East Bernard Express (East Bernard, Tex.), Vol. 69, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 20, 2012 Page: 1 of 12
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East Bernard
Thursday,
September 20,2012
Volume 69, No. 38
12 Pages
75 cents
Today is the 264th day of the year,
with 102 days remaining.
INSIDE
Brahmas win, face
last non-district test
PAGE 7
Constitution Week
celebrated by DAR
PAGE 6
Classified......................8
Editorial..........................4
Living................................5
Puzzle...............................8
Sports...............................7
Worship Directory......6
TODAY’S
FORECAST
Sunny high of 89
Today sunny, with
a high near 89. Calm
wind becoming east
around 5 mph in the
afternoon. Tonight
mostly clear, with a low
around 59. Southeast
wind around 5 mph be-
coming calm after mid-
night.
Friday sunny, with
a high near 89. Friday
night mostly clear, with
a low around 62.
Saturday sunny,
with a high near 90.
Saturday night part-
ly cloudy, with a low
around 66.
Sunday mostly sun-
ny, with a high near 90.
FROM
THE BIBLE
God saved you by his
special favor when you
believed. And you can’t
take credit for this; it is
a gift from God. Salva-
tion is not a reward for
the good things we have
done, so none of us can
boast about it.
Ephesians 2:8-9
GOT NEWS?
For items of interest, from
wedding engagements to
community events, contact
532-0095 or
news@journal-spectator.com
You also can drop off items
at our office at 115 W. Burle-
son St., Wharton, TX 77488.
Council delays vote on tax rate
By KEITH MAGEE
kmagee@journal-spectator.com
The East Bernard City Council on
last Thursday approved the 2012-13
budget but delayed approving the tax
rate.
Because the city inadvertently pub-
lished a required public notice with
last year’s information on it, council
members decided it was best to pub-
lish the public notice again and call a
special meeting for the vote.
By law, a city must approve its bud-
get and tax rate prior to the next fiscal
year, which begins Oct. 1. The public
notice must be published a week be-
fore the meeting, and council mem-
bers still had enough time to publish
the notice and have the meeting prior
to Oct. 1.
The special meeting will be at 5
p.m. Friday, Sept. 28. The public no-
tice is published on Page 11 of today’s
East Bernard Express.
During last week’s council meeting,
a public hearing was held to discuss
the proposed budget, which was pre-
sented by Toby Hlavinka. Hlavinka
headed up the city’s budget commit-
tee.
The budget showed expenditures
of $621,546 and estimated revenue
of $698,566. The budget also includes
several special projects for the swim-
ming pool, community park, Little
League lights and note and Safe
Routes to School project totalling
$503,338.
The city’s beginning fund bal-
ance — $1,643,569 — would fall to
$1,217,251 at the end of the year.
During public comment, Dwight
Winkler said the city’s reserve funds
was too high. Winkler, a former East
Bernard ISD superintendent, said
school districts normally keep enough
reserve funds to run the district for
two or three months.
“The city’s fund balance could op-
erate the city for two years and eight
months,” Winkler said. “The city has a
large fund balance.”
Some other residents who spoke
thought the budget wasn’t detailed
enough.
“I don’t think anyone minds the
tax rate,” said Cindy Kubicek, who is
East Bernard’s municipal judge. “In
all honesty, in my opinion, nothing is
put out in black and white. That’s the
problem on the budget.”
The budget includes a 3 percent
salary increase for regular employees.
Girls Night Out
Staff photo by Ann Watson
Enjoying the festivities of Girls Night Out on Monday are, from left, Christa Simpson, Peggy Spitzenberger, Lisa DeBerry, Kim Floyd and Stacey
Hlavinka. The annual event, hosted by Savon Drugs and Polak Petals, is a way of drawing attention to East Bernard businesses while also raising
funds for the East Bernard PTO. Funds from the sale of feather boas, which these ladies are wearing, go to the benefit of the organization.
Woman arrested in
By BENJAMIN SHARP
bsharp@journal-spectator.com
Police allege a Wharton woman de-
frauded pet owners by selling mixed-
breed “mutts” as full blooded, AKC reg-
istered animals.
In some cases, buyers traveled to
Wharton County from as far away as
Waco, police said, shelling out as much
as $5,000 for what they believed was a
top of the line canine.
“I have five victims so far, and all
have been from out of town,” said Det.
Grady Smith of the Wharton Police De-
partment.
The first ones to contact police were
from Magnolia. Smith said they had re-
sponded to an advertisement on Hoobly,
a free classified website, about a 3-year-
old American Kennel Club registered
and bred English bulldog. The buyers
agreed to meet the owner — who iden-
tified herself as Amber Harris — at a
Wharton grocery store. After paying
$5,000, they returned home with the
dog.
But after taking the dog to a veteri-
narian, the Magnolia residents made an
interesting discovery.
