CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK

D6 Herald-Banner Saturday, MarcH 31, 2012

THE FUTUREH e r a l D i n g

c o M M u n i t y & e d u c a t i o n

By Jim HardinHerald-Banner Staff

Shawn Risinger is communi-ty-minded.

He wants to be a part of the community and he wants to give back to the community.

Risinger had a “personal conviction” to immediately be a part of the community when he bought a business on Texas 276 in Union Valley four years ago. That business became Eagle Hardware Farm & Ranch.

He wanted his family to live in the community, work in the community, go to school in the community and attend church in the community.

They put their Rockwall house on the market right away.

Today, Risinger’s wife, Mary, is a reading specialist at Boles Elementary School. Daughter Bethany, a sophomore at East Texas Baptist University, grad-uated from Boles High School. Son Andrew is a junior there. And Devnn, a nephew the Risingers are rearing, is a kin-dergartener at Boles.

And they attend Faith Temple Baptist Church, where Risinger is pastor.

Their “giving back” to the community involves business-based events for the entire community.

Those events are “Pink Country” that promotes breast cancer awareness; a three-day event in July that will benefit Wounded Warriors; and the annual “Christmas Eve at the

Hardware Store.”Risinger said breast cancer

awareness is an important topic in their household.

“It’s a big deal to us because Mary is a breast cancer survi-vor,” he said. “We make it a big deal here at the store as well.”

For the second year, Eagle will team with Purina to pro-mote breast cancer awareness throughout October. A high-

light, Risinger said, will be the Pink Country Fall Carnival that will be held at the local store the last weekend in October.

Eagle will partner with Wounded Warriors for events July 3-5. Store sales those three days will benefit Wounded Warriors, which aids injured military service mem-bers. Risinger said a big family day is planned for July 4.

“Christmas Eve at the Hardware Store” began four years ago with about 30 people in attendance. About 175 peo-ple were packed inside the hardware store last year, prompting Risinger to explore how he can accommodate the growing Christmas Eve crowd this year.

“It will stay a community service and it will stay ‘Christmas Eve at the Hardware Store,’ but we may have to put a tent up.”

By erecting a tent, Risinger said, he doesn’t “want it to come off as a religious event.

“There’s a balance between doing something that people feel comfortable coming to and celebrating the birth of Jesus and truly being reminded about what Christmas is about, and being too spiritual, too sappy spiritually. I’m not that way, so I’ve got to figure out where that balance will be for us in 2012.

“By having a Christmas Eve service in the hardware store, you can do that. You can allow people to come unguarded and hear the Christmas message. The Christmas message is clearly presented, but yet in a so non-traditional way that it is

fun and enjoyable, and you get to see your neighbor that you haven’t seen recently.”

There’s a different theme each year. Last year it was, “Hope and Hardware.” He doesn’t have a clue yet for the 2012 theme.

Risinger said the Christmas Eve event is not connected to any one church even though the church he pastors — Faith Temple Baptist Church in Poetry — is heavily involved.

“It truly is just a community event,” he said.

Faith Temple, he said, is “a tiny country church where people love each other.”

There’s more to the Risinger family than wife Mary, daugh-ter Bethany, son Andrew and nephew Devnn.

There’s also an 8-year-old blind girl they’ve helped rear since she was 3 months old.

And there’s 46-year-old Jay Ellington, who has Down syn-drome. He has lived with the Risingers the last three years.

“He is very much a part of our family, too,” Risinger said.

Caring for others is not about Risinger only.

“It’s not just who I am,” he said. “It’s also who Mary is and what this family is all about.”

By Jim HardinHerald-Banner Staff

Chris Elliott couldn’t restrain a hearty laugh while recalling his invitation to become mayor of Union Valley in 2008.

The little town in southwest-ern Hunt County was only six months old when Mayor Jay Atkins decided to resign and run for county commissioner. He approached City Secretary Elliott.

Elliott said Atkins told him, “‘Chris, you’ve been secretary for six months. You know what’s going on with the city.’”

“Well, yeah,” Elliott said he responded.

Atkins then asked him to consider becoming mayor.

“‘Jay, I’m a working stiff,’” Elliott said he responded. “‘I don’t know anything about poli-tics. I don’t know anything about city government.’”

“‘You don’t have to do any-thing,’” Elliott said Atkins told him.

“I said, ‘Well OK,’ but what he said about not having to do anything was not totally true.”

