Musings while looking out my office window wondering how tall the weeds will get before anyone associated with HEB will care…

I guess I didn’t pay much attention back in the mid-1990s when Lake Jackson was putting together the pedestrian and bicycle master plan. But it piqued my interest around 2002 when the estimated cost to construct a 10-foot wide sidewalk down Oyster Creek Drive went north of the $1 million mark.

A federal transportation grant was issued and Lake Jackson was to match a certain amount of money to have the project go through. Work was then completed and I barely gave it an afterthought unless a certain family member complained about how much the sidewalk cost. That is until last week when I grew tired of melting into my recliner each night after work for several hours until bedtime.

It was time to get up and walk. I lost weight a few years ago by eating less and walking through the neighborhood. This time I decided to try the big sidewalk on Oyster Creek Drive to garner some relief from the monotony of walking the same neighborhood trail I had before. Here are things I’ve noticed on the 3-mile round trip trail I trek (nearly) every night.

·       The sidewalk/trail is used. Yesterday morning as I drove to work I counted 17 walkers/joggers/bikers hitting the path to exercise either themselves or their animals or both. The trail is used at all times of day by people from all walks of life, including former two-time presidential candidate Ron Paul.

·       Lake Jackson has a good police presence from Buc-ees on Old Angleton Road all the way to Lake Jackson Intermediate School. My walk usually takes one hour and in that time I see two or three patrol cars driving and one sitting in the fire station parking lot picking out speeders.

·       More than a few people take great pride in their yards. Most front yards on Oyster Creek Drive and several backyards on the street are full of flowers, plants and well-manicured yards. Also, contrary to popular belief there are still some children who jump on trampolines and swim in pools outside their homes.

·       Citizens of Lake Jackson love pizza delivery. The most-often seen delivery drivers come from Domino’s and All Star Pizza.

·       People are still friendly. Most everyone waves or greets one another. I think there’s an exercise fraternity mentality to it, kinda like motorcycle riders acknowledging each other.

I hope to keep walking for exercise and eventually would like to see the other side of Oyster Creek Drive with a large two-lane sidewalk. And even though the path isn’t crowded on a daily basis, and it did cost a lot of money, I think it was money well spent.

-        Russell Burnett Jr. is a resident of Lake Jackson.

For the second time in two years the No Fear 15U boys’ basketball team ventured into Houston to play in one of the state’s most prestigious tournaments and came away with a championship. The squad finished the three-day Texas Classic of Pearland Tournament undefeated and downed Fort Bend Select 60-39 in the final Sunday. No Fear won the H-Town Classic in May 2013.

Brazosport High School’s Chris Rossow (17 ppg) and Angel Trevino (12 ppg) led the way in the scoring column, but according to coach Robert Griggs it was his two eighth-graders who stepped up their play and allowed the team to dominate, winning by an average margin of 17 points a game.

“BJ Foster from Angleton and Hunter Quick from Lake Jackson elevated their game to another level,” Griggs said. “Both players are phenomenal on the defensive end, but they added another dimension offensively this weekend and we needed it. When those two guys are playing well on both ends and our shooters Ty Griggs and Trey Burnett are hitting we are nearly unstoppable.”

No Fear pulled out wins over teams from San Antonio, McAllen, Elgin, Houston and Fort Bend County. Teams from across Texas as well as Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kansas and Georgia participated. Going back at least 10 years, this tournament has seen the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, O.J. Mayo and T.J Ford while they were in high school.

In the first game of the tournament Rossow nailed three free throws with three seconds on the clock to force the game into overtime. From there Angleton’s Koy Richardson converted a three-point play the old-fashioned way to close out the game as No Fear won 67-63.

“I’m not backing down from my statement that Chris Rossow is one of the best point guards in the state for his age,” Griggs said. “Hunter, BJ and Angel all hold things down on the defensive end, then we bring in post Kevin Davis off the bench and things keep on clicking.”

No Fear will attempt to defend its title at the H-Town Classic May 16-18 in Humble.

Growth in Lake Jackson

The pervasive sentiment from city leaders in Brazoria County is that bigger is better. They are quoted in our daily newspaper as saying we should bring more people into our fair cities. We should build more buildings and subdivisions, create more infrastructure and compete with the big boys like Pearland.

I’m very happy with the way things are in Lake Jackson. I’m not really sure bigger is better, and I voiced that to a wise community leader in Angleton a few weeks ago. Her answer was simple: Growth is coming our way. It’s inevitable, so we have to get ready.

