The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 116, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, March 8, 1991 Page: 1 of 4
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BEST AVAtfcABfcC 80PY
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(ABSORBED THE GAZETTE CIRCULATION BY PURCHASE MAY 12, 1928)
VOL. 11#—HO. 10.
SULPHUR SPRMGS, TEXAS,
FRIDA’
IV, MARCH fl, 1901.
4 PAGES - 25 CE.4TS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
Commissioners okay purchase of vehicles
By BOB MERRIMAN
Hopkins County commissioners
Friday approved the purchase of
two 1991 Pontiac Bonnevilles from
Price Pontiac-Oldsmobile-Cadillac
Inc., ending a three-month delay in
replacing sheriff’s department
vehicles.
In December, Sheriff Bill Dirks
requested replacement of two
vehicles because each had more
than 100,000 miles on their
odometers. Commissioners
received only one bid from the
December request, that from
Gober-Merrill Chevrolet. After
teaming that only the one bid met
Stadium
renamed
for Prim
By CHRISTINE NOE
When the 1991 Sulphur Springs
High Schoool Wildcat football
season kicks off in the fall, it will
do so in the W. Gerald Prim
Stadium.
The Sulphur Springs Indepen-
dent School District board of
trustees voted unanimously
Tuesday night to name the stadium,
informally known as Wildcat
Stadium, in honor of Prim.
Dr. William E. Dietze, president
of the board, read a resolution
changing the stadium name, which
stated that Prim has “steadfastly
demonstrated his personal support
for athletic programs at Sulphur
Springs High School by Attending
sporting events for more than 61
years.”
Prim has served as statistician
for Wildcat football broadcasts
since 1957. During that time. Prim
missed only one game, and that
was due to illness.
“The board commends W.
Gerald Prim for his dedication and
commitment, and the board extends
its gratitude and thanks for his sup-
port to the Sulphur Springs In-
dependent School District over
many years,” Dietze said.
In other business Tuesday, the
board called a trustee election for
Saturday, May 4. The seats of
Dietze and Mark McClendon are
up for election.
Five candidates have filed for
spots on the ballot. They are
Dietze, Ricky Berry, Mike Shing,
Maxie Chester and Howard O.
Marsh. ' _ '
Balloting will take place at
SSHS. .
The board also approved election
workers. Howard Goldsmith will
serve as election judge. Other
workers will be Ova Lee
Goldsmith, alternate judge, Sylvia
Boyd, Annie Mae Whisenant,
Gladys George, Kcllene Dawson
and Rowena Alberts.
Absentee voting officials will be
Judy Gregg, absentee voting judge,
Jana Williams, Judy Van Winkle
and Rhonda Walker
specifications for a police package,
commissioners asked Dirks to
rewrite the specifications to allow
more dealers to submit bids.
At Friday’s meeting, Dirks
recommended that commissioners
“go with the lowest bid,” $13,697
from Price Pontiac. “I think the
Bonnevilles will do us a good job,”
Dirks said, adding that the Pontiacs
“meet all specifications of the
bid.”
Other bids were from Price Ford,
for two 1991 Crown Victoria
models, at $14,550 each; from
Gober-Merrill Chevrolet, for two
1991 Chevrolet Caprice models, at
$14,833 each; and from
Crown Victoria models, at $16,480
each.
Bid prices do not include sherif-
f’s department equipment that will
be mounted on and inside the
vehicles.
Following approval of the bid.
hollowing
County Judgt
Ford in Commerce,
Jackson
for two 1992
age Joe Pogue said “it
has been requested that we look at
four-wheel-drive vehicles” for the
sheriff's department. However, he
said, “that is at least a year away,”
based on mileage of the
department’s present vehicles.
Commissioners also approved all
bids for rock and gravel for county
road construction and improve-
ment.
“\Ve’ve got different kinds of
material, and I’m not sure we need
to go with one bid on each different
kind,” Precinct 1 Commissioner El-
lon Stewart said.
Pogue noted that some bids were
based on cubic yard prices, while
others were based on price per ton
A cubic yard of gravel averages
2,800 pounds, Pogue said.
“We have to make sure that we
can get the gravel when we need
it,” Pogue said. “I think we should
accept all bids. One type of gravel
will not work in all situations.'
Gravel and rock bids were
received from Joe Maxwell, Morice
Flora, Billy Marshall, Falcon Rock
Co. and Quality Rock Co. The vote
to accept all bids was unanimous.
Honored sports fan
Trustees also set Saturday, May
18, for a run-off election, if one be-
comes necessary.
A new school calendar was adop-
ted for the 1991-92 school year.
Classes will begin on Aug. 16. The
Christinas holiday will be from
Dec. 23 to Jan. 3. Graduation will
take place on May 16.
