Search Results

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Board Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting IC ISD Fieldhouse at OK Wolfenbarger Stadium This fieldhouse is going to be extended for storage as part of Phase 1 construction. You can see the plans here . Irion County ISD agenda A. Agenda Analysis 1. Meeting location: Cafeteria. 2. Administrative reports, item 6 d, 2nd quarter investment report: Ms. Lakey is a regular at nearly all the meetings now, but she isn't often listed on the agenda. To put this in context, this meeting is being held only 12 days after President Trump implemented the Liberation Day tariffs . Her report is not likely to be positive...and a lot is riding on investment returns. The District gets to keep in its own coffers the investment interest off unspent 2024 bonds. 3. Bond construction, item 5: This is the standard posting for the Board's construction. 4. Teachers, employee contracts, item 14 : This item comes at the end of the meeting after the closed session session and action items from closed session. 5. Closed Session, board training, item 11b: If all the Board members are Guardians, I suppose there are instances where board member training can be kept private. Otherwise, I don't know of an instance where training would be confidential. Cement jungle on IC ISD campus. Again, here's one source of our community's stormwater problem. This is on the south end of the District's campus. Each successive engineer has to address stormwater that originates at the beginning of this blue arrow and travels several blocks away, across my property and the private property of other landowners , to the fieldhouse pictured above. Thus far they have each built upon the errors of the ones that came before, while all have taken full advantage of the fact that the City of Mertzon does not have a stormwater management plan. Then they leave town. Well, mostly. SKG Engineering is out of San Angelo, and they worked on the new gym and are currently working on the 2024 bond projects for Parkhill . B. Meeting Review 1. Bond construction updates: From Supt. Moore's report, item 6c, the construction fencing and abatement around the old elementary building will start this week. The District received 50 bids (through Gallagher), and those are currently being evaluated. The acceptance of any bids will be done at next month's board meeting. 2. CTE dollars, item 6 c : Also from Supt. Moore's report, the District is more strategically targeting CTE dollars. The District has increased its revenue from $2500 in Perkins funds ( Title 1 from the Dept. of Education ) to $62,000. These dollars are not subject to recapture by the State, meaning the District does not have to return anything to the State. Here's more about CTE, Career and Technical Education, from the TEA website . Kudos to Supt. Moore for being more strategic about these dollars. My read is the the District has been leaving significant dollars on the table until now. Time will tell with the current administration in Washington (responsible for gutting the Department of Education, without congressional approval) whether these Title 1 funds will continue to flow without major concessions from states. From my vantage point, President Trump and Governor Abbott are both not friendly to education. My public information requests in the background include trying to get at whether the feds are already in the process of withholding money. 3. Investment Report, item 6d : I read this item to be an anticipatory report about the 2nd quarter, but this was a report on 1st quarter earnings. It boils down to this: there's a lot of interest earnings that stays with the district when there are millions of bond dollars. Indeed, Ms. Lakey reported there was $157,000 in interest off of $30 million in January alone. There are two reasons why these dollars matter. First , as has already happened in this bond cycle, the Board can on the fly adjust for construction budget shortfalls with projected interest earnings. Refer to item 2a in my Meeting Review where the Board approved additional square footage to the elementary totaling $1.7 million to be paid for out of anticipated interest earnings. Second , these interest earning matter when there is a budget mishap, as I wrote here where the District paid down a $800,000 budget shortfall with investment earnings. (Coincidentally, I learned from a recent PIA request that one reason for that shortfall is that the State and Board approved a very favorable tax abatement to the wind farm in their 313 agreement, but more on that later.) Here's my concern about this part of the meeting: Not a single board member dared ask what the projected earnings for the 2nd quarter might be. The economy, which is transparently in a downslide, was not discussed. There are potentially some troubled times ahead, and the impact is not readily known. The Board needs to worry about the future. 4. Census, item 6a: Principal Parker reported 210 in elementary and 134 in high school, totaling 344 for the district. Why am I monitoring this? Again, the District will not be able to afford an influx of new students . And, Texas, with its favorable business climate, is certain to grow. Consider this response to Pres. Trump's tariff war on China: Nvidia is going to produce its AI computers in Texas as part of a $500 billion US investment . Texas is going to continue to grow, and that means more and more pressure on rural areas. 5. Fairview, item 8 : The Board agreed to join the school cooperative Fairview, associated with Wall ISD , for its DAEP (Disciplinary Alternative Education Program) for $39,000 for 250 days of services. I will be learning more about this in the future, so stay tuned. 6. All the rest: The Board, at AD/Asst. Principal Morrow's request, approved a roughly $10,000 subscription for sports video services with HUDL . Hold the thought of whether AI will be used. The Board approved the probationary contracts at item 14, and there were no other closed session items voted upon. Otherwise, Board member Ashley Hill was the only member not present at this meeting. And, finally, don't forget to visit my updated Documents page . I've been neglecting it until this last weekend. I will post this meeting's documents in a few weeks after I receive them in my next PIA request. Horse Crippler Cactus in bloom It is spring in West Texas, and one sign - if you are lucky enough to see it - is a horse crippler cactus in bloom. This one is at the Mertzon Cemetery at the grave site of my Great Great Grandmother, Alice Patterson Blackwell Noelke, 1847-1912. I have posted photos of other horse cripplers in bloom here and here . C. Commentary Democracy is an ideal in progress made possible in part by an intangible faith that a rising tide should lift all boats. When our leaders, be they national or local, intentionally anchor some boats so that they necessarily flood at high tide, then it is only free and fair speech that can return the democratic ideal that we are all created equal with inalienable rights. Our Founders never promised us a democratic tomorrow. Speak up, speak out, be heard. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary W. Fleming and 4th Street in Mertzon facing south. This December 2021 photo of the new IC ISD gym under construction is a not so distant reminder of just how many resources are required to construct school facilities...and how timing is everything . The pandemic hit at just the wrong time during this build out, and costs skyrocketed and it went over budget. The first bid date for the 2024 IC ISD bond projects is this week, April 10, the week immediately after President Trump's world wide tariff effort ("Liberation Day") . What will the impact of the tariffs be on the bids and the time it takes to complete the build out? A. Agenda Analysis 1. Council pay, item 5 : The Council may be reaching back to its last decision on this issue so that it can formalize their pay with an ordinance. The prior ordinance, 3.01 , is dated. 2. Records retention policy, item 6 : The area of government records retention is highly regulated. Government created documents are the people's documents, and by law they have to be kept for a certain period of time before they are destroyed. A "custodian" is also required, and this person is typically charged with overseeing the records. Record retention made the news recently in the United States government group chat leak ("Signalgate"), where the chat conversation was set to delete in a matter of days. Retention periods differ according to the type of document, but they typically last for years. IC ISD campus facing east. The arrow points to an area slated to become a parking lot. As with other new impervious cover being added to the campus, this will ultimately send more stormwater runoff to City Park a few blocks away. B. Meeting Review 1. Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. 2. Council pay, item 5 : This was as I suggested above. The Council's purpose was to memorialize by ordinance their earlier vote on the amount of pay for the mayor and council members. I covered this issue at B.1. on this page . You can find the ordinance in the meeting documents. The vote was 2-1, with Lindley and Councilman "for" and Crutchfield "against". Mayor Stewart did not have to break the tie this time as Councilmember Holland resigned since the original vote. To be clear, the City of Mertzon Mayor gets paid $150.00 per council meeting, and the Council members get paid $100.00 per meeting. 3. Record retention ordinance, item 6 : The council approved the records retention ordinance, found in the meeting documents, as required by state law. Here's a suggestion: records relating to municipal real property will withstand the test of time in a retention policy only if such records are filed at the courthouse. (Lesson: sewage line easement documents that show a crossing over private property will not be forever lost if filed as a public document at the county courthouse.) 