The Odessa! American Sunday, May, 18, 1980 Mass transit survey jeopardized by dispute 'Father of study resigns, assistant fired By MIKE W. RAY Staff Writer Discord in the Eastland branch office of West Texas Legal Services has clouded the fate of a survey of mass transit systems in Odessa-Midland and four other Texas cities. Eastland County lawyer Stan Boose, who is credited with be-; ing the father of the study and engineering it while managing at-; tomey of the Eastland WTLS office, resigned last month. His aide, B.D. Trice, was dismissed Wednesday.
Now, although the report is practically finished, its status is in doubt. "I really don't know much about it; it was Boose's baby' said Terry Rombough, who has succeeded Boose as managing attorney in the Eastland WTLS office. Executives in Odessa's city manager's office said this past week that they had not been apprised of the survey. Judy Miller, director of the municipal Department of Planning and Inspection, said Trice was in Odessa several weeks ago to discuss the survey but she hadn't seen a copy of it. "We haven't seen the report," William Dupree, deputy director of West Texas Legal Services, told The Odessa American in a telephone interview Friday.
However, he added, "If word of it has extended out to Odessa and I guess Mr. Moore (WTLS Executive Director Dwight Moore) and I will have to pursue this a little bit further." And Boose said Thursday he intends "to pull strings" to ensure publication of the survey. Boose said the survey is an examination of public transportation systems in Midland, Odessa (which, except for a taxi service, has none), Amarillo, San Angelo, Abilene and Wichita Falls. The scope of the study, Boose said, is what public transportation, if any, those cities and how it impacts on the elderly, handicapped, youth, and low-income families. It is not a probe into the question of whether those cities do or do not need public transportation, he said.
1 Boose said his intention was to submit the study to those six municipalities for digestion and consideration "an eye opener," he said. "We wouldn't try to force anything on a community. We just wanted to compile facts and figures for a cogent argument about what the problems were." The ultimate motive, he said, was to analyze the results and determine whether it would be feasible to establish a mass transit system in the rural area around Eastland. "Our understanding was that Mr. Boose was going to study mass transit situations in those six metropolitan areas, with an idea perhaps that we could develop some kind of transit system in the 11-county Eastland rural area," Dupree said Friday.
"At. least, this was our intent." Boose said he launched the unsolicited study in 1978 on his own initiative while assigned to the WTLS office in Wichita Falls. The survey was neither requested nor commissioned by any agency or city, he said. The seed was planted when an elderly woman entered his office, drenched from standing in the rain waiting for a bus, he related Thursday. "That's what tipped me off." He said he examined the public transportation facilities in Wichita Falls, and when re-assigned to Eastland he brought the study along and expanded it to include Odessa-Midland, Amarillo, Abilene and San Angelo, At Eastland, Trice, a school teacher, was hired to assist Boose as a clerk, compiling the mass transit data.
Boose said he had "only $500 to $700" from his office budget of tax dollars invested in the study; it was not financed through a grant, he said. Apparently the report was nearly finished when Boose resigned seven weeks ago, and Trice was dismissed Wednesday. The report is "still in a study stage" but "pretty much over," Rombough told The Odessa American on Wednesday. "It was voluminous." "It should have been," Boose said Thursday. "The last time I saw it, it was awful thick." Boose said he resigned from West Texas Legal Services effective April 1, after 18 months of service leaving Trice to finish the mass transit study because, "I think the S.O.B.'s have gone crazy!" Dupree said Trice was terminated because the survey was nearly finished.
directions to the managing attorney of that office (Rombough) were to have Mr. Trice complete his work and then discharge him because his services were no longer needed," Dupree said. "We have to worry about our budget. Our funds are not Boose said he quit because be grew disenchanted with WTLS over a philosophical disagreement. West Texas Legal Services is a federally-subsidized agency "created to deliver legal counsel to indigents in civil law cases," explained Boose.
See MASS TRANSIT, Page 2D ft I Ready for take-off? With the ever-changing West Texas weather in mind, an aircraft owner at Odessa's Schleymeyer Field Isn't taking any chances, it seems. This outboard was parked between two planes at Schleymeyer's main hangar. (Staff Photo by Bob Johmon) UK? mjrihmm' i -UU. -jprr 11111 f. ''ai 3 1 Officers seize suspected heroin, arrest one 07 well firefighter doesn't like monotony A white haired man in his 50s and a Mexican male in his 20s awaited, handcuffed, for transport to the Odessa police station after authorities read them their rights.
be filed and bond set Whitworth declined comment on an estimated street value of the suspected drug, and the ultimate arrest of only one of the two men. However, DEA agent Howard Whitworth said only one suspect was arrested, who will be taken before a United States magistrate in Midland today or Monday, when formal charges will plosives are more dangerous," he said "They can be set off by heat or dropping them, but the plan is to set them off One man was arrested and approximately six to eight ounces of what is believed to be heroin was seized by law enforcement officials on Crane Avenue immediately south of Interstate 20 Saturday afternoon. Odessa police narcotics officers, Ector County sheriff's deputies, Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics officers and federal Drug Enforcement Agency special agents from Midland were all involved in the drug bust at 5 p.m. using an electric cap. Pistol, money bicycle taken in burglaries By EVIE DAVIS Staff Writer He says he does it to break up the monotony of everyday living.
