The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, June 25, 1982 Page: 1 of 4
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Hopkins County Area Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Hopkins County Genealogical Society.
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(ABSORBED THF. GAZETTE CIRCULATION BY PURCHASE MAY 12, 1928)
VOL.
SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, JUNE 25,19S2.
4 PAGES -15 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Water district approves lake boost
Approval - and partial financing - for
raising the level of Lake Sulphur Springs
was given Tuesday night by the Sulphur
Springs Water District board of directors
meeting in special session.
The Water District is the official owner
of the major municipal reservoir, although
routine operations and management are
handled by the City of Sulphur Springs.
The city council had contacted the
Freese and Nichols consulting engineering
firm in Fort Worth concerning the
possiblity of raising the level of the lake to
increase the storage capacity.
The firm advised the city that raising the
normal water surface two feet above the
present level would increase the stroage
capacity from 14,160 acre-feet to 16,982
acre-feet, which would increase the
dependable yield from 8.75 million gallons
a day to 9.75 million gallons a day.
The total cost of the project, according to
Freese and Nichols, would be around
$30,000.
“We need to take a bigger interest in the
reservoir than we have in the past and
increasing the water supply is certainly an
important step,” declared B. B. Beers,
chairman of the district board. “Water is
going to become, if it is not already, a
critical natural resource in the very near
future.”
The board also voted to contribute
$10,000 to the city to help defray the cost of
the project.
In other business, the board elected
Beers as chairman and Vernon Davis,
vice-chairman, and appointed Travis
Owens, city manager, as the general
manager and Jerry Gillem, city finance
director, as the secretary-treasurer for the
board.
Other members of.the board include,
J.D. Franklin, Sterling Beckham and Dr.
Max Latham.
Log jam on river
This aerial photo taken this week by Country World editor Kelly
Boldin lor The News-Telegram shows one of the large log jams
that are blocking the South Sulphur River near Hagansport.
During heavy rains this year water has backed up from the jams
to put extra pressure on levees upstream from State Highway
37. The log jams also divert the normal flow of the river to the
east.
kwell plans a cutback
A reduction in work schedules for July
through September was announced
Monday by Rockwell International in
Sulphur Springs to adjust local operations
to a decline in business conditions.
James I. Murray, general manager,
announced that in addition to the normal
one-week plant shutdown the first week of
July (July 5-11), an additional shutdown of
will be observed the following week.
“This additional week is necessary to
adjust inventories and to react to a decline
in orders,” Murray said.
Additionally, the Sulphur Springs plant
will begin 4-day workweeks (Monday
through Thursday) the week of July 19 and
plans call for that schedule to be continued
through September.
“Our order level will be continuously
montitored during this period for any
change in the situation, either up or
down," Murray told The News-Telegram.
The actions — which were revealed to
Rockwell employees over the weekend
period — were taken to avoid a 15 percent
reduction in the plant’s total workforce,
according to Steve Hoefling, acting per-
sonnel manager. Hoefling said the cutback
is effective for all hourly and non-exempt
salaried workers at the plant, or about 564
of the 685 employees.
The shutdown for one week plus 10
Fridays will be the equivalent of three full
workweeks, he added.
Essential plant operations during the
periods of shutdown will be maintained by
supervisors, managers and other
professional exempt personnel, Murray
noted.
Murray explained that orders for valve
products manufactured at the local
Rockwell facility have dropped
dramatically this year, particularly in
April and May.
“The order level has been down in all our
product lines," he said, “reflecting
decreases in new construction, power
plant construction, and oil and gas ac-
tivity.
“We hope to buy time for these markets
to improve and to retain the flexibility
necessary to meet market demands should
they increase. This could prevent a loss of
our market share due to the plant’s
inability to respond to customer
demands.”
Murray added that since a layoff of
approximately 50 employees last fall
(most of whom were subsequently
rehired), Rockwell in Sulphur Springs has
been able to avoid a direct layoff of per-
sonnel by deferring the opening of new
manufacturing facilities at Waco, by
transferring the 6-inch Dynamic Valve line
from Kearney, Neb., to Sulphur Springs
last October, and by some accumulation of
inventories over the past several months.
The Rockwell spokesmen noted that
similar business problems are being en-
countered at Rockwell’s plants in Bar-
berton, Ohio, and at Kearney.
The shutdown week of July 5-11 is a
normal procedure at Rockwell here —
providing for an annual inventory count
process. This situation will be unchanged
this year, Murray said.
