vice President Stuart Nie-
tenhoefer.
(Photo By Tony Mendoza)
Members of the Hondo
Chapter join with nearly
485,000 other FFA members
in the United States in
celebrating National FFA
Week, which starts Feb. 21.
Throughout the week the
state’s 860 chapters are plan-
ning activities to support the
theme ‘FFA - Preparing For
Progress.’
National FFA Week in-
cludes George Washington’s
birthday in observance of his
leadership in promoting
scientific farming practices.
Washington is considered
the patron saint of the FFA
and has come to symbolize
the FFA Treasurer.
According to President
Will Weber, the Hondo
Chapter will place posters in
local businesses throughout
Hondo to recognize FFA
Week, and to promote this
year’s theme of “Building
Tomorrows Today.’
Organized in 1928, the
FFA promotes leadership,
cooperation and citizenship
among high school vocation-
al agriculture students. Vo-
cational agriculture educa-
tion in high school prepares
students for careers in agri-
culture production, market-
ing, processing, and service.
Upcoming meetings
Development
Corporation
The Hondo Area Develop-
ment Corporation will hold a
meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tues-
day, Feb. 24, at the Gill
Savings Community Room
Hondo
centennial
Residents interested in
helping plan the Hondo Cen-
tennial celebration to be held
later this year should meet
at 7:30 p.m Wednesday,
Feb. 25. at Hondo City Hall
The events will celebrate
Southern Pacific Railroad’s
trek west from San Antonio,
August 1881, where the City
of Hondo was bom.
Maybr Woody Glasscock
said the railroad would^
eventually be contacted to
see if it would like to
participate.
County fair
The Medina County Fair
Board of Directors will meet
at 7:30 p.m Tuesday, Feb.
24, at the new County Build-
ing on South Teel in Devine.
Water Dist.
No. 2
The Medina County Water
Control and Improvement
District No. 2 will hold an
election to fill twp posts on
the board of Directors April
4 at the DHanis Fire Sta-
tion. '
i
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The Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 19, 1981, newspaper, February 19, 1981; Hondo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth819524/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hondo Public Library.