Winter Street Studios artists get boost from city

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

As the artists who make use of a local studio that was largely destroyed as the result of an intentional fire just a few months ago struggle to rebuild, the city of Houston recently attempted to give those struggling artists a boost and helping hand.

On Feb. 16, the city of Houston donated $250,000 to the Houston

Art Alliance’s Emergency Relief Fund for more than 60 artists whose work and studios were damaged or destroyed in a December fire at Winter Street Studios at Sawyer Yards. Many artists had studios and work either damaged or destroyed at the studio as a result of the fire that broke out in the early morning hours on Dec. 20.

“Born out of this tragedy is the knowledge that Houstonians are always there for each other,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Feb. 16 during a press conference outside the burned-out studios.

“We are here for the affected artists and think of them in these trying times. With our help, we hope the artists are soon able to get back into their creative spaces and resume their contribution to the creative economy.”

According to the Hous-

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

The Houston Fire Department has received a grant that will help the department install home visual smoke alarms for those who are deaf or hard of hearing to help them be warned of fires, according to the city.

On Feb. 17, the city of Houston announced that HFD has been awarded a grant of just over $173,000 that will help the department install 500 visual smoke alarms and bed shakers throughout the city.

The $173,328 grant is part of the Fire Prevent and Safety Grant Program, awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and will allow HFD to expand its current “Get Alarmed Houston!” smoke alarm installation efforts, according to the city. The program has installed more than 2,000 standard smoke alarms at homes around the city almost every year since its inception in

2001, according to the city.

According to the city, a study from the National Fire Protection Agency said nearly 60 percent of home fire deaths from 2014-2018 happened in houses that did not have working smoke alarms. HFD said it will work with community partners who work with the deaf and hard of hearing to find those in need of the visual alarms and bed shakers to get them installed as soon as possible.

“The Houston Fire Department aims to reduce fire related deaths and injuries in homes and possibly eliminate these in our community through early warning provided by working smoke detectors,” Fire Chief Samuel Peña said. “This grant will provide us the path needed as we work to make this goal a reality.”

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

A man has died after a two-car collision in the Central Northwest neighborhood last week, according to the Houston Police Department.

The man’s identity is pending an autopsy from the county’s medical examiner, according to the department.

The victim was driving a black Hyundai Elantra south at 4300 Antoine Dr. near the intersection of Antoine Drive and West 43rd Street just after 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, police said, when he allegedly ran the red light at the West 43rd Street intersection and collided with a silver Jeep Compass that was heading east on West 43rd Street.

According to police, the Hyundai then went toward the median and eventually struck a tree before catching on fire. The driver of the Hyundai was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the department.

The driver of the Jeep, a 59-year-old man according to HPD, was uninjured according to the department. He was questioned at the scene and released, according to HPD, after showing no signs of intoxication.

No charges have been filed, according to police, and the investigation remains ongoing.

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

Houston police are investigating the potential cause of death for a man who was found dead near a jogging trail close to Memorial Park last week, according to the Houston Police Department.

The identity of the man is pending an autopsy from the county’s medical examiner, according to the department, as are the cause and manner of death.

Police responded to a jog- ging trail on the north side of Memorial Drive at 6700 Memorial Dr. just after 8 a.m. on Feb. 17 to find the man in “an advanced state of decomposition,” according to the paramedics who responded to the scene.

The department has not officially ruled the case a homicide, according to HPD, as the cause and manner of death are pending the autopsy. However, any-

As our Texas legislators wrestle with how to censure school libraries, make voting even more difficult and send public funds to private schools, and as every pig is trying to get its snout in the trough, the people of Texas might be sighing, “Sully, come back!” You see, once before Texas such a huge surplus of funds that Gov. Sul Ross had to call a special session of the Legislature to determine what to do.

