2009 Articles
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Written by Tommy Adkisson
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Neighbors never knew what a burglar alarm was. They often left their homes unlocked. It was not unusual to see car keys in the ignition at the Model Market I worked at in my teen years. Neighbors knew and watched out for each other. They discussed the good, the bad and the ugly on the un-air-conditioned porches! Those were the days of 1950's and 1960's Highland Hills. Much has changed and today, we wouldn't think of going to bed without locking the door. We rather regularly hear of some crime going on in or around our immediate neighborhood. Some neighbors move into instead of up to the neighborhood. We don't always know our neighbors. And that's true for many if not most neighborhoods today! Enter the neighborhood association. Besides acquainting ourselves with each other in the associations, we address the "neighborhood agenda" below: 1.Security 2.Quality of Life---Code Compliance 3.Streets/Drainage 4.Library 5.Education 6.Parks 7.Elections 8.Public Official Reports One of the ways older neighborhoods decline is by their appearance and their spirit. Therefore, our vision for the Extreme Target Sweep initiative is to create a neater appearance in our neighborhood and to have an education about and a kindly interface with neighbors as we enforce our City's codes. Therefore we will work with the City's staff in the Extreme Sweep and attempt to inform the public of our intent while working to find ways to assist those aged and disabled noncompliant neighbors to become compliant. Who: Highland Hills Neighborhood Association What: Extreme Target Sweep Where: From Fair Avenue south to Pecan Valley, from I-37, New Braunfels to Salado Creek. When: May 4, 2009 to May 29, 2009 How: Volunteers working with City Staff Just a few weeks ago, one of the "died-in-the-wool", non-Highland Hills, neighborhood daughters told me that after over thirty-five years of living in her old neighborhood, she and her husband and family were giving up. They were moving to near 1604 into a newer neighborhood. She complained to me of low-grade neighbors, dangerous dogs and other assorted sources of heart burn to decent people. I felt badly for her because I know that she left a piece of her heart in the old neighborhood, but what could I say? I knew that she believed the schools to be disparaged if not struggling along with the children in them. How sad and how unnecessary! What I can do along with any of you is to actually get involved in the neighborhood association. The City is making credible attempts to address the challenges of its aging neighborhoods. If you are in the Highland Hills Neighborhood area, you may call 531-9491 for more information on the Extreme Sweep. We want to be your partner for progress! To contact the Commissioner, call or write to: Bexar County Courthouse, 100 Dolorosa, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas 78205, Office 335-2614, Fax 335-2644 e-mail:
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Written by Tommy Adkisson
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34 Year-Old Founder of SunEdison to Speak!
by Tommy Adkisson
April 27, 2009 Our very own Bill Sinkin, 95 years-young, just up and called Jigar Shah, founder of SunEdison, the most successful provider of solar energy in North America to see if he would come to San Antonio to keynote the Annual Solar San Antonio Luncheon! The fundraising event coincides with Bill's birthday on May 19 when he turns 96! And, Jigar Shah is coming! OnEarth Magazine covered Jigar Shah recently. "In 2003, Shah launched SunEdison to smash the decades-old paradigm that required anyone wanting solar to pay huge installation costs up front. Depending on its size, a rooftop array or a ground-based solar farm can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $10 million. This infuriated Shah, who has always believed that having to own the means of producing solar power is woefully out of step with how the energy industry operates. "Do you want to be in the power-plant business?" he asks. "Or do you just want to buy solar power?" Imagine having to own and operate a satellite to get DirecTV and you begin to understand why Shah scorned the prevailing model for solar energy. "For Shah's part, he didn't invent any groundbreaking technologies. He just repackaged ones that already existed and convinced people to buy them. SunEdison customers pay nothing for their solar systems. That's right, zero. Instead they sign what is known as a power-purchasing agreement, or PPA. These agreements are commonplace in the coal, oil, nuclear, and natural gas industries. But Shah figured out how to make PPAs profitable for solar, something that nobody had been able to do before. When SunEdison installs a solar array, the customer agrees under a PPA to buy the electricity it produces at a set price for at least 10 years. "Energy experts believe that continued increases in the efficiency of panel manufacturing and installation as well as the emergence of utility-scale installations will soon make solar cost-effective not only in states where grid power is expensive, but across