Lifestyle

   Twenty executives from about 12 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member states heard from local government and business leaders about the benefits the South Texas Project (STP) has brought to Matagorda County, during a luncheon noon Tuesday, April 2, at the STP Center for Energy Development. 
   “My thoughts about STP are this: quality of life,” said Bay City business woman Heather Hilliard, noting her father worked at STP, as she briefly did. 
   “STP means stable economics,” said Banker Charles Brookhouser.  
   That stability from a long-term commitment, he added, affects all of Matagorda County’s neighboring counties. 
   The visiting executives, in both technical and non-technical positions in their respective countries, were from Romania, Brazil, Argentina, Kenya, Poland, South Africa, Nigeria, Benares, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. 

   District Court Judge Randy Clapp rejected Mayor Mark Bricker’s attempt to remove himself from the judge’s Feb. 7 ruling that three Bay City Housing Authority (BCHA) commissioners could keep their board positions, during a hearing in the 130th District Courtroom Monday, April 1.  
   And, Bricker’s attorney Scott M. Tschirhart indicated in Monday’s court hearing they would drop their motion to remove the BCHA commissioners’ attorney, Andy Taylor, from the case. 
   “I fear that if I grant this that I’ll be voiding what I’d done. And I’m not going to do that,” Clapp said after the arguments from Tschirhart and Taylor. 
   Bricker’s motion to be removed as defendant from the jurisdiction of the case would have rendered Clapp’s ruling Feb. 7 moot, Taylor later said, and would have allowed the mayor to continue his efforts to remove Ronnie Reeves, Daynal Manning and Vidalia Leal from the BCHA board. 

   Houston developer David Cottrell said that he wants to be part of Bay City’s growth as he unveils plans for a new 20,255-square-foot strip center on Seventh Street between Bay City and Van Vleck. 
   Construction on East Bay Plaza – next to the Jackson Electric Cooperative headquarters and across the highway from Schulman Movie Bowl Grille – will begin Wednesday, April 3, and will be open in September, Cottrell said.  
   Cottrell, who owns the Verizon Center on Seventh Street and Diamond Marine Services in Matagorda, said his interest in Bay City was sharpened, “when I heard” about the announcement of the TenarisBayCity steel mill. 
   “I liked what I saw,” he said. 
   He has 50 percent of the center’s space at 6500 Seventh Street pre-leased, with the following tenants: Wild West BBQ from Angleton; Grit Fitness and 421 Coffeehouse & Bistro, both out of West Columbia; a day spa; and Cricket Telephone out of Atlanta, Ga. 

  The George W. Orsak Estate of Matagorda County has given Texas A&M what could be considered almost an heirloom gift of a 60-year-plus cotton harvester that the university will put to immediate use on fields throughout Texas. 
   The 1958 single-row cotton harvester has to be considered an agriculture classic. 
   That’s because the machine represented a giant leap from hand picking cotton to the automation of plucking the boll from the plant and sending it to the basket or sack atop the harvester, said former County Agent Emeritus James Engbrock. 
   The single-row harvester has been in the the George Orsak family all of these years, including longtime Matagorda County cotton farmer Thomas Orsak, his son Carey, and Thomas’ four sisters, Mrs. Heresa Hluza of West Columbia, and Mrs. Marilyn Hollas, Mrs. Barbara Manna and Ms. Jane LaCroix, all of Bay City. 

  Different means of getting out the vote for City Charter propositions in the May 4 city election were discussed at City Council’s second of three Town Hall meetings Thursday, March 28. 
   Part of the discussion was prompted by Jerry Evans’ comments to council members that 2013 city charter revision corrections approved by council last December were not evident on the city’s online city charter page. 
   “A lot of voters under 30 visit web sites and there still is an incorrect correction” of council corrections of the 2013 document. 
   “It’s never been put on the web site,” Evans said. 
   “Everything on the web site is done by the mayor’s office,” City Secretary David Holubec said.  
   “Now we know why,” Evans said. 

   One elderly woman was killed and another woman seriously injured in two separate auto-pedestrian accidents last week, Bay City police said. 
   An 85-year-old Bay City woman died from her injuries after she was struck by a vehicle about 9 p.m. Friday, March 29, in the 2400 block of Sixth Street.  
   When Officer Mikayla Cantu arrived, she was assisted by a nurse on the scene and began CPR on the victim who was laying in the roadway. 
   Detectives were called to interview witnesses and the driver of the vehicle that struck the victim.  
   Police said they determined the victim was wearing dark clothing and tried to cross the street. 
   The area is not well lighted, reports show, and the vehicle’s driver did not see the victim until it was too late.  
   The driver tried to swerve and brake, police said, but the vehicle struck the victim.  
   The victim was taken to Matagorda Regional Hospital where she died from her injuries.