4. Administrative report, item 9 : The stench from the Waste Water Treatment Plant will continue. The necessary parts have been delayed, so the timeline has been bumped to mid May before a repair can take place. (No fault of the City.) C. Commentary You pretty much would have to be under that pile of limestone rocks next to my house in Mertzon to not see that our federal government is behaving differently than ever before. In part, this is because some in our federal government (less than a majority) are advancing what is known as the " unitary executive theory " as a way to increase the authority of our president. I have argued here (at Commentary) that our president has been engaged in a bullying effort to create dissent and disunity to eventually satisfy one of his ultimate goals: declaring martial law . This bullying is one of the tools being used to advance the unitary executive theory. To be clear, I am not predicting or desiring a federal declaration of martial law. Moreover, I am not a fan of the unitary executive theory. Our Founders created a system of three co-equal branches of government with intended checks and balances so that we never became a monarchy. Our Constitution spells this out. Some background: I became interested in martial law as IC ISD last year began to ramp up its Guardian program ( here at B. 5 ) that effectively allows for public tax dollars to pay for a private police force in the name of protecting school children...all perfectly lawful under state law. The secretiveness of this force has caused me to pay more attention to what conditions might have to exist for a larger scale civil emergency (state or federal level) that would form the basis for a declaration of martial law. One condition necessary to call marital law might be a violent citizen uprising. I make the point here that the elimination of DEI in the government setting is intended to create disharmony among citizens . The manner and methods being used to eliminate DEI in government, indeed, I view as inherently racist and misogynist. This racism and misogyny, in time, I fear will become key ingredients for civil unrest. There is reason to be hopeful that such will not be the case, however, with the recent peaceful protests, nationally and world wide, known as Hands Off . These first protests were peaceful . What about future protests? Consider taking some time to learn more about martial law. (Here is a Google search for martial law ; I urge you not to stop on that page with the AI interpretation.) Bear with me, as I intend to scatter a few posts about it here and there. I've learned about an instance in Texas where martial was used, and the consequences were shocking . I will share that in time. What other conditions might exist to justify a declaration of martial law? Who might benefit from a declaration of martial law, and who might pay the price? Why might we want to avoid it entirely and never go there? Copyright 2025 G Noelke

No matter how cold the winter or how dry the spring, in this part of West Texas each March you can count on the native Agarita bush to bloom. I've taken to occasionally watering the ones behind the gravestones of my Great Great Grandparents, Alice and Ferdinand Noelke, in the Mertzon Cemetery. As I wrote twelve months ago, I recognize two anniversaries each year in March . This website and my advocacy efforts to end the storm water flooding in my community are a year older. Government in the Sun has been online now for 2 years . And, I've now been working to end stormwater flooding in my community for 9 years . "Democracy does not race, it reaches the finish slowly but surely," said German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear ," said George Orwell . These two ideas capture the slow, steady and frank direction of my efforts in these pages this past year. Here are a few statistics for the year. I wrote 53 posts in the last twelve months. (There are now 140 posts total on the site.) Of those 53, the vast majority covered Irion County ISD Board meetings and Mertzon City Council meetings. Each post this year involved 1 to 3+ hours of attending the meeting, and another 2 to 4 hours of writing and analysis. Each post about an IC ISD Board meeting also involved a Public Information Act request each month to Dr. Nikki Moore, Superintendent. (I address her, and other superintendents, as "Superintendent" in these pages for historical convenience.) Each of those requests required 15-25 hours of writing, analysis and legal research. There were 3,755 post views of the entire site this last year . The top two most viewed pages were this post about former Athletic Director Jacob Conner and this post mostly about the IC ISD budget . I continue to manage the site entirely on my own. I have no staff, no editor (though on occasion I've used Chat GPT as an editor to tighten things up) and I do my own photography, including drone shots. I receive no subscription or advertising fees. The site itself has never been about earning an income, though my advocacy effort has certainly been about ceasing the economic damage to my property, my neighbors' property and the public property we all share and pay for with our taxes. I continue to avoid using social media to promote the site. I'm not interested in the anonymous swipes and extra grief that it will bring my way. Thankfully, fewer folks this past year have trolled me. This might be because my practice is to not engage in debate with folks who want to argue anonymously. (That would be anti-sun , maybe even cloudy .) My intent is to create a record of simultaneously supporting local government and public education, while at the same time being critical of it. If you are reading these posts as if I am a "hater" of government then you likely are misunderstanding me. The most important accomplishment for me this past year has been that my presence at public meetings and this blog have played some role in getting IC ISD and Irion County voters to dedicate over $800,000 of the 2024 bond funds to stormwater management. The Mertzon City Council has also been more proactive on flood issues than ever before. Their MOU with IC ISD is an example of their resolve to remedy flooding issues that have for too long been ignored. This also says a lot about the positive character of the leadership at IC ISD and the City, Supt. Moore and Mayor Aubrey Stewart. At the same time, the last 12 months have seen other factors at play initiating change. There is no doubting that the free market drive to get a piece of the tremendous ad valorem wealth of Irion County was one factor in the dedication of the IC ISD bond dollars to stormwater management. I wrote this year that there were still some on the IC ISD Board not wanting address stormwater flooding, and more likely it was Parkhill and Gallagher , the design and construction team, who initiated the change of direction. Private companies earning their way with public dollars want no part of construction projects that flood homes, and they especially don't want the reputation of helping government flood itself. It's bad business, isn't it, to live off of the public dollar while helping destroy government by flooding it? They don't want either the hit to their business reputation or the potential legal liability. Governmental immunity is not a sure bet when the dangers are so well known, as I've also written here and here . That said, since the previous IC ISD board, superintendent, athletic director, contractor and architect knew about the flooding before/during/after the previous bond (2019) build out and still made the flooding worse , I am compelled this upcoming year to continue to write about the construction at IC ISD. I continue to believe that citizens who sit on their hands when there is this much money involved ($18 million in 2019 and $53 million in 2024) will have their homes washed down to Spring Creek. Here's my post about the school bond industrial complex , perhaps instructive on my point that our community is but a drop in an ocean of money and special interests. In short, I fear our community is getting played , and there may be hell to pay for local taxpayers when we no longer have the income to afford to pay for all these school buildings and their maintenance. So, expect more posts about the construction at IC ISD in the upcoming 12 months. I would rather spend my time feeding the deer up on Cowboy Hill or biking down on the border . But, Irion County News (on Facebook) and The Irion County Newsletter (monthly, available locally only in paper) are not enough of a 4th Estate to challenge IC ISD and the City of Mertzon to do the right thing and be a good neighbor. And, that's really what I've been asking in these pages. Be a good neighbor . I also anticipate posting more documents from my monthly PIA requests to IC ISD . Of course, I will also continue to attend City Council and Board meetings. Time permitting, I will attend County Commissioner meetings. The County to date has been absent on flooding issues , but it may become an flood actor as it moves to rebuild the Community Center this year and next. IC ISD's football stadium is in the direct path of the County's stormwater runoff , so the time is closer to seeing whether there is yet another chapter in this government flooding itself story. This year I have also asked the County to be responsible about flooding issues . I will also continue inserting some commentary here and there about state and federal government in the upcoming year. For example, I recently opined that the federal efforts to abolish DEI was really a bullying effort to create public dissent because our President wants to declare Martial Law . I'm not going to ignore what I consider seismic changes currently taking place in our democratic system. As a lawyer by profession, I have a unique opportunity - and I think responsibility - in these pages to preserve the representative democracy currently under attack. And, let me be clear as I start up the next 12 months - I do believe our constitutional foundation is being challenged like never before. Thank you for reading these pages the last 12 months. “ The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself - always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity. ” President Jimmy Carter Enduring 10 -15 degree temperatures in January and no rain since mid-December, this Agarita still found a way to bloom this March. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

