The Albany News (Albany, Tex.), Vol. 121, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 1997 Page: 4 of 12
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1996
The Albany News
Thursday, January 16,1997
The Albany News
Since 1875
Oldest journalistic venture wtest of the Brazos
Editor / Publisher Donrtie A- Lucas
Managing Editor
Melinda L Lucas
Advertising Business Manager Betty Viertel
Composition
BettvBalhew
Moran Correspondent.
Audrey Brooks
Staff Reporter
Bobbv Horecka
Office Assistant
Laura Hise
Hospital Election
Saturday is an important daytfor the
future of the Shackelford County Hospi-
tal District
A special rollback election will be held
at the usual county polling places for
hospital elections and all registered vot-
ers in the county are eligible to vote.
If the measure passes, the current tax
rate of 66.7 cents per $100 of property
value will be "rolled back* to $25.09 cents
per $ 100 - which is eight percent a bene last
vear's levy and the most allowed, without
being subject to a rollback petition
The hospital district is in a financial
mess, there is no question about it. With-
out, the 66-cent tax rate, the board of
directors have stated that the facility will
have to shut its doors With the tax in-
crease the board feels the district will
have a good chance of staying financially
viable.
This election has drawn comments from
all sides, which is healthy and expected
any time a governmental body-reaches
deeper into public pockets.
Not everyone in the county has the
same stake in thedecision made Saturday.
The district was set up 20 years ago
and includes all ofShackelford County. It
is obvious that all of Shackelford County-
does not benefit from keeping this hospi-
tal. People in the Hamby area are much
closer to Abilene and are closer to medical
services there
However, the majority of the county
population lives in or around Albany and
are best served by having a hospital in
Albany. It may be only a 10 minute ambu-
lance ride for some to another hospital,
but most people in the county are 35 to 45
minutes away from any other medical
care.
The best volunteer ambulance service
is no substitute for the paramedic and
EMT run service we currently have
through the hospital. •
The hospital has problems, and throw-
ing another $600,000 per year at it will
not make everything all right. It is going
to take a united and dedicated board to
pull this off. along with the hiring of a
professional administrator who has expe-
rience dealing with hospitals in trouble.
The board can't continue to attempt to be
the day-to-day managers of the hospital,
no matter how well intentioned. It will
take a knowledgeable profesional in the
competitive and complicated health care
business to turn this situtation around.
The hospital is important to our com-
munity , and we think the rollback effort
should be defeated in order to give the
hospital one last chance to succeed.
policy
THE ALBANY NEWS
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AFFILIATIONS
1997 MEMBER: Texas Press Association,,
West Texas Press Association.
ponderings bv Pat
By Pat Lidia Jones
One of my earliest memories is of
waking, before the sun was up, to the
aroma of coffee brewing. I would call
out, and my mother would immedi-
ately appear to cany m°e to the kitchen
where Daddy was having breakfast.
She had coffee, or sometimes a cup
ofhot water. She and one of my grand-
mothers believed that piping hot
water drunk first thing would loosen
body functions and get one ready for
the day. Sometimes they put lemon
in it.
Dad was a breakfast person. He
wanted bacon or sausage, eggs either
scrambled or fried (over easy), and
although he would eat toast, he pre-
ferred hot biscuits. He drank lots of-
coffee.
I was never a breakfast person.
Mother tried, and coaxed me up to
the time I married and left home. Her
best effort was cinnamon toast, or
one lightly buttered biscuit, which
she would thrust at me as I ran out
the door to the school bus.
That seems funny to me because,
except for eggs, I loved then, and still
do. most of the foods considered break-
fast item* Milk was something I
didn't like ever in my memory; there-
fore. hot or cold cereals were not items
I considered. Mother fixed hot
oatmeal or Cream of Wheat or Malt-
O-Meal for Dad on icy-cold mornings.
When I was tiny. Dad said, about
anything he considered "good foryou,"
that it would make "hair on your
muscles'? thought that was so funny,
and it made me giggle. Later in my
life, he changed to "sticks to your
ribs." The prospect of either actually
happening did nothing for my appe-
tite..
