Category: Politics

OPINION: TICK TOCK

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By Ron Munden – November 21, 2018

On November 15, 2018, I wrote an article titled: OPINION: THE GANG THAT CAN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT HAS NOT IMPROVED THEIR AIM. The “gang” is the Marshall City Commissioners and the “can’t shoot straight” refers to their inability to hire a city manager.

Sadly, I must report that things are not improving. They are getting worse if that is possible. The Commissioners have been working on this for eight months. Their first attempt failed completely, and they started over. Based on what I have been finding out, their second attempt may be headed for another failure. If this happens it will be completely the fault of these Commissioners.

Of course, the City Commission has chosen to not keep the public informed on their progress. Why let the citizens know what is happening?

I have learned that the Commission met on November 14 and narrowed the list of candidates and agreed to hold interviews. It is all good but now the bad part. They agreed to hold interviews on December 3. This is still good, BUT the Commissioners decided not to interview all the candidates the same day. I can only assume that they did this because some of the Commissioners don’t have the endurance to work a full day.

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OPINION: MEMORIAL CITY HALL IS BEHIND SCHEDULE AND THERE WILL BE A COST OVERRUN

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By Ron Munden – October 29, 2018

Its almost official. For years City Staff has painted a rosy picture of the status of the MCH renovation project and the current City Commissioners along with other commissioners have been eating it up like peach ice cream – never taking the time to ask any hard questions. The current City Commissioners have spent most of their time patting themselves on the back and telling people how great a job the City is doing managing the project. It’s been a good run for bowing and hand waving, but it looks like the chickens are about to come home to roost.

Last Thursday night Acting City Manager Jack Redman came very close to saying, “The MCH project is behind schedule and there is going to be a cost overrun.”

Commissioner Calhoun said something to the effect, ” If there is a cost overrun, who will pay for the cost over-run?”

Mr. Redmon said, “The City.” I assume he means the City’s general fund.

The current City Commissioners have already cut the street maintenance budget to give the city employees a big pay raise and include money in the 2019 budget for a bike trail and a splash pool. Where will the money come from to cover the MCH cost overrun? Will the street maintenance budget take another hit? Will water bills go up again?

How bad are the problems?

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OPINION: THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

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By Ron Munden – October 22, 2018

Today there is lots of talk about 7000 immigrants from Central America walking through Mexico and headed to the U.S. border. People are afraid these people are coming to take our jobs. Fortunately, the President has promised to protect our jobs from these invaders.

I am confident that this nation will get through this event and it will have no significant impact on the citizens of this country.

These are not the invaders that concern me. The invaders that concern me will be coming by the millions and will have a major impact on American jobs. They will change society from what we have today.

The invaders that concerns me are ROBOTS. I fear that we are a nation that is not preparing for impact of the robot invasion.

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OPINION: MARSHALL CAN’T – HIRE A CITY MANAGER

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By Ron Munden — ron@easttexasexposed.com — October 16, 2018

On August 27, 20i8 I wrote an article titled “Marshall Can’t”. In the article I listed items that Marshall continually failed to accomplish. Today I add another item to the list of things that Marshall just can’t seem to do – HIRE A CITY MANAGER.

Of course, this problem is entirely the responsibility of the current City Commission. The City Commission’s work on this task has been done in the dark and to my knowledge the City Commission has not provided periodic updates to the public on their progress. I think I know why. There has been very little progress.

 
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OPINION: ARE THE MARSHALL CITY COMMISSIONERS ABOUT TO VIOLATE ONE OF THEIR OWN ORDINANCES?

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By Ron Munden — September 12, 2018

The agenda for the September 13, 2018, City Commission meeting contains these items:

6. ORDINANCES

A. Consider approval of an Ordinance repealing Section 2-12 of Chapter 2, Administration of Ordinances of the City of Marshall, TX, entitled “Annual Sales Tax Appropriation for Streets Projects,” which requires that a certain percentage of the local sales tax be appropriated to maintaining and improving city streets. (Acting City Manager)

B. Consider approval of an Ordinance to adopt the annual budget of the City of Marshall, Texas, for the 2019 fiscal year. (Acting City Manager)

Item A will remove a city requirement that at least 25% of the city sales taxes will be spent on street maintenance. Item B approves the City’s 2019 budget. It is my understanding that the budget does not meet the 25% requirement for street repairs.

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MY JOURNAL FROM 911

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By Ron Munden

When I lived in the San Francisco Bay area, I wrote in my journal each day. These were my thoughts in 2001.

I wrote this story on the 5th anniversary of 9/11. I now look back at it each time the calendar approaches that date. At the time I wrote the journal entries I was living just outside of San Francisco.

As the 5th anniversary of 9/11 approached, I pulled my journal for 2001. It refreshed my memories about what I was thinking right after the attack. Here is what I read:

Tuesday, September 11, 2001
The Day the U.S. was Attack

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OPINION: MARSHALL CAN’T

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Editor’s note:
I recognize that many people will have a different opinion of Marshall. I would like to publish those opinions. Please send them to the email address below and they will be published in their entirety.

By Ron Munden — ron@easttexasexposed.com — August 27, 2018

By the end of October I will have been back in Marshall for 17 years. I returned after an absence of 39 years.

During those 39 years I made infrequent visits back to Marshall. Based on my visits from 1970 through 1999, I was certain I would never return to Marshall to live. I liked the people in Marshall but based on many conversations it was clear that Marshall could not get things accomplished. I did not want to live in a place like that.

As we entered the 2000s, motivated by an aging mother, I increased my visits to Marshall. During those visits I thought I saw a glimmer of hope for Marshall. There was talk of an infusion of private money from some of the wealthier member of the community and talk of a change in attitude of Marshall’s citizens.

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MIDLAND LEADERS VOTE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH NEW ANIMAL SHELTER

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Friends of Marshall Animals — Wow! Midland, Texas, is getting a new animal shelter, to be completed in 2020, because their current shelter is TOO SMALL. Granted, Midland is much larger than Marshall, takes in more animals annually (over 5,000 compared to 2,000 t0 3,000) but , their shelter is projected to cost a total of $5 MILLION! Our Plan U is projected to cost $1.3. Midland appears to be more caring about the plight of their animals. Shame on you, Marshall!

MIDLAND – Midland city leaders are moving forward with a plan to build a new animal shelter.

City council members approved a resolution during Tuesday’s meeting awarding a bid for over $470,000 to Quorum Architects of Fort Worth.

This portion of the project includes pre-design services, basic services and special services.

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MOUNT PLEASANT IS BUILDING A NEW $1.8 MILLION ANIMAL SHELTER

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MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas – Mount Pleasant, Texas officials said their animal shelter is too small for the thousands of pets that are brought there every year. Now, construction on a new facility is underway.

City officials said they’re counting on the public to support the new facility. “Our goal is to reduce the number of animals we have to euthanize,” said Mount Pleasant Police Chief Wayne Isbell.

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