VOL 3 No. 16
Phone: 281-980-6745 PRSRT STD
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U.S. POSTAGE PAID STAFFORD, TX PERMIT NO.10
FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010
Birds of Fort Bend
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Stafford councilman Smith plans to resign By BARBARA FULENWIDER After six years on Stafford City Council, Jeff Smith plans to resign by the end of April “for personal reasons.” Those reasons, he said, are “to relocate to be closer to my mother. We bought a home on the same street she lives on. She enjoys where she lives so instead of her coming out here I need to come to her. It’s a far more personal move than it is a professional.” Smith said he wasn’t going to resign from council “until I sold my home in Stafford,” which is built just the way he wanted it and which he thought he would retire in. He said the house went on the market in mid-March and even though he expected it to take six months to a year to sell “within three weeks I had several offers and it sold.”
The councilman expects to be moved out by April 30 and that his last Stafford City Council meeting will be April 21. He said he’ll turn in his resignation letter between April 21 and May 1. “Being on city council is a large commitment because of all the committee meetings. There are some weeks that I don’t have a free Monday through Thursday – there’s something every night. I would do it again. I think it’s important that people give back to the communities they live in and take from.” Smith also said, “The really neat thing about Stafford is we’re (councilmen) all pretty conservative. We not only don’t have a property tax we’re all about being debt free. Our citizens are very conservative and hard working and
believe that if council is going to spend money, then spend it wisely. We don’t spend it unless we think there’s an absolute need. “Emotionally, I hate to leave. I’m sick about it but intellectually it’s the right thing to do,” said Smith. “We’ve been in Stafford for
Spring and fall migratory birds are coming back and the Summer Tanager is the only all red bird in North America. It lives in southern forests and further west along creeks and streams and that’s where you’ll likely see them in Fort Bend. You may have mistaken a Summer Tanager for a Cardinal, but the Tanagers do not come to feeders, but will occasionally come for fruit. What they eat are Wasps and Bees. They catch their prey in flight and beat them against a woody limb, remove the stinger and dine. They also like Mulberry fruit. Summer Tanagers winter in Central and Northern South America. Like all birds that fly long distances, they put on fat to “fuel the journey.” They breed in the southern U.S. in the summer and like “gaps” near creeks and woodlands for nests. The female is a striking color contrast. To see more pictures of Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, visit http://traction.typepad. com/birds/ Photograph copyright Margaret Sloan.
By SESHADRI KUMAR With less than five percent of the registered voters participating in the democratic process, Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey won his re-election in the April 13 runoff of the Republican Party primary by a margin of 515 votes. Healey with 6,685 votes or 52 percent of the votes polled, defeated challenger Nina Schaefer, who got 6,170 votes or 48 percent. Healey has no opponent in
The 2010 Heritage Award recently presented to Willie Ann McColloch is on display through the month of May at the Genealogy and Local History Department at Fort Bend County Libraries’ George Memorial Library in Richmond. McColloch was co-recipient of the annual award with her colleague Virginia Scarborough. The Heritage Award is given by the Fort Bend County Historical Commission to a person or organization whose achievements in historical preservation best exemplify the commission’s goal of promoting historic and cultural sites in the county for the purpose of developing and sustaining heritage tourism and identifying archaeological sites and collections. The award features a statue of an eagle cast in bronze with gold accents. The sculpture was designed by French artist Jules Moigniez in the mid-1800s. The base of the award, which forms an outline of Fort Bend County, was designed and created by Bert Bleil, chairman of the Fort Bend County Historical Commission. McColloch and Scarborough, along with other library staff and volunteers, spent in-
ment was published in 2004, and another supplement is currently being assembled. The project has evolved into an online database of obituaries collected from local newspapers. Most of the obituaries were ones that appeared in the Fort Bend Herald, although some obituaries appeared in issues of the Houston Chronicle that were donated by volunteers. The database also includes public death records from the Fort Bend County courthouse. The database, which may be accessed from the Fort Bend County Libraries website, provides quick and easy Internet access for people who are searching for family history information in Fort Bend County from anywhere in the world. For more information, call 281-341-2677.
the November general election and is thus poised for another four-year term. Healey faced two challengers in the March primary and faced the wrath of a committed group of adversaries from the west side of the county. The ballot boxes from the west side clearly favored Schaefer, while Healey won with the support of the east side voters. In his speech on election night, Healey alluded to the “agenda” of the Rosenberg newspaper which aggressively campaigned to oust him and said he won in spite of what
the Fort Bend Herald wrote. Chris Elam, a political consultant, who worked in Healey’s campaign, said Healey in winning the runoff, achieved something that no other incumbent has done in modern, GOP-controlled political history in Fort Bend County. County Judge Mike Rozell was defeated in a runoff by Jim Adolphus in 1998. Constable Hal Werlein was defeated in a runoff by Troy Nehls in 2004. Commissioner Tom Stavinoha was defeated in a runoff by Greg Ordeneaux in 2008. “In fact, you have to go
The HCC Southwest Spring Juried Student Art Exhibition will open on Thursday, April 22 with a reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event will be held in the Greenbriar Annex Gallery located at 13645 Murphy Road, Suite 250, in Stafford. The opening reception is free to the public and the exhibit may be viewed by appointment through noon, Thursday, May 5. HCC Southwest Art Faculty will be judging this year’s exhibit. The student works will be presented in the categories of painting, drawing, life drawing, 2D design, digital art, printmaking, photography, ceramics, jewelry, and sculpture. There will be awards given during the evening along with Best of Show Award. “Our semi-annual student show gives both art students and the community the opportunity to see the wide variety of art pieces that are produced here at HCCSouthwest,” says Kristy Peet, art professor and gallery coordinator.
HCC Southwest jewelry instructor, Martha Ferguson, helps a student with her piece for the exhibition. For an appointment or Clara Thibeaux at 713-718more information, contact 6370.
See SMITH, Page 5
Healey ekes out victory in the runoff with poor voter turnout
Heritage award for historical preservation
McColloch numerable hours over a period of many years gathering information on cemeteries and gravesites in Fort Bend County and documenting them in a multi-volume reference set entitled Registry of Cemeteries in Fort Bend County, Texas, which was published in 1997 and is housed in the Genealogy and Local History Department of George Memorial Library. A supple-
Smith
20 years,” he said of himself and his wife, who are now empty nesters. “I built my bank branch (Houston Community Bank) here and my home here for 11 years. This came up and it’s the right thing to do. I will still work here at the Stafford branch, I’m just not spending the night here any more.” Smith’s first term on council was for one year because the city’s new home rule charter added a council person. In 2004, Smith was elected for a one-year term and in 2005, 2007 and 2009 was elected to two-year terms. To fill Smith’s term, which expires in 2011, council will have to call a special election for November. Mayor Leonard Scarcella
all the way back to the April 12, 1994 Republican Primary Runoff, to find a single instance of an incumbent winning re-election in these circumstances,” Elam said. That incumbent was none other than Healey, who defeated Frank Briscoe, to win re-election to the job that he had been appointed to fill the previous year.” (Briscoe withdrew from the runoff.) In the Pct. 1 Justice of the Peace, Place 2 race, incumbent Gary Geick lost to Mary Ward. She will face Democrat R. J. Blue in November.
Spring Juried Student Art Exhibition at HCC Southwest in Stafford
Looking at the whole you. Just one of the many advantages of having a medical home with a Primary Care Physician. Call 713.222.CARE or visit memorialhermann.org.
10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 www.fbindependent.com Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor 281-980-6745 Fort Bend Independent is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodical postage application pending. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.