I am a resident. I want to address his questions. But first of all I need to provide full disclosure. • We bought a lot in Quail Valley in October or November in 1969. • We picked this lot because it was the highest point above sea level and was on the golf course. • I support almost all of Missouri City’s council positive minded persons. • I often do not agree with their thoughts and express my thoughts to individual council members. • I was a significant person on the committee that did due diligence for The Fund HOA to determine if it would be a smart
✢ ✢ ✢ ✢ ✢ ✢ ✢ ✢ In Loving Memory of
Mavis Louise Landsay April 10 - 1921 August 22, 2008
Sister Lindsay went to be with her Savior and Lord Jesus Christ on 8/22/2008. We have not stopped loving you. You are forever in our thoughts and prayers. Each year that passes will not diminish our love for you. Sadly missed by your family, friends and all those you cared for and held so close to your heart.
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for the HOA to acquire the golf course. • I was one of the committee members the City Council con tacted when they decided to take QVCC by Eminent Domain be cause the property and community as a whole had deteriorated so severely that Missouri City’s tax base became drastically diminished. My dad was a Master Craftsmen, specializing in commercial air condition repair, but he could repair anything. He always said “If it is not broke, don’t fix it.” Don’t think the community wants to disturb a good group of leaders when Missouri City has come so far with the leaders we have. I want to take a more positive look at the successes our City Council has had in recent years. In 2007 or 2008 residential properties were selling, if buyers could be found, at an average price per square foot range in the low to mid$50’s range. In a very recent Real Estate Update to the HOA and Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce it was reported 15 homes sold in June in comparison to 4 in June 2014. Not including foreclosures or distressed properties, the median price per square foot was $89.00 in June. Price per square foot of sales now range from $74 - $152. Homes going on the market in the area are receiving multiple offers many times within days or weeks of going on the market. Was the city buying QV properties a good decision? You bet! The $30++ improvement in median price per square foot could stand alone as proof. There has been over a 60% increase in values of residential real estate since the ED. Immediately upon the City purchasing the Quail Valley properties, residents along most of the Cartright corridor and fairways could be seen updating their homes. It was a prudent and wise investment and the city year-after-year profits for their decision to buy Quail Valley properties. Some homes are selling above asking price and sell within weeks of going on the market. Home values have been increased 10% to 12% by the FB Central Appraisal District which equates to $1,500,000 in additional revenue to the City. And the community center is busy a lot of the time. And the modern tennis, fitness and activity center offers activities for all age groups of residents. Have there been improvements in appearance of Missouri City? Just look at the corner of Eldorado and LaQuinta. Look at the bridge. You would have to be blind and narrow minded not to see how beautiful most all of Missouri City is becoming. Just observe how our many new business parks and Highway 6 corridor has and continues to be
Obituary
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Herfred Eugene (Gene) Yelvington February 9,1946 – August 13, 2015
Herfred Eugene (Gene) Yelvington passed away on August 13, 2015 in Richmond, Texas. Gene was born February 9, 1946 in San Antonio, Texas to the late Vivian & Armand J. Yelvington. Gene is survived by his wife Virginia Earlene Yelvington, two sons; Michael Wade Yelvington and wife April, of Meadows Place, Texas and Mathew Eugene Yelvington of Richmond, Texas.
He is also survived by five grandchildren. Gene was a beloved member of Sugar Land Baptist Church. A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 2 pm. on August 22, 2015 at Sugar Land Baptist Church– 16755 Southwest Freeway, Sugar Land Texas, 77479. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the Sugar Land Baptist Church – Mexico Mission Projects.
