PAGE 4 ■ THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015
YOUR Should humans return to the moon first or go directly to Mars? • Return to the moon for more training and experience, then go to Mars • Go directly to Mars • Don't go to either
Last week’s question was: What do you think should become of the Astrodome? • It should be redeveloped and preserved as an historic landmark 60.3% • Tear it down 36.2% • I don't know 3.4% Number of votes: 57 Log on to www.sealynews.com to let your voice be heard. We will bring you the results of this poll and a new question every Thursday.
WHERETOWRITE U.S. Senator John Cornyn 517 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 (202) 224-2934 U.S. Representative, Dist. 10 Michael McCaul, 2000 S. Market St., Ste. 303 Brenham, Texas 77833 (979) 830-8497 Texas Governor Greg Abbott P.O. Box 12428 Austin, Texas 78711-2428 (512) 463-2000 State Senator, Dist. 18 Lois Kolkhorst P.O. Box 1867 Brenham, Texas 77834 (979) 251-7888 State Representative, Dist. 13 Leighton Schubert P.O. Box 2910 Austin, TX 78768 (512) 463-0600 Austin County Judge Tim Lapham 1 East Main Bellville, Texas 77418
(979) 865-5911 County Commissioner, Precinct 1 Reese Turner One East Main Street Bellville, Texas 77418 Barn - (979) 865-2126 County Commissioner, Precinct 2 Robert "Bobby" Rinn P.O. Box 275 Industry, TX 78944 Barn - (979) 357-4780 Office- (979) 357-4785 County Commissioner, Precinct 3 Randy Reichardt 166 Jefferson Cat Spring, TX 78933 Barn - (979) 865-5441 County Commissioner, Precinct 4 Douglas King P.O. Box 754 Wallis, TX 77485 Barn - (979) 885-3829 Office - (979) 478-7121 Sealy City Manager Christopher Coffman 415 Main Street Sealy, Texas 77474 (979) 885-3511 Sealy ISD Superintendent Sheryl Moore 939 Tiger Lane, Sealy, Texas 77474 (979) 885-3516
Serving Sealy and Austin County since 1887 (USPS 487260) Entered at the post office at Sealy, Texas, under the Act of Congress of June 2, 1897. Periodical Rate postage paid at Sealy, TX 77474. ■ READER SERVICES Main number (979) 885-3562 Fax (979) 885-3564 Mailing address: P.O. Box 480, Sealy, Texas 77474 Known office of publication 193 Schmidt Rd., Sealy, Texas 77474 The Sealy News is a weekly publication distributed on Thursdays. ■ STAFF DIRECTORY Publisher, Karen Lopez publisher@sealynews.com Bookkeeper, Sandy Davis classifieds@sealynews.com Managing Editor, Joe Southern editor@sealynews.com Reporter, Lance Hagood reporter@sealynews.com Sports, Steven Schroeder spschroeder06@aol.com Advertising, Denise Sherwood sales@sealynews.com Circulation, Sandra Weeber ■ DEADLINES The deadline for editorial submissions is Monday at noon for the Thursday edition. Retail and Classified display deadlines are Friday at noon for the Thursday edition. The deadline for classified word ads is noon on Monday for the Thursday edition. ■ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Sealy News publishes letters to the editor on most topics. Send your letters to: Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 480, Sealy, TX 77474, email to editor@sealynews.com or fax 979-885-3564 by 5 p.m. Friday for the Thursday edition. Letters should be hand
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Birds are colorful, rare and beautiful beyond description
The Sealy News is posing the following question to our readers:
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz B40B Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 (202) 224-5922
OPINIONS SEALY NEWS
signed and include the writer’s full address and daytime and evening phone numbers. Letters to the editor should be as brief as possible. We reserve the right to edit all letters. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters should be 500 words or less. ■ EDITORIAL REQUIREMENTS Lifestyle announcements — weddings, obituaries, anniversaries, engagements, newborns and birthdays — are run as paid announcements. Please call for current rates. Submitted photos may be picked up at The Sealy News after it appears in the newspaper. We are only responsible for photos for 30 days after it runs. All items are subject to editing for style and content. ■ SUBSCRIPTIONS The Sealy News is published weekly on Thursday. Subscriptions in Austin County, are $42 per year; outside Austin County in Texas, $52; outside Texas, $70 per year. Notices of change of address should be mailed to The Sealy News, P.O. Box 480, Sealy, TX 77474-0480. ■ AFFILIATIONS The Sealy News is a member of the National Newspaper Association, the Texas Press Association, the South Texas Press Association, the Texas Gulf Coast Press Association. ■ CONTENTS © 2015 by Sealy Publications Inc. Written consent is waived when permission is gained in advance and full credit is given to The Sealy News for material reprinted or reproduced, in whole or in part, electronically or otherwise. © 2015 Sealy Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved
