Community service gw mirror 2017 by Gladewater Mirror

GREEN Up & CLEAN Up Gladewater Gladewater Mirror Community Service Weekly Newspaper One of the things we are most proud of is the Gladewater Mirror's community involvement. For the past three years we have used barrels of ink to promote the cleanup and beautification of the City of Gladewater. Those barrels of ink have turned out to be highly effective. Last year we attacked eyesores and dangerous abandoned buildings near schools that resulted in many being demolished. We built on that success this year by continuing the push as well as focusing the community's attention on what they could do as individuals and businesses to aid in beautification, recycling and citywide cleanup events. Through the newspaper's efforts two TXDOT Green Ribbon awards of $110,000 and over $50,000 were secured and completed in 2017. The first grant was focused at the city's western entry point at the city airport and across Highway 271 at the city's entry sign. There were three bed plantings on the city's entry south loop all located near the new Gladewater Middle School and the renovated Weldon Elementary School. Those sites were chosen to encourage students to expect and protect beautiful surroundings. We are working on changing the culture of our economically deprived community. All of the plantings are in concrete bordered beds that were designed by professionals as a part of the Green Ribbon awards. The newest plantings were placed at the crossroads of Highway 80 and the loop on the eastern entry point to enhance business areas. And the last 2017 planting was located at the intersection of Highway 271 and the northern loop entry point. Coowner of the Gladewater Mirror Suzanne Bardwell was responsible for securing the Green Ribbon awards. A native planting grant secured by Bardwell for the Gladewater Museum's fire truck exhibit has been maintained and nurtured by community volunteers who have followed the progress of beautification in the newspaper as well as keeping the historic downtown area litter free. The Gladewater Mirror has also partnered with the Gladewater Garden Club to sponsor a Yard of the Month with a sign to that effect. A picture of the Yard of the Month is run in color in the newspaper with a greatly reduced ad rate and through

the support of Vital Earth, a global soil and fertilizer plant headquartered in Gladewater. The goal is to promote pride in neighborhoods throughout the community. The paper has been instrumental in keeping the heat on the city council to not let eyesores such as burned out buildings continue to stand over long periods of time. Last year the paper was instrumental in the support of strengthening city ordinances concerning low cost housing. The Gladewater Mirror also participates actively as individuals and as a business in the two citywide cleanup days. The Mirror promotes citizen recycling monthly and posts reminders in the paper in the two weeks each month before the event. We also feature pictures of volunteers each month and a series of pictures for the two annual heavy citywide cleanup/recyling days. Newspaper co-owner Jim Bardwell is also a regular volunteer in the recycling efforts. As a result of the coverage there is a bit of a status symbol to this volunteerism. It hasn't fallen off a bit since we have been doing this. The volunteerism has extended to the schools with the Gladewater Middle School Junior Honor Society adopting the south loop in its clean up efforts and Gladewater High School adopting the neighborhoods around the high school. Adult volunteers, church groups and civic organizations are busy with the Gladewater Mirror's AdoptA-Spot program in areas they have committed to keep litter picked up. In addition there have been large-scale efforts where economically disadvantaged areas of the community have had local volunteer crews come in and clean whole lots, including clearing brush and carrying off refuse. These efforts have been covered in the newspaper. Suzanne serves as chairman of the Gladewater Beautification Board and regularly uses the platform of her weekly column to encourage community members to participate in the efforts to beautify, recycle and clean up Gladewater. She and newshound Jack are often seen picking up litter downtown on the daily walks. In addition to the print and e-edition coverage we give to these projects we also post pictures on the Gladewater Mirror's Facebook and website to encourage community participation. These efforts have made a difference and it seems the culture is beginning to change with the big helping of increased pride in the community and more extensive volunteerism.

Recycling 2nd Saturday of each month at City Hall

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Gusher Days just 1 week away

Listen up! Clear your calendar next weekend - because the 32nd Annual East Texas Gusher Days festival is rolling into the downtown area April 14-15. Check out next week’s Gladewater Mirror Gusher Days special issue so you won’t miss out on all the times for local signing by Gladewater school children, as will as up to date information about this year’s carnival rides and games, the annual sampling all the top-rated chili cookoff offerings, browsing all the arts and crafts vendors lined up and down the brick streets and US 271, and kicking up your heels at the street dance and trying your luck at karaoke. East Texas Gusher Days President Nick Foster said this year’s festival should be one of the biggest ever. “We expect to have over 70 vendors with arts and crafts and food vendors combined. The biggest ‘new’ thing will be the new layout with vendors extending up 271 north,” Foster said. Motorists should be aware this year Gusher Days will have US 271 through downtown closed on Saturday April 15. This will continue all day and is for the overall safety Continued on Page 12

Vol. 76, No. 14

1 Section, 12 pages

50¢

Gladewater’s new Youth Baseball and Softball Complex was dedicated Saturday, April 1. Gladewater City council members Chris Bland, Dennis Robertson, Mayor Harold Wells and Elijah “Sonny” Anderson threw out the first pitch at the $2.3M complex which includes seven fields. See more opening day photos inside. Photo by Jim Bardwell

Sheriff Webb tells East Mountain it’s hurting

BY PHILLIP WILLIAMS Correspondent E A S T M O U N TA I N - Upshur County Sheriff Larry Webb told a March 28 town hall that the city of East Mountain is “hurting,” and that its city council needs to choose one of three options for law enforcement in its city limits. They include having a full-

time local police department, contracting with Upshur County to receive more protection by his office than it gives unincorporated rural areas, or dissolving the police force and receiving the same coverage Webb’s office gives such areas. The city’s police force had recently been suspended

before the city settled five lawsuits filed against it by various plaintiffs. The city denied accusations made against former Police Chief Betty Wilson (who resigned in early March) in at least one of the suits, and within hours after the March 13 settlement, the city council appointed Matthew Graham as interim police chief

Meals on Wheels Mayor’s Day shines light on need By Suzanne Bardwell The blues were playing on Travis Jones’ radio when he was served his hot lunch and cold milk by Gladewater Mayor Harold Wells and Tyler District Meals on Wheels representative Kristi Bellamy. Hot on their heels was KLTV photojournalist Doug Murray who was spotlighting the region-wide community service program for Channel 7’s evening news. Meals on Wheels is the well-known program that ensures that hot meals are served to shut-ins several days a week depending on available drivers and need. Although the “Mayor’s Delivery Day” is observed in many of the 30 cities in the Tyler district, Wells takes particular pleasure in the observance. “I know most of the people on the route,” he said. “I just wish I had time to visit with all of them. Some of them are existing, trying to get through their day. A lot of them are just lonely.”

Pothole of the Week ...

E X I F

Kudos to the hard working city workers who fixed this stretch of street found near the intersection of Miller and Center streets.

Any way you slice the intersection of Cotton and Pacific streets if you have a vehicle that rides low to the street it scrapes. The street needs patching as well in the block before Pacific Street.

and the town’s only officer. In listing the three options, Webb told the nighttime town hall of about 75-80 citizens at the East Mountain Baptist Church gymnasium that “It’s your decision as to what do you want. . .I’m not going to make this decision for you.” Later in the 95-minute meeting, he added, “I have a

community in my county that is hurting. That’s why I’m here. . .I’m just trying to give you options,” not “influence” anyone. “I’m not asking anything from y’all,” Webb said. “East Mountain’s hurting and we need to move forward. . .Let’s start getting the East Mountain back Continued on Page 5

On the route covered for “Mayor’s Day” 26 deliveries were made in a little over an hour. “When they aren’t there we put a slip on the door,” Bellamy said. “Often they have left a note to leave the meal with a neighbor if they are at a doctor’s appointment or something of that nature.” Of the 26 deliveries two did just that. Several of the deliveries were at public housing, some to rental properties and some to brick residences. The food is provided for those who have difficulty getting out, not necessarily economic need. The volunteers delivering the hot lunches were often eagerly met by the recipients. Maddie Green was enjoying the sunshine from her porch when her meal was delivered. When Wells offered to take it in the house for her she had a ready reply. Meals on Wheels shut-in Travis Jones is served a hot “No sir, I am going to eat it right now, right here.” meal and a cold milk by Mayor Harold Wells on the The desire to help meet the needs of shut-ins motivated annual Mayor’s delivery day. Photo By Suzanne Bardwell Continued on Page 6

Spring cleanup, recycling planned for this Saturday

Its Spring and that means its time to spruce up around the house and business. This Saturday the City of Gladewater will be hosting its annual citywide cleanup effiort. Residents may deposit bulky, household garbage and items into dumpsters located along E. Commerce St, downtown Gladewater during the annual cleanup. Prohibited items include paint, shingles, batteries, chemicals, refrigeration items and commercial waste. The City of Gladewater will also provide curbside pick-up for any disabled and senior citizens, as available. To schedule this complimentary service please call: Gladewater Public Works: 903-845-2586 no later than 12 noon on Friday, April 7th. The monthly recycling program, held the second Saturday of each month at City Hall, also will be underway from 8 a.m. to noon. Your help is needed to keep our community clean. Volunteers will be meeting at the Ken Bennett Pavilion on E. Pacific at 8 a.m. where they will be dispersed to help in parks and neighborhoods in Gladewater. Trash bags will be provided. The Gladewater Chamber of Commerce and GEDCO are sponsoring a free Hotdog Lunch at noon for all volunteers. And out in the county, Upshur County will be hosting a

free “County Wide Cleanup Days” this Saturday at the city of Gilmer’s former dumpster site on Carnation Road near Gilmer, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Vehicle registration (windshield stickers with “Upshur” on them) will be required as proof that participants reside in Upshur County. Users are limited to two trips and the event is only for residential items as businesses are not allowed. Examples of items which may be dumped, said Gentry, are old furniture, old lawn mowers, damaged lamps, damaged musical instruments, old gardening equipment, tools, chain saws, bicycles, wheelbarrows, old clothing, normal garbage and rusted-out barrels. Items which may not be dumped are chemicals, liquids, brush, paint, shingles, asbestos, construction material, tires, Freon and5parts of burned buildings. Those with questions should call 903-680-8155 or 903-790-1741 before the event. And on the state level, the Don’t mess with Texas Trash-Off the nation’s largest one-day statewide litter cleanup event - will be held Saturday, as well. The Trash-Off is part of TxDOT’s litter prevention program, which includes Don’t mess with Texas, Adopt-a-Highway and a grassroots partnership with Keep Texas Beautiful.

Page 6, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Pritchett News

The monthly Upshur County Hospital Auxiliary meeting will be held on April 11 at Bubba’s across from Robroy Industries on Highway 271. All members are encouraged to be there.

permanent school districts were organized and given a name, boundaries and number. At that time there were 45 schools in this county. In 1905 schools were empowered to vote bonds to build school buildings and buy equipment. Porter Click says he saw the This was a great step forward. first Purple Martin on Monday, March 27th. That is four days In 1907 the State Legislature early but considering the warm required counties with over weather maybe the Martins 3000 scholastics to have a decided to come vacation until County Superintendent. Mr. nest building time. Porter says A.F. Shepperd was appointed the Martins will need the extra first County Superintendent. days to evict the Starlings who T h e n c a m e B . B . E l d e r, have taken over the Martin A . L . B r a d f i e l d , G r a d y house. Just as a note, almost McPeek, Maude Palmer, O.J. all birds are protected. One Beckworth, Fred Covin, Frank exception is the Starling which Smith, Jesse Denson, Harlan is probably what the Martins Thacker and Norman C. Tuel. tell the Starlings come eviction From about 1907 to about time. 1930 the population of Upshur County increased rapidly WORDS OF WISDOM: because as a rule there were You can’t live a perfect day from 6 to 12 children per without doing something for family, and cotton was king. someone who will never be Schools grew from one teacher able to repay you. to 4 and 6. Schools were graded, books were furnished. Thought for the day: Tact is Extra-curricular activities were the ability to shut your mouth increased. before someone else decides to do it for you. The Interscholastic League This week we will start on was established with nearly Chapter IV of A History of every school participating in Upshur County, Texas, by spelling, declamation, essay Doyal T. Loyd. Mr. Loyd was writing, debating, boys’ and a prominent teacher among girls’ basketball, and track. other professions of Upshur County and spent his entire life In the early 1920’s, 39 here. He thanks Mrs. Geneva schools in Upshur County Spencer Venn for typing most were members of the League. of this book for the printer. The old County Meet was held for three days in the spring E D U C A T I O N I N with all the schools competing TRANSITION: About 1903 in most of the events.

lON6VIEW TRADES DAYS

April 8th - 9th

____� FREE Parking! FREE Admission! ......__.__.,__ Longview Fairgrounds 1123 Jaycee Drive, Longview, TX Trade Days Hours of Operation: Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Sunday 10:00 am - 4:00 pm May 13-14 June 10-11 July 8-9 Aug. 12-13

Sept. - Fair Oct. 14-15 Nov. 11-12 Dec. 9-10

Next month:

For Booth Rental, Contact:

Phone: 903-753-4478, Fax: 903-753-5452

By Brenda Johnson 903-734-5142 From three to five thousand Ore City, and Union Hill. people would attend the County meet held in Gilmer. COUNTY BOARDS: This was a great event in the In 1911 the state passed a lives of the youngsters. law permitting counties to establish a system of county Upshur County produced boards of education to classify some of the finest basketball schools and to consolidate two teams in the state. The rural or more districts to form rural schools had only 8 or 9 grades, high schools. so the children who aspired to higher education and were The commissioners’ court financially able came to Gilmer, appointed the following men: but not by school buses. They J.M. Perdue, W.H. McNair, boarded or furnished their own H.L. Sewell, W.F. Shrum, and transportation. P.K. Williams. About 1930 the great economic depression gripped the area. The price of cotton fell to a low of 5 cents a pound. It was then that Upshur County people left by the thousands and all of the youngsters, practically, went to the cities. Upshur County population dropped from 30,000 to 20,000, with a great majority of those left being people of the upper age bracket. Scholastic population dropped, therefore, causing schools to lose teachers. Then they were forced to consolidate. All schools bought school buses and by 1949 the former 55 school districts were reduced to approximately 13. All except a few of these were high schools. There are only 8 now. All operate twelve grades. These school districts are Gilmer, Big Sandy, East Mountain, Union Grove, Harmony, New Diana,

done their utmost to raise the Enon, Peach, Honey Creek and standards of education in the others in Wood Co. formed county, thereby rendering a what is now Harmony School great service. Union Ridge, Poor Creek, THE CONSOLIDATION Nix Chapel, Cox, Concord STORY: In 1884 there were 41 and Lafayette formed Union community schools in Upshur Ridge. They had a fine school County and the average school there for a number of years, term was two and one-half but now they are consolidated months. with Gilmer, except Lafayette, which went to Pittsburg. Also August 10, 1891, the first Fairview, Lone Mountain, recorded consolidation of Indian Rick, Kelsey and Enoch schools was held. Diana and have joined Gilmer. Gum Creek schools combined and formed Emory School. Independent Springs, In 1917 the board was This building was just west of N e w s o m , C o f f e e v i l l e , composed of J.M. Perdue, the present Graceton Church Boxwood, Cedar Springs and E.H. Brawley, G.H. Baird, J.F. of Christ. Ore city formed Ore City. Taylor, and W.R. Stephens. In 1921, W.A. Phillips, J.F. In 1903 there were 45 Graceton, Ashland, James, Taylor, G.H Baird, A.A. schools and during the 1913- Stamps became New Diana. Harrison, and G.C. Hart. In 1914 school term there were 1927, A.L. Bradfield, T.V. 55 schools, a great majority Glenwood, Pattonfield, Kennard, L.J. Dalrymple, H.J. of them one-teacher schools. Bethlehem, and Sand Hill Fennell and T.J. Atkinson. In consolidated with East 1934, O.T. Craig, J.B. Webb, By 1928 the 55 schools Mountain. H.J Fennell. W.W. Presnell, had been reduced to 37 by and T.J. Atkinson. In 1940, consolidation and; by 1952 Union Grove is composed G.H. Baird, J.B. Webb, Fred there were just 13. Today there of West Mountain and Mings Rosenkoetter, Carl Loyd, are only 8 schools left. Chapel. and H.J. Spencer. In 1948, J.B. Webb, J.C. Duncan, H.J. In 1915 Piney Grove, Caney Pritchett and Center Point Spencer, E.C. Palmer, and and Simpsonville formed are now part of Gladewater. Carl Loyd. In 1965, Dr. J.L. Simpsonville. Fenlaw, J.B. Hagler, C.L. Big Sandy consolidated Martin, Claud Bowden, and About 1927 Bettie, Olive with Red Rock, Cross Roads. Troy Snow. Branch, and Forest Hill Pleasant Grove, and Shady formed Union Hill and later Grove. As can be seen by reading Simpeonville, Brumley and the names, these men have Perryville joined Union Hill Next week Chapter IV b e e n h i g h c l a s s c i t i z e n s school. will be continued starting interested in doing their best About 1927Rhonesboro, with ATTEMPT TO SELL for the boys and girls of Upshur Brice, Rosewood, Little UPSHUR COUNTY SCHOOL County. They have at all times Mound, Latch, Soules Chapel, LAND.

Meals on Wheels Mayor’s Day shines light on need Continued from Page 1

Bellamy to get involved in the Tyler area delivering meals once her children started school. “It was partly empty next syndrome too,” she said. “The last one will graduate in May so in November I applied for the job as assistant to the Tyler District’s Meals on Wheels CEO and I got it. I love the ministry and the people.” Bellamy was wearing her Meals on Wheels Community C h a m p i o n T- s h i r t l a s t Thursday. With her gentle voice and quiet manner it was easy to see that she did indeed love her job and had a heart for those being served. “You can see the impact with every meal delivered. What a lot of people don’t know is that we also deliver cat and dog food,” Bellamy said. “We don’t want people to lose their pets because they can’t take care of them.” She said that it takes about

Meals on Wheels Tyler District rep Kristi Bellamy helps Mayor Harold Wells with a delivery to a shut-in of the food service “Mayor’s Day” last Thursday. The annual event helps to spotlight the ministry in communities throughout East Texas. Photo By Suzanne Bardwell an hour to an hour and a half to run a route depending on the number of individuals to be served. Gladewater receives food from the Tyler District to service five routes with three in the city, one in Union Grove and one in White Oak under the supervision of the Gladewater site.

With one paid driver, volunteers are always in short supply. As a result there is sometimes a waiting list for shut-ins to be placed on a route to receive the hot meals. Gladewater’s site manager Angela Jones said that Gladewater stays desperate for volunteers. The ministry

has 73 shut-ins in the city, six in Union Grove and 17 in White Oak. “Even substitute and occasional drivers would be welcome,” Jones said. “We just need help. A route can take as little as 45 minutes and at most a little over an hour. White Oak stays covered. We have no problem there but we are hurting in Gladewater.” To volunteer call 903-3097968. “The best part of working at Meals on Wheels Ministry is the blessings that go both ways,” Bellamy said. “It hits home when the recipients smile and thank you or when you hear volunteers talk about how precious their people are on their routes and how they look forward to seeing each other, and then there are those who donate their time and talents, people who make lap blankets, cards and more, the list goes on and on. It really is a blessing to watch how it works.”

US 271 Classic Car Cruise rolls into town Saturday

87-year old Bob Boyle of Dallas visited the Gladewater Museum last Friday for the first time. Boyle’s greatgrandfather was pioneer founder Gimmett Shepperd. Mr. Boyle said that he remembered the dogs’ names as Snap and Rattle who are pictured along with Shepperd in the picture which can also be seen as an historic art display downtown on Margaret Larkin’s Gladewater Antique Mall Building on Main Street. Mr. Boyle was accompanied by his daughter and sonin-law Mary and Mark Bahr of Dallas. The family is also directly related to the Bray family who owned the Bray Hotel, the General Merchandise Store and the theater which were the developed properties of his mother’s father C.L. Bray and children. The Boyle family expressed delight at all of the exhibits connected to their ancestors and Gladewater’s history. The Gladewater Museum is opened Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at 116 W. Pacific Street. Photo By Suzanne Bardwell

Classic car lovers will be in hog heaven Saturday, April 8 as the Hwy. 271 Car Cruise will rumble into downtown Gladewater. The cruise begins in Mt. Pleasant (9-10 a.m.) and stops in Pittsburg (11 a.m.-noon), then Gilmer (1-2:30 p.m.), and ends up in Gladewater (3-4:30 p.m.). Awards will be handed out in Gladewater. If you have a vintage car you want to show off, it will cost just $45 per car, which includes your meal and polo shirt. Each extra meal will be just $10 and $15 for an extra shirt. Early registration ends March 31. For entry forms and more information go to: https:// w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / events/1820692304859277/

Page 2, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Bubbles of joy… My chubby little legs swung back and forth as I sat in the pew with the corded gold cushion. I was mesmerized by the play of light on my white patent leather Mary Jane shoes. My sweet lacetrimmed socks were turned down just so and matched my lacy short gloves. My Easter bonnet was a cute little confection that could have passed for an Easter basket if turned upside down. Remember those new white patent leather shoes? How they smelled? How they scuffed? Our sweet southern Mamas always laid down the LAW…no white until Easter and never, ever after Labor Day. I fully expected social shunning if this rule was broken. Now we demonstrate our raising and good taste by refusing to wear our pajamas to shop at Wal-Mart. As a small child I remember the gloves, hats and heels Mom wore to church every Sunday. I still have two pair of my stylish Mom’s three-quarter length kid leather gloves that are as soft as butter. Still. In my long ago childhood nearly every Easter began with a sunrise service, followed by the Big Church service and then a dinner that could feed the Multitude of 5,000. Truly biblical proportions of food were generated in my Mama’s kitchen. Egg hunts followed dinner and as the kids grew we were bribed with brightly colored eggs with change instead of candy. I am ashamed to say that bills eventually had to be added for our mercenary, selfish pre-teen selves to participate. My little brother was five years younger than my cousins and me. And yes, the money worked. For a long, long, time. Some of the best Easters in my memory include my son and the second set of cousins. We repeated the Easter traditions but this time without the gloves, hats or even the heels. Our culture had become a tad less formal. The sunrise service had disappeared and so had patent leather Mary Jane shoes. But Big Church was still followed by a feast fit to welcome home the prodigal children of our extended family. Hubby’s contribution to the Easter Tradition Remix was kites for everybody young and old who wanted one. They were themed and carefully selected with super heroes, ninja turtles and Star Wars characters. My playful adult contribution was bubbles with the huge wands which pleased kids of all ages. Even the ones with canes and walkers. Throw in a bit of softball, badminton or croquet, a huge yard, and the continuing feasts following Easter services with songs like “He is Risen!” sung loudly, if off key, and the perfect holiday memories were created.

THE ECONOMIST

Suzanne Bardwell

By Dr. M. Ray Perryman

100 years old and just getting started

I will desperately miss my Mom’s and Aunt Gwen’s specialty foods this Sunday. I will miss my childhood church that no longer exists. I will fervently wish for a chance to share kites and bubbles with the children of our family. But what I will do for sure is remember. My brothers and cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, my son and his cousins, a family that lasts beyond distance, time and even life. These memories are where a great deal of my joy resides. I wish abundant blessings of Joy to each of your homes this Easter. May you make memories that last through generations and may Easter’s message of hope, of new beginnings and of LOVE beyond comprehension be yours.

CLEANING UP ...