Stiver
Glover also reported on im-
provements that need to be made
on various campuses in the district
Gerald Prim, a longtime fan of Sulphur Springs High School athletics, was honored by the school board of
Sulphur Springs Independent School District Tuesday night. Trustees voted to rename the local football
stadium after him. Tire stadium, informally called Wildcat Stadium, is now the W. Gerald Prim Stadium.
Prim has served as statistician for Wildcat football broadcasts since 1957. He has also attended sporting
events for more than 61 years.
—SUfTpfeotoby Larry Barr
February was
warmer than
we’re used to
By CARL MILLEGAN
Seems like summer
Nikole Stewart, Teri Haynsworth and Kate McAlister spent
Tuesday afternoon enjoying the record high around the pool.
—Stair photo by Larry Barr
Tuesday’s 88 sets record
The wannest day “ever” so early in the year had Sulphur Springs
residents thinking spring and outdoor activities Tuesday.
Tuesday’s high temperature of 88 degrees in Sulphur Springs not
only was a record for March 5, but was the earliest in the season for a
comparable reading since weather-record compilations were started by
The News-Telegram in 1951.
The previous high mark for March 5 was 82 degrees, recorded in
1956. The earliest the thermometer has reached 88 degrees locally in
the past 40 years was on March 11, in 1954.
Tuesday’s temperature was not the warmest for any March day in
Please see RECORD, Page 3
degrees.
February’s weather can perhaps
be best described as warm, or at
least warmer than usual for the
Sulphur Springs area.
One daytime high of 79 degrees
came close to the record level for
the month, coming within 6 degrees
of matching a Feb. 13. 1976, mmk
of 85 degrees.
The low for the month was a
frigid 26 degrees on Feb. 1.
A cool snap broke the otherwise
warm trend of February on Feb. 15
and 16. Overnight lows on those
days fell to 29 and 28
repectively.
Last month was also relatively
dfy. compared to last year’s mon-
soons. Though the short month may
not have seemed dry, with clouds
png over the ore for almost
the month, only 4.64 inches of
rain fell. Overall, the rain gagne has
seen 8.39 inches of rain far the
year, compared to 11.46 inches at
the end of February last year.
This February’s heaviest thy of
rain came on Feb. 21 with a “frog
_ to
t plant officials,
was also a
with two days of
city water n
February
windy
severe
Main Street
coordinator
will be hired
By BOB MERRIMAN
The Main Street coordinator’s
position will be funded through
this fiscal year, the Sulphur
Springs City Council decided
Tuesday night. Now all the
council has to do is hire some-
one for the job.
After hearing from Main
Street Advisory Board member
A1 Ayers and Hopkins County
Historical Society President
Lucy McCorkle, the council
voted unanimously to fund the
coordinator’s position through
September.
The joint city-state contract
for the Main Street Project ends
Dec. 31, but because the city’s
fiscal year ends Sept 31, the city
cannot guarantee funding in the
fiscal 1992 budget, which takes
effect Oct. 1.
But Billy Sam Elliott, who
also appeared before the council
to speak for continuation of the
project, said he sees little
problem in funding for three
months in the 1992 budgeL
“Now that we have approval
through this (fiscal) year, I think
we can get approval for October
through December,” he said af-
ter the council's vote.
Part of the difference of
opinion between the Main Street
group and the council stemmed
from the different calendar used
in determing the project’s ter-
mination date.
The city-state contract was ef-
fective on Jan. 1, 1989, which
would mean a termination date
of Dec. 31, 1991. But since the
city budget is based on a dif-
ferent calendar, the three-year
contract could be understood to
end Sept. 31.
Ayers read from the city’s
resolution, passed on May 3,
1988, in which the city agreed to
apply for Main Street Project
designation. The resolution,
Ayers said, stated “that the city
will employ a Main Street
coordinator for three years.” To
the members of the Main Street
Advisory Board, and others, the
three-year period began on Jan.
1.1989.
The city hired Alison Buckley
as coordinator in February 1989.
Buckley resigned in December
1990.
Although the city considered
hiring a part-time coordinator,
that measure would have met
with disapproval from the Texas
Historical Commission, advisory
board members said. In a meet-
ing Monday, advisory board
members were told that the
Main Street designation would
be lifted unless the city had a
full-time coordinator.
“The Main Street Project title
is prestigious," McCorkle told
the council “Less than 50 cities
had the designation when Sul-
phur Springs made application. ”
McCorkle said she had “mis-
givings and worry” about the
program should the city deny
continuation.
“I am concerned that you
would even consider losing the
funding,” she said. “I urge you
to retain the program and find-
ing of the program.”
A Main Street Project desig-
nation “gives the city an A-plus
status with tour groups and tour
operators,” Ayers said. The
designation “signifies progress
when talking about bringing in
new businesses and industries.”
Contributions made through
the project “don’t show up on
the city ledger,” he said. Ex-
amples of contributions, he said,
arc primed materials and food
and drink offered for sale, “all
paid out of private funds.”
