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.
TEXAS CITY — The city's emergency management office issued an alert to residents Wednesday morning that a military helicopter would be conducting tests along state Highway 146 this afternoon.
"A large military helicopter will fly very low over and along State 146 conducting those tests," the city's Homeland Security Coordinator Bruce Clawson said. "No action is required (the residents) part other than to drive carefully in the area when the tests are being conducted."
Clawson said U.S. Army and Air Force personnel plus some civilian technicians would staff the chopper. But he could not divulge what types of tests were being conducted.
The new Texas City High School is less than a month away from opening, but students got their first up close look at the $54 million campus on Wednesday.
With mock schedules in hand, Texas City High School students roamed the halls, checked out the spacious commons area and got a closer look at their classrooms.
The public will get its first look at the campus on Sunday during an open house and dedication. The campus will be open for self-guided tours from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. or guided tours at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
A dedication ceremony will be held at 2:30 p.m. in the John C. Martin Auditorium of the new campus.
Below are photos from the students visits to the campus. Photos courtesy of Texas City school district Communications Director Melissa Tortorici.
Students make their way to classes in one of the academic wings during a mock schedule run-through as teacher Alice Westmoreland looks on.
Journalism teacher Laurie Haffelfinger explains the editorial room to students.
Left to right, Assistant Principal Wayne Sanders, Director of New Facilities and Planning Jack Haralson, Co-Interim Superintendent Diane Martin and Principal Mark Chatham
TEXAS CITY — A group of about 50 teachers, parents, students and community activists gathered April 8 to support keeping open Simms Elementary, the only La Marque school district campus not within the La Marque city limits.
School board members are exploring the possibility of closing an elementary school in order to trim a $1.13 million budget deficit for the next school year. The school was named after P.S. Simms, the former principal of Lincoln High School, which served West Texas City and La Marque's African-American students during segregation.
More than 140 students from Texas City, La Marque, Santa Fe and Ball High Schools in Galveston County participated in the Doyle Leadership Conference in Texas City on Wednesday.
This was the 19th edition of the Charles T. Doyle Leadership Education and Development Series Program (LEADS), which was created by the former mayor of Texas City in 1994.
I was a part of the event to talk with students about multi-media and how it has changed journalism.
If you’d like a walk on the wild side Saturday night, may we suggest going to the Nessler Center in Texas City where a night on the town can help a good cause.
The Independence Village is having its 10th annual dinner and dance. There’s good food, music and a silent auction. Many may not recognize the Independence Village. That’s the name of what used to be called HRA Village.
The Independence Village is as assisted living center for residents with development and physical disabilities.
It was about 12 years ago that Independence Village faced closure. The agency that helped Texas City earn the All-American City award was out of money, lacked donations and had a board ready to sell its building.
Parents of the residents cried out. An article in the Texas City Sun caught the attention of then Mayor Chuck Doyle, who called the United Way.
A plan was put in place, parents of the residents took control of the board and the Independence Village went from the brink of closing to expanding in a few years.
Money is still tight, but the village is well run and still providing a home, work training education and dignity to 14 residents.
The theme of Saturday’s charity event is Walk on the Wild Side.
Tickets are $35 a person. The event starts at 6 p.m. at the Nessler Center on the corner of 21st Street and 5th Avenue North in Texas City.
If you can’t make it you can still make a donation by mailing a check to Independence Village, 905 state Highway 3 North, Texas City, 77591. For more information go to the Independence Village website.
The Texas City-La Marque Chamber of Commerce board of directors announced that the chamber's office building would be named in honor of its president Jimmy Hayley. Click here to read more.
Members of St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church in Texas City dedicated their new house of worship on July 27, 2010 with the help of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the head of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. Click here to read more.
The tragic story of the apparent murder, suicide involving the mayor of Coppell and her daughter sent reverberations all the way to city hall in Texas City on Thursday. There is not any local connection to the case, but when the headlines "Texas city mayor, daughter found dead in home," were posted online and scrolled across the TV screens on national cable TV networks — including CNN — several Texas City residents and even a city commissioner feared the worst.
"We had about nine or 10 calls," Susan Chapa, Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle's assistant said.
One of those calls came from City Commissioner Rick Wilkenfeld who saw the news ticker as well, Chapa said.
For the record, Doyle and his family are OK. The shootings happened in a suburb of Dallas. What caused the concern were the headlines using "Texas city," and residents thinking it was the formal city name "Texas City."
The headlines were referencing a city in Texas and not Texas City. Many people didn't catch the difference of the upper case "C" vs. what the news services used which was the lower case "c".
I had to give the first news alert I saw a double take because I at first did not notice the lower case "c".
