Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 21

Wednesday, April 25, 1990 Austin American-Statesman E8 Jail stands empty after years of turbulent court battles If XX said Oden, noting that events could force the old facility to be reused. But, Oden remarked, "this may get us closer to getting out of federal court." Taylor was quick to caution, however, that the county's jail problems are by no means over. Though the issue of the old jail might soon be laid to rest, "we've got small offshoots, and the court will continue to be involved either voluntarily or involuntarily, perhaps through other litigation." Nonetheless, "I feel good" that the end to the 1972 suit appears to be in sight, said Taylor. The old jail, said the sheriff, "is like an old, bad friend. And you know, it doesn't look so unconstitutional with no prisoners in it." felon backlog in county jails, where they waited until there was room for them in state penitentiaries.

Ironically, the suit that prompted Justice's orders was filed by Austinite David Ruiz in 1972, the same year the Travis County suit was filed. Taylor said he, like others who receive daily jail population reports, knew about the emptying of the old jail. If prisoners can be kept out of old jail, "the thrust of the old jail suit has been resolved," said Taylor. Like Bailey, however, Travis County Attorney Ken Oden was cautious about declaring the jail matter finally closed. "I don't want to get too far out" Continued from B1 that a growing backlog of felons awaiting transfer to state facilities was causing crowding and financial problems for the county jails.

Because of the crowding, lawyers for county officials argued, the old jail had to remain open, despite efforts to shut it. U.S. Magistrate Stephen Capelle ordered state officials added to the suit last year as defendants. He also ordered a gradual inmate reduction in the old jail, with the closing mandated for Dec. 31.

Last year, state prisons were being closed to new admissions periodically to comply with orders imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice to alleviate crowding. The closings caused a Neighbors Continued from B1 route. Neighborhoods in other cities have used the same system to help curb drug use, says Evans, who publishes the weekly newspaper Nokoa. Ida Park, principal of Black-shear, agrees that parental involvement is a key to the patrol's success.

While students are told not to come to school before supervisors arrive at 7:15 a.m., many parents send their children to school early, she says. The patrols won't be on foot early enough to help those kids. Their parents could learn a lesson from the volunteers, Park suggests. Staff photo by Larry Kolvoord Shirley Smith Beck, left, and JoNell Prochnow Haas of the Old Blanco County Courthouse Preservation Society have high hopes for their fund-raisers. patrol school routes for Historic Preservation has lent the Blanco preservationists $100,000 in their drive to purchase the building from O'Boyle.

The Meadows Foundation of Dallas has pledged $200,000 for renovation, and more donors are expected to contribute to a permanent endowment fund. H.E.B. stores have underwritten much of the expense for this weekend's fund-raising festival. And Haas said that O'Boyle himself has been a patient prince. She said he told the society, "I didn't think anybody cared about the courthouse.

But I won't take your heritage." But the greatest outpouring of support has been nickel and dimes And volunteers are optimistic they may help cut down crime. "As the kids talk (about the patrol), the people we're trying to stop and later help may be less tempted to harass the kids," says Joe Washington, who joined the patrol Monday. He says he worries that unreported physical abuse and attacks on self-esteem suffered by neighborhood children will take its toll. "I'm committed to giving our children the opportunity to live their lives with as few scars as possible. They need to know people are out here for them.

Then maybe they'll begin to feel safer and better about coming to school." "These are some people who care about children to get up this early in the morning. If more parents would get involved, it wouldn't be a hardship for anyone to do it once a month. They have a part to play, too," Park says. Evans, who has enlisted the support of officers at the police substation at 11th and Navasota streets, will speak to the Blackshear students later this week about the patrol. "In some areas, they (residents) are afraid to come out and mow the lawn because of the crime," says police officer Robert Simmons.

"We're always looking for people to help us in the community." Conference committeo plan's effect Tuition aid plan wins support, but not funds state aid by $555 million the first year and by $1.8 billion the fifth year. Here is how the compromise school finance bill, approved Tuesday by the conference committee, would affect local school districts. The bill would Increase District Current Change under state aid committee plan 1991 1995 Travis County and dollars from ordinary folk, some from outside the Blanco community. Ned Collins of New Jersey, who said he owned a lot at Horseshoe Bend, mailed $500 "because I care." And Edward Blanco Jr. of Carol Stream, 111., who saw his name on a map and couldn't resist passing through, stopped by the newspaper office and donated $5 to the courthouse fund.

