The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 1994 Page: 1 of 4
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Vol. 119 •• NO. 8
SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25,1994
4 PAGES - 25 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Two incumbents file for City Council election set for May 7
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
Two incumbent Sulphur Springs City
Council members have filed to retain their
seats on the panel, but no one has come for-
ward to claim the chair Lydia Bryant decided
to vacate.
A Saturday, May 7. City Council election
is being held to elect members for Places I,
2 and 3, currently held by Billy Frazier, Joe
Crouch and Bryant, respectively.
Frazier, currently serving as mayor, and
Crouch both filed as candidates for re-elec-
tion on Monday, (he first day of filing. No
one has filed to oppose either of the incum-
bents.
Bryant, however, is running for state rep-
resentative and has chosen not to seek re-
election to another term on the City Council,
but there were no candidates for the position
as of this morning.
Candidate filing will continue until
Wednesday, March 23, in the office of City
Secretary Sharon Ricketson at the Municipal
Building. 125 S. Davis. The office is open
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
People seeking election to the city's seven-
member governing board must be at least 18
years old, must not have been convicted of a
felony (unless their rights have been
restored), must be mentally competent and
must have lived in both the city and the state
for 12 months prior to the election.
Early voting will be held in the Municipal
Building weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
beginning Monday. April 18 and ending
Tuesday, May 3.
For those wishing to vote by mail, appli-
cations should be sent to the above address
by 5 p.m. on April 29.
The general election is scheduled for May
7, the same date set by the Sulphur Springs
ISD for its school board election.
City Manager Olen Petty added that bal-
loting for both the city council and school
hoard races will probably be held at the same
location as in 1993, when the two elections
took place at Sulphur Springs High School.
Senate hopefuls square off
Texas Senate candidates disagree over property taxes
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
He can do it, he says S.a«rh0.0By Dee Edwards
U.S. Senate candidate Yfike Andrews stumped at the Democratic Wom-
en's candidate forum held Monday night. Andrews, D-Houston, stopped
in Sulphur Springs at the end of a nine-city tour of U.S. Rep. Jim Chap-
man’s 1st Congressional District.
Andrews says only he
can beat Hutchison
By JEFF McINNIS
Crime, health care and welfare
reform were on U.S. Rep. Mike
Andrews’ mind as he and U.S. Rep.
Jim Chapman ended their nine-city
campaign swing through Chapman’s
1st Congressional District late Mon-
day.
At a press conference at the Hop-
kins County Regional Civic Center.
Andrews, a candidate for the Demo-
cratic nomination for the U.S. Senate,
claimed he was the only one in the
race that could defeat sitting Republi-
can U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
"This election for Texas Democrats
is very important.” Andrews, D-
Houston, said. “We re going to make
a decision about who can best lead
the ticket with Gov. Richards against
the Republicans in November, and
just as importantly, who we want to
see on the Senate floor fighting for
Texas.
“ ... I can beat Kay Hutchison. I can
win the Senate seat for the
Democrats. I can raise more money, I
can run a more effective campaign
than either of the other two candi-
dates.”
Chapman, whose friendship with
Andrews goes back to their college
days at the University of Texas at
Austin and law school at Southern
Methodist University, agreed.
"Mike and I have served almost a
decade together in the Congress. In
that It) years, he has stood by me in
supporting those things that were crit-
ical to this congressional district,”
said Chapman. “He has helped me in
.fighting off attempts to cut appropri-
ation for Cooper Lake. He’s been
there when we were fighting the bat-
tles to keep Red River Army Depot in
place.”
“ ... He has the depth of character,
the breadth of experience and the
kind of ability I think that will make
the Democrats not only competitive,
but victorious in what many right
now just say is a hopeless cause ... I
don't believe the other two gentleman
that are in the race can do it.”
Andrews faces former Texas Attor-
ney General Jim Mattox and Dallas
businessman RichardjFisher in the
March 8 Democratic primary.
Andrews claimed his 11 years in
Congress was one thing that distin-
guished him from the competition,
but also said the race for Senate
”boil|ed| down to issues.”
”|The race| has a lot to do with
things like reforming the health care
system and reforming the welfare sys-
tem in this country, fighting crime,”
Andrews said.