A new portable classroom on the IC ISD campus This week legal scholars have started debating whether our federal leadership in Washington have caused our country to go into a constitutional crisis. All of the talk to overturn DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, is in my opinion a very intentional false flag to ferment disunity so that we lose faith in our government and our fellow citizens . I'm not buying it. Remember, there are meritorious examples of "inclusion" everywhere, like this ramp that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act rules. Two decades of education in a public setting and two and a half decades as a public employee taught me lots of important lessons, not the least of which is that inclusion as a governing concept is a net positive. Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my Agenda analysis and my Meeting review. Here are the meeting documents for the Board members for this meeting, received pursuant to my PIA request. IC ISD Agenda for this meeting. A. Agenda Analysis 1. Meeting Date and location : Note the meeting is on Wed, Feb 12. The location is the cafeteria. 2. 2024 Bonds, item 6 and 7 : Item 6 is the placeholder that allows the Board to approve an unplanned item. I'm less clear on 7 - is it to approve the process of electronic bidding of the projects, or are they approving particular bids that have already been reviewed? 3. Ideal Impact, items 8 and 9 : Ideal Impact is a private company being contracted with to help lower electricity costs. I covered this issue at the last meeting in my Meeting Review at B3 . I keep electricity costs on the front burner because they are an easily understood factor in increased maintenance and operation expenses after a bond build out...and these costs aren't disclosed to the voters before the bond vote. Think about that big yellow sticker on the side a refrigerator when you buy it that says what the annual electricity cost is expected to be... It's there before you buy. 4. Administrative reports, item 10, a-c : Always important. 5. TASB policy change 124, item 11 : Call me a board wonk if you will, but I think the most important role a board, governmental or nonprofit, can play is to help its executive implement and execute on policy and mission. Board members are supposed to be big thinkers, not big do-ers. I covered this extensively at B 4 here . I think these TASB items ought to be considered by the Board in a two step process. This month I found an example for this in the meeting notices for Hearne ISD , where they show the following on their agenda for their second reading: A screen shot of the Hearne ISD agenda for February 2025. This is an ideal posting because it shows both a two step process and notifies the public, staff, parents and students that these are the policy items up for a change. All of the policy items are important, but I've highlighted two. Certainly all school staff need to know in advance what changes are being considered. And, the community likewise needs to know their conduct may need to change. Though not shown here, these items on the agenda are under a topic heading called " Governance " suggesting to me this board understands it role in helping govern the school. Heady stuff? No, not really, so long as you accept that board leadership is a thinking role to assist the executive. Again, I think the greatest failure of the 2019 IC ISD board is that it passed an $18 million bond and then failed to build a single classroom . That suggests to me that they failed to execute on policy and mission. So much of the build out of City Gym can be attributed to raw unchecked self interest to have the best athletic facilities and the best win record in the district. No one was ever thinking about classrooms. 6. Closed session, items 16 and 18 : There's a lot of meat on this bone! I highlight item 18 to make the larger point that we'll know nothing about this closed session unless the Board votes on a specific matter. A few of these look like voting matters, and important ones at that, so here is my standard advice: always stay to the end of a public meeting in situations where you know or think a matter will be voted on after a closed session. This kind of advocacy comes with a price, and it is a steep one . Time . But a governing body that knows the public is apathetic will merge a closed session into a free for all and ultimately superintendent and board member self interest will reign supreme. The interests of the community becomes the last priority when the public is not present. Stormwater diversion done with 2019 bond funds. IC ISD board members may have some sticker shock when the bids for stormwater diversion start coming in April. The only 2019 bond money spent on campus for floodwater diversion was for this caliche berm along the alley and this cement wall along a new parking lot, the GMPL. It undoubtedly would have been cheaper to have done this right by using the 2019 funds on the front end. B. Meeting review 1. Closed session and action on closed session, items 16 and 18: a. Contract extensions : After a roughly 1.5 hour closed session, the Board came out of executive session and voted to approve an additional 1 year contract extension to Supt. Moore. My take is this in effect turns her 5 yr contract into a 6, thus giving her 4 more years with the District. (Here's a copy of her contract on the District's site .) Given the relative slow start up pace of the bond build out, this is likely a good turn of events because she will be accountable f rom start to finish for the expenditure of the 2024 bond funds. (A significant failure of the 2019 bonds was that then Supt. Brian Gray proposed and got the bonds approved, and then he left the District within a few months after the election . Then there was an interim superintendent, and then finally Supt Ray DeSpain was appointed...and he left under a budget fiasco within a few months after all of the 2019 funds and more were spent.) The Board also approved 1 year contract extensions for Principal Jessica Parker and Asst. Principal/Athletic Dir. John Morrow. This is likewise a good thing in that they, too, will spend more time being accountable for the the spend down of the 2024 bonds. They were present, though in different capacities, for the entirety of the spend down of the 2019 bond funds, so there is some institutional knowledge and relative accountability for those funds as well. b. Guardians : The Board approved the Guardians discussed in closed session, which is to say the names of the guardians were not stated in open session. This sort of secrecy is allowed under the law, but I think it is nonetheless troubling. First, guardian approved schools effectively have an approved secret militia paid for with public dollars . Second, since I monthly do a PIA request for the District's check register, I know that our tax dollars are being spent on ammo . (In Nov. 2024 the District purchased $1,665 worth of ammo.) And, third, I think our federal government and our constitutional form of government are currently becoming unstable . (Congress is not controlling the purse as it is obligated to under the Constitution.) So, knowing who is on the secret militia that is publicly funded in your community might be handy . For more reading, here's some info on Martial Law . You can see a photo of the District's warning sign about it being a guardian campus at the bottom of this page . 2. 2024 bonds, items 6 and 7 : No action on 6, and the Board voted to approve item 7 related to electronic bids. This matter was merely to accept the bidding electronically, as opposed to by paper form. The IC ISD bidding page is on this page . 3. Electricity, Ideal Impact , items 8 and 9: The District paid just over $20,000 for its December energy costs, so this effort to reduce energy costs is much needed. The Board approved the service agreement and payment plan agreement. 4. Administrative reports, item 10 : a. Supt. Moore: Plans for the band field and drainage should be complete by mid march, with electronic bids going out the end of March or early April. The elementary will likely not be ready for bid until May. Abatement of the current elementary is starting the end of Feb. Teacher raises update : the pending SB 2 potential raises are not going to be handed down through basic allotment but through teacher incentive allotment, which IC ISD does not currently participate in. The District will have to apply and be approved (a potential 2 year process) to receive these funds. The change here, essentially, is to base teacher raises on performance, not merely years of service. Otherwise, there is some legislative threat to the District's fund balance, so the fox is scratching on the hen house door. The District is going to lose a lot of flexibility if it has to hand over some of its fund balance to the State. The District has more in its fund balance than the required 3 mos. of expenses. More on this later. b. Principal Parker: Enrollment in elementary is 206, high school 133 = 339. Attendance 97.03%. 5. TASB policy change update 124, item 11 : I don't know what changes were approved, and I attended the meeting! 6. Fees for transfers, item 13 : The Board thought through aloud how to recoup bus expenses related to the transfer students. They approved a fee structure. 7. Miscellaneous : Board member Ashley Hill attended the meeting late and left early, so she didn’t participate in the closed session. Otherwise, Maegin Carlile, Ricky Rey, Tony Martinez, DJ Rainey, Taylor Douglas and Chad Koonce were present. Finally, keep in mind that as these projects like the bus barn and elementary go out for bid, the architects and engineers have already determined by mathematic formula what the water runoff will be. Here is an example of just how detailed these drawings have to be, Jeff Potter's drawing of City Gym . There is nothing mystical about how to protect our community from self inflicted flood damage. It's math. The roof of City Gym in 2021. That is a lot of steel. Will the new steel tariffs impact the costs of construction for the 2024 bond build out? Copyright 2025 G Noelke

