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TTHHEE CCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY NNEEWWSSServing Eastern Parker County, Texas: Aledo · the Annettas · Hudson Oaks · Willow Park

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Volume 21, Number 27Published Weekly

Commentary

SLINGS&ARROWS | PAGE 11

Religion and PoliticsPublisher Randy Keck tackles a religious/political issue. Will he survive the week?

Life&Community

PAGE 12

Intense path to PriesthoodEpiscopal Priest ClayOla Gitane is profiled.

PAGE 5

Instant SuccessFormer Ladycat leads Sam Houston State University in scoring.

Sports

" Willow Park city secretary gets U.S. citizenshipBy Dominic GenettiThe Community News

When all was said and done she called her family.

It wasn’t just to say hello. It wasn’t just to see how their lives were going. It was to deliver some news.

“That’s it, I’m an American citizen,” Yael Hoffman said to her loved ones in Israel.

She came to the United States in 2006. It had never really crossed her mind to move out of her hometown of Haifa (located about two hours north of Jerusalem) and come to a new country, but things changed for Yael when she met Jim Hoffman.

“I was working with a company that dealt with Lockheed (Martin) and we started to talk and chat...and then he asked me out and I said okay,” Yael said with a giggle. “Since then, we’re still together.”

Asking out the woman who would later become his wife on a date wasn’t exactly the hardest question Jim Hoffman would ask Yael. Instead, when his time of international work was complete, he asked Yael and her children to come back to the United States.

“That was a big decision for me to make,” she said, “to pull my kids out of their natural environment.

“They said lets go for it.”Settling in Texas, Yael eventually got a job

working as the city secretary for the City of Willow Park. Her kids began attending school in the Aledo ISD and life in America took off.

“Everything was very, very different,” she said, “and it took us time to adjust.”

Adjusting to life in a new country was some-thing she was willing to accept. She considered her life in Israel natural and unique, but the constant sights and sounds of war was too much to bear.

“It’s very scary,” Yael said. “When I was a little girl, the ’73 war was taking place and it was very hard so we spent most of the time in the shelter.”

After high school she joined the Israeli army and served for two years before attending col-lege. Despite a calm life in the ocean city of Haifa, air raid sirens of attacks from nearby Iraq was something Yael and her children had no choice but to become accustomed to.

“In the fi rst Gulf War it was scary because it’s not that you needed to go to the shelters” she said, “you needed to put the gas mask on because you didn’t know what kind of missiles the Iraqi people sent to Israel.

“After you have kids it’s more scary because you need to take care of them, too.”

Memories of watching the television closely are still fresh in Yael’s mind.

Was it safe to take off the masks? Is it okay to leave the shelter? During the fi rst Gulf War, all she and her

family could do was watch and wait as their shelter shook and vibrated simulating an earth-quake as bombs dropped outside.

Her worst experience with war came in 2006 when she was in the United States and her chil-dren were still in Israel. Attacks were coming at her native land and her children, even though with relatives, missed their mother.

“It was horrible,” Yael said of being in North America at time of the attacks. “All the fl ights were booked because everyone was coming back to Israel.”

Turn to HOFFMAN, page 3

OFFICIALLY AMERICAN

DOMINIC GENETTI/THE COMMUNITY NEWS

Yael Hoffman offically became an American citizen in a ceremony last month in Irving. Originally from Israel, Hoffman came to the United States in 2006, and serves as Willow Park’s City Secretary.

TONY EIERDAM/THE COMMUNITY NEWS

Kamryn Worster concentrates on her target during a shooting drill Monday morning during the Aledo Ladycats Hoop Camp at the AHS gym. The camp, for girls entering grades 3-9, ran until yesterday (Thursday, July 1). Ladycats head coach Rusty Johnson said he was excited with the turnout at the camp and enjoyed instruct-ing “our future Ladycats.” TCU Lady Frogs basketball players Emily Carter and Whitney Williams, along with former Ladycats players, assisted Johnson at the camp.

CorrectionIn the June

25 issue of The C o m m u n i t y News, the uni-versity where new Stuard E l e m e n t a r y School princi-pal Ron Shelton received his degree was incor-rect. Shelton received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas.

Shelton

ALEDO

Speeders, stray animals raise eyebrowsBy Dominic Genetti The Community News

Lynn Bell won’t let her two grand-children play in her yard without her supervision.

There’s too much fear.It’s not the fear of them getting

hurt from playing with their toys, after all, kids will be kids. She is, however, afraid that someone will come speeding by down the road and possibly hit 7-year-old Lane or 3-year-old Kendale.

“There has to be an adult out here at all times because of the people driving the vehicles who don’t care about the children,” Bell said.

While her husband is in Louisiana assisting with the BP oil spill, it’s just Bell, her daughter Megan, and the grandkids living in their trailer home at the Aledo American Residential Community off of Old Annetta Road.

But the 44-year-old grandmother isn’t the only person in the complex with concerns for their small commu-nity. Other residents have sent their concerns to Community Manager Andrew Carver about speeding driv-ers, not only within the neighbor-hood, but along Old Annetta Road.

“They have to be doing 55, 60 (mph),” Bell said. “They’re just fl y-ing around that blind corner down there, not even paying attention. Half of them are on their cell phones – it’s bad.

“I think we need to put some-thing out there – I don’t care if it’s a fl ashing light, I don’t care if it’s a yield (sign), we need to get some-thing down there.”

Resident Lou Nelson said safety is an abundant worry.

“This should be a place where our kids can be safe” she said.

Nelson and her husband, Johnny, have lived in the trailer commu-nity for the past year. She said more law enforcement in the city would help the appearance of area and the ease the minds of her neighbors and friends.

“I think we need something out here,” she said.

Currently, Parker County has only one sheriff ’s deputy assigned to Aledo.

Speedy drivers aren’t the only complaints that Carver and his main-tenance worker David Riedlinger are hearing about. The community is also becoming a roaming ground for stray dogs and cats.

“If we could call animal control to get them picked up we would, but nothing we can do about it,” Carver said. “There’s no animal control.”

Turn to ALEDO, page 3.

DOMINIC GENETTI/THE COMMUNITY NEWS

Aledo musician Randy Brown playsa free concert for family, friends and well wishers of Catherine Davis. Davis lost her dogs and personal affectswhen her house in the 400 block ofPecan Drive in Aledo caught fire inJune. See story on page 4.

OFFICE CLOSEDJULY 5

The Community News’ office will be closed

July 5 in observance of Independence Day.