The Colony Courier-Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 19, 2007 Page: 1 of 16
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469-633-7777
www.sentx.com
50c
VOLUME 26, NO. 46
AROUND TOWN
Bank to host
blood drive
Prosperity Bank in The
Colony will host a blood drive
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today for
Carter BloodCare.
Appointments will be taken,
but are not necessary.
Carter BloodCare will be set
up in the Prosperity Bank park-
ing lot, 4400 Main St.
Memorial wall
slated for visit
A touring memorial honor-
ing fallen Denton County sol-
diers will be on public display
at The Colony City Hall from
Dec. 26 through Jan. 7,2008.
It is an offshoot of the
Fallen Soldiers plaque program
begun by Little Elm American
Legion Post 182 member
Charles Boatright This memo-
rial, which was designed and
built by Vietnam Veterans
Monty Slough and Dee Cork, is
a tribute to nine local men who
have been killed in action since
2002. Each of the nine men is
recognized with an etched
granite tile mounted on the
wall-like display.
The memorial will be set up
at The Colony City Hall, 6800
Main St, around noon Dec. 26
and will remain in place until
the morning of Jan. 7, 2008.
Colony Courier- LEADE
Inside
Heart-warming
generosity
Early Childhood PTA
donates to firefighters’
holiday toy drive
— See Page 2B
The Colony Public Library
6800Main St.-
The Colony, TX 75056-1133- V
In the Community. With the Community. For the Community. WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 19 2007
Uniform Understanding
Officer breaks through language barriers
BY NANCY PRODNUK
SPECIAL TO THE COURIER-LEADER
A gray-haired, toothless woman
from Guatemala, deaf and blind in
one eye, slumps in a chair at The
Colony’s police headquarters. Her
brother has locked her out of their
home, forcing the old woman to
sleep on the street in the back of a
restaurant
She isn’t in a happy mood. She’s
writing a complaint, in Spanish, beg-
ging The Colony’s police depart-
ment to help her find a place to
sleep for the night.
Officer Hector Garcia, the only
officer in the 52-person department
who can speak, read, and write
Spanish, is pressed into service. A
few days later, Officer Garcia is cor-
nered by a disheveled, hearing-
impaired Salvadorian man missing
two fingers on his right hand.
Writing in Spanish, he tells Garcia
that his son and daughter-in-law
whom he lives with won’t feed him,
make him sleep in the garage, and
won’t let him see his wife. But when
Garcia checks out the old man’s
complaint, his daughter says her
father is “crazy.”
Resolving family disputes isn’t in
Garcia’s job description. He’s a traf-
fic officer for The Colony. Yet he
often finds himself in the middle of
potentially volatile incidents and
family crises these days because
he’s the only one on the force who
can speak, read, and write Spanish.
The shortage of Spanish-speak-
ing officers isn’t unique to The
Colony’s police department With
the Latino population exploding in
North Texas, there’s a growing
demand for Spanish-speaking offi-
Tum to OFFICER, Page 7A
ANN MARIE SHAMBAUGH/STAFF PHOTO
Officer Hector Garcia’s background has helped him bear the burden
of being the The Colony Police Department’s only Spanish-speaking
officer. This photo and others available through Photo Gallery at
www.scntx. com.
Spirit of the season
Man’s body
recovered
from lake
Citizen’s Police
Academy starts year
The Colony Police
Department is taking applica-
tions for the Citizen’s Police
Academy that will start Jan. 22,
2008.
The Citizen Police Academy
is a 25-hour block of instruction
designed to give the public a
working knowledge of the
police department It consists
of a series of 10 classes from 7
to 9:30 p.m. every Tuesday.
The instruction is compre-
1 hensive and each week covers
| a different area of the police .
j department. Police officers !
assigned to work in a particular |
area will provide instruction.
Diverse topics such as
recruitment, training, commu-
nications, criminal investiga-
tions, and narcotics are cov-
ered. We place particular
emphasis on patrol, the divi-
sion that the public is most
often in contact with.
