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)
Page 9 of 19
three ganged up on a guy named Hart and made him the Judge (here
come de judge, here come de judge). Clyde had to resign before his
term ended and Chuck Piper was appointed to replace him. By then,
the city had come a long way. We were now renting the old restaurant
down at Sunrise Marina with enough actual space for an office and
meeting room. Gary Vick later wanted the space back which sorta led
to buying the city hall property (I told you this story couldn't be told
without overlapping).
It was during this time that a program was started up to re-surface all
the streets in Sunrise Beach. In order to pay for it, an election had to
be held for the purpose of selling bonds. The people voted to tax
themselves and sell the bonds, to be repaid over a period of 16 years,
and to accept an assessment on their property as partial payment for
the paving program. Not many people remember how bad the streets
were but two front end shops in Kingsland went out of business!!!
Shortly after the bond program was passed it was time for another city
election, 1978. This time Ed Houy was elected Mayor and a rather
unusual thing happened in the "race" for the other two commissioner
spots. Chuck Piper received 142 votes~ Sharon Vick received 141
votes; and Dick Hart received 141 votes. Well, Sharon and Dick (me)
argued that the other should serve. This went on for hours, hardly the
usual politics. I said "lets flip a coin" - Sharon refused. Finally she did
an end run and withdrew from the contest thereby avoiding the
expense for a runoff election. And, it allowed the city to get on with
the business of the very important re-paving program. To this day I'll
never forgive Sharon. Took me sixteen years to get out of that job.
Later Chuck had to resign so I thought I'd get even. I suggested that
Ed and I appoint Sharon to fill out his term, Ha! She accepted but she
got right back at us when she and Gary bought the water company.
Now she had a conflict of interest and had to resign. Darn short
revenge. Ed and I served for 16 years, and along the way with Harold
Grant, Dee Philips, and your present Mayor, Dee Smith who is now in
her own, third administration. I know she's had a "ball" in the office.
Fighting the problems of 3 or 4 floods, LCRA, the State and County, an
ever growing population and all the little "fun" day to day things that
go on at city hall!!!
I was still trying to serve as Municipal Judge as well but we felt that a
cont1ict existed. Here we were, making the rules and I was required to
also enforce them. Besides, it was most difficult trying to settle
problems with people whom you knew and who were also your
neighbors. Also the state has mandated that all "lay" judges had to
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