2024 Bond Banner Below is the agenda for this meeting, and below that are my agenda analysis and meeting review . Here are the meeting documents provided to the Board members for this meeting, received pursuant to my PIA request. A. Agenda Analysis 1. Pending construction projects and square footage change, items 6 and 7 : These are the bond related items. 2. TASB policy changes, item 10 : My ongoing issue with the District's policy changes is threefold. First, a private association, TASB , drafts them, not the District, and the District appears to have no real involvement with TASB. Second, they aren't published either on the District's website or at the meeting so that if a parent, student or member of the community wanted to comment on them during open forum (before they are passed) they couldn't. Finally, typically board members don't read them in advance of the meeting and, instead, rely on the superintendent's cursory review at the same meeting they are passed. This means there is more often than not no substantive board discussion of what the policy changes mean and board members are clueless about the content of the policies. There's a lot of meat on this bone. Here's a link to the IC ISD policy manual . You might be amazed at what all is in there. Sometimes one can Google the policy update to see if another ISD has posted something online about it. Here are some explanatory notes I found from Katy ISD on TASB update 122 . Here are some explanatory notes on Update 123 from College Station ISD . Look, it could be that only a lawyer could enjoy reading and questioning policies (I do), but alarm bells should be ringing when there is simultaneous board member and public disengagement on policy matters...and a private association is doing both drafting and interpretive comments . Who is really in charge? Are school board members leaders or followers? 3. Closed session and action on closed session, items 14 and 16 : I always highlight this portion of each agenda. The District, as is apparently the case with most school districts, does not have a lawyer present in closed session to make sure that their discussion about personnel is within the boundaries in the Open Meetings Act. This part of the meeting is always a cloudy day if you are for government in the sunshine... or if you are a teacher . The Irion County Community Center is roughly 75 yards away (and slightly higher) from the IC ISD football stadium. The Irion County Commissioner's Court is considering whether to expand or rebuild the Community Center. Read my public comments about that at B1 here . There's good reason to be concerned about our community's self inflicted wound of local government flooding itself: If the impervious cover of the Community Center is expanded, then that additional stormwater will flood the IC ISD football stadium. The improvements made to the football stadium with the 2019 bond funds were minimal at best. See the last photo on this page to see how close it was to flooding just a few months ago . B. Meeting Review Open forum, item 5 : A truly inspired speech was given by an IC ISD student on how to re-purpose the turf at the football stadium once it is removed. He read from his prepared remarks, he was organized and he was concise about what he was recommending. We all recognize in some way that we have a right under the Constitution to petition our government. But we perhaps do not know that the interpretation of doing so to "redress grievances" has been given a broad interpretation. A grievance doesn't have to be a full blown human rights violation. Indeed, as it was here, it was a playground issue - the playground has stickers and the turf would cover them up. "Petition" has broadly been interpreted as a request that government use it powers to serve the interests and prosperity of the petitioner. Best of all, there shouldn't be a petition cop at the door of a school board meeting room telling citizens what they can and can't say in open forum. The general rule is that prior restraint of speech is illegal. (But see 551.007 of the Open Meetings Act for what speech is allowed.) So, kudos to this student for exercising his free speech rights. Read more on right to petition government here . Bond matters, items 6, 7, 9c and 11: a. There will be additional square footage (3,000 to 4,000 sf) added to the elementary design to accommodate potential future growth, at a likely cost of $1.7 million. It's not certain just yet where this money will come from. Hold that thought! b. Demo of elementary will start in mid-March. c. End of January will be when bids are published for construction of the bus barn, Estes Gym and cafeteria expansion. The drainage, detention pond and practice field for band will be a separate phase and those bids will be published in March. The band practice field location has been moved from the west side of the band hall to the east side of the band hall , which appears to explain why there has been a delay on getting the bids out on the drainage and detention projects. This also means that the City of Mertzon and IC ISD have not agreed to the MOU that closes a portion of the street . d. Football field turf and track : The Board accepted a $1.03 million offer from Hellas Construction for new football field turf and track. Here is the offer document . The Board approved Proposal alternatives 1 and 2 on page 2. e. Order of operations: The prayer fence needs some editing: Add " Don't pray for rain". Here's why. Like the build out with the 2019 bonds, the construction at the football stadium is coming first. That construction will start in May/June this summer (2025!) and will take only about two months. The football stadium is the IC ISD property at the lowest elevation, and it is the most vulnerable to flooding. See my topo map on this page . We typically get a summer monsoon in July or August, so the new turf and track are going to be vulnerable right away. Next up, according to the bid schedule as described by Supt. Moore at this meeting, will be bus barn, Estes Gym and cafeteria extension. I still can't report how much additional stormwater will be added to the basin from this construction, but there will be more runoff that will flood our streets, our homes and our new field and track. The next bidding will be the drainage and detention pond and the band practice field. (The timing of the bidding for the elementary and parking lot construction was not discussed.) Time will tell whether the flood control structures should have been built first, not third, to protect our streets, homes and City Park from flooding. And, as I explained to the County Commissioner's Court , I am suspending my opinion about whether the flood control structures will even be built. So, none of this is written in stone. Administrative reports a. Cost of electricity - I've been requesting the District's electricity bill via the PIA for some months now. My reasons are straightforward: One of the school bond reforms that needs to be adopted is that voters need to be informed what the additional expenses to the school's Maintenance and Operations (M&O) increases are expected once bond build out is complete. Those added expenses grow over time! The way these bond packages are presented to voters when they are proposed is that homeowners will not see an increase in the Interest and Sinking (I&S) taxation of their property value . What isn't discussed are the long term M&O costs that the taxpayers will have to bear. How much are we talking? The October 2024 monthly invoice from TXU for electricity for all the District's properties was the highest its ever been at $24,982.28. The same month back in 2006 was $11,330! Of course, electricity was cheaper then, but the District also had less square footage to heat and cool. Electricity for City Gym these days can vary from $2,000 to $3,000 a month! Add to that the expense of maintaining its specialty AC system, and over time the District has placed a huge tax burden on its citizens ...after having told voters before the bond election that they wouldn't see any increase in their taxes for I&S, the pot of money where the payment for the bonds comes from. b. Superintendent Moore's report at this meeting included an update on her work with Ideal Impact , a company that modernizes campus heating and cooling with centralized smart technology. She gets kudos from me on this issue. I was forecasting to her predecessor, Supt. Ray DeSpain, that the District was going to be experiencing high electricity costs for the new gym while it was still being constructed...and he ignored me. I'll be continuing to look at the M&O costs with the 2024 build out. If the District doesn't control its M&O budget, it can't pay off these or the 2019 bonds early. In hindsight that will make the whole rolling bond concept of always issuing bonds to have been one colossal mistake. That is, the District will not be able to pay off its bonds early if it can't afford its M&O expenses . Put another way, the Texas legislature's funding mechanism that permits wealthy school districts like IC ISD to keep its I&S wealth local will have backfired . c. Enrollment is at 203 in elementary and 134 at secondary, totaling 337 students in the District, according to Principal Parker. 4. TASB Policy updates 122 and 123, agenda item 10 : These updates were handled as I discussed above at A2 above . Supt Moore during her presentation explained that the District would have to send the proposed policy changes to their own attorney if there was to be any change by the Board. No doubt that would be added expense to the District. However, it is also important to consider the role of the Board. Is the board a doing board or an executive board involved in assisting the superintendent in evaluating and executing policy? One way to answer this question is to look at time management during the meeting. What agenda items do the board spend most of its time during its meeting? This meeting was a perfect example. The Board spent way more time discussing the new football field and track proposal, even going to the extent of physically handing and evaluating the field padding with the vendor, while spending no time discussing the TASB policy updates. I contend that it was the Board's doing of athletics in 2019, as opposed to executing policy (executive management), that caused it to spend most of a $18 million bond on a new gym and football stadium upgrades, while spending no money on classrooms. One solution here might be to adopt future TASB updates in a 2 or even 3 step process. Introduce the amendments one month, adopt them with board review the next month. Forcing a one meeting adoption process for complex policy issues ( and there was lots of complex issue in these updates ) is a lot to expect for the average board member. These are complicated changes that deserve more opportunity to read, comprehend and discuss intelligently. I will be reviewing these changes in the future with a PIA request. 5. Closed session, items 14 and 16 : My schedule didn't permit me to stay through to the end of this meeting, so I did not attend the return to open session at item 16. Supt. Moore has advised me that no action was taken. 6. Attendance : All members were present at this meeting, so attending were Maegin Carlile, Ricky Rey, Ashley Hill, Tony Martinez, DJ Rainey, Taylor Douglas and Chad Koonce. My RadRover bike cockpit view off a cliff’s edge at Seminole Canyon State Park. