April 8th - April 12th, 2015
SugarLandWineandFoodAffair.com VOL 8 No. 13
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Sugar Land Rotary donates to Literacy Council
The 2015 FBJSL Spring Fling Committee, along with presenting sponsor, Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital, is finalizing all of the details for the “A Red Carpet Affair” which will take place on Saturday, April 11, 2015 at Skeeters Constellation Field Insperity Club. The cocktail chic event will include a seated dinner, casino, live auction, Champagne and Diamonds raffle, wine and spirits pull, bid board, dancing and the opportunity to knock one out of the park from home plate at Constellation Field. (L-R): FBJSL President Debbie Buckner, Spring Fling Chair Ashley Van Hoozer, Commissioner James Patterson, Radio Personality Michele Fisher, FBJSL Board Liaison Mimi Zaybak, Honorary Chair Carl Favre, Hope for Three Events Coordinator Christina Guerra, Hope for Three Executive Director Katie Wiseman, Honorary Chair Mary Favre and Memorial Herman Sugar Land Hospital CEO Greg Haralson. Visit www.fbjsl.com. Proceeds from this year’s event will benefit Hope for Three Autism Advocates and the FBJSL Community Assistance Fund. The Sugar Land Rotary donated $30,000 to the Literacy Council of Fort Bend to fund a GED project at Fort Bend ISD’s Ridgemont Early Childhood Center. The donation will help fund the project for the next five years. Executive Director Kelli Metzenthin and Outreach and Program Coordinator Tammie Rankin accepted the donation on behalf of the Literacy Council. The Sugar Land Rotary donation will fund five years of teacher compensation (at $5,000 per year) and scholarship awards ($1,000 per year for five years). The Literacy Council presents an annual $1,000 scholarship to a student who received the GED tutoring and obtained his/her GED. The scholarship assists the recipient with tuition costs at a college, junior college or vocational school. Pictured, Mitchel Rahim, left, Sugar Land Rotary Vice President; Kelli Metzenthin, Executive Director, Literacy Council of Fort Bend County; Dr. Charles Dupre, FBISD Superintendent of Schools; Tammie Rankin, Outreach and Program Coordinator, Literacy Council of Fort Bend County; and Patrick Bullard, Sugar Land Rotary President.
Performing arts center on Texas Parkway By BARBARA FULENWIDER Missouri City council members approved two resolutions at their last March meeting and both are likely to bring more dollars to the city. The first approval was of an economic development agreement between the city and TC Houston Development to make improvements to 119.87 acres in Park Eight-90 Business Park being developed by Trammel Crow. The second resolution passed authorized Casmik
Company of Sugar Land to develop a performing arts center on almost 8 acres of land on Texas Parkway. Park Eight-90 is near the intersection of Beltway 8 and U.S. 90A. This past September council approved the rezoning of the land and this past March the city’s economic development committee considered various funding proposals to make the deal possible. Terms of the agreement between the city and TC Houston Development say that within
36 months the developer must have at least 250,000 square feet of rentable area of industrial buildings on the ground and that the maximum reimbursement for the publicly owned infrastructure (road, street, water and drainage) will be $7 million plus interest. Joe Esch, economic development director for Missouri City, told council that if the taxable value of the development exceeds $37.5 million, the city will reimburse the cost See ARTS, Page 3
‘Turnaround specialist’ Wallace calls it a day
By SESHADRI KUMAR Former Sugar Land Mayor and embattled developer David G. Wallace has filed for personal bankruptcy under Chapter 7 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District, in Houston. According to the filing on March 24, Wallace lists estimated debt of $10 million to $50 million and estimated assets of $500,000 to $1 million. He also estimates his number of creditors at 200 to 999. The filing includes 46 pages of creditors, including the city of Joplin and numerous companies and individuals in different parts of the country. As a “turnaround specialist,” Wallace claimed to have created hundreds of companies. He used to explain away the plethora of insolvent and bankrupt companies he was involved in as a result of work-
ing with these “turnaround” companies. The man who began his foray into business with a personal bankruptcy in 1988 in Dallas, presided over the perishing of many more companies, almost perfected the art of bankruptcy into a lucrative business model, rose to fame as a turnaround expert, has now come round the full circle. When he was the mayor of Sugar Land, Wallace had defaulted on a $77,000 bank note, but nobody thought it was an issue for the charismatic mayor who spread his tentacles through the U.S. Conference of Mayors and became a member of the Homeland Security Task Force. Now that Wallace has thrown in the towel, does it mean he walks away scot free from his liabilities?
Under ordinary circumstances, that may be possible. He may escape paying back his credit card charges and his homestead may be safe. He may be discharged from paying alimony to his ex-wife. Whether major debtors like the city of Joplin, the Federal Exchange Commission or the more than 50 investors who have already sued him in Houston federal court will leave him alone is doubtful. At least, there will be lengthy bankruptcy court proceedings as debtors seek to advance their claim. A day after Wallace filed for bankruptcy, the city of Joplin filed a lawsuit claiming damage of $1.5 million from Wallace and his business associates and the city alleged fraud in this lawsuit.
Local committee to grant diploma if student fails at high school By SESHADRI KUMAR The Texas Senate has adopted SB 149 a bill relating to alternative methods for satisfying certain public high school graduation requirements, including the use of individual graduation committees, and sent the bill to the House last week. Even though a student may have failed the end of course exams in a couple of subjects, the local committee may declare the candidate eligible for the diploma under certain conditions. Kell Seligar and Donal Huffines, both Republican senators, and Sylvia Garcia, Eddie Lucio, Jose Rodrigues and Rouce West, Democrats, are the sponsors of the bill. Approximately 28,000 students will not graduate in 2015 because of the failure to pass one or more STAAR end-of-
course exams. In many cases, these students have passed all of the related coursework and only one or more STAAR exams are holding them back. Without a high school diploma, a student cannot attend college, cannot join the military, and in many cases will not even qualify for a minimum wage job. S.B. 149 is modeled after the “grade placement committees” implemented under the Student Success Initiative grade advancement requirements. It establishes an individual graduation committee for each student who fails to pass an endof-course assessment after two attempts. Each committee consists of the principal, teacher, school counselor, and parent and will consider multiple factors related to the student’s academic
success, including grades in relevant coursework and overall attendance rate. A school district shall provide an appropriate translator, if available, for the appropriate person who is unable to speak English. A student’s individual graduation committee established under this section shall recommend additional requirements by which the student may qualify to graduate, including: additional remediation; and for each end-of-course assessment instrument on which the student failed to perform satisfactorily: (A) the completion of a project related to the subject area of the course that demonstrates proficiency in the subject area; or (B) the preparation of a portfolio of work samples in the subject area of See DIPLOMA, Page 3