Chapa said she sent a note via CNN's website and resident Lou Ringer, a close Doyle friend who was very upset said she tried calling the network. To be fair, the same ticker or headline ran on several cable channels and news websites.
I did a quick online search and found dozens of sites that used the "c," but also found a few where every first letter of a word was upper case, which could easily be misunderstood. As the story developed, most of the headlines and tickers adjusted and were more specific.
Freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was in Texas City on July 2 to get photos in and around BP's Texas City refinery for ProPublica. At one point he was detained and questioned by police, a BP security officer and got into a terse conversation with the city's police department liaison to the Joint Terrorism Task force.
The videos below are from a police dash cam. I should note, the videos have been edited to keep out personal information such as people's phone numbers, social security numbers and other personal information that can be heard. I have also deleted long pauses, including several minutes when everyone is waiting for the Joint Terrorism Task Force liaison officer to arrive and when nothing is said by anyone in the video. The raw video from Texas City police is about 27 minutes long. These edited videos are 24 minutes total.
During the afternoon of July 2, 2010, an unidentified man was observed taking photographs near various facilities at the BP Texas City Refinery including marine loading operations. Earlier in the day, the same man had been observed and questioned by security personnel from the Port of Texas City for taking similar photographs near their facilities.
Under Department of Homeland Security and United States Coast Guard regulations (33 C.F.R. Parts 101, 105 and 154), the owners and operators of regulated marine loading facilities are required to investigate and notify the Coast Guard's National Response Center ("NRC") and local representatives of the Joint Terrorism Task Force ("JTTF") of any "Suspicious Activity," defined by the Coast Guard Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular 10-04 to include "people appearing to be engaged in surveillance of any kind (picture taking, note taking, shooting video, asking strange questions, etc)."
As required by these laws, BP notified local law enforcement including the local representative of the JTTF, who responded to the notification in accordance with DHS procedures. The law enforcement officers questioned the man -- who then identified himself to the officers as a representative of a national media outlet, but failed to produce any credentials verifying his alleged status. The officers requested to see his photographs. Upon inspection of the photographs, the officers determined that the photographs did not implicate DHS concerns and the man was allowed to keep them.
This entire interaction occurred in full public view in the parking lot of a busy service station operated by a third party. A representative of BP Security witnessed the exchange between the photographer and the law enforcement officials. At no time was the man forcibly detained. Law enforcement representatives provided BP with the information needed to make a report to the NRC, consistent with regulatory requirements under 33 C.F.R. s. 101.305. BP then submitted the required report to the NRC.
Construction crews are making better than expected progress on the repairs to the Texas City Dike. Barring any significant weather delays, including a possible hurricane, the dike could reopen by Labor Day weekend. Click here to read more.
Nearly 6,000 rubber ducks floated down Sting Creek during the Youthfest and Duck Derby Saturday in Texas City. The event raised more than $25,000 for the Texas City school district's Foundation for the Future.
The winners:
1. Heather Hardy (Her duck's number didn't match up to the secret numbers so she didn't win a new car or truck from Cook Ford) 2. Wendy Wood 3. Nick Alviri 4. Michael Gwynn 5. Donna Morton 6. John Viggiano 7. Kristi Garms 8. Pam Caldwell 9. Roland Sandoval 10. Jim Moore
The best decorated duck winner: Mainland Tool (3 years straight) with Quack in a Box
Corporate Duck Race winner: Mainland Medical Center.
Residents in central Texas City may have thought for a while they were experiencing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when floodlights lit up the sky Wednesday night.
No worries. There were no space aliens, just a couple of electricians and the mayor and his family checking out the first test of the lights that will brighten things up at the new Carlos Garza Sports Complex.
The 48-acre complex, named for former Mayor Carlos Garza, will feature seven softball fields, a couple of competition baseball diamonds, a new home for the Texas City Stingrays youth football teams as well as six practice fields for soccer, baseball and football.
UPDATE: The complex is located about three blocks north of Palmer Highway behind Texas First Bank and the Reef Restaurant. It is bordered on the west by 34th Street and to the east by 29th Street. The main road into the park is Magnolia Avenue, but you can also get to the park from Palmer Highway by going north on 31st Street or 33rd Street that were extended to connect to Magnolia.
This is a photo of some of the ball fields located in an area called the pinwheel that will have a central announcer's booth and concession stand but surrounded on all sides by ball fields.
It will also have an 11,000-square-foot pavilion that will have room to seat 500 for special events such as movies in the park, concerts or family reunions.
The grass is already in place on the main football field that will be home to the Texas City Stingrays youth football teams.
The complex is part of the city's massive parks expansion program that includes the development of the Sanders-Vincent Center near downtown and what will be a large nature park behind Mall of the Mainland on the city's west side.
