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Six Bands to be in DeLeon Saturday

This Saturday, October 4, an exciting, new to DeLeon, event will take place at the Bearcat Stadium.

Six high school marching bands will perform and compete in the first ever “Bring Your Own Band” marching competition in DeLeon. Each band will perform their 2008 marching show marching to be judged by three judges.

Even though each school participates in UIL Marching competition every year, it is a rare opportunity for DeLeon’s band fans, of which there are many, to get to view several schools perform their respective programs back to back. There will be around 600 students from the area performing, beginning at 1 p.m.

This is a great opportunity for area residents to spend an afternoon enjoying the talents of our local youth and supporting some great band programs from around the area.

A nominal admission fee of $1 for students, and $2 for adults, will be charged at the gate to offset the cost of trophies. A concession stand sponsored by the DeLeon Band Boosters will be be open, along with a bake sale. Any donations of baked goods will be greatly appreciated.

Please come out for an exciting afternoon and support local area musicians.

Hospital Reporting Stronger Profits

By JERRY MORGAN, Reporter

VAN DYKE -- In a short and sweet meeting, the Hospital District Board adopted a tax rate for 2009, authorized the purchase of a new mammography machine and heard a favorable earnings report.

The Board of Directors of the Comanche County Consolidated Hospital District, the governing body of Comanche County Medical Center and Doctors Medical Clinic, met in regular session on Tuesday, September 23 in the hospital cafeteria.

Board vice president Joe Locke conducted the meeting with members Karen Petty, Janna Morris and Billy Ray Evans present. President Gale Easley and member Charles Mazurek were absent.

The first item of new business was the adoption of a property tax rate for 2008. Karen Petty offered a motion to adopt the $.25/$100 taxable valuation rate as budgeted and presented in a resolution. Janna Morris seconded and the vote of approval was unanimous.

The minutes from the previous regular Board meeting held on August 26 and two public hearings on the property tax rate on September 12 and September 15 were also approved by unanimous vote.

Medical Chief of Staff Dr. Dwayne Miller was not present to give the medical staff report. Chief Executive Officer Kevin Storey gave a brief report on a recent medical staff meeting where new training on the proper documentation of medical necessity was the subject.

The medical staff training was conducted by Dr. Earl Smith with the Texas Medical Foundation and was held in preparation for the hospital's soon to be implemented medical documentation audit program.

After only five minutes of public meeting, the Board then adjourned into closed, executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel matters and financial planning for provision of medical services. The closed session lasted approximately 25 minutes.

At the conclusion of the executive session and resumption of public session, Karen Petty offered a motion to authorize the transfer of direct supervision of the Emergency Medical Service, Home Health and Hospice from the CEO to the Chief Nursing Officer Kerry Radcliffe. Janna Morris seconded and the vote of approval was unanimous.

Karen Petty offered another motion concerning items discussed in executive session. Her second motion authorized hospital management to pursue the acquisition of a new mammography machine. Her motion was again seconded by Janna Morris and again the vote of approval was unanimous.

The Board then acted to renew an annual agreement with Cook Children's Medical Center governing the transfer of patients between the two hospitals. The unanimous vote was on a motion offered by Karen Petty and seconded by Billy Ray Evans.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Letz next gave the financial report for August. He referred to financial statements in the Board book and pointed out that patient billings were within one percent of budget and that contractual deductions were well under budget, yielding net patient revenues of $3.018 million, more than 3% ahead of budget.

Letz continued noting that total expenses were also tracking the budget fairly closely. For two months they are more than $200 thousand and 6.5% below budget. Contributions and grants at $57 thousand are almost double the budget.

The two month net income is $240 thousand, with a net income of $210 thousand booked in August.
Letz described it as, "Over all, a very good operating result."

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

Commissioners Complete Work on Budget and Property Tax Rate

By JERRY MORGAN, Reporter

COMANCHE -- After some dealing with a difficult salary issue in the District Clerk's office, the final wrap-up of the budget and the setting of a property tax rate was handled by the Commissioners with relative ease.

