Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 123, No. 73, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 11, 2005 Page: 4 of 72
seventy two pages : ill. ; page 24 x 14 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:
EDITORIAL
PAGB4A
THE POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE
Letters to the editor
Beat way to halp?
Tt the edltar:
Re: Hurricane Katrina and dis-
placed citizens.
I do not think the Hurricane refu-
gees, or to be politically correct,
displaced citizens, should be given
a $2,000 check by our government.
Most of the refugees come from the
projects in New Orleans and do not
know how to manage money. They
have lived ofT the welfare state all
of their lives. They will either
spend the money foolishly or sell it
for a fraction of the $2,000 and
either buy drugs or booze. I've
heard on the news that people off
the street in Houston, and I'm sure
other places, are applying for the
$2,000. Most have no identification
so how do we know it is the victims
who are really receiving the
money?
Also, it is time for the name
blame to stop and get on with the
job at hand. I am tired of hearing
all the leaders blame each other for
not acting in a timely manner. I
know who I blame, however, I
think they should all get busy and
do the jobs they were elected to do,
clean up the destruction and take
care of the victims, and not be seen
on every news program who will
have them just so they can try to
place the blame on the other per-
son.
I feel really sorry for all of
the people involved in this terrible
tragedy and am doing my part to
help where I can.
B. J. Correu
Livingston
Conclusion off base
To the editor:
Reference: “Just begun to fight”
in the Sept. 8 Enterprise, written by
William L. Rozell.
I wonder if Mr. Rozell bothered
to attend any of the half dozen or so
public meetings that were held over
the last two years in Polk County
pertaining to the Lower Trinity
Water District?
I think not, for while he posts the
amendments, codes, and original
(partial) bill, his conclusion and
political naivety are off base.
if he had attended just one of the
public meetings, there should be no
question in his mind why it was
necessary to create the local dis-
trict.
I served as well, but he is fight-
ing shadows.
Don Staples
Livingston
The blame game
To the editor:
I know there are letters and arti-
cles and comments galore about the
mess in Louisiana and the Oulf
Coast, but I want to put mine in the
hopper.
My wife and I were working at
the Litton Shipyard (Ingalls) in
Pascagoula, Miss, in 1969 when
Camille hit. The local government
took charge and did a bang-up job.
They were supported by the Feder-
als, which is as it should be - sup-
port. There were no shouts of mal-
feasance, nor were there any com-
plaints about the order in which the
recovery took place. It was tragic,
well over 200 people died just in
the one state, and millions of dol-
lars of property were lost. No one
hollered, "Me First!" No one
blamed the president for the hurri-
cane (as if any human can control
nature). No one pilloried the
mayor nor the governor, because
everyone did what they had to do
when they had to do it, not like the
situation in New Orleans.
The president suggested to the
mayor of N.O. that he evacuate, 48
hours before the storm hit. He de-
ckled he had to wait to be sure he
had the authority! Then 24 hours
before, the president begged him to
evacuate. He started to. Then
when the storm hit, he decided he
might use the busses the city owned
to evacuate with, but all 2,000
metro and school busses were al-
ready under water, and unusable.
So, chaos resulted. The governor
decided she had to wait to decide
whether to send the National
Ouard, until it was well into the
stage of emergency. I believe they
both should resign in disgrace, be-
cause thousands of their citizens
will be found dead. They had no
adequate plan, and they didn't fol-
low what they had. Sure, FEMA
should take responsibility for their
errors. But I fail to see whether the
president returned from Crawford a
day late made any difference at all.
The basic responsibility lies with
the local Louisiana government. I
am tired of the attitude that it seems
to always be somebody else's fault.
About the busses: Not only was
that a tragic piece of incompetence,
and thousands lost their lives for
not getting out in time, but look at
the loss to the city in dollars for just
the busses, not counting the other
property losses: 2,000 busses at
periups $80,000 (?) each, is a total
of $160 million. And that is proba-
bly low. The federal government
(you and me) is sending $58.1 bil-
lion in relief, not to mention the
donations from foreign countries.
Who will get that money? The
mayor, God forbid? Will New Or-
leans be built in the same place,
below sea level? They should give
the money to a committee of retired
generals and admirals who have no
agenda other than to fix the prob-
lem, and then move the whole city
up-river to higher ground, or in the
next disaster it will be throwing
good money after bad.
