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Monday, August 22, 2016 howeenterprise com

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Season 73 starts Friday at Gunter

It's that time of year again Community pride always escalates to a higher level during football season The name on the front of the varsity football jerseys represent cities and communities all over the country But in Texas, it's extra special And Howe, Texas and their love for their Howe Bulldogs football is no different than any other town and their team

P&Z and council approve zone

Provid is a Ho owned Alan an Howe purcha Mason Young have qu buildin process new lo West Davis Street in the approximate four acre field owned by Bobby Sollis A zoning change from SF1 (single family housing) to C1 (commercial) is required in order for the company to be able to expand their business and remain in Howe The company started with six employees but currently ranks as Howe's third largest years since that first football team in 1935, Howe has accumulated an overall record of 372-33524 Recent times have seen the 'Dogs add more wins than losses and this decade has already produced more wins than the decade of

The Howe Bulldogs begin season number 73 on Friday night in Gunter Over the City to lower tax rate to $0.63; budget of $2,938,672

2000-2009 Howe has 33 wins now from 2010-2015 while only recording a 3271 mark in the prior decade The last winning decade was the 1990s when Howe went 55-49 With a win on Friday night, Howe continued on page 2 employer behind Howe ISD and Magni-Fab Southwest Alan and Sharla Ross began the process with a zoning change request to the Howe Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). Those who protested to the zone change had a chance to do so in public forum at the continued on page 3

@hollyhawk24 for the evy taxes pport of vernment year, y read a on each property operations 327 on on of property for the purpose of interest and sinking of the bonds and certificates of obligation The current tax rate has been $0 69 and this will lower the overall effective tax rate to $0 628468

While the tax rate is down, the county's valuations have increased making property owner's payments roughly the same as this past year

The council also moved forward towards adopting a budget of $2,938,672 which is a 2 16 percent increase from the previous fiscal year The new tax rate and budget is to be adopted tomorrow night at 6 p m at the Howe Community Center

In other action, the City of Howe voted to increase the non-residential water tap fees in the ordinance

"Mainly the cost of the equipment is outpacing what our tap fees are now" said City Administrator Joe Shephard "What we recommend is to keep the continued on page 6 ok I probably have too many pairs of shoes but you know I'm taking all of them w me to college could have a winning record in a decade for the first time since being 13-12 on Sept 24, 2012 A 42-27 loss to Gunter gave Howe a 13-13 record and they haven't been over 500 since A win at Gunter on Friday night would be symbolic for many reasons Howe once owned Gunter by winning the first 12 games in the series from 19351948 Howe even had a 17-1 record versus Gunter and had outscored them, 480-135 heading into the 2000 season with the only loss coming in the 1958 season which was the first Howe played after a nine-year layoff from football But since 2000, Gunter has turned the tide and Howe's victory last season was the first in 12 attempts since the change of the millennium

The change from Howe's prior losing seasons to now winning ways started with the hiring of Athletic Director and Head Coach Zack Hudson before the 2013 season While Hudson's Bulldogs went 3-7 that initial season, they have gone 17-8 since - with two of the eight losses being in the playoffs Hudson hired Offensive Coordinator Dale West before the 2014 season to install a run-heavy slot-T offense which has proved to be far more effective at scoring points than any passing offense that armchair quarterbacks thirst for In 2015, Howe scored 34 17 points per game which is the most of any team in school history The year prior, Howe scored 28 69 points per game, which ranked sixth in school history In comparison, the last time Howe had a primary passing offense, they scored 11 8 points per game

While the offense has had a dramatic shift in scoring performance, the defense under Hudson has also improved greatly In 2012, the year prior to Hudson's arrival, Howe gave up an unbelievable 38 10 points per game That kind of performance leads to coaching changes and in Hudson's first year, the Bulldogs improved by 139 overall points allowed giving up 24 2 points per continued on page 4

Rezoning continued from page 1

Justin Loftice had a lengthy speech to the P&Z regarding the water drainage and street quality surrounding the property made it unfit for a business "The first issue we have is the road leading to and from Highway 5 " said Loftice "It's a terrible road It's in bad disrepair It floods It's broken with potholes It can't really handle the traffic that it gets now If you put a business there and you have that much more traffic - we worry about how much more damage the road's going to get "

Loftice also asked if a traffic study had been done and said they had an issue with flooding Loftice then read the Texas Water Code, Section 52 001 on drainage issues and stated that the flooding is so bad in that area that the property owners can't mow or even get a tractor in there biggest investment of their lives and that they would have never bought the home if there were a big business next to their home

"When you put concrete and a building over there - build the pad up and what not - we don't want our home to start cracking and having foundation problems because all of a sudden water is getting diverted to us " said Loftice.

