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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAnne Hazen Pt. 3 TranscriptionCity of College Station Heritage Programs Oral History Interviewee: Anne Hazen Interviewer: Unknown Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt Date: 2013 Place: College Station, Texas Project: 75th Anniversary Former CS Mayor & Councilmember Project Interviewer (I): Do you think College Station has been handicapped by not having an identifiable downtown? 00:11: Anne Hazen (AH): No I don’t think it has um, I think College Station is pretty much, very mobile community—most everybody wants to drive and, or ride a bike. There’s just not, there’s not a, people shop in. For a while, they all went to the mall, and now they’re all going into the neighborhood shopping areas. I mean to the smaller ones, where they can park right at the door of the shop. It seems to change with time. And I don’t think not having a downtown, most downtowns I’m aware of sort of died out. People moved out to the malls and now they’re moving into redeveloping downtowns. And I don’t think it’s hurt College Station not to have one. I do think, when I was on the council, we’re the ones that planned the, to build the new city hall at Krenek Tap and, there was a plan for a senior center there and a plan for performing arts center there. And I thought that was a good idea. And that would have given a focus to that area of town, and it could have been a new, a new downtown. And I, I felt that would be very positive for our city. And I, very disappointed nothing has happened on that yet. I: Why do you think that those issues were defeated? 01:29: AH: Um. I just think that we have a lot of people here that if they don’t need it, they don’t see why anybody else needs it. You know it’s not, I think that we do need the space but the, the money was starting to get tight when, at this last bond issue. And I think that, that’s probably one of the reasons. Because usually we could count on the voters voting for the projects that we put forward over the years. But the last four or five years now, people have been a little more uh, negative on their voting. I: Do you think that carried over into this last election when the transportation fee was not passed? Is that the same thing? 02:13: AH: I don’t think people really understood the benefit of that transportation fee. I saw a benefit to you know, the average citizen. But I don’t think the citizens. I think they were just voting negative. No, no, no. Every, no for. I: Do you think more education about the issue might have made any difference? 02:33: AH: I don’t really think so. I don’t think people were listening. I: Um, were any steps taken during the time that you were serving on the councils, to try to improve local transportation? 02:52: AH: Um. Sidewalks and bikeways, yes. We worked very hard on those. And we were continually you know, working on our, on the bikeways, and improving sidewalks. Because many, many of the developments would have a sidewalk in front of their house or their uh commercial establishment, but it wouldn’t connect to anything. We’re waiting for the next-door development to develop. And I think they did try to get more sidewalks in, you know, sidewalks to connectivity. We wanted connectivity with the bike paths and sidewalks. And that was one of the big pushes when I was on the council this last time was the connectivity. Not to block the kids so they couldn’t, couldn’t go to the end of a long cul-da-sac and not be able to get out on at least a walking path, you know, to get to the next neighborhood. Because we would have two cul-de-sacs meeting each other and there’d be no way anybody could get from one to the other. And it did handicap our transportation. And uh mothers were having to drive their kids all over the place because the kids couldn’t walk anywhere. And I think that’s still an issue that, uh it’s not uh, I don’t know why, it’s not. I can’t remember the beginning of your question if you want to repeat it for me I’ll. [chuckle] I: No you, you took care of it. 04:07: AH: Okay. I: Let’s talk for a minute about parks, uh and recreation. College Station has always had a strong program in that area. Did the parks systems expand, during your service? 04:26: AH: Yes, they expanded quite a bit. And one of the, one of our interests was, um, when I was on the council this second time, was to increase tourism. And one of the increases of tourism was the ball, was the veteran’s park and all the ballfields so that we could attract out of town tourists to bring, income into the community. And so there was a lot of effort put in to developing ballfields and soccer fields. Sometimes to the detriment of some of the other programs I felt. I: Was that the beginning of the hotel/motel occupancy task? 05:08: AH: The hotel/motel task was before the Veteran’s Park, but, it was used, it had to be designated for a certain things, and one of the things was tourism, increasing of tourism. Um, I don’t know what they were able, I don’t know if they were able to use any of that money for the park, for Veteran’s Park itself, I’m not sure. But we had that, certainly one of the stars in our city is that Veteran’s Park. I: Were there preservation efforts to mark the city’s historic buildings and homes and places of interest during your time that you were on the council? 05:47: AH: Most certainly when I was on the early time on the council, there wasn’t any efforts. But uh, not that I was aware of. But on this last time they, we were continually having people come up with historic homes, plaque, you know, it would be. Uh, and I think that’s very important. I come from New England where we have so many historic homes up there so, I thought it was very important that they were doing that and supported you know, the efforts. I: What about the library? 