Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 20, 1984 Page: 2 of 14
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PAGE 2A THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20,1984
Editorial
PORT ARANSAS SOUTH JETTY
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Police predicament
-By Mary Henkel Judson
PORT ARANSAS HAS A REPl’-
tation that far exceeds its bound-
ary*
This huie paper is mailed all over
the state of Texas and to a good
number of this nation's remaining
49 states. Our location alone dic-
tates that we will get headlines
around the state.
So. it's no secret that our police
department has not been the epi-
tome of peace and tranquility.
For four months of the year the
department is faced with “crowd
control” conditions nearly every
day. The other eight months may be
spiced with a few major problems,
but they’re basically pretty sleepy.
That’s not an easy combinatin to
work with in terms of law enforce-
ment or budgeting or staffing. These
special problems demand careful
planning, budgetary heroics and
Cooperation with a capitol C.
It is more than disheartening to
learn that, primarily because of two
council members “undermining" fin
our poiice cruel s words) his efforts,
we are losing him. One council mem-
ber has taken credit for being one of
those to whom the chief refers.
Speculation about the identity of
the other continues, in effect point-
ing a finger at the entire council
-however unfairly.
This event indicates that our City
Council (or two of its members)
operates outside the confines of the
City Charter which stipulates that
city employees will be dealt with by
the the city manager and not mem-
bers of the council. This point was
emphasized by the mayor when he
was sworn into office. Perhaps it fell
on deaf ears.
It is more disheartening to be look-
ing forward to yet another new
chief for Spring Break, our third
chief in three years.
It seems Port Aransas is an exper-
iment station for law enforcement.
The Nick Baumann brand nf police
chief was a lesson in hard-line cops.
Dave Hudiburgh is at the opposite
end of the spectrum, taking a softer
public relations approach to the
job.
This type of “knee-jerk”, reaction-
ary leadership is not what Port
Aransas needs or wants. We need
the council to determine what type
of law enforcement the community
needs and wants, and then get it.
That policy should be one based on
the community and its needs and
not political whim subject to change
with the winds of every April elec-
tion. Then, when we have a chief
who exemplifies the policy set forth
by the council, he or she should get
nothing less than 100 percent coop-
eration from elected officials.
It would be a refreshing change
to keep a police chief for a whole
year - or more....
From the mailbox
Letters
to the editor
In touch
I want you to know that we really
enjoy the South Jetty. This is one
way to keep up with friends!
Edgar (Mullet), Ruby
& Tonya Dreyer
Lawton, OK
Parade of chiefs
Port Aransas goes through police
chiefs like water through a sieve,
just as Port Aransas has gone
through city employees.
There exists in our City Council a
faction of two or three members
who are obstructive by nature and
destructive in imposing their will
on city employees while circum-
venting the Council as a whole (a
violation of the City Charter).
It is deplorable that the majority
of the Council under the leadership
of our Mayor cannot seem to en-
force the democratic process, and
apply the rules of procedure to
these small-time bosses.
Fortunately, there is an election
scheduled this spring and the iden-
tity of these individual* i« well
known.
Bob Tyler
Bond ideas
After listening to the thoughts
and questions of last week's bond
hearing, I felt the need to express
the following thoughts on the bond
issue from a teacher's point of view.
I offer the following reasons for
making an auditorium from the
existing junior high band hall:
* It would have a good sound
system.
* It would have good lighting.
* It would seat over 300 people in
comfortable seats.
* The acoustics would be better.
* The audience noise level would
be cut down because of carpeting
and a more formal setting.
* There would be dressing rooms.
* The closed-in patio of the jr.
high would provide a place for cry
ing babies and smokers.
* Students could practice during
the day without disturbing P.E.
classes.
* The Presbyterian Church park-
ing lot could be shared as a parking
area.
* Elementary students would not
have to carry their chairs out.
* Custodians wouldn’t have to set
up and take down 350 chairs before
and after a performance.
* Rain would not leak through
the ceiling lights onto performers
waiting backstage.
* Public restrooms would not be
in the dressing rooms.
* We would have curtains to
make it possible to change scenes
without the audience watching,
and to give the teacher some cover
when helping students with lines or
music.
* It would give the students a
sense of pride to know the com-
munity supports them enough to
give them a fine facility in which to
perform.
