Received word yesterday that our new police cars should be delivered today. The vehicles purchased were two Crown Victoria Ford police packages, on a lease purchase program, as done in the past years. Our older cars were costing the city on maintenance and break downs each month and it was time to replace them. Hopefully this will save on the maintenance budget this new year and provide safe vehicle for our officers.

Winter continues to play tricks on all of us, 80 one day and 20's the next, no wonder everyone is sick. Please be safe today with the possibility of freezing roadways, slow down and watch for ice. especially on bridges.

Our up-coming council agenda will have a unpleasant item on it, after many missed meetings, our council will discuss removing a council member that has unexcused absenteeism of regular schedule council meetings. Our city charter states that missing 3 meetings in a roll unexcused, is reason for removal. This council member has stated in the past that they wanted off, and we requested them to stay if all possible until the up-coming elections, but I guess they changed their mind or personal life has changed to prevent them from carrying out the elected duties. Council will discuss appointing someone until May elections 2009.

Have a safe day.

2009 off and going with nice weather and another tradition of my family of eating black-eyed peas for good luck on New Years Day. I don't know if it really helps or not, but it doesn't hurt to play on the safe side with lady luck. Reminder of the town hall meeting January 8th at 5pm at city hall. We will be discussing the new waste water plant and trying our best to answer questions from our citizens on the project. More beautiful weather on the way for the weekend then cold wet weather for Monday possible freezing weather also, Nothing like Texas weather.

Celebrations will be the main activities tonight for new years eve. If you must drink, please don't drive. Many lives are lost nation wide by drunk drivers each year. 2008 was a very difficult year for all of us with the recession. Pray for our nation and it's leaders that 2009 will be a better year. The new year will have it's problems and financial issues, but together the great people of this nation can turn this recession around one day at a time. I wish everyone a happy new year, may God bless us all with great things. Thank you for your continued support of our city and our council members. I appreciate the kind words of encouragement and support the citizens past on to me daily.

It seems that Santa brought more to us than just gifts this December. I hear of many individuals with sinus infections, stomach virus and colds. I wish everyone a speedy recovery in preparation of the new year. Speaking of the new year, our traditional new years resolution is expected again. Mine will be to enjoy the gifts of life as they come, deal with the stressful moments as best I can and let God direct my decisions day to day.

I have some news to share with the younger people of De Leon. Our council is working with a group of people to bring a Motor cross event at our new Community Park. The event may take place in June 2009 at the tractor pull arena. Having something new to our area is exciting and should attract many to our city. More information will follow in the future.

The old Christmas tree looks so bare now after the gifts are gone, I hope everyone had a great time of fellowship with family and friends. The weather was great Christmas day so everyone could enjoy time out side. Many of the neighbor's children were out playing with their new toys, looks like Santa accomplished his tour of duty for another season.

I encourage everyone living in the city of De Leon to attend a town hall meeting to hear and discuss any questions about our need of a new waste water plant. I requested this meeting for information needs to our citizens and grant time for any concerns or questions that may need to be addressed about the expense of the new plant. Our meeting will be January 8th, 2009 starting at 5pm at the city hall.

Have a safe weekend, and I appreciate your continued support of our City.

Danny Owen 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

MAYOR DANNY,
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ANSWER IN THE DELEON FREE PRESS. I KNOW HOW
MUCH TIME IT TAKES TO ANSWER ALL THE PROBLEMS THAT ARISE IN RUNNING A SMALL
TOWN. I TO WAS A CITY COUNCILMAN AND ACTING MAYOR IN BENBROOK TEXAS
BACK IN THE 1960S.
WE LOVE TO COME BACK TO DELEON AND VISIT OLD FRIENDS . MY WIFE'S SISTER
LIVES THERE ON THE SIPE SPRINGS ROAD, THER NAME IS DORIS AND JUNIOR MONTGOMERY.
THEY ARE BOTH DISABLED AND WE TRY TO COME DOWN TO HELP THEM AS OFTEN AS
POSSIBLE.
AGAIN THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME IN HELPING OTHERS AND SERVING YOUR COMMUNITY.
CACTUS JACK MORTON; 

I was asked several weeks ago about the use of liquefied petroleum (propane gas) in the city limits. I could recall something about this way back in the early sixty's, but wasn't sure if an ordinance was involved. After reviewing the ordinance book, I did find a ordinance dated back in August 1948 that the council passed prohibiting propane gas to business or residence use inside the city. It has been reported that several homes now have propane gas in our city. Contact with home owners are needed to inform them of their violations.

Noticed last week Mr. Jack Morton reported problems of low tree limbs over the highway on Sipe Springs road ( Hwy 587) causing possible damage to RV's traveling on this road.

