LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
STOCH continues work to save old City Hall
Dear editor,
As ground breaks and construction begins for the new police department, the question remains of what to do with the Old City Hall.
STOCH, acronym for Save The Old City Hall, is a small group of Rockdale citizens that are working together to come up with ideas and share thoughts for the saving and restoration of this great building.
We do not have authority, and we hope our group grows with more individuals that have a passion for history or old buildings or just to be involved.
We as a group have met with several city council members and have spoken to city council of our project.
Architect Stan Graves attended one of our meetings and he is now on board with this project, as he is preparing a feasibility study so that we may all see “what is what”.
His report should be ready by early summer and will hopefully give us some idea of stability for the building, a master plan.
We are hopeful it will be able to withstand a complete remodel, yet the question of what to do with it still hangs in the balance.
During the course of our meetings and town halls, an anonymous donor has made it known that he or she will donate one million dollars if the City of Rockdale as well as the citizens together raises/donates the same amount.
In no way is STOCH looking for or asking that taxes be raised for this project.
And even though we have had a loss with the closing of Luminant, we strongly believe we can still make this happen.
We do have a Face-book page so feel free to drop us a thought or two of what you would like to see happen to this iconic building.
Future STOCH meetings will be scheduled after we receive Stan’s study report. Stay tuned here for updates with STOCH.
Our group members are: Ken Ansell, Geri Burnett (secretary), John Dean (treasurer), Lisa Juarez, Shannon Kornegay (president), Lori McVoy and Lynn Young.
Shannon Kornegay
‘Awesome’ deputies look out for area businesses
Dear editor,
I am writing to commend our sheriff’s department for protecting our businesses.
On March 7, I was awakened at 2 a.m. by a phone alert that the alarm at my clinic had been triggered.
Looking at my security camera, I could see two deputies with fl ashlights searching my facility.
I was notifi ed, then, that during their routine business check, Deputies Sam Ferguson and Juan Paniagua found my back door was not properly closed and locked.
Fearing that there may be someone inside, they entered and searched the clinic, verifying no one was currently inside and no one had broken in earlier.
Finding everything in order, they exited and locked my back door for me.
It is always frightening and disheartening to wake up to an alert from one’s alarm system.
Seeing someone in your building is really scary. Realizing that it was our local sheriff’s deputies watching our clinic, performing a building check in the middle of the night was just awesome.
The door that was unlocked was located such that the deputies had to exit their vehicle to actually see it.
Knowing that the sheriff’s department is providing that much care and effort to protect our property and safety is reassuring.
Thank you, again, for the excellent service our deputies and sheriff are providing Milam County citizens.
With gratitude,
Valeri Bobbitt, DVM
Veterinary Arts Medical Center
4120 County Road 230
Cameron, TX, 76520