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Tree Removal This grading plan page from the IC ISD bid documents for the new transportation barn definitively shows that the majority of storm water will be re-directed to flow east down the City of Mertzon alley between 4th and 5th streets. Some storm water will also be directed east down W Fleming Ave. IC ISD does not have to obtain a permit from the City of Mertzon to use the alley in this way. Click here to download the bidding plans document above. You'll find a higher resolution grading plan image at page 22. Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my agenda analysis and meeting review . Go here for my Commentary on Regulatory Capture . A. Agenda Analysis Election cancellation, item 5 : In a rural city of less than 1,000 folks, its hard to find enough candidates to have competitive elections. State law allows the council to simply cancel the election if when there is no opposition. The previous two called elections, in 2023 and 2024, were cancelled. Our democratic system relies on debate and civil disagreement, however, so that ideally governance is always tested and challenged. I have covered this issue of election cancellations previously; see my Meeting Analysis at # 1 for the March 4, 2024 Council meeting . TXDOT and Oak trees, FM 72, item 7 : This might be the oak trimming proposal made recently by Ashley Hill at Brim's crossing. I don't think of FM 72 being within the city limits of Mertzon, so TXDOT involvement here is puzzling. Water and Sewer Ordinance, item 8 : I have no clue what this about. I went to the City's page for ordinances , and 20.02 is not posted. Perhaps with the recent addition of a full time office employee this page will get brought up to date? The blue arrow represents my estimation of where the storm water from new bus barn is going to flow after it leaves the paved surface surrounding the facility. Thus, it necessarily will flood private property. The red arrow represents a portion of the city owned alley. The bidding documents provide for no flood control barrier that will protect the private property owner. Whether Phase 2 construction (the next phase that is supposed to address flood control structures) will include a barrier has not been publicly discussed. Though not pictured, all of the water coming from this new source of storm water will cross my property a few hundred feet away. B. Meeting Review Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. TXDOT, item 7: The TXDOT representative was not present, but Councilman Randy Councilman, an employee of TXDOT, advised the Council that the purpose of the visit was as a public service to the community. The bridge at FM 72 (aka the "high water bridge in Sherwood") is slated to be torn out and a new one built by TXDOT. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I can confirm this because TXDOT has also appeared at a County Commissioner's meeting last year. New to the issue is that Councilman Councilman has been advised that 13 (thirteen) oak trees are slated to be removed to make way for the new bridge . See the photo at the bottom of this page. Advocacy tip for those that might want to take action: Councilman Councilman is the messenger only. (FM 72 is not in the city limits of Mertzon.) Neither he nor the City of Mertzon are toting the chainsaws. Likewise, while I recommend you contact Commissioner's Court for the latest, the bridge is not a county road. They too are not brandishing chainsaws. It is a State of Texas Farm to Market road. TXDOT . Here is a screenshot of the TXDOT project map, though the project appears to not be listed: FM 72 bridge north of Mertzon is west of Sherwood. The red arrow is my own. Cancellation of May 3 election, item 5: Mayor Aubrey Stewart and new Councilman Daniel Harper were the only two to file, so they get the nod and will continue to serve. No one filed for the open seat, so the Council is operating with 1 vacant seat. You can read the ordinance regarding the election cancellation on pages 3 and 5 of the meeting documents . Ordinance 20.03, item 8: The Council approved the repeal of 20.02 and replacing it with 20.03. You can find the new ordnance about water meters on pages 7-19 of the meeting documents. This change is about the discussion in the last meeting concerning the transfer of unused water meters; see my reference to Dead Meters on this page . Here are some of trees that might be the ones sacrificed for the new bridge: North side, east bank, of the High Water bridge on FM 72 at Spring Creek. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

A page from the IC ISD plans. Bidding documents for a portion of the IC ISD 2024 bond projects are now online at Gallagher’s site . Yes, you should download them (particularly the Plans) and check them out. The City of Mertzon does not have construction codes or a code enforcement department, so it is the Wild, Wild West for citizens who wish to protect their private property and public streets and park from stormwater flooding. Here is the agenda for this meeting, and below that will follow my agenda analysis and meeting review . I also have included some Commentary about the current state of government. IC ISD Board Agenda A. Agenda analysis 1. Teacher / Employee Contracts, Resignations, items 4, 11, 14, 16 and 17 : I'm a broken record on this point, but our community misses a real opportunity to support public education at this meeting each March when teacher contracts are renewed for the following school year. Look around...the Department of Education is being dismantled...and, our state leadership is on the verge of supporting the privatization of public education through school vouchers. The lack of support for public education is abysmal and discouraging. We are rapidly nearing a point of advancement with Artificial Intelligence (AI) where the discussion is going to turn to whether TEA trained classroom robots will be more effective and cheaper than hiring humans. (My reading says that in about 3 years AI systems will exceed human intelligence.) One part of an argument to oppose the anti-public education efforts could be to promote teaching and teachers at this meeting in particular when their contracts are being renewed. Stand up and thank a teacher for teaching and support their contract renewal...at a public meeting...in open forum. Learn more about the history of the Department of Education and how the current administration is changing its priorities: Listen to the NYT podcast The Daily for March 10, 2025 . (What’s your view? Reach out to me.) 2. What the heck is an "MOU"?, items 6 and 7: "MOU" stands for "memorandum of understanding". In a legal sense, it is simply a written statement of what the understanding is on a particular issue between two governmental entities. They take the form of a "memorandum" because they are not considered an enforceable contract. That is, you aren't going see the governmental entities suing each other over a violation of their agreement. Generally, they are a great tool to spell out which each side agrees to do. Their downside is that they are often forgotten about and go unused because, without enforcement teeth, they carry no weight. Sometimes, however, an MOU is vitally important to build trust after a period of disagreement or ill will among elected officials. Here is a recent example of that, the MOU between the City of Mertzon and IC ISD , which was necessary to recover from the rancor and fallout after the 2019 bond build out, something I have covered extensively in this blog. (The IC ISD Board and its allies pretty much told the City Council how high it needed to jump when they wanted a city street closed for a gym, and the Council did the jumping... thereby getting us where we are today using 2024 bonds for flood control structures that are necessary because of how imprudently the 2019 bonds were spent .) Note : The leadership at the City and IC ISD is different for the 2024 bonds than for 2019 bonds. Many of the legal issues, however, are identical. Moreover, the stakes are even greater. The 2019 bonds were for $18 million, and the 2024 bonds are for $53 million. This area at 2nd and Juanita on the IC ISD campus is slated to become a dual purpose band practice field and water detention structure. It was previously approved by the IC ISD Board as a site for the 2019 bond funded gym. Were it used as the gym site Government in the Sun would have never been created. B. Meeting review Note: I was not able to attend this meeting, and this review is from a recording of portions of the meeting. 1. Open forum, item 4 : No one spoke, thus yet another missed opportunity to create a community value around the importance of teachers. 2. Bond purchasing, items 5 and 10 : The Board, after much discussion concerning when to cycle out its current fleet of Suburban / suburban like vehicles, went with a bid offer from Jim Bass in San Angelo. There was also some discussion of putting some items up for auction, but it was unclear from the audio what was being auctioned. I'll come back to this if it is important. 3. MOU's, items 6 and 7 : The Board approved an MOU with ASU for dual credit. This may lead to a more rigorous educational environment than the current arrangement with Howard College. This is significant because of TSI and the additional dollars that come with compliance. 4. Admin Reports: Supt. Moore reported: - There will be an "intruder audit" in April, date unknown. More on this after April. - During spring break (next week) construction fencing is going up. -Legislation - bills that do not specifically provide for small or midsized school involve a funding bias for large schools. - Meetings with Parkhill are ongoing to identify the specific needs in the new elementary classrooms. Principal Parker: her report was limited to enrollment and attendance. AD/Asst. Principal Morrow: his report was largely limited to student athlete awards and upcoming meets. 5. Resignations, item 11 : Diane Heflin and Brian Tillman have submitted their resignations, and they were reluctantly approved by the Board. Mr. Tillman is a multi year state champion band director ( 3 years?), so this is quite a loss to the District. This past fall I had the opportunity to listen to him during a practice while I was waiting out the Board during a closed session. He was excellent, and there is no doubt this is a huge loss to the District. The new Director will soon enough enjoy a new practice marching field as a result of the 2024 bonds. I will be covering the construction of that field on this blog. 6. Closed session, action on closed and teacher/employee contracts, items 14, 16 and 17 : The Board in open session, without mentioning any particular teacher, approved a list of teachers for 10, 11 and 12 month contracts. 