Thursday, January 24, 2013 Volume 122, Number 4 $1.00

Serving Bastrop County for more than 120 years smithvilletimes.comLocalwoman celebrates95th birthday SEE PAGE B6

Lady Tigers still rollingSEE PAGE B1

AN ACN PUBLICATION

An edition of the

terry hagerty/times photos

Smithville, Paige and Bastrop firefighters respond to mobile home fire Jan. 16 at 1672 FM 2104. A woman and three toddlers escaped unhurt from the blaze.

Gone in minutes

A quick escape in mobile home fire on FM 2104

Firefighters donned masks in the thick smoke.

BY TERRY HAGERTYASSISTANT EDITOR

A smoke detector and a bit of fire knowledge played a key part in a young woman reacting quickly during a resi-dential fire last week near Paige.

The mobile home of Eric and Ron-da Thompson, at 1672 FM 2104, was

completely destroyed in a fast-mov-ing blaze that broke out shortly before noon on Wednes-day, Jan. 16

But the couple was not at home at the residence that sits about 150 yards back from FM 2104, just north of FM 2239.

As they stood by the roadside as fire-fighters squelched the last of the small flames that sprouted up from the smol-dering ruin that was their home, Ronda Thompson credited the quick reaction of her daughter, Shaniquewa Stobb, with averting the further disaster of the loss of young lives.

Stobb was in the home with three of Thompson’s younger children, who are eighth months, one and three years old.

“I was in my bedroom when I heard the buzzer for the smoke detector. I was watching ‘Bubble Guppies’ with the kids,” Stobb said.

Stobb said as she exited her room she saw thick black smoke and growing flames coming from the far side of the trailer.

“I remembered from learning in school that it only takes about four min-utes for a mobile home to burn, so I got

MORE PHOTOSSee more photos from the fire on page A6.

See FIRE, page A6 The Bastrop Fire Department assisted in fighting the fire.

Scrap metal neededDonations help fund veterans parkBY TERRY HAGERTYASSISTANT EDITOR

Mayor Mark Bunte stood by the railroad-size car, piled high with all sorts of metal.

“That’s scrap metal we’ve collect-ed for the Veterans Memorial Park, and we are cleaning up the county at the same time,” Bunte said. “What is there will bring close to $1,000. We’ve raised $45,000 in scrap metal, so far.”

Bunte was referring to raising funds for the Smithville Veterans Memorial Park, that he hopes to ded-icate on Memorial Day – Thursday, May 27.

See METAL, page A4

School board appreciated for furthering educationBY SARAH ACOSTASTAFF WRITER

January is officially School Board Recognition Month, a time to honor the distinguished members of the Smithville school district’s school board.

As elected volunteers, who re-ceive no compensation for their ef-forts, they continue to be dedicated to providing each student with the proper education needed for suc-cess.

According to the Texas Associa-tion of School Boards, school board members are the largest group of publicly-elected officials in the state - more than 7,200 men and women serve without pay on local boards across Texas.

SISD would like to acknowledge the members of its board – President Kamron Saunders, Vice President Alan Hemphill, Secretary Mike Morgan and trustees Steve McKay, Michael Goertz, Samella Williams and Howard Burns - for serving the students of Smithville.

Serving as a crucial link between the community and the classroom, the board is responsible for an annu-al budget of approximately $17 mil-lion, 1,782 students, 254 employees and four campuses, said SISD su-perintendent Dr. Rock McNulty.

“I appreciate the diverse back-ground and insight that our board brings to the table when we meet,” he said. “The important and often

See SCHOOL, page A7

County celebrates MLK Jr. with walk

terry hagerty/times photo

Participants in Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. Walk make their way down Pine Street to one of several church stops.

BY TERRY HAGERTYASSISTANT EDITOR

James Hewitt, holding onto a cane, stood on his porch on Bastrop’s Martin Luther King Street, wearing a T-shirt featuring President Barak Obama with the U.S. Capi-tol in the background.

“This is a real nice turnout,” Hewitt said as the last of the several hundred people, who turned out for the annual Martin Lu-ther King Jr. Walk, went past his home. “It’s beautiful that blacks, whites and Hispanics come together for this walk every year.”

The walkers had just stopped at Mt. Rose Missionary Baptist Church after be-ginning at the Bastrop County Courthouse. They made their way to Ascension Catho-lic Church, Paul Quinn African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Kerr Community

See MLK Jr., page A8

Inside the Science ParkMD Anderson cancer research center aims to help many

BY SARAH ACOSTASTAFF WRITER

Tucked away on more than 700 acres of land beside Buescher State Park, the Virgin-ia Harris Cockrell Cancer Research Center at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Science Park, Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis, has provided an ideal setting for cancer research since 1977.

Established in 1941 by the Texas leg-islature as part of the University of Texas System, MD Anderson is a world-renowned

See SCIENCE, page A7

CONTENTSOPINION..........................A2

LIFESTYLES................A3-A8

CALENDAR.......................A4

CHURCH.............................A7

SPORTS.....................B1-B2

CLASSIFIEDS....................B3

ENTERTAINMENT.......B4-B5

A6 Thursday,January24,2013 LIFESTYLES TheSmithvilleTimes

the kids out of there as fast I could,” Stobb said.

Meanwhile, fire crews from Paige, Smithville and Bastrop were on their way. A deputy with the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office had first arrived on the scene. Stobb said she took the children over toward a barn area, well away from the home.

But the fast-moving blaze had completely en-gulfed the home within minutes, before the fire departments arrived. Still, they made concentrated ef-forts to douse the blaze and keep it from spreading to a nearby wooded area. The thick black plume from the blaze could be seen from Smithville and Bastrop.

“When I got back here, the whole house was in flames,” Ronda Thompson said. “It was gone.”

But Thompson, with tears welling up in her eyes, said her daughter had saved lives.

“We taught her well and she reacted quickly,” Thompson said.

FIRE from Page A1

terry hagerty/times photos

A Smithville firefighter pulls off part of a wall at the rear of a mobile home to get at the smoldering fire.

The mobile home of Eric and Ronda Thompson was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived just before noon on Jan. 16.

A Smithville firefighter douses the blaze.

Water is poured into a portable holding tank.