Instruction consists of lectures,
demonstrations, and tours.
The slogan of the Citizen
Police Academy is
Understanding through
Education. The goal is to pro-
vide the citizens who attend
enough information to dispel
suspicions and misconcep-
tions, and to increase rapport
through the education process,
according to a department
release. In turn, the public
helps make the officers more
aware of feelings and concerns
within the community. Lastly,
the students personally meet
and talk with officers and the
officers interact with all com-
munity groups represented.
“We hope the graduates of
the Citizen Police Academy
take their new knowledge out
into the community and edu-
cate others when the opportu-
nity arises. These citizens will
make decisions that affect the
police department and our
local community with height-
ened awareness and better
information,” police depart-
ment officials said through the
release.
The Colony Citizen’s Police
Academy started in 1994, and
the 21st academy will start Jan.
22, 2008.
To sign up or get informa-
tion, contact Officer Mark
Phillips at 972-625-1887, ext.
524.
RICARDO ALVAREZ
CONTRIBUTOR PHOTOS
Above, singers from The Colony
High School’s concert, encore, and
tempo choirs lend their voices to
the Madrigal Carnival, dinner, and
concert Saturday at the school. At
right, the Colony High School
choir performs the ‘Burn the Witch’
skit with junior Kenny Severson
playing Sir Bevedere and senior
Dani Martin playing The Witch.
Friends, family mourn Hebron teen’s loss
The Colony man suspected in hit-and-run accident
BY SARAH BLASKOVICH
STAFF WRITER
Kevin Schor’s spacious living
room was hardly large enough to
squeeze in all the family and
friends who wanted to reminisce
about his son, Trevor, who died in
a hit-and-run accident Friday
night.
Extended relatives perched on
barstools in the kitchen and
shoved themselves four across on
each couch — some sniffling, oth-
ers remaining stoic.
Silence hung in the air between
each memory of the 16-year-old
Hebron High School student.
“I would have loved to see
what he could have done with his
life,” Kevin said.
Trevor’s personal notes, posted
inside his medicine cabinet in the
bathroom, still remind him to take
out the trash Mondays and
Thursdays. The tickets for the
Dallas Mavericks game on Friday
— his favorite team, behind the
University of Texas Longhorns —
still lay in front of his computer
INDEX
Education.............3A
Fire Reports...........7A
Police Reports.........5A
Sports...............2B
Youth Sports..........1B
How to Contact Us:
General Office: 972-398-4200
Classified Ads: 972-422-SELL
Circulation: 972-424-9504
4709 0001
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Kevin Schor and his son, Trevor, right, take in a Dallas Mavericks game.
The NBA team was Trevor’s second favorite team behind the
University of Texas Longhorns.
keyboard.
“At some point, we’ll see what
lesson we’re supposed to learn
from this,” said Kristin Schor,
Trevor’s stepmom.
His sister Crystal hadn’t been
in Trevor’s room since he died.
The closet still smells like him; his
multiple basketball jerseys still
hang proudly. Kristin and Kevin
have chosen his favorite
Mavericks jersey — personalized
to say “Trevor” on the back — for
him to don at the memorial serv-
ice at 2 p.m. today at First Baptist
Carrollton.
Trevor died Friday night at
Parkland Memorial Hospital after
his vehicle was struck as he was
making an illegal U-turn on
FM544, said Trooper Rebecca
Uresti, spokesperson for the
Texas Department of Public
Safety. Trevor was turning around
to help his girlfriend change a flat
tire.
The driver who hit Trevor’s car
— who police believe is Arturo
Almora-Juarez of The Colony —
has been charged on suspicion of
driving while intoxicated and fail-
ure to stop and render aid, the lat-
ter of which is a felony, Uresti
said. Police found Almora-Juarez
shortly after the alleged hit-and-
run.
