Category: Howe News Bulletin

The Howe Area Chamber of Commerce and Keep Howe Beautiful will host the 2nd Annual “Back to School Blues Downtown Block Party on August 1 from 5pm – 9pm.”  The Bill Boyd Band, who performed in downtown last year will once again play from 6pm – 9pm on the raised area between City Hall and Abby’s Restaurant.

The event is sponsored by the downtown sector businesses, Advantage Business Machines, Abby’s Restaurant, My Estrella Mexican Restaurant, Howe Mercantile, TLD Designs, Don’s Smokehouse, Howe Emporium, Howe Development Alliance, Salvage Junky, and The Howe Enterprise.

The Chamber is asking for those that want to set up a free vendor booth downtown that night to please contact the chamber office at 903-532-6080 or email info@howechamber.com.  Spaces are limited, so first come-first-served.

 

 

On July 9, 2015 at approximately 10pm, Howe Police Officer Robert Todd stopped a 29-year-old Dallas man on Us Hwy 75 near exit 53 for a traffic violation. After noticing that the man was overly nervous, Officer Todd had him step out of his vehicle. As he was getting out, he dropped a glass methamphetamine pipe to the ground. When Officer Todd attempted to frisk the man for weapons, the man actively resisted and had to be physically forced to the ground. He was eventually handcuffed. A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed approximately one ounce of methamphetamine. Officers from Tom Bean and Van Alstyne responded to the scene of the stop and assisted. The suspect was charged with Manufacture/Delivery of a Controlled Substance PG 1 > 4 grams, Resisting Arrest, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was also arrested on an outstanding Grand Prairie warrant for Theft.

 

Greg Barnett Photography released a photo of Howe’s Garrett Fulenchek in his new Princeton Rays uniform. The Howe Enterprise will release a slideshow of photos of Fulenchek soon.

 

DeAndrae Derelle Perry, 26, of Sherman, was today sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to Possession of Cocaine With Intent to Deliver.     The sentence was handed down by 59^th District Court Judge Rayburn Nall in accordance with a plea agreement Perry reached with the Grayson County District Attorney’s Office.   As part of his plea, Perry was also sentenced to 2 years in state jail for Possession of Marijuana, and Perry forfeited to the state $3,138 in cash and various electronic items that had been seized from him.

In October of 2014, Sherman Police began receiving complaints about drug related traffic at an apartment complex on Crescent Street.    Narcotics officer began surveillance on the apartments and observed behavior at a particular apartment consistent with drug sales.   Officers learned that the apartment was rented by DeAndrae Perry.    Officers were familiar with Perry from confidential informants who had given information in the past that Perry was selling drugs from a prior residence in Sherman.

 

On November12, 2014, officers stopped a vehicle after it left Perry’s apartment and arrested the driver after he was discovered to be in possession of cocaine.   The driver told officers he had gotten the cocaine from Perry at the apartment on Crescent.   Officers obtained a search warrant for Perry’s apartment and, upon entering, found Perry inside and located over 40 grams of Cocaine, more than a pound of marijuana, and $3,138 in cash.   Officers also found several expensive electronics, including televisions and tablet computers which they seized, along with the money, as proceeds of drug transactions.

“Sherman Police did a great job with getting this drug dealer off the street,” said Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown.   “Neighbors should report this kind of behavior to law enforcement.   If you see in and out traffic, smell funny smells – most everybody knows the signs.   Turn these people in.”

Assistant District Attorney Matt Johnson prosecuted the case.   Perry was represented by Sherman attorney Rick Dunn.

Howe native Garrett Fulenchek made his debut for the Princeton Rays tonight vs. Pulaski, which is a farm team for the New York Yankees.  Wearing the number 43 because Nolan Ryan’s 34 was not available, he entered the game in the fourth inning after relieving starter Brock Burke.  Fulenchek went 2.1 innings, striking out 5 and walking 2 while giving up no runs on 3 hits before being relieved in the seventh inning by Ruben Paredes.  Pulaski was leading 5-3 went Fulenchek left the game.

Fulenchek, now on the season has thrown 7 innings on the year combined with both the Braves and Rays organizations.  He’s given up 8 hits, 10 walks, and 4 earned runs while striking out 9.

 

Released on June 21, 2015, the Howe Development Alliance launched a promotional video about Howe with the direct purpose of luring businesses, developers, home builders and residents to Howe. The three minute, thirteen second promo was produced by Heritage Preservation Studio, which normally focuses their attention to documentaries on historical significance, however, HDA Economic Development Director Monte Walker was looking for a little bit of a different flavor and Heritage obliged.