the entire nation. When that happens, the solar industry will thrive without a single tax credit, subsidy, or incentive -- a feat that has never been achieved with any other form of energy. "According to the International Energy Agency, solar received $198 million in subsidies in 2007. In the same year, oil and natural gas collected $2.1 billion; coal got $3.2 billion. Taxpayers have bankrolled fossil fuels for a century, funding research and development and helping dirty energy stay cheap. "While new energy technologies come up all the time, technology is not the driver of the energy industry. The driver is the business model: how you get it financed and how you apply traditional risk-management methods to solar and wind and biomass." The opportunity to hear from this brilliant entrepreneur is unique! May 19, 2009
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Pearl Stable at the Pearl Brewery
Reservations/Sponsorships: 210-313-2445
Celeste Diaz Ferraro Email:
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Written by Tommy Adkisson
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There is little the County or City can do that substitutes for solid parental supervision of their children. However, Commissioner's Court at our last meeting considered ordering a youth curfew for our unincorporated areas of Bexar County. Although the City of San Antonio already has a youth curfew, Bexar County has a growing number of housing subdivisions outside of the City. The reason for the growing number of unincorporated subdivisions is the expense associated with the responsibility that the City incurs when it annexes more land to its city limits. The next hearing will be at the April 21 meeting of Commissioner's Court. There we hope to hear from you and especially Constables, Justices of the Peace and all school district officials, elected and appointed. Your input and that of the officials in our County will affect how Commissioner's Court Order will help maintain better law and order both late at night and during the school days. This Order applies to minors under 17 years of age. This does not of course, apply to minors accompanied by his or her parents or guardians or another adult approved by the parents or guardians, to emergency errands, to minors attending a school, government or religious activity, traveling to or from employment and a number of other common sense situations. It is unlawful for a minor to violate the curfew and for his parents or guardian to knowingly allow the minor to be in violation of the curfew. When in violation of the curfew order, the law enforcement officer shall issue a warning notice to the minor, who shall be ordered to go home by the most direct means and route. A copy of the notice shall be forwarded to the Juvenile Probation Department, which shall send a letter to the parent or guardian of the minor, advising of the fact that the minor was found in violation of the Curfew Order and soliciting cooperation in the future. If there is a second offense, the Juvenile Probation Department follows the same notification procedure above, but in this case sets up a conference with the parents or guardian concerning the County's expectation of parental control. In the event that a minor has twice previously been found in violation of the curfew order, the peace officer shall transfer the case to proper authorities for handling under the provisions of Title Three of the Texas Family Code. In addition, a complaint may be filed against the parents or guardians in the Justice of the Peace Court. Any minor or parents or guardians violating the Curfew Order shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor which carries up to a $500.00 fine. The Justices of the Peace are encouraged to consider the community service program. To contact the Commissioner, call or write to: Bexar County Courthouse, 100 Dolorosa, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas 78205, Office 335-2614, Fax 335-2644 e-mail:
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Written by Tommy Adkisson
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One of the worst things we can do in life is let someone else define what we can be, do or have. An old neighborhood friend of mine who was unable to stop fighting and stay in high school long enough to graduate told me years ago that there were a lot of people that were pretty good at predicting failure but as for him, they were looking at the makings of success! He rose from a very middle income background to become very financially secure. He believed in himself! One of the first rules of success is that we must have faith in ourselves! With belief in yourself, you just might decide to form your own business. And if you do, you may find that the free counseling provided by 40 experts in various fields of business and non-profits would be a great source of assistance to you. This is the sort of thing that Chapter 164 of SCORE here in San Antonio, referred to as ALAMO SCORE does regularly. It was chartered in 1974 to serve as a unique resource within the local business community, providing efficient and effective delivery of free, high quality technical and managerial counseling and guidance to prospective and existing small businesses and non-profit organizations in the greater San Antonio, Texas area. To do this, the Chapter relies on the services of some 40 business men and women with real-world experience and a strong belief in the importance of small business. In order to ensure that services are timely, relevant, and diverse, the Executive Committee invests in areas promising long-term success. Chapter core values include - Client focus
