Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 33
Fair Features Crafters’ Creations • Cozby Library Will Loan You Things • CFBISD Has Lost a Trustee • Council Asks Questions About Questions
Fair Features Crafters’ Creations
People attend the State Fair of Texas for all kinds of reasons. Some enjoy the rides on the Midway. Others can’t resist the various fried foods. College football games also attract thousands of fairgoers.
Coppell resident Terrie Aune has been going to the State Fair consistently since the late ’60s. But for the last decade, her attendance has been stoked by competitive fire. As soon as she enters Fair Park, she makes a beeline to the Creative Arts Building.
“I can’t wait to see who got first place and what they did to beat me,” Aune said. “I want to think outside the box and come up with something to beat them.”
Creative arts competitions have been a part of the State Fair since it began in 1886. Nancy Wiley’s book The Great State Fair of Texas includes this statement about the inaugural fair: “Along with the usual contests to determine the best pair of Cayuga ducks or the blue-ribbon jar of pickled cucumbers, urban curiosities were whetted by a competition among three kinds of road machines to establish superiority in the practical art of grading streets.”
This year’s fair offered dozens of Arts & Crafts competitions across 15 “departments,” which range from Fine Art to Butter Sculpture. The winners were announced in August, when their names and cities of residence were posted on the fair’s website. For your convenience, your faithful correspondent created a spreadsheet of this year’s winners from Coppell.
Aune’s name appears on that spreadsheet twice, because she won two ribbons from the Holiday Corner Department. She was the runner-up in the Valentine Decoration category, but she earned a first-place ribbon in the Christmas Stocking category. This was her second victory for a Christmas stocking.
“Christmas is getting hard to win because it’s so over the top now,” she said. “It has to be something the judges haven’t seen before.”
This year’s award-winning stocking includes a pattern of a snowman swinging a baseball bat. Aune added details that made him a Texas Rangers snowman, including a capital T on his red batting helmet and the Texas flag on the shoulder of his uniform. If you view her stocking in the Creative Arts Building, you won’t get to see these other details she showed me via photos on her phone: She embroidered the complete lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” on the back of the stocking, and she added a pocket to the toe that’s labeled “Hot Dog Fund.”
Each department is comprised of divisions, and each division includes multiple categories. Within a division, the first-place winner from each category competes for a Best of Show ribbon. In 2012, Aune won one of those Best of Show ribbons in the Halloween division for this witch’s hat.
Any State Fair patron can consult a directory in the Creative Arts Building to view a particular winning entry, either by category or the competitor’s name. If you look through the honored entries in the Photography Department, you’ll see pictures taken by Coppell residents Susan Edgley and Kim Mobley.
Mobley entered her photography for the first time in 2017, when she won a first-place ribbon for a picture of “a mama longhorn and her baby longhorn.” This year, she got a third-place ribbon in the Holidays category for a Fourth of July fireworks photo she shot last year at Lake Cherokee, plus an honorable mention in the Scenery category for a picture she took at a friend’s ranch along the Red River.
“When we would go to the State Fair, my husband and I would always go to the Creative Arts and look at the photos,” said Mobley, a lifelong photographer. “And my husband and friends were like, ‘Your photos are just as good as these. You should enter.’”
Like Mobley, Edgley didn’t start entering her photos until 2017. She has since won 13 ribbons, including first place in this year’s Flora category and second place in this year’s State Fair Theme category.
“I am grateful to have placed in the exhibition every year I have entered, particularly in the photography category, which is the most competitive,” Edgley said. “In 2021, there were over 2,200 photograph entries submitted!”
Mary Jo Treadway is another Coppell resident who earned multiple ribbons this year, all in the Needlework and Sewing Department’s Crochet division. She won the Sweater competition and the Apparel That Does Not Fit Into Another Category contest; the latter victory was for a sleeveless top. She also got a third-place ribbon for a bracelet she entered in a category called Any Crocheted Article Not Mentioned Above. (There are 26 other categories in the Crochet division.)
Meanwhile, there are cooking contests that are decided over the course of the fair. As of this morning, eight departments had polished off 59 competitions. Coppell’s Anna Jones has already earned first-place ribbons for her pound cake, coffee cake, and muffins, plus second-place ribbons for her cupcakes, bark, and gingerbread. She also got a Best of Show ribbon for her coffee cake. Given her success so far, I’ll be surprised if she’s not also competing in today’s pie contest and Tuesday’s cookie contest.
The cooking contests offer cash prizes to go along with each ribbon, but the Arts & Crafts winners aren’t as fortunate. The fair gives the Director’s Award to a single Arts & Craft entry each year, and the creator of that entry gets $750.
(Thanks to sponsorships, there are additional prizes for a few Arts & Crafts categories. For example, the winner of the Western Wear category in Photography gets fitted for a custom Resistol straw hat.)
However, most Arts & Crafts winners get nothing more than a ribbon and bragging rights. For Aune, that’s enough.
“Once you win even a little bit, you’re hooked,” she said.