Gladewater residents came out in force Saturday and dropped off load after load of bulky, household garbage and other refuse - 11,200 cubic feet in all - into dumpsters located along E. Commerce Street in downtown Gladewater during the city’s annual cleanup effort. The 11,200 cubic feet collected was a record, easily beating precious cleanup days which collected about 8,000 cubic feet. The City of Gladewater also provided curb side pick-up for disabled and senior citizens, which kept city workers on the move all morning long picking up trailer load after trailer load of cast always. And while city workers were busy at the collection center some volunteers grabbed up trash bags and picked up trash and plastic and glass bottles along city ditches. In addition, the monthly recycling program, held the second Saturday of each month at City Hall, also was underway Saturday and volunteers collected recyclables from 115 families. Photos by Jim Bardwell

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has turned 100. Originally formed as the Texas Highway Department on April 4, 1917, by the 35th Legislature, TxDOT has become a vital part of our quality of life and economic growth. TxDOT now maintains more than 79,000 miles of farm-to-market, ranch-tomarket, state, US, and interstate highways across the Lone Star State. TxDOT also takes care of more than 25 million square feet of signs, 100 safety rest areas, picnic areas, and Travel Information Centers. There are also ferries and general aviation duties. In addition to improving, expanding, and maintaining the state’s roadways, TxDOT is also providing innovative services to the people of Texas. For example, roadway conditions are now easy to monitor at drivetexas.org, where you can see construction, problems due to weather conditions, and more. TxDOT also plants more than 60,000 pounds of wildflower seeds every year and schedules mowing around wildflower reseeding (unless there are safety concerns). When bats took up residence under Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge, TxDOT consulted with Bat Conservation International to study the bats and started a program to build bridges and culverts so that they are more friendly to the environmentally beneficial bat colonies. All in all, TxDOT is not only helping drivers get where they want and need to go, but is also working to improve quality of life. For a number of years, TxDOT was hamstrung by a lack of funding. During the early part of this decade, as the population and economy of the state were expanding at a strong pace, revenues were falling even as needs were rising. The major highway funding source, the State’s $0.20 per gallon portion of the gasoline tax, hadn’t changed since 1991 (and still hasn’t), even though construction and maintenance costs had risen sharply and more fuel efficient vehicles meant that more miles could be driven with less tax paid. The situation deteriorated to the point where funds were hardly covering maintenance (much less needed expansion) in a state that was adding well over 1,000 people and hundreds of vehicles every day. The federal slice of highway funding has also been shrinking in recent years. Since that time, voters and the legislature have worked to help remedy the situation, but the challenges are still quite daunting in a state characterized by both rapidly growing urban areas and vast rural areas where mineral interests and agriculture present pressing transportation concerns. Recent injections of money have made things better, but we have a ways to go. More specifically, the vast majority of Texans (more than 85%) live along and east of Interstate 35, and this concentration leads to congestion. The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University indicates that the number of registered vehicles in Texas has risen 172% over the past 40 years, but highway capacity has only grown by 19%. TTI’s most recent Urban Mobility Scorecard analyzed traffic congestion and found that Texas’ large population centers have significant problems. In the state’s metropolitan areas with more than a million residents (Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio), delays average 52.6 hours per year per commuter. Also, 97 of the 100 most congested road segments in the state are in these areas. These congested roadways are a problem affecting not only commuters and their quality of life, but also the potential for economic growth. Lost productivity as workers sit in traffic, less timely deliveries and the resulting requirements for more inventory, and other factors sweep across the economy. In fact, analysis by our firm and others in the past has shown that the development of the Interstate Highway system has contributed as much as 25% to the growth in the US over the past 60 years or so. As a response to the growing needs, TxDOT has proposed the Unified Transportation Program (UTP), which is a 10-year project funding plan “aimed at enhancing safety, reducing congestion, improving connectivity and maintaining the state’s massive highway system.” The UTP involves 1,210 centerline miles of added capacity and improvements, including $2.5 billion in projects to relieve congestion as part of the agency’s Texas Clear Lanes initiative. Less populated areas of the state also have needs in the area of highway improvements, of course. In the Permian Basin, for example, the oil surge caused major problems for area residents due to the high volume of oilfield traffic and the resulting wear and tear on roads. TxDOT projects to expand capacity on highways in the area over the past few years have improved the situation markedly, but there is still more to be done. TxDOT already has a big job, and it’s going to get bigger. By 2050, the state population will likely double, with the large metropolitan areas accounting for most of the growth. The economy will also expand, leading to additional transportation needs. Projects such as the UTP will be crucial to quality of life, safety, and continued prosperity. Moreover, they will pay off; a number of studies over the years by our firm and others have shown that highway investments tend to generate an overall rate of return to economic expansion of about 30% per year (yes, per year). For the moment, however, let’s pause and say “Happy Birthday” to TxDOT and kudos for a century of progress. We drivers across this great state of Texas appreciate all that you do.

The Gladewater Mirror Periodicals Postage Paid Gladewater, TX USPS 575-140 ISSN Number 1045-5671 The Gladewater Mirror is published weekly by Bardwell Ink, LLC 211 N. Main Street Gladewater, TX POSTMASTER: Send PS3579 to The Gladewater Mirror P.O. Box 1549 Gladewater, TX 75647

News & Advertising Deadlines: Noon Monday

Office Hours 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Telephone: 903-845-2235 Fax: 903-845-2237

Email: gladewatermirror@aol.com

Owners:

Jim & Suzanne Bardwell Publisher/Editor: Jim Bardwell Advertising: Suzanne Bardwell Office Manager: Tiffany Hobbs

Subscriptions are $29/year in Gregg, Smith & Upshur counties and payable in advance.

Page 10, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, August 30, 2017

‘Art of Country Living’ on tap

AFTER

By Phillip Williams/Correspondent A series of free monthly educational programs for rural dwellers on “The Art of Country Living” opens Tuesday night at the Pritchett Community Center with master gardener Laurie K. Fisher discussing “fall container gardening.” The programs, sponsored by the Pritchett Community Improvement Corporation, start at 7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday at the center on FM Road 1404. The hour-long presentations will involve such diverse topics as home use of generators in an emergency, properly sighting in a rifle scope, successfully cultivating azaleas, tips for organic gardeners, and getting the facts on agricultural land tax appraisal reductions. For more information, call 903-734-3814 or email pritchettpcic@gmail.com.

BEFORE

Jack’s Pick of the Litter

Clean up efforts, under the direction of John Paul Tallent, resumed last week in the Red Rock Community. Tallent and other volunteers have been clearing overgrown lots throughout Gladewater for about a year. Tallent said Gladewater Economic Development Corp. plans to contribute another $10,000 to the effort in fiscal year 2018. Photos by Jim Bardwell

Jack needs your help - these dogs are in immediate need of ADOPTION, RESCUE or FOSTER. If you can help, please contact the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center located at 303 HG Mosley in Longview or call 903-297-PETS.

Laina ID#: A36339210 Lab/Border Collie-x Gender: F Age: 3 Weight: 60 lbs

Colt ID#: 36263133 Siberian Husky-x Gender: Male Age: 5-6 yr Weight: 57lbs

The lovingly landscaped lawn of 213 East Gay Avenue belongs to Wanda Allard. Many of the plants are treasured heritage plants that Allard has brought with her through many moves. The plantings enhance the charming architecture of the shaded home.

Lorraine ID#: A36336766 Pit Bull/ Lab-x Gender: F Age: 1 Weight: 36 lbs

Rosie ID#: 36350668 Treeing Walker Coonhound Gender: Female Age: 4yr Weight: 64 lbs

Yard of the Month Sponored by

GATE ADMISSION PRICES

September 8th - 16th

GREGG COUNTY FAIR HOME

GREGG COUNTY FAIR��

GREGG COUNTY COLORING CONTEST��

General Admission: $6.00/person Children 3 & Under: FREE Senior Citizens (60+): FREE Military and family: FREE (with ID) Ride armbands available daily Ride coupons available daily

MISS GREGG COUNTY��

SPONSORS

Superior Soils & Fertilizers

General Admission: $6.00/person

Children 3 & Under: FREE CONTACT US

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH

Senior Citizens (60+): FREE Military and family: FREE (with ID) TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH

Fiesta Day Brought to you by MEGA 99.3 FM

Ride armbands available daily

Gregg County Fair Schedule Gregg County Fair and Exposition Show Hours Friday

September 8th: 6:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M.

Saturday

September 9th: 4:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M.

Sunday

September 10th: 4:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.

Monday

September 11th: 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.

Tuesday

September 12th: 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.

Wednesday September 13th: 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. Thursday

September 14th: 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.

Friday

September 15th: 6:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M.

Saturday

September 16th: 4:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M

Ride coupons available daily

Brought to You by Thrifty Nickel

$25 ARMBAND BANDS AND CORN EATING CONTEST ON STAGE

$20 ARMBAND 6:00 P.M.: Exhibits and Carnival Open to public 6:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.: Zumba on stage performed by Sisters United 7:30 P.M. - 10:00 P.M.: "Fit at the Fair" Fitness Competitions Hosted by Pureﬁt Performance, LLC

Senior Citizens (60+): FREE

(Sponsored by Jake's Feed)

Military and family: FREE (with ID)

Emerson Farms Petting Zoo Pureﬁt Performance Zumba PerformanceFOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION FREE ENTERTAINMENT

Ride armbands available daily Ride coupons available daily

6:00 P.M. - Christo Escalante from La Voz Kids 6:30 P.M. - Mariachi Nueva Era 7:00 P.M. - Los Diferentez de Zacatecas

Hosted by Monster Mouth Marketing 8:30 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. - KOPASTETIC Emerson's Farm Pig Races 12:00 A.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

Children 3 & Under: FREE

5:30 P.M. - Ulises Band

101.5

$25 ARMBANDS

THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

General Admission: $6.00/person

4:00 P.M. - DJ TORITO MIX 5:00 P.M. - La Familia "Lamas Chiﬂada"

The Blaze Night Brought to you by 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes 102.7 & 106.9

6:00 P.M.ENTERTAINMENT - Exhibits and carnival FREE FOR open to the public 7:00 P.M. - 7:45 P.M. - Blazing Bu!alo Wild Wing Challenge

GATE ADMISSION PRICES

4:00 P.M. - Exhibits and carnival open to public

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH

Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH

Brought to You by Thrifty Nickel $20 TheARMBAND Blaze Night Brought to you by Open to public 6:00 P.M.: Exhibits and Carnival 6:00 P.M. & - 7:00 P.M.: Zumba on stage performed by Sisters 102.7 106.9 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH

$20 ARMBANDS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH

101.5

United $25 7:30 ARMBANDS P.M. - 10:00 P.M.: "Fit at the Fair" Fitness Competitions -

STAGE 6:30 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. DJ FROGMAN Rocking the Oldies $25 ARMBANDS

$25 ARMBAND

Hosted by Pureﬁt Performance, LLC 6:00 P.M. - Exhibits and carnival open to the public 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes 7:00 P.M. - 7:45 P.M. - Blazing Bu!alo Wild Wing Challenge

4:00 P.M. - - KING RICHARD & THE BAYOU BOYS 7:30P.M. P.M.–-6:00 10:00 P.M. Buy One Gate Get One Free Sponsored byAdmission, Big Daddy's Stereo 4:00 P.M.andand carnival openCloses to the public 10:00 P.M.Exhibits - Exhibits Carnival 6:00 P.M. - 7:45 P.M. - T-Force Ministry

Hosted by Monster Mouth Marketing 8:30 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. - KOPASTETIC 12:00ENTERTAINMENT A.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes FREE FOR

THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Emerson's Farm Pig Races FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Pureﬁt Performance Emerson Farms Petting Zoo Zumba Performance

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH

from the 60's & 70's

8:30 P.M. – 12:00 A.M. - DARBY WARREN PROJECT 12:00 A.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson EmersonFarms FarmsPetting PettingZoo Zoo

9:00 P.M. - Los Reyes Fierro 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH

Fiesta Day Brought to you by MEGA 99.3 FM

Family Day Brought to you by KNUE -

8:00 P.M. - Talento Michoacano 8:30 P.M. - Corn Eating Contest - Event Sponsored by Amaizing Concessions

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH

6:00 P.M.- Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public QX-FM 100.3/97.9 & KDOK 1240 AM/105.3 FM/101.9 FM Presents on the QX-FM & KDOK

1123 Jaycee Drive Longview

7:30 P.M. - Corn Eating Contest - Event Sponsored by Amaizing Concessions

$25 ARMBANDS

Brought to You by Thrifty Nickel

Brought to You by KYKX 105.7

Brought to You by CBS 19

$20 ARMBAND

BANDS AND CORN EATING CONTEST ON STAGE 4:00 P.M. - Exhibits and carnival open to public 4:00 P.M. - DJ TORITO MIX 5:00 P.M. - La Familia "Lamas Chiﬂada" 5:30 P.M. - Ulises Band 6:00 P.M. - Christo Escalante from La Voz Kids 6:30 P.M. - Mariachi Nueva Era 7:00 P.M. - Los Diferentez de Zacatecas 7:30 P.M. - Corn Eating Contest - Event Sponsored by Amaizing Concessions 8:00 P.M. - Talento Michoacano 8:30 P.M. - Corn Eating Contest - Event Sponsored by Amaizing Concessions

6:00 P.M.: Exhibits and Carnival Open to public $25 P.M. ARMBANDS 6:00 - 7:00 P.M.: Zumba on stage performed by Sisters

6:00 P.M.- Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public 7:00 - 10:00 P.M. - Local Band on Stage

United 6:00P.M. P.M.- -10:00 Exhibits 7:30 P.M.:and "Fit at the Fair" Fitness Competitions Hosted by Open Pureﬁt LLC Carnival toPerformance, Public 10:00 and- Carnival Closes 8:30 P.M. P.M. - Exhibits 12:00 A.M.

10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

THE HAGGERTY'S 12:00 A.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

9:00 P.M. - Los Reyes Fierro 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

Thursday, Sept. 14th

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH14TH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER

Brought to you by KNUE -

6:00 P.M.- Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public QX-FM 100.3/97.9 & KDOK 1240 AM/105.3 FM/101.9 FM Presents on the QX-FM & KDOK STAGE 6:30 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. DJ FROGMAN Rocking the Oldies from the 60's & 70's 7:30 P.M. - 10:00 P.M. - KING RICHARD & THE BAYOU BOYS Sponsored by Big Daddy's Stereo 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

Fiesta Dayto You by Brought Brought to you by HOT JAMZ 107.3 MEGA 99.3 FM

Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

$20 ARMBANDS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH

9:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M. - Miss Gregg County Pageant 4:00 P.M. - Exhibits andand carnival open Closes to public 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits Carnival

4:00 P.M. - DJ TORITO MIX 5:00 P.M. - La Familia "Lamas Chiﬂada" 5:30 P.M. - Ulises Band 6:00 - Christo Escalante La VozOF Kids FREEP.M. ENTERTAINMENT FOR from THE PRICE ADMISSION 6:30 P.M. - Mariachi Nueva Era 7:00 - Los Diferentez de Zacatecas MissP.M. Gregg County Pageant On Stage

Concessions 8:00 P.M. - Talento Michoacano 8:30 P.M. - Corn Eating Contest - Event Sponsored by Amaizing

$20 ARMBANDS

Friday Saturday Sunday

September 8th September 9th September 10th

6:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public 9:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M. - Miss Gregg County Pageant 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Miss Gregg County Pageant On Stage Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

6:00 P.M.- Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public 7:00 - 10:00 P.M. - Local Band on Stage 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR

6:00 P.M.- Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public QX-FM 100.3/97.9 & KDOK

1240 AM/105.3 FM/101.9 FM Presents on the QX-FM & KDOK

9 p.m. - 10 p.m.

$25 ARMBAND

6:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public 8:30 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. THE HAGGERTY'S 12:00 A.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

from the 60's & 70's 7:30 P.M. - 10:00 P.M. - KING RICHARD & THE BAYOU BOYS 4:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. Sponsored by Big Daddy's Stereo

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

Emerson's Farm Pig Races

Buy One Admission, Get OneCloses Free 10:00 P.M.Gate - Exhibits and Carnival 8:30 P.M. -Cody Wayne Band

9:30 P.M. - 10:15 P.M. - Watermelon Eating Contest Hosted by Monster Mouth Marketing

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR 12:00 A.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

THE PRICE OF ADMISSION Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

6:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M. 4:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M. 4:00Brought P.M. to 10:00 to You by P.M. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH

KYKX 105.7

Monday September 11th Tuesday September 12th Wednesday September 13th

Brought to You by HOT JAMZ 107.3

Day at the Fair Brought to You by MIX 93.1 $25 ARMBAND

6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.

Thursday Friday Saturday

$20 ARMBANDS

6:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public 9:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M. - Miss Gregg County Pageant 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

September 14th September 15th September 16th

4:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. Buy One Gate Admission, Get One Free 8:30 P.M. -Cody Wayne Band 9:30 P.M. - 10:15 P.M. - Watermelon Eating Contest Hosted by Monster Mouth Marketing 12:00 A.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

$20 ARMBAND

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

6:00 P.M.- Exhibits and Carnival Open to Public

Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

7:00 - 10:00 P.M. - Local Band on Stage 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH

Gregg County Fair and Exposition Show Hours

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

(Sponsored by Jake's Feed) FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH

GREGG COUNTY FAIR SCHEDULE

Concessions 9:00 P.M. - Los Reyes Fierro 10:00 P.M. - Exhibits and Carnival Closes

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH

Brought to You by HOT JAMZ 107.3

$20 ARMBAND

Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

Day at the Fair Brought to You by MIX 93.1

Brought to You by CBS 19

STAGE 6:30 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. DJ FROGMAN Rocking the Oldies

Brought to You by KYKX 105.7

7:30 P.M. - Corn Eating Contest - Event Sponsored by Amaizing

$20 ARMBANDS

$25 ARMBANDS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH

$25 ARMBAND 6:00 P.M. Exhibits and Carnival Open Public BANDS AND-CORN EATING CONTEST ONto STAGE

THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

Pureﬁt Performance Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Zumba Performance Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

$20 ARMBANDS Family Day

Emerson's Farm Pig Races FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. 6:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M. 4:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M

FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

Miss Gregg County Pageant On Stage Emerson's Farm Pig Races (Sponsored by Jake's Feed) Emerson Farms Petting Zoo

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 52

50¢

1 Section, 10 pages GISD HONOR ROLLS INSIDE

Recycling 2nd Saturday of each month at City Hall

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 1

50¢

1 Section, 12 pages

RJM to host public Community Health Worker class By Suzanne Bardwell There is a collection of answered prayers that hangs on the wall at Gladewater’s Restoring Joy Ministries. The faith-based women’s ministry exists for women and their children who have no place left to go. But RJM doesn’t stop there. The ministry requires the women to further their education to enable them to not only become self-supporting, but capable of supporting their families as well and a new program is going to help do just that. “My life has not been easy,” resident Valerie Robertson, single mother of two said. “I can now use my struggles to help others.” Robertson’s ambition is to become a social worker. Her path will be eased by first becoming a Community Health Care Worker through the new University of Texas

Health Science Center North East program that will be offered in RJM’s education center at 214 East Glade. The program will be open to the public and costs $200 which can be paid in segments. UTHSC’s Kim Bush and Stephanie Wilkerson will be overseeing the new program at RJM. The training program partners with Kilgore College and Vista College as well. “What we are offering is a hand up and not a hand out,” Bush, a certified Community Health Worker supervisor said. “This program which runs Jan. 24 through April 18 from 9 a.m. until noon will allow area students to begin building a professional career.” That career in East Texas pays $10-$17 an hour while in urban areas the salary spread is $15-$30 and may also include degreed programs through earning an associate’s

or bachelor ’s degree at the collegiate level. “More and more agencies are employing community health care workers to serve as the bridge between resources and needs,” Bush said. “We are frontline public health workers that help people bridge that gap and ensure that everything from medicare/medicaid to disability to transportation and more is navigable for folks who need it.” RJM Residential Program Director Doris Cole is a certified Community Health Care Worker who formerly was a re-entry coordinator for Good Will Industries in Tyler. As a certified CHCW she will be able to oversee the progress of RJM’s students. “This program helps students develop and perfect organizational skills,” Cole said. “Often our ladies’ lives are so chaotic they need that

instruction in prioritizing.” Robertson knows firsthand the challenge of living in that chaos. “It definitely can feel really hopeless when you are in that spot. I want to be that shining point for someone else who needs help and hope,” Robertson said. “I want to be the one who makes a difference in someone else’s life.” RJM has been that point of light in the lives of 109 women and children this past year alone. “This program fits very well with our population. Our residents fall through the cracks. Often our ladies have lost everything,” RJM Director Charli Carraway said. “We make sure they have a safe place, that they are drug free, that they are being educated to support their families and that they are grounded in faith. If you have those things you can

Restoring Joy Ministry resident Valerie Robertson, formerly of Overton, will be one of the first students in the new Community Health Worker program offered by the University of Texas Health Science Center North East at 214 East Glade. The program is open to the public, costs $200 and runs Jan. 24-April 18 from 9 a.m. until noon each day. For information on the class call 903-877-8935. gain your independence, take care of your children and begin giving back.”

For information on the program which is open to the public call 903-877-8935.

New businesses popping up Gladewater is gaining another restaurant in the downtown area. Workers were busy last week remodeling the former Le Junkue Chalet Gift Shop. The new family oriented eatery - yet to be named - will feature a variety of dishes and pizzas, and will have custom beers and wines from the East Texas area. The restaurant is expected to open in February. It is the latest addition to the Main Street District, which saw in 2016 the opening of Wing N Things located at 104 S. Main, the Sugar Shack located at 125 S. Main and Tony’s Old South Cafe (formerly The Fork) at 111 N. Main. The four new choices round out the downtown menu, which

already featured long-time favorites - Guadalupe’s Mexican Restaurant at 101 E Pacific Ave., West Pacific Pizza at 224 W. Pacific Ave. and Taqueria Don Amar at 101 E Commerce Ave.. Hungry residents also have some new and remodeled food establishments along US 80 - Pizza Hut has a fresh new look inside and out and there’s a new donut shop open on US 80 to go with the two other established sweet shops. All these tasty treats are just the tip of the iceberg for Gladewater going into 2017. And with the expected addition of a major retail store in the 200 block of N. Main things are looking up for Gladewater residents who want to shop and eat local.

