Latest Local News from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A 39-year-old man was fatally stabbed Sunday afternoon after officials said he got into an altercation outside a residence in northwest Tarrant County.

The identity of the victim had not been released late Sunday evening.

Authorities arrested Paul Leggett, 53, as a suspect.

Tarrant County Chief Deputy Mike Simonds said authorities were dispatched at about 2:30 p.m. to a report of a stabbing at a residence on Willow Creek Road, a dead-end street south of Azle in unincorporated Tarrant County. Before they arrived at the scene they encountered a truck, occupied by the victim, two other adults and an infant, at the intersection of Willow Creek Road and Tenderfoot Trail.

"The victim had already been stabbed, and they were attempting to drive him to the hospital," Simonds said.

Witnesses told authorities that the victim had gotten into an argument with one of the residents living in a mobile home in the 7100 block of Willow Creek Road. While the two argued, Simonds said, Leggett came out of another structure on the property with a knife and also began to argue with the victim.

"The suspect approached the victim and stabbed him," Simonds said.

Afterward, Simonds said, Leggett retreated into the mobile home, and the occupants of the truck drove away, encountering responding authorities a short time later. Simonds said that an ambulance arrived and that emergency officials tried to save the victim's life.

Officers went to the mobile home and arrested Leggett without incident, Simonds said.

Melody McDonald, 817-390-7386

The Original Supper Club's proposal was as simple as a salad, potatoes and pot roast served monthly to about 25 adults who were HIV-positive.

But over 17 years, without ever missing a monthly meal, the food got fancier, the guest list at the Samaritan House grew and the face of AIDS changed from one of despair to one of hope.

"In the past, when someone stopped showing up for dinner, it was not good. Usually, it meant they had passed on," said Dennis O'Reilly, a founding member of the Original Supper Club. "But now, it usually means they've moved on to a place of their own, and they have more opportunities."

The four members of the supper club served their first meal in October 1993, the same year that the Samaritan House opened for homeless adults who were HIV-positive.

It was a time when there was little hope of long-term survival for those with AIDS. In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 62 percent of the 501,000 people diagnosed with disease had died.

In those early years, it was difficult to make friends with Samaritan House residents, knowing that the outlook was so poor for them, O'Reilly said. But within a few years, the introduction of drug cocktails ushered in a new era in AIDS treatment.

Much has changed at the Samaritan House since then. The monthly meal concept introduced by O'Reilly, Ray Bronner, Michael Clark and Russ Simon soon caught on and grew.

Today, 32 supper clubs provide meals every day.

Together, they save the Samaritan House more than $100,000 each year, said Sue Mahoney, housing and volunteer coordinator. That savings allows the nonprofit organization to fund other services for residents.

The Original Supper Club has made a huge difference to the residents, said Joe Schmelzla, who has lived at Samaritan House for five years.

"I think it's pretty special that they take the time out of their own busy schedules to come out here once a month to make sure 60 people have a meal to eat," he said. "Without them, there wouldn't be any dinner."

Over the years, the number of residents has grown from 25 to more than 50. The menu has changed, too.

When new drugs were introduced to treat HIV, the club members researched which foods were best because so many residents were taking medications.

"We started out serving a heavy fat diet because we wanted to help them keep their weight up," O'Reilly said.

But later, they switched to the healthy meals that have become the club's signature. Their goal is to cook the same kind of dinner they would for guests in their homes, Bronner said.

The Supper Club's pork tenderloin, potato souffle and special desserts have become favorites with the residents and staff, Mahoney said.

"They really think outside the box," she said. "The residents really love when the Original Supper Club comes due to the fact that they cook from scratch, and they make these fabulous meals."

It takes about 30 hours to create menus, shop and prepare the food. The club members have always paid out of their own pockets but get discounts on food from some area businesses.

The men don't plan to stop anytime soon.

"It's cool to know the residents appreciate what you're doing," Bronner said. "It's a nice feeling to know they look forward to our coming."

Jan Jarvis, 817-390-7664

Euless Mayor Mary Lib Saleh said Mack and Willie Mae McCormick would be tickled by a builder's plan for the last undeveloped portion of their farm.

"Willie Mae would be thrilled," she said. "I think both the McCormicks would be very proud, because this is going to be a neat development."

