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Time Running Out to Register to Vote

The last day to register to vote in the May 9 election is Thursday, April 9. Registration forms are available in the Tax Office at the Comanche County Courthouse.

Early voting begins Monday, April 27 and will run through Tuesday, May 5, at the DeLeon City Hall.
On Monday, April 27, and Monday, May 4, polls will be open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. to better accommodate early voters.

Voter turn-out is predicted to be heavy due to two “hot-button” items on the ballot -- a six million dollar school, and a local option to approve the sale of all alcoholic beverages in DeLeon.

Comanche County Water Supply Reports Completed Construction

By JERRY MORGAN, Reporter

COMANCHE -- In contrast to prior years, the latest annual membership meeting of the Comanche County Water Supply Corporation was a small affair.

Perhaps the absence of construction project issues or other major problems contributed to the low turnout.

The CCWSC' 19th annual membership meeting was held on Friday evening, April 3, 2009, at the Comanche Community Center.

Board president Norman Williams called the meeting to order, declared the board election voting closed and then appointed a committee to count the ballots cast.

Williams then introduced the board members and staff present, including secretary/treasurer Sam Robinett, Willem Terpstra, Justin Chandler and Jerry Morgan. Expiring term board member and vice president David Ward and board member Connie Keith were absent.

Operations supervisor Joe Williams (no relation) and office manager Barbara Helberg were also introduced.

Norman Williams read a brief letter from engineer Randy Beyer, who normally attends the meetings as a representative of the Jacobs & Martin consulting engineers in Abilene. Beyer was out of the area on business, but noted that for the first time this year there would not be any construction plans or system planning issues to discuss, since the phase II construction had been completed late in the fall of 2008.

Norman Williams then noted that all pipe had been laid, all meters installed and water was flowing to a more than doubled number of system water customers. The phase II expansion was focused in areas along and neighboring Highway 36 from Comanche toward the towns of Gustine and Sidney.

Comanche County Water Supply Corporation has also purchased and remodeled office space at 800 S. Texas in DeLeon, purchased a new service truck and a backhoe and trailer, and is now training an additional water system technician.

The results of the Corporation's annual financial audit were briefly reported with a clean audit opinion being received. Although the Corporation had a net loss of almost $40,000 in 2008, it had a positive cash flow due to non-cash depreciation expense of almost $86,000. Prospects for 2009 are for better results due to the expansion coming on line.

The board member election results were then reported, with all votes cast in favor of the two nominees on the ballot, incumbent Norman Williams and new member Elaine Barnett, who was not present.

Following the close of the annual meeting, the board held a brief meeting in which Norman Williams was re-elected as president, Willem Terpstra was elected vice president and Sam Robinett re-elected as secretary/treasurer.

Hospital Board Cancels Election,
Purchases Electronic Records System for Clinic

By JERRY MORGAN, Reporter

VAN DYKE -- There will not be a hospital board election held in Comanche County this year because it was cancelled. Since there were no candidates filing for either of the two open hospital board seats, other than the incumbents, and since no write-in candidates emerged within the required time, there was no legal requirement to hold an election on May 9.

In an effort to save the costs of conducting an election, the hospital board voted unanimously to cancel the election.

The Board of Directors of the Comanche County Consolidated Hospital District, the governing body of the Comanche County Medical Center, met in regular session on Tuesday, March 31, 2009.

All board members were eventually present. Board president Gale Easley conducted the meeting with members Joe Locke, Charles Mazurek, Karen Petty, Billy Ray Evans and Janna Morris participating.

Electronic Medical Records for Clinic

The first item of new business concerned the acquisition of an electronic medical records system for the Doctors Medical Clinic.

The hospital has previously purchased and begun converting to the Meditech hospital information system which meets the federal requirements that all health care providers convert to electronic medical records.

However, financing limitations had not allowed the purchase at the same time of the software and hardware elements needed for the conversion of the doctors clinic and home health services to electronic records.

As the hospital Chief Executive Officer Kevin Storey explained it, federal healthcare provider cost reimbursement rates will be penalized at increasing percentages for all locations that do not have electronic medical records systems in place and functioning by October 2011. He added that it could possibly take that long to complete the conversion if any problems came up along the way, and that work should be starting.

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

Staff Sgt. Allen Visits DeLeon School

Just before Christmas last year, students in Becky Pair’s Life Skills class assembled and shipped care packages to several members of the military with local ties. Among the responses was the following e-mail letter from student Jaycee Allen’s stepfather, Staff Sgt. Tim Allen, who was deployed to Iraq at the time:

BACK FROM IRAQ. Staff Sgt. Tim Allen visited with Becky Pair’s Skills for Life class last week at Perkins Middle School.

Mrs. Pair and Jaycee’s Lifes Skill Class,
I want to thank you first and foremost for the package. There was so much thought and care put into the package, I do not know if I could ever repay it. I was so excited when I got off patrol to find the package waiting for me at the staging area. I appreciate all of the items in the care package. You do not know how much you miss home till you get one and especially one filled with letters of support from your daughters friends. The signed shirt was my most favorite part of the package. I will have that framed when I return home in March 2009.

I wish I could be more specific about my return, but that is classified and I cannot even tell Brenda or the kids. They want to know so bad, my family and kids have been my support during this deployment. Me, being a newlywed and deploying right after, tends to make it harder. But, Brenda, Jaycee, TJ and Jacoby have made it tolerable to be separated from such a great family.

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

Danny Owen, the Mayor of De Leon, has a personal website.

Open Danny's website by Clicking Here

Scott Hall has creating an Internet website with history & photos of our town.

Click Here to visit his website

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