Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 118, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 19, 1991 Page: 1 of 16
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In October, the city's I4 sales tax for '91 will top
One hundred million pennies
It's A Texas Version of Santa
Larry Clark of Burleson created a Texas version of Santa which he likes
to call Big Tex. Santa Claus in cowboy boots and hat stands betwee n 6 feet
and 7 feet tall. It's one of the many (awn ornaments Clark keeps hiimself
and others busy making.
Just think! If you collected a
penny for each dollar of taxable sales
in Burleson, you'd become a million-
aire next month!
And then again, you might just
end up in jail since it's not legal for
you to collect a penny for each dol-
lar's worth of taxable sales within the
city.
But it is legal for the city of Bur-
leson to do so and, naturally, it does
just that. And October will be the
earliest the city has ever collected a
million on the tax.
Twice before the total for the
year has topped a million (1989 and
1990), but it reached that lofty pla-
teau during November both times.
B ut all the good news won't come
in October. September is a notable
month even though sales lax collec-
tions remain a little shy of a million
(and trick-or-treating is probably out
as well).
Still there are 10 good reasons
why Burleson sales tax receipts for
September, 1991, are preferable to
sales tax receipts for September, 1990.
And each reason is worth exact-
ly 1 percent.
Add them all together and, from
one year to the next, you have a 10
percent increase in the amount of
money the city received during the
month of September (actually a 10.1
percent increase if you're a stickler
for detailed accuracy).
This month the city of Burleson
received a check for $90,820 as its
share of the sales tax receipts col-
lected within the city limits. Last
September, the amount the city re-
ceived was $82,489.
Through the first nine months of
the year, the city has received a total
of $935,653 in sales tax receipts.
That's a gain of 8.7 percent over the
$861,037 received through Septem-
ber of 1990.
So how did we do a decade ago?
Glad you asked. In September of
1981, Burleson's check for $66,817
brought the year’s total to $303,149—
less than a third of thepresentamount.
Not so bad, when you consider that
was almost 25 percent ahead of the
previous year.
After a slight decline last month,
Burleson once again leads Johnson
County in the sales tax category. In
fact, take away the $8,000 plus that
Burleson gained during the month
and the cumulative countywide total
would be in the red.
As itis, Johnson County shows a
3.5 percent increase over the previ-
ous year.
After Burleson, Cleburne had the
largest dollar increase—about $800.
The county seat city received a check
for $ 111,798, up .7 percent over last
September. For the year, however.
Please see TARRANT, Page 12
Tis the season for—lawn ornaments
BY SALLY ELLERTSON
Even though the leaves will soon
be falling, along with the tempera-
tures, this time of year always has an
air of excitement to it with five major
holidays—Halloween, Thanksgiv-
ing, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New
Years Day— in just over two months
time. There's something for every-
one to celebrate, especially those who
are young at heart.
One of the truly young at heart is
a Burleson man who began as a car-
penter and has used his trade to bright-
en up not only his customer's lives
but the lives of passersby also.
Larry Clark of Green V alley Cir-
cle in rural Burleson is in to creating
the wooden lawn ornaments that sud-
denly sprang up everywhere last
Christmas. You couldn't drive past
too many neighborhoods last Christ-
mas without spotting a Mr. and Mrs.
Claus, Santa in his sleigh lead by
reindeer, candy canes, carolers, and
Mr. and Mrs. Snowmen propped up
in the yards. Clark was one of the
ones who made those ornamerfts come
alive from a piece of plywood.
"I've been into woodworking for
years. I've been a carpenter and my
dad was a carpenter. I worked on
mobile homes but it was carpenter
work, repairing mobile homes, for 30
years," Clark said. "I started doing
the Christmas stuff just last year. We
did it for our own yard, starting out,
then people driving by and friends
seeing it and telling others, got them
wanting it too."
Larry and His wife Norma had
just about everything you could ima-
gine for Christmas in their front yard,
from a manger scene to Santa and
Mrs. Claus.
"We had a teddy bear with a sign
that said, 'Candy canes sold here,’ and
we had four-foot candy canes staked
up around him like he was selling
them," Clark said.