Ridge Crest Estates is the first development she can remember in which the builder asked for a zoning change to allow preservation of a property's trees and topography, she said.

That's appropriate, considering all the "firsts" attributed to Willie Mae McCormick. Before her death in 2007, she was the first woman on the Euless City Council, the first woman engineer at Ling-Temco-Vought and the first recipient of the city's Lifetime Contribution Award.

Granting planned-development zoning for the 6.6 acres bordered by North Main Street and Mid-Cities Boulevard, the council allowed the developer to create nonstandard lot sizes and a fenced community with a single entrance and exit.

Don Dykstra, president of Bloomfield Homes, said he spent a lot of time walking the property with the city manager and staff, making decisions.

"There aren't a lot of cities where the staff is willing to go into the field like this," he said. "It makes a lot of difference in the quality of the development."

As an example, Dykstra cited the feature that gives the development its name: terracing the property's rolling slope, rather than cutting 50 feet off its top. The choice of fencing is another concession to preservation.

"The existing wood fences on the south and east boundary will be preserved," Dykstra said. "On the north border, along Mid-Cities, is a brick screening wall, and on the west, along Main, we'll do a metal fence with stone columns."

Dykstra explained that the metal fence allows him to skirt around trees -- some more than 100 years old -- along Main Street.

"We also were able to work with the city to lay out the streets to save as many trees as possible," he said.

Dykstra said he'll continue to consult with the city's arborist as the development comes together and infrastructure is installed. When it's finished, Ridge Crest Estates will include 27 homes from 2,000 to 3,700 square feet and priced in the $300,000 range, he said. Construction is to start next year.

The house that the McCormicks built about the time Euless was incorporated will not be preserved.

Willie Mae McCormick donated a barn -- made with wood salvaged from a World War II barracks -- to Euless' Heritage Park, said Betsy Deck, the city's communications manager.

But her house and another building will serve Euless in other ways before they're razed, Dykstra said.

"The family has removed any items they wanted, and 6 Stones [Mission Network] will salvage additional items from the house that they'll use in their restoration program," he said. "When they get done, the Fire Department will get to train on the houses. When that's done, we'll remove what's left."

Terry Evans, 817-390-7620

Tall grass? There's an app for that.

The Fort Worth Code Compliance Department recently started using an application for iPhones and Androids that lets residents report common code violations via their smartphones.

The idea grew out of the staff and budget cuts that have hit most city departments, code compliance Director Brandon Bennett said.

"We knew we had to find a way to be more efficient at what we did," he said.

The application, myFtWorth, was developed by Graffiti Protective Coatings of Tucson, Ariz., which normally sells equipment and services for dealing with vandals. The company makes similar apps for other cities -- myPhoenix, MySantaAna and so on.

The application is designed to snap a picture of graffiti, record the location with the phone's internal GPS system and send a note to a central location. GPC originally used the system it for its own business, tracking complaints and relaying them to cleanup crews.

Then customers started asking to use the system, so GPC developed a consumer version, which it gives away.

More than 192,000 copies of the app have been downloaded, according to the company's website, and the company has been providing versions that allow people to report other problems.

"We have cities reporting lots of other things, from vacant properties to animal cruelty, you name it -- illegal dumping," GPC General Manager Barry Steinhart said.

In Fort Worth, the police handle graffiti complaints. But the application works pretty well for other types of municipal code violations, including tall grass, unauthorized "bandit" signs and the neighbor who parks in his yard.

The city has received a handful of complaints since the system went live Aug. 17. Bennett envisions using the system to coordinate cleanups -- groups of volunteers could be used to collect bandit signs, for instance, once the department compiles the information.

Ultimately, Bennett sees the potential for using resident-generated pictures to issue citations, just as automated cameras are used to issue tickets to red-light runners. That would take a change in state law.

"If somebody wants to report a pothole, it's so efficient we can, within a matter of a few seconds, forward it to the right city agency," Bennett said.

Could the phone-based system lead to an overload in the code enforcement department?

Bennett doesn't think so.

"We'll get the same number of complaints -- now we're going to have a picture of where the [complaint] is," he said.

