I was contacted by my neighbors about a meeting at Allen’s Chapel Community Center Monday, May 2, 7:00 p.m. concerning the proposed Lower Bois d’Arc Reservoir. I attended and the building was full but many of my other neighbors had not been notified and were not there. What I heard was an eye opener and it made me very angry for several reasons. I waited to cool off before writing this and to see if any of the local papers or radio station had any reports about the meeting and to date, I have read one.

The Lower Bois d’Arc Reservoir is the proposed lake to be built on Bois d’Arc Creek in northeast Fannin County. It was proposed about twenty years ago by North Texas Municipal Water district. The original proposal had the name New Bonham Lake. I suppose it was given that name because Bonham wanted it built or because it would back water up to just north of US 82 outside of Bonham. I wrote Mr. Carl Reim, who was the NTMWD director at that time and asked to be put on the mailing list for information about the proposed lake. I have never received any information from NTMWD.

The Allen’s Chapel meeting had Mr. David Nabors and Max Shumake speaking against the need for the lake and in particular Texas House Bill 2679 and its companion Senate Bill 1519 that were on the agenda to be voted on possibly by may 3, 2005. These bills would designate a site on Bois d’Arc Creek in Fannin county as a site of unique value for the construction of a dam and reservoir. It was explained that if this bill passes, it would prohibit any state agency or political subdivision of the state from obtaining a fee title or an easement that would significantly prevent construction of a reservoir on the site. Mr. Nabors said the effect is likely also to harm private land owners by lowering property values and putting a cloud over this land regarding it’s future development. Mr. Jim Parks, Chairman of the Region C Water Planning Group of the North Texas Municipal Water District, spoke to the mostly hostile crowd and said that the bill would only restrict government entities.

Mr. Drew Vaughn, Regional Director for Senator Robert Deuell, said that he was there to collect public opinion for Senator Deuell and Rep. Larry Phillips. Rep. Phillips and Sen. Deuell are the authors of the two bills but they also are supposed to represent Fannin County and should have Fannin County landowners’ interests as much at heart as their efforts on behalf of water developers in the Dallas area.

One thing that made me angry is that our own local politicians and representatives of Fannin County, Senator Deuell, Representative Phillips, Judge Hall and the Fannin County commissioners have not kept us adequately informed. Why was the existence of the two bills concerning our "back yard" and that they were to be acted upon kept quiet until the last minute? Why haven’t the people who are most affected by these bills or the proposed lake been contacted to gather their opinions? Our County Judge and Commissioners Court seem to be of the opinion that Texas needs more water and that Fannin County will benefit from having at least one if not two large municipal lakes owned and run by interests outside Fannin County. Mr. Nabors used NTMWD’s own figures to point out that there is already more than twice as much water stored in current lakes to meet the projected demands in 2060.

I felt that most of the people in attendance felt that they had been sold out, that this was already a "done deal" and that they were without representation or help. The sum of 300 million dollars was tossed around as the estimated cost of the lake. In order to make this estimate, a value had to have been put on land "taken" by eminent domain for the flooded land and the mitigated land. After repeated questions, Mr. Parks never disclosed what that value might be. He also never answered the question if landowners would be able to keep their shoreline. In a paper handed out by Mr. Shumake, it was pointed out that the shoreline of Cooper Lake was mitigated with no lake shore development allowed. No economic boost occurred in Delta County or the city of Cooper. The budgeted compensation for mitigated land for new reservoirs is $550.00 per acre, on average, including any and all improvements. Why would the people here be treated any differently?

Some of the landowners in the footprint and shadow of the proposed lake are heirs of the property that their families have held for many generations. The land has a sentimental and personal value that money can not replace. All of the landowners want to be treated fairly. No one can blame them for that but there is plenty of blame and anger for those who ask more of you than they are willing to do themselves. I suggest that it might help to ease the feelings of those who are forced to give up their property if those who are our leaders that are supporting and allowing lakes to be built in our county were forced to lead by example. Would our county judge or any of the commissioners or Senator Robert Deuell or Representative Larry Phillips support a lake if they had to offer all of their own property for mitigated land at the same rate that will be forced on others?