7. Not present: President Carlie and Tony Martinez were not present at this meeting; Ricky Rey, Ashley Hill, DJ Rainey, Taylor Douglas and Chad Koonce were present. Commentary Edward R. Murrow famously said, "A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves". As I watch our state move toward an approved system of educational vouchers and our federal government dismantle the Department of Education, both without any local public engagement at this school board meeting, I am forced to wonder out loud whether we are on the edge of some abyss. Government is getting broken , not to make it more efficient, but to redirect its vast wealth to serve the few who can manipulate it to serve their own financial ends. But, consider this as we watch other communities, states and countries begin to fester and publicly protest about what is transparently becoming a war among economic classes: Are we not being baited, no bullied , into a dispute amongst our fellow citizens, state and national government and our allied countries? Is declaring martial law one of the goals of these efforts to break our democratic system of government? Could be. After all, the declaration of martial law is the ultimate declaration that the democratic system is broken. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Location of the new ICISD Bus Barn The new IC ISD bus facility at 5th and W. Fleming Ave. that is going in at this location will undoubtedly add more stormwater to the basin that drains at City Park . Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath are my agenda analysis and meeting review . City Council Agenda A. Agenda analysis: 1. Meeting date: Monday March 3. The Council no doubt is trying to get back to its regular meeting times at the first and 3rd Mondays of the month. They had only 1 meeting last month because of problems of keeping a quorum. 2. Budget workshop, item 5: The term "workshop" on agendas sometimes forecasts that the governing body is just going to talk and no formal action is going to take place. I consider all budget discussions, however, as times when citizens especially need to be present. Citizens should be concerned with every agenda item that discusses the budget because, without citizen presence, the governing body will begin to think they have ultimate discretion to spend taxpayer dollars as they see fit. 3. Everything else: The rest of the agenda is the standard stock language seen on all of the City agendas. I expect this to be a leaner meeting because the Council met last only last week . Two drainage barrels on the Brady ISD campus. Here is an example of how another ISD, Brady ISD , is handling stormwater runoff. There is nothing extraordinary about my request to the City of Mertzon and Irion County ISD to manage stormwater. Stormwater management is something that happens in other cities and, as this photo shows, at other school districts. There's a reason for this: our Constitution and laws are clear that government cannot take private property by flooding it unless they first pay the landowner. Moreover, sovereign immunity is not absolute, so government officials who willingly expose citizens to injury without regard to their safety risk legal exposure in their official and personal capacities. B. Meeting review 1. Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. Note in those documents that the Council approved several meetings worth of meeting minutes without changes. 2. Budget workshop, item 5 : The majority of this meeting was spent on fiscal matters. a. Budget surplus: The Council wisely agreed to commit to a portion of its surplus to paying down already existing debt in preparation for new debt on the horizon related to its upcoming wastewater treatment bond obligations. The discussions were dizzying at times, but the bottom line is that this Council is not a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" kind of council, a real problem of past councils. b. Community drainage projects : The Council also approved that a portion of its surplus be dedicated to remedying community wide drainage at multiple locations throughout the city . This is notable for a couple reasons. First , it is acknowledgement that flooding is a community wide problem, something I've been preaching about since just before the 2019 IC ISD bond election when I warned that the school would be worsening the flooding problem if it built a new gym. Second , it is an acknowledgement that governmental immunity is not absolute, something I have also been publicly warning about since 2019 . Mayor Stewart had this to say to new Council member Daniel Harper about the closure of the flooded street, Fleming Ave., in front of my home that is being flooded by IC ISD stormwater runoff: "If you willfully turn an eye without doing something and harm somebody, then you are liable. So, if people drive around a barrier, that's on them, but if we do nothing and we leave the street open, then we are liable." Thus, as I have previously said here at A.4.a , the Tort Claims Act does not give the City Council, or IC ISD board members for that matter , a free pass when they exercise their governmental duties. Governmental immunity is limited. And, third , don't forget the MOU with IC ISD . Way back on Sept. 16, 2024 Supt. Nikki Moore and the Gallagher Construction folks appeared at the City Council meeting to secure the closure of a portion of 3rd Street in exchange for doing water retention/flood control projects. Just this week through a PIA request of IC ISD I have received the final MOU, albeit unsigned final, and here it is . (The first draft of their proposed MOU can be found here at page 2 .) I'll address some of the nuances of their final version in another post, but for now its significance is that, at last, there is a formal agreement between the City of Mertzon and IC ISD to remedy some of the flooding issues. Finally, there is still a lot left to accomplish. Gallagher Construction just published a portion of the IC ISD bid package for the 2024 bond projects, but not that portion dealing with drainage. Screenshot of Gallagher’s bidding page. Click on the image to go to their bidding page and view the documents. The portion addressing drainage has not yet been approved by the IC ISD board. So, we are still a ways out before we see whether the community is going to achieve any flood relief. 3. Present at the meeting were Mayor Stewart and Council members Jayton Lindley, Randy Councilman, Danny Crutchfield and Daniel Harper. The key vote at the meeting, approving how to spend the surplus funds, was unanimous. The minutes in the meeting notes were approved without changes. I was the only member of the community present. Here are the same two barrels shown in the photo above, also showing the Brady city street, berms and exit point. This photo shows how Brady ISD and the City of Brady coordinated the flow of stormwater in a detention pond to keep it off a city street. There is also nothing extraordinary about keeping city streets free of stormwater. Throughout this blog I have contended that IC ISD has neglected its responsibilities under the law to manage its own stormwater and it deflected fault by blaming the City of Mertzon for not having a stormwater plan. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

Language in Hibbs &Todd geotechnical report Here’s the rub: the geotechnical reports recently done by Hibbs & Todd for IC ISD recommend dumping stormwater into “storm drains or onto paved surfaces” thus giving IC ISD an excuse (but not a legal defense) to dump its stormwater into the streets and flood our community. Hibbs & Todd, however, is also the engineers for the City of Mertzon. What gives? Is it a good practice to recommend dumping water onto paved surfaces when they also represent the City? See additional comments below .* Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my Agenda Analysis and Meeting Review . Here are the meeting documents for this meeting . A. Agenda Analysis : 1. Date of meeting : This meeting has been rescheduled to February 24. 2. Dead meters, item 6: Again, this about equitably awarding the very limited water meters. The limit on water meters is a major factor on city growth, and it doesn't seem fair that folks would be sitting on them. 3. Spring Creek Pavilion, item 7: The location is being considered here, and TCEQ has a say because of the proximity to the wastewater plant and river. My concern is what the long term commitment the Lions Club, the donor, will be. 4. Spring Creek Beautification Project, item 13: Ashley Hill spearheaded a fundraiser to beautify Brim’s crossing, the bridge going over to Stringtown. Two of the original cement picnic tables. I remember the time in Mertzon when these two cement picnic tables and the 6 man grass football field with a caliche track around it were pretty much all there was at City Park in Mertzon. I recall hearing that these tables were put in by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) , a New Deal program designed to provide employment to millions of Americans during the Great Depression. (The tables at "Roadside Park" at Hwy 67 and Duncan may have also been WPA projects.) Can you imagine that such a thing as the WPA ever existed in light of today's US government where an unelected billionaire is involved in the allegedly illegal termination of millions of federal employees? B. Meeting Review ( Here are the documents for this meeting .) 1. Support of proposed legislation favored by Concho Valley Food Bank , item 9 . The Council approved a letter to State Rep. Darby, favored by the Concho Valley Food Bank, showing support of a pending state bill that will increase fresh produce for those receiving assistance from the Food Bank. You can see the letter at page 9 of the meeting documents . Here is more on the proposed bill: HB 2002 . Go here to reach Rep. Darby's office to tell him of your support . 2. Dead meters, item 6: The Council approved an amendment to its ordinances that will clarify that those not using their water meters will lose their meter and it will go to the next applicant in line waiting for a meter. This is a significant decision that shouldn't be ignored. Water meters are hard to get in Mertzon, and this makes the process of getting one more equitable. 