* If you’re over 65 and tax
exempt, it costs you nothing.
We have a fine school system.
Now we need the buildings and
facilities to come up to the level of
excellence of our teaching pro-
grams.
The cons for making an audito-
rium from the existing junior high
band hall are:
* We need to pass a bond issue.
* It’s part of a bond rhat
might cost us $30 a YEAR (per
$50,000 evaluation).
It’s worth every penny we’ll
spend for the educational facilities
we’ll be providing for the students.
Super library!
The Port Aransas Library is one
of the best systems I have had the
pleasure to use, and would like to
compliment Sue Vosseller and
Gwyn Garner for the excellent job
they do. Many additional services
have been initiated and brought to
oHr library through their efforts,
hours of research and hard work.
Besides all the books, magazines,
newspapers and reference mate-
rials, we are able to obtain movies,
video cassettes and books from all
over the country, which may be
necessary for research or for a spe-
cial interest. We really have a ‘big
city’ library right here and one in
which we should take great pride.
Let’s all give our library staff a
“thank you" for a well done job and
one for which i know they will con-
tinue to give their best efforts.
Diana Lee Hankins
Port Aransas
Chief-—
continued from page one
Perils of Pauline
River runners call it Satan’s Gut
me official Canyonlands map says
it is Rapid No. 24, second in a series
of t hree wild and frightening rapids
that make up Big Drop!
Son James and his professional
guides had pulled in on the left
bank 4-500 yards above the point
where The Gut began growling in
anticipation of coming events.
Clambering over boulders, risking
serious injury, they had gone ahead
to “scout".
I stayed with the rafts. Somebody
had to make sure that a passing
stranger didn’t steal our supplies
and equipment, didn’t they? Be-
sides I had already seen Satan’s
Gut. Twice in fact. And I wasn’t all
that excited about seeing it again.
As a matter of fact, sitting in the
broiling sun, sucking on a near-
empty canteen of warm iodized
river water, I was asking myself a
familiar question. "What am I doing
here?" Let’s face it. Not only have I
torn a lot of pages off calendars, I’ve
also logged a lot of miles in the pro-
cess. Feeling all the aches and pains
of ten days on the river, sleeping on
the ground, taking cold baths in
muddy water, eating lots of fiber,
there was a nagging question about
my sanity.
It didn’t get any better when the
other rafters began drifting back.
White-faced, of grim visage, and
talking very little. Satan’s Gut, the
worst part of the feared stretch of
Colorado River that goes raging
through Cataract Canyon en route
to the placid water of Lake Powell,
was living up to its press clippings.
On our previous trips the river
had been running from eight to
12,000 cubic feet of water per se-
cond. A tolerable and exciting chd-
Tidemarks-
^o'.v, goaded by a Suir.nr.ei m
rain and huge mountain run-offs, it
was almost twice as high! More
than 20,000 cubic feet per second,
the rangers had told us.
At that level, humongous holes
and giant waves dominated the left
side and middle of the river. With
our 14’ rafts there was little hope of
making it through. On the right side
a huge boulder split the river, creat-
ing a hole bigger than our living
room. The water crashing against
the canyon wall curled back to the
edge of that hole. It did seem impos-
sible.
When Major John Wesiey Powell
led the first expedition of river
runners down the Green and Colo-
rado rivers through the Grand Can-
yon more than a century ago, he
elected to walk around these rap-
ids. In his journal he says “the awe-
some power of the raging current
By Jack L. Moore
makes ii umiKeiy that our boats
would survive."
Some of the veteran guides in our
group suggested that it would be
prudent if we did likewise. The
majority opinion, however, was
that we hadn’t signed on to be pru-
dent _i_but to run rivers!
Besides, James was sure he had
found a soft spot in The Gut. On the
far right side, he said, between the
gaping hole to the left and the
curling wave on the right, there is a
slot. Maybe 10 feet wide. If you can
hit it, he said, the river will catapult
you through without trouble. Until
you get to the turbulence around
the boulders about 100 feet down.
Then you’re on your own, he said.
He and Nancy took their raft
through first. The rest of us watch-
ed, fearful but hopeful. We could
see the strain in his face and the
bulge of his muscles as he maneu-
vered to get his heavy boat into the
one spot that - in his opinion - was
crucial to making the run without
disaster.
