City tax revenue counters state trend

FRIDAY
LONGVIEW, TEXAS
A Cox Newspaper
news-journal.com
April 10, 2009
Sirens sound, but no twister spotted
Northern counties take hardest hit from storm
BY JAMAAL E. O’NEAL
[email protected]
Strong rotation from a severe thunderstorm along the
Upshur and Gregg county line
Thursday night and a Nation-
al Weather Service Warning
prompted Longview officials
to sound the city’s emergency
warning sirens.
“Any time this area is under
a tornado warning, we are going to start the sirens,” said
What
goes
up ...
Longview Police spokesman
Kevin Brownlee.
Around 9 p.m., the National
Weather Service in Shreveport
placed Gregg and Upshur counties under a tornado warning,
which is issued when a tornado
has been spotted or is detected
by the National Weather Service.
No damage was reported,
and no tornado was sighted in
Longview, police dispatchers
said.
“Our radars indicated strong
rotation around the East Mountain, far north Longview area
that could have crossed Texas
300 and U.S. 259 as the storm
See SIRENS, Page 4A
... must come down the
mountain. That’s no
problem when you’re
behind the wheel of
an off-road vehicle,
like the fun-seekers
who brave the trails
at Barnwell Mountain
north of Gilmer.
Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo
A Jeep displays its badge of honor after a recent
day venturing the muddy trails at Barnwell Mountain
Recreational Area.
City tax
revenue
counters
state trend
Longview up 8.75% from April 2008
BY MIKE ELSWICK
[email protected]
Sales tax revenue for the city of Longview in April
remained on the positive side in a strong way and continued to go counter to trends across much of Texas.
April sales tax revenues for Longview are 8.75 percent ahead of the same month in 2008, according to
Jill Laffitte, budget administrator for the city. This
month’s revenue figure places each of the first seven
months of the city’s fiscal year, beginning in October,
well ahead of the 2008 record-breaking sales tax revenue year.
Longview received $2.14 million in sales tax revenue
this month, up by about $117,000 from the $1.968 million it received in April 2008.
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs reported Thursday that sales tax revenues statewide dropped 3.8 percent from April 2008. The portion going to Texas cities
was down 1.89 percent, she reported
Kelly Hall, president of the Longview Partnership,
said the fact Longview is bucking the statewide downward trend is not surprising.
“We’ve contacted about 75 percent of our memberSee REVENUE, Page 4A
April sales tax comparisons
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo
A Jeep claws for traction as the driver pilots it up a Barnwell Mountain trail. The 1,800-acre site that looks like a maze opened in 2000.
news-journal.com
Is it really a
mountain?
CLICK IT UP: Watch a video of vehicles tackling Barnwell
Mountain and see more photos online.
BY WES FERGUSON
[email protected]
G
ILMER — Rumbling past dogwoods in full
bloom on an iron-ore “mountain” high above
East Texas, a trail rider mashed the brakes of
his Land Rover and slid to a stop.
The trail veered hard right, dodging a pine tree.
Then it vanished into thin air.
The driver parked a safe distance from the steep
edge and stepped through mud to look around.
What he saw wasn’t pretty.
The rutted trail tumbled down a slippery, red dirt
face, straight to the base of the steep hill. Smeared
tread marks indicated a wild descent for the previous rider — and this was supposed to be one of the
more moderate trails at Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area north of Gilmer.
“There’s no way we’re climbing back up this,”
the driver said.
Despite the many trail markers that alert riders
to the names of routes and their degrees of difficulty, it’s not hard to get turned around in the 1,800See BARNWELL, Page 6A
Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo
Unofficial trail guide Mike Green helps a fellow driver up a
Barnwell slope. The appeal of the area isn’t just the trail riding. “We just use motorized vehicles as a way to get out in
the forest and enjoy the forest,” said Steve Thompson with
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
THE MORNING RUSH
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Barnwell Mountain
rises dramatically
from the East Texas
landscape. It’s
officially 600 feet
above sea level
— not exactly Mount
McKinley.