06:17: AH: There wasn’t any library when I was on the first time. [chuckle] We um had a bus that came over from Bryan, twice a week and parked like at Redman Terraces, was one of the places, and I can’t remember where the other one was. But, it was one day a week for like two or three hours and you’d run down with your kids and they’d pick out some books. Um, so there was always an interest in the library. And, then, while I was off the council I believe was when they did the, store-front library. And uh, was pleased they finally got a library there. I: The relationship between College Station and Bryan has been up and down over the years. Talk about the relations with Bryan during both of your services on the city council. 07:12: AH: I, we got, because when you’re on the city council you go to state workshops. Texas Municipal League workshops and would serve with. I, I would get to meet and get to know the Bryan councilman when I were at those. And we got along fine. We had a lot of the same issues. But it went, when it came to the cities as a whole, whether it was the council or, or the citizens, it just seemed like there was strife with Bryan. That, that there was competition trying to get, um. I don’t, I, I never understood the competition, but the old-timers did. They understood it. I: Was that competition over the tax base? 07:57: AH: I think it was on getting, on developments coming in, trying to get hotels and got, trying to get businesses back and forth. And there was a lot of competition between the two cities in, in, in, in growth. And College Station was benefiting from a lot of new growth which did im-, impact the tax base because College Station taxes were always lower than those in Bryan, the tax rate. I: How about the relationship between College Station and Brazos County? 08:34: AH: There really wasn’t much, there wasn’t much of a relationship I don’t think. Um, they did their own thing and pretty much, although we all paid county taxes, we got very few services within the city limits. And we would ask the county for things and it was pretty hard to get uh the county. They, they were trying to keep the taxes low too and they had their own projects out in the county. So it was not, it was not easy to get cooperation. And we really never had adequate representation. They, they, it, places were gerrymandered so much that we, we never had, like for now, we should have two full time representatives at least because we’re the bigger sitter, city, but we don’t. I: Let’s talk about your achievements. Um, you spoke about when you ran the first time, you wanted to achieve sidewalks and that you were interested in the safety issue, particularly for the children, um, do you feel that you achieved everything that you wanted to the first time you ran for office? 09:47: AH: I think, I think that, that to my, as I said my initial issue was the sidewalks and bike lanes and I certainly did achieve that. We got the sidewalks on, on Glade and Francis Street and we did start a bike way program. We built Safety City to teach. I: What is Safety City? 10:07: AH: Safety city was a, we built a miniature city. It was up near the middle school, Oakwood Middle School. And uh with different businesses in town, like we had a little McDonalds and a little, different st-stores and schools and churches and everything else in our city. And we had roads. And the kids, little kids learned how to ride their tricycles and their bicycles. It had streets and everything, it was an actual city. How to obey stop signs and stop lights and crossing guards. And, and it was. All the schools sent their kids through, and, it was a great learning experience and some of the Aggies would volunteer to work you know, the, be the supervise there and learn how, learn themselves. Because I think that was a, at that time there were a lot of Aggies that, they in life, came from rural areas and they had never ridden a bike. But they got here and moved into an apartment outside, you know, away from campus and they, couldn’t afford to drive cars a lot of them, and they got on a bicycle. And the same, and tried to negotiate their way to school and it was a real safety issue. So I think safety city served, you know, served us well at that time. But it, as the school had to expand, it gradually got torn down. And they even had a street named, Hazen Street in it but. I: Where, where was it built? 11:32: AH: It was, right at the corner of Timber and George Bush. Back of the building that’s there. I: Okay. Now you spoke about that was your first experience with public service. Let’s talk about what you consider achievements from the second time that you entered public service. 11:59: AH: Um. I don’t know we, we did a lot of things. I think that we bought the land at Krenek Tap that would, that hope, hopefully would be the city center there. Um. They built the arts, the arts building. Of course we were, we were involved in that. We uh, updated our com-comprehensive plan at that time. I mean we worked on new, new zoning and planning issues and planned for the city. We widened um Fitch, Geor-, it was too narrow a road and there was too much traffic on it. We wanted to. We installed lots of safe-, street, street lights, red lights. Um. I don’t know, let me look here in my thing. [chuckle] [looks in lap for brief moment] Well I guess I didn’t write it down. Um. I don’t know, we just did a lot. The city was growing fast. And, and of course the parks were expanded. There was just a lot of things that, that, that, that we did for the city. I: Do you have any regrets about things that you consider left unfinished? 