Concerning crime, Andrews urged
the passing of federal legislation that
would "give grants to stales that
move away from early parole. "
"In Texas, it's just not right that a
felon serves about one month for
every year he's sentenced,” said
Andrews, who urged using tax dollars
for prison construction.
Andrews also touted his co-spon-
sorship of the Managed Competition
Act of 1993.
The two candidates seeking the Demo-
cratic nomination for state senator
squared off over taxes Monday night at a
forum for the party ’s candidates.
Texarkana businessman George
Lavender, who faces VaLinda Hathcox
of Sulphur Springs for the party 's nomi-
nation, said he believes property taxes
should be abolished as a source of public
school funding and replaced by extend-
ing the sales tax to exempt goods.
"The numbers I get from | State
Comptroller! John Sharp's office say that
there’s about S100 billion worth of sales
in Texas that are not taxed every year,”
Lavender said. “I’m not talking about
increasing the sales tax. I'm talking
about expanding it.”
He said that if the sales tax were
expanded, property taxes could be done
away with.
"Property tax is an inequitable tax that
keeps businesses out. that hurts home-
owners. and it keeps other people from
owning homes that want to,” he said.
But Hathcox said Lavender's plan
would just increase the cost of goods by
removing agriculture and resale exemp-
tions. She illustrated her point by saying
that a pi/za restaurant owner’s costs
LAVENDER HATHCOX
would increase considerably under the
plan.
“Let's say he buys items to go on that
pizza,” she said. “Right now he doesn't
pay sales tax (6.25 percent) on those
ingredients. If you remove that resale
exemption, then he's going to have to
pay tax. So he’s going to increase the
cost of the pizza to cover the lax that he
paid on the items.
"Then he’s going to be charging the
6.25 [tax), plus the local tax when he
sells it. Well. 6.25 and 6.25, that’s
already ... 13 percent tax.”
She added that forcing agricultural
producers to pay sales tax as well would
drive up costs further.
But Lavender said his figures only
refer to retail sales.
"It would be stupid of me to tax non-
tax sales." he said.
Democratic
Straw Poll
Poll conducted of Democrats attending the
candidates forum Monday evening.
OFFICII
RESULTS
State Senator
Hathcox
88%
V
Lavender
12%
State Representative
Patterson
66%
Bryant
34%
County Judge
Minter
59%
Pogue
26%
Thompson
15%
Pr. 8 Comm.
Halcomb
96%
Brown
4%
Pr. 4 Comm.
Prince
73%
Orr
27%
Pr. 8 J.P.
Glossup
60%
Lawrence
15%
Emerson
13%
;
Williams
Scott
6%
CQz.
070
U.S. Senator
Mattox
40%
Fisher
30%
Andrews
30%
NEWS-TELEGRAM / Bill lamb
Patterson, Bryant reiterate their messages
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
District 3 state representative can-
didates L.P. Patterson and Lydia
Bryant reiterated their campaign mes-
sages Monday night at the Hopkins
County Democratic Women's voters
forum.
Speaking to a crowd of about 150
Democratic Party faithful. Brvant.
who is seeking to wrest the Demo
cratic parly \ nomination for the seal
from incumbent Patterson, renewed
her call for term limits.
“I simply think we need to start
somewhere," she said. "I think term
limits w'ould solve some of the prob-
lems we have by focusing attention
on solving the problems, and not on
getting re-elected.”
PATTERSON
BRYANT
Bryant said that she has her own
opinions about the length of lime
politicians should spend in office, but
she is open to compromise.
“If I had my druthers. I’d like to
see six years as term limits, simply
because I think anything else is an
occupation,” she said. "I am perfectly
often to any kind of compromise. The
15 states that have passed term limits
have set 12 years as their term limits,
and I think that probably would be a
good compromise."
Bryant said she would work for
more respect from Austin for the dis-
trict.
“f you want a stronger voice in
Austin, if you want someone who is
not afraid of hard work, leg work and
homework, send me," she said.
Patterson, who lives in Brookston.
said that he has kept promises made
since 19,SI to work liu the betterment
of all the counties in the district,
including Hopkins County.
“I also promised that I would be the
kind of person that would represent
you in Austin that would not embar-
rass you." he said. "I feel like I have
the respect of. not only my colleagues
in Austin, but I feel like I have the
respect of many here in this district. I
feel like I am respected in Austin."
