Canton Herald (Canton, Tex.), Vol. 132, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 5, 2013 Page: 4 of 20
twenty pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Page 4A — Thursday, December 5, 2013 CANTON HERALD
Herald Headlines
Christmas-— Case
Tickets are $25 and may be purchased at the First
Baptist Church office located at 303 S. Athens St.
Wills Point
The 19th annual Wills Point Chamber of Commerce
Christmas on the Bricks will be Saturday, Dec. 7.
The day will include arts and craft vendors, the
Rockin’ Retro Christmas Parade, Classics on the
Bricks car show, 5K Reindeer Run and pet run, kid
zone and live entertainment all day.
Christmas on the Bricks will also include The Voice
of Wills Point singing competition.
The Christmas parade will be at 1:30 p.m.
For more information about parade, 5K or car show
entry, visit the website
willspointchamber.com/event/christmas-on-the-
bricks.
Van
Van’s annual Spirit of Christmas Celebration will
be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. Santa and
Mrs. Claus will greet visitors at the Garden. There
will be local entertainment and free hot chocolate and
cookies. Santa and Mrs. Claus will have a gift for all
children and everyone will get a ticket to be entered
into a drawing for a free turkey and ham.
Edom
Christmas in Downtown Edom will be at 6 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 7. Festivities will include a tree light-
ing, children’s chorus and a visit from Santa.
Grand Saline
Santa will be at the Grand Saline Library from 2 to
4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7.
The Grand Saline Chamber of Commerce is spon-
soring A Dickens of a Christmas tree decorating con-
test. Any school, nonprofit and business is invited to
enter a tree. There will be a cash award for the win-
ner of the school/nonprofit division. School and non-
profit groups will be furnished a tree but should pro-
vide their own decorations. Businesses should pro-
vide their own trees and decorations.
Winners will be chosen by community vote Dec.
4 through 7. Votes can be cast for 100 each. Winners
will be announced following the Christmas parade
Dec. 7 and trees will be sold in a silent auction.
The parade down Main Street will begin at 6:30
p.m.
For more information, call the chamber at 903-962-
7147.
Dec. 13
Edgewood
Children can visit with Santa at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13
at the Edgewood Civic Center.
Dec. 14
The Canton Chamber of Commerce lighted Christ-
mas parade will be Dec. 14.
The festival will begin about 4:30 p.m. in the down-
town area with the parade set to begin at 6:30 p.m.
The parade is a fundraiser for the chamber. Entry
fee is $25.
Prizes will be award for first ($200), second ($150)
and third ($125) places. There will also be awards
for best youth, best auto and best animal/horse entry.
The prize for those awards is $75.
Vendors will be located on the downtown square
area
After the parade at 7:30 p.m., First Baptist Church
will offer “The Light of Christmas” at the church,
303 Athens St. For more information, call 903-567-
4157.
Van Zandt County
The 10th annual Butch Adkison Memorial Toy Run
is set for Dec. 14.
Registration is at 10:30 a.m. at Charlie’s Place, 335
Wingo Way (FM 2965) in Wills Point. The ride be-
gins at noon.
The 40-mile ride ends at the food court at Old Mill
Marketplace, 542 Highway 64 in Canton.
Entry fee is $10 or a new, unwrapped toy.
Activities will include “Elvis” (Terry Edwards),
photos with Santa on a Harley, door prizes and free
food. The public is invited, organizers said.
Donation boxes will be located at area businesses,
grocery stores and restaurants. Proceeds benefit chari-
table children’s organizations and military families
in Van Zandt County.
For more information, contact Bo and Christy
Adkison at 903-829-2147, Marvonne Land at 214-
676-7282 or Pat Cox at 682-564-6709.
Van
Van Project Graduation will host a Christmas Pa-
rade of Homes from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 14.
Tickets are $10 per person and can be purchased
at all Van ISD school campus offices, Vandal Nation
Station, Boutiques and Bows and the Van Chamber
of Commerce office (1 to 4 p.m. weekdays.)
Photo by Donnita Fisher
Joe Zoubi, left, and some of the staff of Dukes Travel Plaza. Shelby Crain,
Ali Zoubi, Tracy Green, Latisha Hill, Bobby Whitaker, Macey Mosley and
Brandy Kuhel.
so the case went to the
12th Court of Appeals
where the court over-
turned the lower court
ruling. “... Despite the
general stated purpose
that the agreement was
intended to provide ‘new
economic opportunities
for the Canton, Texas
area,’ the tangible objec-
tive of the agreement be-
tween Dukes and the
CEDC was to provide
funding for a sewer line
and lift station to Dukes
real property. Any ben-
efits that would flow
from this tangible objec-
tive are indirect and at-
tenuated benefits, and ...
thus we conclude that
Dukes did not contract to
provide any service or
good directly to the city
Zoubi then asked the
Texas Supreme Court to
review the case. The suit
was “seeking adjudica-
tion of its claims for re-
lief for declaratory judg-
ment, specific perfor-
mance, attorney fees and
costs from defendant city
of Canton. Plaintiff does
not seek consequential,
exemplary or monetary
damages for breach of
contract.”
“The lawsuit was
never about the money,”
Zoubi said. “It was a
matter of principle.”
Nov. 15 the court de-
nied the review petition.
“I am 99.9 percent sure
this should end the city’s
expenses in regards to
this lawsuit,” City Attor-
ney Ron Stutes told
councilmembers at their
Nov. 19 meeting.
