Category Archives: local news

local news, Uncategorized

Motorists get phone-ban message on highway

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cellphone ban

SAN ANTONIO — What a capital idea!

Texas’s second-largest city has a ban on handheld cell phones and texting while driving.

How do I know that? I read repeated messages on electronic highway signs as my wife and I tooled through San Antonio en route from Rockport to Johnson City.

Holy mackerel! I lost count of the signs I saw that warned motorists that texting and using handheld phones was in violation of a city ordinance.

What a concept! Letting motorists know while they’re driving through the city that they’d better behave themselves while weaving in and out of traffic.

Gosh, do you think other cities should adopt such a proactive approach to notifying motorists — particularly those who don’t live in that city — of such municipal restrictions?

Amarillo has a similar ban. It also has a couple of interstate highways running through it.

I’ve seen general messages on occasion flashed on electronic signs about the hazards of texting or using handheld phones while driving. I do not recall reading anything about a municipal ordinance that bans such activity.

I’m thinking it’s a pretty tool to let motorists know they’d better obey the law while they’re traveling through the city.

Footnote: I would have taken a picture of a sign across the freeway, except … well, you know.

 

 

local news

Matney does the right thing … as always

matney2

Paul Matney has been a pillar of Amarillo for far longer than the 20-plus years I’ve known him.

When I heard today that he resigned from a downtown Amarillo board over a potential conflict of interest, my first though was: Yep, that’s Paul. He usually follows the right path.

Matney joined a group that is promoting approval of the Nov. 3 advisory vote on whether to proceed with the multipurpose event venue. He also had served as a member of the Downtown Amarillo Inc., board, which is an arm of City Hall.

He’s now the co-chairman of Vote For Amarillo, which is launching a campaign promoting the MPEV.

Matney issued a statement that said, in part: “Even though I am serving Vote for Amarillo as a private and interested citizen, and not as a representative of DAI, in order to clear up any confusion, I believe the right thing to do is to resign from the DAI board. Thus, I have submitted my resignation from the DAI board.”

There’s enough confusion out there over this issue. There need not be any hint of it as it regards Paul Matney, a long-time educator and college administrator, whose last full-time job was as president of Amarillo College.

Matney’s standing in Amarillo is beyond reproach. His resignation from he DAI board demonstrates it.

 

local news

Spread the love around the city

demerson

Amarillo City Councilman Elisha Demerson may be about to initiate an important conversation about the future of the city he helps govern.

Demerson says he favors efforts to revive downtown Amarillo, but thinks the city should look beyond the central business district to revive blighted neighborhoods.

He toured one of them this week: San Jacinto.

Demerson speaks out

He told NewsChannel 10: “I’m concerned about these older established communities that are being lost to blight and to disarray. San Jacinto use to be a vibrant community at one time and now when we look around it’s no longer a vibrant community.”

OK, so what does the city do about it? Does it invest public money? Does it redirect money from other neighborhoods? Is there enough money to go around to take care of all the city’s needs?

The city’s public investment in downtown involves public infrastructure. The downtown hotel is being funded by the developer; the proposed multipurpose event venue will receive hotel-motel tax revenue.

A downtown revival, if and when it arrives, is a lead-pipe cinch to provide more money for the city to invest in neighborhoods, such as San Jacinto, which well could be a noble long-term goal for the city to pursue.

One more point is worth noting: Councilman Demerson is using his office — to which he was elected on citywide vote — as a bully pulpit to call attention to neighborhoods that need it.

local news

MPEV, no MPEV … downtown must move forward

Amarillo_Texas_Downtown

An election is coming soon to Amarillo.

How will it turn out? I’m not going to venture a guess. It’s an advisory vote on whether the city should proceed with construction of a multipurpose event venue that at this moment includes an athletic component. Yes, it’s a ballpark.

Pro-MPEV interests contend that “momentum” is on their side.  I hope they’re right.

Anti-MPEV interests, though, suggest they have the Big Mo.

If voters say “no” to the MPEV as it’s currently configured, then the rest of the downtown Amarillo project could be put in jeopardy.

I do not want that to happen.

Pro-MPEV forces say that the Embassy Suites downtown convention hotel is going to open in 2017, no matter what. City leaders say as well that the inertia on that project is such that even a “no” vote on the MPEV won’t stop the hotel.

Again, I hope they’re right.

My gut is churning a bit these days, though, as I ponder the impact of a negative vote on Nov. 3.

That vote and the reconstituted Local Government Corporation board give me pause. A new LGC majority reflects the newly elected majority on the Amarillo City Council — and both majorities seem quite reluctant to proceed with downtown’s proposed future as it is currently configured.

If the MPEV vote gets stalled at the ballot box, will city planners be able — or willing — to cobble together a Plan B that allows the complete project to go forward?

