Gulf Coast E-news

The Board of Directors of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, meeting in Washington, D.C. has voted to create a Texas Chapter. Jerry Mohn, president of the West Galveston Island Property Owners Association was named president of the new chapter and John Lee from the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management was named vice-president. Listen Download

Mohn said that all 12 coastal counties in Texas will be in the new chapter, "Plus we have an opportunity to bring in six additional counties from the interior deltas and coastal areas such as Harris County and Victoria."

Delegates to the ASBA met in a breakfast meeting in the Capitol this morning with Congressmen from coastal states from New York to California.

"We have some friends of the coast here this morning," acknowledged John Lee, who moderated the meeting. Listen Download

Federal funding for beach and shoreline preservation projects was the topic of the meeting.

"I don't believe that it is fair to put the burden on the backs of local governments, said Representative Walter Jones from North Carolina. "I've been here ten years and each year we have the same problems to deal with."

"Republicans and Democrats fish for the same fish; Republicans and Democrats go to the same beaches; Republicans and Democrats live in the same beachfront houses," said Representative Steve Israel from Long Island, New York, stressing the need for bipartisan cooperation.

"Actually more Republicans than Democrats live in beachfront houses," Israel admitted, in a quip.

"Federal support of coastal and beach communities is very important," agreed Congressman Clay Shaw of Florida, co chair of the Congressional Coastal Caucus. "Traditionally they have been blanked out of Presidents' budgets, President after President, and we have always been able to put some money back in."

Lobbyist Howard Marlowe, who organized the meeting, encouraged the delegates to be proactive in dealing with members of Congress.

"We are in a very difficult fiscal year so it is important for these folks to be in town," Marlowe said. Listen Download

"The administration is definitely not as responsive as it could be, but that is the same story that we've had since 1995; that's a record that gets played over and over again," Marlowe said, adding that the President's support is not the key factor. "It is the Congress that determines the budget, not the President on this one."

On Wednesday, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu discussed her support for legislation to dedicate a portion of the tax funds generated by the offshore oil and gas industry to coastal projects. Listen Download

"We have a very unique coastline in Louisiana," Landrieu said, explaining that the state has only 15 miles of beach. "We don't have beaches; what we have is this vast, huge wonderfully rich wetlands, that really belongs to all of America because it is the Delta of the Mississippi River."

Galveston Planning Director Wendy O'Donohoe is a delegate to the conference. Listen Download

"I think it is very exciting," O'Donohoe said. "It really shows that Texas needs to be more aggressive to market beaches, to make sure that Congress and the Senate are listening and looking out for the city and making sure that we are getting funds to restore our beaches."

Guidry News Service Publisher Jim Guidry is covering the meeting in Washington and will file additional reports on The Online News Station this evening.

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Galveston City Council

Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc today reported to the Galveston City Council that Rob Istre, executive director of the Gulf Coast Water Authority, will attend the city council meeting on March 24 to give a presentation regarding the proposed water plant expansion currently scheduled for 2011.

"Based upon the current growth of the City of Galveston, we expect to need approximately 9 million gallons per day more available potable water," LeBlanc said.

"This would raise our current available potable water from approximately 21 million gallons per day to 30 million gallons per day."

Also on the March 24 agenda will be an interlocal agreement between the City of Galveston and the GCWA that will provide for funding for a feasibility study for the plant expansion. The cost of the feasibility study is expected to be approximately $750,000.00, and the city's share will be approximately half.

LeBlanc reported that on Wednesday, March 2, Galveston had 1.22 inches of rain in less than one hour, and on Monday, March 8, the island had 1.67 inches of rain in a two hour period.

"Cleaning efforts across the city demonstrated that the storm water drained off quicker than had been experienced prior to our cleaning efforts," LeBlanc said.

"The storm also allowed us to locate some areas that need additional maintenance work. The maintenance crews are currently focusing on Harborside Drive, and to date, we have removed 120 tons of sand and debris from the Harborside Drive system between 51st Street and 77th Street."

