THE COMMUNITY NEWS
ALEDO ISD
QUICK
REFERENCE
Getting the most
out of your newspaper
Telephone
817-441-7661
Web Site
www.community-news.com
Fax
817-441-5419
Mail
P.O. Box 1031
Aledo, TX 76008
Physical Address
203 Pecan Dr.
Aledo, TX 76008
HOW TO:
Share a story idea or
request event coverage
We’re always on the lookout for
story ideas. To share one, call Randy
Keck at 817-441-7661, ext. 207 or e-
mail editor@community-news.com.
Please leave the basic story informa-
tion as well as contact information
in the event that we have further
questions.
Purchase a photo reprint
Upon request, we will upload any
staff photo published in the news-
paper for purchase. Call us with
the issue and page number of
the photograph and the image will
be uploaded and available within
one week.
Place an advertisement
Call 817-441-7661 ext. 203 for dis-
play advertising rates. The display
advertising deadline is noon Friday
for the following week’s paper.
Classified Advertising
Call 817-441-7661 ext. 201 or e-
mail classifiedlineads@community-
news.com for classified advertis-
ing. Classified ads are due by noon
Monday.
Subscribe
Call 817-441-7661 ext. 204 or e-mail
subscriptions@community-news.
com with your name, address, a
contact phone number and the
number of years you’d like to sub-
scribe. We’ll send you a bill.
Submissions
All submissions can be e-mailed
to news@community-news.com,
mailed, faxed or brought in to our
physical location. Please include
contact information with any sub-
mission in case there are questions.
Specifics on the types of submis-
sion follow.
An event in the Calendar or in
Community Notes
For calendar events, submit the
important information ( , time,
place and a short description). For
community notes, write up a short
(no more than 70 words) article.
Events must be submitted by noon
Friday to be eligible for publication
in the following week’s paper.
A story or photo
We welcome story and photo sub-
missions of local events for publica-
tion consideration. Digital pictures
should be a minimum of 4 1⁄2
inches wide at 200 dpi to repro-
duce well in the paper. Other photo-
graphs may be brought by the office
or mailed to the office. We will keep
submitted photographs on hand for
30 days.
Letter to the editor
The Community News welcomes
letters from readers on topics of
local interest. Letters should be
signed with the author’s name and
city of residence, should include a
telephone number for verification of
authorship, and should be limited
to approximately 300 words. No let-
ters on any topic will be published
in the issue immediately preceding
any local election. The deadline for
submission of letters is noon on
Monday for that week’s paper.
Wedding, engagement or birth
announcement
The Community News does not
charge for timely wedding, engage-
ment and birth announcements pro-
vided they are of reasonable length.
Lengthy announcements will either
be edited to a reasonable length or, at
the discretion of the person submit-
ting the announcement, be charged
a fee. The deadline for submitting
announcements is noon Friday for
the following week’s paper.
Obituary
The Community News does not charge
for the publication of local interest
obituaries. Obituaries must be sub-
mitted by noon Friday to be eligible for
publication in the next week’s paper.
Rigues, Stringer on Equity Center podcast
By Tony Eierdam
The Community News
Aledo ISD trustees Bobby
Rigues and Jay Stringer recently
completed a trip to Austin where
the duo was a guest of Equity
Center Radio, a weekly podcast
broadcast on the Equity Center
Web site.
Equity Center was founded
in 1982 by 55 school districts as a
response to inequities that exist-
ed in Texas’ school finance sys-
tem. Equity Center has become
the largest research and advocacy
organization of its kind in the
nation and the only education
association in the state that exclu-
sively represents the interests of
children in school districts that
are chronically under-funded by
the Texas school finance system.
According to its Web site
(Equitycenter.org) Equity Center’s
first priority has always been, and
will always be, to increase access
to financial resources for member
school districts.
On the podcast – which can
be archived from the site - Rigues
and Stringer revealed their grass-
roots efforts to reach out to the
Aledo ISD community and the
stated to gain support for over-
HAWKINS
from page two
“If we truly united the cities,
would reduce the overall staff-
ing requirements for the area by
a substantial number of people.
You would see savings in equip-
ment management we would
shut down some buildings that
we don’t need so you have addi-
tional savings the second or third
year.
“We have a tremendous
potential here, if we could just
step back and see what we’re
staring at, we’ve really got fab-
ulous people, rich open lands,
plenty of water, there’s a lot of
opportunity for us here.”
Crying foul
The individual strategic plans
a handful of the cities have in
East Parker County were also
mentioned at Hawkins’ town hall
meeting Tuesday night. Hawkins
mentioned that Hudson Oaks
is working with Annetta and
Annetta North on a strategic plan
for their cities future and said
uniting the cities would allow the
region to be “poised to build a
community strategically.”
