The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 116, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 1991 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. 116—NO. 4.
SULPHUR SPRINGS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 25,1991.
4 PAGES 4\25 CENTS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Extra H-cent tax
will work at home
Supporting the soldiers
Kindergarten students at Bowie Elementary School show their support of the military in the Middle East
by tying yellow ribbons at the school. Each ribbon has the names of a service men or women from Hopkins
County on it. As a part of their unit study on patriotism, the students heard from Lt. Thad Trapp, a
Waxahachie resident and relative of Leana May Rogers of Sulphur Springs, about the conflict in the Mid-
dle EasL Trapp was visiting with Rogers before heading for Hawaii to join his unit en route to the Middle
East. Tying the ribbons are, from the left, Jake Mahand, Bridgette Cooper, Cashawna Mosley, Kelly
Pearson, and Joey McCoy.
—SUIT photo by Larry Barr
War backing strong here
By CHRISTINE NOE
The order is “all ahead full” for
the Sulphur Springs-Hopkins
County Economic Development
Board now that it will have an es-
timated $600,000 annually to spend
on programs to improve the local
economy in future years.
Sulphur Springs residents voted
overwhelmingly Saturday to im-
plement the extra !6-cent sales tax
increase, which will make the local
sales tax rate 8'/« percent.
The tax must still be approved by
the state comptroller’s office, but
supporters say that is considered a
formality.
The comptroller’s office also
would designate a date when the
additional tax would be implemen-
ted. That date will determine when
the first funds are available for
economic development projects,
which must first be approved by the
City Council.
Once the tax gains final ap-
proval, Echo Publishing Company
will obtain a new sales tax chan
from the state and provide copies to
local firms free of charge.
Citizens cast 791 votes for and
489 against the proposal.
A large number of voters turned
out for the election, many of them
— 648 — voting absentee.
“For a special issue thing like
that, it really was a high turnout,”
Sharon Ricketson, city secretary,
said.
Jim Holland, a member of the
Sulphur Springs-Hopkins County
Economic Development Board,
credits the success of the campaign
to “team work” and a “community
spirit for economic development.”
Members of the board cam-
paigned at several local club
meetings to get the word out about
the importance of the election to
the future growth of Sulphur
Springs.
Holland said, “1 was pleasantly
pleased” with the outcome of the
election.
He expects to see proceeds from
the increased tax in fate 1991.
According to Charles Helm, vice
president of the Economic
Development Board, the sales tax is
expected to generate $600,000 a
year.
Proceeds from the tax will be
used to attract new business and in-
dustry to the Sulphur Springs area
and to help keep local youths in the
community by providing jobs and
job training, W.T. “Tommy” Al-
lison, said earlier.
Allison said that funds generated
will be used to help provide good
building sites to attract new in-
dustry.
Texas milk production
makes 7 percent jump
By BOB MERRIMAN
If the opinions of a few people
can be considered the feelings of
Hopkins County, residents here
support President Bush's decision
to begin what was termed Wednes-
day night as “the liberation of
Kuwait **
“He needed it,” Vicki Weiler
said of Iraq’s president, Saddam
Hussein.
“Right on!” Helen Goldsmith
said. “Our pilots did a good job.”
“I agree with the decision 100
percent,” Janet St. Clair said.
“He (Bush)')veiit about it the
best way,” Denis Houlihan said.
“I thought it went well,” Tom
Mosley said. “It needed to be
done.”
“I hope,” Vanessa Alexander
said, “that they go in, do the job
and come back home.”
But those interviewed under-
stood that the decision to go to war
carries the possibility of many
casualties.
"People are going to gel hurt,”
Wcilqr said. “Innocent . people,
women and children. They will just
He trying to survive. I am very con-
cerned about the innocent people.”
When the war with Iraq is done,
Weiler said, "I hope they (the Iraqi
people) come out free.” And as for
Saddam Hussein,'“I hope they put
him where he belongs.
“He has hurt people,” she said.
“They should have found him and
killed him. If they don’t, we’ve got
another Hitler coming.”
“I can understand what mothers
are going through,” Goldsmith
said. “My son was in Honduras and
Panama, so I understand. I thank
God he’s not there, but I know how
the mothers of our people feel.”