He made it look easy. At just the
right moment he spun his craft and
it slid off to the right where the cur-
rent gave it a giant boost down
stream and away from the valleys
of death on either side. With the
worst over, we thought, he worked
his way across river and landed^
safely on the rocky shore just above
the next rapid.
I’m gonna continue this saga next
week. Should we title it the “Perils of
Pauline?” In any event you will
learn, by tuning in at the same time
and same place, what happened
when my paddle boat MISSED THE
SLOT as we tried to follow James
thorugh Satan’s Gut.
It is exciting!
Teachers, prayers, politics
son can’t do the job effectively.”
Hudiburgh’s administration has
been marked primarily by controv-
ersy over the handling of the 1984
Spring Break crowds Hudiburgh
pursued a public-relations type
approach to law enforcement.
“I think it was obviously unpopu-
lar among some of the members of
the community.” Hudiburgh said
about his Spring Break policy. “My
feeling is they’ve (community mem-
bers) a gripe and I understand.”
Citizens complained about a lack
of law enforcement on the beach
during Spring Break at a public
meeting following the event.
Port Aransas Mayor Dale Bieten-
dorf was on vacation and unavaila
ble for comment last week when
Hudiburgh submitted his resigna-
tion.
“My position on the chief has Rpnpll
been one of support,” Bietendorf
said. “I feel like he has done a lot of
the things he was asked to do when
he took the job."
He said Hudiburgh has made the
department “more professional.”
Bietendorf was aware that prob-
lems existed, but “hoped we could
work those things out."
CHEERS ARE IN ORDER. TEXAS
teachers are back in the classrooms
with substantial boosts in pay.
Should it be said that they are no
longer wage earners but salaried
professionals? Needless to observe,
improved pay doesn’t make any
individuial a better teacher. In-
stead it means attracting more able
people to the school room.
This may eventually mean hard
lines for teachers who drifted into
the craft because educational
courses were the only way they
could stay in college, which brings
me to an observation which I have-
n’t heard made during all the re-
cent months of flap over better
education. Who is responsible for
an unqualified teacher? What
about the administrators in col-
leges who prepare teachers? Hasn’t
it been true for many years that
those people have been more con-
cerned with maintaining high pop-
ulation campuses rather than qual-
ity education? The more students
the more government grants, et-
C6t6Td
BOTH MAJOR POLITICAL PAR-
ties are guilty, have been for as long
as I can remember, for as far back
in history as I can read. They are
guilty of this thing we call “getting
out the vote," endeavoring to regis-
ter every living being that has an
ounce of warm blood in his or her
veins. I call it downright disgusting
and not infrequently people who
have called me on election day to
remind me to vote haven’t received
a very polite reception. Blast it! If I
have to be urged to register to vote,
be reminded that it is election day, I
don’t deserve the right to vote.
Mere, I am neithei qualified nor
competent.
IN THIS ELECTION YEAR IT
seems we are hearing more static
over separation of church and state
than for many years past. The more
the better. The two should remain
eternally apart, at least in a nation
that presumes to be a democracy.
Regretfully I must concede that the
Republicans are more guilty than
the Demos Reagan is in no small
measure responsible, as a result of
his allowing himself to get mixed up
in Dallas back in 1980 with Jerry
Falwell and his ilk of fundamen-
talists.
When eh urch leaders involve them
selves in politics, no matter their
reason, their churches should at
the very least lose their tax exempt
status. In a word, approaching the
local scene, I don’t believe the
Bishop of the Corpus Christi Dio-
cese of the Catholic Church should
be using church property to regis
ter voters. To further politicise the
matter, 99 out of 100 voters regis-
tered on those premises are sheep
who will be led to vote the Ferraro-
Mondale ticket.
- ^
IN ALL CANDOR. THIS WRITER
is so emphatically opposed to any-
thing that even hints of non-separa-
tion of church and state that I pon-
der whether a minister, priest, rab-
bi or monk should ever let his or her
political preferences be known. For
many, clergymen are spiritual lead-
ers, as they rightly should be. Ac-
cordingly there are many devout
people who are or would be uncom-
fortable in opposing their religious
leaders’ view's politic. Dangerous
business. Should clergymen per-
haps not, voluntarily give up their
right to vote? Here I have posed a
question, not made a declaration.