I got a sneak peak of the lights being tested after running into Mayor Matt Doyle at dinner. He bragged that when completed, the sports complex would rival the Field of Dreams and sportsplex facilities in League City.
"But without the cost," Doyle said.
True, while the city is paying for some of the improvements, a $5 million donation from BP is picking up most of the tab. BP has also pledged additional dollars to the expansions as they come along.
City officials had hoped the complex would be ready for the Texas-City La Marque Chamber of Commerce's Funfest which is June 5, but early weather delays pushed the construction deadline to late summer or early fall.
Already residents who live nearby have found the park area a good sport to go for a walk. While I was out there a guy was riding his horse and walking his two dogs at the same time.
The park's construction also means some new roads in the area.
Doyle said the park will have full service concession stands and be an excellent spot for baseball and softball tournaments for the youth, high school and adult leagues.
He also pledged that many of the fields will have wood fences that will not be littered by a bunch of sponsors’ banners. After some discussion, he also promised that the outfield fences will be green.
I am not sure what other colors were considered, but by the look of Doyle's face, he was not a fan of anything but green.
The 3rd Duck Derby is next weekend in Texas City. Proceeds benefit the TCISD Foundation for the Future. You could also win a new Ford F-150 or Mustang. Click here to enter a duck.
The video is actually last year's promotion produced by Texas City Police Officer Neal Mora. I warn you ahead of time that the music, which is Rick Dee's "Disco Duck" is addicting.
A couple of hundred people turned out for the 60th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic School over the weekend. Many of them reminisced and flipped through scrapbooks and photo albums during an alumni reception Sunday afternoon before a special mass led by Galveston-Houston Archdiocese Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.
Among the guests were a former student and former teacher who traveled a long way just to be a part of the festivities.
Steven Connolly attended first grade the year the school opened in 1949 and continued at the school through second grade before moving with his family to Canada. His younger brother Michael also walked the halls of Fatima.
Connolly wasn’t even aware of the celebration until a few weeks ago. When he found out there was one person he wanted to see again, his former second-grade teacher Sister Mary Clotilde.
Steve Connolly points to himself in a 1949 class photo taken at Our Lady of Fatima School.
Sister Mary Clotilde is the lone surviving founding teacher of Our Lady of Fatima, which was founded by nine nuns from the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.
Connolly may have only been in Texas City and at Our Lady of Fatima for two years, but those were some very important 24 months.
“I got my faith started here,” Connolly said. “My faith is very important to me.”
Connolly said he still has a figurine of Saint Mary that has Our Lady of Fatima printed on its base. He insists that Clotilde was a big part of his spiritual growth, even to this day.
“If there was a message I would give young teachers is that never get down or too frustrated,” Connolly said. “You may not remember every student’s name, but if you are good, then all of those students will remember you forever.
“I’m just one of thousands inspired by Sister Mary Clotilde. If you ever wondered if the little kid in the back of the room was listening, I was.”
Connolly did quite well for himself. He and his brother both became engineers and Steve’ expertise was in computers. He ended up taking a job as the assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
His 1,937-mile trip from his home in Low, Quebec, Canada was not near being the longest distance traveled among those who attended.
Maureen Walsh, who was Sister Urban when she taught at Fatima in the 1960s, traveled from her home in Dublin, Ireland — 4,572 miles travel distance.
Even after leaving the order and teaching at Fatima in 1972, Walsh stayed in the classroom back home in Ireland. The 78-year-old continued to teach in Ireland until she retired.
She said returning to Texas City and Fatima was “a dream.” She also said her family wouldn't believe her about returning to the school. Well we have a photo below that proves she was indeed here.
It was extra special for Genevieve Benton Loveless, who was a sixth grade student of Walsh’s. Loveless said Walsh was a part of the family and would often come over for dinner.
Ramona Benton, Maureen Walsh (the former Sister Urban) and Genevieve Benton Loveless catch up on old times.
Loveless’ dad John “Red’ Benton was very dedicated to the school and the local mason helped build the nun’s convent and parts of the school.
Ramona Benton, Loveless’ sister, didn’t attend any of Walsh’s classes, but remarked at how the family loved the school.
Like many who attend or attended Fatima, the school is very much a family affair.
Kathy Adams attended Fatima from kindergarten through sixth grade in the 1970s. She met her husband Michael at the school and their daughters attend Fatima.
Our Lady of Fatima teacher Sister Mary Magdalen flips through a scrap book with Fatima third grader Mary Catherine Adams while Mike Adams does the same.
Our Lady of Fatima alumni Angela Ryan Pizzitola, left, and Kathy Adams flip through old newspaper clippings and photo albums.
Wayne Elliott and Mike Adams go through some of the Our Lady of Fatima scrapbooks on Sunday.
