The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 19, 2012 Page: 4 of 16
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4A
THE ALLEN AMERICAN | THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012
AllenAmerican. com
ormer Plano mayor files for District 67 seat
PENNY RATHBUN
prathbun@acnpapers.com
Former Plano mayor and
current Celina Chamber of
Commerce president Jeran
Akers filed this week to run
for the Texas House of Rep-
resentatives District 67 seat
to replace Jerry Madden,
who is not going to seek re-
election.
Akers sees this as an op-
portunity to continue his
long history of public service
in elected offices and in civic
and church organizations.
In late 2008 he under-
went a double lung trans-
plant, a life-altering event.
“Life gives you a second
chance and you do have that
history of serving, it really
makes you want to do
more,” Akers said. “This is
one of the reasons I reached
out and I work with the
Celina Chamber of Com-
merce. It’s one of the reasons
that I volunteer to speak as
often as I can for donors for
organ transplants. When
this opportunity came up I
felt that this was a way I
could continue to serve.
“This is a way for me to
be a role model for those
that have similar conditions
as me and also emphasize
and pay attention to health
care in general.”
In August 2010 the
Celina Chamber hired
Akers as president and
CEO. Since then, he has
been promoting Celina.
“Celina is getting ready to
rumble,” he said right after
he took the job.
Last month, his organi-
zational skills came into
play at the sixth annual
Celina Chamber of Com-
merce Balloon Festival.
Weather grounded the bal-
loons, but Akers had organ-
ized many other activities
and few seemed to mind
that the balloons didn’t go
up.
If Akers is elected to
Madden’s seat, he wants to
work on the budget. He
thinks the possibility of a
$20 billion shortfall is a very
significant thing.
Water is another of his
concerns.
“I think that there’s a
short-term, mid-term and
long-term approach. I think
that there are a lot of things
we need to do, not just dig
more reservoirs,” Akers said.
One of his ideas is to
allow the use of gray water.
Gray water is waste water
from domestic activities
such as dish washing, laun-
dry and bathing. Akers said
that water could be recycled
for irrigation.
Tax increment financing
could be used for financing
roads, he said. Cities often
finance public development
projects with tax increment
financing, designating a por-
tion of taxes from a particu-
lar area to be used for a
particular purpose. Akers
thinks the TIF tool could be
used to build and improve
roads. He said property val-
ues typically go up when a
new road is built, so it
makes sense to use some of
that tax revenue for the
roads.
Akers said he also be-
lieves in getting government
out of people’s lives.
“I want government to
serve the people and not
have the government reach
into people’s lives to make
them servants of the govern-
ment,” he said.
Akers’ biography reads
like a primer in public serv-
ice. He served as the mayor
of Plano from 2000 to 2002.
Before that he was a city
council member, which in-
cluded stints as mayor pro
tern and deputy mayor pro
tern. He has served on nu-
merous civic boards includ-
ing the North Central Texas
Industrial Development Au-
thority, the Plano Parks and
Recreation Commission, the
East Side Development
Task Force and the Collin
County Board of Directors
as liaison.
His volunteer service in-
cludes work with the Boy
Scouts of America, Plano
Children’s Theatre, North
Texas Clean Air Steering
Committee, Collin County
Planning Board and Plano
Santa Board of Directors.
Akers also has served as
elder and Sunday school
teacher at Grace Presbyter-
ian Church and Sunday
school teacher and president
of the Methodist Men’s Club
with the First United
Methodist Church. He has
served as vice president of
the Gideons International.
Akers said he does not
plan to resign as president
of the Celina Chamber.
“I’ve already talked with
the chamber board and they
want me to stay and I want
to stay. I love that job that I
have and the participation,”
he said.
If elected, Akers plans to
hold coffees with voters in
four coffee shops — one in
Richardson, two in Plano
and one in Allen. He said he
is known for his affinity for
the enjoyment of coffee.
“Mostly,” he said, “I look
forward to hearing what
people have to say.
“I look forward to offering
my services to the voters of
House District 67.1 look for-
ward to any suggestions,
any offerings of help.”
Business hopes to become center of ‘food hub’
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Dallas-Fort Worth area
with a new distribution fa-
cility in Allen.
“I think the best part of
the fit is the community [in
Allen],” Arnold said. “It’s
very much a progressive
city and it seems like a pro-
gressive population, so
these are our core cus-
tomers and partners that
we want to have.”
It wasn’t just the cus-
tomer base that brought
Greenling to Allen. The
Allen Economic Develop-
ment Corporation (AEDC)
offered an incentive pack-
age to Greenling and will
partner with the company
to establish an expandable
“food hub” in and around
the 12,000-square-foot site
at Prestige Circle.
The hub will focus on
bringing tenants to the
area which specialize in
the storage and distribu-
tion of organic and local
food products, said Dan
Bowman, interim director
of the AEDC. Companies
can take advantage of their
proximity to one another
by sharing resources such
as storage facilities,
kitchens, equipment and
office space with one an-
other.