Mother made divine hot chocolate,
and I loved it. except in the morning.
About once a week in the winter-
time. Mother did breakfast for sup-
per. We loved it. She'd fry bacon and
sausage, scramble eggs, and make
biscuits and cream gravy. Sometimes
she made pancakes or waffles. I made
a pig of myself over her biscuits. They
were light and flaky, and thin, and
crispy on the bottom 1 loved them hot
or cold or in between
Her cinnamon toast was wonder-
ful. and it made the whole house
smell of wonderful spicy cinnamon.
She buttered bread, sprinkled sugar
liberally over it. and then cinnamon
on top. before running it under the
broiler. I do the same thing. 1 think,
but it's not nearly as good as Mama's
Once when we and the Greens were
in the Mount Fuji area of Japan, we
stayed at the Fujita Hotel outside of
Odawara Station. We had a long
travel day before us, so we met for
breakfast. Bob said they had excel-
lent oatmeal, which didn't tempt me
like it did my.partner. I chose cinna-
mon toast. It was delicious, and dif-
ferent. They made a thick paste of
sugar, cinnamon and softened but-
ter, and broiled it until it was crispy
and brown on top. Good—
When my partner and I travel, we
rarely stop for any sort of breakfast.
Neither of us drink coffee, and never
have. On cold days, we have hot tea in
the late afternoon. Sometimes I crave
a doughnut, and sometimes we stop
at a McDonald's because I like their
sausage biscuits.
When we stop at the Kettle late at
night, or any restaurant that serves
breakfast 24 hours a day, 1 have
breakfast for supper
I haven't gone camping in several
years, but that is another time I re-
ally enjoy breakfast at breakfast time.
The last instance I recall was in the
wilds ofWyoming on an antelope hunt
with several couples There were a
few trailers around, but a head/bed
count told us that someone was going
to have to sleep outside.
With no hesitation and no consul-*-
tation, my partner said, "Old Pat and
I will sleep out " I looked around, but
I was the only Old Pat around the
campfire Picking up on my cue. I
said. "Sure, we'd love it."
We had new sleeping bags, and
they were a arm My bladder was big-
ger a«d more stalwart then, so I didn't
have a call of nature during the night.
thankfully
It got down to 19 degrees that
night, and ice formed on the outside
of our sleeping bags. When I sat up.
there was the loud sound of crunch-
ing and snappingas ice broke I didn't
notice the ice because I lay down
again immediately. My partner
leaned over me and said. "You'd bet-.
. ter get iip; breakfast is just about
ready."
I lay perfectly still, as I told him
that every bone in my body was bro-
ken. He said that wasn't so; the sound
was ice breaking off the sleeping bag.
Either way sounded ominous to me.
"That was a breakfast 1 really en-
joyed I dragged my worthy sleeping
bag. over to a log by the campfire.
where I draped it over me I accepted
a pie pan full of bacon, sausage, eggs?
hash browns and biscuits.
Nothing ever tasted as good —
except my mother's.
letter to the editor
— Reader opposes hospital tax increase —
To the Voters and Taxpayers'of
Shackelford County:
We hope each and everyone of you
.read the Hospital Board's ad in lasf"
week's newspaper
The last question in that ad said it
all:
Yes, we will still be liable for the
taxes to support an ambulance Ser-
vice. indigent care and taxes to pay
off a debt that was created by the
Hospital Board.
We believe we can do this on the
current tax rate.
There is no guarantee the Hospi-
tal Board could operate on 66c per
S100 valuation, and who-among us
has ever seen taxes go down.in a year
or future years.
Let's not be taken in by what the
Board "thinks." Had they been a little
more frugal with our tax dollars, we
wouldn't be in this mess now.
Let's close the-Hospital, give the
26c perSlOO valuation totheCounty.
This should in no way lower our stan-
dard of health care. We would still
have an ambulance Service, the
indigents would be taken care of and
yes, we would take care of the DEBT
that was created for us by the Board.
