VOL 5 No. 33
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
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Prayer meeting in memory of victims of Colorado, Wisconsin attacks On Friday, August 10, Friat the steps of Sugar Land City Hall a gathering took place to pray and pay respect to the victims of recent violence in Colorado and Wisconsin. Councilman Harish Jajoo spearheaded the meeting with a message from the Mayor and City Council of inclusion and respect for all faiths and people of all backgrounds. Sugar Land City Councilmen Himesh Gandhi and Harish Jajoo, left, with inter-faith leaders. He condemned the violence Top, community members attend the prayer meeting in front of City Hall at the Town Square. in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and in the Sikh tem- cans specially assembled to ex- pathy from leaders of many other identity. Councilman Himesh Ganple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. press their anguish at the tragic faiths including Hindus, Isdhi thanked the gathering for maili, Jews, and Christians. violence leading to the cold His message reflected dignity standing together in this difEach and every speaker deblooded murder of six devotees and celebration of the multifi cult time and said that the plored these acts of violence and critical injuries to others at ethnic community in the City leadership and citizens of Sugagainst innocent law abidthe Gurudwara. of Sugar Land and Fort Bend ar Land have these victims in ing people, regardless of their The meeting included County. their prayers and thoughts. faith, ethnicity, nationality or prayers, condolences and symMany caring Indian Ameri-
Missouri City Golfer sets record with Double Aces Rich Akin, right, had a grand day of golf this weekend featuring two “amazing” shots: two Holes-In-One. On Saturday, Aug. 11, Akin followed his regular play routine at Missouri City’s Quail Valley Golf Course. However, his monthly round with the Men’s Golf Association became one he will never forget. Playing on the La Quinta course, Akin made 2 Holes-In-One in 1 round of golf. The feat was accomplished on the par 3 5th and 13th holes. The odds of achieving his feat: 64 million to 1. “I had 16 bad holes and two amazing holes”, Akin said. QVGC General Manager and Head Golf Professional Tyson Stittleburg is excited about the news. “Most golfers are lucky to accomplish one Hole-In-One during their golfing career let alone two,” he said. “To have two in one round is almost unheard of.” Many of Akin’s playing companions suggested he purchase a lottery ticket to see if his luck could continue. “After the second one went in the hole he just stood there in a daze,” said witness Jim Willet. “The group did more celebrating than Rich did.”
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Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.
Missouri City may save its Metro deal By BARBARA FULENWIDER Missouri City, Katy and Humble may be able to keep their current deals with Houston Metro, or at the least, not lose money that now funds some mobility projects in those towns. This past Friday, the Metro board of nine passed a resolution which says “the city of Houston, Harris County and the 11 multi cities will have their funding cut to 25 percent of what they now collect.” Houston has five members on the metro board, Harris County has two and the multi cities have two. Until 2021, Harris County and the smaller cities that now have agreements regarding mobility with Houston’s Metro have the minority vote on that board. So for the next nine years, the board is tilted 5-4 in favor of Metro and Houston, which usually wins all the gold. Between now and then, Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen, told council at their Aug. 6 meeting, “I wish you knew how many hours and days I’ve spent dealing with this. I live and breathe it every day.” Owen explained that the cut means the city of Bellaire, which is a multi-city that currently sends $2 million to Metro from the sales taxes it collects will get $250,000 of that total returned, and Harris County, which currently sends $53 million from sales tax collections to Metro will be cut to $25 million. The good news is the “big three” -- Missouri City, Katy,
and Humble were left alone. The three largest towns of the 14 small entities in Metro negotiated a separate contract in 1994 to get a 50 percent return on the sales tax money they send Metro. Owen said, “All of the other cities and county were cut to 25 percent of the sales taxes they collect while the big three will get a disproportionate share but no dollar figure is there.” Owen said that after the resolution passed he e-mailed Metro’s chairman to ask if a disproportionate share still See METRO, Page 3
By SESHADRI KUMAR An unspecified number of voter registration cards mailed to voters in Pecan Grove and Cinco Ranch areas in Zip Codes 77406 and 77494 have not been delivered and the Fort Bend County Election Administration is likely to send replacement cards for them. About 45,000 cards were mailed to the two Zip Codes on March 30 and April 5. Whatever is the missing number of cards would be an educated guess, ranging from 18,000 to 25,000. Evelyn Montalvo of Richmond, said several in her neighborhood had not received voter registration cards as of May 10th. The cards were mailed out March 30th. On May 11th, she and a friend went to the Elections Office since “10 of 10 of us had not received cards which had necessitated requesting replacement cards.” Several Fort Bend County residents, notably three, Montalvo, Pat Snyder and Tomalea Bench, have been pursuing the missing cards since early May. They have done their own investigation and virtually knocked on the doors of all officials at the county, state and federal levels, but with limited success. They believe very little was done to investigate the matter by local officials in early stages. Fort Bend County Attorney Roy Cordes said his office has been apprised of the matter in mid-June.
Fort Bend County Elections Administrator John Oldham said he focused on investigating the matter in the first week of June, immediately after the May 29 primary elections. Though complaints were received in his office starting on May 11, a day before the local city and school board elections, his office issued replacement cards when requested. That was the established procedure. Oldham said his focus was on conducting the elections. When he began to look at the missing cards issue, “the genie was already out of the bottle,” he said. Oldham said he first received incorrect information from an official in Richmond post office to the effect that the (missing) cards were sent back to North Houston because Richmond did not have the facility to sort them and subsequently that information turned out to be wrong. Oldham said he has been in constant contact with the Secretary of State and the County Attorney. Cordes said the United States Postal Service, after its own investigation, has concluded that the post office had delivered all the cards it received and they had no cards in their possession. Cordes said USPS closed its investigation in the first part of July. He has sent a letter to the Department of Justice “advising” it of the situation. In view of the ongoing liti See CARDS, Page 3
Mike McKie named acting superintendent The Fort Bend Independent School District Board of Trustees voted at its meeting on Monday, August 13, to approve the appointment of Mike McKie, who currently serves as an assistant superintendent to perform the superintendent’s duties on an interim basis pending the district’s search for a new superintendent. “We are pleased that Mr. McKie has agreed to take on the role of acting superintendent,” FBISD President Jim Rice said. “We are confident in Mr. McKie’s ability to lead the District during this period of transition.”
The board approved the four individual attendance boundary changes for optimum building utilization within the district and grandfathering for the affected rising fifth graders at Oakland and Schiff Elementary Schools with a modification of one individual attendance boundary change to move students from Stonebrook at Riverstone from Schiff to Austin Parkway Elementary. The initial plan was to move the children to Palmer Elementary. The board also approved the opening of future elementary school #46 in the Aliana Development for August 2014.