March 22, 2008 by elbo95.

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March 22, 2008 by elbo95.

Last night, several community members and I put together “water bottle art messages” for friends to send a message to their friend, Shaun.  Tom Thumb of Mesquite donated over 50 water bottles and we will filled each bottle with several drops of water coloring. We then cut out wax paper and asked his friends and family to write a message on each and place the message in the bottle. This was an opportunity for the teens to express themselves through art and we hope to inspire each of you to do this all over your neighborhoods in the City of Mesquite. This is the final product. Our only  hope was to inspire the young people to express their grief constructively and with creativity.

In each of the bottles is a message to their friend, Shaun Hebert.

You can find this display at the corner of Bruton Road and Poplar.

Special thanks to the City of Mesquite, City of Garland, City of Balch Springs, and the City of Dallas for their recovery efforts of this fine young man.

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March 22, 2008 by elbo95.

You can find the excellent coverage of the candle-light vigil here

Video here 

Thanks to Stephanie Lucero for her professional nature during this difficult time.

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March 21, 2008 by elbo95.

We believe there were over 300 community members who attended tonights candle-light service for Shaun Herbert’s friends and family. As a community member of Edgemont Park, we were all completely overwhelmed by the support of teachers from West Mesquite, and Shaun’s many many friends. My Mother and I met so many people from Edgemont Park who came to show their support for this young man’s friends & family. We were grateful to meet Shaun’s brother, and his Aunt and Uncle who drove out from Baton Rouge, LA to support their family during this difficult time. The West Mesquite Band members sang several songs including the school fight song. A prayer was given by a teacher’s husband and a band booster club president helped keep things rolling during the impromptu service. We hope that the young people had an opportunity to digress their grief and know their pain is far from over. Our hope was to let our children know that the Mesquite community will do anything we can to support them during their difficult high school years.

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March 21, 2008 by elbo95.

Meet us at McWhorter Park tonight for a candlelight vigil for Shaun’s friends and family.

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March 21, 2008 by elbo95.

A group of students gathered Thursday evening outside West Mesquite High School to honor classmate Shaun Hebert.

Shaun died after getting swept up in the current of Mesquite Creek. His body was found Thursday afternoon.

A mixture of students from all grade levels and interests discussed some of their memories of Shaun.

A candle light vigil is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday at the bottom of McWhorter Park.

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March 20, 2008 by elbo95.

Tonight, there will be a community gathering for Shaun at West Mesquite High School…tonight in the band hall. Join us all tomorrow for a candlelight vigil at McWhorter Park at 7:30 pm at the bottom of McWhorter Park.

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March 20, 2008 by elbo95.

Trees surrounding the site at McWhorter Park, where Shaun Hebert was reportedly swept into fast-moving current Tuesday, have been wrapped overnight with blue ribbons.

Neighbors continue to hold out hope that the body reportedly found between Cartwright Road and Interstate 635 may not be Hebert’s.

The Mesquite Fire Department has reported a body has been found, but has not reported whether it might be the body of Hebert.

“The blue ribbons are for water rescue,” said Laura Beth Hammons, an Edgemont Park subdivision community leader. “We’re hoping for the best.”

It has been indicated that water bottle art, also blue-colored, will be added soon.

Hammonds is asking anyone wishing to donate to the family to do so through First State Bank Mesquite.

Donations can be made to Friends of McWhorter Park-Shaun Hebert.
 

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March 20, 2008 by elbo95.

