Neighborhood Voices

This page is devoted to the vox populi of southeast Sherman. Especially interesting posted comments and other breaking news will be posted here.

One Response to “Neighborhood Voices”

  1. Reposted flyer Says:
    February 13, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    The neighborhood is stirring! The following flyer was found on the webmasters’ door today, and it certainly deserves space on this blog.

    “This letter is being written to ask the leaders of the City of Sherman, mayor Bill Magers and the Sherman City Council, to do the right thing for their citizens. We are asking you top withdraw your current offer of land at Hwy 11 and Ida Road for building a new correctional facility. We have many family neighborhoods in the area near that site. They are established, well kept neighborhoods of people that value their homes. The families who live on Merriman Parkway, and those living in the area of the municipal airport, provide Sherman with not only well kept established neighborhoods, they also provide their fair share of taxes to support this city. These tax paying citizens deserve the same consideration that those living on the West side of Sherman enjoy. Think it’s not an issue of East vs. West Sherman? if not, why isn’t any land on the West side of Sherman being offered for consideration, as well?

    We are asking County Judge Drue Bynum, the County Commissioners, and Sheriff Keith Gary to come forward with the complete truth about the plans for this facility. One time they say it’s a county jail. The next time they mention it being a prison. If the truth be known, though they are just now admitting to such, we believe the plan all along has been that it is going to be a combination of both. How many of you would want a county jail, much less a prison, in your backyard? Mayor Magers, you were quoted in the Herald Democrat on 2/05/08, saying “But I understand the concerns of those who live there about having this near them. I would have the same concerns if I lived there.” Then why, as mayor, are you putting our families in this situation by offering this land?

    Has it occurred to any of you that, not only is the land at Hwy 11/Ida Rd. going to put a correctional facility in and near city neighborhoods, but it will be right down the road from on of Sherman’ finest elementary schools and one of Sherman’s most popular children’s parks? Think about this…hundreds of small children just a short distance down the road from a building full of prisoners containing murders, sex offenders, rapists. That’s not a very comforting though. What if your children were put in this position?

    The original location of the Grayson County Airport makes much more sense for the location of this ‘correctional facility’. It is more centrally located for the larger cities of both Sherman and Denison. It is an industrial area that is a greater distance from any established neighborhood of home owners (most of the properties in the area are rental properties), and it has an airport with larger runways to fly in the federal inmates that they are expecting. (Yes, the municipal airport is near the Ida Road site, but are you really going to fly federal inmates into Sherman in a small 2-seater plane?)

    Mayor Magers, you have said you want to keep the jail in Sherman because you are afraid Sherman will lost the downtown lawyer offices if the jail is built at the Grayson County Airport. You said that this is what happened in McKinney with Lawyers moving out of their downtown area. This is because McKinney built a new courthouse, not just a jail. Our courthouse is not moving. The lawyers are not going to move away from the courthouse, that is where they do their business. They may need to travel to the jail to consult with a prisoner from time to time, but they will drive to the jail just as easily if it’s at Perrin field as they will if it’s in our neighborhood. The lawyers are not going to leave downtown because the courthouse is still going to be downtown. So, you can see that argument doesn’t hold up as a reason for putting this jail in our neighborhood.

    If you go forward with the Hwy 11/Ida Rd. location, you are not only going to devalue the properties of your tax-paying citizens, but you are going to destroy the quality of life everyone has enjoyed in their current homes. You can go to any city, anywhere, and look at their Southeast side of town. You won’t find any that are as well maintained, or as taken care of, or that has as much pride in their neighborhoods as what the City of Sherman enjoys. Why would you want to ruin that by allowing this facility to be built in our neighborhoods? If you allow this, what will come next for us, bail bond offices sprouting up in the area? Yes, they are around every jail in the country. Drive around the present county jail and look at all the bail bond offices, the way they look, the people hanging around them. Why would you put this in a residential neighborhood? You certainly wouldn’t put it in your own neighborhood. Please, do the right thing, preserve our neighborhood and don’t put a correctional facility next door to us. Please.”

    Concerned Citizens of Sherman

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