I hope that can happen, too.

If not, then we’ve just wasted a lot of time, emotional and political capital and, oh yeah … money!

 

local news, State news

When a loop isn’t a loop

ty1

TYLER, Texas — Used to be when I thought of Tyler, two thoughts came to mind: roses and Earl Campbell.

Now a third aspect comes to mind, and it’s not nearly as pleasant as the scent of a blooming flower they celebrate every year or the exploits of a great University of Texas and NFL running back who was born and reared in this community.

It’s Tyler, just like Amarillo, has a highway “loop” that has morphed into just another busy street.

The main drag through the city of 97,000 residents is U.S. 69. If you think you’re going to bypass the heavy traffic by taking Loop 323, well, think again. It’s about as useful as Loop 335 is circling Amarillo.

The good news for Amarillo, though, is that the city — in conjunction with the Texas Department of Transportation — is moving forward with plans to extend 335’s western-most corridor with the aim of pulling heavy traffic off of Soncy Road.

I haven’t a clue what they’re going to do in East Texas to improve traffic flow through Tyler.

But after slogging through loop traffic hoping to avoid the clogged highway that run through the center of this beautiful city, my hope is that plans are afoot to do in Tyler what’s being planned in Amarillo.

A loop by definition is supposed to relieve motorists’ headaches, not worsen them.

 

 

local news

Downtown revival journey takes unsettling turn

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amarillo downtown

It appears the debate over how Amarillo’s downtown revival proceeds has been joined fully.

Three new members of the City Council have made their preferences fairly clear: They dislike the multipurpose event venue concept in its current form. They want to put the MPEV to an advisory vote of the residents, believing most voters will agree with them.

Now the council majority has managed to stack the Local Government Corporation board with new members who agree with them.

The LGC board majority now appears to mirror the majority of council members who endorsed their joining the volunteer citizens board that has been front and center in many of the key decisions made regarding downtown revitalization.

I know full well that the May elections have consequences and that the new council members made their intentions clear during the council election campaign.

But you may count me as one individual who believes the new majority appears headed toward making a big mistake if it torpedoes the MPEV and does anything else that forestalls the development of a planned downtown convention hotel.

Look, I’m a believer in the democratic process. However, I sense a fairly deep division in this city over the scope of the downtown plan. The differences seem to center on the ballpark element included in the MPEV.

For me, the ballpark is a plus. Others see it as a minus.

Financing will come from hotel/motel tax revenue provided by those who come to Amarillo and spend time in our many lodging establishments. That’s a bad thing? Supporters say property tax rates won’t be affected. That, too, is a bad thing?

But the LGC — with one of the three new council members among its ranks — appears to look differently on all this.

OK, change has come — as promised. I get it.

I just believe deep down — and on the surface for everyone to see — that the change we’re about to witness won’t do our city any good.

I want desperately to be wrong.

 

local news

Puppy tales, Part 14

puppy

I cannot believe I almost let this anniversary slip by without commenting on it.

A year ago this week, a little mutt came into our lives. His name is Toby and readers of this blog have gotten acquainted with him.

He’s now about 17 months old. Toby — a Chihuahua mix — has, shall we say, become a major part of our family.

His habits are now well-established and my wife and I have had to adapt our own routines — at times — to his.

There once was a time when we could sit quietly and comfortably on our couch in the TV room. We could watch our favorite TV shows without disturbance. Not any longer.

Toby has developed a relentless and limitless desire to play “fetch!” with his mother and me. He brings us a toy. He puts it on the couch. He backs up, wags his tail vigorously and then we have to grab the toy quickly before he grabs it. We toss it across the room. Toby fetches it and brings it back.

This goes on … forever!

But we love him. A lot.

He and our kitty, Mittens, haven’t yet become the best of friends. She tolerates him, but that’s the extent of it. His feelings toward her? Well, I guess he sees her as a potential playmate — except that she will have none of it.

It’s been a fun year. Our puppy is quite smart. He’s well-behaved. He knows a few tricks and obeys our commands without hesitation.

He travels well with us in our fifth wheel.

We’re looking forward to many more anniversaries with him.

And to think he is precisely the type of puppy we pledged we’d never get. Silly us.

 

local news

Get set for lots of split City Council votes

ama city council

Three to two.

We’d all better get ready for a lot of those votes on critical issues that come before the Amarillo City Council.

Does a three-fifths vote in any governing body — no matter its size — constitute a consensus? Hardly. It says only that the body is divided. Does it represent the division that lies out here among us constituents? I’m not yet ready to concede that point.

Think of it in terms of the U.S. Supreme Court, which fairly routinely splits along ideological lines on key — sometimes landmark — decisions. The court likely will split 5 to 4, with the conservative majority winning the argument over the liberal minority.

