La Marque Times (Newspaper) - August 8, 1979, La Marque, Texas Hurricane Storm Occurrences inTexas 1900-1978 TROPICAL STORMS HURRICANES Storm cc petrochemical industry 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1978 HURRICANE FREQUENCY to be no discernible pattern or for the occurrence of and tropical storms on the Texas over the past seven decades the coast has been visited by one of these storms on an average of every 2.5 As shown in this the greatest decades for activity were from 1910 to 1950. Tropical storms occurred most often in the 1930*s. Although most severe storms in Texas such as Carla In 1961, developed in eras of low storm Editor's The article Is fifth in a series dealing with the problems they can cause and the circumstances that make the La Texas area articularly vulnerable to surch the information In the article was obtained from the Texas Catastrophe Property Insurance Association and local civil defense and city One of the costliest and consequences of a severe hurricane striking area of the Texas coast would be the effect on the world's largest concentration of petrochemical plants which are located adjacent to La Marque in Texas Further than Houston is the center of a 6,285-mile area in which refining and other such companies form a boggling industrial maze that along with the Texas Marque complexes supplies necessities to much of the nation and the Functioning under the constant threat of fire and these companies are well aware of the catastrophic results of such a a chain reaction unprecedented in the atomic age whose effects would be felt Hurricanes present a different kind of but a grievous just the Almost every plant could expect flooding in the Texas Marque area and possibly a lengthy interruption of The cost of shutting down each plant and the loss of productivity is estimated at as high as million per It is impossible to calculate the cost of possible damages to the plants or the I JOHN PISTONE 1101 UlCm id tx 93S4�91 and business Like a good State Fann is Sine Farm lilf Company Home effect of the stoppage during the 10-day to period during and alter a hurricane Shutting down a plant is the only alternative in a serious hurricane but the action then becomes an economic as well as a protective Galveston County civil defense needs time to shut down minimum of 24 the weather people can't a storm accurately 400 miles at that he a plant manager makes the wrong he may lose his When it's the 17th they're committed all the way whether there's a storm or Union Texas City complex has not changed its general plan over the although activities have been stepped up to cope with the additional obstacles subsidence has With an elevation of 10 to 12 and as low as six to seven feet above sea flooding is a serious During 17 years Texas City had waves lapping at up to 10 and 11 and the area has subsided at least one to three feet since is a major concern since structures are designed to handle hurricane an official at Carbide our other concern is the people in the The evacuation routes away from the plant and to their homes have subsided and since more people in the area will be trying to it is wondered if everyone will be able shut down earlier due to the plant officials least 72 hours before the That makes the decision The best you can do then is to guess within 300 to 400 miles of We'll send workers home except for a standby crew which will be trained ahead of time to cope with any problems that come The story is the same in all the refineries and industries located in the Possible tides up to 20 feet have been predicted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a major No one will be spared the effects of wind and water in the event of nature's most devastating Development And Destruction VOLUME No. 2 THE LA MARQUE AUGUST 8, 1979 ONE SECTION 25 CENTS program stepped up By Marianne Herauf Speeding in La Marque has become a pastime for most citizens in our town to Officer Willie of the La Marque Police Many people in La Marque think that he or she will get away with speeding but for most people they are finding this ' - The Police Department received new radars in January of 1979. And most people do not know how radars These new radars are very interesting and clock a person from about a half a mile according to Officer The speed limit on most La Marque streets is 30 miles per hour unless otherwise Even if there are no signs to tell the speed all city streets are 30 miles per I had the opportunity ride with an officer and how these new radars Working radar can be very exciting and yet it can be very Police officer could be somewhere else stopping a crime in progress instead of sitting working the radar if the citizens would just slow The first step an officer in sitting up radar is to a spot to work radar in. They find these spots in one or two One way is to set up radar where the most accidents This way if people come along in an area and see a police car they will automatically slow according to Officer Dawson of the La Marque Another way they determine where to set up radar is that people If people call the police Department and complain that people are speeding through a certain area then the police will go and set up radar and try to slow down the traffic so the streets will be safe again for children to play and ride bikes Dawson the radar to me. The radar is a very interesting piece of It can catch people speeding from any After the officer has chosen then he people are going down the road and notice the police car naturally they slow down but by this time it is too The radar can clock a spader from a long distance away and all the officer has is wait for the person to to him and then he pulls im While Officer Dawson and I were sitting there with radar on it starting to beep beep and the radar had clocked the car coming down the road going 58 in a 30 mile an hour The radar csn also clock a person if he is coming toward the If the ficer is riding down the ad and a car comes toward C him the radar can clock the The radar can also clock to page 2 City gets break La Marque may be receiving a lucky break in the installation of a portion of its surface water transmission According to city one perfect route for a portion of the line would be along FM 519 or Main The break comes in because the city was going to have to relocate the existing water and utility lines along that street prior to the widening of the street by the Texas Department of Highways and Public the cost of relocating the line can be combined with the funds that have been set aside for the laying of the new surface water transmission In the county traditionally aids cities in the relocation of utilities along a road The FM 51!.' project is county sponsored and city officials have worked a deal whereby the county will pay 40 percent of the cost of relocating the It was estimated by city officials that the cost to strictly relocate the line would be about with the county paying for approximately of The cost of putting in the surface water transmission line along that route would be about Steve city explained that the remaining 60 percent of the project would then come out of the bond funds to be sold for the surface water transmission He said that the existing line along FM 519 was six-inch pipe and that the requirements for the surface water line would be 10 to 18-inch believe the 60-40 split proposed by the county would be more than Howerton told members of the city No action was taken on the matter as council officials wished to study the proposal and take it up at the next regular city council Howerton that at that the final plans and routing