Clark had a lot of takers. His
niece, Darlene Williams of Joshua,
talked him into going to some craft
shows.
"She talked me into getting into
a craft show in Hillsboro and one in
Cleburne," Clark said. "We took a
bunch of stuff down there and we had
people all the way from Waco, who
had bfepn in Hillsboro, come up here
and have me make them some snow-
men." \
Clark got an unusual request, a
Big Tex Santa Claus, that he hopes
will turn into a big seller this year.
"We made one last year for a
lady who just had to have acowboy,"
Clark said. "We added the hat and the
boots to a regular Santa Claus pat-
tern."
The Big Texas Santa stands be-
tween 6 feet and 7 feet tall.
"A lot of this stuff I bought pat-
terns for and I designed a few my-
self," Clark said
The lawn ornaments are made
out of plywood.
"It doesn't take me long to cat
them out, probably 30 minutes, then
I spray the backs of them with paint to
seal them so they won't absorb any
moisture," Clark said. "My daughter,
Shellie Bennett, and a neighbor lady,
Loretta Kennedy, are my helpers.
They come in and line the boards off
with the pattern after I cut them out
and sand them."
"We put carbon between the
pattern and the board," Kennedy said,
explaining how she transferred the
pattern to the ornament. "His daugh-
ter says this is the part she hates the
worst. You have one pattern and you
have four or five of the same boards
so you have to move them from one
to the other and get them straight and
outline them."
"They can paint about seven or
eight a day if they have a good day,"
Clark said. "If they don’t have a good
day they can do th/ee or four." *
After the two have painted Santa
or a reindeer, they go back with a
black marker and go over all of the
lines separating the colors. Clark then
cuts up metal conduit so that it's just
a little longer than the ornament, puts
a point on it, and attaches it to the
back of the ornament with brackets.
"That way they can drive it in the
ground and if they leave on vacation
Please see MENAGERIE, Page 4
Eat a good lunch then go
to Burleson City Hall and
let them 'needle ’ you
If you're over 17 years of age and 110 pounds and have eaten a good
lunch, chances are the Carter Blood Mobile could use your generosity
at Burleson City Hall, today. Sept. 19, from 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
Personnel with the blood center will be taking blood donations in
a mobile van in the city hall parking lot at 141 W Renfro Street. Before
blood is taken, donors will have their temperature, blood pressure,
pulse, and hemoglobin level checked and will also be asked to provide
a detailed medical history.
Every time a city employee gives blood, a credit will made to the
city of Burleson account at the Carter Blood Center. Any individual
who gives blood can set up his own account that covers the donor, the
donor's spouse, and all of the donor's tax dependents.
Whole blood only lasts 46 days so the need for blood is great. You
can donate every 56 days (eight weeks). Donors who are taking
vitamins, hormones, thyroid hormones, or oral contraceptives are not
disqualified from giving but if you are taking medication to control the
heart's function, Accutane for acne, blood thinners (Heparine, Coum-
adin), or antibiotics for infections, you will be disqualified.
Give a little so someone can live because that someone could end
Just sit back and relax and let your
blood flow for a good cause!
Welcome!
Tonight's the night!
Tie a string around your finger and clear your schedule for
tonight. After all the hoopla, it's finally time for the 12th annual
Burleson StarlCrowley Review/Joshua Tribune sponsored Home-
makers School at Huguley's New Image Health and Racquetball
Club.
The doors open at 5; 15 p.m. on Sept. I? so that you can browse
through the variety of different booth displays featuring food,
products, and services, which are set up in the gymnasium area. A
fashion show featuring five businesses—Hazel's Rawhide, Jean’s
Boutique, Pioneer Fabrics, Tanfastique, and Texas Garb—will be
the center of attention from 5:45 p.m.-6:l5 p.m. hi the amphithea-
ter. It will be ftllowed by 30 minutes of entertainment from 6:15*
6:45 p.m. featuring the highly touted Burleson High School Show
Choir, under the direction of Debbie P«nell,and its show—"Made
In The USA."
