Paul Hamilton
is retiring from the Fresno Volunteer Fire Dept. He joined FVFD in 1982 when Essa Means was the chief. In 1987, Paul became the fire chief. His rookie year an EMS call came in. Paul drove the fire truck, but he didn’t notice the clothes stacked behind the truck for a rummage sale. The clothes caught on fire. The next call that came through announced that the fire station was on fire. He has been reminded a few hundred times that he burned down the fire station. Paul continued to be fire chief until he took a five year break from 1990 to 1995. Then he served as chief again from 2000 to 2014. During the last 29 years, Paul has seen some changes. When he was the chief in 1987, FVFD got their first brand new fire truck. Since then they have got two more and a 4th new truck is being built. Recently, for the first time, the department has two paid station attendants.
Paul still serves on the Fresno water board. He earns a living as a self employed environmental consultant liaison between industry and government agencies.
When he isn’t working or serving, he is singing at the Shepherd of the Heart Methodist Church or flying his airplane. And he will be around in case the new chief, Chris Tormey and assistant chief, Janette Gerald need any help.
South Houston Concerned Citizens Coalition
The first award ceremony of SHCCC was attended by 160 community leaders representing 22 civic clubs. The coalition started in 1993 under the name of Central Southwest CCC. In 1997 they incorporated as SHCCC.
The Memorial Award was given to Betsy Mansfield, President’s Award to Vivian Harris, Outstanding Service Award to Linda Scurlock , Corporate Award to ABC Dental and Economy Polymers and Chemical, Special Recognition Award went to Fountain of Praise; Special Achievement Award was given to police officer Mary Young; Member of the Year Award to Melva Thorton, Unsung Hero Award went to Edna Deauvearo and Rita Foretich, Outstanding Civic Club award to Meredith Manor and accepted by Rose Farmer, club’s president.
District K City Councilman Larry Green was the guest speaker. In his first term, he brought $20 M into the district.
Green said that no law can transform a community. It’s up to the citizens. We have to get the diverse community to work together. In District K 52% of the population is Hispanic whereas most of those in the Coalition are black.
Green also announced that Dowling will be remodeled this year, a new Madison built in 2017, and a new police station near the Cambridge Park.
Green, representing District K, has been appointed chairperson of City Council's Transportation, Technology, and Infrastructure Committee by Mayor Annise Parker.
The TTI oversees the City's Information Technology, General Services, and Public Works and Engineering Departments, as well as the Rebuild Houston streets and drainage and water resources and conservation projects. In addition, the TTI Committee oversees the interest of the City of Houston relative to the Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO), the Port of Houston Authority, and the Houston Airport System. The TTI Committee oversees revenues and expenditures garnered from the City's General Fund, Enterprise Funds and Special Revenue Funds. The Committee is comprised of 12 out of the 16 council members that serve on City Council.
INTERESTING PRIMARY IN MARCH
Not often does a serious candidate challenge someone who is in office in their own party, but this year Senator John Cornyn has seven challengers. Judging by a negative ad on TV against Representative Steve Stockman, he must be the only real threat Cornyn faces in the Republican primary.
If you vote early (February 18-28) you can still go to the Primary Convention on March 4th, after 7pm. At the convention both Democrats and Republicans will vote on who they want to represent them in the Senatorial Convention. Also you can vote on what issues you want your party to have on their platform. That information will be turned over to the Senatorial Convention and voted on. Then it goes to the National Convention where your idea may be put on the platform. Any Dem. candidate running should be in agreement with the Democratic platform. Same for Republicans.
I wish both platforms would have the following. All elected officials and their staff should be subject to the same laws, rules, regulations, and ordinances as their constituents. Texans should be free to express their religious beliefs, including prayer, in public places.
Texas should support Second Amendment liberties by expanding locations where concealed handgun license-holders may legally carry. Texas recipients of taxpayer-funded public assistance should be subject to random drug testing as a condition of receiving benefits. If enough people make the effort, both political parties could be changed for the better.
Attend the primary convention at your own precinct.
IF THE LAW IS GOOD FOR US
According to the Affordable Care provisions, Americans who make less than $45,000 annually qualify for federal subsidies, so Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is suing the Obama administration for using federal funds to subsidize healthcare coverage for lawmakers who are paid $175,000 and their staff. When congress passes a law for our good, it should be good enough for them.
