GALVESTON — Landry’s employees and their families put Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier workers to the test Sunday as they prepare for the official opening.
GALVESTON — Galveston County leaders joined pastors at the Justice Center in Galveston on Thursday to celebrate the 61st annual observance of the National Day of Prayer.
GALVESTON — Those floating, glowing lights in the sky above Galveston's East End about 9 p.m. Saturday weren't UFOs. Some teens launched about a half-dozen flying lanterns from Adoue Park.
On Monday, officials from the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory honored billionaire George Mitchell by renaming a spectrograph in honor of Mitchell and his late wife, Cynthia.
GALVESTON — City firefighters check a hydrant near city hall. Each engine company checks and maintains plugs in its district annually. Firefighters report any problems to the city's Public Works Department.
GALVESTON — Galveston County leaders sold two steam-power hammers for scrap metal, and the demolition started late last week.
The hammers were a fixture in front of the Justice Center for the last eight years or so, dominating the open field next to Broadway. They were part of the Cotton Concentration Co. warehouse, which was built in 1910 at 54th and Ball streets.
The Galveston Redevelopment and Community Enterprise Corp., a homeownership company with the Galveston Housing Authority, teamed with the Galveston Historical Foundation to renovate two historical buildings left to the elements over the decades.
The corner store at 14th Street and Avenue L, built in 1901, and the adjacent house, circa 1880s, will be renovated and sold as affordable housing once the projects are complete, possibly later this year.
GALVESTON — Earl Sampson Jones sculpted an oak tree at Adoue Park in Galveston in honor of Fannie Kempner Adoue. On Monday, he used a chain saw to sculpt a chair next to the tree, where he hopes parents will read to their children. The tree was planted after The 1900 Storm that killed thousands in Galveston. The storm surge of Hurricane Ike's Sept. 13, 2008, landfall killed the tree.
GALVESTON — Traffic lights on Galveston's Broadway were synchronized this week, meaning less stop and more go for drivers. Those who travel the speed limit during rush hours, eastbound in the mornings and westbound in the afternoons, might not even have to tap the brakes, the city says. The lights are also timed for midday to allow for an efficient commute in both directions.
GALVESTON — Employees of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday celebrated 100 years of history at Fort Crockett and its role on the island.
GALVESTON — The University of Texas Medical Branch ranks first among paper-recycling universities in Texas. UTMB also ranks sixth nationwide among higher education schools, a UTMB official said.
GALVESTON — A massive hive containing an estimated 100,000 honeybees clings to the side of a building at the University of Texas Medical Branch on Friday. It is scheduled to be moved to a beekeeper's colony on Galveston Island. University officials said the beehive has been around since before Hurricane Rita in 2005.
GALVESTON — A ruptured wate rline formed a sinkhole, swallowing half a city street on Wednesday. Water service was disconnected to customers in the vicinity of the break, with repairs expected to be completed later tonight. The rupture could be related to extreem heat and drought causing shifting sands around the pipe, a city spokeswoman said.
GALVESTON — City officials blamed the extreme heat and exceptional drought for buckling part of Seawall Boulevard just east of Apffel Park Road on Sunday. City crews repaired the damage and the four-lane road to East Beach was expected to reopen Tuesday.
GALVESTON — Famous for its presidential passengers, a historic railcar flooded by Hurricane Ike is among those for sale at the Galveston Railroad Museum. The museum plans to sell six railcars and use the proceeds to buy replacements, officials said.
GALVESTON — The University of Texas Medical Branch is moving ahead with plans to build a $438 million hospital on the island. The UT Board of Regents approved the Jennie Sealy Hospital project at its meeting Thursday. UTMB Presiddent Dr. David Callender discusses the project in this video released by the medical branch Thursday.
GALVESTON — The city of Galveston uses nonpotable water trucks to irrigate the Broadway esplanade during the drought. A water truck crew from Environmental Design also soaks newly planted trees along the esplanade.
The McKinney/McDonald House was built in 1890 by Liberty S. McKinney, a local merchant, for $3,000. McKinney sold the 4,100-square-foot house to Galveston Judge Dominic D. McDonald in 1907, and the house remained in the McDonald family until 1974. Fire damaged the house in 1993 and it remains vacant.
GALVESTON — Mayor Joe Jaworski will be recovering this weekend from an emergency appendectomy Thursday night. Jaworski was taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Thursday night for the surgery following a special council meeting earlier in the day.
Jaworski at UTMB Thursday
“Around lunch (on Thursday) I was really sore,” he said. “I went home after council and just laid down and I started pressing on my stomach and it just hurt.”
