As always, becauseI like to read the newspaper and not because I"m affiliated.

First up, I see that the City Council voted down the pay raise that Chris Bryant proposed last month  (Here's audio for October 2008 where he brought it up-I'll probably get audio from the November meeting and post it in the next week or so). Got voted against 3/2-GR Reporter says that Bob Stricklin and Barbara Mitchell both opposed it and said that "anyone interested in running for the council should not be persuaded by the money involved". The third person voting against was Rocky Terry. Ricky Villa and Chris Bryant voted for. The odd part of the article was a bit where Bryant said nobody against the raise would be harrassed. Well, yeah. I guess there was somebody who didn't want to see the council people get raises but thought he or she would suffer repercussions. Anyway, for me, I agree philosophically with the 3 who voted against, in that it does seem like a volunteer position rather than a paid one.

I missed the county commish meeting this month-looks like Walter Maynard showed up to the City meeting to tell them that the county has been placed in a PGMA (priority groundwater management area) by the Texas Water Board. The deal was that counties needed to become part of their own water districts and if they didn't do it voluntarily on their own, the TWB and TCEQ would pop them into one. Back in 2007, Somervell County opted out of the Upper Trinity GCD which included Hood, Wise, Montague and Parker County.  Then, in Feb 2008, TCEQ recommended that Somervell County be part of the Central Texas Trinity Aquifer Water District.  Somervell County has a couple of years to either get with a different water district, form a new one, or we'll stay part of the PGMA, which includes McLennan Co. Walter Maynard said that the Ellis County Commish Court said they'd like to create a 5 county district which would include Somervell (and would probably also have Johnson, Hill, and maybe Navarro counties). Interesting about the tax based versus fee based districts. IF you're a member of a fee-based district, the district meters wells that pump over 25,000 gallons of water a day are charged usage fees. I'm not sure what that means exactly, maybe one of the readers knows. Does this mean that the city of Glen Rose itself would pay for this out of its budget and does that mean it would be raising water fees for residents?

Diane Gruber was appointed as alternate member of Board of Adjustments. She ran for one of the city council positions last time around.  Here's video I took of her from Meet the Candidates night

I notice the council passed a resolution to support "Raise your Hand Texas". I wondered what the fool that is. Found the website.  Here's link to the board members. Seems on first blush that they're a centrist group for public school accountability, which is good. I notice that they also believe that charter schools should have the same accountability as public-I agree with that and think it was a shame that Sid Miller voted against this when his wife runs a charter school that my taxes are helping pay for.

Em. Seems like the downturn in the economy might be affecting building plans, as a proposal for water and sewer lines for development east on 67 has been shelved.  Wonder if that's the one that was talked about in February 2008, when the discussion was about the water lines that run east and north of town, who would pay, etc? Also, no new sewer lines at 67 and 144.

On the monthly commish meeting. Here's the part I LOVED> Apparently the census person came to let people know the 2010 census is coming, Now here's the best part. The census has gone from 60 intrusive, nosey parker questions to about 10. Yeah!

Supposed to be a meeting at 9:30 on Monday about the Glen Rose Medical Center Hospital District. I read the article three times and I still don't understand exactly what the beef is, unless it means everybody is about to get their taxes raised. Anyway, I might probably go to the meeting on Monday to listen and see if my pocketbook is being proposed to be opened again.

Dear Foy and Martha Edwards are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary and having an open reception (no gifts) at 2:00 pm on Sunday the 16th at the Community Center on Shepard Street.  I see Foy sometimes driving the school bus, he's a great guy.

The Holiday Inn Express is finally opening and going to have a wine and cheese reception on Nov 20 (Thursday) from 5-7 pm. no rsvp's required. I'm curious to see, so may go. When I went on vacation this last year, I tried as often as possible to stay at Holiday Inn Expresses because the prices were good, they had breakfast in the morning and the rooms were nice. I assume this one will be no different.