The Alto Herald and The Wells News 'N Views (Alto, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 14, 1988 Page: 1 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Alto Herald and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Stella Hill Memorial Library.
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I
(Jrfidy C. Singletary
nt. 1, Box 164
/Ito, Texas 75925
25c
Per IwHue
The Alto Herald
Established 18%
and
The Wells News TV Views
Site of Texas’
Historical (.ad(loan
Indian Mounds
Vol. 92, No. 36
Thursday, January 14, 1988
8 Pages
MHOMJMMBMaiMVMMMMMMMi
Alto council authorizes issuance of certificates of obligation
The Alto City Council authorized
the issuance of $475,000 in Cer-
tificates of Obligation for the
restoration of the city sewer system
as commanded by the State Water
Commission. In its regular monthly
meeting Monday, Jan 11, coun-
cilpersons accepted the motion with
a 4-1 vote.
Brannon Corporation, along with
Robert G. Day, vice president of
Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, Inc.,
Tyler, was quoted at the council
meeting as saying that $475,000 will
be needed for the completion of
sewer renovations as required by
the State An amount of $447,000 was
estimated by RPR, not including the
administrative costs. Therefore,
their recommendation was for
$475,000, so that the city would not
run short.
“It would be best to have enough,’’
said Mayor R A Wallace “What
would we do if we got half through
and ran out of money?” asked City
Councilwoman Sandy Wallace.
“Why couldn’t we just get a smaller
amount and then, if needed, get
another bond for the remainder?”
asked Councilman Buell Rogers “I
don’t know,” answered the Mayor,
“but that’s what Mr. Day said would
be needed...so I say we go by their
figures!”
“They have advised us (the city)
financially for years,” said City
Administrator Mary Clem
Williams. “I don’t teel that they
would steer us wrong!” The Mayor
and City Administrator both
reiterated that they could get Mr.
Day back to explain what he said
earlier in the week to them. “He
would have been here tonight to ex-
plain, but he was unable to attend,”
said Mayor Wallace.
“How are we going to pay back
that amount of money?” asked
Councilman Marshall Bynum.
“They (Texas Water Commission)
will tell us how much to go up on
sewer, garbage, etc. in order to
repay the money,” said Mayor
Wallace. In an earlier meeting, Kirk
Bynum of Brannon Corporation was
asked how much it would cost the
city to make the State happy at the
sewer plant. Bynum stated that in
his estimation it would take some-
where in the amount of $135,000 to
$138,000 Bvnum also stated at that
meeting that the present sewer plant
was adequate for a town the size of
Alto. There is no extra building ex-
pected at the sewer plant at present.
In other business, a violation of
city ordinance and procedures by
the placement of a mobile home was
discussed. Mrs. Lea von Nix of !h<
Brunt Addition, 102 Jim Street,
along with her counsel, Earnest
Rountree, was present at the
meeting. Mrs. Nix lives in a house on
property owned by her mother, Mrs
ME. Sil vertooth, and she has recen-
tly moved her mother's mobile
home into the back yard of her home
Placement of the mobile home ob-
scures neighbors' back yard view
Zoning ordinance of the City of Alto,
Sec. 6.80 that was amended Dec. 4,
1978, allowed the placement of
mobile homes upon any lot in the
City with the minimum size of 50 feet
width (frontage) and 90 feet depth
Sec. 6.83 states that any person
violating this provision shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and upon
conviction shall be fined not more
than $200 Attorney Rountree told
the council thaf his client moved the
mobile home there so that her
mother, who is 78 years old, could
spend her last days with all her
Yellowjackets defeat
Lovelady Lions 72-63
The Alto Yellowjackets started off
the district race right Friday night
in Alto as they defeated the
Lovelady Lions 72-63 The Jackets
came out hot in the first quarter by
taking a 27-15 lead They held the
lead by using a fierce pressing at-
tack and also kept the Lions off
balance with their variety of offen-
sive plays Freshman Robert
Reagan made all scores with 23
points Micheal Richardson chipped
in20andPaul Hollandadded 12 of his
own. Other scores included were
Darrel Richardson, 8, Earsley
Wade, 5; and Howard Richardson, 4
Kendrick Anderson and Howard
Richardson excelled on the defen-
sive board which enabled the
Jackets to win their first district
game.
