In my “growing up days”, the chores assigned to my sister, and I were well defined. While we shared some common inside duties, the kitchen was pretty much her domain, and the outdoor tasks were mine. We started out young with jobs, given my Mom’s paralysis due to Polio. Rhonda was cooking meals under the eagle eye supervision of Verna Dell Walker Rosenauer by age eight, and I was banished to the yard assignments a bit earlier in life. My first job for pay involved mowing lawn for other parties by the summer of my 8th year. That limited exposure to culinary experiences has continued over the many years married to The Boss Lady. She was an Award Winning 4-H young person, earning Statewide and National honors in a variety of Home Management areas, and I am below average support person, ranking below our Son and Daughter in terms of ability. Recently she was somewhat annoyed that I did not know where to put up certain “cookery items” while unloading the dishwasher. Foolishly I asked her if she would like to go check the oil in her vehicle or reset the game feeder clocks at the Home Place. Needless to say, it was NOT well received. That exchange, followed quickly by my hasty retreat from the kitchen area, caused me to ponder the implications, both positively, and negatively, of such a division of labor. Both of us are intelligent, well-educated people with long-standing successful careers, and a very blessed lifestyle. But like in all successful organizations, we do what we do best to support the entire process. While I am hopeful neither of us will have to “take on” each other’s respective jobs anytime soon, I imagine she could figure out some of the jobs I have better and quicker than I could hers. But just in case, maybe I should start a contact list of local cafes and other domestic services companies near me. After all, an Old Aggie Doc like me cannot be too careful!
Goodness, when I put the date up here, I realized that the month of July is gone, however, the heat continues. Today, Sunday, when I started writing this, it was over 100º in the shade. Last week was a fun week for me! As usual on the last week of the month, I headed from my home to the Devine/Moore area for my monthly bunco game and family visiting time. This time, my youngest daughter was there, taking care of two of her precious grandsons. We had a wonderful visit together on Wednesday, and I managed to get quite a few hugs! Later, when it was time for her to go to the airport in SA to get her daughter-in-law who was coming in from CA, returning from a family emergency, I left and headed out to my other daughter’s home. Bunco that evening was in the home of our hostess, she had some delicious food and dessert for us, and we had a great time. She’s a great hostess and her newly remodeled home is beautiful and very spacious. Oh, and I won the booby prize with a mere five games won, any prize is better than no prize, at least I got my money back. Saturday, I spent the morning at our family center helping make noodles for our upcoming church picnic; it’s that time of year again. I know we used 47 dozen eggs and an unknown amount of flour. We will package them Monday morning, in plastic bags to sell at the picnic. There will probably be about 95 pounds of the noodles. Clear profit, as everything to make them was donated. This is a great money maker, and they all sell every time! Next Saturday, we will make the delicious cream cheese and poppy seed rolls that go into the auction. That is our other big money maker for us, lots of work, but lots of visiting and meeting a few new ladies each year. Now, as I asked in the beginning, do you know what a caracara is? I’m sure you have seen them alongside the roadside along with the buzzards, dining on roadkill, but not known exactly what they are. The first time I noticed a caracara, we were on our way to the deer lease, it was alongside the road with some buzzards and Sam told me it was a Mexican Eagle. Years down the line, my son told me that the actual name was caracara bird. Like the buzzard, the caracara is protected from hunting, trapping, etc. On another trip down Squirrel Creek Road, out past D’Hanis, there was one in the middle of the road taking a running start with his wings spread as he took off for the sky. It was beautiful seeing the span of the wings! In going on-line and looking information up about this strange looking bird, I found that they are a member of the falcon family and other interesting little things, such as that in Arizona they build their nests in Saguaro cactus and actually prefer it to be one standing alone rather than in a place where there is a multitude of the cacti. The common name “cara cara” is what South Americans called the bird and this name most probably imitates the sound the bird makes. It has also been called: Mexican Eagle, Caracara Eagle, King Buzzard, Audubon’s Caracara and Mexican Buzzard. The original scientific name for this bird comes from poly, the Greek word for many or varied; boros, meaning gluttonous and remarks on the birds’ voracious appetite, and from the Latin word plances, which is a word Aristotle used for an eagle. The Crested cara cara has a body length of 19 to 23 inched and a wingspan of about four feet. They weigh about one and three-fourths to three and one-half pounds. The preferred habitat of the Crested Caracara is open lowland countryside, such as pastures, savannas, river edges and