AN ESSENTIAL NOTE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • When we
started
assem-bling
this edition
of Essentials, we
couldn’t help but
relate the content
to this month’s
Thanksgiving hol-iday.
George Boehme, publisher of Essentials, has called West University home for more
than 25 years. Editor Charlotte Aguilar has been a Bellaire resident for 32 years.
We may not always agree with what comes out of Bellaire’s City
Hall or West U’s Municipal Building — but the small-town easy
access to our city staffs and our elected leaders and the chance to be
heard — or to be part of decision-making directly — is a real appeal
of life in these cities.
Everyone is dealing with flood mitigation, and while West U’s
successful planning over the years has made its current challenges
less than its neighbors’, the issue is still top-of-mind. George writes
about some creative problem-solving going on in West U on how to
keep the water out of homes — as well as the buzzy matter of bees
and a final resolution to an old scofflaw dilemma.
In Bellaire, we offer a concise guide that will lead you to be an
informed voter in this election that has candidates offering very
different opinions and ideas about the future of the city — whether
it should continue on its current path, try new directions, or head
back to more comfortable routes toward maintaining quality of life.
And there’s more. Houston got lucky 37 years ago when a young
Wisconsin newsman named Tom Koch came to town to report at
ABC-13. He’s a morning institution — and a pillar of service to his
adopted home of Bellaire, where he and wife Brenda have raised
two daughters and never say no to a good cause. Ken Hoffman
looks back with Tom.
With the popularity of prep and youth sports leagues, good coaches
are community heroes. Mike Tenney talks to Bellaire volleyball leg-end
“Ap” Clarke as she reaches two milestones in her four-decade-long
career, and checks in with the West U Little League about its
plans to replace Clint Sauls, who has taken its senior teams to inter-national
glory.
If you’re in Bellaire and haven’t already, be sure to cast your ballot
on Election Day. We’ll have the results on EssentialsNews.com as
soon as they’re available and analysis and post-election coverage in
these pages next month.
Cherish the Thanksgiving holiday and the chance to express
gratitude to family, friends and neighbors. We’re grateful for your
support year-round. See you in December…