Of course, I know that. It’s been talked about for at least 10 years. So, kudos to our local leaders who understand the importance of having new roads to drive on and safe water to drink. Thanks for the forethought of improving the aesthetics of downtown Lake Jackson and Freeport to help spur business growth there. If change is coming lets be prepared.

We had a company representative from Rockport visit our office in downtown Lake Jackson last week. We ate lunch at Wayside Pub and he was very complimentary of the downtown district. So much so that he said there wasn’t anywhere in Rockport nearly as nice as the section of town we ate in. He was impressed and wished his city would revitalize itself like Lake Jackson is attempting to do.

But with the good, you get the bad. I oftentimes hear comments about needing another big chain restaurant in Southern Brazoria County or a mega-grocery store or a big box do-it-yourself store. But when was the last time you heard someone comment on getting good customer service from the do-it-yourself stores? How impressed are you after standing in line for an hour waiting to be seated at the franchised restaurant in Pearland? How bad did your day just become after it took 10-15 minutes to get from one end of Oyster Creek Drive to the other as you hit every single stoplight?

My recent thoughts have been centered on the new Dow office park. How in the world are thousands of those cars and trucks going to intermingle with the current traffic pattern in downtown Lake Jackson, especially when HEB builds its new grocery store less than a mile away? I see patrolmen in the road at Dixie Drive and Highway 332 trying to get traffic through those lights at different times of day and there’s just one Dow parking lot full of vehicles at that spot.

You never know, this time next year a new favorite restaurant might pop up or an entertainment spot for children and teens. Maybe sales will jump off the charts at my office. And maybe, hopefully, traffic in Southern Brazoria County won’t end up looking like it does in Pearland, League City or Sugar Land.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too, but I wish we could find a happy medium.

Russell Burnett is a resident of Lake Jackson and is against explosive growth. You can read his blog at www.russellburnett.blogspot.com

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Homelessness

From my office in downtown Lake Jackson, I can see four streets through the corner office windows – Oak Drive, Parking Way, South Parking Place and Circle Way. Children walking home from Lake Jackson Intermediate, joggers, walkers and homeless people stroll past my office day by day. Yes, I said homeless people. In Lake Jackson, Texas.

It came to my attention about five years ago that there was a homeless man who wandered around downtown. He slept under our outside stairwell at the insurance office for a while, now he meanders through the streets with a drink in his hand most of the time. I think local stores and restaurants provide him with free beverages. Since the duplexes across the street are now vacant I think he sleeps in them when he’s not in jail.

About a year ago another homeless man popped up. He is a former Brazoswood High School quarterback. His house has been condemned by the city due to his neglect. There have been several people who have tried to help him, both financially and with housing accommodations. He sits on park benches or walks down Oyster Creek Drive with a bag in his hand.

Both of these men seem to have mental instability, yet are cognizant enough to walk around, eat and find shelter.

Now there seems to be another man who is having trouble with housing, and he looks to live out of his car. I have seen people coming to the car helping him with laundry and he disappears for a few days then comes back. He is younger than the other two and isn’t nearly as visible during the day.

What or should a community the size of Lake Jackson do about the homeless? We aren’t Houston where there are hundreds of people sleeping under bridges or walking around with shopping carts. Larger cities have shelters and soup kitchens; they have some semblance of an infrastructure to help the homeless. We have a temporary shelter in the county for the homeless, but as our area grows it would seem more and more homeless men and women would appear.

There are probably more homeless in Lake Jackson than I’ve witnessed, and some might be children. I would like to hope that these three men aren’t invisible to our city, that someone or some entity is helping them, but I’m not sure because I haven’t taken the time to inquire. What happens if tragically we end up with 20 homeless men and women walking around downtown Lake Jackson?

My guess (and hope) is that these guys are being helped. That some church or organization or Good Samaritan is providing food or drink and maybe shelter. But it’s a big challenge for anyone to deal with the mentally ill.

It might not be an epidemic in Lake Jackson just yet, but let’s hope we don’t wake up one day to see our city dotted with people who have no home. The closer that poverty is to the face of people that aren’t in poverty, the uglier it is. I hope Lake Jackson doesn’t become ugly.

Russell Burnett Jr. is a resident of Lake Jackson. His business is Best Insurance Services. Find it at www.bestinsurancetx.com