LeBlanc also reported that the Impact Fee Advisory Committee will meet on March 17 at noon. The goal of the meeting will be to help familiarize the team with the purpose of an impact fee, the impact fee process, the role of the advisory committee and the team of consultants working on the issues related to the fee. The committee will set a schedule for future meetings and will meet monthly through June.

The sanitation services staff is continuing to monitor and compare services received with services that have been paid for.

"(The staff) has found instances where residents were not paying for refuse service, not paying for church refuse charges, not paying for commercial refuse charges and not paying for extra carts," LeBlanc said. "Since 2003 this monitoring has resulted in estimated additional annual revenue of $98,000."

The City of Galveston has submitted a Texas Public Land Grant. If the grant is awarded, it will provide for a study of the West End to identify land that the city might want to purchase to use for public good.

The House Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure on March 3 passed a $283.6 billion five year Transportation Authorization Bill, which due to the efforts of Congressman Ron Paul, includes $7.5 million in support of Galveston’s Downtown Terminal and Seawall Beautification Programs.

"The process is not complete, but Senator Hutchison indicated her strong support for protecting this funding as the bill goes through the final House and Senate committees for approval," LeBlanc said.

Justo Garcia, from the Department of Justice, has requested that the City of Galveston work with the Department of Justice to host a Community Relations meeting.

He wants representatives from various local entities such as the city council, Galveston Independent School District and local chambers of commerce, to meet with representatives from the Department of Justice, FBI, U.S. Attorneys Office and the Department of Education concerning community relations in Galveston.

"Mr. Garcia has indicated that the purpose of this meeting is to develop a Human Relations Commission to handle community relations issues," LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc also stated that the fiber optic network for Broadway is in the final design stages. City and county officials have met to determine the location, funding, installation and operation of fiber optics to connect existing county and city facilities to the new Justice Center.

The spring cleanup will take place on Friday and Saturday, March 11 and 12, for residents east of 43rd Street and on Friday and Saturday, March 18 and 19, for residents west of 43rd Street. Residents should have their trash out by 7 a.m.

The Spanish Sailing School ship Juan Sebastian De Elcano will be in Galveston from Wednesday, April 6 through mid-day on Sunday, April 10.

The ship is owned and operated by the Spanish Navy and crewed by Spanish naval officers and crew, with a complement of about 257 persons, including 47 cadets. The ship participated in the Bicentennial Festivities in New York Harbor in 1976.

Events planned for April 7 through April 9 include an open house for public visitation.

The city will assist the Port of Galveston in the planning and logistics and will have representatives at a planning meeting to be held with the Consul of Spain at the Port of Galveston Offices on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at 1 p.m.

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City of League City

The City of League City has named Kelvin Knauf to the position of interim finance director. He brings to League City 25 years of municipal government experience, including city manager positions in Port Aransas, Corinth, Lago Vista, and Spearman.

Knauf will work 30 hours per week in addition to independent consulting work in which he is currently involved.

“League City is an exciting community. A lot of great things are happening here, and I’m glad to be a part of it,” Knauf said.

Knauf has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Kansas and is a member of the International City Management Association and the Texas City Management Association. He lives in Conroe.

League City is in the initial phases of the recruitment process for the position of finance director.

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Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority

The Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority recently announced its Top Operator, Top Technician and Top Contract Operator of the Year for fiscal year 2004.

Top Operator of the Year Angela M. Gonzales drives the 26 Inner/27 Outer Loop Crosstown, 42 Holman Crosstown and 247 Fuqua routes out of the Polk Bus Operating Facility. A METRO employee since 1993, Gonzales was nominated for Top Operator honors in 1997 and won the Top Operator of the Month award for July 2004.

Top Tech of the Year Charles Higham is a Journeyman Mechanic in the heavy repair shop at the Kashmere Bus Operating Facility and is a previous Top Tech winner. He joined METRO as a cleaner in 1985, entered the Maintenance Education And Development program as an apprentice in 1986 and earned his Journeyman certification in 1991. Higham won the Top Tech of the Month award for June 2004.