Mike Lee, 817-390-7539

ARLINGTON -- Nestled against the western border of this city lies Lake Arlington, a quiet body of water where sailboats race on Sundays and bass fishers try their luck.

Built after a drought, Lake Arlington has for more than 50 years attracted homeowners seeking a peaceful place to live and fun-seekers looking for an urban escape.

Now, prompted by concerns about growth and the desire to ensure water quality, the city is drawing a blueprint for the future of the lake and soliciting opinions from homeowners, recreational users and other stakeholders.

Arlington officials say potential development must be studied to protect the quality of water, while homeowners and lake regulars say they want to preserve quality of life.

"This is a small lake, but it's our lake," said Jack Hattendorf of Arlington, who grew up boating on the lake. "At the end of the day, we just want to make sure we have a place to go and relax."

The lake, which covers 3 square miles, provides drinking water for more than 500,000 people in Arlington, Bedford, Euless and Colleyville.

It is also open to boats and other recreational watercraft.

Arlington owns the lake, but water flows into it from a 143-square-mile area that includes 11 other cities and extends to Joshua.

The lake's undeveloped west side is bordered by Fort Worth.

The Tarrant Regional Water District, raw water provider for the region, also pumps water in and out of the lake.

Concerns about

water quality

Arlington was prompted to explore the lake's future in part after a developer presented plans last year for a 104-slip marina on the Fort Worth side, which would have nearly doubled the number of docks.

Arlington, which has authority over structures that intrude on the lake, declined to approve the developer's request pending further study. The lake now has about 120 boat docks; in 2009, it issued 1,471 daily and annual use permits, according to city records.

Part of the city's study will determine how many boats the lake can handle, said Julie Hunt, water utilities director in Arlington. In addition, it will explore beautification and recreational enhancements, as well as economic development opportunities on or around the lake. The study will also evaluate potential sources of pollution and issues related to trash and debris.

"We have to continually look to the future," said Arlington City Councilwoman Kathryn Wilemon, who represents west Arlington. "The lake is an asset to the city, and we need a plan to protect and enhance that asset."

The $542,000 study began in December and is expected to finish next spring.

City officials and engineering consultants will provide an update at a public meeting scheduled for Sept. 13.

When complete, the study will establish guidelines for protecting water quality, opportunities for sustainable and environmentally sensitive economic development, plans for recreation and open space, and standards for docks, piers and other structures.

What kind

of development?

A central question to emerge has been what type of development would best fit the lake: residential, commercial or a mix of both.

Development on the Arlington side has been almost solely residential. On the Fort Worth side, 40 percent of the land remains undeveloped. About 14 percent is residential; more than 30 percent is either industrial or commercial.

Residents of both cities told officials at this year's public meetings that they would oppose commercial development on the lake, although some said they would be open to an upscale village-style development that mixes retail, restaurants and housing.

"We know the lake is going to grow, and we'd like to see that growth handled very carefully," said Pat Hollabaugh, leader of the Arlington Yacht Club, a sailing group of about 100 families. "We don't think commercial development or large marinas are right for this lake."

Yacht club members say they would prefer improving the parks on the lake: Richard W. Simpson and Bowman Springs in Arlington and Eugene McCray in Fort Worth, and adding trails for hiking and biking, a sentiment echoed by others in both cities.

Revitalization of the Fort Worth side has been a priority for about a decade, Fort Worth City Councilman Frank Moss said, but access to the lake hampered development.

That will change as the city plans to build the $6.9 million Lakeshore Drive with funds from the 2008 bond election. The north-south road will provide access to the lake and open the area for development. Construction is scheduled to begin on the first phase, which will run from Wilbarger to Berry streets, in spring 2013.

"It's an important project," Moss said. "We see how much potential the lake has, and we want to take advantage of all the amenities. This area lends itself to high-quality housing."

Will the real inventor of fried beer please stand up?

An inter-Texas squabble has erupted between a Houston microbrewery and a Plano man over just who was the first to combine hops suds and dough, then throw it into boiling fat.

Mark Zable, a corporate recruiter most of the year and a self-described carnie for three weeks, says he will sell his fried beer at the upcoming State Fair of Texas, where he has competed in the "weird fried category" the past three years.

And Zable has struck a chord.