Earlier in the week the
Yellowjackets defeated Maydel'e
73-35. Robert Reagan lead all scores
with 23 points and Micheal Richar-
dson was close behind with 20. Othr
scores included were Kendrick An
derson, 10; Darrel Richardson, 6;
Paul Holland, 4; Cedric Pope, 4;
Chris McCullough, 4; and Howard
Richardson, 3. The Yellowjackets
will face the Grapeland Sandies
Friday night at home, so come out
and support the Jackets!
f
£
THE ORIGINAL Winter wonderland has nothing on Alto and sarronding areas this year. Ice coats trees,
buildings, cars, bushes and anything out and about on these days. Lights and water w as out at most residences
for several days. Schools were closed and some businesses were closed because of the power outages, staff photo
worldly possessions wnich he stated
was in the mobile home. “In view of
the fact that Mrs. Nix is looking out
for Mrs. Silvertooth 24 hours a day
not just to check on her. but to see if
she is standing or laying on the floor,
I asked the council if there is
anything else vou can do. She does
not have the money for the tine
Could you possibly give a temporary
permit for just long enough for my
client to find a place to move the
mobile home?” Rountree
requested Councilman Bynum
made a motion to give Mrs. Nix a 30
day extension if she gets the mobile
home moved during that time, with
review at the next monthly meeting
of the Council Rountree thanked the
council for giving his client time to
move. “I thought this city still had a
heart and I thank you,” said Roun-
tree.
The next order of business was the
discussion of a procedure in which
members of the Fire Department
are to use when making purchases
charged to the city “First of all.
there are two ways the Fire Depar
tment is run. One is donations, which
can be used by the Fire Department
in any way >hev see ( - m use them,
and second is tax money said
Mayor Wallace “We are iot con
cerned with the donations but we are
concerned about the way the tax
money is spent.” continued the
Mayor. “You can see from the list oi
expenses listed for the Fire Depar-
tment from Oct. 87 until January 10,
’88, that the Department has spent
$6,009.31 not counting a $60 bill tha1
was not listed on this, send Mayor
Wallace. “The Fire Department
was budgeted $9,723 for the year
(See *ALTO COUNCIL, Page 2)
Wells ISD board reviews report
The annual performance report
for the Wells ISD for the year 1986-87
has been received by the local school
board
Goals for the district show that the
Ice puts power companies ‘out in cold
Electrical power has been
restored to most of Cherokee County
after last week's ice storm that
plagued the area
Rower was knocked out in a major
portion of the county Wednesday,
Jan 6 SESCO and Cherokee County
Electric Cooperative crews began
working around the clock and most
of the powerwas restored by
Tuesday morning
George Dodd, service manager
for the Rusk SESCO office, said his
company had restored service to
everyone except a few isolated cases
by Saturday evening About 95 pei-
centof the electrical problems came
from damage from pine trees, he
noted The trouble began around
7 30 or 8 pm Wednesday and the
majority of houses and businesses
BRIEFS
Wells city meet delayed
The Wells City Council regular
meeting for January has been post
poned one week Mayor Pro Tern
Floyd Cartwright said that several
council members and Mayor Horace
Johnson were ill
The meeting is now scheduled for
January 18,7p m at IheCity Hall
Ambulance update
Alto Emergency Ambulance
donations for the week of Jan 4 8
were received from I he following
Miscellaneous donations from
Boyd’s Drug. Memorial for Boyd
Germany from Mr and Mrs It <>
( ruseturner, Ken Gordon, Alfred
and Madeline Danheim, Connie
Knott, Doug and Sybleen Minton,
Mrs .1 S Chapman, and Lucinda
“Colwell
were on by daylight Friday mor-
ning
“There is noway to trim a right of
way for an ice storm,” Dodd said He
related that trees are so tall that if
the right of way was made where no
tree could fall on a line, there would
be no timber left
About 98 percent of the people
were nice and cooperative, and
SESCO people expressed their ap-
preciation for their concern.
