The Pharr Press (Pharr, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 7, 1982 Page: 2 of 16
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Page, 2, The Pharr Press, January 7,1982
P R F Q Viewpoints
All 22 Charter
propositions needed
It has been sleeping quietly
the past few months. Now it is
time for it to shake off the
slumbers and move out before
the people of Pharr. The
proposed revised Pharr City
Charter will be put before the
electorate January 16, 1982.
There will be 22 propositions
to vote upon. Many of the
propostitions are but
necessary ones written to ac-
commodate what has already
been established as
proceedure. Several do not
appear that striking, but have a
built-in power that forms the
foundation of Pharr’s present
city-manager type government.
Proposition 4 would establish
a Board of City Com-
missioners-City Manager form
of government. That is what
Pharr has, but it isn’t presently
part of the city charter. By
making it part of the charter,
the commissioners will not be
able to cancel the city
manager form of government
as they now could. It would
have to go before the voters of
the city.
Proposition 4 is the most im-
portant of the propositions: It
establishes that Pharr is to be
run by a professional staff of
people and makes more dif-
ficult the running of the city for
the benefit of one or several
partisin groups.
Proposition 5 is also very im-
portant. It would create a place
system for six places for
commissioner elections; it
would set run-off elections by
place; and it would set
staggered terms with
municipal eleci)tions to be
held every two years.
Extending the number of
commissioners from four to
six would provide a more solid
base for citizen participation in
government. It should aid in
more imaginative represen-
tation. It should aid the com-
Guest editorials
mission in cutting down in-
dividual workloads. As Pharr
grows it will become more dif-
ficult for the entire com-
mission to completely cover
each proposed or planned sub-
ject. With more com-
missioners, it would be
possible to have more active
committees to study a
proposal and present it to the
entire commission. Six com-
missioners also would expand
the number of trained gover-
nment representatives in
Pharr, an ideal that should
prove very helpful in future
situations. ,
Proposition 15 would remove
the previous limitation on City
funding of the Board of City
Development to enable the city
to more actively aid develop-
ment institutions such as the
Chamber of Commerce and
the Industrial Foundation.
Proposition 18 would give the
commission power to
authorize the issuance of bon-
ds, including revenue bonds,
for any lawful municipal pur-
pose. If this proposition were
written into the charter, the
commission would have the
power, by charter, to authorize
revenue bonds for certain
municipal projects, such as
utility expansion, which might
be necessary for the city’s
operation.
The Charter Amendment
Election will be January 16,
1982. There are 22
propositions. Each Pharr
resident should study them.
The 22 propositions have been
carefully studied and proposed
by an informed group of Pharr
citizens selected from all
areas of the city. All 22
propositions are needed and
should be voted into the char-
ter. Each Pharr voter should go
to the polls and vote January
16,1982.
How did you like the BOWL
GAMES? Personally, we liked
the Cotton Bowl the best of all,
because it was one of the best
played games, with few
penalties, the closeness to the
final seconds, and the fact that
the Texas Longhorns laid it on
the Alabamans, who were
favored by all the experts.
Also, it was the first time this
season that the Longhorns
have played a gook, solid,
errorless game for four quar-
ters.
The second “best” game was
the Clemson-Nebraska in
Orange Bowl. Clemson was
not even ranked in the first 20
teams at the beginning of the
season. They kept on winning
and only ranked in the first 20
teams at the beginning of the
season. They kept on winning
and only ended up No. 1 late in
the season when Pittsburgh
lost its first game. This is the
first time that a small univer-
sity like Clemson has ever
been the national champion.
Also, another honor that is not
to be overlooked is that they
were undefeated for the entire
season. Not many of the
national champs can claim
that honor in recent years.
We also enjoyed the Rose
Bowl, where an underdog,
Washington, won with ease,
and by a shut out too, the first
in Bowl history. It was not a
very artistic game from the
standpoint of football
mechanics, as both teams
made a lot of mistakes, but
Iowa made more.