Vote FOR the rollback,
A concerned taxpayer
Frances McAfee
state
By Lyndell Williams
and Ed Sterling
Lt. Gov, Bob Bullock said the state
Legislature, which convened Janu-
ary 14, may change the law that re-
quires wealthy school districts to
share their tax revenue with poor
districts.
Bullock said that because Gov.
George W. Bush is urging legislators
to reform the school property tax sys-
tem, it would be appropriate to ad-
dress the 1993 "Robin Hood" School
finance law.
"It has always offended me some-
what to take money away from a
' wealthier district and give it to a poor
district because I have always felt it
was really the obligation of the state
to bring the (education) system up
instead of leveling it out,* he was
quoted by the Houston Chronicle.
About 100 of the state's 1,000 school
districts have to share their local
revenue.
Bullock had said it would be hard
to lower school taxes without open-
ing the debate on how education dol-
lars are spent and thus endanger the
school finance system's delicate bal-
ance.
But last week, in a meeting with
reporters, he said the system may be
repealed because "a number of sena-
tors and House members have been
extremely critical of the school fi-
nance system we have today, specifi-
cally Robin Hood, and this will be
their opportunity."
Bullock, a Democrat who presides
over the Senate, said that if the new
(16-14) Republican majority in the
Senate wants to change the system,
"they're goihg to have the opportu-
nity to do it with no roadblock, cer-
tainly, from me."
Senate rules require a two-thirds
vote to pass legislation.
Other Capital Highlights
•Attorney General Dan Morales
advised several hundred state em-
ployees who work in two state office
buildings to take a day off while bomb-
sniffingdogs. state troopers and other
investigators combed the buildings
for explosives. Morales' office received
a threat apparently connected with
his dispute with the so-called "Re-
public of Texas," an anti-government
group.
•Gov. Bush appointed John Hill,
former chief justice of the Texas Su-
preme Court, to the three-member
Texas Lottery Commission onJanu-
ary 3. Hill, who formerly served as
Texas attorney general, joined Lot-
tery Commission Chairwoman Miers
and commissioner Anthony Sadberry
on January 7 in voting to fire Linares.
ONLY A
round and about
By Emalyn "Sam" Gillispie
I had a very nice letter from Julia
Putnam last week. Julia, as you know,
is the daughter of Margaret Putnam
and is a school librarian in Mineral
Wells. She said that she and her
mother had a nice Christmas in San
Angelo with John and his family.
Brother Joe and wife were there from
Irving
Julia mentioned that Alene and
Lloyd Rogers live there in Mineral
Wells and Alene still has fond memo-
ries of the Malt Shop. Alene had given
Julia a box of old Fandangle pro-
grams and newspaper clippings, the
earliest from the 1947 and 1949
shows. She sent me some copies of
clippings which I will touch on in
later articles. Thank you, Julia, for
the information.
, Several people have been under
the weather. The flu is still going
strong in the area and everyone will
be glad to see the end to its problems.
Jay Caiible fell in his home this
past week and broke his hip. He had
surgery in Hendrick Medical Center
last Thursday and is doing nicely. He
will be going to the Rehab for a few
weeks until he can get on his feet'
again;
I am glad to report that W.J. Whitt.
who had back surgery in Dallas the
day after Christmas, is at home doing
well
lam sorry to report that the Bizzell
boys are not doing too well. Dub
Bizzell.iwho lives near Denton, is in
very bad health, and his brother York
has been in the hospital in Tennessee
with pneumonia. Their sister. Roselee
Bizzell Malkua's husband John is in
critical condition in. San Antonio.
Along with all their friends. I sure
hope everyone gets better soon. J
It seems that Tammy Breeden has
had her hands full lately. She was .
transferred to Breckenridge to take
over as manager of a store over there.
