Phone: 281-980-6745 ww ww w.fbindependent.com .fbindependent.com P.O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2011 VOL 4 No. 49 Seshadri Kumar Publisher & Editor 10701 Corporate Drive, #282, Stafford, TX 77477 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, TX 77487 www.fbindependent.com 281-980-6745 Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487. Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land Gold & Silver Refiner y Bring in gold and silver jewelry ; go with a hand full of cash. We have no middle men and can afford to pay higher than competitors. 3599 Highway 6, Sugar Land 281-313-9999 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday (In the Kroger Shopping Center at Settlersway) We buy gold and silver jewelry and scrap, melt it on the spot. That is why we can afford to pay more. Visit us once before you go elsewhere. The Swinging Door served barbecue to almost 1,100 and the Triumphs kept the crowd on the dance floor while spon- sors and bidders combined to raise more than $265,000 at the 33rd Annual Best in the West Dinner, Dance and Auc- tion benefiting The Arc of Fort Bend County Nov. 19 at the George Ranch Historical Park Arena. As always, the pooches in the auctions proved popular with a malti-poo going for a “buy now” price of $1,000 in the Ace in the Hole Auction and a lab puppy being sold three times in the live auction for a final donation to The Arc of $4,100. This cute little puppy cuddled by Ty Boulware raised $4,100 during The Arc of Fort Bend County’s Best in the West live auction Nov. 19. Freddy Brooks, right, helped acquire the yellow lab, as he has done for several years. The Northern Mockingbird couldn’t sing in the newspaper so he found a festive place to wish you a happy holiday along with some of his favorite things, berries. If you hear a multitude of bird songs in your garden, you likely have a Northern Mockingbird, which plain gray-brown coloring is quickly appreciated with its great personality and songs. One imitated my cell phone ring so well, I tried to answer the phone! The State Bird of Texas, the Northern Mockingbird is a year round resident throughout the US and Mexico. Very territorial, these birds can put on quite a show. They love all kinds of berries, but eat insects in the summer. Expect to see them through- out the garden, feeding on the ground or in hedges and trees. Besides song, their antics to protect their territory make this medium songbird a real standout. Photo by international birder Marga- ret Sloan. To see more photos and learn more, visit http://traction.typepad.com/birds Birds of Fort Bend Northern Mockingbird Mysterious political text message leads to probe By SESHADRI KUMAR A text message allegedly sent by an elected official an- nouncing his decision to run for Fort Bend County sheriff is under investigation. Fort Bend County Attorney Roy Cordes said on Monday that his office received two complaints alleging that they received text messages on Nov. 24, believed to be from a phone number listed in the campaign website of Precinct 4 Constable Troy Nehls. If the message was really sent by Nehls, it would amount to premature announcement of his candidacy for sheriff and could lead to the automatic res- ignation of Nehls as constable. But, Nehls has categorically denied that he ever sent such a message or authorized anyone else to do so. Nehls said he had procured records from the telephone company and shown them to the county attorney, establish- ing that no text message was sent in the alleged time frame from the listed phone number. The latest text sent from his phone on Nov. 24 was at 7:30 p.m., Nehls said. “ I have asked the county at- torney to investigate as soon as possible where that text mes- sage was originated. I am all about transparency,” Nehls said. He described the episode as a “ conspiracy and attempt to derail my potential candi- dacy for sheriff.” “ It is said. It is dirty politics. We ought to be ashamed of it,” Nehls said. In the Republican primary, Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Craig Brady has filed for sheriff. Another candi- date who has announced his in- tention to run for sheriff is John Minchew. There are some can- didates who may run for Pct. 4 constable as well. Initially Nancy Hentschel, a New Territory resident, sent the complaint to the county attor- ney. Cordes said he received a similar complaint from another person also, but did not reveal the name of the complainant. Cordes said investigators in his office are looking into the complaints and they would talk to the complainants soon. Cordes also confirmed that Nehls had produced phone re- cords suggesting that he did not send the message. Hentschel forwarded her complaint to other elected of- ficials and the media. Her mes- sage read as follows: At approximately 11:54 p.m. on November 24, 2011 the fol- lowing message was text mes- saged to a cell phone: “Break- ing news! We don’t have to keep secrets anymore! Sheriff Troy will announce next week.” That text message is prima facie evidence that Constable Troy Nehls has declared himself to be a candidate for Sheriff in Fort Bend County. Such a mes- sage constitutes an announce- ment and shows a pattern of ongoing deceit by Candidate Nehls in that “...we don’t have to keep secrets anymore.” Furthermore, such an an- nouncement falls outside the one year and thirty day time frame in which a candidate may announce his or her inten- tion to run for an office other than the office that is currently occupied by that candidate. Having made such an an- nouncement, Constable Nehls has effectively resigned his of- fice of Constable, Precinct 4 so that he may run for sheriff. Any challenge to the text message as having come from a person or entity other than Troy Nehls, is met by identify- ing the number of origin of the text message. That number is 713-419-5994 and is the con- tact number for Troy Nehls and his campaign according to Nehls’ website. Further, candidate Nehls refers to himself as “Sheriff Troy” holding himself out to have title to an office to which he has not been elected. Please accept this as a complaint against Troy Nehls for viola- tion of campaign law, cam- paign ethics and the provisions of the Texas Constitution. It is believed that the text message was sent from Nehl’s campaign website and pos- sibility exists that someone could have hacked the website and sent the message. Troy Nehls Merry and jolly holiday spirits descended on Sugar Land Town Square as the city celebrated its 9th annual Christmas Tree Lighting event on Thursday, Dec. 1. Mayor James Thompson and Santa Claus, below, united once again to light the City’s 40-foot Christmas tree to kick off the holiday season among a crowd of thousands. Behind Sugar Land Mayor Jimmy Thompson are Sugar Land Skeeters’ mascots “Swatson & Moe.” Also in the picture are Councilmembers Harish Jajoo, far left, Amy Mitchell, Jacquie Chaumette and Don Smithers with Assistant City Manager Karen Daley, Merle Smithers and City Manager Allen Bogard.— Photo by Randy Kozlovsky. Arc’s 33rd Best in the West tops $265,000 See ARC, Page 5
Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.
Offi cial newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Gold & Silver Refi nery
Bring in gold and silver jewelry ;
go with a hand full of cash.
We have no middle men
and can aff ord to pay higher
than competitors.
3599 Highway 6, Sugar Land281-313-9999
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday(In the Kroger Shopping Center at Settlersway)
We buy gold and silver
jewelry and scrap, melt it on
the spot. That is why we can aff ord to pay
more.
Visit us once before you go
elsewhere.
The Swinging Door served barbecue to almost 1,100 and the Triumphs kept the crowd on the dance fl oor while spon-sors and bidders combined to raise more than $265,000 at the 33rd Annual Best in the West Dinner, Dance and Auc-tion benefi ting The Arc of Fort Bend County Nov. 19 at the George Ranch Historical Park Arena.
As always, the pooches in the auctions proved popular with a malti-poo going for a “buy now” price of $1,000 in the Ace in the Hole Auction and a lab puppy being sold three times in the live auction for a fi nal donation to The Arc of $4,100.
This cute little puppy cuddled by Ty Boulware raised $4,100 during The Arc of Fort Bend County’s Best in the West live auction Nov. 19. Freddy Brooks, right, helped acquire the yellow lab, as he has done for several years.
The Northern Mockingbird couldn’t sing in the newspaper so he found a festive place to wish you a happy holiday along with some of his favorite things, berries. If you hear a multitude of bird songs in your garden, you likely have a Northern Mockingbird, which plain gray-brown coloring is quickly appreciated with its great personality and songs. One imitated my cell phone ring so well, I tried to answer the phone! The State Bird of Texas, the Northern Mockingbird is a year round resident throughout the US and Mexico. Very territorial, these birds can put on quite a show. They love all kinds of berries, but eat insects in the summer. Expect to see them through-out the garden, feeding on the ground or in hedges and trees. Besides song, their antics to protect their territory make this medium songbird a real standout. Photo by international birder Marga-ret Sloan. To see more photos and learn more, visit http://traction.typepad.com/birds
Birds of Fort BendNorthern Mockingbird
Mysterious political text message leads to probe
By SESHADRI KUMARA text message allegedly
sent by an elected offi cial an-nouncing his decision to run for Fort Bend County sheriff is under investigation.
Fort Bend County Attorney Roy Cordes said on Monday that his offi ce received two complaints alleging that they received text messages on Nov. 24, believed to be from a phone number listed in the campaign website of Precinct 4 Constable Troy Nehls.
If the message was really sent by Nehls, it would amount to premature announcement of his candidacy for sheriff and could lead to the automatic res-ignation of Nehls as constable.
But, Nehls has categorically denied that he ever sent such a message or authorized anyone else to do so.
Nehls said he had procured records from the telephone company and shown them to the county attorney, establish-ing that no text message was sent in the alleged time frame from the listed phone number.
The latest text sent from his phone on Nov. 24 was at 7:30 p.m., Nehls said.
“ I have asked the county at-torney to investigate as soon as possible where that text mes-sage was originated. I am all about transparency,” Nehls said. He described the episode as a “ conspiracy and attempt to derail my potential candi-dacy for sheriff.” “ It is said. It is dirty politics. We ought to be ashamed of it,” Nehls said.