The Sugar Bowl in New
Orleans was a thriller too, with
Pittsburgh coming from
behind to win over Georgia in
the final seconds. It was a bit
ter pill for Georgia and their All
American, Walker, because a
victory would have assured
them No. 2 in the fianl national
rankings. Since they were
national champs last year it
would have been a great
achievement to have been
either No. 1 or No. 2 two con-
secutive years.
Friends of Mrs. J.L.C.
Beaman will be pleased to
know that she has recovered
from her recent serious illness
and is now living in a nursing
home in Alice where the
patients home and she writes
“I am very comfortable”, when
she received Christmas cards
this year addressed to “Mr.
and Mrs. J.L.C. Beaman”, she
realized she had to do some
Christmas card writing for the
first time, as the wonderful
J.L.C., known by all as the
“Colonel”, passed away a
couple of years ago. She goes
to her home most every day,
weather permitting, and she
has been going thru a lifetime
of accumulation of things, and
giving away or destroying most
of it. (Keeping some). When
She completes the task, she
plans to sell her house and
rent the house next door.
“Physically, I am improving
stronger and having a desire to
attend church. My broken left
knee cap healed completely
and I can walk as well as ever.
My right arm, which also had
surgery, is not a 100 per cent,”
she writes. Bertha, as she is
known here, is the last living
daughter of Pharr pioneers, Mr.
and Mrs. W.H. Morgan, North
Sugar Road.
Another ex-Pharr-ite, Darwin
Ray, has received a promotion
to “Colonel” as of Dec. 1, and
has been assigned back to his
native Texas, Bergstrom AFB,
Austin, beginning the last
week in February. His title will
be Deputy Commander for
Resources of the 67th Tactical
Reconnaissance Wing (U.S. Air
Corps of course).
Congratulations, Colonel! We
are proud of you. If ajl the
colonels in the Air Corps were
as dedicated and inergetic as
you, we would never have a
sleepless night over the
defense of this country. He is
the son of Mr. and Mrs. Dewitt
Ray, Pharr.
Here for the Christmas
holidays were Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Ehrhardt of Shawnee,
Kansas, and children, jody and
Julie, to visit his mother, Mrs.
Donate to rich
Cotton Bowl best
Mary Ehrhardt, and many
friends. He states his area of
the country is very much in
depression, with unem-
ployment at 9 per cent, and
housing construction very
slow. Part of the reason for the
high unemployment is that
three car assembly plants in
the area have laid off thousan-
ds upon thousands of workers
during December, continuing
on into January.
It will take some of the old-
timers ‘round to remember
Garland and Isabel Aiken who
lived here many years and
were loved by so many. He was
on the office staff at Mc-
Cullough Box & Crate Co. They
now ilve in Little Rock, Ark.,
and are old enough now to
have three granddaughters,
ages 16,14 and 7.
An old-timer who will be
remembered is Fred Erikson
who worked for the Rio Grande
Valley Gas Co. for many years
in this area and married Edna
Baden. Friends will regret to
known that Edna is in Retama
Manor Nursing Home in
Raymondville. He has officially
retired from the Gas Co. where
he was manager in Raymon-
dville but is still working with
other employment.
Mrs. Grace Melton, one of the
real Pharr Pioneers, having
come here with her parents in
about 1914, writes from
beaumont that “when you run
out of glamorous places to go,
come in March and glory in the
lovely azaleas, and all the
spring beauty--l simply go
wild.” (That’s a nice thought.)
Mrs. Murphey Keathley,
another long time Pharr
resident, now living in
Mabelvale, Ark. (near Little
Rock), writes that she is get-
ting along well, enjoying good
health, and staying busy all
the time. She is still doing
what she did so much in Pharr-
-making a home for homeless
cats. And has adopted a new
one recently, (or the cat adop-
ted her!) She sends greetings
to many friends here.
Special friends of this writer
for so many years, Mr. and Mrs.