He said he estimated
the lawsuit cost the city
between $30,000 and
$40,000 in legal fees.
The lawsuit should
never have been filed,
Councilman Cary
Hilliard said. “This case
has gotten tremendous
publicity ... the city had
no recourse but to defend
itself.”
Councilman Jerry
Yarbrough said, “It’s not
always the right thing to
do, to settle. We stood
our ground and won our
case.”
Zoubi said while the
city may have won the
lawsuit, no one benefit-
ted from the court’s de-
cision.
“We won the case at
district level, they ap-
pealed. We went to me-
diation and I was ready
to settle,” Zoubi said.
“The request was rea-
sonable and would have
cost the city only 25 per-
cent of what they spent
on attorney’s fees. And I
was willing to invest
back half of the 25 per-
cent with the city of Can-
ton in any project they
wanted. But they didn’t
go for that and in the end,
this benefitted no one.”
Moving forward
Zoubi said he’s ready
to put the case behind
him and keep on doing
what he’s been doing
since Dukes opened -
bringing in sales tax and
supporting the city of
Canton.
“We did what we said
we would do,” Zoubi
said. “We did the devel-
opment, we have more
employees and have gen-
erated more sales tax
than we projected. We
are still trying to do good
for the community, for
Canton.”
Dukes has about 70
employees and “every-
thing is operating
smoothly right now,”
Zoubi said. “We are
moving on the right
track.”
According to Van
Zandt County Appraisal
District records, Dukes is
appraised at $2,266 mil-
lion and pays $45,913.42
in property tax yearly -
$ 11,009.34 to Van Zandt
County; $9,524.77 to
Canton; and $25,379.31
to the Wills Point school
district.
In addition to the con-
venience store/gas sta-
tion, Dukes two restau-
rants: Dukes BBQ
Smokehouse and Taco
Casa and a knife shop.
They all pay sales tax.
When the deal was
brokered, CEDC offi-
cials estimated the cost of
installing the sewer line
would be recuperated in
five years. Based on
property and sales tax fig-
ures, it now looks like it
will be less than that.
“Dukes is doing every-
thing they promised and
more,” Kitchens said.
Even while the lawsuit
was working its way
through the court sys-
tem, Zoubi and Dukes
were supporting commu-
nity organizations and
events. “We’ve never
turned away churches,
schools or kids,” Zoubi
said. “We’ve always sup-
ported them with dona-
tions of funds and goods.
And we continue to
sponsor events, and we
are very involved with
the Canton Education
Foundation and we do a
lot of other things with
churches.”
Life Fellowship
Church of Myrtle
Springs often meets at
Dukes and recently
hosted their Thanksgiv-
ing meal there.
“We try hard to be in-
volved in the commu-
nity,” Zoubi said. “Our
lawsuit was not against
the people of Canton. It
just seems some officials
had a double standard on
projects. We tried so
many times to solve it,
end it and have a new
start. We will continue to
work with community all
the way and continue to
sponsor events.”
Zoubi plans to expand
the offerings on his cor-
ner of 1-20. He’s bring-
ing in a Sweet Frog -
premium frozen yogurt -
and building Dukes
Sports Cafe - a destina-
tion for sports watching
with burgers, wings and
games. The new busi-
nesses will be free stand-
ing next to Dukes and
employee at least 25
more people, Zoubi said.
Although he would
have liked to have had a
different outcome to the
court proceedings, Zoubi
said he will still do his
best to promote Canton
and local businesses and
he hopes the city will do
the same. “Businesses in
Canton need all the help
from the city they can get
because Terrell is taking
away 1-20 business,” he
said. “1-20 travelers will
go to Terrell because
Terrell is aggressively
seeking businesses com-
ing in ... Canton isn’t.”
Terrell announced last
month that Buc-ee’s is
building there.
Zoubi said he is grate-
ful to Canton Mayor Rick
Lawrence for “extending
the hand of friendship.”
That move of inclusion
makes Dukes want to do
more for the city, for Can-
ton and for Van Zandt
County, Zoubi said.
For the holiday season,
Dukes Manager Brandy
Kuhel made a list of
many of the churches in
the area. Dukes will be
adopting a family from
each of 26 churches.
“We are part of the
community,” Zoubi said.
Council —
tennae space on the po-
lice communications
tower on East Highway
64 to Community Internet
Providers LLC. The lease
is for $500 per month for
five years with one five-
year renewal option con-
taining a 10- percent in-
crease in rent;
- Agreed to require
that code enforcement
complaints be submitted
in writing via personal let-
ter, note or form provided
by the city and delivered
in person, by mail, email
from 1A
or fax;
- Appointed a
committee to look at First
Monday Trade Days traf-
fic issues and make rec-
ommendations. The com-
mittee will be comprised
of City Manager Lonny
Cluck, Henry Lewis, Po-
lice Chief Mike Echols,
Texas Department of
Transportation Mainte-
nance Supervisor Mark
McClanahan, a Depart-
ment of Public Safety of-
ficial and Councilmen
Hilliard and Stewart.
Fa* Us Your News Toda^!
<j03'5(S1-bo7(4
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Fisher, Donnita. Canton Herald (Canton, Tex.), Vol. 132, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 5, 2013, newspaper, December 5, 2013; Canton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth808825/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Van Zandt County Library.