Roans Prairie-Shiro News

January 30, 2008

M. L. Boatman, Navasota Examiner

At the “Town Meeting” held last Wed. in Huntsville, the five TxDOT officals sat on the stage, dressed in their fine expensive suits and for the second night in a row, they were facing an overflow crowd of Wrangler- and Stetson-wearing farmers, ranchers and many work-clothes-clad people with blood in their eyes.

The haggered-looking officials had that “deer in the headlights” look and were backed up by several DPS officers, just in case.

Walker County Commissioners were there representing their constituents as being against this project.

The mayors of Bryan and College Station were both there to let TxDOT know that they want this project and how good it will be for them. Of course to get to them it will be going right across Grimes County.

When one of their officials was asked, “Well what do the officials in Grimes County think?” The answer was, “Well, we hear they're KINDA against it.”

It was pointed out by Charles Wendt that Brazos County wants a lot of things - like the trash dump they're going to build in our county but, they don't want it to clutter their county.

Quite of few of us Grimes County residents were there and the Walker County residents did not want us taking up their time with our questions and problems. We had to tell them that our county officials did not get us a “Town Meeting”. (I won't bore you with what they said they'd do if that was what their commissioners had done).

The “Public Hearing” that we will have on the 28th is on a more formal format and TxDOT does not have to answer questions. We have been told that you MIGHT get a chance to make a short statement, 3 minutes or less.

The moderator apologized to the people for under estimating what the size of the crowd would be and promised to hold another Town Meeting to see that everyone would have a chance to speak.

This meeting has already been scheduled for today at the Walker County Fair Grounds. Sign in will start at 5:30.

One of the TxDOT officials told the crowd that the meeting was being taped so that they could review it at a later time to be sure that they didn't miss anything, the camera was in the isle not far from where we were sitting.

However when Joyce Floyd called their offices last Fri. to get a copy of the tape, she was told that it hadn't been taped! I sincerely hope that at least one of our county officials will show up at the meeting tonight.

Did you realize that Ground Hog Day is right around the corner? Here in Roans Prairie it's always a big deal. Of course Pete, our one eyed possum who predicted the outcome for years has retired. It will be interesting to see if his son, “Lil Bubba”, will show up this year. I'll let you know. I think the main reason that old Pete retired was that his worries about the TTC taking his home drove him to drink more.

Birthdays for the week include: Former Shiro residents Lonnie & Ann Massey's daughter, Hanna Belle, having her first birthday on the 2nd, Rodney Floyd is also celebrating that day, Gertrude Tepra the 4th and Travis Bushman the 6th.

Boy is my face red - I missed telling Carl Barton happy birthday on the 25th. He turned the tables on the Men's Breakfast Club, he brought them gifts.

Roans Prairie resident Elsa Almanza Jimenez passed away last week. Keep her two children and the rest of her family in your prayers.

Carolyn Clifton, who suffered a stroke last week, is now in re-hab and doing better.

Others on the prayer list include: Roberta Rook, Pearl Rigby and Barbara Perry.

This column is dedicated to the memory of Annie Boatman, who passed away last week. She will be greatly missed by her family.