Priority areas for SESCO in the
City of Rusk are Rusk State
Hospital, number 1, Cherokee
Medical Center, number 2, and the
three nursing homes, number 3
Next on the list is anyone using a
breathing machine or those using
electricity for health problems
Then the company begins repairing
areas serving the most people on
down to the individual house drops
Cherokee County Electric Service
Cooperative crews have been
working around the clock in an at-
tempt to restore service to an area
from Jacksonville to Troup to South
of Alto The ice storm went across
the system from west to east, accor-
ding to Manager Bud Gwartney
Several thousand customers were
out. Outage began before dark on
Jan 6 and lines kept falling for two
days “We had to get the main feeder
lines fixed first That is why we were
driving up and down the roads in an
attempt to find where the lines were
down," he said
A total of 15 contractor crews and
11 Coop crews worked around the
clock The first crews worked for 24
hours from Wednesday to Thursday
night Then crews went on 16 hour
shifts, with around the clock repairs
underway By Monday, 90 percent of
the service had been restored
Crews were working on individual
taps on Tuesday
“We appreciate the patience and
understanding of the area citizens,’’
Gwartney said
Some 30 percent of the E-Z Vision
Cable System was damaged. There
was a brief overall outage and in-
dividual house problems are now
being solved Radio Stations KTLU
and KW’KW were out until power
service to the tower was restored
ECP funds available to farmers
Farmers in Cherokee County who
were affected bv tin* tornado which
occurred Sunday afternoon Nov 15,
1987, may 1m- eligible for assistance
under the Emergency Conservation
Program (ECP> administered by
the county Agricultural Stablizaton
and (’onservat ion Service
The objective of EC P is to provide
cost share assistance to
agricultural producers who have
suffered severe damage to their
farmland as a result of a natural
disaster, according to Manuel F
Aguilar director for ASCS The
damage must Im-of such magnitude
that il would Im- tin* costly for the
producer to rehabilitate without
Federal assistance The county of
fice has received an allocation of
funds which will be used for the
following conservation measures
1 Removing debris from far
mland
2. Restoring or replacing per
manent fences
Far -rs who feel the damage is
sufficiently severe and their
capabilities are such that assistance
is necessary to correct the problem
should contact the county ASCS of
fice and request assistance by not
later than February 12, 1988. the
deadline for filing mjuests
students will be expected to meet or
exceed educational performance
standards Test scores for students
in the district were a cause of con-
cern The writing section of TEAMS
was targeted as an area in which
improvement was needed. Teachers
attended workshops on focused
holistic writing and stressed writing
in the classroom. This has resulted
in an improvement in writing scores
on TEAMS
Wells students received
recognition in the District 23A UIL
Academic Contest and in college
scnoiai snips. * uc elementary
school won the district champion-
ship in the spring academic meet
The high school students earned four
first place awards, four second
place awards and six third place
awards at the district meet Senior
students were awarded more
scholarships than had been awarded
in previous years Four of the 13
seniors received scholarships
totaling approximately $3,000.
No pass/no play had no visible im
pact on academic performance The
vast majority of students in voiced
in extracurricular activities were
good students before no pass no
play went into effect.
On the elementary campus, 95.5
percent of the students passed to the
next grade; 81 percent of the junior
high students passed to the next
grade; and 95 percent of the high
school students passed to the next
grade
Revisions in curriculum w ere con
tinued to insure that Wells ISI) com-
plied with state requirements An
honors program was added Twelve
courses were approved as honors
courses Other curriculum additions
were computer math, choral music,
physics I and Spanish II Plans were
being made to implement a gifted
talented program in future years
The mandated curriculum
requirements for graduation had
minimal effect on Wells ISI) because
in most instances the new state
requirements were raised to the
level of present local requirements
Computer education efforts have
continued to expand In addition to
tin- computer math, computer
literacy is taught at the 8th grade
level Also, more time was available
for students to work with computers
Additional computers are planned
for purchase during the current
school vear
A librarian was hired on a half
time basis and plans were made to
hirea full time librarian in 1987-88
All Wells ISD teachers have
teaching certificates. Fifteen per-
cent of the teachers have masters
degrees. Wells had 26 full time
teachers during the 1985-86 school
year, 12 moved to other districts and
one retired. During the 1986-87
school year, Wells had 25 full time
teachers Due to a decrease in the
number of students attending the
elementary school, a kindergar-
ten and second grade teacher were
not replaced. A music teacher was
hired to meet the mandates of House
Bill 72 Experience ranged from 0
years to 20 years of experience, with
the average years of experience per
teacherat 5.6years
Because of a drop in school
enrollment, planned construction
projects for the high school were
postponed During a TEA
monitoring visit in May 1987 the
district received a “Corrective Ac-
tion Required" for not operating a
library media sere ice at the elemen-
tary school campus The team also
recommended that a facilities use
study be conducted for the elemen-
tary principal's office, the coun-
selor’s office, nurse's clinic-office
and darkroom for photography lab
The school district experienced a
13 percent decrease in enrollment or
40 students. The amount of money
that the district receives from the
state is related to the number of
students. Because of the reduction in
attendance, the district received
$106,000 less in state aid than an-
ticipated from the TEA Even with
the reduction in state aid. the
district completed the school year in
sound financial condition
Ad valorem tax rate for Wells ISD
was 83 cents Wells ISD spent $4,000
per student during the 1986-87 schooi
year
me district tried to involve the
parents of the students and the
community at large in a variety of
activities There were a PTA spoil
sored Halloween carnival, Christ
mas program, and a PTA sponsored
Taste Fair
The tutorial time was held from
7:30 am until 7:50 am
Aproximately 50 percent of the
students used the full 20 minute
period Another innovative method
used was grouping in grades 4 6
Honors program was added to the
high school curriculum Plans were
begun for a gifted-talented program
to be implemented in future years
Also plans were made to purchase
additional computers for classroom
use
1987 Babies
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The Alto Herald and The Wells News 'N Views (Alto, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 14, 1988, newspaper, January 14, 1988; Alto, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1097990/m1/1/?q=%22~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Stella Hill Memorial Library.