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Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor:
My wife and I have lived on a small farm in the northwest corner of Aransas County for almost 30 years. It took two full-time jobs, a part-time job and extra jobs on the weekends but we finally got our place paid.
In the 10 or so years following, we scrimped and saved and bought a few head of mother cows. Between building fences, repairing water lines, baleing hay and all the good and bad things that happen during 50 years of marriage, we are finally able to almost make a small profit from cattle and hay. I still work a full time “town” job so our weekends are spent repairing secondhand hay cutters, repairing fence or water lines or one of the hundreds of small things that need to be addressed on a place like ours. We aren't complaining because this is our “thing” and we enjoy outdoors.
However; I would like to know how the county tax assessor can drive by our property and know how much our home and outbuildings are worth yet not be able to see the round hay bales stacked by the road. Do they think the good fairy baled that hay or built up the herd of cattle one heifer at a time until we reached the magic number of a whopping 25 or so?
With a place as small as ours there is no way we can make a living from cattle and hay; so our agricultural exemption is very important to us. Now, after all this time the tax assessor wants “proof” we have a farm. The tax assessor wants receipts and sales slips. We file a federal income tax report and the IRS knows exactly how much we make (or most usually lose) on our place. We do not think it is anybody else's business and if the mighty tax assessor can't come by and see the calluses on my hands and the worn out steel-handled posthole diggers and see this is a farm; then I will from here on out be silent, bite the bullet and do without the “ag” exemption, because I am an American and the last time I checked, this was still a free country.
J. Frank Miller
Dear Editor:
The article about the designation of Rockport School as a historical landmark reminded me of comments I have been intending to make regarding the failed bond issue in the last election.
Since that election at least three different writers have presented letters discussing objections to the need for the bonds. These objections all have merit, and each gave rise to the idea The Pilot could do a great service to the community, and probably to its subscription base, by conducting unbiased investigative interviews with teachers, students, administrators and those outside the schools who are both for and against the bond issue. A series of reports about these interviews would provide the education to and of the public so they might be better informed to vote in future bond elections.
The article printed in the Jan. 23 edition of The Pilot caused me to wonder if my support for the bond measure was correct. That article stated since the bond measure failed, the district has brought in a consultant who has estimated there are $2,017,000 of repairs and improvements needed through 2010. This is a whole lot less than the $40,000,000 in bonds that had been requested. The useable life of the older building could continue for many years at this rate.
Why wasn't such a study done prior to proposing the bond issue? Perhaps a study was done and it revealed many of the repairs and improvements were for things such as fascia repair, door maintenance and general painting. All of these things would eventually need to be done to new buildings and, therefore, the study was not publicized.
Some of the listed expenditures dealt with items, such as the track, needed for sports activities. Perhaps such costs should be proportionately paid from athletic booster funds and admission revenue from sporting events. The proportionate amount attributable to the general student body would be paid from bonds or general funds.
Respectfully, Edmond Bates Jr.
Dear Editor:
On Thursday afternoon, Jan. 31 several Rockport police cars were seen on Harbor Drive in Harbor Oaks. Later in the day, the police had closed Broadway at the bridge which crosses the water passage from Little Bay to Canoe Lake. They had also closed Hillcrest Street which runs between the cemetery and the motels and businesses on Broadway near the bridge. Broadway was closed for three or four hours that evening so all northbound and southbound traffic had to detour to Highway 35. I looked in The Pilot Saturday and today but found no reference to this event at all.
I have been reading the Pilot regularly for several years and was quite surprised when someone directed me to the Texas DPS crime reports on the Internet. The crimes by jurisdiction reports indicate there were two violent rapes in Rockport in 2004, 11 in 2005, and 20 in 2006. The comparable figures for Aransas County are three in 2004, two in 2005 and 10 in 2006. While the county statistics are not good, the trend in Rockport seems incredible, given the small size of this jurisdiction.
From reading The Pilot, the only crimes that seem to occur with any frequency are either drug related or gasoline drive offs.
Tom McGovern
Dear Editor:
We were wondering how long it would take for people to figure out docks, floating or otherwise, are not what's wrong with Little Bay and much of our coastal waters.
The problem is all of the super Wal-Warts, super HEBs, widened, curbed, and guttered streets, golf courses, etc. In years past there were a string of small ponds stretching from north of the airport to the Tule lakes and into Little Bay.
The slow flow and absorption of the water into the white fine sand provided filtration and mitigation that kept our bays clean and sea life flourishing. But we guess HEB, Wal Mart, Starbucks and golf are more important than healthy bays which is what brought people here in the first place. The problem is they all stayed. We have sold our birthright for a few dollars. Now what can we do?
