Arlington Morning News (Newspaper) - October 25, 1999, Arlington, Texas PUBLIC SCHOOL BASKETBALL WORKOUTS BEGIN TODAY PAGE 1 B pt Oum Newspaper Arlington Texas Monday October 1999 25 cents Local THE PROMISED LAND Members of a neighborhood group gathered Friday night at dusk to pray over the site of the upcoming Pantego Bible Church near Church members seek to bless new worship site By John W Floras Staff Writer of the Arlington Morning News The Biblical Book of Nehemiah is very important to the members of the Pantego Bible Church That book tells the story of a historic struggle that faced the prophet Nehemiah a leader in the restoration of Jerusalem in the 5th century said Scott Jones executive pastor of the First Baptist Church in Pantego Nehemiah a Hebrew word for The Lord Has helped the people of Jerusalem at a crit ical time the Rev Jones explained He helped the Jews rebuild the walls of the city that had been torn down during a great revolt in 486 Now nearly years later members of the Rev Jones church are calling on God to help them build walls of worship in Arlington Many of the churchs families participated in 35 days of prayer walks on a tract in far East Arlington beginning Sept 19 The Please see Church on Page Arlington Morning Neils Tom Foi Parkway and Interstate 30 Every day a different group of church members walks the grounds in prayer Arlington Morning flews Tom Fox Sally Mathews right reads from a prayer booklet as Clyde Hodson and Lindsay Hodson gather Friday night to pray on the grounds of their house of worship Pantego Bible Church Group devoted to saving worlds rain forests Education essential to stopping destruction By John W Flores Staff Writer of the Arlington Morning News The only modern Hollywood movie that has depicted the rapid demise of rain forests and disas trous environmental implications worldwide is the 1992 film Medicine Man starring Sean Connery as a reclusive progress hating scientist who stumbles upon a cure for cancer In the film Mr charac ter makes the monumental ery among flowers and insects in treetops 100 feet above the forest floor just as bulldozers and devel opers slash and burn their way into the forests inner sanctum But a wildfire erupts and Mr cure is destroyed Arlington resident Frank Zimmerman 60 said the film tells a tragic story but one that rings true to the many conservationists world wide actively working to stop the reallife bulldozing and burning of rain forests Its a great movie and its true Society has needs but will our needs destroy us Do you take care of the need by destroying the earth Thats what were seeing with the rain Mr Zimmerman said Mr Zimmerman spent 32 years in the Navy and during trips overseas he frequently found himself in rain forests But it wasnt until after his retirement in the early 1990s that he decided to get personally involved with others in what he calls preser vation by Carrollton horticulturist Clive Buhner 56 a longtime friend had on Page Arlington Homing News Mike Frank Zimmerman and Clive Bulmer developed the local non profit group Families for the Rainforest to educate people on preserving these fragile ecosystems Police identify pickup driver in fiery Irving crash By Steve Miller Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News DALLAS Police on Sunday iden the man who caused an sive crash Saturday morning outside Texas Stadium as Jose Manfredis Freddy Duran 31 of Irving Mr Duran was killed when the pickup truck he was driving jumped a guardrail and smashed into the side of a hauling gallons of gasoline on State Highway 183 The driver of the tanker also died in the fiery crash Officials from United Petroleum Transports the company that owned the tanker truck are expect ed to arrive Monday in Dallas for an investigation The company is going through a tough family situation right with relatives of the driver who died company president Gregory Price said Sunday evening He would not comment further A spokesman for the Dallas County medical examiner said the office will identify the badly burned driver early this week Police said Mr Duran was speed ing westbound on 183 about 11 when he lost control of the 1999 Chevrolet Silverado Witnesses said the eastbound tanker exploded shortly after impact erupting in a ball of fire and smoke that could be seen for miles There were no other injuries The ensuing traffic snarl closed 183 between Grauwyler Road and Loop 12 for about 12 hours The fire scorched the landscaping at the side of the highway and severely dam aged an overpass Texas records show that the Silverado was registered to Benitez of Irving She said she did not know Mr Duran Her Elida Benitez