Jack Dorwln
Livingston
Fuel for thought
To the editor:
I had money for grub
Money for fuel
And even had money to mow my
grass
I had money for duds
And even had money for suds
Then along came the high price
of gas
It went from two to three
Then three to four
And then even went to five
Then I though oh good grief
I’ve got to have relief
If <ver I am to survive
I Mid oh well I’ll have to stay
home
I won’t be able to roam
For a fact I’ve got other bills
I’ll just let buying gas go
When I just have to go
I’ll take off somewhere on two
wheels
Or someday I'll be in town
Why no shelters?
To the editor:
Just a walking around
Getting exercise like doc said I
should
And then if someone drives by
And gives me the old eagle eye
I’d say I’d be drivin’ too if I
could
According to your article, “Local
relief efforts mobilize” on the front
page of the Sept. I edition of the
Polk County Enterprise, you state
that over 100 refugees are currently
staying in motels in Polk County.
You then state that “no shelters
have been opened in Polk County,
and local officials say they antici-
pate that none will be.”
I don’t understand. Why aren’t
the local churches opening their
doors to the refugees? Isn’t there a
social responsibility to help people
Ann Babbitt
Onalaska
Take care of business
To the editor:
I’ve lived in Polk County most of
my life, watched the local politics
with amusement for the most part
while knowing some things will
never change and some will with
time and fresh blood in the system.
Without naming names, I’ll talk
about our county road mainte-
nances. A couple of years back, as I
recall, we had an election to replace
an outgoing commissioner con-
cerning the precinct that I’ve lived
in off and on for the last 15-plus
years. 1 had a few gripes with the
former commissioner, but for the
most part, he “personally” stayed
on top of things, even while having
to go through the “good old boy”
hoops at the courthouse, rubbing
elbows to get the funds necessary
to keep our roads in the best condi-
tion that he could with what he
received monetarily. He even got
creative with some of it and tried
new things that were a great im-
provement at the time, When he
decided to retire, we had a couple
of fresh faces to choose from to
replace him in the political arena.
One of them I had known since
childhood, the other for several
years. 1 voted for the one I had
known since childhood, because I
truly believed that he would be the
best choice, as he had vast knowl-
edge in the area of the dirt business
and I thought would be an asset to
the precinct that he would oversee.
I have been terribly disappointed
personally with his overall per-
formance concerning his oversight
of our own road, and have talked to
a lot of the other property owners
in the area and the same precinct
that feel the same way. We have
all come to the same conclusion:
It’s pretty hard to oversee some-
thing when you are in town at the
courthouse all of the time for photo
No gain for GOP
To the editor:
Mr. John P. Thompson has defi-
nitely mis-spoke in a big way.
Thompson said. “In putting to-
gether the pre budget figures, one
thing we were unaware of is this is
the first year the over 65/disabled
tax freezes we voted in a few years
ago goes into effect so we had to
back out the $251 million value
frozen at the 2004 level and con-
sidered it lost revenues.”
Oh the solution must be there
I could go by plane or the bus
Or maybe I could even car pool
But at least I know until when
these high gas prices end
I'll just leave my kids home from
school
Maybe someday I’ll see a cele-
bration
When I pass by a gas station
And see dropped priced on the
board
Until then I’ll just bite the bullet
And get someone to pull it
Until they release all the gas that
they’ve stored.
Robert L. Stuart
Livingston
The regulation was designed to
include 65 and older/disabled and
the authority for this exemption
was removed from the Texas Con-
stitution, Article 8 - Section lb,
and allowed the authority under
each taxing entity, county govern-
ment, school districts, hospitals and
colleges. The senator from Pales-
tine, Todd Staples, mis-spoke while
pushing this to a vote of the people,
stating they wished to remove the
authority from an unsafe environ-
ment to a safe environment. Putting
it more bluntly, “He lied.” There
seemed to be no particular need for
a vote by the commissioners’ court,
or any other entity, unless their
intent was to disallow the eld-
erly/disabled this exemption. The
authority had not been removed,
only changed places. If there be
any loss of $251 million it was not
due to this change in authority.
Perhaps the DA should investigate.
It appears the Commissioners feel
they should have had a little more
fore sight and taken that exemption
from us older folks and those that
are incapable of doing what we
loved to do most, "Make an honest
livinfl." so we can properly care for
our families.
I do not claim to be a registered
financial accountant, but I did learn
how to balance the books at some
point in my lifetime. For us regular
everyday folks out here in the free
world, “net” means remainder after
all charges or deductions. When we
look at our tax statement and see
net taxable value, according to Mr.
Thompson, this is not a true state-
ment. We know we are being erro-
neously taxed, please don’t tell we
are unaware of some more hidden
items.
