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The Tomball City Council recently approved changes to city rules governing fences after some long discussion over two meetings.

The council had previously tabled the changes during the Dec. 17 meeting, after asking City Planner Rebecca Guerra to add additional requirements and standards to the already proposed changes.

"We came before you and you requested that the item be tabled and that staff reexamine items," Guerra told council.

The proposed changes include allowing for a maximum height of eight feet, except in front yards, where the maximum height would be six feet for lots five acres and larger and four feet for lots less than five acres.

Guerra also told council that city planning staffers were proposing that fences not be a danger to life or property. She said that was a minimum standard that would not require too many staff hours to enforce.

Councilman Preston Dodson felt that language was not strong enough.

"My problem is that there is no meaningful requirement that these fences be maintained," he said. "In my view, having a fence falling down or slats falling off – and we have places in Tomball right now – it detracts from the city. It detracts from the value of the property and the property adjacent to it."

Council decided to add language stating that a fence is to be maintained at all times and that it would be unlawful to allow a fence to lean or have missing, loose or broken slats or panels.

A large part of the discussion was about chain link fencing.

Staff initially proposed that chain link fences be prohibited; stating that they thought that was the direction council had led them. Councilman Derek Townsend said that he was misunderstood, however, and wanted a discussion about chain link fencing in front yards only.

Townsend had issues with the proposed changes affecting property owners pocketbooks, especially if their fencing was damaged by natural occurrences.
"I don't think it is government's job to make you spend money," he said.

Guerra said that replacing fencing with allowable materials would only be in the instance that 50 percent or more of the fence was damaged or destroyed.

"I have issues with that," Townsend said. "This fencing is extremely expensive and we have had a significant drought that caused a lot of trees to fall."

In the end council agreed to pass the ordinance, which will now allow for fencing up to the property line in front yards and will allow chain link fences in the back yard of a residence. The measure passed, with Townsend being the only no vote.

In other business the council gave final approval for the Tomball Economic Development Corporation to give more than $56,000 to One Moore Holdings Inc. to build a large dry cleaning and laundry facility in Tomball. The money is to be used for infrastructure costs.

The council also gave final approval to annexing the land that Baker Hughes will build a new training facility at on the corner of FM 2978 and FM 2920, while also approving zoning changes to allow for a training oil well on that site.

Council members once again chose the Tribune as the city's official newspaper for 2013.

The council also set the upcoming municipal election day as May 11 of this year, while also allowing the fire department to receive a new brush truck from the Texas A&M Forestry Service.

Tomball High School Assistant Baseball Coach Tim Dyson (back, left) and Head Baseball Coach Doug Rush (back, right) congratulated seniors (from left) Ishmael Edwards, Bryce Welborn and Nicholas Banks for earning scholarships to play baseball in college. Edwards will play outfield at Howard Junior College. Welborn will pitch for Texas Tech University. Banks will play outfield and pitch at Texas A&M University.

The City of Magnolia recently implemented its first comprehensive plan, while also growing and expanding its boundaries in 2012. With that plan now in full swing and money problems a thing of the past; the city hosted a review of the past year, Magnolia on the Move, Jan. 8.

"Getting this plan was huge," Magnolia's Economic Development Coordinator Deborah Rose Miller said. "It gives us a roadmap for the future, taking into consideration the entire infrastructure, along with desires of our community partners."

Miller presented the program, along with Paul Mendes, Magnolia's city administrator.

The pair talked about the city's recently expanded extra-territorial jurisdiction, along with the recent triple-a-minus bond rating from Standard & Poor, as well as the city's budget surpluses, saying that it all was proof that Magnolia was clearly focused on the future and putting issues of the past in the rearview mirror.

The number one priority for the city in the future will be transportation and connectivity. Because transportation and connectivity are crucial to the city, its participation in the year-old 249 Partnership, a regional coalition dedicated to the improvement of SH 249, was also highlighted. Mendes was recently named vice chair of the coalition.

The comprehensive plan also outlines a new town center, which Miller said points to continued growth in Magnolia, adding that after the recent Walgreen's opening, more chain stores are expected to follow.