"Considering the cookoff hasn't even take place, the reaction has been far bigger than I expected," he said of numerous interviews he's given in the past week: a couple of dozen around the country, four dozen with newspapers and radio stations in Britain, Ireland and Germany, another dozen in Australia and New Zealand, and one in Asia. And inquiries are pouring in from bars in the area, as well as a brewery in Germany.

Dan Keeney, a Dallas PR consultant who works with Saint Arnold Brewery, a prize-winning maker of craft beer, said he told Zable that his client released a recipe for fried beer two years ago (www.dpkpr.com/friedbeer). But he hasn't heard back.

"We are veterans at fried beer," insists Brock Wagner, Saint Arnold's founder and brewmaster. "We enjoyed it in 2008, long before anybody had some in the shadow of Big Tex. I think we should have a fried beer cookoff."

Zable is aware of prior claims -- besides Saint Arnold, an MIT lab also lays claim.

But Saint Arnold mixes beer into the dough, while Zable says his ravioli-like pieces have liquid centers of beer.

It's a top-secret process Zable said took three years to perfect. He has applied for a patent and has trademarked fried beer.

At the fair, a plate of five or six of Zable's version will cost $2.50 to $3 and be filled with Shiner Bock. Previously he used Guinness Stout.

Coffee is on its way to Magnolia ...

There's renewed activity on Fort Worth's Magnolia Avenue, which so far has escaped national chain restaurants. (Not a Starbucks in sight.)

By early November, two best friends since sixth grade plan to open what likely will be the area's first coffeehouse that not only roasts its own beans (mostly organic and fair trade), but also directly imports them from Nicaragua, Mexico and Guatemala. They also plan to supply local restaurants and coffee shops.

Avoca Coffee, near Spiral Diner and Nonna Tata, is being transformed from a former scooter shop into a 50-seat establishment that will also offer locally made gourmet chocolates and baked goods. It's named for a town in Ireland.

Mass-produced flavorings are verboten, said Garold LaRue III, who has worked as a barista here and in Alaska. He honed the concept for a year and a half with childhood friend Jimmy Story, who had been a store manager and construction supervisor for Jamba Juice. Both are 31 and very serious about coffee.

"If there's a better way to do it, why not do it all the time?" LaRue asks.

The partners say they'll know who grew or produced just about everything sold at Avoca.

Both declined to give the amount of their startup budget, except Story, who rolled his eyes and said, "A lot." The majority of funding came from family and friends, but Story and LaRue are in charge.

Hiring and training four baristas begins in mid-October, they added. For more information, e-mail garold@avocacoffee.com.

... and so is Japanese food

Magnolia is also getting a Japanese menu, thanks to the owners of Tokyo Cafe at Camp Bowie Boulevard and Pershing Avenue.

Jarry Ho, and his brother-in-law, Casey Kha, have leased 1,475 square feet at 711 W. Magnolia Ave., right across the street from the Paris Coffee Shop.

The two have been visiting other Magnolia-area spots and will be talking with neighborhood folks to firm their plans, but they hope to be open by early November, Ho said.

"This is going to be a fun concept," he said. It will likely attract the young professional crowd, he said.

Ho's parents, Angela and Tony Ho, opened Tokyo Cafe about 13 years ago. He took over operations in 2002. The restaurant draws customers from the south side, Ho said.

Joe Kline represented the tenant in the lease. Jennifer Purselley with NAI Huff Partners represented the landlord, Lyden Investments.

Workshop for job-seekers

The popular free monthly Job Transition Workshop at Crossroads Bible Church in Double Oak has openings for this month's daylong meeting on Saturday.

Instructors include Rex Saoit from Talent Capital Solutions, Gail Houston from Intuit, Locke Alderson from Oracle and Dirk Spencer from PSI Protech Solutions.

Topics: using the Internet in your job search, search strategies, résumé writing, networking, interviewing, and negotiating techniques. The workshop includes free breakfast and lunch, and résumé critiques.

The workshop is for unemployed and underemployed people, and others seeking new work. Dress code is casual. To register, visit www.crossroadsbible.org. The church is at 8101 Farm Road 407.

State conference for business owners

The Texas Workforce Commission is inviting business owners to a Sept. 17 conference in Arlington designed to bring them up to date on laws affecting them and their workers.

