T-Shirt Sales Will Assist Locals

POC Grand Slam T-Shirts are a staple around Port O’ Connor; you see someone wearing one basically every day. This year we have chosen special colors PINK (breast cancer awareness), WHITE (lung cancer), ORANGE (leukemia), and PURPLE (all cancers in general). Each shirt will have the cancer awareness ribbon on them.

Cancer has taken over our small community, and touched so many of our family members. The Grand Slam, along with it’s usual donations, plan to donate to the families struggling with the every day battles due to this awful disease. If you would like more information please contact Amy Gosnell at 361-935-8745 or Sylvia Rodriguez at 361-655-3521.

T-Shirts will also be on sale at the Annual Chris Ragusin Memorial Grand Slam, October 3-4, to which everyone is invited.

The POC Grand Slam Team

Embracing History

Dear Editor,

I enjoyed reading “Reflections” by Phil Ellenberger and “Embracing History” by Jasmine Gordon in the August 15, 2014, edition. If your readers are visiting Austin, Texas, they may wish to view the beautiful Angelina Eberly statue at the entrance to the General Land Office Building adjacent to the Capitol grounds.

Calhoun County Historical Commission researched and dedicated the Angelina Eberly Historical Marker which is located at the crossroads of FM Road 316 and Zimmerman Road, Indianola, Texas. At Old Town Cemetery on Zimmerman Road, the Angelina Eberly tombstone can be found with the Republic of Texas Defender Medal attached which was presented by The Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Thanks to your authors for spreading historical Calhoun County events.

Mary Belle Meitzen
Calhoun County Historical Commission Chair

Thank You For Your Support

Freda Ragusin Howard

On behalf of the Ragusin and Rubio Family and Freda and Vaughn Howard we would like to thank everyone that came out on Saturday and supported Freda and her fight against Lung Cancer. We could not have asked for a better day! A day for friends and family to come together to have a great time visiting and enjoying each others company. The list of individuals to thank is too long to even begin, plus I would not want to exclude anyone either.

It is great that our community here in Port O’Connor is so wonderful and also that family and friends that traveled here to celebrate are so great. I always tell Freda, GOD IS GREAT! And He is and I have faith that he will look over her and guide her way. Again a huge THANK YOU to all that came out.

Also, I’d like to thank all who bought raffle tickets, and congratulate Jamie Horn from Corpus Christi who won the Benelli Super Black Eagle 2 shotgun in the raffle.

Veronica Ragusin

A Year in Review

Looking back over the past year in the operations of our Improvement District. November of 2013 we voted down a 20 million dollar bond. May of 2014 we also voted down an 11 million dollar bond.

At the August board meeting all those that showed up were given a pamphlet in titled Procedures for Public Comments at Open Meetings,,,,, Item B —- Keep all comments to less than 3 minutes Item D —- Questions or comments will not be addressed by the board. Then at the end there was a list of Texas Penal Codes should you in any way hinder the proceedings. So much for the kinder more concerned, ask us anything board.

Now for the good stuff. Even though we voted down the bonds, the board is doing an end run.They have made application to the Texas Water Development Board ( TWDB ) to acquire a Revenue Bond. This will not be voted on by the residents of Port O’Connor.
If you are not sure what a revenue bond is here is a short description of how it works.

1. TWDB sells the bonds to individual investors and in exchange receives their money. 2. They then loan the money to communities for water and sewer projects.3. The communities charge the residents taxes and fees for their water and sewer. 4. The taxes and fees are used to the loan back to TWDB. 5. Then TWDB uses the loan repayments to pay individual investors back.
The TWDB charges 0.40 percent for their part in helping acquire these bonds.

I have been told the application has been made, what I can’t find out is, the amount of the bond or what the interest and duration will be.

I can hardly wait to see what the next rate increase will be.

Marshall Bradford

H2o

I am writing this because of the recent meeting and ongoing practices of the MUD board. For all concerned-almost 70% of the revenue generated into the MUD comes from “non-residents” . I was unsure of the resident/nonresident ratio until this last meeting. I have no issue with being an “outsider”, but I am contributing as much as the residents and have no input what so ever on how the dollars are spent- first alarm was the flagrant garbage fee (like most outsiders, I haul my trash home with me), second alarm was the unjustified , random rate increase just recently imposed. After looking at other coastal communities-POC is way over priced-(I have a house in Sinton) and have called other cities along the coast to compare.

As the “board” is so proud to enforce, the non residents have NO input in the decision making process. The intentional calling of meetings on odd week nights is a classic sign that the board wants no input from anyone. The lack of proper updating over the years has put the MUD in default with the state , therefore kneejerk responses from the board are what we are faced with-and it will be expensive. The arrogance and ignorance of this board is coming to a costly expense for all.

James Marshall
San Antonio

Tax Increase…Here it Comes

I am writing this letter to the editor as a neighbor, concerned voter, resident and ratepayer so that most of its readers will know the position of the Board of Directors of the Port O’Connor Improvement District.

I do not want to name the Directors by name because we as informed ratepayers of our water and sewer district, should know who is representing us in our community, and who are making decisions that impact us financially.

I attended and videotaped the Districts meeting on September 11, 2014. On the Agenda there was ten (10) items for consideration for the Board of Directors to Vote on.

Item number four (4) of the agenda was “Discuss 2014 Tax Rate, set public hearing date, and authorize notice of public hearing regarding adoption of TAX RATE.”

This is interesting, there will be a “public hearing” in the near future, however, the TAX RATE and amount of Tax Rate has already been approved and Voted on. All of the Directors Voted yes for the tax rate increase.

They agreed and voted yes to raise the rates as high as they can legally do so and just low enough not to cause for a recall.

It has only been nine months that the Board of Directors voted to raise rates for our water and sewer, and now, the Board of Directors will raise our tax rate.

I hope this letter keeps you informed.

Leon Brown

Re-elect

I am asking for the support to reelect John “Red” Childers and Wanda Redding to the board of directors of the Port O’Connor Improvement District. Red Childers has worked for 29 years getting water and sewer for Port O’Connor. It has taken a lot of time and hard work to get and maintain safe water and sewer supply in town, not just a a couple of hours a month like some people think. Wanda Redding has dedicated a lot of her time to the different organizations in town to help the people here. She has worked with the fire dept., ladies club, angel program, relay for life and also the district. You will not find two people more committed to the betterment of Port O’Connor. This is a thankless job that no one wanted until now. I ask that before you vote that you know the person you vote for and the reason they want the job.

Thank you for taking time to read this.

Teddy Hawes

The Dolphin welcomes letters from our readers on any subject that is of general interest to our audience. Letters should be 300 words or less (with exceptions at the Dolphin’s discretion). Letters reflect the opinion of the writer, and not that of Dolphin Talk staff, and we retain the right to determine suitability for publication. It is the policy of this newspaper to promote area interests: therefore, complaints against local businesses should be directed elsewhere. Letters must be signed and include day and evening phone numbers, which will not be published. Your name will be withheld upon request, but anonymous material will not be considered for publication.

Letters to the Dolphin
P.O. Box 777, Port O’Connor, TX 77982, dolphin1@tisd.net