In the Republican primary, Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Craig Brady has fi led for sheriff. Another candi-date who has announced his in-tention to run for sheriff is John Minchew. There are some can-didates who may run for Pct. 4 constable as well.
Initially Nancy Hentschel, a New Territory resident, sent the complaint to the county attor-ney. Cordes said he received a
similar complaint from another person also, but did not reveal the name of the complainant.
Cordes said investigators in his offi ce are looking into the complaints and they would talk to the complainants soon.
Cordes also confi rmed that Nehls had produced phone re-cords suggesting that he did not send the message.
Hentschel forwarded her complaint to other elected of-fi cials and the media. Her mes-sage read as follows:
At approximately 11:54 p.m. on November 24, 2011 the fol-lowing message was text mes-saged to a cell phone: “Break-ing news! We don’t have to keep secrets anymore! Sheriff Troy will announce next week.”
That text message is prima facie evidence that Constable Troy Nehls has declared himself to be a candidate for Sheriff in Fort Bend County. Such a mes-sage constitutes an announce-
ment and shows a pattern of ongoing deceit by Candidate Nehls in that “...we don’t have to keep secrets anymore.”
Furthermore, such an an-nouncement falls outside the one year and thirty day time frame in which a candidate may announce his or her inten-tion to run for an offi ce other than the offi ce that is currently occupied by that candidate. Having made such an an-nouncement, Constable Nehls has effectively resigned his of-fi ce of Constable, Precinct 4 so that he may run for sheriff.
Any challenge to the text message as having come from a person or entity other than Troy Nehls, is met by identify-ing the number of origin of the text message. That number is 713-419-5994 and is the con-tact number for Troy Nehls and his campaign according to Nehls’ website.
Further, candidate Nehls refers to himself as “Sheriff Troy” holding himself out to have title to an offi ce to which he has not been elected. Please accept this as a complaint against Troy Nehls for viola-tion of campaign law, cam-paign ethics and the provisions of the Texas Constitution.
It is believed that the text message was sent from Nehl’s campaign website and pos-sibility exists that someone could have hacked the website and sent the message.
Troy Nehls
Merry and jolly holiday spirits descended on Sugar Land Town Square as the city celebrated its 9th annual Christmas Tree Lighting event on Thursday, Dec. 1. Mayor James Thompson and Santa Claus, below, united once again to light the City’s 40-foot Christmas tree to kick off the holiday season among a crowd of thousands.
Behind Sugar Land Mayor Jimmy Thompson are Sugar Land Skeeters’ mascots “Swatson & Moe.” Also in the picture are Councilmembers Harish Jajoo, far left, Amy Mitchell, Jacquie Chaumette and Don Smithers with Assistant City Manager Karen Daley, Merle Smithers and City Manager Allen Bogard.—Photo by Randy Kozlovsky.
Arc’s 33rd Best in the West
tops $265,000
See ARC, Page 5
NewsPage 2 • INDEPENDENT • DECEMBER 7, 2011
Patients at Methodist Sug-ar Land Hospital during the holidays will leave with a special keepsake—all thanks to a special gift from a Sugar Land resident.
In the holiday spirit, a very talented Peggy generously donated 65 beautiful holiday stockings to Methodist Sugar Land Hospital.
All of the stockings were handmade by Peggy which each incorporates a unique holiday design.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas day the stockings will be delivered throughout the Hospital to our patients and their families.
Peggy understands that be-ing at the hospital for Christ-mas is not ideal; however, it is her hope that the stockings will bring some joy and hap-piness to their holiday.
Leading up to Christmas Eve, the stockings will be displayed in the hallway con-necting the Sweetwater Pa-vilion and the Main Pavilion near the blessing wall.
Set for Dec. 9 and 10, the tour will feature six distinc-tive homes in Sugar Creek, Greatwood, Sweetwater, Riv-erstone and Sienna Plantation.
Pre-sale tickets are avail-able for $20 at Fort Bend County Kroger and Randalls stores, The Riverstone Infor-mation Center, The Sienna Plantation HomeFinder Cen-ter and online at www.cafb.org.
In addition to these loca-tions, tickets can also be pur-chased during the event for $25 at The Sweetwater Guard-house on Sweetwater Boule-vard and Palm Royale.
Shown putting their fi nish-ing touches on a tree in one of the homes are L to R: Lin Wooten of 3am Designs, Tra-cy Pipes (back) and Diana Null of Null Design Partners.
The Tour is presented by the Fred and Mabel R. Parks Foundation and benefi ts Child Advocates of Fort Bend. Tour hours are December 9 and 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a special candlelight tour on Friday night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Tour guests will be treated to a rare glimpse of the fea-tured homes and their creative holiday decorations. In addi-tion, guests will enjoy festive entertainment by local artists and tasty home-made cookies and hot apple cider.
A special tour lunch is avail-able at Sweetwater Country Club for $15. Pay at the door – no reservation is necessary.
One ticket provides admis-sion to all six homes and can
CASA Christmas Home Tour
be used at any time during the tour.
The map to the homes is on the back of the ticket. For more information about the event please call 281-344-5108.
Since the tour began, Child Advocates of Fort Bend has trained more than 600 vol-unteers and served more than 9,300 children. At least 400 children are touched each month by one of the agency’s
programs. Volunteers are needed
in both the CASA program (Court Appointed Special Advocate) and the Children’s Advocacy Center to provide a voice for children in the court-room and the community.
For more information on volunteer training, the Home Tour or how to get involved in improving the life of an abused child, call 281-344-5100.
Holiday Spirit shared at Methodist Sugar Land Hospital
“We invite all community members to come view these wonderful stockings, as it is this sort of kindness and gift giving that keeps our hearts warm during the holiday sea-son,” says Bill Bross, Director of Spiritual Care and Values Integration at Methodist Sug-
ar Land Hospital. A very special thank you
from physicians, staff and volunteers at Methodist Sugar Land Hospital goes to Peggy for her generous and caring donation to our patients dur-ing the holiday season.
Jeanne VanDuivendyk, volunteer coordinator at Methodist Sugar Land Hospital and Peggy.
The 13th Annual Rich-mond Rotary Club “Cowboys in the Caribbean Fish Fry” is set for Saturday, April 7 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at The George Ranch Historical Park.
Over 1000 guests attend the fun-fi lled family event with live entertainment, dinner, children’s activity center, live and silent auctions.
The Richmond Rotary Club was chartered in 1936. In-dividual tickets are $15 and children 12 and under are $10 each. Funds raised help pro-vide area school scholarships and support various local community and international projects. For sponsorship op-portunities, contact Rotarian Jess Stuart at (281) 341-0791, [email protected]. Vis-it www.RotaryRichmond.org for more details.
Save the date for Richmond Rotary’s 13th annual Fish Fry
Republican PrimaryMarch 6, 2012
Plans are underway at Richmond Rotary’s 13th Annual Fish Fry. Members (front-back) Claudia Wright, Alicia Casias, Rosie Karl-berg, John Cotterrl, Gary Gillen, Jess Stuart, Blake Greer, Jenni-fer Hartmann, Kristin Weiss, Bob Sunday, Kenny Waters, Priscilla Salas, Raul Martinez, Elizabeth Duff-Drozd, Steve Onstad and Tom Smith.
Providing fee-only services
to individuals, families and businesses
since 1996.
(281) 634-9400www.wjinterests.com
SKEETERS’ UNVEIL MASCOTS. Swatson, Moe, Co-Presidents of The Skeeters BuzzBrigade presented by Kroger, are with Kaysie Faas, 11, of Needvile (Kaysie chose Moe and Nathan Johnston, 9, of Missouri City (Nathan chose Swatson.) The new Mascots were unveiled last week at Kids R Kids Learning Academies and Schools in North Sugar Land. The name Swatson was chosen in the Kids R Kids “Name Your Mascot” contest.
Skeeters introduce Swatson & Moe
The Houston Symphony will perform the second con-cert of its new Sugar Land Series on Thursday, Decem-ber 15 at Sugar Land Baptist Church. In an effort to reach patrons in the vibrant com-munity of Ft. Bend County and expand the geographic horizons of the Houston Sym-phony, the Sugar Land Series provides Ft. Bend County residents increased access to the world-class performances of the Houston Symphony through a series of three con-certs. Handel’s Messiah will be the second concert in the 2011-12 Sugar Land Series. The Houston Symphony’s Sugar Land Series debuted with Beethoven’s Ninth Sym-phony in September and will conclude in March with Hila-ry Hahn & Enigma Variations.
A Houston tradition, Handel’s Messiah is an Eng-lish-language oratorio com-posed in 1741 by George Frid-eric Handel. The scriptural text was compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Com-mon Prayer. Portraying Jesus Christ’s Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, Handel’s Messiah begins with God’s promises as spoken by the prophets and ending with Christ’s glorifi cation in heav-en. Vocalists joining the Hous-ton Symphony include Yulia Van Doren, soprano; Malin Fritz, contralto; Sean Panik-kar, tenor; Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone; and the Hous-ton Symphony Chorus, led by Charles Hausmann, who is celebrating his 25th year as director this season.
