The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, February 1, 1980 Page: 1 of 6
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microfilm CENTER INC
PO BOX 45435
DALLAS
TX 75235
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(ABSORBED THE GAZETTE CIRCULATION BY PURCHASE MAY 12, 1928)
VOL. 105—NO. 5.
SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1,1980.
fi PAGES -10 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Year, decade just completed
called time of local success
By JIM MOORE
News-Telegram Staff
Sulphur Springs City Manager Wendell
Sapaugh says 1979 was a good year for the
city - and the 70s were a decade of ac-
’ complishments.
“We completed the Mockingbird Lane
project, for all practical purposes, and the
Park Springs Road project,” he said, “and
we’re through with the League Street
improvements and the Houston Street
project is nearing completion which were
joint city and state projects. ’ ’
Sapaugh pointed out that the $766,262
airport project had been completed and
the first contract for the Water Treatment
Plant had been let in 1979 at a cost of
$460,000 with work scheduled to begin in
March.
“A beginning of a new era for Sulphur
Springs began with the first part of the
Community Development Block Grant
being approved,” he said. The project is a
three-part grant totalling $1,500,000, “Of
course, we’re planning on getting second
and third year funding too,” he said.
Financially, the city is in good shape,
according to Sapaugh.
“At the end of the ’60s the city was, for
all practical purposes, broke,” he said.
“As we go into the ’80s, we’re in
remarkably good shape.”
Sapaugh, who served as financial
manger for the city before becoming city
manager, explained that the final payment
on the Lake Sulphur Springs project will be
made in 1997. “We only owe $1,395,000 out
of the original $3,400,000,” he said.
“We’re maintaining a year’s bond
payments on our revenue bonds,
something we didn’t have when we entered
the ’70s,” said Sapaugh, “that amounts to
$212,987.02 which we add to each month.”
Other 1979 accomplishments for the city
included signing of the contract with the
city of Cooper for the sale of water. “It
offsets the use of wells by some of the other
water systems we’d been selling water
to,” he explained.
The dog pound was moved indoors so
that the animals aren't left in the cold
during the winter months and the com-
pletion of bridges at the Civic Center and
on Seventh Street were listed as 1979 ac-
complishments by the city manager.
Of the 1980s in general and 1980 in par-
ticular, Sapaugh says, “We’re on the
threshold of a new decade of good things
for Sulphur Springs.”
He cited the re-use of old city facilities
and general cleaning up of city parks.
“We found that vandalism in the parks is
way down when we keep the place clean
ourselves. Our parks and recreation
director is making that a top priority job
and it’s showing results,” Sapaugh said.
Plans are in the works for making Lake
Coleman a picnic and park area and the
city is applying to the Parks and Wildlife
Department for grants to help fund that
project, which would include a jogging
path around the lake.
“We’ve got a lot of other plans but it
would be premature to talk about all of
them,” he said. “The main thing is that
we’re making ag attempt to clean up the
town and we’re starting with city-owned
property.”
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Lignite mine scrapers
chomp up county site
Slightly less than two years into the
operation, workers at the Texas Utilities
Generating Co. (TUGCO) lignite mine
near Sulphur Springs have moved more
than 12 million cubic yards of dirt.
The staggering statistic was one of
several facts reported Tuesday by Ken-
neth Price, operations manager^ at the
mine, in an appearance before the Sblphur
Springs Lions Club. Price exhibited color
slides of mining operations at the Thermo
site as the program for the club.
Mining operations three miles southeast
of Sulphur Springs began in March of 1978.
Since then, Price reported, lignite
recovery has covered about 300 surface
acres.
He estimated another 22 to 24 years of
mining operations remain at the location
at present recovery rates.
Unlike TUGCO mining operations near
Winfield, where massive draglines are
utilized to uncover the seams of the form of
low-grade coal, the Thermo lignite is
uncovered by a scraper operation, Price
noted.
“This is the largest scraper operation
for coal in the United States,” he said. “We
have moved 12 million yards of dirt 24
yards at a time.”
There presently are 13 scrapers in use at
the mine, although a 14th,-valued at more
than $360,000, is due for delivery within the
next month, Price noted.
“This is not a cheap proposition,” he
commented. “One tire for a scraper costs
about $4,500 and running over all that dirt
we go through a lot of tires.”
The Thermo mine ships 12,500 tons of
lignite five, and sometimes six, days a
week to TUGCO’s Monticello power plant.
That plant generates electricity for three
North Texas public utility companies,
including Texas Power & Light Co.