Joe T. Cook, formerly of
Mission, but now of Louisville,
Miss., were here over the
holidays to visit old time frien-
ds. Joe was the editor of the
Mission Times from about
1935 to 1955 (dates not exact)
while this writer was the editor
of the Pharr Press. He
published one of the best
weekly newspapers ever put
out here in the Valley and the
paper won many awards, both
state and national. He and
Dorothy left Texas and settled
in Loisville, where he became
the editor and publisher on the
weekly newspaper there and
continued until his retirement
three or four years ago. He
continues to write a column fo
r the newspaper, like this
writer is writing this column for
this newspaper. Dorothy wrote
an original column for the
Times too and continued to
write one for the Louisville
paper.
Missed by her many friends in
Pharr is Mrs. Hallie Hender-
son, who recently moved to
Houston to be near her
children and grandchildren.
She writes that she misses her
many friends.
Gene and Mary Jo Parks, who
operated Parks Gardens, North
Sugar Road, for so many years,
have been so busy in their new
home town of Tyron, North
Carolina, that they haven’t had
time to miss anyone. They are
completing a new home and
expect to move in this month.
She has recovered from hip
replacement surgery and is
driving the car for the first
time. For the first time in their
lives, they can enjoy the
weather and not worry
about things freezing or wilting
from the heat in the summer.
As I see it
CHARLES NELSON
Editor
Law in itself
(The following is a guest
editorial from The Heritage
Foundation written by Edwin
Feulner.)
How would you like to donate
three buses to a rich ski resort
or pay for tanslation of Playboy
magazine into Braille& Well,
according to Congressman
Jerry Solomon (R-NY), it’s too
late. As United States tax-
payers, you already did.
The federal budget now
comes to more than $700
billion a year, but some mem-
bers of Congress just can’t
find the nerve to make any
cuts. The 1982 budget, even af-
ter the cuts are implemented
will be more than $50 billion
greater than the 1981 budget.
Despite this $50 billion in-
crease, many legislators still
argue that belt tightening will
result in millions of Americans
being thrown out into the
streets. But I wondered about
that when I looked at some
examples pointed out by Rep.
Solomn:
-An affluent ski resort in
Aspen Colorado will get three
new buses, courtesy of a
recent federal grant. Total cost
to transport the rich
vacationers to the slopes?
$352,000.
The Library of Congress
spends $100,000 a year to
reproduce and distribute a
Braille edition of Playboy
magazine. The pictures are ob-
viously not reporduced in
Braille, but the jokes and ad-
vice columns are.
•The National Endowment for
Arts and Humanities was
established to enrich this
country’s cultural life. To that
end, last year the agency paid
a music teacher $90,000 to
compose and produce
historical musicals. For our
money we received a musical
on Watergate, including the
chorus:
“It works. It really works.
Even when evil lurks.
When men in high places try
to administer
A cover-up of something
simister.
There really is a solution.
Because we uphold our Con-
stitution.”
You don’t have to be a critic of
the arts to wonder if we got our
money’s worth.
-The National Science Foun-
dation awarded a Dartmouth
College researcher $58,000
to study faces and how people
react to them. Presumably, the
study will not include the look
on a taxpayer’s face when he
finds out how his money is
being spent.
Thanks to the voting Rights
Act, bilingual ballots are for-
ced on states and
municipalities, running up un-
necessary costs. For example,
last year in San Bernardino,
California, more than $108,000
was spent to provide ballot
and election materials in
languages other than English.
Only 113 bilingual ballots were
used in their 1980 election at a
cost of over $950 per ballot.
Naturally, Congress does not
scrimp when it comes to spen-
ding money on itself. A few
years ago, the Senate decided
to build a new office building
at a cost of $48 million. The
‘great white elephant’ is not
yet completed, but the
estimated construction costs
have escalated past $137
million already.
What is most disturbing
about these stories is that few
legislators seem to care when
another example of foolish
government spending is
revealed. They treat the tax
dollar like play money. Yet a
billion dollars is an enormous
amount of money. After all, if
every resident of any one
congressional district sent the
government $2,000 the total
would be just over a billion
dollars. Should we just shrug
our shoulders when our hard-
earned money is frittered
away?
