The Nocona News (Nocona, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 4, 2013 Page: 1 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Montague County Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Friends of the Nocona Public Library.
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PRIVATE WELL
recorded with
City of Nocona
Ordinance *459
City gets in for
water well users
... Page 1
Museum collects
materials for next
major project
... Page 3
Area artists open
new art gallery
n Saint Jo
... Page 8
vol 109, issue 5
Proudly Serving Montague County Since June 6,1905
Thursday, Ju;y 4, 2013
®he J^ocona JBetos
Copyright 2013
www.noconanews.net
Seventy-five cents
Eight Pages
97% o/ total levy collected
Combined tax collections ahead of 2012
By Tracy R. Mesler
MONTAGUE - At mid-
night Sunday night taxpay-
ers who had not made paid
their property taxes with the
Montague County Tax
Assessor-Collectors Office
saw an automatic 15%
increase to their tax bill as
attorney's fees were added
to the debt, and the attorneys
now take over the collection
process.
That was the bad news.
The good news was 97% of
the county's taxpayers, as a
whole, have already paid
their 2012 property taxes,
which became delinquent
Feb. 1. And that was before
the funds collected during
the month of June were
added to the totals!
The combined collections
for all entities was slightly
ahead of the 96.1% reported
at the same time in 2012.
County Tax Assessor-
Collector Sydney Nowell is
proud of the fact that even
during a stagnant national
economy with rising prices
and unemployment, her
office has seen above-aver-
age collection rates for each
of the local taxing entities
for whom they collect taxes.
As of Friday morning, the
TAC had collected $6.92
million of the county's $7.13
million tax levy, or
97.001%, which was half a
percentage point ahead of
last year's mark of 96.466%.
Seasonal sales - . .
— Photo by Tracy Mesler
Elaina Ducharme visits with a customer while manning one of the local fireworks stands. With no burn ban in effect,
fireworks sales are expected to be good as residents of the area prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July with a tradi-
tional show of lights and sounds.
AlwjMte source smightz
Paving program oil hold
By Tracy R. Mesler
City Manager Lynn
Henley was hoping to attack
the northwest quadrant of
town with the 2013 paving
program, but now the entire
project is up in the air.
"I don't know right now
if we are going to pave,"
Henley, who has been serv-
ing double duty as city man-
ager and public works direc-
tor for several months, said
Monday morning.
"J.R. Thompson is not
going to be doing any hot
mix production this year,"
Henley said of the city's sole
source for the hot mix
asphalt the city prefers using
for its municipal paving.
"And it's going to cost me
more to get it here from the
Bridgeport-Chico area."
While Montague
County's precincts use a
chip and seal paving method,
the city has used hot mix
paving to allow it work
around curbs, gutters, man-
hole covers and other imped-
iments the county roads typ-
ically do not face.
"I don't have any (streets)
ready to chip and seal," he
said explaining, "When you
chip and seal you better have
i(the street) as slick as you
want it because it fills no
voids. If you grade and have
it ready, if there's a dip in the
road there'll be a dip in the
road after you chip and seal.
It's not like hot mix which
fills in the voids."
"I don't want to pay
$10,000 a day more in haul-
ing just to get hot mix here,"
he said, explaining the budg-
etary impact purchasing hot
mix from further away
would have on the city's
budget.
The last two years, J.R.
Thompson out of Saint Jo
has fired up his hot mix plant
on a very limited basis. "It
costs them quite a bit to keep
the asphalt hot, and they
haven't had a state contract
in a couple of years to war-
rant firing it up."
Henley had hoped to pave
west of downtown to Young
Street, then once he finishes
replacing a water line in
Travis Street get Travis and
part of Fayette Streets paved
as well.
Now the city manager
and the council will have to
look at the finances and
decide if they are going to
use hot mix with its added
cost of transportation, or
spend more time preparing
the streets for chip and seal.
When it comees to chip
and seal, Henley said, "It's a
straight shot, no flex. And
it's a pain in town to do."
Sign it's legal .
1 Remembering lees fortunate
Poor Farm historical marker dedication
set for Saturday, July 13th
The Poor Farm Belonging few days ago!
to Montague County,
Marker Dedication Set July
13, 2013
The long-awaited State
Historical Marker commem-
orating the Montague
County Poor Farm arrived a
AREA WEATHER
Jun 25 92 77
—
Jun 26 94 77
—
Jun 27 95 77
—
Jun 28 100 77
—
Jun 29 97 72
—
Jun 30 93 68
—
Jul 1 87 64
—
1 Offical recording site at Nocona Hills 1
Tot Rain 2013
18.67
Tot. July
0.00
Thru July 2012
19.40
Thru July 2011
■
7.88
JL MET
\'M
141
Plans are in progress to
dedicate that marker on the
morning of July 13, at 9:30
a.m. The marker will be
placed at the Poor Farm
Cemetery, which is county
property and was one part of
the historical poor farm. The
gathering will take place on
the well rocked parking area
adjoining the site. The Poor
Farm Cemetery can be
reached by a short drive, 0.4
mile south from Montague
on Hwy 59 and then a west
turn onto FM 455, 1.8 miles.