GLOBAL WARMING IRONY
The Russian ship, Shokalskiy, was not on a pleasure cruise, it was on a scientific expedition to investigate in part the role global warming might play with respect to melted ice in the East Antarctic, when it got stuck in the ice. Wonder why that tidbit of news was seldom, if at all, mentioned on TV? Go to National Geographic Daily News on the Internet to read about it. Along Antarctic shores, the effect of the winds could counteract almost half of the average global sea-level rise expected by the end of the century,
The band of westerly winds that encircles Antarctica has been speeding up and creeping southwards since the 1950s. The trend, largely driven by the Antarctic ozone hole, is expected to continue thanks to climate change — and could alone cause a drop in sea level of up to 40 centimeters over 70 years, according to research led by Leela Frankcombe, a geophysicist at the Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science in Sydney, Australia.
None of that research could possibly be true because Al Gore says we are the ones responsible for global warming and the sea rising.
The four differences in a fetus and a baby are size, level of development, environment, and dependency. Should the size make a difference? If size makes the difference, then that must mean a 5’8”man weighing 150 is not as valuable as a 250-pound 6’ 2” man.
OK, but what about the level of development? If your IQ is 120 are you less of a person than someone with an IQ of 140? If a four year old girl who hasn’t even developed reproductive ability, does that mean her life isn’t worth as much as a 14 year old girl?
Environment? The fetus is in the warm and cozy womb of its mother normally the safest place in the world. Should a change of environment make a difference? If we change our environment does that change us? We are still the same person if we are in a house or outside.
Lastly dependency: a fetus is depending on its mother. A baby is totally dependent on someone. Many adults are dependent on various types medicine. Does that mean if a person is depending on insulin to keep alive or if a quadriplegic needs someone to feed them then they are no longer a person deserving to live?
On January 13, 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared January 22, 1984, as “National Human Life Day.” In doing so, he issued a proclamation which read, in part:
“The first of the ‘unalienable rights’ affirmed by our Declaration of Independence is the right to life itself, a right the Declaration states has been endowed by our Creator on all human beings—whether young or old, weak or strong, healthy or handicapped”
55 million lives have been eliminated by abortion since 1973 in this nation. As a nation and as individuals for taking part in the procedure or for ignoring the women that needed help, we are responsible. As individual repentant Christians, God will forgive. As a nation, that remains to be seen.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King Jr.
What a wonderful day, January 20th 1932, when Sue Harrison was born. Actually it was a cold rainy day when her father rushed down the road to call the doctor. By the time he and her grandmother got back, Sue was already born. The first thing Grandma did was start the wood fire, then cut the umbilical cord and put five pound Sue in a shoe box and place her in the oven to warm up.
Of course Sue doesn’t remember that but she does remember some other events growing up in Kennard, TX. Like the time her uncle put her in a bucket and lowered her down in a cistern which was four feet above ground and about 12 feet underground. Her grandparents only source of drinking water was from the rainwater that ran into that round concrete cistern where one day a live snake was swimming around. So her Uncle John gave Sue a net and she went snake fishing.
Besides providing drinking water, the cistern also served as a refrigerator. Several buckets were lowered into the cool water, each holding eggs or meat or milk or, in the cistern for her Dad’s father, bottles of homemade brew and homemade catsup. Grandpa Harrison also grew his own tobacco, which Sue learned the hard way that after you chew you are suppose to spit not swallow.
When Sue was nine, her family moved to Almeda. Marvel of marvels there was a bathtub in a bathroom. No more bathing in a washtub in front of the fireplace in the same water her two sisters bathed in.
She will never forget the outhouse especially the one at Grandpa Harrison’s house. It faced south and the back was open so that chickens could come in and peck a little kid on the bottom. Between the chickens and the north wind, nobody had to tell Sue to hurry up.
CONCERNED ABOUT KIDS?
