We’re going to have some bumper stickers made. Please take a moment and look at the images below. You can select the three you like best.

Thanks!
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APET SPCA is hosting our third annual Woofin’ Waggin’ Walk-A-Thon to be conducted at the Mineola Civic Center on Saturday, May 12th at 8:30AM. We’re asking your help to personally participate and/or ask others you know. If you participate or want to recruit others, the information and forms are available here

Walkers are asked to prepare for the event by asking for sponsors to donate checks or cash to APET to support your walk. You show up on the morning of the event with your dog on a leash to walk the periphery of the Civic Center (approximately a mile). We would like to see big numbers of walkers this year, and it would be fun if you start a healthy competition for sponsors with other volunteers, within your neighborhood, Sunday school class, civic clubs or whatever! This is a great opportunity for you to help us gain much needed funds and show your support for our many causes.
Please call if you have any questions: Peggy Pellegrini – (903) 569-2332

John Storace has been named Mineola Citizen of the Month for May, 2012. The nomination we received speaks of John’s “six consecutive years of dedicated service on the city council. Mr. Storace represented the city of Mineola with the best interest of the citizens in mind.” Mr. Storace’s term ended this year and he did not seek another term on the Mineola City Council.

Recipients of the award receive a $25 gift certificate from East Texas Burger Company, two movie tickets from Mineola’s Historic Select Theater (now fully digital video with digital surround sound audio) and a plaque from Hometown Trophies in Mineola.

If you would like to nominate someone for Mineola Citizen of the Month, click here. If you nominated someone who did not win, please nominate them again. Nominations are not carried over from month to month.

Many thanks to our sponsors of Mineola Citizen of the Month:

• East Texas Burger Company
• Historic Select Theater
• Hometown Trophies

Update: 5/11/12

The Frys have made yet another offer to the Spring Lake HOA to settle this suit. This is the second such offer. The first one expired with no response from the Spring Lake HOA or their attorney.

This family really just wants to move on. They have offered to move the swing set at their own expense with each side paying their own legal fees. So far…no response.

In the meantime, an account has been set up at Mineola Community bank for anyone who wishes to help them with their legal fees.

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I’ve always been under the impression that the best practice is to do everything possible to find a resolution to a problem before filing a law suit. When a law suit is filed, it uses resources at many levels. Sooner or later our courts can become congested with cases that could have been settled far before this stage, had the litigants wanted that.

This seems to be the case in the saga of Bill and Candi Fry. You should know by now about the swing set that prompted a suit from the HOA, but there might be a few things you don’t know. In lieu of writing a long, drawn out article, I will list some points of information I gleaned from a recent interview with the Frys. I also tried to contact their attorney, William Powers, but got no reply.

• The head of the architectural committee for the HOA told Mrs. Fry that ‘it’s a swing set, go ahead and put it up’ when she asked about putting it up.
• A few days later, the chairman of the HOA and the head of the architectural committee were watching as it was being erected. The HOA chairman told Mrs. Fry, “Go ahead and finish putting it up, but you might have to move it if someone complains.”
• After receiving such mixed messages, the Frys referred the HOA to a family friend, an attorney who handles real estate negotiations, in hopes of negotiating an agreement.
• Immediately after this, the HOA broke off communication with them and filed a suit.
• Since the suit was filed, communication has been null.
• A settlement offer has been made by the Frys, without any response at all from the HOA attorney, as of the time of my interview.
• When sued, the Frys hired an attorney to represent them. Since then, all progress seems to have stopped.

It’s sad that once the attorneys get involved, it almost seems as if progress and reasoning give way to billable hours. That seems to be the case here.

This swing set is clearly obnoxious, as seen from the street. It stands out and can be seen from miles away, as shown in this photo. Some have even claimed it is visible from space. We're waiting for a call back from NASA on that.

One especially sad thing the Frys told me was how their kids ask why the people of the neighborhood don’t like them. You see, some in the Spring Lake subdivision would rather it be zoned as a retirement community. There are only two families with kids, so apparently there is some subtext involved regarding this swing set issue. Either way, it is sad when children grow up thinking the neighbors don’t like them because of something as silly as a HOA that insists on proving its dominance over a homeowner.

Would you rather have a neighbor with this in their yard, or a hog farm? Tough call. huh?

Alas, there are some things that come out of such a situation, such as attorney William Power’s comment to the Dallas Morning News equating this swing set controversy to the Frys starting a hog farm on their property. I found that humorous, in a ridiculous kind of way.

Meanwhile, the already clogged court system continues to fill up with cases as ridiculous as a swing set.

Support the Frys in their battle against the unfair Spring Lake HOA

What’s your opinion on this? Go to our Facebook page and weigh in, or leave your comment here.

Mineola enjoyed its 10th month in a row of increased sales tax revenue. The figures for February are in and February was a record breaker.

We saw a jump of $17.501 in February over 2011 figures. This is a percentage gain of 18.14%.

February’s gain was the largest single month sales tax gain for Mineola since May 2007.

Over the past week, you might have noticed the many Airstream RVs at the Mineola Civic Center and RV Park. The Airstream rally in Mineola was a smashing success. Quite an impact is made by these large RV events at the civic center.

Over the 5 days of the rally, 66 local businesses were patronized by the RVers and $30,139.78 was spent in those businesses. Add to that the $22,984 spent at the civic center and the economic impact of the event is $53,123.78 for Mineola.

