The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, March 14, 1980 Page: 1 of 6
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(ABSORBED THE GAZETTE CIRCULATION BY PURCHASE MAY 12, 1928)
SULPHUR SPRINGS^ TEXAS, FRIDAY, MARCH 14,1980.
S PAGES -10 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
County ag
jf
balanced
It’s been four years of change in Texas
agriculture — at least according to the 36-
county survey by Texas Power & Light
Company.
From 1976 to 1977, agricultural income
dropped by 2.7 percent then saw a rise
from a 1977 income of SI,158,627,000 by 28.4
percent in 1978 to $1,487,825,000.
Just as good an increase — plus some —
arrived in 1979 with revenues going to
$1,928,003,000 for a 29.5 percent jump.
Here in Hopkins County, the downward
dip was resisted and overcome with a 9.08
percent increase posted in 1977, an in-
crease of 12.96 percent in 1978 and a 38.1
percent increase in 1979.
Hopkins County has been leading the
TP&L survey for a long time with a strong
gains in both livestock and milk products.
However, crop production has always
placed Hopkins County among the top
listings in the state as well.
Since 1976, Hopkins County agricultural
producers have been able to show an
overall gain each year, even though 1977
and 1978 crop values saw consecutive dips
that reversed themselves and almost
doubled in 1979.
Although the crop incomes did drop in
1977 and 1978, the income generated by the
livestock and milk industries was enough
to overcome those drops and end up
producing a gain in total agricultural
income for those years.
Reunion
O.H. Hare, left, of Sulphur Bluff, and W.H. Hopgood of Waxahachie, who served in
the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater and in the Rome-Arno campaign in
Italy, recently were reunited after last seeing each other when they were discharged
from the service at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio on March 23, 1946. They met
after both had landed in Oran, Africa, in April of 1944. The pair said they plan future
reunions — at more frequent intervals.
Street value of stolen
drugs near$l 8,000 mark
Police Chief Delbert Harrell reports that
a complete inventory of medications taken
in the early Monday burglary of the
Medicine Chest South Pharmacy reveals
that 7,400 pills which a narcotics agent said
had a street value of almost $18,000 were
taken along with approximately $900 in
cash and checks.
The inventory showed that 2,250 five-
milligram Valium tablets, 800 Valium of
the 10-milligram size, 500 10-milligram
Librium, 1,000 each of ^-grain, 1-grain
and 1%-grain Phenobarbital tablets, 350
Phenaphen No. 4 tablets and 100 50-
milligram Seconal tablets were taken.
Also taken’ were 168 100-milligram
Seconal tablets, 100 each of the 50 and 100-
milligram Preludin tablets; and 32 300-
milligram Quaalude tablets were missing
after the burglary.
Most of the drugs taken are depressants
with only a few stimulants being missing.
The pharmacy was found burglarized
about 2 a.m. Monday by Sulphur Springs
Patrolman Mike Reeves as he made
routine checks of buildings. Officers
surmised at the time that the burglar or
burglars had seen him approaching as he
made checks of other businesses in the
area.
The drugs would have a cost value of
$580 according to owners of Medicine
Chest South.
However, a Department of Public Safety
narcotics agent said Tuesday morning that
the drugs would have a street value on the
illicit drug market of between $17,781 and
$17,996. He said that the street prices vary
depending upon how and where the drugs
are sold. He explained that illicit drugs
cost more in a major city like Dallas or
Houston while they will be cheaper in
smaller towns.
The undercover agent said that the
Valium, Librium, Phenobarbital and
Phenaphen have a present street value of
about $2 each while the Seconal tablets will
sell from $2.75 to $3 each on the illicit drug
market.
He said however that the Preludin and
Quaalude are much more expensive in the
drug scene.
Venue change granted
Eighth Judicial District Judge Lanny
Ramsay sent a letter to John D. Byers,
defense attorney for Jessie Lee Shaw, 31,
of 320 Beckham St. changing the trial site
from Sulphur Springs to Mount Vernon.
Judge Ramsay set March 31, as the date
for pre-trial hearings in the District
Courtroom at the Franklin County
Courthouse begining at 10 a.m.
Shaw is accused in the murder of Janyth
Kay Wallace, 36, of 600 Lee St.