That shipment volume represents about
20 percent of the fuel requirements of the
Monticello plant, Price said.
Development of the Hopkins County
mine site is far enough along that
Wanted: ghosts
Know any ghosts? Ghost stories?
Texas author Ed Syers is hunting
them, wherever they haunt Texans
and particularly in Hopkins County.
He has suggested that Hopkins
County area readers might add to the
legends relating to old Tarrant.
“I’m after the ghost story known to
enough people long enough to
establish some credibility," says
Syers. However, he intends to in-
vestigate any report that he believes
merits inclusion in the series.
Syers’ address is Box F, Ingram,
Texas 78025.
reclamation work has already begun in
mined areas. The process includes
planting winter wheat the first year to hold
the reclaimed land, followed by a per-
manent planting of Coastal Bermuda
grass.
“Knowing Hopkins County’s dairy
situation, I think this is going to make ideal
pasture land,” Price said. He added that
ponds are constructed in the process and
125 liveoak trees have recently been
planted.
Operations of the mine are under strict
federal and state regulations, one of them
requiring the mining company to hold the
reclaimed land for five years before any
disposition can be made. This is to assure
top-quality reclamation efforts, Price
said.
The Sulphur Springs mining operation
presently employs 145 in the crew, but
upwards of 20 more personnel are needed,
Price said. Equipment operators are in
particularly short supply, he said. Mining
operations are conducted around the
clock.
The only interruptions, Price said, come
during periods of heavy rain, and once the
drops actually stop falling the work
resumes.
Lignite in Hopkins County is being found
in from three to five shallow seams, Price
said, the first one most often found about
30 feet below the surface. Local crews
have mined to as deep as 130 feet in the
operations.
Slippery when wet
It's not a new shiny floor surface that Joyce Shaw is trying to
clean at the Civic Center Auditorium — it's water. The recent
onset of precipitation has brought an influx of the wetness inside
the plagued auditorium and a pump has been brought in to help
keep the water out.
—StoH Photo
—»L
Center officials turn to
feds on flood problems
Hopkins County authorities have elected
to ask a government agency to help track
down the cause of — and possibly lend a
hand in finding a cure to — the leaking
Civic Center auditorium building here.
“It’s time to do something about the
problem before it’s too late," Com-
missioner J.D. Hatley told members of the
Commissioners Court and Civic Center
Board at their meeting Wednesday at the
Civic Center to discuss the flooding
problem.
The auditorium of the Civic Center has
been collecting water - up to about the
Retired county banker takes
look at local economic growth
By JOEWOOSLEY
News-Tel«gram Staff
Twenty years ago Hopkins County had
two banks with combined deposits of
$18802696
A third bank was added in the early 1960s
and the combined deposits at the close of
business in 1979 bad soared to $107,150,451,
a net gainofmore than $93j_million.
As a fourth bank prepared to join the
financial structure in Sulphur Springs, a
long-time observer of the Hopkins County
scene agreed to share a few memories
gleaned over the years.
Cecil D. Ward, now living in retirement
in Dallas, circled Nov. 20,1916 as his first
day on the job at the First National Bank in
Cumby. He served as a teller and did other
routine assignments as needed to launch a
career. Two years later he was a director
in the small bank serving the westernmost
section of Hopkins County.
At that time, there were four banks in
Sulphur Springs and ten others in outlying
communities in Hopkins County.
In addition to the two current banks,
Sulphur Springs State Bank and City
National Bank, two others, the First State
Bank and the Guaranty State Bank, were
operating in Sulphur Springs.
Cumby’s second financial institution
was the Cumby State Bank. There was the
Ridgeway State Bank at Ridgeway. The
F&M Bank served the Brashear area.
There were two state banks at Como and
two banks at Pickton. Both Sulphur Bluff
and Saltillo had state banks.
Ward’s banking career extended for 21
years, including a stint in Sulphur Springs
after the Cumby beginning, and then be
joined the Sulphur Springs Loan and
Building Association, where he remained
as'president and chief operations officer
until his retirement
In more than 60 years of closely ob-
serving the banking business and its close
ally - the Loan and Building Association
— Ward accumulated hundreds of friends
that he has helped with financial
problems. He also became skilled in
judging the human element to determine
low-risk loans.
Cotton was the only commodity in the
county, Ward recalls, when he began his
banking career during the World War One
era. After good harvests, deposits in the
small banks grew in the fall and winter,
and then dropped off as loans were made
to finance new crops.
In those early days, there were few cars
and bankers took a dim view of making
loans on them.
