The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, March 28, 1980 Page: 1 of 6
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(ABSORBED THE GAZETTE CIRCULATION BY PURCHASE MAY 12, 1928)
VOl. 105—NO. 13.
SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, MARCH 21,1980.
6 PAGES -10 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Court okays probation fund,
sets road closure hearing
Hopkins County commissioners Monday
morning appointed Wilson Thomas as
election judge for voting Precinct 1A and
approved a contract providing over 816,000
to the Juvenile Probation Department.
The court also decided to post a notice
for a public hearing after opposition
developed on the proposed closure of a
road in the Emblem community and ap-
proved a request to advertise for bids for a
new pickup.
The road to be closed is known as the old
“Emblem to Klondike Road.”
The petition to close the road was signed
by Dennis Rowell, Dewey Rogers, Myrtle
Rogers, Roger D. Sluder, Charlotte G.
Sluder, Elaine Thomas, Jerald E. Thomas
and Elba Mae Rowell.
Lee Kackley of Dallas was on hand to
oppose the road closing and County Judge
Joe R. Pogue said that Herschel Crowson
had notified the Commissioners Court of
his opposition as well.
Kackley said that he owned property on
the west side of the road and that although
there are no present plans to develop the
property, such development could come at
a future time with the road closure causing
problems then.
He is presently involved in the
development of property located adjacent
to that on the proposed road closure.
Commissioners passed a resolution to
post a public notice for 30 days that the
actual decision to close the road should be
made on April 28.
Wilson was named as election judge to
replace the late Lester Enix.
The Texas Youth Commission will pay
the county $16,447 for operation of the
Eighth Judicial District Juvenile
Probation Department under a four-month
contract approved by the court.
The money is to supplant county funds
with $11,500 going to salaries, $1,697 in
fringe benefits, $2,500 provided for travel
expenses and $750 in operating expenses
for the period of May 1,1980 through Aug.
Commissioner Arnold Alsobrooks
requested that he be authorized to ad-
vertise for bids on a new pickup.
He said that he has a 1975 truck with
97,300 miles on it that has a broken frame
and a burned valve and has been told that
the it would be uneconomical to rebuild the
truck again.
Members of the court approved that
request along with an amendment to the
budget to move $21,373.21 from the road
material line item to property and
equipment for Precinct 1.
The amendment was necessary to pay
for a used motorgrader that was pur-
chased at the last session of the court.
Commissioners also passed a resolution
asking the residents of Hopkins County to
be sure to complete the 1980 census as
accurately and as completely as possible.
“A lot of grants and other federal aid
will be affected by those figures for
another 10 years," Judge Pogue said.
Community
grant okayed
Good news came to the City of
Sulphur Springs Wednesday morning
as the Texas Department of Com-
munity Affairs (TDCA) announced
that the city had been approved for a
grant of $12,000 as the second part of
the three-year funding program for a
comprehensive community
development plan.
According to Gov. Bill Clements’
office, the grant requires local
matching funds of one-third ($6,000)
and the study is to be completed by
June 30.
The grant will be administered by
the TDCA and is available through the
“701” Comprehensive Planning
Assistance Program of the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban
Development, according to Sidney M.
Wieser, executive director of TDCA.
Sulphur Springs Community
Development Block Grant Coor-
dinator Glenn Wagner reported that
the study will be written “in-house”
with the firm of Kindle Stone and
Associates of Longview doing the
engineering phases of the study.
Commercial, apartment
development set here
Hospital board finds
good news in bidding
The board of directors of the Hopkins
County Hospital District got some good
news at Thursday night’s regular session.
Bids received for a new 400-ton electric
centrifugal air conditioning unit came in
< below anticipated levels, giving the board
a bit more breathing room in its budget for
the switch from gas to electric power in the
Memorial Hospital cooling system.
, Three bids were received, with Carrier
quoting a $51,588 figure, Trane at $54,865,
and York at $65,793, Memorial Hospital
Administrator Glenn Kenley said Friday.
“The bids came in at less than we ex-
pected on the air conditioning unit itself,”
Kenley said. “The next step will be to refer
the bids to our consulting engineering
firm, Page Southerland and Page of
Austin, for review and recommendations
as to which unit we should purchase.