alternatives for the transmission system should also be available for study so that the city council could study the proposal as a City considers water contract LA MARQUE POUCE ON THE LOOKOUT of the increasing of accidents caused by both members of the They are pictured calling In to the speeders and reckless the La Marque Police have to check out a license Before an officer pulls a been enforcing the law even more with their new car he Is required to call In the license plate number and Pictured are Willie Bird and Mike Snow his location in case he needs On type of garbage service Savings may change council attitude A matter of has in the La Marque city offices the past several a radical change in the attitudes of members of the city When first the subject of curbside garbage service for the city of La Marque was looked upon by the majority of the city council as a bad political move as people of La Marque have indicated in the past that they want the backdoor service they have if they have to pay for faced with a possible garbage rate along with the need for increases in sewer and property the council is beginning to view the curbside service with more Why? according to city the city could save as much as annually by running a curbside in a statement prepared after curbside pickup was briefly discussed by council as a way of saving city tax payers noted that such a pickup method could be done with less less and less gasoline These three areas are the main areas impacted by inflation in the city's overall The average savings per per would be about That according to Steve city that with curbside the garbage instead of being increased by about per can actually be decreased from last year's monthly I would go for the more 1 think about Councilman Jack Kivch commented during a budget hearing on utility are gonna have problems with I about 10 to 20 percent of the customers will raise hell about it until they get used to it. But when it saves that much money and allows us to decrease costs to city The along with the proposed garbage rate also looked at proposals for increases in water and sewer rates ranging from an average ot per month for water and 85 cents per month tor is the penalty we are going to have to pay for having new water and sewage but we didn't in that city officials The has not yet delved deeply Into the water and sewer rate increase to see if there are any areas that can be The city administration and council will be closely scrutinizing the proposed sewer and garbage as well as the general fund budget of the city this week to determine just if places that it can be cut to provide La Marque citizens a break in their City council members have indicated that they are determined to any and all which may be contained in the budget in order to keep any increases as low as Amidst week-long workshops concerning the city of La new along Avith proposed increases in property sewer and garbage the La Marque City Council Monday considered a surface water contract with the City of Texas The which called for the city to pay about per month or 70 cents per thousand gallons of treated surface was not with council to negotiate several matters with Texas City After the contract was the city council returned to its investigation of the million in city adjourning into a lengthy executive session to discuss The five-page surface water contract would be an agreement with Texas City for the City of La Marque to purchase treated surface water from a new surface water treatment plant which is currently under construction in the City of Texas According to City Councilman Ted the proposed contract is most one-sided agreement 1 have ever Mora explained that the which would bind the city for a period of 20 say that the City of Texas City will do just that they plan to do certain think that we should talk with Texas City and see what we can work City Manager Steve Howerton said after reading a list of staff objections and comments on the proposed think a lot of things can be worked out if Texas City and La Marque officials sit down face to face and discuss the District's value up 9 percent Schools approve hike The La Marque Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a motion to increase district tax revenue by 9 percent for the 1979-80 taxing Board members were unanimous in expressing their opinion that the motion did not involve an Increase in the tax They emphasized that the tax rate will remain at per During a lengthy discussion regarding the phrasing of the required public notice of intent to increase taxes by more than 3 percent the board pointed out that the total taxable valuation of the District had increased during the past year which allows additional tax revenue without increasing the tax District valuation increased from to which amounts to an increase of a 6 percent increase in property recent legislation requires all taxing entities to publish a one quarter page ad in a local newspaper to inform the public of any intent to increase taxes by more than 3 The wording of the requirement dictates that such notice be given even if the tax increase does not reflect an actual tax rate such as is the case for the board Dr. Eugene property taxes will increase 9 percent or some will not increase at This is because of property valuation techniques which have resulted in increased valuation for some parcels while other parcels have not been so Board member Jimmy Hayley pointed out that with current inflationary property valuation will increase enough each year to increase district tax revenue over the 3 percent maximum without any Increase in the tax Hayley year we collected on that This with new could get the same money with a rate of increased valuation plus the same tax rate brings in mare tax Some of the concerns with the contract seemed to be the lack of a method or formula to compute the water rates charged to the city the lack of a guarantee of compensation for low pressure inii the line coming from the Texas City lack of safeguards or protection for La Marque in the case of suspected inaccurate meter and the refusal to assume liability for the interruption of service when that interruption is caused by the water ' The at the Monday also heard a report from the city's Ad Hoc Emergency Medical Service The committee reported that it felt the city should continue with a private ambulance service subsidized by the According to the the present ambulance service in La Marque seems to be running well at that is the most cost beneficial to the Council approves Section 8 program Commending the city administration for not allowing its proposed Section 8 existing housing program to be eaten up by administrative the La Marque City Council recently approved a for that According to Jay assistant city though the city would do the actual administration for the it would really cost the city since it would be done with federal he the program calls for the use of 14 structures within the city to be used for federally subsidized low income About has been allocated to the city to pay for the rent subsidy and administration of the but city officials estimated that only would be About of the funds would be direct re it subsidies with the remaining going to city administration of the program for financially disadvantaged The council unanimously approved taking part in the program and okayed the forward of the proposal to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for final want to commend the city Councilman Ted Mora not allowing the administrative costs of the program to eat up the allocated I have worked with several similar type operations and costs are usually s