Guests should turn north at
the gate that once led to the
county dump.
Any who wonder what
the Poor Farm was all about,
and all who would like to
offer a measure of respect to
its residents and workers, are
invited to attend. The event
is hosted under the direction
of the Montague County
Historical Commission.
Montague County Judge,
Tommie Sappington, will be
on hand to address the
group. Please join commis-
sion members and county
officials for the occasion and
be prepared to share your
interest.
A free souvenir booklet is
being published which con-
tains the submitted essay and
much of the available infor-
mation on the county system
from 1873 until 1939.
Commissioner's Court pro-
ceedings, deeds, census
records, and interviews from
those who remembered are
compiled to clarify what is
known. The research gives a
structure. Now we can hope
for more information lurk-
ing, perhaps in the memory
of one present for the dedica-
tion.
For information call 940-
995-2184, Tobie or Johnell
Thompson.
The county tax office has
collected 97.874%) of the
Clear Creek Watershed
Authority's $156,993.32 tax
levy, or $153,657.24, which
was ahead of last year's per-
centage of 91.609%
The Farmer's Creek
Watershed Authority has
seen 95.133% of its taxes
collected at the annex, or
$17,193.61 of the
$18,073.20 tax levy. That
percentage was actually
slightly behind last year's
total of 95.291%. at this
point
Collections for the city of
Nocona were lagging a
smidgen behind at 94.715%
with $483,139.97 out of the
$510,097.37 tax levy already
in the bank. Which was
behind the collection per-
centage of 94.881%) at this
time last year.
The Nocona Hospital
District already has
96.311%, or $390,103.35 of
its $404,960.22 tax levy in
the bank, slightly ahead of
the 96.249% this time last
year.
And Nocona ISD has
seen 95.643% of its $2.22
million tax levy, or $2.13,
collected by the county tax
assessor-collector, slightly
ahead of the 95.466%) last
year.
For some entities the total
collection actually exceeds
this year's total tax levy once
delinquent taxes, late fees,
penalty and interest is added.
Sig ns mean well
water be in used
By Tracy R. Mesler
In less than a week the
city of N ocona has registered
nine water wells within the
city limits and handed out
the new signs property own-
ers will be required to put in
their front yards when water-
ing their lawns.
Last month the Nocona
City Council amended Stage
5 of its Drought Contingency
Plan requiring owners of
water wells used for land-
scape watering to register
their wells with the city. The
amendment mandates prop-
erty owners use the signs —
furnished and paid for by the
city — when watering to
avoid calls to City Hall, or
the Nocona Police
Department, to report the
owners watering on non-
watering days.
"We get so many calls on
that every time somebody
with a water well waters it
isn't funny," City Manager
Lynn Henley commented
Monday.
Nocona is now in its sec-
ond year of mandatory water
rationing for landscape
watering. In July 2011 the
city entered Stage 3 restrict-
ing landscape watering to
twice a week and only
between the hours of mid-
night and 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.
and midnight, on October 22
of last year the city went to
Stage 4 as water levels in
Lake Nocona dripped below
another threshold, 819.0 feet
elevation, and the outdoor
watering was further restrict-
ed to just one day a week -
Tuesdays (same hours) for
even numbered street
addresses and Thursdays for
odd numbered addresses.
With the lake dropping
below 818.0 feet on Sunday,
the city is rapidly approach-
ing the Stage 5 threshold of
falling below 817.0 feet -
which kicks in restrictions
for car washes, prohibits
washing down streets and
sidewalks and kicks in the
mandatory posting of signs
for owners of water wells.
At June's council meeting
City Manager Lynn Henley
had a good news bad news
report regarding public
awareness of when they are
supposed to be watering.
When owners of water
wells water on non-watering
days, or during non-watering
hours, neighbors and passing
motorists call City Hall and
report the apparent offend-
ers.
The bad news is they call
City Hall reporting someone
who is not violating the
city's Drought Contingency
Plan.
By requiring water well
owners to register and place
signs in their yards the staff
hopes to eliminate the
unnecessary phone calls by
letting neighbors and passing
motorists know that the
property owners are using
— See "Signs" Page 8
PRIVATE WELL
recorded with
City of Nocona
Ordinance #459
rjjt# LfiC,
— Photo by Tracy Mesler
F ormer City Councilman Charles Cook was one of nine water well owners to quickly
register their wells with the city and post a sign in their yard letting everyone know it is
okay for them to water their yards any day and hour of the week.
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Mesler, Tracy R. & Mesler, Linda L. The Nocona News (Nocona, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 5, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 4, 2013, newspaper, July 4, 2013; Nocona, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth439543/m1/1/?q=music: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Friends of the Nocona Public Library.