Cozby Library Will Loan You Things
If you find yourself in need of a pair of binoculars, a podcasting microphone, or a ukulele, stop by the Cozby Library and Community Commons. Those items are among the inaugural collection in its new Library of Things.
“In addition to all the traditional stuff that a library does, ultimately what we’re about is putting people in connection with experiences and getting them excited about learning and trying new things,” Director of Library Services Dennis Quinn said during the July meeting of the Coppell Library Board.
This “library of things” concept isn’t unique to Coppell. The public library in The Colony will loan you a stud finder or an electric power washer. Residents of Benbrook can check out croquet and disc golf sets. The Keller library offers a series of themed “date night” kits.
Most of the items in Coppell’s Library of Things — such as a telescope, an electric keyboard, and a bocce ball set — became available to Cozby Library patrons last Monday. But librarian Jennifer Franz told me the collection’s 12 umbrellas and 24 tote bags were made available the previous Thursday because there was rain in the forecast.
The umbrellas can be checked out for one week. Every other item in the Library of Things can be checked out for three weeks. None of them can be checked out by children, though, given their value. For example, the collection’s GoPro camera is worth nearly $300.
(Children are free to check out items from a separate collection of board games, jigsaw puzzles, and science experiments. If your kid has a birthday party coming up, you can also check out life-size cardboard cutouts of characters from Frozen, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and other popular franchises.)
Quinn told the Library Board that the new Library of Things collection is mostly comprised of items with a “high-dollar entry level” that people might want to test drive before making a big investment.
“The whole reason that we have all these books and DVDs is so you don’t have to buy every book that you want to read,” he said. Thanks to the Library of Things, “you don’t have to buy every thing that you want to try.”
Franz told me $1,130 has been spent on the items in the Library of Things. To put that amount in perspective, the library’s total budget for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was $2.2 million.
During the July meeting, Library Board member Sherry Carr-Smith asked whether every item in the Library of Things would be newly purchased or would donations be accepted.
“I’m asking because I have a million and three cookie cutters,” said Carr-Smith, who runs a bakery out of her home.
Quinn said his staff has no plans to accept donations, but they may consider it in the future.
“It would depend on the nature of the item and the condition — not to say that your cookie cutters are in bad shape or anything,” he said with a smile. “But it’s the same kind of philosophy as when we take book donations; in order to put them in the collection, they have to meet a quality standard, a condition standard per our collection guidelines.”
CFBISD Has Lost a Trustee
The Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees held their regular monthly meeting on Thursday, and one particular item on the agenda caught my attention: “Consideration and Possible Action to Accept Resignation of Board Member Juan Renteria.”
Trustee Randy Schackmann said Renteria submitted his resignation on Sept. 1 — the day before the board’s previous meeting — and it became effective eight days later. Schackmann said Renteria resigned because he had accepted a position as a judge.
“We know that was a dream of his. We wish him incredibly well in that and thank him for his service,” Schackmann said before making a motion to officially accept Renteria’s resignation.
Sure enough, Renteria’s LinkedIn profile has already been updated to say that he presides over Dallas County Court at Law No. 5. After briefly fiddling with the knobs on my Google machine, I found the minutes of the Dallas County Commissioners Court’s meeting on Aug. 17, which say the commissioners appointed Renteria to replace Judge Mark Greenberg, who resigned effective July 31.
(Getting back to Renteria’s LinkedIn profile for a second: It also says he has “advised corporate clients in Dallas and New York, most notably, Bossip.” That website describes itself as “the premier destination for African American popular culture and entertainment, with a voice that’s edgy, viciously hilarious, politically aware — and completely unique.” Noted!)
After I learned of Renteria’s resignation on Friday evening, I messaged a friend of mine who is employed by CFBISD to ask if she’d received any official notice. Not only did I break the news of his resignation to her, I also informed her that one of the seven people governing CFBISD was named Juan Renteria.
I can’t blame her for being unfamiliar with him. He had been a CFBISD trustee for less than a year, having won his seat in the pandemic-delayed election that happened last November.
As you may recall, CFBISD — which includes portions of Coppell and Irving — has a unique method of conducting elections called cumulative voting. Candidates simply have to declare themselves candidates, as opposed to declaring themselves candidates for a particular seat. However many seats are open, that’s how many votes each voter gets. You can give all of your votes to a single candidate, or you can spread them out.
Last November, three candidates were vying for two seats. Renteria and Les Black were elected, while Cydnei Drake was the odd woman out. Drake also finished in third place last May, when Cassandra Hatfield joined the board and Sally Derrick was re-elected.
Drake may be especially interested in the special meeting the board has scheduled for this Thursday evening to discuss the following topic: “Consideration and Possible Action to Select Process to Appoint an Individual to Fill a Vacant Position on the Board of Trustees.”
Council Asks Questions About Questions
John Jun and Biju Mathew were opponents in the 2018 election, but they have become a team of sorts since Jun joined the Coppell City Council last January. For example, in August, they were the only council members to vote against the proposed tax rate. And during the council’s Sept. 28 meeting, they cast the only votes against an amended budget for the recently concluded fiscal year.