Wednesday, Jaworski said he had a constant stabbing pain in his stomach and a fever.
“Then it just went away Thursday,” he said. “I thought it was food poisoning.”
Jaworski went into surgery about 10 p.m. Thursday and was released from the hospital about noon Friday.
“Everybody was so nice,” he said. “It was a first-class experience. Dr. Tom Kimbrough is an excellent general surgeon. They really were great.”
The mayor posted this photo of himself on his Facebook page Thursday night. The photo was taken just before he went into surgery.
A leak in the chilled water system is forcing the University of Texas Medical Branch to cancel some appointments and some classes today.
The chilled water system provides air-conditioning to the campus in Galveston, and the cooled air was being diverted from some buildings to the hospital. Nonessential employees were being sent home at noon.
A Conroe police officer who was shot in the face during a standoff with an armed man Saturday is a native of Galveston, friends confirmed.
Sgt. James Kelemen responded to a to a call in the 330 block of North Loop 336 east that a man with a shotgun was attempting to get into a bakery. The suspect opened fire and hit Kelemen in the face.
Responding officers shot and killed the suspect, who was not identified.
Courtesy Conroe Police Department
Kelemen was taken by air ambulance to Memorial-Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center in Houston and was in stable condition, but is expected to lose his right eye, friends and officials said.
Kelemen is a Galveston Ball High graduate and comes from a family of police officers. His brother Chris is an officer with the La Marque police department; another brother Darrell is the manager for the League City Police Department’s support services bureau while his father Darrell is a veteran officer for the Port of Galveston.
Parts of this story provided by KHOU-TV, through a content partnership with The Daily News.
Some island residents, firefighters, police and city hall officials heard a loud boom Wednesday, but the source of the noise remains a mystery. Click here to read more.
A lawsuit could change the outcome of an election for Galveston City Council. Councilman Rusty Legg says he heard no testimony that would overturn his nine-vote victory in the June 19 runoff against Tarris Woods. Anthony P. Griffin, Wood's attorney, however, called the election flawed and asked a judge to declare Woods the winner or order a new election.
Galveston's city manager, Steve LeBlanc, presented his proposals for the 2010 city budget to council members on Thursday, Aug. 12. Attached to the 326 pages of figurework was a 41-page preface, or "transmittal letter," outlining his major ideas. Read the letter below.
The slideshow, which was created in PowerPoint, is set to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Eva Cassidy. The original PowerPoint presentation is available online courtesy of Guidry News.
A PDF version of the slides, sans music, is available below.
GALVESTON — Crowds packed the beaches, the streets and the freeway into Galveston Sunday as the long holiday weekend moved into the home stretch.
“The crowds have been huge,” Peter Davis, the chief of the Galveston Beach Patrol said. “This is the type of crowds we had all hoped for.”
Signs that Sunday would make for a busy holiday came early as traffic on Interstate 45 South at times backed up as far north as Texas City. Davis said state officials reported to him that at one point traffic was backed up as far as Beltway 8.
Such traffic snarls normally would indicate a wreck, but officials said all of the backups were a result of more cars headed to the island.
Davis said he estimated crowds at Galveston’s East Beach topped 20,000 while Stewart Beach crowds were about 12,000. Most of the hotels The Daily News called reported full or near-full bookings.
“The seawall was packed too,” Davis said.
Despite the crowds, Davis said his lifeguards were not overwhelmed. That was in large part because waters were calm most of Sunday.
Alexander Gregg, a bartender for Brennan's of Houston restaurant in Houston was the overall winner and thus the Iron Bartender in the first Iron Bartender Masters of Mixology contest held Sunday at the San Luis Resort in Galveston. His use of an avocado in a frozen rum drink won the judges over.
I was one of the judges along with the Houston Chronicle's Beer-blogger Ronnie Crocker and three industry pros who knew way too much about mixing drinks.
Me, I just know if the tastes good. Among our judges was Francesco Lafranconi of Venice, Italy. This man knows his drinks and takes making a vodka martini VERY serious (it's not just enough to order it shaken or stirred). The expert judges all broke down drinks by texture, complexity and skills in making it.
Me and Ronnie, well we just used the criteria of "would we order another round?"
We would have order a few rounds of Alexander's drink. I spoke with a few people Monday morning and they plan a trip to Brennan's just to say Alexander made them his avocodo rum drink.
I think I'll join them.
There were 70 contestants, which were (thank goodness) culled down to 10 finalists who got to show their stuff off for a packed house.