Much-needed highway improvements coming to town Several highway projects are expected to begin in 2017 for Gladewater motorists. One project calls for a much-needed turning lane on US 80. The $4.57 million plan calls for reconstructing U.S. 80 between Locker Plant Road and Loop 485, with a center two-way left-turn lane and curb and gutter. Most of the funding for the U.S. 80 project will come from the federal government, according to the 2015-2018 Transportation Improvement Plan. The project will help alleviate traffic backups caused by motorist trying to turn into local banks and should help reduce accidents. Another project on the drawing board calls for Texas 135 to be four-lane all the way from Gladewater to I-20. The long-range Toll 49 East Texas Hourglass project has already started in the Tyler and will eventually reach Gladewater in the coming years. The project was designed and built to move automobiles and trucks over

long distances in East Texas at 70-75 miles per hour. T h e N o r t h E a s t Te x a s Regional Mobility Authority (NET RMA) determined that the Hourglass project would traverses Gregg, Harrison, Smith, and Upshur counties. T h e H o u rg l a s s p r o j e c t i s expected to provide a regional connecting transportation facility for the cities of Tyler and Longview. The Hourglass project may also provide a possible connection to future 1-69, crossing 1-20 close to the Smith/Gregg county line. The Hourglass project is expected to then parallel 1-20 to the north and connect to US 59 north ofthe city of Marshall. The toll road, coupled with Tyler’s inner Loop 323, provides Tyler with a solid transportation infrastructure, allowing short, easy commuting times and experiences. A regional bus system and modern jetport provide additional transportation options within and outside of the city. To l l 4 9 , b e i n g b u i l t i n

stages, is today more than 25 miles in length, and now connects with I-20 providing an additional route from Tyler to this major interstate route. It is completed from State Highway 110 between Tyler and Whitehouse, westward to I-20 near Lindale. The initial segments were built to the south and west of Tyler, as two-lane limitedaccess roadways, but rightof-ways are designed for an eventual four-lane highway. Eventually Segment 7 of the East Texas Hourglass prohect will reach Gladewater by using US 271, which will be widened to four lanes all the way from Gladewater to I-20. The project will then include Loop 485, following the loop around Gladewater until it reconnects with US 271 on the north side of town. Officials said all routes involving Gladewater roadways will be free of charge. From there, the project travels north on US 271 until to reaches a still-to-be-

determined route between FM 726 and FM 1845. The new roadway will travel east, swinging out north of Longview and eventually tying

Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 2

Downtown buildings destroyed

1 Section, 10 pages

Jim Bardwell After three days of combing through the charred bricks and rubble left from Wednesday night’s fire that engulfed two downtown buildings, agents with the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) hope to release the results of their investigation this week.

Pothole of the Week

The first “Pothole of the Week” for 2017 is located on US 271, just north of the US 80 intersection. The area was recently repaired by state highway crews, but apparently the fix didn’t work - leaving motorists to try and dodge the multiple potholes and dips while not veering into oncoming traffic on the curve. US 271 is heavily traveled and this pothole needs repairing soon.

Recycling 2nd Saturday of each month at City Hall

into US 59 in Marshall. Toll Loop 49 is being built by NET RMA, an independent government agency created to accelerate the development of

transportation projects in North East Texas. The NET RMA is governed by a 19-member board of directors that represent each of the member counties.

w R

Inspections, education planned for downtown area businesses

Look for daily updates in the Mirror’s E-edition available on the Gladewater Mirror App, Facebook and website Gregg County Fire Marshal Mark Moore called in the ATF due to the scope of the fire, which was too large for local resources and officials to thoroughly investigate in a timely manner. Agents began arriving on Friday and started documenting and investigating the fire zone over the weekend in freezing temperatures. The fire broke out around 10 p.m. Wednesday, with fire crews from multiple departments responding to the 100 block of North Main Street and Tony’s Old South Cafe, formerly The Fork, and the adjacent building on its south side. G l a d e w a t e r, L o n g v i e w, Sabine, and Clarksville City Warren City fire departments worked for about five hours before finally extinguishing the last flames early Thursday morning. Firefighters were able to save Christie’s Collectibles, which is located on the north side of Tony’s Cafe, with little to no damage reported. Firefighters also were able to save a large storage building and a residence which are both situated very close to each other in the same city block. Donna Christie stood across the street with dozens of other people and watched as flames crept up to the second floor of Tony’s Cafe and threatened her building. If not for the aerial ladder truck Longview Fire Department brought to the scene, the entire block would most likely have been consumed. It is believed the fire started in the rear of the vacant building, which reportedly had no power and was in the process of being cleaned so a local business could relocate to that location. Both buildings destroyed in the fire belong to David Reeh and Karen Newman, according to Gregg County tax records, and are appraised at a total of $248,700. Gladewater Fire Fighters began battling the structure fire shortly after responding to the 9-1-1 calls, but downed electrical wires prevented firefighters from getting close enough to effectively fight the fire, until SWEPCO workers arrived and turned off the power. Scott Ragsdale, ATF public i n f o r m a t i o n o ff i c e r, s a id Monday the ATF’s National R e s p o n s e Te a m f o u n d kerosene and gasoline cans inside the area where it is believed the fire originated. However, Ragsdale said they were not ready to release their conclusion as to what caused Continued on Page 9

50¢

City to assess future dangers

Longview firefighters used their aerial ladder truck to attack Wednesday night’s fire from above, which helped contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading. Photos by Jim Bardwell

Jim Bardwell Gladewater ’s downtown district is known as the “Antique Capital of East Texas,” but that doesn’t mean just the items for sale are old. The majority of the buildings downtown are also antiques dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. And while that can make them quaint, it also means they most likely have no modern fire prevention equipment like overhead sprinkler systems. Ironically, Gladewater City Manager Theo Melancon and interim Fire Chief Michael Kirkwood were surveying and discussing the downtown area, assessing potential fire hazards the very day a fire broke out in the 100 bock of N. Main Street and consumed two structures. The fire also posed a potential danger for Melancon and his family who live in the same block directly behind the building that caught. The family fled their home as soon as they spotted the flames. New structures in Gladewater must meet current building and safety standards. However, the older buildings do not have all the new safety devices, which can be cost prohibited to install. “We as the city of Gladewater and the Gladewater Fire Department will do our part to help prevent or limit the opportunity of this happening again,” said Fire Chief Michael Kirkwood. “As part of these efforts, we will conduct building inspections annually to make sure issues within our businesses are taken care of. “We will also help educate the business owners on fire prevention and how they can assist us by keeping their businesses up to code. Some of the things the owners can do to assist us is to keep their building free of clutter, don’t store flammable products or liquids in the buildings, fix any issues that they are aware of to prevent a fire from occurring such as electrical issues. Double check everything at the end of the day to ensure everything is turned off before leaving for the night.” Kirkwood said he encourages the public to call the GFD when they have questions or concerns that may arise.

Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017

Public hearing on tap to allow taps to flow By Jim Bardwell A public hearing will be held Thursday night concerning the sell of alcoholic beverages for on premise consumption at a new downtown restaurant now under construction and two delapidated houses are scheduled for the wrecking ball. Vinyl Tap, LLC, is asking the Gladewater City Council to grant its request following the public hearing. The restaurant is located at 103 N. Main Street. In other business on Thursday’s agenda the council will: * Consider the selection of an engineering firm for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) projects and a grant management firm for CDBG grant projects. * Consider approving a resolution authorizing the city to submit a Texas Community Development Block Grant application for $275,000 to the Texas Department of Agriculture for the Community Development Fund, followed by the approval of an agreement with the engineering firm of Schaumburg & Polk, Inc. to handle the city’s upcoming water system rehabilitation project and a seperate sanitary sewer system rehabilitation project worth more than $3 million. * Consider the renewal of a solid waste contract with Republic Services. Gladewater City Manager Theo Melancon said Republic is askinbg for a $2 per month rate increase for a two year period. * Consider bids for the demolition of two structures as part of the city’s ongoing clean-up campaign. The properties include 901 Nelwyn and 1005 Kay Drive, and the authorization to begin the demotion process. Last month these two properties were saved from demolition after the property owners asked the council for more time to fixup the houses. Lat month the council authorised the demolition of houses at 512 Wood, 1000 N. Culver, 2810 Hendricks, 2812 Hendricks, 1007 W. Pacific, and 1100 Phillips Springs. * Consider a budget amendment to purchase backhoes, utility trucks and police vehicles. This item was discussed at the December council meeting. Last month Melancon asked the council to consider spending about $250,000 for vehicles and equipment to help employees do their job better and Melancon even presented a power-point presentation showing the needs. He asked for two backhoes for $64,500; 2 or 3 utility service trucks up to $80,000; 2 police pursuit vehicles up to $80,000 and 2 lawn mowers up to $12,000. But the council voted to keep the city’s purse strings closed for then and asked Melancon to do more research into the equipment needs and fit it in the current budget, which just started Oct. 1. The council was forced to hike taxes 9-cent to fund current city services and took $195,000 from the Gladewater Economic Development Corporation to make ends meet. Melancon said Monday he plans to present a new package that would allow the purchase of some of the needed equipment using curent funds. * Consider amending the ordinance requiring a burn permit to refuse on private property. Previous citizens had to obtain a permit from the fire department prior to doing any outside burning. * Consider honoring Wade Goetze and Carter Abernathy by naming two of the new baseball fields after them. In 2005 the city council honored the two by naming fields after them at the old Perryman Fields, which nolonger exists.

Sheriff Larry Webb and Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Jean Dark. A sheriff ’s deputy and a DPS trooper fired out of fear for their lives when Hightower pointed a rifle at them after deputies responded at 7:55 p.m. to a 911 “welfare check” call, authorities said. As the investigation proceeds, the sheriff’s deputy, who has not been identified, has been placed on paid administrative leave, which

is “standard policy” in such cases, Webb wrote. Dark, who did not identify the DPS trooper, did not state whether that officer was also put on such leave and Webb said Monday he did not know. Webb, who was in only his third day in office when the incident occurred, said he was awaiting word from Dark on when DPS wanted to release the two officers’ names. He expressed confidence the shooting would be found to be

justifiable. We b b h a d w r i t t e n t h a t while more than one deputy sheriff was dispatched on the call, only one and a DPS trooper “both discharged their weapon in the direction of the individual” after Hightower “confronted” them. Dark said in her news release that “According to the preliminary investigation, upon arrival, the officers heard screaming from inside the residence. A male subject

exited the residence with a rifle and pointed the weapon at the deputies and the trooper. The officers, fearing for their lives, fired their weapons at the suspect, incapacitating him.” First aid was immediately given, and emergency medical services were called to the scene, but Hightower died there, Dark said. A female was found unharmed inside the home, she added. Continued on Page 9

50¢

1 Section, 10 pages

King, Derrick honored at Monday’s ceremony

By Suzanne Bardwell Rain didn’t dampen the spirit of the small group who gathered for a short parade and a larger group who joined together to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday morning in Gladewater. A community recognition service to honor the contribution of Dr. King to American culture and society was held at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. The theme for the event was “In Unity, We Prosper”. The master of ceremony was Raymond Johnson with Gladewater High School Assistant Principal Darren Richardson leading the music and presenting an audio-visual celebration of Dr. King’s impact. Weldon fifth grader and New Hope member Evan Hawthorne gave the welcome and area churches participating were recognized. Mayor Harold Wells presented a proclamation from the city and Police Chief Rob Vine also contributed remarks for the occasion. Veterans were recognized by Odette Alexander of the AKA Sorority and Brenda Clark, TSgt. U.S. Air Force, retired. It was noted that African-American veterans fought and died for their country during times when the country did not extend the same rights and recognition as they did others. Despite those injustices love of country was celebrated along with those who served during the recognition. “We want to say that this is the greatest country in the world and we want to honor those who have served,” Sgt. Clark said. Former Gladewater Mayor, community leader, beloved Continued on Page 10

Former mayor and beloved high school teacher and coach Walter Derrick was honored at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. community service at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Coach Derrick was accompanied by his wife Evergrace. Photo By Suzanne Bardwell

ATF asks for help in solving case

Jim Bardwell Agents with the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) say they know how the fire that destroyed two downtown buildings Jan. 11 started, but they still aren’t sure if it was intentionally set or it was an accident. And they need your help in solving the case. “All of the scene information has been gathered and analysis of the information will continue,” said Dallas Field Division’s Assistant Special Agent in Charge Vincent Pallozzi. “While we have found that the fire was caused by human action, it is undetermined at this time if the fire was accidental or intentional.” Anyone with information related to the fire is asked to contact the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office, at (903) 236-8400 or Gregg County Crime Stoppers at (903) 236-7867. People can also submit a tip through ATF’s new “reportit” app available at www.reportit.com and at Google Play and the Apple App Store. All tips are confidential and can be anonymous. The ATF was called in to investigate the four-alarm fire by Gregg County Fire Marshal Mark Moore due to the scope of the fire, which was too large for local resources and officials to thoroughly investigate in a timely manner. Agents began arriving on Friday and started documenting and investigating the fire zone over the weekend in freezing temperatures. The fire broke out around 10 p.m. Wednesday, with fire crews from multiple departments responding to the 100 block of North Main Street and Tony’s Old South Cafe, formerly The Fork, and the adjacent building on its south side. Gladewater, Longview, Sabine, and Clarksville City - Warren City fire departments working for about five hours before finally extinguishing the last flames early Thursday morning. It is believed the fire started in the rear of the vacant building,

which reportedly had no power and was in the process of being cleaned so a local business could relocate to that location. Both buildings destroyed in the fire belong to David Reeh and Karen Newman, according to Gregg County tax records, and are appraised at a total of $248,700.

Local men given probation

Pritchett man killed in officer-involved shooting

BY PHILLIP WILLIAMS Correspondent GILMER--Texas Rangers are investigating the death of a 53-year-old man in a shooting involving Upshur County and state law enforcement officers outside the man’s Pritchett residence on Tuesday night of last week, authorities said. Dale Hightower died at the scene in the 1700 block of Cottonwood Road, according to information in news releases from new Upshur County

Tim Ochran, UT Health Northeast’s Sr. VP, Chief Administrative Officer, Hospital & Clinics, was the guest speaker at January’s Gladewater Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon. Ochran discussed UT Health Northeast’s recently announced partnership with MD Anderson, which will bring much-needed cancer treatment and research to East Texans. UT Health Northeast’s cancer program will be clinically and operationally integrated with MD Anderson Cancer Center, joining only six other healthcare institutions across the U.S. and three facilities in Brazil, Spain and Turkey. Enhanced local access to MD Anderson’s multidisciplinary care, treatment innovations, standards of care and clinical trials will be hallmarks of the partnership and will save East Texans the burden of traveling to Houston for treatment. Photo by Jim Bardwell

Re nves ng n G adewa e

Vol. 76, No. 3

By PHILLIP WILLIAMS Corespondent GILMER--115th District Judge Lauren Parish sentenced 17 persons on felony charges and one for a misdemeanor offense between Jan. 6 and 10, said Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd’s office. All defendants either pleaded guilty, or, in cases where probation was revoked, admitted violating terms of probation, said the office, which released these details of the felony sentencings: Brandin S. Goldner, 24, of Gladewater, was placed on three years “deferred adjudication” probation Jan. 6 for sexual assault. Gladewater police probed the Oct. 16, 2014 offense. Like all others placed on probation, Goldner was ordered to pay court costs, a $50 fee to Upshur County Crimestoppers and $100 to the crime victim fund. Some other terms of his probation include a $100 fine, attorney’s fee, 400 hours of community service, an alcohol/

drug evaluation, registration as a sex offender, and normal conditions of probation for such an offender. Byrd represented the state at sentencing. Longview attorney Edward Choy represented Goldner. Cameron David Morriss, 2 3 , o f G l a d e w a t e r, w a s placed on two years “deferred adjudication” probation Jan. 10 for possession of a controlled substance--less than one gram of methamphetamine. “Deferred adjudication” means no final conviction a p p e a r s o n a d e f e n d a n t ’s record if he/she successfully completes probation. However, when such probation is revoked, the defendant can receive up to the maximum sentence for the offense. Gilmer police probed Morriss’ July 12, 2016 crime. Some terms of his probation include paying a $1,000 fine, $180 fee to the Texas Department of Public Safety for testing the drug involved in the case, and an attorney’s

fee; 240 hours of community service, counseling if needed and training in “life skills.” Byrd represented the state at sentencing. Gilmer attorney Matthew Patton represented Morriss. In a probation revocation case, Crystal Leighann Bixler, 22, of Big Sandy, drew 22 months in state jail Jan. 10 for possession of a controlled substance--less than one gram of methamphetamine. Gilmer police investigated the Aug. 28, 2015 offense. Assistant District Attorney Natalie A. Anderson represented the state at sentencing; Choy represented Bixler. In a probation revocation, Donald Donathan Williams, 41, of Winona, drew seven years in prison Jan. 10 for driving while intoxicated-subsequent offense. The DPS worked the June 17, 2015 crime. Byrd represented the state at sentencing; Gilmer attorney Dwight Brannon represented Williams.

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 4

No more burn permits needed in city limits By Ellis Hayden Gladewater Interim Fire Chief Michael Kirkwood introduced a new ordinance at Thursday’s city council meeting which would amend the current Fire Prevention Code for Burning of Refuse. The new ordinance is designed to enhance the convenience of residents to secure permission to burn, as well as enable fire department personnel to fullfil the responsibilities at the same time. After a brief discussion, the city council approved the ordinance amendment, which will go into effect Feb. 1, 2017 following notification to the public. The new ordinance still states that it is unlawful to burn trash, lumber, leaves, straw or any other combustible material in any street, alley or vacant lot except by permission of the Fire Department. The biggest change comes for residents seeking approval to burn on their property. The resident seeking to burn must still call the Fire Department to receive permission. Should the person be unable to make contact with Fire department personnel, the caller can leave a voicemail stating name, address, date and times of the burn requested. It will not be necessary to await Fire Personnel to come to the burn site to inspect and give a written permit as the current policy dictates. Residents are expected to follow the ordinance guidelines for a controlled fire. The criteria for controlled burns are specified in public notice posted in next weeks’ newspaper. Commercial or land clearing controlled burns must contact Fire Department personnel directly as is the current policy. The city council approved changes to the city’s utilities billing department. Due to upgrades in the billing system for water, sewage and garbage pick-up service, the due date for those services are being moved to the 15th of the month rather than the 10th as it is now. The new water bills will no longer be the yellow postcards, but it will be in letter form. The council also approved the renewal of the solid waste contract with Republic Services. The new contract comes with a $1.04 increase in both 2017 and 2018. Tim Barnett of Vinyl Tap, LLC requested a public hearing and consideration for a restricted commercial zoning for the sale of alcoholic beverages for his new restaurant located at 103 N. Main St. The former antique shop is being renovated to house a new brick oven pizza restaurant, which is unnamed at this time. The City Council approved the measure. In other action of note, two of the fields at the Gladewater Baseball Park will be named in honor of Wade Goetze and Carter Abernathy as they were previously named at the former Perryman Park baseball fields. A large portion of the meeting was spent on a presentation by City Manager Theo Melancon, who outlined a proposal to upgrade city police and utility service equipment. The proposal takes into account not only the city’s current and future needs, while remaining within the confines of the current budget. The council approved the purchase of two police patrol cars, two administrative vehicles and two mowers for a total of $150,000, with an annual debt service of $33,200 for five years with the first payment occurring after the retirement of debt occurring in October, 2017. The council also aproved the pursuance of grants for future projects and Gladewater Main Street Director Cathy Cannon was given permission to pursue grants from a National Trust and Hart Family Fund to assist in the rebuilding of the two downtown buildings which were destroyed earlier this month Continued on Page 10

Recycling 2nd Saturday of each month at City Hall

50¢

1 Section, 10 pages

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017

GHS Coach Brandon Bonds

CLEAN-UP CONTINUES

What advice would you give young people for their future? Never be afraid to make a mistake, they are just a part of life. Being perfect is exhausting just have a plan, trust God and live life to the fullest. AND, always be conscious of the decisions you make. You reap what you sow.

Gladewater’s city-wide clean-up effort has moved into 2017 with the same robust energy it started with in 2016. Pictured here is a tract of land off Center Street which was recently cleared, revealing prime land for developing. The city plans to bill landowners for clearing their overgrown and often times abandoned property and if they don’t pay, the city plans to seize the property and offer it for sale to developers. Photos by Jim Bardwell

What does being an American mean to you? It is not a right but a privilege. I didn’t get a say so in deciding what country I wanted to be a part of but according to the purpose of my life I was placed here specifically. Look at the world and what goes on. Some people are not as fortunate, that could be me, but it’s not. America feels really divided right now. What do you think we can do as individuals to create greater unity? It’s simple, love as Christ does, harden not your heart, empathy goes a long way. Gain a clear understanding of all situations before casting judgment. Be a cheerful giver and always continue to help those who are in need. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Try and impact one life at a time.

3 of 4 incumbents seek re-election

By Jim Bardwell Nick Foster, general manager of Premier Pressure Pumping LLC, has filed to run for Gladewater City Council Place 4, along with incumbents Elijah “Sonny” Anderson, Place 5, Place 6 councilman Dennis Robertson and Place 7 Councilman J.D. Shipp. Place 4 councilman Chris Bland has not picked up an election packet as of Monday at 6 p.m. Former councilman Scott Owens and Mark Carpenter also picked up packets. The deadline for filing to run in the May 6 city election is Friday, February 17 at 5 p.m.. Foster said he decided to toss his hat in the ring because “too many stand around and talk about the issues or problems. Not me, I want to be a part of the solution. I believe that this is the best way to do that.”

Foster said he believes his experience helping start and build two businesses “will help me on the council. I believe it has to be treated as a business. By that I mean, that expenditures have to be weighed out and make since. All points need to be looked at. To that point I do believe that sometimes money has to be spent to grow. “As in the ballparks. I understand that it may not have been a favored decision to build them but I believe it shows that Gladewater is committed to growing.” Foster said he feels that “one of the weaknesses of the council is follow through. Many times in the past, decisions have been made and when later asked about, some, but not all, can’t answer as to the status. That being said, I do see a lot of strides being made to correct that with the new city manager.”

City

GREGG COUNTY Clarksville City Easton Gladewater Kilgore Lakeport Longview Warren City White Oak UPSHUR COUNTY Big Sandy East Mountain Gilmer Ore City Union Grove

2016 Payments To date

% Change

1.000% 1.000% 1.500% 1.500% 1.500% 1.500% 1.000% 1.500%

Net Payment This Period

$2,094.50 $2,219.56 $68,903.91 $476,864.30 $11,633.48 $2,338,926.23 $269.83 $48,857.78

Comparable Payment Prior Year $2,444.54 $852.24 $69,943.73 $890,840.58 $14,228.09 $2,195,237.44 $276.58 $73,316.19

% Change

-14.31% 160.43% -1.48% -46.47% -18.23% 6.54% -2.44% -33.36%

2017 Payments To date $2,094.50 $2,219.56 $68,903.91 $476,864.30 $11,633.48 $2,338,926.23 $269.83 $48,857.78

$2,444.54 $852.24 $69,943.73 $890,840.58 $14,228.09 $2,195,237.44 $276.58 $73,316.19

-14.31% 160.43% -1.48% -46.47% -18.23% 6.54% -2.44% -33.36%

1.500% 1.000% 1.500% 1.500% 1.000%

$18,691.28 $1,808.28 $124,776.00 $15,622.95 $186.68

$16,382.18 $1,691.99 $110,806.44 $12,725.04 $200.96

14.09% 6.87% 12.60% 22.77% -7.10%

$18,691.28 $1,808.28 $124,776.00 $15,622.95 $186.68

$16,382.18 $1,691.99 $110,806.44 $12,725.04 $200.96

14.09% 6.87% 12.60% 22.77% -7.10%

state and is a crucial tool in combating those threats.” The report draws on the data and perspectives of multiple law enforcement and homeland security agencies, whose contributions were essential to developing this assessment. It also includes a description of the state’s systematic approach to detect, assess and prioritize public safety threats within seven categories, including terrorism, crime, natural disasters, motor vehicle crashes, public health, industrial accidents and cyber threats. The report ascertains that, due to recent terrorist attacks

perpetrated by domestic lone offenders and large foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), the current terrorism threat to Texas is elevated. The assessment also recognizes that the heightened threat is expected to persist during the next year, due in part to the relatively high number of recent terrorism-related arrests and thwarted plots, and the prevalence of ISIS’s online recruitment and incitement messaging. Additional significant findings include: Threats from violent domestic antigovernment extremists Continued on Page 10

Do you think Dr. King’s “Dream” has been fulfilled? To say it’s fulfilled means there was a limit. I think his dream is everlasting. We still have a ways to go. His dream was not just for AfricanAmericans, but for all people. That’s what makes him so special to me. Have your dreams for your life been fulfilled? No, but I’m still in the process of fulfilling my dreams. Stay tuned. I’m a work in progress. One day you will look up and see the end result.