If you are concerned about the hundreds of children in our neighborhoods who never go to church to learn of the love of Christ, there is something you can do. Take a Teaching Children Effectively 30-hour teacher training course starting March 1st. Learn * How to lead a child to Christ * Making memorization fun and meaningful * Weaving the gospel message into any Bible story and applying it to today’s child* Counseling * Teaching the saved child * Visual Communication * Discipline * Teaching with music *How to start and lead a Good News Club in your home, school or apartment. Classes will be held at Southway Community Church at 14011 Hwy. 288 from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm Saturdays March 1st, 8th, 22nd, 29th and on Wednesdays from 7 to 9:30 on the 5th, 12th, 19th, and the 26th. Participants will receive all the needed material to conduct a Good News Club for six weeks. There is a cost. Call Judy at 713 524 7994 ex. 5 or Darlene at 281 530 7282 or Sis at 713 433 1098. Ask about the training at Southway
GARDENING
Kale, broccoli, carrots, green peas, spinach, leaf lettuce, cabbage and strawberry plants all survived the 21 degree cold weather we had in January.
I WANT TO REALLY KNOW GOD
I wish my dad could come back to earth and tell me all about God, then I realized how much he already had. Dad taught me to submit to authority. Sometimes because I had to but mostly because I wanted to please him. My dad cared about me even when he wouldn’t let me date an out-of-state cowboy I’d met at the rodeo. My dad was wise. He provided all I needed, but not all I wanted. He wasn’t much on hugs and kisses but I knew he really loved me. I wish I could thank you Daddy for all the things you taught me about Our Father.
Federal Election Assistance Commission
TAKING OVER ELECTIONS.
“Congress does not have the authority to prevent a state from requiring proof of citizenship, according to Article I of the Constitution. And Congress cannot create an agency to exercise a power that Congress itself is constitutionally prevented from exercising," Mr. Kobach Kansas Secretary of State.
Article I of the Constitution
States are vowing to go to the courts for permission to ask newly registered voters to show proof of citizenship after the four member EAC federal commission ruled late Friday that it's up to the national government, not states, to decide what to include on registration forms.
The Federal government increasingly is taking over states rights ignoring the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the Constitution to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Three powers: elections, education and environment was not delegated by the Constitution to the central or Federal government. Not to mention a book full of other things.
Wonder how many officials in Washington can quote the Tenth Amendment?
$1.012 TRILLION
Without reading the bill, our Representative Al Green voted to pass a bill that would put this nation further in debt by giving the government more money to spend than they will take in unless they raise taxes. More than they spent last year.
Senator Tom Coburn M D tells us how some of the money was spent in his “Wastebook 2013.” A few examples are: Outhouse in Alaska: $98,670.
A bus stop with heated pavement for the Washington area: $1 million.
A $10,000 grant for Austin Energy to perform an artsy dance with 20 utility poles- Pole Dancing
Booze and crystal for the State Department: $5.4 million. Monitoring depression on Twitter: $82,000
Artwork for Veterans Affairs offices: $562,000.
The above is a fraction of ways government is wasting. Shame on anybody, no matter what their reason, who voted yes without going through the budget bill item by item with the help of their staff.
Seven Dangers to Human Virtue by Mahatma Gandhi
1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Business without ethics
5. Science without humanity
6. Religion without sacrifice
7. Politics without principal.
IN MEMORY
Alvin F. Munke is still greatly missed by his wife, Shirley; sons, Kent and Doug and his granddaughter, Jennifer since his death February 2, 2004. Born October 13, 1920, Alvin served in WWII as a motor sergeant in the Normandy invasion, through the Battle of the Bulge to VE-Day. After serving two years in Korea, he worked until his retirement at TRIMS. Alvin lived in Almeda from 1965 until his death at age 83.
GREG HOHENSTEIN, 65,
October 9, 1948, - December 20 2013
Greg grew up in Almeda. Before he graduated from Madison High School in 1968, he built his first rental house and drew up plans for two more houses. Greg worked with his father in general construction for many years. He enjoyed fishing, boating and sports. Greg spent six years in the National Guard, a proud graduate from Jump School. His children were his pride and joy, and he loved his three grandchildren. Friends and family remember his generosity and helpfulness. He even kept dog biscuits by his door for visits of the neighbor's dogs! Preceded in death by his parents Joseph and Margaret Hohenstein, a brother, Roger, Greg is survived by his children: James Hohenstein, Jennifer/Colby Gulledge; grandchildren: Brenden Hohenstein, Noah and Madeline Gulledge; sister, Peggy Hohenstein and other loving relatives and friends.
