Category Archives: local news

local news

Patience runs out

Every time I drive by the unfinished apartment complex construction site on US 380 here in little ol’ Princeton, Texas, the more annoyed I get.

I get annoyed because of what I know has not happened there and I get even more chapped over what I believe is going to be the outcome in this dispute.

The site is getting seedier by the day. Weeds are overtaking the giant dirt piles that construction crews left behind when they walked off the job more than a year ago. The weedier it gets, the seedier it becomes and the more difficult it is going to get for anyone to make the site remotely presentable.

I am not going to belabor this point forever and a day. I just feel compelled to express my frustration and annoyance at what I see every damn day I drive by the site. I see an eyesore. It’s a big one and it is a blight on the city my late wife and I chose to call home when we moved here a little more than five years ago.

I learned not long ago that the Princeton City Council granted the zone change in 2017 which cleared the way for construction of the 360-unit complex of “luxury” apartments. Do not misunderstand me … as I do not object to apartment complexes per se. I do object to local government being unable or unwilling to intervene to get this dispute — whatever it entails — resolved between the parties.

In 2017, Princeton had a different city management team, a different mayor and city council. The city has hired some new faces to run City Hall and the council has a new mayor and new council members.

I fear, though, that the battered hulk of a construction site is beyond repair at this point. It has taken too much pummeling from Mother Nature to be saved.

local news

Blog nears milestone

Time for a little bragging, if that’s all right with you. If you object, too bad. I am going to boast … just a little.

High Plains Blogger will surpass in just two days a significant milestone. I am proud to announce it will mark 1,000 consecutive days in which I have posted something on the blog.

I know better than to brag about the quality of the posts. I’ve enjoyed many of them. I haven’t liked so much many others. As for whether all my posts have been welcomed, that depends on those who read them. The political posts have their friends and their foes. The friends generally are quiet; the foes pull the long knives out of their scabbards.

My blog took a dramatic turn in the past year. I have used this forum as a form of therapy for my broken heart. My dear bride, Kathy Anne, lost a fight with cancer and I have told you the story of the journey I undertook to emerge from the darkness. My chronicling of that journey has been well-received, and it has helped me find the light, which today shines brightly.

I will soldier on. Why do this? Well, it’s what I do.

For those who have stayed with me for all this time, I offer a humble and heartfelt thank you.

High Plains Blogger means a lot to me. I hope you get something from it as well.

local news

More on the monstrosity

That partially built apartment complex around the corner and down the street from my Princeton home just doesn’t leave my mind.

I want it gone. I no longer want it to be finished. Why? Traffic! That’s it, man.

You see, the 360-unit apartment monstrosity sits alongside US Highway 380, a multilane highway that already is congested beyond reason. The city is hoping to bring in a gigantic retail complex not far from where the apartment complex now sits fallow.

The Texas Department of Transportation wants to expand 380, adding more traffic lanes and, thus, making the traffic woes even worse.

I can remember when the Farmersville City Council nixed an apartment complex near the Brookshire’s grocery story complex some years back. The reason for the rejection? Traffic. Council members were concerned what the increased traffic would do to that area. Thus, I now wonder what the Princeton City Council must have been thinking when it approved the proposal to build the huge complex next to Wal-Mart.

The complex appears to be headed for the trash heap. I have no proof of that belief. I just believe it.

It’s just as good. We do not need any more traffic congestion to give us headaches as we do battle with the legendary D/FW traffic woes.

local news

Who can use the pool?

Some interesting chatter has emerged on a Facebook neighborhood page to which I belong … so I think I will weigh in gingerly on the subject at hand.

It involves the use of a community swimming pool built in our Princeton neighborhood.

I live in the Arcadia Farms subdivision. Our neighborhood is administered by a homeowners association, to which we pay dues each year. Those dues go toward maintaining the pool for use by the residents who pay them.

Some fellow Princeton residents believe the pool should be open to all residents in our part of the city. Our neighborhood is surrounded by other developments, with unique names and they, too, answer to HOAs that are different from the HOA that receives our dues.

I do not intend to sound snotty about this, but the pool — I believe — is reserved for those of us who live within our subdivision. I merely would suggest that those who live in nearby residential developments that lack a community pool should contact their HOA and ask about the feasibility of building a pool where they live.

