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Friday June 26, 2020 www.doublemountainchronicle.com 9Check your mirrors ..(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7)

CITY OF ROTAN, TEXAS NOTICE OF INTENTION TO ISSUE COMBINATION TAX AND REVENUE

CERTIFICATES OF OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE FUNDS FOR WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City Council of the City of Rotan, Texas, at its meeting to commence at 7:00 A.M. on August 13, 2020, at the City Hall, 302 W. Sammy Baugh Avenue, Rotan, Texas, tentatively proposes to adopt an ordinance authorizing the issuance of interest bearing certificates of obligation, in one or more series, in an amount not to exceed $2,275,000 for paying all or a portion of the City's contractual obligations incurred in connection with (i) acquiring, constructing, and installing additions, improvements, extensions, and equipment for the City’s water system, including water transmission and distribution lines and related infrastructure; and (ii) legal, fiscal and engineering fees in connection with such projects. The ordinance may authorize an authorized officer of the City to effect the sale and delivery of the certificates of obligation on a date subsequent to the adoption of the ordinance. The estimated interest rate for the certificates is 2.31% per annum, the maximum maturity date for the certificates is September 30, 2051, and the estimated

combined principal and interest required to pay the certificates to be authorized on time and in full is $2,375,976. The current principal of all outstanding debt obligations of the City is $0. The current combined principal and interest required to pay all outstanding debt obligations of the City on time and in full is $0. The City proposes to provide for the payment of such certificates of obligation from the levy and collection of ad valorem taxes in the City as provided by law and from a pledge of surplus revenues of the City's waterworks and sewer system, remaining after payment of all operation and maintenance expenses thereof, and all debt service, reserve, and other requirements in connection with all of the City's revenue bonds or other obligations (now or hereafter outstanding), which are payable from all or any part of the net revenues of the City's waterworks and sewer system. The certificates of obligation are to be issued, and this notice is given, under and pursuant to the provisions of V.T.C.A., Local Government Code, Subchapter C of Chapter 271.

of him front and center with an indigenous and enslaved men below and behind him is not his best angle.

Flip the coin but continue to use reason. Some protesters in California decided last week that a statue of Ulysses S. Grant had to go, too. For Pete's sake, the Union General’s father was an abolitionist. Grant owned... only one slave in his lifetime, and that unfortunate event occurred because of his marriage to a slaveo-wner’s daughter who insisted Grant have one. He freed Williams Jones in 1859. The logic behind tearing down a statue of the Grant because he at one time owned one slave is the impulsive, irrational collateral damage of people not reasoning but fueling the strife.

The list goes on: Washington and Jefferson, both slaveown-ers. Put their names to the test of reason, that we recognize their overall body of work and service to our country suggests that their history at least should be preserved, even if not universally celebrated. The same test, however, applied to Jefferson Davis may prove otherwise.

Cancel Culture is not a new phenomenon (few people name their children Judas, Lucifer, or Adolf and for good reason). Here are some suggestions for the new wave: Civic leaders bring op-posing groups together, to sit down at the/any table and work on solutions that are authentically responsive. Call on young people to serve on task forces to get their input on who, what, why, and how changes can be implemented. Finally, teach your children well. You can set the tone about Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s Rice, and Red Man chewing tobacco, whichever viewpoint you hold. Did you notice the name of the lynching memorial? It isn’t “Look What Those White Honkies Did to Us!” but “The National Museum for Peace and Justice.” Rather than mock, vent, or divide, the found-ers chose wisely. I encourage you to likewise choose wisely when you talk and listen to your kids about these issues.

Do not dismiss the need for change though. As stated in last week’s column, it is needed. Hopefully, we can move now from the streets to the table, making sure there are seats for all.

her. “We need somebody out here now.”

Swink said he was told someone would be there as soon as possible. His next call was to the Stonewall County Sheriff’s Office. With Chief Deputy Brian Shields tied up with issues else-where in the county, the SO’s dispatch continued to call AEP’s 800 number with little success.

AEP was not able to confirm when, or if, its dispatch center received any calls regarding the sparking power transformer, but it was something management was looking into. AEP Community Affairs Manager Greg Blair said the center was experiencing higher than usual call volume due to numerous power outages.

Neighbors of the church watched closely as the hours passed, storms continued to blow, and intermittent sparks rained down behind the sanctu-ary. The original First Baptist Church of Aspermont was in a red-brick build-ing with a basement near the court-house square. It was the first church Dorothy Dickerson attended.