George Curry of Odessa has been traveling throughout the United States for 20 years, hooking 55-gallon oil Curry said the concussion caused by the explosion "blows the oxygen away from the fire, and it's got to have ox ygen to burn. drums filled with nitrogel to a boom on An Odessa man reported a pistol and a ziock-radio stolen from his bedroom among burglaries under investigation by Odessa police. Benito Reemos of 1001 Dwayne told police a blue steel pistol worth $125 and the radio worth $50 were taken from his locked house which had no sign of forced entry. An employee of Glass Professional Pharmacy at 1522 North Texas told police a roll of quarters worth $10 was the only item missing from the store after burglars smashed the north window to gain entry: Wade Wilkerson of 704 East 35th told police a 20-inch boys' bicycle worth $137 was taken from his unlocked garage. his tractor and setting them in the hearts of super-hot oil well fires to stop Curry's experience with well fires led to his work as technical adviser for the movie, "Hellfires," in which he the blazes.
also doubled for actors Bruce Cabbott, "I imagine I'll be doing it for as long John Wayne, Jim Hutton and Ed -as I ra able to get on and off a tractor, Faulkner. Curry said. It exciting and Execution deliveries rise along with debts The movie was filmed for six weeks dangerous, and I like to do something in Baytown was supposed to be the Malaya jungles and the Lousisiana and 10 weeks in Casper, Wyo. was supposed to be no one else luces to do. The "cat skinner" has worked for Shortie Hall Rig Inc.
of Odessa 23 years, moving rigs, pulling trucks and Curry said. Wigging pits, but whenever a well fire The fuming experience was erupts, "I go when they need help, ditions of the execution are satisfied, Lumpee stated. Property seized by the sheriff is sold at a sheriff sale which takes place either where the property is being stored or at the courthouse door, Gray explained. The money made by selling the property goes to the party who won the judg sales this said. "Usually people will go ahead and pay if they have property levied." Once the property is seized the owner has 10 days to work something out with the complaining party, except in the case See EXECUTIONS, Page 2D ment after the county takes out costs and a $12 fee, Gray said.
"I don't want to give the impression that the civil division of the sheriff's department is a collection agency," Gray said. The sheriff's office acts as an arm of the courts, she added. "We have had only three or four sheriff with his employer's blessing. Curry said that when he and other wonderful," but Curry has experienced tragedies in real-life situations. He said while fighting a fire in Coyonasa about 15 years ago, two men, the tool pusher and a driller, were killed as they work "cat skinners" he works with, such as Red Adair and Boots and Coots, arrive at a well fire site they immediately begin to dig a water reservoir.
The ed on the well's floor, and three men underneath the floor in the well's eight-foot cellar "were burnt so bad we never water is needed, he said, to drive the fire's heat back. found them all we found was a Next, the hot iron in the well must be Sr' rrr wristwatch in the cellar one of the men removed, "because if we don't, the gas (in the well) would get so hot it'd ignite 4 4 and catch fire all over again." Then, 400 to 500 pounds of nitrogel, an explosive, is hooked to Curry's tractor boom before he backs the tractor "right up to the fire" to plant the explosive, protected by a shield built by Curry around his tractor. "Any fire is dangerous, but the ex- mm By BRUCE DAVIDSON Staff Writer If you were unable to make the payment on your car, home, or television set last month, you were not alone. According to Capt Nina Gray of the civil division of the Ector County Sheriff's Department, local courts have handed down more executions (the final order of the court in a lawsuit which orders the sheriff to collect payment or seize property in order to settle a debt) during the last six months than any equal time period over the last five years. Most of the executions involve nonpayment for cars or mobile homes, but an execution may be handed down by a court in any lawsuit, according to Gray.
Most executions are from county and district court, she added. Last week almost 100 executions were being handled by the sheriff's office civil department. The usual number is closer to 20, Gray pointed out. Gray's job is to find the person who has the judgment passed against him or her and collect payment. If the person is unable to pay, the sheriff's department informs the court.
Property that is essential to a person's livelihood can not be seized in most cases, according to Justice of the Peace Virgil Lumpee. However in cases where one fails to live up to the agreement in the original mortgage of such property, it can be seized, Lumpee explained. If an execution is handed down, and the defendent has property which is not exempt from seizure, the sheriff's office must seize and sell it to fulfill the requirements of the execution, Gray said. The court must wait 30 days after passing a judgment to issue an execution, Lumpee said. The court sets a 30, 60, or 90 day period in which the sheriff must contact the defendent and collect payment if possible, Lumpee added.
If a person owns property that is protected by the law from being seized, a lien is placed on that property to prevent the owner from selling it before the con-' 4 was wearing." Curry said the most difficult job was about 40 miles into the Gulf of Mexico near Venus, where 11 dual wells were burning out of control. "They built a platform out there on the water and hauled my tractor out there on a boat," Curry said. "And you know, there's always something when you're working out on the. water. There's rain or a storm every day." Curry said for 34 days he helped battle the April natural gas well fire in Mentone, a fire so hot the rig melted in 17 minutes.
"In that one, the pipe busted open," he said. "We had to dig a hole to get all the broken pipe out first. My wife didn't see me for 34 days. "When the explosives went off, it made a terrible noise it'll blow the cab off my tractor if you give it half a chance." Curry, who was born and raised in southern Illinois, said he's battled oil well fires in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. "All I do is drive a tractor and help put out these fires," he said.
"My wife, Pearl, well, she don't like it, except when I bring home the check. I'm probably getting old enough here I should quit my wife says I haven't got the brains to quit. But you got to admit, it breaks the monotony." i 1m' w. -fcfl if srtZT i lrs Executions (SWf Photo by Htnry twgkt) Capt. Nina Gray of the Ector County Sheriff's 100 final orders to collect payment or seize propertv Department civil division looks over the increased settling a debt as compared to a normal 20, Gray number of executions handed down to her office by $ald- local courts.
The division last week handled almost GEORGE CURRY J'.