Patterson said he is a "very
conservative person on many issues
when we start spending tax dollars,”
but certain changes were needed in
the governmental process. He said
that the average age of agriculture
producers in Texas is 58, a figure that
he finds alarming.
The representative noted that he
helped pass legislation recently that
gives young farmers and ranchers a
source ol funding.
"If we don’t help young people get
started, then sooner or later, we will
have corporations running our food
chain to the point that food will not
be available and accessible to the
average citizen at a price we can
afford," he said.
Berry, Dietze file for1 Dairy center educates thousands yearly
SSISD re-election
By JEFF McINNIS
Two Sulphur Springs ISD
trustees. Ricky Berry and Dr. Bill
Dietze. wasted no time in filing for
re-election on Monday, the first
day to. file for the May 7 school
board elections.
Berry, elected to the board in
1991, was voted board president in
May of 1993 and said he wants to
continue to help make good things
happen at SSISD.
"When I started three years ago,
I didn’t have any particular plat-
form. I just wanted to serve, and
we’ve had a lot of positive things
happen in the three years that I’ve
been on there,” said Berry.
“Eve enjoyed the time that I
have served, and I’d just just like
to see the positive things continue
to happen in our district.”
Some of the “positive things”
Berry mentioned included the new
high school library and "a real
strict dress code and fight code at
the high school.” He said he wants
to help SSISD continue to “update
the curriculum and continue to be
above stale average in all grade
levels as far as learning skills.”
Berry, a dairy farmer and real
estate appraiser, has lived in Sul-
phur Springs for 35 years. His wife
Becky teaches at Travis Elemen-
tary. Berry graduated from Sulphur
Springs High School and received
his bachelor's degree from East
Texas State University.
Dr. William Dietze, running for
his third term, was first elected to
the board in 1988. He said he
hopes to continue being part of a
board that works well together.
"I think the board is real compat-
ible. I think we kind of balance off
each other," said Dietze. “ ... We
listen to each other and even if we
don’t agree, we have good discus-
sions and we all respect each other
and don’t take anything personal.
... It makes it a pretty good board.
“We’ve got a good diversifica-
tion on the board," said Dietze.
By CLARKE KEYS
A question as to w hether the South-
west Dairy Center in Sulphur Springs
would be developed primarily as a
tourist attraction or an educational
facility has been worked out by the
public in less than three years.
And the answer is firmly for educa-
tion.
Jodie Morris, manager of the facil-
ity since its opening June 8, 1991,
told the Sulphur Springs Lions Club
Tuesday that tourism is still a viable
function for the center, but that edu-
cation has far and away become the
primary utilization.
“We had no idea of what a demand
to expect when the center opened,"
the manager noted. "But we have
been growing by leaps and bounds.”
Last spring, she said, the center
averaged more than 400 school chil-
dren touring the center per day —
more than 9.000 in the months of
March. April and May. Average visi-
tation from all sources has grown
each of the three years of operation,
she added, crossing well above
20,000 this year.
The .education function of the orga-
nization is not limited to the center
located here. There are also five'
mobile classrooms traveling to
schools and fairs in six states.
Civic center seeks
funds from EDC
Representatives of the Hopkins County Regional
Civic Center board of directors last week asked the
local economic development authority for $25,000
to finish the expansion of the civic center.
The request came at a regular meeting of the Sul-
phur Springs-Hopkins County Economic Develop-
ment Corp. board at City Hall.
A $1.5 million expansion project at the facility is
nearly finished, but Scott Ferguson told the EDC
members that funds were needed to complete addi-
tional work on the complex.
“In order to finish the civic center work, we need
about $25,000.” Ferguson said. "We would ask you
to consider giving the money to complete the pro-
ject.".
No decision was made at the meeting.
Just
m case
Norman
Sanders, a Sul-
phur Springs
police officer,
directs traffic on
the dow ntown
square. Officers
have been sta-
tioned on the
square to pre-
vent tractor-
trailers from
disobey ing post-
ed warnings.
St»fl Photo
By Dee E<Jw«rds
|iP8
Rural News: 4
Club News: 2
Reunions: 3
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Keys, Clarke & Lamb, Bill. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 1994, newspaper, February 25, 1994; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780057/m1/1/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.