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developed – beautiful business appearances. Look at the expanding and additional business parks that are being developed that offer many new jobs to our residents and a broader tax base for the City. • Lakeview Business Park • Beltway Crossing Complex • Connor Commercial Development • FedEx new addition on Gessner Road -- 312,000 Sq Foot distribution facility • Parkway 8 Ninety business park • Houston Community College campus relocating next to Texas Parkway City Hall • Cinema 6 redeveloping to a performing arts venue on Texas Parkway • New Shell commercial warehouse buildings • 4,633 Sq Foot professional office building at Texas Ave and Texas Parkway • A second Methodist Care Facility along Highway 6 And let us not forget that three of our council persons, Mayor Owen, Jerry Wyatt and Don Smith have been around since the beginning of the Eminent Domain and have been active leaders building a city recently awarded as the “16th Best Place to live in the United States. And Floyd Emery has been a leader in many areas in our community for many years. They have proved they are affective. Bob Thompson Missouri City HHHHHHHHHH Reynolds took on truancy issue Let me first say I am a Republican but I felt compelled to speak into criticism of Ron Reynolds. When criticism is thrown at him – I will let people know I believe this man was there for the kids in our community when it mattered. Over this past year, several community attorneys and I have raised serious and significant legal issues surrounding Fort Bend ISD’s truancy program in an effort to end abuse of our young people. Many kids in our community were subject to an out of control system that was completely outside the bounds of Texas law and one that violated these young people’s constitutional rights. That abuse was completely unique to Fort Bend County. Our purpose in raising those issues was never to drive policy or change the law. We sought and continue to seek that the governmental officials charged with enforcing truancy laws – follow the law in doing such – and not abuse our children. We firmly believe that if Texas law had been followed by governmental officials in Fort Bend County – we never would have had these unique issues and would not have become the poster child or the epicenter of truancy program abuse for the State of Texas. We will continue to seek adherence to Texas law for our governmental officials, will seek to hold them accountable, and will not stand for abuse of our young people. In 2011 and at the lobbying of our local governmental officials, Ron Reynolds authored and helped navigate House Bill 1490 that created the authority for a magistrate with very limited prescribed statutory authority for the purposes of exclusively hearing truancy matters. The ultra vires misuse of this magistrate activity by our local governmental officials is one part of the significant issues we have raised and the ultra vires misuse of this magistrate activity was a direct and contributing factor in the abuse inflicted on our young people. They simply misused HB 1490 and they likely used then freshmen Rep. Ron Reynolds to help carry out their disingenuous intentions to abuse our kids with their misguided zero tolerance agenda. The abuse we inflicted right
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here in Fort Bend County was a tipping point in the large policy debate during the last legislative session. In the end, the legislative process choose to decriminalize truancy and once again, just like they did in 2011 and 2013, Texas lawmakers emphasized that they want local school districts getting to the root cause of truancy and wanted local school districts to stop dumping kids into our court system. For those of you that question the wisdom of the legislative action in this regard and believe the legislature went too far in removing tools to combat real truancy, blame the local government officials who abused Texas law - including those right here in Fort Bend County. If you can’t follow the law then you usually get restricted. Those governmental officials directly caused the loss of tools that we had in combating truancy and prompted the legislature to restrict them. When you abuse something – you many times lose it or it is limited. Ron Reynolds led the charge in the attempting to fix something that he believed was abusing our kids by championing House Bill 2398 along with other key legislators -- both Democrats and Republicans. Given his involvement with House 1490, Ron Reynolds had every incentive to run from this issue but he did not. Instead, he admitted he made a mistake and worked aggressively to fix it for the benefit of our kids. For that – being there for our kids -- Ron Reynolds deserves the highest form of admiration. In the end, all of the delegation from Fort Bend County took action and passed House Bill 2398 which Governor Abbott signed into law. The whole Fort Bend County legislative delegation deserves praise for addressing the issue and recognizing a significant problem. I certainly do not agree with many of Mr. Reynolds' political views. In addition, he's a big boy and will have to deal with anything he does and I am not here to defend him from fair criticism. But I wanted folks to know that while negativity is thrown at this man -- I firmly believe Ron Reynolds was there for kids when it mattered -- when voices needed to be heard and when leadership was needed. I firmly believe people need to know that. If we are going to start doing the apology bit dogma -- start with our local governmental officials who were involved with the Fort Bend ISD Truancy Program. That includes Fort Bend ISD and Fort Bend County officials. Epic disaster. Not only do they owe one to this community, they owe one to the whole State of Texas. –Deron Harrington Sienna Plantation HHHHHHHHHH Missouri City should be more competitive Editor: I would very much like to see Missouri City government start acting like a smart, progressive City that represents all of us and less like an HOA that seems overly concerned with minor neighborhood infractions. While neighboring cities entertain country music performers at their sports venues, construct
