The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 42, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Page: 1 of 24
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Silsbee Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Silsbee Public Library.
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Toyota’s
celebration
New Silsbee
store honored
with Monday
Grand opening
SECTION 1, PAGE 5
Wednesday
October 17
2007
Silsbee Texas
77656
Vol. 91 ■ No. 42 ■ 24 Pages In Two Sections
Brazen
Hussey...
Lumberton run-
ning back Cody
Hussey roiled over
Central’s defense
with 254 yards
and four TDs this
past Friday at
Raiders Stadium.
THIS FRIDAY!
Raiders near history
Still undefeated, Lumberton
closing in on school’s
first-ever playoff berth
Lionettes claim
final home court
win with victory
over Lady Coogs.
The Silsbee Bee
Lions just
miss upset
of season
•vs. Buna
AROUND
K0UN1ZE
50 Cents
Rollback critical
to SISD’s health
Election set for Nov. 3
The Silsbee Independent
School District will hold a
Maintenance and Operations
Election (Tax Rollback Election)
for the 2007-2008 school year on
Nov. 6, 2007.
During the Texas 79 th
Legislative Session, Legislators
lowered the maximum school tax
rates from the previous maxi-
mum of $1.50 per $100 valuation
to $1 per $100 valuation.
This was done in two steps
with the districts scheduled to
drop their rates to $1.33 per $100
value in 2006 and then to $1 in
2007.
However, in 2006 Silsbee ISD
was exempted from the lowered
tax rate due to a disaster declara-
tion because of Hurricane Rita.
They were allowed to stay at
$1.48 per $100 valuation in 2006.
The districts were offered the
opportunity to add an additional
4 cents to their tax rate for
enrichment programs for the stu-
dents. Most schools took advan-
tage of this as SISD did.
The state was charged with the
responsibility to develop a sys-
tem that would make state funds
available to fund approximately
the same amount of money that
the districts received at the $1.50
rate.
Local districts are charged with
the responsibility to adopt a tax
rate each year and to adopt a
school budget based on their
local and state reveune.
The states then were charged
with the responsibility to distrib-
ute state funds based on a
statewide formula. This formula
was set up. It considers factors
such as Average Daily
Attendance (ADA), enrollment,
appraised valuation, local taxes
collected, and other local revenue
(which includes gate receipts,
cafeteria revenue and other fees
and local revenues).
In Texas, most school districts
are growing at a rapid rate. The
unfortunate thing is that Silsbee’s
enrollment has been slipping. At
the time the formulas were being
set up, Silsbee had about 3,300
students. That number declined
to 2,899 last year and the ADA is
a little less than the enrollment.
While most districts were
growing at a 2 percent growth
rate, the student enrollment in
See ROLLBACK on Page 6, Section 1
Drake murder trial
starting this week
Kountze resident David Drake
is facing a jury of his peers in a
murder trial that started Monday
with the selection of a jury in the
courtroom of District Judge Britt
Plunk.
Six men and six women were
selected Monday to serve as
jurors in the first-degree murder
case in which Drake is accused of
killing his stepfather, Willard
French.
According to reports, Drake
and his brother Brian were
allegedly at the home of their
mother, Sandy French, when a
fight broke out between the two
brothers and Willard French.
Willard French was stabbed
multiple times with a butcher
knife in the neck and head. He
later died at a Beaumont hospital.
The trial for Brian Drake will
take place later this year or early
in 2008, according to Hardin
County District Attorney Henry
Coe.
Both brothers are still being
held in the Hardin County jail.
David Drake’s trial began at 1
p.m. on Tuesday and will contin-
ue through the week.
Ire rising over raises
County auditor to seek opinion from Attorney General
By GERRY L. DICKERT
The Bee
Faced with an angry crowd of
county employees, Hardin
County Commissioners Court
members agreed on Sept. 24
that an 11 percent salary increase
requested by the county’s audi-
tor was out of line with the five
percent increase approved for
the rest of the county’s depart-
ments.
Now, County Auditor
Lawrence Partham says he
believes Commissioners had no
right to deny the raise.
Partham said he would seek an
opinion from the Texas Attorney
General’s office regarding the
issue in which his staff was
denied an 11 percent increase in
salary in this year’s county
budget.
During the Sept. 24 meeting,
commissioners heard from a
room full of county employees
who argued that it would not be
fair for one department in the
courthouse to receive more than
double the five percent increase
in salary that the rest of the
departments were told they
would receive.
