The Colony Courier-Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 35, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 3, 2007 Page: 1 of 12
twelve pages : ill. ; page 24 x 14 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
469-633-7777
www.scntx.com
50c
Colony Courier-LEAD!
Sports
Tight
Tilt
Cougars lose a close one
to McKinney North in
district opener
— See Page 12A
The Colony Public Library
6800 Main St.
The Colony, TX 75056-113
VOLUME 26, NO. 35
In the Community. With the Community. For the Community.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007
AROUND Town
High school choirs
to perform concert
The Colony High School
Fall Choir Concert will fill the
air with music and melody at
7 p.m. Thursday at the school,
4301 Blair Oaks Drive.
This concert will feature
The Colony High School
choirs, Lakeview Middle
School choir and the Griffin
Middle School Choir.
For information, call 469-
Tax rate cut
emerges from
council debate
713-5178 or
http://tchs.lisd.net.
visit
BY DEVIN MONK
STAFF WRITER “
Lady Cougars all aces
Catch the team
at car-hopping
The Colony High School
girls softball team will car
hop for cash from 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. Saturday at Sonic Drive-
In, 3750 Main St., in The
Colony.
The team will accept tips
that will go toward purchas-
ing equipment and uniforms
and paying for field mainte-
nance.
For information, call
Donna Lux at 214-733-7263.
Topcats squad to
work with youth
The TCHS Topcats Drill
Team will hold a Pee Wee
Elementary clinic 10 a.m.
Saturday for girls in kinder-
garten and older.
The girls will have a tech-
nique class and will learn a
dance to perform at the TCHS
Varsity football game Oct. 12
when the Cougars will take
on the Little Elm Lobos. Cost
per child is $20. and each girl
will receive a free T-shirt.
The clinic will end with a
performance in The Colony
High School auditorium at
noon. Pre-registration is
allowed and forms may be
obtained at the high school
office and most of the ele-
mentary schools.
For information or to
receive a registration form
via e-mail, contact Topcats
Director Miriam Vera at
veram@lisd.net.
Chamber to scare
up networking
Chamber members and
adult guests are invited to
The Colony Chamber of
Commerce Spook-
Tacular/After Hours
Networking Mixer at 5:30
p.m. Oct. 11 at the eerie home
of Ghostestancia at
Morningstar Apartments
Clubhouse, 6399 Morningstar
Drive.
Join everyone for music,
appetizers, and beverages
with a haunting theme.
To RSVP or volunteer to
help, call 972-625-4916 or e-
mail info@thecolonycham-
ber.org.
PTA to put
on garage sale
The Colony Early Childhood
PTA will have its yearly garage
sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct.
20 at the Big Lots parking lot A
rain-out date is set for Oct 27.
Anyone may rent a booth
and sell their wares. This is not
a consignment, so vendor pro-
ceeds stay in their pockets.
Booth rental is available for
$25 for members and $35 for
non-members. Booth locations
are first-come, first-serve.
Registration deadline is Oct
12. Electricity, tables and
shade/covering are not provid-
ed.
Donations will be accepted
and proceeds go to TCECPTA.
For information, contact:
Joy
Copeland
garagesale@tcecpta.org.
at
Inoex
Topcats.....
Police Reports
Classifieds...
Sports......
.3A
.4A
.6A
12A
How to Contact Us:
General Office: 972-398-4200
Classified Ads: 972-422-SELL
Circulation: 972-424-9504
64709 0001
Amid a contentious mood on the dais, The Colony City Council
voted, 5-2, Sunday night to lower the city’s previously approved prop-
erty tax rate by 1 3/4 cents to 69.75 cents and 4-3 to trim its budget by
$350,000.
A 1 3/4 cent reduction would save residents about $20 on their
annual tax bill.
On Sept. 17, council members adopted a tax rate of 71.5 cents by
a 5-2 vote and unanimously voted to approve the city’s fiscal year
2007-2008 budget.
Council members Allen Harris and Joe McCourry voted against the
tax rate then, but on Sunday, council members Joe Mikulec and Perry
Schrag joined them in the movement to find a way to reduce resi-
dents’ property tax bills.
At the request of some council members, City Manager Dale
Cheatham went back to the drawing board to find potential items to
cut without affecting already approved city jobs and a 3 percent cost
of living increase for all city employees.
He drafted a memo based on their questions that looked at cutting
State Infrastructure Bank loans, or rainy day funds, $200,000 in fleet
vehicles that would be purchased only if necessary, and $100,000 to
repair a wall on North Colony Boulevard. Some council members
pointed to $500,000 in beautification projects as an unnecessary
expense.
“I don’t know that we could spend that in one year,” Mikulec said.
Sunday marked the last opportunity for a reconsideration of the
tax rate and budget adopted two weeks ago, and council member
John Marshall and Mayor John Dillard voiced their displeasure at the
final-hour requests.
“I can think of lots of other things I’d rather be doing than being
See CUT, Page 4A
ROBERT JAMES HUGHES/STAFF PHOTO
The Colony junior Adrienne Lawson uncorks a kill during Tuesday’s match against McKinney.
The Lady Cougars avenged an earlier loss to the Lions by winning in four games to move into
a tie for third in the district standings. See story and photos, Page 12A
College tournament reels in area anglers
MATT NACHTRIEB/STAFF PHOTO
Scott Wiley from Virginia Tech fishes near the Lewisville Lake dam during the National Collegiate Bass
Fishing Championship Friday morning.
