Malakoff-Henderson County Now

James Surls coming home to Malakoff

By Lyn Dunsavage,

James Surls, who was recognized March 4 in Austin as the biennial Texas Medal of Arts’ winner in Visual Arts, will be returning to Texas April 27-28 to spend two days visiting in Malakoff with his friends, former students, colleagues, and fans during a tour opening of the James Surls’ Sculpture Gardens: A Memorial to Joe Surls.

Surls will introduce two major recent pieces he is placing in his father’s and Jo Ann Price Surls’ East Texas ranch, which already features the largest concentration of Surls’ works in the country, with over 40 of his early works.

A former student of Surls at SMU, Dallas attorney and, now, full-time sculptor George Tobolowsky will also attend the East Texas Artists and Sculpture Gardens tour in Malakoff April 27-28. He will be locating three of his major sculptures in the James Surls’ Sculpture Gardens for the next two years, a major contribution. Tobolowsky already has several pieces in major museums and also serves on both the Dallas Museum of Art’s and the Meadows’ Museum’s boards.

Surls and Tobolowsky will give a presentation on their art at a dinner at the Malakoff Community Center, Saturday evening at 7 p.m. (reservations required).

Charmaine Locke, who will be bringing in her second sculpture this year from Colorado to the Surls’ gardens; and Louisiana native Bill Weiner, who presently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will be introducing two of his works to the Surls’ gardens, also for the next two years. All pieces are significant in size and impression in the four-plus acre James Surls’ Sculpture Gardens.

Former Dallas residents James and Barbara Stewart will open their private sculpture gardens also during the two-day tour in Malakoff April 27-28. Their gardens have been distinguished as the winner of the Landscape Architects’ “Residential Landscape of the Year” Award (2007). Jason Osterberger designed their gardens around the large sculptures by outstanding American sculptors Glenna Goodacre, Gary Lee Price, David Pearson, W. Stanley Proctor, Walt Horton, Jo Saylors, and Terry Jones.

The “Sunken Gardens” of the Historic Bartlett House and Heritage Gardens in Malakoff will also be open to the public, for the first time after a major effort in the last year to restore the east gardens renowned in the 1930s for their roses and thousands of bulb plants, including jonquils, iris, and narcissus (paper whites).

Lunch, early morning sweets, and refreshments will be served from the Veranda overlooking the Sunken Gardens, and a number of outstanding East Texas artists will be showing their works on the Bartlett House premises. Artist Billy Williamson will be sketching portraits for visitors for donations to the Historic Bartlett House and Heritage Gardens, the recipient of all funds raised from the tour.

A book to be published for the event and as a guide to the outstanding East Texas artists’ studios and galleries in East Texas will be available for sale for $29.95 prior to the tour or during the tour for $39.95. Last year’s edition of the art book was sold out.

Tickets can be purchased from www.malakofftexas.com ($25 advance; $35 at the door). The event is sponsored by the Greater Malakoff Area Garden Club, a nonprofit corporation.

Malakoff man gets legislation filed

Malakoff resident Clint Stutts (far right) stands in the Texas Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 8, before the 83rd Legislative Session convened. He is joined by friends from Ellis and Tarrant counties, most of whom are involved with a bill Stutts helped write to nullify the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. (COURTESY PHOTO)

By mvhannigan

Congratulations to Malakoff’s Clint Stutts on getting his nullification bill filed. Nullification is the idea that states have the power to invalidate any federal law which the state deems unconstitutional.

The bill, HB 3785, was written by Clint, along with several others. It was filed by State Rep. Charles Perry last week.

I don’t know if the legislation will pass, but I know Clint put a lot of work into it, and just getting it filed was a huge step … so congratulations, Clint.

I wrote a story back in January describing the legislation and the reasons Clint is involved, which you can read here.

Around Malakoff: Bragging on CLNH

By Loretta Humble

Last week I spent a lot of this column bragging on my own companies. It probably wasn’t the best time to do so, because the main news in that column was that Jerome James had given our community two beautiful sculptures. I said how great that was, and then launched right in to telling you how great my own companies were for all they do for the community.

Then I had the nerve to send the column to Mr. James, who was gracious enough to compliment the column, and ask for a copy of the paper when it was printed.

I’m pretty sure I chose the wrong time to start bragging, but it came out of the recognition that I brag on everybody else more than I do my own Cedar Lake Nursing Home and Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice, and that is not fair. So I resolved to do better. I didn’t intend to do this much this quick. Here I am bragging on them again. But how can I help it?

The recent issue of US News and World Report listed the best nursing homes in the country. You can go to their site, or to www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare and type in a zip code and find the most highly rated nursing homes in your area. In this area, it is us. Cedar Lake Nursing Home. This is big, folks. We got the five stars. That is tops. The next nearest five star nursing homes are in Ennis and Teague. There is one in Waco, and one in West. There are no other five star nursing homes in Henderson, Anderson, Kaufman, Limestone, Navarro, Smith, Van Zandt, or Gregg counties. I got tired of looking after that, but I do know there are a number of them in Dallas.

Now comes the disclaimer. There are a lot of four star nursing homes around here. Four-Star still means better than average. And they, as well as some of the lesser star homes may have just been caught by the inspectors on a bad day. I think you have to have a perfect inspection to get five stars, and can you imagine how difficult that is to get when you are dealing with that many residents and that many people who care for them? Perfect inspections don’t happen often. Not with us, either.