“We expect the engineering report by
the middle of next week, and then will
move on to have engineering studies done
to determine our piping needs and
calculate the cost of installation,” Kenley
said. “We hope to have the new system on
line by summer, possibly by the end of
June. The summer months are when our
fuel bills for air conditioning are so high.”
Thursday night’s move brings the board
of directors closer to a long-planned switch
from gas to electricity, with an anticipated
savings in energy costs of about $30,000 per
year, Kenley said. The admipistogtoAlid-
the hospital’s gas bill has run as high as
$18,000 per month in some summer
months, with air conditioning
requirements consuming most of the fuel.
In other action Thursday, the board
approved a bid of $3,695 from the Dymo
firm to replace equipment used to make
patient identification tags; approved a bid
of $395 each for 40 color television sets for
patient rooms, with the Stewart Company
of Dallas as successful bidder; and took
under consideration additional equipment
needs with an anticipated cost of about
$11,000 to$12,000, Kenley said.
Spelling bee champs
Clint George, who finished third in last year's Hopkins County Spelling Bee,
moved up to win the championship this year. George is a seventh grader at
Miller Grove School. Laurie Goldsmith, a seventh grader at Saltillo School,
captured second place in the event Thursday afternoon in the Peoples
National Bank community room. As the Hopkins County champion, George
will advance to the Dallas Spelling Bee later this year.
—Stiff Photo
Plans for a combination commercial and
apartment development on the southwest
side of Sulphur Springs were announced
Monday by Bill McCool.
McCool, who developed the Shannon
Square retail center, said he has pur-
chased a 14-acre tract on the northwest
comer of Industrial Drive and the League
Street access road. The sale of the tract
was made by Roy Holder and Gary Jones.
Preliminary planning includes
development for commercial purposes of
the frontage along the Interstate 30 service
road (Industrial Drive) and the access
road to League Street, McCool said.
Unlike the Shannon Square development
which he built, McCool plans only to sell
the commercial lots in this project. One
lot, at the comer of the intersection, has
already been sold to Swat-Sell, Inc., for a
proposed convenience store and self-
service gasoline station such as that firm
operates at two other locations in Sulphur
Springs.
McCool said he plans to construct an
apartment development on the remainder
of the tract. He estimated Monday that he
would eventually build about 160 units in
that area.
He said construction on the apartment
complex would be in three or four stages,
and he hopes to begin the first stage by the
spring of 1981, or possibly by late this year.
Site planning is now underway for the
apartment complex, he said.
The tract has a frontage of 700 feet on
Industrial Drive, although a portion of that
distance is under a Texas Pqwer k Light
Co. highline and will be restricted to
parking and street use, McCool said. There
is 400 feet of frontage on the League Street
access road.
The tract extends to the north behind the
Church of the Nazarene to abut property
recently purchased by the Jefferson Street
Church of Christ for future development.
McCool said a street likely would be built
on the west side of the tract to afford ac-
cess to the rear sections of the tract.
“I believe this is a very promising piece
of property in Sulphur Springs,” McCool
said. “The city is ready to expand to the
west and regardless of the economy right
now we’re going to see Sulphur Springs
growing.
“There isn’t any doubt about that.”
Bizarre holdup
nets $470 here
One or possibly more persons escaped
with approximately $470 in cash in a
bizarre hold-up of Kentucky Fried Chicken
at the intersection of West Industrial Drive
and Georgia Street Tuesday night.
At 8:24 p.m. Hopkins County Deputy
Bennie Matthgyrs reported-to- Sulphur
Springs Police that two men told him that
a hold-up had just occurred at the local
food chain facility.
Assistant Manager Reggie Blevins told
police that he had received a telephone
call, with the caller telling him that armed
men were watching the facility and that
everyone inside would be killed if he did
not comply with their instructions.
Blevins then placed the cash in a sack
and took it to the comer of Brinker and
Industrial where he left it in accordance
with the instructions received on the
phone.
When officers arrived on the scene, the
money was gone.