With the Galveston County Fair and Rodeo's Bar-B-Que (only non-Texans dare spell it barbecue) a few days away, I have smoked brisket on the mind.
So, I was pleased to find out that a custom smoker built by the welding class at Texas City High School sold at auction for $1,700. The smoker was the state winner in the Skills USA competition, which to those in vocational education is the equivalent to a football state title game.
Welding instructor — we used to call those guys shop teachers — Shawn Trader was bragging about his students to the Texas City Rotary Club last week. He had the winning smoker on display.
The Rotarians launched an online bidding war for the smoker to raise funds for the welding program. Trader said he would be happy with $1,000. The students wanted closer to $2,000.
BP won the bidding with a $1,700 bid. The oil refinery also purchased an award-winning pit from the TCHS welding class last year.
BP spokesman Michael Marr told me that the company didn't realize it was in a bidding war with Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle. I figure Doyle was getting his bidding workout in before he bids on the winning livestock animals at the county fair auction Wednesday night.
The head of the New Black Panthers Quanell X was in Texas City Thursday night speaking out against the police department's Operation Crackdown 2 anti-crime and community policing program. Quanell and about 150 people who attended the address call the beefed-up policing program an "abuse of black people."
There are two videos. The first features highlights of Quanell X's hour-plus long speech. The second video was produced by the Texas City Police Department and features Police Chief Robert Burby explaining the program.
UPDATE: Richard Fuentes the dog's owner said the family could hear Sugar whimpers come from the sewer again Thursday night. Animal control officers returned and they too could hear the dog, Fuentes said. They searched again, but could not pinpoint where she is. They have put some food in accessible areas of the drains in hopes that Sugar will make her way to an area where she can be rescued.
Members of the Texas City Fire Department, city utilities department and animal control officers spent several hours Thursday crawling through storm drains in search of a missing teacup Chihuahua. Despite the effort, the 6-month-old pooch that has a reputation for falling down storm drains remained missing. Read more by clicking here.
The Texas City-La Marque Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday announced that TNT Signs is the chamber's Small Business of the Year. The chamber makes the surprise announcement as a way to promote its upcoming awards banquet on Jan. 28. Read more by clicking here.
This week FEMA announced that it has approved about $5 million to repair the Texas City Dike, which has been closed since Hurricane Ike damaged it more than a year ago. Texas City and county officials estimate it will cost $11 million to repair.
The videos below offer a closer look at how extensive the damage is, even 13 months later.
Members of the paraglide group Texas Wingnuts also provided us some wonderful aerial videos of the dike's damage.
City officials expected to hear from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week to get the go ahead to begin reconstruction of the Hurricane Ike-ravaged Texas City Dike. But this much is certain, the federal government will pay only $5 million of the estimated $11 million it would take to repair the dike.
Mayor Matt Doyle says the city will do what it can with the money it gets. The dike is a thorn in the city's side and each week more people complain that little has been done to repair it.
But those complaining may not realize how extensive the damage is. Daily News Photo Editor Jennifer Reynolds took some very dramatic photos of the damage that can be seen in the special edition Ike anniversary publication.
Members of the paraglide group Texas Wingnuts also provided us some wonderful aerial videos of the dike's damage.
"There will be those with off-road 4x4 mentalities that have no problem driving over potholes, dirt, etc.," Texas Wingnuts member and Beery Miller said. He shot the video you can watch below on Sept. 26.
"Hopefully with a view by video, that will open people's eyes to the status of the dike. Individuals that approach the dike from the levee, they can see about 1/2 mile of OK road, but miss how bad of shape it is further out," Miller said.
"Myself on the other hand, seeing what the beach looks like, I see the beach area towards the end of the dike as one of the biggest hazards around. I continually imagine kids in the water, jumping, stepping, diving, etc. and hitting nails or other objects that could have tragic consequences.
"Unfortunately, there are just too many naïve individuals that think everything would be fine."
A topping out ceremony for the St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal Church is scheduled for Tuesday. The new Roman Catholic Church will be one of the city’s tallest buildings when it is completed.
When parishioners move in later this year, they will worship in a more spacious church. While the church on 5th Street in Texas City has about 7,000-square-feet, the new church will be more than double the size, Chuck Doyle, the capital campaign chairman for the project, said.
The $6 million church will seat 550.
While construction is being handled by a local contractor, the crucifix and statues will have an Italian flare. Doyle said he found a master carver from Ortisei, Italy, to handle the work.
++++++
WHAT: Toping out ceremony
WHO: St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church
WHEN: 7 p.m. on Tuesday
WHERE: Church is next to Our Lady of Fatima school on the corner of 15th Street and Palmer Highway
A lightning strike ignited a fire at a crude oil storage tank in Texas City on Thursday. The fire was quickly brought under control, thanks largely to the tank’s internal fire suppression system. Click here to read the story.
