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Letters to the Editor
Young clerk's honesty deserves recognition
Dear editor,
I would like to commend a young lady, Chelsea Sellers, who works at the 7th Street Mini-Mart.
I stopped there to fill up with gas and somehow managed to drop my ATM/Visa card in the gas pump area in front of the store.
She was honest enough to pick it up and contact my bank to report her find.
By the time I got over to pick it up, she had cleaned it off and required an ID before releasing it to me.
I think her honesty and thoughtfulness need to be recognized.
We are all too often seeing the bad side of our younger generation, but more of them have a good side.
Thank-you, Chelsea.
Sherri Radford
Markham
March 14, 2007
Overlook negative, see what's positive
Dear editor,
As always, your chamber is working for you each and every day. We have seen progress in so many areas in our community. With so much going on, it makes sense to look back and see how far we have progressed.
It was not too long ago, comment on the street was…“look at Lake Jackson, look at Sugar Land, look at Houston.” Many people felt that Bay City and Matagorda County were being left behind and they were concerned about our future.
So many new and exciting things are happening here in our city and county. Increased business in the county, new retail stores, new restaurants, new hotels and concrete plans for a home site for Wharton County Junior College are just a few of the great projects that are in the works.
Most of our community has rallied behind the progress of our town. Talk in town is positive and people are discussing how they will invest in the future.
There are dozens of out-of-town investors that will soon become our neighbors. They are buying property, buildings and looking for employees. These are all great signs for our future.
Here in our town, just like in life; we have a couple of people who are grandstanding for attention. This is natural, even predictable, but the important thing for our county is to overlook these negative antics and continue to work hard every day to make our city and our county better.
We all know we have a long way to go…we have many very hard decisions ahead. There are many people looking ahead to these exciting times and they are stepping up to lead us into this prosperity.
Your friends and neighbors continue to make hard choices, they are working for the whole community, they are not complaining and ridiculing. The positive plans are bearing fruit and the many hours of brainstorming, prioritizing and budgeting is paying off for Matagorda County.
There are many ways to get involved. Just let us know where you would like to help.
Your chamber staff is always here to serve.
Mitch Thames
President
Bay City Chamber
of Commerce and Agriculture
September 06, 2006
Jurek questions LCRA conservation proposals
Dear editor,
LCRA has recently given talks to Wharton County Commissioners Court and various civic groups in the area.
LCRA constantly talks about the development of a new rice variety with a higher yield, yet less water use and no second crop.
Like many things in life, a rice farmer has a preference for what they plant, grow and harvest.
What makes LCRA think all rice farmers will immediately switch over to a new variety?
Will there be incentives for farmers?
LCRA General Manager Joe Beal speaks of farmers “conserving water.”
However, whether the water comes from the Colorado River or out of the ground, farmers will require the same amount.
Switching irrigation source from the river to using total groundwater will in no way “conserve” any water.
It will simply put a greater demand on our aquifer.
LCRA talks of farmers being more conservative, but LCRA wastes of most water.
Their canals may be clean and clear along major road crossings and areas the public can see but the truth is the majority of their canal system is overgrown with huge trees, mainly tallow and willows, consuming vast amounts of water.
Many of their canals also have leaks.
LCRA’s pumping season begins around March 15 and shuts off Oct. 15 each year.
When asked if proposed groundwater wells would all be shut off during this same time, Program Manager Leah Manning stated some row crop and turf farmers require water when others don’t.
Is this really true or simply a cover-up so wells will pump when it’s not growing season with groundwater eventually going back into the river to supply Matagorda Bay with necessary inflow?
Recently LCRA suddenly began talking about multiple “retention ponds” ranging from 40-125 acres along the Colorado River to capture run-off water from irrigated fields.
This is more land LSWP would require. Several rice farmers have scoffed at this suggestion, one saying his rice field discharge wouldn’t wet 25 acres.
LCRA says the numbers in this project will continue to change.
Manning stated “It’s a balancing act. We have to start pulling the levers and wheels to balance it out.”
LCRA has also said they currently have seven groundwater wells already in place, five are active.
These are in addition to the 70 proposed in LSWP.
A balancing act? I don’t buy into it!
Folks, get involved.
Go to www.lcra.org/lswp and plan to attend their Advisory meeting Sept. 12 in San Antonio.
Judy Bishop Jurek
Markham
August 27, 2006
Parents seek support
Dear editor,
On Feb 7, 1992, our son, Herbert Aytch Snyder of Bay City, known to all who loved him as Aytch, was brutally murdered while trying to get his brother-in-law to seek much needed psychological help.