“We saw [Greenling] as
a way to really diversify
our employment base and
at the same time look at
sparking a local food hub,
which is ultimately the
goal in this area,” Bowman
said. “There are some
available buildings on
Prestige Circle, which is an
older area of Allen that’s
femor (:jiptng
AT HOME
by Laura R. Morris, M.S., CCC-SLP
SAFETY CHECK
Home healthcare aides can assist in helping eliminate fire hazards in their
senior clients’ homes. They can unplug any household appliances that emit a
smell or smoke, and be sure never to use appliances that have frayed or bro-
ken cords. They can check to be sure that extension cords are not overloaded
and are not located in high traffic areas. If the clients smoke, the aides can take
care to properly clean out all ashtrays. If clients have space heaters, aides can
check to be sure that they are placed three feet from combustible materials.
Keeping living areas free from fire hazards can help provide safe environments
for seniors who “age in place” at home.
Of course, fire hazards are a particular problem this time of year. But at
TRINITY PERSONAL CARE, we know that your loved one's safety is a big con-
cern all year round. Of course our caregivers take care of many everyday tasks,
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one isn't alone. If you have any questions, or would like to schedule an initial
interview, please call 214-547-7483 to make an appointment. Our address is
710 Century Parkway, Suite 150. Discover how we can help.
PS. Fire-related injuries to the elderly are primarily caused by cooking fires.
Visit our website at:
www.trinitvpersonalcare.net
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PHOTO COURTESY OF GREENLING
Greenling will deliver products to Dallas-Fort Worth homes starting Jan. 23. The online grocery
delivery service has partnered with 40 DFW-area farmers and food producers to deliver locally
sourced meats and produce to its customers.
been predominantly more
of a Light Industrial area.
We could see if bringing
Greenling would ultimately
lead to additional organic
and local food companies
coming in.”
So far, only one com-
pany, Local Yocal Farm to
Market of McKinney, has
taken up the offer and is
leasing 3,000 square feet of
the Greenling building for
a meat-cutting facility.
Local Yocal will at the same
time contract with Green-
ling and have its grass-fed,
hormone-free beef deliv-
ered to DFW homes
through the company
“The most attractive
thing, first off, is very at-
tractive lease rates,” said
Matt Hamilton, co-owner of
Local Yocal, in reference to
the food hub concept. “It’s
very reasonable. There’s
great access to [U.S.] 75 out
of that facility. It’s a large
space, so we can come in
and have a good square
footage.... The most attrac-
tive thing is being in-house
with Greenling. As they
build the 5,000-8,000
homes that they’re deliver-
ing to, those are going to be
target customers for us.”
So far, Greenling has
partnered with 39 other
DFW-area food producers
to distribute their products,
including Lavon Farms in
Plano, who briefly sold its
products through Green-
ling’s Austin operation be-
fore rekindling the
relationship in North Texas
this year.
“Local farmers have no
outlet for their products.
They’re too busy farming,”
said Todd Moore, co-owner
of Lavon Farm. “They can’t
deliver their products.
Mainstream grocery stores
will not carry their prod-
ucts. This could be a big
help to any kind of artisan
and their locally grown
products.”
Business concerns aside,
Moore said, the quality of
food produced by farms
such as his is the most im-
portant part of Greenling’s
approach — a view shared
by Arnold.
“We’ll have farmers that
will harvest at the break of
dawn and bring us product
mid-morning,” Arnold said.
“We pack it late morning
and early afternoon and it’s
on people’s doorsteps that
evening. The farmer’s mar-
ket is the only place to get
it that fresh, but obviously
the farmers market isn’t
bringing it to you. We can
turn that product around
faster than any grocery
store.”
Greenling hopes to hire
100 additional DFW-area
residents on top of its 47
existing employees over the
next two to four years,
Arnold said.
Greenling will start de-
livering to DFW homes
Jan. 23. For information,
visit www.greenling.com.
The Allen American was
unable to obtain the dollar
amount for the AEDC’s in-
centive package after re-
peated requests for
information.
Brooks thanks family,
supporters after victory
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
one reason or another,” he
said. “I know that Baine
will do a good job. I defi-
nitely don’t think that the
city or the residents lost in
this. Allen still got a good
candidate in Baine.”
Brooks said he is thank-
ful for the work of his sup-
porters.
“I want to say ‘thank
you’ to everybody for the
hard work; the hard work
of my campaign team, my
friends, my employees, and
most of all, my family,” he
said. “My wife and kids
were very supportive.”
While he has no imme-
diate plans of running
again, Hollingsworth said
this race will not be the last
for him.
“This is definitely not a
one-time thing for me,” he
said. “When the time is
right we will definitely call
on [our supporters’] help
again.”
Brooks will take his
oath of office at 4 p.m. on
Jan. 25 after the canvass-
ing of the election results
by the city council.
Police working to identify
AISD bomb threat caller
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
tary during the evacuation
and were allowed to return
to the area around 1:40
p.m.
Investigators with the
police department have in-
terviewed the person who
received the call, which
came from outside the city
of Allen, and are trying to
determine the identity of
the caller. No other cam-
puses were evacuated and
all other schools operated
on their normal schedule.
The Allen PD encour-
ages any person with any
person with information on
this incident to call the
criminal investigations
unit at 214-509-4239 or
text the keyword AL-
LENPD and their tip to
847411 (TIP411).
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Mann, Rick. The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 19, 2012, newspaper, January 19, 2012; Plano, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth808869/m1/4/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Allen Public Library.