Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 7, 1997 Page: 4 of 22
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Security Finance
"Our business is lending money"
By Preston A. Taylor
The ancient Greek writer by the name of Aesop tells the story
of a well-fed frog and two ducks. The three were good friends
and “played around” together each day.
Dry weather came and the frog pond dried up. The ducks
prepared to go to another place when the frog said, “You don’t
plan to leave me here by myself do you?”
Soon the trio concocted a plan for the ducks to place a stick
in their mouths and carry that stick between them. The frog
was to hang on to the stick with his mouth as the ducks would
fly to another pond. They took that action.
As they were flying high in the air, a farmer looked up and
saw that strange sight. He said, “Well, what a clever idea. I
wonder who thought of that?”
The proud, flying frog heard those words. He couldn’t keep
quiet, and he yelled, “I dL.ddd.”
The central letter in the word “pride” is “1”. The middle
letter in “sin" is “i.” The huge problem we face today is an “I”
difficulty. Jesus came to give us a new focus upon Himself. If
we don’t want to fall, look away from self to the Lord.
EMPLOYE OF THE MONTH... Major William Cogdell congratu-
aUi. Yvonne Flowers who was named employee of the month at
the Joe Ney Substance Abuse Facility TDCJ.
Jtar
4, The
Anvil Herald, Thursday, August 7,1997
Propanej
Express j
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Hondo Anvil Herald
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Call Emelio Gonzales, 741-7684 or 872-3229 for your free estimate.
Upholstery cleaning also available.
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GLASSES • CONTACTS • BIFOCALS • EYE EXAMS
Flightline Cafe
Menu Items Also Available
426-4020
705 Flightline Rd., Hondo Airbase
ROADS\ Debate over Precinct vs. Unit roads heating up
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
nance, are being developed to create
more efficient processes for the deliv-
ery of public service*.
The heart of the road war debate is
whether county comndanonets dioukl
directly supervise maintenance of the
roads in their individual precinct, or
whether the county’s road mainte-
nance should be centralized under a
single manager, a road administrator.
According to a 1992Texas Associa-
tion of Counties survey, of the 238 re-
sponding counties, 181 reported tra-
ditional precinct road systems. Only
31 had implemented some form of unit
road program.
The Unit Road System
According to proponents, the unit
road system saves money, labor, and
resources. Rather than each precinct
maintaining its own inventory, its own
equipment, its own repairs, everyone
works out of a central location. Costs
are reduced because materials can be
purchased in larger bulk while labor
and machinery needs are usually
reduced.“We’ve spent considerably
less money (on operations) since
adopting a unit road system,” explains
Judge Bobby McGough of rural Stone-
wall County. “Before the unit system,
any time something broke down, each
commissioner would call a technician
or mechanic to come out It got very
expensive. Now we have our own
mechanic and everything is bought in
house.”
■ The problem with the precinct sys-
tem, according to Judge Ray
Kirkpatrick of Val Verde County, is
that precincts are the same size in num-
ber of bodies but not nearly the same
size in road miles. “Still all the com-
missioners have the same number of
graders, and the same number of dump
trucks, it is very inefficient," he said.
The unit approach eliminates the
standard piecemeal approach to road
maintenance, especially where roads
cross precinct lines. Advocates of unit
roads maintain the county as a whole
gets projects completed faster, and the
roads are maintained just as well, if
not better. In addition to these advan-
tages, the.,commissioners, who no
longer have to worry about road re-
pairs, are free to focus on other county
service issues.
Uvalde County Road Administrator,
Wayne Everett, supervises the road
crews, decides the repair schedule, and
handles everything to do with the road
and bridge department. This leaves the
Uvalde County commissioners free to
concentrate on other county services,
explains County Auditor Alice
Chapman.
“Unlike Medina County, our com-
missioners have other full-time jobs in
addition to their county positions. This
is only possible because they don’t all
hive In he rnari administrators ” said
Chapman. “Bankers, lawyers, and
other business people can be county
commissioners and serve the policy
making functions of the position if
they don’t have the full-time job of
road administration.
“People do not realize a county is
like a large business corporation and
has many responsibilities beyond road
maintenance. We issue birth certifi-
cates, and all types of auto and equip-
ment permits,"saidChapman.
The county provides juvenile pro-
bation and indigent health care ser-
vices. There is plenty of policy work
for a county commissioner without the
added responsibility of being a road
arhninistrator. The unit road approach
has been successful for Uvalde County
because it saves money.” Uvalde
County adopted the unit roads system
via countywide election in the 1973.
Precinct Roads
Unit roads may not be for everyone,
however. Many officials argue the pre-
cinct system serves the public better
and may even be cheaper in some
cases. Taylor County officials, just
south of Stonewall County, opted to
keep the precinct system after a task
force study suggested it would cost $1
million to consolidate their system into
a single unit.