This likely is an age-old dispute that has blown up in other areas with HOA-managed community pools. There might not be a suitable solution, one that would settle the disagreements. I am just trying to lend a bit of context and perspective.

local news

Site faces its fate

All reporters have sources who tell them things off the record and it falls on the reporter to decide on the veracity of what they hear.

Well, today I heard something that bears repeating. It involves that monstrous boondoggle under construction on US Highway 380 in Princeton, Texas. Well, the term “under construction” is a term of art of sorts.

The apartment complex hasn’t seen any construction activity for several months. I now am hearing that Princeton City Hall is preparing to bulldoze the project if the developer doesn’t produce a workable plan to resume construction … and soon.

I understand that the city will seize ownership of the site and then commence its razing.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me I cannot see how the project can continue. It’s a 360-unit “luxury apartment” complex that has gone fallow. The developer and the general contractor got into some sort of snit and the contractor walked off the job. Since then, the apartment complex, with its interior floor plans exposed to ferocious weather elements has been pummeled by rain, wind, hail, a bit of snow.

My own humble view tells me the project cannot be resurrected. It’s too late. The buildings are too damaged.

Am I upset at what might be coming to that project? Not in the least.

I will offer one reason why I would welcome its destruction: Traffic!

The city has announced plans to welcome a massive new retail complex on the other side of 380. It will bring more traffic to already-congested highway. Meanwhile, Texas highway planners are hoping to build extra lanes along 380 … which only figures to worsen traffic woes!

Princeton does not need the apartment complex. Let it go away … and soon.

local news, State news

Ted Cruz: unlikable and mean

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I will go to my grave — hopefully not anytime soon — wondering for all I can muster how Ted Cruz continues to hang onto his seat in the U.S. Senate.

I cannot think of more unlikable and mean-spirited senator than Rafael Edward Cruz. He has cast his beady eyes on a bigger prize since the day he declared his Senate candidacy in 2012. He was elected that year and ran immediately for the presidency in 2016.

He damn near lost his Senate seat in 2018 to Beto O’Rourke. Now he’s running again, this time against another Texas congressman, Colin Allred of Dallas.

Allred says the polls have the two of them tied. Maybe so. Maybe not. Polling I see shows Cruz with a slim lead.

What in the world has this guy done for Texas? What legislation has he authored that brings tangible benefit to the state? I cannot think of a single piece of legislation that has Cruz’s name stamped on it.

I can, however, recite a couple of notable instances where he embarrassed himself and the state. How about the time he filibustered in favor of a government shutdown, reading Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” from the Senate floor?

My favorite moment, though, occurred when Cruz sought to jet off to Cancun with his family in February 2021 while Texans were freezing to death in that killer winter storm. Someone caught him on the lam to Mexico. He returned … and then blamed his daughter for talking him into taking the family for a vacation.

Oh, how I want Allred to win this seat. Allred vows to work with Republicans. I intend to hold him to that pledge if he manages to win. Cruz, though, is lost forever to the cause of bipartisanship.

I’ll say it again: Good government requires compromise and Ted Cruz does not know to work in that environment.

local news

Speaker’s job still threatened

Dade Phelan’s close runoff victory in the Golden Triangle of Texas well could come at a price for the Beaumont Republican.

He wants to keep his job as speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. To do that he had to fend off a GOP primary challenge from a first-time candidate David Covey, recruited to run in the primary by Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sought revenge against Phelan.

The speaker led the House that impeached Paxton on criminal charges. The vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan. Paxton then stood trial in the Senate, which acquitted him in a partisan show of cowardice.

Covey by all rights had no business forcing a runoff with the veteran legislator. He did and now Phelan is set to take office for another term.

I have spoken, though, with veteran lawmakers who believe Phelan’s victory in the runoff might not be worth having. His fellow Republicans are split among themselves over whether Phelan did the right thing by letting the House work its will in impeaching Paxton. The Texas House is chock full of MAGA Republicans who would love nothing better than to boot Phelan out of the speaker’s chair and install someone more to their liking.

As we have seen throughout the country, today’s Republican Party is controlled by those who are desperately loyal to the cult leader who is calling the shots.