“It’s unfair,” one county
employee in attendance on Sept.
24 told commissioners. “There’s
no benefit to having seniority
with the county if you allow this
to happen.”
Partham said that of the two
employees in his department,
one had been there for about 14
months, while the other had been
employed for about five years.
“I’ve been an employee for
more than 20 years,” another
county employee said. “It’s not
right to let one department have
such a large increase when the
rest of us are all getting five per-
cent.”
Once the public hearing por-
tion of the budget approval
process had concluded and com-
See AUDITOR on Page 6, Section 1
According to State Trooper Martinez, a Ford Focus was traveling southbound on Hwy. 92
Thursday morning when a silver PT Cruiser, driving southbound along the shoulder of the
road, made a sudden left turn toward Old Arco Rd., causing the two vehicles to collide.
Priority One responded to minor injuries and no one was taken to the hospital.
Jimmy’s wrecker service
works to pull a Pontiac out
of ditch on Monday after-
noon. According to State
Trooper Tevis, a Dodge and
the Pontiac were traveling
northbound on Hwy 69
feeder road in Lumberton
when the Dodge moved
into the next lane causing
the driver of the Pontiac to
lose control and end up in
the ditch. No injuries were
reported.
Bee photos by Kelly Smith
Council
scoffs at
YYAFA
request
By GERRY L. DICKERT
The Bee
Even as construction continues
on the planned multi-million dol-
lar YYAFA youth center being
built in the north part of Silsbee,
the group’s coordinator Rev.
Mark Smith is asking for more
money for infrastructure work.
A 2-1 vote by members of the
Silsbee Economic Development
Corp. board approved a $12,000
request by Smith, but a negative
vote by the Silsbee City Council
on Monday night nixed the
request.
“He has a $1.2 million grant to
build this thing and he’s coming
to the city looking for $12,000?”
asked City Councilman Mike
Holzapfel.
In fact, council members ques-
tioned why the city should pay to
place a six-inch water line running
to the YYAFA building, to replace
a smaller line that won’t support
the new sprinkler system in the
building, when so much money
has already been dedicated to the
See COUNCIL on Page 7, Section 1
Time for Prayer
Lord,
Shower us with Your love each
day and as we walk in Your light,
we will pass along that love to
those who come into our lives.
Show us Your love, and we will
show others.
Amen
Contact The Bee
Main number 385-5278
Fax number 385-5270
E-mail: editor@silsbeebee.com
advertising@silsbeebee.com
www.silsbeebee.com
Accident
kills man
One man was killed and anoth-
er critically injured when the
truck they were in lost control
and hit a tree along FM 92 north
of Silsbee this past Saturday.
According to Texas
Department of Public Safety
reports, Bryan Daniel Lawrence,
22, was driving his 1997
Chevrolet Cheyenne pickup
southbound along Hwy. 92 at
about 1:45 a.m. Saturday morn-
ing.
The report shows that the vehi-
cle was being driven at a high
rate of speed when the driver lost
control, left the road and hit a
tree.
See WRECK on Page 6, Section 1
This plaque was presented to Joseph and Dorothy Daigle by
friends and fellow trail riders in appreciation for their support
given to the St. Jude Benefit Trail Ride. The Daigle’s raised just
over $4,100 at their last trail ride to donate to St. Jude’s
Children’s hospital.
Daigles take final
ride for St. Jude’s
By KELLY M. SMITH
The Bee
Joseph Daigle of Kountze and
his wife, Dorothy, have been
inviting people into their home
for the past 17 years to saddle up
for children with cancer.
Over the weekend, the Daigles
hosted their 17th and final trail
ride to benefit St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital, a Memphis,
Tenn.-based international
research center that accepts
patients without regard for the
families’ ability to pay.
“We enjoy having all the peo-
ple around and doing something
for the kids,” said Daigle. “And
the bam dance. It’s hard for me to
get out of the bam dance and go
ride.”
In 1990, “Shorty” Dubussion, a
friend of the family from Rose
City asked the Daigles if he could
host a trail ride for St. Jude’s at
their house because he had
nowhere else to do it. They glad-
ly agreed. Just before Dubussion
passed away, he requested that
the trail ride go on.
The Daigles, along with “too
See DAIGLE on Page 7, Section 1
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Dickert, Gerry. The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 42, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 17, 2007, newspaper, October 17, 2007; Silsbee, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1244850/m1/1/?q=Homecoming+queen+1966+North+Texas+State+University: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Silsbee Public Library.