Gregg County judge addresses retired educators

By Suzanne Bardwell Brandon Bonds says he is just a country boy trying to do what is right and “seeks the promise that God has in store” for him. What has been in store so far is that the young man from Cooper whose mother raised her children alone while working at a wood plant making doors and shutters ended up with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University. Bonds was a 4-year starter on the SMU football team and was captain as a senior. He also won the Mike Kelsey Award which is presented to the Mustang who displays the attitude, hustle and desire exemplary of the late Mike Kelsey. In his first year at Gladewater High School as a Bear assistant football and track coach, Bonds is using the hard won wisdom of his life to influence young men. “He represents our football program with the most important of qualities,” GISD Athletic Director and Head Football Coach John Berry said. “He builds great relationships with young people. He is a fantastic defensive line coach and he is even better with his leadership of our young men. Brandon is very conscientious about the quality of his work. He is a man of faith. These are key elements of his character that are also having an important impact on the personal standards of our young men. GISD needs more like him.” The young coach feels just as strongly about the GHS coaching staff. “I coach with a group of amazing men second to none. I was walked into an amazing coaching environment of fairness and compassion. I have learned so much in the short amount of time from the men who have been in place here. “The sports part is awesome but it is not at the top of my list. How I impact a young man’s life and the relationship I build is my first priority. I am blessed that they give me the opportunity to pour into them what was poured into me.” Coach Bonds cites his SMU head coach Phil Bennet with inspiring Continued on Page 10

By Jim Bardwell Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt told a group of retired educators to stay in touch with their state legislators while the 84th Texas Legislature is in session and don’t let them become “Austinized.” Stoudt said too often well-meaning local politicians can fall victim to the allure of Austin and all that goes on at the state capital, and they forget who put them in office. He told members of The Oil Patch Texas Retired Teachers Association & School Personnel he believes Gregg County’s new state representative Jay Dean, formerly the mayor of Longview, will be an asset for East Texas. And he said newly elected state senator Bryan Hughes, who previously served as state representative, should also help get East Texas noticed this session. Stoudt also shared the latest update concerning the future Toll 49 project, which will connect Smith and Gregg counties and will run up US 271 to and around Gladewater. The judge said while funding isn’t currently earmarked for the project, work is continuing with environmental studies set to begin soon. He explained that Toll 49, also known as the Hourglass Project, will travel around Gladewater’s Loop 485 and then continue north on US 271 before turning east at a yet-to-be-determined location, eventually hitting US 59 in Marshall. Stoudt said the section of Toll 49 in and around Gladewater would have no toll charge. And he said the project will finally address US 271’s need to be four lanes throughout. Former Gladewater Mayor John Paul Tallent asked Stoudt if he could help the city get an old US 80 highway project back on TxDOT’s drawing board. Tallent explained that more than a decade ago the city spent $500,000 purchasing right-of-way and relocating utilities along US 80 west, so the two lane highway could be widened to four lanes like the rest of the roadway. Once the city did everything it was asked to do, TxDOT advised the city it had run out of money. Since then, the project has been dormant. Stoudt said he would call TxDOT officials and get them to come to Gladewater to discuss the project.

Man given 60 years for killing two teens

By Phillip Williams Correspondent GILMER--A state district judge sentenced Robert Wi l l i a m F r a z i e r t o t h e maximum combined total of 60 years in prison last week on four felony charges arising from a traffic accident which killed two teen-aged women and injured two others in rural Upshur County last June. 11 5 t h D i s t r i c t J u d g e Lauren Parish sentenced Frazier, 23, of Gilmer, to 20 years each on two counts of intoxication manslaughter,and 10 years each on two counts of intoxication assault on Jan. 26. He had pleaded guilty to the charges Jan. 10. Parish approved Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd’s request the sentences run consecutively, meaning Continued on Page 4

Vol. 76, No. 6

50¢

1 Section, 10 pages

Clint Starling

The Oil Patch Texas Retired Teachers Association & School Personnel hosted Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt last Thursday at Gladewater’s First United Methodist Church’s Jeter Hall.

What do you think are GISD’s greatest strengths? I’m most impressed with the district’s ability to give kids hope despite certain situations they may be facing.That is a credit to the district’s employees. You can’t be in this business and not have a heart for helping.

What advice would you give your peers today for their future success? “Don’t be mean-spirited. Your feedback won’t be productive if it’s focused on making the other person feel bad or make them look foolish in front of peers.” What does being an American mean to you? “That I am free and that I can vote for my mayor or President. Many other countries don’t have the privileges we do. One of the big defining factors in terms of being an American is embracing the right of free speech.” Do you think Dr. King’s “Dream” has been fulfilled? Dr. King understood that civil rights includes economic rights. Until income, wealth and opportunity are made more equal his dream will remain unrealized. We’ve come a long way but we have definitely not reached the Promised Land. Yes, we’ve made much progress in the past 50 years and I do not intend to discount that. I want to celebrate it. Like the vast majority of Americans, even millions who did not vote for President Obama, I was proud that an African-American could be President of the United States just a few decades after African-Americans could use the same water fountains as whites.

Gladewater man killed outside Longview club

By Suzanne Bardwell Clint Starling’s smile lights up with ease and his hugs are for everyone who wants or needs one. It is no surprise that the Gladewater High School senior was voted Best Personality at Saturday’s annual Spotlight on GHS. He was also nominated for Most Athletic honors. “Another achievement I am really proud of is getting Track Athlete of the Year. I really think I received that award because of the passion I had for track. I wanted to do every event I could get into. Even when I was hurt I still tried my hardest and left it all on the track. Later I would go home and lay in the bathtub with some epsom salts.” The All District football player and National Honor Society member is also passionate about basketball, as well as a dedicated track athlete who has qualified for regional track competition for three years and his goals are set for state this year. Despite his athletic success, Clint says that his proudest achievement

Longview police have determined that 34-year-old Thomas Lynn Harper Jr. of Gladewater, was killed early Saturday morning after an altercation outside a nightclub off US 80. No arrests in the Feb. 4 shooting had been reported as of Monday. According to Longview police, officers were dispatched to a “Shooting Just Occurred” outside J’s Place in the 13

Austin Hawley signs with Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks

Gladewater Middle School choir members under the direction of Lori Nino provided entertainment at Saturday’s Night at the Museum event. The girls shared their talents after a long day of UIL academic competition at White Oak.

Madie Bedair served as a junior hostess and helped Gladewater Museum volunteers wherever she was needed at Saturday’s community event. Photos By Lois Reed

Bubba Mohon and Todd Clifton were two of the many local community members who shared interesting stories with visitors at the Night at the Museum Saturday evening. Mohon shared information about his wife Deb, a Gladewater native, who was an 11time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and 1990 World Reserve Champion. She passed away in 2003 in a horse training accident. Other community members who shared their stories included Glenn Shipp, Kent Abernathy, Dr. Tom Armstrong, GPD Chief Rob Vine, Mayor Harold Wells, Cathy Bedair, John Kindt, Johnny Mills, Morris Shelton, Karen White and Monty Graham. The winner of the Museum Quiz competition was Ashly Perryman who answered every question correctly after searching the entire museum.

On down on

By Ellis Hayden Gladewater High School’s Austin Hawley signed his letter of intent to accept a football scholarship at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, in front of classmates, family and the GHS faculty and coaching staff at the school on Feb. 1, National Signing Day for NCAA football recruits. The ULM Warhawks were the first to offer Hawley a full scholarship in his junior year. Despite offers from Incarnate Word, Lamar and Southeastern Louisiana as well as other expressing interest, Hawley chose ULM. “They are a NCAA Division I school, fairly close to home, and they were first to offer me a scholarship. It’s a football program that is on the rise. I felt they really wanted me and liked the coaching staff and the school.,” said Hawley. At 6’1 and 210 lbs., Hawley has a 4.5 forty yard dash time and was rated as a rising three-star recruit by college

Austin Hawley-ULM profile Austin Hawley – Safety – 6-1 – 210 – Gladewater High School A 3-star recruit by 247sports…2-star by Scout.com and Rivals. com…Was a four-year letterwinner in football, basketball and track at Gladewater High School…Named a first team All-District player as both a junior and senior…Member of the All-East Texas team as a senior…Recorded 80 tackles, three sacks, two interceptions and two defensive scores during his senior season…Finished prep career with eight interceptions…had 75 tackles, four sacks and three interceptions as a senior for the Bears…Full name is Austin Donnell Hawley…Born January 20, 1999 in Longview, Texas…Son of Brandy and Shelby Kersh…Youngest of three children with an older brother, Joe, and an older sister, Celeste. recruiting services. The ULM Warhawks believe he will be an impact player as a safety on the defense. Hawley is a four year letterman in football, basketball and track at Gladewater High School. He was named a first team All-District football player as both a junior and senior. He was also named as a member of the All-East Texas Team as a senior. He recorded 80 tackles, three sacks, two interceptions, and two defensive scores during his senior season. T h e U L M Wa r h a w k s were 5-7 last season under

first year head coach, Matt Viator, who announced to the Warhawk faithful that Hawley was among 23 players who committed to play for ULM. It was the highest rated signing class in the Sun Belt Conference which includes Appalachian St., Arkansas St.,Troy, Idaho, Georgian Southern, Louisana-Lafayette, ULM, South Alabama, Georgia St, New Mexico St. and Texas State. Mike Collins, son of former Longview Lobo AD/ head coach, is the associate head coach and defensive c o o r d i n a t o r, p e r s o n a l l y

GHS Bear Austin Hawley signed his letter of intent with University of LouisianaMonroe to play football for the Warhawks. Photo by Jim Bardwell recruited Hawley for the Warhawks. Gladewater athletic director and head football coach, John Berry said, “First of all, I am very proud of Austin. He is a young man who has overcome some difficult hardships in his life to become a fine

young man, as well as fine student-athlete. Now he has an opportunity to get a college education and play football at the next level. Present at the signing c e r e m o n y w a s H a w l e y ’s family. Brandy and Shelby Kersh are Austin’s and his

older brother, Joe’s legal guardians. A year and a half ago, the boys’ step mother passed away and the Kersh’s welcomed them into their family. The Kersh’s have three other sons, Gavin, Stoney and Kayson besides newest older brothers, Austin and Joe.

P ay Ba

W w

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017

Scholar-Athlete molded by faith, family, sports

Family: Wife Keasa coaches for Foster Middle School in Longview. They have three children: son Kayto is six years old, daughter Kylie is two years old and daughter Brooke is nine months.

State report highlights public safety threats to Texas AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has released the 2017 Texas Public Safety Threat Overview, a state intelligence estimate that offers an assessment of the current public safety threats to Texas. “Protecting Texans from the full scope of public safety and homeland security threats is the foremost goal of DPS, and the department works with our fellow law enforcement partners at all levels of government to prepare for the unthinkable,” said DPS Director Steven McCraw. “This report provides an invaluable assessment of the most significant threats facing our

Recycling 2nd Saturday of each month at City Hall

50¢

1 Section, 10 pages

Just a country boy trying to do what is right

Gladewater’s sales tax revenues down 1.48-percent

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $647.4 million in local sales tax allocations for January, 4.9 percent more than in January 2016. These allocations are based on sales made in November by businesses that report tax monthly. “The cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio continue to see significant increases in sales tax allocations,” Hegar said. “The cities of Houston and Sugar Land saw noticeable decreases in sales tax allocations.” Gladewater, however, started off 2017 by posting negative numbers - $68,903.91 in 2017 compared to $69,943.73 in 2016 for a -1.48-percent in sales tax revenues. By comparison, Gilmer posted a 12.60-percent increase $124,776.00 in 2017 compared to $110,806.44 in 2016. White Oak joined Gladewater in the red - posting a 33.36-percent decline over 2016’s sales tax revenue, $48,857.78 compared to $73,316.19.

Vol. 76, No. 5

o go

By J m Bardwe 2017 s ar ed off ho for G adewa er as a down own fire gu ed wo bu d ngs and hrea ened he who e b ock before firefigh ers from mu p e c es brough he b aze under con ro Federa au hor es were ca ed n o nves ga e he fire and found o have been s ar ed by someone however af er near y a year no one has been arres ed and charged lll n G adewa er’s c y-w de c ean-up effor con nued n 2017 w h wn G h D he same robus energy s ar ed w h n 2016 Loca commun y eaders w h he he p of c y and econom c deve opmen do ars kep up he assau on b gh ed overgrown o s hroughou he c y revea ng pr me and for deve opmen The c y p anned o b andowners for c ear ng he r overgrown and of en mes abandoned proper y and fD hey don’ pay he c y p anned o GPD C G se ze he proper y and offer o deve opers lll G adewa er ISD super n enden Dr J P R chardson qu n 2017 o become he new super n enden for Ta um Independen Schoo D s r c The GISD schoo board n erv ewed many app can s and fina y h red Sedr c C ark o ead he d s r c C ark has 23 years n educaB on and came from h s pos as pr nc pa a Mansfie d H gh Schoo n Mansfie d Lou s ana where he was named Pr nc pa of he Year n he s a e of Lou s ana lll C Coun m mb wo n n In 2017 G adewa er was he rec p en of a $120 000 Texas Depar men of Transpor a on Green R bbon Award for beau fica on pro ec s hroughou he c y - a he corner of A mo m o Roden S ree and Sou h Loop 485 od o on e her s de of Coach Cooksey S ree on Loop 485 a he G adewa er A rpor r gh -of S o m no ou pow -way and he c y s gn a he Sab ne R ver Br dge The gran ob a ned by G adewa er Beau fica on Board Pres den Suzanne Bardwe cos he c y no h ng and he ped make he c y’s en ry po n s more appea ng o mo or s s lll An que D s c ce eb a es 30 yea s The Annua G adewa er Round-Up Rodeo h a ma or m es one n 2017 - urn ng 80 years o d And as had for 80 s ra gh years he rodeo brough some of he grea es cowboys n he bus ness o own o compe e for a o a purse of $63 940 and when a he dus had se ed Trevor Braz e a 23- me wor d champ on and 13 me PRCAA -Around Cowboy Wor d Wh o do du ng h w Champ on cap ured he “A -Around Cowboy” e Fo me K go e c y manage named n e m lll Af er us 15 mon hs on he ob G adewa er C y Manager Man sen enced o a o Theo Me ancon cad ugedpossess qu ons n June owappngo ongo pub Up hufo Coun e oun ng w de o ngc d fferences w h some c y counc members and ef for a s m ar pos n he sou heas Texas own of Day on The G adewa er C y Counc n erv ewed 28 cand da es and n Oc ober wound up h r ng R cky Tow who had he d a s m ar pos n he C y of Bow e lll In May N ck Fos er o ned he G adewa er C y Counc rep ac ng Chr s B and Fos er and counc men E ah “Sonny” Anderson Denn s Rober son and J D Sh pp ook he oa h of office and Sh pp was e ec ed mayor pro em lll The down own area wen hrough a rev za o on asn The H gh schoo oo ba ak cks F day gh Cen ra S a on Br ck & Brew ea ery and Pac fic Craf ers Ma pu down roo s among he h s or c red br ck s ree s Cen ra S a on’s br ck oven and spec a y beers found a home n one of he o des recorded rea es a e proper es n Gregg Coun y - home o he h s or c G adewa er’s Texaco serv ce C yw de s a on n he 1930’s wh ch opera ng as a fu serv ce s a on c eanup Sa u day un he a e 1980’s when was even ua y ransformed n o an an que shop Pac fic Craf ersO Ma was bu near down own by en repreneur S R D P R A Larry Seery af er he so d h s oca An que Cap a RV Park The m

Coun

Deux

How

O d H gh S hoo ?

n u

C y manage add esses conce ns

G SD m

m m

GPD

M k comes

G SD Boa d adop s $460K defic

Annua A

om whe e?

budge

S o Sa u day n down own

w m

Wa e b s go ng up $7 75 o und epa s

m ss Monday s so a ec pse

C mm

m m

oo a

HO DAY OP N HOU

G d w

h nn

Celebrating 80 years m

onor

Po m

C und

Bo No

O w

No omm n pub h ng

G w

UG SD ba

on s

w m

m m

GHS expec ed o d op o 3A

es e ec s o Ha vey on 2

Tow apped o c y manage pos

m m

C w

m D

20 7 C ma Pa ad R

G ad wa er oup

G D M

UG SD

Cont nued on Page 2

g tt g

W m

ound oun

nup

Sp ng

Don

Un on G ove w ns s a e

G SD

P ay Wha Ba

a on

m m

Page 2, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017

Zoo calling? I am threatening my boss with mutiny as well as idle threats to apply for other jobs. When you work for (he says “with”) your hubby of almost 42 years you can mostly get away with stuff like that. Here are a few jobs that have caught my eye. At the top of the list is Zoo Teacher at Tyler’s Caldwell Zoo. Now, does that mean you get to teach the animals? As a retired teacher I might have the experience to qualify for that job. The last 20 years that I taught I multitasked and taught psychology, sociology, journalism, dual credit United States History 1301 and 1302 as well as advised the yearbook and newspaper. And I was the public information director for the district. That was a ton of experience I got. I was also known as the “Radar” (as in M.A.S.H.) of teachers who could come up with all kinds of resources in the oddest of circumstances. I also could keep entire auditoriums full of teenagers in line while coordinating community events. Let’s see what else I might qualify for with that experience under my belt. How about Deputy City Marshal for the City of Tyler or Performance Instructor for the Mount Vernon Lowe’s. I know I would qualify for the Customer Service Rep for the Texas Historical Commission in Marshall and probably the Coordinator of Supplemental Instruction at UT Tyler. Both of those would be a lot of fun. But then I wouldn’t get all that quality time with my honey of a boss or walk Jack whenever he feels the need for a trip around town. I wouldn’t have my sunshine of a friend Lois Reed dropping in or the challenge of keeping community interest rolling on many

THE ECONOMIST

Suzanne Bardwell

By Dr. M. Ray Perryman

A retrospective on the past eight years

projects that have finally taken off and gained steam. Especially beautification, encouraging school retirees to join our Oil Patch TRTA School Employees to help protect their benefits, and of course continue to work with my Friends of Lee Library. There would be no Garden Club membership for me. No fun visits to McKaig’s or Shipp’s Marine just to visit. I probably wouldn’t have time to sit and get Bud at Bud’s Tires to tell me his war stories. And our friend Jim Jones and I wouldn’t get to trade books. Then there are my growing friendships with a host of people around town too many to name that would probably disappear if I headed to those promising jobs listed. I think I will just continue to enjoy issuing idle threats while I love working with my handsome boss, our awesome office manager Tiffany, and all of you. The coffee is pretty darn good, the office is nice, the neighbors even nicer. I get to hang with Rotary and Lion’s Club members, the extremely intelligent City Manager, my school buddies at three different districts and make all of my Mom’s doctors’ appointments. Despite the charms of being a Zoo Teacher (it really is listed that way) I think I will stay right here. Come by and see me, the coffee is on and we have a lot in common with the Zoo.

Bills target secret contracts, government partnerships By Kenric Ward / Texas Bureau of Watchdog.org Untold millions of Texas tax dollars are being spent in bureaucratic darkness after two Supreme Court rulings blew holes in the state’s public-records law. In the first case, Boeing vs. Paxton, the Texas Supreme Court bought the company’s argument that disclosing its government contract at Kelly Air Force Base would be a “competitive disadvantage.” In the second case, Greater Houston Partnership vs. Paxton, the high court ruled that the quasi-government agency did not have to disclose its finances — even though it handled economic development for the city and received public funding. The precedent-setting decisions enable public officials and their partners to dodge disclosure requirements that had long been a staple of Texas law. In Dallas, the State Fair of Texas occupies city space and uses city services, but doesn’t want anyone seeing its financials. The Fair sued to quash records requests while its partners at City Hall remained mum. In San Antonio, city officials created the Hemisphere Park Area Redevelopment Corp., effectively restricting public access to financial dealings at the historic downtown park. The city of McAllen refused to say how much it paid Enrique Iglesias to perform at a city-sponsored concert that lost nearly

$600,000. McAllen officials said releasing the amount paid to the Latin pop star would put the city at a competitive disadvantage in negotiating with other artists and possibly benefiting nearby venues in Pharr and Hidalgo. Increasingly, Texas school districts and municipalities are shielding financial details in contracts that range from executivesearch firms to transportation vendors such as Uber. A bipartisan effort is under way at the Legislature to plug the loopholes created by the state’s top court. Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, and Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, introduced HB 792 and SB 407 to counter the Boeing contract decision and HB 793 and SB 408 to address public-private partnerships. “You can’t do government activity wrapped in the cloak of a private entity so that you avoid open access to records and access to open government,” Watson told the Dallas Morning News. As long as the Supreme Court decisions go unchecked, government accountability groups, including the Texas Press Association, warn that public officials will outsource more projects, sign more secret contracts and hide more tax dollars. “We’re trying to get back to where the Texas Public Information Act is one of the strongest in the country,” said Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

A City Manager’s Look at 2017 A pivotal year in the study of leadership is 1970. In that year, Robert Greenleaf published an essay titled “The Servant as Leader.” While his essay was not new to world history, it did come at a pivotal time when traditional, top-down dictatorial power structures were failing. It caused private sector companies to radically shift and look at how leadership is derived and the advantages of leading through serving the employees one manages. I was privileged to sit in a room over a two day period with the finest talent recruiters and developers in the nation, representing major cities around the country, Southwest Airlines, Raising Cane’s, and Four Seasons. It was eye opening to hear about the instilling of culture to build sustainable organizational models. Servant leadership emphasizes empowerment of employees, collaborative efforts, onboarding employees early so that they are instilled with the culture of the organization, and being in tune with the needs of the team. Stewardship, foresight, and service as a calling are all major functions of this style of leadership. I saw many ideals I have tried to live up to as a manager, but it also served as a mirror. I have not always been the ideal servant leader. It is important to persevere and never stop reflecting on how I could do better to serve this community, Council and staff. We have many of the right people in the right places in the City organization. There are many people who are proud to serve this community. My job is to nurture that and guide them to greater fulfillment. We have seen many changes over the last 11 months since I have arrived. It has taken everyone pulling in the same direction to get this far so quickly. It took a Council willing to buy into my vision of what could be done in our community, a hard working and public service oriented staff, and a community that has stood by the tough decisions Council has made to change the fortunes of our city and community.

Theo Melancon Gladewater City Manager

Gladewater is that unpolished jewel in East Texas just in need of a bit of attention. Months ago, it was evident that change was afoot. I believe that over the last several months, people in the community can see that things are beginning to change for the better. We cannot conquer the problems that have built up over the decades in a few short months or years, but persistence and centering ourselves on the task at hand to better our community will lead to a transformation. Similarly, my goal is to become a better servant leader and City Manager for our community. As my first year wraps up in this role for Gladewater, I am eager to see what my second year brings. As we infuse our staff with new team members and much needed equipment, we will also strive to find new and innovative ways to provide services efficiently. We have many exciting changes coming to utility billing with full paper statements. All in all, we are looking at modernizing to take advantage of new market trends and technological advancements. 2017 will be a productive and successful year.

