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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDick Hervey TranscriptionCity of College Station Heritage Programs Oral History Interviewee: Dick Hervey Interviewer: Unknown Place: College Station, Texas Project: Mayors Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt Tech: Okay, I think we’re ready. Interviewer (?): Cleared for takeoff. 00:06: Dick Hervey (DH): Clear, clear for takeoff. I?: Yeah, right. Thank you so much Mayor Hervey for taking the time to participate in this Heritage interview. It’s for Project HOLD which is the Historic Online Library Database and we want to make it available for current generations and future generations. We want to talk to you about your tenure as mayor. You served as mayor from 1974 to ’76. 00:40: DH: ’74 to ’76. I?: Yes sir. 00:42: DH: Yes. I?: Okay, and let’s begin by, I, I want to ask you about running for office and what led to your decision to run for public office. 00:53: DH: Well, we’d had a mayor of College Station, (Any Anderson?) for a long time and he announced that he was not gonna run again. And he had taken Mr. Langsford’s place and when my friends heard about that, they came to me and said, “Why don’t you run for mayor.” And, so many of them came. I just announced that I was, I was gonna run for mayor. And my friends liked that and very fortunately I, I think my announcement that I was gonna run for mayor, ran everybody else off I guess. Is that, good enough answer? I?: That’s exactly. That’s a wonderful answer. Tell us do you, did you campaign? Or was your announcement enough? 02:07: DH: The announcement was apparently enough because nobody ran against me. I had, I never had an opponent as mayor. I?: Did your family participate as part of the process of getting you elected? 02:25: DH: Uh. Apparently so because I only had eleven write-in vote, I mean eleven write-in votes which I guess meant that I had eleven people that didn’t like me and didn’t want me to be mayor. [laughs] I?: There’s a saying that all politics is local. And I’d be interested in hearing your views on how politics has changed from when you were in office to what the process of running for office is like today. 03:10: DH: I don’t know that there’s any difference. There’s a little more, there’s, there’s probably more money spent in the elections. There’s, there’s probably more time spent in the elections. I, I never spent much money because I never had an opponent. And, so I just tried to stay out of trouble and keep the city out of trouble. And I worked hard at it. I?: How would you characterize your relationship with your city council? 04:04: DH: I had a wonderful relationship with my city council. I answered all of their answers truthfully and honestly. I never withheld anything from them that they wanted to know. I didn’t tell them everything of course because there was some information that they didn’t ask me about and I didn’t devoice personnel information and so forth. But we had a good relationship. We had a good relationship with Bryan though there, I’ll have to admit that there was several people that, from Bryan that tried to do us in on the city council and so forth. But we made it through without any trouble and. I?: May I ask you, you said there were several people in Bryan who, “tried to do us in on the city council” can you help me understand a little bit more about that. 05:36: DH: Well. It was, we were competing. There was a great deal of competition between Bryan and College Station and I can’t tell what they were except one of them was utilities. We, we, Bryan had their own utilities and they were pretty, pretty well off. But we didn’t have all of our utilities. And we had to make arrangement to drill a well out around Bryan Field to get water. And we had to make arrangements to work with the people who control the sewage. And, what were some of the other utilities? I?: Did we get our electricity from Bryan? 07:01: DH: We. I think initially yes, we got our electricity from Bryan. I?: So this was partially the struggle to, to get the city of College Station on an independent. 07:19: DH: Yes. To get. Independent basis. That was my aim as mayor was to see that A&M became independent. I mean see, see that the city of College Station became independent. I?: And did it? 07:41: DH: Yes, yes it did. I?: During your tenure? 07:44: DH: Yes. I?: That’s wonderful. 