Also, “the Christmas angels
were built and donated for the
city. We raised $13,000 for light-
ing the square, and 90 percent of
the merchants participated in
lighting their own businesses.
That was a major project. And
when we had the lighting
ceremony at the square, more
than 3,000 people were there.”
The city, he said, “has a
commitment for three full years.
We haven’t had a coordinator
for two months. There seems to
be a reluctance on the part of the
city to hire a replacement”
Following an executive ses-
sion, Mayor Margin Latham said
the council “had several ap-
plications for the position and
would enter the interview
process, with a decision reached,
hopefully, by 5 pjn. Friday.”
In other action Tuesoa, the
council approved extension of a
lease for the city service center
on West Loop 301. Past leases
have been for two years, but the
new lease will be for six months
because the city is considering
construction of a main service
center on Reservoir StreeL The
city will pay $1,200 a month
rent for the loop property, the
same as in the present lease.
The council denied a request
from the Highway Department
to extend sewer lines to the
department’s recently purchased
property. The city does not have
funds to extend the sewer line.
City Manager Olen Petty said.
“Last year, we thought we
would get a grant for the sewer
extension,” Ire said, “but the
grant did not materialize.” By
city ordinance, he said, property
owners are required to pay for
sewer extensions.
The council approved a
$24,925 bid for new radios for
the police department The
radios will be scrambler-equi-
pped. Because of the number of
scanners in the community.
Petty said, “police business has
become everybody’s business.”
Burglars, he said, often monitor
scanners to keep track of patrol
cars.
“The police department has
used codes” in an attempt to
make radio transmissions more
secure, “but the codes are not all
that successful.”
Inter-County Com-
munications Inc., of Sulphur
Springs submitted the only bid
for the radio equipment
Councilman Jim Thompson
said he was “hesitant to accept
only one bid” for the equipment,
but Petty said the bids “were
sent out three times to seven dif-
ferent groups.”
Local Marine
well after fight
Marine CpL Eric W. Field is
ttle for the Kuwait City
aapon this week.
Not only is he well, but he
he received from
m people m
“He said it
in Sul-
ial thing 4
ever received,” Field’s
Annette Hutchings of
Springs, told The
Telegram Friday upon
from Field, serving in Operation
Desert Storm.
Local pioneer helped make our history
By CARL MILLEGAN
The (all of the Alamo 155 years
ago today became one of the best
known battles in American history.
More books, movies and tall talcs
have sprung up from that 13-day
stege than from perhaps any other
But other than for the likes of
Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and Wil-
liam Travis, it’s hard to find infor-
mation about the men who fought
and died in that San Antonio mis-
sion.
But one early settler of what be-
came Hopkins County supported
and supplied the Texas fight for in-
dependence. The story of Nathan
Foster Rogers can be found m
records kept by the Hopkins
Cotaity Genealogical Society at the
Sulphur Springs Library.
“The first record on Nathan F.
Rogers in Texas appears in
Stephen F. Austin’s
record of the wreck of the Ja
Lawrence,” according to the book
“Pioneers of Hopkins County,
Volume L”
“The legend goes that Stephen F.
Austin hired Nathan Rogers to
bring in supplies to the Texas
colonists," Linda Moore Riddle,
first president of the local Nathan
Foster Rogers Chapter of the
Daughters of the Republic of
Texas, said. “The National Ar-
chives in Washington, D.C., list
Rogers as part-owner and master of
the James Lawrence.”
The James Lawrence was a
scooner used as a commercial ship-
ping vessel. It sank in a storm m
the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston
Island on Sept. 5, 1823. according
to the book.
According to Riddle, the cargo
'* ; far the scooner was lost at
some doubt as to
whether he was traveling with
weapons or more mundane cargo.
Records say that Rogers later
filed a claim with the Mexican
government on 10,000 acres of land
as an original colonist of Texas, but
he lost the land due to non-payment
of Mexican taxes, according to
Riddle.
Riddle. Foster Rogers’ great-
great-great-grand 'daughter, said the
land was located in Victoria County
and that Rogera moved to Hopkins
County after the war for indepen-
dence from Mexico.
He first appears m Hopkins
Cotaity in 1850. after Texas had
become a state, in an area called
Black Jack Grove.
From there, he wrote a tetter to
the State of Texas requesting that
he be compensated for his land
claim as an original settler. In the
letter, Rogers claimed to have
received the oath of allegiance
from Stephen F. Austin and to have
provided arms and equipment for
the war.
Rogers listed “4 guns. 2 rifles, 2
double barrells and a spy glass” as
his donations to the war effort He
LOCAL, Page 3
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Keys, Clarke & Davis, Mary Grant. The Hopkins County Echo (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 116, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, March 8, 1991, newspaper, March 8, 1991; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth781124/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.