3. Location of Spring Creek Pavilion, item 7 : The Council approved the location of the proposed pavilion immediately east of the baseball field between the road and Spring Creek. Note: See the meeting notes for the Hibbs & Todd engineer's interpretation of TCEQ rules. Because of the wastewater plant nearby, the TCEQ permit requires 17 acres of open land to irrigate the waste water. If you've ever wondered why there is no development of that area of the Creek, this is why. The pavilion is going to be placed in a flood prone area, so FEMA rules are requiring that it have a hard floor. No discussion was had regarding the Lions Club's long term commitment to the upkeep and maintenance of the structure. 4. Brim Crossing, Spring Creek beautification project, item 13: The Council approved Ashley Hill's request to beautify the bridge with a mural, plaque, trash cans, and tree trimming. The Council did not discuss the content or style of the mural, so it is unclear to me whether Mrs. Hill has been given carte blanche authority to install whatever mural she and her donors see fit...or whether there were some discussions about content in the background. Public art can be controversial, no doubt about it. I spent a good part of my formative years helping my father shear sheep and hauling shorn wool to the Wool House in Mertzon, so I have been amused at this 2023 PETA effort to protest sheep shearing by installing their own protest sheep in San Angelo . The First Amendment is an amazing legal concept, even as it relates to public art. 5. Spending money, items 9, 12 and 14 : The Council approved moving to a different emergency call program, paying for a new printer and new computers. They did a good job deliberating on how to spend the City's money, which is to say spending taxpayer money. Keep in mind that the City is in the black financially, something that has only been the case for the last 3 or 4 years. 6. Members present: The Council had a full house, excepting the one vacant seat. Present were Mayor Aubrey Stewart and Council members Jayton Lindley, Randy Councilman, Danny Crutchfield and Daniel Harper. I will update who filed for the open seat as soon as I have that information. More on Hibbs & Todd : *I review the IC ISD check register monthly, and in October 2024 the District paid $5,925 to Hibbs & Todd . I followed up with a PIA for the work product for that payment and received 3 reports for the boring done by Hibbs Todd. This language is from those reports. I became aware of Hibbs and Todd also being the engineers for the City of Mertzon by attending Council meetings. While I view this as a clear conflict of interest, this unusual role is not necessarily unlawful...but, it is at least professionally unwise and not taxpayer friendly. In any event, this language doesn't provide a legal defense to either the District or the City. The language does, however, highlight the origin of the permission structure that causes our local government to flood itself at City Park. Indeed, the quintessential topo map that I use to show that local government is flooding itself is done by…Hibbs & Todd for their client, the City of Mertzon. See the map on this page . The First Amendment at work: Support ranchers and shearers worldwide by wearing wool. Buy wool products at Pendleton USA by clicking on the map above. This map was my father's, M.B. Noelke, Jr., who spent most of his life raising sheep for their meat and wool. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

North east corner of City Park Here's a 2022 photo of City Park as the parking area was being paved. The 547 acre basin shown on a topo map here at # 2 empties all of its stormwater into the 4 barrels (in the yellow circle) that pass under State Hwy 67. IC ISD's engineer and architect acknowledged during the 2019 bond build out that the barrels were too small to adequately handle all the stormwater. The blue arrows represent the direction the stormwaters are flowing as they arrive at the IC ISD football stadium. The field itself is lower than where these waters collide, thus explaining why the field is so vulnerable to stormwater flooding. Below is the meeting agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my agenda analysis and meeting review . I also have some Commentary on the US Constitution . A. Agenda Analysis 1. Accepting resignation of councilmember and swearing in council members, items 5 and 6: The Council, with the resignation of Ms. Holland earlier this month, now has two vacant seats. Gone but not forgotten Micah Elliot resigned back in May, 2024 . His seat has not been filled since. Then, at the last meeting Ms. Holland resigned. With 2 vacant seats, a Council of 5 plus the Mayor is a governmental body precariously close to not being able to function if there were an absence; a quorum of 4 would not have been present. 2. New Pavilion at Spring Creek, item 8: The river running through Mertzon, Spring Creek, is really the gem of the city. This is an item not previously discussed at a Council meeting, so this will be worth paying attention to. The barrels at HWY 67. Here's a closer view of the barrels. Even if they are replaced with larger ones, as the State of Texas has said it will do eventually, only a few hundred yards further down stream are the barrels that go under the railroad. Those barrels are even smaller than these, and the railroad has never committed to improving them. The best way to manage this storm water is to decrease the quantity at its sources and to regulate current and future growth. To accomplish this the local governments (school, city and county) must cooperate with one another. If they don't it is mutual destruction because they will flood one another. B. Meeting Review. (Here are the meeting documents for this meeting.) 1. Accepting resignation of councilmember and swearing in council members, items 5 and 6:  Daniel Harper was sworn in to fill one of the vacant seats as council member. There remains one seat unfilled. The Council also formally accepted the resignation of council member Holland, who submitted her resignation at the last meeting. 2. New pavilion at Spring Creek, item 8 : Michelle Rushing, Mike Dolan and John Young were present to request that the Council approve a donated 40’x60’ pavilion to be built with Lions Club efforts/donated funds at the river. The Council approved, conditioned on site approval by the City’s engineers. The initial plans can be found at page 3 of the meeting documents . 3. Administrative report, item 8: there’s a lot of interesting things to report on. Two things caught my attention, though. The recently hired part time office staffer will go full time in February. This will free up Ms. Rabenaldt to do more traditional municipal management work. Second, I’m always impressed with Mayor Stewart’s and Ms. Ms. Rabenaldt’s efforts to stay out of TCEQ’s enforcement crosshairs. The City, under previous leadership, paid a hefty administrative penalty to TCEQ a while back for violations at the wastewater plant. It appears that the lesson was learned. Our local tax dollars should NEVER be transferred to the State (TCEQ) in the form of administrative penalties. Commentary : To paraphrase President Lincoln, laws that aren’t enforced are nothing more than good advice. The concept of desuetude , that laws become unenforceable over a long period of their being unenforced, does not, however, apply to the US Constitution. (See reference to Walz v Tax Commission City of New York .) Put another way, that local government has flooded its community for years without landowner complaint doesn’t mean that the Takings Clause of the Constitution is merely “good advice.” Our government never achieves a vested right to flood its citizens. The flow of stormwater around the southwest corner of the Community Center. The Community Center (tan roof) is especially vulnerable to the stormwaters that exit the IC ISD campus at 2nd Street and Juanita. The District (via Gallagher Construction and Parkhill) is currently designing a stormwater detention site at 2nd and Juanita that hopefully will limit the flow shown here that threatens the Community Center. The entrance of the stormwaters here is at N. First St. and Duncan. Copyright 2025 G Noelke

A 2020 aerial facing west The yellow arrow in this 2020 photo points to the small abandoned house that existed on the property, soon to be the IC ISD bus barn, before it was purchased by IC ISD. The tennis courts were added in 2014-15, so in a roughly 10 year period (2015-2025) the community is going to experience the conversion of pervious raw land to impervious developed land for about 70-80% of a city block. Water that runs off this impervious property will reach City Park just a few blocks away. MEETING CANCELED BECAUSE OF A LACK OF QUORUM. A Agenda analysis 1. Tweel tires, agenda item 5 : Part of last week's meeting included a brief discussion about the mesquite thorns that are causing flats. It would seem to be a mundane topic, but its not if you are in West Texas. I've not found anything that is fool proof. Airless is bound to be the only way to go. 2. Move dead meters, agenda item 6 : The Council will be addressing the equity of folks having unused water meters while there are folks waiting in line to get new ones. It is only the limited number of available meters that keeps growth at bay in Mertzon, so this is a larger issue than one might think. Enlarged view of house in 2020. The yellow arrow points to the now demolished house on the lot that will become the bus barn. In 2020-21, IC ISD purchased the Lawdermilk home and barn just below the house. The red box represents the area of a planned extension to that barn. In 2024, the District purchased the Harris home, with lots, represented by the green arrow. I have been told but have not read for myself that he placed a deed restriction on those lots so they could only be used for residential homes. This opens the door for the District to ask for more bonds in 2030 or so to demolish the remainder of teacher parsonages to replace with new school buildings...and build new parsonages on these lots. As I told the County Commissioner's Court last month, plan for more storm water to reach City Park . B. Meeting review This meeting was canceled because of a lack of a quorum. Practically speaking, that means that a majority of the Council could not attend the meeting. A majority is required in order to conduct the public’s business, and without a majority no vote can be taken. 2020 View of IC ISD campus facing south before the new gym was built. This 2020 photo shows what is now the closed part of 4th Street looking south. The demolished field house's storage is going to be replaced with a new extension at the football field, while the bus barn is going to get rebuilt in the area shown at the top of this page. The maintenance barn, originally the Ag Building, to the right of the bus barns will be demolished soon (2026?) and will become a parking lot. The water from that parking lot will also reach City Park. Copyright 2025 G. Noelke