the desert. They reside in the southwestern United States and Florida as well as Central and South America. You frequently see them feeding on carrion alone or in company of buzzards the sides of roads. I have seen them between Devine and Hondo as well as between Devine and Jourdanton and various other places between Devine and Yoakum. They will, however, take advantage of any food opportunity, by eating such things as small mammals, reptiles, turtles, fish, crab, eggs, insects, worms and nesting birds. They hunt for food themselves or take food from other birds. They also spend a great deal of time on the ground. Crested caracaras build a massive nest from small sticks. (The first article I found concerning them was about a study in Arizona, in 1997-1998, and the folks doing the study stated that the nests were used more than once, and that they had found one the size of a Volkswagen). The nest is built in a palm tree, cactus, in a tree or on the ground. There are usually two or three eggs laid, that incubate for about a month. The fledglings can take as long as three months before they fly as independent birds. Now, the next time you see that strange looking bird with the black and off-white plumage eating alongside the road, you will know what it is! Now, how about a super simple, really delicious dessert? This makes up quickly, bakes only 30 minutes and serves 12 to 15; depending on the size you cut your servings. Sopapilla Cheesecake 2 cans crescent rolls 2 (8-oz) blocks cream cheese 1 c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla Topping 1 stick melted butter (do not use margarine) ½ cup sugar 2 tsp. cinnamon (or more if desired) Preheat oven to 350º. Grease or spray a 9×13-in. pan and roll out 1 package of the crescent rolls on the bottom of the pan, sealing creases. Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla and spread over the dough. Roll out the second crescent roll sheet and place on top of the cream cheese mixture. Pour melted butter over the top and sprinkle with the sugar and then the cinnamon, bake for 30 minutes.(I mix my cinnamon and sugar together, as I like this better). This chicken salad is delicious and by using a rotisserie chicken, you don’t heat up your house cooking the chicken, so, it’s perfect for this weather! Light Chicken Salad 3 or 4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced* 1 large Granny Smith apple, chopped 2/3 cup finely diced celery 1/3 cup sweet pickle relish 1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped 2 to 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds Enough light mayonnaise to moisten** Cook chicken breasts in water seasoned with salt and a small amount of onion and celery, cool until you can handle the meat, remove skin and bones and cut into small pieces. *In this hot weather, cheat a bit and buy a rotisserie chicken, even though you will have both light and dark meat. Wash the apple, and cut it up, and add to the chicken, add remaining ingredients along with enough light mayonnaise to moisten. Serve with crackers, Melba toast or bread rounds. **I use regular mayonnaise, NOT salad dressing.
“Mr. Mac, you are the smartest person I know. What in the world are you doing teaching school?” Given his age and background, it may very well have been that he was correct, though I doubt it. The question came from a young man while we were working in the shop on some project that had him bumfuzzeled. By asking him a series of questions, I had led him to deciphering what the problem actually was and showed him that he really already knew the answer. He just was not asking the right questions. “I responded ‘JT (not his real name), I learned a long time ago that the secret to being happy is to find out what God wants you to do- and do it.’ “I had already been teaching Ag in Devine about twenty-five years at that time, and loved every minute of it. Well almost every minute. “I never intended to become a teacher, that was God’s idea, and looking back on it I should have known, because He had been preparing me for it my entire life. Actually longer than that in Devine. My Great Grandfather, Pleasant Earnest McAnelly was the President of the Devine School Board when the old Green Alamo, (present day VFW) was built. His son, my grandfather Gladden, was the Valedictorian of Devine High School in 1903. Two of his brothers taught Manual Training, an early version of Vocational Agriculture, in the downstairs portion of the school. His daughter, Dora Mae McAnelly, was one of the first Home Making teachers in Devine, and taught in the small rock building by the funeral home that is currently a business office for DISD. Both of my parents were teachers as well. My dad, John E. McAnelly was the Ag teacher in Hondo for decades, and my Mother, Elizabeth taught reading and eventually started the Special Education program for Hondo ISD. In addition, I had a younger brother, nine years my junior, that I taught everything from fishing to working cattle to coaching his Little League teams, and being the boy’s sponsor at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment until I graduated from A&M. He was, and still is, my little boy.
Many locals have fond memories of thier old Ag Teacher, Phil McAnelly, who taught at Devine High School from 1974 to 2003. He is pictured above with Phil his Livestock judging team in 1996, (l to r) Matt Lyles, Tanessa Sathoff, Lacy Hummel, Lane Roberson.
