KILGOROUND
BILL WOODALL

WE HAVE lots of opportunities to thank folks for what they do in our communities. But we seldom take the time to do it.

THIS IS the day we thank Jim Oubre for his contributions to the booster club, the chamber of commerce, the lions club, and the rest.

THE surprising thing about Jim is not that he's involved in or present at virtually everything -- it's that he's been here only five years and has impacted the community in so many ways in such a short time.

IN CASE you haven't heard, Jim is at home and being tended by Riki, Nicole, Derrick and the kind people from hospice. And if you have a way to get your thanks to him, please do so.

THANK YOU, Jim, for your hundreds and hundreds of large and small expressions of love for this community.

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AAAAAAY! THE ultra-cool Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli is go-

Jeremy Caddell, Mary Ruth Huey, Maxine Spinks, J.B. Moody III, Julia Adams, Ann Lowrey, Georgia Manning, Mark Hickerson, Katy Cline, Mrs. Don Bone, Michelle Fette, Eddy Holley, Betty Brown, Iran Flynn, Ernie Williams, Eddie London, Michelle Garza, Kristie Parrott, Dakota Watson, Tyler Brennon Smalley, Trevieon Tinneying to be permanently honored in Milwaukee. A bronze statue of the leatherjacketed biker from "Happy Days" will be erected in Milwaukee, where the TV sitcom was set, now that local groups have raised the $85,000 needed to do it.

HENRY WINKLER, who played The Fonz during the show's 1974-1984 run, reportedly reacted with a "Holy mackerel!"

+++ AT A recent convention of Texas newspaper publishers, we found ourselves in a conversation with a north Texas publisher whose roots go back to New London, Carlisle and Henderson oil boom days.

HE'S BEEN hearing a lot, he said, about Kilgore in connection with industrial development.

APPARENTLY, he said in one of those declarative sentences that ends like a question, Kilgore has one of the state's best industrial parks.

SYNERGY PARK, I said, in one of those looking-downmy nose tones of voice, is not an industrial park. It is, I said, a business campus. And it has a pond that may still have one or two trout left in it.

WE WERE pleased that our little town, for so long known only for oil and Rangerettes, is now becoming known for economic development beyond

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IT'S DIFFICULT for us to imagine, but our regular correspondent -- and Kilgore native -- Mart Lapin reported Friday that his town, Orono, Maine has received 61.5 inches of snow this season. That compares, he said, to 12.5 inches at this time last year.

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WE'RE told that those members of a drilling rig crew who scamper around on the drilling platform are called squirrels.

WOULDN'T that be a fine name, asks our pal Margaret Grant, for Kilgore's new collegiate league baseball team?

IT WOULD, and a squirrel would also make a fun mascot.

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HAPPY birthday today (Sunday) to Steve Silvertooth, Patty Tanner, Bea Chandler, Stacy Handley, Lulie Thurston, Jr., Theresa Logan, James Harvey, Stephanie Mills, Shonda Nix, Joanne Dykes, Leon Brown, Jacob Maxwell, Richard X. Cook, Diane Wilson, Ruben Martinez, Jr.,

Alexzander Mills.

CELEBRATING wedding anniversaries today Joe and Lelia VanMeter, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Hudspeth, Mr. And Mrs. Kenny Hooker, Mr. And Mrs. Doug Carpenter.

HAPPY birthday Monday Jeremy Caddell, Mary Ruth Huey, Maxine Spinks, J.B. Moody III, Julia Adams, Ann Lowrey, Georgia Manning, Mark Hickerson, Katy Cline, Mrs. Don Bone, Michelle Fette, Eddy Holley, Betty Brown, Iran Flynn, Ernie Williams, Eddie London, Michelle Garza, Kristie Parrott, Dakota Watson, Tyler Brennon Smalley, Trevieon Tinney.