07:45: DH: Well I’m not su-su-sure that it happened during my tenure, but we were working at it. I?: Oh I see, I see. Okay. I’d like to go back to the issue of, of sometimes city employees feel that they are precluded from getting to know the mayor or people who serve on the council. During your tenure, what kind of a relationship did you have with city employees? Did you reach out to them? 08:21: DH: I reached out to, the city of College Station gave me an office in the, in this building I guess. This, this may, may have been the office. I don’t, no this was the city cou-, city council chambers. I?: Where you, was your office in the same building as the city council? 08:47: DH: Yes it was. I?: Okay. So you, you were here just not in this, this location. 08:52: DH: Yes, I was here, but not in this room. I?: And, and employees were able to come in and out of your office. 08:58: DH: Yes they were. I didn’t stay in my office because I had too many ribbons to cut. [laughs] But I uh, what, what was I gonna say. I?: You were going to tell us about the relations that you had with city employees. 09:25: DH: Oh yeah. We. I made an appointment with any city, city employee that wanted to talk to me. And I never did have many want to talk to me. They were, apparently they were pretty happy. I?: Well, how did you get along with the city manager and with department heads? 09:55: DH: Uh. I left the city manager up to running the city. I didn’t make any decisions that the city manager could and should have made. And I don’t know what they call that, but they call that some form of city. Uh. I don’t remember what it was. Interviewer 2 (I2?): City manager? I?: City manager? 10:19: DH: It’s got a name. It, well its city manager form of government, put it that way. Ran Boswell was a wonderful city manager and all the employees got along beautifully with Ran Boswell. Ran had been a tax collector, assessor, somewhere. I believe it, at Hearne I think it was. Or. And. We just got along beautifully. I got along wonderfully well with Ran Boswell. I?: Were there any special issues related to being the mayor of a university town? 11:25: DH: I think as we went to mun-municipal league meetings, I kind of had a feeling that other mayors were jealous of us for, for having a college. Having a college, is that what I’m saying? I?: Hmm-hmm. 11:56: DH: Having a college in our city. And Mr. Gilchrist who was chancellor then was very helpful to me in, in matters pertaining to the city. And he would be all the help he could be. Like selling us water. We became independent with wa-, on water. And then, where did we buy our, finally get our electricity? I?: Were you buying it through Bryan? 12:41: DH: I guess at one time, we bought it from Bryan. But some way we got independent of that. We got totally independent from Bryan. And, we really beamed then, we really grew. I?: Now you spoke about Gibb Gilchrist, did you meet regularly with him to discuss areas of common interest and concerns? 13:20: DH: No. I did not meet regularly with him. He had his hands full running the university. But I did, anytime he wanted to talk about something, I’d go to his office. And he’d have some, something pertaining to the city that he wou-, needed help on. And, and we got along beautifully well. I?: So you helped him and he helped you? 13:45: DH: He helped, he helped me and I helped him. Now another member of the university that I was, dealt with a lot, and he’s the one that got me water, got us water, was (Tom Cherry?). And Tom was I, I, I don’t know what his, remember what his title was, but it was, he was right under the. I?: Was he in charge of the facilities? 14:23: DH: Facilities man. He was a facilities man. That’s why I was working with him. I got my go-ahead from Mr. Gilchrist, but then I worked with (Tom Cherry?). I?: To actually carry it out. 14:38: DH: Act-, actually carry it out, that’s right. I?: Now growth is critical to expanding the tax base. How did services expand during your tenure as mayor? 14:57: DH: Well we had a, a constant growth. I, I can’t compare it to anything because I didn’t have anything to compare it with. But Bryan was an existing town and Bryan had already received most of it, its growth and the library was located in Bryan. And there was a lot of things that Bryan had that we, we didn’t have. But ultimately we, we got the things that we felt were important. I?: There is always some ki-, a kind of dynamic tension between neighborhoods and developers who want to come in, do you recall that kind of tension during your administration? 