Still, I never even considered being a teacher until one night in northern Germany God called me to work with boys. Even before then, in Germany, in the Army, I was tagged by my commanding officers to work with the Canadian Air Force’s little boys to be their Little League coach. They knew how to play hockey very well, but at that time baseball was an American game, and most had never even played before – and I was supposed to be the “Canadian All Stars” Little League coach. Luckily, many of them were excellent athletes and caught on very quickly. The Canadians supported us very well, providing a bus and driver to take us all over free Europe, a seemingly unlimited budget, and a nice young couple to travel with us on overnight trips. We started with learning how to bunt- and ended up one game out of the European World Series. Within days of God’s call, while still in the Army in Germany where I was serving as the Commander of a Nike Hercules missile site- the first line of defense against Russia’s threatened air attack during the “Cold War”, I received a phone call from my former high school football coach, asking me to come to Tahoka, Texas to coach football. At that time, Linda, my beautiful wife, later a teacher at Devine ISD for years, eventually ending up as Superintendent, was a young thing. We had our first little boy, Lance, but she had to cut short her education at Texas Tech to accompany me to Germany in 1970. It just so happened that Tahoka is only thirty miles south of Lubbock, home of Texas Tech. She would be able to finish her education while I was coaching. Lucky – or divine providence? “Find out what God wants you to do-and do it!” We did, and God blessed our efforts with wonderful kids and athletes and parents. In two years we sent eight boys to play college ball, with two of them going on into the pros. This from a little school of less than an hundred and fifty in high school who had not had a winning season in over thirty years. After Linda finished up at Tech, we taught together for a year in Tahoka, where we both also taught Sunday School at the Baptist church there. We started looking for a way to get back down here to God’s Country so I could enter my lifelong dream of ranching. But once again- God had different plans. I got an offer to come to Devine as a football coach by Paul Jette – “I want you to work with boys”. We accepted the offer, Linda had a job as well, but later she found out that we were pregnant, so put her career on hold for a while longer. We started building our house on land that had been in the family since 1883, where there had never been anyone living. “Little House on the Prairie” comes to mind. Character building but not very enjoyable at the time – especially for Linda, who was by now very pregnant with another McAnelly boy. One day – right after we got down here – Mr. Henry Moss – famous Ag teacher in Devine for over forty years drove up. “Phil” he said, ”do you really want to coach football and worry every year if you are playing the right boys to keep your job, or would you rather teach Ag and stay here for the rest of your career?” My degree was in Ag Education-not because I ever wanted to teach, but because that course of study best prepared me for my chosen career of being a rancher. I had done my student teaching in Brownwood, and thoroughly enjoyed it. My path for the next twenty eight years was set – Ag teacher in Devine High School. Our Ag department consisted of Henry Moss, Bob Spacek, and me. Between the three of us we had about half the boys in school in 1974. Some of my early students were Sherriff Randy Brown, Herby Watson, Pete Morales, Jeff Howard, Daniel Jay, John and Tom Oppelt, Robert Schott, Howard Goslin, Donald Bohl, Robert Hernandez, Doug Whitaker, Byron McAllister, at least one Ehlinger, and many others. The lone female was Cynthia Whitaker, now Sultenfuss, who was a senior in with a whole class of freshman boys. She was my Sargent of Arms as it were, as all the young boys were the same age as her brother Doug, and all were afraid of her. She was one of the first girls to break the gender barrier in the FFA, before then, only the “FFA Sweetheart” could be a member of what was originally an all-male club. After a couple of years, Mr. Ronnie Outlaw came over and joined our team as Bob Spacek had taken a job down at the electrical generation plant south of Jourdanton. Ronnie and I taught together for nearly thirty years, with never a cross word between us. After Mr. Moss retired, I stole Travis Byrom from Natalia to join our team. Our Ag program got stronger and larger each year as we started to figure out how to get more and more students really involved in the FFA. Ag teaching was great back then, as local farmers would call us and ask us to come out to help them with some needed task-such as castrating calves or pigs. I called these “targets of opportunity” as they afforded real learning situations. We would load the boys (and later girls) up in the back of our pickup trucks – appoint a time keeper so we would get back in time – and head out. One of the interesting things about those first years, nearly every boy had direct ties to the land. Some lived on a farm or ranch, others dads grew up on a farm, or their grandfather was a farmer/rancher. The experiential base of knowledge about all things agriculture was much higher then than it was in the years to follow, as new generations moved away from agriculture. By 2003, only a few students had firsthand knowledge, but many learned to love it anyway. One of the most memorable trips was on a field trip to Jeff Howard’s farm. He came in one morning and said, “Mr. Mc, we had a baby calf last night and it has a hole in its stomach. Every time it nurses, it runs out of its stomach”. “Is it white?” I asked. “No – it’s clear” he answered. “Well, he is just peeing as he nurses” I surmised. “No” he protested, “it’s a girl”. Field trip. We got out there, looked at the calf, and sure enough, it was a girl. Then we continued to look for the hole, and guess what – it was a boy too! They had a hermaphrodite – very rare – only one I have ever seen. Later the same year, Hartly Howard, a longtime local rancher, brought in a calf with two heads. Easy to teach about genetics and inbreeding and why you don’t marry your cousin when you are looking at that third eye staring at you. As the years went by it was no longer acceptable to leave the school with your class, and the classes were too large. So, in order for the students to have the hands on learning opportunity, we built a set of cattle pens that could be set up in the Ag shop parking lot. I would bring in a load of calves from the ranch and every student had the opportunity to give vaccinations, three ways to castrate, dehorn and brand. We also set up pens inside and outside in the parking lot to weigh, wash and clip hogs headed to the stock shows in Hondo and San Antonio. Many interesting stories about hogs, sheep and chickens. I have told for years about the people in Devine-good people. People