The video shows scenes of Howe’s friendly atmosphere and shows many citizens captured during the Founders Day celebration in April.

Featured speakers in the pitch are Walker, Mayor Jeff Stanley, County Commissioner Jeff Whitmire, Justice of the Peace, Rita Noel, Howe Police Chief Carl Hudman, former Executive Director of Keep Howe Beautiful Laura Duree, Howe Area Chamber of Commerce President Robert Cannaday and local Howe businessman Todd Creekmore.

Walker said that since he’s been hired as the economic development director, he’s found from visiting with numerous developers and home builders that Howe has had a reputation of anti-growth.

“The largest part of my job has been to start from ground zero and educate those that think Howe doesn’t want them.” said Walker. “Businesses and developers were interested in Howe seven or eight years ago, but found resistance from city leaders. We have a renewed interest here with a renewed outlook.”

Howe’s geographic location makes the city very attractive to developers. With US 75 carrying more traffic than Interstate 35, Howe sees its fair share of that traffic with over 36,000 daily commuters passing through the city on US 75.

Walker says that no one wants Howe to turn into Frisco or McKinney, but a healthy tax base is a must for street improvements, parks, recreation and general quality of life. New homes mean distribution of the cost of utility bills amongst citizens also.

“If we didn’t make an attempt to grow, there is no question that Howe would be swallowed up by the neighboring US 75 communities in the next 10-15 years which would make us the economic weak-link on the corridor.” said Walker. “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. There is no such thing as staying the same.”

The video, located here, took approximately a month and a half to produce. Jen Davis, of Heritage Preservation Studio and her family captured all of the footage and performed all of the interviews. They also edited the hours and hours of footage and even left some of the interviews out.

While Walker said the video has been sent to major companies and developers, he couldn’t say who specifically has been targeted.

“About 10 times a week people tell me to bring in a grocery store.” said Walker. “You can be assured that one or more grocery stores have seen the video. When we have the rooftops to support a grocery store, it’s a much easier sell, but I feel we’re just in too good of a position to not see something start rolling soon in this town.”

Howe is in a unique situation right now with a supportive council, mayor and city administrator who seem to be all on the same page. The next five years are crucial for Howe.

For four days, boys and girls participated in baseball and softball camps in Howe. The Howe Bulldogs Baseball camp was run by Howe’s varsity head coach, Torrey Ognoskie with the help of some players, such as Winston Mosse and David Crees. The Lady Bulldogs softball camp was led by varsity head coach Adam Rupert with help from players such as Emily Sanders, Madisyn Hargrove, and others.

The camp allowed the baseball program to raise money for equipment and to help maintain the field. The money raised from the $30 camper’s entry fee will be used for seeding the baseball field and for the purchase of general baseball equipment.

“The age groups were split up for developmental purposes. The younger ones participated in the morning, while the older players had their time in the mid-afternoon.

“The little ones were excited and fired up.” said Ognoskie. “That made me excited and fired up to help them.”

Ognoskie said he ran the older players camp more like practices to get them acclimated to the environment and terminology of what they’ll be doing soon. “It’s nice to have somebody who’s already done it and can show them what it’s supposed to look like.” said Ognoskie of Mosse and Crees.

Ognoskie said the kids learned a lot from day one to day four and that some of the younger ones went from playing fetch to playing catch. He said that some others wanted to be pushed to the max, such as young third grader Anthony Lowder, who wanted Ognoskie to make him run far in order to dive for the ball.

“On the last day, we did infield drills where I would roll the ball out there and they’d have to dive for it, get up and throw.” said Ognoskie. “They were fired up. No kid in that little camp went home without a little dirt on them. So that was good. Mom has to wash their pants and shirt.”

 

 

Tuesday night’s special city council meeting called for a work session to approve the annual budget for 2015-16 presented by City Administrator Joe Shephard. Mayor Jeff Stanley did the swearing in ceremony for newest council member Darren Foster to begin the meeting and for a quorum to be present as council member Debbie Lowery was not in attendance.

Sam Haigis, was once again nominated and approved as mayor pro tem. He has fulfilled that role “since Moses” as stated by Mayor Stanley to the audience. Haigis corrected the mayor by stating he’s only served that role since Joshua.

During the work session, Mayor Stanley told the council that they were being asked to open up two jobs from part-time to full-time.

Those two positions were to move a part-time utility worker to full-time and part-time economic development director to full-time. The mayor also said that the budget calls for a purchase of a small track hoe.