920 Murphy Rd. Suite C, Staff ord, Tx 77477Michael Ellison on Mon-day announced his bid for the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s race. He fi led in the Demo-cratic primary.
Michael is a 26 year veter-an of the Harris County Sher-iff’s Offi ce and lives in Sugar Land with his wife, who was his high school sweet-heart, Rossiline. They have two grown children and two grandchildren.
Ellison is currently a Ser-geant at the Harris County Sheriff’s Offi ce and holds a Master Peace Offi cer’s Li-cense. He also holds a Bach-elor of Arts degree and will complete his Master’s Degree in October of 2012.
Ellison gained statewide attention in August of this year when he confronted a group of armed robbers at the Wells Fargo Bank in New Territory and exchanged gun-fi re with one of the suspects.
Ellison sustained multiple gunshot wounds, but says that his concern for the safety
and welfare of others was far greater than for himself. “This climatic event brought on my decision to run for the offi ce of sheriff,” Ellison says.
He has received numerous awards for heroism, valor, and core values. He is also this year’s nominee by the Harris County Sheriff’s Of-fi ce for the upcoming 100 Club Award.
“I am not a politician and I don’t even pretend to be,” says Ellison.
“I am a law enforcement offi cer with extensive super-visory experience. I believe that Fort Bend County will benefi t from the principles of leadership, confi dence, in-tegrity, and service that I will bring to the sheriff’s depart-ment.”
Ellison adds, “I believe that it is an honor as well as a privilege to bear the title Public Servant, and that is the attitude we need in pro-fessional law enforcement in
Notice of Release for Public Review and Comment City of Sugar Land Program Year 2010
Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER)Community Development Block Grant Program
The City of Sugar Land, Texas has prepared the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for the period of October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011. Pursuant to 24 CFR 91.520, the City will submit the CAPER to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on December 29, 2010. The purpose of the CAPER is to provide the City of Sugar Land with an opportunity to annually evaluate its overall progress in carrying out priorities and objectives identifi ed in the City’s HUD-approved Consolidated Plan and to report the progress to HUD and the citizens of Sugar Land.
The City of Sugar Land actively encourages ongoing citizen participation and feedback. All residents are invited to comment on the CAPER by mail or fax during the period of December 8, 2011 through December 22, 2011. A draft of the CAPER may be found on the City website at www.sugarlandtx.gov and in the Offi ce of the City Secretary, City of Sugar Land, City Hall, 2700 Town Center Boulevard North, Suite 122, Sugar Land, Texas 77479. Residents may send comments to the City of Sugar Land Planning & Environmental Services Department at 2700 Town Center Boulevard North, Sugar Land, Texas 77479 or P.O. Box 110, Sugar Land, Texas 77487 0110. Residents may also fax comments to the City at (281) 275-2771. Any comments received will be forwarded to the regional HUD offi ce. For more information concerning the CAPER or the CDBG program, please contact the City of Sugar Land Planning & Environmental Services Department at (281) 275 2170.
By BARBARA FULENWIDERNext Tuesday residents who
live in 14 different neighbor-hoods will give members of Sugar Land Planning & Zon-ing (P&Z) an earful regarding how they feel about a Johnson Development request to build 325 apartments on former Im-perial Sugar property that is now in a historic district.
Few to none who live in a single-family dwelling in Sugar Land want apartments built anywhere in their town but since there is a market for them some have been built and developers continue to seek approval to build more.
Bud Friedman, a Fort Bend County Realtor, and chair of the Imperial Redevelopment Committee (IRC), said that his group “just doesn’t want apartments and we sure don’t want them in the historic dis-trict. We acknowledge that as a developer, Johnson has the right to seek apartments.”
He also said that the “old standard for apartments was no more than 200 units on no fewer than 10 acres and we’ve tried to adhere to those stan-dards but they’ve asked for more and apparently the city seems to be on board.”
Johnson Development has applied for 300 apartment units near the ballpark and an-
other 325 in a historic district or near the ballpark.
“We’re trying to say fi ne if the city agrees to the second phase and they are over by the ballpark or on Hwy. 6. We’re trying to be reasonable with (Shay) Shafi e,” general man-ager of Imperial, Friedman said.
Friedman remains posi-tive about having the second phase of apartment units lo-cated “any place other than near all of our neighbors – that is what we’re working for. I think they’ll get the en-tire community behind them on this.”
What is driving Johnson Development to locate apart-ments near their planned retail and restaurant development is to have nearby clientele.
“If the units are on Hwy. 6 they’ll still support the retail. If it’s a good product they are offering, people will come. We’re just saying you don’t need apartments to sustain re-tail activity,” Friedman said.
He also mentioned that a multi-level parking garage would no longer be needed in a historic district without the high-density apartments. “It would impact the visibility of the char house and other things we want to preserve.”
Neighborhoods that would
be most affected by the apart-ments and multi-story parking include Sugar Land’s oldest – The Hill – and then Mayfi eld Park and Sugar Mill.
Three neighborhoods di-rectly across from U.S. 90A, which also would be directly impacted are Sugar Lakes, Venetian Estates and Brook-side.
The other main issue the Imperial Redevelopment Committee members are con-cerned about is traffi c.
Friedman said, “We feel there are a number of fl awed items in the traffi c impact analysis that has been submit-ted to the city in conjunction with the planned development application from Johnson De-velopment.
“Brooks Street would be impacted the most. We really need to address Hwy. 90 and the railroad tracks. Union Pa-cifi c plans on double tracking, so that’s a huge item. If there are apartments immediately on the west side of the tracks along Hwy. 90, what happens if there’s an emergency over there and a train was blocking the tracks as they sometimes do? We’d be in a world of hurt.”
As for anything already be-ing “a done deal,” Leon An-haiser, an IRC member, said
that there was never anything announced but instead it is a feeling that a lot of people have.
The reason why, Anhais-er said, is because the city moved the location of the ballpark from near U. of H.-Sugar Land to Hwy. 6 with-out any input from residents. Because the move appeared to be made quickly, residents question it.
Anhaiser also said that when members of the IRC have calculated the total num-ber of residences and multi-family units planned for the Imperial redevelopment, “it looks like almost 50 percent will be apartments because they (Johnson Development) lost land for the ballpark and that land was going to be used to build single family homes.
Friedman said, IRC mem-bers have met one on one with each council member but have not been able to do so with planning and zon-ing members. Friedman said that’s not typical and that “we feel frustrated that we haven’t been able to communicate with them.”
Now there’s only one week left to do so on a one on one basis.
Fort Bend. We also need lead-ership that is fair and impartial and will make a commitment to bring this department into the 21st century.”
“We also need to restore and rebuild trust within the department and build a rap-port with surrounding law en-
forcement agencies. I can do that,” he says.
Ellison is also the Pastor of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Richmond, a posi-tion he has served for the past 9 years. He has been an or-dained minister for 17 years.
Democrat Michael Ellison fi les for Fort Bend County Sheriff
Ellison, left, fi les his paper with Fort Bend County Democratic Party Chairman Steve Brown.
Concern over apartments continues among Imperial neighbhors
The Fort Bend Junior Service League (FBJSL) is offering two scholarship programs to assist women in Fort Bend County who desire to further their educa-tion.
The FBJSL Volunteer Scholarship applicant must be an outstanding Fort Bend female high school senior who has completed at least 100 hours of high school community service, has a minimum GPA of 2.5 and de-sires to pursue higher educa-tion in the 2012-2013 school year.
The FBJSL New Begin-nings Scholarship applicant must be a Fort Bend woman who has a specifi c degree or career advancement goal in mind and who has had a break in her education fol-lowing high school gradua-tion, completion of her GED, or last full-time semester at an accredited college, voca-tional school or university.
Two Volunteer Scholar-ships will be awarded at a value of $1,000 each and one New Beginnings Scholarship will be awarded at a value of $2,000.
Qualifi ed scholarship ap-plicants can learn more about these programs and obtain a copy of the applications by visiting FBJSL’s website at www.fbjsl.com.
The deadline to submit ap-
plications is February 1, 2012. The Fort Bend Junior Ser-
vice League is a 501(c)(3) non-profi t organization of women committed to promot-ing volunteerism, to develop-ing the potential of women
and to improving the Fort Bend County community through the effective action and leadership of trained vol-unteers.
2011-2012 FBJSL Board Members. Back row left to right: Raquel Smith, Director of Provi-sionals; Rebecca Starling-Klatt, Secretary; Cindy Dempster, Director of Publicity; Beth But-ler, Director of Community Relations; Renee Jaramillo, Treasurer; Markisha Venzant-Samp-son, Vice President. Front row left to right: Pam Spencer, Past President; Laura Thompson, President-Elect; Catherine Kubala, President; Stephanie Martin, Director of Membership.
FBJSL accepts scholarship applications
By RUSSELL JONESNot too much unlike your av-
erage golden retriever, the sleep-ing giant fi nally lifted its head, snorted, shook its body all over, yawned and occupied the center of everything, Town Square, not far from the entrance to Star-bucks.
The city’s newest protest group strolled inside and or-dered caramel brulee lattes all around. Organizing a few days earlier by email, the question had been whether the weather would be cool enough to loiter on the concrete on a cloudless day. Maybe this could wait until later, much later, maybe January or so.