Bennie Harmon, property owner on the south side of West Davis Street also protested saying that the road couldn't handle 25 cars each morning, lunch and evening using that particular road

"Even though that house is mine, it's rental property which is going to make a big difference if my renters move out " said Harmon "My concern is - are you going to fix the road? Have there been any blueprints drawn? What is this building going to be made of? What's it going to look like? What's the parking lot going to be made out of?

In response to the protest, Sharla Ross said, "Obviously, we want to be good neighbors We established a business here three years ago We went through this process when we bought the Masonic Lodge We've been very blessed to grow significantly with six employees at that time to as of right now, we have 28 We would like to grow some more Clearly the reason we are looking at property is because we want to stay in Howe and we have almost outgrown our building as it stands right now" currently with vehicles consuming the entire area of the former Masonic Lodge at the southwest intersection of Young and Denny Streets

She stated that they haven't had blueprints drawn because they needed to acquire the property before investing in plans that may not happen She did say that they intend to construct the building on the south side of the property

"I'm by no means an expert on drainage issues, but there is a creek right there behind the property and we're going to take care of things and make sure we do things correctly That's just the way we are and what we do " said Ross

She then said that they would construct the building and parking areas to meet the city code and I'm happy for them We want them to be successful, but what happens when they outgrow this building and they sell it and we've got a tenant coming in every six months and we don't know who's coming and going?"

She used the example of the property of 200 S Davis St in which Salvage Junky submitted a zone change to a C2 commercial property one year ago and is now vacant

"While we wish them the best in their endeavor, their business is not a priority over our home " said Shea Loftice

Ross stated that the property they are seeking has enough room for parking which is a big concern

Shea Loftice then spoke up and said, "They are outgrowing their building now, which is a blessing

Scott Renfro, representing the Sollis family addressed the board, "Water runs downhill I've yet to see any go uphill I know that street has a slope on it - it's always had a slope When you get that large amount of water (referring to

He then went on to tell the board that purchasing the home was the continued on page 5 contest Last year, with Hudson in his third year of implementation, Howe gave up 14 42 points per game which was the least amount a Howe team has allowed since 2000 and ranked 29 of the 72 previous Howe Bulldogs defenses

Before last season's 21-19 win over Gunter at Howe, it was Grisham, who rushed for 53 yards at Bulldog Stadium to help secure a win versus Gunter - Jason Grisham, the father of current Bulldog Tyler Grisham. Prior to last season, that was the last Howe win at home against the Tigers In the 2015 classic, Howe became front-runners, so to speak, for the first time in a long long time By knocking off the Tigers and ending an 11-game losing streak to them, Howe secured the lead and massive confidence en route to the district championship

During the game a year ago, Howe shed any thoughts of being a surprise underdog team The transformation to a front-runner mentality required an entirely different attitude from the 'Dogs Some teams handle that transition well and others never can make the adjustment If there was any indication that they were going to be able to handle it, a glimpse was seen in the fourth quarter when Howe shutout Gunter forcing a punt and two turnover-on-downs to secure the win Another possible front-runner transition moment came with 5:50 left when Hudson (aka the Riverboat Gambler) went for it on 4th and 2 and called Grisham's number, who got just enough to keep the drive alive and Hudson came up with aces once again That kept the ball out of Gunter's hands for three continued from page 2 more minutes before punting and pinning the Tigers deep at their own 15 yard line

