Area forecasts call for clearer, cleaner skies
If computer models are to be believed, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is on track to conform to government-mandated limits of toxic emissions. The news was delivered to city and county leaders Thursday during the North Central Texas Council of Governments' Regional Transportation Council meeting in Arlington.

Boundaries concern parents
Several parents complained to school board members Thursday about revised junior high school boundary plans that would shuffle students from Ousley and Barnett to a campus opening next year. A handful of parents told Arlington Independent School District trustees that the revised plan ignores overcrowding at other schools and places students at risk by requiring them to cross busy streets.

Neighborhood quality control: Residents and developers clash about preserving city's character
Joe Bruner is picky about what is built in Arlington. In fact, the City Council member thinks Arlington has hit a crucial point and should weigh development decisions carefully. As the city's population increases, officials look to boost the economic base. Sometimes those efforts conflict as council members grapple with zoning cases that residents view as unfavorable.

Sales tax revenues are down
Arlington and Mansfield suffered a second consecutive month of declining sales tax revenues, while Grand Prairie experienced another large upswing, state figures released Thursday show.

Park dwellers stay forever young: Bicentennial Park comes alive with bronze figures of frolicking children
Come rain or shine, midday or midnight, there are children playing in Pantego's Bicentennial Park. The two dozen children are bronze sculptures scattered throughout the small park at Smith-Barry Road and Roosevelt Drive. The artwork is part of an ongoing renovation that includes new playground equipment, picnic areas and trails, and development of almost 5 acres of parkland.

Amber Plan going nationwide
A bill being considered by the House Committee on Land and Resource Management would strip cities of their ability to maintain local standards for housing and would jeopardize property rights. House Bill 3439 would allow new manufactured homes to be built anywhere that single-family homes are allowed as long as they meet certain standards.

Shelly Moon: Embrace Arbor Day at its roots: Hug a tree
Now that they are all grown up, Susan Henson likes to visit her babies. She took care of them when they were spindly creatures, barely 3 feet tall. Today, those babies tower in the air, providing beauty and shade for everyone to enjoy. Mrs. Henson, horticulturist for the city of Grand Prairie, likes to visit the trees she planted during the budding days of her career 25 years ago.

School expansion project progressing on schedule
No one showed up to hear the good news, but Mansfield school officials said Thursday that progress on its 1999 expansion program was on target. The $80 million bond program includes building a high school, two elementaries and an intermediate school, which would include fifth and sixth grades.

A dip in the pot is relaxing
Simply Fondue is more than just dinner – it's the evening's entertainment, too. There's no rushing the meal here, where diners dip vegetables, fruit or bread into hot pots of cheese or chocolate, or spear meat and cook it in bubbling oil. Most meals take at least one and one-half hours, so plan to stay awhile. And bring along some friends. This is communal dining, and the relaxed atmosphere lends itself to good conversation.

Your guide

Hot tickets

04/12/2001

Let's call the whole thing off
Arlington school district officials looked back to 1903 and couldn't find it. An uncontested school board election, that is. This year is the first election in the district's history with no contested races. Given the controversies surrounding raising the tax cap and school boundary disputes, which concerned parents last fall, the lack of challengers for the board's two open seats was unexpected, school district officials said Wednesday.

Boundaries would affect only 2 schools
Only students from Ousley and Barnett junior highs would be shifted to a campus opening in the fall under a revised proposal for new attendance boundaries, officials said. Under the revised plan, five other campuses – Workman, Hutchison, Gunn, Carter and Bailey junior highs – would no longer have boundaries altered, as was originally proposed.

Mansfield man says he robbed 3 credit unions
A Mansfield man has confessed to robbing three Arlington credit unions during the last two months, police said Wednesday. Bradley Scott Merreighn, 32, a construction worker from Mansfield, confessed to Tuesday's robbery of the Arlington Federal Credit Union on Southwest Green Oaks Boulevard, said Danetta Chube, an Arlington police spokeswoman.