We’ll be having another inspection soon, and, who knows? Maybe we’ll slip up, or maybe the inspectors will look extra hard and find something to ding us on, just to keep us on our toes. I’ll admit, if they take a star or two away from us, I won’t be spreading it all over the newspaper and the Internet like I am now. But whichever nursing home gets the most stars will. And I won’t blame them. We are just going to do our best to have it be us.

I’m not going to launch into a big commercial about how good and loving we are, stars or no stars. You just need to come hang out with us sometime and see for yourself. And here’s some useful advice: If you are considering a nursing home, now or in the future, whether it is Cedar Lake or not, do your homework. Go meet the administrator, talk to some nurses and some aides and especially some patients. See if it smells good. See if the meals look good. See what their rehab department is like.

In fact, a really good sneaky way to find out about Cedar Lake or any other nursing home, is to become a volunteer. Almost any nursing home will welcome you. (If they don’t, that is your first clue.) There are always some residents who would love for you to visit them. Maybe you would like to help with activities, or even come up with a new one, while you discover whether we, or any of the rest of us, deserve our stars.

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Loretta Humble is the owner of Cedar Lake Nursing Home as well as their Home Health and Hospice. The former publisher of The Malakoff News, she has been covering the area for 20 years. Semi-retired for day-to-day running the companies, she is now a full-time spreader of (mostly) good news in her community through her Facebook page, www.facebook.com/aroundthetown. Since she is supported in this endeavor by her Cedar Lake companies, she jokes that she is the inspiration for the Michael’s and Jeff’s creation of Henderson County Now.

Long Cove breaks ground on Phase II

Ryan Bell of KART Construction, Chris Kelsey of Long Cove, Josh Ellis of Long Cove and Nancy Phillips of Team Phillips. (LONG COVE FACEBOOK PAGE)

By Michael V. Hannigan

This is cool … Long Cove has broken ground on Phase II.

Long Cove is the resort-style development going up on the shoreline of Cedar Creek Lake, just northeast of Malakoff. It is a Don McNamara project, a Malakoff resident whose other developments include Cityplace and West Village in Dallas.

The interesting thing about Phase II is that it reclaims nearly a half-mile of shoreline and required a 600-foot dam.

Long Cove broke ground last April on Phase I, which included 33 properties (22 houses, 11 lots).

The properties are projected to be mostly weekend homes for families from Dallas, and will be from three to six bedrooms and from 1,950 to 3,000 square feet. When complete, the development could include up to 400 homes.

Tip of the hat to David Webb at CedarCreekLake.com, who was the first to report this locally as far as I know.

You can see more on the Long Cove Facebook Page.

Around Malakoff: A great new sculpture

By Loretta Humble, Around the Town

I’m looking out my front window at two bronze kids. One is a pitcher, with one foot in the air, ready to throw, the other with his bat swung way back, ready to hit. Right now a sparrow is perched on that bat. He seems to have a better sense of reality than my dogs, who barked like crazy at them for several hours.

The beautifully life-like baseball players are a gift to our town from Mr. Jerome James, who tells me I should give all the credit to Mike Ferguson, who used to work as chaplain for Cedar Lake Hospice. I am certainly glad to praise Mike, who read my column about how much I would love to have bronze children playing in our budding pocket park downtown, and told Mr. James, who just happened to have some bronze children to spare. He had just sold his magnificent house on the lake where they had been playing, and was wondering what to do with them. Mr. James called me yesterday and told me to come get them, as well as a very nice picnic table. I offered to put a plaque in the park, in memory of someone of his choice. He said put Mike’s name on it.

Mr. James is officially giving them to the Malakoff Chamber of Commerce and/or the Garden Club, which ever works out best, but I got to bring them home with me to keep them safe until we can figure out exactly where to put them, and then get them bolted down so nobody walks off with them.

It is a wonderful thing when people give something the whole community can enjoy. I like to brag on them every chance I get.

But there is somebody I’ve been neglecting. It is my own companies. Cedar Lake Nursing Home and Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice do a whole lot for our community, and I’ve been downplaying it because it felt like I would be self-serving if I talked a lot about it. Oh, I mention it, but not like I would do if somebody else did it.

Take for instance, those two old boarded up building downtown, across from the former Favorite Things. Cedar Lake Nursing Home sent our maintenance department down to give them new facades. We supplied the labor, and almost all of the material.

Then I bought the trashed-up lot between those buildings, and volunteers got it cleaned up and started planning to make a pocket park out of it. Although I bought it, I am supported by Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice, who pays me a salary to spend my full time running around trying to help stir up good things in this community, particularly by producing www.facebook.com/aroundthetown. Basically that Facebook page is a small version of what Michael and Jeff are doing with Henderson County Now: I put out an online publication with one sponsor: Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice.

The Humble family’s Cedar Lake family has been taking excellent care of folks around here since 1967. I am extremely proud of our companies, both for the care they give, and what they do for this community. And I am very grateful they let me do what I do. I promise not to turn into a walking commercial, but I really should brag on them just a little more.

By the way, just to make it clear: Nothing that Michael or I do can ever take the place of your good old print-on-paper-hold-in-your-hands hometown Malakoff News. We’ve got to remember how valuable it is to our community. So please keep subscribing, and give subscriptions for gifts, and tell your friends to subscribe. We need to appreciate what we have and make sure we keep it.

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