There is a great deal of talk these days about “alternative facts” and how they seem to be replacing the truth in our political discourse. I can’t imagine that this trend has staying power, but if it does, please remember that I am 6’ 8” tall, strikingly handsome, was an All-Star centerfielder for the Cardinals, and regularly sell out concerts at the Rose Bowl! More seriously, ongoing research and tracking by Public Policy Polling indicates that the vast majority of Republican voters think that the unemployment rate went up during the past eight years (it was basically cut in half) and the stock market went down (it basically tripled). In fact, only 27% recognized what actually occurred. With that backdrop, it is worth taking a few moments for a fact-based, emotion free retrospective as the baton passes from one president to the next. As always, I will confine my musings to things economic. Other things are equally important (or perhaps more so), but outside the realm of my expertise. When President Obama took office, he was facing a massive recession with job losses exceeding 700,000 per month, markets in a state of shock and free fall, a massive housing crisis with soaring foreclosures, a decimated financial sector, and, for largely unrelated reasons, an automobile industry that was virtually bankrupt. He turns the reins over to his successor with an unemployment rate that is at levels traditionally considered “full employment” and an economy that has posted 75 consecutive months of job growth. Markets are healthy, the financial system is thriving, housing is well on its way to recovery, and the automobile industry is expanding. That is the big picture and, by any objective measure, history will justifiably confer high marks on this era. It is not, however, the whole story for at least two reasons. First, some of the numbers beneath the surface are not so encouraging. For example, income inequality has expanded in recent years and wage rates are only now beginning to increase. While the deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product has fallen notably in recent years as the recovery has taken hold, there are structural factors in place that will cause it to explode in the next few years if not addressed (mainly having to do with a growing number of retirees from the Baby Boomer population). Regulatory burdens have notably increased, thus reducing the global competitiveness of the US in energy, manufacturing, transportation, financial services, and other sectors. The tax structure encourages firms to keep profits abroad and even restructure their domicile to foreign countries. All of that to say that the economy is a very complex thing, and there are always things pulling in multiple directions. Second, although we inevitably attach the names of presidents to things that happen in any era, the reality is that one person does not define what happens. The best (or worst) laid plans of any president can be thwarted or aided by Congress or the Courts; the actions of countries around the world can profoundly affect economic outcomes; and things as diverse as weather, natural disasters, and emerging technologies can alter the path of US business activity at warp speed. Moreover, some decisions made by others take a while to manifest themselves. For example, the financial crisis that will be forever linked to President Bush had its origins in policies that were in place before he came into power as well as in those he promoted. Thus, Presidents often get the credit and the blame for things that are far removed from their ability to control or, at times, even influence. The bottom line is that, while the economy is always a mixed bag and no one individual determines what happens, President Obama left business conditions a lot better than he found them, and for that history will remember him well, as well it should. Let’s hope the next president does the same. ________________________________________ Dr. M. Ray Perryman is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Perryman Group (www.perrymangroup.com). He also serves as Institute Distinguished Professor of Economic Theory and Method at the International Institute for Advanced Studies.

The Gladewater Mirror Periodicals Postage Paid Gladewater, TX USPS 575-140 ISSN Number 1045-5671

News & Advertising Deadlines: Noon Monday

Office Hours 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Telephone: 903-845-2235 Fax: 903-845-2237

The Gladewater Mirror is published weekly by Bardwell Ink, LLC 211 N. Main Street Gladewater, TX

Email: gladewatermirror@aol.com

Owners:

Jim & Suzanne Bardwell

POSTMASTER: Send PS3579 to The Gladewater Mirror P.O. Box 1549 Gladewater, TX 75647

Publisher/Editor: Jim Bardwell Advertising: Suzanne Bardwell Office Manager: Tiffany Hobbs

Subscriptions are $29/year in Gregg, Smith & Upshur counties and payable in advance.

Donate A Boat or Car Today! “2-Night Free Vacation!”

1- 800 - CAR - ANGE L

w w w.boatangel.com

sponsored by boat angel outreach centers

STOP CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN

Deadline to file for council seat is Feb. 17

No new filings have been reported for the Gladewater City Council May election. Currently only Nick Foster has filed to run for the Place 4 seat, with incumbents Elijah “Sonny” Anderson, Place 5, Place 6 councilman Dennis Robertson and Place 7 councilman J.D. Shipp also filing. The deadline for filing to run in the May 6 city election is Friday, February 17 at 5 p.m..

WE BUY

OIL, GAS, &

MINERAL RIGHTS

Both non-producing and producing

including Non-Participating Royalty Interest (NPRI) Provide us your desired price for an offer evaluation.

CALL TODAY: 806.620.1422

LOBO MINERALS, LLC PO Box 1800 • Lubbock, TX 79408-1800

LoboMineralsLLC@gmail.com

Page 2, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017

Power up, sleep later... I want to get rid of my cell phone, go on a long road trip into the west and not have a deadline. Sounds like a little slice of heaven. My theme song lately is the old rock group Guess Who’s “No Time Left for You”. Yep, “no time”. The endless choruses of that phrase are stuck in playback in my little old pea-brain. I need more sleep. I need more time. And I definitely need more energy. I think that my rapidly beating heart is in the right place and I still have my local “go-shoes” on and that ain’t gonna change. To put a cherry on that little trifle, I had a committed story subject bail on me late Friday afternoon which meant that here I am on deadline scrambling. Every weekend for weeks has held a commitment and that isn’t going to change for the foreseeable future. Week before last, in addition to a full week of work, the week also held five medical appointments for either my Mom or me and none of them were psychiatric. Maybe at least one of them should have been or I may be making reservations for a padded room soon. In between covering events, taking pictures, selling too few ads and getting Mom to a variety of doctors some really good things have happened. We, as in Gladewater, are getting a Texas Department of Transportation Green Ribbon award to the tune of over $100,000 for beautification at the River Bridge entrance and on the south loop by Coach Cooksey Lane and the corner of Roden which will start plantings in a couple of weeks. But wait, it gets better. My connection at TXDOT called to tell me that we were going to get another award with a little more financial heft in 2018 for the corner of Hwy. 80 and the south loop, as well as Hwy. 271 at the north end of the loop. I am even working on the TXDOT folks in Atlanta to help us with the Upshur County side. Can I get an Amen and an army of volunteers to keep litter free what has been cleared around town? If I could sit in a room and write grants and call on resources

THE ECONOMIST

Suzanne Bardwell

By Dr. M. Ray Perryman

Economic Forecast for Texas’ Smaller Metropolitan Areas

all day we might find a little more manna for projects. But I’m not the only one on the lookout for resources and if any of you come across any possibilities give the City Manager, Main Street Director or the newspaper a heads up. Alas, woe is me! I find that to pay the light bills, the salaries, the insurance and the rent for this newspaper business advertising sales are necessary. Remember folks what we sell is creditable multiplatform space to a hometown buying audience. And, between our e-edition, print edition and our social media we pretty much have community saturation and then some. So, if I can just catch a few Zzzzs, sell a ton of advertising and organize my card file life might get back on track. But while pursuing those goals I have to fight against High Speed Rail so they don’t bulldoze my Mom’s and Aunt’s homes and destroy our fifth generation ranch. I, along with a host of educator retirees have to fight for the protection of health benefits for public education retirees who after a lifetime of often dedicated and selfless labor are being strapped with the threat of quadrupling health insurance costs which means there won’t be a pension. Hello cat food dining for retirees and that includes me. Hmmm, it is shocking and nonsensical to qualify as a retiree with the schedule I have. I suppose the lesson here is that life in the fast lane has its costs but it also carries the pleasure of a life lived, windmills tilted at and differences made. Hop on to the fast track with me there’s plenty of work and causes to go around. To coin an old Baby Boomer mantra “together we ARE the power!”

A closer look at the Japanese Texas High Speed Rail Project By State Representative Byron Cook (R-Corsicana) We know that when something sounds too good to be true— it generally ends up not being true. I believe this is the case with the current proposed Japanese Texas High Speed Rail Project between Dallas and Houston. Understandably, epic traffic congestion in Houston and Dallas makes the concept of a bullet train a very popaular item in these urban areas. But the fear of eminent domain abuse in the rural counties between Houston and Dallas feels more like a bullet of a different kind. It feels like a bullet aimed at property owners who question whether they are being asked to sell their land under threat of eminent domain to a commercial real estate venture or for the state’s master transportation plan for the future. Now, with rumors that President Trump may add High Speed Rail in Texas to his priority list of national infrastructure projects, a closer look at this Japanese-backed Dallas to Houston project is very much in order. As a public servant to this great state, I am proud to hold myself and my political colleagues accountable, to urge an adherence to Texas values, and to advocate in the best interests of my fellow Texans. It is precisely in keeping with this sense of pride for the great state of Texas that I feel it necessary to call attention to some troubling observations related to the proposed Dallas to Houston high speed rail project being touted by private real estate speculators aligned with Japanese commercial interests who are jointly operating under the names Texas Central Partners, Texas Central Railway (TCR) and Texas Central. You could be excused for not recognizing TCR by name. The just four-year-old self-proclaimed “railroad” company owns nothing in the way of telltale indicators of a real railroad affiliation (e.g., rolling stock, train depots, or even tracks), and indeed has no apparent intention of operating the very rails they hope to lay. In fact, TCR’s claimed “eminent domain” power as a railroad is very much in question and is now being contested in state court (trial set for July 2017). Concerns over legitimate eminent domain powers are not the only controversy surrounding the TCR real estate venture. There should also be a real concern over TCR’s plan to use only

Correction In Spotlight on GHS Corinna Garrett received the Who’s Who award in Choir. The picture in last week’s paper was incorrect and the Mirror regrets the error.

By 2021, I am projecting that the 19 smaller Texas Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) will add a total of about 215,000 net new jobs to the state. The growth rates over the period, which spans the 2016 to 2021 time horizon, will vary markedly. Some areas will outpace the state rate of expansion, while others will grow more slowly. The state’s smaller metropolitan areas often serve as centers for business, health care, retail, and other needs for significantly large surrounding areas. They are important to overall growth in the state, and many are performing very well. In fact, four of the top five Texas MSAs, when ranked by unemployment rate, are smaller metropolitan areas. Amarillo and Lubbock are tied with Austin-Round Rock to lead the way with a 3.2% rate of unemployment (as of December 2016), followed by College Station-Bryan (at 3.4%) and Sherman-Denison (3.6%). Several others (Abilene, Midland, Waco, San Angelo, Wichita Falls, Killeen-Temple, Tyler, Laredo, and Texarkana) have unemployment rates at or below the statewide level. Looking at the job growth rates for 2016, College StationBryan, Waco, and Brownsville-Harlingen saw faster hiring than anywhere except for Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and McAllenEdinburg-Mission. Laredo and Killeen-Temple have also been comparing well in terms of growth. On the other hand, five smaller metropolitan areas actually lost jobs last year (Texarkana, Wichita Falls, Beaumont-Port Arthur, Odessa, and Midland—most of which are highly energy dependent). Every year, we take a detailed look at the economy of each metropolitan area in the state, projecting output and employment by industry, as well as personal income, and other variables. This year, I’m expecting that six of the smaller metropolitan areas will equal or outpace the state rate of employment growth for the five-year time period. For reference, my projections for Texas call for job expansion at a 2.16% annual rate, while output (real gross product) rises at a 4.11% annual pace. All of our growth rates are “compound annual growth rates,” meaning that they reflect changes in the size from which growth is calculated. The fastest rates of job growth over the five-year period are forecast to be in Midland and Odessa, with 2.45% and 2.42% rates of job expansion, respectively. Of course, these cities were harder hit by the end of the oil surge, so part of the hiring will be recovering from that fallout. In addition, I expect most of the gains to occur in the latter years of the period, when the energy sector is likely to be further along the road to recovery. I’m also expecting College Station-Bryan to outpace the state, with job expansion at a 2.21% yearly rate. Both BrownsvilleHarlingen and Laredo are likely to see gains of 2.18% per annum over the period, while Tyler employment matches the state growth at a 2.16% rate. Victoria is likely to come in at a 2.11% annual rate of job growth, followed by Lubbock (2.0%), Corpus Christi (1.97%), Amarillo (1.94%), Texarkana (1.93%), San Angelo (1.90%), Waco (1.90%), Sherman-Denison (1.88%), Abilene (1.87%), Longview (1.87%), Beaumont-Port Arthur (1.86%), Wichita Falls (1.72%), and Killeen-Temple (1.61%). Employment expansion is driven by a variety of industries, and the key sectors vary notably by metropolitan area. I am expecting some recovery in oil and gas exploration activity, which will help those cities in the Permian Basin and elsewhere with ties to the industry. Higher education and health care are contributing to expansion in several areas. Cities along the US-Mexico border are benefiting from cross-border trade and other activity (which, by the way, is crucial to the economic health of the rest of the state as well, but that’s a topic for another day). Over the next five years, the 19 smaller metropolitan statistical areas in Texas will generate more than 15% of total state job growth, according to my latest forecast. I am expecting all of these diverse population centers to add jobs (though some years will of course be better than others). Counties which are not within any of the state’s metropolitan areas are also expected to add jobs; I’m forecasting a gain of nearly 100,200 for them by 2021. Texas’ smaller population centers are thriving. Many have very active economic development professionals, visionary community and business leadership, and growing industrial bases. Although much of the state’s future growth will be concentrated in the largest metropolitan areas, there is no doubt that the smaller cities will also be contributing to progress and provide vital centers of commerce for large swaths of the state.

Japanese Shinkansen rail technology. This technology is not compatible with other rail technologies including all rail systems presently operated in Texas. Reliance on a Japanese monopoly has two serious negative consequences. First, it would hold future generations of Texas rail customers hostage to a monopoly railroad technology with NO competitive suppliers to keep operational costs down and passenger fares affordable. Think about this. Would we build an airport with runways that can ONLY handle airplanes manufactured by Airbus to land and take off? Or would we build a highway with lanes that can ONLY handle cars made by Volvo? Or would we allow only one transportation-for-hire ride sharing app in Texas? Of course not. The second negative consequence of exclusively using the Japanese rail technology is its incompatibility with existing railroad tracks already in Texas cities. This means TCR’s trains will NOT truly connect to the central city centers of Houston and Dallas and will fall short in their time saving claim on travel because passengers will have to take secondary means of transportation to get to their final destinations, costing them more time and money. Additionally, TCR’s claim that they will not rely on taxpayer funding is simply disingenuous. Despite TCR’s carefully nuanced claim of no tax funding for its “operations,” we have now learned that federal taxpayer dollars could be at risk in financing TCR’s proposed $11 billion dollar “construction costs.” In fact, Tim Keith, president and former CEO of TCR, recently qualified TCR’s earlier no taxpayer exposure claim by stating that TCR may in fact seek federal loan guarantees (like RRIF and TIFIA) to help finance its “construction debt” for the project. As for the costs of passenger rail operations, it is common knowledge that substantial public funding has been necessary across the world in order to both build and operate most conventional and high speed passenger rail infrastructures. Subsequently, tax monies end up subsidizing such passenger rail services. For TCR to say they will do better on the operational side of their proposed service is admirable, but as they currently have no previous railroad experience, this is an extremely ambitious and unproven claim. In summary, if inter-regional high speed passenger rail is to be a part of Texas’ future transportation solution, then we need to slow down. We also need to involve the Texas Department of Transportation to ensure we have a master passenger rail plan that protects both urban and rural private property owner rights, guarantees transparency of all tax dollar expenditures and/ or loans (federal, state and local), and we must guard against monopoly control of our state’s future inter-regional passenger Dear Editor: rail infrastructure and operations. Thank you - to whoever picked up and disposed of the two Keeping our Texas economy and Texans moving is critical, mattresses which had been dumped alongside Shell Camp Road. but just as we tell our children and grandchildren to look both Carol Blair ways before crossing the street, our state needs to take a closer Gladewater look as well before boarding future trains.

Letter to the Editor

Thanks for the cleanup

News & Advertising Deadlines: Noon Monday

Office Hours 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Telephone: 903-845-2235 Fax: 903-845-2237

Email: gladewatermirror@aol.com

Owners:

Jim & Suzanne Bardwell Publisher/Editor: Jim Bardwell Advertising: Suzanne Bardwell Office Manager: Tiffany Hobbs

Subscriptions are $29/year in Gregg, Smith & Upshur counties and payable in advance.

May election deadline Feb. 17 No new filings have been reported for the Gladewater City Council May election. The only non-incumbent to file is Nick Foster, who filed for Chris Bland’s Place 4 seat. Bland has not filed for re-election. Incumbents Elijah “Sonny” Anderson, Place 5, Place 6 councilman Dennis Robertson and Place 7 councilman J.D. Shipp also have filed. In the GISD school board race, incumbents Jon Keller and David Floyd have drawn no challengers so far. Would-be candidates have until Friday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. to file to run in the May 6 city/ school election.

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 8

1 Section, 10 pages

50¢

Reinvesting in Gladewater Commercial building permits show upward surge By Jim Bardwell Take a quick drive around Gladewater and you’ll witness much-needed commercial growth. Along US 80 five local businesses have chosen to invest in their properties through either extensive remodeling or new construction - Texas Bank and Trust - $25,480, ABC Auto Parts $170,000, Pizza Hut - $150,000, and The Donut Shop - $40,000, according to City of Gladewater building permits. And then there is downtown, where a former gas station turned antique shop is being transformed into a two story brick oven pizza and brew house to the tune of more than $180,000. And a few blocks to the east, former Antique Capital RV Park owner Larry Seery is developing a new multi-unit retail center on Pacific Street, with room to expand for additional retail space. “These commercial projects help

$170,000

$180,000

$40,000 $25,480

$160,000

to bolster our sales taxes in the city, especially with new construction of retail and commercial property,” said Gladewater City Manager Theo Melancon. “It is also imperative to keep in mind that investment in commercial property can be contagious,

$150,000

as other businesses see money pouring into Gladewater, new firms and entities may decide that this is a good time to join our community.” For several years Gladewater has felt the repercussions of the economic downturn

in the oil market. But with the surge in commercial/retail project, Gladewater may be on the verge of turning the economic corner. “These are the type of trends that Continued on Page 10

Values based on Gladewater Commercial Building Permits

City going after burned out buildings By Jim Bardwell Gladewater city officials are running out of patience with property owners who fail to clean up their burned out buildings and houses. So they are putting more teeth into ordinances already on the books that will allow officials to move quicker when needed to get the property cleaned up. The council voted to amend the city’s Fire Prevention ordinance to include demolition and amended the city’s “Demolition of Condemned Structure” ordinance, so the city can address problem areas such as the two burned out downtown buildings more quickly. The amendments give the fire chief broader authority to determine if a building poses a health and safety risk and will speed up the process for condemnation from 90 days to 60 days. Officials cited two examples of the need for such an aggressive amendment - the two downtown buildings in the 100 block of North Main Street which burned in January of this year and Robert’s Grocery in the 1600 block of North US 271, which burned in July of 2016. The city has notified the owners of the structures and ordered them to clean up the charred remains. In other business, the city council performed the annual evaluation of city manager Theo Melancon, who is just completing his first year on the job. The council spent three hours in executive session before voting to give Melancon a $5,000 raise - from $95,000 to $100,000 - and a one time bonus of $4,000 for temporarily undertaking the public works director’s job. By comparison, other city managers in similar size Texas cities with similar economies to Gladewater’s 6,441 population make the following: Atlanta 5,633 population - $105,779.00; Gilmer 5,114 population - $101,960.00; Iowa Park 6,431 population $94,924.00; Lampasas 6,854 population - $99,320.00; Lindale 5,323 population - $120,000.00; Marble Falls 6,130 population - $145,000.00; and Whitehouse 7,947 population - $82,000.00. (Population and salary figures are from the Texas City Management Association’s 2015-16 City Management Compensation Survey) Councilman Dennis Robertson declined to say why it took the council three hours to come up with the $5,000, but did say

based on the city’s current financial condition he felt the $5,000 raise was what the city could afford, and remain responsible to the taxpayers. Mayor Harold Wells said the meeting took so long because the city manager and council had to come to a compromise. Both Robertson and Wells said they hope Melancon stays with the city for many years. In other business, the council approved a blanket permit for the Gladewater 2017 Senior Class Graduation May 26, 2017, appointed Julie Everett Watson to the Everett Park Board to replace John Patrick and approved a request by the Gladewater Main Street to change its meeting time, date and location to the 1st Tuesday of each month at 5:15 p.m. at the Chamber building downtown, rather than 9 a.m. on the 1st Thursday of each month at city hall. The council also awarded a $57,825 bid to Morton Construction for the waterline improvements on Shell Camp Road. The funding will come from $80,000 in leftover grant money. The council authorized the city staff to write a “Memorandum of Understanding” between the City of Gladewater and the City of Clarksville City regarding Highway 80 drug interdiction. This memorandum, once approved by both city councils, would give Gladewater police the authority to patrol suspected areas of Clarksville City where illegal drug activity is suspected. Gladewater Police Chief Rob Vine told the Mirror, Gladewater police would not be using the extended authority to write speeding tickets on US 80. He told the council that police had been unable to fight drug activity in neighboring Clarksville City, even when they suspected illegal activity, because they couldn’t go outside beyond the city limits. In another police-related item, Chief Vine presented the city’s annual “Racial Profiling” report to the council. According to the report, Gladewater police made 1,648 traffic stops in 2016 which resulted in 1640 citations, four arrests and four citations and arrests. The racial breakdown on the 1,648 traffic stops include: 407 African American, 4 Asian, 1,030 Caucasian, 195 Hispanic, 11 Middle Eastern, 0 Native American, and 1 Other. Vine said in 2016, Gladewater police had 11 situations were force was used, resulting in 9 arrests, 1 not arrested and 1 death.

Only one council race contested GISD incumbents retain board seats By Jim Bardwell City and school flings ended Friday at 5 p.m. for the May 6 election with only one race drawing a challenger - that being Gladewater City Council Place 5. Incumbent Elijah “Sonny” Anderson is being challenged by Mark Carpenter, who has unsuccessfully run numerous times for councilman and the mayor’s seat. Newcomer Nick Foster will be the next Place 4 councilman, after drawing no opponent in his first bid for a council seat. Current Place 4 councilman Chris Bland chose not to file for re-election. Incumbent Place 6 councilman Dennis Robertson and Place 7 councilman J.D. Shipp are unopposed and will remain on the council for another two years. Over in the Gladewater ISD school board race, incumbents Jon Keller and David Floyd drew no challengers and will remain on the school board. With no contested races, GISD will not be required to hold an election, thus saving taxpayers the cost of an election.

CHANGING LIVES

Have you ever changed a person’s life in a single day? The Texas Ramp Project does it hundreds of times a year by building wheelchair ramps for disabled or elderly people who can’t afford to buy one. Deloise Featherston of Union Grove is the latest to get a new home ramp courtesy of the Gladewater Rotary. Spearheaded by Leon Word, volunteers worked six hours on the 44-foot ramp project. Also working on the ramp were Sam Cloud, Dave Ferguson, Wayne Oney, Al Harrison and Jim Bardwell. For more information on the Texas Ramp project, go to: www.texasramps.org.