Do all Americans see these 5-4 court decisions as a sign of consensus? Oh, no. Indeed, the court’s deeply split decisions are bound to trigger national debates over the rightness or the wrongness of whatever decision the court hands down.

I’m guessing a similar discussion might play out in Amarillo as the City Council takes up key issues. The city budget likely will be decided by a deeply split vote. You can rest assured that any issue relating to downtown Amarillo revival project will face a similarly split vote.

And just like the deep divisions that split the nation’s highest court, where dissenting opinions often produce as much as heat as the majority opinions, we here in Amarillo might have to expect fiery dissents from those in the minority on these key votes.

There used to be an unwritten rule at City Hall every one on the council — or commission, as it once was known — was expected to back whatever decision that came forth. Those who opposed a decision weren’t asked to support it publicly, but there was an accepted silence from those who voted on the short end of whatever decision came from City Hall.

I’m betting the mistrust that exists on both sides of this new 3 to 2 City Council divide won’t allow quiet acquiescence.

This, I submit, is part of the “change” that has arrived at City Hall.

Good luck with that, City Council.

 

local news

City Council journey still a bit bumpy

ama city council

Looking at Amarillo City Hall from some distance — given that I’m no longer employed as a full-time print journalist — gives me some fresh perspective.

It also doesn’t diminish my own — or anyone else’s in a similar position — ability to discern dysfunction when I see it.

That’s what I’m seeing at City Hall these days. And, no, I don’t — as some have suggested on social media — have any skin in this game.

The City Council met this week to discuss the upcoming municipal budget and also to discuss how to fill three posts on the Local Government Corporation board.

The meeting got a bit heated, based on what I read about it.

Therein may lie the dysfunction that well could upend a lot of well-laid-out plans for the city’s future.

Ron Boyd, Richard Brown and Lilia Escajeda all cycled off the LGC board. I know two of them — Boyd and Escajeda — pretty well. Finding suitable successors apparently provided some significant friction among the newly constituted City Council.

Is this what we can expect on all matters that come before our city’s elected governing board?

It’s an interesting development that one of the three new members of the LGC is Councilman Randy Burkett, who took office in May and has suggested that he wants to derail the multipurpose event venue project planned for downtown. He voted to put the issue to an advisory vote in November and although I do not know Burkett I’d be willing to bet real American money that he’s going to vote “no” on whether to proceed with the MPEV as it’s been proposed for the city.

For the record — yet again! — I believe in the project that’s been presented.

Now he’s on the LGC board, which is up to its armpits in helping shape the course and the nature of downtown’s proposed redevelopment.

Two lawyers, Bryan Poff and Richard Biggs, have joined Burkett on the board. I’m only casually acquainted with those gentlemen. The council vote was 3-2, with Mayor Paul Harpole and Councilman Brian Eades voting “no” to change the LGC board.

And isn’t it interesting that Councilman Burkett was allowed to vote in favor of his own nomination to the board? Is that how it’s always been done?

I’m fearing more head-butting along the way as the City Council’s new majority tangles with the two veteran council members who managed to win re-election in May.

The council sits divided into two camps: those who liked the way things got done and those who vowed drastic “change” in the city’s modus operandi.

If the change is going to produce more bickering and back-biting just for its own sake, I’ll endorse the view expressed by Amarillo resident Cindi Bulla, who said: “Get over it. Work together and get the job done and get it done right.”

 

 

 

business news, local news

Lower gas prices: more positive than negative

gascosts

Did you see what I saw this morning while driving to one of my four part-time jobs?

The price of regular unleaded gasoline has dipped to less than $2 per gallon in Amarillo.

Good news, yes? Well, I think so.

Motorists such as my wife and me do not enjoying shelling out big bucks for gasoline. Our Prius hybrid has more than paid for itself in fuel efficiency. We’ll keep for as long as we possibly can. Heck, it might live me.

But I get the downside of the lower prices, particularly in states — such as Texas — that rely on oil revenues to fund things such as, oh, state government.

State Rep. Four Price, an Amarillo Republican, told the Rotary Club of Amarillo the other day that the next Texas Legislature is likely to receive some not-so-cheery news from the comptroller’s office when it convenes in January 2017. It will be that oil revenue will be down sharply from the current budget cycle and that the state likely will not have the projected revenue surplus it got when the 2015 Legislature convened.

Gas prices plummet

I get that. I also understand that $100-per-barrel oil is more profitable to pump than, say, $42-per-barrel crude — which is about what it’s drawing these days.

But you know what? I am not going to waste too much emotional energy worrying about those ancillary effects when my household is getting a significant break in its weekly expense obligation.