Lake Cities Information Group

This post will be updated as the results come in, of course these are Unofficial Tallies:

For Corinth the following is being reported;

Voting Citizen’s 790 which is a good turnout compared to past elections and still way short of the over 12,000 registered voters.

Mayor  – Mr. Paul Ruggiere (452)  over Shanon O’Brien (319).

Council Place 2 – Jim Mayfield (416) over Sherry Schneider (321).

Council Place 5 – Bruce Hanson (520)

For Hickory Creek the following is being reported;

Council Place 1 – Lynn Clark (278)

Council Place 3 – Chris Gordon (279)

council Place 5 – Eric Wiser (320) – Randy Wahl (37)


For Lake Dallas Texas the following is being reported;

Council Member Place 1 – James Harper (92) – Unopposed

Council Member Place 3 – B. W. Brooks  (89) – Unopposed

Council Member Place 5 – Karl Hammond (107) – Richard Martin (73)

Proposition 1 – Yes (137) – No (17)

Proposition 2 – Yes (106) – No (53)

Proposition 3 – Yes (84) – No (76)

For Shady Shores the following is being reported;

Mayor – Olive Stephens (257) – Jerry Williams (189)

For the ones that lost, we congratulate you on being concerned enough to run.  For those that voted kudos’s to you. You are probably one of the less than 5 percent of the population that decides the local political direction. Maybe next time, you could make a effort to get at least two people to vote that did not in the last election.

Politics are not for the squeamish of heart. People who run for office do so for a reason, sometimes for taking a political career path, some times to further ones personal agenda, and quite often to set something right the candidate feels is wrong.  And apparently more often than not, none of these actually serve the general citizens, and we end up getting to pick the lesser of the evil’s. As quoted by Ron Williams in one of his movies “Politicians are like diapers, they should be changed often and for the same reason.” While that is not always true, it just seems like it is so.

As you may know, there are several local political positions that will be coming up for elections. There will be public forums available for us as citizens to ask questions about their position. Usually turn out for these meet and greets can be low. But with the internet maybe we can formulate some questions to ask, and present them to all the candidates and post their responses. Links to candidates web sites will be made available where possible. If there is no link to a candidate and you find one to their home page leave a comment and we will install the link.

Please feel free to log on and post your questions, we will then present them and post back their responses in this thread. Please in your questions, post what position you are asking of, such as Lake Dallas, Councilman place 3. If you have a good relevant question that should be asked of all the candidates,  just put general question in the top of your response.

In addition, those that would be interested in attending one of the meetings to present questions, and post their responses, please put Willing to attend “xxx meeting” in your post, as I personally will not be able to attend all the meetings due to my work activities.

If you note any inaccuracies in the posting below, be sure to use the contact us form for for sending in corrections. It has been rather difficult to locate information on some of the local city websites.

Current Positions being voted on in May:

Corinth: Mayor, place 2 and 5. Good recap by the Denton Record Chronicle about the candidates.

Candidates for Mayor: Sitting council members Shannon Bryan and Paul Ruggiere.

Candidates for place 2, Jim Mayfield and Sherri Schnider.

Place 5 will be Bruce Hanson, who ran unopposed.

Friends of the Lake Cities Library are having a town hall meeting April 21, 2009 at 6:00 pm, at Corinth City Hall, Chamber Room.

Lake Dallas: Place 1, 3 and  5.  Plus voting of amendments posted in the Lake Cities Sun .

Place 1 candidates:   will be James Harper, who ran unopposed.

Place 3 candidates:  will be B. W. Brooks, who ran unopposed.

Place 5 candidates: Rick Martin (incumbent), and Karl Hammond.

Hickory Creek: Place 1, 3 and 5.

Place 1 candidates: will be Lynn Clark , who ran unopposed.

Place 3 candidates: will be Chris Gordon, who ran unopposed.

Place 5 candidates: Eric Wiser (incumbent) and Randy Wahl.

Shady Shores: Mayor, place 2 and 3.

Mayor candidates: Olive Stephens (incumbent)  and Jerry Williams.

Place 2 candidates: Polly Carter (incumbent) and ???

Place 3 candidates:  Sherry Star (incumbent) and Betty Brown.

Sherri Schenider was nice enough to send this notice in for the meetings, there are two. One by the Friends of the Lake Cities Library, and one by the Parks of Corinth.

The Friends of the Lake Cities Library has
coordinated a town hall meeting where all of
the candidates will be open to questions from
the public.
Lake Cities Library Website.
Location: Corinth City Hall
 Chamber Room
(3300 Corinth Parkway; Corinth, TX 76208)
Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM.

Parks of Corinth Website.
Location NCTC campus.
Date and time: May 5th at 7 PM.

In addition, I think it is also a good idea
that you formulate some questions too that would
be specific to the lake cities area and post them
in advance as well.  I think that the more
information we can get out there about each candidate
the easier it will be for our residents to make
informed decisions.

Many people I come meet say that they don't take
interest in the local election because they don't
have enough information about the candidates. 

Thanks for your efforts and quality dissemination
of information.

All indications show the voter turnout will be higher than the last elections. With the increased time for early voting being most likely the key factor. This helps correct the fact that when there is bad weather on election day, many people do not come. With the early voting, and generally good weather across the US today, voter turnout will be great!