 Body Found During Search for Boy in Creek

~~~~~~

If anyone would like to meet up with members of our community “Edgemont Park”. We will be at the McWhorter Park placing blue ribbons, in solidarity at 2pm, to express our hopes that Shaun is found as soon as possible. If you would like to help us, please meet us at 2pm, to place blue ribbons around the McWhorter Park to express our grief for this tragedy in our neighborhood and school park. Our prayers our with Shauns’ family, friends, and teachers.

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March 20, 2008 by elbo95.

 NOTE from Laura Hammons: We are seriously saddened by the accident that happened at McWhorter Park to the young man Shaun Herbert. We are praying for his family, his friends and the recovery of this fine young man. If you would like to assist in our Neighborhood Art Project we need the following items.

1. Water Bottles

2. Food Coloring

3. Blue Ribbons

Please call me at 972.285.1675 “Friends of McWhorter Park” will accept donations for Shawn and his family. You can submit the donations to First State Bank Mesquite on Military Parkway. Make checks out to Friends of McWhorter Park/Shaun Herbert. All donations will be given to Shaun’s family. We as a community should pull together during this time of crisis to help comfort his family, our community, and our young teens who are deeply saddened by this tragedy at our dear McWhorter Park.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A search and rescue mission Tuesday to locate Shaun Herbert, of Mesquite, has turned into a recovery mission, according to the Mesquite Fire Department.

Shaun, 14, a freshman at West Mesquite High School, was swept away by flood waters south of the Interstate 635 overpass at Bruton Road at about 1:42 p.m. Tuesday when he was reportedly playing in Mesquite Creek and was pulled in by fast-moving flood waters. His friend, Joel Wilson, 15, was able to swim to safety, but witnessed Shaun being swept away by the strong current and into a drainage pipe under I-635.

“At this time, we’re classifying this as a recovery operation,” said Lt. Jeff Miller, spokesman for the Mesquite Fire Department. “The weather has cleared up quite a bit and has helped with the search.”

The disappearance of Shaun renews safety questions for many friends and neighbors concerning recent construction along that area of Mesquite Creek, where three converging creeks have been paved up to drainage tunnels.

“It is not safe now,” said Wilma Lair, a 35-year resident of the Edgemont Park subdivision where Shaun’s family resides. “There are three creeks that all come together here. The water was just so swift.”

Laura Beth Hammons, a community activist for Edgemont Park, indicates for the past year she has addressed safety issues with the city in regards to the culvert in the area where Shaun was overtaken by flood waters.

“There’s a safety issue,” Hammons said. “There should be signs posted.”

Lair indicates in 35 years she cannot recall heavy rain causing the water to move so swift or rising as quickly as it did Tuesday.

“When I was a kid we would be down here Crawdad fishing,” said Kerri Cantrell, a mother of a small child. “They paved the creek and now it attracts more kids for skateboarding. It can’t be good.”

The search area for Shaun grew from about three-quarters of a mile to about a mile and a half from I-635 where Shaun was reportedly swept into the fast-moving current stretching to Belt Line Road.

While emergency personnel search Mesquite Creek for the body, neighbors and friends were beginning to gather near the command center at McWhorter Park.

“We are all very upset with anything that happens to any children in our neighborhood,” Hammons said. “Anything we can do as a community, we’ll do it.”

“My heart goes out to the family and we feel their grief,” Cantrell said. “I only have one child and I just don’t know what I would do if anything happened. This is Mesquite. Things like this don’t happen in Mesquite.”

The search for Shaun began at about 1:48 p.m. Tuesday. Emergency personnel called for air support in the search from the Department of Public Safety at about 6 p.m. Swift water rescue personnel was called in and today emergency personnel have called upon parks and recreation and public works staff to assist in the mission to find Shaun.

The swift water team from the Dallas Fire Department searched the tunnels under I-635, swimming in areas where they believed a body could be trapped.

“This is something that could take quite some time before we find this individual,” said David Martin, Dallas Fire Department special chief.

The search began with Mesquite fire and police in a joint effort with the Balch Springs Fire Department. A team of four search dogs were called upon to comb the creek to find Shaun.

“Their job is to find the victim more quickly,” Martin said. “There have been some occasions where the dogs do what we call showing interest. It is very windy, so that has an affect on the scent trail.”

The area along the creek east of I-635, which now encompasses all of the search area, heavy wooded, according to Martin.

“The brush is so think that our dog handlers called back and asked if we had machetes,” Martin said. “It is possible that we might not find the victim in the creekbed, but in the woods. A storm like we had brings a lot of debris downstream.”

“There is just so much debris we are dealing with on the other side of the culvert,” Miller said. “We’ve searched several hundred yards downstream.

“The search is ongoing. We’ll just keep going until we get it done. The chief (Mark Kerby) has talked to the family and they seem to be holding up OK. They are upset, obviously.”

The search area has doubled since midmorning Wednesday and according to Miller will continue around the clock until Shaun is found.