Going to war “is never an easy
decision,” Houlihan said. “It’s a
tough decision.”
Alexander said she has a nephew
in the Persian Gulf area. “I hate it
that he’s there,” she said. “I’ll be
glad when we get him out and he
comes home. I feel sad for the
families.”
The decision to go to war
“shows we’re not sissies,”
Goldsmith said. “I am very proud.
It was absolutely greaL He (Bush)
did it right.”
Sl Clair said the decision
“shows we’re not going to let
people run over us.”
Milk production for Texas top-
ped 485 million pounds in Decem-
ber, up 7 percent from last year.
According to a press release
from the Texas Agricultural Statis-
tics Service (TASS), the high
production level is also up 8 per-
cent from the October level and is a
result of the higher individual cow
production.
The TASS said that the number
of milk producing cattle totaled
396,000 head during 1990, and the
individual production from each
cow has gone up by 65 pounds per
year.
During December, individual
production went from 1,160
pounds, measured in 1989, to 1,225
pounds per cow in 1990. This in-
crease is reflective of the average
U.S. milk production, TASS said.
SSISD program helps keep
at-risk students in school
Local jobless rate
declines to 6.1 %
By CHRISTINE NOE
Sulphur Springs Independent
School District has adopted a mul-
tifaceted program designed to raise
to academic performance level and
to reduce the dropout rate of at-risk
students.
“At-risk” students are those that
are at-risk to drop out of school.
Program objectives
The objectives of the program
include identifying at-risk students
as early as possible; establishing
programs and providing services to
reduce the dropout rate and en-
courage school attendance; and
crapig the achievement gap bet-
ween at-risk students and other
students.
Other objectives include continu-
ing to develop methods and techni-
ques /of instruction to meet
students’ varying learning styles;
involving parents and other com-
munity members in addressing the
needs of at risk students; and
reducing the dropout rate to less
than 3 percent.
Identifying
at-risk students
There are several conditions that
will be used to identify at-risk
elementary school students. Among
those conditions are unsatisfactory
performance on a readiness test or
assessment test administered at the
beginnning of the school year,
failure on one or more of the read-
ing; writing or mathematics sec-
tions of the most recent
TEAMS/TAAS test; or has a
limited proficiency in the English
language.
Another condition that qualifies a
child as at-risk is being sexually,
physically or psychologically
abused (based on an investigation
and confirmation by the Texas
Department of Human Services
staff).
Conditions that identify at-risk
students in grades 7-12 include
having not been promoted one or
more times in grades one through
12 and the continuing inability to
master the essential elements for
the grade level; being two or more
years behind in reading or mathe-
matics; or having failed at least two
courses in one or more semesters.
Unemployment in Hopkins
County dropped slightly in Decem-
ber, figures from the Texas
Employment Commission show.
The unemployment rale was 6.1
percent for the final month of 1990,
four-tenths of a percent better than
the November rate of 6.5 percent.
The county rate was somewhat bet-
ter than the statewide unemploy-
ment rate of 6.5 percent, but not as
good as December 1989’s 5.7 per-
cent
All employment/unemployment
figures for the county were down in
December, TEC’s Mount Pleasant
office stated, compared with
November figures.
In December, the county’s total
civilian labor force fell by 141,
from 14,700 in November to
14,559. Sixty-eight fewer people
were employed in the county in
December than in November
(13,746 employed in November,
13,678 in December), yet 73 fewer
people were actively seeking
employment (954 in November,
881 in December). In December
1989, 817 people were actively
seeking work in the county.
Area counties and Decem-
ber/November unemployment rates
include; Delta, 4.3 percent in
December and 5.5 percent in
November; Franklin, 4.9 percent
and 6.2 percent; Hunt, 7.1 percent
and 8 percent; and Wood, 5.8 per-
cent and 6.6 percent.
Nationwide, 7.3 million
Americans were unemployed in
mid-December, an increase of more
than I million since December
1989.
Lions going to the dogs to help the blind
Mail call
Mail call is one of the most
important times for the men and
women serving in the armed for-
ces. If you know someone in the
armed forces deployed in the Per-
sian Gulf as part of Operation
Desert Storm who’d like to hear
from the folks back home, let us
know and we will publish the
names periodically.