“When I wrote this, I envi-
ALEDO FAMILY EYE CARE
• Eye Exams
• Contact Lenses
• Laser Vision Consultation
• Foreign Body Removal
• Treatment of Minor Eye Disease
• Diagnosis of Glaucoma,
Cataracts, Diabetic Retinopathy
and Macular Degeneration
Dr. Marcus H. Gleaton
Therapeutic Optometrist
119 South Ranch House Road, Suite 200
Aledo, Texas
Monday - Friday 9:00am-5:00pm (817) 441-0010
CLEAR FORK MATERIALS INC.
“Your Complete Landscape Materials”
Serving Parker & Surrounding Counties Since 1986
Topsoil-Custom
Soil Blends
Bedding Soil
Potting Mix
Sand, Gravel,
Natural Bldg.
Stone
Railroad Ties
WELCOME TO BEARCAT COUNTRY
Pick-Ups Welcome
800 OLD ANNETTA ROAD
ALEDO, TX 76088
Monday - Friday 8:00am-5:00pm • Saturday 8:00am-2:00pm • Weather Permitting
Serving Eastern Parker County, Texas: Aledo · the Annettas · Hudson Oaks · Willow Park
hauling the current inefficient
school finance system that was
put in place in 2006.
Rigues and Stringer’s message
is “to make education a priority,”
And on the short podcast both
talked about the letter writing
campaign and the efforts to gain
4,555 signatures on individual
letters that will hand-delivered to
Austin with the message, “Make
education a priority.”
The pair informed listeners
“by getting individuals and school
board members all across the
state behind a common message
to make education a priority we
want to work with the legislature
and state leaders and influence
state policy.”
Rigues and Stringer also
informed listeners that more on
the project can be found at www.
schoolpriority.com.
“The Equity Center and its
members is the perfect platform
to get the information out to
individual schools,” Rigues said.
“They asked us on the podcast
what the ‘Make education a pri-
ority’ initiative is all about. It
gave us an opportunity to explain
our efforts, and it gave us an
opportunity to tell them about
the Web site.”
sioned this on the ballot in every
city. I still think that’s the right
thing to do,” Hawkins said.
“(Hudson Oaks, Annetta and
Annetta North) are making stra-
tegic connecting points between
their cities, so they have a vision
of uniting, it may be that you’ll
see a sequence of events.”
Aledo, though, also has a plan.
Their plan calls for a revitalized
downtown, a couplet bordering
city hall and a widened and re-
routed FM-1187 among other
ideas, but Hawkins remarked
that Aledo’s plans don’t have any
benefit to the region.
“I think the last city that will
consider this is probably Aledo,
which is kind of the pulse that I
get, and it’s unfortunate because
their name is their most valuable
commodity and they really are
land locked,” Hawkins said. “If
they’re not careful, really, all the
growth will go right past them.”
“The phrase ‘stunned silence’
comes to mind,” Marshall said.
“What does that mean, ‘if we’re
not careful’.
“Aledo is not in a business in
creating a comprehensive plan
for other cities. Our plan was for
Aledo.”
It isn’t Aledo, however, that
Hawkins sees growing.
817-441-7777
Dr. Wayne Pierce, executive
director of the Equity Center
organization, said when the orga-
nization looked into the ‘Make
Education a Priority’ letter cam-
paign they immediately saw its
potential.
“Our organization extends
our podcast/Web site resource to
make sure every superintendent
and school board trustees are
aware of the campaign’s objec-
tives and resolution,” he said. “We
believe in this important initia-
tive. This can be very powerful
when supported by our school
districts. Let’s make education a
priority.”
Texas Association of School
Boards Governmental Relations
associate executive director
Jackie Lain issued a statement
commending the Aledo ISD
Board for its efforts in raising
awareness about issues affecting
school districts across the state.
“Their leadership has remind-
ed us all that, even in the face of
an unprecedented state budget
deficit, we must make education
our top priority,” Lain said. “The
TASB organization supports the
‘Make education a Priority’ let-
ter campaign and looks forward
to working with Aledo ISD to
“I think it’s possible that in
10 years, it’s not going to have a
growth rate like the rest of the cit-
ies are,” Hawkins said. “And that’s
good in one respect, but if they get
past five (thousand in population)
that’s not necessarily good.”
H.E.B mayors
scratching their heads
At both of Hawkins’ pub-
lic meetings where the topic’s
been his united cities proposal,
the Willow Park mayor men-
tioned that he has received sup-
port from the Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex cities of Hurst, Euless
and Bedford.