who care for each other, who take care of each other. Parental involvement is the key to any successful school program, and we were blessed with wonderful parents. Anytime we needed sponsors to go with us to State Conventions, contest, or even stock shows, we always had parents ready to ride the bus-at that time non air conditioned, or haul a trailer load of animals to the stock shows. Linda, my wife of fifty three years, started teaching in Devine in 1976, and we taught together until I retired in 2003. At that point, she had moved into Central Office, but before then it was great being on the same campus, working on prom together with so many wonderful and talented teachers, teaching our kids and the kids of other teachers and our friends. In our heyday Bob Bendele was our Principal, and his love and passion for Devine was contagious to faculty and student alike. We started taking fishing trips at the end of the year in 1982 as a way of encouraging FFA members to become more involved in more activities during the year. It worked! Nearly half the students in DHS were in the FFA. We set up a calendar of all the things we would be doing during the year, such as different contests, stock shows, District, Area, and State conventions, service opportunities, fund raising, attendance at meetings, etc., assigning each a point value. Then we would figure a minimum number of points that a student had to have to be eligible to go on the fishing trip. The response was phenomenal! At first we had a three day fishing trip for the boys, and a day at Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels for the girls. That lasted a couple of years until the girls figured out that they were getting the short end of the stick and started yelling about women’s rights. By now, Travis Byrom had retired, and one of our own, Todd Herring, had replaced him as the third Ag teacher. Ronnie, Todd, and I put our heads together and told the girls that if they could get enough mothers to go with us – and I mean one for every four girls, that we would take them too. We would have a very strict set of rules of what and what would not be done, worn, and a schedule where everyone did their share in preparing the meals and cleaning up afterward. What a blast! We started taking a four day, three night fishing trip to Lake Buchanan, with dads, moms and more boats than we could use. We literally taught 100’s of kids to ski. A few actually fished. We even had parents that continued to go as sponsors after their kids were out of school. Never heard of anything like this before or since. The relationships developed through the years, and the trust that they engendered were the envy of schools all over the state. One of the fun things for us teachers was to go to the Gov’t Surplus center in San Antonio. You never knew what was going to be there, but there was always something that we could use in our teaching or in the Ag Shop. In about 1990 they had a bunch of pontoon bridge floats – boat shaped, extremely deep sides, very heavy aluminum. The instant we saw them we thought-AG BOAT. We bought one for about $50.00 and hauled it back to school on our ag trailer that we had also built. For the next six months, students learned how to weld aluminum, fabricate parts for the console, build and strengthen the transom to hold an outboard motor. We also found an old Chrysler outboard motor, and that gave a bunch more students the opportunity to learn about two-cycle engines. When we got the whole thing finished, it would hold about twenty kids, and would draw only about two inches of water. It would not go fast enough to ski behind, but it was good for pulling tubes, and made a great fishing boat. But was it ugly. When I first started in Devine, we would take to the State Convention only the FFA members who were to receive their Lone Star Farmer degree – the highest degree given by the state. Sometimes there would be one or two, but seldom more than four. We decided that if we were ever going to really motivate our younger students to excel in the FFA, especially in the area of leadership that they needed to experience as many State Conventions as possible. So we started hauling freshman (Greenhands) on up. Especially after we started the Fishing Trip, participation at the convention really took off. Each year it would be held at a different place, Corpus, then Houston, then Amarillo, then San Antonio, then Lubbock, then Dallas or Ft. Worth. It was normal for us to have thirty members, four mothers, and all the teachers on one big yellow school bus, heading out across Texas. To help make the trip more interesting, I started bringing a copy of “Why Stop Texas”, a book that has every historical marker in the state of Texas in it. Before we left Devine, I would assign each student a marker that we would be passing on the way, and they would have to come to the front of the bus and tell everyone about it. There was always a lot of groaning, but they enjoyed it. On more than one occasion the book would disappear only to make a miraculous reappearance after a certain person’s marker had passed. To this day, I have former students recall with fondness the history lessons on Texas that they learned on those trips. Every trip was started with a prayer, and we never had anything unfortunate happen. After Todd Herring fell in love with Vanessa Runnels Parkey’s sister- in- law, he decided being married and moving up to north Texas was his future. So we began searching for a new, female, Ag teacher. We had so many wonderful young ladies in the FFA, Ronnie and I felt that we needed a female teacher that could help us reach the next level in developing them into what we knew they could be. I had come to know a wonderful young lady, Karen Harris, who was teaching up in Comfort. We were visiting at the FFA scholarship interviews in San Marcos when all of a sudden, it became clear to me that this is who God wanted for the first female Ag teacher in Devine. “You are a Christian, aren’t you?” I asked. “Yes” she answered, “and you are too.” After only a few minutes a bond developed that was second only to my bond with my wife. We called it our mutual admiration connection. With her on board, our program reached another level again as she was such a wonderful role model and encourager for so many of our girls. Her love and understanding of all things girl, spurred even the most timid to set and achieve goals they had only dreamed of. Those years with Ronnie and Karen and all the great kids and parents were probably the most satisfying of my career. Unfortunately for us, she became a stay-at-home mom, but she still stays in touch with many of her former students. There are very few professions one can go into that afford the opportunity to affect so many lives for generations to come. To be able to get up each day, look into the mirror and say “Today someone will have a better life because of me.” What a gift. To say that I loved my students and being able to teach them and watch them develop into confident and competent