Click on HD button for high-quality video playback.
The Daily News' content partner KHOU-TV Ch. 11 also has some video from the air. Click here to watch that.
Pvt. Joseph Goetschius was the grand marshal for the Fourth of July Parade in Texas City on Saturday. Even the army private appeared nervous, alerting between salutes and waves while trying to maintain a smile dressed in full uniform in near 100-degree temperatures while riding atop a convertible as grand marshal during Texas City’s parade.
Sugar Land residents Steve Boado and Mike Powell, also known as Jake and Elwood of the Texas Blues Brothers Tribute duo, performed in honor of the characters made famous by Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi in “The Blues Brothers" at the Texas City-La Marque Chamber Funfest at the cook-off tent for the Cook Ford Pig Pen and the Carnes Funeral Home Disco Bus.
We even have an exclusive interview with "Elvis."
Click on HD button for high-quality video playback.
During a Thursday morning press conference, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott outlined a lawsuit against BP's Texas City refinery listing 15 enforcement orders and 46 environmental violations against BP Texas City by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The violations happened between 2002 and 2007 and include environmental violations from the March 23, 2005 explosions that killed 15 people.
Abbott said he was seeking penalties that could be as much as $100 million for BP. A video clip of his statement is below.
Pro-BP people, and trust me there are plenty in Texas City, said the AG is just "piling on" after BP had already been fined by the federal government, paid out settlements to the families of those killed as well as to those injured and made $1 billion in improvements at the Texas City refinery.
Others who want BP held more accountable say that even $100 million is not enough.
Sierra Brown, 7, got an early Easter surprise Thursday when her father — who has been fighting in Iraq for six months — waltzed into her Heights Elementary School classroom in Texas City.
Texas City High School members of the Students Against Drunk Driving held a car wash on Sunday, March 29, to raise funds to held the families of the girls injured in a fatal car accident March 21 in La Marque. The group raised about $4,500. Among those helping at the car was was Roy Soliz, father of Raquel Martinez who is in critical condition in a Houston hospital. Also there was Tracy Leal, mother of Samantha Romero who was killed in the accident.
Mrs. Leal talks about why she came out to help out with the car wash.
The high school and professional baseball seasons are about just around the corner. In Texas City, though, talks of baseball are already looking ahead to the 2010 season.
As we get set to yell "Hey, batter, batter, swing batter," Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle and the folks at Texas City ISD are considering spending $1 million to fix up Robinson Stadium.
City crews have already replaced light poles and replaced the turf at the stadium after Hurricane Ike did a number on the field. The ballpark is the home to the Texas City High School Stingarees and the minor league baseball Bay Area Toros.
What the $1 million ($500,000 from the school district and $500,000 from the city) will be spent on has not been determined. But any major work won't start until the fall after the Toros wrap up their season.
Also, the city is in the process of taking control of the stadium back from the school district. This is mainly so there isn't an "image problem" that the school district is leasing a facility to an organization that sells beer.
Even if the nation’s refiners – led by Royal Dutch Shell – and the United Steelworkers fail to reach a new three-year contract, don’t expect to see workers walk out of the refineries in Texas City right away.
In fact, even if the USW sends strike notices to BP and Marathon (as well as BP Pipeline, Texas City Chemicals and INEOS are part of the talks as well), it may be several days before the actual strike begins.
“If we are give (strike notification) there will first be a safe and orderly shut down of the refinery,” USW subdistrict director Sonny Sanders said. The former Texas City union boss, who now works for the Steelworkers in Louisiana, is part of the lead team that was at the table in Clear Lake to work out a local contract with BP’s Texas City refinery.
Sanders explained that workers don't just simply walk off the job at midnight if no agreement is reached. They’ll stay on the job until everything is shut down safely.
Because BP plans to shut down its Texas City refinery in case there is a strike, that’s important to know.
At facilities that plan to operate using replacement workers – unions prefer to call them scabs – the union workers stay on the job until they can hand over the operations of units to the replacement workers or management staff.
The plan at BP, if there is a strike, is to put the nation’s third largest refinery into a “warm shutdown mode.”
What’s that?
Compare it to warming up your car on a chilly morning.
In a refinery, steam is what allows everything to work properly. Steam is used to power up the generators that provide electrical power to the facility and it is used to heat up the products (oil, chemicals, additives) as they are processed and refined.
When a facility is in a warm state, all of the units are shut down except for the steam plant or plants. That way, when it’s time to restart the refinery’s units, it will take less time because no one will have to wait around for the refinery to warm up.