“It is frustrating,” Miller said. “We thought we would be able to find him by now.”

Martin indicates many times a recovery will take two or three days, though he was not prepared to term the mission a recovery project.

Current is no longer flowing in the upper portion of Mesquite Creek and has receded throughout the area. The water level has dropped more than two feet since the Tuesday flooding. Brush and debris continue to pose difficulties. Still, Mesquite fire officials are pledging to search until Shaun is located.

“Our job is to fix the problem,” Miller said. “That’s what we plan to do.”

Hammons says residents in the community are holding out hope that Shaun can be found unharmed.

“I’m always at the playground and I’m sure I have seen him around,” Hammons said. “It is so sad. My cousin and I were talking about how we were down there playing as kids and what could have happened to us.”

Hammons indicates a neighborhood art project is being planned in support of Shaun.

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March 19, 2008 by elbo95.

See Article Here

Friends of McWhorter Park & Edgemont Park Community Club sends our prayers to this boy and his family. We are all terribly shaken up by this tragedy.

 Mesquite, Texas – Emergency workers are searching for a 14-year-old boy they said was swept away while playing near a rain-swollen creek in Mesquite Tuesday afternoon.

Mesquite and Balch Springs emergency service workers conducted a search and rescue mission south of the I-635 overpass at Bruton Road for Sean Herbert.

Herbert and a friend were playing in a nearby creek when they were pulled in by fast-moving flood waters at about 1:40 p.m., but Herbert’s friend was able to swim to safety, emergency workers said.

The boy who escaped told authorities that he witnessed Herbert being swept away and sucked into a drainage pipe.

“It just takes a couple of inches to wash a car away, so you can imagine what it can do to a person on foot,” Lt. Jeff Miller said.

Herbert’s brother, Tristan Boudreux, said Herbert was a good kid who was in the band at school and enjoyed playing video games.

Mesquite and Balch Springs emergency workers were on site searching for the missing teen, and the Mesquite Police Department has set up a mobile command center at McWhorter Park in the 1700 block of Springlake Drive.

Rescue crews have set up checkpoints every quarter mile and are using infrared technology that can detect body heat.

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March 5, 2008 by elbo95.

See Article Here

Thanks Brian Porter!

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February 29, 2008 by elbo95.

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February 25, 2008 by elbo95.

Looking for pictures that anyone may have of the Mother Goose Park that used to occupy young children in our neighborhood.  It was across Spring Lake from McWhorter Park.  If you have any, please let me know.

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February 23, 2008 by elbo95.

 The Huge Elephant in the “bedroom” of Dallas (TO Anderson and Latham)

Just because I support one candidate, (Mike Anderson), that doesn’t mean I have any intention of letting up asking the important questions that affect our everyday lives. This last week I got ANOTHER mailer on illegal immigration! Presently both  Latham and Anderson sent ads attacking each other for not providing any solutions. I can’t stand it. Put the blame where the blame is due… like Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchinson (supporter of the “Dream Act”, which tried to slip in amnesty), and President Bush! Immigration problems exist; but we can not ignore them until after the November election is over, REPUBLICAN PARTY!  Just because your peers in the Republican Party are reluctant to provide solutions, doesn’t mean either one of you are worthless on immigration.

Does Latham or Anderson support more prisons to incarcerate children? IN Taylor, Texas there is a state prison called Hutto Priso near Austin. This Illegal Immigrant Internment Camp is home to more than 200 children and young Mothers! I wish both candidates would not trivilize this issue by making fun of each other.  The mailer order scare tactics  provide a way to intimidate voters and illegal immigrants. We should not use psychological manipulation because of the great fortune Texas business owners make off of the cheap, reliable market of illegal immigrants.

 I kindly request that either of these candidates hold an open forum to ask what the people in the 101st District think about illegal immigration without having to resolve these HUGE PROBLEMS by themselves.  

You can find more information about Hutto here. Ask Latham and Anderson to hard questions. Residents of the 101st District should lead…not our leaders! That is why we can them REPRESENTATIVES!

How can we get provide success in Iraq if we can not solve our problems in our own country?

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February 23, 2008 by elbo95.

My family and I woke up early this morning to attend a Mike Anderson Supporter gathering at the Rodeo at 9 am! (see picture of my family!)

(Photo of Donald B McFalls Commander of Amvets Post 25 Mesquite and the Hammons Family)

WE then took my little 4 year old daughter to her dance class at Dunford Community Center where the early voting is taking place for the Texas Primaries. We both decided, against our own intuition, to vote in the primary using electronic voting machines. I found that the Voting Clerk was very intimidating, especially to new voters! AHHH!