A store employee asked the two men to
find a law enforcement officer and tell
them of the robbery after the assistant
manager had returned from leaving the
money at the nearby apartment complex.
Assistant Police Chief Donnie Lewis said
that the witnesses to the incident were
being interviewed again Wednesday
morning and that investigation into the
robbery is continuing.
The method used in the robbery was
almost identical to a holdup of a Dallas
area restaurant a few days ago.
Speaker cites potential problems
in county dairy industry's future
By F.W. FRAILEY
( News-Ttlegram Staff
The future of the dairy business is bright
but it also is loaded with problems, Cliff
Neal, Saltillo dairyman, told the Rotary
Club Thursday.
The speaker noted that the county’s 477
dairymen produced income of ap-
proximately $100 million last year. He said
the average age of the group is between 35
and 40.
Neal declared the rapid gains made by
the industry since 1974 are not as great as
they seem because of the corresponding
run-up of costs for everything connected
with dairying.
A herd of 75 cows will now cost $125,000
for the cattle alone, he added.
Neal expressed criticism of the support
given the dairy industry in some phases
here.
“The Dairy Festival program has
nothing that shows the product in Hopkins
County,” he declared. “The dairy show is
no more. Next year it will be different.
They are going to have a dairy show.”
Neal said butter and cream are not
served in most local restaurants and are
given little space in most food store
displays.
“The future of dairy farming lies not in
words but in deeds - deeds by rural and
urban people working together,” he
concluded.
In reply to questions, Neal said the dairy
show has been moved to September to
become part of the annual Hopkins County
Fall Festival and is open only to registered
cattle. Youngsters with grade cattle have
no county-wide show opportunity, he
added.
Howard Graham was program chair-
man for the meeting.
Gay Millsaps, activities director at
Leisure Lodge, described a campaign
being conducted by patients there to raise
funds for the American Heart Association.
Sulphur Springs has received a
check for $85,692.94 from State
Comptroller Bob Bullock’s office for
its March payment from the city sales
tax. The check is one of the largest
received by the city in a single month,
contrasting with $71,593 during the
same period last year.
Police to sponsor
»
benefit bike event
“We’re looking for bike riders for the
Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital
‘Wheels for Life’ Bike-a-thon,” says
Sulphur Springs Police Officer Helen
Boles.
The event, scheduled for April 12, will
County ag income tops
region by wide margin
Softball field site set
City Manager Wendell Sapaugh reports
that he spent most of Thursday finding a
site for the new softball field and Lake
Sulphur Springs will still be the site —
although in a different part of the lake area
than originally planned.
“It’s going to be between the boat ramp
and the highway on the northeast side of
the lake,” Sapaugh reported.
He said that the area had been approved
by a telephone poll of the commissioners
and that the work would start im-
mediately.
The Sulphur Springs City Commission
decided Tuesday night to move the
existing Bell Street Softball Field, located
at the intersection of Bell and League
Street on the Middle School campus, after
Bell Street residents Bill Glover and A.W.
Melton were present to voice their com-
plaints concerning abusive language,
consumption of acoholic beverages, litter
and parking problems during the softball
season.
City Commission Chairman Millard
Glover had advocated the total removal of
the softball field but after Commissioner
Gerald Bowers made a motion to remove
the bleachers and lights while leaving the
back stop and fences at the field with a
second from Commissioner Lewis Helm,
the move was approved.
School officials at the meeting said that
the field was used by the Middle School for
physical education classes and would
remain as a field.
There had been B field there for several
years before the city developed it into a
softball field with the addition of lights,
bleachers, a better backstop and fencing to
keep the ball fron rolling into the streets.
Hopkins County generated a total in
agricultural income of $168,138,000 in 1979
— an increase of $64,057,000 from 1978.
The figures came from the recently
released Texas Power and Light Company
Agricultural Income Evaluation 1979
which shows Hopkins County to be the
number one county of the 36 surveyed in
the utility’s service area of the state.
Of the $1.9 billion total income produced
by the 36 counties surveyed, Hopkins
County produced almost 10 percent, and
Nacogdoches County was the only other
showing county $100 million or more with
$100,804,000.