Page 10, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017

BEFORE

AFTER

Reinvesting in Gladewater

BEFORE

Commercial building permits show upward surge

AFTER

Continued from Page 1 businesses seek out before deciding to invest. This commercial development, along with our push for new residential development will be a 1-2 punch that can transform Gladewater into an amazing place for businesses to build and prosper.” In 2012, small businesses in the United States accounted for 28.2 million jobs and made up 49-percent of all private entity employment, small businesses accounted for over 75-percent of those classified as non-employers.

BEFORE

AFTER

Jack’s Upshur voters may get to cast ballots countywide Pick of the Litter Jack needs your help - these dogs are in immediate need of ADOPTION, RESCUE or FOSTER. If you can help, please contact the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center located at 303 HG Mosley in Longview or call 903-297-PETS.

Ryker ID#: A34190095 Great Pyrenees-x Gender: M Age: 3 Weight: 89 lbs

Tiara ID#: A34653616 Terrier-x Gender: F Age: 2 Weight: 40 lbs

Gwen ID#: A34465855 Pointer-x Gender: F Age: 2 Weight: 47 lbs

Ellis ID#: A34465857 Pointer-x Gender: M Age: 2 Weight: 45 lbs

By Phillip Williams Correspondent GILMER--Upshur County Commissioners Court last week approved asking the state to let Upshur voters cast ballots at any polling place in the county on election days, instead of having to vote in the area of the county where they live. If approved, the plan would take effect with November’s election on proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. County Elections Administrator Lory Harle proposed the idea, telling the court at a Feb. 15 public hearing the arrangement would offer county voters the same type of advantage as holding all early (pre-election day) voting in one centralized location. (The county held all

such voting in last November’s general election at the county courthouse.) Before the hearing, Harle noted the arrangement would let Upshur residents who get off work in Longview at 6 p.m. on election days to vote in nearby East Mountain (rather than having to drive on to their own voting box before polls close at 7 p.m.) In addition, County Judge Dean Fowler told the public hearing that the idea behind the plan is that the county could have fewer voting boxes. But Harle said that during the first year the plan is effective, the county must retain 65 percent of the polling places it would normally have for an election, and that her proposal is aimed to “bring more convenience to the voter,” not eliminate polling places.

Still, she said, the plan should reduce the county’s election costs by lowering the number of voting boxes. Harle said a 5-member committee would determine the voting locations under her proposal. Members include herself, Fowler, Pct. 4 Commissioner Mike Spencer, Upshur County Republican Party Chairman Cynthia Ridgeway and Upshur County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Miles Jr. Voters residing in one precinct could not vote on precinct races in other precincts. For example, a voter who lived in commissioner precinct two could not vote in a precinct four commissioner race, nor could a voter who lives in justice of the peace precinct one vote in a precinct three JP race.

Elijah Anderson, who along with John Paul Tallent have been steering the citywide volunteer clean-up effort, hosted an appreciation luncheon for city workers last week who have assisted in hauling away debris and helping in the overall effort. The luncheon was held at St. James Baptist Church. Photo by Jim Bardwell

Harle also said that all polling places must have electronic equipment to ensure that a voter who shows up there has not already voted elsewhere. She said the plan would not make voter fraud easier inasmuch as it is like early voting (where all precincts vote at the courthouse). When a citizen at the public hearing asked what would happen if the electronic equipment failed at a location, Harle said the county’s information technology director would come to the polling place, and that voters could either wait or go vote elsewhere. “We have that problem anyway” under the current arrangement, Fowler pointed out. All voting in the county, except mailed-in paper ballots in early voting, is now done by machine. The aforementioned committee would submit its plan for polling place locales by August, and the state would inform Harle by September whether it was approved, she said. The elections administrator acknowleged that state approval of her plan is not guaranteed, saying the Texas secretary of state’s office would authorize such a proposal for no more than four counties with Upshur’s population (under 100,000) and six counties with 100,000 or more residents. The public hearing--at which five citizens asked questions and which was held as part of the court’s regular semi-monthly meeting-was required to apply for permission, she said.

Recycling 2nd Saturday of each month at City Hall

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 10

50¢

1 Section, 10 pages

Gladewater man sentenced to nine years in prison

GISD accepts Richardson’s resignation The Gladewater ISD school board met in special session Friday morning to accept GISD Superintendent Dr. Richardson’s resignation, effective March 19. On March 2, the Board o f Tr u s t e e s o f Ta t u m I S D m e t t o formally offer Gladewater ISD Superintendent Dr. J.P. Richardson a contract. The Tatum ISD Board voted to hire Richardson at its Feb. 8 meeting, but by law, the board had to wait 21 days before voting to hire Richardson, who will replace Dr. Dee Hartt. The Tatum ISD board is slated to accept Hartt’s resignation at its March 7 meeting. Jon Keller, GISD board president, said the GISD board will begin the search process internally by posting the job within the next few days. “We will decide at our next board meeting on an interim superintendent if that is the route the board chooses,” Keller told the Mirror Friday. Dr. Richardson has served as Superintendent at Gladewater ISD since 2008. Dr. Richardson has served as a Director of Human Resources & Community Relations, Principal, Assistant Principal & Teacher. Prior to coming to Gladewater, Dr. Richardson worked at Tatum ISD as a Director & Principal prior to accepting the job as Superintendent of Gladewater ISD.

Upshur law enforcement officials seized four ounces of methamphetamine, three pounds of marijuana, 1.2 ounces of cocaine, 44 Xanax pills, 32 Ecstasy pills, four rifles, three shotguns and a handgun in a recent drug bust in the county.

Deputies make drug bust By Phillip Williams Correspondent GILMER--Multiple charges are pending in Upshur County against a 44-year-old man who was arrested when officers seized numerous drugs and guns from his home on Texas 155 north of Gilmer last week, said Sheriff Larry Webb. Shundarrell Cain was arrested without resistance March 1 and taken to Smith County Jail in Tyler to face related charges there, Webb said. In a news release, Webb said the seizure stemmed from a joint narcotics investigation involving his office, the Gilmer Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety.. “During the investigation it was learned that a large amount of illegal narcotics was

being kept at a residence north of Gilmer,” the sheriff wrote. “The agencies then went to the location, where consent was given to enter and while conducting the investigation, officers located a large stash of illegal narcotics and eight firearms, one of which was stolen.” Seized, he said, were four ounces of methamphetamine, three pounds of marijuana, 1.2 ounces of cocaine, 44

Xanax pills, 32 Ecstasy pills, four rifles, three shotguns and a handgun. “The search of this residence and the arrest made was part of a detailed investigation into narcotics activity occurring in Upshur County. . .The ability of the agencies to work together in this case has resulted in making Upshur County a safer place,” Webb added. “I congratulate everyone involved on a job well done!”

By Phillip Williams/Correspondent GILMER--115th District Judge Lauren Parish sentenced 11 persons on felony charges between Feb. 15 and 28, said Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd’s office. Details of the sentencings were as follows, and all defendants pleaded guilty unless otherwise indicated. Clifford Edward Prewitt, 48, of Gladewater, received nine years in prison Feb. 21 for evading arrest/detention with vehicle. That sentence will run concurrently with a Gregg County sentence. Prewitt was on parole when the evasion offense occurred, and the nine-year sentence will run consecutively with the sentence for the offense for which he was on parole. A spokeswoman for Byrd said she had no details of the crime for which Prewitt was on parole, how long the sentence related to that was, nor any details on his Gregg County case. East Mountain police investigated the Nov. 17, 2016 evading offense. James Austin Garrison, 35, of Big Sandy, drew five years “deferred adjudication” probation Feb. 15 for assault/family violence with previous conviction. “Deferred adjudication” means no final conviction appears on a defendant’s record if he/she successfully completes probation. However, when such probation is revoked, up to the maximum sentence for the offense can be imposed. Big Sandy police probed Garrison’s July 11, 2016 offense. As with everyone who was placed on probation between Feb. 15 and 28, Garrison was ordered to pay court costs and a $50 fee to Upshur County Crime Stoppers. Some other terms of his probation include a $1,500 fine, a $100 contribution to the crime victim fund, a $100 contribution to The Women’s Center of East Texas, an attorney’s fee, 400 hours of community service, an alcohol/drug evaluation, alcohol counseling if directed by the probation officer, taking a parenting class, enrolling within 90 days in a batterer’s intervention prevention program and completing it, and having no contact with his victim or any member of the victim’s family. Billy Jack House, 60, of Longview, was placed on 10 years regular probation of a 10-year prison term Feb. 15 for intoxication assault. However, he must serve 180 days in county jail as a term of probation. The Texas Department of Public Safety probed his Nov. 6, 2015 offense. Continued on Page 7

Three local men indicted on drug-related charges

By Phillip Williams/Correspondent GILMER--The Upshur County Grand Jury last Thursday returned 18 indictments, including one for murder and seven others which were sealed, and nobilled two cases, said District Attorney Billy Byrd. Defendants, charges, dates of the alleged offenses and bond information in the unsealed indictments were as follows, his office said: l Curtis E. Gordon, 51, of Gladewater, possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine) on Nov. 25, 2016. He remained in county jail in Gilmer under $5,000 bond

l Dennis Len Parsons, 45, of Gladewater, possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine) last June 30, $7,500 l C h r i s t o p h e r S h a u n Wa r d , 3 8 , o f Gladewater, possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine) last June 30. Although a $10,000 personal recognizance bond was set, he was released to Gregg County to face charges there. l Glenn Alan Chavez, 54, of Marshall, possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine) on Sept. 11, 2015, $10,000 Winnsboro resident Michael Ray Westerfield

Jr., who turns 35 Monday, possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine) on Jan. 1, 2016, $5,000 l Kristi Denise Cottingham, 29, of Gilmer, possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine) last Nov. 5, $5,000 l David Walter Stewart II, 41, of Gilmer, possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine) last Nov. 7, $10,000 l Patrick Wayne Webb, 42, of Gilmer, possession of controlled substance (cocaine) on April 3, 2016, Continued on Page 7

$120K Green Ribbon Award secured, work to begin this spring By Jim Bardwell A Texas Department of Transportation Green Ribbon Award of approximately $120,000 for beautification at the corner of Roden Street and South Loop 485; on either side of Coach Cooksey Street on Loop 485; at the Gladewater Airport right-of -way; and the city sign at the Sabine River Bridge are all scheduled to begin planting in the next few weeks. The plantings at the river bridge/airport entrance will include six Eastern Redbud trees, one Flowering Dogwood and three Chinese Pistache trees; as well as 123 Gulf Muhly shrubs, 91 New Gold Lantana and 27 Scarlet Penstemon. On either side of Coach Cooksey Lane at Loop 485 the plantings include 81 Autumn Sage; 49 Gulf Muhly and 82 New Gold Lantana shrubs. There will also be six Possumhaw, two Chinese Pistache and three Red Maple trees at that planting. At the Weldon Intermediate School corner of Roden Street and Loop 485 shrubbery includes 36 Autumn Sage,

CORNERS OF LOOP 485 AND COACH COOKSEY

LOOP 485 AND RODEN STREET 91 Gulf Muhly and 75 New Gold Lantana along with eight Knockout Rose Bushes and 18 Texas Sage. The trees to be planted include five Possumhaw and three Chinese Pistache. The city has installed water meters at the sites so that the plants can be maintained and nurtured to maturity. It will take about three years of growth for

the designed plantings to reach their potential. Another Green Ribbon Award has been secured for the corner of Highway 80 and Loop 485 where Wilco Convenience Store is located as well as at the corner Highway 271 and north Loop 485. The value of that award is expected to be about $60,000 with plantings to be completed

TXDOT Engineer David Stocks surveyed the sites for the Green Ribbon Award Beautification Project with Beautification Board Chair Suzanne Bardwell last Friday before plantings are to begin in the next few weeks. Photos By Suzanne Bardwell in late fall or spring of 2018. The awards were secured through the efforts of the Beautification Board and chair Suzanne Bardwell along with the support of City Manager Theo Melancon and Litter Abatement Officer Al Harrison. “To say we are thrilled to have this investment in our community is an

understatement,” Bardwell said. “TXDOT’s David Ivins and David Stocks have gone above and beyond to help effect this project which should encourage further economic development in our city. This should enhance visitors’ perception of our city as well as create a more beautiful environment for our citizens. We hope that the community

will continue to work toward beautification individually in their neighborhoods and corporately as volunteers in the greater community.” Bardwell has also approached the Atlanta TXDOT district about beautification on the Upshur County portion of the city but no awards have been approved yet.

The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, March 8, 2017, Page 3

Ballfield grand opening set for March 25

Gladewater Youth Baseball and Softball Complex will celebrate its formal Grand Opening Ceremonies on March 25 at 9:30 a.m. with the raising of the American Flag, National Anthem, and a welcome address from Gladewater Mayor Wells.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Happening

Local singer-songwriters will be interviewed and recorded on stage for an ETX Rocks Show episode. Audience voting counts COLLEGE STATION â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Eddie Joe Davis Jr. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;67 will be the for 50 percent of each contestantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s score. One performer will keynote speaker for the 2017 Aggie Muster ceremony on Friday, be granted complimentary studio time at Studio 333 with Chad April 21 at 7 p.m. in Reed Arena on the campus of Texas A&M Mauldin of Mauldin Productions. University. The annual event is the largest of more than 300 GALA to meet March 21 Muster ceremonies held across the nation and around the world The Gladewater Area Ladies Association will meet Tuesday, in honor of Aggies who died during the past year. Davis, known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Eddie Joeâ&#x20AC;? to his peers, said he is â&#x20AC;&#x153;very March 21 at noon at the Chamber of Commerce on North Main honoredâ&#x20AC;? to be selected as the speaker for one of the oldest and Street. All interested ladies are warmly encouraged to attend for games, food and fellowship. GALA also supports local most revered traditions at Texas A&M. scholarships and community projects. For more information visit muster.tamu.edu.

2017 Aggie Muster ceremony April 21

Upshur Storytime held Thursdays

GILMER--Two books will be read to small children at both of the Upshur County Libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weekly â&#x20AC;&#x153;Storytimeâ&#x20AC;? sessions Thursday. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kevin Goes to the Libraryâ&#x20AC;? by Liesbet Slegers, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Moo, La, La! Cow Goes Shoppingâ&#x20AC;? by Stephanie Shaw and Becka Moor, will be read at the 10 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. sessions at the library, 702 W. Tyler (which is also Texas Hwy. 154.) A craft will follow Storytime, said Debbie White of the libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services division. The events are free to the public, but children under age 12 must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, call the library at (903) 843-5001 or visit its website at www. youseemore.com/upshur.

ZPV

Download the Gladewater Mirror Mobile App TODAY!

Garden Club program to host expert

The Gladewater Garden Club will meet Monday, March 27 at 2 p.m at the Gardens of Gladewater Clubhouse. The program will be presented by Longview Home and Garden Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Danny Armstrong. Members will also enjoy a plant and garden tool exchange. All interested community members are warmly invited to join the organization.

GFSA to host GISD retiree luncheon

The Gladewater Former Students Association will host a luncheon Tuesday, March 28 for retired GISD employees from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Former Students Building on Hendricks Street. All GISD retirees are encouraged to attend.

Opry lineup announced

The Gladewater Opry will host Chase Dawson, Courtney Lee Library story time set Taylor, Frank and Keith Ross, Erica Stegall, Hunter Collins, Lee Public Library invites young children to the library for Maryah McHamm, Renee Garrison and the Texas Smoke Story Time. Â Story Time is every Wednesday morning from Band Saturday at 8 p.m. Adult tickets are $10, childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 10:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. tickets are $5. All activities are free to the public.Â The library is located at Old Firehouse concerts planned 312 W. Pacific Ave., Gladewater. For more information, call the Edomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Old Firehouse will host Nashville based singer library at 903-845-2640. Melissa Greener in concert this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. On March Live ETX ROCKS at Opry March 10 24 Emily Elbert will perform. Elbert has been an opening act for The ETX Music Office has announced the live recording Leon Russell and Richie Havens among others. Her YouTube of The ETX Rocks Show at The Gladewater Opry March 10. videos have garnered more than two million views. She has also

Upshur sheriff to cover E. Mountain

nday Services

collaborated with may artists including Ben Taylor to Dweezil Zappa. The Old Firehouse in Edom is located at 8241 FM 279. Tickets may be purchased online at www.theoldfirehouse.net or at the door. For information call 903-852-2781.

Following a media report that the East Mountain Police Department has shut down, the Upshur County Sheriffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office is responding to calls in that city â&#x20AC;&#x153;if they have a police need or emergency,â&#x20AC;? Sheriff NON-DENOMINATIONAL Larry Webb said Monday. /FX -JGF 'FMMPXTIJQ $IVSDI t Webb said he had not been (MBEFXBUFS #JCMF $IVSDI t First Church of the Nazarene â&#x20AC;&#x153;officially contactedâ&#x20AC;? about (SBDF 5BCFSOBDMF 401 West Upshur the departmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s status and â&#x20AC;&#x153;I PENTECOSTAL (MBEFXBUFS 5FYBT t donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know anything official.â&#x20AC;? 'JSTU 6OJUFE 1FOUFDPTUBM t 'BY He said that what he knew of /PSUITJEF 1FOUFDPTUBM the situation was â&#x20AC;&#x153;pretty muchâ&#x20AC;? "CVOEBOU -JGF 5FNQMF 6 1 $ t Schedule of Services: what A. hasD.been in the media. 4PVUIFSO 1FOUFDPTUBM $IVSDI t 4UBSSWJMMF (Dean) Simmons Sunday School The dilapidated church on Roden Street between Miller and Ragsdale streets BN is If no East Mountain officer Senior Pastor Morning Worship BN now completely down with a beautiful lot ready for development. PRESBYTERIAN is on duty, â&#x20AC;&#x153;my deputies will Evening Service QN 903-845-3848 'JSTU 1SFTCZUFSJBO t .BSTIBMM t (MBEFXBUFS PhotoMidweek By Suzanne Bardwell QN Service (Wed.) respondâ&#x20AC;? to a David call, heLanicek said.

Sunday Services

OTHER #PEZ PG #FMJFWFS T .JOJTUSJFT t BAPTIST 4UBSSWJMMF $IVSDI PG UIF -JWJOH (PE t $BMWBSZ #BQUJTU t 'SJFOETIJQ $PNNVOJUZ $IVSDI $MBSLTWJMMF $JUZ #BQUJTU t (MBEFXBUFS 'VMM 'BJUI )PMJOFTT t $PSOFSTUPOF $IVSDI t 'VMM (PTQFM 'FMMPXTIJQ &BTUWJFX #BQUJTU $IVSDI t (MBEFXBUFS 3FWJWBM $IVSDI 'JSTU #BQUJTU $IVSDI t -JWJOH )PQF 'FMMPXTIJQ t 'SJFOETIJQ #BQUJTU $IVSDI t -PWF PG (PE $IVSDI t (MBEFWJFX #BQUJTU t /FX .PVOUBJO $.& $IVSDI (MBEFXBUFS .JTTJPOBSZ #BQUJTU t 6OJPO 5FNQMF $.& $IVSDI (SBDF #BQUJTU t See your helpful (SFBUFS /FX )PQF #BQUJTU -PDVTU (SPWF #BQUJTU t hardware folks at... 4 5ZMFS 4U t Store hours: .FNPSJBM #BQUJTU t /FX )PQF #BQUJTU t (MBEFXBUFS 5Y 7:00-7:00 Mon-Fri 4U +BNFT #BQUJTU t 8:00-6:00 Sat 0QFO BN QN . ' t BN QN 4BU 6OJPO (SPWF #BQUJTU t 1:00-5:00 Sun $PNQMFUF MJOF PG BMM MJWFTUPDL GFFE BOE TVQQMJFT BOJNBM DBSF IBSEXBSF BOE IPVTFIPME TVQQMJFT +PZ #BQUJTU

Joe Fife Feed & Hardware Bailey's ďż˝fCE. Gladewater, TX

903 .845 .5787

CHURCH OF CHRIST

BAPTIST 4FF ZPVS IFMQGVM /PSUI -PPQ $IVSDI PG $ISJTU t 3PDLZ $IVSDI PG $ISJTU IBSEXBSF GPMLT BU Calvary Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-6297

Baileyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

'JSTU $ISJTUJBO $IVSDI %JTDJQMFT PG $ISJTU t Store hours: City Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-3248 (MBEFXBUFS 59 .PO 'SJ Clarksville CATHOLIC â&#x20AC;˘ 903-918-5539 Cornerstone Church Sat 4U 5IFSFTB T $BUIPMJD $IVSDI Sun East Mountain Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-759-2820

CHARISMATIC Eastview Baptist Church â&#x20AC;˘ 903-984-8524 /FX -JGF $IVSDI First BaptistLUTHERAN Churchâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2171 â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-4603 Friendship0ME 3FEFFNFS -VUIFSBO Baptist Church 300 Hwy. 80 East Gladeview Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ CHURCH OF 903-845-3842 GOD Gladewater (MBEFXBUFS $IVSDI PG (PE t Gladewater Missionary Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-5174 NAZARENE903.845.2222 Grace Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-6440 $IVSDI PG UIF /B[BSFOF t Greater New Hope METHODIST Baptist 'JSTU 6OJUFE .FUIPEJTU $IVSDI t Locust Grove Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-5174 .D$SBSZ T $IBQFM 6OJUFE .FUIPEJTU Gladewater Bible â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-4768 /FX .PVOUBJO .FUIPEJTU New Hope Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-3042 4UBSSWJMMF .FUIPEJTU 6OJPO 5FNQMF .FUIPEJTU St. James Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-5028

J.O. Williams

Since 1936

you like to ur company Union Grove Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-4894 n our Sunday Joy Baptistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-790-4978 Hwy. 80 CHURCH OF CHRIST s Directory? Gladewater, TX North Loop Church of Christâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2531 903.845.2559

North Main Church of Christâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2816 8F EPO U TUBSU DPPLJO UJM XF IFBS GSPN ZPV 03.845.2235 Rocky Church of Christ

-*'5 OE 5VFT

NWMS (1st Wed.)

QN QN

Junior Pastor 903-236-4404

NON-DENOMINATIONAL /FX -JGF 'FMMPXTIJQ $IVSDI t (MBEFXBUFS #JCMF $IVSDI t (SBDF 5BCFSOBDMF

Come and See!

