The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, November 12, 1993 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 THE GAZETTE CIRCULATION BY PURCHASE MAY 12, 1928)
VOL 118- NO. 46
SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12 1993
4 PAGES - 25 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Fumes overcome 5 workers Monday
Mishap attributed to carbon monoxide from propane-powered forklift
........... . „ w _________.^1 riu. .n.pmnrv Roh Fnrris. senior Dlant manager at Star “On my initial check, I got a r<
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
Five employees of Star Specialty Foods
Inc. were rushed to Hopkins County Memori-
al Hospital Monday after apparently being
overcome by exhaust fumes from a propane-
powered forklift.
The five were treated for carbon monoxide
poisoning, and all had been released by 5 p.m.
Monday, said Sgt. Rex Morgan. Sulphur
Springs' emergency preparedness coordinator.
Morgan was called to the scene at 12:05
p.m. after the workers, who had been toiling
in an enclosed refrigeration unit for several
hours, began feeling ill.
“One of the employees was down when I
got here and showed symptoms of carbon
monoxide poisoning,” Morgan said Monday.
Two ambulances summoned to the scene
transported the employees to the emergency Bob Farris, senior plant manager at Star On my initial check 1 got a read ng of 50
roomPHospital personnel contacted a poison Specialty Foods, said the propane lilts had parts per million, and I backed out ol (here,
control center and then placed the injured been removed front the unit, and only electric Morgan said,
workers on oxygen. AH five responded to the forklifts would be used in the tuture.
treatment. Morgan said the carbon monoxide levels in
Preliminary investigations place the cause the refrigeration unit were above maximum
on the combination of a gas-powered lift standards set by the Occupational Safety and
being operated in an enclosed environment. Health Administration. He said OSHA rec-
“Unofficially, it’s from a propane forklift,” ommends a “time-weighted” average of 35
Morgan said. parts per million.
oigan saiu.
Morgan said bay doors in the 9,600-squaii
foot refrigerator were opened to air out the
facility. Twenty minutes later, the carbon
monoxide level reading was still at 145 parts
per million.
The chemical attacks the hemoglobin, a
protein in blood cells that carries oxygen.
Pair return
headstone
to Hopkins
Luck leads to finding
location of grave
By JOHN CHURCHILL
J.C. Richters was born on Aug. 25,
1843.
He grew up, lived and died in a
time before automobiles and tele-
phones, in a time when much of the
state was still untamed and roughly
40 percent of the nation’s population
earned their living by working the
land.
While very little is known about
the man, census reports from the time
show that Richters had one horse,
four cows and 71 acres of land.
He was married to a woman named
Ann Elizabeth.
When the Civil War broke out, he
was in his early 30s. Whether he went
off to fight for the Confederacy, or if
he stayed at home to tend his land and
family, nobody knows.
After he died in 1891, barely a
month past his 48th birthday, Richters
was buried in a peaceful country
cemetery just outside of Como.
Surrounding his plot in quiet
Woodland Cemetery were the grave
markers of friends, relatives and Hop-
kins County pioneers, all of whom
had worked hard to carve out their
lives and raise their families the best
way they knew how.
Nearly a century later, when van-
dals broke Richters’ tombstone from
its base and stole it from the cemetery
— leaving his grave unmarked and
forgotten — it is doubtful that they
ever paused to consider any of that.
But Harold O’Neal and Hulon
Miller did.
The pair of retired gentlemen, who
have labeled themselves "cemetery
freaks,” make it their business to look
after the forgotten inhabitants of
Texas’ thousands of cemeteries.
When a man near their hometown
of Terrell came across Richters’ bro-
ken and neglected tombstone lying in
a field near his house a little while
back, his search into the past brought
him into contact with O’Neal and
Miller.
“This man told me that he had
recently bought a house, and he had
begun doing some repairs to the
area,” O’Neal said Tuesday after-
City to concrete traffic
lanes in downtown area
Bricks to remain in parking areas, council decides
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
Downtown Street Options
Goodbye, red brick road.