I was able to vote for my favorites, RON PAUL and Mike Anderson…but unfortunately there were several complaints that Mike Anderson nor Thomas Latham was available on the voting machine on the Republican ticket. I called both candidates Latham and Anderson to let them know what is going on. I got a call from Mrs. Latham that her sister had the same problem. Someone at the voting station is messing with the vote! What is going on? I called the Dallas Morning News and if you would like to help us expose voter fraud in Mesquite, please contact the Dallas Morning News ASAP! 214.977.6155

Additionally, if there is any senior who needs a ride to the polls, let us know and we will provide transportation for you!

DEMOCRACY IS AT STAKE! We can not promote democracy overseas if we can not get it at home!

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February 22, 2008 by elbo95.

Hello fellow Edgemont Park residents! I am an community activist for your community, Edgemont Park! 

Please meet me Sunday at my house on February 22, 2008 anytime to meet and greet with your other neighbors who are involved in the Community Development Improvement Process. Edgemont Park is on track with a grant program aimed to help revitalize our aging community.

This weekend, you will be getting a call from me urging you to vote in the primary for Mike Anderson, our former Mayor of Mesquite.  I whole-heartedly support him in his campaign for the 101st Districct of this GREAT STATE OF TEXAS. Mike Anderson has been a big influence in my life for the last 2 years. He is a member of Mimosa Lane and is always willing to listen. I admire his family and courage to make a difference in our city and the 101st District.  Some people have told me that they do not like Mike. I always answer, “if you don’t like Mike, why didn’t you decide to run against him in our local elections”? You can complain all you want but unless to are willing to create change…how can you complain? It takes courage to run a great city like Mesquite and we need more strong leaders in our community willing to participate in our local government. Whether you agree with him or not, he (Mike) has been a large part of our community for well over 10 years holding the place of Mayor.

For all of you who haven’t decided to vote for Mike or not, you can call me at 972.285.1675. I will tell you exactly how I feel about this steward of our city, MESQUITE!

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February 18, 2008 by elbo95.

FOUND AT

http://rachellopezcampaign.com/voterinfo.htm

 Early voting in Mesquite runs Monday, April 28, 2008 through Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at Dunford Community Center, 1015 Green Canyon, Mesquite, TX 75150

La votación anticipada en Mesquite corre Lunes 28 de Abril hasta Martes, 6 de Mayo 2008 en Dunford Community Center, 1015 Green Canyon, Mesquite, TX 75150

I SUPPORT RACHEL LOPEZ! Come out and meet Rachel

Come meet Rachel at the Fun & Fundraiser
Thursday, March 6, 2008 at Double D Ranch!

You’re invited to join Rachel and hear her vision for the future of Mesquite.

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February 17, 2008 by elbo95.

A year ago, the election season was boring. No opposition was found for four council seats and the city’s only contested race was for a Mesquite ISD board of trustees place in which the challenger said he was running simply to give people a choice.

That was a year ago. It was before two alcohol-related propositions placed on the November ballot resulted in the city’s highest voter turnout of all time.

That election seemed to awaken the voting public. Then a change took place on city council when Mike Anderson resigned after 10 years serving as mayor and earlier this year David Paschal also resigned his Place 4 seat to take effect in May. Anderson was the second-longest tenured mayor in the history of the city. Paschal had served as the second-longest tenured active member of council, first earning his seat in 1998.

Filing opened Monday for the May elections. Five seats are available on city council and each of them are expected to be contested.

The mayor’s post is expected to be decided among two current members of city council and a former members of council. John Monaco, who had served on the council since 2001, was named mayor by the council shortly after Anderson’s departure. John Heiman Jr., the longest tenured active member of council serving since 1991, has filed to oppose Monaco. James Folks, a member of city council from 1994 to 2002, has picked up a packet but has yet to file for the seat.

Monaco left his Place 2 post open upon being named mayor. It could be a seat sought by as many as four people. Bill Metzger has filed for the seat. Joe Hicks Jr, a member of city council from 1987 to 1989, has picked up a packet but has yet to file. Charles Flanery and Al Forsythe have also picked up packets but have yet to file and give Metzger opposition. Stan Pickett, a member of council since 2004, has yet to draw opposition for his Place 3 seat. Laura Beth Hammons, an activist in the Edgemont Park community and during the beer and wine election, has picked up a packet but has yet to file for the seat.

There have been four persons to file for the Place 4 seat held by Paschal, who has indicated he will not seek reelection. Greg Noschese, the chair of the Save Our Stores committee in support of the November alcohol sales propositions, has filed. Carole Lochhead, a former member of council from 1989 to 2003, has also filed for the seat. Rachel Lopez, an organizer of the Hispanic Forum of Mesquite, has also filed, along with Dan Aleman Jr., a pastor.

Shirley Roberts, a member of council since 2002, is the incumbent in Place 5. She has filed for reelection. Michael Dougan has filed to oppose Roberts.

Bob Braddock and Carlos Zamora have picked up packets, but have not filed. It is unclear which seat they may seek, should they file.

The last day to file for the May election is March 17.

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January 31, 2008 by elbo95.

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