“I had a call from Hurst,
Euless and Bedford, which is
somewhat of a model of how cit-
ies work together for a number
of years,” Hawkins said at Los
Vaqueros. “They complimented
this plan hugely and they said
this is exactly what we (H.E.B)
should have done because they
are three separate cities and they
have three separate management
systems and three different types
of infrastructure and they should
have united so they had unifor-
mity on how they manage their
growth.
“The other dynamic that they
That flapping noise may be your
advertising dollars flying out of state
Advertise in
THE COMMUNITY NEWS
Parker County’s only locally-owned newspaper
www.community-news.com
817-441-7661
7- Various Types
of Mulches
Organic Compost
Mushroom
Compost
Decomposed
Granite
Expanded Shale
Delivery Available
The Community News (USPS 005-341) is published each week by Community Ventures Inc., at 203 Pecan
Dr., Aledo, TX 76008. Periodical rate postage paid at Aledo, Texas 76008.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to : The Community News, P.O. Box 1031, Aledo, Texas 76008
broaden the campaign’s reach.”
Stringer sees the podcast and
other networking as key tools to
spread the message.
“I was a unique experience,”
Stringer said. “It is my under-
standing that Equity Center had
600-700 members, and I would
assume that most of the mem-
bers actively listen to the (week-
ly) podcasts. I think quite a few
superintendents across the state
had listened to it, and if anything
maybe a little light bulb went
off to where they were thinking
these people in Aledo are doing
something about it that is unique
and maybe we should consider
doing the same.
“I think the podcast was
key, but more importantly Mr.
Rigues set up a Facebook page
that already has close to 400
followers. The way word spreads
through Facebook is exponen-
tial.”
Rigues said he has had posi-
tive feedback on the podcast and
the message delivered, including
from a Denton ISD school board
trustee.
said if we’re ever going to unite,
really the only time to do it is
while we are general law cities
rather than home rule cities.”
But all three mayors from
the H.E.B area didn’t even know
the full details of Hawkins’ plan.
Next to that, all of the mayors
said they’ve never spoken to
Hawkins.
“I have never contacted him,
he has never contacted me,”
Euless Mayor Mary Lib Saleh
said.
Jim Story, mayor of Bedford,
also said he has not communi-
cated with Hawkins and does
not support his six-city merger
for East Parker County. The only
mayor that showed any acknowl-
edgement to Hawkins’ proposal
was Hurst Mayor Richard Ward.
“Our cities supporting his
move is not true,” Ward said. “I’m
not supporting it, but I think it’s
a doggone good idea.”
Miscommunication
Before he began explaining
his proposal and took questions
from the crowd at Los Vaqueros
Tuesday night, Hawkins made it
clear to those in attendance that
he found the report of the first
public meeting held at the First
Baptist Church of Willow Park
Brent A. Gough
313 FM 1187 North
Aledo, TX 76008
817-441-9011
brent.gough@edwardjones.com
July 30, 2010 3A
“Thanks to the Equity Center
organization and the Texas
Association of School Boards, we
are now headed toward statewide
exposure,” Rigues said. “In the
end, the whole idea is to cre-
ate public awareness – which we
are doing locally with our letter
campaign.
“But we would like other
districts to create some kind of
public awareness campaign as
well. The discretion should be
left locally as to what type of
campaign to implement. It can
be one of sending letters, town
hall meetings, and phone calls,
just to name a few examples. It
can be any number of ways, much
like newspaper articles in local
papers.
“Making the public aware is
so critical.
“Another objective is to have
school districts adopt a resolu-
tion. A resolution is simple in
nature, and it would say that
collectively as a school board and
administration believes that edu-
cation needs to be a priority in
2011.
“Until it becomes a priority,
real solutions to school finance
will never take place.”
in The Community News to be
inaccurate.
“The report in The
Community News did not cap-
ture, at all, the essence of that
meeting,” Hawkins said. “There
were 15 people that came up
(to me) afterwards, specifically,
expressing very strong support
for this, a council member from
Hudson Oaks that thanked me
for taking the lead and told me
that I had his complete support.”
That Hudson Oaks city coun-
cilman, Bill Young, said that’s not
entirely true.
Young said he agrees there
is a population boom coming
to East Parker County and that
something needs to be done to
prepare for it before things get
out of hand, but he does not
support a merger of the six East
Parker County cities.
Referring to Hawkins as a
“Paul Revere” for the region,
Young said other options need to
be looked at outside of merging
the six cities together.
“I would say we miscommu-
nicated a little,” Young said.
Before the meeting concluded
about 20 citizens left the restau-
rant. A majority of those remain-
ing supported Hawkins’ plan
after a show of hands.
Gregg Davis, AAMS
108 S. Ranch House Rd.
Suite 300 - Willow Park
817-441-6612
gregg.davis@edwardjones.com
www.edwardjones.com