Of course there are many sites, and a mirad of TV channels to check on how things are going. So we will not go into any election coverage. But when its over, we will update the current political positions page, and expand links to contact our representatives.

We hope you do not leave politics just because the elections will be over. I personally feel we are entering a new era. We as a nation, need to keep in touch with our elected officials, even when we don’t personally need something done by them. Try and keep abreast of what is being decided by our representatives, and let them know how you feel in a nice letter, fax, or email.

Politicians only are very often reactive, they are like us, they only fix the squeaky wheel. But if we as a community let them know how we feel on the issues that they are facing, they will know at least we are watching.

We at LCIG will attempt to keep abreast of what they are doing, but we do need some help. If you follow any of the local politics, attend the town council meetings on a regular basis, or follow either the Texas house and senate, we could use your help. Just use the contact US page and let me know how you can help us all keep up with whats going on in our local, state and nation.

Paula from the The Friends of the Lake Cities Library submitted the following:

The Friends of the Lake Cities Library will sponsor a Lake Dallas mayoral candidate discussion forum from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, at the Lake Cities Library, 302 S. Shady Shores Road in Lake Dallas.

It is open to the public. Each mayoral candidate will be given a list of identical questions before the event, and will have a limited time to give answers. In order to encourage the youth to be active and learn more about their local politics, youth have the opportunity to submit questions to participating teachers or at the local library.

Please feel free to contact the Friends for more information.

Thanks!

~paula

Well besides voting for all the political offices that are up this November 4th, Hickory Creek resisdents will also be voting on a additional sales tax increase of % 0.250.

Voting will take place Nov. 4th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 212 Main St., Lake Dallas (Lake Dallas City Offices).

Early voting by personal appearance will be at the same location. Early voting on the following times and dates; between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m on Oct 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.  From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m on Oct. 26th.  From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Oct. 25, 27, 28,29,30 and Oct 31.

The deadline for applications of ballots by mail must be recieved no later than the close of business on Oct. 28th. Mail all applications to Don Alexander, early voting clerk, 401 W. Hickory St., Denton TX 76202.

Voter turnout reported was 418 for and 80 against passage of the tax increase. The additional 13 cent increase over the previous fiscal year. This translates to a  total tax rate of $1.65 tax per $1000 property tax value. Typical tax increase per home will be in the range of $186 per year.

Lake Dallas Superintendent Gayle Stinson said  – “Lake Dallas’ new tax rate will translate into an extra $2.1 million for the district — $1.5 million in tax revenue and $600,000 in additional state funding. Stinson said $900,000 would be used to eliminate the district’s deficit while another $900,000 will be set aside for pay increases. The remaining $300,000 will be used to cover fuel and energy cost increases”

Additional Information from LDISD.

A tax rate election has been called by the Lake Dallas Independent School District for October 4, 2008. This tax ratification election will approve or disapprove the adopted tax rate for the 2008-2009 School Year. Early voting will start September 17, 2008 and end September 30, 2008.

Early voting is ending on September 30th, so if you desire to vote early there are many convient locations in this election information pdf.

Explanation of the reasons for the increase are in the Community Letter PDF from the LDISD school system, and in their LDISD Slide Show PDF.

Regular votion will occur on October 4th, and will be held at a single location of the LDISD Administrative offices next to the Lake Dallas Middle School at 315 East Hundly, Lake Dallas Texas, 75065. The voting administrator do have copies of the voters names who are able to vote in this election. But we strongly suggest you bring your voters registration card, and a must will be a valid ID.

Lake Dallas will have a three way race for Mayor this November 4th with the following candidates.

Karl Hammond

Karl Hammond, 40, currently mayor pro-tem. Karl moved to North Texas at a young age from Lubbock and grew up in Denton. He moved to Lake Dallas  in 2000 and is currently the manager at a lumber company. He attended college at North Central Texas College, earning an associate in arts and an associate in science and served in the U.S. Navy between 1985 and 1993.

Toni Marino

Tony Marino, 53, came Lake Dallas in 1994 and was originally born in Niagara Falls, NY. He is an automotive technology instructor for Lewisville Independent School District. Marino received masters of education from Texas A&M University, a bachelor of science from State University of New York, a management/administration certification from Texas Woman’s University, a trades and industrial certification from the University of North Texas and automotive technology education from Wyoming University.

Maria Zulch

Maria Zulch, 37, originally came to Lake Dallas in January 2002 and was born in St. Louis. She is currently a receptionist at Shady Shores Elementary School. She attended Southwest Missouri State University and studied accounting.

While updating the Current Political Positions Page we requested information from Shady Shores, Carol Belknap was kind enough to write back including this important information. Carol let us know that during the April 7 town meeting there will be a discussion of canceling the 2008 elections for three council positions that have no opposing candidates to run against the incumbents.

This means the current council positions will automaticlly be extended. If your located in the town of Shady Shores and are interested in a being a candidate to run against the incumbents, please contact Shady Shores at (940) 498-0444 for further information.

In addition looking at the Shady Shores Election Calender we see the last day for registration for voting in local elections is April 10th.