Long Grass Country is published in the Livestock Weekly. My daughter’s first column for the Livestock Weekly was published today. Her grandfather, Monte Noelke, wrote a weekly column for the paper from 1961 until 2012 when he passed. Grace has been coming to Irion County and Mertzon since she was a baby. She will no doubt be writing about these parts, but her columns will be varied, as were her grandfather’s. Here’s a portion of her first column: “I write about West Texas not as its authority, nor as the rancher's daughter who worked the day to day. I'm the shadow that extends as the sun lowers into the western horizon, the first generation with one degree of separation from the cowboy. And yet, despite the generational gap, I am ill with the disease filled love affair. I too have succumbed to her dusty seduction.” I’m not going to be re-posting her columns here, of course. I’d like you to go out and subscribe. The digital subscription is not expensive. To start things off, as an intermediary of sorts between these generations, I think it’s appropriate for me begin where my father left off. Below is his last column for the Livestock Weekly, published by the paper the week he passed in 2012. His message is for us all, even today. He is buried in the Mertzon cemetery, a few yards from his great grandfather who landed in Texas at Indianola in 1848. He wrote this article specifically to be published after his death. In all the times I rode across the Bank Hill sitting upright before I became a prospect for the spot of honor, there never was a chance for the deceased on his one-way ticket in the hearse to make one more dance in Angelo, or take one more ride at the ranch .             When we buried Jake Childress way back there, rains flooded the whole country . The pallbearers were halfway up under the funeral home’s awning . Looked like the sides of the grave were going to cave in before the coffin could be lowered . About the time it seemed like the preacher wasn’t going to be able to think of another word, he came over to each of the pallbearers, glared in our faces, pointed to the open grave and said, “That is the real thing, brother . ”             Well, the funeral was the real thing for me, too . Old Jake rode into a horse I hung to at the gate going out of the Clay Water Hole pasture in the Monument trap after a rain about as hard as the one falling at his funeral . We’d crossed a draw deep enough to swim our horses . As I started to dismount, my left foot slipped in the stirrup and a tie rope hung the right leg of my chaps . Jake rode in and grabbed the right rein and the headstall and gave me time to kick loose .             So burying Jake was double the real thing for me . He’s the cowboy I wrote about who pulled an old kid out of another horse wreck, but that’s what a final deadline means . It means it’s time to bury those old stories, too .             Sitting in the office at the ranch, I think better of how to write this final column . Most of my books are shelved there. The pictures of the steady hands at the old ranch, one photograph of the Big Boss standing by his friend Cecil Smith, mounted on a polo pony, are up on the very top shelf . Notebooks filled with letters from old friends are stacked in a row . A gal leg spur of my maternal grandfather’s and a rusty OK spur I found up on the big bluff overlooking the Monument Ranch are in a pile of papers on top of the desk .             The oak desk where I wrote my columns cost 25 bucks and came from Harris Luckett Hardware in San Angelo, when the fixtures of the old store sold in 1962 . The roll-top on the other wall came from a barn on a leased ranch . I paid 30 dollars for it. I spent $600 restoring the desk .             Unless you have eight roll-top desks and that many more chairs for the daughters-in-law and son-in-law to sit on, they are hard to divide in a large family like mine of seven sons and one daughter . I thought about leaving a note if Tom Parr, the wood worker over in Angelo who restored the desk, is still around; Tom might be induced to make my casket out of the desk and solve two problems at once .             Big drawback is going to be convincing Tom the work needs to be turned out in a hurry . Might be possible to anticipate the day of death and start him to work on the project ahead of time like the son did in William Faulkner’s story . I just want to be sure the casket isn’t a rushed-up job without the gold fittings and bronze handles needed to send me away in high style . (One thing different about my bequeaths or last wishes — the usual precaution in protecting the testator by his attorney from claims of unsound mind at probate at the slightest departure from the hithertos and henceforths of legalese, do not apply to a writer who has been in print since 1961 . The and/ors can be omitted in my behalf.)             I worry more what is going to happen to my books than the other stuff I’ve accumulated . Books are shelved and stacked all over the ranch house and overflow to the Mertzon place . All one section at the ranch covers the early New Yorker Magazine era, so important an influence over my education . I thought about selling the collection, then visited the final days of the closing of a big book store in California to face the same editions strewn on the floor rejected at 50 cents a copy . There are a few first editions, a few copies signed by writers I knew or wrote letters to .             Pretty ironic that this will actually be my last deadline . I sure don’t have to worry about the next week .             Every time I came back across the hill from the Mertzon cemetery from a funeral, I planned on writing this column to leave in my bank box to be submitted for the real deadline . Doesn’t matter where the funeral is; my lot over on the north side of the windmill is visible . The boundary of the lot is less than a windmill rod length (20 feet) from the bottom of the tower legs . I have already instructed two windmill men, Possum Martin and Ray Beam, that after I am buried I don’t want rods and pipe stacked over or on my grave . Windmills have been enough of a burden without placing rusty pipes and broken rods on my grave site .             The plots all around the windmill belong to the families I knew in my childhood . Quite a number of the men once traded at the barbershop where I shined shoes in the 1930s . Far as I know they never told on me and I never wrote anything to hurt them . Shine boys hear and see the word from shoelace and boot heel level . I knew, for example, how much dividend the bank and the wool house paid way before the editor of the weekly newspaper, The Mertzon Star .             In those formative years, I got a well-rounded education . The barber’s wife taught me how to smoke cigarettes back in a tin shed where clothes were dry cleaned . The soda jerk at the drug store gave lessons to all of us working downtown how to play half-rack nine-ball at the pool hall for a big cut in the shoeshine revenue and the wages at the grocery store and the filling station .             Things were plenty exciting on Saturdays . One of the most vigorous characters was a trapper, who in advanced stages of intoxication, got down on his hands and knees out in the middle of the highway coming through town to paw and bellow like a bull at the approaching traffic . He’s the fellow I might have written about who leaped from the chair during a shave and shine to chase a pedestrian he wanted to whip, until he ran out of breath from his dissipation . Three days later, he brought back the barber’s apron, paid me for the shine, and gave the barber 50 cents to even up his bead . He may have been the wildest one of all our customers . A few years later, he died a horrible death in a runaway wild horse wreck pulling farm equipment .             Also, we street kids never missed a chance to watch the fist fights around the garage where men shot dice and played cards on a square cushion . (I was never to see a poker game again played on pillow or cushion from an old couch . Worked real well as a portable table.) Election years were exciting times around the barbershop, as feelings ran high, especially for the local races .             Doctor Deal had an office in the back of the drug store building that he leased to his son . Whatever boy swept out the drug store knew exactly how many stitches the doctor took to sew up old so-and-so’s eye from smarting off too loud in front of old such and such’s choice for commissioner . Doctor Deal was a very strict church worker . The times offered few refinements for a doctor to have a painless practice, but he had no mercy for drunk cowboys .             The main lesson I learned from my customers, however, came much later in life . One Christmas when I visited my mother and stepdad’s graves, I read all the names along the way and remembered them coming in the barbershop or parking over at the post office . Over and over I’d heard my grandfather and grandmother say that if you lost or sold your land, you’d be buried in an unmarked grave . But on those visits I made later in life, I realized the abstracts and the stock certificates along with the bonds and bank accounts didn’t make much difference once you were dead .             Takes a lot of nerve to denounce a penny earned is a penny saved, or however the old axiom saws away at the conscience . But try someday to convince yourself out at the cemetery or on a visit to a nursing home that an estate plan is better than a living plan . While you are at either place, take a test and see what is better, the money you gave away alive, or the money you leave your heirs to divide . His Remington typewriter…at sunrise, when he enjoyed writing the most. Copyright 2025 G Noelke