Therein lies a tale worth re-telling in light of today’s free-for-all for funds. First, let’s take a look at Sul Ross, the only university president (Texas A&M) I know of who had another university named for him: Sul Ross University, obviously. He was born Lawrence Sullivan Ross near Waco. His great grandfather had been captured by Indians as a six-year-old child, and lived with them until he was rescued at 23. Ross’s father was an Indian agent, so Sul grew up with a greater understanding of the Indians than most Texans. He loved the good ones; he killed the bad ones.

During a summer vacation home from his college in Alabama, Sully led a company of Indians from his father’s reservation against the dreaded Comanche. The next fall back at college Ross may have taken part in the dorm bull sessions.

“Hey, Sully, what did you do this summer?’

“Well, we were in the middle of a battle with the Comanche when four of us spotted a little white girl who was a captive. As we were getting her, we were jumped by 25 braves. Two of us were killed immediately. My gun misfired. I got an arrow in my shoulder and was then shot pointblank by a brave. It was Mohee, a Comanche I’d known since we were children together. As I was lying on the ground, Mohee whipped out

ASHBY Columnist

What’d you do this summer?”

“Forget it.”

After college Ross joined the Texas Rangers and at age 21 was made captain of a Ranger company. In yet another battle against the Indians, he caught up with Nacona, a Comanche chief who was responsible for much of the carnage along the Texas frontier. Ross shot Nacona and rescued a white woman who turned out to be Cynthia Ann Parker.

When the Civil War broke out, he entered the Confederate Army as a private and wound up a general. Ross participated in 135 engagements, including 112 days of fighting around Atlanta. After the war he took up farming, then got into politics and became sheriff of McLennan County (Waco) and a state senator. Eventually he ran for governor.

In January 1887, Ross was inaugurated governor. He was the first to use the new capitol. That is when he had to tackle the problem of too much money. Part of the trouble was that most of the taxes came in during December and January. The money sat around until it was spent during the rest of the year. Then, all of a sudden, the U.S. government, acting on advice from the Army, paid Texas $927,177 as restitution for Indian depredations and expenses incurred by the state.

The expenses were run up in the 20 years after the

Civil War because the Texas Rangers – not the U.S. Army – did much of the fighting against both Mexican bandits and hostile Indians. In addition, Texas patrolled its own border with Mexico, the only state or territory to do so. Washington reimbursed Texas for the cost and made good such losses as cattle rustled by the bandits and the Indians. The sum came to a tidy amount, particularly in those days.

A reporter from the Galveston Daily News went to the state vault, which held $2 million in cash alone, 20 percent of all the money in the state rendered for taxation. He saw not only a huge vault but within it, a safe. He wrote: “The vault contained a large burglar-and fire-proof safe, in which $1,250,000 in paper money was neatly arranged in packages, forming a compact square mass, ten by twenty-four inches, and eighteen inches high. In the same money chest about $25,000 in gold bars was resting secure from moth and rust. Outside the safe a pyramid of silver in bars was built from the floor nearly to the ceiling, resting against the west wall of the vault.

“Another safe was covered nearly to the ceiling with boxes of silver. Several tons of the precious metals were in view. In the corner was a pile of money bags containing silver quarters, halves and nickels. In the safe first mentioned, in addition to the cash, were shown in packages some $7,000,000 in bonds, viz, $2,991,000 of state bonds and $2,276,000 of county bonds, $1,753,817 of railroad bonds, besides $79,400 of public debt certificates.”

Gov. Ross could handle attacking Indians, bandits and Yankees, but he did not know how to handle that huge surplus. On March 27, 1888, he complained in a press conference that he couldn’t sleep the night before, worrying about what to do. “I don’t feel authorized to keep so much money locked up full a year if deferred until the regular session.” So he called a special session to deal with too much money – the only Texas guv to do so until now -- and suggested that some funds should be set aside to pay the state’s bills for the rest of the year, some should go to raises for school teachers, and the state should repay $96,000 borrowed from the university fund. Then the new capitol had to be furnished, the state needed new asylums, and so on. What was left, Ross, said, would still be considerable, and that money should be returned to the taxpayers.

Yes, indeed. Sully, come back! Ashby is taxed at ashby2@comcast.net