IN ALL THE YEARS I WAS IN
public and private church schools,
prayer was simply an accepted
thing, no one gave much or any
thought to it. I really doubt that it
helped me and I am most certain
that it didn’t hurt me. Brought to an
issue, unfortunately I think, the Su-
preme Court under our Constitu-
tion had no choice to act other than
as it did. Frankly, in my opinion
—By C.M. Henkel Jr.
there has been too much flack on
the subject, a subject that again has
no place in politics. Meanwhile as
someone said the oiher day “M<>re
people support school prayer than
those who pray in church.” And
meanwhile again, who is to say, who
can stop little Johnny or little Susie
from silently praying for a passing
grade, praying that the team will
win tonight. Perhaps there will
come a day when an observant
teacher will notice an unobservant
child and charge: “Johnny are you
praying instead of paying atten-
tion?" The honest answer: “Yes’um".
Then: “Johnny, take this note to the
principal. You are dismissed from
school for 30 days.” Anyone believe
we are coming to that? Nowadays
you can never tell.
LISTENING TO A DISCUSSION
the other evening between two na-
tionally prominent educators, one
said: “Anyone can understand why
kids are bored, not interested in
history. Just try to read the history
books they are given.” How often
have 1 said that?
"I AM ANNOUNCING NOW TH AT
on my first day as president I will
call on the Soviet leadership to
meet me within six months in Gen-
eva for fully prepared, substantive
negotiations to freeze the arms race
and begin cutting back stockpiles of
nuclear weapons.”--Walter
Mondale.
Those words from Mondale are
the most frightening I have heard in
this election year. Fancy, Walter
Mondale at the negotiations table
with the worlds toughest and most
seasoned diplomat, Andrei
Gromyko! Certainly Moscow would
accept such an invitation from
MONDALE. Gromyko would chew
him up, spit him out and send him
home smiling, believing he’d ac-
complished great things. Shades of
Neville Chamberlain in 1938. To
young voters not familiar with
Chamberlain, who think anything
that didn't happen in the past 10
years belongs to the dark ages, I
suggest a visit to your public library.
You’ll find no enlightenment in the
pap contained in your classroom
study books.
continued from page one
When a honeybee finds nectar in flowers near its hive,
it returns to the hive and dances in circles to let its
neighbors know where nectar can be found. When it
finds nectar in flowers that are far away, it dances in the
direction of the flowers.
After each group reported, the
group agreed upon an Oct. 5 dead-
line for presenting rough drafts of
each group’s findings to Brown. The
reports will be mailed ;.o group
chairmen.
“That will give them (the groups)
The environmentalist groups
told the task force they went to the
beach Sept. 13 to conduct an in-
spection.
two weeks to meet among them-
selves,” Brown said. “We scheduled
a meeting with group leaders for
Friday, Oct. 19, at 1:30 (p.m.)
The group is working toward a
November deadline to draft a con-
census report. Once it has been
drafted, it will be presented to the
Attorney General's Office, the Gen
eral Land Office, the State Senate
and the State House of Represen ta-
tives for “possible legislative action,"
Brown said.
While State Sen. Carlos Truan
and State Rep. Bill Harrison are ex
officio chairmen of the task force,
neither have attended either meet-
ing. Harrison sent a representitive
to the August meeting
“I was really disappointed that
Harrison’s representative wasn’t
there,"Brown said.“Truan has never
had a representative there."
'One half the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.'
Jane Austen
Southern Publishing, Inc.
749-5131
P.O. Box 1116 Port Aransas, TX 78373
141 W. Cotter
Second Class Postage is paid at Port Aransas, Texas 78373
Publication Number: 946-020
Co-publishers
Murray and Mary Judson
Advertising Manager
Murray Judson
Managing Editor
Mary Judson
Business Editor/Ad Sales
James Simmons
Office Manager Office Supplies/Classified Composing
Valerie Crofoot Sherry Ray Diana Hankins
The South Jetty is published every Thursday by Southern Publish-
ing, Inc at 141 W. Cotter Avenue in Port Aransas Any erroneous
statement regarding corporations, firms or individuals will be
gladly corrected when called to the attention of the editors.
Reporter
Maureen Sheeran
Proofreading
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TEXAS PRESS
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Judson, Mary. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 20, 1984, newspaper, September 20, 1984; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth840780/m1/2/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.