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Salado Residents Want Better Science on Salamander Shopping Map of Salado on pages 4B-5B Salado illageillage oiceoice VOL. XXXV, NUMBER 9V TVHUrsDAY, JUNE 21, 2012 254/947-5321 FAX 254/947-9479 V V WWW.SALADOVILLAGEVOICE.COM 50¢ Residents want better science on salamander BY TIM FLEISCHER of the Salado Creek water- line the approach to the EDITOR-IN-CHIEF shed and the water quality $60,000 year-long study and water quantity of the and to introduce the prin- As traffic on Highway habitat of the Salado sala- cipal scientists who will be 45 in Round Rock roared mander. gathering data in the com- overhead, Congressman Neither of these efforts ing months. John Carter announced are likely to impact the Meanwhile, the U.S. at a June 18 press confer- pending decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service ence his plans to attach an U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- (FWS) is slated to an- amendment to the Interior vice to add the Salado sala- nounce whether the four and Environment Appro- mander as an Endangered species of salamanders in priations Bill that would species. Bell, Williamson and Tra- strip any funding “to ad- While Rep. Carter said vis counties will be listed vance or pursue adding any he will propose the House as endangered. The dead- of the population of blind bill amendment within a line for FWS to propose salamanders of Salado, week, the Appropriations those species for listing is Jollyville Plateau, George- bill has many hurdles to Sept. 30. The schedule for town or Austin, Texas, to pass. First, it has to get out listing the salamander spe- the list of endangered spe- of Appropriations com- cies is part of a settlement cies or as a threatened spe- mittee (with the amend- between USFWS and the cies under the Endangered ment in place) and to the Center for Biological Di- Species Act of 1973.” House floor. If it passes versity to force the USFWS A few yards behind the House, then the House to consider listing 756 spe- Congressman Carter was version and Senate version cies as endangered, giving a habitat of about 100 sala- will go to a joint commit- them federal protection. Of manders in a small spring tee where the differences those 756 species, 251 have not much bigger than the between the bills passed by been petitioned to be listed podium set up for Cart- the two legislative bodies as endangered, including er and local Williamson are hashed out for a bill to the four salamander spe- County officials to speak pass both houses. cies in the central Texas about the Georgetown sal- In other words, accord- area. amander. ing to Rep. Carter, “don’t Rep. Carter, along A few hours later, hold your breath.” with Texas Senators John Salado area landowners, Don’t hold your breath Cornyn and Kay Bailey citizens and local, county on a local effort to study Hutchison wrote a letter and state government offi- the Salado salamander and last month asking USFWS cials gathered at the Stage- its habitat to flesh out any regional director Benjamin coach Inn conference cen- local conservation efforts Tuggle to refrain from list- ter, just a few hundred feet to protect the salamander ing the salamander species from two of the six known and property rights any due to local conservation Red and black, venom lack Michael Foux from the Austin Reptile Shows off a Milk Snake, which has bands like sighting locations of the time soon either. efforts already in place. a venomous Coral Snake. However, he helped the kids gathered at the Salado Public Salado salamander. They Major stakeholders in “There are concerns that met to outline plans for a the Salado salamander Library on June 18 for the Summer Reading Program to remember the old saying, “red SEE SALAMANDER, PAGE 6A year-long $60,000 study study met June 18 to out- and yellow kill a fellow, red and black venom lack.” (PHOTO BY ROYCE WIGGIN) End of an Era Dairy Queen will close to make room for I-35 By Tim Fleischer meal for families on the way from Bruce Tidwell in the other and for the last decade, Editor-in-Chief to or from Little League, a late 70s after a coaching Salado Dairy Queen has coffee klatch for oldtimers stint at Salado High School. been owned and operated When they turn out the who could fix all the world’s Coach and his brother by Coach Smith’s children lights on June 22, the Coach problems if they could just hired lots of teenagers from (Dezri Smith, Myrta Hodge Smith family will mark the put down the coffee, and of Salado, as well as Bartlett, and husband Claude, Kathy end of an era of more than course a first job. Jarrell and Holland. They Rutherford and husband three decades in Salado. “Coach trained so many served countless families, Wayne and Penny Curry and The local Dairy Queen kids,” daughter Penny Cur- including the kids of kids husband Ron) through the is a landmark in just