I do understand the possibilities of possible damage of trees to RV roofs and AC units. I also enjoy the RV life as well and have encountered this problem in many towns and rural areas. We will make contact with the D.O.T. and request them to make improvements to this highway. If nothing is done, we will take care of the problem. Mr. Morton, I'm not sure if you take our local paper or not, but the City of De Leon has a new RV park available should you ever need a place to stay over. We welcome all RVer's to visit and stay in our new park. Should there be other streets giving visiting RVer's a problem, give us a call @ 254-893-2065 to report the issue. Or send me a e-mail @ mayordannydeleon@yahoo.com

Less than 25 days until Christmas, where does the time go?

Thank you for your time and continued support of our city

Danny Owen 

Last week I spoke of completing old promises from years past. I find another one that needs some closure on. Our De Leon Cemetery Committee and our council voted to place street signs in the cemetery to help families and friends find someone faster. Several years past, Mr and Mrs D.F. Pair requested the council to approve the names and placement of the signs in the cemetery. As usual we have pushed this back on the to do list and it hasn't been done at this time. I spoke with Jimmy Dale Johnson last week and requested his help as well as Bobby Schuman to help me complete this project hopefully this winter or early spring. There has been many delays beyond our control due to flooding, man power, and other reasons that has prevented this from being finished. Hopefully without further delays due to damages from spring weather, we can complete the job as promised.

Many of you will recall the bricks being sold, that were to display the individuals or family names on the brick, as a fund raiser by the De Leon Peach and Melon Festival Committee in years past. Several of us have discussed this project over the past year in ways to display the bricks and location in the De Leon Community Park. I have spoken with LaJoyce Johnson, one of the many fund raiser supports, to help me to get this project back on track and complete the promise of a great ideal of helping raise money for the park and Festival by displaying the bricks. Hopefully with help from many others we can complete this before the 95th Peach and Melon Festival in 2009.

As stated in the past from my Mayor's Corner, our park continues to have many needs to add shade trees in different areas of the park. Donations in this type would greatly be appreciated and enjoyed year after year by our citizens and the many visitors attending the festival each year.

I expect the annual Peach and Melon Festival to thrive for many years to come with this new park. We have room to grow and to plan more activities for the future. Our first year was a great success in attendance and lets make the 95th year the best ever, join in as a volunteer this new year we need you.

Thanks for the continued support of our city.

Have you ever stopped to think about how high your property taxes would be in each city or in the county if we didn't have volunteer Fire Departments throughout the communities to provide fire safety and rescue to our families? If you answered correctly, you must say no. Our firemen provide 24 hr coverage 7 days a week and do it as volunteers. Our city is very blessed to have men willing to do this and having employers willing to allow their employees to provide such a great service to each of us. Yes we assist them in their fundraisers and our city provides a budget to help supply their needs in our city, but there are many ways we can assist all emergency providers paid or volunteers in each community, city and county wide. One of the greatest would be to have your home address numbers displayed on your home or on your mailbox so emergency providers responding could locate your address faster. Most rural citizens when calling emergency 911 give their address and the dispatchers pass this information on to the responding unit. The problem that arises is the address is not displayed anyway or matter and the emergency personnel are delayed due to unclear directions or numbers not displayed. In helping in this matter especially around the Promontory Park area, the Promontory Park Volunteer Fire Department members are willing to help place 911 address numbers at each residence requesting one in their service area. This would be a great service in all areas of emergency service providers in aiding citizens in need. This department as well as our De Leon Fire Department members in the past, are answering the needs of their service areas to help their citizens display 911 address. Give them a call and request information on getting help with your address and placement of them. Every minute counts in emergency calls, please do your part in helping in such a small way as displaying your house numbers in a clear and visible matter. Remember, it's your emergency when it happens, help them so they can help you or your family.

From time to time any city will request it's attorney to review information for the protection of legal issues or compliance as should be done. I received word the other day from our attorney involving a case being reviewed by another attorney on a possible issue, that the person involved should be excused from the possible legal issue due to the fact that the family history and all the great things they have done over the years and being pillows of the community. That really burned me up that anyone would thing that they or someone is above the laws of our city or the State. My family as well as many others including myself have lived in De Leon and Comanche County for many years. I think my family came here in the early 1900. I have been in De Leon for over 55 years my self. Anyway my point is, I don't care who is breaking the laws including my family, they are not above the laws that I also have to obey. Thinking your family name or status in the community brings special opportunities in the laws is crazy. I think the old saying goes, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

