What Corsicana needs ...

To the Editor: My family has visited this area for years and we now live and work in/near Corsicana. Most Texas towns are known for “something.” Tyler has its roses, Athens has its beautiful old courthouse square, Ennis has their Czech heritage.

Corsicana needs a personality! Although wonderful people live here, the town is known by locals and visitors alike for the congested traffic along Highway 31/Seventh Avenue and the lack of any aesthetic appeal traveling through the city. We need to showcase more than fast-food franchises and paved parking lots. If I may be so bold, I’d like to offer a suggestion.

Many local residents already landscape with a plant that is hardy enough to survive our hot Texas summers and also blooms continually for months: Crepe Myrtle trees. Many crepe myrtles start blooming in May and are still blooming now in October! If every business along our major streets would plant just a few crepe myrtle trees or bushes on their property, soon Corsicana would be known for “those beautiful summer flowers” instead of congested roadways and tired buildings.

The plantings by the I-45 interchanges improved that entrance to the city, but imagine the impact if businesses and residences throughout town added these fast-growing, low-maintenance plants to our surroundings. A bulk purchase could be arranged by the city or a local civic group to make it a community project and lower the cost. The local Chamber of Commerce could encourage businesses large and small to participate.

Miami has palm trees, New England has colorful maples, Austin has live oaks Corsicana could unify and beautify this community with flowering crepe myrtles if enough individuals and business owners do their part — and the beauty of our surroundings would grow with every passing year.

Of course, if someone has another simple idea to improve the local scenery, please let us all know. In the meantime let’s get planting!

Best regards,

Ginger Moody



Extension anguish

To the Editor: Sorry folks! It ain’t working! Of course I’m referring to the flint-coating combo that was put on the 1.8 mile Dobbins Extension Aug. 18-19, one week before our 2009 CISD school start-up day on Aug. 25. On Aug. 22, I bagged the trash thrown out of vehicles onto Dobbins Extension. This road looked good for the first day of school. Six weeks later the pot-holes are re-appearing due to excessive rain. Oct. 2, I bagged six 30-gallon bags of trash up and down Dobbins Extension. Typical for the first six weeks of school. According to our city street director it will take approximately $250,000 to properly fill the pot-holes and level this type of road construction, and in order to bond, normally is done from May through August, the warmer months of the year. Should I have to remind Corsicana taxpayers we don’t currently have $250,000 to do that? With rain and colder than normal temperatures forecast for this winter, Dobbins Extension, without a center stripe, will not be a safe road to travel at 40 to 50 mph speed. The first curve in the road up Dobbins from Collins School is a danger zone. No stripe!! A CPD cycle officer ran off the road in 2007 at this curved area of the extension with a stripe. Be safe and drive slow!!

Jim Basham



In praise of the PD

To the Editor: I would like to take a few moments to say “thank you” to our Corsicana Police Department. I live in Powell so I travel on East Highway 31 daily. I have recently noticed on several occasions that there will be a police car with lights flashing and a vehicle pulled over on the shoulder of the road late at night. You think “Ha, ha, someone’s getting a ticket,” but as you approach the scene you see the officer standing behind the vehicle holding a light for some young boys to change the flat tire on their vehicle. Another time there was an officer actually changing the tire for an elderly lady. You know it is good to see that there are officers out there who still really care about their jobs and the people they serve and protect as well. Again I would just like to say thank you to the officers; you gentlemen and ladies have a hard job to do and do not get the proper thanks for what you do so, thank you to all the Corsicana Police Department.

Judy Qualls-Spain



First Baptist memories

To the Editor:

I attended First Baptist from grade school (Sam Houston), Corsicana Junior High, Corsicana High, and through college at Navarro. 1942 through 1956!

The church gave me many blessings, for which I am very grateful and are still part of my life today.

I have so many great memories from the church that it would take quite some time to share them all.

Dr. Cartlige, Dr. Shamburger and Brother Risinger were all a part of my life.

God bless the pastor’s family and all the congregation on such a tragic loss.

My prayers are with you!

Bobby Clark

P.S. Forgive me if I did not spell all the names correctly. It has been a long time!

Thanks for caring

To the Editor: There is a business here that has generously helped our local Food Pantry from the beginning. Not only a one-time thing, but on a regular basis for years. So when you go out for pizza or want it delivered, remember the Pizza Hut; they don’t just serve good pizza!

Thank you,

Brenda Russell