about ry said. For well over two they once served and gave Coach Smith Family LLC. every small Texas town. In decades, Coach Smith and on-the-job training to as About a hundred folks Salado it has been more than his brother Charles were teenagers. converged on the Dairy (PHOTO BY STEPHANIE HOOD) that. A hangout for teenag- fixtures at the Salado Dairy Both men passed away Penny and Ron Curry. ers, a place to grab a quick Queen. Coach bought it within a short time of each SEE DAIRY QUEEN, PAGE 12A IN SIDE Aldermen meet June 21 Salado aldermen will meet 6 p.m. June 21 to consider CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2B approving a plat for the Mill Creek Courtyard Homes Sub- Subscribe CLAssIFIEDS 1C division (following a public hearing), as well as possibly FORUM 2A expending funds on an advertising proposal by local busi- Today SHOPPING MAP 4B nesses. The board will also appoint a voting member of the Tourism Council and an alternate to the Council. Aplder- 254/947-5321 ROOTED IN SALADO men will meet in workshop session at 4:30 p.m. June 21. SINCE 1979 Page 2A, SALADO Village Voice, June 21, 2012 Habitat for Salamanders FORUMFORUM and Texans An Open Exchange of Ideas BY CONGRESSMAN JOHN CARTER and is very elusive. USFWS is not cer- When Congress created the Endan- tain of whether it still exists. It has been gered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, it was found in the springs that feed Salado with noble goals in mind. We wanted Creek in Bell County. USFWS searched to save and restore our populations of for the salamander from 1991-98 and eagles, bison, and other species that were found none, while Texas Parks and Wild- in danger of extinction. life researchers found just one in weekly The Act has been enormously effec- searches over the past three years. tive. Many of the originally targeted The result of USFWS listing these sal- populations have increased so dramati- amanders as endangered species could be cally that they have now been removed economically devastating, especially in from the endangered species list, includ- Williamson and Bell County, which have ing the Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, prospered through much of this recession Grizzly Bear, and others. due to our continued growth. But in recent years we have seen the Construction of new homes, schools, ESA hijacked by special-interest groups roads, bridges, water treatment plants, using the courts to impose a radical anti- and businesses could be brought to a development, preservationist agenda on screeching halt in much of the area. the nation. This agenda is not about sav- Even additions to existing homes and ing species. It is about gradually block- businesses could be blocked if the land A bad case of national amnesia ing future economic development and is determined to be part of salamander The Declaration of Independence suburban growth, and using the ESA to habitat – and remember that can be any is a poor excuse for an obscure histori- effectively seize control of private land. land that could drain into an area with cal document. It’s not the Magna Carta In May 2011 USFWS signed a settle- salamanders, meaning much of both or the Peace of Augsburg. Its name is Rich ment agreement to a lawsuit filed by a counties. Not only would growth end, so straightwordly functional, it almost group called WildEarth Guardians which existing property values could drop due makes you wonder why the Founders Lowry forces USFWS to make endangered spe- to the new restrictions. weren’t more imaginative. cies determinations on at least 251 spe- Our counties are moving aggressively Yet only 35 percent of American cies over the next six years. to prevent these salamanders from be- fourth-graders know the purpose of the This is the agenda we now face here ing added to the endangered species list. Declaration of Independence, accord- lineup. in Central Texas as USFWS investigates They are doing it the right way, by tak- ing to a National Assessment of Educa- The content of education began to whether the Austin Blind, Salado, Jol- ing concrete steps to ensure these species tional Progress. The findings of the test change in the middle of the 20th century, lyville Plateau, and Georgetown Sala- survive, through voluntary, local habitat -- administered to representative samples and eventually tipped into embarrass- manders in Bell, Williamson, and Travis protection measures. of fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders -- are ment and self-abasement. Huntington counties are threatened or endangered – This month, I joined with our Senators another dreary recitation of the historical cites a study of 22 grade-school readers and in our case, render this decision by John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison ignorance of America’s students.
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