Ready For A New Spring Handbag?
Inside Today: Tips for maintaining lawn and gardens • Page 6B
Stop By
Flower & Gift Shop
MICHAEL SILVA
michael@michaelwilliam.com
713-725-8748 cell
Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North Houston
10570 NW Frwy ❖ 713-680-2350
Saturday, March 16, 2019 • Vol. 64 • No. 11
ABOUT US 2020 North Loop West Suite 220 (713) 686-8494 news@theleadernews.com www.theleadernews.com Facebook/FromTheLeader
40 YEARS INSULATING!
GET $50 OFF
your purchase of $750 or more
Attics • Walls • Floors Noise Reduction • Removal
FREE ESTIMATES
713.868.1021
Prop B turning into big problem for Houston By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com Houston voters made themselves clear regarding Proposition B, with nearly 60 percent supporting the city charter amendment to give firefighters equal pay to police officers of similar rank. Putting the idea into action, however, has become a muddy mess. More than four months after the referendum passed – by a margin of more than 91,000 votes – the pay raises have yet to be implemented amidst an ongoing legal dispute involving the city and the local unions for firefighters and police officers.
Citizens in the area, where 54.6 percent of voters supported Prop B, weighed in on the topic on Facebook this week. “If the voters have spoken, why is action not being implemented?” Mary Heffernan said. Mayor Sylvester Turner has challenged the legality of Prop B and said, if implemented immediately, it would cost the city more than $100 million annually and lead to a significant reduction in city services and personnel. According to a statement released by Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen, a city councilwoman who represents Garden Oaks, Oak Forest and much of the Heights, the job cuts could include approximately 400
firefighters. Turner has proposed phasing in the pay raises, estimated to be about 29 percent on average, over a period of five years as a means of avoiding widespread layoffs. Cohen said she supports that idea and asked the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association to agree to it. “I’m for the firefighters being paid more,” reader Ashley Jean Jackson said. “However, I think a 2-5 percent raise over the next 10 years is appropriate for everyone to keep their jobs.” The firefighters union, in a March 8 statement on its Facebook page, called See Prop B P. 3A
Danger zone
www.paylessinsulation.com
Photo by Adam Zuvanich Retired Houston firefighter Willie Morrison, left, talks to a voter Nov. 6.
11TH ST. BEFORE
11TH ST. AFTER
Historic home in Heights sold to area family By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com
Jason Knebel (713)232-9712
jasonk@greenwoodking.com GREENWOOD KING
PROPERTIES
Crash rates of 356 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (Texas’ 2010-19 average for four undivided lanes), compared to 385 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (the 2010-19 average for 11th Street
CONCIERGE MEDICINE
516
94
Studewood St
11th Street
Heights Blvd
Yale St
713-863-9200
Heights Hike and Bike Trail
Nicholson St
Internal Medicine & Pediatrics
N Shepherd Dr
Dr. Ana M. Torres
between Shepherd Drive and Heights Boulevard)
crashes reported to HPD between 2010-19
traffic safety requests submitted to 311 between Feb. 2018Feb. 2019 Pecore St
427 W. 20th St. Ste. 503 Houston, TX 77008 WWW.THETORRESCENTER.COM
INSIDE.
Based on City of Houston statistics cited in the above graphic, a lane reconfiguration has been proposed for 11th Street between Shepherd Drive and Michaux Street. Photo by Adam Zuvanich. Graphic design by Martha Buhler.
Cyclist’s death magnifies safety concerns Traffic lane reconfiguration proposed for 11th Street By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com
Cooking crawdads. ‘Tis the season to boil mudbugs, which brings people together.
Page 1B
Bold brew. Brash Brewing Co. near Garden Oaks makes strong beer and no apologies.
