The Nocona News (Nocona, Tex.), Vol. 104, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 11, 2008 Page: 1 of 12
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Crowds of fans grow
as teams post victories
during season
... Page 1
J.
TxDOT officials
bring explanations
to Nocona
... Page 1
FlNl
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Thursday, September 11, 2008
Serving Montague County Since 1905 Copyright 2008
Volume 104, Issue 15 Seventy-five Cents
Tribes steams over
Muenster 44-0; girls
drop two on the road
... Page 8
Ten Pages
Founded 1858
- * '•
City seeks water grant
Council green-lights glove ictory idea
— Photo by Tracy Mesler
The Flag Corps members Svanah Williams, Sierra Jones and
Roxanna Huerta perform during halftime of Friday's game
with Muenster.
ever will ant a
be as good a ain
Court votes to make changes in
how, when comp time is paid
By Tracy R. Mesler
Santa Claus will come three
months early for employees in
the Montague County Sheriffs
Department and Jail.
But in the future, he won't
return with any large, termina-
tion comp time paychecks for
county law enforcement person-
nel.
Monday County
Commissioners made good on
promises to "fix" what they
described as an "uncontrollable"
situation involving compensa-
tory time in the Sheriff's
Department and Jail.
The court reluctantly agreed
to take approximately $75,000
from its unencumbered funds
and "pay off' all of the accumu-
lated comp time and over time
currently owed to jailers, deputy
sheriffs and others in the two
departments.
After decades of pleading
with one sheriff after another to
"get a handle on the situation"
the court has settled on a pay-as-
you-go policy - with all future
money being taken from each
department's budget and not
from the county's contingency
funds or unencumbered fund
AREA WEATHER
Sept. 3 90 67 0.03
Sept. 4 72 62
Sept. 5 82 62
Sept. 6 87 63
Sept. 7 90 68
Sept. 8 90 68
Sept. 9 87 68 0.43
24 Hour period ending at 7 a.m.
Offical recording site at Nocona Hills
Tot Rain 2008 27.44
Tot. Rain September 0.47
Through Sep. 2007 41.11
Through Sep. 2006 24.46
By Tracy R. Mesler
The Nocona City Council
took a look towards the future,
both near and far, Tuesday night
as they worked their way
through their September agen-
da.
The council approved apply-
ing for a $250,000 Texas
Community Development
Block Grant to make improve-
ments to a portion of the city's
water system.
Nocona has received two
similar grants over the years and
used the funds to replace under-
sized, corroded and collapsing
water lines with new water
mains and residential service
lines.
Mayor Robert Fenoglio
noted the city "stood a good
chance" of receiving the grant
noting the city received "10
points" added to its score
because the city had increased
its water rates this year. The
state wants to encourage water
conservation through ever
increasing water rates. "That's
one of the reasons we're raising
water rates this year," the mayor
observed.
The council also agreed to
consider a proposed $750,000
no interest grant/loan from the
Texas Capital Fund to assist
Nokona Athletic Goods in pur-
chasing a portion of the old
Nocona Boot Co. factory.
Athletic Goods has been in
temporary quarters since a dev-
astating fire in July 2006 that
destroyed their factory.
Since then the Nocona
Economic Development Boards
have been working with the
Nokona management team and
stockholders trying to secure
financial assistance to ensure
the company remains in
Nocona.
NEDC Executive Director
James Yohe explained there
were still a number of details to
be worked out, but Nokona
Athletic was committed to
remaining in the community.
"We need to know if the
council is willing to proceed,"
he explained. Fie was instructed
to continue the process.
Councilman Donnie Davis, a
member of one of the NEDC
Boards, said, "At some point
this council needs to sit down
with the financial managers,"
but he endorsed proceeding with
the project.
The council adopted the 2008
balance (savings accounts).
County Auditor Jennifer
Taylor, who told the court "We
need to rebuild unencumbered
funds," reluctantly agreed that
this was the only way to save
money in the long run.
The commissioners unani-
mously approved County Judge
Ted Winn's motion. It includes
a major change in how the two
departments handle comp time
and overtime.
Rather than allow a law
enforcement employee to accu-
mulate up to 320 straight-time
hours in comp time and then
wait until they either quit their
county job or are fired to "cash
out" the large termination
check, the employees will paid
for their comp time on a quarter-
ly basis.
"And take the money out of
their budgets," as Pet. 4 Comm.
Tommie Sappington said as the
court instructed the county audi-
tor to take those quarterly comp
time checks out of the depart-
ment's budget and not out of
any other funds the county
might possess, as has been the
case in the past.
Ms. Taylor noted both
departments have a "comp
time" line item in their budget.
Once those funds are used, she
explained, then the department
head must divert funds from
other line items to cover the
expense. In the worst-case situa-
tion, it could require taking
funds from salaries and benefits
requiring terminations to stay
within the budget.
