ustxtxb_obs_1974_05_24_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

IDA PRESS 1 901 W 24th St Austin Multi copy service. Call 477-3641 BIG THICKET MUSEUM Saratoga, Texas Open Weekends 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Support Your Big Thicket Association The EPA is now holding hearings to decide whether to prohibit the use of aldrin and dieldrin for certain agricultural purposes. Both pesticides are made by the Shell Chemical Co. Harold Scarlett of The Houston Post speculates that the real motivation behind building the controversial Palmetto Bend Reservoir is to provide the Rio Grande Valley with irrigation water. That, at least, is what the Texas Water Development Board’s principal engineer for project development has in mind, according to a recent article in Water for Texas. The scheme, a variation on the old Texas water plan, would transport water from the proposed reservoir to the Valley via canals. This might come as something of a shock to the water rich residents of Jackson County who approved the $54.6 million project in 1971 on the fuzzy assumption that the new water supply would somehow bring greater prosperity to the Coastal Bend region. According to Scarlett, Harry P. Burleigh, executive director of the Water Development Board, denies that any such stratagem is in the works. Meanwhile, the proposed reservoir is the subject of a court challenge. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is studying San Antonio and Lavaca Bays to determine how much fresh water the systems require to support marine life. According to B. D. King, a P & W marine planner, “Both rivers have been dammed, levied and otherwise altered to the point that many life-giving nutrients carried by freshwater flows no longer reach the sea or arrive only in a fraction of their former volume.” The reduced flow of the Mississippi River has drastically cut the ability of Louisiana bays to produce seafood, and Texas bays soon may be similarly affected. The Parks and Wildlife Department hopes to build safeguards into future water projects so that Texas fisheries aren’t harmed the way Louisiana’s have been. The word is out that Governor Briscoe is considering naming Roy Coffee, one of his former aides, for appointment to the Texas Water Quality Board. The Observer has no knowledge of Coffee’s beliefs about pollution, but it has been reported here before that Coffee was by far the most unpopular helper Briscoe ever had. Texas Senators loathed him so much that the governor had to remove him as his Senate liaison. He was thrown off the House floor twice for aggressive lobbying. Texas has a new commissioner for Mental Health and Mental Retardation. His name is Dr. Kenneth D. Garver, a 45-year-old psychiatrist who headed Ohio’s MH-MR system for the past three years. He says he’s against building any more large “systems” ward buildings and that any institution housing more than 200 people is “too big.” No to MUD The Austin City Council staggered Southern Living and Leisure, Inc., developers of the proposed Wilding new town near Austin \(see Obs., Feb. 1 and request for council approval of a proposed Municipal Utility District at the Wilding site. The developers hoped to use the MUD to finance water, sewer and drainage facilities at Wilding. The council said no on a 4-3 vote. Vocal opposition to leap-frogging growth and mistrust of the MUD gimmick were the strongest factors in the council’s decision. A Southern Living and Leisure spokesman said the developers will have to meet and consider their options. He expressed surprise that the council would void all the money and time the company had spent on its planning. The Constitutional Convention completed work on the legislative article of its proposed new constitution in the first week after the elections. The most notable actions were a final demolition of the professional-legislator concept and the defeat of an initiative and referendum proposal. Rep. Ben Bynum of Amarillo offered the most sophisticated opposition to initiative and referendum, arguing that special interests would control such lawmaking by popular vote with their electioneering expertise and money. Populists retched. The Dallas Morning News thundered. But nothing swayed the Texas Legislature. The death of the mythical professional legislator was spread out over numerous votes. In one, the convention reversed itself, taking the proposed $8,750 salary out of the draft proper and placing it in the “separate submissions” hopper, to be decided by voters in November. At the same time, delegates put a salary commission back into the legislative article. Earlier, annual. sessions of unlimited duration had been stricken, replaced with sort-of annual sessions with fixed limitations. With the prospect of remaining part-time employees of the state hanging over their heads, the delegates first modified, then struck entirely one of the conflict-of-interest provisions applying to them. Instead of a strict sub-paragraph that would have forbidden legislators from representing clients before state agencies, the convention voted first for a proscription with exceptions and finally for no language on the subject at all. Archer Parr, Duval County’s county judge and George Parr’s nephew, has been convicted of six counts of perjury. The sworn statements in question were made to a federal grand jury in connection with $121,500 Parr was paid by the Duval County Conservation and Reclamation District.. Parr had contended the money was owed him for legal work he did in the early Sixties, when the district was being organized. The payments were made between 1968 and 1970: Parr said he didn’t want to ask the district for money until it was able to pay him. Parr’s uncle was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to five years in prison last month. The elder Parr’s conviction is being appealed. George Meany, on behalf of the AFL-CIO, has endorsed the United Farm Workers’ boycott of lettuce and table grapes and has called on the federation’s 13.5 million members “to rally in support of the nationwide boycott.” The Washington Post says that Meany is “hoping to duplicate the AFL-CIO’s successful boycott of the Farah Manufacturing Co. of El Paso.” He has sent detailed instructions to 111 affiliated unions and 900 state and central bodies telling them how to picket stores and distribute boycott leaflets. May 24, 1974 11 Bookkeeping & Tax Service CU 503 WEST 15TH, AUSTIN 78701 OFFICE HOURS: 9 A.M. TO 5 P.M. AND BY APPOINTMENT ANYTIME