young men and ladies would be an understatement. We did not make much money, but the rewards more than made up for the shortfall. The old saying that “if you love what you are doing, you will never have to work a day in your life” is very true. Life is too short to do something you do not love and cannot be passionate about. I was very blessed to be able to teach my own boys, to watch them grow as young men, to watch them and their friends as they matured into the fine men they are today – and to know that I had a big part in making that happen, not only for my boys, but for hundreds of others. One of the greatest pleasures was to be able to teach the children of my students, I called them my FFA grandchildren. One of the benefits of staying in one place for so many years is that you achieve generational trust. I cherished it then, and I do now even more. I work with the little boys in RAs at our church, and I taught some of their fathers and grandfathers. While I was still teaching I missed my third generation by only two years. When we came to Devine, there were very few of our students who went to Texas A&M. It was not that they were not smart enough; there was just no one besides a parent or friend to help them see the possibility. In the late 70s, A&M started what they called “Career Day” where a prospective student could come up, visit the exhibits displayed by their chosen college, then attend an A&M football game to experience what Aggieland was all about. I started taking a small group of our FFA members so they could see firsthand what college was all about and to help them be comfortable with the idea of going to such a prestigious university. Each year we would have a few more, then we were joined by the “Computer Club’ with Sandy Miller. It got more and more popular until one year we had three busloads of kids. We would leave Devine about 4:00 a.m. and get there about 8:30. We would spend the day visiting different colleges, eating lunch at Duncan Dining Hall, eating with the Corps of Cadets, then being on the “quad” as the outfits “fell out” and formed up into formation to march into Kyle Field behind the Aggie band. I would lead our students to the front of the MSC building where the road was divided, and we could stand in the middle and have the band pass on both sides of us, playing all those great marching songs the Aggie Band is so known for. If your hair did not stand up you had to be a T-sip. Then it was into Kyle Field for the football game. We could get tickets in the end zone for five dollars. We would roll back into the parking lot about 2:00 am. Tired but happy. It worked. We started seeing more and more of our students going to A&M, and now the next generation of those students are going there. Whole families of many who had never had anyone graduate from any college before. You can make a difference! There are so many success stories of our students. Dreams fulfilled, hard work rewarded, lives changed for generations to come. We were blessed to have many great leadership teams – and to watch as they became leaders in their own chosen occupations using the skills developed in our classes. Many state and National Award winners bringing to fruition years of planning and working. Judging teams leading to scholarships leading to industry leaders and college teaching positions. We were blessed to have only the second female State FFA President, Tanessa Saathoff, who came into my class the first day as a freshman declaring that she wanted to be State FFA President. We set out a path, a plan for growth in all the areas she would need to be able to achieve that dream – and four years later – she did. And, by the way, she is now the head Ag Teacher in Boerne. I have former students in the military, law enforcement, doctors, biomedical engineers, computer engineers, architects, welders, mechanics, business owners, mechanical engineers, insurance salesmen, feedlot owners, ranchers, farmers, coaches, mothers, ministers, musicians, lawyers – virtually every walk of life. I am proud of them all, and love to hear their success stories. But one of the things I am most proud of is the number of my students who followed me into the Ag Teaching field or the teaching field in general. At last count, there are well over twenty who have or are presently teaching Ag or other subjects. I am proud to know that I had the opportunity to guide their lives, and now my influence is being passed down to the next generation. I have had many teachers ask me how I could stay in one school all those years. I always tell them. “It’s easy – treat every kid like he is your kid – and treat your kid like everyone else’s. Here in Devine we were very blessed to have many teachers who spent nearly their entire career here in Devine. They lived here, went to church here, rejoiced for the victories, cried for the tragedies, raised and taught their own children, and the children of all their friends. That is the beauty of small town Texas – I hope we don’t ever lose it. One of the most poignant memories I have is of the FFA Convention in Amarillo. We had a wonderful young man named Clay Boyd – who was our FFA President. One of the evenings of the convention, we would take our members to see Palo Duro Canyon, let them hike a few hours and then go to see the musical “TEXAS” which is still performed there now. Clay and one of his friends ran all the way to the top of the highest peak in the canyon. Unfortunately, Clay was killed by a gun accident the night before our FFA Banquet at which he would have been leading. Five years later, we were back in Palo Duro Canyon – back on the same peak, where I had the opportunity to stand in the same spot Clay stood. This time holding and crying with his two younger sisters. I will never forget that. To say that there is a special bond that is formed between a passionate teacher and their students is an understatement. When I retired it was common for people to say, “I bet you have seen a lot of changes in the kids in the last thirty years.” I always tell them, “No, teenagers have never wanted to be responsible for their own actions. And they still don’t. The difference is in the parents. When I started teaching, parents wanted all the help they could get to help their children learn to be responsible for their actions. Now it seems they do everything they can to keep them from being responsible.” They will learn; the question is at what cost, and how many ruined lives will be in the wake. God intended for us to be parents – not friends. If you will be a parent now, you can be friends the rest of your life. As I surge on toward the end of what has been a most rewarding life – doing what God wants me to do – there are a few things I would like to pass on to anyone who will listen. Without God – life is meaningless! Find out what God wants you to do – and do it! Here is a truth that I have come to believe: Fear God – Serve Others – Accept Limits – Enjoy Life It is not lost love that I regret, but rather the chance to love not taken.