Aytch, who was 30 at the time, left his home in Bay City with his wife and two young children, dropped them off with a family member, then went to his brother-in-law James Eugene Hashaw’s apartment in Conroe.
Aytch was never seen alive again.
Hashaw was found guilty of murder on Thursday Sept. 9, 1993, and sentenced to life in prison.
Hashaw suffered from mental illness but was found competent to stand trial.
He had attacked Aytch with a microphone stand on the night of Feb. 7, 1993 with such fierceness that Aytch suffered 15 skull fractures and brain trauma, along with the broken hands and fingers he suffered from trying to protect himself.
He was found stuffed inside an air conditioning return air vent in Hashaw’s apartment.
After Hashaw was found guilty, we received an outpouring of support from the community in the form of over 50 letters to the court to be added to the Victims Impact Statement that would be considered in the sentencing of Hashaw.
He was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 15 years.
Now, we have received notification that he is coming up for consideration for parole and we are asking again for your support.
We will be sending a letter to Victim Services and asking that his parole consideration be put off for the longest possible time of five years.
As lifelong Bay City residents, we ask that all of our friends and neighbors support us by also sending letters to keep this man out of our community and locked away for the longest possible time.
Letters can be sent to Victim Services Division, 8712 Shoal Creek Blvd., Suite 265, P.O.
Box 13401, Austin, TX 78711-3401.
Email: victim.svc@tdcj.state.tx.us.
Subject matter: James Eugene Hashaw TDCJ ID # 661199.
Emma Jo and Herbert Snyder
Bay City
August 16, 2006
Questions, concerns over LCRA-SAWS
Dear editor,
In response to LCRA General Manager Joe Beal’s recent editorial, I have questions and concerns about some of his remarks (his quotes in italics).
“How can selling water from this basin leave us better off? We would have more water, enough to share with a neighboring area.”
If residents of Colorado, Wharton and Matagorda counties “give” our water away, why and how could we be better off than if we kept it for ourselves for the future?
Folks, remember that LCRA is selling our water!
We – the private citizens – are not selling it.
We aren’t getting a penny for it! LCRA is making the money, yet the water is coming from all of us!
Beal says using “another area’s money to pay for conservation and water development…”
Why can’t LCRA use their own money, some of which originated from our tri-county farmers, ranchers and citizens?
Again, LCRA is benefiting from this, not us.
“San Antonio will pay hundreds of millions of dollars for these improvements in the lower Colorado basin…The lower Colorado River basin would be better off than it otherwise would be…”
Do San Antonio citizens know they’re paying for all this?
Do people realize all the “improvements” will belong to LCRA when this project is finished?
LCRA will own thousands of acres, pipelines, pumping stations, reservoirs and all that goes with it and will make the money from selling our water to San Antonio.
Who is trying to fool who?
Think about it! Let’s fight together to stop the LCRA SAWS Water Project!
Judy Bishop Jurek
Markham
August 06, 2006
Letters to the Editor
Whose idea of 'fair' is fair in paying for land?
Dear Editor,
In response to LCRA General Manager Joe Beal’s recent editorial, he stated, “We will pay a fair price…Anyone who claims LCRA will ‘take’ land without fair compensation is wrong.”
Whose idea of ‘fair’ is fair when it comes to price? No two pieces of land are the same, even if side by side. When there are no willing sellers, is it not “taking” something from someone? Who will put the value on the land? It is obvious LCRA wants to buy low while landowners want all they can get.
Is there nothing in favor of the landowner who doesn’t want to sell, who must be uprooted, change their environment and possibly lifestyle, etc.?
What about loss of potential income form cattle operations, crop production such as grain, aquaculture, vineyards, pecans, hay and turf, wind power generation, hunting, fishing, future land value if the land were left alone by this project? And LCRA is not going to purchase mineral rights so there’s another possible source of income out the door.
What of relocation costs? What about finding land of equal value — assuming one could find something close to what they had? What about landowners hanging in limbo until 2010 when this project is supposed to be approved or abandoned? Or, heaven forbid there’s a 5-year extension given pushing the project back to 2015.
Are landowners just supposed to put their lives on hold, living in hell for the next 3-8 years? What about compensation for stress, strain on families, marriages, friendships, jobs, etc.?
Condemning land or paying less than what a landowner feels it is worth and necessary to move on is “taking” it.
The benefit of doubt and equality should be in favor of landowners whose lives LCRA/SAWS have so harshly disrupted. “Fair” may not be equal in all eyes and minds.