Attorneys and staff members from the commission will discuss employee handbooks, hiring and retention, firing, workplace investigations, unemployment insurance, preparing for unemployment insurance hearings, wage and hour laws, and workers compensation.

"Tools presented at the event will give employers the information they need to operate businesses effectively," commission Chairman Tom Pauken said.

Participants at the Texas Business Conference will receive the latest edition of the publication Especially for Texas Employers, which addresses basic legal issues regarding hiring and post-employment and work-separation policy.

The conference is 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Arlington Convention Center's Grand Hall Room, 1200 Ballpark Way in Arlington. Registration is 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

Registration is $85 per person and nonrefundable. Registration forms can be downloaded at www.texasworkforce.org/twcinfo/tbcforms/tbcform.html.

Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727

sabaker@star-telegram.com

Scott Nishimura, 817-390-7808

snishimura@star-telegram.com

Barry Shlachter, 817-390-7718

barry@star-telegram.com

Second in a three-part series

More than 10,000 times in the 12 months ending Aug. 31, oil and gas operators in Texas sank steel pipe into the ground and cemented it in place -- a critical process aimed at preventing groundwater contamination before and after a well goes into production.

Texas Railroad Commission inspectors personally witnessed 1,561 of those surface casings, according to agency records. That represents only 15.4 percent of the 10,140 surface-casings at well sites.

Is that enough?

Commission inspectors witness as many as possible, given staffing limitations, commission spokeswoman Ramona Nye said.

For most surface casings that commission inspectors did not witness in fiscal 2009, the agency's geologists and engineers closely reviewed forms filed by oil and gas operators regarding well construction, Nye said. When operators make their filings, she said, they must declare, under threat of prescribed penalties, that the information is "true and correct."

Commission critics say the agency is too closely tied to the state's politically powerful oil and gas industry and fails to provide sufficiently stringent regulation.

Sharon Wilson, an organizer for the Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project, said the industry "has been running roughshod over Texas for decades."

"We have hundreds of drilling waste pits that have been abandoned all over North Texas or not covered up and properly remediated," she said. "All these are potential sources of water contamination."

Houston attorney Claude Cooke Jr., who has energy clients and worked in the oil industry, says state oil and gas regulatory bodies throughout the U.S., including the Railroad Commission, long "have been doing a good job" in ensuring that wells are properly drilled and completed to avoid groundwater contamination. He spoke on hydraulic fracturing at a June energy conference in Houston.

Oil and gas operators and the contractors they hire have "a lot of financial incentive to do it right," Cooke said, because botching the drilling and completion of a well could require "very expensive" remedial measures and bring costly lawsuits if groundwater is contaminated.

Gary Hogan of Fort Worth said the huge volume of oil and gas wells in Texas and the thousands of new wells drilled each year have led to the commission being "highly understaffed" in field inspectors.

As a result, oversight of the industry "has got to be inadequate," said Hogan, a Lockheed Martin aircraft mechanic who served on Fort Worth drilling ordinance task forces in 2006 and 2008. He is also vice president of the North Central Texas Communities Alliance, which supports a moratorium on drilling permits in the Barnett Shale until environmental, public-health and quality-of-life effects can be more fully assessed.

"We're not anti-drilling," Hogan said of the alliance. "We're very pro-responsible drilling."

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said she is "very anxious to work with the community and the Railroad Commission" in the state's pending sunset review of the agency "to determine improvements that should be made with regard to the [commission's] oversight of natural gas drilling in densely populated areas."

Geoffrey Thyne, a geologist and consultant on a major study in Colorado that is examining the potential effects on groundwater of drilling and fracking wells, was impressed with the commission's oversight of the industry when he worked in Texas for seven years for a large oil company.

Texas "actually has pretty darn good regulations," and the commission has become stricter in demanding that oil and gas operators perform well, Thyne said.

Texas' strict construction requirements for oil and gas wells and the state's geological characteristics are primary reasons why Railroad Commission records "do not indicate a single documented groundwater contamination case associated with hydraulic fracturing," Nye said.

Fracking has been used for more than 50 years to stimulate production from oil and natural gas wells in the state, Nye said in response to questions from the Star-Telegram.