Property values lag
behind area increases
BY JOSH HIXSON
STAFF WRITER
This year's property value
increase of 6 percent — as
assessed by the Denton County
Central Appraisal District — is a
cause for concern, according to
The Colony city officials.
Cities such as Flower Mound,
Lewisville and Little Elm are expe-
riencing property value increases
of 19.5 percent, 16.6 percent and
25 percent respectively.
City of The Colony Mayor John
Dillard said there is not much the
city can do to raise property val-
ues.
“It is a concern that the proper-
ty values aren’t going up,” Dillard
said. “But there is nothing you can
do about it. Historically our prop-
erty values have been low.”
He said the low property val-
ues take a bite out of the city’s
budget because they also have a
small commercial tax base.
“That is why you can buy
more house in The Colony than
anywhere else,” Dillard said.
“But if you are looking for it to
grow in value it just isn’t going to
happen.”
Cheryl Martin, a spokesper-
son for the Denton County
Central Appraisal District, said
the low property values are tied
directly to the construction of
new housing developments.
“The housing construction (in
The Colony) appears to have
slowed down,” Martin said.
“While in Little Elm they are still
building an enormous amount of
houses.”
Carissa Acker, a real estate
agent with Keller Williams,
agreed with Martin.
“There isn’t as much con-
struction in The Colony,” Acker
said. “There is so much construc-
tion going on everywhere else.
The availability of land isn’t quite
there in The Colony as it is for
some of those other areas like
Little Elm.”
Tom Terrall, director of eco-
nomic development for The
Colony, said recruiting business-
es could also improve the situa-
tion.
“We are constantly working
on improving the property values
in our city by recruiting business
to come to our city,” Terrall said.
In contrast, The Colony’s
director of finance, Rebecca
Koo, said surrounding cities have
received “incredible growth”
See VALUES, Page 4A
BY CHRIS ROARK
STAFF WRITER
Anglers came to Lewisville
Lake from all over the country
to compete in last weekend’s
BoatU.S. National Collegiate
Bass Fishing Championship.
It turns out that one of the
winners didn’t have to travel as
far.
Justin Rackley, a 2004
Flower Mound graduate and
former Jaguar baseball player,
and teammate Trevor Knight
gave Texas A&M the champi-
onship after their performance
Saturday in the final round.
The NCBFC is in its second
year, and Lewisville Lake host-
ed last year’s event as well.
Lewisville Lake has been
declared the Urban Bass
Fishing Capital of Texas by the
state legislature. It is rated
excellent by Texas Parks &
Wildlife for white bass, crappie
and catfish and is rated good
for largemouth bass and
striped/hybrid bass.
The NCBFC was created by
FOX College Sports, which will
air a 13-episode series in
January that features coverage
from the championship, as well
as a behind-the-scenes look at
many of the participants.
The tournament began with
83 teams that included two
anglers per team, and 48
schools from several confer-
ences, including the Big 12, the
Big 10 and Pac 10, were repre-
sented. The University of
Oregon traveled the farthest to
be at the tournament.
The top five teams based on
total weight from Thursday and
Friday’s rounds combined qual-
ified for Saturday’s finals.
Rackley and Knight had the
fourth-highest total heading
into Saturday’s action.
Several teams had trouble
catching enough keepers —
fish that are 14 inches or more
in length — Thursday and
Friday. In fact, North Carolina
State, which won the inaugural
tournament last year, and
Stephen F. Austin State
University, which entered this
year’s event ranked No. 1, failed
to make the cut for the final
round.
Rackley and Knight finished
with a total weight of 7.6
pounds for the day, beating out
second-place
Western
Kentucky, which recorded 6.72
pounds.
The team caught four keep-
er fish to complete their total.
The tournament had a five-
keeper limit.
“We fished hard,” Rackley
said through a press release.
See FISHING, Page 4A
Church closes doors
for Sunday service
BY JOSH HIXSON
STAFF WRITER
It may seem unorthodox, but one local church is shutting its
doors Sunday in an effort to reach out to the community.
Instead of having a normal service, members of Horizons
Church will divide into groups and tackle several service projects
in the city and county.
Caleb Lund, pastor of outreach at the church, said part of the
reason for scheduling the project on a Sunday was to change the
public perception of what church should be.
“It is more an attempt to say something about how the church
should pay more attention to the community,” Lund said. “This in
itself is not sufficient to meet all the needs of the community. But
hopefully it serves as an example of what churches should do.”
Service projects will include a gas buy down and car wash at
several gas stations; landscaping, painting, picking up trash; cook-
ie baking and delivery to police, fire and city personnel; prepara-
tion and distribution of “care kits” to victims of domestic violence
at Denton County Friends of the Family, City House, and Hope’s
Door.
For the gas buy down church members will stand next to gas
pumps to pay customers 25 cents for every gallon of gasoline they
pump (limit of $5 per customer).
“The common theme in all of it is basically that a lot of us have
common expenses, common needs and we are just taking care of
each other,” Lund said. “It is not just for the less fortunate.
See SERVICE, Page 4A
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Monk, Devin. The Colony Courier-Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 35, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 3, 2007, newspaper, October 3, 2007; The Colony, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1621988/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Colony Public Library.