The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, January 18, 1980 Page: 1 of 6
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SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 11,1980.
6 PAGES -10 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Youths die in crash
Two Sulphur Springs youths were killed
in the collision of a pickup and a dump
truck on the south service road of In-
terstate Highway 30 here Thursday, Jan.
10.
Randy Lynn Schaeffer, 14, a passenger
in the pickup, was pronounced dead on
arrival at Hopkins County Memorial
Hospital after the accident, which oc-
curred about 4:10 p.m.
Kenneth Boyd Pogue, IS, died about
10:30 a.m. Saturday in Baylor Hospital in
Dallas of injuries suffered in the crash.
Pogue’s death Saturday morning came
just minutes before the conclusion of
funeral services for Schaeffer.
Pogue, who suffered critical head in-
juries, died without regaining con-
sciousness, Baylor Hospital spokemen
said.
According to Sulphur Springs
Patrolmen Alton Mitchell and Mark
Young, the 1978 model pickup driven by
Pogue was in collision with a dump truck
driven by Donald Wayne Townsend, 31, of
1210 Fisher. Townsend was not seriously
hurt and was released Friday from the
local hospital.
Witnesses to the accident reported that
the pickup, pulling a stock trailer, was
westbound on Shannon Road when it
topped a slight hill, skidding sideways in
the road. The dump truck reportedly went
into the ditch on the south side of the road
in an unsuccessful attempt to miss the
pickup.
Funeral services for Pogue, of Route 2,
were held at 2:30 p.m. Monday in the First
Baptist Church with the Rev. Kevin Moore
and Dr. Jack Robbins officiating. Burial
was in the City Cemetery.
He was bom Sept 25,1964 in Dallas to
Dick and Pauleta Fleming Pogue.
He was a freshman student at Sulphur
Springs High School, a member of the
Shooks Chapel 4-H Club and the
Greenhand Chapter of the Future Far-
mers of America. He was a member of the
First Baptist Church.
Survivors include Ms parents; grand-
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Fleming and
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Pogue, all of
Sulphur firings; a brother, Paul Pogue of
Sulphur Springs; and a sister, Tamra
Pogue of Sulphur Springs.
He was preceded in death by a brother,
Richard Matt Pogue.
Serving as pallbearers were Andy
Owens, Kris Koon, Larry Temples, Brad
Rollins, Lee Pogue, Jimmy Gill, Chuck
Skaggs and Brad Sisco.
Honorary pallbearers were Matt Pogue,
Earl Pogue, Richard Benson and mem-
bers of the Greenhand FFA Chapter.
Tapp Funeral Home was in charge of
arrangements.
Funeral services for Schaeffer were
conducted at 10 a.m. Saturday in the
Murray-Orwosky Chapel with Dr. Jack
Robbins officiating. Interment was in
Restlawn Memorial Park.
He was born April 23,1965 in Lamessa to
Gary R. and Betsy McGregor Schaeffer
and was a freshman student at Sulphur
Springs High School. He was a member of
the Baptist church.
Survivors include his parents; his
grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J.V.
Schaeffer of Sulphur Springs and Mrs.
Lola McGregor of Lamessa and a sister,
Kathy Schaeffer of Sulphur Springs.
Serving as pallbearers were Dan
Phillips, Glen Lowe, Larry Moore, Rad
Richardson, Gene Poe and Jim Weeks.
Honorary pallbearers were members of
the Sulphur Springs Future Farmers of
America chapter and advisors.
Before die police arrived an the scene,
an Arkansas National Guard medic began
working to free Pogue and Schaeffer from
the wreckage of the pickup as well as
treating their injuries.
Sp4 John Longoria of the 2nd Batallion
of the 152nd Infantry was enroute to
Searcy, Ait., when he spotted the ac-
cident. “I just tried to help,’’ he said in
what was termed an understatement by
witnesses. He said that Townsend Was
already out of the dump truck when he
arrived at the scene.
Longoria stayed with the two youths as
the falling mist turned to hard rain before
they were extracted from the crushed
vehicle.