She also said poor cementing or casing of wells "is not a significant problem in Texas" in terms of causing groundwater contamination. There have been no cases of such contamination in the last five years, according to the commission's Oil and Gas Division. Casing refers to steel pipe installed in a well. Cementing, if done properly, seals wellbores from fresh-water aquifers that are used for human consumption and agriculture.

The commission "has strict well-construction requirements that require several layers of steel casings and cement to protect groundwater," Nye said.

Even with the intense activity in recent years in the Barnett, where most new wells routinely undergo fracking, there "have been no documented cases of groundwater pollution" caused by it, Nye said.

Groundwater protection

Most Barnett fracking is "in geologically confined formations that are more than a mile deep," far below groundwater supplies that are customarily only hundreds of feet deep, Nye said. "One can be confident that the geology in Texas, combined with safeguards that we require in the drilling of a well, simply do not support the notion that water used in hydraulic fracturing will migrate to a water table," she said.

Fracking involves pumping huge volumes of water and sand, along with a much smaller amount of chemical additives, down a wellbore under high pressure to fracture dense underground rock formations. Those fractures provide a path for natural gas and oil to move into a wellbore.

Some of the fracking additives are potentially toxic, creating concerns that they could cause groundwater contamination if the fracturing-fluid mix penetrated a freshwater aquifer. Surface spills of fracturing fluids are also a concern.

Based on commission requirements for well construction, "the first protection layer for usable-quality groundwater" is the surface casing -- a steel pipe encased in concrete that extends from the surface to below the groundwater, Nye said.

"The second protection layer ... is the production casing -- a pipe placed in the wellbore to the well's total depth and permanently cemented in place," she said. A third layer is the production tubing, through which the gas or oil flows, she said.

In addition, commission rules "require gauges that monitor these different wellbore casings at the surface, so if there is a downhole problem, it is easily and quickly identified," Nye said.

TCEQ involvement

Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones said in a July letter to the federal Environmental Protection Agency -- which is undertaking an in-depth study of fracking to determine whether it is a serious threat to groundwater -- that the agency "does not allow the permitting of a well where hydraulic fracturing will be used without certification from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality."

The TCEQ "identifies the depth that groundwater must be protected by cement and steel" at each drill site, which dictates the required depth of each well's surface casing, Jones said.

Oil industry groups say fracking is best regulated by state agencies such as the Railroad Commission because they have established professional staffs and greater knowledge of the unique geological and hydrological characteristics of each state. But environmental groups and some members of Congress, concerned about groundwater contamination, are pushing for federal regulation of fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act and mandatory disclosure of chemical additives used.

Concrete and casing

For cementing of wells, the commission requires concrete that meets an American Petroleum Institute standard. It has been "extensively tested for the necessary characteristics needed in the oil and gas industry," Nye said.

The commission requires steel casing. The size and strength vary from well to well, but it must be based on "best engineering practices," Nye said. The main considerations are "burst strength, collapse resistance and joint strength," she said.

A commission inspector witnessing a surface-casing job will confirm that the pipe is deep enough to protect groundwater, either by counting lengths of casing on a pipe rack or inspecting a "casing tally" in which the operator reports how many pieces of casing were used.

Likewise, the inspector confirms that the concrete holding the casing in place completely fills the space between the pipe and surrounding rock, Nye said.

"Most of the commission's field inspectors are experienced oil field personnel but not necessarily engineers or geologists, who generally serve on the commission's technical staff," Nye said.

Plugging wells

In a different but also important area, the commission tries to witness firsthand the plugging of "orphan wells" -- abandoned oil and gas wells -- and "dry holes" that "can pose the greatest potential threat to groundwater" if not plugged correctly, Nye said.

In fiscal 2009, commission inspectors witnessed 4,479 pluggings of orphan wells, or 73 percent of the 6,169 plugged statewide, she said.

From 2003 to 2009, the commission reduced the number of unplugged, abandoned wells from 16,700 to 7,900, Nye said.

The commission also conducted 2,323 inspections of drilling rigs at new well sites in fiscal 2009. The commission focuses on sites posing greater environmental risk, Nye said. Some drilling leases may be inspected several times a year, depending on the type of well, proximity to a river or lake and the compliance history of a well operator, she said.

Jack Z. Smith, 817-390-7724