Center takes pilots under its wing
D/FW AIRPORT – Flying a commercial Learjet is not exactly a walk in the park. "Steer right, steer right," suggested Bill Lawrence, a flight instructor for the new Bombardier Aerospace Dallas-Fort Worth Training Center. The center, set to train thousands of pilots annually, formally opened Wednesday at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

A brush with the paint posse: Artists celebrate 20 years of Tuesday painting with a watercolor show
There are no officers, elections or meeting agendas, and there's only one rule. Yet despite the group's informality – or perhaps because of it – participants in Watercolor Every Tuesday have been painting together for two decades. They're celebrating WET's longevity with a 20th Anniversary Show through May 8 at the Bob Duncan Community Center, 2800 S. Center St. in Vandergriff Park.

Mansfield briefs

Residents raise stink over sewer plan
After the City Council agreed to split the cost of a sewer system for a southeast section of Mansfield, some residents said they don't agree with the deal. "It doesn't seem like an amicable agreement," said Ronald Jinks, who signed a petition with about 69 others in the Britton community.

Police given green light to control signals
Firetrucks and ambulances have been equipped with a device to turn red lights green for the last decade. Now Grand Prairie's police cars will also be able to make faster and safer responses on emergency runs. Forty-five police cars are being equipped with the 3M-Opticom traffic devices that firefighters have used successfully.

Cold Springs could get a tenant
FORT WORTH – Tarrant County Commissioners Court may have found a use for the vacant Cold Springs jail – to temporarily house a county probation office that is being renovated. The court is expected to vote next week on whether to move the probation department from the Charles Griffin Annex to Cold Springs, a converted elementary school north of downtown Fort Worth.

Government investigator to examine girl's death
An investigator from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration will assist Grand Prairie police in determining whether an airbag contributed to the death of a 2-year-old girl involved in a crash Tuesday. Jasmine Medina died at 8:35 a.m. Wednesday at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, a day after she was injured in a two-car accident.

Exploring the Cross Timbers: UTA professor working to preserve a local treasure
Richard Francaviglia, a University of Texas at Arlington professor, said he doesn't mow his lawn for a good cause – to preserve a dwindling local resource called the Cross Timbers. The Cross Timbers is a forest of Post Oaks and other native vegetation that stretches 25,000 square miles from Waco through Arlington to southeastern Kansas.

04/11/2001

Creek funding lacking
Mayor Elzie Odom said Tuesday he will ask Arlington's two congressmen to lobby for full funding of the Johnson Creek project in President Bush's fiscal 2002 budget. Mr. Bush included $2.9 million for the project, instead of the $6 million requested by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Rezoning is rejected for fast-food window
A narrowly divided City Council rejected a zoning request that would have allowed a Burger King restaurant with a drive-through at the northwest corner of Lamar Boulevard and Ballpark Way. About 20 area neighbors attending Tuesday's meeting cheered as the 5-4 vote was tallied.

Rec center provides safe haven
Precious Gibson used to spend her after-school hours milling about in parking lots with her friends. But when school started last fall, she heard about a teen program at Hugh Smith Recreation Center. Now the Sam Houston High School freshman spends her afternoons socializing, playing games or watching people swim in the indoor pool.

Robbery suspect surrenders
A robbery suspect who led police on a 20-mile chase along State Highway 360 while tossing handfuls of money out the car window surrendered Tuesday after an hour-long standoff with area police and FBI agents. No one was injured during the 1 p.m. robbery at a South Arlington credit union, the standoff at Highway 360 and State Highway 121 in Grapevine, or the chase, which began after the gunman fired shots at an off-duty police sergeant pursuing him.

Tourism off to healthy start
Arlington's 2001 tourism season has only just begun, and officials like what they are seeing. Attendance at Six Flags Over Texas and Texas Rangers' games – the city's two largest tourist attractions – started with a bang as hoped.

911 operators to get award for aiding pair
Arlington 911 operators will receive state recognition for providing aid to a woman and her baby trapped in an overturned vehicle near Wilmer, Texas, on Feb. 28 of last year, officials said.

Service clubs: Local Toastmasters honored

2-year-old Dallas girl critical after car crash
A 2-year-old Dallas girl was listed in critical condition Tuesday night after the car she was riding in ran a red light and collided with another car, police said.

04/10/2001

Robbery suspect surrenders to police
A man who police say robbed the Arlington Federal Credit Union Tuesday surrendered to authorities after a one-hour standoff.