Top Contractor Operator of the Year Perry Kindred Jr. drives METROLift vans for First Transit, METRO’s private contractor for paratransit services. A First Transit employee since 2002, Kindred was honored as the Top Contractor of the Month for April 2004.

Along with honoring the top employees of the year, METRO also presented safety awards to employees in maintenance and operations for their efforts in making METRO one of the top transit agencies in the nation. These employees are credited with helping METRO achieve, for the third year in a row, its lowest-ever accident rating during Fiscal Year 2004. Recognition also was given to the top employees of the month for 2004, who are honored during the course of the year from each operating facility and system wide.

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Rosenberg Library

After more than a century of heavy usage and millions of visitors, the 100-year-old Rosenberg Library is in need of extensive repairs and building system upgrades.

The estimated cost of repairing the facility and bringing the building up to code is more than $10 million. The library's board of trustees must raise the funds solely from private donors and foundations.

As a 501(c)(3) organization, the library does not receive funding from any governmental institution for capital repairs and improvements, although it does receive some tax support for day to day operations.

The library's building committee hopes to repair the exterior of the Rosenberg Wing in the near future. Recently completed architectural studies have identified serious problems with the steel support structures, terra cotta facade and internal guttering in the Rosenberg Wing. Moisture infiltration over the past century has caused the steel internal supports near the roof to rust and expand. The deterioration of the steel supports has in turn badly damaged the terra cotta facade around the entire perimeter of the original building.

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University of Texas Medical Branch

The head of Massachusetts’ leading consumer health advocacy organization on Friday, March 11, will inaugurate the 2005 UTMB Health Policy Forum free lecture series, speaking on “Health Disparities, Access to Care, and Social Justice: Making Policy Change Happen in 21^st Century America.”

The talk by John E. McDonough, executive director of Boston-based Health Care for All, will take place from noon to 1 p.m. at William C. Levin Hall South Auditorium at 11th Street and Market Street.

Free public parking will be available in the School of Allied Health Sciences garage, 11^th and Market streets, and the Administration Garage, 8^th and Market streets. Tokens to exit the garages will be provided at the lecture.

The lecture is sponsored by the UTMB President’s Office, the Institute for the Medical Humanities and UTMB’s Program to Eliminate Health Disparities.

McDonough has been the executive director of Health Care for All since May 2003. From 1998 through 2003, he was an associate professor at the Heller School of Brandeis University and a senior associate at its Schneider Institute for Health Policy. From 1985 to 1997, he served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he co-chaired the Joint Committee on Health Care.

In 1996, he led the successful campaign to pass health access legislation to cover uninsured children. Funded by new tobacco taxes, the legislation served as a model for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program.

McDonough currently teaches at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Boston University School of Public Health. His articles have appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs and other journals. He has written two books, Experiencing Politics: A Legislator’s Stories of Government and Health Care, published by the University of California Press and the Milbank Fund in 2000, and Interests, Ideas, and Deregulation: The Fate of Hospital Rate Setting, published by the University of Michigan Press in 1997. He received a doctorate in public health from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan in 1996 and a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1990.

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Lamar University

Houston-based Seismic Micro-Technology has awarded Lamar University a seismic interpretation university software grant to use the company's product The KINGDOM Suite, industry-standard software for the oil and gas industry.

Lamar's Department of Earth and Space Sciences will use the software to teach students how to interpret reflection seismic data on a computer workstation.

Joe Kruger, a geophysics professor in the ESS department, will also use the software for non-profit reflection seismic research related to the petroleum industry, near-surface environmental studies and larger scale studies of the Earth’s crust.

According to Seismic Micro-Technology, the commercial value of the software for 12 educational user licenses is $674,440. The software grant will be eligible for renewal after three years.

“This software package will greatly enhance students’ ability to interpret reflection seismic data the way it is done today in the petroleum industry,” said Kruger, who procured the software grant.

He will use The KINGDOM Suite for his Geophysics course, Petroleum and Subsurface Geology course and other specialized courses in seismic interpretation and seismic data processing.

