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Hereford BRAND Volume 118 | Number 49 WHAT'S INSIDE
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Bond passage 2018’s top story
By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
2018: The Year in Review January Page 3
2018: The Year in Review July Page 5
In what was effectively a three-year battle, Hereford Independent School District (HISD) won its first campaign of the 21st century and first in more than 45 years when a $22.4 million bond issue passed muster with voters. HISD finally getting a bond passed to combat ongoing and increasing facility needs is the Hereford BRAND’s 2018 Story of the Year.
After failed attempts in 2015 and 2017, HISD saw its 2018 $22.4 million bond measure approved almost 2:1 by voters to nab Story of the Year for 2018. BRAND file photo “We are very excited about the bond passing
and very grateful to the voters for believing in
us and trusting us with this opportunity,” HISD Superintendent Sheri Blankenship said. “We believe this is the beginning of many positive changes for Hereford ISD and for the Hereford community.” The bond was the third floated by HISD since 2015 and saw a complete turnaround at the polls than the previous two. After both a $42.6 million plan and $45 million measure were defeated by 2:1 and 60-
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© 2018 Hereford BRAND A division of Roberts Publishing Group
PLEASE SEE BOND | 10
By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
FORECAST
Page 2............Obituaries Page 3......Public Record Page 4....................News Page 5..........Community Page 6....................News Page 7..........Community Page 8..................Sports Page 9...........Classifieds Page 10..................News
40 margins, respectively, in 2015 and 2017, the $22.4 million bond passed with 67 percent of the vote. Crafting the 2018 bond based on feedback from the previous failed attempts, HISD took advantage of the fall election cycle to piggy-back bond information meetings for parents and the community with usual start-of-the-school-year events. The result was an ad-
Hostile Herd playoff run top story 1A
2018: The Year in Review August
INDEX
10 pages plus inserts | $1.00
Katy Hazlett, 5, comes eye-to-eye with a bandit skull as she peruses the displays at Saturday's Hereford High School Skills USA open house. The skull was the senior welding sculpture project for Nate Carney and among several state award winners from recent competition in Corpus Christi on display including three Best of Show entries and several Superior rating awardees. Photo appeared April 25. BRAND/John Carson
Despite a very visible three-year struggle over facilities, it took passage of the first Hereford Independent School District (HISD) bond in more than 45 years to keep the year’s best human interest story from being 2018’s biggest – barely. In what can arguably be considered Story of the Year 1A, Hereford High’s Hostile Herd took the community on a late-fall playoff ride that had not been seen since the turn of the century. With a playoff berth guaranteed due to reclassification when preseason practice began in August, hopes were high for the Herd after a 6-4 2017 – the team’s first winning season since 2010. Armed with a group of talented returnees DELOZIER that included District 3-5A rushing and scoring leader Seth Dixon, 2017 All 3-5A secondteam QB and three-year starter Dodge DeLozier, speedy WR Ray Ponce, members of the offensive line and several key defensive players, the Herd was poised to make some Class 4A noise. Unfortunately, the best laid plans. The details of those dreams began to unravel when DeLozier was injured in a preseason scrimmage and missed the first two games – a loss and win. Returning for Game 3, the senior directed 27-0 and 37-0 wins over Randall and Plainview around a 33-14 come-from-behind victory at Lubbock Estacado. The euphoria was short lived when it was revealed DeLozier’s season was over due to a knee injury. After starting the first two games, PLEASE SEE HERD | 10
“Good idea’ becomes ‘political hot potato’
By John Carson BRAND Managing Editor
Rounding out the BRAND’s top three news stories of 2018 was the almost soap-opera drama that surrounded efforts to have a new civic center built in Hereford. After Hereford City Manager Rick Hanna proposed the new center to the city commission in July 2017, efforts were well underway to make the project
a reality. The $6.5 million needed for construction was already in hand with $4 million coming from the city and $2.5 million from Hereford Economic Development Corporation (HEDC). By March, commissioners had approved purchase of land on West 15th Street, designs, engineers and architects for the project, in addition to setting wheels in motion to adver-
tise for construction bids. However, by late spring, community rumblings had become a quake. Due to public “pushback” over the proposed center’s cost, size, use and location – as well as the fact the community felt slighted because it was not part of the decision-making process – Hereford Mayor Tom Simons broached the subject of putting the matter to a vote in the November election.
He later avowed the city would hold such an election before any official action had been taken. The situation escalated in early August when the HEDC Board of Directors balked at giving approval for its portion of the funding while raising a variety of questions and concerns. City officials, under whose PLEASE SEE CENTER | 10