Page 6B
More than 50 community members gathered at the Heights Fire Station on March 5 for a meeting called by the City of Houston, which presented a plan to make 11th Street safer. They were shown a video and fed facts about the benefits of a road diet, which reduces the number of lanes but makes for more efficient traffic flow and fewer crashes, according to proponents. A key part of the proposal was the addition of bicycle lanes on the outside of 11th Street, a major artery in a bike-loving community. The Heights Hike and Bike Trail crosses the road at its intersection with Nicholson Street, which was identified by bike advocates as one of the most dangerous spots in the city. David Loya According to Houston Planning & Development Department assistant director Jennifer Ostlind, who made
Amy Lynch Kolflat said she specializes in selling places that are “historic and quirky and artistic.” The Houston Realtor has never had a sale as special as the one that closed Tuesday. Kolflat, the listing agent for the historic Victorian mansion at 1802 Harvard St., said it sold to a Heights family for $1.75 million. The five-bedroom, four-story home built in 1892 was owned by the estate of Bart Truxillo, the trailblazing preservationist who lived there from the 1970s until his death nearly two years ago. “It’s so iconic, and iconic is a word that’s overused,” Kolflat said. “But it’s appropriately used when referring to this house.” Kolflat, a close friend of Truxillo’s who has handled all the properties in his estate, said his former home was on the market for 146 days. She declined to name the buyer but said it is a family with children that plans to renovate the property and use it as a residence. The house is a City of Houston landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “I have full faith in the new owners See Historic P. 6A
Photo by Adam Zuvanich Authorities survey the scene at the intersection of Heights Boulevard and 8th Street on March 7, when cyclist David Loya died in a collision with a Houston ISD school bus.
the presentation along with Houston Public Works, the idea was met with opposition by many of the Heights residents in attendance. She said citizens expressed concerns about increased congestion on a street that would be reduced from four lanes to two and were particularly against the addition of bike lanes. Two days later, and a few blocks south of 11th Street, a cyclist was killed in a collision with a Houston ISD See Bike P. 3A
Contributed photo The Victorian mansion at 1802 Harvard St., owned by late Houston preservationist Bart Truxillo, was sold Tuesday.
Installation provides new ‘worldview’ in Heights By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
End of an era. The Temple Oaks Baptist Church building is being demolished.
Page 7A
THE INDEX. Church/Calendar............................... 5A Classifieds.............................................. 4B Coupons................................................... 6A Food/Drink/Art................................... 1B Obituaries............................................... 6A Opinion..................................................... 4A Public Information......................... 2A Puzzles...................................................... 4A
Contributed photo Art created by, from left to right, Charlie Jean Sartwelle, Tristan Hadley and John Runnels.
Artist John Runnels said he’s not a hoarder. He simply suffers from “AAD” -- archival attachment disorder. And for quite some time, the objects of his obsession have been hubcaps. His partner in the collection of the discarded car parts is his grandson, Oak Forest Elementary fourth grader Tristan Hadley, who remembers going on hubcap hunts when he was 5 years old. “He’s always seen me getting those shiny bright things,” Runnels said. “It’s like bird watching. ‘There’s one! There’s one!’ ... I was seduced by this object.”
A RATE THAT WORKS, EVEN WHILE YOU PLAY. 15-month CD
2.27% APY*
Because Runnels and his wife, Charlie Jean Sartwelle, are both artists – they founded Mother Dog Studios in 1984 to provide studio space to their fellow creatives – the collection was not going to go to waste. It’s now being used for a worldly pursuit. Runnels and Sartwelle submitted plans for a globe that would wrap around a tree along Heights Boulevard to the curators of TRUE NORTH, an outdoor public art exhibition in its sixth year that is named for the compass bearing of Heights Boulevard. Funded by private donations from individuals and businesses, the exhibition aims to highlight regional works of contemporary art by recognized Texas artists. Co-curators Linda
Eyles, Simon Eyles, Chris Silkwood and Kelly Simmons, along with project consultant Gus Kopriva, partner with the Houston Heights Association (HHA) to make TRUE NORTH a reality. The idea of wrapping the globe around a tree was nixed, but the globe itself got the green light. So Runnels, Sartwelle and Hadley set out to put their plan into motion. Their 12 foot-high sculpture, named “What goes around, Comes around…,” is in the 400 block of Heights Boulevard. It is covered with more than 300 hubcaps, which were welded together by the ASTRO Fence Company. Runnels said the workers there dubbed the See Globe P. 6A
®
Ask about our Money Market and other CD rates. Heights Office | 2222 N. Durham | 281-517-8760 * $1,000 minimum balance required. Annual percentage yield is accurate as of 6/7/18. Interest compounds quarterly. Penalty may be imposed for early withdrawal. Fees could reduce the earnings on the account. Offer is eligible for new money deposited into Allegiance Bank. Limited time offer.
AllegianceBank.com | 281.894.3200