All of the refineries in Texas City went into a warm shutdown mode for Hurricane Ike. When Hurricane Rita approached in 2005, they all went into a cold shutdown mode, meaning they turned off the steam too.
So even if the two sides don’t see eye-to-eye on the contract, they all agree that no strike will begin until it is safe to do so.
More and more people have approached me in recent days asking for us to do a story on what impact the Texas City levee system had on the flooding in Galveston during Hurricane Ike.
There are a lot of people who theorize that the 22-foot levee system that surrounds the mid-portion of Galveston County actually "pushed back" on Hurricane Ike's storm surge, causing floodwaters to rise to levels higher than they should have been on Galveston's bay side.
Mind you, not one expert we have interviewed has ever made this suggestion. This is more street-meteorologists pushing forward this theory.
Engineers from the Army Corps of Engineers to Galveston County Engineer Mike Fitzgerald have discounted that notion.
The report we cited in the story noted that instead of a ring-levee system to help protect the island, county commissioners pushed instead to have the seawall extended.
Here's what the Army Corps said to that notion: “Extending the seawall would only afford protection to approximately a 2,000-foot strip of land immediately behind the extension. That portion of the island beyond the 2,000-foot strip would be subjected to wave attack from the bay after the storm center crosses the island from which a seawall would offer no protection.”
Still, there are plenty of people -- very smart people -- who insist that the levee system built after Hurricane Carla contributed to the flooding in Galveston.
We have coming a story that will detail what impact the storm had on the levee system and a section of that will focus on the theory that Galveston's flooding was made worse by the levee on the mainland. Expect to read that installment of the series sometime in late January.
The question for those pushing that theory, though, is this: If that theory is true, what then?
Sometimes people complain that when they ask questions of the board of trustees at College of the Mainland, the questions get ignored, or, as I witnessed at the last board meeting, trustee Bennie Matthews silences the person asking the question. But what happens when someone does try to answer a question?
Enter "Calm Waters," the portion of the college's Web site that seeks to quash rumors once every nine months or so.
Someone recently posed a complex question with multiple prongs (albeit with a few grammar and spelling problems):
"I would like to know why President Hayes was put on Adminstrative Leave, when then is no one to take his place. From what I heard neither Lisa Templer nor Dr. (James) Templer can or will take "acting" President because of conflict of interest and that Dr. (Bill) Spillar can or won't because he is already "acting" VP of Student Services until he retires. To me how can COM expect us as students to focus when it seems that upper management and the Board of Trustees don't have it together and they are only focused on hurting each togehter. This all plays a part in the educatioanlly environment."
Finally! Calm Waters touches on one of the burning, unanswered questions of the last five months: Why is Dr. Hayes getting the boot?
Ah, but these Calm Waters, answering the question in a June 17 post, are evasive in their one-sentence reply:
"At this time, no decision has been made to name an individual to either the position of Acting or Interim President of COM."
It seems the Bayou Golf Course is looking so good these days that its patrons are worried it might be going private, meaning those $15 weekend green fees could go the way of gas prices.
At last night's Texas City Commission meeting, a man stood up and asked Mayor Matt Doyle if he and his senior scramble group should scramble to find another course. Doyle, who had high praise for the grounds crew, said the rumors are indeed nothing more than rumors.
UPDATE (4/21): The school district just sent a bulletin saying the end time for the scoreboard demonstration has been changed to noon.
Texas City school district Athletic Director Tim Finn is inviting folks to Stingaree Stadium on Tuesday to watch television. OK, not television exactly, but it will have a giant video screen.
Daktronics Inc., a manufacturer of electronic displays, will be in the stadium parking lot, 1500 Ninth Ave. N., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to show off its latest gadgets.
The district's newsletter said Finn invites the community to "see the demonstration, check out the versatility of the unit, ask questions, and get an idea of how much atmosphere, intimidation and fun it would create for any home stadium event."
It would also be a great way to propose to your high school sweetheart, unless you think she'll say 'no.'
The Longview school district recently inked a deal for a Daktronics board at Lobo Stadium. Its digital 12-by-20-foot screen could be the envy of East Texas.
That and a coliseum scoreboard will cost about $500,000, to be paid by corporate sponsors who no doubt will get air time on the giant screen.
Do high school stadiums need this technology? Is it worth selling ads? How should districts determine what kinds of ads would be allowed? Soft drinks? Food? Cars? Marriage proposals?
UPDATE: BP has provided the following number for people to call with claims: 800-440-0858.
Yesterday, BP said it was “proactively” seeking people whose cars and other property got sprayed by the Texas City refinery’s leak of about 32 barrels of crude oil. The spray covered objects with oily dots.