So what is the
difference between a
hill and a mountain?
There’s no official
distinction, according
to the U.S. Geological
Survey.
“Broad agreement
on such questions is
essentially impossible,
which is why there
are no official
feature classification
standards,” the
Geological Survey
writes online.
Longview: +8.74%
Atlanta: +29.72%
Carthage: +22.66%
Daingerfield: +8.95%
Gilmer: +3.21%
Gladewater: +4.06%
Hallsville: +42.52%
Henderson: +19.93%
Jefferson: +4.2%
Kilgore: +12.57%
Lakeport: -22.06%
Linden: +6.62%
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Lone Star: -26.7%
Marshall: +27.35%
Mount Pleasant: +12.16%
Ore City: +4.68%
Overton: -7.53%
Pittsburg: -14.8%
Tatum: -0.35%
Tyler: +11.06%
White Oak: +4.91
Source: Texas Comptroller’s
Office; comparisons
are to April 2008.
Council agrees
to city operation
of train depot
BY JIMMY ISAAC
[email protected]
The City Council signed its part of the deal.
Once Union Pacific Railroad Co. signs the contract,
Longview will own a train depot.
The council committed to an agreement Thursday
with the railroad company
The pact conveys the 9,300-square-foot depot to
Longview and leases the property beneath the depot
to the city for 20 years at a total cost of $125,840. That
amount must be paid by Oct. 31.
Longview plans to refurbish the depot into a transportation center for freight and passenger rail, bus and
shuttle service. City administrators want to pursue
federal and state grants to pay for the renovations.
Joy Smith, spokeswoman for Amtrak — which provides passenger rail service from the depot — praised
the city for reaching an agreement with Union Pacific
within less than one year. Other cities such as Marshall and Poplar Bluff, Mo., waited more than a decade
before acquiring ownership of their rail facilities.
See COUNCIL, Page 4A
Partly cloudy. High of 72.
SEVEN-DAY FORECAST, PAGE 3B
THE NATION
FIND IT ONLINE
Index
Bright economic signs
Mapping local crime
Although experts say the bumps aren’t
over, several signs Thursday — including
a drop in unemployment filings — point
to a leveling off for the U.S. economy.
Page 3A
Curious about Longview crime?
Find an interactive map online
showing locations for reported
major crimes this past week to
the Longview Police Department.
Look for it only at
news-journal.com.
Advice..................4C
Classifieds ...........1E
Comics.................10E
Leisure ................4C
Markets ...............4B
THE NATION
Thursday’s lottery
Shriners closings feared
Shriners hospitals, which provide free
medical care for children, are in danger
of shutting down a quarter of their facilities in the face of falling donations and
rising costs. Page 7A
Movie times.........4C
Obituaries............4D
Opinion ................2B
Police Beat ..........3B
Unwind ................1C
SPORTS
EAST TEXAS
EAST TEXAS
Pirate coach resigns
Upshur lawyer pleads
Visiting musician robbed
Tim Russell, Pine Tree’s athletic
director and head football coach
for five years, says he’s leaving
after this school year. Page 1D
Gilmer’s Robert Bennett pleads guilty
to misappropriation of client trust fund
accounts and felony theft. Page 1B
A man playing this weekend with the
Longview Symphony Orchestra was
robbed of his bassoon on the way to his
hotel room. Page 1B
Pick Three A.M.
.....6-8-7
Pick Three P.M.
.....9-0-5
Cash Five
.....14-17-24-31-34
Texas Two-Step
.....2-15-18-20
Bonus: 5
6A
news-journal.com
Longview News-Journal, Friday, April 10, 2009
What they say
BENEFITING UPSHUR BUSINESSES
“There are a number of people out there on any weekend, but particularly
on the weekends when they have a large event, both of our motels are
completely full. At any of the local gas stations you can see lines of RVs
and trucks pulling trailers with those motorized vehicles on them, buying
gas and other things you buy at a convenience store. They (also) create a
huge impact for our local restaurants. All those people eat.”
