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Sunday, January 17, 2016

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Vol. 127 No. 96

Today59º

34ºPlenty of sunshine

Obituaries & Death NoticesComing Soon

The obituaries and death notices are on page 7A of today’s edition and include Rebecca “Becky” Ann Miller, 60; Anita Joyce Woodward, 85; and Wellington Wesley Koepsel, 94.

Don’t miss the Gazette’s coverage of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day March.

Felicia Frazarfelicia.frazar@seguingazette.com

With costs mounting, the Seguin school board acted to ensure the new high school project is completely funded.

During the regular meeting on Tuesday, the board unanimously approved using $20,354,130 from the general fund balance to help pay for costs associated with the Seguin High School project.

Larry Throm, financial consultant from Moak Casey, explained the total cost of the project is looking to total nearly $104 million once complete — including all of the soft costs, such as desks, technology and contin-gency funds.

“You have $83 million to pay for it ,” he said. “That’s not an emergency to me, because you have saved for a lot of years in a fund balance. You increased it little by little over many years, not with a specific purpose, but in case you need the money. Cities, counties and other school districts across the state are doing the same thing. You have somewhere around $30 million in your fund balance.”

In 2013, the voters approved an $83 mil-lion bond — $78 million for the high school and $5 million for technology.

Board shifts over $20M for the new high school

SEGUIN ISD

SISD - 2A

Hometown

Hero

Jessica Kuhnjessica.kuhn@seguingazette.com

It’s not every day a commu-nity can come together and welcome home a Pulitzer Prize winner, however this past week

residents in Seguin had the privilege of doing exactly that — thanks to Educate Seguin.

“We are so pleased to host this event tonight,

INSIDEFalkenberg talks to journalism students on page 8A.

Pulitzer Prize winner speaks at Texas Theatre

Sheriff changes sign after outcry

Jessica Kuhn jessica.kuhn@seguingazette.com

A new sign stating no pictures or videos could be taken at the Guadalupe County Animal shelter was changed after people ques-

tioned whether it violated the First Amendment.

“I think it was a vio-lation of everyone’s First Amendment not just mine exclusively,” Heather Eaton, who volunteers at the shelter, said. “We had a

meeting in February and in August, and they all agreed I could take pictures and videos of the dogs. I have done exactly what they said I could, and that is it. I haven’t taken pictures of anything except for the animals.”

Eaton said she first learned about the new rule Sheriff Arnold Zwicke was implementing after receiv-

ing an email from Doug Pyatt, the shelter’s supervi-sor, on Thursday.

“You are more than wel-come to come up here at 4:30(p.m.) and tempera-ment test and vaccinate the dogs,” Pyatt wrote in an email Eaton provided to the Seguin Gazette. “However, effective yester-day, the sheriff is no longer allowing anyone to take

pictures or video of the animals at the shelter. You will have to make due with the photos that are already available on our website.”

After receiving the email, Eaton posted the new rule to the social media page she helps man-age, Friends of Dogs at Guadalupe County Animal Control, sparking an out-cry from people expressing

their disgust and question-ing its violation of people’s rights under the First Amendment.

“What on earth?! This is ridiculous,” Kristen Mattson wrote. “What kind of issue is it causing going to take pictures to help get those animals out of there?”

Shelter again allowing residents to take photos and videos of dogs

Taste of Soul offers residents a chance to sample black cuisineSteffanie Agnewsteffanie.agnew@seguingazette.com

History and food came togeth-er on Saturday at the Taste of Soul luncheon, part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day committee’s MLK Day celebrations.

Regina Lee, president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day com-mittee, said the event gave attend-ees a sense of the past and of the future as well.

“The Taste of Soul started over 30 years ago with the idea of allowing the community to taste

authentic black cooking,” Lee said. “The food comes from members of our community. It comes from our homes. We wanted people to taste what we eat and what we like.”

There was a large selection of

Steffanie Agnew

- Seguin Gazette

Goldie McKinney, a volunteer at the Taste of Soul event, serves beans to attendees on Saturday at the lun-cheon.

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award and the National Book Award for the 31 year old novelist and inspired the 1945 motion picture “The Southerner” starring native Texan Zachary Scott.

Perry felt humiliated by his rejection for military service in World War II due to a stiff elbow suffered in a fall from a horse. Determined to do his patriotic part, he went overseas as a civilian war correspondent and covered the Allied landings on Sicily in 1943.

Perry was so traumatized by the hor-rors of combat that he could never again bring himself to write fiction. Light-hearted yarns about the colorful folk of the Texas countryside seemed sacrile-gious after what he had seen.

Perry stayed busy, however, knock-ing out 57 magazine pieces, most for the Saturday Evening Post and its sis-ter periodical the Country Gentleman, between 1945 and 1950. Twenty-four of those articles were for The Post’s popu-lar “Cities of America” series, an ironic assignment for someone who openly

despised urban life.In the early 1950s, Perry’s output

dropped to six or seven articles a year. His sole book-length project was the 75th anniversary history of Texas A&M.

Arthritis of the spine made writing more and more difficult. For years, Perry had put off seeing a doctor for the crip-pling condition, preferring instead to medicate himself with whiskey, and by 1954 he was an alcoholic wreck haunted by voices and hallucinations.

Shortly before the tormented Texan disappeared in December 1956, the friend who would identify his body two months later dropped by the author’s Connecticut home. “The best thing I can do in this depressed state,” George Sessions Perry told the visitor, “is either jump into the river and swim to the north pole or run into the woods until I drop.”

The 45-year-old basket-case must have tried to do the former because it was in the river that flowed past his home that searchers finally found his remains.

HAILE

From page 3A

Perhaps not to him, but all of us who witnessed it felt uplifted by his simple gesture of kindness.