My own preference, not that it matters? I hope Dade Phelan keeps his job. We need someone with a brain managing at least one of the state’s legislative chambers.

local news

Getting used to the traffic madness

Five years ago, my bride and I took a bit of a leap of faith, moving from our quiet neighborhood up yonder in Amarillo to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Our reason was as straightforward as it gets. We wanted to be near our granddaughter. We also knew that the move would present some challenges for us, given that we had were deeply embedded in the Texas Panhandle, our neighborhood and the home we watched being built from scratch beginning in October 1996.

One of the main challenges would be traffic. We knew about the legendary D/FW traffic woes. The place is covered in freeway asphalt. You pay tolls to ride on some of them. We have plenty of “interstate highways,” starting with I-35 E and W, I-20, I-30 and various loops around both Dallas and Fort Worth.

I have figured out, though, what appears to be a formula for getting from place to place. As they say about a lot of aspects of life: Timing is everything.

I have learned to time my excursions according to normal traffic patterns. I am acutely aware that factors can change the flow of traffic in an instant. Accidents, construction, special events that draw more motorists onto our rights-of-way all have this way of disrupting the flow.

I stay the dickens off the highways during rush hours. I have found that Sunday, naturally, is the best day to travel.

You know, of course, that my wife, Kathy Anne, has passed away. I have become friends in recent months with someone with whom I like to spend time. She lives in a Fort Worth suburb. It’s a bit of a drive from Collin County … but far from overly daunting.

It’s all in the timing, man. We select our visitation based partly on what we believe will enable relatively hassle-free travel.

It’s just one of those aspects of living in a metro area comprising about 8 million human beings, many of whom compete for space on our public roads and highways.

I have told you about my adaptability. So … there you go!

local news, media news

Mortality presents itself

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You’ve heard it said, I am sure, that “growing old isn’t for the … ”

Wimpy. Weak. Pansies. Faint-hearted. You know more of them. Of that I also am sure. I mention this because of a realization I made the other day while reaching out to a good friend who I’ve known since we were teenagers back in our hometown of Portland, Ore.

I hadn’t heard from this friend in, oh, several months. He normally keeps up with this blog and gets in touch with me via social media on a fairly regular basis.

He went off the proverbial grid. Or so I thought.

I reached out to another friend, a former high school classmate, to ask whether he had heard from our mutual pal. He said he hadn’t heard a word from him … or nothing about him. I told Friend No. 2 I would call the “lost” friend to see how he’s doing.

I did. He answered his phone. “Hey, man,” I said. “I have been thinking about you and wondered how you’re doing. I hadn’t heard from you in some time, so I am just checking in with you.”

We chatted some more. His voice sounded strong. He told me he had some surgery on his neck to take care of a “lymph node problem.” I then told him of my concern. “Hey, we’re all of a certain age that when I don’t hear from one of my peers, I start thinking the worst,” I said. My pal laughed out loud. He knew precisely what I meant.

How old are we? We’re in our mid-70s. We graduated from high school in the Summer of Love, 1967. Many of us went to war right after high school. Many of my friends have flourished, raised fine families and, of course, endured our share of tragedy and heartbreak.

I suppose this is my recognition that since time is no one’s friend that a sense of mortality has this way of creeping up on all of us.

Live life to the fullest, y’all. Because you never know …

 

local news

Odds mount against project

If I were a betting man — and I am not! — I would be inclined to lay money down on the demise of an apartment complex in Princeton, Texas, where work began but has come to a screeching halt.

My hunch is that every serious thunderstorm that pounds the construction site only damages it more severely, making it unfit to continue.

The project to which I refer sits on US 380 just east of Walmart. Construction began on it sometime in 2022. Then the developer and the contractor got into a snit and the contractor walked off the job. It is no small project that has gone fallow.

There has been virtually no sign of human life on the site for more than a year. Unfinished buildings are exposed to the often-violent elements. Meanwhile, we have had a soaking spring in North Texas, bringing literally tons of water onto the site. Will we get more of the same kind of Mother Nature’s anger coming our way? You can bet on that … for sure!

Meanwhile, Princeton city officials are saying next to nothing about the project’s status, demurring saying only that “legal” is handling it.

It’s making me wonder out loud once more whether we’ve got a big-league boondoggle on our hands along US 380.