04/08/2001

City showing few signs of economic slowdown
Economic slowdown? What economic slowdown? As the U.S. Labor Department reports that businesses cut more jobs in March than in any month since November 1991, signs of layoffs in the Arlington area are difficult to find.

Churches are feeling city's growing pains
While retail complexes and housing developments are in the works all over Mansfield, the growth of the city's religious institutions has been thwarted in many cases by a familiar lack of funds.

Church moving to Fort Worth
William Jefferson Fuller was walking home from church one Sunday in 1906 when he noticed children in his Pantego neighborhood who were not in their Sunday best. Mr. Fuller made up his mind that he and his wife had to do something. So they started a Bible class on their front porch. And about six years later, they created a garden setting and named it Pantego Bible Church.

Haven't filed? Your CPA has a headache
CPAs say it's not an urban myth that there are residents who consistently wait until the last minute to prepare their taxes. As the annual deadline approaches, quirky clients become reality. For them, the "W" in W-2 seemingly stands for "wait." CPAs say those who delay the longest often are the ones least prepared to file.

Groups hold less sway in elections
There was a time when political endorsements carried a lot of weight. It meant that an organization's members would rally around a candidate, raise money for his or her campaign, hand out literature and make sure people showed up at the polls. But in these days of voter apathy, such backing means little clout.

Ann Davis: Volunteers needed to fill Easter eggs
The Volunteer Center of Tarrant County maintains a database that lists hundreds of volunteer opportunities at a variety of nonprofit agencies. When calling the center at 817-926-9001, please refer to the identification number listed for each volunteer job that interests you.

Reader's guide
Some regular features have moved in the Arlington Morning News; others are now published in The Dallas Morning News. Here's a guide to help you find your favorite listings.

Arlington briefs

Pennie Boyett: Hi: Relax here before you get on with business
We were talking in the newsroom this week about how an e-mail is more pleasant when it begins with a "Hi" or a "Hey" or even a "Howdy," especially when it's the first communication of the day ... and when the message is asking for something. So I thought I would extend that idea to my column.

Larre Green: Junior League fills Bargain Barn
Those Junior League of Arlington ladies were hard at work last weekend at three of the local Stein Marts. What is unusual about what they were doing is that the goal of most retail stores is to have merchandise leave the store, whereas these ladies were hoping customers would bring their merchandise to the store.

04/07/2001

Getting passed over: Jews say they are having hard time finding ingredients for holiday in local groceries
Shopping for Passover food is more like a scavenger hunt than a routine trip to the grocery store for Arlington Jews. Arlington grocery stores carry a limited selection of kosher foods used for Passover celebrations, so Jewish residents must travel to Dallas or Fort Worth to buy supplies for the holiday, which begins at sundown Saturday. The holiday commemorates the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

School district fires 4 workers
The Kennedale Independent School District's only assistant superintendent was fired this week as part of an effort to ease a half-million-dollar shortfall, officials said. Members of the district's board of trustees on Thursday terminated four employees, including assistant superintendent Tim Smith, a 19-year employee of the district who supervised maintenance, custodial, transportation and personnel services.

Rush-hour accident on I-20 kills woman
A 44-year-old Burleson woman on her way to work died after she lost control of her car and crashed into two trees as she exited Interstate 20 onto State Highway 360 on Friday morning. Elizabeth Childers was pronounced dead at 7:40 a.m. at the scene of the crash at the eastbound Interstate 20 exit ramp onto northbound Highway 360.

A school board project: Trustee helps student complete report by speaking to his class
Bryan Neatherlin's request to Joy Keller was simple. "What would be most helpful to me is if you could give me most of the information you have about the school board," the 10-year-old blond boy wrote in a letter to Mrs. Keller, president of the Mansfield Independent School District board.

Business calendar

Religion calendar

Parents are warned of attempt to abduct student on campus
Police and school officials are searching for two men they say approached a Mary Orr Intermediate School student Thursday and asked her to get into their vehicle. The incident happened about 2:30 p.m. as the student was leaving the main building to deliver a message to a portable classroom behind the school.

Shelly Moon: Cookie recipe helps kids learn story of Easter
The Keeler family has found a perfect recipe to combat the commercialization of Easter. The recipe calls for egg whites, pecans, sugar and a Bible. Anjanet Keeler and her 2-year-old daughter, Emily, will make Easter story cookies next weekend.