Karina, with her son Brayden, and Samuel Guardiola.
A fundraiser is being held for Karina Garcia of Devine on Saturday, August 5th at 308 Adams in Devine. Karina is a kidney transplant patient and the money raised from the event will be used to pay for medical travel expenses. Karina’s story ran in the Devine News in May about her journey from a healthy young teen to the point that, at 21-years-old, she is currently on dialysis and needs a new kidney very soon. Along the way, she fell victim to Covid-19, experienced vision and heart problems and after a year in bed, weighed only 80 pounds with her kidney function down to 4%. She is fighting so she can be here to raise her son, 3-year-old Brayden Guardiola. The fundraiser will begin at 11a.m. and cost $10 per plate for a barbecue sandwich, chips and a drink. Monetary donations are also being accepted.
Born in Seco, TX and raised in LaCoste, Mrs. Lillian Pittman is turning 101 years young this August! She was born in 1922. Let’s help make her birthday special!! Mrs. Pittman worked as a bus driver for Medina Valley ISD and the catholic school in Castroville for many, many years. She also worked at Kelly Air Force Base. Hey you youngsters… You can send her a birthday card, color her a picture, or send a gift in care of her son LM Pittman Jr. to PO Box 8, Lytle, TX 78052. PS. She loves snacks! Let’s see how many cards she gets!
Lytle Head Cross Country coach Gilbert Ruiz and Lytle Athletic Director Lori Wilson pose for a picture at the THSCA Hall of Honor Banquet in Houston.
Jerel Beaty Staff Writer Texas High School Coaches Association recognized Lytle Head Cross Country coach Gilbert Ruiz July 15 in Houston. Ruiz was presented his ring at the Hall of Honor Banquet for his squad’s State Championship performance in November of last year. In attendance along with Ruiz was Lytle Athletic Director Lori Wilson and numerous elite coaches, athletic directors, and fellow state champions from around the state of Texas.. Wilson stated, “It was my honor to escort him to the banquet for the night. Although he did not smile in any of the pictures I got of him, believe me he was smiling throughout the banquet.” Ruiz, assistant coach Sebastian Benavides, and Pirate runners Johnny Alvarez, Brandon Obando, Robert Wagner, Abel Sanchez, Yandel Esquivez, Tristan Lopez, and Luke Estrada not only took the top spot in Round Rock, they also finished the year having won every meet in which they had a full team competing, which is a minimum of five runners. At State, Lytle scored 72 points to beat runner-up Eustace who had 82. Great Hearts Northern Oaks was a distant third place with 126 points. “Congratulations to the State XC boys, his staff and most of all Coach Ruiz!! It was a night we will remember forever! It was a great night for Lytle, Texas. It was so deserving!” Wilson said in conclusion.
Top choice withdraws application for city admin position
By Anton Riecher In a surprising turn of events the top candidate chosen, Deck Shaver Jr. decided not to accept the city administrator position after all, citing “pressing family matters,” Mayor Butch Cook stated at a July 25 city council session. The council asked interim city administrator Dora Rodriguez to continue to advertise the job.