In my opinion, Mr. Thompson
has been against the property tax
break for property owners since the
property tax relief first began. Dur-
ing the same time frame, Mr.
Thompson spent many taxpayer
dollars running to and from Austin.
Apparently he had other items on
his agenda as well.
I will close with one final state-
ment, “For all of us Republicans,
we did not gain anything from
those who chose to leave the De-
mocratic Party. For all of us De-
mocrats, we lost nothing."
William L. Rozell
US Army retired itill *erv-
Ing
Dalla rdsvllle
Boils down to greed
in need inherent in all religions?
And, if not, why not?
I am sure that there are plenty of
local residents, including myself,
willing and able to volunteer their
services to assist in caring for the
refugees and assisting them, if there
were shelters provided.
Also, how are the refugees sup-
posed to find their way to surround-
ing cities that are offering shelters?
Dazed and confused....
To the editor:
ops or riding around in the fire
trucks for hours at a time instead
of doing the work that your con-
stituents hired and pay you to do.
I do understand that before he
was hired that he already was a
volunteer fireman, and I have no
problem with that, but I do believe
that, as a county elected official, I
believe that his time should be
spent on overseeing, personally, the
upgrading of our precinct roads,
seeing to his constituents’ con-
cerns, because the roads in our pre-
cinct have deteriorated dramatically
during his tenure as commissioner
of this particular precinct. Our
property values are deteriorating as
a result of this lack of oversight,
which in turn will result in a drop
in county revenue, and that turns
into less money for the county to
have to spend for road mainte-
nance, so the cycle goes. I still like
this guy as a person, just have been
terribly disappointed in his per-
formance, as have many others in
his precinct. I’m afraid if he
doesn't start running the precinct
he was elected to oversee, instead
of leaving it to the ones that will be
there after he’s gone as a result of
the next election.
I hope that he doesn’t take this as
a personal attack, because it isn’t.
I’d like to be able to vote “for” him
again, so I hope that he will give
me and all of his constituents a
reason to, and, hopefully, I won’t
see him riding around in a fire
truck while he’s on my time clock
anymore, unless he’s on his way to
put out a fire. He wouldn’t like that
if he was paying one of his em-
ployees to work for him, 1 should
expect at least the same. Leave that
kind of stuff to the other guys, OK?
Take care of your constituents’
business. Thanks.
Chris Brown
Livingston
In the discourse on the scourges
of Katrina, it has been stated that
the looters in New Orleans were
predominately black; others com-
plain that the news media did not
show the white people that were
looting.
New Orleans is more than 63
percent black. Blacks are also the
majority of the poor. It is often due
to lack of funds, transportation or
just plain fool-heartedness that they
do not evacuate quickly when told.
Looters, unfortunately, go with
life territory in times of mayhem.
Many of them feel almost guilt-
free, considering it a “salvage mis-
sion.” “Going to be gone anyway,”
is their thinking — trying to ration-
alize their guilt away — while those
of a thieving nature will have no
qualms whatsoever.
Taking what is needed to sustain
life when there is no other means of
obtaining it is called survival. Sal-
vage is taking what is lost or unre-
deemable and utilizing it for your
own use or pleasure, and far differ-
ent from looting. The owners of
these places will return and try to
clean up and repair so they can start
over. Their things are not lost nor
abandoned, just left.
Anarchy hindered the rescue that
many are hollering came slow, late
or whatever. I read online in the
Times-Picayune where one woman
with a shopping cart attempted to
push a flat screen television into a
commandeered school bus full of
evacuees, Her brain evidently
crumbled along with her morals.
Surely no feeling human would
begrudge or consider it looting for
someone to take food, toiletries and
things needed to sustain their fam-
ily’s life at a time when there was
no other way to obtain them. But
the pure avarice and violence that
has been displayed by many is
criminal and should be prosecuted.
On another note, the rampant
price-gouging that occurs each and
every time any type of danger or
disaster happens to this country is a
disgrace. We scooted through the
70s with a fake oil/gas shortage that
put money in the pockets of already
fat cats. Then along comes En-
ron/Martha Stewart scandals and
God only knows what else the
working people don’t know. You
even whisper something is amiss,
and you can bet your booty the fit
cats are clawing to raise the price
of whatever for whatever reason
they can foster on the American
public - we are forced to swallow
It’s not just the oil companies;
America altogether has created this
slam-dunk greedy spark! The gov-
ernment started helping poor fami-
lies obtain (HUD) housing, and
next thing you know, rental prop-
erty skyrocketed. Homeowners
soak the government for every
penny they can; meanwhile, there is
no hope for the poor to get out from
under them.