13:27: AH: Uh, I, I, I think the unfinished things are that we didn’t have, we started a senior committee, senior advisory committee in 1998 when I first came on the council. I said, “We have to do something for the senior citizens.” And when I left, we still hadn’t done anything about it. We’d had studies, we’d had designs built and um, we never got anywhere with it. I don’t know whether I should push more for it earlier on, or made it had a better educational program about the needs or not. But that’s what I’m doing now, I’m still working with the seniors, trying to get senior sp-, space for seniors. And we’re the only town that doesn’t have one of our size practically in the state. Many of them have two, three, or four. [chuckle] Senior centers. I: Why do you think, we haven’t passed support for something like that? 14:23: AH: Because there’s only so much money and there’s, this is a young community. The average age is pretty young and people are interested in sports things, athletic fields, things for the, that appeal to the younger generation. And the many of the seniors that are here, belong to clubs and organizations where they can afford you know, they go, they belong to the country club and they play golf and things like that. And they don’t have the need for a senior center so the ones who need it the most are the ones who can’t, who can’t afford to really spend a lot of money. I: Let’s talk for a minute about the actual service in your, your first experience and then when you came back to public service. What did you enjoy the most about serving on the council? 15:20: AH: The staff. I: The staff? 15:22: AH: The staff. And I think we’ve always had a wonderful staff and I always enjoyed the staff. I: The second time? 15:30: Both times. I: Is your answer the same? 15:32: AH: Bo-the same. Some of them, many of them were here the second time around. I: Still here? 15:37: AH: Oh yes. Steve Beechy and Ed Feldman and. I mean, there was just a lot of them that were here for long time. I: Now, do you know that if I asked you what you enjoyed the most, you know, the next thing I’m gonna do is ask you what you enjoyed the least? 15:56: AH: Um. Probably some of those contentious public hearings where people would get up and say things that were critical of the council when we were really working very hard, you know. I think that, they didn’t understand and they were angry. I: But that must have been hard for you to hear that. 16:21: AH: It, well, it is hard you know, when you spend hours preparing and learning and they would walk in and say they don’t want that built on their street. Well they didn’t know [chuckle] all the background you know. I: Did you find it difficult to make the transition back to private life after your service on the council? Including each time? 16:47: AH: Um. Yeah, in, in a way I did because people still think I’m on the council. They’ll call me and ask me questions. You know, they’ll call up and ask me, “What does this mean?” or “ What’s that sign down at the corner of you know, this street “B.” What does it mean there’s a public hearing?” you know. They would still call me and they did. When I was first on the council and that, the first woman ever on the council, I got loads. My kids said, I said, “Ask my kids what, what they remember.” They said, “Phone calls. Mom, you, everybody called you about every pothole and loose dog and everything else because they felt comfortable calling you, they didn’t feel comfortable calling these professors on campus you know, that worked on campus.” And so, I did get a lots of phone calls. And I think when I went off that first time, I went back to college and working on my Master’s and had a part-time job and so, it probably wasn’t as much of a change. This last time uh, it, it was hard to go off. I had to go, I didn’t really want to leave after. I, you know, there were so many things we were involved in uh, but my terms were up. I’d had three terms. So it was uh, and I’ve been asked to run every time since and I’d said, “No I’m too old” because those late meetings are pretty hard. I: You have a considerable life in public service. Wha-what one thing are you the proudest of that you feel that you contributed to the community? 18:21: AH: Well um, my word was good, you know, and I was honest. I had integrity. And uh, I really loved the city you know, and I try. I, I, I think I’m, I’m proudest that I really feel like I, I worked hard. And I pro-, did what I promised to do was to work hard. I: Tell us a little bit about your current projects? 18:47: AH: With the city is, is getting a senior center and I’m, we’re on one of the senior advisory committee. And, we thought originally when we, when the bond issue failed, that we would get a, non-profit organization for a senior center. But then the city stepped forward and said we could use the, the uh, teen center with the day, hours when they teen are not there. And so we’re gonna be getting more involved in that. So that’s one project I’m on. Um. I’m, I have some other projects too. [chuckle] I, I volunteer still with, I’m vice-president of the Hospice Auxiliary, so uh, that takes time. But, I work on campaigns for candidates when they, when they run and run my church activities. So that’s pretty much what I’m into. But I apply for senior, some committees that don’t get appointed all the time. But I do apply, still apply. I: Now are there any questions that you wish that I’d ask you? 19:57: AH: No. [chuckle] I think you did a good job. [chuckle] I: Thank you very much. We really appreciate you’re taking the time to do this. Uh, we’re very grateful to you. Project HOLD is richer for your contribution. Thank you very much. 20:16: AH: Well, I enjoyed it. I’m glad that you’re doing this. My descendants can see this C.D. you’re going to give me. [chuckle] I: Thank you very much.