Having awakened early that weekday, about 10:00, their leader looked out of her New Territory window, considered the weather, and sent out the fi nal email. There was nothing else going on today. “Let’s do it!” The day had fi nally arrived to occupy Sugar Land.
Now they sat around loung-ing under the coffee shop’s um-brellas in shorts and T-shirts, the prescribed uniform of the day. They waited for at least one of the dozen invited reporters to show up. Sipping on a pepper-mint white chocolate mocha, the leader shouted “look alive” as a lone individual approached with a notepad in her hand and a pen-cil behind her ear. The Star had arrived. “ Where is your camera-man?” she asked, knowing the answer and showing her disap-pointment.
“How many demonstrators do you expect today?” was the fi rst question. The leader was convinced that the protest would become a giant of Sugar Land politics. She said to expect twenty or so protesters. Where are the other eleven, was the second question. There was no scripted answer, and the reporter
let it go.“Why do you want to bring
down the capitalist system?” asked the reporter, mistakenly assuming that the purpose of the demonstration mirrored the fi rst days of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York. “Oh, no,” the occupier said, “I am a capitalist,” but a special kind–a compassionate capitalist.
So, what exactly are your goals in being here?
The reporter, presumably tak-ing notes, was told that the pro-testers don’t want corporations “manipulating local business leaders into building baseball stadiums.” She called for others to “wake up.”The reporter asked about tents for camping out and continuing the protest indefi nite-ly, just like in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and even Houston. Are you kidding?” re-plied one of the more dedicated demonstrators. “We’re too old for that.”
Another demonstrator was “upset about the inequitable dis-tribution of income,” and mum-bled something about hedge fund managers.
Taking another sip of his dou-ble chocolaty chip frappuccino, he tapped on his iPad and looked up the term “hedge fund.” Then
in a rush, he announced, “Gotta go! I’m in a Playstation tourna-ment today, and my mom thinks I’m out looking for a job.”
Other protesters showed no greater understanding of the Occupy Wall Street movement, or even why they were partici-pating. “I’m into café au lait” seemed to be the consensus.
Basking in shopping opportu-nities down the street at Charm-ing Charlie’s, posing for pic-tures in front of Town Square’s Christmas tree, and thinking more of how to languish in the beauty of a glorious fall day than the need for hope and change, the protesters waited for the re-porter to leave. “I need another cappuccino,” and one by one they disappeared into the capi-talist monument known as Sugar Land Town Square.
The reporter did fail to ask a few questions. Just exactly which corporations have ma-nipulated which local business leaders into building baseball stadiums? Which is really fair-er: equality of income or equal-ity of opportunity? The answers are irrelevant. The occupiers were occupying, and that is all that really matters.
Awakening two months af-ter the original Occupy Wall Streeters began their odyssey and drawing about 90,000 Sugar Landers too few, the sleeping giant known as Occupy Sugar Land has made its fi rst appear-ance. Perhaps nothing is lost by the delay. Just like the golden retriever that stretches out across the doorway, blocks everyone else’s path, and has no idea of why he is there, the protesters are clueless.
Jones served as a member of the Sugar Land City Council from 2003 through June, 2011. He owns a law fi rm and a title insurance company in Sugar Land.
joy Sunday at the Wassail held at the Dew House. The kind of simple pleasure we often miss in our gatherings today because they are too overdone. Starting with simple, docent-made holiday decorations, hot homemade wassail, cookies, a crowd of well wishers, and young people entertaining.
Please don’t think I’m ne-glecting your choir or group, but I saw The Quail Valley Middle School String Orches-tra of four violins and three cellos perform. These seven kids love to play and formed together—instigated by their leader Eric and a lot of sup-port from parents. Now I wish I had been that disciplined and poised when I was middle-school age, but what was re-freshing is that these kids were full of energy, enthusiasm and discipline. To all the people who fought to have an acad-emy school at QVMS, they should feel proud. Add that to your joy list of giving this year if you were involved then or now.
The Dew House has been a real community effort. One volunteer, Mr. Rodgers, an electrical engineer, electrifi ed a chandelier originally made for candles. There’s no kit for something like that so it’s a lot of visits to the hardware store and re-dos to get it right. But what comes through is the sat-isfaction of giving . . . there are so many stories such as that
regarding Dew House. And just like the QV String Orchestra, the joy of doing and someone else appreciating radiates joy through the festivities.
The joy of giving is not just things, but of yourself. If you can’t afford donations this year, you can volunteer. Stressed try-ing to select the right gift? Take the recipient shopping to get a better fi t. For example, a musical instrument. I asked Steve Eller of Smack Guitars for pointers on guitars (that I suspect fi t many musical instruments).
The fi rst is that type is very in-dividual. You can still get a wide price range and fi nd a fi t, but you need to go to a store that has a wide selection as well as some-one who knows the merchandise and how to help a customer to fi nd a fi t (281 498-7128). I’ll throw in another point . . . with something like a musical instru-ment, consider giving lessons as well. This can be a family/friend endeavor with various members contributing to lessons, supplies,
music, etc. Involving others spreads the joy.
Now, all of us are looking to save money . . .that printer may price-wise look like a great bargain. Then you discover how expensive toner and ink car-tridges can be. He can’t sell you a printer, but Michael of Car-tridge World in Missouri City can tell you which printers are less expensive “to feed.” You can then save money (and the environment) at Cartridge World by using re-fi lled cartridges (281 303-5702).
Select areas to give that mean something to you and benefi t others. You’ll experience more joy and satisfaction. By giv-ing locally, you can also see the fruits of your effort. Think about it . . . what’s important to you?
And Missouri City Snowfest starts with a tree-lighting at City Hall Friday night, Dec. 9, at 6 p.m. You’ll be entertained by Living Christmas Card to de-light the entire family as well as snow and the toboggan slide for kids of all ages. And then the Saturday Parade at 9. Experi-ence the joy.
On another note, Missouri City Parks & Recreation and volunteers are fi nding a more permanent location for the Farmer’s Market. Stay tuned for more. Visit Musings at http://traction.typepad.com/musings
By JOANNIE PARRWhether it is attending a
number of holiday parties or having guests into your home for dinner, the holidays are always hard on diets and diet-ers. By planning ahead, there are some relatively easy tricks you can use to help you keep from sabotaging your recent weight loss successes.
If you know you are going to be at a party where tempt-ing foods and drinks will be served, develop a game plan before you go.
Don’t skip meals earlier in the day, but do keep them sensible. Then just before you leave your house for the party, drink a large glass of water and eat something that is a low calorie protein, such as a slice of sandwich meat, yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, or a hard-boiled egg (or cooked egg whites). The water will fi ll you up and help keep you from feeling thirsty during the evening. The pro-tein will take a while to be digested, keeping you from arriving at the party so hun-gry your fi rst stop is the buffet table with “starving” eyes.
Another trick is to not be among the fi rst to arrive or among the last to leave. Time your arrival at the party where you will not be tempted to have a lot of before dinner ap-petizers and drinks, and try to leave before a round of after dinner drinks and desserts can be served.
At the buffet table, pick up a small plate, rather than a big one. This will help you con-trol the volume of food you will be able to serve yourself.
Select the fruits, vegetables, seafoods, and lean meats. Try to avoid the cheeses, breads, pastas, sauces, dips, chips, candied or salty nuts, and sweets.
Seek out interesting guests or meet someone new. If you are busy chatting, you will
eat what you have on your plate much slower, with a goal of taking at least 20 to 30 minutes to eat the foods you picked up at the buffet table.
Be very careful about all those great holiday sweets! Consider taking your des-sert with you. Pick up one or two cookies, say goodnight to your hosts, and leave the par-ty. That way, your hosts will know you truly enjoyed the food, and you won’t be able to go back for seconds or thirds or fourths!
Limit your alcoholic intake for the evening. Perhaps you could start the evening with a “virgin” or non-alcoholic drink, saying you are not re-ally ready for anything stron-ger just yet, thereby giving the impression you may be later on. If you decide to start with an alcoholic drink, limit yourself to just one and then switch to water or a diet drink to save on the unneeded liquid calories for the remainder of the evening. You can always explain you have to drive home, and no one will ques-tion your real motives.
Beware of the “food push-ers” -- the ones who say things like “this is to die for” or “you’re going to love these cookies” or “don’t hurt my feelings by not eating my spe-ciality”. You can politely beg off by saying “I think I’ll do that in a few minutes” (and then don’t) or “That does look
good, but I’m already full”.Increase your exercise rou-
tine during the holidays. You already know it is hard to avoid extra calories, so burn-ing more calories than usual each day will help keep your diet goals under control.
If you are doing the cook-ing for a party or for a family get-together, cast a new look at your regular menu. What high-calorie items can you replace with lower calorie, higher fi ber, or increased pro-tein foods? Look on the in-ternet for new menu ideas and for new recipe ideas. Con-sider looking at recipes for diabetic diets. You might be pleasantly surprised.
For traditional fam-ily meals, give some thought while planning your menu about how can you can re-duce calories while maintain-ing the same great taste. For example, if you are sauteing onions, use beef, chicken, or vegetable broth instead of butter or shortening. If you are making cream gravy, use low-fat milk instead of whole milk or cream. If you are making an apple pie, try sub-stituting Splenda Blend for regular sugar.