When the two vehicles collided, the
stock trailer was tom loose and stopped
approximately 100 feet west of the ac-
cident between the Interstate and Shannon
Road.
The Sulphur Springs Fire Department
sent its rescue squad and a fire truck to
the scene.
Rescue crews used the “Jaws of Life” to
extract the two youths from the pickup
and the fire truck stood by in case of fire
from the ruptured diesel tanks on the
dump truck.
Shortly before the fatal accident, a 1979
tractor-trailer driven by John Edward
Smallwood, 48, of 1911W. Walker in Paris,
overturned about five miles south of
Sulphur Springs on SH-154.
According to DPS Troopers Wayne Scott
and Gene Barnett, the driver lost control
of the truck on the wet pavement and it
overturned about 3:45 p.m.
Smallwood was taken to Memorial
Hospital where he was treated and
released. ‘ \
Still coming in
Counjy Judge Joe R. Pogue looks over some of the road bond
survey forms that have been returned to his office since the
survey ran in last Sunday's News-Telegram. He said his office is
not formally compiling the results as they come in, but has been
looking them over to get ideas as to the trends. Feb. 1 at 5 p.m. is
the deadline to return the survey forms to Judge Pogue's office.
- —StaH PHoto
News briefs'
Concert group opens Light turnou,
patron member drive
By JERRY TITTLE
News-Telegram Staff
The Hopkins County Community Con-
certs Association is gearing up for a
patron drive to kick off the concert year.
Several concerts already have been
scheduled for presentation in the Regional
Civic Cento- Auditorium, according to
association officers.
Lynette Lowe, the representative for a
Dallas-based professional entertainment
booking agency, told the Hopkins County,
group at a recent meeting, “you will be an
organized audience, tax exempt; there
wifi be no sale of tickets (for individual
concerts). Each one of you will have a
membership, and <)f course, the en-
tertainment budget will come from the
membership sales.” f
The patron drive, which wifi run from
Jan. 14-21, will precede the membership
drive.
“The association would like to make the
patron the backbone of the organization,”
Patsy Johnson, spokesperson for the
patron drive committee, said. “And it
takes the effort of both patrons and—,
members to obtain quality en-
tertainment.” /-
Therefore, the patron drive’s function is
to increase the artist budget and make it
possible to bring artists and attractions to
Hopkins County that otherwise could not
be afforded from the membersMp sales,
she said.
“A patron does not get a seat ticket for
his donation,” Mrs. Johnson said. “He
gets the personal satisfaction of helping
Sulphur Springs grow culturally. He can
buy a seat ticket later in the membersMp
campaign,” she said.
All patron contributions are advertised
in each concert program and the
donations are tax deductible, she said.
Persons donating 8200 or more will be
designated benefactors; from $100 to $199,
sustaining members; $50 to $99, con-
tributing members; and from $25 to $49,
donors.
Gounty employment
•s. . _
picture still bright
Figures released, this week by the Texas
Employment Comitaission show Hopkins
bounty with an unemployment rate of 3.3
jercent for the month of October, 1979.
“The October unemployment figure for
Texas is 3.8 percent and the national
igure for the same period was 5.6 per-
cent,” Coy Vicars, commission official,
said Friday. “And you can see here in
Hopkins County we are well below either
one of those figures.”
A preliminary printout to November
showed Hopkins County with a slight in-
in unemployment at 3.7 percent.
'“The November tabulation is only a
preliminary reading and not final,”
Vicars said, “because it takes about three
months to complete the results.”
A spot check of 1979 revealed the
Hopkins County October figure to be the
lowest of the year. March, 1979 produced
the next lowest figure at 3.4 percent and in
June foe rate jumped to 4.3 percent.
“In July of* 1978 unemployment in
Hopkins County rose to 5.3 percent,”
Vicars said, “but it has steadily come
down since then. And right now the overall
economic picture for this county is very
good and really very strong.”
Vicars also explained that his office is
currently handling a large influx of job
' openings, and with the expected opening
of the Ocean Spray facility on Industrial
Drive before summer there should be even
more.
