Volume 62, Number 24
Azle News
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
THE
www.azlenews.net
Surviving the holiday season with GriefShare Page 2B “Eye of the Tiger”
Azle dominates at duals Page 10-11A
We feel the earth move under our feet 3.6 magnitude quake shakes area; 2.2 tremor follows a day later
A determined Austen Hutson heads to the mat after encouragement from Azle High School wrestling coach Chris Allen. Things didn’t work out for the young Hornet in this match, but Azle defeated FW Paschal and Euless Trinity in duals. Photo by Mark K. Campbell
King talks water, Medicaid, quakes BY NATALIE GENTRY Representative Phil King addressed several topics at a Springtown Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Right off, King cautioned listeners not to confuse Austin with Washington. In contrast to the political stonewalling in Washington that has led to a $17 trillion national debt, Texas has an $8 billion savings account or rainy day fund, he said. That is twice the amount of Oklahoma’s entire state budget. In fact, King said, that amount is more than lawmakers think the state requires as a safety net, so they are considering ways to best use the funds. King joked: Maybe buy Oklahoma?
ranked as one of the best states in which to do business, according to Chief Executive Magazine. In addition, Texas has kept the unemployment rate about a point below the national average for the last consecutive 82 months. King pointed out that there is growth in areas other than fossil fuels. “Motorola is building the first smart phone to be manufactured in the United States in its Fort Worth plant,” he said. “And Caterpillar has closed all nine international production plants and now builds all their engines in Texas.” King noted that the Texas legislature works to make the state business friendly and they have established a formula that will allow it to remain that way. “We’ve found that if we practice The state’s economy Kidding aside and despite the tight limited government and businesses economy, King assured those assem- have a certainty in regulations, a low bled that Texas is doing very well eco- tax base, a fair court system, and an educated workforce, people will find nomically. For nine years Texas has been PLEASE SEE WATER, PAGE 4A.
BY CARLA NOAH STUTSMAN On the heels of a pair of lunchtime tremors, the third earthquake that occurred Tuesday, Nov. 19 about 6:40 p.m. was the largest recorded since the shaking began Nov. 5. At 11:57 a.m. Tuesday, a 2.5 magnitude quake was recorded about a mile west of Reno. It was followed at 12:03 p.m. – six minutes later – with a 2.8 magnitude shaker one-half mile south of the city of Sanctuary. But even “veteran” quakers – those who have felt the majority of the quakes over these last two weeks – said there is no doubt the 3.6 magnitude quake that shook the area was the strongest so far. It was followed by a 2.2 magnitude tremor at 11:57 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20 centered 0.28 miles south of the intersection of Rhoades Lane and Charles Avenue in the Eagle Mountain View Addition off Sandy Beach Road. The location of that particular quake is also about one-half mile northeast of Azle High School. As of press time Friday, Nov. 22,
the United States Geological Survey (USGS) had recorded 12 earthquakes in North Texas since Nov. 5. All have occurred within about a 7.5-mile radius that includes the Azle, Reno, Sanctuary, Pelican Bay and Azle areas. Two of the tremors occurred just east of Eagle Mountain Lake – one near Haslet and one near East Peden Road near Saginaw. Many people in the area blame the fracturing process utilized by the oil and gas drilling industry – commonly called “fracking” – for the quakes. TCU prof weighs in But Helge Alsleben, associate professor of geology at Texas Christian University, says the fracturing process itself – which breaks up the rocky subsurface – usually causes micro-earthquakes that are very, very minute. While the earthquakes experienced in the area have all been relatively weak, especially when compared with tremblers on the West Coast, they are much stronger than those caused by PLEASE SEE SHAKEDOWN, PAGE 2A.