15:57: DH: Well. I remember that, the area and I’ll tell you, tell you where it is. There’s Dominik Street that runs east, long street. And right back of Dominik Street, there is a beautiful piece of land. And the, I don’t remember whether it was (Bill Fitch?), he was one of the biggest developers around here, but anyway the question of, of developing that piece of land back of Dominik Street came up. And the city council generally was, was for it, but we had to be sure that they brought utilities to service it. And that’s something that we contended with. I?: Do you think College Station has been handicapped by not having an identifiable downtown area? 17:33: DH: I think it probably has. I remember when (Don Dales?) was on the city council. He said, he, he said that to me one day, “We oughtta.” What did he say? He said something about wanting to, well I can’t think of what I’m, what I was going to say there. I?: Was Northgate serving as a, a kind of downtown? 18:25: DH: Northgate was serving as our downtown. Northgate was our downtown. I?: But the city continues, seems to always have, I mean, obviously been going south since the city can’t go north we’d run into Bryan. So it’s forcing, forcing. 18:39: DH: Yeah. Yeah. We had to go. Well we couldn’t hardly go west because of the railroad. We had the railroad west of us and we had Bryan just right north of us. Just almost two or three blocks. Bryan was right past the Northgate, Bryan was located. Bryan’s city limits was located. I?: What about transportation and roads and so forth. Was, was that, was that a problem? There always seem to be more people and more cars than we have adequate streets and parking for. Do you recall that happening? 19:37: DH: Uh. Say that again. I?: Let’s talk about transportation and. 19:43: DH: Okay. We had the bus system that served, the bus system served both Bryan and College Station. I?: Together? 19:57: Yes. It’s, the same time. The same bus went from north Bryan to south College Station and working people who mostly caught the bus, buses, depended on that bus system to, to get out here. Well those that were coming out here, here. Some of them I guess were going into Bryan. But most of them were I think, going into Bryan. I?: So the, the automobile had not become as much a, a factor in everyday life then as it is now. 20:44: DH: That’s right. I?: Okay, okay. 20:47: DH: That’s correct. I?: Did College Station have a, a, parks system when you were mayor? 20:58: DH: Yes. We had a very good parks system. Steve Beachy was our parks director of our parks, parks committee and he, he did an outstanding job with the parks. And we were, we were well-known for our parks system in College Station. Still are I guess. I?: Yes sir, we are. 21:23: DH: Still are. I?: As part of that, there’s been an interest in preserving historic homes and other historic sites. Was there the beginning of an inclining, I mean, of an interest in that during your administration? 21:46: DH: Yes, there was. I?: Tell us about it. 21:50: DH: Well the first, first I got to say that College Station got its charter in 1938 so we didn’t have a lot of time to deal with that. It, it, it, the facts are that, that what, what, what we did do was work with Bryan on the, the telephone franchise when the telephone company would come in for a pay raise, we worked beautifully with Bryan because we could, we-when we got a raise, well when we, they applied to, for a raise, they applied at the same time, Bryan and College Station. So uh. I?: So that’s an instance when the cities were able to work well together. 23:07: DH: Yes. That’s, that’s when the cities worked well together. I?: And. 23:12: DH: Was, was when we-, we were both tax like the telephone company. (Only?) to go up on our telephone charges. And, and we had some real battles with the city of Bryan on, on that. I, we, I remember one time they, they acted like the city of College Station didn’t deserve to have telephone service and so forth and so on. And that was bad you know. We deserve telephone service just like everybody else. I?: But you succeeded in keeping it. 24:12: DL: Yes. I?: Yes, yes, yes. What about the, the library? All of our folks would get on the bus and then ride into Bryan to go to the public library there. 24:25: DH: Yes. The library was you know, you know where the city of the Bryan library is. I?: Oh yes indeed, I do. 23:34: DH: Yes. I?: You’ve talked about the relationship between Bryan and College Station and some of it was good and some of it wasn’t so good. But you haven’t mentioned in your comments anything about how the relationship with Brazos County was. 25:07: DH: Well. There was not near the uh, relationship with the county that there was with the city of College Station and the city of Bryan. I think one reason was we had Mr. Gilchrist in College Station. Mr. Gilchrist was the chancellor of the A&M system. And Mr. Gilchrist lived in College Station. And Mr. Gilchrist would do anything in the world that he could for me when I was, when I was mayor. And the city of Bryan had Travis Bryan Sr. And Travis Bryan Sr. we thought didn’t like College Station. So we, we just had to put up with that kind of animosity between Bryan and College Station. And we made out all right. We, we. I?: May we talk for a moment about your achievements. You indicated earlier that your goal was to try to help College Station become independent of everyone relative to providing services for the citizens. 