For those who asked, the judges had to sample 40 drinks from the 10 finalists. Let's just say that judging this contest required a bit of self control and lots of water.
This was the first event of this type in Galveston and it was a lot of fun.
We will have more coverage in our After Hours magazine at the end of the month. The winners took some great prizes including some huge trips to Vegas and a stay at the Golden Nugget plus cash to gamble with.
I shot some video of the event and edited down some of the best highlights. The winners are listed below.
Instructions for making the liners are now available for download, provided by Galveston knitter Bonnie Farmer.
Viegas and a group of local knitters are part of a nationwide project to provide one homemade liner for each of the 800 Marines. The liners will replace government-issued ones that are not as comfortable. The deadline for completing the liners is Nov. 11, Veteran’s Day.
Galveston County commissioners on Wednesday approved waiving the seawall license fee charged to Murdoch's gift shop. Chances are slim the $330 annual fee will bust the county budget or provide a giant windfall for Murdoch's which is rebuilding after being destroyed by Hurricane Ike.
Businesses that operate over the beaches of Galveston — Murdoch's, the 61st Street Fishing Pier, Flagship Hotel — are under the state's jurisdiction with the exception of one small piece of their business that connects to the seawall. The seawall is actually a county park, so the county charges companies to connect to the protective wall that holds back the Gulf of Mexico.
The county doesn't get rich off the fees; still that $330 provides some very important access for businesses and their customers who want to stroll from the seawall and into a shop to buy some seashell art or a Galveston Island T-shirt.
Waiving the fee was more of a symbolic gesture than a financial one unlike the other fee waived on Wednesday.
The county commissioners also waived the fees for the AARP to use the Joe Faggard Community Center in Crystal Beach. The senior citizens organization had paid in advance its $100 monthly fee to use the center, which did not reopen until this past May after being shut down since Hurricane Ike slammed into the Bolivar Peninsula in September.
GALVESTON — A downed power line left about 400 CenterPoint Energy customers on Teichman Road briefly without power on Monday afternoon. The outage lasted for about 30 minutes. Crews were not sure what made the line go down, Service Area Director Keith Gray said.
There was a large crowd at the Hotel Galvez for Friday's lighting of the City of Galveston's official Holiday Tree. I took some video of the event to give you an idea of what went on.
Sometimes you just don't understand a vision until it approaches or reaches fruition. So it was with me and the wavy wall.
The center barrier on the new Galveston Causeway still reminds me of that curvy border material schoolteachers used to line their blackboards and corkboards and any other straight edge they felt needed to be adulterated.
Yet, suddenly, a couple of decorative pillars and a dozen palm trees — whose fronds have yet to unfurl — have transformed the causeway and its seasick wall into an honest-to-God island gateway. I can imagine the full effect when the second bridge reaches the mainland and the signs hang on the arch.
A Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman told me the second bridge should be done in September or October, and the whole thing should be open to traffic in early 2009.
A side note: I've always wondered why it's called a causeway. Merriam-Webster says the word traces its roots back to "calx" — Latin for the limestone that paved the roads of the Roman empire.
How do you feel about the causeway and its wavy wall?
I love movies, and I used to love crossing the causeway to go to the Cinemark theater in Texas City. They have cheap tickets.
Today I realized I won't be going there in the foreseeable future. The Premiere in Galveston charges $13 for two adults; the Texas City theater charges $9 for two.
With gas near $4 per gallon, the cheap tickets aren't worth the drive.
I cruised by Ball High School the other day to find a heap of metal and a pit of dirt where Spoor Field used to be.
The renovations have been long-awaited. Ball High School has never hosted a competition track meet, because it has never had a competition track. All that will change when construction crews finish the field’s eight-lane, all-weather running track, new lighting, chain-link fencing and 500-seat galvanized bleachers.
The few times I visited Spoor Field, I couldn’t help but be surprised that a 5A school had dilapidated wooden bleachers, a rusty field house and no place to hold a track meet.
But seeing that heap of metal also made me a little sad. Its the end of an era for Ball High School football players who spent many afternoons hanging out on those old wooden bleachers. I’d love to hear your nostalgic stories of the field, good, bad or ugly.
After three months in this island paradise, I’d come to grips with its humid embrace, but a surprising hint of fall reminded me of my northern Alabama home.
A cool, backyard-breeze brushed across my sweat-soaked face, a nice reprieve during weekend lawn maintenance in the sweltering Galveston sun. Now that Labor Day passed me by, I noticed island life settled into a sweet, somber pace.