According to Kruger, The KINGDOM Suite gives users the ability to interpret both two- and three-dimensional seismic surveys with ease. While changing the interpretations in a cross-sectional view on one computer screen, the user can see what effect the changes have in plan view on an adjacent computer screen. The user can also move around the data set quickly, use oil and gas wells for geologic control and see both the seismic data wells and interpretations in a variety of three-dimensional views.

The software package includes utilities to enhance the seismic data for the user, look at geological information from wells, constrain the seismic interpretation from well control and construct geologic cross sections from both seismic and well data.

“The KINGDOM Suite will be a great way to showcase the new computer lab being built in the newly renovated Geology Building on the Lamar campus,” Kruger said.

The department is at work securing funds for 10 or more dual-screen computers to complete the computer-based classroom and student research area.

“With these computers, we can then make use of the full potential of The KINGDOM Suite and other geophysical, geological and GIS software packages,” Kruger said.

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Progressive Action Alliance

Opponents of the war in Iraq have scheduled a peace rally at Houston City Hall on Friday and Saturday, March 18 and 19.

"At sunset on March 19, amid flickering hand-held candles, the victims of the Iraq conflict will be remembered," said a news release.

"Sponsored by the Progressive Action Alliance, the names of the American military and its partners who have died, now in excess of 1,500, will be read beginning the evening of March 18 in the Theatre District by members of the anti-war group Code Pink dressed in pink."

Visit www.ProgressiveActionAlliance.org for additional information.

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Scheduled Meetings
Meetings will be held in the regular meeting place of the city council or other governmental body, unless otherwise specified.

Today, March 10
5:30 Galveston City Council
Cancelled 7:00 Kemah City Council
7:00 Santa Fe City Council
8:00 Nunsense, The east-end theatre company, etc., Galveston
8:00 Same Time, Next Year, Bay Area Harbour Playhouse,3803 Highway3, Dickinson

Friday, March 11
9:00 American Shore and Beach Preservation Association 2005 Coastal Summit, Washington Court Hotel, Washington, DC
8:00 Daddy's Dying, Who's Got the Will, Strand Theatre, Galveston
8:00 Nunsense, The east-end theatre company, etc., Galveston
8:00 Don't Drink The Water, Clear Creek Country Theatre, 18091 Upper Bay Road, Nassau Bay
8:00 Same Time, Next Year, Bay Area Harbour Playhouse,3803 Highway3, Dickinson

Saturday, March 12
8:30 2005 River, Lakes, Bays N' Bayous Trash Bash, various locations. Locations
8:00 Daddy's Dying, Who's Got the Will, Strand Theatre, Galveston
8:00 Nunsense, The east-end theatre company, etc., Galveston
8:00 Don't Drink The Water, Clear Creek Country Theatre, 18091 Upper Bay Road, Nassau Bay
8:00 Same Time, Next Year, Bay Area Harbour Playhouse,3803 Highway3, Dickinson

Sunday, March 13
11:00 - 6:00 St. Patrick Church Festival, Galveston
2:00 The New Zealand Experience, featuring Travel Lecturer Grant Foster. The Grand 1894 Opera House
2:30 Daddy's Dying, Who's Got the Will, Strand Theatre, Galveston
2:30 Nunsense, The east-end theatre company, etc., Galveston
2:30 Don't Drink The Water, Clear Creek Country Theatre, 18091 Upper Bay Road, Nassau Bay
2:30 Same Time, Next Year, Bay Area Harbour Playhouse,3803 Highway3, Dickinson

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Gulf Coast E-news, published by Guidry News Service, provides comprehensive coverage of posted public meetings in Galveston, Harris and Jefferson Counties as well as regional news impacting the Upper Texas Gulf Coast.

Jim and Lynda Guidry are publishers of Gulf Coast E-news and The Online News Station.

Jim Young is Houston City Correspondent. Dana Patricia Burke is the Bay Area Houston Correspondent. Chuck Lawrence is Galveston City Correspondent. Carl Guidry covers events in Jefferson County. Anita Donatto covers the education beat in Galveston.

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