huge activity complexes and generally increase their retail shopping in impressive chunks, Missouri City councilmembers are focused on insignificant community appearance violations such as car tarps. I get that Missouri City has less financial resources, etc. but isn't that our own fault for electing folks who don't share our vision of an innovative, classy and awesome Fort Bend town? Pearland and Sugarland aren't great, progressive towns because they let themselves be acted upon, they purposely decided their future. It's not too late to change Missouri City's direction. Let's elect and appoint administrators and elected officials who clearly want to let HOAs handle petty neighborhood squabbles. We have the future of a great town to mold. –Howard Moline Missouri City HHHHHHHHHH US Postal Service facilities in Missouri City need improvement I agree with Missouri City council member Jerry Wyatt about the deplorable condition of the Texas Parkway post office. I use Stafford's or one of Sugar Land's two rather than patronize Missouri City's only USPS post office. And when will the burgeoning south end of Missouri City get a 2nd retail post office? The distribution center on Glenn Lakes (occupying a 5.5-acre acre land tract valued by the CAD at $1,090,090, and which site otherwise might have held a tax-paying business) doesn't even have a stamp machine! As a minimum the USPS should install one of those self-service kiosks. -Irv Smith Missouri City
HHHHHHHHHH Reynolds’ rebuttal I stand behind my comment that you are running a negative smear campaign against me. In fact, I've had numerous calls from both Democrats and Republicans that were very disappointed with your attacks. Deron Harrington wasn't the only one. You quote a Democratic blogger that doesn't even live in Fort Bend County. There are hundreds of thousands of community leaders, precinct chairs and constituents that disagree agree with you and Mr. Kuffner. Morever, I have never been convicted of any crime. The Harris County Barratry charge was dismissed and there wasn't even an indictment. It wasn't simply because of an investigator that stole comic books. Second, the (Felony) Barratry charge in Montgomery County was tried by a jury and I was found Not Guilty! Yes, I have been sued...so has almost every other business owner, including the Fort Bend Star. I'm not perfect but I'm far from the person that you attempt to paint me. I'm a proud husband, father of three and successful small business owner that is committed to his faith, family and serving Fort Bend County. I refuse to let your negative articles distract me from doing my job. I'm staying focused on serving my constituents. I'm endorsed by every Democrat elected official in Fort Bend County. I'm also endorsed by many Republicans, including Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen. The majority of my constituents ask me to run for higher office because they love my track record of success and commitment to public service. I hope that I do have a primary and a general election challenger. –State Rep. Ron Reynolds Missouri City
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PAGE 6A H Wednesday, August 19, 2015
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NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON TAX RATE The Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District #24 will hold a public hearing on a proposed tax rate for the tax year 2015 on Tuesday, September 8, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. at the offices of Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP, 3200 Southwest Freeway, Suite 2600, Houston TX 77027. Your individual taxes may increase or decrease, depending on the change in the taxable value of your property in relation to the change in taxable value of all other property and the tax rate that is adopted. FOR the proposal:
Robert Atkinson, Robby McGinnis, Barbara Rozell, Austin Ross, Deborah L Depinet
AGAINST the proposal:
None
PRESENT and not voting: None ABSENT: BAPTIST CHURCH
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
HERITAGE BAPTIST CHURCH • 281-403-4994
SOUTHMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH • 281-499-2310
2223 FM1092 • Missouri City, TX 77459 Ed Byrnes, Senior Pastor Sunday Bible Study 9:30 am • 6:00 pm Sunday Worship 10:45 am • 6:00 pm Wednesday: 7:00 pm Bible Study / AWANA “A Place To Call Home” - www.hbctx.org
4200 Cartwright Road, Missouri City, 77459 Sunday School 9:00 am Fellowship & Coffee 10:00 am Worship 10:30 am www.southminpres.org
METHODIST CHURCH
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SUGAR LAND • 281-240-3195
CHRIST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH • 281-980-6888 502 Eldridge Road, Sugar Land, TX 77478 3300 Austin Parkway • Sugar Land, TX 77479 Sunday Worship: 8:15 am • 9:45 am • 11:05 am the hub • 11:00 am Sunday School for all ages • 9:45 am www.cumcsl.org
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH • 281-499-3502
FAITH LUTHERAN CHURCH, LCMS 281-242-7729
3900 Lexington Blvd., Missouri City, TX 77459 Traditional Worship: 8:00am and 10:30pm Contemporary Worship: 9:15am Sunday School all ages: 9:15 am and 10:30am www.fumcmc.org
SUGAR LAND METHODIST CHURCH • 281-491-6041 431 Eldridge Road, Sugar Land, TX 77478 Worship @ 9:00 am and 11:15 am Bible Study, all ages, @ 10:10 am www.sugarlandmethodist.org
CHURCH OF CHRIST
SUGAR LAND CHURCH OF CHRIST • 281-561-0881
15590 Voss Road • Sugar Land • www.slcoc.org Sunday Worship Services: 7:00 am • 10 am • 5 pm Bible Study (all ages): Sun. 9 am & Wed. 7 pm Tuesday Seniors’ Bible Study: 10 am
Sunday Worship 8:30am • 11:00 am Sunday School for All Ages 9:30 am Starting August 25 Pastor Bible Studies 6:30 p.m. LUTHERAN CHURCH
800 Brooks St., Sugar Land Sunday: 8:00 am Traditional Worship 9:15 am Sunday School 10:30 am Contemporary Worship (Nursery Available) 4:00 pm Spirit of Life Worship
None
The following table compares taxes on an average residence homestead in this taxing unit last year to taxes proposed on the average residence homestead this year. Total tax rate (per $100 of value) $
Last Year This Year 1.3500/$100 $1.3000/$100 Adopted Proposed
Difference in rates per $100 of value
-$0.05000
Percentage increase/decrease in rates(+/-)
-3.70%
Average appraised value
$
135,430 $
151,648
General Exemptions Available (excluding senior citizen’s or disabled person’s exemptions)
$
0 $
0
Average taxable value $ Tax on average residence homestead $
135,430 $ 1,828.31 $
151,648 1,971.42
Annual increase/decrease in taxes if proposed tax rate is adopted (+/-) and percentage of increase (+/-)
$143.11 7.83%
Scripture of the week
NOTICE OF TAXPAYERS’ RIGHT TO ROLLBACK ELECTION
“Be careful not to do your “acts of righteousness” before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” —Matthew 6:1
If taxes on the average residence homestead increase by more than eight percent, the qualified voters of the district by petition may require that an election be held to determine whether to reduce the operation and maintenance tax rate to the rollback tax rate under Section 49.236(d), Water Code.
To place an ad in The Fort Bend County Worship Directory 281-690-4200
Should you have any questions concerning this notice, please contact the tax office at 281-482-0216.