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Inside Today: Rodeo Time in Houston • 11B

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Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North Houston

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MORE INSIDE An upcoming exhibition showcases 50 years of an artist’s work.

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HHA Board: No ofﬁcial ‘thank you’ to Carr By Michael Sudhalter

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The Houston Heights Association board appears to be conﬂicted over how to deal with the fallout from the Paul Carr wooden train controversy. On Monday night – more than three months since Carr installed the train in Donovan Park – the board discussed for approximately 15 minutes whether to send the 74-year-old lifelong Heights resident an ofﬁcial thank you note. They voted against it, with Leanne

At its monthly meeting, HHA said it will spend almost $6,000 to bring the train up to safety code in compliance with their insurance policy.

Mueller as the lone vote in favor of sending Carr an ofﬁcial letter of gratitude. Many board members were concerned with precedent, considering the board hasn’t written ofﬁcial thank you letters in the past. Another concern was

finding someone with the time to write multiple thank you notes to the association’s volunteers. Some board members pointed out that the board has recognized volunteers and donors in newsletters and during banquets, so an official thank you note may not be necessary. Carr said receiving an official letter “would be nice,” but he’s satisfied with the banner that children and their parents made for him in appreciation for the train. Carr said he and his wife, Mary, will

A higher calling made Tillie Wier a columnist By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com

Tommie Vaughn hosts soft opening Tuesday

Tommie Vaughn Ford on N. Shepherd Dr. will host a “soft opening” from 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 25 at its new office/showroom complex and service area at 1201 N. Shepherd. The grand opening won’t be held until August. The dealership’s iconic sign on N. Shepherd will remain even though the dealership has moved its offices a few yards northward. Tuesday’s event is being called the “Rockin’ Rodeo Party and Ribbon Cutting”, and attendees will get the opportunity to tour the new dealership. There will be a special BBQ kickoff celebration, with wine compliments of Vintners Own Winery, as well as appetizers. The Pat Gavin & the Buckaroo Band will perform country music, and rodeo mascots will be there, too.

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Saturday, February 22, 2014 • Vol. 60 • No. 16

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Before there were bloggers, there was Tillie Wier. The 90-year-old Garden Oaks resident was an 8-year-old girl when the Depression hit, but she maintained a rich inner life. “I learned to be creative, developing talents for my every desire,” she said. While sewing, drawing, and baking were all talents she cultivated, creative writing was not, so it is somewhat surprising to Wier that she now sends out more than 500 letters a month with her column – Happenings on the Way to Heaven – to an avid readership. She started to write the precursor to Happenings once or twice a year to share with family and friends. A Christian from age 14, she taught Sunday School for 40 years. Of the four men who proposed marriage to her, she chose Jack Wier who was stationed on a submarine in World War II before returning to serve as a Baptist deacon and fellow Sunday School teacher with his wife. They had three children and made great memories, traveling, bowling and playing Canasta before he died in 1996. “I’ve had a gloriously full, Godcentered, life,” said Wier. “Yes, there were problems, but God took care of them.” It was also God, according to Wier, who set her on her current mission in 1987 when she was a bookkeeper at her father’s paving contractor business. “I was sitting at my desk paying bills and writing checks, and God said ‘put your stories with those checks,’” she said. “I can’t write, I thought. What would I say to a bunch of strangers? I was in tears.” Wier’s brother, who ran the company, initially wasn’t crazy about the idea either but gave her the go-ahead. And for the next 312 months, up until the present day, Wier has sent out a monthly Happenings on the Way to Heaven.

By Michael Sudhalter Steve Winn, the corporate credit manager for Marek Brothers, has volunteered his time in a project that made the world a happier place for children halfway across the globe. Winn became involved with Project Playground, which takes playgrounds in the United States that are set to be discontinued, and moves and installs them to a nation in need of playgrounds. In the spring of 2012, Winn met Don Schrock, who asked if he’d be interested in moving a playground to a small village just outside the rainforest in Bolivia. “The thought of going on an-

See HHA, P. 3A

Fireﬁghters concerned about city’s lawsuit over pension Michael Sudhalter michael@theleadernews.com

Wier gets a kick out of some of her archived cartoons. (Photo by Betsy Denson)

She even went to community college to take writing classes in preparation of her goal: “The professor red inked everything I wrote.” The audience has changed over the years. Wier sends mailings to her church friends at Garden Oaks Baptist Church and family as well as an ever increasing circle of new friends

and acquaintances, including those in senior citizen homes who don’t get much mail. The content of her column, though, hasn’t changed. It is about God’s providence in her life and the lives of others – the “blessings in everyday living.” See Wier, P. 3A

Marek employee volunteer brings happiness with Playground Project michael@theleadernews.com

attend the HHA’s Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at the Heights Firehouse and after that, they’ll end their association with the Association. “It will be a little awkward, considering (the people) that ﬁred me will be running the show,” Carr said. Robert Woods, a new board member, said the board should move past such an “ofﬁcial letter” discussion. “It’s not a waste of time, but it’s close,” Woods said.

other mission trip excited me and the location even more so since I had never visited South America before,” Winn said. “Then there was the playground – the whole point of the trip – that sounded pretty neat, too. My thought was, ‘It will be so nice for those kids.’ I truly had no idea the kind of incredible impact I was about to experience.” The trip was delayed by two months, due to a worker’s strike at the Panama Canal, red tape from international customs and road conditions in Bolivia. “Our ﬁnal leg of the trip was on the oldest plane I’ve ever seen Steve Winn, an employee at Marek Brothers, helped up close, outside the World War bring smiles to the faces of children in Bolivia. (Submitted photo) See Playgorund, P. 3A

Houston Fire Department Captain Ty James doesn’t think he needs a pat on the back for saving people from burning buildings or supervising a staff at Station 15, 5306 N. Main St., in the Greater Heights. Nor is he a person who gets bogged down in the politics of city government. James, 49, simply wants to make sure he’ll be able to retire in 13 years and take care of his wife and two young children. Like many firefighters throughout the city, he’s nervous about the city’s lawsuit against the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF), which he’s paid into for 17 years. “It affects my whole future,” James said. “We don’t put into social security or anything like that. It’s on everybody’s mind. It’s very important to us.” It takes 10 years to get vested into the pension and after 20 years, firefighters can retire with 50 percent of their pay. It’s 65 percent after 25 years, and 80 percent after 30. According to current state law, a state-appointed actuary decides how much the city will contribute to the HFRRF. The current figure is 23.9 percent of HFD’s payroll. The city sued HFRRF, stating that the current process is unconstitutional. “The mayor’s position is very simple,” said Janice Evans-Davis, a spokesperson for Mayor Annise Parker. “She wants the ability to sit down at the table and discuss pension issues. There are no preconceived ideas.” Evans-Davis said the mayor hasn’t specified an amount on how much the city would contribute, but they’d like to be able to negotiate it, “to meet long-term retiree pension obligations.” In a statement announcing the lawsuit in Harris County state court last month, Parker said the city “is excluded from the important financial decisions about benefit levels and the contributions to support these benefits for its firefighter retirees. These decisions are made by boards controlled by current and retired firefighters who have an obvious conflict of interest.” HFRRF chairman Todd Clark said the pension board and firefighters are pleased with the status quo, and any negotiations with the city, formally known as “meet and confer” will adversely affect the pension. The mayor claims that the meet and confer process will help the city “meet the long-term retiree pension obligations”, but Clark disagrees. See Pension, P. 3A

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