The Nocona News (Nocona, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 18, 1983 Page: 1 of 20
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Nocona Apuus
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Thursday, August 18, 1983
Twenty Five Cent*
Vol. 78 No. 12
Fourteen Page*
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Court wants statement
before paying bill
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Donations needed—
Search fund begun
“We
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pledging the city’s
project
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Walls Come Tumbling Down
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Commissioners inspect
county facilities
physician with the necessary in
come to cover rent, utilities. in
Building fund—
Library just $34,309, or is
it $50,000 from pay off
Salvagemen have already knocked down the old
Nocona Livestock Sale Bam trying to salvage as
much wood and lumber as they can from the
• V
practices
quickly .
The
- All Contents Copyrighted 1983
All Rights Reserved
structure. The building site is to be cleared to
allow for the construction of the Nocona
FFA—4-H Project Show Bam.
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Court Inspection
I
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are getting some lump
5.9
22959
$25,000 time warrants, to meet new jail.
the final payment demands of the " made the comment that this
construction contract. Of the restroom had not been cleaned
tabled payment of the bill “until
we get some kind of statement on
it,” said Co. Comm. Gene Parker
of Saint Jo.
“It needs to be itemized,”
Parker told the court. “(We) need
some kind of something to show.
‘ ‘ I don’t know how we’ re going
to get it,” said Comm. Orel Wall
of Nocona of the itemization.
97th District Court Judge Frank
Douthitt had issued a court order
Aug. 8 ordering the commis-
sioners court to pay the attorney’s
bill.
" I'll tell you how you get it, just
not pay it until you get an itemized
statement,” Parker rebutted.
“I do think for our protection,
we need something,” Parker add-
ed. “We ask everybody else to put
down what they are charging for.”
County Judge Tom Brown,
were established that
“4
since I got here,” Brown told the
commissioners as they inspected
the men’s restroom in the base
ment, referring to an earlier
discussion about the janitorial ser
guarantee insures the
Blc
See Scrimmage
money that was borrowed,
$8,035.76 was not needed to pay
the contractor. It was held to pay
off a portion of the first $25,000
time warrant.
sum donations, but we are also
getting some monthly donations as
well,” the bank president said.
" We think with the small dona
tion per month for 12 months we d
have enough to cover any expense
we might have,” he added.
Among the donations that have
been received is almost $600 from
the bake sale held Friday by the
employees of Nocona General
Hospital.
“We’d like to express our ap-
precition to the people who pur
chased the cakes and such,’ ’
Shackelford added.
All donations to the doctor
search fund are tax deductible.
Fem
SB
credit to secure the necessary loans
to meet the differece between
donations and costs and guarantee
those loans until such time as the
Library Board could generate suf-
ficient donations to reach its goal.
Paid in full.
Last summer it reached the
point where the month bills from
the contractor finally exceeded the
amount of donations on hand.
At that point, the city was asked
to borrow $75,000, in three
That much both sides agree
upon.
But it is on the topic of how
much money the library has con
tributed towards the repayment of
those time warrants that the two
bodies disagreed.
Last week, the City Council
held a brief session with three of
the Library Board members in an
effort to receive assurances that 1)
the Library Board was still work-
ing to help pay off the debt, and 2)
how much of the time warrant due
in July 1984 ($25,000 in principal
and $3,300 in interest) the library
thought it could come up with.
During the discussion, Library
Board Vice-chairman Mildred
Nunneley noted that the Library
Board had contributed $32,000
towards the $66,964.24 the city
had to borrow to pay off the con-
surance, payroll and supply ex-
penses for the first year until his
practice is established.
Already several thousand
dollars has been contributed
and or pledged to the fund, said
Ben Shackelford, President of
F&M
We’d like to have so much
money each month for 12
months,” Shackelford said, ex
plaining that the Search Commit-
tee is not seeking $60,000 in cash
but a pledge and donation of
$5,000 a month for 12 months to
reach that goal.
vice.
“I still contend it isn’t.
“(Janitor Jim) Foster said, ’Oh
yes it’s been cleaned,’ Brown
relayed to the court.
“It’s still not clean,” Brown
flatly stated.
“At some future meeting, I will
have some of the items we looked
at today on the agenda for discus-
sion,” Brown told the court after it
returned to the commissioners
courtroom.
During the tour, the court
checked the cleanliness of the
men’s restrooms on the basement
and second floors, looked at the
smudges on the door windows, the
grass clippings in the jail exercise
yard, the gravel scattered about
the courthouse walks, leaves in the
basement entranceways, peeling
paint in the old jail, sunken places
and uneven ground in the exercise
yard, high weeds and grass around
the new jail, high weeds around
trees and telephone poles in the
courthouse lawn and the broken
patches in the courthouse’s plaster
walls and peeling paint.
By Tracy Mesler
MONTAGUE — A showdown
between a district judge and the
county commissioners court may
be in the offing following
Monday’s refusal to pay a court-
appointed attorney’s bill until an
itemized statement is delivered.
For the second week in a row,
the Montague County Commis-
sioners Court tabled payment of
attorney Don Maxfield's
$5,295.73 bill for representing ac
cused murderer Henry Lee Lucas,
46, during the month of July.
The court first tabled the bill
Aug. 11 because it would take a
budget amendment to have suffi-
cient funds on hand to pay the bill,
and not budget amendments were
listed in the commissioners court’s
agenda.
