Baseball, softball teams show strength in tourney play - Page 3
Check out this week's high school soccer roundup inside today on Page 3, as we break down who still has plenty to play for in the regular season's final weeks. (Photo from Twitter)
WEDNESDAY • MARCH 8, 2023 JEANNE GREGORY REALTOR®, CRS, GRI, ABR
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 48 • No. 24 • $1.00
County hears proposals to address homelessness in area By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
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County KP George, shown speaking during a recent county event, and the Fort Bend commissioners court recently heard proposals to address homelessness in the county. (Photo from Facebook)
Sugar Land. Friday, March 17 th 8am - 4pm Saturday, March 18th, 8am - 12pm Everything must go!
Fort Bend county commissioners heard last week from a coalition of nonprofit agencies that serve youth and the homeless about the need for a more concerted effort to address a growing problems of homelessness. They asked the court to devote up to $13 million from unused federal American Recovery Act funds for a multi-year, multi-phased program.
Similarly, a representative of the Fort Bend chapter of the American Federation of Teachers asked the commissioners for $221,460 as "seed money" for a pilot project meant to address the growing shortage of teachers by offering alternative teaching certificates to people, especially in a few critical subject areas, who would agree to teach in Fort Bend ISD schools for two years. While the commissioners were largely receptive to the merits of the pro-
posals, some were leery of diverting ARA funds from already committed infrastructure projects, the expansion of broadband Internet access across the county, or from addressing the county's employee and retiree healthcare obligations. Shannon Stavinhola, executive director of the Parks Youth Ranch, a camp for abused and neglected children, served as the spokesperson for the SEE HOMELESS PAGE 4
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Two charged in murder of Richmond man Staff Reports
Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Wuilson Osmar Pereira, 18, and a juvenile suspect for the murder of a Richmond man, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. On Feb. 13, at approximately 1:04 a.m., the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 9800 block of S. Mason Road in Richmond. Upon arrival, Sheriff’s deputies found Blake Ingram, 38, dead from an apparent gunshot SEE CHARGED PAGE
Pereira (Photo courtesy FBCSO)
Sugar Land City Manager Mike Goodrum, left, and Mayor Joe Zimmerman present their vision for the city's future during the State of the City address at the Mariott hotel in Sugar Land Town Square. (Photo by Ken Fountain)
Sugar Land officials lay out vision for city in annual address By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
The large ballroom of the Marriott hotel at Sugar Land Town Square was filled with a who's who of elected officials and the local business community Friday as Mayor Joe Zimmerman and City
Manager Mike Goodrum laid out their vision for a revitalization of the city in the annual "State of the City" event hosted by the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce. In a slickly produced multimedia presentation, the pair took a tag-team approach, taking turns with the speech that was also
interspersed with videos showcasing city staff, City Council members and members of the public presenting a unified vision of taking Sugar Land into a new level as a growing suburban community The presentation began with a video that looked back over the decades to once-dominant businesses
such as Blockbuster Video and Radio Shack which withered and died because they didn't keep up with new technologies and changes in consumer demands. The unspoken message in the video was that is where Sugar Land's leadership sees the city heading if it doesn't take a more proactive approach.
In their combined talk, Zimmerman and Goodrum didn't take long bringing that subtext forward. "Life is short and we only get one chance at success," Zimmerman said, "which is why we are obsessed with being a city that is SEE ADDRESS PAGE 5
Parish Plant named among country's 'deadliest' in new study By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
A new report from the environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club finds that the W A Parish power plant operated by NRG Energy in central Fort Bend County is the 8th-worst coal-fired plant in the nation in contributing to premature deaths from soot pollution. The report, titled "Out of Control: The Deadly Impact of Coal Plant Pollution," states that while
many of the nation's coalfired plants have been retired in recent years in the wake of more stringent environmental laws and market forces, researchers estimate that "the remaining f leet of coal-fired power plants is still responsible for 3,800 premature deaths per year due to particulate pollution. 10% of plants are super-polluters responsible for over 50% of these deaths." "Polluted air has been linked to increased asth-
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ma rates, bronchitis, blood clots, heart attacks, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, diabetes, and weakened immune systems among other adverse health impacts. These health impacts not only affect the quality of life for those who are exposed, but can also lead to premature mortality," the report states, citing 2021 research by the University In a new report, the environmental advocacy group The Sierra of Chicago Club calls the W A Parish plant in Fort Bend County one of SEE PARISH PAGE 4
the "deadliest" in the U.S. w(Photo by Roy Luck via Wikimedia Commons)