Almora-Juarez is being
detained in the Denton County
Jail on an Immigration and
Customs enforcement (ICE) hold
with no bond, said Tom Reedy,
spokesperson for the Denton
Turn to HONOR, Page 4A
Firefighters make discovery 16
days after reported drowning
DAN EAKIN
STAFF WRITER
Firefighters recovered the body of Gareon
Newman, 34, of Parker on Monday morning from
Lewisville Lake, 16 days after he reportedly
drowned.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office
has ruled his death an accidental drowning.
Steve Carter, Lewisville Fire Department
spokesperson, said three firefighters in the Rescue
Unit’s boat discovered the missing body about 8:15
a.m. Monday.
The body was discovered about 100 yards south
of the area where the search had been conducted,
Carter said, and was close to the shoreline.
Firefighters and game wardens had been
searching the lake twice a day since Newman
reportedly disappeared into the water Dec. 1.
Two other men who were with Newman on the
boat at the time said he jumped into the lake in an
attempt to retrieve his cowboy hat. Efforts by the
two men to save Newman were unsuccessful.
Windy and cold weather greatly hampered the
search, Carter explained. The wind, which caused
rough waters, created problems for the divers dur-
ing the first two or three days of the search, and the
cold water caused the body remain submerged,
Carter said.
“In the summer, when the water is warmer, a
body will usually float within two or three days,”
he said.
Newman’s body was taken to the Tarrant
County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
Dr. Roger Metcalf of the medical examiner’s
office said an autopsy was performed on Newman
on Tuesday.
Fire reminds of need
for holiday safety
BY DEVIN MONK
STAFF WRITER
A woman living on the first
floor of an Austin Ranch apart-
ment complex reportedly left
something cooking on the stove,
dozed off, and woke up to the
sound of a smoke detector going
off and sprinklers showering her
apartment on noon Sunday.
The sprinklers helped contain
the fire in the 6100 block of
Saintsbury Drive to one room.
The Colony Fire Department
responded and treated the
woman for smoke inhalation and
transported her to a local hospi-
tal as a precaution. She was
released the same day.
"A lot of times you don’t see
[smoke inhalation] damage. It’s
not immediate, so you might see
it two or three hours later,” The
Colony Fire Chief Mike Nolen
said.
Stories of fires destroying
multiple apartment units have
been more uncommon in recent
years, Nolen said, largely in part
to cities enacting ordinances
requiring apartment complexes
to install sprinklers.
“Bottom line is we were very
fortunate the (city) council sev-
eral years ago passed ordinance
that all multifamily (structures)
have sprinklers,” he said.
However, the city has seen its
share of fires caused by inatten-
tive residents during the holi-
days.
“A lot of it is just common
sense when it comes to fire safe-
ty this time of year,” Nolen said.
Firefighters responded to two
garage fires in recent years
caused by cooking oil boiling
over on propane-fueled turkey
fryers and deep fryers and caus-
ing them to flash over. The
devices also have the propensity
to cause burns if used incorrect-
ly-
“At this time of year, if you are
using a device like a deep fryer,
read the directions,” Nolen said.
The U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission recommends
that consumers follow these
guidelines as they prepare to use
a turkey fryer:
•Make sure there is at least 2
feet of space between the liquid
propane tank and fryer burner;
•Place the liquid propane gas
tank and fryer so that any wind
blows the heat of the fryer away
from the gas tank;
•Center the pot over the burn-
er on the cooker;
•Completely thaw and dry
turkey before cooking. Partially
frozen or wet turkeys can pro-
duce excessive hot oil splatter
when added to the oil; and,
•Follow the manufacturer’s
instructions to determine the
proper amount of oil to add. If
those are not available place
turkey in pot, fill with water until
the turkey is covered by about
1/2 inch of water, remove and dry
Turn to SAFETY, Page 4A
-7
4
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Monk, Devin. The Colony Courier-Leader (The Colony, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 46, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 19, 2007, newspaper, December 19, 2007; The Colony, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1621999/m1/1/: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Colony Public Library.