Hopkins County agricultural producers
produced 4 percent of the $756,745,000 total
crop income, 11 percent of the total of
$1,152,762,000 in livestock income and 16
percent of the $18,496,000 received in
governmental payments in the 36 county
area.
Local fanners and dairymen grabbed
the number one positon in the survey for
increase from the previous year, the
largest total of overall income from
agriculture and received more money
from governmental payments than other
counties surveyed.
TP&L serves all or part of over 50
counties but statistical data was only
gathered for the 36 counties where the
whole county is served by the company.
Hopkins County received $3,141,000 in
governmental aid, an increase of $2,620,000
over 1978.
As would be expected, livestock and
dairy production led the way in the
county’s picture, with $129,694,000 being
generated from that industry, an increase
of $37,549 over 1978 when $92,145,000 was
brought in.
Milk, shown by the hundredweight,
accounted for 5,350,000 units leaving
Hopkins County, selling at an average of
$12.53 per hundredweight to produce
$67,036,000 in 1979 - an increase of
$12,536,000 over 1978.
But Hopkins County led in every
measurement category except crop in-
come - and there it showed the largest
increase of all of the counties surveyed by
TP&L, an increase of $23,888,000.
Local crop farmers brought in
$35,303,000 from crops, ranking Hopkins
County as the fifth largest producer.
The largest crop producer (Smith
County) was only about $13,000,000 over
the Hopkins County figure.
In livestock production, only hogs and
pigs showed a decrease, with beef
animals, horses, stocker and breeder
cattle showing increases and recreational
leases for hunting and fishing holding their
own.
The TP&L report showed 18,400 head of
beef cattle sold with an average price of
$500 each for a total sales figure of
$9,200,000 in 1979, an increase of $1,725,000
over 1978.
Beef calves accounted for 26,000 head
being sold at an average price of $350 for
$9,100,000 income and an increase of $2.1-
million.
Dairy calves showed an increased in-
come of $1,130,000 over 1978 as 30,000 head
sold at an average of $75 each producing
income of $2,250,000 each.
There were 5,000 head of hogs and 5,200
head of pigs sold in 1979 resulting in
average prices of $80 and $40 respectively.
The total value of 1979 sales was $400,000
for hogs and $206,000 for pigs.
The hog sales were down $40,000 from
1978 and the pig sales were down $104,000.
Hopkins County feed producers planted
100,000 acres in hay which produced sales
of 700,000 tons of hay for income of
$28,000,000 - an increase of $20,800,000
from 1978.
raise money for the Memphis, Tenn.
hospital, and is being sponsored locally by
the Sulphur Springs Police Department for
the second time.
“It’s not often that the Police Depart-
ment will sponsor a fund raising event of
any kind," Police Chief Delbert Harrell
explained, “but we’ve checked this
organization out fully and we feel that it is
a worthy cause. That’s why we’re spon-
soring it again this year.”
In the bike-a-thon, riders enlist sponsors
who donate a sum for each mile com-
pleted, Mrs. Boles said.
Mrs. Boles is serving as chairwoman for
the event to raise money for the famous
research center and its battle against
childhood cancer and other catastrophic
childhood diseases.
“We’re looking for people who will
contribute some of their time and energy
to help children live. We really need bike
riders, since they are the ones who can
make this bike-a-thon a success,” she said.
Riders who raise $25 will receive a T-
shirt and those who raise $75 will receive a
backpack.
“We’ve got prizes for other riders too,”
Mrs. Boles said.
Sponsor forms are available at all
Hopkins County schools or Mrs. Boles may
be contacted at 885-7602.
Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital
is unique in that it is completely free of
charge to patients who are admitted by
physician referral if their disease is under
study.
Once a patient is admitted, total medical
care js provided.
The hospital is the largest childhood
cancer research center in the world and its
sole purpose is to conduct basic and
clinical research into childhood diseases.
The facility was founded by actor Demy
Thomas.
“You can put your muscles to work for a
child’s life in this bikee-thon," Mrs.
said, “we need every bike and every
rider.”
All contributions are tax deductible.
!
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Keys, Clarke & Woosley, Joe. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, March 28, 1980, newspaper, March 28, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780652/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.