Other impacts on Fannin County were not discussed. Between Ralph Hall Lake and Lower Bois d’Arc and the mitigated land around them, a large portion of Fannin County’s most productive and fertile farmland would be flooded or unusable. I suspect that taking that much crop land and pasture out of production would probably cause the closing of one or more grain elevators, fertilizer dealers, farm chemical dealers, livestock sale barns and farm supply stores as well as depressed sales for all consumer goods and services. Each of these places have employees and of course there are the farmers and ranchers who would be displaced. Our schools would loose students because there are no growing major businesses to employ displaced workers in Fannin County. Agriculture is Fannin County’s major business and with a large loss, why would we need to restore rail service?

The lake developers have made no secret that pipelines will be built to carry our water away. Why would you expect development around a lake(s) that fluctuate constantly. We hear about the complaining businesses around Texoma every time the lake level falls. If we are treated the same as the people around Cooper Lake, we won’t have any shoreline to develop any way. It seems to me that lakes in Fannin County are a loosing proposition. All I can see are loses of land, produce, jobs, students and possibly schools, livelihoods and our futures flowing like a water and the money used to develop it to the metro area.

Proponents like to point out that lakes always draw people to them. That may be true in some cases, such as Lake Bonham. Recently, the city of Bonham forced several people to move from Lake Bonham because their septic systems were polluting the lake. If Lower Bois d’Arc is mitigated like Cooper Lake, there won’t be any shoreline that isn’t mitigate. That eliminates most of the septic system pollution issue because it eliminates the possibility of people living close to the lake. It also puts a huge damper on the thought that people will move into the area because of the lake. The net result will probably be less population, less sales tax revenue and less new homes and barns and property tax revenue.

I’m just a rancher and I don’t have all of the facts or figures because the people who have them don’t want us to know until it is too late. The opinions expressed here are my own and every living soal has their ow. Someone once said, "It ain’t over till it’s over." The lake issues in Fannin County are not completely "done deals" yet! The time to kill them dead or to guarantee their future existence is in the permitting phase, which is now and the only way is through the political process. Our elected officials are the people who will make the decisions. They need to know how you feel, pro or con. I encourage you, the citizens of Fannin County, to let your opinion be known to Rep. Larry Phillips, (512) 463-0297, Sen. Bob Deuell (512) 463-0102, Judge Hall and your county commissioner.

Sincerely,

Michael Yarbrough

2325 CR 2765

Honey Grove

As we see the horse industry growing in leaps and bounds, Fannin County has this Multi Purpose Complex sitting on 190 acres of land, a wonderful place to hold special events.

I lost my nephew Richard D. Hope in a car wreck while he was making a service call for Fannin County Electric Co-op where he had worked for 20 plus years.

I would like to see a Annual Richard Hope Memorial Horse Festival held on July 15th, 16th & 17th. I feel this should bring in 12,000 people to Bonham in the 3 days. This would make such a positive impact in Bonham and all of Fannin County as we see this many family come enjoy the festival. They will be amazed by all the vendors and the exhibitors plus shows & events. This will be an exciting experience. This will be an exciting experience for people interested in horses, western art, western crafts, western apparel, and see all the beautiful horse trailers that the dealers will bring in from everywhere to show their trailers & hopefully we could have truck dealers to bring in new trucks to show with trailers.

This will offer open horse shows. Events such as team roping, team penning, calf roping, reining, cutting poles and barrels and western training.

This would be a great opportunity to have staff members from American Quarter Horse, Paint Horse and Miniature Horse Association plus others to come share with everyone ideas of how big the horse industry will become.

The Western Trade Show could offer well over a hundred vendors and builders of horse barns, pipe and other fence structures, saddles and tack, horse health products, leather goods, horse walkers.

This offers a great opportunity to have people from all the feed mills and distributors to be on hand and meet with all the people and give samples of their feed and promotions products away.

There’s plenty of ground for owners of Stallions to showcase them and let people see the beautiful stallions, that they might choose in their breeding operations, also including a area where people could bring horses for sale. This offers a great opportunity for horse clubs and families to look and pick out a new horse.

I hope to see realtors there showing their beautiful properties that would make magnificent horse ranches and bankers making presentations. Of all their options they have to help people realize their dreams.

We will see new businesses and families move to Fannin County after seeing this festival.

I also think having country music on Friday and Saturday nights and have an early church service with free breakfast Sunday morning and let everyone rejoice in the Lord.

This is my vision and I hope it can become a reality and I encourage everyone to get involved and call city commissioners, county commissioners and the board of directors of the Multi Purpose Complex. The opportunities are endless of what this will bring. New visions for people to see what can become when everyone works together.

God Bless Everyone

J.R. Hope