The brick surface of two streets
surrounding Heritage Square are
going the way of gaslights and horse
carriages, city officials decided Tues-
day night, but they won’t be com-
pletely gone.
“For four years we’ve been trying
to find a solution to the square prob-
lem, and to find a solution beneficial
to both parties," City Manager Olen
Petty said at a work session preceding
a regular session of the City Council
Tuesday.
Petty told council members there
were three alternative solutions to the
problem.
“One, we can re-lay all the bricks.
Two, we can asphalt the entire area,
The program we are recommending is
a little of both,” he said.
Petty’s recommendation, which
received approval from council mem-
bers, calls for removing the bricks
from a 24-foot traffic lane on Jeffer-
son and Gilmer streets and replacing
them with concrete pavement. The
bricks, however, will remain in the
parking areas along the outer perime-
ter of the two streets.
OPTION
1. Relay Brick Pavers
24,775 Square Feet..... .........$42,735
2. Brick Replacement In
Parking Areas, Concrete
Traffic Lanes...................... $54,000
3. Asphalt Base * Pavement......$36,130
“The concrete will be colored so
that it will have the same appearance
as the bricks,” Petty said. “It won’t
have the texture of the bricks, but nei-
ther will it have the roughness.”
The plan will affect neither the
parking area on the west side of the
courthouse nor the brick surface on
College Street.
The city will also replace an eight-
inch water line on the square that runs
north and south along the west side of
Gilmer Street and east to west on the
north side of Jefferson Street.
Petty said the city would probably
spend $14,000 for materials for a
water line needed to supply tire
hydrants around the square. City
employees will install the new line.
Councilman Valanderous Bell said
he felt the recommendation provided
a satisfactory arrangement.
“It’s a fair compromise, and we’re
not losing all our bricks,” he said.
The resurfacing project will ulti-
mately take some financial burden
from the city because the state high-
way department will take over main-
tenance of the roadways. Petty said.
“How much iTTt costing us in
maintenance now?” asked Council-
man Ron Lummus.
“Very little, and as you can see, it
looks that way,” Petty said.
The proposal is expected to cost
$54,(XX). Re-laying bricks in the park-
ing areas will cost an estimated
$14,550, and installing 15,075 square
feet of colored, reinforced concrete
will cost approximately $30,150.
Staff Photo By Larry Barr
Home again
Kaufman County Genealogical Society members Hulon Miller, left, and
Harold O’Neal, return a long-lost tombstone to its rightful place Wednes-
day in Hopkins County’s Woodland Cemetery. The stone once marked
the resting place of J.C. Richters, who died in 1891. It was removed front
the cemetery within the past 20 years, however, and later turned up in
Kaufman County. The two men tracked its history using county cemetery
records.
Petition persuades City Council to
deny restaurant’s alcohol permit
By BRUCE ALSOBROOK
noon. “Well, in the process of clear-
ing a fencerow, he came across this
old tombstone.
“He was concerned about it, and he
really wanted to get it back to where
it belonged,” he continued. “So we
started working on it.”
Because the marker only contained
Richters’ name, date of birth and date
of death, however, there was little to
go by, O’Neal said.
O’Neal made a startling discovery
while idly flipping through an old
cemetery book at the Greenville Pub-
lic Library.
“We were over at the Greenville
library, just looking through some
books, and by accident, we found his
name listed under the Woodland
Cemetery in Hopkins County.’
area, u rseai saiu iuc»uay uva...,
UW $15,000 short of its goal
Donations still being accepted
By J OH N C H U RC HILL
Local industries, individuals and
small businesses have turned in a total
of $89,918 during this year's United
Way campaign, or roughly 86 percent
of the $105,000 goal, campaign offi-
cials said Wednesday morning.
Although that falls nearly $15,000
short of this year’s goal. United Way
Executive Secretary Charlotte Hen-
derson said every effort will be made
to supply full funding to all of the
local organizations financed by dona-
tions from the annual drive.
