The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, June 17, 1994 Page: 1 of 4
four pages : ill. ; page 22 x 13 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
II
I I
/ , ' i If ■ v / /
/'• V///.. ' • ...
'/
/. V/: -V'
Hopkins (County rifjo
(ABSORBED THE GAZETTE CIRCULATION BY PURCHASE MAY 12, 1928) _
Vol. 119 ~ NO. 24 SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, JUNE 17,1994 * PAGES - 25 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Chapman and Blankenship donations divergent as their views
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
U.S. Rep. Jim Chapman and his Republi-
can opponent, Mike Blankenship, apparently
have divergent opinions on many current
issues, and it seems their campaign contrib-
utors are also as different as night and day.
While groups from “A" (the Action Com-
mittee for Rural Electrification) to almost
“Z” (WMX PAC) have donated to Chap-
man’s campaign, the vast majority of
Blankenship’s funds have come from one
person: Dennis Michael Blankenship. received I7 individual contributions for The congressman said, however, he wasn’t
According to the Candidate Index of Sup- $96,986. Fifteen of those donations were surprised who his biggest supporters were,
porting Documents from the Federal Election from himself and totaled $96,586. but that contributions from energy compa-
Commission, Chapman received about Of Chapman’s non-party committee nies didn’t influence his work in the House.
$135,000 in donations from non-party com- donors, energy-related political action com- In fact, he said he felt the reverse was true,
mittees, generally political action commit- mittees were the biggest supporters, tossing „ -| represent the oil patch in the largest
lees, while Blankenship's report shows none, in $19,750. followed by agriculture groups energy-producing state in the country, and
The reports, generated at the end of May, who added $12,000 to his campaign effort. work hard to represent their interest," he
cover contributions from March 1993 to Chapman said Friday he had no idea who said. “If they didn’t give me a dollar I would
March 1994, but do not include donations of his biggest contributors were. work hard for their interest. I don’t give them
less than $200. “No, I don’t,” Chapman said from his extra effort because they give me money. It
Chapman also received $54,546 from 103 Washington, D.C., office. “I could not have may be they give me money because I have
individual contributors. Blankenship told you who the most money comes from.” been very attentive to their interests.”
The support from agriculture-related orga-
nizations also did not come as a shock.
“I guess you’re going down the list of
what’s important to East Texas,” he said.
“Again, that would not surprise me because
dairy and agricultural — with energy and
forest products — you are talking about the
backbone of the economy in my district.
“I'm representing the interests of my con-
stituents — both districtwide and statewide
— and if I’m doing that adequately, they
probably want me to stay up here.”
1 restaurant
opts out of
smoke law
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
There will still be at least one place
in Sulphur Springs where diners can
kick back with a cup of coffee and
take a long, slow drag off a cigarette
once July rolls around.
But Hank Harrington’s Connally
Street Cafe is the only local restaurant
that has officially “opted out” of the
city’s impending smoking ordinance,
which goes into effect Friday, July I.
Wilma Folmar, the city’s health
inspector, said Thursday that Harring-
ton’s business is the only eating estab-
lishment in town that has declared to
be “all-smoking.”
Restaurant owners, who must reg-
ister with the health inspector if they
wish to be all-smoking, don’t have a
deadline to declare their intentions,
although City Secretary Sharon Rick-
etson said, “We would hope that they
would do it prior to July 1.”
Signs must be posted in all restau-
rants indicating the smoking status of
the facility, and Harrington makes no
bones about his stance on the issue,
hanging a notice on the front door of
the cafe proclaiming in large letters,
“This is not a smoke-free establish-
ment."
"I think that sign is self-explanato-
ry,” Harrington said Friday morning,
nodding toward the door as he took a
swig from a bottle of root beer.
The smoking ordinance, passed in
May by the City Council, prohibits
smoking in restaurants unless separate
areas with separate ventilation sys-
tems are installed for smoking sec-
tions.
However, the regulation also allows
owners of those establishments to
“opt out" until the first day of 1998.
By opting out, the owner of the busi-
ness can register with the city health
official and declare a facility to be all-
smoking that is. with no areas set
aside where smoking is prohibited.
"Those that don’t want to be
around smoke will not offend me in
the least,” said Harrington. "Now, I
certainly wouldn't get out here and go
to the high school and grade school
and say smoking’s good for you. But
I still think a man has a choice, and
that’s my main concern.
"This smoking sign is very clear. If
they don’t want it, they don’t offend
me."