But Monday, the court again
who had the task of telling
Douthitt the week before that the
bill had not been paid because of
the missing agenda item, sat
silently through the discussion.
“I think Gene is right,” Wall
told the other two commissioners.
“We need to know something
about what we're paying (for). I
know we'll have to pay it one way
or the other.”
The court went ahead and tabl-
ed payment of the attorney's bill,
but it also amended the District
Court Operating Fund Budget,
adding $3,000 to it so there would
be sufficient funds on hand to
cover M axfield's J uly bill.
Brown had no comment to
make concerning the action other
than to note, “I don't know how
Judge Douthitt's going to take
this. He's already issued a court
order to have it paid.”
MONTAGUE - There wasn't
a whole lot said, but during a tour
of the county courthouse, old jail,
new jail and grounds there were
five stern faces on the four county
commissioners and county judge.
Twice last year and once earlier
this year the commissioners court
has voiced its collective disap-
proval of how the courthouse,
grounds and jail are being taken
care of.
Monday, County Judge Tom
Brown took the court on a tour of
the county facilities — as part of
the court's agenda.
The four commissioners check-
ed restrooms, the basement, jury
rooms, courtrooms, and grounds
around the courthouse. It also
went through the old jail as Well as
the new and looked at the grounds
and exercise yard surrounding the
“Anyone that makes a donation
will be provided with 1099's for
tax deductions,” the bank presi-
dent said..
By trying to receive $5,000 a
month in donations. Shackelford
said the Search Committee felt it
would be less of a burden than
seeking $60,000 in total contribu-
tions.
“Ten. fifteen, twenty-five, fifty
dollars a month, whatever people
think they can afford is what we
need," he said. “The money will
be used to secure new doctors as
they are needed in Nocona.”
The Nocona Medical Facilities
Committee, a separate group,
provides low cost office-clinic
space for incoming doctors. It
presently has two unoccupied
office-clinics located near the
hospital.
As a result, and as a result of a
perceived need for additional
physicians, the Search Committee
has on its plan chart to secure a se
cond physician for the second of
fice once a physician is found to
replace Dr. Jerry.
But, as Shackelford and
members of the Facilities Commit
tee, point out, the paramount
need is for a physician to replace
Dr. Jerry.
tractor. A figure which startled the
council members.
“Just because we’ve been quiet
doesn’t mean we haven't been
busy,” he pointed out.
“I didn't realize they had paid
that much,” commented Coun-
cilman R .B. Stout after the library
board members left only to be told
by City Manager Tommy Sparks
that all he could remembed receiv-
ing was roughly $11-12,000
“earlier this year.”
But the Library Board's records
indicate it has paid $32,654.35
towards the $66,964.24 in time
warrants.
On Sept. 10. 1982, the library
deposited $20,334.38 in the city’s
account. Andon Mar. 4, 1983, an
additional $12,314.97 was
deposited, according to the
Please see Library Pg. 2
By Tracy Mesler
Paid in full.
That has been the Nocona
Library Board's goal from the
stan of its building program.
And just a year after the library
was dedicated that goal is very
close, everybody agrees on that. A
substantial portion of the construc-
tion cost of the library has been
paid off through donations, grants
and contributions. The only pro-
blem is the city and the library
don’t agree how much of it has
been paid off.
The Library Board is either
$50,000 (plus interest) away from
that goal, or it is $34,309.89 away.
Se.mewhere in the translation of
donations from the library to the
city to the lender a $20,339.38
deposit has gone uncredited
towards the building fund.
The library was constructed at a
total cost of $270,253.34. That in-
cludes architect’s fees
($15,499.83), construction cost
($252,862.15) and miscellaneous
expenses ($1,991.36).
Of that total, the Library Board
collected and paid a total of
$203,389.10 before the payment
demands exceeded the donations,
during J uly of last year leaving an
unfunded balance of $66,964.24.
When the bids for the building
were opened, the city agreed to be
the funding agent for the library
a01--0016 ren^'” 127
mc24330
D O‛‛ let tX
dallos ""
75245 ——■
A fund has been established at
F&M National Bank for the doc-
tor recruitment drive, announced
the Nocona Medical Search Com
mittee.
As a result of Dr. Jerry's depar
ture for Los Angeles, a physician
recruitment effort in Nocona has
been intensified seeking to secure
a physician to fill the void
Part of a successful doctor
recruitment program is being able
to guarantee an in coming physi
cian a certain gross income for a
period of time usually six to 12
months said Pat Wallace, ad
ministrator for Graham General
Hospital Graham has successfully
recruited a half dozen physicians
and surgeons for its community.
The Nocona Medical Search
Committee has established such a
fund at F&M in hopes of securing
the necessary $60,000 needed for
the first year guarantee.
“You never pay out that
much,” Wallace stressed noting
Graham never made a payment to
any of its in coming physicians
after the second month their
County Judge Tom Brown, right, and Co. tells in the Old County Jail — which has been in
Comm. Orel Wall of Nocona look over one of the disuse since the new jail was constructed.
--n
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Mesler, Tracy R. The Nocona News (Nocona, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 18, 1983, newspaper, August 18, 1983; Nocona, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1493911/m1/1/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Friends of the Nocona Public Library.