Tex Culp was the preacher during the early 1950s and was good about getting people together and manag-ing funds, and he helped the members raise enough money to build a new church. Some land was acquired just off of Aspermont’s main street, and Dickerson — then in her early 20s — held her first daughter in her arms during the groundbreaking ceremony. The church was completed in 1955.

It was midnight on June 20 when

the sheriff’s office began to receive its first calls to report seeing flames com-ing from the northeast corner of the church. Swink was at home listening to the scanner as emergency crews were called into action.

Shields said he was on his way in when he got the call about the fire and was on-scene shortly after twelve. He reported visible flames and the occa-sional sparks coming from the electri-cal pole connecting to the building.

The Stonewall County Fire Depart-ment arrived within minutes of the call. Fire crews set up multiple lines to battle the blaze, and although the wind was in their favor for controlling the spread to other buildings, firefight-ers could not slow the rate of spread through the church building.

Whipped with near 30 MPH wind gusts and fueled by 65-year-old lum-ber, the speed the fire spread was remarkable. AEP Supervisor John Hudson was reported to have arrived on scene around 12:30 a.m., but the fire was already engulfing large sections of the first and second floors, and a ma-jority of the roof was evolved.

The fire continued to spread and gained intensity and firefighters were left with little choice but to focus ef-forts on keeping the adjacent Family Life Center from igniting, standing less than 15 feet away. Unable to extin-guish the flames, the main building collapsed around 1:00 a.m., and emer-gency personnel were successful with containing the spread to any other structures.

Stonewall County Extension Agent and volunteer firefighter Cody Myers said it was a true group effort that protected the spread to the Life Center or neigh-boring homes. He attributed much of the work to Jeff Sed-berry, who arrived with his excavator shortly after the roof came down.

Sedberry was returning from see-ing his grandaugh-ter’s performance in Lubbock and was only about 10 miles from his home in Swenson when his phone rang. He answered, knowing that a phone call from Commissioner Gary Myers after 1 a.m. could not be good news.

Arriving within the hour, Sedberry went to work with his machine to assist in safely bringing down the ex-terior walls, which reduced the flame heights and mitigated the unpredict-able manner a wall might come down if left to burn uncontrollably. By con-densing the debris, Sedberry created a more manageable fire to contain.

At approximately 2:00 a.m., an AEP response crew arrived. Power was cut around 45 minutes later, allowing the

fire department to safely begin fire suppression on the northeast portion of the fire area. “It was definitely a scary situation,” said Sedberry after working with firefighters in the follow-ing hours to extinguish the blaze.

John Jouett was at home and said he could hear each of the walls as they came down. Jouett’s family moved to Aspermont the year the church was constructed and began attending ser-vices when we was about seven years old. He, like countless others in the community, was baptized there.

Saturday, June 20, at 10 a.m., Jouett went to see the scene for himself after the sun came up and the smoke and chaos had dissipated. He picked through the rubble, remarking on the tragedy of the situation, the opportuni-ties for compassion, and the fortitude of a small West Texas town.

“This is kind of a rowdy little town in its own world,” said Jouett. “They say the Lord moves in mysterious ways, and you see something like this and wonder the reasoning, but I think it’s to bring people together.” He isn’t alone, as there has been an outpour-ing of prayers and offers of assistance from the community on social media from the moment news of the fire first broke.

“It’s affected a lot of people around here. We’ve had get-togethers, show-ers, and baptisms, fell in love, had wed-dings, and buried our parents here,” said Dickerson. “You remember a lot of different things when you think about it.” And like many of her fel-low congregants, she also knows that while the church’s sanctuary might be lost, the spirit and body of the church lives on.

9:30 a.m., June 21. Sunday, Father’s Day, the day after losing the main building in a devastating fire, the First Baptist Church of Aspermont held services on schedule at its Family Life Center. Those who attend said while the congregation is saddened by the event, spirits were up and everyone is looking toward the future. It was reported that church deacons held a meeting earlier this week to discuss the next steps, but no official plan has been released at present.

Aspermont resident, John Jouet, sifts through the remains of his boyhood church after Saturday morning's fire

First Baptist Church of Aspermont Pastor , Kenny Platte, submtted this photo.

First Baptist Church of Aspermont after Saturday morning's fire.