Judy Bishop Jurek
Markham
Is there a directory for those outside of town?
Dear Sir:
Is there a directory or information available for the addresses of the many citizens living on the outskirts of the towns in Matagorda County that have been changed?
The post office officials can’t give out this information but are helpful to their limits.
Has this project been completed?
Ethel Williams
Bay City
July 30, 2006
Brush proposal will affect tree trimmers
Dear editor,
The other side of the coin as seen by a tree trimmer called Frank, Part 1.
Red or yellow, black or white, we will be precious in the mayor and city council’s sight when a bad storm hits Bay City.
The city set a new brush-removal strategy as the Tribune stated in Volume 161, Number 51 (Sunday, June 25).
I think, the April 4, 2006, workshop with Mayor Knapik, Brent Marceaux, Ricky Brinkman, Linda Baker and Greg Crain shows they won’t care if us tree trimmers have a license, bond, insurance, permit or a high school diploma.
Our city government and citizens will ask anyone with a chain saw and ladder to help them with their trees.
But, your hands will be tied to big city government because non-permitted tree trimmers will be fined a minimum of $250 per day (Wow).
In my opinion, strategy is a big word for law.
This begs the question, “Why are we all of a sudden going to get a lot less service from the garbage company and the City of Bay City?”
Because of the high property tax appraisals this year, Bay City got quite a tax dollar increase.
I have always jokingly said I have a third-grade education and a high school diploma, so beware tax payers, garbage pickup payers and tree-service providers.
You can be fined for not doing it right.
I would have to bet our garbage pick-up rates and taxes won’t go down, but this new law will cost you a lot more out of pocket for tree work and removal.
Frank Volkmer
Bay City
July 09, 2006
Reasons to support Proposition 1
Dear editor,
As a wife of a volunteer firefighter, I wish to express my feelings as to why Proposition 1 should be passed.
Our volunteer fire department consists of some of the most dedicated men and women who unselfishly risk their lives every time they respond to a call.
Each time my husband’s pager goes off there is always the fear that he may be hurt or may not return.
Bay City is fortunate to have such a devoted group who are ready, willing and able to serve at a moments notice — missing their children opening gifts Christmas morning as they respond to an accident call, leaving their families during Thanksgiving dinner to put out a house fire or sending their own families on their way while they stay behind to assist with hurricane evacuations.
Many people don’t realize that our non-paid firefighters are required by law to have the same training as paid firefighters, giving up personal vacation time from their primary jobs to attend fire training at Texas A&M University, weekend trainings offered throughout Texas and bi-monthly trainings and practices.
Many other duties/services provided by the BCVFD include directing traffic at local football games, Rice Festival and rodeo events, participating in the Muscular Dystrophy Fill The Boot campaign, helping the fire marshal educate Bay City children on fire safety during Fire Prevention Week and assisting Bay City police with lighting at late-night crime scenes.
Most recently, an honor guard was established for funeral services of deceased members.
As a taxpayer, I will gladly support a small tax increase to benefit this outstanding organization.
I wonder, have members of the taxpayers association considered that without a non-paid or volunteer fire department we would have to have a paid fire department?
For a town our size, a paid department would cost an estimated $2.7 million yearly as opposed to the $307,000 that the volunteer department operates on. In the long run, our volunteer department actually saves taxpayers $1.4 million yearly.
Please join me in supporting the Bay City Volunteer Fire Department by voting YES to Proposition 1.
Donna Leist
Bay City
May 03, 2006
Administration should pay price for wars
Dear editor,
It is time to stop the killing. The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan was a mistake on a monumental scale.
Simply piling up more bodies on the heap of the already killed serves no moralistic purpose.
So, it is time to call for an end to the insanity.
Those that are complicit in the runup to the wars should be removed from office, and made to stand trial.
It is in our names that they have committed these terrible acts of war, and those that hate us, hate us because we acquiesce to
the actions of this administration.
How much more do the Bush supporters have to have shoved before their faces before they see the truth?
Staying the course will not work, and everyday we see that there is no “progress” being made in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Our children and ourselves are the ones paying the price for Bush’s wrong-headed policies.
Again, how much more will it take before we act to salvage what little is left of our global image, and our self-respect?
The ball is now in your court. What are you going to do?
Mr. Lee Hutchings
Palacios
April 16, 2006
Tax burdens should remind people of "1984"
Dear editor,
Did anyone else notice how the middle- and low-income people in our society were gouged with tax returns this year?