Similarly, an old, dear friend of my mother’s loved telling how she was living alone in a small apartment com-plex when one day returning from the store she thought she had lost a $20 bill. Searching all around the build-ing, the word quickly got out that this senior citizen was quite upset over her loss particularly given her limited income.

Returning empty-handed to her small apartment, it was later that eve-ning when she heard a knock on her door. It was Jim, an upstairs neighbor, who had taken a $20 bill out of his

billfold. “I think this is yours”, he said politely. I heard you had lost it.”

The old Scottish woman just smiled and said, “Laddie, you just put that money right back in your wallet. Thank you”, she said as she went on to explain that he wasn’t the only one who had “found” her $20 bill. The apartment’s caretaker, the widow next door and the young married couple on the third floor all had been to see her, claiming they had found her lost money.

“But”, she told Jim, “The truth is I already found it myself — at the bot-tom of my shopping basket.”

Then she added, “But, isn’t it won-derful how folks can be so kind?”

I believe that to be true. If you look for it you can find kindness every-where — even at the post office.

Mike Fitsko is a retired principal and longtime columnist from New Braunfels.

FITSKO

From page 3A

Haile writes This Week In Texas History which appears every Sunday. He welcomes your comments and questions at haile@pdq.net and invites you to visit his website at barteehaile.com.

The recent recapture of Mexican drug king Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán brings to mind the U.S. government’s program to detect air-craft that fly illegal drugs across the Texas-Mexico border.

As anyone who has driven the highways along the Rio Grande knows, much of the border region is remote and difficult to police. Light aircraft can easily fly back and forth without visual detection, especially at night. That’s why the government has deployed radar-equipped blimps to serve as air-borne electronic watch dogs since 1978.

These airships are known as Tethered Aerostat Radar Systems (TARS). Each TARS consists of a helium-filled aerostat equipped with a powerful radar, a 25,000-feet tether cable, a winch system to raise and lower the aerostat and a ground station. A TARS radar can detect low-flying aircraft up to 200 miles away.

Tethered balloons require careful monitoring of local wind direction and speed. That’s why each TARS ground station is equipped with weather instruments and a ground-based Doppler radar system.

Three TARS systems operate near the Texas cities of Marfa, Eagle Pass and Rio Grande City. The one in the photograph is about 20 miles west of Marfa on the south side of HW 90. It provides an unexpect-ed sight while driving across that remote landscape.

It’s widely known that TARS

radar data are used by US Customs and Border Protection for detect-ing aircraft carrying illegal drugs. TARS also plays an important role in national security, for the Air Force’s North American Aerospace Defense Command uses TARS radar data to detect possible enemy aircraft.

TARS aerostats have a length of 186 feet or 208 feet. Depending on the size of the aerostat, a TARS system can carry a payload of from 1,200 to 2,200 pounds. They are designed to float as high as 15,000 feet, but they generally stay at 12,000 feet.

The radar and electronics are powered by an onboard diesel gen-erator provided with a 100-gallon fuel tank. The generator, radar and various electronic systems are con-trolled by a two-way radio link with the ground station.

When the aerostat is in opera-tion high above the base station, a flight director observes computer

and radar screens to keep tabs on the performance of the system and any aircraft that might be detected.

When an aerostat needs refu-eling or other maintenance, it is pulled to the ground by its winch. It is then tethered to a moor-ing tower that allows it to rotate toward oncoming wind.

An Air Force fact sheet that provided key facts for this col-

umn is archived at: http://archive.is/20120719065800/http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=3507#selection-443.0-440.21. Or search these words online: “Air Force aerostat sites is restricted.”

Forrest M. Mims III

Focus On Science

Drug detecting blimps

Forrest M. Mims III - Seguin Gazette

This Tethered Aerostat Radar System blimp scans the sky for drug aircraft from 12,000 feet over U.S. Highway 90 near Marfa.

food available for people to sample.“Okra gumbo, various greens, fried

chicken, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, beans, peach cobbler, sweet potato pie,” Lee said. “They are foods that we consider part of our culture and most blacks cook and usually make, and are very important to us.”

Seguin resident Norma Hechevarria attended the event with her daughter 9-year-old daughter Sheyla.

They said their favorite food they sam-pled was chicken and pork chops.

“I’ve been coming for about four years already and I like it; I like the food,” Hechevarria said. “I brought my daughter with me so that she can learn about history. She’s learning about Martin Luther King Jr.”

In addition to the food, there was a display by the Texas Buffalo Soldiers about William Baton Ball, a local historical figure that made contributions to the Seguin com-munity.

Eddie Harrison, a re-enactor for the Texas Buffalo Soldiers, said that Ball was

a slave, soldier during the civil war and received an education. He established schools and community organizations in Seguin and was a leader for the community by encouraging children to attend school.

Harrison said it was about the 15th year the Texas Buffalo Soldiers displayed artifacts and stories for the Taste of Soul event.

“It’s an honor to be invited to come exhibit materials,” Harrison said. “Taste of Soul is an event that brings together peo-ple of all persuasions, and it shows people where we’ve been and where we’re going. In order to find a better way to get to where we want to get to, we have to pay attention to what happened in the past.”

Lee also said the event was important for the community.

“Seguin is only 7 percent black, so that’s a very low number,” she said. “We are part of the community, we par-ticipate, we work, we play, we spend our money here. We need to be recognized in some part, even for ourselves. Our children need a sense of history, a con-tinuation of our history. They need to understand what happens in their lives and what happened before they were here, that’s the biggest reason to do this and continue it.”

SOUL

From page 1A

Forrest Mims, an amateur scien-tist whose research has appeared in leading scientific journals. Email him at fmims@aol.com.