1981-12-02 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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• • Minutes, Regular Meeting, La Porte City Council December 2, 1981, Page 4 sent out to the only Houston area suppliers. Hodge recommended that the City Council award the bid to Hi Way Equipment Company for the bid price. A motion was made by Councilperson Skelton to approve and award the bid for the trailer mounted asphalt ettle to Hi Way Equi - ment in the amount of 3,770.00. Seconde by Councilperson Simons. The motion carried, 6 ayes and 0 nays. Ayes: Councilpersons Longley, Faris, Simons, Skelton, Wester- gren and Mayor Meza Nays: None 8. Council Action: Longley: Mr. Mayor, I would just like to say, I urge all the Council and citizens to go out and visit with your friends and constituents and urge them to support the La Porte Area Water Authority. I feel it is an extremely important issue and with- out a positive reaction on voting day, La Porte is going to be at the mercy of some other water authority. I feel like we should do this to insure our own future. Faris: Mr. Mayor, I've got a soap box out for a minute. When I moved to La Porte in 1966 there were very few people that swam at Sylvan Beach, mostly because of the stench. In 1968, the Texas Water Quality Board identified six viruses that lived in the Houston ship channel, and that's the only life they could find there.. From 1968 to 1971, there was a terrific push and a great deal of campaigning done in the name of pollution, both water and air. During 1969 and 1970 it was common not to be able to see the San Jacinto monument from San Jacinto College because of the haze that existed close to the ground. On any day, even following frontal activity, one could look towards Houston and recognize a brown haze at approximately 30 degrees off the horizon. It was constant on good days; on bad days, you couldn't see the haze because you couldn't find Houston. Sometimes you couldn't identify which was was west. Some compa- nies that refused to bend to the will of the public at that time and to the laws of the state, went out of business, but the majority of the companies recognized the position of good citi- zenship and basically cleaned up their act. Today on a good day after frontal passage, you can see downtown Houston. If you can get high enough to see the buildings, from a water tower here you can, and from the First Pasadena State Bank Building you can see the Astrodome and a full view of downtown on a good day. On •