Some county officials, like Medina
County Judge David Montgomery, do
not believe their county can operate
PHOTO BY JEFF BERGER
GROUNDED. The U.S. Air Force/Doss Aviation Flight Screening program at Hondo Airport has been
suspended for an estimated two months while the T3A Firefly trainers are evaluated. An investigtion is
being conducted following an unexplained airborne engine stoppage of a T-3 engine July 23 while on a
training mission in Colorado. The plane from the 557th Flying Training Squadron at the Air Force Acad-
emy had a crew of two, an instructor pilot and student. TheHnstructor pilot landed the plane safely.
with my fewer employees or pieces
of equipment, but do believe county
rosd maintenance is loo much respon-
sibility for one unelectsd individual.
Mxny officials who prefer the pre-
cinct approach have geographical con-
cerns. If there are miles of roadway-
separating each precinct it could be a*
major expense to haul equipment from;
one repair location to another. Other:
geographic concerns include proxim-:
ity to large cities and increased vehicle;
traffic. “Unit toads may make more;
sense for more rural counties with less'
traffic who are not bordering ■ large
metropolitan county like Bexar
County," said Judge Montgomery.
“If our commissioners didn’t coop-
erate and share manpower, equipment
and materials, we might need to con-
sider it. Right now the unit rosd sys-
tem doesn’t make economic sense and
people are satisfied with the road ser-
vices they are getting under the cur-:
rent precinct system,” explains Mont*
gomery.
The biggest concern is commisr
sioner responsiveness to citizens ret
quests. With the precinct system, if
there are potholes on a particular road;
the commissioner of the precinct re-
ceives the complaint and simply sends
someone to repair the pothole. With
unit roads, commissioners would have
to give the information to the Road Ad-
ministrator first, which may slow
down responsiveness to citizen com-
plaints.
To adopt a unit roads system, offi-
cially called a County Road Depart-
ment System, requires a petition and
a county wide election.This system
grants significant authority to a com-
missioner-appointed Road Adminis-
trator. This statute provides that com-
missioners court deals with road hands
only through the appointed Road Ad-
ministrator
If Medina County ever changes to a
unit road system, the change will come
from citizens dissatisfied with the cur-
rent system or who believe there are
significant savings to be realized with
a unit road system.
Equipment costs, labor, distance
between precincts, soil conditions,
annual rainfall, and many other fac-
tors, as well as politics, combine to
determine which road maintenance
system, unit or precinct, is best for a
given county. Medina County resi-
dents who want the most cost-efficient
road maintenance system may want to
decide which system they favor in the
latest county road wars.
Guadalupana
Society news
On June 29,1997, several mem-
bers from the Guadalupana Society
took a trip to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
This trip was given to active mem-
bers appreciation for their hard work
and always being ready to volunteer
for any fundraiser or any other ac-
tivity when needed.
Members left Hondo at 6:30 a.m.
and attended Mass at St. John
Neuman’s Catholic Church in
Laredo, Texas, had breakfast in
Laredo, then went to Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, for an afternoon of shopping
and sightseeing.
Members who went on the trip
were Oralia Martinez, Carmen
Ramirez, Carmen Hernandez, Juve
Correa, Lupita Hernandez, Felice
Dominguez, Mary Morin, Dalia
Rodriguez, Bertha Rodriguez,
Amparo Alvarez, Chelo Esquivel,
Cuca Saucedo, Esther Ontiveros,
Chana Sanchez, Mage Ruiz, Susie
Guardado, Corina Hernandez, Lupe
Mares and Nora Sanchez.
Non-members who went along on
the trip were Lela Barrios, Lupe
Sanchez, Carolina Constante, Maria
Correa, Vicky Tapia, Josie Guerrero,
Rose Cuellar, Mary Rodriguez,
Oralia Botello, and Trisha Cuellar
Carmen Hernandez
Secretary/reporter
00 -tmm-
KSAT VISITS NEY UNIT...
Community service work per-
formed by the clients at the Joe
Ney Substance Abuse Facility
TDCJ was the focus of a special
report on KSAT 12 which aired
Tuesday night. KSAT news an-
chor Jeff Brady and Video Tech-
nician Dale Keller were out last
week filming the footage of the
clients performing some work at
the new City Park #3 near the fair
grounds. Above, Keller and
Brady rush to keep up with the
clients while they conduct their
I** motivational walk. At left, Brady
talks to some of the clients about
what motivates them to do the
work for the community.
SI00 - $435 Loans
Subject to our usual credit policy.
A
No Credit, No Problem
Call & place your
application
TODAY! *
Monday - Friday
9:00 am - 6:00 pm
1714 Ave. M
Hondo, Tx* 78861
4264339
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Hondo Anvil Herald (Hondo, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 7, 1997, newspaper, August 7, 1997; Hondo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth818608/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hondo Public Library.