Navarro County Times Paper: Halal Slaughterhouse to be Built

Navarro County will be home to an Islamic halal slaughterhouse, according to the Navarro County Times newspaper (full disclosure: The Ellis County Press sent the paper the map that appeared on the front page of both papers) this week.

Rice, Texas, is the closest town that sells the Navarro County Times for those interested in reading their story. Or here: www.navarrocountytimes.com

From the story and the office of  state Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, today:

• Shamsul Ahmed applied for and received a Standard Wastewater Permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, but the permit can only be enforced when the building is constructed;
• Precinct 2 Ellis County Commissioner Bill Dodson, R-Ennis, was quoted as saying, "the [Ellis County/District Attorney] and I were in the area, rode the road, last week. It's primarily a third class road [Slama Road] past the last house. We do little to maintain it; I grade it about once a year. Someone would have to bring it up to standards before I would do more than that."
• Once the slaughterhouse is completed, it will be governed and regulated by the Texas Department of Human Services (--this is from the NC Times...that might be accurate; it'd make more sense if it was the Texas Dept. of Agriculture);
• The application for the slaughterhouse has already been applied for in Navarro County; the only requirement is that a building not be in a 100-year floodplain. The slaughterhouse meets the requirements.
  

The last quote of the story from Publisher Julianne Dodge:

...there appears to be little that those who oppose the facility, for whatever reasons, will be able to do to prevent the business from opening.

County Judge
H.M. Davenport
903-654-3025
hdavenport@navarrocounty.org

Commissioner Precinct 1
Kit Herrington
903-654-3031
kherrington@navarrocounty.org

Commissioner Precinct 2
Faith Holt
903-396-2862
fholt@navarrocounty.org

Commissioner Precinct 3
David “Butch” Warren
903-654-3033
dwarren@navarrocounty.org

Commissioner Precinct 4
James Olsen
903-654-3034
jolsen@navarrocounty.org

Election Results

The Corsicana Daily Sun has the local election results.

Click here for the city and school board races. There's the Rice ISD bond too.

Rice ISD Bond Election

This staff editorial of The Ellis County Press brought awareness to the Rice ISD school bond election.

Bonds and ballots

We’ve noticed the uptick in the number of editorials from incumbent school board trustees and supporters of two school bond elections to the Ennis Daily News for Ennis and Rice, located south on Interstate Highway 45.

Ennis – a much larger 4A district and Rice – a smaller 1A district – each have bond elections Saturday, and both district’s voters should reject them. It’s not because we’re against education, but the mere language on the ballots alone is reason to vote “No.”

Case in point: last fall, Midlothian ISD submitted three propositions totaling $103 million to taxpayers, and the voters – upon learning what was in the ballot language, thanks to news editor Joey Dauben’s ballot-scrutinizing – rejected two of them, including one proposition that featured what was once thought of as a routine land purchase item.

Wrong. What districts and their attorneys keenly neglect to tell We The People – well, those that bother voting at least – is that definitions of words, phrases and terms are different to them than to us. MISD’s land purchase proposition stated: “The issuance of $1,700,000 of school building bonds for acquiring, constructing and equipping school buildings of the district and the purchase of necessary sites therefor, including acquiring land for future school sites; and the levying of a tax, unlimited as to rate or amount…”

See that? The $1.7 million was publicly linked to “land purchases,” but in reality, MISD wanted to pull a fast one on the taxpayers and instead construct and equip school buildings – and then later purchase the land. The proposition failed by a few votes.

The word “improvements” can mean something totally different to a lawyer than to Joe Taxpayer as well. That must explain why Waxahachie ISD trustee Max Simpson, who faces re-election on Saturday, voted with five other board members (Mark Price was the lone dissident) to change the public relations-led “intermediate school” to a sixth grade campus only. Or, it might explain why there exists a massive basketball arena behind Midlothian High School when voters never read a single thing about a basketball arena when they enacted “high school expansion” improvements several years ago.

Ennis ISD is asking taxpayers for $48 million – and they don’t tell the public what it’s for. Read this: “The issuance of $48,985,000 of bonds and levying the tax in payment thereof, including the costs of any credit agreements executed in connection with the bonds.”What are the taxpayers getting for that vague ballot terminology?

Rice ISD just wants taxpayers to blindly give them a blank check for $10 million. Don’t believe us? Read their ballot language: “The Issuance of $10,000,000 of School Building Bonds for Rice Independent School District and the levying of the tax in payment thereof.”

Rather than get to the meat of the issue, trustees and editorial writers from Rice malign what they call “misinformation” and other “it’s for the children” catch phrases. Based on their own ballot language, it appears the misinformation is coming from not just RISD, but Ennis ISD and these other school districts that ask for loads of taxpayer money and then reject their own PR in favor of “improvements” taxpayers were never even informed about.

On Saturday, May 10, voters in Ennis and Rice should reject their school bond packages and render those ballots null and void for vagueness.