I’ve never gotten rich being a journalist, but sometimes this job pays you in ways that money can never match. March 30 was one of those days. I met wildlife refuge specialist John Magera at oh-darkthirty at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge to go and photograph some of the magnificent birds. This was the second year that John has escorted me on a photo tour of the refuge. When we met last year, I was pretty naïve about the birds, the prairie and the refuge. I was also very underequipped with my photographic gear. This year, thanks to a zoom lens borrowed from my friend Mack Womack, I was better equipped. We headed out in a van across miles of dirt trails to remote parts of the refuge where John believed the birds would be. It was dawn and the sun wasn’t yet breaking through heavy clouds. Each lek (open area of low vegetation) came up dry. We saw deer, an alligator, numerous other birds but no Attwater’s prairie chickens. After some time we finally came up on one of the birds, but it was a ways off and the lighting was terrible. A short while later we came across a young male strutting along the roadside. We snapped a few shots before he moved on. By this time the veil of clouds parted and some good morning sunlight was engulfing the prairie in a golden glow. Traveling down the road, three of the birds entered our path. A male was lost in exuberance trying to woo two hens. We stopped and took pictures. We crept closer and took more pictures. The hens were wary of us and kept retreating. The male was oblivious to our advances. It was fun watching him inflate his yellow-orange air sacs, raise the earlike pinnae on
JOE SOUTHERN Faith, Family and Fun
his head, spread his wings and tail and rapidly tap his feet on the ground. We could hear his footfalls and his birdsong was mesmerizing. We sat there for several minutes, John and his Canon and me and my Nikon, clicking off dozens of frames as the birds put on a spectacular show. Finally, one of the hens flew off and a couple minutes later the other followed. The male stayed on their tails and our private viewing party came to an end. Little did we know that the main attraction was about to begin. We drove to the main lek, a watering hole with lush, green grass around it, and found at least a half dozen Attwater’s prairie chickens booming – their mating dance – like their lives depended on it. Two of the birds in particular were locked in a territorial dance-off. The postured and danced and went after each other for a long time. Parked just a few short yards from the birds, we had a field day taking pictures. The sights and sounds were surreal. I comment-
ed about the embarrassment of riches we were experiencing. Here we were, surrounded by a significantly large portion of the few surviving wild Attwater’s prairie chickens in the world, watching them boom in a magical display of song and dance that 99 percent of the world’s population will never get to see. The refuge is home to the largest population of the endangered bird and it only has about 100 or so. Come fall when captive bred birds are released the population will swell to around 400. Still, that goes to show how incredibly rare and endangered these birds are. And here we were getting a private show, up close and personal, though as if God had chosen only the two of us out of the billions of humans on the planet to be witness to this rare and fine exhibition. To top it off, he bathed us in golden sunlight and wrapped us in a slight breeze that made the morning perfect. I felt truly blessed and incredibly grateful to John for taking me out and to Mack for loaning me his camera lens. If you wish to view this spectacular sight, come to the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Festival on April 11-12. Come early, by 7 a.m., if you want to make the most of the opportunity and have your best chance to see this once-in-a-lifetime display. You can also book a tour, but the festival will give you many other things to enjoy on your visit. The refuge is just down FM 3013, about halfway between Sealy and Eagle Lake.
