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.

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.

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.

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

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

After much effort in design and creation, the Local Coupon module on MineolaBuzz.com is live. Mineola area merchants can create an account and post coupons that customers can print and redeem in their stores. This is a FREE service to customers and merchants alike.

In the past few years the use of coupons to stretch household budgets has grown immensely. Large companies like Groupon are cashing in on this market and connecting merchants with new customers each day. We realized the need for this even in small towns. Since small-town merchants don’t have the budget to advertise on the big national sites, we developed this Local Coupon section and have made it a part of our site. We do not charge merchants to post coupons and we never will. This is and will remain a free service for the merchants of Mineola to use.

Over the past few years, Mineola Buzz has become more and more popular. Today we are getting about 1.4x the population of Mineola in unique visitors to our web site every month. About 40% of these visitors are from the DFW area, Tyler, Longview and other surrounding towns and cities. This is a perfect way to market to these people visiting our town without spending a lot of money. The only money you spend is the redemption of the coupon you offer. We think that’s a more than fair deal.

We are open to suggestions and ideas regarding the Local Coupon section. Feel free to leave comments here or on our Facebook page regarding this.

Thanks

From left to right: Michael Jones - Builder, Novada Bingham - City Council, Pat Hamlet - Century 21 Realtor, Ryan James - Bank Texas, Bo Whitus - Mayor

Mineola will soon have a new apartment complex that is sure to add to the value of our city. Today, Michael Jones of 5J Builders, along with city officials and others had a brief ground-breaking ceremony for Mineola’s newest apartments.

The apartments will be directly behind Tractor Supply and will contain some 60+ individual units, along with a pool and other amenities.

This is great news for Mineola. This is not only a large investment in our community, but 60 new families is enough to make an impact to our local economy.

Michael Jones, his brothers and their father make up 5J Builders.

YOU GET TO NAME THE APARTMENTS

As of this moment, the apartments do not have a name. The builder has agreed to accept submissions for a name of the apartments. Comments left on this page and on our Facebook page will be reviewed and considered by the builder for the name of the apartments.

If a name from this site or our Facebook page is selected, MineolaBuzz.com will give $100 to the person who submitted the name. Only one entry (the first one) will be selected in the case of multiple people submitting the same name.

So with that being said…reply to this comment or to the relevant post on our Facebook page and let them know what to name these apartments. Leave your comment below or on our Facebook page.

The new apartments are located behind Tractor Supply in Mineola.

Yesterday, Mineola Mayor Bo Whitus refused to sign the EZ Mart lease that was unanimously approved by the Mineola City Council. City Manager David Stevenson took the lease to Novada Bigham, Mayor Pro Tem, who signed it. Mayor Whitus’ refusal to sign the lease did nothing but show contempt for the city council as well as the citizens of Mineola.
Mayor Whitus was a driving force behind the failed petition to turn EZ Mart, a thriving Mineola business, into a parking lot.

Having been re-elected to office in 2011, it appears that the city of Mineola is stuck with Mayor Whitus until he is up for re-election in 2013. Our city does not have a recall mechanism in its charter.

Meanwhile, with Mayor Whitus at the helm, the city spends time, money and energy in an effort to move backward. If it were not for the courage and level-headedness of our city council, who knows where this city might end up.

For the first six months of 2011, sales tax revenue for the city of Mineola was up over 2010 by $6408 or .91%.

For the months of July through December, sales tax comparison shows an increase of 8.8% or $60,746.

Sales tax revenue increased for our city for the second half of 2011 by almost 10 times the increase shown in the first half of the year.

The first beer was sold in Mineola on June 30th, after the propositions were passed by voters to allow the sale of beer and wine in Mineola. Although we have not spoken directly with Police Chief Chuck Bittner regarding alcohol-related crime in a few months, all indicators are that there is no increase in crimes or incidents involving alcohol since Mineola stores started selling beer and wine.

The Mineola City Council adopted ordinances regarding signage and other issues regarding the sale of alcohol well in advance of the election and has stuck to those ordinances with no resistance from local merchants.

For the year of 2011, sales tax revenues were up a total of $67,154 or 4.82%.

City Councilman, Ken Pearce, just emailed a letter to me and asked me to share it with you. It addresses the numbers behind the EZ Mart decision and the details of their new lease with the city.

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The current lease is $300 per month. This was negotiated in 1977. It was an economic development initiative by the city council at that time in an effort to lure a business to Mineola.

For the first 5 years of the modified lease, the rent increases to $1500 per month, $1750 in the next 5 years, $2000 in the third 5 years, and $2250 in the final 5 years. This is total lease revenue of $450,000 over the 20 year extension. This equates to a 500% increase in the first five years, to a 750% increase in the last five years.

Our estimates are that EZ Mart pays about $2,650 per year in water utilities, about $1,200 per year in personal property taxes currently, and if they make the additional $350,000 of improvements they said they would, another potential $1,900 of property taxes on those improvements. We do not have any way of verifying the sales tax EZ Mart pays, but my personal estimate is about $10,000 per year. So, total tax and utilility revenue to the city is about $15,750 per year. Unadjusted for inflation, this would total about $315,000 over the 20 years of the lease.

It was originally estimated that it would have cost the city about $102,500 to demolish the building, remove the gas tanks, soil & environmental mitigation, and to pave a parking lot. It was later determined that the lessee would have had the responsibility of tank removal and mitigation, but that still may have left the city having to spend $50 to $80 k to make a parking lot.

So, adding that all up, it would have left us with an $845,000 parking lot. That is the total of lost revenue and actual construction costs. That would have been a terrible financial move for the city! The council knew that, as evidenced by the 5-0 vote, with one alderman absent.

There are other alternatives to increasing parking in downtown. They include possible purchase or lease of the lot at Line and Commerce, and possible renovation of Commerce Street between Line and Johnson. Both of these options combined would cost taxpayers far less than $845,000!

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