Here in Livingston, rent can run
$350 for little more than a dump
which often is owned by some af-
fluent pillar of the community. De-
cent housing, for the most part,
costs anywhere from $500 to $800,
or more. This is in a town where
the median wage is poverty level!
But as one smart-mouth realtor put
it to me once, “We can do it and we
can get it.”
The government tried to help in-
sure a fair wage for laborers by
implementing minimum wage, and
what happened? They hire illegal
immigrants when possible or do as
the grocers do, which is cut their
wage expenses by having clerks do
the work of two people (check, bag
and carry out). Now the really big
boys are putting in self-check reg-
isters where the customer checks
and bags the items himself. We all
know where this will lead.
Alice Goff
Livingston
Polk County
ENTERPRISE
ALVIN HOLLEY, PUBLISHER
Telephone Number 936-327-4357
(USPS 437-340)
WEBSITE: www.EastTexasNews.Corn
E-MAIL: polknews@livingston.net
Texas 77351 under the Act of Congress of March 3,1987. Entered as
Periodical Matter at the Post Office at Livingston, TX.
EDITOR 1 At DEPARTMENT
BurburaWhite...............................Editor..........................
Emily Banks..................................News Editor.................
VanThomas ..................................Sports Editor...............
Greg Peak.....................................Area News Editor........
Vicki Coker..................................Living Section Editor...
Vanesa Brashier.............................Special Feature Editor..
Gordon LeBarron..........................Photographer
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT
Paul Holley...................................Cameras/Platemaking..
Don Holeman...............................Cameras/Platemaking..
Adrian Dunn...................Pressman......................
I.ec Torres..........................Mailroom/Circulation .
( (IMPOSTI ION DEPARTMENT
Jennifer Kingsbury...................Supervisor...................
Nancy Hatchett.......................Graphic/Typeset...........
Randy lies................................Graphic/Typeset...........
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
.Ext. 102
.Ext. 103
.Ext. 107
.Exl 106
.Ext. 104
.Ext. Ill
Ext. 119
.Ext. 119
.Ext. 120
Ext. 120
Ext. 118
Ext. 118
Ext. 118
Linda Holley .............................
Sandra Jackson..........................
Kay Loy Schrimshcr
.1 R Shoeniakc
( I ASSII IM) DEPARTMENT
Linda Jacobs.........................
Patty Hankerd................
PRINTING DEPARTMENT
Willis Woods ......................
Jennifer Birdwell.........................
Jessica Martin
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Georgia Bailey ..........................
Barbara Wilson...........................
Dana Wiggins ...........................
Dee Sisson..................................
Ad.
Ad.
Ad
Ad
Manager
Rep
Rep.......
Rep
Exl 117
Ext. 113
Ext. 112
Ext. 110
Manager
Ad Rep
Ext. 109
Ext. 108
Pressman
Supervisor
Ext. 114
Ext. 121
Manager.............................
Accounts Receivable.........
Circulation! Subscriptions
Receptionist
Ext. 115
Exl 116
Ext. 105
|o Report a (lama^i’d/missmu pa|MT or l<» rv|Mirl .i l>n»ki n u mliny m.u liim ill « \t
SUBSCRIPTION KATES - $20.00 per year lax included in county: $22.00 per year out
of county: $24.00 per year out of state. Published semi-weekly, Sunday and Thursday at 100
Calhoun in Livingston. Texas by the Polk County Publishing Co.
Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing or reputation of any person. Arm or
corporation which may appear in this new spaper will be gladly corrected upon being brought
to tnc attention of the publisher.
Opinions expressed in columns are those of the writer and not ncccessarily those of this
newspaper '
Opinions expressed in editorial are those of the Enterprise.
POSTMASTER: Periodical postage paid At Livingston. TX. PI case Send Address Changes
To PO Box 1276. Livingston. Texas 7735I.
II
]|
Let's not forget those income tax
preparers who bamboozle earned
income recipients who are “low
income wage earners" out of a
large piece of their refund checks
by wooing them with promises of
quick money then charge usurious
rates for those quick loans by pad-
ding the bills with exorbitant fees
for forms and preparation, which
takes all of 10 to 15 minutes to pre-
pare in most cases.
The rhetoric is heard from every
comer of this country - “due to the
cost of the middle man, the trucker
man, the tax man, etc.” - but what
it boils down to is the Greedy Man.
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.
White, Barbara. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 123, No. 73, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 11, 2005, newspaper, September 11, 2005; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth788191/m1/4/: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.