Dean Fowler
Upshur County judge
RIDING THE VARIED TERRAIN
“There’s not a lot of places to ride in East Texas that are so varied. There
are sand mounds, hill climbs, light woods. Pretty much everything you run
into in a race track, you’ll run into out here.”
Melody Dooly
Hughes Springs resident and cross-country dirt bike racer
Barnwell’s annual Upshur economic impact
Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo
A driver pilots his Range Rover down a trail at Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area near Gilmer.
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Visitors: 5,200
Meals: $663,000
Fuel: $443,000
Lodging: $425,000
Parts/supplies: $190,000
Shopping: $62,000
Other: $8,000
Total: $1.79 million
■ Tax revenue: $70,700
Sources: Stephen F. Austin State
University concluded a yearlong study
of Barnwell Mountain’s economic impact
on Upshur County in July 2006. The data
was analyzed by Impact DataSource, an
Austin-based consulting firm.
Barnwell
From Page 1A
acre maze that is Barnwell
Mountain.
That’s OK, trail riders say.
Part of the fun comes from exploring the outdoors in an offroad vehicle, dirt bike or ATV.
“Families go there on the
weekend and can camp and
enjoy some time away from
the city,” said Steve Thompson, manager of a Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department program that helps fund the nonprofit park.
“They use their vehicles to
trail ride, but the activity is
not all about the vehicle itself.
It’s about the place. We just use
motorized vehicles as a way to
get out in the forest and enjoy
the forest.”
Barnwell was the first of its
kind in Texas when it opened
on a former iron-ore strip mine
in 2000, according to Thompson and members of the Texas
Motorized Trails Coalition,
the nonprofit organization
that manages the park.
Today, the coalition boasts
around 1,300 members from
around the state, but only a
handful were riding the trails
on a recent rainy weekend in
March, when a Land Rover
driven by photographer Les
Hassell idled indecisively at
the top of the trail.
The descent
Daunted by the precipitous
path, we backtracked. On
the return to the main road,
however, distant roars announced a caravan of muddy
Jeeps heading straight for the
drop-off. They soon passed by,
and one vehicle in particular seemed better suited for a
paved highway than the muddy forest trail.
If that little Jeep could make
it down, we figured, there was
no reason we shouldn’t have
been able to.
We flagged down the caravan and joined the tail end.
One driver, Matt Green of Tyler, was giving a lift to a dog
and a couple of people whose
Jeep had broken down on another trail.
With Green spotting us,
we began the descent. Steering was out of the question
— the Land Rover went where
the slick mud took it. The vehicle slid from side to side. It
careened over iron-ore rocks,
lurched into a deep rut and
skidded down the trail.
Safely at the base, another
trail rider, Brandon Ory of Lafayette, La., was tinkering on a
fellow rider’s Jeep Wrangler.
“I’m the resident mechanic,” he said as he worked to
reconnect a sway bar that had
come loose.
“OK, you’re all set,” he said.
We cover everything from top to...you know.
Brandon Ory of
Lafayette, La.,
repairs a sway
bar for a fellow
rider’s Jeep.
“I’m the resident
mechanic,” Ory
says.
Les Hassell
News-Journal Photo
tain opened, natural forces were
at work to carve the varied terrain that draws hundreds of riders on busy weekends. Off-road
enthusiasts should thank the
iron ore, according to Thompson, who is also Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department’s senior geologist.
“In that part of Texas there
are a number of low hills, about
200 to 300 feet tall,” he said.
“The reason they are there at
all is there’s a seam of iron ore
at the top that is more resistant
to erosion” than the surrounding countryside.
Strip-miners scraped off the
top of the hill, but when most
of the iron ore was depleted,
the activity stopped, he said.
Federal grants have provided
$1.6 million to purchase and develop the place.
Despite its reputation as an
“outlaw” sport, according to
Thompson, nearly 80 percent of
Barnwell’s riders earned more
than $50,000 a year, and more
than half earned more than
$75,000, according to a 2005-06
study that Stephen F. Austin
State University conducted for
the Texas Motorized Trails Coalition.