The company was so proactive it didn’t want to give out a phone number to call for people to make claims against the company. But judging from my incoming phone calls and voice mail today, it wasn’t proactive enough.
I’ve asked the company to give me a phone number to give to readers who want to send the company a bill for the cleanup. In the mean time, here’s what’s listed in the phone book. Get those dialing fingers ready!
BP Amoco: 409-943-5465 BP Corp: 409-949-4083 BP Products N A: 409-945-1011 BP Amoco Chemical Company: 409-948-1601
Mary Jones Cain, whose life was woven into the fabric of just about everything that is Texas City, was buried Wednesday.
Cain was 94 years old. Her parents, Jean Paul and Christine Davison Jones, were among the first settlers of Texas City.
Cain’s name is on a statue in Heritage Square. It’s in the school district foundation’s hall of honor. It’s on a chair in the 1894 Grand Opera House in Galveston, in the books at Moore Memorial Library and First Presbyterian Church.
But it’s her rhythm that, above all else, will stand the test of time.
She retired in 2006 after 59 years of teaching. Early in her career, she realized students needed better training in rhythm, so she developed rhythm band classes.
They weren’t part of the standard curriculum, but that didn’t keep them from catching on. She produced handmade notebooks with song lyrics and illustrations, hoping the children’s families would teach them to learn the words of the songs.
She lived her whole life on the same corner, 330 11th Ave. North, where, just last summer, sheet music lay on a piano, ready to be played.
As if things weren’t bad enough for BP PLC after agreeing to plead guilty to a criminal charge in connection with the fatal March 2005 explosions at its Texas City refinery, an Austin watchdog group is now bashing the company for its contributions to Texas Supreme Court judges.
Why does it matter? Because BP has every reason to want to curry favor with the court.
The judges are deciding whether the company’s former CEO, John Browne, should have to testify in civil cases stemming from the Texas City disaster.
This week, Texans for Public Justice, a group that tracks Austin lobbyists and campaign contributions, said BP and its allies in court have contributed more than $2 million to Supreme Court justices’ campaigns since 2001.
In February, several big business interests filed a friend-of-the-court brief on BP’s behalf, arguing that corporations won’t invest in Texas if its executives are forced to testify in cases such as this.
Those interests include the Texas Association of Business, Texas Oil and Gas Association, Texas Chemical Council and ExxonMobil.
The trade groups contributed $1.7 million to the campaigns, while defendants and defense attorneys in the BP case contributed $307,612, according to Texans for Public Justice.
They reported that the $2 million accounts for 27 percent of all the campaign cash the justices raised in the last six years.
During the same period, Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson took $350 from attorneys for the BP plaintiffs.
Will that disparity matter when the justices hand down their ruling?
Under a nondescript item on its Friday meeting agenda, the College of the Mainland board of trustees will consider whether to change controversial hiring practices.
Questions remain about the role of race in trustees’ decision to reject a candidate for a high-level administrative position.
The agenda item is listed as “consideration of and possible action on policy DC (local)” – bureaucratic language for a policy on filling vacancies and appointing administrators.
The agenda also says that a portion of the meeting could be closed to the public – but it doesn’t say why. It provides a laundry list of all possible reasons why a government body might lawfully hold a closed session, such as “personnel issues” and “consultation with attorneys,” but gives no specifics about this meeting.
College of the Mainland routinely drafts its agendas in this manner when the board considers hiring and appointing employees. It also routinely lists the names and positions of employees and job candidates who trustees plan to discuss in open sessions.
But the agenda never clarifies exactly what’s going to be discussed behind closed doors, because it lists so many options.
The Texas Supreme Court has held that general agenda terms such as “litigation” and “personnel” pass muster for ordinary personnel and legal matters, but aren’t sufficient to provide notice of items that are a matter of special interest to the public, such as the appointment of a high-level administrator.
Are the names up for discussion in the open session at College of the Mainland going to be the same ones discussed behind closed doors? Will trustees talk about the vice president of student services – a position in which the public seems to have much interest – behind closed doors?
How do you explain Texas City’s huge success with sales taxes? It’s not happening at the cash register.
At a recent community meeting, BP’s Texas City plant manager, Keith Casey, said the plant hopes to be back up to its 400,000 barrels of crude oil processing per day by the end of 2007. It’s now at about half that level. Anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 contract workers enter the gates of the refinery every day to work toward that goal, Casey said.
There is enough temporary scaffolding to go up and down Mount Everest eight times, he said. All of those materials come with a price, and a sales tax, and city officials said that was the single greatest factor in their ability to lower property taxes this year.
For some refineries and chemical plants, springtime is turnaround time. That means they’ll be starting up equipment that has lain dormant for maintenance.
