A Nearly Accurate History of Sunrise Beach
By Dick Hart (deceased)
Written for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the City in November of 1998
recovered and updated in 2005 and continued by others (I hope, hjs)
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trying to get the Sunrise Beach development incorporated. Enough
people petitioned the county to have an election for incorporation and
the election was held on the 7th of November 1973. 147 voted for
incorporation and 20 voted against. The county judge declared the
vote legal and ordered that Sunrise Beach be incorporated as a
general law city under the laws of the state of Texas. They had chosen
to go with the commissioner form of government and on that same
day, Bruce McNair was elected Mayor with Bill Lanier and John Klepper
as the other two commissioners. The first commissioners meeting was
held at the Federated Church November 16,1973, no money, no
budget, starting with nothing. Now that is a humble beginning. I'll give
you a few highlights of this early beginning:
Helen Haden was appointed City Clerk - Salary $25 monthly.
City Hall was to be in an old lakeside "burger barn" on Beach Drive. It
was about 8ft x 8ft. With Helen, her desk, a chair and a file cabinet,
she could have one visitor at a time.
Mr. & Mrs. Henry Franks donated $1000 to the city for the elected
officials to use as they saw fit.
In March, Jan Smith offered the city a 1962 Dodge Dart for "patrolling
purposes" - graciously accepted.
In April, the population (census) came in at 253.
In June, Ken Balog, recently retired from the Air Force was hired as
Police Chief - salary $300 monthly.
In August the Zoning ordinance was adopted and the first budget
drawn up. With a levy of ten cents per $100 valuation it brought in
$28000. A maintenance man had to be hired and equipment
purchased, particularly a tractor, and thus the city was off to its first
year.
This administration held office until April 1974 when regular elections
were to take place They were re-elected for a full 2 year term.
In 1976, Bill Lanier was elected mayor along with Bill Steiner and
Clyde Mason as the other two commissioners. Bill Steiner had been
serving as Municipal Judge and when he was elected to office, the
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