As the days grow shorter, so too do the lines at the market, and traveling the sea wall for its breath-taking view is less cumbersome.
I’m dreaming of a comfortable fall and hoping I can substitute open windows for air conditioning.
I’m also wondering what winter feels like and whether Jack Frost knows my new ZIP code.
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas could have an unlikely ally during the November election cycle.
Greg Roof told us today he was encouraged by the council’s intention to ask voters to extend the economic development sales tax now used for street, drainage and sewer improvements and beach reconstruction projects. Roof said after his meeting with the mayor and the city attorney he wanted to be a positive force in helping the city secure continued sales tax funds. City officials hope to use the funds for Seawall improvements in the near future.
Roof’s new amicable relationship with city hall comes just days after Thomas announced her intention to drop the Seawall parking fee issue unless the people who wanted such a program petitioned city council to put it on a future ballot. Although he has been quiet for several years, Roof has been on less than friendly terms with local officials since he successfully organized voters to rise against paying to park on the Seawall in 2004.
Roof proved with that campaign that he could be an effective and formidable opponent, so it’s not shocking that the mayor would seek a truce. It’s also not surprising that Roof would support the sales tax initiative. The more guaranteed funds the city has for the Seawall, the less likely officials are to come after free parking.
But it’s going to be interesting to see what this new alliance does to Roof’s recent campaign against the park board. Can the mayor talk him out of his plans to strip the group of its check-writing powers? What does she have to bargain with in those negotiations?
Earlier this week, the Galveston Park Board of Trustees announced plans to hold a public forum on Monday to introduce themselves to the public and answer questions about what they do and how they spend their money.
The meeting is a response to the pink slip Greg Roof is holding over their heads. Roof wants to fire the board and make its staff a city department. He’s circulating a petition that would allow voters in May to decide whether they like his proposal or the status quo.
Board members hope to head off Roof’s efforts with a public relations campaign. They plan to have these public meetings regularly.
But not everyone thinks it will work to create warm and fuzzy park board feelings among the general public. A local political observer told me the planned meeting would bore the stuffing out of anyone who bothered to attend. He didn’t say stuffing. Use your imagination.
Anyway, he said all people wanted to know was whether the board was conducting tourism promotion and beach park management more efficiently than the city would. That’s what voters will be asked to decide if Roof gets enough signatures.
What do you think? If you plan to attend the meeting, do you have a burning question you want the park board to answer? If you’re not going to the meeting, why not? Please don’t tell me you have no stuffing to spare.
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas is leading her fellow council members into the digital age, even though she has so far been unsuccessful in getting them to follow her example of less-is-more.
Despite her gentle prompting during the last meeting, only one of Thomas’ colleagues abbreviated the usually long monolog at the end of last night’s meeting. The council report portion of the meeting went on for 25 minutes.
Thomas did not raise the issue of shortening the reports again — a suggestion she first made during the last meeting. But did tell me she liked my suggestion of pre-recording the messages and airing them in Channel 16 after the meeting.
The mayor liked the idea so much she printed out the blog and put it in each council member’s mailbox before yesterday’s meeting. Only Patricia Bolton-Legg mentioned it, though, saying she was about to start her performance when her turn came. But at least we can say without a doubt that council is reading the blog.
So if any of you think your comments here are wasted, think again. Your representatives see what you have to say.
For the first time in a long time the city council Thursday will interview candidates for Planning Commission.
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas told me last week she suggested the interview process because she wanted to give council members a chance to ask applicants questions about why they want to serve and who would they represent.
Commissioners’ connections and motives have been questioned recently during and after debates and decisions about two controversial developments — Lamson Nguyen’s 61st Street condos and Marquette Land Investments’ West End project.
We’ve received emails from “anti-development” Galvestonians questioning the self-interests of commissioners who also are developers. And we’ve gotten emails from the “pro-development” crowd taking certain commissioners to task for airing their views publicly, outside commission meetings.
I’m really interested to see what kinds of questions the council asks Thursday morning. What would you ask if you could conduct the interview? I wish I could offer you the opportunity to post a video of your questions, which candidates would have to answer, but I’m afraid CNN’s Anderson Cooper already thought of that.
I can tell you that I know city staff reads this blog, and I’m pretty sure our elected officials peruse it too. So who knows — if you post your questions here, I might be able to report the answers on Friday.
The most entertaining part of Galveston City Council meetings happens at the very end, when the few brave souls who sat in the audience at the beginning of the meeting have long gone home.