Kendig Keast Collaborative, an urban planning firm in Sugar Land, has been working with the city on its comprehensive plan for a year. Capturing more than five miles in the city's ETJ was just one parallel goal of the plan.

Other accomplishments reviewed at Magnolia on the Move included the utility relocation project along FM 1774, which has readied the city for roadway expansion by the Texas Department of Transportation in progress now, and the fly-over at FM 1488 and FM 149 that is expected to be under construction in 2014. In addition a fly-over at FM 1774 and FM 1488 is expected to be completed in 2015.

Lastly, the report congratulated the Magnolia Community Foundation on giving the city an annual  "branding" event, the Magnolia Love Bug Festival. The June festival along with events on the Magnolia Stroll was praised for bringing visitors to the city throughout the year. Moreover, the city's partnership with the Texas Renaissance Festival, now in its second year, was credited with filling Magnolia motels for more than nine weeks last year.

Parents of students in Magnolia were a bit on edge last week, after receiving a phone call from the district stating that a student had brought a weapon to school.

Magnolia ISD officials said that they received information that a student at J.L. Lyon Elementary was in possession of a weapon, Jan. 9.

"Staff quickly recovered an unloaded firearm without incident," the district said in a written statement. "No ammunition was found in the student's possession nor was there any evidence of intent to use the weapon on campus."

School officials would provide no other information besides what was contained in the statement. The Tribune put in a public information request asking the district to release what punishment the student will face, without identifying the student. Magnolia ISD was still examining that request as of press time.

Parents at the school said the incident was disturbing.

"I got a phone call, it was a recording, telling me a kid had a gun on my daughter's campus," said Cathy House. "I was talking about it with my mother and my daughter came in. She had no idea that it happened while she was at school."

House said her daughter told her she saw police at her school.

"It's scary, especially with what happened in Connecticut," House said.

Cpt. Glenn Arnold with the Montgomery County Pct. 5 Constable's Office, the agency responsible for school security, said students were not in danger.

"(The gun) was unloaded, recovered and secured within moments of being notified," he said. "It wasn't anything with a malicious intent; the kid was just trying to show off as kids sometimes tend to do."

The district added that they are "committed to providing a safe environment for all students and will continue to work with parents and law enforcement to achieve this goal."

The student was transported to a juvenile facility, where he was expected to see a judge last Friday, according to Arnold.

After 70 years of marriage, neither Loyd nor Betty Hunter has lost the initial spark either had when first meeting each other decades ago.

Sitting in the hallway of Tomball Retirement Center holding hands, the two talked about their life together and how they ended up in south Texas.

"I was working in my sister's grocery store, a little country store in Van Buren, Ark.," Loyd said. "(Betty) came in and asked of we carried something or another and I told her we didn't. She told me 'aww, you wouldn't even know if you did'."

Loyd, a self-described Arkansas hillbilly, was soon shipped off to Battle Creek, Mich. by the army, in preparation for World War II, while his sweetheart moved to the Houston area with her family.

The two got married – "my marriage license cost me a whole $3, Loyd said – and Loyd prepared for service as a military police officer.

"My mother wrote to (President Franklin D.) Roosevelt to ask him if he would send me to where my twin brother was stationed and he did it," Loyd said.

Loyd was shipped off to Lincoln, Neb., where he and his brother were cooks for the Army Air Corps.

"We stayed there for the duration of the war," he said.

After the war, Loyd moved to the Houston area to be with his bride, where he became a builder.

"I had a model park out on the East Tex Freeway," he said.

The couple would go on to raise four boys and three girls and now have a slew of grandchildren.

As for their longevity, Loyd says it is simple.

"She tells me what to do," he said. "We have had little fusses along the way, but we've really gotten along real well."

Five years ago the pair moved into the Tomball Retirement Center, where their caregivers that they are obviously still deeply in love.

"They still cuddle and sleep in the same bed," said caretaker Mary Middlebrook.

Caretaker Londa Osborne-Butler said that Loyd and Betty are still sharp witted and a funny pair.

"I always tease them about me taking (Loyd) out on a date and she always says 'ok just take him'," she said.

The couple sits regularly on a hallway couch holding hands – they call it waiting on the bus – and talking to workers and residents alike.

"She's my other half," Loyd says with a big smile.