27:04: DH: Yeah. I?: You, you are satisfied that everything was done that could possibly be done to get to that goal. 27:14: DH: Yes. I?: Okay, okay. Were there any goals that you had that you didn’t entirely accomplish? 27:36: DH: I can’t think of anything. Now you may know something or these city, city staff people may know something. I?: Well what counts is what you think. 27:46: DH: Well. Uh. I?: May I ask you another kind of question. 28:01: DH: Yes. I?: What did you enjoy most about being the mayor of College Station? 28:10: DH: Seeing things get accomplished. Watching things get accomplished. Seeing the city grow. And. Seeing this building built. And. You know of where the first city of College Station offices were? Over on Wellborn Road, on the corner of Wellborn Road and that street that runs parallel is the. I2?: Church. I?: Is that Church? 29:06: DH: Northgate. What is that street? I?: Church. I?: Church Street. 29:09: DH: Church Street, yeah. Yeah. Well the first city of College Station offices were a little red brick building on that corner. And uh. Later on there was a restaurant. I?: Still is. 29:33: DH: Still is. I?: Café, Café Eccell. 29:35: DH: Café. Yeah. I?: It has a plaque right next to the entrance that says that it is historical building number one, College Station. 29:49: DH: Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. [laughs] I?: Were there things that you didn’t like about being mayor? 30:03: DH: Well I didn’t like phone calls from people who wouldn’t give me their name. That didn’t make me very happy. I said, “You can give, give me your name. I’m not gonna shoot you.” [laughs] I?: [laughs] Once it was time to move back to private life after being mayor, was it kind of tough to make the transition? 30:36: DH: Oh, not particularly. I had good men that followed me and good men that came along and uh. I, what were we talking about? I?: We were talking about whether or not it was hard to make the transition from being a public figure back to a more private life. 31:11: DH: Yeah. Yeah. It was. It was a little difficult to not be called mayor. You know that, that. [laughs] I?: You got used to that. 31:25: DH: I got used to that. And that educated top dog. [laughs] And I, I appreciated being top dog. I’ll, I’ll have to admit to you. That was, that was important to me. I?: There (ain’t?) wrong with that. I wanna, I’m gonna end this but before I do, I want to give you the chance to add anything that I didn’t ask you a question about that you want to, to say or you think maybe we missed when we’re talking about your life in public service. 32:13: DH: Well I had an opportunity to be the vice president of the Texas Municipal League and then the president of the Texas Municipal League. But I decided, when I decided not to run for reelection that ended that idea because I couldn’t serve in that capacity and not be on, a mayor of a city. So I, I didn’t, I didn’t proceed to end my. I told the people of College Station I wouldn’t serve too long. I didn’t, I, I had a job and I took a lot of work in my job and I could, I couldn’t serve too long. I, I owed it to my. I?: How did you decide? How did, how did you decide how long you were going to serve? 33:32: DH: Well I wanted to get my, my first ambition was to get independent of all utilities and I pretty well got that handled. And uh. I don’t remember, we had bus service. And uh. I can’t remember anything else. I?: Managing the issue of the utilities is, is a major, major issue. So that was a very significant, very significant. 34:23L DH: Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was something else. I?: Thank you for taking the time. 34:32: DH: Well I appreciate, I appreciate the honor of being called in to discuss my years as, as mayor. I?: The honor is ours. 34:42: DH: Wasn’t very long. I?: The honor, the honor is ours Mayor Hervey. We’re, we’re delighted that you were willing to do this. Thank you very much. 34:50: DH: Well I, I, I appreciate you inviting me down to talk. I?: That’s great.