"The department head needs
to have an incentive to encour-
age their employees to take the
time off rather than taking it
from their budget," Ms. Taylor
told the court. Ideally, rather
than paying over-time cash for
the built up comp time, the
employees are given paid days
off to eliminate the debt. But
over the years, due to a variety
Please See "Comp" Page 2
ounty covers parties debts
to protect ballot programs
By Tracy R. Mesler
MONTAGUE - To pro-
tect their ability to hold the
Nov. 4 General Election,
county commissioners
agreed Monday to pay two
outstanding bills run up the
County Republican and
Democratic Parties
Thursday.
When the county party
chairmen paid their election
Republican County Chair-
man Gary McAlister makes
a point Thursday.
judges $9 an hour rather than
the state capped $7 an hour,
the Secretary of State's
Office refused to reimburse
the two county parties the
difference. That meant the
meant they were unable to
pay ESS for the computer
programming necessary to
conduct the electronic vot-
ing.
In turn, ESS informed
County Clerk Glenda
Henson, who oversees the
county's elections, "If they
did not get these invoices
paid it was going to jeopard-
ize my election (in
November)."
County Republican
Chairman Gary McAlister
and Mrs. Henson explained
that when the two county
chairmen got ready to con-
duct their party primaries in
March they asked what the
county pays election offi-
cials, and Mrs. Henson, who
had never worked a party pri-
mary, replied $9 an hour.
What none of them real-
ized was there was a state
Please See "Parties" Page 2
tax rate of 57.51-cents per $100.
While the tax rate itself is sig-
nificantly lower than the 2007
rate, despite moving the "fire
fund" water fee over to long
term, tax-supported debt,
because of a significant increase
in property values the total tax
dollars being collected repre-
sents a 16.52% increase.
City Secretary Revell
Hardison noted the maintenance
and operation portion of the tax
rate, 50.37-cents, is the calculat-
ed effective tax rate and will
generate the same amount of tax
revenues as last year's rate. The
addition comes from new, tax-
able property and the 7.14-cent
tax rate to retire long-term debt.
The council also approved an
amendment to water and sewer
rate ordinance changing how the
city charges for water and sewer
services. (See story elsewhere in
today's Nocona News.)
The council also voted to
split the 2007-2008 hotel/motel
tax revenues between the Tales
*N Trails Museum, with five-
sixths of the total, and the
Nocona Chamber of Commerce
receiving the remaining one-
sixth.
Please See "Council" Page 10
Hiring
freeze
County to
consider for SO
By Tracy R. Mesler
MONTAGUE - Before the
end of the month county com-
missioners apparently will insti-
tute a hiring freeze in the sher-
iffs department. They cannot
instate one in the jail because it
must meet minimum staffing
levels.
As the court referred the third
K-9 compensatory time claim of
the year to the county attorney,
Pet. 4 Comm. Tommie
Sappington said it raises another
issue he wanted to know if the
court wished to address.
Pointing out that the court
has made it a policy to charge
back such claims to the depart-
ment in which they occurred,
Sappington noted there was no
room in the 2008 budget to pay
the latest claim.
"This is not all that is going
to come up between now and the
end of the year," he said, in ref
Please See "Freeze" Page 6
t
Play-off
seasoned
teams top
Buckle- p
Whether it is defending
Buckle Up and State Champion
Windthorst, or Regional
Finalists Nocona, Dodd City or
Archer City or Regional Semi-
finalist Henrietta or Regional
Quarterfinalists Woodson,
Holliday or Callisburg, whoever
wins the 9th Annual Buckle Up
for Lane's Sake Volleyball
Tournament will have been
sorely tested.
Of the 27 teams entered in
this year's five gymnasium
extravaganza, 15 of them partic-
ipated in their respective state
play-offs last year led by
defending Class A State
Champion Windthorst.
Tournament action will run
from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday
at five sites - First Baptist
Church's Family Life Center,
Nocona Middle and Elementary
Schools and Nocona and Saint
Jo Fligh Schools as the 27 teams
will be divided into six "pools"
four of five teams and two of
four.
Once pool play is completed,
the teams will be seeded into
three divisions - Gold, Silver
and Bronze - for tournament
action on Saturday.
Joining #6 Windthorst in
Pool A are Aubrey, Kennedale,
Woodson and Ponder.
Regional finalist Archer City,
currently ranked #15 in Class A,
is joined by regional quarterfi-
nalist Holliday, area champion
Decatur and Lake Worth in Pool
Please See "Tough" Page 12
Project explanations . . .
— Photo by Tracy Mesler
Larry Tegtmeyer, second from right, and Dan Brownm explain how the Texas Department of Transportation finances public
transportation projects. Listening are Nocoan EDC Executive Director James Yohe, left, Mayor Robert Fenoglio and Mrs.
Mildred Nunneley, foreground.
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Mesler, Tracy R. & Mesler, Linda L. The Nocona News (Nocona, Tex.), Vol. 104, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 11, 2008, newspaper, September 11, 2008; Nocona, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth439498/m1/1/: accessed July 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Friends of the Nocona Public Library.