Here is an addition to the list of
local residents serving with the
armed forces in Desert Storm;
/ DC3 Martin. Ricky L.
(R) Division Engineering
Department
USS Okinawa LPH-3
FPO San Francisco, Ca. 96625-
1630
u
Janes N. Fuller
IM-3
USS Ranger CV-61
FPO San Franc i
2750
isco, CA 96633-
CPLC.B. Jackson
3PH C Co. 8th MTBN
FPO New York, N.Y. 09502-
0285
LCpI. Sorrells II.J.H.
MTMPLT Maintenance Co.
BSSG •
4th MFB Group 10
FPO New York, N.Y. 09503-
0044
Jess J. Tomasek
Operation Desert Storm
Charlie Battery 4/41FA
APO New York, NY 09733
PFC Aretha McGill
Operation Desert Storm
HHC AVN BDE
101st Airborne Div. (Assault)
APO New York, N.Y. 09309
PVT Lon Risinger
A Co. 3/35 Armor 3BDE 1 AD
Operation Desert Storm
APO New York, N.Y. 09665
SSG Jimmy Joe Gordon
458-21-6302
Operation Desert Storm
B Co. 5-16 Info
APO New York, N.Y. 097A6
By BOB MERRIMAN
In 1989, more than 1,200 dogs
were taken to the Lions Club-spon-
sored Leader Dogs for the Blind
facility for possible inclusion in the
school’s training program. Of
those, 330 were graduated from the
program.
From those figures, it is easy to
see that the Leader Dog school has
high standards. Bill Collins,
chairman of the Leader Dog
Program for Lions Club District
2X2, told Sulphur Springs Lions
Tuesday.
“The Lions Leader Dog school
has been around for 51 years,” Col-
lins said. During that time, more
than 8,000 blind people have gone
through the school.
Cbllins said he underwent a par-
tial training program last year
during $ visit to the facility in
Rochester, Mich.
“ThCy blindfolded me and had a
dog lead me through part of the
facility,” he said. “It was an ex-
perience.”
District 2X2 contributed
$1,206.25 to the program in 1990,
Collins said.
“There are 16 districts in
Texas,” he said, “and our contribu-
tion was the seven th-largest in the
state. For the number of members
in our district, that is not too bad.”
The school’s 1991 budget is
$3279 million, he said. Of that
amount, 55 percent will come from
Lions Club donations. Also, $12
pillion will come from interest on
endowments, with the remainder
from other donations.
“Any person age 16 or older
who has less than useful vision can
qualify for the program,” he said.
“The Leader Dog for the Blind
Program is the only program (of its
kind) that costs recipients nothing."
Other programs in the United
States train guide dogs for blind
people, he said, but the other
programs charge for the training.
The cost of training a Leader
Dog and a student is about $9,000,
he said.
Although most dogs for the
program are donated, the school
recently began a “Puppy
Program,” he said. According to
literature from the school, the
facility uses selective breeding to
produce additional reliable dogs.
Under the Puppy Program, young
dogs are adopted out to people who
will raise the animals until the dogs
can be taken back by the school.
Dogs must undergo a thorough
screening before acceptance by the
school, Collins said. The dogs must
be friendly both with people and
other dogs, yet not frightened by
traffic or large crowds. The animals
receive care from experienced
trainers and from a veterinary staff.
Leader Dog candidates receive
eight weeks’ training before
students arrive, Collins said. Train-
ing time for students and dogs is
another four weeks, he said
“These are not ‘seeing-eye dogs,’
” Collins said. “They are Leader
Dogs, because their job is to lead.”
Leader Dog is a registered name,
the school’s literature stated.
Helping the blind
The Lions Club’s Leader Dog Program is the only such program in
the United States that costs recipients nothing, according to Bill Col-
lins, left, chairman of the Leader Dog Program for Lions Club District
2x2. The program gets 55 percent of its $3279 million budget from
Lions Club donations, $12 million from interest on endowments, and
the remainder from other donations. Collins, left, talks with Mack
White, l.ions Club program chairman, after the meeting Tuesday.
—SUIT photo by Larry Barr
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Hillsamer, Dave. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 116, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 1991, newspaper, January 25, 1991; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth780685/m1/1/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.