When the real business before them is over, council members play to the audience at home. Smiling sweetly at the television camera, they address their constituents.
The rambling monologues usually cover everything from the elected official’s calendar (I attended the We Love Galveston event last week and had a great time) to recognizing local accomplishments (Little Johnny Smith hit a home run during his T-ball game last weekend).
Some council members prepare their speeches in advance and sign off every broadcast with the same catchy phrase that usually sounds to me like a leftover campaign slogan.
Others ramble through a list of bullet points or, worse, rummage through scraps of paper to try and remember what message they wanted to deliver.
The longest address this week went on for almost — no kidding —15 minutes.
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas, generally a proponent of meeting efficiency who seems to have little patience for long-windedness, has had enough. Thomas and Councilwoman Barbara Roberts are asking their fellow representatives to keep their remarks to 3 to 5 minutes. Even at that, the council reports section of the meeting almost always will take up more time than the rest of the council’s business.
I have a suggestion that would allow each member to ramble unchecked and get the mayor home in time for an early dinner. Since the only person listening to the live versions of the reports is the recording technician in the back of the room, I think council members should pre-record their messages. As soon as the meeting’s live coverage on Channel 16 ends, district infomercials would air. They could rerun as part of the regular meeting cable programming.
The mayor could even adjourn the meeting by saying something like: “Don’t touch that dial!”
Many Galveston neighborhoods are graced with tall, stately palm trees. While they’re not native to the island, they do add a lot of tropical charm to our semi-tropical paradise. The Texas Historical Commission thinks they’re such an important part of the landscape that it forbid the city from removing any of the trees during the Menard Park recreation center construction. (City council never intended to make those trees disappear, by the way.)
But someone has been making the trees vanish in other parts of town.
Last week, my husband noticed a strange trench had appeared around the towering palm in our next-door neighbor’s front yard. Two days later, the tree was gone, leaving a very large hole in its absence. Unfortunately I could not spin a fanciful tale of alien abduction. But I can see the headline now: Aliens beam up trees after discovering they are the most intelligent earthly life form.
Oh well. My attention-grabbing headline was ruined because I actually watched the crane truck that pulled it out of the ground drive away with the tree.
I began hearing rumors about similar “abductions” late last week, but I finally confirmed everything when I ran into my neighbor last night. The trees, she told me, were destined for new homes on the East End as part of the Palisade Palms condominium development. She said an agent for the development first contacted her about her tree in May. She didn’t say how much she got for her front yard behemoth, which other neighbors said had been there for years, but she plans to replace it with a row of less tropical plantings.
So what do you think about this palm tree recycling program? Or should developers buy new trees and leave the old ones alone?
Just about every time I see my mom, she asks me if I’m getting a new car.
I think my Mazda Miata is perfect for island living and the perfect size for me. Although I’m only 5 foot 2 inches tall, I can reach the passenger door while sitting in the driver’s seat.
But my mom looks right past the convertible sex appeal and focuses on the car’s miniscule frame. Many of you probably drive pickup trucks with beds large enough to comfortably carry my little car anywhere it might want to go. My mom calls it “the death trap,” and she’s convinced I’m going to meet my end squashed under the wheels of some monster truck. (Why does everything in Texas have to be bigger, by the way?)
But I must admit, my car has its disadvantages. Getting around Galveston during a heavy rain is one. By Thursday morning I had forgotten all about Wednesday’s deluge and had a ruh-roh moment half way down Harborside Drive. We made it through the flooding, but I didn’t dare push my luck by trying it again on Friday afternoon.
Harborside’s constant flooding might not be a problem for readers driving pickup trucks, but it’s a major inconvenience for those of us driving compact, fuel-efficient cars. (Not that I’m making a value judgment about your gas-guzzling SUV.)
Prompted by our inquiries (which were not motivated by personal interest, I swear), Public Works Director Brandon Wade surveyed the flooding on Friday. He said he was shocked that it was as bad as it was. The culprit is a completely blocked drainpipe that is supposed to empty storm water into the bay. After seeing what a mess the street was, Wade pledged to make fixing it a top priority.
What do you think?
About Chris Paschenko
Chris Paschenko, a native of Birmingham, Ala., moved to Texas in 2007 with his wife and covers public safety and courts for The Daily News.
Paschenko began his newspaper career in 1996 at The Birmingham News and also worked at the Opelika-Auburn News and Decatur Daily in Alabama.
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas is leading her fellow council members into the digital age, even though she has so far been unsuccessful in getting them to follow her example of less-is-more.