Equipment startups can be tricky and dangerous. Industry guidelines call for more expertise and extra safety checks during startups to prevent problems, like the series of mistakes and mishaps that led to the 2005 explosions at BP in Texas City.
When it comes to unexpected maintenance and subsequent equipment startups, the industries generally don’t tell their neighbors. In my reporting, I heard various reasons for this. Some say it’s a money issue, because investors get nervous when they hear about equipment problems in the volatile — no pun intended — oil and gas markets. Others say the industries simply don’t have time to spread the word about unexpected maintenance.
When they do spread the word, they usually tell only the nearby emergency workers.
I’ve talked to people who live near the Texas City industrial complex, people who feel a little nervous after some recent fires and a chemical release that sent a few people to the hospital complaining of skin irritation.
Some people might like to know any time there’s an equipment startup. But if you live near the refinery and you know there’s a startup going on, would you go about your day any differently?
There’s also the question of inspection reports. The federal government has been criticized for not doing enough to inspect processing units at refineries and plants. Companies perform their own inspections, but those reports aren’t public.
There’s a huge gray area here that prompts some tough questions about the balance between public safety and proprietary information in a free marketplace. What do you think?
While she says she would rather have stayed out of the fray, Johnson found herself squarely in Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle’s crosshairs Friday when he learned that she had recalculated how much it would cost to issue refunds should the tax rollback be successful.
Initially, Johnson figured it would cost $557,000 to process and mail refund checks. She even sent over a memo as a warning cry last summer warning Doyle and city commissioners of that price tag before the tax rate was passed.
Then on Friday, just three days before the start of early voting, Johnson came back with new numbers.
Why is this figure so important? Frankly, because it was the anti-rollback group’s No. 1 issue.
“Even if you are for the rollback, you should vote against the rollback because it doesn’t make economic sense to pay $25 to mail a $20 refund check,” Mayor Matt Doyle said.
In presentations and advertisements, the Citizens for Progress have pointed to Johnson’s original letter and the $557,000 figure as reasons not to vote for the rollback. That figure is found again in the election information brochure the city is providing.
This even as Doyle insists that figure was not part of the city commission’s decision when the tax rate was set in September.
“If they weren’t worried about the cost in August why are they worried about it now?” Johnson asked in an interview Friday.
The Republican tax assessor collector acknowledged she is taking the inclusion of that original estimate in the debate personally.
“I am sick of them blaming me. Listen, they need to come up with something better to convince people to vote against the rollback than to say it will cost $550,000 to issue the refunds,” she said. “They need to find real reasons to vote against the rollback.”
Johnson said she called for a meeting with Texas City officials Thursday to discuss the costs of a possible refund because she had tired of the use of the $557,000 figure by anti-rollback forces.
Doyle would not comment on whether he thinks Johnson is being political in her handling of issues related to the rollback election. But he didn’t exactly say the thought hadn’t crossed his mind.
“I would certainly hope that is not the case,” he said. “But this is a drastic difference, and I can see why you would ask that question.”
Johnson is no doubt a passionate tax hawk. Recently, she was in Austin lobbying for tax reforms, including making rollback elections automatic should a taxing entity pass a rate above the rollback threshold.
It was the same issue she brought up in August when interviewed about the memo to Texas City warning of potential of a $557,000 bill just to process the refunds.
Johnson and her office also have been practically the exclusive gathering point of information for the pro-rollback forces. So does that mean she is really the puppet master behind what is supposed to be a grassroots effort to rollback the city tax rate?
“That is giving me far more credit than I deserve,” she said.
The site, which is highly popular among political conservatives and tax hawks took former Texas City Mayor Chuck Doyle to task for an advertisement the anti-rollback group Citizens for Progress placed in a small weekly newspaper.
The posting by a person known only as BigJolly — who is actually Shoreacres resident David Jennings — also singles out Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson for praise as it relates to the tax rollback issue.
A photo contained within the posting features a doctored anti-rollback sign where the word “against” is replaced with “for.” Then in the right corner there appears to be a small headshot of Johnson.
For her part, Johnson, who campaigned for her office on the issue of cutting taxes, insists as the head of the county tax office she is neither for nor against the rollback.
“We do not want to be the reason folks vote for or against the rollback,” Johnson said in an e-mail Friday morning. “We have two horses in this race — the city and the people.”
Her assurances aside, many in the anti-rollback camp feel strongly Johnson is playing politics with the rollback fight and has been doing more than just providing requested information to the Citizens for Texas City Property Tax Relief.
About TJ Aulds
T.J. Aulds is mainland editor for The Daily News. He is a former producer with Channel 11's KHOU.com in Houston and a former editor of the Texas City Sun. Aulds was a 2007 recipient of the Jim Lehrer Award for Journalism.
