Scofflaws Owe Corpus Christi
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PIGSKIN PREVIEW Find out who’s BETTER in HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL and who’s BEST in a -PAGE SPECIAL 48 SECTION. $1.50 SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010 ■ CITY EDITION 95°/75° Mostly sunny What Quick Read SCOFFLAWS OWE happens TAX-FREE WEEKEND $15.8 CORPUS CHRISTI aft er the CONTINUES The state’s annual tax-free holiday runs storm? until midnight today. Items less than $100 ■ each are exempt from Plan lays out the 8.25 percent sales tax, includ ing school who comes supplies, clothing, back and when backpacks and diapers . MILLION Go to Caller.com to post-hurricane see a full list of the ■ Uninsured motorists total a third of all fi nes due KATHERINE ROSENBERG tax-free items. [email protected] / 886-3778 SARA FOLEY MOST COMMON UNPAID FINES The biggest lessons emer- [email protected] / 886-3767 gency planners learned VIOLATION Number of from hurricanes Katrina Corpus Christi drivers Unpaid Fines DELINQUENT CASES and Ike is not what to do caught behind the wheel From a randomly selected to prepare for a storm, but without car insurance Failed to maintain financial responsibility 10,990 sample of 60 cases. what to do after as people aren’t slowed down by Failed to display driver’s license 3,792 return. the city’s enforcement Public intoxication/alcohol 3,558 That’s why area offi cials system, which gives ha- Speeding 3,513 43% On a payment plan are outlining who gets to bitual offenders little Expired registration 3,372 come back first, based on incentive to comply with Failure to appear 2,859 who is most needed to get the law. No valid inspection certificate 2,708 services up and running Police have the right to Violation of promise to appear 2,677 again. tow uninsured vehicles No driver’s license 2,633 28% Sent to a collection agency Likely by next year , but rarely do because Unsafe speed 932 some area residents will CONGRATS, there’s no space at the be assigned to one of four city impound lot. Driv- tiers for re-entry after a DEL MAR GRADS ers are fined, but those 10% Declared indigent, major disaster. The major- See a list of the more are the most common agreed to community service ity will be listed as general than 300 students who unpaid fines in the city, 12% Asked for extra time to population and will return graduated this summer based on a Caller-Times either prove they were once the area is deemed from Del Mar College. analysis of unpaid viola- innocent or indigent inhabitable, said Danielle tions since 1998 that were Hale, coordinator for the LOCAL, 8B 5% Voluntarily served jail released in response to a time to offset fines Nueces County Office of Texas Public Information Sources: Corpus Christi Emergency Management. Police Department; 2% Credit for time served in Act request. Corpus Christi Municipal prison on unrelated charges The fi rst group to return Court BUM PHILLIPS The city can issue a Of the sample, 12 percent had active will be police, firefighters VOTED THE BEST warrant for violators who warrants for their arrest. and medics. Second will be don’t resolve their tickets, health care workers. The The Oilers coach but data released by the third tier is utility workers remains associated city show that warrants needed to restore services, with the best days of are issued inconsistently UNINSURED VEHICLES followed by business and Houston pro football, and that when they are, property owners whose being voted coach of Percentage of uninsured vehicles by ZIP code those warrants don’t al- ■ stores are needed to sup- that city’s all-time pro 15-20% ways appear in the police ■ 21-25 port the community. football team by department’s system. “There’s been a lot of 37 ■ 26-30 Caller.com readers. Municipal court judges Nueces Bay heated debate because no 181 ■ 31-35 SPORTS, 1C give some of the drivers 78410 ■ 36-40 one wants to be told they time to pay their fines, 18% ■ 41-46 can’t come back,” Hale said. but some drivers receive 78402 “Ultimately the decision more tickets for con- 31% is based on what’s right, A DREAM SPREE 78409 tinuing to drive without 78401 and that is by determining FOR TV, GAMES insurance while on the 46% 78408 what’s safe.” 37% 45% payment plan. Corpus The plan only would It only took 12-year-old 78406 78405 Christi The city’s system al- 78404 Bay be enacted in the case of a Jacob Dylan Gonzalez 36% 36% lows this, to the point that 24% mandatory evacuation, and of Alice 27 minutes 78380 Saturday to spend 35 drivers in the city have 78416 she expects that would last 25 or more unpaid tick- 24% 26% 78411 a matter of days, not weeks. $2,000 on electronics 78417 19% ets for lack of insurance, SPID during his Make-A-Wish 29% Please see RE-ENTRY, 11A speeding and other traffi c 78419 Foundation shopping off enses. Each owes t hou- spree. 