said the truck was taken from a friends house after her hus band Leonel Benitez fell asleep there Mr Benitez did not know Mr Duran she said Authorities said Mr Duran had recently moved to an Irving apart ment complex with his wife She could not be reached A team of engineers from the Texas Department of Transportation will survey the scene Monday and decide if the damaged overpass can be salvaged spokesman Mark Ball said Theyll see if it can be saved but theyre going in there with the idea that this thing probably needs to be Mr Ball said thefts drop by 11 percent Pickups most often stolen experts offer easy deterrents By Nancy Calaway Staff Writer of the Arlington number of stolen cars may be decreasing but investigators remind motorists that is no reason to give thieves an easy target October is Watch Your Car month and the emphasis during this years annual awareness event is asking people to remove their pri mary and spare sets of keys when exiting their cars A lot of vehicle burglaries occur every day and youd be surprised how many car thefts occur when those burglars find they have an extra set of keys in the said Sgt Walt West representa tive on the Tarrant County Auto Theft Task Force They break in to steal CDs or cell phones or er and end up taking the car But of course there are also the professional car thieves in the area and those who boost vehicles for transportation purposes Whatever the motive car thefts are a perennial problem in Arlington Tarrant County and across the state Every five minutes in Texas a car or truck is said Susan AUTO THEFT FACTS Number of cars stolen in Texas in Most commonly stolen vehicles in 1998 GM pickup Ford pickup i Cutlass Dodge pickup GM Suburban GM van Jeep Cherokee Honda Accord Ford I Mustang Olds 88 SOURCE Texas Automobile Theft Protection Authority Mnrmnj Sampson the director of public edu cation for Texas Automobile Theft Prevention Authority Thieves arent picky they steal any kind of vehicle old or new any time and any she said adding that last year in Texas more than vehicles were stolen Through July the most recent sta available 952 cars were reported stolen in Arlington That number reflects an 11 percent decrease from the same time frame last year Investigators said they would like to see the number continue its downward trend Were trying to get the word out to lower auto Sgt WesT said Please see Area on Page condemns graffiti incident at high school Recent cleanup cost district By Julie Elliott and Ben Tinsley Staff Writers of the Arlington News School district officials refused to chalk up an extensive vandalism episode at Arlington High School this past Friday to harmless inter school rivalry On Friday graffiti believed to be from Arlington High rival Martin was across three sides of Arlington High Schools field house on the schools running track on a storage build ing and in the parking lot The comments which included epithets such as You cant spell white trash without AHS centered on a perception that Martin High School students come from higher income backgrounds than Arlington High students The graffiti cost the district and seven hours of manpower to remove with sandblasting equipment school officials said The graffiti was gone by the end of the day on Friday Mac Bernd superintendent for the Arlington school district said Sunday he would not tolerate this behavior Lets face it the we spent to INSIDE Area traffic Classifieds Lottery Movies Obituaries Opinions Sports School scene TV listings Volunteer opportunities 2A 2A 2A IB 2A 2A clean il up could have been spent on students in the Dr said In our eyes there is nothing harmless or innocent about this This is vandalism pure and simple and we will treat it as However Dr Bernd cautioned against judging the entire stu dent body at Martin for the act of vandalism We are always disturbed when school rivalries get out of hand as this one obviously did but it is important for people not to judge the entire Martin student body by the actions of a very There have been prior acts of exten sive school vandalism in Arlington but Dr Bernd said he would be hard pressed to recall one as flagrant Charlene Robertson district spokeswoman cautioned that it has nt been confirmed that the vandals are Martin High School students The most recent school vandalism of this degree was at Martin High School in May The act which also included extensive graf fiti was so severe it prompted dis officials to increase security at all campuses during the last week of school of that year Please see Bernd on Page WEATHER Sunny skies and pleasant High of 80 Winds at 5 to 15 mph Overnight low of 49 See Page 2A 83197 00025