stadium filled with friends and family to cheer them on as they walk around the track. If you have a special survivor in your life, bring a poster to show them how special they are in your life. Posters made by children are always wonderful to look at – their artwork is from the heart! There is no need to cook that day – we will have the concession stand open, and other teams will also be serving food and non-alcoholic beverages to keep you hydrated during the day. Our activities committee has all kinds of games and contests to keep kids of all ages entertained, and there are silent auctions, raffles, photo booth, and other fun things to enjoy. After the sun has set, we will have our luminaria
ceremony at 9 p.m. This is a very emotional part of the event. The track will be lined with hundreds of white bags – these will have names of people who have or have had cancer. Some of the bags have photos of the person named-some are decorated with stickers or hand-drawn pictures. As the lights are turned out in the stadium, the bags will glow from candlelight. There will be a ceremony, perhaps with special music or poems. The stadium will be especially quiet during this time. It is a time to reflect on how cancer has affected your life. Please join us on this very special day. Thanking you in advance for your attendance, Janice Hugo Wied, team captain of Hugo’s Hot Rods
The Sealy News/JOE SOUTHERN
An Attwater's prairie chicken in booming mode.
LETTERSTOTHEEDITOR Join the Relay for Life on May 2 Dear Editor, By the time you read this, it will be less than a month until Relay for Life of Austin County. Our event takes place on Saturday, May 2, at Bellville High School football stadium. We have our opening ceremony at noon, and will be there until 10 p.m. There is no admission fee for attending Relay, but we are collecting canned goods for the local food pantry, if you would like to participate in that. At our opening ceremony, all the cancer survivors will make a special lap around the track by themselves, or with their caregiver. We would love to have the
CAPITALHIGHLIGHTS
House passes $209.8B budget After 17 hours of floor debate and hundreds of amendments considered, the Texas House of Representatives on April 1 passed House Bill 1, a state budget for fiscal years 2016 and 2017 that appropriates $209.8 billion. The vote was 141 in favor to 5 against, with nay votes cast by Reps. David Simpson, R-Longview; Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler; freshman Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving; freshman Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington; and freshman Molly White, R-Belton. The House version of the state budget, a 3.8 percent increase over the current 2014-2015 state budget, draws no funds from the Economic Stabilization (“rainy day”) Fund. Senate concurrence with the HB 1 is necessary for the state budget to be finally adopted. SB 2, the Senate version of 2016-2017 state budget, has been pending in the Senate Finance Committee since March 25. On April 1, on a vote of 148-0, the House also passed HB 2,
supplemental appropriations and funding adjustments for various state agencies. Notably, the legislation, in addition to amounts previously appropriated for 2014- 2015, appropriates some $768 million out of the general revenue fund to the Teacher Retirement System to prevent the impending insolvency of the state agency’s TRSCare health care fund. House Appropriations Committee Chair John Otto, R-Dayton, the primary author of HB 1 and HB 2, stood true to his Feb. 25 House floor announcement, in which he said the House would fully fund health care for retired public school employees and their dependents.
Bills gain Senate approval SB 20 by Senate Finance Chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, would amend the rules state agencies must obey in making contracts with private sector vendors. Nelson’s bill would: require the creation of a centralized
ED STERLING Texas Press Association
clearinghouse at the Office of Comptroller to keep a record of all contracts signed by state agencies; require state agencies to post active contracts and proposed contracts on their state website; require state agencies to keep documentation relating to a contract for four years after it ends; and require state agency heads to personally sign off on all contracts worth more than $1 million. SB 6 by Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Galveston, would remold the current system used to rate schools in terms ranging from “exemplary” to “unacceptable” and replace it with an “A” through “F” rating system to begin in 2017.