Someone said the other day that it's difficult to find volunteers any more in our city, and I must say that I agreed with them at the moment of the conversation. Later I had more time to really think about the statement and came to this conclusion. Over the many years we have relied on certain individuals or age groups that are always ready to give a helping hand, and these people get asked from every group in town to join in. Year after year these volunteers give of themselves to help De Leon. After a long period of serving in this capacity, the body begins to show it's age and health changes that it can no longer serve, but the spirit lives on. Many have to select easier ways to volunteer in duties they can perform and continue to enjoy. If you really think about the many possibilities we have over looked year after year from our high school and college age people that have never been asked to serve as a member in Civic groups or any other capacities in town. It's true that many may not be willing at this time, but a few may be. I encourage our citizens to ask the younger people to join in the ranks of being a volunteer and continue to build the chain of leadership for many years to come. At some point in each of our lives, maturity and wisdom overrides our life and directs us to give back as we have received in a place we call home. De Leon has been good to me during my life and I have many people to thank for being a friend during good times and bad times that each of us go through during the aging process. I thank God for my wife and family and the good health that I presently have and hope to have many years to share and volunteer in the future. Without volunteers, our city wouldn't have the special gifts that we take for granted each day.

Philosophy of Charles Suhulz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip: "The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money or the most awards.  They simply are the ones who care the most."

More good news for our citizens, 32 more names are being removed from the ordinance violators list on tall weeds, and grass on their property. Once again, I thank each of you for the work you have done to improve your neighborhood and reduce the risk of fire danger in our city.

I'm proud to report that there is going to be 35 names removed from the code violation list here in our city. Their neighbors should give each one a call and thank them for their efforts to bring their property back in compliance.

It has been stated that our political careers could be in jeopardy over such a thing as listing our violators on a public web-site, but I think that we as elected officials stand a much better chance of losing our political careers by not doing our elected duties and serving the people that elected us into office. Once again this is my option, if someone isn't mad at you on a daily basis, then your probably not doing your job very well. There is no way any elected official can make everyone happy, and if something as trivial as posting violators should cost you a seat on political hill, then it wasn't worth the time or dedication to serve.

Amazing thing about city code violators, a few think the city is picking on them or there is a discrimination factor taking place due to gender or race. There seems to be another problem with the lines of communication in our city other than the local coffee shops each day. Our council and I have tried our level best to communicate the information of our city operations over the past years and it continues to fail due to the communication lines. Some people don't read the local paper, so a friend of mine helped to create this site to help aid people with an additional information site. This also falls short of meeting the communication lines to the general public. I'm sorry that we don't have time to set-up in the local coffee shops to discuss the local issues each day. All we can do is try to make the information available to the best of our abilities and hope for the best week to week.

Now back to the violators, over the past weeks many code violation letters have been sent out to our citizens. I must say many have made contact with our City office and to me, stating that clean up is underway, or they are looking for ways to get back in compliance. We except the information and offer words of encouragement or share information of possible help. We appreciate the hard work and willingness of these people to improve their property. But we do have a few that insinuate that the city or council are discriminating against them and threatening to contact their lawyer on us. Most times we offer our attorneys name, address and phone number and advise them to have their attorney contact ours. No attorneys involved at this time on these threats. We have listed the names of the violators on our city web-site so others could see that they are not the only one receiving these letters, so there shouldn't be any blame of picking on someone or discrimination issues. Our next step is to go back and remove the names that are now in compliance. If anyone would take notice to the names, the city is on the list as well as a council member.

We do have a group of people trying to start an out reach program to help the elderly and ill when needed, but people and resources are limited at present time. Hopefully this will change in the near future.

This site is also available for anyone wanting to make contact about an issue or ask questions directly to me. I will return your requested information to the best of my ability via your e-mail address.

In making information available to our citizens on Ordinance Violators within our city, check out the CityOfDeLeon.net website and go to "Code Violators" to view names that have received letters of notice.

Funny thing about being elected to an office in city government or any levels of government. So many citizens and friends encourage a candidate to run for an office and encourage and offer suggestions on making changes in the system or to a community.

After the candidate is settled in and starts to make changes suggested, many of these citizens and friends become outraged about the changes effecting them. Change in most cases isn't excepted very well at first, and some changes or ideals don't look as appealing or manageable when activated. Each time an ordinance is passed by council, it's intended to manage problems within the city giving the city the legal obligation and rights to handle the issue at hand for our citizens.

We as city leaders and our city attorney build the ordinance and council has final vote to approve each ordinance. Each new ordinance is posted in the local paper and our council meeting agendas have two readings before the ordinance is passed. Once an ordinance is in effect, council may elect to make changes as deemed to correct areas lacking clear direction or lacking additional wording to make the ordinance more user friendly.

Cities must have legal ways to protect it's self as well as it's citizens to continue to function in today's world. I can assure each citizen living in the City of De Leon, that I and our council do care about the citizens safety, health and the pursuit of happiness.

We welcome our citizens to attend council meetings each month. Our meeting days are every second and third Thursday starting at 6pm at City Hall. We as elected officials are dedicated in helping De Leon continue to be a safe place for our families and a great place to retire.