A memorial service was held at Southway Community Church, 14011 South Freeway, Pastor Jason Hess officiated. In his memory, contributions may be made to the Fisher House Foundation.
Esmerejildo “Little Roy” Llanes Jr.
October 6, 1963—December 24, 2013
The oldest of Roy and Anita Llanes’ three sons, Roy Jr. attended Almeda, Dowling, and Madison schools. He worked as an electrician for 30 years and was a master electrician. Often called Cowboy Roy, he always wore a cowboy hat and boots. Roy left his family and others with many happy memories as he was always ready with open arms to help those in need. He is survived by his daughters: Amber, Kira, and Darcy; a son, Cory; grandchildren: Maddy, Ethan and Owen; his parents, Roy and Anita; two brothers, Daniel and Eddie: five nieces and one nephew.
After a recent house fire in Fresno due to an explosion and a shooting in Arcola where one person was killed and another wounded , Channel 11 news reporter asked Rodrigo Carrion his thoughts. Rodrigo expressed his concern that Fresno and Arcola lacked funds to address security issues.
ALMEDA MOE
Police announced the discovery of an arms cache of 200 semi-automatic rifles with 25,000 rounds of ammunition, 200 pounds of heroin, 5 million dollars in forged US banknotes and 25 prostitutes --- all located in a small house behind the Public Library. Local residents were stunned. A community spokesman said, "We were all shocked. We never knew we had a library!”
The three “R’s” of life.
Respect for yourself, Respect for others, Responsibility for your actions.
RAISING CHILDREN
While eating her hamburger, little Journey asked, "Dad, how do they make animals into our food?"
"They kill them, pull all their skin off, cut them into smaller pieces, and then grind them up," replied dad, whose specialty is honesty.
Did Journey stop eating? Nope. Nary a pause before the next bite.
CONGRATULATIONS
On Jan. 8th, Ruby Kluis won the spelling bee at Reagan. She will represent Reagan’s 4th-8th grades. Her father, Dennis, is very proud.
Trail Life USA
Trail Life USA is an alternative for Boy Scouts just as American Heritage Girls, is a faith-based alternative to the Girl Scouts. Adults in Trail Life USA must sign a statement of faith and commit to purity. Scouts will be taught that any sexual activity outside marriage is a sin. Scouts who are gay will be allowed in, as long as they don't promote or engage in any behavior that distracts from the program.
Mobile BBQ Kitchen
16 X7 trailer 7ft. Pit/smoker 4 sinks
Asking $17,000.
Call 281-451-0538 for more details.
FUND RAISER
Almeda U Methodist Church will raise funds on Sat. Feb. 8th from 7am—11 am by serving a fabulous breakfast. $5 donation for adults and $3 for children. 14300 Almeda School Road.
Vinson Library/Multi-Center
3810 West Fuqua 832-393-2120 Open Tue. & Wed. 10-6 Thurs 12-8 Fri. 1-5 Sat. 10-5 Closed Sun. & Mon. www.houstonlibrary.org Multi-Center open Mon. –Fri.
Sienna Branch Library
8411 Sienna Springs Blvd. 281-238-2900
Fort Bend Libraries have public self-service fax kiosks. Introduction to Digital Storytelling, on Tue, Feb 18, at 10:00 am Learn to use Photo Story 3 for Windows” to create a digital story with photos, special effects, soundtrack music, text, and your own voice narration and publish the finished product on the web via YouTube.
Public Records at Your Fingertips, on Thur. Feb. 13, at 10:00 am,
Movie of Jackie Robinson Sat. Feb. 22, 1:00 pm. Tips to improve memory, attitude, and focus to help one secure employment and earn promotions, Sat, Feb 8, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm
Pinterest for Beginners on Wed, Feb 26, 10:00 am,
The Middle-School Program will not take place in February. Other programs at regular time.
For the Good the Bad the Ugly and the Beautiful
A Valentine Poem
Jesus is my true Valentine. His heart was pierced for me.
I cannot tell, why He loves me so well, but He proved it on Calvary.
