The Shiner Gazette
Shiner ISD
Shiner Academic & Athletic Foundation

OLD SHINER GYM Part III: Shiner gymnasium’s fate hinges on just 13 votes for school bond

Links to other stories in the Old Shiner Gym Series:     Intro     Part 1     Part 2

 

Opening news clip

 

 

 

 

  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • One of the first things I looked for at the old gym was the placard with everybody's name on it. Surely, the board members wouldn't pass up the opportunity to put their names on the wall. Doug Kubicek said there would also have been a placard that looks something like this as well.
    One of the first things I looked for at the old gym was the placard with everybody's name on it. Surely, the board members wouldn't pass up the opportunity to put their names on the wall. Doug Kubicek said there would also have been a placard that looks something like this as well.
  • Which is what sparked our tour of the of gym a week ago. We got to play detectives of history, ol' Doug and me.
    Which is what sparked our tour of the of gym a week ago. We got to play detectives of history, ol' Doug and me.
  • Doug says he had a lead on the original building specs and planning documents, which should tell us a lot of information about the place.
    Doug says he had a lead on the original building specs and planning documents, which should tell us a lot of information about the place.
  • Because that octagonal red brick portion has a placard, and it's got names galore...
    Because that octagonal red brick portion has a placard, and it's got names galore...
  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • ...and so does the building next door.
    ...and so does the building next door.
  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • Superintendent Alex Remschel, that really tall fellow in the last picture let us dig through sorts of nooks and crannies, like the old band hall building behind it. Now, it's mostly storage.
    Superintendent Alex Remschel, that really tall fellow in the last picture let us dig through sorts of nooks and crannies, like the old band hall building behind it. Now, it's mostly storage.
  • Who remembers this?
    Who remembers this?
  • Photo by Bobby Horecka
    Photo by Bobby Horecka
  • Sadly, short of picking up every last item in this and moving it over to the left, exactly one foot, you couldve been standing on those placards and never seen it. There's just way too much stuff in there.
    Sadly, short of picking up every last item in this and moving it over to the left, exactly one foot, you couldve been standing on those placards and never seen it. There's just way too much stuff in there.
  • Thanks guys for all the help! We'll see you all Saturday at the Shiner KC Hall.
    Thanks guys for all the help! We'll see you all Saturday at the Shiner KC Hall.

    Editor’s Note: As promised in our first installment, things move fast once they get going in 1938, so with almost no ado whatsoever, we bring you our third and final installment in our historical series on the Old Shiner Gym. We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday, when members of the Shiner Academic & Athletic Foundation host their casino night fundraiser at the Shiner KC Hall. Doors open to RSVP guests beginning at 5 p.m.

     

    We pick up right where we left off last week, the above article is what Shiner residents read on Page 1 of The Gazette in the days leading up to the big school election. The big election is detailed just below:

    The school board held the election, tallied the votes and reported on them, all in the same day.

     

     

    Note that 15 votes separate the bond’s supporters from its opposition, yet just 13 votes win the day when it comes to approving a plan to pay for it all. Also of interest is that 16 people either didn’t vote at all or their ballots were rejected for some reason.

    Sixteen is what’s left when we subtract to yays/nays from the total votes cast (403), on an item decided by 15 votes. It’s 26 votes on Item 2 (403 total minus 203 yays minus 188) in a race decided by 13 votes.

    On a question asking people if they want a new tax they’ve never paid before.

    During the Great Depression, of all times.

    Notice, too, this election took place Aug. 8, 1938, which during normal years, would have been the farmers’ busiest. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that wasn’t the case in 1938.

    If farmers got more than about 2½ inches of rain that whole year—or much more than 8 inches overall the previous five years—they were lucky, historical rainfall totals show.

    Something else we know about an August election, however, is that it was a special election. The ballots weren’t cluttered up with people running for offices they didn’t even know existed, listing names of people they didn’t know. Voters can’t have feasibly overlooked at item on their ballots, nor did they simply give up after a half-hour of ticking off names, with six more pages of names still left to go. 

    This ballot had but two items. Why they bothered even participating in the election if they left one of those two items blank is questionable.

    No, everybody who was a handed a ballot used it, on that much, I believe we can all agree. Minds were made up on this issue long before election day. So, how is it that 26 votes went unaccounted for?

    I refer to an item published in Part II of this series, from the legal notice announcing the day of the election (Aug. 8, 1938, the same day, the story just above says, when board met to count the ballots as part of its regularly scheduled monthly board meeting). The following passages are from that notice, published two weeks prior to the election on July 28, 1938:

     

    1. “The said election shall be held under the provisions of the constitution and laws of the State of Texas and only qualified voters who are property taxpayers, who own taxable property within said Independent School District, and who have duly rendered the same for taxation, shall be allowed to vote.”

     

    1. “As to the foregoing propositions, each voter shall mark out with black ink or black pencil one of the above expressions thus leaving the other as indicating his vote on the two propositions, respectively.”

     

    The first item listed there, I’m sure would have shamed a few people. Not only does it limit the voting to just the taxpayer on said property but it also further states that said taxes must be paid in full. We’re easily into Year 5 of the worst drought on record in an area that even today still depends on agriculture to put food on the table.

    Remember last week’s article what local historian Doug Kubicek said people turned to the barter system to get the things they needed? How entire families “didn’t have to two dimes to rub together?”

    Frankly, that 403 taxpayers would have turned out who were all current on all their bills during this time seems a more impressive number. History also tells us that this was one of the greatest points in history where bank foreclosures claimed farms.

    Makes one wonder how many farmers learned of such things by casting a ballot on something like a school gym. “Thanks for your vote, just make sure you and your family have cleared off the place by morning,” are never the words anyone cares to hear.

    That second point listed there says what you think it does: Only mark the item that you DON’T WANT. Your answer will be the one that remains mark-free. Seems hardly possible that such things are permitted on a yes or no question, but times were far different then.

    One thing that must be said on behalf of the school district and its board: The entire process—the election itself, the tally of those votes and their reporting of it—was done under the full scrutiny of the public eye, at an open meeting of the board.

    If there was anything ill mentioned of how things turned out, it never made the newspapers. Not one of them, in an era when newspapers regularly wrote about goings-on in other towns and their newspapers. This entire series began with a newsclip from La Grange, you might recall, and there were countless other missives as well, like the following:

     

    That's amazing, really, that they would write so warmly of another newspaper. I know it exists, but I certainly couldn't tell you when they started publishing.

     

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    With bonds approved, the first thing you need to do is sell them in order to get the money you need for you project.

     

    Not a bad rate of return there...

     

    Also making headlines that week in Shiner:

     

    That kid clearly knows a thing or seven about his chickens.

     

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    Money in hand, you award contract, usually to the lowest bidder: 

     

    We plan to do a follow-up story after the Shiner Academic & Athletic Foundation's casino night fundraiser is done to update all our readers on where they stand in terms of the funds they need. We'll share that pay scale then. Just keep in mind, they seem almost giddy about how well they're going to get paid here.

     

     

    Also making headlines that week in Shiner:

     

    If you can't get on at the gym you can always go work on the highway. Anybody happen to know where that is?

     

     

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    Up next, 

     

    Enthusiasm was certainly high for this new gym. Even before there was a gym, the kids had already called teams up to play when it gets built.

     

     

    Also making headlines that week in Shiner:

     

    These moved some, but there are entire pages in this edition with not one headline, just the dashes in between one random sentence after the next. That had to be hard to read.

     

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    And our I final news clip of the day, when the much-anticipated gym-auditorium opens its doors:

     

    Shiner Catholic School puts on a play for the whole town. How cool is that?