The drive officially ended last week
after the fourth reporting meeting was
held at the Chamber of Commerce,
although funds are still being accept-
ed.
"We’ll probably have a board meet-
ing within the next week or so to see
what our next step will be.” Hender-
son said Wednesday morning. "Right
now. we still have some money trick-
ling in from businesses in the county
who have not turned in their dona-
tions. so we’re still accepting money,
slowly but surely.”
Henderson said the campaign com-
mittee will have to decide whether or
not to cut back on their budget, or if
they will dip into their “carry-over”
funds saved each year.
‘We have a cushion fund that we
keep each year, but we’ve had to
lessen it a bit over the past few
years.” she said, after donations have
fallen short of the group’s goals.
According to Stacy Cody, the char-
ity’s campaign chairman, a decision
will be made by the end of the week
on when and where the meeting wjll
be held.
Petitions submitted Tuesday night
with an estimated 3,000 names shot
down a local restaurant owner’s bid to
serve beer and wine to his customers.
At a regular meeting of the Sulphur
Springs City Council, about a dozen
people appeared in opposition to a
request by Jack Sui, owner of Royal
China Restaurant, who sought a spe-
cial use permit to allow the service of
alcohol at his business.
City ordinances only allow such
permits in heavy commercial or
industrial zones, and the business is
located in a light commercial zone.
Amid shouts of “Amen” and
“That’s right,” Kenneth Rhoades, pas-
tor of Central Baptist Church, pleaded
for the council to vote against the
request.
“I have enjoyed living in a dry
city,” Rhoades said. “1 enjoy going
into a restaurant where they don’t
serve liquor. I enjoy going into gas
Staff Photo By Lorry Bar
Standing room only
Members of the Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce Leadership
Class helped Fill the council room at city hall to capacity for Tuesday
night’s City Council meeting.
serve liquor. I enjoy going into gas . .• „
stations where the shelves aren’t filled dry. and I do not understand how you to request that the city quit granting
with liquor bottles. can continue to get around the con- these special use permits^
"I was under the impression that sensus of the community by granting Another opponent, Mark wnite,
the consensus of the people of this special use permits to allow the sale also said he opposed granting special
city was that they wanted it to remain of liquor." he continued. “I would like use permits for private clubs.
VIIJI lltui MIVJ " ••I —
Head Start purchases approved
By JEFF McINNIS
1 M
“The way it looks, we’re about
$ 15.000 short of our goal.” he said.
Total
To Date
For The
Campaign:
$89,918
|
Sulphur Springs ISD made moves
to implement its Head Start program
Tuesday as trustees approved the pur-
chase of $68,465 worth of furniture,
playground equipment and other
materials.
New SS1SD Head Start Director
Sherry Garrard, formerly the Head
Start director for Paris ISD. presented
the equipment bids to the board at its
tegular meeting.
“I think Head Start will be good for
Sulphur Springs Independent School
District, and I know that this school
district can be good for Head Start,
Garrard said before outlining the bids.
The board voted unanimously to
approve the bids for copy machines,
audio visual equipment, furniture,
instructional hardware and play-
ground equipment to be used for the
program.
Companies presenting low bids
included Copy Products, Master
Audio-Visuals, Hoover Brothers
Childcraft, Molding-Game Time
Recreation. P.C.A. Industries. Quality
Industries and Miracle Co.
All approved bids were low bids,
except for certain playground equip-
ment for which the board accepted
recommended higher bids for items
considered safer and more durable
than the lower-priced alternatives.
As Superintendent Paul Glover
explained before the vote, the
approved list of playground equip-
ment was developed by site commit-
tees at Austin, Houston, and Lamar
campuses where the Head Start pro-
gram will be housed.
Rural News: 4
Club News:
Reunions: 3
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Keys, Clarke & Lamb, Bill. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, November 12, 1993, newspaper, November 12, 1993; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780527/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.