CLICK HERE to return to the Archives Index

Front Page Headlines

By JERRY MORGAN, Reporter

COMANCHE -- Heavy voter turnout in DeLeon and Comanche County in the March 4 party primary elections mirrored statewide trends.

The only locally contested race was for County Commissioner, Precinct 3, which pitted DeLeon area residents Mike Carlin and Sherman Sides. Sides carried the day in that race by a 57%/43% margin, winning all four voting boxes and the early voting. Since there is no Republican candidate for Precinct 3, Sides is assured of being elected to replace retiring Precinct 3 Commissioner, Bobby Schuman.

In the Commissioner, Precinct 1 race, Corky Underwood easily won the race on the Democrat side with over two thirds of all votes cast. He will face the only Republican candidate for the office, David Rogers, in the November general election.

Democrat presidential voting in Comanche County favored Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama, similar to statewide voting, but by much larger margins. Clinton received 67% of the county votes, with Obama receiving 27% and 6% for other.

John McCain narrowly carried the county¹s Republican vote. 

Click for Election Results Chart.

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

By JERRY MORGAN, Reporter

VAN DYKE -- The wintertime flu season that has hit hard across the country has also made its presence felt locally at the Comanche County Medical Center (CCMC) as patient volume records have been broken during January.

Arranging for a reroofing of the portion of the old Comanche hospital building, reviewing a financial situation complicated by audit adjustments, tight cash and generally favorable earnings, and preparing for a May 10 Hospital District election rounded out the public portion of the February 26 Board meeting.

Board vice president Joe Locke conducted the meeting in the absence of president Gale Easley. Members Charles Mazurek, Karen Petty, Janna Morris and Billy Ray Evans attended.

Senior hospital staff attending included Chief Executive Officer Kevin Storey, Medical Chief of Staff Dr. Howard Dickey, Chief Financial Officer Tom Letz, Director of Human Resources Peggy Jordan and Medical/Surgical Director Steve Raines. Additional staff attending included Rick Sanchez, Kristi Taylor and Kathy Johnston.

Executive Session

The first order of business after the meeting was called to order was to consider and approve the minutes from the previous Board meeting on January 29.

Following that the Board went into executive session for two purposes:

(1) to consider the reappointment of Dr. Darey Philbrick to the Courtesy Medical Staff, and

(2) to discuss financial planning information related to negotiation for the arrangement and the provision of services and product lines.

During the one and one half hour executive session, three members of the hospital's executive staff - Kevin Storey, Tom Letz and Peggy Jordan - stayed and participated, and Medical Chief of Staff Dr. Howard Dickey joined the meeting and then left before executive session ended.

At the resumption of the public session, Karen Petty offered a motion to reappoint Dr. Philbrick to the Courtesy Medical Staff, Janna Morris seconded, and the vote of approval was unanimous.

No action was taken on the second matter considered in executive session.

Roofing Bids

The Board next considered four bids for replacing the roof on the portion of the old Comanche Community Hospital retained by the Hospital District. The portion of the hospital that has been deeded to Comanche County for use as the Courthouse Annex was not involved.

Kevin Storey stated that the problem of water leaks has been growing steadily worse to the point that even a minor rain causes major water leaks in the roof. The problem has caused the Wellness Center to temporarily cease operations and cancel physical therapy appointments.

Storey added that he had been told that there had been a fire in that portion of the building and expressed concerns about what might be found when the old roof is torn off for replacement.

The bids received ranged in stated total price from $31,926 to $39,348. Hospital Operations Manager Derrall Moore recommended the lowest cost proposal. A guidelines/specifications page had been provided to the bidders, although it was not very specific as to the rating of the materials to be used in the work.

The various bids were discussed at considerable length. As the discussion progressed, however, the Board became inclined to use a locally based roofer who had previously worked on the roof and whose bid was the second lowest.

Charles Mazurek offered a motion to accept the Ripley Roofing & Construction bid for $36,600, subject to receipt of an acceptable proof of adequate liability insurance and provision of an adequate workmanship guarantee.

Financial Report

Tom Letz referred the Board to revenue and expense statements in the Board books which showed an income for the month of January 2008 in the amount of $53,257.  The seven month year-to-date bottom line, however, was a loss of $441,572.

Letz noted that January showed a significant increase in monthly revenues and that the month was also affected by the booking of various audit and non-audit balance sheet adjustments.

Total patient service billings in January was $2.724 million, a 15% increase over the previous year's total.

Contractual adjustments and other deductions from patient revenue increased even more, however, with the resulting net patient revenue of $1.290 million being only 7% above the previous year.

Letz indicated that audit and other one time adjustments accounted for the growth in deductions.

Both Letz and Kevin Storey described timing and technical problems with Medicare payments and their own conservative accounting policies as temporarily delaying the accounting recognition of additional cash revenues that are eventually expected to be received.

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

By LAURA KESTNER, Editor

The DeLeon City Council met in regular session Thursday, February 27, 2008 and heard presentations from Bobby Brinson, representing Air Evac, and James Swartz, representing CareFlite, regarding air medical transport membership programs. Through these programs, insurance can be purchased to cover the approximately $14,000 cost of an emergency air transfer.

All council members were present for the 6 p.m. meeting, except Avery Carlisle (a DVFD firefighter) who was fighting a fire in Gorman. Ray Helberg, who usually attends council meetings as the Comanche County Emergency Management Coordinator, was also absent and battling the same fire as chief of the Promontory Park VFD.

During the Citizen's Presentation portion of the meeting LaJoyce Johnson noted that the Womens' Division Chamber of Commerce had ordered three concession stands for the new Community Park.

"We certainly appreciate you and the Womens' Division purchasing these buildings, and we're looking forward to getting them home," Mayor Danny Owen said.

Bobby Brinson, the program director for the Air Evac Life Team in Brownwood, then made a presentation. "I'm going to highlight our program for you," Brinson said, "which will discuss our operations, and more importantly, our membership program...that's what we're here primarily to discuss with you, as an entity."

Brinson went on to explain that Air Evac had 18 aircraft in Texas, with 75 total in 12 states, and has over 600,000 members in those states.

"We are the very first, the largest and the oldest membership supported air medical program in the United States," Brinson said. "This enables us to serve smaller communities without any subsidies, and without any hospital affiliation."

Brinson noted at one point, "It doesn't matter whose membership they have, or do not have, we're dedicated to the patient." Brinson said that the general cost for an Air Evac membership was $50 for a single person, $55 for two people, or $60 for a household. "We do offer a discount," Brinson said.

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

My name is Marion Quade and I'm running for City Council Place 2.  My husband, John, and I moved to DeLeon from Virginia Beach, Virginia in the spring of 1999, and you might say we found home.

I'm a wife, a mother of two grown daughters, and the grandmother of two granddaughters.

I have been on staff at Tarleton State University for the last eight years in the Control Center, and I'm also a police dispatcher for Tarleton. John works for Pate's Hardware and is a volunteer firefighter for DeLeon, this is his way of giving back.

DeLeon is not perfect, because there is no perfect place. And I¹m not saying that by me being on the City Council I can make it perfect, but I would like to do all I can to see if we can get there.

I would like the chance to serve the families of DeLeon, I would like to ask for your vote on May 10.

Two candidates have filed for Place 3 on the Comanche County Consolidated Hospital District Board of Directors, Gale Easley, incumbent; and Larry Damron, of Sidney.

All content of this site, unless otherwise noted, is Copyright©2006-2008 Morgan Publishing Co.

All Rights Reserved. Any duplication, in any form, without the written consent of the copyright holder is prohibited.