And Barbara Syphrett, one of Margie Dees' daughters, has written lyrics to a song, The Checkered Lady, dedicated to the courthouse. The chorus goes: She's a lady of dignity Strong, built to last. .1 She's our duty to the future, She's the window to our past. as high school students would have to demonstrate financial need, sign up for a full course load and graduate from high school with a cumulative average of 80 or higher. To remain eligible for continued grants, students would have to sign up for a full course load two semesters a year and post a grade-point average higher than that earned by 50 percent of their classmates.

The plan is similar to a proposal by Republican gubernatorial nominee Clayton Williams. Under Williams' plan, tuition for the first two years of college would be waived for financially needy students who meet certain criteria. However, Williams' plan goes much further: To be eligible, students would have to graduate from high school with a average. Students would have to attend class 95 percent of the time and demonstrate good behavior and "good citizenship." Students would have to submit to random drug tests, and they would have to come from families whose combined income is $30,000 or less. Williams estimates the program would cost about $32.5 million annually to administer.

0 1.07 mil 0 0 0 0 990,641 Georgetown 7.5 mil 903,597 4.7 mil. Granger 795,587 131,922 438,395 Hutto 1.1 mil 173,101 668,808 Jarrell 962,631 164,045 538,897 5.4 mil 0 1.8 mil. 2.8 mil 470,564 1.5 mil. 24.6 mil 2.4 mil 17 mil. 4.6 mil 654,743 2.6 mil.

1.2 mil 126,062 205,963 2mii 170,255 1.1 mil. 8 mil 1.1 mil 4.6 mil. 9.3 mil 1.1 mil 5.4 mil 1 mil 0 16,059 Austin Del Valle Eanes Lago Vista Lake Travis Manor Pflugervllle 71.4 mil 8.8 mil 2.8 mil 118,897 469,159 1.4 mil 8.8 mil Williamson County Courthouse center of a crusade Continued from B1 and theatrics, as well as games and contests. Honored guests for the weekend festivities will be descendants of the courthouse architect, Frederick Ernst Ruffini. Ruffini, who worked out of Austin, and his younger brother, Oscar, who settled in San Angelo, were famous for their Texas courthouses, many of which have been demolished.

If you want to see what the courthouse at Blanco looked like when it was built in 1885, go out to Paint Rock and view the splendidly maintained Concho Countv Courthouse, which Oscar Ruffini built from his brother's plans for the Blanco edifice. Representing the family at the Blanco gala will be Ernst Frederick Ruffini of Scottsdale, grandson of F.E. He will be joined by his daughters, Susan and Kay. Reporter Dees, intent on wiping away cobwebs, reminded us that after the county fathers abandoned the Blanco Courthouse, it continued to be used in various ways. "It was a school at two different times," she wrote, "and it was the original home of the Blanco National Bank, now across the street, Jl TS .1 I ana later tne sue oi me reaerai Farm Loan Bank.

(The old vaults are still in the building.) It provided business office space to a variety of enterprises: doctors, dentists, lawyers, real estate agents and the justice of the peace. It was the Farmers' Union Hall, town hall, theater, opera house, library and fairgrounds. It housed a bakery and the Blanco County News. Between 1936 and 1970, it was, much of the 1 i wme, a tuirn; auuur uuspiuu, wiui doctors' offices and living quarters for the nursing staff. Between 1971 an A 1074 if Wilt Wnt-t mm iu tii nas a 1 uu i col uiuoc urn, and then, as you know, was purchased by the Thurman Ro berta fnr nae an a restaurant be fore being sold to John O'Boyle." JoNell Haas and one of her preservation board members, Shirley Smith Beck, took us inside the limestone courthouse and showed us, among other things: the rooms where Haas' grandmother, Nell Prochnow, went to school as a child, and where, much later as an aging patient, she died; the old clinic rooms where Haas' husband, Joe, was born in 1947 and where Haas herself was born in 1958; the schoolboy "thespian" wall where Beck's late father, Warren Smith, scratched his name; and the room where Dr.

