[Marlin Democrat] -- Community Garden Club members pay tribute, dedicate footbridge

Community Garden Club members pay tribute, dedicate footbridge in memory of Hazel Goddard

by Denise Schoppe
Staff Writer

The Marlin Democrat
September 08, 2004


The new footbridge in Faulkner Park was dedicated by the Community Garden Club, to the memory of Hazel Goddard, former member of the club, and presented to the City of Marlin for the enjoyment and use of the citizens.

Jimmy Nutt led the dedication. Present were members of the club, Celeste Kotter, President of the Parks Board, Norman Erskine, Mayor, and Miles Shaunfield, Marlin City Manager.

“There has been need for a footbridge in Faulkner Park for sometime,” Nutt said. “Proposals were made to the club and a footbridge in the park was accepted as a project.”

Sirman Welding was the contractor of the bridge, and it was installed on August 12.

“The process of selecting the type of bridge and getting bids for its construction took time and effort,” Nutt said. “We wanted an attractive, durable and safe bridge.”

Erskine thanked the club for the bridge, and Shaunfield said it is “an example of what a dedicated group of volunteers can do.”

After the dedication, members of the club traveled to the new Department of Public Safety and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department building on Rose Street. They were met by Corporal Natasha Remington of the Highway Patrol.

The club had been approached by Remington to plant flowers in front of the building to aid in making it more attractive.

The two agencies have been in the building since the spring, and have made many improvements thanks to donations of supplies by Ace True Value, labor-hours done by women at the Texas Department of Corrections Hobby Unity, and through monetary donations by anonymous citizen. Remington credits the success of the buildings improvements to Jessie Moreno. Moreno does maintenance at the courthouse, and he coordinated the various steps taken to complete the project.

“We’ve had people from the neighborhood tell us they are glad to have us here,” Remington said. “We’ve had no problems with any type of vandalism.”

Remington said that the building is large enough to fit all of their troopers, there are currently five serving Falls County, as well as the game warden. She said they would be happy to have the drivers license office return to Marlin, but it is up to citizens contacting their legislators and requesting an office be opened.

The Community Garden Club is the oldest of its kind in the state. It is a very active organization and has many ongoing projects throughout the city.

[Marlin Democrat] Column -- Who needs sleep? I do!

Who needs sleep? I do!
Nise's Notes
By Denise Schoppe

The Marlin Democrat
September 8, 2004


Sleep — the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored

Interesting concept, sleep. You lie down, close your eyes and eventually drift into a state in which everything slows down. You breathe deeply. You relax. You dream things that most of the time don’t make sense.

Sleep is an important component to a person’s health. Their mental, emotional and physical states can be greatly altered by a lack of sleep. However, in today’s world in which everything moves so fast, the thing that gets sacrificed first to get everything done is usually sleep.

I don’t get enough sleep. I know I don’t. However, demands of getting things done have altered my sleep schedule so dramatically that I’m not sure I know how to get it on track. Or even that I really want to yet.

See, I love the night hours. My ideal time of “day” is from around midnight to 4:00 am. That doesn’t make for a very long night of sleep as I get up every day around 7:00 am, so I usually have to miss those hours in exchange for sleep.

Usually, but not always.

Some nights, I just can’t help being too wired to sleep, or else I just have something else to do that I feel is more important than sleep.

It all started in high school, when the amount of homework I had was so heavy that I was forced to become acquainted with the early AM hours. The radio personalities on a program called “After Midnight” were my company, and I began to find that I really could run on four hours of sleep when circumstances demanded it.

College came and it got worse. Two hours of sleep seemed to work okay every now and then, and all-nighters I discovered give a fascinating up-down effect on a person’s physical and mental state.

Upon graduation, I was determined to get back to getting plenty of sleep. That happened, except that my new sleep schedule was around 5:00 am some nights until almost noon. I did it by choice, and I quickly came to wonder, “What’s morning?”

I’d like to say that things changed drastically once I began working, but it didn’t. No, my schedule has been altered once again to allow myself a few nights a week of enjoying my late night hours, and then trying to make up for the lost sleep on other nights.

It’ll be my luck my doctor will read this and send me a stern letter reminding me of the last lecture about getting enough sleep.

Sleep is very important, I know. One of these days I’ll let the many lectures sink in and I’ll try harder to get more sleep. However, until that time I’ll just keep running on empty, refueling the energy cells as time allows it.

Much like the rest of the world does. There was a time when you slept when it was dark, and worked while it was light. Now nothing stops, and sleep gets lost in the cracks of time.

For something as simple and lying down and closing your eyes, sleep is an important part of living a healthy and happy life. Maybe we should all do more to try to reincorporate it into our lives.