- 11306 Beauvoir Dr. [HAR]
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Tag: 77065
- 12319 Oralia Dr. [HAR]
- 11620 Timber Hollow [HAR]
- 12131 Fallbrook Dr. [HAR]
- 12202 Mills Ln. [HAR]
“I found him!” declares reader Kristen W. The portrait she happened upon, captioned “Jesus, I trust in you” over draped ankles, had originally been noted by Swamplot readers 4 years ago in ready position adjacent to a redevelopment site on Shepherd Dr. at Center St., just north of Washington Ave. (See smaller photo above right; similar sightings were also reported at the time in Lindale Park and on Westpark between Fondren and Gessner.) Later, the icon’s purported property-restoring powers were noted in its nomination for the Washington Ave Award in that year’s Swampies.
Kristen W. reports the latest visitation: “He’s just hanging out on the east side of Huffmeister Rd. south of Fleur de Lis Blvd. among the cattle and horses. . . . I was making the long trek up north for a job interview [Friday] morning and had to turn around to snap a few photos because I couldn’t believe it.”
A Sign
ALSO SPLAIN ZUBINZARANZARIUS 
“By chance this morning, I needed to find a certain place in Houston. So I opened my trusty web browser and went to the main Google Maps page. I started zooming in . . . and at a certain level of zoom, a very funny word sort of popped out at me near Jersey Village – ‘Zubinzaranzarius.’ I zoomed in more, and it appears to be the name of a legitimate neighborhood — Zubinzaranzarius North. A quick Google search returned a bunch of websites offering to find a house, schools or spas near ‘Zubinzaranzarius North’ — but none of that confirmed the real existence of the location, since those sites probably just mine Google Maps data. Does such a funny-named locality really exist, or did a Google Maps programmer play a practical joke on Houstonians and Jersey Villagers, or did Google Maps get HACKED???” [Swamplot inbox]
Video: emill
A Swamplot reader asks: “I wonder if there’s a big market for $344k A-framed houses with cavernous looking rooms and green (oh yes, green to match the pine trees!) carpet?” Well, when times are tough, a resourceful family might want to look into saving some of that hard-earned dough by taking its summer vacation . . . at home!
This 3,944-sq.-ft. 1977 home on more than 1.3 acres in Tower Oaks features 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, a carpeted spiral stair, and a half-carpeted kitchen bar. You’ll save on siding maintenance, too!
A few fun pix from around town! Reader Michele sends in this snapshot of some “‘groovy‘ Christmas Yard art” taken on Ella Lee in River Oaks.
What’s next?
One of the more fascinating EPA Superfund sites in the Houston area is a neighborhood off Jones Road just north of FM1960. Residents who had earlier appreciated how convenient it was to drop off their dry cleaning at nearby Bell Cleaners began to regret that benefit in 2002 when the TCEQ announced that the local drinking water was laced with nasty levels of dry-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, or PCE.
That was bad. But now it’s even worse: These residents will now be prohibited from drilling their own wells to drink the local groundwater!
Coalition members said they recently learned Harris County officials would not allow anymore water wells to be drilled in the Jones Road Superfund site, which covers the Evergreen Woods and Edgewood Estates neighborhoods west of Jones Road and north of FM 1960, and some commercial properties east of Jones Road.
“We understand that Harris County is putting health concerns above everything else, but several residents out here believed they could drill another well into a deeper aquifer if they needed to, and now that is not an option,” said Jones Road Coalition board member Ron O’Farrell.
According to a Houston Chronicle story, only 124 out of approximately 400 neighborhood property owners signed up for a proposed pipeline to bring uncontaminated drinking water into the area. But now, after a Harris County order banning new wells—and the recent discovery of trace elements of vinyl chloride in existing residential wells—some residents are saying they want to re-open the signup period.
Why were they so reluctant to sign up for a supply of nontoxic water in the first place?
Coalition members said there are two primary reasons some residents are concerned about signing the agreement that would allow them to hook up to the water pipeline. One clause in that agreement requires residents to permanently cap their individually owned groundwater wells, and the other gives the state unlimited access to their property during the project and remediation effort.
“I would not mind paying a fee for the tap and paying a plumber, or whomever it takes, on my own to tap in to the pipeline as long as I don’t have to sign the agreement ad give them complete access to my land,” said Donald Haus, and Edgewood Estates resident.
- Jones Road coalition wants to reopen pipeline agreement [Houston Chronicle]
- Jones Road Groundwater Plume [TCEQ]
- Jones Road (Harris County) Texas (PDF Superfund update) [EPA]