PENTECOSTAL John 1:39 'JSTU 6OJUFE 1FOUFDPTUBM t /PSUITJEF 1FOUFDPTUBM First United Methodist Church "CVOEBOU -JGF 5FNQMF 6 1 $ t 8 2VJUNBO t 4PVUIFSO 1FOUFDPTUBM $IVSDI t 4UBSSWJMMF

J.O. Sundays: BN 1SBJTF 4FSWJDF t BN 4VOEBZ 4DIPPM Williams BN 5SBEJUJPOBM 4FSWJDF Dick Dobbins, pastor Since 1936 PRESBYTERIAN

'JSTU 1SFTCZUFSJBO t .BSTIBMM t (MBEFXBUFS 300 Hwy. 80 East www.fumcgladewater.org

Gladewater OTHER #PEZ PG #FMJFWFS T .JOJTUSJFT t 903.845.2222 4UBSSWJMMF $IVSDI PG UIF -JWJOH (PE t 'SJFOETIJQ $PNNVOJUZ $IVSDI 'VMM 'BJUI )PMJOFTT t 'VMM (PTQFM 'FMMPXTIJQ (MBEFXBUFS 3FWJWBM $IVSDI -JWJOH )PQF 'FMMPXTIJQ t -PWF PG (PE $IVSDI t /FX .PVOUBJO $.& $IVSDI 6OJPO 5FNQMF $.& $IVSDI

FUNERAL HOME

Joe Fife & Hardware (903)Feed 845-2155

4 5ZMFS 4U t DSPMFZ@HXBUFS@GI!ZBIPP DPN (MBEFXBUFS 5Y / $FOUFS 4U PGG .BJO 4U )XZ

0QFO BN QN . ' t BN QN 4BU .BJM 1 0 #PY t (MBEFXBUFS 59 $PNQMFUF MJOF PG BMM MJWFTUPDL GFFE BOE TVQQMJFT BOJNBM DBSF IBSEXBSF BOE IPVTFIPME TVQQMJFT

CHURCH Baileyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Grace Baptist Church 8FTU 6QTIVS 10 #PY (MBEFXBUFS 59

4FF ZPVS IFMQGVM FIRST BAPTIST IBSEXBSF GPMLT BU

Store hours: E. George Richey(MBEFXBUFS 59 Rd., Gladewater .PO 'SJ 212 Schedule of Services 903-845-2171 Sat Sunday Wednesday Sun XXX GCDHMBEFXBUFS PSH Sunday School 10 a.m. Morning Service 11 a.m. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;SCHEDULE Evening Service 6:30 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

Prayer and Bible Study

OF SERVICESâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

J.O. Williams

Since 1936

SUNDAY B N 4VOEBZ 4DIPPM 903-845-6440 B N .PSOJOH 8PSTIJQ $IJMESFO T $IVSDI 300 Hwy. 80 East Pastor Jim Withers Q N &WFOJOH 8PSTIJQ Gladewater WEDNESDAY: Q N 1SBZFS .FFUJOH New Mountain CME Church 903.845.2222 â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-1175

Starrville Methodistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-877-4040 CATHOLIC oin you on Sunday or you want to support faith in your town, call Tiffany at 903.845.2235 or e-mail gladewaterads@aol.com to advertise. Union Temple CME Methodistâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-1050 St. Theresa's Catholic Churchâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2306

NON-DENOMINATIONAL Would you like to New Ute Fellowship Churchâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-261-4227 New Life Church â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-8108 see your company Gladewater Bible Churchâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-445-7234 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST Grace Tabemade â&#x20AC;˘ 903-309-8801 First Christian Church â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2545 in our Sunday featured PENTECOSTAL LUTHERAN First United Pentecostalâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2922 Services Directory? Our Redeemer Lutheranâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-758-2019 Northside Pentecostal

First Church of the Nazarene

401 West Upshur (MBEFXBUFS 5FYBT t 'BY Schedule of Services: A. D. (Dean) Simmons Sunday School BN Senior Pastor Morning Worship BN Hwy. 80 Evening Service QN 903-845-3848 Gladewater, TX Midweek Service (Wed.) QN David Lanicek 903.845.2559 -*'5 OE 5VFT

QN Junior Pastor NWMS (1st Wed.) QNstart coo kin' til we hear from you! We don't Driveâ&#x20AC;˘ln. 903-236-4404

St. James Missionaryand Baptist Church Come See!

John 1:39 Join us each Wednesday at 6:15 pm for United Church ABF/SBFFirst and 7:15 pmMethodist for Bible Study and 8 2VJUNBO t each Sunday at 11 am. Dick Dobbins, pastor 2800 W. Commerce Street www.fumcgladewater.org Gladewater, Texas 75647 Sundays: BN 1SBJTF 4FSWJDF t BN 4VOEBZ 4DIPPM 903-845-5028 BN 5SBEJUJPOBM 4FSWJDF

First Church of the Nazarene 401 West Upshur Gladewater, Texas 75647 â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-4425 Fax: 903-845-2881

Schedule of Services: Sunday School ........................ 9:30 am A.O. (Dean) Simmons FUNERAL Morning Worship ................... 10:30 amHOME Senior Pastor Evening Service ...................... pm (903)6:30 845-2155 Midweek Service (Wed.) ..........6:30 pm Bo Patterson DSPMFZ@HXBUFS@GI!ZBIPP DPN LIFT (2nd Tues.) ...................... 6:30 pm Youth Pastor NWMS (1st Wed.) ....................6:30 pm / $FOUFS 4U PGG .BJO 4U )XZ

903-845-3848 Youth....Sun. 12:30 pm & Wed. 6:30 pm

.BJM 1 0 #PY t (MBEFXBUFS 59

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

CHARISMATIC

8FTU 6QTIVS 10 #PY (MBEFXBUFS 59

CHURCH OF GOD

B N .PSOJOH 8PSTIJQ $IJMESFO T $IVSDI Q N &WFOJOH 8PSTIJQ WEDNESDAY: Q N 1SBZFS .FFUJOH

Abundant Life Temple U.P. C. â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-6043 Call 903.845.2235 Southern Pentecostal Church (Starrville) PRESBYTERIAN

Living Stone Churchâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-8108

NAZARENE

903-845-2171 XXX GCDHMBEFXBUFS PSH â&#x20AC;&#x201D;SCHEDULE OF SERVICESâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; SUNDAY B N 4VOEBZ 4DIPPM

First Presbyterian â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2905 Full Gospel Fellowship Whether you are inviting visitors to join you on Sunday or you want to support faith in your town, call Tiffany at 903.845.2235 or e-mail gladewaterads@aol.com to advertise. Church of the Nazarene â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-4425 OTHER Gladewater Revival Church METHODIST Starrville Church of the Uving Godâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-877-3205 Uving Hope Fellowshipâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-261-2023 First United Methodist Church â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2565 Friendship Community Church Love of God Church â&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-2623 Full Faith Holinessâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-8195 McCrary's Chapel United Methodist Union Temple CME Churchâ&#x20AC;˘ 903-845-1050

Ballpark Grand Opening

March 25 @ 9:30 a.m.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 11

Infant US 271 Eyesores ... killed by blow to head By Phillip Williams Correspondent GILMER--Preliminary findings of an autopsy released last week show the March 2 death of an 11-month-old Upshur County boy was a homicide caused by “blunt force injuries of the head.” However, Upshur County Sheriff Larry Webb said last week his office’s investigation into the death of Armani Troy Berrospe is continuing as authorities are awaiting the “full official” autopsy report to make sure the death was a homicide rather than accidental. He said he did not know when it would be issued. In a news release last week, Webb had said his office received a 911 call March 2 concerning an injury to the child from the boy’s home in the 700 block of FM Road 2088 in Bettie community, north of Gilmer. Sheriff’s deputies and emergency medical personnel responded to the scene and found young Berrospe, who was transported to ETMCPittsburg hospital and died there, Webb said. The sheriff has said he does not know who made the 911 call at about 11:28 a.m., nor what time the child died. The preliminary findings by examining pathologist Dr. Tracy Dyer were released by Camp County Countywide Justice of the Peace Harold Kennington in response to a public information request filed three days earlier by this newspaper. Since the boy died at a hospital in Camp County, Kennington ordered the autopsy, which was performed at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas. The autopsy report showed the child would have marked his first birthday last Saturday, which was nine days after his death.

Wilson brings ‘Old Time’ hospitality to business Trade days to begin this weekend

One down, one to go

By Jim Bardwell At least one of two unsightly eyesores on US 271 in Gladewater will soon be coming down and cleaned up, according to city officials. The burned-out building at 109 N. Main Street is scheduled to be demolished and the lot cleaned up this week - possibly as early as Wednesday, according to Gladewater City Manager Theo Melancon. The 109 N. Main building is one of two buildings consumed by flames in the Jan. 5 five-alarm downtown fire. Melancon said the other building, a two-story brick structure that housed Tony’s Old South Cafe and was the former location of The Fork cafe, may be able to be saved. Last month Gladewater Main Street manager Kathy Cannon applied for and was informed that Main Street had been awarded a $5,000 grant from the National Trust Preservation Fund to support the Gladewater

50¢

1 Section, 10 pages

Main Street Program Intervention Project concerning the 111 N. Main property. “The National Trust is very supportive of this worthwhile preservation initiative and we hope that this financial commitment will assist your organization in raising any additional funds needed for this effort,” Susan West Montgomery, National Trust For Historic Preservation Vice President of Preservation Resources wrote in her letter to Cannon concerning the grant. If the building’s owner David Reeh agrees, the funds could be used to hire a structural engineer to see if the two-story building is structurally sound and worth saving. As for Robert’s Grocery at 1610 N. 271, which was gutted by fire back in July of 2016, letters have been sent to the owner requesting he begin clean up. City officials were scheduled to send out their third letter last week, Melancon said adding officials want that eyesore cleaned up as soon as possible.

By Suzanne Bardwell Greg Wilson owner of Old Time Feed & Mercantile says that he is just a country kid with a bit of dirt poor Okie farmer thrown in. He is much more than that. The former Marine and veteran of Desert Storm grew up on the move. “My Dad worked for Halliburton and we moved all the time,” Wilson said. “I didn’t want to do that to my kids.” “My daughter Ali started school at Union Grove as a kindergartner and now she is a freshman at Texas A&M,” he said. “Feet planted in one place is a good thing growing up.” Wilson has a vision for Old Time Feed which was formerly named Joe Fife Feed & Farm Supply. That vision includes monthly farm and ranch related trades days which will begin this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He also plans the eventual addition of a Farmers’ Market that encourages the barter system as well as purchase. So far there are 29 vendors signed up for this month’s event which includes metal work, woodworking and airbrush artists; handmade quilts and teepees, a GFD firetruck, a 28” therapy pony, a farrier, knives, fishing equipment, guns and a menagerie of animals that includes ducks, chicks, goats, hogs, rabbits and equine rescue. The event will wrap around Old Time Feed & Mercantile which is located on Highway 271 just south of town near the Sabine River bridge. Friday the event will run 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Saturday the hours are 8 a.m. until evening and Sunday from noon until 4 p.m. “We spend so much time up here this is our primary living room,” Wilson said. “We have rockers, checkers, guitars and a wood stove. We want everyone who comes in to feel welcome and at home. The guitars are for any pickers who want to share their talent and pass the time.” Wilson’s talent seems to be hospitality and humor, as well as his love for people and animals. It is likely that customers will be greeted by Wilson’s Red Heeler dog Cowboy or Louis Continued on Page 6

Can’t we fix this ...

Council to cancel May 6 election

Since there are no contested council races, the Gladewater City Council is expected to cancel the May 6 municipal election and declare Nick Foster, J.D. Shipp, Dennis Robertson and Elijah Anderson winners at Thursday’s 6 p.m. meeting at City Hall. Mark Carpenter dropped out of his race with Anderson to save the city the cost of an election - estimated at $2,300. In other business on Thursday’s agenda, the council will consider an agreement with neighboring Clarksville City to allow Gladewater police to conduct drug-related investigation in Clarksville City’s city limits. At last month’s city council meeting, GPD Chief Robert Vine said without such an agreement, his officers’ hands could be tied in the fight to push

illegal drug activity out of the Gladewater area. The council also is expected to consider authorizing a grant to former mayor John Paul Tallent to help pay for the on-going citywide cleanup effort. Tallent has previously received $10,000 grants from the city and the Gladewater Economic Development Corp., while also kicking in thousands of his own money to make the cleanup program the success that it has become. Council members are also scheduled to discuss construction regulations regarding length and height of piers and fencing on Lake Gladewater. Council members also will discuss the possible sell of 346.31 acres of city-owned land at the north end of the lake.

This ‘fix’ at the corner of Tenery Street and West Upshur (Hwy. 80) is no longer a patched danger to pedestrians and pets thanks to the attention of city workers. However, the deep impression where the manhole cover should be could prove dangerous to those not paying attention or in the dark. So, we classify this one as almost fixed.

Gladewater’s sales tax revenues show improvement

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced the will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $619.7 million in local sales tax allocations for March, 5.8 percent more than in March 2016. These allocations are based on sales made in January by businesses that report tax monthly. “The cities of Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin saw noticeable increases in sales tax allocations,” Hegar said. “The cities of McAllen and Sugar Land saw noticeable decreases.” Gladewater finally climbed out of the red by posting a 7.34-percent increase in January’s 2017 sales tax numbers compared to those for the same time period in 2016 - $68,283.21 to $63,608.62. The sizable increase also helped Gladewater’s “year-to-date” figure edge closer to positive numbers with just a -1.60 percent change - $237,436.93 in 2017 year to date compared to $241,312.27 in 2016. By comparison, Gilmer only posted a 2.13-percent change - $109,916.84 compared to $107,618.31. White Oak joined Gladewater and Gilmer in the block - posting a 24.68-percent increase over 2016’s sales tax revenue.

City

Net Payment Comparable This Period Payment Prior Year

% Change

2017 Payments To date

2016 Payments To date

% Change

GREGG COUNTY Clarksville City 1.000% $2,837.97 $2,065.36 37.40% $8,565.05 $9,515.23 -9.98% Easton 1.000% $2,767.32 $647.19 327.59% $6,569.74 $2,798.85 134.72% Gladewater 1.500% $68,283.21 $63,608.62 7.34% $237,436.93 $241,312.27 -1.60% Kilgore 1.500% $550,713.42 $544,506.19 1.13% $1,654,969.22 $2,345,308.25 -29.43% Lakeport 1.500% $10,546.07 $12,010.61 -12.19% $36,246.26 $40,040.39 -9.47% Longview 1.500% $2,097,579.76 $2,039,360.95 2.85% $7,670,523.68 $7,645,056.85 0.33% Warren City 1.000% $688.88 $292.91 135.18% $1,727.31 $1,637.76 5.46% White Oak 1.500% $68,349.36 $54,816.88 24.68% $189,360.77 $211,141.38 -10.31% UPSHUR COUNTY Big Sandy 1.500% $21,750.77 $18,043.48 20.54% $69,249.14 $57,015.42 21.45% East Mountain 1.000% $1,618.89 $1,588.98 1.88% $6,265.76 $5,915.73 5.91% Gilmer 1.500% $109,916.84 $107,618.31 2.13% $400,826.39 $397,783.44 0.76% Ore City 1.500% $13,012.85 $12,978.49 0.26% $44,524.13 $41,873.55 6.32% Union Grove 1.000% $177.88 $183.98 -3.31% $683.73 $677.72 0.88%

Page 2, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Armageddon or opportunity? I have seen so many movies recently about heroes. Sunday, Jim and I watched “Armageddon” for the zillionth time. Oil drillers become astronauts to divert an asteroid headed toward earth. I guess you have to see it to make sense of what I just wrote. We have our metaphoric asteroids right here headed straight toward Gladewater and they have been headed this way for some time. Whether it is the aging water/sewer system and roads, challenges improving our students’ standardized test scores and supporting our dedicated teachers, or attracting new businesses and families to our city, these ‘asteroids’ are headed straight at us. And like the movie heroes, we too, can do something heroic to attack these threats to our corner of the world. All we need is conviction and energy. We can make a difference because we believe we can. We can make a difference because we are willing to work and work hard. We can make a difference because we are willing to have vision, to be creative and take risks. And, we also have to have courage and grit. Heroes aren’t hard to come by in Gladewater. Some really are oil drillers, some are housewives and retirees, and most are just plain old good folks. Saturday, oilmen Clayton Burroughs and Mark Carpenter were doing what they do once a month, almost every month, working recycling in Gladewater. The project itself was birthed by former citizens and city councilpersons Judy and Delbert Burlison. They were two people who cared very much about improving their corner of the world. And they did. Former mayor John Paul Tallent, current mayor Harold Wells and a host of volunteers can be caught clearing, raking and investing sweat equity throughout Gladewater on a regular basis. Every single person reading this needs to commit to keeping their literal corner cleaned up. It changes how others see our community, instills pride and encourages investment. One of the things we can be most proud of has a storied history. Our rodeo directors put on a bang-up, nationally recognized rodeo that brings tons of money to Gladewater, but they also do a lot of under the radar good deeds including their support of the ladies and their children who live at Restoring Joy Ministries because they have no place left to go. These ladies in turn volunteer throughout our community. Gladewater Books’ owner Pete Adams and active volunteer Judy Banner were hard at work last week planning the annual Friends of Lee Library Book Sale which funds library needs that are not in the city budget. The heavy lifting is done by a tiny but dedicated group who fight to preserve and support a center of literacy that is a lifeline for those of our community who can not afford internet, or computers, or books. GISD Board President Jon Keller and the rest of the school district’s trustees are digging in to begin the search to find a leader of vision and innovation to be our next superintendent. These are men who serve the children of Gladewater because of their convictions and commitment. The decision they make

THE ECONOMIST

Suzanne Bardwell

By Dr. M. Ray Perryman

Keeping It Real!!

will write the history of our community for years, maybe generations to come. Our city manager Theo Melancon is one smart cookie and he has shot straight, faced the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing Gladewater and provided the leadership and will necessary to attack our most pressing problems. And most importantly, to move forward with optimism and confidence. He also thinks outside of the box and that is often the only way out of seemingly insurmountable circumstances. Then there are a lot of folks out there like my sweet friend Phyllis Bethune who is faithfully caring for her beloved Jim who is very ill. These folks are the linchpins of their families and examples to us all of sacrificial love. Leon Word and his merry band of Rotarians can be found building wheelchair ramps for those who can’t afford them. Can you imagine being trapped in your home? What a gift. The Lion’s Club members have a long list of projects that make our corner of the world a better place as well. Just look for the bright yellow vests. These are all people who know how to serve. Our son along with hundreds of other wildland firefighters, many from East Texas, have been battling fires that have now consumed a half million acres in three states and claimed the lives of seven people. These dedicated men and women wage battle to protect lives, property and resources while putting their own on the line. Our local firefighters roll almost every day on accidents, fires and medical assist calls. Yes, it is their job, but for most of them it is a calling. Their compassion is a revelation every time I come in contact with them. Just like all these folks and many more, we can all be heroes. We can start with the small by helping to clean up our community, buying local, supporting Manna House, Restoring Joy Ministries, the Clothes Closet and Meals on Wheels. We can volunteer at our schools. We can donate books for the books sale, water plantings around town, pick up litter and pull weeds. The list really is endless. We can all do something. Right where we are. All we have to do is choose to act. All we have to do is begin. Heroes matter and we should all aspire to live our lives heroically. Remember, you can all be a part of destroying the asteroids heading our way. Armageddon or opportunity? You decide. Your decision may determine the answer.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors Manna House is running low on boxed macaroni and cheese. This is a favorite with families with children and always a popular item. Food items may be dropped off at the Gladewater Mirror newspaper weekdays during business hours or at Manna House in the southwest corner of City Hall Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. Financial donations may be mailed to Manna House, P.O. Box 808, Gladewater 75647.

Restoring Joy Ministry’s Kristen Mayville volunteered for the first time Monday at the Clothes Closet. RJM residents are active in volunteering throughout the community. Clothing and household donations may be dropped off at the Clothes Closet in the southwest corner of City Hall behind Manna House on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.

FOL Book donations needed for sale

Restoring Joy Ministries is in desperate need of a good used or new refrigerator. This one has broken shelving and drawers which limits storage. RJM’s residential women’s and children’s ministries also has immediate and continuing need for feminine hygiene products, toiletries, towels, twin sheet sets, new pillows, canned goods, paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning products and school supplies for their residents attending GED and college classes. Financial donations are always welcome. Items may be dropped off at 214 East Glade Avenue or for information call the ministry at 903-844-8066. Photo By Suzanne Bardwell

The annual Gusher Days Friends of the Library Book Sale will be held Saturday April 15 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. with all funds raised going to support Gladewater’s Lee Library. Book donations are being welcomed now for the book sale. They may be dropped off at Lee Library from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. weekdays.

News & Advertising Deadlines: Noon Monday

Office Hours 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Telephone: 903-845-2235 Fax: 903-845-2237

Email: gladewatermirror@aol.com

Owners:

Jim & Suzanne Bardwell Publisher/Editor: Jim Bardwell Advertising: Suzanne Bardwell Office Manager: Tiffany Hobbs

Subscriptions are $29/year in Gregg, Smith & Upshur counties and payable in advance.

Correction A sports picture that was in the March 8 edition of the Gladewater Mirror incorrectly identified the players. The players should have been identified as Cylie Wragg sliding and Zoie Pilgrim as the player cheering her on. We apologize for the error.

Information is essential to decision making, whether for an individual, a family, a business, or a government. Without accurate input data, it is virtually impossible to draw meaningful conclusions and make effective decisions. When it comes to the data that we use to assess the economy, the watchwords are “Just the facts, ma’am!!” That is why I and my colleagues in the economics profession became more than a little agitated when reports recently surfaced that the Trump Administration had instructed the Council of Economic Advisors to make the data support an unrealistically high growth rate that would allow deficits to fall to fund new programs. A bit of history is instructive here. There is a longstanding tradition of Presidents issuing forecasts that are a little higher than the consensus of external projections. After all, every President thinks that his policies will make things better (at least we hope they do). But an optimistic forecast based on historical data and assumptions about future policy is not the same thing as a forecast in which the answer is decided in advance and then the data manipulated to get there. The types of data which are compiled by various agencies of the US government are many and varied. The US Census Bureau not only collects a wealth of information every 10 years, but also uses sophisticated models to form estimates in between. Demographic information ranging from numbers of residents by micropolitan area, city, or county (or even census tract, which is very small indeed), incomes, housing characteristics, educational attainment, and much more are available for anyone with an internet connection. Other agencies such as the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics track detailed information (again by small geographic area) related to employment by industry, compensation, worker characteristics, and then some. Other agencies monitor US exports and imports, energy use and markets, health and wellbeing, education, and just about anything else you could think of. (Believe me, this description only scratches the surface of what’s available.) Obviously, it’s not mere curiosity that is driving this enormously thorough (and expensive) data collecting effort. This information helps us see how things are going and answers important questions such as how the population is growing and changing and moving, where the economy is expanding/contracting and shifting, and what the situation is with necessary items such as fuels. Another crucial benefit of the wealth of data is that it helps us determine whether we’re making progress toward important social goals. If you take a close look at the monthly releases from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, you can see how many people were hired and in what industries, how many remain unemployed (and how long they’ve been unemployed), how many wish they were working full time but can only find part-time work, and more. We can gain insight into social changes because many series are collected by race/ethnicity, age, and gender. It’s also possible to check the success or failure of various policies. Yet another piece of the data puzzle is the wide variety of forecasts which are produced. Various branches of government and agencies are projecting everything from population to the economy to the price of oil to interest rates. These forecasts are critical to decisions across both the public and private sector. I have been providing forecasts for the economies of Texas and its metropolitan areas for about 30 years, and I know firsthand how many rely on those expectations in making plans for their businesses, schools, and lives. I also know that they are meaningless without the proper underlying data. Given the huge importance on so many levels, any plan to make changes in the way the data is collected or defined should be approached with extreme caution. Yes, sometimes there is a need for tweaking the process such as to improve accuracy, better reflect reality, or take advantage of new capabilities or technologies. However, it is essential that politics play absolutely no role. One change which has been suggested involves the way goods that are imported and then exported are counted. The net effect would be to raise the US trade deficit, which could be used as ammunition to support protectionist policies. This is a very bad idea. Another deals with the way unemployed people are counted. Currently, anyone who has not looked for work in the past four weeks is no longer counted in certain measures of unemployment. There could be some merit to looking at better ways to track the status of the labor market, but political maneuvering is no basis. Moreover, the potential negative ramifications and fallout from these changes is so widespread that the benefits would have to be massive. I have been involved in efforts to refine and improve what we measure and how we measure it for closer to 40 years than I want to admit. I can tell you that the dedicated public servants who compile and report this information, many of whom work in the agencies for decades, are meticulous and methodical in their approach to this important activity. They follow rigid protocols and are not the least bit impacted by the people or parties in power at any given moment. As someone who has lived and breathed economic data and statistics for decades, I am well aware that there is always room for improvement. What there is not room for, however, are changes driven by politics or situations where the numbers are altered to fit the conclusion.