“We deal with more industrial
placements than anything else,” he said.
“And we also have a large number of
^requests for clerical work.”
But for a county whose backllbne stems
from the dairy industry, Vicars’ office
deals with a surprisingly small number of
dairy and farm-related placements.
Vicars said “last year we placed nearly
1,200 people in jobs and of that number,
less than 100 were for dairy and farm
work.
“Oh, we have requests for dairy work,
all right,” he said, “but the requests
outnumber the openings by far.”
Vicars added that a lot of the dairymen
secure their own help.
“If someone comes into our office
seeking a job placement and if he is not
terribly picky we can place him in work,”
be sail “But if a person with a college
degree cranes in and says he will do
nothing but repair computers, then he
may be in a little trouble.”
seen for vote
If the absentee ballots are any in-
dication, Saturday’s city election to
pick two city commissioners may be
decided in a light voter turnout.
Only seven persons opted to vote by
\absentee ballot and there are six men
seeking the two positions on the
Sulphur Springs City Commission.
The terms of Millard Glover and
Vaden Richey are expiring with both
men seeking re-election. Vernon
Davis, Keith Klein, John E. Fennell
and Steve Eitelman are challenging
the incumbents for the two open spots.
The polling place at the Municipal
Building on South Davis Street will be
open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.
Judge seeks
second term
Judge Jim Thompson of Paris
reported Wednesday while in Sulphur
Springs attending to matters in 62nd
District Court that he had formally
filed for re-election. He filed with the
State Democratic Executive Com-
mittee in Austin.
The 62nd District serves Lamar,
Hopkins, Delta and Franklin counties.
Judge Thompson was appointed to
the unexpired term of Judge Frank
Wear, when he retired, and assumed
duties on April 1,1975. He currently is
serving his first full four-year term.
Thompson, who recently observed
his 49th birthday anniversary, earlier
had served as prosecuting attorney in
Lamar County.
Council puts power
B ^. i B
rate boost on hold
By JIM MOORE
News-Telegram Staff
Sulphur Springs City Commissioners put
a rate increase request from Texas Power
& Light Company on hold for 120 days at
their meeting Tuesday night.
In other business, the council approved
the use of the square in the downtown area
for a carnival during the Dairy Festival
and took action on several ordinances.
Local TP&L Manager J.P. Shull told
members of the City Commission that
TP&L is requesting a rate increase of $124
million throughout the communities
served by the utility.
The rate increase is the first requested
since the last system-wide increase two
years ago and Shull says it is necessary
due to inflation and the increasing costs of
governmental regulation.
According to Shull, TP&L services
675,000 customers at the present and their
figures indicate an increase of 30,000 per
year. He said that in 1952, TP&L charged
$4.15 per killowatt hour and in 1979 the cost
per KwH was only $4.01.
He said that the average household used
11,000 to 12,000 KwH per year and that the
requested increase would amount to ap-
proximately $8.04 per month.
He noted that the increasing moves to
lignite coal and the forthcoming nuclear
power plant were helping to keep the costs
down by not using oil or natural gas for
fuels. “The Texas Railroad Commission
has forbidden boiler fuels after 1990,” he
said.
On a motion from Commissioner Vaden
Richey and a second from Gerald Bowers,
the Commission passed a resolution
delaying the proposed rate schedules for a
period of 120 days, effective Feb. 8,1980.
City Manager Wendell Sapaugh said that
he was to go to Austin Wednesday morning
to meet with representatives of other cities
affected by the rate request and members
of the Texa&Municipal League to consider
the rate increase as well how it will be.
approached by the TML.
Linda Hager was present, representing
the Dairy Festival Association, to request
the use of the downtown square for a
carnival as was held last year.
She said that the date had been moved to
April 17-19 instead of at the first of the
month as last year. Mrs. Hager said that
the carnival last year had brought in over
$1,000 wMch had been donated to the Civic
Center to be used for curtains.
