New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung from New Braunfels, Texas • Page 1

CityOrdininctSiyi Don't I'M Sprinkfcn Tuesday Afternoon, August 25,1992 Serving NEW BRAUNFELS and COMAL Home of Charlotte Polklnghorne Vol. 140, No, 200 Dally 50 cents, Sunday 75 cents Archives officially at home By LARRY ROWE Staff Wrhw The City of New Braunfels and the Sophienburg Memorial Association struck an accord Monday night giving the historical group a lowered price on the old City Hall building for the housing of the Sophienburg Archives. As part of the deal, the association will give the city the first opportunity to buy some of its property for the expansion of the city's Dittlihger Memorial Library, should they ever agree to sell the property. "We are thrilled to death that we have this thing settled and we can get on with our business preservation and conservation of the historic artifacts of the City of New Braunfels," said Clyde Blackman, Sophienburg director. The association must now pull together $200,000 for the purchase of the City Hall property, which it has used for free to house the archives for two years.

The archives and the city signed a two-year contract in 1990 whereby the association would gel the first chance to buy the building, appraised at $270,000. The association would pay half, and grants would cover the rest, but the grants could not be raised. The city had a second appraisal returned at $216,000, leading to the association's offer of $200,000 for the property. In addition, the city had agreed in negotiations with the association that it would pay them $25,000 for their 59 years of service to the community. Meanwhile, the city was eyeing a lot on Academy Street next to the Dittlinger Memorial Library with a desire to use it for future library expansion.

The lot is owned by the memorial association and a house there is used to store Sophienburg Museum artifacts not on dislay. The museum is located two lots away. As part of the City Hall purchase, the association agreed that should it ever look favorably upon an outside offer to buy the property, it will first offer the lot to the city at the same price. Mayor Clinton Brandt said he was pleased with the deal. "I think the council initially had some questions about the price that the Sophienburg was offering for the old City Hall," Brandt said.

"But, I think after understanding the work that the Sophienburg does on the archives, I think council came to agree that what we did tonight it best for the entire community." He said he believes the City Hall is an "excellent" location for the archives. "I have always felt that way and have been really interested in seeing them stay in that building," Brandt said. The measure passed 5-1, with Council Member Paul Fraser voting against it, Cathy Crist Talcott, executive director of the Hummel Museum.admires the colorful originals of Sister Hummel's artwork. (Photo by John Huseth. Museum looking for a few good men and women ERHANIEJ-pRGUSQN Managing Editor "olunteer opportunities at the Hummel Museum are endless.

When the museum opens its doors to the public later in October it will take close to 100 volunteers to give tours, take tickets, man the gift shop, read to children about Sister Hummel, perform office duties, and the list goes on and on. Sieglinde Smith, special projects walk iind "The more the better," said Smith, who has been working behind the scenes for months to see that the museum opens. According to Volunteer dinator Barbara Manthey, volunteers can be mothers, fathers, working men and women and retired people. at a museum is like We used to think of as just a woman's job," she said. "We want "have already been recruited, she said.

"Some of them will be tour guides, some of them will be selling and taking tickets. They will be checking in photographic equipment because there will be no cameras allowed. "There will be people doing office work. We're going to need a lot of volunteers to do phone work," she said, adding there will also be jobs in the media room and library. This Thursday, two volunteer information sessions will be held at 9:30 a.m.

and again at 7 p.m. at the museum, 199 Main Plaza. Please enter at the side door located just off the north parking lot. If the door is locked, ring the door bell. Everyone interested in becoming a volunteer, should attend.

For more irifbrmation call the museum at 625-5636. Task force looks at river chaos By LARRY ROWE Staff The discussion of law and order on the Ouadalupe River continued at Monday's New Braunfels City Council meeting, with talk of crowd control at the Oruene Road crossing. The council nominated two citizens representing the Oruene area for a broad citizens task force put together by the Water Oriented Recreation District to come up with solutions to litter, safety and law enforcement problems on the river. Chris Bowers, a Gruene Road resident nominated along with entrepreneur Mary Jane Nalley, told the council that some of the solutions proposed for loitering problems on the Oruene Road crossing, such as building a larger bridge, may be overreactions. He said the city should "manage what we've got" rather than build new structures.

"I talked with some of the officers down there, just trying to get a feel for what the situation really is," Bowers said. "I have no doubt that there isn't a lot of problems up the river from that point, but I got a feeling that some of this seems to be a little bit blown out of proportion." Council Member Paul Fraser said the council should consider asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce flows from Canyon Dam during the entire summer, to avoid a repeat of the current situation, in which August is -bringing an influx of tubers kept away by dangerous flows earlier in the season. Fraser, who proposed a citizens "task group" on the problem at the last meeting, said efforts should now be focused through the WORD committee, and elected officials should not SM RIVER, 2 Auditor recommends tighter controls on Comal County's computer system By LARRY ROWE Stiff Writw An outside auditor is recommending that Comal County tighten control of computer information on court cases and warrants, saying the information can be altered without authorization. "The county's financial records are in great shape," said Keith Moore, a certified public accountant who also audits the City of New Braunfels and New Braunfels Utilities.