Budget Talk
In other discussion, the council conducted a budget workshop to identify major areas of financial concerns once the city receives its effective tax rate from the Medina County Appraisal District in August. Dora Rodriguez, interim city administrator, said until the next budget workshop on August 8 the numbers available will be “very raw”. Mayor Cook noted that the final tax numbers are still pending completion of a massive number of protests filed by taxpayers across the county. District 4 Council Member Josh Ritchey said he was “unclear on what we are budgeting for other than kicking the can down the road and putting band-aids on wounds.” “We do not have a vision for the city as far as development and a prioritized specs list,” Ritchey said. “So as we are adjusting budgets like last year and the previous year we’re just kind of batting around how do we not increase the tax rate.” Cook said he agreed. The first step is to determine from each council member what the priorities are in their district, he said. “Then we take those priorities and apply them to the overall priorities of the city,” Cook said. “We can start there. That doesn’t mean each person gets one priority and everybody has to agree to it. But that’s a good way to get started.” Cook said one priority he would like to see addressed in cooperation with the county commissioners is better drainage for portions of the city. Another priority would be water storage. “Until you decide your wants and needs that’s when you decide your tax rate,” Cook said. Regarding District 5 Ritchey said that emphasis should be placed on attracting more business rather than homeowners. “I’m not saying I’m discouraging homes but every time you put in more houses that’s increasing impact to your water treatment, sewer treatment and the road work you need to maintain,” he said. The businesses needed are small and medium sized operations that will add to the sales tax base, not super-sized big box stores, Ritchey said. “They’re very extractive,” he said. “They bring in a whole bunch of crap from China and about 75 cents of every dollar leaves town.” Regarding District 5, Randall noted that the city has done little with the 75 acres of property it owns near Interstate 35 set aside for future business development. That development can provide revenue to fund needed infrastructure projects. Devine is blocked against further expansion on almost all sides, she said. “That’s where we’re going to grow,” Randall said. However, Ritchey said development of the property would involve “putting in roads that lead to nowhere.” Randall countered that if you don’t build the roads “they won’t come”. Hernandez said that concern about protecting businesses already in place will mean never getting anywhere with developing the I35 corridor. “We are the main corridor going to the coast that way and to the river,” he said. Ritchey said he agreed with Hernandez but continues to worry about the “second and third order effects” on local business. For Cook another area of concern is better pay for trained city public works personnel being poached by other communities. “These guys are the backbone of the city,” Cook said. “We need them vested with the city.” Public works personnel received a six percent increase in the last budget. Beginning salary for public works is $15 an hour. “That’s way too low,” Cook said. On the other hand, Hernandez voiced concern about whether Devine police personnel were performing up to the level required, noting that the Devine police roundup published in the Devine News fails to measure up to the roundup published for the Lytle police. “You get too complacent because you’ve been here forever,” Hernandez said. He cited statistics showing that while one Devine officer may write more than 30 citations a month another may only show two or three. Regarding revenue, Randall focused on a topic drawing much recent attention – the Devine Airport. She noted that not counting Hangar 8A and 10 the city earns $46,215 annually for the hangars leased. However, the certificate of obligation covering the city’s purchase of all hangars at the airport costs $81,685 to cover. If the lease cost for the two smallest hangars, 8 and 8A, were raised to $300 a month and Hangar 10, the largest at the airport, to $2,500 a month then the city would be making $83,415 a year, enough to make the certificate of obligation payments “without dipping into the general fund,” Randall said. The airport would still depend on the city to finance maintenance, manager salary and the fuel station, Cook said. Randall replied that she was “not trying to make them self-sufficient”. “I’m trying to make sure we are paying that loan,” she said. Ritchey said that rather than offering “arbitrary” numbers the rent charged for hangar space at the airport should be based on the cost at nearby competing airports in Hondo and Castroville. Cook said the airport board will be attending the next regular meeting of the city council. City Admin Cook reported that in a text Shaver notified the city of his decision to reject the city’s job offer. In a later telephone conversation with Cook, Shaver explained that the issue involved Shaver’s wife who is currently overseas. “He decided it was in his and his family’s interest that he remain in Houston for the time being,” Cook said. The agenda for the July 25 meeting included an executive session on personnel matters to consider an employment contract for Shaver. Shaver spent last Monday in Devine at the city hall getting familiar with the city, in preparation to accept the job the following night (Tuesday), Cook said. The mayor stressed that Shaver’s visit was his own choice and not at the insistence of the city. “I asked him that since he came to Devine Monday if there were any red flags or something at all with our particular operation, or the city building, anything we did,” Cook said. “He was very sincere. He said absolutely not.” Prior to the July 25 telephone exchange, Cook had last spoken to Shaver on July 19, the day following the council decision in executive session to offer him the job. “He was surprised and very excited and happy at our offer.” the mayor said. District 2 Council Member Michael Hernandez said he was impressed with Shaver as a city administrator candidate.“He was a remarkable guy,” Hernandez said. “I don’t know if he saw our budget and got scared.” Cook rejected the idea, saying that Shaver had reviewed the budget online prior to accepting the job. District 5 Council Member Debbie Randall asked if Shaver was due any compensation for the time he spent at city hall. Cook and City Attorney Thomas Cate emphasized that Shaver visited at his own choice in advance of accepting a contract. The council voted 5-0 to offer him compensation for the day anyway. (Shaver refused the compensation). Devine City Council Meeting continued on page 8 Golf Group looking towards another exhaust fan to see if it would help first In other business, the council heard a report from Devine Golf Group representatives Brian Navarro and Ron Richards regarding plans to deal install a large exhaust fan in the attic of the golf course clubhouse to deal with the uncomfortable temperatures indoors. The council approved the purchase and installation of the $2,250 fan for the clubhouse leased from the city by the golf course group. The exhaust fan was approved as an alternative to a new $9,000 air conditioning unit. Navarro asked the council for more time to obtain estimates on purchase and installation of a smaller exhaust fan in a storage room behind the bar where ice machines operate. Ritchey asked about the financial condition of the golf group if purchase of the air conditioning unit proves to be necessary. The golf group has rejected any attempt by the city to split the bill for a new unit. Navarro said the golf group is paying its bills and its employees. The big issue in the future will be upgrading and improving the course, he said. “That’s what our members want,” Navarro said. “They want improvement on the course. Financially, a year and three months into this, no, we’re not at that point yet where we can upgrade.” Asked by Ritchey if the group anticipated needing support from the city Navarro said the biggest concern on the course is several aging water pumps that would cost an estimated $40,000 to replace. Navarro described the buildings sheltering the pumps as quite dilapidated.