The Comanche County Commissioners Court met in a special called meeting on Friday, September 26, with Judge James Arthur conducting the meeting and Commissioners Garry Steele, Bobby Schuman and Jimmy Dale Johnson participating.

Commissioner Kenneth Feist was absent and smilingly described as involved in "official county business."

Other county officials present at various times during the meeting included County Clerk Ruby Lesley, County Auditor Joey Boswell, County Attorney Craig Willingham, District Clerk Brenda Dickey, County Treasurer Billy Ruth Rust, Justice of the Peace Bill Koenig, Sheriff Jeff Lambert, Constable Mark McDonald, County Court Coordinator Sherry Ward, Emergency Services Coordinator Ray Helberg, his assistant Trish Grimshaw and Community Supervision and Corrections Department Administrator Regina Johnson.

Minutes and Job Description Mix-up Corrected

Near the conclusion of the two hour meeting the matter which caused minor contention during the Commissioners meeting on the previous Monday was harmoniously resolved in less than three minutes.

Jimmy Dale Johnson stated, "We got that backwards. It's as simple as can be. We've got to undo it."
Garry Steele commented, "Actually, it's more of a correction, I guess, than an amendment. I certainly have no objection to (it)."

Bobby Schuman made a laughing remark about the how the Commissioners had "butted heads in the Free Press" over the matter.

Joey Boswell noted that the budget had been prepared on the time split assumption as he recalled Schuman's motion having been made, namely three days a week for Trish Grimshaw to be working for the precincts on county business and two days on FEMA business.

Schuman added, "And that's what the motion was. That's what my motion was for."

Garry Steele noted that there needed to be a motion to correct the minutes. He then asked about the job description form that was signed by the Commissioners.

Ruby Lesley responded that it was for the opposite, and then stated, "And that's what I was going by."

Jimmy Dale Johnson made a motion to correct the job description and the minutes. Garry Steele seconded and the vote of approval was unanimous.

Ruby Lesley took credit for the error in the minutes, however, it was made clear by the Judge and Commissioners that they did not wish to blame, but only to correct the record.

Fuel Bids

The first item of business taken up was to open fuel bids for the county's fiscal year beginning October 1. The first bid was from Gooden Petroleum and it was based on cents per gallon over the published Oil Price Information Service average fuel price.

Gooden's bid was 15 cents per gallon over OPIS for precincts three and four, and 20 cents over OPIS for precincts one and two and the Sheriffs Office.

The second bid was from Central Texas Energy Suppliers, and it was 15 cents over the OPIS price for all county precincts and the Sheriffs Office.

Also discussed was the state's Buy Board pre-bid price, which was only .89 cents over OPIS. Delivery charges and minimum and maximum quantities applied, however.

Questions were posed regarding difficulties and costs involved if only one precinct was out of a particular fuel and the logistics of having fuel shipped from a distant urban location.

Garry Steele offered a motion to accept the Central Texas Energy bid for all locations. His motion was not seconded, however.

Bobby Schuman asked whether the county could continue splitting its business between the two bidders so that precincts three and four could continue purchasing fuel from Gooden Petroleum.

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

Council Postpones Decision on Tree Removal,

Hears Remarks from Fire Chief

By LAURA KESTNER, Editor

A motion, by Councilman Lee Childers, to allow DeLeon resident Charles Brown to remove two large trees from city property failed due to lack of a second, during the most recent meeting of the DeLeon City Council, Thursday, September 25, 2008.

Councilman Avery Carlisle was absent, and council members Pauline Villarreal and Gayle Stroud expressed reluctance to vote to allow removal of the trees.

The roots of the trees in question (between the sidewalk and the street in front of Brown’s house on Houston Street once known informally as Market Street) have buckled the sidewalk according to Brown, and he would like to remove the trees, at his own expense, and repair the sidewalk.

After a brief discussion involving possible damage to the city street when the trees are removed, possible alternatives to complete removal and various removal methods, council members voted to postpone any action pending further information.

