Clear Texas Lakes

CLEAR TEXAS

by Mark Miller | photos courtesy of Don Gaston

One day while fishing on the western shore of Lake Lewisville shortly after moving to the area from California, Don Gaston couldn’t help but notice all the trash accumulating around the lake shore.

“Where I was at was not indicative of the entire lake, but there are certain places where there’s a lot of trash — especially where I like to fish.” the Lantana resident said. “The second time I went out there, I decided to take a garbage bag and clean it up. I also noticed the trash collects in areas only accessible by boat, and it got me thinking it was going to take more than a walk around the lake to clean it up properly.”

When he later snagged what turned out to be a slipper shoe instead of a fish, he decided to take it a step further. After much research and due diligence, he launched a 501(c)3 non-profit organization called Clear Texas Lakes, a full-scale lake clean-up initiative dedicated to the continuous removal of trash and debris from Texas lake shorelines.

Gaston learned no one organization formally is in charge of cleaning Texas lakes, nor is there a budget within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In fact, Corps officials indicated he was the first person to ask about developing such a program.

He also came across the Texas Department of Transportation’s long-running Don’t Mess with Texas campaign but found it pertained to roads and highways only. He wanted to create something like this for the area lake shores, and as a new retiree, he was looking to do something meaningful and fun.

So far, everything is paying off as he recently received a memorandum of understanding from the Corps to do his good work.

“It’s a simple concept,” Gaston said, “It’s not necessarily a ‘green’ thing it’s a ‘clean’ thing. You see trash, you pick it up, you throw it in a garbage can.

“We are unique in that our cleanup effort is continuous rather than periodical. The

trash buildup is very prevalent with each new storm bringing in and moving trash and debris all around. This can be harmful to people while recreating at the lakes and can be detrimental to wildlife as well.”

Gaston grew up in Oregon and around 1990 moved to a small town on the coast of northern California where he met his wife Kathy and raised their children, Dustin, Darik, and Delaney. After working about 10 years each in the lumber industry, electrical construction, property management, and owning an automobile glass business, he decided to retire and was looking for a change. Kathy, a timber industry IT professional, retired around the same time.

While he said Northern California is beautiful, the often foggy, cold, damp weather no longer suited them. They wanted to be somewhere warmer and accessible in their retirement. This brought them to the Dallas area. As a bonus, Delaney was accepted as a transfer student and is now a junior at Southern Methodist University.

“I feel at home in Texas,” he said. “It’s a good fit for me and my family – the people, the BBQ, the Texas Pride and all has been a delightful change.”

Gaston is no stranger to community service. He has held several leadership roles including boy scouts, youth baseball, site and parent council, and fund raising. Not having experience in forming nonprofit organizations, however, Gaston reached out to SCORE Mentors, an organization that helps people start new businesses.

Currently, Clear Texas Lakes focuses primarily on Lake Lewisville. The team uses a pontoon boat donated by Vista 1 Construction plus nets, grabbers, stabbers, cables, and other equipment to remove the trash and debris. He purchased and donated a truck and currently funds all operational costs. Gaston hopes to raise awareness about his organization and plans to secure sponsorships, partnerships, and grants to support existing operations and eventually expand to other area lakes.

“I want to hire people and pay a living wage in support of the effort,” he said. “So far, we’ve relied on volunteers but need a permanent crew in addition to volunteers to be successful in the long run. It would be challenging to rely solely on volunteers to support a regular cleanup program.”

To find out more details about Clear Texas Lakes, visit cleartexaslakes.org, email don@cleartexaslakes.org or call Gaston at 707.616.7411. Donations can be made online or mailed directly to P.O. Box 271164, Flower Mound, TX 75027. DENTON COUNTY SPOTLIGHT

“That was a tough decision because there haven’t been that many American companies remaining.”

Business entrepreneurs constantly face tough decisions about what products and services to provide and how they promote what they sell to reach their target audiences.

Long-time Adams Furniture owner Jim Smith is no exception. By the late 1990s/ early 2000s when imported products grew in stature, he made a choice that he has never regretted – that Adams would always offer American-made products whenever possible.

“I saw companies I was dealing with, American companies like Broyhill that made good quality furniture, shut all their plants down in North Carolina and went straight to China,” he said. “It wasn’t just them. Most companies you are familiar with did the same thing.

“That was a tough decision because there haven’t been that many American companies remaining. You really had to search. Over time we have managed to get to 80-85 percent of our inventory is American-made by Americans in America. It was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Ultimately in my mind I knew I wasn’t going to get rich selling American made. I was doing it because in my heart I didn’t like that American jobs were being lost. It was kind of scary at first. I had guys in other furniture businesses around Texas say ‘I wouldn’t even touch that. You’re crazy’ because they knew it was going to be more money and a harder sell.”

While American-made usually means higher prices, Smith finds most people know they are getting better quality and want to buy American products. And that’s fine with his clientele that tends to skew older (ages 40 and up) and be more apt to be middle-to-upper income. That’s been especially true for his customers from places like Robson Ranch, Justin, and Argyle that trade off each month as his top three customer areas.

According to Smith, B.R. Adams started the business in 1929 as more of a general store called Adams Cash Supply and moved to its current location in 1938. Smith, who was born in Watauga but moved to Justin in first grade, started working at Adams in 1969, became a partner in 1979, and has owned it outright since 1982. Back then, the store featured appliances, guns, hunting and fishing equipment, and licenses and furniture. In fact, Smith understood Adams sold the first television set in Denton County.

By the mid-to-late 1990s, Smith weeded out much of those items to focus on

furniture. As big box stores like Home Depot opened to sell appliances, he was happy to let them have that business because they required a lot of service, and he didn’t have a service department.

Today, upholstered products like sofas and recliners make up about half of the 10,000 square-foot store, with dining rooms and bedrooms occupying the other half.

“Most of my pieces are solid wood made in the United States – not particle board, not veneer, not a bunch of stuff swept up and had epoxy mixed with it,” he said.

Smith said with American-made products, consumers have more choices of finishes, colors, and styles versus imports. It also tends to be made of more sustainable solid wood materials. American-made also features more and better quality foam, stronger frames, etc.

Picture below is Sandra & Jim Smith

How hard has it been to buy American? Smith said he knows of only one lamp manufacturer located in the U.S. So he’s had to extend his buying reach into the rest of North America like Mexico and Canada — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic didn’t hurt Adams Furniture in 2020 as much as road construction outside the front door that tore up the parking lot for nearly six months. While retail was shut down for six weeks at the start of the pandemic, trucks still delivered merchandise for customers to have it delivered if customers wanted. Once the highway project wrapped up last August, things began returning to normal and thankfully have continued ever since for he and his seven other employees including his daughter-in-law.