The dead woman’s husband, Billy Ray
Wallace, pled guilty to charges of murder
in December and is serving a life sentence
in the Texas Department of Corrections.
Mrs. Wallace disappeared on July 12,
1979. Her car was found on the shoulder of
the east bound lane of 1-30, about two miles
east of Rockwall.
On July 23, the family residence burned
in a fire that was suspected to be arson.
That same day, Mrs. Wallace’s three
sisters, Delores Stubbs and Beth Moss,
both of Como, and Dianne Schwertner of
Sulphur Springs and her parents, Mr. and
Mrs. James Johnson of Como placed a
$5,000 reward for Mrs. Wallace’s recovery
-dead or alive.
Shaw, an employee of the Wallace dairy
south of Sulphur Springs, was arrested on
Aug. 21 and charged with arson of the
family residence. He has been in custody
since that time.
On Oct. 19, Billy Ray Wallace was
kidnapped from a wood lot in Garland
where he was selling firewood.
He subsequently turned up on Oct. 20 and
said that he had been kept in a bam
overnight before being thrown tied into a
ditch the following day.
There have not been any charges in that
kidnapping incident.
On Dec. 5, the skeletal remains of Kay
Wallace were found near a dirt road across
from a deserted house near the East Caney
community.
Wallace was arrested the following day
and pled guilty on Dec. 13—the day before
Kay Wallace was buried.
Shaw was arraigned on a charge of
murder on Dec. 18, just two days before
Wallace was taken to begin serving his
sentence at TDC.
He was formally indicted for the murder
of Mrs. Wallace on Feb. 7 and arraigned on
that indictment on Feb. 25 where he pled
not guilty.
A pre-trial hearing was held on March 3
at which time Byers entered a motion for a
change of venue and Judge Ramsay took
that motion under advisement until his
action Tuesday afternoon.
District Attorney Jim Chapman says
that he expects the trial to last about a
week.
Sheriff John E. (Junior) Tittle said
Wednesday morning that he would be
contacting Franklin County Sheriff Don
Qualls concerning travel arrangements.
“We’ll be glad to provide bailiff help if
we’re needed,” Tittle said.
—News briefs
v,
Local census forms ready
Postmaster Jim Collins and his co-
workers at the Sulphur Springs Post
Office have been busy for several
days getting ready for the big mail-
out of forms to all residents in the 1980
U. S. Census.
It has required overtime hours to
handle the preliminary work to
sorting the forms and checking to be
sure that residences are assured
coverage. While no count has been
made, Collins estimated that between
4,000 and 6,000 pieces of mail for the
census will be delivered on Friday,
March 28.
“We hope the residents will com-
plete the forms during the weekend
and begin mailing them back on
March 31,” Collins said.
The Sulphur Springs Post Office
serves a population of about 25,000
people, Collins estimated, including a
small sector in Wood County.
The mail-outs will be to residences
only. None will go to businesses.
Officially, April 1 is “Census Day”
in the United States.
Top names due for ET seminar
COMMERCE — The program and
several of the guest speakers for the
Sixth Annual Sam Rayburn Public
Affairs Symposium at East Texas
State University April 7-9 have been
announced by Dr. John Carrier,
chairman of the symposium com-
mittee.
The theme for the 1980 symposium
is “Energy for Life: People, Power
and Public Policy in the 1980s.”
Carrier, dean of ETSU’s College of
Liberal and Fine Arts and the unof-
ficial “founder” of the symposium,
said that the speaker list includes
. Gloria Steiqem, editor of Ms.
Magazine; Marshall Loeb, senior
editor of Time Magazine’s business,
economy and energy sections; R.
Buckminster Fuller, an inventor and
the discoverer of energetic-synergetic
geometry; and Daniel Yergin, author
of “Energy Future."
Carrier said other speakers will be
announced soon.
The symposium is an annual tribute
to ETSU alumnus Sam Rayburn, the
late speaker of the U. S. House of
Representatives.
Competition shapes up
in county school races
Competition has been assured for five of
the seven school district trustee elections
in Hopkins County on Saturday, April 5.
Only at Miller Grove and Sulphur Bluff
do the candidates and open positions
match up.
