Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 110, No. 365, Ed. 1 Saturday, August 2, 2014 Page: 1 of 18
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INSIDE TODAY
Local coach done after 16 years of fulfillment / Sports, IB
Former district AD taking Stetson behind TV desk / Sports, IB
ALSO INSIDE
Israel pushes deeper into
Gaza after soldier seized
International, 6A
Denton Record-Chronicle
An edition of dlje J3alla£ Jlortmttj DentonRC.com
Vol. 110, No. 365 /18 pages, 3 sections Saturday, August 2, 2014 Denton, Texas 50 cents
Group wants voters’ say on bonds
“We got the old gang together, and some new folks.
Everybody’s really pumped.M
— Mike Cochran of Citizens for Sound Growth
Petition drive seeks to
put convention center
proposal on ballot
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe
Staff Writer
pheinkel-wolfe @ dentonrc. com
Denton residents will be hitting the
streets with a signature-gathering drive
to get another local issue on an election
ballot.
This time, the issue involves the sale
of bonds to finance a proposed conven-
tion center on land near Apogee Stadi-
um.
A local political action committee,
Citizens for Sound Growth, met this
week and laid out plans to collect the
signatures needed to put the measure
before voters. The group first formed in
the 1990s to defeat a proposition for a
half-cent sales tax for economic devel-
opment.
“We got the old gang together, and
some new folks,” said Mike Cochran.
“Everybody’s really pumped.”
Cochran, a longtime Denton resi-
dent and former City Council member,
said the group will file the necessary pa-
perwork for a specific-purpose commit-
tee and that Elinor Hughes will serve as
campaign treasurer.
The group is focusing on making
sure Denton voters have a say about the
financing, said Cochran. He helped or-
ganize a recent community forum that
drew project supporters and skeptics.
State law allows cities to issue certif-
icates of obligation to pay for capital
projects when general obligation bonds
prove cumbersome.
“They ask us to vote on sewer pipes
and parks,” Cochran said, referring to
the $98.2 million bond election sched-
uled for November. “Most of us just
want to make sure the process is fair
and it goes to a vote.”
It’s unlikely this latest proposition
would show up on the already proposi-
tion-heavy November ballot. But it
could complicate the city’s plans for
providing for the building’s construc-
tion. The city is already considering bids
from contractors.
The committee won’t be gathering
signatures under the city charter, as an-
other group of residents did in order to
get an initiative banning hydraulic frac-
turing on the ballot. Instead, the
See PETITION on 5A
TODAY
IN DENTON
Mostly sunny and
warm
High: 89
Low: 65
Weather report, 2A
STATE
A North Texas city al-
ready has deployed two
unusual techniques to
try to cope with a persis-
tent and lengthy
drought, and Wichita
Falls just added a third,
more extreme tool to try
to deal with its dwin-
dling water supply.
Page 2A
NATIONAL
A sixth straight month of
solid 200,000-plus job
growth in July rein-
forced growing evidence
that the U.S. economy is
accelerating after five
years of sluggish expan-
sion. Employers added
209,000 jobs last
month.
Page 5A
FIND IT INSIDE
AUTOMOTIVE
1C
CLASSIFIED
5C
COMICS
4B
CROSSWORDS
4B, 7C
DEAR ABBY
3A
DEATHS
5A
OPINION
4A
SPORTS
IB
TELEVISION
6A
WEATHER
2A
7
5
David Minton/DRC
Greg Edwards, left, Gloria Akers and Joe Akers stand near the stream that runs alongside the Akers Towing lot on
Dallas Drive on Friday in Denton.
Pair battles permit problem
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe
Staff Writer
pheinkel-wolfe @ dentonrc. com
Akers Towing will be in front of the
Denton City Council on Tuesday seeking
a permit to do what it’s been doing for
more than two decades: towing cars
when the city asks and keeping them se-
cure until the owners can claim them
again.
Joe Akers said trouble came after he
rented one of the bays at his shop on Dal-
las Drive to another mechanic.
“He was making a mess,” Akers said.
He evicted the mechanic, but not before
the problems came to the city’s attention.
Code enforcement officers with the
Community Improvement Services Di-
vision pressed Akers to comply with oth-
er property maintenance requirements.
Akers said he did the best he could, but
some of the city’s codes conflict with
state requirements.
Then, the company’s certificate of oc-
cupancy came into question. When the
city didn’t have it on file, Gloria Akers
said she produced their copy.
‘We paid $200 for it,” Gloria Akers
said. “We’ve been here since 1978.”
The original certificate of occupancy
calls the business “auto-related,” which
doesn’t cover towing and storing vehi-
cles under the city’s current rules,
according to Ron Menguita, an
See AKERS on 5A
DISD
to mull
debt
tax rate
School board to weigh
benefits of current rate
versus 1-cent increase
By Britney Tabor
Staff Writer
htabor@ dentonrc.com
The Denton schoolboard will weigh its
options on the district’s debt service tax
rate within the next month.
Superintendent Jamie Wilson said a
discussion about the debt tax rate will be
placed on a board meeting agenda in the
next two to four weeks. He said he expects
the district’s financial advisers to explain
the benefits of maintaining the current
debt tax rate and considering a 1-cent in-
crease.
Property owners currently pay 49
cents per $100 valuation in debt taxes. A
proposal to increase the rate to a maxi-
mum 50 cents was presented in June.
District property values are up by more
than $1 billion, according to certified tax
rolls released by the Denton Central Ap-
praisal District on July 24.
Denton schools owe $773.7 million in
outstanding debt, according to district
documents.
The school district currently has a $2.7
million principal debt payment scheduled
into the debt budget for the current fiscal
year, according to a district official.
At the current debt tax rate, the district
could pay off an additional $4 million in
See DISD on 5A
Interstate 35E lanes shift as part of project
Staff report
Interstate 35E’s northbound main
lanes at U.S. Highway 77 have been shifted
to the west onto temporary pavement to
accommodate the long-term closure of the
bridge over the southbound entrance
ramp to I-35E.
The shift, which began Thursday, will
remain in place for about 12 months.
Access to northbound Dallas Drive
(U.S. 77), the Teasley Lane exit and busi-
nesses in the area will be maintained.
In addition, the northbound and
southbound I-35E entrance and exit
ramps at Mayhill Road and Loop 288 in
Denton will be closed nightly from 8 p.m.
to 6 a.m. through Monday. Crews will al-
ternate by closing the Mayhill entrance
and exit ramps one night and the Loop
288 entrance and exit ramps the next
night.
Crews will perform work on the shoul-
ders, restripe the roadway and set con-
crete traffic barriers for the upcoming traf-
fic shift on the interstate.
See INTERSTATE on 5A Northbound traffic on Interstate 35E has new lanes to travel as the old bridge, right, is closed Friday in Denton.
Al Key/DRC
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 110, No. 365, Ed. 1 Saturday, August 2, 2014, newspaper, August 2, 2014; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1124776/m1/1/: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .