The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 201, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, July 12, 1996 Page: 1 of 4
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Absorbed The Gazette Circulation By Purchase On May 12,1928
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VOL 201—NO. 28
SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS — FRIDAY, JULY 12,1996
1-30 work
will mean
just 1 lane
Construction on
westbound lanes
to begin Monday
Living Park-To-Park Construction
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
Travelers headed west out of Hop-
kins County on Interstate 30 will get
a rude surprise in coming weeks — as
much as nine miles of construction-
riddled, one-lane traffic.
The Texas Department of Trans-
portation announced Friday initial
work to reconstruct the main lanes of
1-30 from the Cumby area into Hunt
County will begin Monday.
“They’ve got some shoulder work
to do and other minor work before
traffic is actually shut down to one
lane, but that will happen within a
few weeks,” said Ernest Teague, resi-
dent engineer with the highway
department. “It won’t be immediate,
but it will be coming soon.”
• . A*?,.
Some helpful advice
Staff Photo By Amy Logan
The nine-mile stretch of highway
between FM 499 in Hopkins County
to FM Road 513 in Hunt County was
first built as a concrete pavement in
the late 1950s, according to Teague.
Park host Doyle Walker, center, answers Scott Stephens, were getting ready to launch at the Doc-
McPherson’s questions Friday about the fishing on tor’s Creek boat ramp.
Cooper Lake. He and parents, Noni and James
Since then the roadway has been
overlaid with several layers of
asphalt, and it shows. The stretch
between Cumby and the State High-
way 50 overpass is home to some of
the bumpiest rides since the Texas
Giant opened at Six Rags Over Texas
and more patches than a welder’s
work jeans.
Park hosts live the good life while
helping others enjoy their own visits
By STEVE BRIGMAN
“The new asphalt layers will
enhance both the strength and the rid-
ability and ensure a safer passage for
motorists well into the next century,”
Teague said.
Teague said traffic will be restrict-
ed to one lane in each direction, and
lower speed limits will be posted. He
added, however, that delays may be
minimized due to rapid methods of
construction proposed by the contrac-
tor, Buster Paving Co. of Sulphur
Springs.
T magine having to live in your
A favorite camping spot, forced to
spend time on the lake, at the beach
and in your hammock.
The the shade of the forest would
be your constant companion, and
the scampering squirrels a constant
nuisance.
Relaxing in the outdoors would
be your daily grind, plus 12 hours a
week of such arduous tasks as giv-
ing directions, being friendly, and
picking up any litter you happen
Hey, it’s a tough job, but some-
body has to do it.
How about you?
The Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department’s Park Host program
allows free extended visits to the
state’s parks for those willing to
chip in and act as host to other park
visitors.
“It’s been a wohd’etfbl fiienefit to
us,” said Mike Knox, park superin-
tendent at the Doctor’s Creek unit of
Copper Lake State Park. “I’m a big
believer in the park host program.”
Participants are given the free use
of a campsite with water, electricity
and sewer service. In return, they
are required to work 25 hours a
week and are asked to stay for a
month at a time. Their primary duty
is to assist park visitors by giving
information on regulations, points of
interest and special programs that
may be offered.
“What helps us out so much is the
extra set of eyes and ears,” Knox
said Friday. “When [campers] have
a little problem at night, the park
ttostemre not fkraWhy.
Most of the hosts are retired cou-
ples splitting the 25-hour work
requirement.
Doyle and Arlene Walker, now
hosts at Doctor’s Creek, are typical,
according to Knox. She works in the
office for 10 hours, and he works
out among the campers. Doyle also
picks up some litter and does a little
light maintenance in the restrooms,
all of which does nothing to hinder
their enjoyment of the park.
Just Forget It And Start Over?
Efforts may
be wasted
on summer
gardens
By STEVE BRIGMAN
Getting sick and tired of pouring
water on your garden? Are your
tomatoes having a hard time?
Maybe you should just start over.
Hopkins County Extension Agent
Tommy Barker said that water would
be better spent on a fall garden, but
there is no time to waste in planting
it.
“Sometimes [growers] are better
off on some of these plants to literal-
ly till them under and plant new
plants," Barker said.
Since summer crops need to be
watered whether the plants are young
or old. Barker recommends spending
the moisture on younger plants.
“The longer that plant stays there, it
goes through more stress and takes
more heat damage,” Barker said.
“What you end up with is an old
weakened plant. You might as well
water that young one.”
Many growers will prune hack their
tomato plants, taking all the suckers
off, in order to get production in the
fall. ‘They * ill actually produce
tomatoes faster if they will just go to
a new site in the garden and plant
some new tomato plants,” Barker
said.
“It’s a never-ending struggle that
really doesn’t accomplish the pur-
pose,” he said. “If you get a young
plant out there, and you put that water
on it, it is putting that effort into
growing the leaves and the stems."
For those who have full-sized
tomatoes on the vine that are not turn-
ing. Barker suggests picking the fruits
Tomatoes and coats?
Suit Photo By Amy Logan
Rose Mary Beaudin appears dressed for colder climes
after donning a parka to keep dry in a heavy rain
shower Wednesday morning. Beaudin was preparing
to sell tomatoes and other produce at her vegetable
stand on Broadway Street.
and placing them in a bag. He said
the summer heat inhibits the forma-
tion of a gas that is needed to turn
tomatoes red, but placing the toma-
toes in a paper bag helps that gas
form.
Barker said Hopkins County has an
ideal climate for fall tomatoes but not
many area residents take advantage of
that fact.
“I think the problem is it is so hot
and dry, people just don’t feel like
getting out and retilling the garden
and starting fresh like they do in the
spring when their green thumb is itch-
ing," he said.
LaDale Hill, who raises vegetables
near Yantis, is one who believes in
fall gardening. “I usually do better in
my fall garden than I do in the
spring," Hill said.
Rural News: 4
Club News: 2
up 77 percent
for first half
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
The local economy continued to
improve in the first half of the year as
construction spending in Sulphur
Springs was 77 percent higher than in
the first six months of 1995, accord-
ing to figures compiled by the chief
building official.
The city has issued permits for
$9,531 million in commercial, resi-
dential and miscellaneous construc-
tion to date this year, well above the
$5,375 million recorded in the first
half of last year.
The value of projects permitted in
the second quarter alone was $5,111
million, almost as much as the entire
first half of 1995. The yearlong total
in 1996 has also exceeded the dollar
value of construction for all of 1994,
when slightly more than $9 million in
construction was permitted.
“We’re holding our own on our res-
idential and commercial construction,
and on top of that we’ve got all this
infrastructure being built — schools,
hospitals and things of that nature,”
acknowledged Chief Building Offi-
cial Johnny Vance, who described his
past six months on the job in one
word: busy.
Boosted by the start of the Wom-
en’s Pavilion Center at Hopkins
The Pavilion is the biggest project
undertaken in the city since the Sul-
phur Springs ISD broke ground on its
$3.5 million Early Childhood Center
in September. While the projects are
not profitable private ventures, they
do create a significant impact on the
community’s pocketbook.
“That’s a boost to the economy,
even though it doesn’t have all the
glory of raising the property values,”
Vance said. “It still means an increase
for the supporting industry — the
workers, the materials suppliers, the
truckers. It still adds to the economy
even though it doesn’t add to the tax
base.
“As long as it’s coming back into
the market somewhere, then that does
help the economy.”
Housing starts through the first six
months slowed for the second year in
a row, but average values remained
high. Thirteen residences have been
permitted to date in 19% at an aver-
age value of $108,328 per home.
The average value of new homes in
the city has risen dramatically since
1994 when 46 new houses were per-
mitted at an average value of
$72,831. In 1995 there were another
37 new homes built, but at an average
value of $107,039, a 47 percent
increase.
The record high temperatures that
County Memorial Hospital in April,
the total value of all commercial pro-
jects permitted in the city in 1996 have baked the area this spring even
came to $6* million. The iTflORnddeda Httle beat to the construction
square-foot medical facility account- industry. In May and June, permits
ed for the majority at an estimated were granted for eight new swimming
cost of $3.4 million to build. pools in the city.
Algebra test
scores low, but
not that bad
End-of-course
test passed by
22% this year
TAAS results
a delight for
SSISD
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
At first glance the performance of
Sulphur Springs High School students
on the state-mandated algebra end-of-
course test may look dismal.
It’s not.
While only 22 percent of the 245
SSHS students who took the test in
May passed, that was twice as good
as the rest of the state, where only 11
percent mastered the exam, according
to a spokesman with the Texas Edu-
cation Agency.
Sulphur Springs ISD Assistant
Superintendent Randy Reed present-
ed the results of two end-of-course
exams to the district’s board of
trustees Tuesday night and noted that
a change in the structure of math
classes at the high school has not had
an impact on the test results.
“Five or six years ago we did away
with all basic courses ... and at that
same time we began offering Algebra
I as a two-year course for those stu-
dents that ... because of previous
grade history would possibly be more
successful at a two-year course,”
Reed told the board. Those students
... continue to have a real difficult
time passing this test. The passing
rate for the students in the regular
one-year Algebra I course is about 50
percent. Very few students in the two-
year Algebra I course are able to pass
this exam.
The school’s students also fared
much better than the statewide aver-
age of 62 percent on the biology end-
of-course test. Eighty-two percent of
SSHS students passed that exam.
Reed said 26 percent of SSHS stu-
dents passed the algebra exam and 86
percent successfully completed the
biology test in 1995.
By B1 UCE ALSOBROOK
Sulphur Springs ISD officials
are “tickled” with the results of
the latest Texas Assessment of
Academic Skills tests given to
students this spring.
“'Overall, the TAAS scores are
the best scares we’ve had dis-
trict wide, especially because of
the improvements we’ve made in
Assistant Superinten-
dent Randy Reed said during a
regular meeting of the school dis-
trict's board of trustees Tuesday
A total of 81.1
J of 81.1 percent ot me
students passed all parts of the
state-mandated TAAS exam,
which teste students in three
areas — reading, writing and
For all third- through tenth-
grade students tested in the dis-
trict, 90.1 percent passed the
reading part of the exam, the
same as in 1995; 90.7 percent
passed the writing, slightly leas
than the 91.8 percent one year
The
Reunions: 3
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Keys, Scott & Lamb, Bill. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 201, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, July 12, 1996, newspaper, July 12, 1996; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780140/m1/1/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.