It is the first of 1982 and
besides the hangovers, the
holiday bills and high utility
bills, many Valley residents
are being put through another
added problem.
That of securing a driver’s
license and minimum liability
insurance for their vehicles.
What a horrible thing for these
people to have to do. Adquire
what the law required in the
case of the license, and
adquire what any person with
responsibility already had, in
liability insurance.
On the way to work in the
morning I have recently
noticed lines of people at
several insurance offices. I’m
not certain, because I haven’t
stopped to inquire, but I’m
almost certain these lines are
to get minimum liability in-
surance that is now required
by Texas law.
It has been an eye opener for
me. I never dreamed there were
that many people who were
driving around without licen-
ses.
Last week I was asked to help
a friend get his motercycle
license. Which was another
eyeopener.
I imagine the first conver-
sation between my friend and
the DPS went something as
this:
“Can I help you?” the DPS
clerk asked in McAllen.
“Yes. I need to take my
motercycle test.”
“Have you taken the written
test?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a car here?”
asked the DPS clerk.
“A car,” my friend asked in-
creduously. “I’m here to take a
motorcycle test.”
“You most have a car for the
officer giving the test.”
“Doesn’t the officer have a
car?”, I’m sure my friend asked
still not understanding what
was going on.
’’The officer rides in the car
you bring along.”
I believe at that point it finally
settled in that for some reason
or other, DPS officers want to
be driven about during motor-
cycle tests.
I was the friend who was
selected to drive the officer
around. The first morning we
got at the McAllen office as it
open. The test was given. He
failed because of a loose
chain.
We went back the next mor-
ning early and there wasn’t any
parking space. My friend
finally managed to work his
way through a mass of
humanity and find out there
would be only one officer
giving tests that day and he
wouldn’t be in until 10:30 a.m.
But he got an appointment
card for 10:30.
We arrived at 10:30 and there
were cars lined up and down
Bicentenial Ave. for three
blocks. Also the side roads
near the DPS building were full
of parked cars. I let him out
and drove around for 30
minutes until it was histime.
Driving around with the of-
ficer, I learned that since the
deadline was near for the
compulsary liability insurance,
the people have been pouring
in to get their license. It seems
they need their license to get
their insurance.
And if they don’t have their
insurance they will be fined a
minimum of $75 the first time
and $200 the second time. And
after the first time the driver
will need special paperwork to
get insurance and no insuran-
ce company will want to han-
dle him. And it goes on.
The DPS officer I was taking
around said he didn’t mind
seeing a lot of the people
waiting in line for their license.
Many of them have waited five
or ten years to get their licen-
se, he said, they can wait a few
days or hours now.
It is a revelation to me that
there are that many people
here who couldn’t care less
about the law, who weren’t the
least bit interested in getting a
license even though they were
driving, until the liability in-
surance law came into effect.
And until the monetary
penalties became rough.
The law in itself was no
reason for these people. Is it
any wonder there are so many
young people who don’t
respect property and laws. And
is it any wonder there are many
adults who don’t respect
property and laws.
Until stiff penalties make it
necessary.
the pharr press
P.O. Box 710
203 South Cage
The PRESS accepts letters to the editor as long as name and address is given.
Pictures and stories from the community are accepted for publication without charge;
however the editor has the right to choose what stories and pictures are published.
News tips are welcome; Call 787-2291.
The PRESS is dedicated to being a community newspaper that provides local,
indepth coverage of news pertaining to the Pharr, San Juan and Alamo communities.
Published each Thursday morning in the city of Pharr, Hidalgo County, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Subscription rates; $7.50 per year in Hidalgo County $11 00 per
year outside of county.
CHARLES L. NELSON
Editor
FRANK GRAHAM
Advertising Manager
YOLANDA MARTINEZ
Production Manager
JUAN CARLOS MORALES
Translator
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Nelson, Charles. The Pharr Press (Pharr, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 7, 1982, newspaper, January 7, 1982; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth867045/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Pharr Memorial Library.