- Delivery of quality service designed to meet each client's specific needs and
- Ensuring the ethical and professional conduct required to make a significant contribution to the community
Chapter goals include - Identifying, meeting, and exceeding client expectations
- Provision of timely, well-designed training to ensure quality consulting to clients
- Recruiting a team of diverse and dedicated volunteer counselors, speakers, and workshop presenters
See www.sanantonioscore.org for further information. At the national level, anyone may obtain 30 free courses on the internet to take, a free business mentor, and free e-mail counseling from l200 counselors at www.score.org. The San Antonio Chapter has an office co-located with our partner, The Small Business Administration, at 173l9 San Pedro, Building 2, Suite 200, San Antonio, Texas 78232. They accept appointments and walk in's from 9-l2 and l-4 every business day. Additionally we have counselors providing guidance from l0 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays at the Frost Bank Building, l9th floor, downtown. During 2007, the San Antonio Chapter of SCORE met personally or by e-mail counseling some 2278 clients, helped start l58 new jobs, and assisted with starting some ll0 new businesses. To contact the Commissioner, call or write to: Bexar County Courthouse, 100 Dolorosa, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas 78205, Office 335-2614, Fax 335-2644 e-mail:
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Written by Tommy Adkisson
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There is a tidal wave of aging baby boomers rolling through our society. There is an acute need for health care prevention and the huge financial savings awaiting those gifted leaders so capable of capturing them through their innovation and inspired leadership. There are huge costs associated with new infrastructure and savings in utilizing rather than ignoring the existing infrastructure in our central city. We are aware of the massive investment that has been made in its public schools and how costly it is to ignore it. Today we are boldly planning for a central city health careers high school (HCHS)! Not only do applicants for the existing health careers high school exceed its capacity, there is an obvious and well-publicized crisis in health care delivery. Baby Boomers have begun to tax our already overburdened healthcare system. Many of our current healthcare providers are in that growing population and are ready to retire or approaching retirement. This is magnified by the fact there is a continuous decline in students entering school for training in the healthcare profession. Healthcare systems have had to even recruit from other countries to compensate for this growing shortage. Complicating this dilemma is the high dropout rate from our high schools. A centrally located HCHS partnering with SAISD and other ISD's along with Bexar County and the University Health System (UHS) at Fox Tech has several good reasons to be successful. The UHS is preparing to invest $300 million in the nearby historic Robert B. Green, the site of the most clinical visits to any health care institution in Bexar County. Health care institutions surround the school and are within walking distance. Furthermore, the teaching and mentorship would be enhanced by practicing doctors, nurses, technicians, and other medically related professionals nearby who are willing to volunteer their time and support to help the faculty for this worthy endeavor. Additionally, this central city location is ideal has excellent expressway access and nearby bus lines. With certain basic provisos, the SAISD Board and Superintendent Dr. Robert Duron approved this concept as early as June 23, 2008. All of the other independent school districts would be invited to join this partnership. A Blue Ribbon Committee should be formed and consist of well known individuals to oversee the project in its development, strategy and implementation. The University Health System and the Bexar County Commissioner's Court could play a significant role in this proposal. The alumni of the various high schools are interested and have deep ties to the foundation families of our community. Their support could be substantial by virtue of their grassroots support and what they could contribute financially. Also, pharmaceutical and health-related companies can contribute through their foundations. The Central City HCHS would serve San Antonio's first medical center downtown and beyond as well as provide an environment for educating our youth to cross the bridge to advanced training, excellent paying jobs and an inspired calling to the health care profession! |
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