Randall “Rocky” Rouquette
My wife and I have lived on a small farm in the northwest corner of Aransas County for almost 30 years. It took two full-time jobs, a part-time job and extra jobs on the weekends but we finally got our place paid.
In the 10 or so years following, we scrimped and saved and bought a few head of mother cows. Between building fences, repairing water lines, baleing hay and all the good and bad things that happen during 50 years of marriage, we are finally able to almost make a small profit from cattle and hay. I still work a full time “town” job so our weekends are spent repairing secondhand hay cutters, repairing fence or water lines or one of the hundreds of small things that need to be addressed on a place like ours. We aren't complaining because this is our “thing” and we enjoy outdoors.
However; I would like to know how the county tax assessor can drive by our property and know how much our home and outbuildings are worth yet not be able to see the round hay bales stacked by the road. Do they think the good fairy baled that hay or built up the herd of cattle one heifer at a time until we reached the magic number of a whopping 25 or so?
With a place as small as ours there is no way we can make a living from cattle and hay; so our agricultural exemption is very important to us. Now, after all this time the tax assessor wants “proof” we have a farm. The tax assessor wants receipts and sales slips. We file a federal income tax report and the IRS knows exactly how much we make (or most usually lose) on our place. We do not think it is anybody else's business and if the mighty tax assessor can't come by and see the calluses on my hands and the worn out steel-handled posthole diggers and see this is a farm; then I will from here on out be silent, bite the bullet and do without the “ag” exemption, because I am an American and the last time I checked, this was still a free country.
J. Frank Miller
Dear Editor:
The article about the designation of Rockport School as a historical landmark reminded me of comments I have been intending to make regarding the failed bond issue in the last election.
Since that election at least three different writers have presented letters discussing objections to the need for the bonds. These objections all have merit, and each gave rise to the idea The Pilot could do a great service to the community, and probably to its subscription base, by conducting unbiased investigative interviews with teachers, students, administrators and those outside the schools who are both for and against the bond issue. A series of reports about these interviews would provide the education to and of the public so they might be better informed to vote in future bond elections.
The article printed in the Jan. 23 edition of The Pilot caused me to wonder if my support for the bond measure was correct. That article stated since the bond measure failed, the district has brought in a consultant who has estimated there are $2,017,000 of repairs and improvements needed through 2010. This is a whole lot less than the $40,000,000 in bonds that had been requested. The useable life of the older building could continue for many years at this rate.
Why wasn't such a study done prior to proposing the bond issue? Perhaps a study was done and it revealed many of the repairs and improvements were for things such as fascia repair, door maintenance and general painting. All of these things would eventually need to be done to new buildings and, therefore, the study was not publicized.
Some of the listed expenditures dealt with items, such as the track, needed for sports activities. Perhaps such costs should be proportionately paid from athletic booster funds and admission revenue from sporting events. The proportionate amount attributable to the general student body would be paid from bonds or general funds.
Respectfully, Edmond Bates Jr.
Dear Editor:
On Thursday afternoon, Jan. 31 several Rockport police cars were seen on Harbor Drive in Harbor Oaks. Later in the day, the police had closed Broadway at the bridge which crosses the water passage from Little Bay to Canoe Lake. They had also closed Hillcrest Street which runs between the cemetery and the motels and businesses on Broadway near the bridge. Broadway was closed for three or four hours that evening so all northbound and southbound traffic had to detour to Highway 35. I looked in The Pilot Saturday and today but found no reference to this event at all.
I have been reading the Pilot regularly for several years and was quite surprised when someone directed me to the Texas DPS crime reports on the Internet. The crimes by jurisdiction reports indicate there were two violent rapes in Rockport in 2004, 11 in 2005, and 20 in 2006. The comparable figures for Aransas County are three in 2004, two in 2005 and 10 in 2006. While the county statistics are not good, the trend in Rockport seems incredible, given the small size of this jurisdiction.
From reading The Pilot, the only crimes that seem to occur with any frequency are either drug related or gasoline drive offs.
Tom McGovern
Dear Editor:
We were wondering how long it would take for people to figure out docks, floating or otherwise, are not what's wrong with Little Bay and much of our coastal waters.
The problem is all of the super Wal-Warts, super HEBs, widened, curbed, and guttered streets, golf courses, etc. In years past there were a string of small ponds stretching from north of the airport to the Tule lakes and into Little Bay.
The slow flow and absorption of the water into the white fine sand provided filtration and mitigation that kept our bays clean and sea life flourishing. But we guess HEB, Wal Mart, Starbucks and golf are more important than healthy bays which is what brought people here in the first place. The problem is they all stayed. We have sold our birthright for a few dollars. Now what can we do?
Randall “Rocky” Rouquette
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