"There aren't any real major alarms," he said. "The biggest problem that was discovered was some lack of internal control and documentation in the court case management system." This software controls warrants, the payment for warrants and receipts for those payments, and jail records, he said, "We're talking about the ability to trace information through the system," Moore said. "In other words, information can be changed, and that's fine, as long as you can trace those changes." Currently, the alterations cannot be traced, he said. The Comal County Commissioners Court reinstituted an Audit Oversight Committee last week that will address Moore's recommendations. The committee includes commissioners J.L.

"Jumbo" Evans and Neil Craigmile, and Tax Gloria Clennan. Some other findings and recommendations made by Moore include the following: Finding: The number of bank accounts maintained by the county and its officers exceed the number necessary for efficient operations. Recommendation: Unnecessary accounts should be closed and the function of depositing to the banks should be shifted to the treasurer 'WP IMS' where possible. Finding: Not all offices and related entities had been audited by the county auditor during 1991, including certain offices with significant cash collections. Also, no audit of amounts reported collected to the county auditor and amounts actually deposited with the county treasurer by fee officers was conducted.

Recommendation: Written procedures should be adopted which identify areas at greatest risk for misstatements of cash, revenues and expenditures, Also, regular random audits of all county offices and related entities should continue. Finding: In the county auditor's office, monthly outside office reports turned in with funds to the county treasurer were not audited on a timely basis. The year-end close out process to get financial statements to the outside auditor also was not Hurricane Andrew threatens Texas coast OALVESTON, Texas (AP) Texas Gulf Coast residents familiar with hurricane threats began covering windows with plywood and stocking up on groceries and emergency supplies, just in case Hurricane Andrew takes a turn towards the Lone Star State. Early today, Andrew was moving to the west northwest across the Oulf of Mexico from the Bahamas and the Florida peninsula, where it left at least 13 dead. A hurricane warning was in force from Pascagoula, to Port Arthur, Texas arid a watch was in effect from south of Port Arthur to High Island.

At 4 a.m. CDT, Andrew's center was about 270 miles southeast of New Orleans, moving west-northwest at 17 mph. HURRICANE, 2 By 8TBPHANIE FERQUtON of the American ii iC lir disaiter teimi disaster teams on alert in the it Index 1 Station, 10 Pagtt BUSINESS CLASSIFIED COMICS DEARABBY FORUM RECORDS OPINIONS SPORTS STOCKS TOWN TALK WATER WATCH WEATHER 8-10 6 3 4 3 4 7.A 3 3 3 a Beat wishes The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung sends birthday wishes today to Jack Cavarubias, Raymond Hook Watson, Stanley Thirsk, Louisa C. Martinez, Ignaclo Flores Rita Castilleja, Tommy Whitaker and Kimberly Darnell. Belated birthday wishes go to Kerry Noble, Jessica Farias, Trina Labarbera and Jason Wahl.

Anniversary wishes today go to Clifford and Sheila Schuetz. German American Society The German American Society will have its annual picnic at 6:30 pjn. Tuesday, Sept. 1 at Landa Park areas 4 and 5. Members are asked to take a covered dish.

For more information, call 625-6330. Qlrl Scout registration New Braunfels Girl Scouts Registration Day will be 9 a.m.-2 pjn, Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Girl Scout House on the corner of Howard and Fredericksburg. RegUtration is open to girls of kindergarten age through adulthood. Those not able to register at this time should call Karen McDonald at 6254024.

Violin lessons The Strings Project of the Mid'Texas Symphony Society will host a meeting of prospective violin students at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2 in the Board Room of the New Braunfels Education Center. Call Susan Deschner at 964-2348 for more information about violin lessons in the area. Friends for Rivers Friends for Rivers invites the public to an educational forum at 7 pjn, Thursday, Aug.

27 at the Victoria Bank and Trust North Building, 1000 N. Walnut. Ken Kramer, state director of the Sierra Club, will speak on regional management of water resources, Including an update on the status of the Comal Springs endangered species lawsuit. Drug-free teen dance. The Knighu of Columbus 4183 and the local Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program will sponsor a drug-free teen dance with music by disc jockey Mike Taylor from 7- 11p.m.

Friday, Aug. 28 at the KC Hall, Free sodas will be provided by HEB and free pizza, by Mr. Oatti's, Cover charge is $3. Republican headquarters Opening ceremonies for the Coma! County Republican Headquarters are scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday, Aug.

31 at the law offices of 1111625-9144.