As the cook, be careful not to nibble while you cook. It is extremely tempting to pop bites of food into your mouth while you are working in the kitchen.
And be careful about left-overs. Try not to overcook; but if you do, avoid the temp-tation to “use up” the high calorie food items. Your diet would be better served if they went down the disposal or into the trash can as you clear the table.
(Parr has a BS Degree in Business and Finance and a Masters Degree in Federal Tax Law and has worked in the Medical accounting industry for more than 20 years. )
Parr
Tricks to keep healthy eating during holidays
The National Park Service has announced that Fort Bend Green has been selected to receive technical assistance toward its goal of creating a Recreation Master Plan for the Brazos River in Fort Bend County.
A Recreation Master Plan will identify recreation and conservation opportunities for Fort Bend County, and help clarify projects and partners. Another goal is to help the various communities work across jurisdictional bound-aries as a region to achieve a unifi ed project.
“We are very pleased to se-lect the Brazos River Corridor Recreation Master Plan as one of our projects for the coming year,” said Marta Newkirk of the National Park Service Riv-ers, Trails, and Conservation
Assistance (RTCA) program. “The Brazos River is a
signifi cant natural resource which provides numerous op-portunities for communities along the river to coordinate their recreational facilities and programs.”
Fort Bend Green, a non-profi t organization created to facilitate partnerships in the development of green space in Fort Bend County, has de-veloped a vision of a con-tinuous green corridor along Fort Bend’s Brazos River to provide wildlife habitat, parks and recreation venues, enhanced water quality and fl ood control.
Through the RTCA pro-gram, the National Park Ser-vice helps communities and neighborhoods preserve their important local resources,
protect river and creek-way resources, develop new trails and greenways, and create new natural areas.
These projects are locally-led with RTCA staff support-ing local recreation and con-servation leaders. This year, forty-two projects were select-ed as RTCA grant recipients in the Intermountain Region, spanning eight states.
For more information on the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conserva-tion Assistance program, visit www.nps.gov/rtca.
For more information about this project, contact Kim Icen-hower, Community Liaison, Fort Bend Green at (713) 504-7378, [email protected] or Marta Newkirk at [email protected].
WOOD DOORREFINISHING
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Brazos River corridor project gets support
The Fort Bend Boys Choir is celebrating its 30th anniver-sary season. Take a break from the hustle and bustle of last minute holiday shoppers and attend this annual Christmas concert on Saturday, Dec. 10 with family and friends. Four performing choirs – Training, Town, Tour and Cantabilé (an alumni choir of changed voices) – will be showcased at Sugar Land Baptist Church, 16755 Southwest Freeway in Sugar Land at 7 p.m. Special guests include Music Magic, the organization’s music class for 6 and 7 year olds and a select group of talented choir dads who are singing with Cantabilé. Tickets are avail-able by calling the choir of-fi ce, from any choir member or at the door. All proceeds from the Christmas Musicale are used for program sup-port, operational expenses and scholarships. Visit www.fbbctx.org or call (281) 240-3800. You can also check out their fan page on Facebook.
Fort bend Boys Choir presents Christmas Musicale
The Fort Bend Boys Choir Fort bend Boys Choir
DECEMBER 7, 2011 • INDEPENDENT • Page 5
Insurance
Have you received your homeowner’s insurance pol-icy renewal only to discover your insurance company has raised the limits insured for your dwelling and contents again?
Most major carriers will au-tomatically raise these limits every year.
This is done in an attempt to provide proper insurance to replacement value.
Maybe you have even dis-cussed this issue with your insurance agency and are still confused why these lim-its need to be so much higher than what you personally feel is adequate.
Proper insurance to replace-ment value is one of the most important considerations in insuring property.
To assure your home is in-sured properly the estimated replacement cost of your home should be reviewed at least on an annual basis.
Your insurance agency should be able to provide this service for you. Most agen-cies have a system to estimate current replacement costs de-veloped by Marshall & Swift/Boeckh, which is the nation-ally, recognized experts on re-placement cost estimates for homes and commercial build-ings.
Cost factors are typically updated no less than quarterly.
Marshall & Swift/Boeckh programs calculate the mini-mum estimated replacement cost based on:
* Local Labor * Local Material Costs* Square Footage of
Dwelling* Construction Type* Heating & AC Systems*Additional Features/Enhancements* Potential Debris Removal * Foundation Excavation & Replacement* Architect Fees* Structural Engineering
Fees
To rebuild a substantially damaged home is much more expensive than to build new because debris must be re-moved before repairs can be made, whereas in new con-struction there is no debris removal to consider. The cost to remove debris is consid-ered in the estimated replace-ment cost estimate because it is covered under the dwelling limit on your homeowner’s insurance policy.
Comparing estimated re-placement cost to current lo-cal new construction costs is not a good comparison either because new homebuilders typically are building many homes at once, which allow economies of scale. They pur-chase large quantities of ma-terials giving them discounts and share labor on several homes, which allow for lower labor costs per home.
A contractor perform-ing repairs or reconstruction typically will not have these economies of scale available. Reconstruction is often com-pleted by contractors who specialize in rebuilding as opposed to new construction
contractors. Their special-ized labor tends to be more expensive. The exception to this would be in the event of a catastrophic event with many homes damaged, however when this takes place histori-cally material costs go up quickly and sharply. It is the old supply and demand factor.
Worksite access is easier for brand new construction. For reconstruction, obstacles such as neighboring homes, trees, lawns, fences and other landscaping prevent easy site access. This makes it diffi cult to transport materials and can drive up labor costs.
Changes to building codes may require costly updating, even for undamaged parts of a home. This could include up-dating wiring or other utilities and is costly, especially for older homes.
Keeping a partially de-stroyed home from further damage until permanent re-pairs can be made adds to the overall cost. This could involve covering a damaged roof or holes in walls.
Many compare the replace-ment value of their home to the current market value, or what you could sell your home for in the current real estate market.
This is not an accurate com-parison because if your home is substantially damaged the repairs will be made at cur-rent labor rates and materials costs, using new materials and including debris removal. Market value is what you can purchase a used home at in the current real estate market, which is not an indicator of cost of either new construc-tion or reconstruction.
Some say, “Well if my home burned to the ground, I would not rebuild I would just walk away and buy another home elsewhere.”
You should consider when you purchase a home in a developed area, such as a City or Subdivision there are laws and deed restrictions which mandate as the prop-erty owner if your home suf-fers a catastrophic loss you, as registered owner will be responsible to take measures to comply with the laws or deed restrictions which will typically include cleaning up the debris. Therefore you will incur debris removal and pur-chasing another home.
The replacement cost esti-mator program does not con-sider the value of your land. It is considering your dwell-ing only.
Many insurance agencies utilize data on your home, which can be retrieved from the county’s tax appraisal da-tabase available on the Inter-
net. This information provides your home’s square footage, type and materials of con-struction and features. If there are errors in this information you would be well served to inform your insurance agency so they can make adjustments where necessary.
Most major insurance com-panies will require you to in-sure at 100% of the current minimum estimated replace-ment cost to qualify for the insurance companies best rate plan. If you insure to less than 80% of the estimated replace-ment cost you risk the situa-tion of co-insurance clauses within the insuring agreement (policy) being triggered.
Basically these co-insur-ance clauses if applicable will result in you incurring not only the deductible if you have a loss but also incurring co-insurance penalties which will have you sharing a per-centage of the loss amount above your deductible. The amount of co-insurance pen-alty should be specifi cally de-scribed in the insuring agree-ment.
The weak real estate mar-ket of the past few years has driven down home prices sub-stantially.
This means the estimated replacement cost of your home has also gone up while home sales prices have de-creased substantially in the past few years.
While your overall home-owner insurance premium may be increasing, it may not be totally due to rate increases. It may be due in a large part to the fact you’re purchasing more insurance on your home to keep up with increases of the estimated replacement costs. It is advisable to insure to at least the minimum esti-mated replacement cost. You should even consider insuring above the minimum.
If your home were substan-tially damaged wouldn’t you like to rebuild it back to the size and quality it was?
For the typical homeown-ers insurance policy pur-chased, the insurance policy limit is the maximum the in-surance company will pay on your claim.
For most families your home is your single most im-portant and most costly in-vestment, therefore it would be wise to assure you’re ad-equately insuring it. It would be very disappointing if you were to suffer a total loss of your home and you had to take out a second loan to fi nish re-building your home because you did not have enough in-surance.
Total losses do occur. Re-member the homes going up in fl ames during the recent wildfi res on the evening news.
Basil is manager of Tex-ans Insurance & Financial Group, Inc a local Indepen-dent Insurance Agency op-erating in Sugar Land since 1991. He can be reached at (281) 277-7800, Fax (281) 277-7801, E-Mail – [email protected]. Visit www.texansinsure.com.
Housewright
Home replacement cost explained
Attorney Vy Nguyen has announced that she is entering the race for the newly drawn State Representative Dist. 26 on the Democratic Party ticket.
Vy obtained her Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Hous-ton and her law degree with Honors from TSU Thurgood Marshall School of Law. She manages her own law fi rm, is a legal writing instructor and will be an adjunct professor at both the University of St. Thomas and TSU Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Her son, Michael, is an Honor Roll student attending Dulles Elementary School in Sugar Land.