Charlotte Hall, manager of the Mineola Civic Center and RV Park, collects receipts from the guests for a grand door prize given away on the last day of the event. This drawing generates a tracking mechanism for merchants.

The Mineola Civic Center and RV Park is a very nice, and very useful public facility for the citizens of Mineola. It also works to spur commerce.

Congratulations to Charlotte and Terry on a job well done.

Artist, Charlotte Wharton will be hosting a 5 day workshop in plein air at the Mineola League of the Arts on May 7-11 from 9:00am to 4:00pm.  You will learn how to interpret “your sense” of Natures’ rhythms and bring heightened color awareness to your paintings using the language of artistic energy and the Munsell Color System.  Instructor lectures, demonstrations, and individual critiques will occur daily.  A group critique will follow the workshop.  All levels.  Oil and pastel.  Fees are $250 Members, $275 Non Members.  For more information, contact the League at 903-569-8877 or email, mlota@sbcglobal.net  Deadline to sign up is April 30th.

Vickie Steed will be demonstrating the art of Kumohimo on Thursday,  May 31st from 10:00am to 4:00pm.  Fees are $4 Members, $5 Non Members.  For more information, call the League at 903-569-8877; or email, mlota@sbcglobal.net.  Mineola League of the Arts, 200 W Blair, Mineola.

MLOTA will having their annual garage sale the weekend of April 27th & 28th starting at 8:00am.  Mineola League of the Arts is located at 200 W Blair in Mineola.  For more information, contact the League at 903-569-8877.

Artist, Ricky Neill from Edgewood will give an air brush demonstration to the Painters Guild at Mineola League of the Arts on Monday, April 23rd at 2:00pm.    Admission is free and we invite everyone that would like to attend.  The business meeting generally lasts about 30 minutes with the demonstration afterwards lasting approximately 1 hour to 2 hours after the meeting.  For more information, contact the League 903-569-8877; mlota@sbcglobal.net.

Do you know someone who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help someone or to improve the town? You can nominate that person and they might be selected as Mineola’s Citizen of the Month.

Fill out the form below by the 27th of a given month. On the first of the following month, we will announce the winner.

The Citizen of the Month gets dinner and a show for two:

• $25 gift certificate from East Texas Burger Company
• Two tickets to a movie or play at the Select Theater/Lake Country Playhouse

That’s it. So nominate someone you think is worthy. Be sure to include their contact information. We must be able to contact them to let them know they won. Nominations will not be posted on our web site. The winner will be posted, along with a reason of why they are the Mineola Citizen of the Month. The nominee does not have to live in the city limits, but should live or work in the Mineola area. All information submitted will remain private and will only be shared with the award committee. The award committee is made up of long-time or lifetime citizens of Mineola, including local dignitaries and businesspeople.

Thank you to two businesses that are cornerstones of our community for making this possible.

You may use the form below to nominate someone. Or you can print our nomination form, complete it, seal it in an envelope and drop it off at any of the following Mineola businesses.

Printed forms are available at these businesses:
Dragonfly Art Studio
Mineola Chamber of Commerce
Mineola Community Bank

Mineola League of the Arts will be presenting their annual Art Show,  April 13th & 14th from 10:00am to 5:00pm.  The League is taking art and sculpture entries until March 30, 2012.  All fine art painters and sculpturers in the East Texas area are invited to participate in the four divisions.  All art work must be original in concept and design and executed since 2007 and not previously entered in this show.  For more information, call the League at 903-569-8877.

This appears to be a fire in one of the fuel storage tanks across the railroad tracks from the gazebo in downtown Mineola.

More information will follow as we receive it.

Pearce Petroleum on fire near downtown Mineola.
Photo: John Whitney via Facebook

Update:

It appears that it was not the large tanks that caught fire. As best we could see, it is the building to the east of those tanks that was on fire. The large tanks look to be in tact from this photo.

Fire crews appear to have the fire under control at Pearce Petroleum and the large tanks appear in tact.

Update:

This is what remains of the Pearce Petroleum building in Mineola after Sunday's fire.

Last Monday, March 5th, was the final day to register to run for one of the Mineola City Council seats that will be up for re-election in May of this year. John Storace, representative of Ward 1, did not run for re-election. The only person to register and qualify to run for this seat was Sue Jones of Mineola. Sue and her husband own English House B&B in Mineola. Sue has been active with the Mineola Chamber and other organizations for several years.

Later last week, Councilman Storace resigned his seat. The council has the option of appointing Jones so she can take the position early. To the best of my knowledge, this decision has not been made at this time.

Mr. Storace was active most recently on the Buzz and in City  Council chambers in his vocal opposition to the EZ Mart/parking lot petition and his disapproval of the idea that it was a ruse.

It’s a little anti-climactic that there won’t be a heated election for Ward 1, but we got a good new representative out of the deal.

Best of luck in your new position, Sue Jones.

The sales tax figures for January, 2012 were published today and Mineola is still showing a terrific increase in sales tax revenues.

The figures show a gain of 18.14% over the same period last year. Sales tax revenue helps our city pay for necessary services without having to raid property tax or other taxes to pay for it.

This is a real sign of economic progress.  Below is a display showing this data for Mineola and surrounding areas.

Click the image below for a larger version.

Sales Tax Comparison for January, 2012