Como-Pickton has drawn the largest
field, with eight candidates seeking three
open positions. They are Lester Arnold,
Keith Bain, Arthur Skidmore, Mary Lea
Matthews, Travis L. Cook, Raymond J.
Stiff, John W. Folmar and Billy Bob
Hoffman. Cook is an incumbent. Two other
incumbents, Jerry Mays and Newman
Bradford, did not file for re-election.
Holdover members are Ronny Hux, Joe
Pat Jordan, Jack Bowen and David Carr.
At Saltillo, G. W. Payne, an incumbent,
B. G. Davidson, Joy Sustaire and Billy H.
Gurley are bidding for the two three-year
terms that will be open. Billy J. Cain, Mac
Moore and Kenny Garmon have filed for a
one-year unexpired term, which was never
filled after Billy J. Hatchell resigned in
August. Bill Floyd, president of the board,
is an incumbent who did not seek re-
election. Holdover members are Bill
Brewer, Delbert Tulley, Raymond
Haygood and Gerald Smith.
The four candidates at Cumby for the
two open positions are Loyd Thomas, an
incumbent, George A. Speights, Johnny
Moseley and Johnny R. Wheat. Lanny
Rainey, an incumbent, did not file for re-
election. Holdover members are James
Calvert, D. A. McRea, Harold Finley, Dale
Petty and Clyde Butler.
North Hopkins has four candidates for
two open terms. The candidates are J. D.
Goldsmith, an incumbent, Nada Crouch,
Danny Evans and Kenneth Cockrum.
Jerry C. Ferrell, an incumbent, did not
seek re-election. Holdover members are
Jerry Gibby, Eugene Dixon, Max
Drummond, Ben Jennings and Alfred
Willis.
Kenneth M. Anderson and Paul W.
Garmon Jr., both incumbents, are the only
candidates for the two open positions at
Miller Grove. Holdover members are
Johnny Ethridge, Mac Garrett, Eldon
McWilliams, Larry Mabe and Douglas
McCool.
At Sulphur Bluff, two positions will be
filled in the April election. The candidates
are Henry Allen Davis, an incumbent, and
Micheal Bolton. J. C. Neal, an incumbent,
did not ask re-election. Holdover trustees
are Bert Domer, Darrell Deaton, J. W.
Aiken Jr., Gary Roberts and Bill Allen.
In Sulphur Springs, there are seven
candidates for the three open positions.
The candidates are Judy Gilreath, Alfred
Glaess and Johnny Dobson, all in-
cumbents, and James I. Murray, Paul
Tipping, Michael D. Lewis and Gerald
Thomas. Holdover members are Tim
Kelty, W. T. Allison II, Gary Odom and
Patsy Johnson.
Home mortgage money
tight on local scene
By JERRY TITTLE
News-Telegram Staff
The financial screws may have
tightened on would-be home buyers in
Sulphur Springs in recent weeks - but
those whose bank account or equity is
pretty hefty appear able to move into new
homes here.
The Labor Department reported
recently that wholesale prices surged 1.6
percent in January, the biggest monthly
jump since November 1974.
But, if it is any consolation to the
majority of prospective new home buyers
who are feeling the pinch of tight-money
market policies dictated to and by lending
agencies, the Commerce Department
reported recently that the national
average price of new homes fell by the
same 1.6 percent in the final three months
of 1979. It was the first quarterly drop in
more than two years.
The national average price of a new,
single-family home was $73,000 in the
fourth quarter of last year, down from
$74,200 in the previous quarter, while new
Sulphur Springs residences were going for
an average of about $55,000.
What do these figures mean to the Texas
home loan situation and specifically to
Sulphur Springs?
According to a recent Texas Savings and
Loan League report home loans dropped 21
percent in Texas last year as savings
associations released $1.6 billion less than
in 1978.
Savings have made a marked shift from
low-interest passbook accounts and long-
term certificates of deposit to high-
interest, short-term CDs and money
market certificates.
Consequently, lenders are caught bet-
ween what the money market says they
may pay to attract savers and what home
buyers are willing to pay for loans.
David DuPriest, manager of the Sulphur
Springs office of the Commerce Federal
Savings and Loan, said, “We haven’t made
any new home loans since September of
1979 and I don’t forsee a brighter picture
until maybe the end of this year.