Social media rumbled too when the earthquakes hit. On Facebook, some posters said they felt it from Outreach of Love church all the way to River Oaks and around Eagle Mountain Lake. They said the quakes were “a strong rumble” and “like someone had run into the house!” Another person noted that it was like a straight line wind smashing into the front of the house. One reported that a clock fell off the wall in their house and another said she had cracks in her wall now. People felt it in Briar, Saginaw, and Springtown, in Keller, Boyd, and I-35 and Western Center Blvd. Also on Knob Hill Road, Eagle Mountain View housing edition, Redbud, Liberty School Road, North Stewart Street, Veal Station Road, Oak Harbor, and at the Azle Library where the book club meeting was breaking up. Cresia O’Donald said, “I was in the B.J. Clark Building with my three kids for their karate class when we felt the whole place shake.” Mary Johnson noted that Duane Johnson said, “Wow, I thought something hit the house!” Priscilla Drew said she was in bed typing on her laptop when her house began to shake “like it had landed on a spring.” All that social activity came from a 3.6 magnitude earthquake. Imagine the cyber-hubbub if we get a bigger one…
AISD leads in tech, academics Azle schools show Region 11 ‘what it looks like’ BY CARLA NOAH STUTSMAN Sometimes it’s the city. Sometimes it’s the schools. Sometimes it’s the people. Sometimes it seems Azle just gets a bad rap for a lot of things. Most often, the negativity comes from people who may not necessarily have all the facts. But there are some people talking about Azle who know exactly what they’re talking about, and the talk is nothing but good. On Friday, Nov. 15, two classrooms in the Azle Independent School District (AISD) were “wired for sound” in order to present their lessons to the entire staff at the Region 11 Education Service Center (ESC11) in Fort Worth. Two AISD teachers – Amy Tong, a fourth grade teacher at Walnut Creek Elementary and Misty White, who teaches seventh grade science at Forte Junior High – were asked to teach their regular classes for the day. What happened next astounded the Region 11 staff. Teela Watson, Director of Digital
Learning for ESC11, explained that, through the use of current technology, a small camera was hung from the ceiling in a room at ESC11 where its staff of 150 – everyone from secretaries to the executive director – had gathered to watch and participate in the live, twoway audio-visual conference. “We service 77 school districts, from the Fort Worth ISD all the way to sixman football-size districts, and we are in and out of those districts every day,” Watson said. “What this (Azle) district is doing is nothing short of amazing, and it’s so exciting to see.” Watson said many on staff at ESC11 possess Masters degrees and even doctorate degrees, and almost all have backgrounds as building leaders and/or curriculum people. “For many of us, that means we really don’t get to see kids anymore,” Watson said. “That’s why we wanted them to see an example of top notch teaching and learning in classrooms.” When AISD Curriculum Director Tanya Anderson learned what ESC11 was looking for, she told Watson there
were a couple of teachers in Azle she ought to consider. “I didn’t hesitate, and there was no reason to preview the classes,” Watson said. “Because in our world, Azle is known as ‘excellence in academics.’” When the teaching began, the ESC11 staff had a bird’s eye view into Azle’s classrooms. They watched a 25 minute lesson, took a 20-minute break, and then viewed a second lesson. Amy Tong’s fourth graders are learning about the explorers who sailed in search of the New World. “She (Tong) was not standing in front of them lecturing – her students were paired up, creating and working,” Watson said. “They knew exactly what their goal was.” One boy was using an application called MineCraft to create replicas of the ships the explorers sailed on. When he was asked by an ESC11 staffer, during the live conference, how that technology helped him learn about the explorers, he replied “It helped me understand if these ships hadn’t been PLEASE SEE ACADEMICS, PAGE 3A.
Two Wheeled Trouble
Wednesday, Nov. 20 proved to be not the best of days for motorcycle riders in Azle. A woman was injured when she laid her bike down in the 900 block of Boyd Road just after 5 p.m. At 9:05 p.m., a 22-year-old man refused transport to a hospital after the motorcycle he was riding struck a large dog in the 600 block of SH 199 eastbound. The bike caught fire and burned an 80-foot strip of grass beside the highway. The dog was pronounced dead at the scene. Photo by Carla Noah Stutsman
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Azle, Texas 76020