Her husband Rodger had to have silr-
gery and in the middle of that, her
mother Glenda Peacock had a severe
heart attack which called for a pace-
maker. Glenda is home now doing
very well Brit back to Tammy's ongo-
ing private soap opera. Her niece B.J
Lancaster's home caught fire and
burned. B.J. and husband. Michael,
are Staying with family at the present
time. A fund has been set up at the
Peoples State Bank in Moran to help
out All Tammy can say is "enough
already."
Bobbie Pruiett Baker. husband and
son are being transferred to Iceland
for two years. Andrew is in the Air
Force and thev have been stationed
in Las Vegas for a few years. Bobbie's
parents live in Breckenridge.
Had a nice chat with Sam Webb
last night. He called my attention to
an article that appeared in the Abilene
Reporter-News Sunday. It was about
the surgeon who had accidentally
infected himselfwith the AIDS virus.
With the help of research, he planned
his own treatment plan, the article
said with surprising results. The ar-
ticle went on to tell of other earlier
doctors who had used themselves to
further their research. One name
mentioned was Dr. Thomas E. Brit-
tingham. It seems Dr. Brittingham
was researching a cause of leukemia
and injected himself with leukemic
cells. Although he almost died, he
proved « point and leukemia treat-
ment has come a long way since Dr.
Brittingham's experiment. The rea-
son I am bringing this article to your
attention is, it seems the late Dr.
Thomas E. Brittingham is the son of
the "late Lucille Brittingham and
nephew ofWatt Matthews, with many
friends and family still livingTirthis
area.
Grandma Moses said, "Life is what
•we make it, always has been and
always will be." Well, it seems Cary
ilogue and friend wanted to go fish-
ing Sunday. Remember how cold it
was? They picked up some minnows
on the way to the creek at Lake
Hubbard. By the time they arrived at
the fishing place, the minnow bucket
had ice on it. They broke the ice on
the bucket, got a minnow out and
started to bait their hooks. The min-
now froze before they could get it
baited. Cary said he was amazed at
how fast it froze so he got out another
minnow and timed it. That sucker
• froze in 30 seconds. They tried" their
luck a while longer but had to call off
the fishing because the eye on the
end of the reel kept freezing shut.
While they were still trying to make
up their minds to come in oyt of the
cold, another die-hard fisherman
came by in a boat, dressed in cold
weather gear, goggles, coveralls and
gloves and headed up the creek to,
fish. Cary and friend could not figure
out if they could be listed as dedi-
cated fishermen'or fools to be out in
the extreme cold.
Huh!!! Cary, the next time you fish
in cold weather,, try putting some
lightweight oil on the line and reel
and that will cut down some of the
water being pulled up the line to the
end of the reel.
This is Sam, and I will see you
Round and About.
Community Calendar
|AN. 16
Community Action program - Resource Center,
11 am-2 pm
Lions Club - Lone Star Eatery, 12 noon
Chamber luncheon - Ft. Griffin, 12 noon
Hospital rollback election - County polling sites,
7 am-7 pm
All-region band concert - Cooper High School, 7:30 pm
Athletic Booster Club - AHS cafeteria, 7 pm
Hospital board - Clinic board room, 7 pm
School board - Supt.'s office, 7:30 pm
Visions of Hope AA meeting - Call 762-2447 for
location, 8 pm
Kiwanis Club meeting - Ft. Griffin, 12 noon
City council meeting.- City Hall, 5 pm
Livestock Stock - County Show Barn
Senior Citizen Day - Resource Center
"A People's Heritage Center" - American Legion Hall.
Please call for an appointment and visit, for everyone is welcome —
you, your family, ^your friends, your organization.
Your interest will be appreciated. Thank you.
FIRST
NATIONAL
BANK
Albany/Breckenridge
M£M6f 8 fOtC
JAN. 17
JAN. 18
|AN. 20
|AN. 22
|AN. 23-25
JAN. 24
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Lucas, Donnie A. The Albany News (Albany, Tex.), Vol. 121, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 1997, newspaper, January 16, 1997; Albany, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth413490/m1/4/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Old Jail Art Center.