For students in Elementary and Intermediate, post cards with your teacher’s name should come in the mail next week sometime. All campuses in Devine Independent School District will host parents and students to a “Meet the Teacher” night at the following dates and times: JJ Ciavarra Elementary Thursday, August 17 – 5:30-7:00 p.m. Devine Intermediate Thursday, August 17 – 5:30-7:00 p.m. Devine Middle School Tuesday, August 15 – 5:30-7:00 p.m. Devine High School Tuesday, August 15 – 5:30-7:00 p.m. Parents and students may go to teachers’ classrooms any time during the time periods listed above. At the elementary and intermediate campus, parents may bring labeled school supplies to their child’s room. Parents will be able to put money in the child’s lunch account, join PTO, and confirm bus numbers and routes. Elementary and Intermediate students should receive a postcard in the mail soon stating their teacher(s) for the school year. At both campuses, parents may check in the office during “Meet the Teacher” if they are unsure of their child’s room assignment and/or if registration information is not complete. Middle and high school teachers will be in their classrooms to talk to parents about their classes and about the expectations of the class. Middle school students may pick up their class schedule in the cafeteria. If you have any holds such as immunizations or proof of residency, report to the office to turn in your documents and pick up your schedule. High school student schedules will be given out in the multi-purpose room. Reminder: All immunizations (when applicable) and proof of residency requirements (3rd, 6th, and 9th graders) must be complete before students can pick up their schedule and attend school on the August 23rd. If your student recently received immunizations, please bring an updated record to the school office at your earliest convenience. Proof of Residency documents should be emailed to enrollment@devineisd.org or dropped off at the campus office.
Steve Valenzuela, 76, of Devine, passed away Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 10:05 am at his home surround by his family. He was born October 1, 1946 in San Antonio, Texas to Margarito and Juanita Valenzuela. He is survived by his wife of 37 years, Mary Lou, as well as five children Susan Valenzuela, Selina Parker, April Peredo (Anthony), Steve Cory Valenzuela and Adam Valenzuela, brothers Paul and Phil, sister Margaret and nine grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Ben and Gene. He enjoyed working outdoors and with his cattle. Everyone knew how he had one more thank to tell them. He loved to show you he could still kick up his legs to the side. He was very much a veteran and a Texan; a patriotic man.
Lois Marie Mangold Neely, of Columbus, Kansas, passed away on July 10, 2023 at the age of 60. She was born June 24, 1963 in San Antonio, Texas to the late Patrick ‘Pat’ James Mangold and Constance ‘Connie’ Eloise Koehler Mangold. Lois graduated from Medina Valley High School in 1981. From 1981 to 1985, she worked at Southwest Research. In 1985, she began working at the National Shooting Complex Association. She started WYSHOTGUN in 2000. On November 21, 2015, she married Jake Neely in Las Vegas, Nevada. Survivors include her husband, Jake Neely of Columbus, Kansas; siblings, Mildred (Jay) Bendele of Dunlay, Patrick Mangold of San Antonio, Bonnie Mangold of La Coste, Beth (Butch) Cook of Pearsall, and Rollin (Dawn) Mangold of La Coste; stepchildren, Parker Neely and Amory Neely both of Columbus, Kansas; mother-in-law, Cindy Neely of Columbus, Kansas; brother-in-law, Will (Lacy) Neely of Columbus, Kansas; nephews, Matt Mangold and Walt Mangold; nieces, Lisa Unger and Shay Neely; as well as numerous aunts and uncles. Lois was preceded in death by her parents. A Graveside Service will be held at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 19, 2023 at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Cemetery in La Coste, Texas. A Celebration of Life will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 19, 2023 at Tondre-Guinn Funeral Home. A reception will follow at the National Shooting Complex, 5931 Roft Road, San Antonio, Texas 78253. Memorials may be made in Lois’ memory to the Lois Neely Memorial Scholarship, 5931 Roft Road, San Antonio, Texas 78253. Arrangements by Tondre-Guinn Funeral Home. Visit www.tondre-guinn.com