Earlier this year – when Rep. Charlie Howard an-nounced his retirement – Vy, a Democratic attorney, said she planned to seek this offi ce.
“And now that the interim map has been released, and the rights of Texas voters have
been restored, she is more de-termined than ever to go to the legislature to help bring an end to the division and ‘cuts only’ approach that typifi ed the 2011 legislative session,” she said a statement.
Vy says she will help re-store funding to women’s health care, including Planned Parenthood and the CHIP Pro-gram.
“The last legislative session did nothing to help attract jobs with a true living wage,” Vy continued.
“To begin with, laying off tens of thousands of school teachers is not a jobs plan. A radical agenda will not make our state and county an at-tractive place for businesses to relocate. We must focus on common sense solutions that will bring respect and good jobs to Texas. I want to help create better jobs and a more skilled workforce in Fort Bend County.”
The newly court drawn dis-trict provides an opportunity for the voters of Fort Bend County, for the fi rst time, to choose a representative that shares a common background and experience. According to the Texas Legislative Council, this is a multicultural district that includes 31.98 percent Anglo, 17.21 percent African American, 19.9 percent His-panic, and 31.36 percent Asian.
Vy says, “This district is the new face of Texas. We are a di-verse community with a com-mon belief in hard work, edu-cation, family, and economic success. As a small business owner and parent, I’m focused on economic security and op-portunity for my community and family.”
Vy’s Campaign kick-off event is on Sunday, Dec. 11, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Kim Son Restaurant, 12750 Southwest Freeway, Stafford.
Alicia Tompkins Carey, having grown up in Missouri City has had a busy fall this year. As a graduate from the United States Air Force Academy in Aeronautical Engineering and USAF Flight School she has attained the rank of Captain piloting the USAF C-17 Globemaster aircraft fl ying from the USA to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Recently, this fall, she completed her Masters of Aviation Science degree and also was certifi ed as a C-17 Aircraft Commander. She is presently on her third deployment. Her parents, Robyn and Bill Tomp-kins Missouri City residents, say that she embarks on a new adventure every month.
Missouri City girl fl ies high
Democrat Vy Nguyen to run for State Rep. District 26
Local Civic Leader Manuel “Manny” Reyes announces his candidacy for Fort Bend County Commissioner, Pre-cinct One position in the March 2012 Republican Pri-mary. Reyes has been a Pre-cinct One resident for the past 7 years and lived in Fort Bend County for over 40 years.
(The incumbent, Richard Morrison, Democrat, has also fi led for re-election.)
Reyes has a long history of public service in Fort Bend County Mr. Reyes served on the Sugar Land City Council from 1991 to 1997 when Sug-ar Land was experiencing one of its highest growth periods.
He also served for seven years as a Commissioner on the City’s Planning and Zon-ing Commission. He is cur-rently serving on the City of Sugar Land Tax Reinvestment Zone Number Four Board.
Manuel Reyes fi les for Pct. 1 Commissioner on the Republican ticket
Reyes
Reyes said, “I will use my over 15 years of experience in managing high growth situ-ations to help Precinct One better cope with the growth that we are now experiencing. I understand the problems and opportunities as Fort Bend County continues to transition from a rural county to urban county. Reyes also says, “The residents of Precinct One / Fort Bend County will con-tinue to see our small towns grow into larger towns and cities. I have the experience to help make this work for our citizens!”
Reyes has served in Fort. Bend County in a number of positions. He is the “Chair-man Elect” of the Fort Bend County Women’s Center. He currently serves as the Coun-ty Judge’s representative on the Spanish Voter Advisory Board. He is also an Adviso-
ry Director of the Fort BendCounty Literacy Council anda member of the West FortBend OPTIMIST Club.
Reyes, his wife Gloria, and daughter Mona are ac-tive members of St.Theresa Church in Sugar Land. Reyeshas served as the Chairman of the Parish Council, served on the Finance Committee,served as the annual BazaarChairman. He is both a Sun-day lecturer and Usher.
Reyes says, “I pledge tobring character, knowledgeand dedication to the offi ce. Iam a man of faith and belief. I am a Vietnam Veteran. I amseeking the offi ce of County Commissioner Precinct Onebecause I feel the people of Precinct One deserve to have a visible and active CountyCommissioner.
“I believe we need some-one that has a strong Finan-cial background; a person thatunderstands how to managegrowth; to work with city,county, and state agencies for the betterment of PrecinctOne, Fort Bend County.”
Reyes is a graduate of Tex-as Tech University School ofFinance and has also attendedStephen F. Austin University. Reyes has over 30 years ofBanking and Financial ex-perience. Reyes has served in capacities ranging fromVice President of Lending toBranch Manager to Business Development Manager.
For more information contact Manny Reyes at(281) 341-5457 or email at [email protected]
Master of Ceremonies Mi-chael Garfi eld and auctioneer Fort Bend County Commis-sioner James Patterson kept the live auction moving. And guests also had 14 corrals of tempting silent auction items to browse through.
Presenting sponsor Prosper-ity Bank was joined by Scout Master sponsor Sprint Waste Services, Trail Boss sponsor Sugar Land Rotary and Rhine-stone Cowboy sponsors Dr. Lance Jue/A Beautiful Smile at
Lake Point, Aliana, Binkley & Barfi eld, Brown & Gay Engi-neers, Inc. Classic Chevrolet, Jones & Carter, Inc., and Wells Fargo.
The event’s Silver Spur sponsors were Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP, Aviles Engineering Corp., Bai-ley Architects, Inc./Brookstone L.P., Bud Light/Silver Eagle Distributors, County Judge Bob Hebert, Halff, Huitt-Zol-lars, Imperial Development/Riverstone/Sienna/Johnson Development, KBR, Linebarg-er Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP, Long Meadow Farms/
The 14 silent auction cor-rals set a record for partici-pation. Sponsors The Arc of Fort Bend County, By Design, Cushenberry/Parkinson, Fort Bend ISD, Home Depot, Law Enforcement, Lone Star Pet Lodges, Marlin Home Inspec-tions, OakBend Medical Cen-ter, Political, Prosperity Bank/Meyer, RE/MAX Fine Proper-ties, St. Michael’s Emergency Center and Styling Divas pro-vided hundreds of shoppers a
head start on holiday gift buy-ing.
Event co-chairmen Patter-son, Jo Ann Stevens and Ann Smith have announced a “save the date” for The Arc’s 34th annual fall fundraiser – Nov. 17, 2012.
Proceeds from the annual Best in the West benefi t The Arc of Fort Bend, helping maintain group homes, fund-ing activity and work centers and providing for training and transportation of our citizens with mental and developmen-tal disabilities.
ArcFrom Page 1
NewsPage 6 • INDEPENDENT • DECEMBER 7, 2011
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICEThe Commissioners Court of Fort Bend County, Texas has set a public hearing at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 for replat of Fulbrook, Section 2C, Replat of Lots 3 and 4 of Block 2, Precinct 3.The hearing will be held in the Commissioners Courtroom, William B. Travis Bldg., 309 S. Fourth St., Rm. 700, Richmond, Texas. Under state law, you the owner, have certain rights with respect to the proposed replat. Should you wish to exercise your right, you may be heard at the planned public hearing. You may contact Albert Syzdek with Taplin Engineering Inc. at 281-496-5896 for information prior to the hearing.Submitted by,Dianne WilsonFort Bend County Clerk
CITY OF MISSOURI CITY
LEGAL NOTICE
The City of Missouri City, Texas is now issuing an Invitation for Bids for the following:
IFB #081-11 Term Contract for Water Treatment Chemicals
The City of Missouri City is soliciting bids for a term contract for the supply of chemicals used by the Missouri City Surface Water Treatment Plant. All prices bid are to be FOB Missouri City. All costs associated shall be included in the prices bid on the enclosed bid sheet. The City will not pay any other invoiced fees that are not specifi ed by the contractor on the enclosed bid sheet. The City may award to one or more bidders. Vendors are reminded to submit a bid that meets all specifi cations contained herein.
Bids will be accepted until 2:00 p.m. local time December 19, 2011 and then opened.
The bid packages may be obtained beginning November 30th by requesting the document from the Purchasing Offi ce at (281) 403-8612.
Bids must be sealed, marked on the outside of the delivery envelope with the IFB name and number as listed above, and the date of opening. Bids must be delivered to the attention of the Sealed Bid Box, City of Missouri City Purchasing Offi ce, 1522 Texas Parkway, Missouri City, Texas, 77489, prior to the acceptance deadline. Bids marked improperly and therefore misdirected may be disqualifi ed. Bids are opened in public in the City Hall Council Chambers.
Charles Oberrender, CPPBPurchasing ManagerCity of Missouri City, Texas
NOTICE TO PROPOSERS
Six (6) sealed proposals, one (1) original and fi ve (5) copies, addressed to the City of Sugar Land, Texas, will be received until 11:00 o’clock a.m., Thursday,
December 22, 2011, for:
ON-CALL DRAINAGE AND PAVEMENT REHABILITATION
Sealed bids shall be appropriately marked as follows:
RFP NO. 2012-14
ON-CALL DRAINAGE AND PAVEMENT REHABILITATION
BIDDER’S NAME, ADDRESS, AND DUE DATE.