After the huge win last year, Howe leads the overall series with Gunter, 18-12 and have outscored them 590537. Howe is 7-6 at Gunter and the Tigers have outscored Howe, 258259 The first ever game between the two schools took place on Nov 1, 1935 with Howe winning, 31-6 The first game at Gunter was on Nov 4, 1938 - Howe won 43-0

Zoning

continued from page 3

Audience member Bill Stambaugh stated that there was very little traffic generated from the company currently on Young Street

"I don't think you'll see a lot of traffic problems from this company" said Stambaugh "This guy is well thought of I like him (referring to Alan Ross) "

Wendy Renfro, the daughter of Bobby Sollis, stated that there had never been flooding on the property or flood insurance on the property

75 We're not going to draw that kind of business to Howe " Ross said "But what we draw to Howe is employees to come to town, they work here and they spend money here They frequent the restaurants, the gas stations and places of service here and as we continue to grow, which is our hope, that it continues to boost our economy here in Howe "

100 inches of rain recently), it's going to go downhill "

Renfro then stated that the property has never had a drainage issue and it was cleaned up recently because it was getting too overgrown

"As much dirt work as I've had to do as far as working on this farmland you see everywhere - for that small amount of acreage to divert that much water compared to the hundreds of acres I farm; there's not that much water that would cause an issue on drainage that I can see "

There was no further discussion and P&Z board member Jack Leavenworth made the motion to approve the zoning request to C1 in favor of the business It was seconded by Dale Rideout and unanimously approved

The next step in the process took place on Tuesday night at the monthly city council meeting where both sides once again gave their positions for the zoning change. The city council takes into consideration of the P&Z, but can overturn their recommendation if they see fit

Shea Loftice led off with her statement, "We live at 111 W Davis It is directly across from the proposed site of the zone change It's on a dead end road It's pretty neglected and it has a lot of water issues We don't even have a stop sign It's just a forgotten road which is just what we like about it It's quiet The proposed business is going to be 200 feet from our front yard and from what I've heard, it's going to be a metal building that's 10,000 square feet That's pretty big They have 28 employees that will be coming and going - morning, lunch and afternoon Our questions are, who's responsible for fixing the road for 30 people to drive on? How much is it going to cost to fix it? Once the road gets fixed, whoever that's going to fall on, how is that going to affect our taxes in this area? If we do have to cover fixing the road, how come it was good enough for us to pay taxes to fix the road for the profit of their business but it wasn't for our home?"

Howe City Administrator Joe Shephard responded that the city is responsible for the street and all of the streets in town He said that the city this year has applied and received a grant to fix the streets in the Young Street and Bean Street areas The grant required matching funds from the city of $30,000

"It's understandable that whatever street people live on is the street they want to fix " said Shephard "We have to prioritize them somehow"

Shephard said that when plans are submitted for the construction of the new building, the engineers would study the plans to make sure all of the requirements were met for the City of Howe

"I hate it that it's in front of their house But when you do buy property and there's property around it to sell, you don't have a say into what's going to be on that property" said Renfro "We found somebody who wants to come in and wants to better Howe and that's something we want "

Sharla Ross then gave and emotional speech as she presented her side to the council, "I've lived here all my life When we started the business, I told Alan, we've got to stay in Howe And you know as well as I do, there's not a lot of land here There's not a lot of business here I can tell you that we have no stone unturned in this place We have talked to everyone we can talk to to find land, to find a building, to find a place to be suitable "

Ross said they do not need Highway 75 frontage property because their business doesn't require that

"We don't need to be on Highway

Provider Business Partners has room inside the Young Street location for approximately six more employees, however there is not room for six more vehicles to park on the site Ross says that the company and Howe ISD have made an agreement to let the employees use the gravel parking area in front of the auxiliary gymnasium on Denny Street

"We don't want to be on Highway 5. We don't want to be parking on the side of the road blocking our neighbors " Ross said "We want to be where we function well within the city and show that we do have Howe pride "

After the public hearing, Mayor Stanley informed the council that 34 letters were sent out to surrounding property owners and five were returned with four in favor and one against the zone change He also informed the council of the P&Zs recommendation to approve the change Moments later Councilman Bill French made the motion to approve the zone change and it was seconded by Councilman Sam Haigis The motion carried all in favor an unopposed

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