That’s when Elliott laughed out loud.

Elliott was unopposed for mayor in the May 2008 election and received 21 votes. He was re-elected in 2010 by a 27-25 margin.

“It’s been a great experi-ence,” Elliott said. “It’s been a learning experience. It’s still a learning experience. I guess as long as you’re in this position or even as a council member, it’s still a learning experience.”

A big part of his early learn-ing experience involved taxes.

The city doesn’t provide any services.

“Citizens don’t want servic-es,” Elliott said. “They want to keep their septic systems. They want to keep their trash servic-es.”

And they don’t want taxes,

Elliott said.Atkins didn’t propose any

taxes, but Elliott became con-cerned when he saw expenses for an election “and some other things we had to pay for.”

“We had to pay for some things that were unknown at that time,” Elliott said. “So, we

had to come up with a budget to take care of the unknown and future elections. With no revenue coming in, I took the liberty of saying, ‘OK, 25 cents per $100 valuation.’ The council agreed.

“As soon as the citizens received their tax bill, oh my

gosh, this little city hall was packed. Well, following that, we reversed to go 13 cents per $100. It gave us a little bit of working capital and was able to take care of the future.”

The council later rolled the tax to zero.

Now, the city’s revenue comes from a 1 percent sales tax, electric franchise tax and beverage tax from one club in town.

Elliott said it’s difficult serv-ing as mayor in a very small town like Union Valley — a town that covers about 948 acres, has 307 residents, 150-200 homes and four businesses.

The council has only three members, the mayor and two council members — Jay Thompson and Craig Waskow. A meeting with two is consid-ered a quorum.

“You basically have to rule by yourself and whatever input you can get from the citizens,” Elliott said. “If there is any communication, it has to go through the secretary.”

The city secretary is Elliott’s wife, Lou Anne.

Elliott is working to lower the ISO (Insurance Service Office) rating for Union Valley resi-dents. ISO ratings have a direct impact on insurance premiums paid by property owners.

His highest priority, Elliott said, involves establishing a boundary agreement with Royse City.

“I guess that was spurred by the annexation (by Royse City) of that 500 acres on County

Road 2526,” Elliott said.The mayor said he and the

city attorney started looking at boundary lines and have seen areas where Royse City’s extra-territorial jurisdiction meets Union Valley’s ETJ. And in some cases, Elliott added, Royse City’s ETJ overlaps Union Valley’s ETJ and part of its city limits.

Elliott has met with Royse City officials and city council

“We’re a new entity, I think, probably the newest city in Texas, and we’re trying to get started and get established our-selves,” Elliott told Royse City council members recently.

Elliott said he has been asked if he will seek another term in 2013.

“That would be five years as mayor,” Elliott said. “At this point and stage, I will not, but that could possible change if there is no one who really has the city at heart.

“Every one of us — the past and present council members — have worked to get what we have. We’ve all had disagree-ments. You’re going to have that. It’s been very, very, very trying to say the least, but we are a municipality.”

Elliott moved from Rowlett to Union Valley in 1996. He and his wife have been married 31 years. He has three children — Brant, who lives in Dayton; Thomas, who lives in Austin; and Angela, a freshman at Royse City High School. He has owned and operated Elliott Septic Service since 2002.

JiM Hardin/Herald-Banner

the Shawn risinger family posed for an informal portrait in the feed section of eagle Hardware Farm & ranch on texas 276 in union Valley. Pictured from left are son andrew; risinger; devnn dunlap, who lives with the risingers; wife Mary; Jay ellington, who lives with the risingers; and daughter Bethany.

JiM Hardin / Herald-Banner

Mayor chris elliott stands under the city limits sign that illustrates just how small union Valley is. elliott is leading the way to a future that he is confident will include growth for the Hunt county town. one of his key jobs now is working out a boundary agreement with royse city.

PrOFile On

PrOFile On

Shawn RiSingeR

ChRiS elliott

We ask:

What does the future of your industry hold?“We know our future is bright as long as we keep

focused on being a part of the community and giving back to the community.”

We ask:

What does the future of your city hold?“Looking to the future, Union Valley is not going to

stay a country rural area forever. The growth is moving out here slowly, but surely. You can see Royse City’s growth, Rockwall’s growth, Quinlan’s growth. Union Valley will grow.”

Family builds a rewarding life in small-town Texas community

Union Valley mayor gets first taste of politics

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