Respondent shall sign and date the proposal. Proposals that are not signed and dated will be rejected.
Signed and sealed proposals shall be delivered to the Offi ce of the City Secretary, on or before 11:00 o’clock a.m., Thursday, December 22, 2011, City of Sugar Land, City Hall, 2700 Town Center Boulevard North, Suite 122, Sugar Land, Texas, 77479. All proposals received after the appointed time shall be returned to bidder unopened. Notice of the award of contract shall be given by the City within ninety (90) days following the date for the opening of bids.
The City reserves the right to revise or amend the specifi cations prior to the date set for opening of proposals. Such revisions or amendments, if any, will be announced by addenda or addendum to the specifi cations. Copies of such addenda so issued will be furnished to all prospective bidders and may or may not aff ect the bid opening date.
The City of Sugar Land reserves the right to reject any and all proposals and to waive informalities in bids received. The award will be made to the lowest responsible bidder based on the evaluation criteria provided in the Request for Proposal.
Proposal documents may be secured from City of Sugar Land; Offi ce of the City Secretary, 2700 Town Center Boulevard North, Suite 122, Sugar Land, Texas, 77479, or by registering at https://www.bidsync.com. Registration is free. All bid documents, amendments and other information relating to the bid will be posted on this site.
For questions regarding this request for proposal, please contact Jason Poscovsky, Contract Administrator at telephone number (281) 275-2302 or email at [email protected] .
Glenda Gundermann, TRMC, CMC, AAECity Secretary
NOTICE TO BIDDERS
SURFACE WATER TREATMENT PLANT
PHASE I EFFLUENT DISCHARGE FORCE MAIN
The City of Sugar Land seeks bids, in triplicate, for furnishing all labor, material, and equipment, and performing all work required for the following project in the City:
CIP PROJECT NAME: SWTP Phase I Effl uent Discharge Force Main
CIP PROJECT NUMBER: WW1102
LOCATION OF WORK: Voss Road Along Burney Road, Sugar Land, TX
Plans, specifi cations, and bidding documents may be obtained in an electronic format (CD) at the following offi ce and location with payment of $50.00:
Carollo Engineers, Inc.
Attn: Meera Victor, P.E.
450 Gears Road, #205B
Houston, Texas 77067
(281) 872-4512
Sealed bids, one original and two copies, with the Project Name and Project Number shown on the envelope shall be delivered to the City of Sugar Land City
Secretary Offi ce, 2700 Town Center Boulevard North, Suite 122, Sugar Land,
Texas, 77479, on or before 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 5, 2012, at which time bids will be publicly opened and read. Bids received after the opening date and time will not be considered.
A non-mandatory pre-bid meeting for all interested parties will be held 11:00
a.m., Thursday, December 15, 2011, Brazos Rooms, City of Sugar Land City
Hall, 2700 Town Center Boulevard North, Sugar Land, Texas 77479.
The City reserves the right to revise or amend the specifi cations prior to the date set for opening of bids. Such revisions or amendments, if any, will be announced by addenda or addendum to the specifi cations. Copies of such addenda so issued will be furnished to all prospective bidders and may or may not aff ect the bid opening date. The City of Sugar Land reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive informalities in bids received. Questions and/or interpretation relating to the bid must be submitted in writing to the Project Manager and Engineer at least 48 hours prior to bid opening.
The City Council will award the bid to the lowest responsible bidder that complies with all requirements of the Request for Bids. The City of Sugar Land will give notice of the contract award within sixty (60) calendar days after the bid opening date and time.
Glenda Gundermann, TRMC, CMC, AAECity Secretary
NOTICE OF SOLID WASTE ORDINANCE AMENDMENT
The City of Sugar Land City Council on November 15, 2011 adopted on second consideration City of Sugar Land Ordinance No. 1838:
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SUGAR LAND, TEXAS, AMENDING CHAPTER THREE OF
THE CODE OF ORDINANCES REGARDING SOLID WASTE
Said ordinance amends Section 3-148 Defi nitions, Section 3-155 Solid Waste Containers, and Section 3-156 Requirements for Collection. A review copy of the ordinance is available in the offi ce of the City Secretary, City of Sugar Land, 2700 Town Center Boulevard North, Suite 122, Sugar Land, Texas, (281) 275-2730, and may be examined between the hours of 8:00 o’clock a.m. and 5:00 o’clock p.m., Monday through Friday. Glenda Gundermann, TRMC, CMCCity Secretary
LEGAL NOTICEINVITATION TO BIDDERS
Sealed Bids will be received in the Offi ce of Gilbert D. Jalomo, Jr., County Purchasing Agent, Fort Bend County, Travis Annex, 301 Jackson, Suite 201, Richmond, TX 77469 for the following until THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011 at 1:30 P.M. (CST). All bids will then be publicly opened and read in the Offi ce of the Purchasing Agent, Travis Annex, 301 Jackson, Suite 201, Richmond, TX 77469. Bids received after the specifi ed time will be returned unopened.BID 12-015 – KNIGHT ROAD BRIDGE AT GULF COAST WATER AUTHORITY CANAL A pre-bid conference will be conducted on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 9:00 AM (CST) with site visit to follow. The pre-bid conference will be held at Fort Bend County Purchasing Department located in the Rosenberg Annex at 4520 Reading Road, Suite A, Rosenberg, TX. All bidders are encouraged to attend. Unit pricing is required; payment will be by check after products/services are rendered. Bonds are required.Fort Bend County reserves the right to reject any or all bids.
Signed:Gilbert D. Jalomo, Jr., Purchasing AgentFort Bend County, Richmond, Texas
Oscar O’Neal Griffi n, Jr. passed away Wednesday Nov. 23, 2011, age 78, quietly at his home in New Waverly, TX after a short battle with cancer with his family by his side. His memory and love will always be with us. We will long remember his sense of humor and generous spirit.
He is preceded in death by his parents Myrtle Edgar and Oscar Griffi n. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Pa-tricia Lamb Griffi n, brother Red Griffi n, sister Peggy Ma-rino, daughter and husband Gwendolyn and Philip Pryor, daughter and husband Aman-da and Alan Ward, son and wife Gregory and Jennifer Griffi n, daughter Marguerite Griffi n, and grandchildren Rebecca, Matthew, Griffi n and Lauren Ward, Hannah Pryor, John and Emma Grif-fi n.
(Oscar has two of his four children living in Sugar Land; Amanda Ward and her broth-er, Greg Griffi n and 6 of his 7 grandchildren.)
Oscar was born April 28, 1933, in Daisetta, TX. He graduated from Liberty (TX) High School in 1950, and served his country in the United States Army from 1953-1955. He went on to graduate from the University of Texas at Austin in 1958 with a Bachelor of Journal-ism. In 1982 he received his MBA from the Harvard School of Business.
Oscar spent much of his early career in journalism. He was a reporter for the Liberty Vindicator, editor of the Can-yon (TX) News, editor of the Pecos (TX) Independent and special assignments reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
From the beginning, Oscar received continuous recogni-tion for his excellence in writ-ing, such as awards from the Dept. of Defense, the Texas Newspaper Association and Sigma Delta Chi national journalistic society Distin-guished Service Award, The Headliners Foundation award for journalism reality, South-western Journalism Forum Certifi cate of Recognition in Reporting.
In 1963, he became the fi rst graduate of the University of Texas to receive the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished lo-cal journalism as a result of
a series of articles leading to the arrest of Billie Sol Estes. Later he worked as White House Correspondent for the Houston Chronicle where he traveled with and reported on President Lyndon Johnson. Under the Nixon Administra-tion Oscar served as the Pub-lic Information Offi cer for the US Transportation Depart-ment.
After leaving Washington, Oscar returned to Texas and the oil patch taking over his father’s company Griffi n Well Service and later founded Crossroads Oil Field Supply, both in El Campo, TX.
In 1986 he returned to jour-nalism as editor of The Mo-saic while working for Inter-faith Ministries for Greater Houston.
Oscar also wrote a book en-titled The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez with Roy Benavi-dez, a chilling account of the battle that earned Master Sgt. Roy Benavidez the Medal of Honor.
In his later years, Oscar moved to New Waverly (TX) where he worked as a tax preparer for H&R Block and enjoyed his four children, two sons in law, daughter in law and seven grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian burial was held Friday, Dec. 2 , at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 101 Elmore St., New Waverly, TX. Interment followed in Liberty City Cemetery.
Griffi n
Obituary: Oscar O’Neal Griffi n
Come join the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation for their monthly Heritage Hike on Saturday, December 10.
Presented each second Sat-urday of the month, trained guides will lead tours through a beautiful, historic neighbor-hood and will share stories about the people and events that shaped Sugar Land’s his-tory.
Heritage Hikes are a great way to learn more about our community’s past.
As an added bonus, the Sugar Land Heritage Foun-dation is now partnering with the Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation to include the 1918 Sugar Land Auditorium on the walking tour.
Participants will have a unique opportunity to view the interior of this magnifi -cently restored historic build-ing.
The walking tour begins at 10 a.m. and concludes at 11:30 a.m.
