Cleveland Advocate (Cleveland, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 38, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 18, 1991 Page: 4 of 22
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Page 4A, CLEVELAND ADVOCATE, Wednesday, September 18, 1991
Editorial & Commentary
Are you in favor of a state lottery?
Viewpoint
COMMISSIONER’S POST
By MELVIN HUNT
County trapper helps
with drainage woes %
By MELVIN HUNT
County Commissioner
“No. It feeds off the igno-
rance of people with little
money.” - Don Wolkey,
Onalaska
“Yes. I'm in favor of any-
thing to help in our taxes.”
- Shirley Jenkins, Security
“Yes. Because it will help
the state money-wise.” -
Betty Johnson, Cleveland
“Yes. I like to gamble
rather than pay taxes.” -
Mary Jo Burton, Plum
Grove
“Yes. I think it will lower
our taxes and help the
state.” — Glenn Reeves,
Cleveland
“Yes. I believe it will b^a
big help to the state.W~
James Stalsby, Tarkington
Cleveland Advocate
The Cleveland Advocate (USPS 117560)
is a member of Gulf Coast Newspapers Inc.,
which serves Grimes, Harris, Liberty, Mont-
gomery, Waller and San Jacinto counties.
Published Wednesdays at 106 W. Hanson,
Cleveland, Texas 77327. Second class
postage paid at the Cleveland post office. An-
nual subscription: $18. Postmaster: please
send address of undelivered copies to the
Cleveland Advocate, P.O. Box 1628, Cleve-
land, Texas 77327.
Vol. 74 No. 38
“Serving the Cleveland area since 1917'
.Gen. Mgr./Ad Director
DIANA COLE
JERREL FERGUSON Managing Editor
Fredia Cox........Circ./Bus.Off
Telephone: (713)592-2626
Fax:(713)592-2629
EDITORIAL AND LETTER POLICIES
tant. The editor reserves the right to edit let-
ters to meet space restrictions, or to avoid
obscenity, libel or invasion of privacy. Initials
will be used on reasonable request. All letters
must have written signatures and include ad-
dresses and phone numbers.
Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. The Advocate
serves the right to edit items submitted for
yle and space needs. Birth, birthday, wed-
ng, anniversary and engagement jtems
ust be timely.
Letters are welcome but brevity is impor-
ANN RICHARDS
At least 15 new prison facilities will be
constructed under this legislation (House
Bill 93) which is designed to allow our
prisons to hold an additional 25,3000
inmates. These new facilities will be built
in the next two years to four years.
Almost half of the new cells (12,000)
will be utilized to deal with those prisoners
who have drug and alcohol additions.
That's four times as many as the next
closest state in he country - and a thousand
times more than had previously existed in
Texas.
But new prisons and treating addictions
aren't the only aspects to this legislation.
H.B. 93 will also get the state out of court.
COMMENTARY
Governor upset about revolving
doors of the state prison system
By ANN W. RICHARDS
Governor of Texas
Texans are fed up with the spectacle of
violent criminals being released from
prison after serving only a fraction of their
sentence. They are frustrated and angry
with the revolving doors in our prison
system.
And they should be. Because the first
responsibility of the people of this state.
The Legislature passed a criminal justice
package on that dale which I am honored to
sign into law.
For the first time - not just in Texas, but
in the nation - we have enacted legislation
that will keep violent criminals locked up
and will attack the root cause of crime:
addiction to drugs and alcohol.
It is impossible to overstate the
importance of this legislation. NO longer
will Texas be ranked 50th in the nation
when it comes to dealing with crime.
Senator Ted Lyon said it best when he
noted that, in the future, other states will
follow "the Texas plan" as they try to come
to grips with their own crime problems.
This "Texas plan" works by simply
addressing what law enforcement officers
have always known, but politicians have
been reluctant to acknowledge. And that is
this basic formula that continues to drive
our crime rates upward:
Addicts commit crimes.
Addicts go to prison.
Addicts come out of prison.
Addicts commit crimes again.
It is the vicious cycle that must be
halted. Since it is an addiction to drugs and
alcohol that is at the core of many of our
crime problems, it is the addiction that we
must combat.
And this legislation does that.
keep violent offenders locked up for longer
periods of time, clear the backlog of state
prisoners currently being held in county
jails and make Texas communities safer.
It does this in several ways. The
legislation:
- Establishes 13,300 maximum security
beds, ensuring that the worst criminals will
remain incarcerated as long as possible.
- Creates a "substance abuse felony
punishment" and provides space for 12,000
inmates punished under this provision.
- Settles the Harris County and Nueces
County lawsuits (which included 13
counties) against the state and provides a
mechanism to reimburse counties for
keeping state prisoners - thus reducing the
tax load on local taxpayers.
- Expands the use of private prisons
from 2,000 to 4,000 beds.
- Adopts the recommendation of
Comptroller John Sharp to facilitate the
release of elderly and seriously ill prisoners
who are no longer a threat to our safety.
Our focus must be on reserving
maximum security beds for violent
offenders. When we work together - state,
county and local officials, along with law
enforcement officers and judges - I am
confident that we will be able to achieve
this goal.
With he adoption of this progressive
legislative package, I believe this
government has taken a big step toward
fulfilling its responsibility to the people of
Texas.
But this is only the first step. We must
continue to work together on both the local
and statewide level to keep our
communities safe.
In my column for this month, I am go-
ing to describe how I solved a very per-
plexing and serous problem that arose with
a little know office that is in part funded by
Liberty County.
The problem that was discovered by
Precinct 3 came asa result of the heavy
rains that this part of the county has l)een
experiencing this year. During one partic-
ular rainy day, a Precinct 3 employee no-
ticed that the water on Reese bayou was
not (lowing, but standing still. After con-
ducting a closer inspection of tire bayou by
the employee, the discovery was made that
a dam had been built across Reese Bayou,
slopping lire How of water. After several
hectic hours, Precinct 3 was finally able to
remove the dam, allowing the water to flow
in a normal manner. I knew that action had
to be taken to prevent this major drainage
artery from being dammed up. Restricted
flow of water on Reese Bayou could cause
some major problems for the Precinct 3
area and many of it is citizens.
I had never before in my years of serv-
ing office had to deal with a situation such
as this one. I had no idea where to turn to
find a resolution to this problem. After in-
vestigating this situation and placing many
phone calls I finally found an answer to my
problem. I discovered, as a result of my
search, that there is a County Trapper in
Liberty County. The Trapper's name is
Darwin Newton of Hull, Texas. His ser-
vices arc made available to the County by
the Texas Animal Damage Control Associ-
ation. The County funds and contracts this
position and the Association does the hir-
ing.
After making contact with the Trapper
MELVIN HUNT
and explaining the seriousness of the. situa-
tion, he went into action. As a res ij Art te-
dious work for a number of monrfK the
country Trapper is at last beginning to get
the upper hand of tire beaver situation. As
of the last report that l received from Ik*
County Trapper, he had been able to trap
fifteen beaver and no new dams has been
built. Thanks to use of this County Office
we were able solve problems with out local
drainage.
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Ferguson, Jerrel. Cleveland Advocate (Cleveland, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 38, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 18, 1991, newspaper, September 18, 1991; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth870971/m1/4/?q=technical+manual: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin Memorial Library.