Riders typically spent $458
during a visit to the facility, the
study found.
Watching Green at work
were Clyde and Linda Stanford, who had climbed the trail
with ease in their silver Jeep
Rubicon. Clyde Stanford, an 82year-old World War II veteran,
said he helped found the park
and managed it for the first
five years.
Linda Stanford, a science
teacher at Pine Tree High
School, said she and her husband don’t ride the trails as
hard as they used to, but they
still enjoy the camaraderie
with fellow trail-riders, and
they still find time to marvel
at the natural setting.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
“You meet people in East Texas who say, ‘You’re going to
what mountain?’ But you do
get the sensation of being in
the mountains here. Especially this time of year with all the
dogwoods blooming, it’s prettier to be back in the woods
than out on the highway.”
&
Rachel Lawson-Borchert
Stylist/Owner
Megan Wilson
Stylist
Haircuts • Highlights
Color • Styling • Updos
We’re back! Same creative stylist New Location!
CREATIVE SHEARS SALON
915 Peques Place • Longview, TX 75601 • (903)553-9991
from
Lacks!
TAX BACK
ENDS Tuesday, April 14, 2009.
We’re required by law to show sales tax, so Lacks will discount the merchandise price so that the
final total with tax will equal the merchandise price before tax.
Bed’n Breakfast Sale!
Discounts
& Coffee
Served
All Day!
10% OFF
All Bedrooms
and Mattresses
Excludes TrueForm, Spring Free and Stearns and Foster.
Discount may not be used in conjunction with any other offer.
Hurry, FRIDAY & SATURDAY ONLY!
From mud to dust
The next weekend at Barnwell Mountain, the rainy skies
had cleared and the mud had
dried into a coating of fine, red
dust. Around 300 members of
the Lone Star Jeep Club rolled
into town, with more than 150
off-road vehicles in tow.
Mike Green, unofficial trail
guide and a member of the Texas Motorized Trail Coalition’s
board of directors, coached the
other Jeep drivers in the strategies behind rock crawling.
When one rider couldn’t climb
out of a rut, Green decided to
pull him out with a cable and
winch. First, though, he issued
a stern warning to the bystanders.
“Cables are really, really dangerous,” he said. “If it breaks in
half, it will cut you in half. Any
An ‘outlaw’ sport
time you see a cable and winchLong before Barnwell Moun- ing, get out of the way.”
or
JoAnne
Get the look you
want for Prom!
Mark
400 Pine Tree Rd.
Longview, Texas 75604
(903) 759-8344
50 Beds
to choose from!
59999 $49999
Causual Contemporary Bed with Storage $
Bed includes headboard, footboard with drawers
and wood rails. List Price $1179.97 92-60-52/53/54
NO NO
Money
Down
Monday-Friday 10-8
Saturday 10-7
3110
Sunday 1-6
Queen
Storage Bed
Payments
until July
King Storage Bed
Dresser & Mirror
Chest
Night Stand
TV Chest
NO
$899.99
899.99
599.99
329.99
699.99
$799.99
799.99
499.99
279.99
599.99
Interest
until July*
National Furniture Retailer of the Year
H. G. Mosley Prky. • Longview • 758-8536
Visit Lacks at www.lacks.com
*Buy with no money down. Pay no interest and make no payment until July 2009. No minimum purchase is required. Does not apply to previous purchases. Finance
charges will accrue from date of purchase, but will be refunded if account is paid in full by July 2009 payment due date. Subject to credit approval. Any insurance
charges will be earned from date of sale. Interest charges will be assessed at a maximum APR of 21.8%, but the APR may vary. Credit offer good April 8-14, 2009.
List prices are offering prices only. Sales may or may not have occurred. Throughout the year advertised merchandise may be available at these or similar sale prices. These
prices do not reflect possible occasional markdowns.
W E ’ L L
t a k e
B E T T E R
C A R E
o f
Y O U .