"The six-month CDs we issued Thursday
had an interest rate of 14.79 percent and at
that rate, for a new home we would have to
charge 16 or 17 percent interest,” he said.
“And even if someone could qualify I don’t
think he would takeonthatkindof rate. ’ ’
According to DuPriest, people in the
lending business are having to compete,
with the Federal Government for money.
“The whole dilemma in a nutshell is
really very simple,” DuPriest said. “When
you take certificates of deposit designed
for six months’ issue and loan them out
over 20 or 25 years you can immediately
see the position home loan people would
put themselves into,” he said.
Glynn Lowe of Sulphur Springs Loan and
Building Association echoed a similar
assessment.
“Of course the money market is very
tight and interest rates are extremely
high,” Lowe said. “And our loan ap-
plications are not nearly what they were at
this time last year."
Lowe also said his office had recently
processed a backlog of applications but
now they “were caught up.”
“The rate issued Thursday on six-month
CDs was an all-time high, 14.792 percent,
and I would think that just about puts it
completely out of reach for the average
home buyer,” Lowe said.
In reference to a commercial bank
negotiating a long-term committment,
Gerald Prim, president of the Sulphur
Springs State Bank, said a commercial
bank has prior obligations.
“A commercial bank must meet com-
mercial needs of every kind,” Prim said.
“Within this context we are taking care of
our old, established customers first”
Under construction
Even though the new home loan money market in Sulphur Springs is described as
"extremely tight" there is still some financing available, according to home
builders. Homes such as this one are now under construction in various parts of the
city. Many contractors are putting new homes on the market strictly on a
"speculative basis."
-Staff Plwto
According to records kept by city
building inspector Joe Cerretani there
have been seven new residential permits
issued in Sulphur Springs since Jan. 1.
“We issued 75 new residential permits
during 1979,” Cerretani said. “Most of the
seven going now belong to contractors in
the home building business with only one
or two going to homeowners," he said.
Which brings to mind another question:
Would a contractor be justified in putting a
new home (priced anywhere from $50,000
to $60,000 for a consensus new-home
average in Sulphur Springs) on the market
based on sheer speculation alone instead of
solid financial footing?
“I’m going to keep on building one or two
houses along because people have got to
have homes to live in,” Jack DuPriest,
Sulphur Springs home builder said. “I just
sold a new house for strictly cash and those
kind are always nice to get, but it was only
a speculation deal,” he said.
“I know the loan availability is way
down but they’ve got to turn some money
loose sooner or later,” he said.
On the other hand, Gene Watson,
another local builder, says he builds on 95
percent speculation to begin with.
“The local money market is just tight
but there is still financing available,”
Watson said, “whether it be from loan and
building associations, banks, FHA loans,
Federal land banks or whatever. I have
three houses going now in Sulphur
Springs,” Watson said.
But just as the automobile industry and
the rest of the world have become energy
conscious, so has the home builder - and
Watson is currently involved with a new
back-to-the-basics concept.
“Two of the three houses I have going
now are ‘garden homes’ or ’zero lot-line’
homes,” he said.
This concept combines the best of a
townhouse and an apartment into a low
maintenance, energy efficient home,
Watson said.
“It has always been customary to build a
home with at least 10 percent of the lot on
either side of the structure,” Watson said.
“But these ‘zero lot-line’ homes are built
with one wall bordering the property line;
yet there are no common walls; the homes
are individually owned,” be said. The
garden home concept involves from 1,450
to 1,800 square feet per home but there is
no wasted space, Watson says.
Watson shares the opinion of others in
the home building business, either from
the contractors’ point of view or the
financial viewpoint - that the Sulphur
Springs area attracts a large number of
retired couples relocating here with
financing already available to them as
well as younger couples with equity,
relocating here because of employment
commitments.
City gets grant
Congressman Sam B. Hall Jr.
announced today that the En-
vironmental Protection Agency has
approved a construction grant for
$34,510 to the City of Sulphur Springs
for its wastewater treatment ex-
pansion program.
The funds will be used for
preparation of construction drawings
and specifications for six sanitary
sewer collection lines.
1;
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Keys, Clarke & Woosley, Joe. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, March 14, 1980, newspaper, March 14, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth779885/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.