Log jams block river
Several log jams on the South Sulphur
River north of Hagensport have not only
forced the river out of its natural course,
but have put pressure on a levee system to
the west.
Removal of the log jams is one of the
four projects that interested farmers and
ranchers in an 8-county area of the Sulphur
River Basin are working toward,
The Sulphur River is channelled in a
levy system to the west of State Highway
37 between Hagansport and Bogota, but
runs in a natural channel to the east of that
point, For the past two years log jams
A goal of $65,506 has been set for the 1983
Hopkins County United Way campaign by
the UW board of directors. The 1983 goal
tops the total amount raised in the 1982
campaign by $4,549.
The record-breaking 1982 campaign
raised donations and pledges of $60,957 -
$2,619 more than the orignial goal for that
drive.
In voicing his approval of the recom-
mended goal fpr 1983, Glynn Lowe told the
board, “I do not think that this is too high a
goal for a county like Hopkins County.
With the kind of people that live here, the
kind of support that we have had from the
business community and the growth that
we have had, it is not too ambitious a goal
to have.”
The proposed budget sets an allocation
of $59,006 for the nine agency requests
approved for inclusion in the budget and
$6,500 for administrative and campaign
expenses.
The agency requests approved and their
allocations are: Community Chest -
$15,000; American Red Cross - $10,000;
Hopkins County Rescue Unit - $1,500;
Hopkins County 4H Clubs - $7,000;
Hopkins County Care Corps - $1,800; Boy
Scouts $13,000; Girl Scouts - $10,000;
United Cerebral Palsy - $500; and United
Way of Texas —$196.
Four agencies made requests to the
Budget and Allocations Committee, but
did not send a representative to the
hearing to answer questions that the
committee may have about the agency
services or plans that the agency had for
the funds. Those agency requests were
denied.
The Salvation Army did have a
representative at the budget and
allocations hearings, but its request was
denied as well. Rex Hargrave told the
have been building up on the river about
two miles east of the Highway 37 bridge.
A normal rain now floods the river at
that point and the river has overflowed its
banks three times since a 100-year
frequency rain recorded in April of this
year.
The log jams are so large that the river
no longer flows in its natural channel, but
floods nearby land.
The river now often flows onto the
Herman Farm on Sulphur River bot-
tamland, then into a drainage ditch, into
Terry Lake, and then back into the Sulphur
River east of the series of log jams.
board the committee was left unsure of the
agency’s plans for the use of the funds
because of the lack of specific information
that the representative had. The Salvation
Army has not been included in the local
effort for several years.
The committee also did not have any
information at the time of the hearings
concerning the Ministerial Alliance's
plans to continue or discontinue their aid to
transients which is the same group to
whom the Salvation Army would direct
their services.
Hargrave said that the Salvation Army
is invited to present another request at the
1984 budget and allocations hearings.
The United Way campaign for 1983 will
get under way in October, Hargrave said.
City second
for beauty
The city of Sulphur Springs was
notified recently that the city finished
second in the 1982 Governor’s Com-
munity Achievements Award Contest.
The award will be presented at the
Beautify Texas Council convention in
Waco, June 16-18.
Mary Ellen Shoop, executive
director of the Council notified the
Hopkins County Chamber of Com-
merce office Monday of the award.
Mrs. Shoop requested a
representative from the city be
present at the Waco convention fo
make a brief presentation of their
program of work.
Ed Phelps, governor of District I of
the Council, congratulated Margin
Latham and her fellow workers for
their efforts.
Adding lo the problem, debris often piles
up on the bridge at Highway 37, at times
creating artificial dams. The state high-
way department then lifts the debris loose,
freeing to float down the river and into the
log jam, adding to the volume of the
pileup.
Observers note that in times of high
water the log jams prevent designed
outflow of the river from the levee system
to the west, creating undue pressure on
that network. Levees along the river broke
because of high water last month, flooding
an estimated 30,000 acres of farm and
ranch land.
Rockwell sets
mark for blood
.. ».#.
Rockwell International employees
in Sulphur Springs have completed
their most successful blood drive
ever. The John G. Long Memorial
Blood Club collected 230 units of blood
for its member accounts.
Forty percent of the. local plant's
personnel volunteered to donate “the
gift of life” according to Sylvia
Millsap R.N., plant nurse and coor-
dinator of this year’s annual drive. Of
the 279^ volunteers, only 49 were
deferred for various medical reasons.