John Flannery removed Beck's tonsils when she was a child. Outside, on the courthouse lawn, retired postmaster Roy Byars mowed the yard and Oren Sublett trimmed trees. A banner flapped from the second story. "Save me," it read. Haas said the movement to save the courthouse began in June 1986 when Roy McNett, publisher and editor of the Blanco County News, wrote a column about O'Boyle's plans to move the courthouse, stone by stone, to his ranch.

What began as a small gathering of concerned (the Preservation Society raised its first monies through bake sales) has grown into something much larger. The National Trust Ethics reform declared dead for this session Continued from B1 came to the conclusion it would be Better to take it out altogether." Rep. Terral Smith, a member of the House committee studying ethics reform, echoed that concern. "It might be a good way to discourage people from taking a job with the state and that would be bad public policy," said Smith, R-Austin. But ardent supporters of a revolving door rule disagreed.

"Nothing has shown it will cause a mass exodus," said Pam Fridrich, executive director of Common Cause of Texas. "At least 16 states and the federal government have revolving door laws that work," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, "so why wouldn't this work in Texas?" Along with the revolving door policy, officials said, other changes are being discussed: Some lawmakers want to drop a provision prohibiting legislators from accepting honoraria during special sessions. Others lawmakers have suggested changing current state law to allow them to take more than one speaking fee per year from an organization. McFarland wants to broaden a section that prohibits judges from accepting campaign contributions in courthouses. He said it should cover all other elected county officials.

Coupland 176,571 21,893 92,678 Florence 1.6 mil 264,810 864,934. Source: Texas Education Agency School finance plan gets panel's blessing By David Elliot American-Statesman Capitol Staff Texas lawmakers are prepared to create a program aimed at helping lower- and middle-income students attend college, but they are not ready to pay for it. An education reform bill passed Tuesday by members of a House-Senate conference committee contains a "Texas Tuition Assistance Grant Program" intended to encourage high-risk students to pursue a college education. But legislators working to trim the education bill's first-year price tag to $555 million deleted $2 million originally earmarked for the program. Last year, legislators passed another college aid plan the Texas Educational Opportunity Grant Program but did not fund it.

A provision of the bill states that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which would manage the program, would not be allowed to make grants unless funds were specifically appropriated for that purpose. Thus, although the program would be written into the Texas Education Code along with the Texas Educational Opportunity Grant Program, no one would benefit from it. "It's an important aspect of the reform proposal and I would hope that funds made available for it," said Gerald Hill, vice chancellor for governmental relations at the University of Texas System. Currently, tuition rates average about $550 a year at state universities. Students would be eligible to receive up to that amount from the state.

And students attending public and private colleges and universities would be eligible for the grants. To qualify for the program, Tex TUNE-UP -SPECIAL Reg. 4480 FREE enolrw analysis wtth 4 cyl. slightly higher I I Including computer check newer vehicle using the equipment available. Parts plugs, points and condensor.

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mentarian Tuesday to try to determine how many votes are needed. "It's fairly confusing," Hobby said after studying the issue. According to the constitution, the chamber in which the legislation originated the House in the case of the tax bill must produce a two-thirds vote of those present to override a veto. That T.i. ns it could take less than 100 House members to pass the tax bill over the governor's wishes if some mem WIDES Reg.

$95 ON LOW'h'ST COMPARE" I Leander Liberty Hill Round Rock Taylor Thrall Hays County Dripping Spr. Hays Cons. San Marcos Wimberley Continued from B1 possibility of overriding his vetos. The last time that occurred in Texas was in 1979, during Clements' first term, when lawmakers overrode his veto on a local hunting and fishing measure. Overrides are so rare that when questioned about how they work, Lt.

Gov. Bill Hobby the state's longest-tenured leader had to pore over the state constitution and a memo from the House parlia AC RECHARGE SPECIAL so Freon bers are absent. The tax bill first passed the House by a vote of 85-60. If the House overrides a veto on the tax bill, the measure then goes to the Senate, which apparently needs a two-thirds vote of its total membership according to the constitution. However, a memo from House Parliamentarian Bob Kelly says House precedent requires two-thirds of the members present in both chambers to override a veto.

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