Cooks have been serving up break-
fast and lunch at the cafe for well
over 80 years, and Harrington said he
doubts that the fact he’ll continue to
allow smokers a cigarette with their
early-morning coffee will slow busi-
ness down.
“I don't think it’s going to hurt a bit
in the world." he said. “I have people
that smoke, and people that don't
smoke. I have people on the City
Council come in that don't |smoke|.
and it doesn't offend them."
Harrington's downtown restaurant
may be the last of a dying breed.
Staff Photo By Darrin Brown
Easy does it
Ronnie Sharp, an animal control officer with the aromatic critters is just one of the potentially haz-
Sulphur Springs Police Department, carefully ardous duties peribrmed by the department’s anl-
places a trash bag over a cage holding a skunk mal control officers.
Tuesday morning. Catching and disposing of the
Life’s not always easy
for animal control officers
By JEFF McINNIS
ot a stray dog or cat roaming the neigh-
K * borhood?
■ No problem.
A buzzard's made a nest in your
garage, you say ?
Don’t worry.
And what about that snake which found your car so
appealing that he decided to w rap himself around the
steering wheel and stay a while?
No problem. Jusi call someone from the Sulphur
Springs Police Department's animal control unit.
Chances are they've dealt with whatever varmint is
giving you problems.
Ronnie Sharp is one of two of the department's ani-
mal control officers who stand at the ready seven days
a week to deal with a host of troublesome critters.
Sharp, an officer for two years now, continued his
usual duties Tuesday morning as he went out to check
one of four traps placed around town to catch wild
animals. It turned out to contain a skunk.
"The goal is to do this without getting sprayed."
said animal control supervisor Rex Morgan.
So up walked Sharp to the cage, cautiously eying
the creature scurrying. Since skunks don't spray w hat
they can’t see. he carried two large black trash bags to
shield his shoes and legs from sight as he approached.
Keeping the bag at skurk-eye level. Sharp slowly
pulled one bag over the front of the cage w here the
skunk was facing. He then took a few steps to the
more dangerous end of the cage and pulled the second
bag over. When the skunk couldn't see. Sharp
grabbed the cage handle and gently walked his pris-
oner to the back of his truck.
It was a successful pickup with no incident, but
Sharp, who says the department handles two or three
skunk calls a week, said he hasn't been so lucky on
all his calls. He's a veteran of 10 skunk sprays.
He and the other animal control officers all learned
the tricks of their trade during a three-day course
taught by the Texas Department of Health. The
course, says Morgan, teaches officers how to do
everything from how to deal with a rabid dog to "how
to hold an animal properly without getting your face
eat off."
Typical duties, said Morgan, include rounding up
stray dogs and cats for the city animal shelter, check-
ing traps around town for strays or wild animals, and
even getting lost horses, cows and the like back where
they belong.
Then there's the good number of wild animal calls
they gel concerning skunks, raccoons and an occa-
sional serpent. Sharp, for one. has to overcome per-
sonal fears when answering a snake call.
"I hate snakes with a passion, but I have to go out
on snake calls too,” says Sharp. “I’d just as soon take
a beating than look for a snake. I don't really mind if I
know where it’s at. but I do when you've got to go
around looking around for it. When you've got to go
around in somebody's house and start looking around
for a snake, it's not fun.”
About a month ago. Sharp experienced somewhat
of a delayed relief when investigating a particularly
interesting snake call.
"A lady called. She said. There's a snake in my
toilet,”’ Sharp remembered. “So I got over there and
she said. ‘My daughter was sitting on the toilet and
she heard something come down a pipe and it fell in.'
So they piled bricks on top of the toilet, you know. I
walked in there and took the bricks off. so I lifted it
up and I said. What in the world!’"
Sharp found that a squirrel, not a snake, had fell in.
' >
• N*.
4
a xfec
Y
----1
•*» . 1
MS**
**%
•will
>M|||
*H»
f
June tax rebate
rises 5 percent
Year-to-date total up by 10%
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
June sales tax rebates in Sulphur
Springs showed moderate improve-
ment over one year ago, while year-
to-date totals are about 10 percent
above the pace set in 1993.
The city’s share of sales tax collec-
tions this month came to $ 118,645.57.
That was about 5 percent ahead of
June of 1993.
The total helped keep the city’s
rebates well ahead of the mark estab-
lished in the first half of 1993.
After the first six months of 1993,
sales tax rebates were on a pace to
clear $1.6 million for the year. The
total ended up at $1.68 million.