Rabies case
is reported
A positive case of rabies in a horse
in Hopkins County has led to the
destruction of the animal and four
people are now taking the anti-rabies
shots as a precaution against the
disease.
Dr. C.M. Lay of the Sulphur Springs
Veterinary Clinic, who was called to
treat the Palomino mare, is among
those taking the shots. The other three
are members of a Hopkins County
family, who live near the Rains
County line.
The mare was believed to have been
bitten by a rabid skunk. The family
reported numerous skunks have been
seen in the area of their farm.
The horse is the first known
domestic animal to be determined
rabid in Hopkins County within the
last 10 to 12 years.
While there have been rabies cases
reported in adjoining counties, this is
the first positive identification in
Hopkins County since 1977, according
to available information.
United Way sets
largest goal yet
Item added
to hospital
The expansion project, for Hopkins
County Memorial Hospital and the initial
steps toward the operation of an am-
bulance service by the hospital district
were the major items of business for the
hospital's Board of Directors at their
Thursday night meeting.
The board members took a look at the
expansion project and found it was within
budget to add an elevator. “As we are
within the budget, the board decided to
have plans drawn up for the addition of a
staff elevator and have it bid as an
alternate," Hospital Administrator Glen
Kenley said.
The board also reviewed budget figures
for the operation of an ambulance service.
“This is just the first in a series of
studies that we will have to do," the ad-
ministrator added. “It is only the begin-
ning step that has to be taken before the
hospital district-can initate the operation
of a service."
The board took no action on the budget
review of the ambulance service.
The only other action by the board in its
meeting was to review the f iniancial status
of the hospital and lo approve the payment
of all outstanding bills.
Member advances
Jenny Weatherly will be among the six
other local 4-H members advancing to
the District Fashion Show in Texarkana
on July 29. She received a placque during
the local 4-H Fashion Show last week in
the junior active sportswear category.
—Staff photo
Razing the Armory
The front of the old Armory in City Park was beginning to look like a jagged snarl of
bricks Thursday morning after a section of the front was pulled down by cables and
chains. Wayne Johnson sat quietly in the shade of the nearly 60-year old building
while cleaning the bricks which will be sold later and made into another structure.
Thus in a way the old Armory that served the community for so long will live on,
only in a different form.
Colorado tragedy
ts relatives here
-Staff Photo by John Gore
A tragedy that struck a Texas family
while on a camping, hiking and fishing trip
in Colorado has brought sorrow to
relatives in Hopkins County.
Killed by lightning on a cliff in southwest
Colorado Saturday were Gary Allen, 34; a
son, Gary II, 14; and a daughter, Krystal,
10. Another son, Kenneth, 12, apparently
was knocked out but survived the shock
and was released after treatment in a
Colorado hospital.
George O. Allen of Route 3, Old Tarrant
community, is the father of Mr. Allen and
grandfather of the children. Mrs. John D.
Shelton of Sulphur Springs is an aunt of the
victims.
Mr. Allen and the two sons resided in
Plano while the daughter lived at
Seagoville.
The family had been camping for a week
at Beaver Creek Lake near South Fork,
Colo.
County Coroner David Scheel said the
Allens were hiking in a mountainous area 2
miles from their campsite at about noon
Saturday when a violent thunderstorm
erupted. The family took refuge under a
large fir tree on a rocky cliff and had
begun to eat lunch when lightning struck
the tree.
Scheel surmised that Kenneth Allen
must have been knocked unconscious
because he did not remember what hap-
pened. After he recovered, he ran back to
the campsite for help.
It took a 20-member search team nearly
seven hours to find the bodies in thick
brush.
Sheriff John Kammerzell said the bodies
of the victims were found shortly before
dark Saturday after a search by deputies,
members of the San Luis Valley search
and rescue team, personnel from the Rio
Grande National Forest and volunteers.
The family left Plano June 12 for the
area in southwest Colorado where they had
camped for two weeks each summer in
recent years.
Gary would have entered the 8th grade
at Carpenter Middle School in Plano this
fall and Krystal would have entered the 5th
grade at Central Elementary School in
Seagoville, where she lived with her
mother.
Local relatives were in Plano Sunday to
be with other members of the family.
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Keys, Clarke & Woosley, Joe. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, June 25, 1982, newspaper, June 25, 1982; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth779810/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.