Download the Gladewater Mirror Mobile App TODAY!

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Vol. 76, No. 12

P ay Ba !

T h i s S a t u r d a y, M a r c h 25, the City of Gladewater will officially open the new Gladewater Youth Baseball and Softball Complex. The opening ceremonies will being at 9:30 a.m. with City of Gladewater officials, members of the Gladewater Baseball Advisory Board, Gladewater City Council, Gladewater Economic Development board members, and Gladewater Mayor Harold Wells on hand as hosts for the grand opening. There will be a flag raising ceremony, the singing of the National Anthem, followed by the official ribbon cutting and dedication speech and the first pitch from Mayor Wells. This grand opening ceremony will signal the start of the use of the fields and will allow the public a chance to see what has been built. The Gladewater Youth Baseball and Softball Complex is a seven-field complex, which includes three baseball fields, one multi-use field and three softball fields for multiple ageranges also features computer controlled lighting and wireless scoreboards and two concession buildings Located on East Pacific Street, the complex cost taxpayers about $2.3 million and will serve the youth of Gladewater and Union Grove, as well as bring tournament play to the city, which can translate into a boost to the economy.

1 Section, 10 pages

Photo by Christian Allen

Finally ...

Last week demolition crews started taking down the burned remains of the building that stood at 109 N. Main Street in downtown Gladewater. As of Monday, the sidewalk was still blocked by charred debris and bricks. The building burned during the January 2017 fire that also gutted Tony’s Old South Cafe. It took three months to begin the cleanup process and fire officials still have not released information on who is responsible for the fire, only to state in a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) press release: “All of the scene information has been gathered and analysis of the information will continue,” said Dallas Field Division’s Assistant Special Agent in Charge Vincent Pallozzi. “While we have found that the fire was caused by human action, it is undetermined at this time if the fire was accidental or intentional.” ATF officials told the Mirror its part in the federal investigation was complete and it was now up to state and local officials to reach a conclusion and name a person responsible.

Photo by Jim Bardwell

Morrison named GISD interim super

By Suzanne Bardwell Former GISD Superintendent Mike Morrison was named interim superintendent at Monday night’s school board meeting to fill the position vacated by Dr. J.P. Richardson who is assuming the superintendency at Tatum ISD. Dr. Richardson became GISD’s superintendent in 2008 upon Morrison’s retirement. Now Morrison will lead the district again during the search process for a new leader. “Mike Morrison brings past leadership, he lives here, he has history with the district,” school board president Jon Keller said. “It is a natural fit for transition to steer this ship forward.” Keller said that the deadline for receipt of applications for the position is April 7 and that he expects at least two weeks for the interview process and another two weeks to final decision. Dr. Richardson has already begun at Tatum and Morrison is

expected to begin immediately. In other business the board heard a report from RLM’s Craig Drone who reported on the completion of bond

50¢

construction and expenditures. Drone congratulated the board on their fiscal restraint noting that there should be about $159,357 left after final bond

GISD outgoing superintendent Dr. J.P. Richardson was honored with a reception before Monday’s school board meeting. He was presented with a clock inscribed with the Growing with Excellence motto and his years of service 2008-2017. “I am so very proud of what has been achieved by working together with the community, the faculty, staff and amazing school board trustees to do what is best for our kids,” Dr. Richardson said. Dr. Richardson has accepted the superintendence at Tatum ISD. Photo By Suzanne Bardwell

payments. “The added scope at Weldon was made possible by the oversight at Gladewater Middle School that allowed you to invest in Weldon Elementary,” Drone said. “You did really well for the work you were able to accomplish. It was a joy to work with this administration and board.” Drone congratulated the board on the excellent working relationship RLM experienced during the bond process which contributed toward the overall success of the project. “We got a whole lot more for Weldon than we expected,” Dr. Richardson said. “I think we worked hard to achieve as much as possible within budget.” The board approved a bond construction check for $299,555.64 for work at the middle school, a check for $443,039.40 for work done at Weldon and a check for $120,704.94 for the site improvement plan. The board also approved the Certification of Unopposed Continued on Page 5

Mirror wins NETPA’s Community Service award The Gladewater Mirror was recognized at last week’s North & East Texas Press Association’s convention for journalistic excellence. The Mirror won first place in Community Service with its “Can’t We Fix This” series. “The Mirror defines good community citizenship. The paper has taken a real leadership role on a number of community issues and has some tangible results to show for its efforts,” judges wrote. The Mirror also swept in column writing with Suzanne Bardwell winning first place with her “Not For Sale” column, Jim Bardwell won second place with “The Christmas Table” column and Jack the NewsHound third for “Thanks for the Calls”. The Mirror also won second in editorial writing, third in advertising, third in news writing and second in sports photography. The Mirror won fourth place in General Excellence. Jim Bardwell placed third for Journalist of the Year and Suzanne Bardwell placed fourth in Photographer of the Year competition. “Individual awards are always nice to win, but I think the most valuable award is the ‘Community Service” award’,” said Jim Bardwell. “We are here to make a difference in our communities. We want to help our community achieve greatness and become a place people can be proud of and call home. “We have identified many problem areas - overgrown lots, abandoned homes in need of tearing down and potholes to name a few. The good thing is people have joined us in our effort to make Gladewater a better place to live and have begun cleaning up our city. So we share our award with all of you who care and want to make a difference.”

Spring cleanup time in city and around county Gladewater residents may deposit bulky, household garbage and items into dumpsters located along E. Commerce St, downtown Gladewater during the annual Spring Cleanup April 8. Prohibited items include paint, shingles, batteries, chemicals, refrigeration items and commercial waste. The City of Gladewater will provide curbside pick-up for any disabled and senior citizens, as available. To schedule this complimentary service please call: Gladewater Public Works: 903-845-2586 no later than 12 noon on Friday, April 7th. Your help is needed to keep our community clean. Volunteers will be meeting at the Ken Bennett Pavilion on E. Pacific at 8 a.m. where they will be dispersed to help in parks and neighborhoods in Gladewater. Trash bags will be provided.

The Gladewater Chamber of Commerce and GEDCO are sponsoring a free Hotdog Lunch at noon for all volunteers. The Upshur County government will also be hosting a free “County Wide Cleanup Days” this Saturday and on April 8 at the city of Gilmer’s former dumpster site on Carnation Road near Gilmer, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on those two Saturdays. The city is permitting usage of the site on these days only, not permanently re-opening it for dumping. Vehicle registration (windshield stickers with “Upshur” on them) will be required as proof that participants reside in Upshur County. Users are limited to two trips and the event is only for residential items as businesses are not allowed. Examples of items which may be dumped, said Gentry, are

old furniture, old lawn mowers, damaged lamps, damaged musical instruments, old gardening equipment, tools, chain saws, bicycles, wheelbarrows, old clothing, normal garbage and rusted-out barrels. Etex Telephone will be present to recycle old appliances, computer towers and various metals. Proceeds from recycling will go to sponsor local charities and scholarships, according to a flyer promoting the event. Residents are asked to load all metal items so they may be removed off a truck or trailer before any other objects. Items which may not be dumped are chemicals, liquids, brush, paint, shingles, asbestos, construction material, tires, Freon Continued on Page 5

Page 2, The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Bloom my friends… Great Balls ‘O Fire! We are cooking with gas in Gladewater! The town is getting cleaned up, new businesses are heading our way and there are more and more folks with a vision for the future. That is exciting to say the least. Everyone needs to mark their calendar for Saturday April 8 which is the City Clean Up Day. Grab some gloves and a trash bag and let’s put the spring cleaning effort to our streets and neighborhoods. With Gusher Days coming with its biggest day on Saturday April 15 it is a perfect opportunity to make sure that the thousands who visit Gladewater walk away with the best impression of us we have to offer. After all, we want them to come back time and time again. The city’s recycling drop off will be April 8 also. This is a perfect time to make a difference. Recently the city has sent letters from the Beautification Advisory Board inviting all of our local churches to adopt the block or neighborhood they are located in to help make our city beautiful and then keep it that way. We hope that every church will join in practicing stewardship of resources in this effort. With all those good folks joining in I know that we will see a dramatic difference in many areas of the community. I have always considered the great outdoors God’s Living Room and it just isn’t okay to trash that out. I have never understood folks who had no problem dropping their trash where they stand. Makes me want to pick up that can or dirty diaper

Suzanne Bardwell and chunk it back at them. Kind of says something about their character I think, and my level of aggravation. While we are focused on cleaning up let’s also see what we can do to dress up our public and private spaces to be as attractive and welcoming as possible. You know that trite old phrase “Bloom Where You Are Planted?” Well, let’s bloom. Look at it like this, we all want Gladewater to prosper. We all want our kiddos to be proud of where they are from. If we choose to do nothing we are choosing decline. I know that there are folks with energy and vision who don’t just have ideas, they are investing their own sweat equity to get things done. They are working hard. That is true love of community. That is true leadership. That is love for our hometown. Roll your sleeves up and come on. There is plenty of work to go around. Bloom my friends, bloom And Gladewater will too!

Third place ... really?

Jack

I hope everyone read on the front page that the Gladewater Mirror won several awards at last week’s North and East Texas Press Association’s 91st Annual Convention in Sulphur Springs. Yippee for us! And I guess you read that I won third place in column writing, behind Suzanne’s first place and Jim’s second place finish. It was a clean-sweep for the Mirror. And while I’m very happy for Suzanne and Jim, I personally think I got robbed. I mean think about it - I should have gotten extra points for the simple fact that I have no opposable thumbs and have to bark out all my dictation to Jim. And as everyone knows, Jim can’t hear too well these days so I have to repeat myself most of the time and that takes extra time. And - hello - I’m a dog! I can only figure the judges, who I understand were college journalism professors from Texas Christian University, must be cat people. Why else would I not have taken the top prize? I wish I had been at the convention. I would have taken the opportunity to plead my case for a recount. Who knows, I might have at least kicked Jim out of second place. But I had to stay at Josh and Jennifer’s house in Brownsboro with my K-9 cousins Mort and Dozier, and of course my three goats. My spring break was a lot of fun, I got to herd the goats and one day I even had to alert Josh that one of the goats - Loyd Lee - had escaped from the back fence and was running free in the unfenced front yard. Good thing I was there when it happened, because Mort and Dozier just slept on the couch and didn’t care one little bit about Jack dictates his the great goat escape. I figure I saved Loyd Lee from becoming next column. some Brownsboro family’s Spring Break backyard bar-be-que. But I digressed - let’s get back to this third place finish. Next year I’m going to make sure the judges are members of Rescue group. Then we’ll see how Jim and Suzanne feel about the ASPCA or at least members of the local Lone Star Animal being discriminated against.

The Newshound

Commentary

Texas can fix transparency loophole

A Texas Senate committee on Tuesday will have the first hearing on a crucial transparency bill to close an enormous loophole in state government transparency laws. State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, and state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Keller, have introduced legislation that would undo the effects of a 2015 Texas Supreme Court ruling that allows governments and private businesses to block information from the public by claiming its release could harm the vendor’s competitive advantage. As a result of the court ruling, local governments and companies have been able to wall off information about government contracts that have long been accessible to the public because it involves taxpayer money. For example, the city of McAllen was able to withhold how much was paid to singer Enrique Iglesias for a concert. The Sweetwater Independent School District shielded from disclosure information on a contract for food services. Austin’s transportation authority withheld the contract with the company providing paratransit service for the city. In El Paso, because of the Supreme Court ruling, University Medical Center didn’t provide the public with the $208,000 contract for the company that aided the county hospital in its search for a new CEO. It’s understandable that governments would not release information during a bidding process. But the 2015 Texas Supreme Court ruling, known as Boeing Co. v. Paxton, found that governments could withhold crucial information after the contract has been awarded. The court held that a third party -- usually the winning bidder -- could assert that release of a completed contract and bid

proposal could provide information to competitors. Under Texas law, governments seeking to withhold information that has been requested by a member of the public must first obtain permission from the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Since the 2015 ruling, the Attorney General’s Office has issued a number of rulings with language similar to its decision in the El Paso UMC case: “For many years, the office concluded the terms of a contract and especially the pricing of a winning bidder are public and generally not excepted from disclosure. However, now, pursuant to Boeing, (exceptions are) not only limited to ongoing competitive situations, and a third party need only show (that) release of its competitively sensitive information would give an advantage to a competitor even after a contract is executed.” When the public can’t view contracts and bid documents once a bid has been awarded, there is no check on whether government behaved appropriately. The court ruling has created an awful situation in Texas, which generally has strong transparency laws. The Senate Committee on Business and Commerce will have a hearing Tuesday on Watson’s legislation, Senate Bill 407. The bill would essentially restore Texas to where it was before 2015, making government contracts and bid documents available to the public after the bid process concludes. The legislation has strong bipartisan support. We encourage the Business and Commerce Committee to recommend the bill to the full Senate, and for the Legislature to act quickly to improve government transparency. Robert Moore, Editor El Paso Times

News & Advertising Deadlines: Noon Monday

Office Hours 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Telephone: 903-845-2235 Fax: 903-845-2237

Email: gladewatermirror@aol.com

Owners:

Jim & Suzanne Bardwell Publisher/Editor: Jim Bardwell Advertising: Suzanne Bardwell Office Manager: Tiffany Hobbs

Subscriptions are $29/year in Gregg, Smith & Upshur counties and payable in advance.

THE ECONOMIST By Dr. M. Ray Perryman

Starting with a Bang

I have never been one to put much stock in a single monthly statistic. Economic data can fluctuate for all sorts of reasons, and it is normally best to see a pattern develop. In the more than 30 years that I have been writing this weekly epistle, I could probably count on one hand the number of times that I have focused on a single number and have a few fingers left over. This week, however, I am making an exception. The January employment numbers are out and Texas started the year off with a hiring bang, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The state added 51,300 net new jobs (as measured by seasonally adjusted nonagricultural wage and salary employment), pushing the total gain for the prior 12 months to 225,300. The Texas unemployment rate now stands at 4.8%. Clearly, a job increase of this magnitude is good news. There have only been a few months in the past decade when job gains exceeded 50,000, so this is noteworthy indeed, and it comes after a fairly lackluster end to 2016 (there was one month during the recent “oil boom” when Texas topped 80,000). During the worst of the oil downturn in 2015, the state gained fewer than 156,000 jobs all year, so a month with an increase of nearly a third of that amount is very positive. It indicates that the adverse effects of the oil downturn are largely behind us, particularly given that the increases were across most segments of the economy. The largest gains were in professional and business services (up 14,000) and trade, transportation, and utilities (up 8,100). That’s a common pattern, as these large industry segments are expanding as components of the workforce in most industrialized countries. Over the year (January 2016 to January 2017), service-providing sectors as a group saw an increase of some 244,900 jobs. Sectors adding the largest numbers of jobs during the past year include education and health services (with 47,100); professional and business services (45,500); trade, transportation, and utilities (45,200); and leisure and hospitality (44,300). The only one of the major service-providing sectors to lose jobs over the year was information, which was down 3,900. The information sector includes establishments that create, disseminate, or provide the means to distribute information such as newspaper, book, and periodical publishers; software publishers; broadcasting and telecommunications producers and distributors; motion picture and sound recording industries; information services; and data processing services. The industry itself is growing, but in a way in which technology is displacing workers. Texas also saw thousands of jobs added in goodsproducing sectors in January. Manufacturing employment increased by 7,300, while construction was up by 5,300. The total gain of 14,500 wiped out a large chunk of the losses for the prior year, but goods-producing sectors still remain down by 19,600 since January 2016. The primary reason for the decrease is mining (mostly oil and gas in Texas), which was up 1,900 in January, but remains down 23,600 for the year. Given recent hiring patterns, there should be better days ahead. In addition to involving a variety of industries, increases were spread across most of the state’s metropolitan areas. With its larger exposure to the energy sector, Houston is still experiencing relatively sluggish growth, but the other largest population centers are adding jobs at a notable pace. Over the past year, greater Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and El Paso have all seen significant job growth. Smaller metropolitan areas such as College Station-Bryan, Killeen-Temple, and Lubbock also had employment expansion outpacing the state. Many other communities have gained jobs. The Texas gain was nearly 22% of the national total for January (238,000). Looking at other states, Florida added slightly more jobs in January (with 54,300), Texas was second, and New York was a distant third with 28,700 net new jobs. California was up 9,700. As noted, a job gain of January’s magnitude should not be expected month after month, and we will doubtless see ups and downs in the months to come. However, the annual rate of 1.9% (January 2016 to January 2017) is a solid, healthy rate. It’s a signal that the state economy is gaining momentum. There are daunting long-term challenges, but the bottom line is that things are looking very good for the state economy. Dr. M. Ray Perryman is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Perryman Group (www.perrymangroup.com). He also serves as Institute Distinguished Professor of Economic Theory and Method at the International Institute for Advanced Studies.

The Gladewater Mirror, Wednesday,March 22, 2017, Page 5

Appeals court upholds ex-Gilmer school aide’s sentence By Phillip Williams/Correspondent TEXARKANA--A state appellate court last week upheld the convictions of a former longtime Gilmer Independent School District aide who was sentenced to concurrent 50-year prison terms after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. The 6th Court of Appeals rejected Orlandos Lugene Johnson’s claim of “ineffective assistance” of counsel by his attorney, Longview lawyer Clement Dunn. Johnson was sentenced May 3, 2016 in 115th District Court in Gilmer by visiting Judge William Porter after waiving his right to trial by jury. In its ruling issued March 17, the appeals court said that the 48-year-old Johnson alleged his attorney “failed to communiate a plea bargain offer allegedly made by the state, and that, consequently, his resulting plea of guilty was not knowingly and voluntarily entered.” The court’s opinion, written by Justice Ralph K. Burgess, said “nothing in the record demonstrates. . .that the state made a plea bargain offer.” Burgess additionally wrote that “The evidence outside of the record includes what appears to be a plea bargain offer by the state for forty years’ imprisonment. The document states, ‘The offer will remain open until the calling of the trial docket. Please note that if this offier is not accepted, it will lapse and any further offers will be greater than that now proferred.’” Burgess said that a court had ruled in a previous case that an appellate court cannot “consider factual assertions that are outside the record, and a party cannot cirumvent this prohibition by submitting evidence for the first time on appeal.” The justice said Johnson relied in his appeal “on documents attached as an appendix to his brief, which were never made part of the appellate record.” The appeals court also said Johnson alleged Dunn (who was not identified by name in the document) failed “to protect his right to appeal. However, the clerk’s record clearly establishes Report Name: GPD MEDIA REPORT notice (BY DATE RANGE) that Johnson’s of appeal was timely filed.” Report Data: CTIV_BFW_CFS_BADGE_OFFICER Report View: CFS-BADGE-OFFICER

Johnson, a Gilmer ISD employee for more than 20 years, was accused of sexually molesting a boy from the time the youth was 12 in 2004 until he was 17, and all but one of the incidents occurred at school, said Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd. The court said Johnson pled guilty “in the hopes of receiving judge-ordered, deferred adjudication community supervision.” (This means no permanent conviction would have appeared on Johnson’s record if he successfully completed probation.) Arlington attorney Gerald J. Smith Sr. filed the appeal, while Assistant District Attorney Natalie Anderson filed the state’s

response. Johnson was arrested April 1, 2015, in Gilmer ISD superintendent Rick Albritton’s office after the victim reported the abuse the previous month, officials said. The victim did so while he was in a mental health facility after attempting suicide, Byrd said. Albritton said the day after the sentencing that Johnson was put on unpaid leave at the time of his arrest, and terminated about 30 days later when a grand jury indicted him. He had been a special needs aide and in-school suspension aide, the superintendent said.

Continued from Page 1 and5parts of burned buildings. Those bringing items should be prepared to unload by themselves if necessary since help may not be available, the commissioner said. Volunteers are welcome to assist with unloading, and eight dumpsters will be present, she added. To reach the site, head west on Texas 154 from Gilmer for less than two miles, turn left on Day Lily Road and then bear left on Carnation when the road forks. The site is about one mile from the highway, the commissioner said. A $3,000 grant from the East Texas Council of Governments in Kilgore is helping pay for

committees. The county’s share of the cost is $11,000, she said. Those with questions, including whether a particular

Spring cleanup time in city and around county the countywide cleanup on these two days and one this autumn, said Gentry, who serves on four of ETCOG’s

item can be dumped, are asked to call either (903) 680-8155 or (903) 790-1741 before the event.

Morrison named GISD interim super Continued from Page 1 Candidates Place 4 Jon Keller and Place 5 David Floyd. They also voted to approve the Order of Cancellation for the Gladewater School Trustee election to have been held May 6. The trustees also heard a report from Elizabeth Vaughn of McCreary, Veselka, Bragg and Allen, P.C. on the delinquent tax collections and sale of properties. She noted that deferrals were down, bankruptcies were up and that they had overseen 194 foreclosures with 178

owners. She also said that there had been 133 judgments on 332 properties and that there were 165 first time properties to be auctioned and 45 that had been put up before but not purchased. In other business the following resignations and retirements were approved: Judy Duke after 35 years as attendance clerk, registrar Darla Wallace after 24 years, GMS Resource teacher Danielle Adamson, fourth grade teachers Debbie Bruhn and Rachel Haines, GHS English teachers Anna Damiani and retiring GHS English teacher Delores Lawson. Also retiring is special education teacher Skye Holcombe and resignations for nurse Michelle Lott and

GPD Activity Report

Report Group: CALL DATE

Report Criteria: CALL DATE {is greater than or equal to} 03/13/2017, CALL DATE {is less than or equal to} 03/20/2017, IS BACKUP {is equal to} 'N' Report Date: 03/20/2017 CALL DATE 3/13/17

CALL DESC

ADDRESS

COUNT: CALL DATE

EMS

201701476

10:53

611 CLEARVIEW CLEARVIEW

MISCELLANEOUS

201701477

11:22

302 MAPLE MAPLE

201701393

9:44

1900 GEORGE RICHEY GEORGE RICHEY

CRIM MIS

201701480

12:51 AEP SCHOOL

700 MELBA MELBA ST

201701395

11:31

1109 E BROADWAY BROADWAY AVE

THEFT

201701481

13:18 ECONOMY TOWING

302 S TYLER TYLER RD

201701396

11:30

HWY 271 AND 80 HWY 271 AND 80

ALARM/OTHER

201701484

14:26

512 RODEN RODEN LN

810 RIVERSIDE RIVERSIDE ST

ASSIST

201701485