During that same meeting, Jun and Mathew teamed up in a different way. One of the final items on every Coppell City Council agenda is “City Manager Reports,” in which City Manager Mike Land typically updates the council on various road repairs. On Sept. 28, he mentioned projects on Airline Drive, Belt Line Road, Cambria Drive, Plantation Drive, and Wise Way.
Once Land was finished, Jun said he had some questions about those projects. Mayor Wes Mays replied, “I’m sorry, but that’s not on our agenda for tonight. If you can submit those to the city manager’s office, he can address those with you offline, or at the next council meeting, depending on the topic.”
Subchapter C of the Texas Open Meetings Act is called “Notice of Meetings,” and it begins with this:
Sec. 551.041. NOTICE OF MEETING REQUIRED. A governmental body shall give written notice of the date, hour, place, and subject of each meeting held by the governmental body.
That means if a subject was not included on the notice of a meeting, then the governmental body cannot deliberate about that subject during that meeting. In this case, the aforementioned street projects were not specifically mentioned on the agenda for the Sept. 28 meeting, so the council could not debate them during that meeting.
Mays moved on to the next item on the agenda, “Mayor and Council Reports.” He plugged yesterday’s performances of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at the Coppell Arts Center, and Jun summarized a meeting he’d recently had with patrons of the Coppell Senior and Community Center. Then Mathew backtracked to the previous agenda item with a question for the mayor:
“Are you saying we cannot ask the city manager questions on the project that he just reported?”
Mays told Mathew that he should feel free to ask the city manager questions outside of the council chambers. That led to this tense exchange:
Mathew: “When do you ask questions of the city manager — any items?”
Mays: “Anytime you want to. He’s available to answer your questions anytime of the day.”
Mathew: “No, publicly.”
Mays: “Anytime of the day.”
Mathew, tapping on the dais: “Now.”
Mays explained that deliberations have to be preceded by a request for a topic to be included on the agenda. If the city manager discusses topics that aren’t included on an agenda, Mathew asked, when can council members pose follow-up questions? Mays reminded Mathew that he’d asked the council, via email, to submit such questions in advance so the city manager and his staff could prepare their answers.
Jun then jumped back in: “Are you asking us to ask you questions that you can prepare the answers for? Is that how it works?”
Mays replied, “No, what I’m saying is it’s only fair to the people that you’re asking questions of to give them a preview of what you’re asking so the proper answer can be given.” Otherwise, the mayor said, some questions might be too detailed for the city staff to immediately provide in-depth and accurate answers.
Jun asked, “So where does it say that we have to ask questions before we actually ask questions here on the dais?”
Mays’ answer: “It doesn’t. It’s a courtesy. It’s a professionalism.”
Mayor Pro Tem Brianna Hinojosa-Smith clarified that the “City Manager Reports” are simple reports that are not intended to be an “open Q&A.” She asked whether the council could “take this conversation into a work session of how we want to do things going forward and find a way to do this in a productive way.”
At Hinojosa-Smith’s request, City Attorney Bob Hager stepped up to the microphone to explain the requirements of the Open Meetings Act. Mathew then had a question for Hager:
“The manager provides a report to the council, whatever the update is going on in the city. The follow-up question to that report; is it — can we ask that question?”
Hager pointed at the agenda on the big screen in the council chambers and said, “Well, under that agenda item, no. Because you don’t know what the subject matter is, nor does the public. It’s not to have the manager prepared or you prepared, it’s the public, so they know what to listen to.”
If you found this article interesting, you may want to listen to the work session during this week’s City Council meeting. That portion of the agenda includes these items: “Discuss Council Agenda Request Process” and “Review of Council Code of Conduct and House Rules.”
Chronicle Crumbs
In last week’s Chronicle, I said that Kevin Nevels is the only member of the Coppell City Council who owns a business with a brick-and-mortar location in Coppell. I’ve since learned that Cliff Long owns Sovereign Mortgage Services, which is on Houston Street next door to George Coffee.
Community Calendar
Kaleidoscope: Coppell’s annual celebration of art, music, and diverse cultures will return to Andrew Brown Park East from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Coppell Color Guard Garage Sale: This fundraiser is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday in the Coppell High School parking lot. If you would like to donate items, bring them to the high school between 5 and 9 p.m. on Friday.
Work in Coppell Virtual Job Fair: If you’re looking for a new gig, you may want to attend this virtual event on Oct. 20.
Coppell Women’s Alliance Healthcare Panel: On Oct. 21, a group of medical doctors will answer questions via Zoom regarding “strategies for putting health first.”
Indie Author Fair: The Cozby Library will host this event on Nov. 13. If you’re a published author who would like to have a table at the fair, click that link to fill out an application.
I applaud Jun and Mathew for tryout to gain transparency behind proposed city projects . We finally have two brave council members that represent.
I hope you keep us updated on the question about questions.