These are the people most unlikely to be informed enough to make a stand against the continued draining of our economy!
I feel it necessary to remind everyone of a book called “1984” and urge anyone to read or reread it and think about what it says!
Ms. Denise Sury
Angleton
April 16, 2006
Wikoff’s former boss lauds her integrity
Dear editor,
I was Kerri Wikoff’s previous bank supervisor for 12 years.
During this time, I worked very closely with her.
She is highly motivated and very dedicated. She is a person of integrity and has what it takes to get the job done.
With her outstanding work ethics, I know she will serve Matagorda County well as our County Treasurer.
Please consider Kerri Wikoff when you vote.
Evelyn Michalik
El Maton
April 09, 2006
Answer to critic of Wikoff's accomplishments
Dear editor,
In response to a recent letter to the editor of a county newspaper, I would like to suggest a different perspective on the treasurer candidate Kerri Coker Wikoff.
Many political ads do not tell the whole story. What can give voters a more accurate view of the candidates than by examining their record and accomplishments?
To paraphrase the previous writer, Kerri Wikoff has many and should be commended for them but then contends that this record does not make Kerri a more qualified candidate.
The writer also suggests these accomplishments do not prove leadership, but if you will look closely, Kerri served in a leadership position in many of her accomplishments.
Finally, the writer suggests Kerri’s extensive financial background of 24 years does not make her more qualified
But I suggest voters want to know our treasurer has a thorough knowledge regarding finance to make sure our tax dollars are watched over carefully.
Regarding the experience level of Kerri’s opponent, does understanding office procedures make the most qualified candidate?
What proof leads voters to believe that three years of experience can be adequate for leading a county office?
Teresa Bowman
Bay City
April 09, 2006
Firefighters risk much to battle wildfires
Dear editor,
I am sure most of your readers are aware of the wildfires that have plagued the State of Texas over the last several months.
Since December 26, 10,913 fires have burned 4,899,457 acres of Texas.
Last week Governor Perry asked Fire Departments from across the state to provide mutual aid to the effected counties.
Volunteer firefighters from Matagorda County responded to that request, and signed up to be deployed to the areas they would be needed.
These firemen were willing to take personal vacation time to go to the aid of fellow Texans.
The brave men and women of the Volunteer Fire Departments’ in Matagorda County give of their time and risk their personal safety protecting the lives and property of the citizens of this County on a daily bases.
They do this with little or no recognition, but to volunteer to leave their homes and families to help other paid and volunteer fire fighters is going beyond what anyone could ask of them.
We, as citizens of Matagorda County should not only be proud of these fire fighters, but also willingly support them when they ask for our financial support.
Bob Watts
Bay City
March 26, 2006
Service Center part of life here for 65 years
Dear editor,
The members of the Matagorda County Historical Commission met Saturday, March 11, in Matagorda.
At this meeting, we voted unanimously to write a letter to the editors of our county newspapers with our concerns about the USO/Service Center in Bay City.
The Bay City Service Center has been a part of the life of the citizens throughout Matagorda County for the past 65 years.
There is no question in the minds of those of us who are interested in our county and the history of this historic building that the building should be preserved not only for us today but for future generations.
Let the American Legion and the City of Bay City work together to make the necessary repairs to restore the building to its former beauty and a building to be used by all the citizens for many years to come.
Ona Lea Pierce, chairman
Matagorda County
Historical Commission
March 19, 2006
Education answer to solving issue with strays
Dear editor,
What the city needs to do is to really get more involved in educating the public, beginning in the schools, about proper pet-care and responsibility.
Domestic animals are not a commodity to be purchased or adopted then put aside if the owner tires of them.
Dogs, especially, need lots of personal interaction, socialization with other animals and people and behavior modification (training, if you will).
PETA is NOT the way to go. And your local SPCA does not seem to be the answer, either.
The city and county must take charge. Fine those who do not vaccinate, spay or neuter and/or let their animals run loose.
Establish a kennel license with a fee for anyone with breeding stock who breeds more than two litters a year.
As far as funds go, the city or animal welfare — not animal rights — groups can organize raffles, playdays for owners and their dogs/pets, especially kids ‘n dogs, small educational seminars as well as vaccination and/or spay and neuter clinics.
Hopefully all of the local vets would contribute to these efforts.
Encouraging responsible animal ownership everyday and keeping this issue fresh in everyone’s minds just might help this community find a solution to its stray animal problem.
Thanks for the space and, I hope, for our animals’ sake, a proper solution can be had.
P. King
Bay City
March 19, 2006
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