This year, the six-month total
reached $874,920, which is 9.51 per-
cent higher than one year ago. That
means tax rebates are on schedule to
reach the $1.75 million mark.
June’s sales tax rebates relied taxes
collected on sales of goods in April
and reported to the state comptroller
in May by businesses filing monthly
Up you go!
Fight-month-old Taylor Dasch
hangs on as his mother Sheila gives
him a gentle push during an early
Tuesday morning trip to City Park.
Staff Photo By Darrin Brown
returns.
The numbers indicate a strengthen-
ing retail trade. This month’s pay-
ments reflect sales on taxable goods
of about $11.8 million in April. That
figure does not include businesses fil-
ing quarterly sales tax returns, howev-
er.
The county’s share of the rebates
actually dropped from one year ago.
Hopkins County officials saw their
collection drop about 10 percent to
$57,394. In June of 1993, the total
was almost $64,000.
The county’s year-to-date total,
however, is approximately 10 percent
more than in the first six months of
1993.
The town of Cumby reported a
minor 3.42 percent drop in rebates
this month as the total dipped from
$630 last year to $609 this year.
In Como, no report was received of
sales tax collections.
Sulphur Springs’ totals were com-
parable with the rest of the stale.
Texas cities, on average, received a
rebate 5.9 percent above a‘year ago.
Guidelines
on food OK
for SSISD
By JEFF McINNIS
Sulphur Springs ISD won't have a
problem meeting proposed changes in
school lunch menus. But whether or
not students take to (he healthier
foods will be another matter, says
SSISD Food Services Director Rickie
Elliott.
Under the proposals released by the
Department of Agriculture Wednes-
day. schools would have four years to
make their menus healthier using
USDA guidelines.
The standards would require that
students get no more than 30 percent
of their total daily calories from fat,
with no more than 10 percent coming
from saturated fat.
Students diets would also have to
include less salt and more fresh fruits
and vegetables.
"Their main concern. I think, is the
fat content and the salt," said Elliott,
who attended a Texas Education
Agency workshop last week where
she was briefed on the federal propos-
als.
Elliott said SSISD cafeterias will
have no problem meeting the pro-
posed guidelines, saying campus
cafeterias have already made changes
to increase fresh fruits while cutting
dow n on the fat content of menus.
Officers forced to shoot two dogs while serving arrest warrants
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
Animals said trained to attack anyone carrying a gun
When the smoke cleared, one was dead and
another wounded, shot once through the nose
by a patrolman.
“For a few seconds there, I didn't know if
|officers| had to shoot somebody, or they'd
been shot, or both,” said Sulphur Springs
Police Sergeant Jimmie Emerson. “We didn’t
know about the dogs.”
The incident that resulted in the shooting of
two dogs started out as a fairly routine arrest
Monday evening, but nearly turned tragic for
one patrolman.
Earlier in the day, a suspect in a May jew-
elry theft was detained for questioning by
police detectives for about two hours.
A warrant for his arrest was later issued,
and about 6:30 p.m. Monday Sgt. Emerson
drove by the 23-year-old man’s Whitworth
Street residence and saw the man standing
outside.
Emerson drove by “like nothing was hap-
pening" and called for backup. He then
returned to the home, greeted the suspect and
announced he was under arrest on a felony
theft warrant.
The man was handcuffed and Emerson was
placing him in a patrol car when patrol offi-
cers Juan Smith and Michelle GarTett arrived.
The suspect told officers he had to go into
the home to let his wife know where he was
going. Emerson said
"I said. ‘Well, you don’t need to worry
about that because she'll know in a minute. "
Emerson said. There was a similar warrant for
her arrest.
But the suspect said he had to go to the
house first, because his wife would shoot if
officers approached the residence.
"He does this two or three times, like it’s
beginning to look like he's wanting to go to
that apartment pretty desperately," Emerson
said.
"If she’s going to be shooting. 1 can't let
him stand there handcuffed and get shot, and
at the same time we don't need him interfer-
ing or getting in the w ay and our own people
getting hurt."
Emerson put Dixon back into the car while
Garrett and Smith went around the corner to
the front door of the home The next thing the
sergeant heard w as a series of shots.
"It felt like it took forever to get around
there to where they were." Emerson recalled.
Rural News: 4 Club News: 2 Reunions: 3
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Keys, Clarke & Lamb, Bill. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, June 17, 1994, newspaper, June 17, 1994; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780125/m1/1/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.