Official site of Tribune News serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller

A Tomball couple received a surprise visit from the Houston Texans owners, after they discovered a connection between the team and the couples newborn baby. Al (middle left) and Hollie (middle right) Aranda, found out they were having a baby during the Texans postseason game last year. While attending a Texans game Sept. 9, Hollie went into labor while leaving Reliant Stadium. Their newborn son was born with a heart defect and was cared for at Texas Children’s Hospital. That’s where Texans owner Bob McNair (left) and his wife Janice (right) visited the couple recently.

Herbie is a 2-year-old male domestic short hair feline. He was seen being thrown out of a car window and was found by a group of kids who saw Herbie hiding under a shed. They alerted the owner of the property, who is an animal lover. She fed him and cared for his wounds until AAR had room for him. Herbie still has some sores on his hind leg, but he has been on antibiotics and they are healing nicely. He is incredible. He purrs constantly and loves the attention of everyone. Herbie enjoys the company of other cats and does not mind dogs. He is so sweet, handsome and gentle. Anyone that adopts this cat will simply know they have the best cat.  For more information about Herbie contact Abandoned Animal Rescue at 281-290-0121 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . For more information about AAR visit www.aartomball.org.

With the former Klein’s Supermarket sitting gutted for months, many residents began wondering what was stopping progress on the future Veterans Administration (VA) clinic site.

VA officials said there were several unanticipated challenges in converting the former grocery store, but the process is now ready to begin. Nabholz Construction was hired this month to begin work on the site.

The site is being leased for $1 million per year.

Another VA clinic is being built for the Katy area as well.

“We are excited about the progress being made on the new VA outpatient clinics for Katy and Tomball,” director Adam Walmus said. “Our goal is to bring medical care closer to where veterans live and eliminate the hassles they face fighting traffic and parking in Houston.”

The Tomball facility is projected to be 30,000 square feet and will provide veterans with several services including primary care, mental health, womens specialty care, phlebotomy, optometry, audiology, x-ray, telemedicine and teleretinal imaging.

Officials said that the recent challenges in converting the store have pushed the projected opening of the facility back to July 2013.

“For Tomball and the challenges of converting a former grocery store, we are looking at a July 2013 opening,” deputy director Bryan Bayley said. “We eagerly anticipate cutting the ribbon and opening these new clinics.”

Officials at the VA estimate the new Tomball clinic will serve more than 7,500 veterans within the first year.

Houston VA communications director Bobbi Gruner said that officials have already started looking for staff to run the facility, as well as nurses and doctors to serve patients.

“All federal jobs are posted at usajobs.gov,” Gruner said. “It’s a simple website to use, you can search jobs by area or by profession.”

The Chambers of Magnolia Legislative Alliance, a combined effort of the Magnolia Area Chamber of Commerce and the Magnolia Parkway Chamber of Commerce, held a luncheon Sept. 20, where members learned about Obamacare’s effects on small businesses.

Speaking to the group were Kelly Shea, a human resources and employee relations specialist and Gina Clark, a Magnolia certified public accountant.

Members were shocked by some of the things they heard.

Many of the regulations apply to businesses with more than 50 employees, such as the $2,000 penalty for not offering insurance to employees, which Shea said could have some consequences.

‘This will keep a lot of people from going over 50 employees,” she said.

What Shea said she is most concerned with are smaller insurance companies being bought up by the big conglomerates, which has happened before.

“We used to have a lot of smaller companies that would go in and underbid the bigger companies, but their premiums collected were not enough to offset their costs,” Shea said. “So when the bigger companies bought them out, they had all this bad business, so they had to raise everyones premiums by 20 or so percent.”

She is afraid the new exchanges will cause the same scenario, thereby pricing small businesses out of the market.

“If you are with an A-rated company now, I would advise you to stay with it until we see how this plays out,” she said. “There’s going to be a lot of fighting and a lot of court cases as more of this rolls out.”

Another item rolling out is companies with more than 250 employees have to show how much they paid in health care benefits for each employee on their W-2 form. Shea said that is a sign of a future tax on benefits.

“It’s not taxed yet, but it’s coming,” she said.

Clark said the tax implications are huge with the new law.

She said medical costs must now exceed 10 percent of your gross income before someone can deduct them for tax purposes. Previously that rate was 7.5 percent.

"If you are a majority owner of several companies, they will add them all together to come up with your employee count,” Clark said, adding that if that total reaches 51, the combined companies are subject to the $2,000 fine or to carry insurance coverage. They are required to cover at least 60 percent of the cost of health care for the employee.

“If the employees share of the cost (for individual coverage, not including dependants) exceeds 9.5 percent of household income, the employer is required to pay up to 9.5 percent of household income if that amount is more than 60 percent of health care costs,” Shea added.

Clark said that can open up huge disclosure and privacy issues as well.

“You will have to disclose that you have a spouse and what your household income is to your employer now,” she said. “You never have had to disclose that type of information before.”

Both Shea and Clark agreed that this aspect of the law could have huge ramifications, causing married people to be at a disadvantage when competing with single people for jobs.

Clark also told the group that there will be a new surtax added to the Medicare tax of 0.9 percent for anyone making $250,000 or more in combined household income, as well as a new 3.6 percent surtax on investment income. This investment income tax could effect many retirees living off of investments, including those in the middle class.

Shea said that she had a feeling that Obamacare will not be repealed next year, even if Mitt Romney becomes President, because to avoid a filibuster in the U.S. Senate would require 60 Republicans to be elected, or to find enough Democrats to support a full repeal.

“The way things are going, I don’t think that will happen, at least not in the senate,” she said.

The Tomball Police Department will be participating in the annual National Night Out, along with members of the Tomball Fire Department and Northwest Rural Emergency Medical Services, officials recently announced.

The event, held Oct. 2, will feature a community wide cookout and a roll call presentation at the Tomball Depot Plaza.

“This event will give Tomball community members and visitors a great opportunity to see that Tomball is Texan -- for public safety,” Sgt. Rebecca Carlisle said.

National Night Out is a nationwide event that is now in its 29^th year. The National Association of Town Watch started the program, which has grown to include 37 million people in 15,325 communities nationwide, in Canada and at military bases worldwide.

National Night Out Project Coordinator Matt Peskin said the event has not only grown in numbers, but also in presentation.

“There has been huge growth in terms of numbers, but in addition to that it has grown into the event we see today, with the block parties, cookouts and neighbors getting out and meeting each other,” he said.

The event started with traditional outside lights and front porch vigils and has grown into cities celebrating with block parties, cookouts, parades, festivals, visits from local officials and public safety personell, safety fairs and youth events.

The organization’s goals for the event are to heighten crime prevention awareness, generate support for and participation in local anti-crime programs, strengthen neighborhood spirit and public safety community partnerships and to send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and prepared to fight back.

Tomball Police Chief Robert Hauck said the local event is designed to bring residents and public safety officials closer together.

“We already have a great working relationship with our citizens,” he said. “This gives us a chance to thank them for how they help us do our jobs better and to meet them in a more personal setting.”