On May 14, 2011 the voters of Mineola came out to vote and voted for Propositions 1 & 2. The rhetoric was hot and heavy and both sides seemed very emotionally charged. At the end of the day, the prospect of extra sales tax dollars won out over the fear of our town becoming a haven for sin, crime and other evil things.

The video below is the announcement from David Stevenson, City Administrator. The video just below that is just for fun. I cannot take credit for the very appropriate music video. It was suggested to me by a friend. If that person wishes for people to know their identity, they can make that known.

The numbers are:
Prop 1
For: 440
Against: 419

Prop 2
For: 441
Against: 406

Congratulations to the people of Mineola!

Regardless of what some people would have you believe, allowing the sale of beer and wine in Mineola will not be the end of the small town atmosphere in our town.

Last week I had a phone conversation with Bruce Feagin, Chief of Police in Emory, Texas. As you likely already know, two years ago the town of Emory voted to allow the sale of beer and wine in their town. Their city council was very proactive in getting the associated ordinances in place for their town. Such ordinances keep merchants from putting up huge beer signs, prohibit the building of unsightly beer barns and some of the other things that we have seen other towns in east Texas not do. Some of the other towns in East Texas now have really unattractive beer barns and other things that detract from the overall look and feel of their town.

The Mineola City Council did the same thing. They have put in place ordinances that will keep our town from looking like a giant beer store. This legislation is done, passed and already in place in case these propositions pass in Mineola.

In my conversation with Chief Feagin, I specifically asked him if Emory has seen an increase in crime since enacting the sale of beer and wine. His answer was a solid “no.” I then asked him if they have seen a spike in public intoxication problems. Again, “no.”  I asked if there has been a spike in DUI arrests. Again, “no.” I really tried to find a downside to the propositions, but I was unable to.

Vote YES for Propositions 1 & 2 on May 14th.

Bottom Line
According to public sales tax records, the sale of beer and wine in Emory has resulted in about $88,000 per year in income to their city. My estimation, and this is pure speculation on my part, is that Propositions 1 & 2 will add about $150,000 to the budget of the city of Mineola. We have a large national retailer that Emory does not. We have more population in the surrounding areas that Emory does not. So my estimate may very well be low, but the important thing is that a very similar community just 30 miles away has done this and has not had all of the problems with the sale of beer and wine that you have likely heard about or read about in the Mineola Monitor.

Whether you are someone who consumes alcohol or not , or whether or not you agree that alcohol is good or bad is not the question. The fact is that people will drink. Some will drink a little, some will drink a lot. But people will drink and living in a dry town only makes people drive to the next town to buy their alcohol. It is a money issue.

Early voting starts today, May 4th, 2011. Please vote YES to Propositions 1 & 2. The money they generate will help make Mineola better for us all and will certainly make Mineola more competitive in the East Texas marketplace.

Scott Hazard – Publisher
MineolaBuzz.com

It should be fairly certain by now that in May, 2011, Mineola will have a local option on the ballot to allow the sale of beer and wine for package sales and allow restaurants to have a full bar. I have heard many people voice what they think will be the effects of this. If it happens, it will add much needed tax dollars to the coffers of our town. There is no doubt about that.

Below, we have listed some of the other possibilities that this initiative could bring forth if passed. Please check all that you think will happen.

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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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I assume it will be called Magnolia Park, but I don’t know that. An historic home once stood here, but it burned months back. More on that here.

There is a lot of work to be done to make this nice, but the city of Mineola is committed to getting it done. This space has real potential as an amphitheater and general park. The Magnolia trees on the site are very old and huge. A section of the tree closest to the house was scorched in the fire but, according to tree experts, it will live through the ordeal.

Special thanks to the Campos’s, the previous owners of the house whose generosity made this possble.

The hummingbirds are in a feeding frenzy ahead of their migration to warmer points southward for the winter. I was amazed at the number of them on a single feeder this morning.
Enjoy!

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(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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On the weekend of March 6th, the Collings Foundation had their vintage WW II planes at Tyler Pounds Airport. The public was able to take a ride aboard these airplanes for a donation. Since my father was a WW II vet and was actually shot down in a B-17, I was compelled to take this ride. The video below is a chronicle of this event.

If you ever get an opportunity to do this, I suggest it. It is quite an amazing experience if you are in to WW II era aircraft. The number of these airplanes in service are getting very small as time goes by, so it is like putting a piece of history in your pocket. They travel around to lots of air shows with these airplanes. To get a schedule or for more information about this amazing opportunity, visit www.collingsfoundation.org

For the past few years we have seen sites like Myspace and Facebook get huge! Not only are these crazy sites where everything is ‘free’ worth zillions of dollars, but they seem to be having a dramatic effect of our culture. Not American culture or any other regionalized culture, but our culture as a race of people. In nearly every modern country text messages lead to Myspace which leads to Facebook and more. Sound familiar? But it’s true. We are becoming a society that must stay connected for all waking hours. We have Twitter that updates our status on the other sites… and vice versa. 

Now we have Loopt, a new geo-targeted social network ‘tool’ that lets you know when you have friends near you and alerts your friends that you are near. Even when the application is not running on your phone, it updates your position as quoted from Loopt’s terms:

Loopt shows your phone’s current geo-location to Loopt friends (even when the Loopt application is not open)

Is this the next step? In three years will I know the exact geographic location of all my friends and will they know mine? I mean, I’m cool with it but it almost seems like my grade school buddy’s worst paranoid fantasies coming true. We all had that friend in grade school didn’t we? 

I don’t know. At the risk of sounding REALLY old (Andy Rooney-ish) I have to say let’s be careful about how we disseminate our movements through life. I don’t mind telling you what I ate for breakfast or how my day is going or even what’s racing through my mind at any time of the day, but where I get my shoes shined is my business and nobody else’s.

What Social Networking Site(s) Do You Use?

• Myspace
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google
• Yahoo
• AOL
• Loopt
• BrightKite
• Blip.fm
• YouTube

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