Richey questioned whether downtown
merchants might want the carnival again
as he had been told by some that the
carnival was a disruptive influence on
business and created parking problems. “I
think the downtown merchants should
want it,” said Commissioner Lewis Helm
and commissioners unanimously ap-
proved the use of the square for the car-
nival during the Dairy Festival.
Confidence in county outlined
Confidence that Hopkins County will
continue to progress in the 1980s despite
the troubled national atmosphere was
expressed Thursday by David DuPriest,
president-elect of the Chamber of Com-
merce.
“I am very positive on this county in the
Eighties,” he told the Rotary Club. “We
have found a way to progress even through
rough times. I believe a lot of people will
want to come here and get in on the good
things that are happening.”
DuPriest proposed four long-range goals
for his organization along with a group of
more immediate projects:
1 — New methods of attracting mote
industry and business to the county.
2 — Cooper Lake, as a prime factor in
both general- growth and the tourism
business.
3 - A program for encouraging planned,
orderly growth in the community.
4 — Development of a better quality of
life through emphasis on such fields as
public health, sanitation, building codes
and civic beautification.
Sulphur Springs, he declared, has the
potential of becoming a regional trade
center.
Shorter-range proposals included
development of financial stability for the
Chamber of Commerce, a better public
relations job, attracting the services of
people who can do the most good, and
increased membersMp.
*
DuPriest said the chamber now has 638
members, of whom 341 are listed as
businesses and 297 as individuals. He
termed the number of individual mem-
berships unusually large.
Bobby Singleton was program chairman
for the meeting.
Bennett named center board chairman
Millard Bennett was unanimously
elected chairman of the Hopkins County
Civic Center Board of Directors Thursday.
Bennett recently joined the board to fill the
unexpired two-year term of Paul Her-
schler, who had resigned.
Linda Hager was elected as vice
chairman and Patsy Johnson was selected
as secretary of the board. Each of the
nominations for the new officers were
unopposed.
In other action, Civic Center manager
Burt Wharton told the board maintenance
costs of the building had been reduced, and
should be cut more with the aid of high
school students who are utilizing the arena
in an off-season weight lifting program.
"Both coach Don Poe and I are happy
with the situation,” commented Wharton.
The Civic Center manager said he believes
that with the help of the high school
athletes, the clean-up cost will decrease
even more.
The board members discussed
arrangements for future rodeos in the
Civic Cento and decided to present the
same contract to any person or
organization requesting a rodeo package.
The Civic Center board will continue to
operate the inside concession stand.
Each contract will be under the same
financial arrangements and for the time of
one rodeo only. Options to future dates
will be available. One of the reasons to the
one-time contract, board members said,
was the planned future acquisition of
equipment wMch will increase the rental
value of tiie property. Currently the arena
bleachers must be rented from a Dallas
firm.
Board member Charles Helm told the
group he had locateda used ice machine
for the concession area. The cost of a new
machine is estimated at $3,500. The one-
year-old machine is to sale at $2,500.
Board members decided to consider the
purchase of the ice maker after looking it
over carefully.
Community Players representative Jan
Bfeke presented a “trade-off proposal” to
t* board, in which the recently-formed
theater group will provide additional
equipment in exchange for use of the
facility.
The Community Players group will
produce its first dinner theater production
March 7 and 8 in the banquet area.
Members of the theater group are
building a two-foot-high portable stage
consisting of 10 four-by-eightfoot units.
Board members were told the coat of the
materials alone will be in the $450 range.
The Community Players also are
building a trade lighting system because »
the Civic Cento is also without theatrical-
type stage lighting. Both the portable
stage units and the lighting system will be
donated to the Civic Center, with the value
of the equipment estimated at $800 to
$1,000. The units will then be available for
use during other Civic Center events.
Mrs. Hager reviewed for the board in-
formation she bad obtained from a theater
expert who had been asked for equipment
advice. “One of the tilings he told ua jre
had to have was a portable stage. We
checked into the cost of one. And I don’t
remember the exact figure but it was very
expensive.”
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Keys, Clarke & Woosley, Joe. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, January 18, 1980, newspaper, January 18, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780293/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.