Ward said that one banker told him the
only way he would make an automobile
loan was for the car to be placed in bonded
Storage and not used. He did not want to
risk an accident wiping out the collateral.
Ward has sharp recollections of the
depression days when many of the smaller
banks elected to consolidate with others or
closed out as population movement
lessened the need for community financial
houses.
Mainly, however, Ward dwells not on the
ebbtides of the banking industry, but
prefers to talk about the solid growth
patterns Sulphur Springs and Hopkins
County have experienced. He foresees
continued progress.
During his long career, Ward made a
great many small loans. Of course, there
were many loans of considerable
magnitude. The largest single loan was for
$1.6 million.
A few years ago, Ward utilized the in-
formation at hand and his own recollec-
tions to write and publish a booklet about
the Woman’s Club Building in Sulphur
Springs, and how it came into being
through a widespread cooperative spirit.
A current project occupying his time is
an effort to compile a history of the
Hopkins County dairy industry. He has a
tape recorder near his side and speaks into
the microphone from time to time to
preserve the data and his memories about
the dairy industry which has become a
strongpoint in Hopkins County’s economic
structure.
When he gets that project completed,
friends are encouraging him to compile an
oral history of Hopkins County’s banking
industry.
Almost 83, Ward ranks as an expert in
this field. And with facts gathered over
more than 60 years of association with the
financial business, he has first-hand
knowledge from 1916 forward that needs to
be preserved as Hopkins County history.
eighth row — whenever Sulphur Springs
receives a big rain.
“People from McKinney comt over here
and say ‘they’ve got a fine building but it’s
got water in it,” said Civic Center Board
Chairman Millard Bennett, “i would
suggest that EDA (Economic i'evelop-
ment Administration) might be tlv place
to start.”
Bennett explained that EDA engineers
had approved the final plans for the Civic
Center and the agency had paid half the
cost in building it. He said that it was
entirely possible that the federal agency
might be interested in helping to defra
the costs of repairing the building.
“It’s too fine a building to let it
deteriorate," Guy Mayes commented.
County Judge Joe R. Pogue told Bennett’s
group to go ahead and contact the EDA
about finding out what the problem is that
allows water to seep into the building.
The water problem is complex, Pogue
said, adding that several “experts" had
been contacted about the problem but that
each had a differing opinion as to the
solution.
Bennett said that Audley Moore had
volunteered to investigate the problem at
no cost and Charles Heim said that he
would like to conduct som - tests to attempt
to learn where the water was entering the
building.
Although none of those present had a
solution to the problem, all agreed that
something had to be done to keep water out
of the auditorium before extensive
damage is done.
Prior to Wednesday’s meeting, Civic
Center Manager Bert Whorton said water
was up to the eighth row of seats Tuesday
following three days of heavy local rains.
Whorton had estimated the damage to be
about $3,000 at that point.
“We thought we had the problem solved,
but apparently we didn’t,” Pogue said.
Commissioners have sent work crews to
the Civic Center in recent months to do
work suggested by the experts in what
proved to be a futile attempt to solve the
leakage problem.
Pogue noted that part of the auditorium
is below the water line of a nearby creek.
Whorton says that the deepest point of the
auditorium is six feet below ground level.
“The County has made an honest effort
to fix this thing,” said Whorton.
Local hospital delivery
room staff keeping busy
According to hospital statistics the birth
rate in Hopkins County has just about
doubled since 1976.
In 1976 there were 269 babies born in the
Hopkins County Memorial Hospital, but in
1979 the number jumped to 477.
“We aren’t really having a baby boom,”
hospital administrator Glenn Kenley said.
“It is more like a continuing upward
spiral. W« have been having more births
each year.”
Kenley attributes the steady increase in
births to several factors.
“There are a couple of reasons why the
birth rate is rising in Hopkins County,” he
said. “For one reason we have more
doctors working in the county now than we
did four years ago. And secondly, we are
seeing an increase in people who live
outside the county coming to our hospital
to have their babies.”
The reason many mothers are coming to
Hopkins County, according to the ad-
ministrator, is because many nearby
hospitals are closing down their delivery
roans.
“New government regulations a few
years ago caused many delivery rooms to
close their doors, so we are picking up the
mothers that might have had their baby in
Winnsboro, or Commerce or some other
town near (tore.”
Kenley predicts that close to 506 babies
will be born in Hopkins County this year.
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Keys, Clarke & Woosley, Joe. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, February 1, 1980, newspaper, February 1, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780844/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.