The tour group will depart from the SLHF offi ce located at 198 Kempner Street (next to the historic Char House at the Imperial Redevelopment site near Highway 90, be-tween Highway 6 and Brooks Street).
Participants can also enjoy food and fun at the Farmers Market at Imperial before or after the tour.
December Heritage Hike
SLHF guides Cherry Wong and Bruce Kelly lead a tour group through The Hill, a historic neighborhood where employees of the Imperial Sugar Company lived with their families.
The cost to go on a Heri-tage Hike is free for children under 12, $5 for teens, and $10 for adults.
Proceeds benefi t the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation and the Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation.
For more information on the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation and the Heritage Hikes, please visit the founda-tion’s web site at www.slher-itage.org or contact Executive Director Eleanor Barton at 281-494-0261.
A single Mexican White Oak tree standing sentry at hole #13 on the El Dorado course at Quail Valley Golf Course is a symbol of the City’s desire to replenish the large number of trees lost during the last three years after Hurricane Ike was fol-lowed by the current excep-tional drought that is ravag-ing the canopy in Missouri City parks. The Oak was planted during the kickoff ceremony for the “Three for Trees” program that was held on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
Proceeds will fund the planting of new trees at parks citywide through golf dis-count packages. Residents can buy three rounds of golf, including a cart rental, and receive a 20 percent dis-count, with a $10 donation going toward tree care and plantings at City parks and on QVGC properties.
“Unfortunately, we cannot replace mature trees that are dead or dying,” said Mayor Allen Owen. He encouraged residents to take advantage of the golf discount packages as a fi rst step in replenishing the trees lost to the drought.
Forester Paul Wierzbicki added, “In Missouri City, we are working creatively to come up with solutions to protect our area canopy. We’re thinking ‘outside of the box’ to come up with fi -nancial solutions to take care of our trees.”
And, Tyson Stittleburg, QVGC General Manager and Head Golf Professional, added: “We want to offer the most positive recreational experience we can to golfers and also to walkers and jog-
gers who enjoy the course at allowable times.”
An avid golfer, Council Member Floyd Emery also pitched in to help jump start the initiative, noting its sig-nifi cance to area residents.
For residents who enjoy playing golf or want to gift a golf package to a family mem-ber or friend, the “Three for Trees” program is a bargain.
To purchase one and sched-ule a tee time, call 281-403-5910 or visit www.golfquail-valley.com
“Three for Trees” program aims to replenish lost canopy in parklands
Mayor Allen Owen, left, and Councilman Floyd Emery toss dirt at the site of the new
Mexican White Oak tree on the El Dorado course.
DECEMBER 7, 2011 • INDEPENDENT • Page 7
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I was excited when I sat down in Theatre #2 at AMC First Colony because I was the only person in the auditorium and I was about to see a Mar-tin Scorsese movie. In 3D no less; I had my glasses already perched on my nose. I look good in 3D glasses. Please see attached photo.
Just as the fi nal trailers had run, two women sauntered in and noisily walked past my aisle seat. I knew they were close friends because they were talking non-stop and had diffi culty choosing their per-fect seat. They had 349 choic-es but seemed baffl ed. They fi nally chose a seat not far from me and began using their cell phone and chatting ener-getically. I considered holler-ing to them in a stage whisper “…hey, I can hear ya...” but
they looked a little rough and I didn’t want to get beat up by two middle-aged women so I let it go.
The cast includes Ben King-sley and Sacha Baron Cohen who both shone brightly as well as young Asa Butterfi eld as the orphaned boy who lives in the walls of a train station in
1930’s Paris. Sounds like an intriguing plot full of covert camera angles and imagina-tive editing, but not so much.
To see a Scorsese movie is a privilege and I often thought about the creative process of Scorsese as I was watching the fi lm.
Let’s take a minute to list some of his accomplishments: Taxi Driver, The King of Com-edy, Raging Bull, The Color of Money, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed. He’s considered one of the greatest and the critics are rav-ing about “Hugo” as though it is Oscar-worthy. But not this critic.
Scorsese has created a beau-tiful, 3D movie with a tender yet mysterious and suspense-ful story with great acting, but
I didn’t enjoy the fi lm. No matter how well-made
and skillful the director, if I don’t enjoy my experience in the dark of the theatre, then grades will suffer. Sorry, Marty, I know Steven returns your phone call, and certainly Leo does, but this project with the gorgeous 3D effects is not a great movie.
How do I know? The two ladies who were sitting close to me walked out with about 30 minutes left in the movie. Are you kidding me? They walked it and left me in the theatre all by my lonesome? Step One is to admit it hap-pened. Rock ‘n Roll.
formance and a Super Han-dling All-Wheel Drive™ (SH-AWD®) model, the fourth-generation TL is a most exciting performance luxury sedan.
After a complete from-the-wheels-up redesign for 2009, Acura has continued to en-hance numerous aspects of the original model. The 2012 Acura TL features a stiff unit-body construction with ex-pansive use of high-strength steel, dramatic exterior styl-ing, a choice of two V-6 pow-ertrains (280-hp 3.5L and 305-hp 3.7L) and electric power steering.
For 2012 the most appar-ent changes are visual and include new front and rear styling. The 2012 TL’s re-fi ned new look includes a re-designed front bumper with improved aerodynamics, a revised grille, updated head-lights and turn signals, a new fog light design and a shorter front overhang, all of which have added an increased level
of sophistication.At the rear, a new rear bum-
per incorporates a signifi cant-ly repositioned license plate opening and much smaller rear refl ectors, while updated taillights and a thinner rear trunk edge trim add to a so-phisticated new look. Also adding to the exterior looks are new 17- and 18-inch alu-minum wheels.
To increase performance, a new Sequential SportShift 6-speed automatic transmis-sion is used with all TL mod-els. In addition to incorporat-ing engineering enhancements aimed at improving effi ciency, a sport-minded double-kick-down feature lets the driver
Technology improvements include the availability of Song By Voice™, refi nement of Bluetooth® Audio, new ac-tive pairing functionality for Bluetooth® enabled cellular telephones, dial-by-number and dial-by-voice tags and ex-panded map information for the navigation system.
In addition, a technology package available on both models features the Acura Navigation System with Voice Recognition™, AcuraLink Real-Time Traffi c with Traf-fi c Rerouting™, AcuraLink Real-Time Weather™ with ra-dar image mapping, the Acura/ELS Surround® premium au-dio system, Bluetooth® Au-dio and the Keyless Access System with Smart Entry and pushbutton ignition.
My favorite addition is a must have safety feature in the optional Advance Pack-age. It’s a new blind spot in-formation system that detects other vehicles when they are located in the blind spot of the TL driver.
The Acura TL SH-AWD arrived looking fabulous in graphic luster metallic. This luxury sedan is defi nitely a fast, sporty drive with numer-ous creature comfort features as standard equipment. This smart looking sedan with all-wheel drive retails for $45,085.
command a double down-shift— such as from fi fth to third gear.
The transmission is teamed with a new multi-clutch torque converter that allows for lock-up activation during a much wider range of driving conditions and improves fuel economy. As a result, city/highway fuel economy is now 20/29 mpg*— an increase of 3 mpg in highway driving over the 2011 TL.
Inside, the 2012 TL benefi ts from a further refi ned cabin that includes optional venti-lated front seats, instrument cluster changes, advanced LED lighting throughout the cabin, thickly bolstered leath-er seating and fl owing metal-lic or wood patterned accents. A larger HDD system (now 60 gigabytes) works with a brighter and more colorful monitor, there is an increase to 15 GB of dedicated space for the storage of up to 3,500 songs,and there is faster USB port connectivity.
Larry H
United States Marines “Toys For Tots”The United States Marine Corps has its annual “Toys For Tots” fundraiser currently underway. Toys or Check donations can be dropped off until December 13 at Fort Bend Toyota, 20465 Southwest Freeway (Hwy 59 @ 99), Richmond, Texas. Please help the Marines give a child a Merry Christmas. If you have any questions, call Nick Landoski @ 281.341.5900.
Fort Bend Harris Retired Educators will meet December 8 at noon for their holiday luncheon followed by entertainment by the Harbor Lights Choir. Please bring a dish to share and books to donate to the Children’s Book Project. The meeting will be held in the Great Room at the Sugar Land First United Method-ist Church on Eldridge Road.
Retired educators
Hightower Hurricanes to play state semifi nals game on Dec. 10
The Hightower High School (HHS) Hurricanes football team will play the Madison High School Mavericks on Saturday, Dec. 10, in the state semifi nals playoff game at the Alamodome.
After beating the defending state champion Pearland High School team with a remarkable 35-14 win, the Hurricanes will travel to San Antonio for a 4:00 game this weekend for a chance to play in the state title game in two weeks. Hightower will be the Home team.
Tickets can be purchased starting tomorrow at the District athletic offi ce from 8 -4:30 at Wheeler Field House (16403 Lex-ington Blvd., Sugar Land), or at HHS (3333 Hurricane Lane, Missouri City). Tickets will be sold through 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9. Presale tickets are $5 for students, $10 for adults and $11 for all tickets sold at the Alamodome on Saturday.
Page 8 • INDEPENDENT • DECEMBER 7, 2011
R I V E R S T O N E
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