Dan Wallac
Beaumont Enterprise
Beaumont, TX, United States
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Past articles by Dan:
Beaumont, SE Texans celebrate heritage with Italian History Month
Thousands entered through New Orleans, many of them replacing slave labor after the Civil War to work the land, said Cassandra Durso, whose master's degree thesis form Lamar University is titled Of Seeds and Sorrow: Sicily had the misfortune of being the most conquered country on Earth, from the Greeks to the fall of Rome to a succession of other invaders like the Goths, Arabs, Normans,… → Read More
What will become of Rollover Pass?
Bait fish still navigate the cut between East Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico while predators rush in to gobble them down and anglers line the sheet-steel pilings of Rollover Pass, heralded as the best fishing spot in Texas. Just a saltwater stamp from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, live bait or lures and a good saltwater rig to snag a red, a speck or flounder, which are running… → Read More
Possible unmarked graves pose problem for Jefferson Co. officials
Jefferson County Commissioners have been delayed in their efforts to find gravesites for the indigent because an old, county-owned cemetery they want to use might already contain unmarked graves. The poor's problems, it would seem, persist even in death. A company that maps subsurface areas is currently busy evaluating land for a possible plant expansion in Orange and can't check out the county… → Read More
Home buyers must be fast in SE Texas
Jennifer Guidroz, a West Brook High School English teacher looking to buy her first home, knew what she wanted: a spacious yard, a fireplace and ample rooms for her husband and three children. She found a couple houses she liked in neighborhoods she wanted. And then they were gone, snapped up by other buyers. That's a common scenario in Beaumont's currently sizzling real estate market. If you… → Read More
11th Street slaying of young Beaumont woman still a mystery
Reed and her passenger were northbound on 11th when a dark-colored pickup truck, dating perhaps to the early 1990s, screamed across the Maury Meyers Bridge eastbound and swung wide onto 11th, turning southbound. Reed and her passenger had exchanged seats so Reed, the mother of a 2-year-old, could retrieve her insurance card from the car's glove compartment. With her cell phone still on, the 911… → Read More
Officials consider new railroad routes to cross over Neches River
The railroad lift bridge crossing the Neches River between City Hall and the Port of Beaumont carries more than 50 freight trains a day and the occasional Amtrak train, while other trains switching in and out of holding yards cross busy Beaumont streets, making drivers yelp with frustration when the train cars jerk to a halt and go backwards. Two of the proposed routes that would parallel the… → Read More
New 4-lane road will connect Old Dowlen to Major by 2017
If you think of the square mile of raw land sandwiched between Dowlen Road and Major Drive, north of Folsom Road and south of Texas 105 as an inanimate body, a new artery bisecting it will provide the lifeblood of development. - When Northwest Parkway is complete, the city will have finished its environmental study in preparation for re-routing Old Dowlen's tie-in to Texas 105 to improve traffic… → Read More
City and school police 'prepare for the worst' in wake of college shooting
Beaumont police, BISD police and other law enforcement train together in a program originated by the Texas State University System in San Marcos - of which Lamar is a part - called ALERT, or Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training. At Lamar, a fairly compact campus with the police department in the midst of it, 16 certified peace officers patrol the campus and an additional 15 campus… → Read More
Discovery Channel to feature 1988 Beaumont police officer murder
The Discovery Channel on Sunday will focus on victims in murder cases, which will include Beaumont Police Officer Paul Hulsey, killed in a fight with a serial murderer in 1988, but through his ultimate sacrifice led to the murderer's capture, conviction and execution. The Beaumont Police Department also remembers the incident "as if it occurred yesterday," said Sgt. James Cody Guedry, the… → Read More
PA police charge Port Neches man in murder
Port Arthur police have arrested a 19-year-old Port Neches man on a charge of murder in connection with the shooting death Tuesday of Michael Paul Blanchard, 42, in the 4200 block of Gulfway Drive. Blanchard's body was found behind a business in the 4200 block of Gulfway with three gunshot wounds to the right shoulder, right side of the chest and right leg. → Read More
Entergy exec named to Sabine-Neches Ship Channel board
Pierce, customer service vice president for Entergy Texas, was appointed by Jefferson County Commissioners Court this week to a board vacancy made when Jim Rich, recently retired as the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce president, moved out of the county. The effort to deepen the channel began in 1999 when a decade-long study resulted in an approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and… → Read More
Beaumont cops help protect critters
Beaumont Police Detective Tina Lewallen recalled a case she worked on several years ago in which a boy was killing cats and leaving their carcasses in plain sight along a highly visible area of a drainage ditch. Lewallen had a suspect in mind, brought the boy's mother in for a talk and told her straight out she could not put the boy in jail because there was no solid evidence linking him to the… → Read More
Top Beaumont officials could get pay raise
Top Beaumont city officials could get a 2.5 percent increase in salary for the coming budget year that starts Thursday if City Council approves the pay bumps on Tuesday. The pay raises are part of council's consent agenda, a package of items on which council members vote yes or no unless the items are separated out for discussion by a council member's request and the majority approval of other… → Read More
Southeast Texas Catholics join pope's family gathering
Members of the Catholic Diocese of Beaumont in Philadelphia this week for the World Meeting of Families kept up a brisk pace of prayer and programs that will reach a crescendo Sunday with a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis, who spent Thursday morning in a history-making speech at a joint House and Senate meeting in Washington, D.C. The pope, in his message to Congress, praised the family… → Read More
Beaumont bishop applauds pope's call for dialogue in congressional address
In a history-making speech to Congress today, Pope Francis urged dialogue in the United States to strive for the common good and turn away from the politics of division, [...] in a surprisingly frank statement to the joint meeting of the House and Senate, Francis called for an end to the death penalty, a position backed by the U.S. Conference of Bishops, said Bishop Curtis Guillory of the… → Read More
Burglary suspect picks PA police officer's house; is shot
Burglary suspect picks PA police officer's house; is shot A Port Arthur police officer shot and wounded a suspect early today who tried to break into the officer's residence in the 900 block of Gulfway Drive. → Read More
Beaumonters to share spiritual experience during Pope's visit
To the million expected on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to peer up the steps made famous in the movie "Rocky," Pope Francis will similarly raise his arms, not in triumph, but in embrace of the faithful there with him and with the rest of the United States and the world joining in on TV, the radio and the Internet. Guillory also will attend the canonization Mass today in Washington, for Father… → Read More
BPD eliminates two captain positions
Two extra sergeants in the Beaumont Police Department will help provide leadership where it's needed while two captain positions will be eliminated for the time being, City Council decided Monday. It's a move approved by the Beaumont Police Officers Association, Chief James Singletary and City Manager Kyle Hayes. Council spent more than an hour discussing the issue a week ago and another… → Read More
Washington Boulevard intersection closed for construction
Get ready for detours, Washington Boulevard motorists, because the Avenue A intersection will shut down this week while new water and sewer and storm drains are installed. The intersection's eastbound lanes shut at 7 a.m. today and will reopen by 5 p.m. Friday, said Beaumont public works director Joe Majdalani. Detours around the work area are significant, but detour signs will help people pick… → Read More
Medical Center of SETX acquires Victory Medical Center
The Medical Center acquisition hit a snag in August with a pending eviction by the interim holding company owner, a Florida-based real estate investment trust, because of unpaid back taxes on personal property, which is equipment and fixtures. Richard Gonzalez, Medical Center chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement the Victory acquisition enhances Medical Center's ability to… → Read More