In addition to Villarreal, Childers and Stroud, those present for the meeting included Mayor Danny Owen, City Administrator Karen Wilkerson, Chamber Director Linda Levens, Police Chief Ralph Dickey and Fire Chief Doyle Rone.

Prior to Brown’s remarks, Fire Chief Doyle Rone addressed the council during the Citizen’s Presentation portion of the meeting, beginning his remarks with an apology for not making arrangements for being on the agenda so that council members could respond.

“I have no gripe, no complaints, none whatsoever,” Rone said. “Danny asked me to come down here, because some of you guys are not as oriented to what we do as much as Danny and Avery (both firemen) and Karen (Wilkerson), whom I deal with daily.”

Rone then offered up a “little bit of history.”

“Our city budget that we operate off of is part of our funding,” Rone said. “We probably bring in $8-10,000 a year, through donations. Our county funding is around $3-3,500 per year. The way we normally work our stuff, and it seems to be working well for us, is operating on our city budget. This is what buys our tires, our batteries, our fuel, it keeps things moving. We put our other money in the bank, and we wrote a check for $75,000 a while back for the cab and chassis that we’re working to finish now.”

Rone said that by the end of the year, the department’s fleet would include two heavy brush trucks, two light brush trucks, one 3,000 gallon tanker, a 78 engine, and an 04 Pierce Class A engine.

“Me sitting here telling you this, probably doesn’t mean as much to you, I suppose, as it does to those of us who fought long and hard for this, ” Rone said. “But what you need to remember and think about, is that in August of 2004, if your house had caught on fire, the first truck to come out of that station was a 1961 model...with a maximum speed of about 45 miles an hour. Our lives have changed a little bit.”

Rone said that once the newest truck is completed, he’d like to hold an open house so that council members could see “where the money goes.”

“This fire department is 100 percent volunteer,” Rone reminded them. “If you haven’t been on the VFD you can’t imagine the time and hours that go into it.”

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

Week 4 Winner

Beth Riggs Best of Three Perfect Picks

The Riggs family has repeatedly proven their prowess when it comes to predicting the outcome of football games.

Earlier this season it was young Aaron who was the top picker of the week. This week, however, it was his mother, Beth, who turned in a perfect set of picks. She barely edged two other perfect pickers, Terry Hodges and Sam Frasier, both of whom predicted more than 50 points to be scored in the tiebreaker game. But neither guessed as high as Beth's 56 points, which itself was 10 points low.

In the very large "close but no cigar" category of single miss pickers, we have Talmage Hodges, Molly Kate Casey, Lauren Casey, Carolyn Frasier, Lorrie Couch, Richard Mohon, Derek Elmore, Todd Morris, Taylor Hodges, Leisha Hodges, Stephen Riggs, Jason Killebrew, Barry Hooker, David Lindsey, Andy Quinn, Steve Baker, Bradley Sanders, Thomas Roberts, Bobby L. Schuman, Allen Stone, Buddy Sharp, Landen Lewis, and Lana Coker.

As must be obvious by now, the average score of our panel of pickers improved dramatically in Week 4, earning the first "B" score of this football season. The average score was 83.5% correct, or only two and a half misses out of 15.

Tarleton State's dramatic come from behind win with a long pass play in the last seconds of the game certainly helped in that regard, since more than 93% of our panel had picked the Texans to win.

DeLeon's lop-sided victory over Valley Mills in front of a homecoming crowd was the game most often correctly picked. Way to go Bearcats! Only a single contestant missed on that one.

Cisco's win over Colorado City and Texas' win over Arkansas were other contests that most panelists accurately predicted. Better than 90% of our panel also predicted losses by Comanche, Tolar and TCU.

The game that provided the most misses was Eastland's win over Jim Ned. Over half of our panel missed on that one. Other games providing unpleasant surprises for our pickers included San Saba's big win over Dublin, Millsap's defeat of Perrin Whitt, and McGregor's spanking of Hico.

On the whole, however, it was a very good week for our pigskin prognosticators. Next week may be different, however, as many teams, DeLeon included, take the week off prior to the start of district play. There are some good contests still on the table.

May the best man, woman or child win.

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