The focus of the night—the Homemakers School—will begin
at 7 p.m. in the aerobics room. Home Economist Lucinda Kahny
will be demonstrating how to prepare 11 recipes—Healthy Walnut
Bread, Hi-Protein Energy Bars, Best Fudgey Pecan Brownies,
Mexican Pork Chops and Beans, Chocolate Chip Crater Cake,
Chili Con Carne with Seasoned Tortilla Chips, Huggable Teddy
Bear Cake, Oriental Chicken, Pineapple Carrot Toss, Choco-
Orange Fluff, and Supreme Pasta Salad—on stage with the help of
Lori Elmore (Joshua Tribune Editor and Burleson Star Lifestyles/
Religion Editor) and Jeanette Peterson (composing department),
All of those who attend the cooking show will receive a recipe
booklet with not only the recipes that are beingcooked on stage, but
also 44 additional Homemakers School recipes.
The cooking demonstration will last until approximately 9:30
p.m., with an intermission. Following the cooking demonstration,
each of the dishes will be given away. But, there's more. In addition
to all of the edible goodies, there will be plenty of door prizes from
the businesses who have booth displays, and, the newspapers will
be giving away 20 bags Of groceries.
The admission is free, but you must have a ticket from one of
the following co-sponsors to get in to the show. The
Bransom'sTbriftee Stood
Main Place, Tanfaetfqu^
Inn, Subway of Crowley, Huguley's New Image, B;
Baker's Street, Rosa Hawkins/Mary Kay Cosmetics, Studio U,
Movie Mania, Hazel's Rawhideand Western Store,Texas Waste-
water, A Travel Depot, Dianne Berryhill/State Farm Insurance,
Woolard's Custom Jewelry, and Gift Connection.
The tickets have been available since Sept. 12 when the Home-
makers School special section was published so you may have to go
to a few different businesses before you find them. There’s some-
thing for everyone thohgb, so don't miss the festivities!
Huguley's New Image Health and Racquetball Club's manager Larry
Schneider welcomes Lucinda Kahny, the Homemakers School home
economist to Huguley. The 12th annual Burleson Star/Crowley Review/
Joshua Tribune sponsored Homemakers School is scheduled for tonight
with doors opening at 5:15 p.m. Don't forget!
Newspapers still OK to recycle
BY SALl\ ELLERTSON
The city of Burleson got a scare
last week when it was advised that its
paper recycler was paying $0 cents
for newspaper and would no longer
be picking it up.
That's what Public Works Di-
rector Bill Davison told the Burleson
City Council Thursday night. But
good news came Friday after a lot of
phone calls. Bagley Waste Disposal
Inc. of Burleson has agreed to take
the newspaper to Fort Worth to be
recycled at United Paper, which is
paying five cents per hundred pounds,
according to Lou Hamilton of the
city's Environmental Health Services.
"Pioneer Paper advised us Sept.
4 that we would receive no payment
for the paper recycling," Davison said.
"We received information on Sept. 6
that it wouldn't be taking paper at
all."
The Burleson Beautification
Council designated the wee^f Sept.
9 as Cleanup Week. Because of this,
Davison said Pioneer Paper agreed to
continue picking up the paper for an
extra week.
The recycling efforts of the na-
tion have snowballed, which is good
in one way but difficult in another.
"There has been so much re-
sponse to recycling that people who
have been takingdwp&per have filled
the warehouses and storage facilities
and no one is taking it from them,"
Davison said. "The market is satu-
rated."
Per council's suggestion, Pioneer
Paper has agreed to let the city of
Burleson use its paper container at no
cost (the company is not using the
container). Thanks to Bagley and Uni-
ted Paper, the city will still be recy-
cling newspaper.
The city's recycling center is lo-
cated at the comer of Magnolia and
Haskew in the old part of Burleson. 11
accepts aluminum (soft drink cans),
tin and steel (vegetable and pet food
cans), cardboard (please flatten), glass
(brown, green, or clear), and news-
print (m inus the slick inserts and cou-
pons). It’s open 2 p.m.-6 p.m., Tues-
day and Friday; and 8 a.m.-noon on
Saturday.
C
r
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Ellertson, Sally. Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 118, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 19, 1991, newspaper, September 19, 1991; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth762295/m1/1/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Burleson Public Library.