When the vet scanned the dog’s
subcutaneous microchip — a modern
means of theft protection used by some
pet owners — he found that the bulldog
had received the device in Kansas back
in 2005.
“The dog was at least seven years
old,” Smith said. “Obviously the animal
was misrepresented.”
A couple weeks earlier, police had
received a similar complaint about
a supposed AKC registered German
Shepherd that didn’t measure up to the
advertising claims. The seller? Amber
Harris of Wharton.
That name, however, turned out to be
fake. Smith alleges it was an alias used
by 24-year-old Jennifer Ann Herbers of
Wharton.
“If you go online and do Internet re-
pet scam
search on either name, you get multiple
complaints of these same issues,” Smith
alleged.
On Sept. 6, police executed a search
warrant at Herbers’s rural Wharton
home. “She had a stack of paperwork
along with sales receipts from hun-
dreds of people she had sold animals to,”
Smith said.
He began calling some of the buyers
and allegedly discovered other similar
rip-offs.
“I’m just scratching the surface,”
Smith said.
Herbers was booked into Wharton
County Jail on Sept. 6, charged with
state jail felony theft. She was further
charged with 10 counts of animal cru-
elty.
‘We also discovered multiple animals
that were being kept in really bad envi-
ronments,” Smith alleged. “They were
obviously being mistreated.”
Herbers was later released after post-
ing $30,000 bond.
Bum
ban
lifted
By KEITH MAGEE
kmagee@journal-spectator.com
Following a weekend rain-
storm, Wharton County of-
ficials on Monday morning
lifted the county’s burn ban.
Andy Kirkland, the county’s
emergency management coor-
dinator, made an announce-
ment on Monday morning
that effective immediately, the
burn ban is no longer in effect
for Wharton County.
The Keetch-Byram
Drought Index (KDBI) value
for Monday was 426, and
therefore outdoor burning will
be allowed, Kirkland reported.
The burn ban is automatically
instated when the KDBI value
reaches 500 or higher, and it is
automatically lifted when the
value is less than 500.
For the 24-hour period that
ended at 6:30 a.m. Monday,
the Lower Colorado River Au-
thority hydromet gauges had
the following rainfall totals:
• Wharton: 1.24 inches
• East Bernard: .31 inches
• El Campo: .46 inches
Unofficial storm totals, be-
lieved to be from the entire
weekend, included 1.29 inches
reported from the Wharton
County Sheriff’s Office and
1.31 inches reported by the El
Campo Police Department.
With the ban lifted, the reg-
ular rules for outdoor burning
are in effect, Kirkland said.
“Remember, if you are go-
ing to have a controlled burn,
you must notify the Wharton
County Sheriff’s Department,”
Kirkland said.
Outdoor burning which is
otherwise authorized is also
subject to the following re-
quirements:
• Burning must be outside
the corporate limits of a city or
town except where the incor-
porated city or town has en-
acted ordinances which permit
burning.
• Burning shall begin and
See BURN, Page 9
County to leave accounts payable with treasurer
Request dies
after lack
of motion
By KEITH MAGEE
kmagee@journal-spectator.com
Wharton County commissioners on
Sept. 10 agreed to leave the accounts
payable duties in the county treasur-
er’s office.
County Auditor Sharon Boedeker
had requested that the county move
the duties to her office.
After discussing the request, Coun-
ty Judge Phillip Spenrath polled com-
missioners on what they favored, and
the request died because of a lack of a
motion.
Boedeker said that around the
state, about 90 percent of counties
have accounts payable in the auditor’s
office.
“There’s got to be a reason why it’s
working there,” Boedeker said.
Boedeker said she didn’t want to
air dirty laundry, but she would hear
from other county employees that the
“auditor’s changing this and the audi-
tor’s changing that.”
“You call it bickering when I put out
those memos, but I don’t know what
else to do,” Boedeker said. ‘When you
say that I don’t help accounts payable,
I practically do accounts payable any-
way.”
Boedeker said some of the problems
she had included wrong invoice num-
bers, batch numbers being different,
account codes changed and descrip-
tions changed.
County Treasurer Donna Thornton
said she thought accounts payable
should stay in her department.
“I don’t see a conflict with who is in
charge,” Thornton said. ‘We are pro-
cessing. That’s our main role.”
Thornton said the clerks some-
times have problems with procedural
changes.
“The clerks say things keep chang-
ing and it keeps them off balance,”
Thornton said.
Thornton said if accounts payable
is moved, it will cost the county more.
“I think it will grow the government,”
Thornton said.
“If you turn it over, her staff is paid
more. It reduces costs to keep it in the
treasurer’s office.”
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Wallace, Bill. East Bernard Express (East Bernard, Tex.), Vol. 69, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 20, 2012, newspaper, September 20, 2012; East Bernard, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth787498/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Wharton County Library.