35% sands of dollars. EVERHART 78412 LOCAL, 1B “The problem is the WEBER 19% AIRLINE habitual offenders still 78413 INDEX drive,” municipal court 16% WHAT administrator Rene Men- 78415 78414 TIER ARE BUSINESS 18A-19A diola said. “That’s very 24% STAPLES 15% LOTTERY 9C unfair to others.” YORKTOWN 78418 YOU? OBITUARIES 4B, 5B, 9B Driving without insur- 18% The four tiers apply to those who will be allowed TEXAS NEWS 5B-7B ance is the most common 78343 back while a mandatory WEATHER 21A unpaid fine, making up Laguna 17% Madre evacuation is in place, and more than a fifth of all in which order. 2 miles First tier Please see FINES, 11A Search and rescue — Police, fi re, medics, deployed military In a random sample of 60 Second tier YOU delinquent accounts, If police Immediate mass care and seven people impounded all assessment — Doctors, PICK’EM had warrants for their arrest vehicles in the nurses, hospital offi cials county that Third tier SIGN UP 23.5 related to the unpaid fines. Restoration of essential weren’t insured, FOR OUR NEW % services — Power, infra- H.S. FOOTBALL they would need structure, public works, PICK’EM CONTEST. 52,281 wastewater, water and utility repair spaces Fourth tier − more parking Business operators — spaces than the Those who sell essential 46,172 at Walt goods such as food and Disney World. other supplies General residents Across Nueces County, Once a mandatory evacu- ation is lifted, those who almost one in four do not fall into a tier also To subscribe: cars didn’t have liability 883-3800 will be able to return to the insurance as of June 7. area. Those with special needs who were evacuated will be returned when their needs can be met. DATA | SEARCH RATES OF UNINSURED VEHICLES IN YOUR COUNTY OR ZIP CODE CALLER-TIMES « Sunday, August 22, 2010 « 11A FROM THE COVER ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTOS Boats and debris litter Interstate 45 leading onto Galveston Island after Hurricane Ike in 2008. Coastal Bend offi cials want to establish a re-entry plan that would ensure that the area is safe and services are available when residents return after hurricanes or other disasters. RE-ENTRY from 1A “We are taking the best ambulance workers — lessons and best advice make it unlikely that they Hale and other emer- from areas that have been will leave town during a gency responders started through it,” Hale said. “We storm anyway. working on a regional re- don’t want to keep people And until the second tier entry plan in 2006, the year away from their homes, but of health care workers are after Hurricane Katrina. we need to make sure there in place, it isn’t safe for oth- But they stepped up eff orts is running water, sewer ers to return, she said. after Hurricane Ike hit in and emergency health care “People may not under- 2008, and they saw what services. Those need to be stand why they are a certain went wrong in Galveston. operational before we can tier, but I tell them, people in “The Galveston expe- allow people back into the tier one and two — they’re rience left a lot of people aff ected area.” willing to die to make sure very unhappy,” said the The council now is try- others are safe,” Hale said. city’s mayor, Joe Jawor- ing to get municipalities in a “Are you willing to die to ski, who took office this 12-county region to sign off check on your assets?” May. “Even though there on the idea as well because The other two tiers also was supposed to be no one each mayor or county judge are necessary because coming back right after is able to act independently without water, electric and Ike, a lot of who you knew when issuing or canceling a sanitation and stores for played a part in whether mandatory evacuation . food and other supplies, you got in or not.” Coastal Bend Council residents would be relying Once people were there, of Government Homeland on government help, Hale the city didn’t have the ser- Security coordinator R.J. A home burns as waves from Hurricane Ike crash the shoreline in Galveston in 2008. The said. vices to support them or a Thomas is leading that Coastal Bend Council of Governments has used lessons from Galveston in developing a disas- But, she adds, it is unlike- way to get them to leave. eff ort . ter re-entry plan for the area.