“Over the past several years, we’ve rented track hoes to dig out several places that our big back hoe cant go.” said Stanley. “I think it’s time that we purchase one of these.” A track hoe is an excavator that is a power-driven machine used for digging, moving, or transporting loose gravel, sand, or soil.

The small track hoe was budgeted for $40,000 for purchase. The city has recently spent approximately $2,000 on a job that took 10 days to complete. Councilman Bill French asked if the track hoe would be used five times per year. City Administrator Shephard stated that it’s hard to say due to small leaks, but said that it would probably be used that many times per year.

“One thing that me and David (Wortham) have talked about is the saving of wear and tear on the back hoe that we have.” said Shephard. “Obviously, not using it as much when needing to get into these smaller places.”

French asked whether the track hoe would be a maintenance issue down the road, whereas Wortham of Public Works stated that the City of Sherman’s oldest unit is five years-old and they haven’t spent any money on maintenance other than normal oil changes.

Haigis asked for an overall picture of what the city has spent on renting a track hoe over the past five years.

“While it’s good to have your own equipment, but in the same token, I’m sure we’ve got other places we can spend some money such as street repair.”

Shephard said that the total rent cost would not equal the cost of the new machine but felt this is a piece of equipment that is much needed and would be used to saved wear and tear on the big back hoe.

“I think the one thing that we have to be mindful of as council members is that if our department heads say that they need this and we don’t have hard solid evidence that they don’t, then we don’t have the right to argue with them.” said French. “If it’s fiscally responsible to get one, then we need to build our material fleet.”

Last year, the city bought a 4-wheel drive pickup. Other than that and a mower, those are the only pieces of equipment the city has purchased in five years.

Haigis stated that he didn’t want this purchase to take away from a budget for street repair. “Just like every city around here, we’re probably in better shape than some as far as the streets go, but we’ve got some that really need some repair and that’s going to be very costly.”

Mayor Stanley asked Shephard to give the new Council Member Foster a history of where the city has been financially in the past 10 years.

“Without blaming anyone, there was some mismanagement of the funds about seven or eight years ago.” said Shephard. Between 2000 and 2005, the city spent all of their reserves, about $750,000 of the general daily operations of the city. When I came on board, we had no money in investments and it was a struggle paying the bills.”

Shephard said that the city laid-off 33 percent of the workforce. The city went through every dime cutting expenditures. They cut electric cost and phones.

“We were, of course, forced to raise property taxes and utilities in order to pay the bills and now we’ve got to where we’re doing that.” said Shephard. “Now we’ve finally got to the point where we’re starting to put a little money back.”

Stanley said the city was bleeding over $250,000 per year before Shephard came on board. After four years of freezes on salaries for employees and fighting through the tightest of budgets, the city has nearly replaced the 33 percent (six employees) that was laid off.

“This has been thought out.” said Stanley. “When we go talking about getting track hoes and putting on people from part-time to full-time, there has been a lot of thought put in to it.”

Shephard said that the budget approval means that three of the six positions that were laid off will now be replaced and one position would be created. The utility department is still three short of before the layoffs.

The new budget also allows for a four percent increase in salaries across the board for city employees.

Shephard says that the new full time position in the utility department will free up Bert Dowlen in the code enforcement department to spend more time in that area instead of utilities.

In the budget, the solid waste charges went up by $15,349. Shephard explained that it was due to three new houses that are currently being built and that expense will actually wash due to the new homes being charged that amount.

Haigis said that the best thing that’s been done in Howe recently is going to the new progressive trash pick up system. Shephard says that he’s seen the trash driver go above and beyond to pick up trash around the city.

“We do get some complaints, but for the most part, that guy really does try hard.” said Shephard.

The trash contract goes through 2017 and at that point will be sent out for bid. Shepard said that Howe has the highest water rates in the county and will be for a long time. City Secretary Joy Stevens did a rate study with different cities.

“We’re not too far off from some other cities.” said Stevens.

“The monthly bill for citizens here are higher than anywhere else. We know that and we’re not denying that.” said Shephard.

The city utility bill not only includes water, but solid waste, and sewer. Shephard said that there is no plans to raise the bill in the future.

Mayor Stanley said that it would take a year before seeing what the results are from the apartments taking on some relief of the citizens’ water bill and spreading out the totals.

“I would like to go on the record to say that someday I would love to see us be able to lower our water rate.” said French. “I don’t know if it can be done. I think if the city administration ever wants to look like heroes to the senior residents of this town, a water reduction would do that. Anything in that direction would help.”

In conclusion, the council showed no objections to the budget and it is scheduled to be approved in September should all of the tax revenue be confirmed. If formally approved, the two jobs that are currently part-time would go full-time as of October 1.