Enter Your Pet in Spring Texas Cutest Pet Photo Contest

Spring, TX – June 19, 2008 – ExploreSpring.com and Pets Are Inn North Houston announces date for 1^st “Cutest Pet Contest” – July 1, 1008. Do you think your pet has the cutest face? Then put your picture taking to the test and send in your cutest pet photo.

Simply logon on to www.explorespring.com and upload your photo between July 1 and July 31, 2008. The contest is run completely online. All of the entries we receive are voted on by our site viewers. The top vote getter as of midnight July 31, 2008 wins the prize. Entries and voting will continue the entire month. The winner of the Contest will receive 2 nights free lodging with Pets Are Inn, custom ExploreSpring.com Doggie Gift Pack, and a “featured winner” photo on the ExploreSpring.com Web site located at http://www.explorespring.com.

The contest will be starting soon, so get those cameras out and start shooting. Entries will only be accepted online from viewers in the Houston Metropolitan Area. The contest entry form can be accessed by visiting: http://www.explorespring.com/pages/Photo_Contest.  

About ExploreSpring.com

ExploreSpring.com is a locally owned City Directory for Spring, Texas where you can find all kinds of product and services – from restaurants and automobiles to shopping and home services. ExploreSpring.com provides a central online location 24 hours a day to find information relevant to the Spring Community. The web site is located at http://www.explorespring.com.

About Pets Are Inn North Houston

Pets Are Inn is a unique pet lodging alternative for those who may feel uncomfortable leaving their furry family member at a kennel or with friends or relatives. The staff at Pets Are Inn screens private homes to care for your pet as in a way their accustomed to. They also provide convenient round-trip pickup and delivery of your pet. The company Web site is located at http://www.petsareinn.com.

Spring Texas 4th of July Celebrations

The Declaration of Independence brought this great nation into being over 230 years ago. The 4^th of July is more than a day off to eat barbecue, it is a time to reflect on those freedoms and to show our patriotic pride. Here are a list of local events in and around Spring and Klein TX.

Community 4th of July Celebrations

Lexington Woods – 4th of July Parade

The Parade will start at 9:30am at the back swimming pool on Deer Valley.

 

Oakwood Glen-Annual 4th of July Celebration!!!

Beginning at 10:00AM at the back park next to the clubhouse, an American flag-raising ceremony will take place followed by the parade of bicycles which will end at the pool area. Everyone is encouraged to decorate their bicycles to participate in the parade. There will be hot dogs and drinks for all and a moonwalk for the kids! The pool will be open to all members of the community.

 

Spring Creek Oaks

10:15 am Parade vehicles will assemble in the parking lot of the Church at the intersection of TC Jester and Louetta. Following the parade, cool off at the Clubhouse II pool.

 

Terra Nova 4^th of July Parade

10 am Friday, July 4^th. Decorate your bikes, wagons, and cars! All are invited! Come join the fun! Meet in front of the Terra Nova Clubhouse  5200 Woodville. The Klein fire truck will lead the parade from Woodville and Fireside.

 

Other Events

 

South Montomery County July 4 Celebration

Celebrate Fourth of July early with Radio Disney AM 1590 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion! This free family event takes place at the Pavilion located off of 45 North at 2005 Lake Robbins Drive and Radio Disney will be there for a pre-show from 6:30pm- 8:00pm! The Radio Disney Road Crew will have games, dances and awesome prize giveaways before the show! Then the Houston Symphony takes the stage to perform great American classics and traditional favorites!

 

Sam Houston Race Park

July 4^th Celebration at the Park, live Quarter Horse racing beginning at 5 p.m., fantastic holiday-themed dining packages, live entrtainment, family activities and more. Guests are encouraged to bring nonperisiable food items for the Park’s food drive benefiting the Houston Food Bank. Fireworks will begin at approximately 9:30 p.m.

 

Downtown Houston‘s Official July 4th Celebration

Four stages will feature a variety of music ranging from Pop, Latino, Country, Classic rock, and Oldies.

Admission is $6, and children under 10 are free

Eleanor Tinsley Park @ Buffalo Bayou

4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

 

Miller Outdoor Theatre July 4th Fireworks and Symphony

Houston Symphony Orchestra

Start: 8:30 PM

 

Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular over Clear Lake

9:30pm

 

Houston July 4^th Fireworks Cruise

Enjoy a barbecue dinner as you are ferried to the fireworks barge. Once there you have an unobstructed view of all the festivities.

$69* per adult, $39* for children under 12

Star Fleet Entertainment Yachts

280 Grove Rd

Kemah, TX 77565

Phone: (281) 334-4692

Kemah Boardwalk

 

If you have other events not listed here, please provide them with a comment.

Klein Collins High School to host Ponderosa Invitational

Spring, Texas – The 2008 Ponderosa Invitational will be held at the Klein Collins High School Natatorium on June 28th & 29th. The championship swim meet of the Northwest Aquatic League has been hosting this event for 38 years for children ages 6 to 18. All of the athletes are Northwest Greater Houston area swimmers representing subdivisions in the Houston Area and bordering areas as far as Bryan-College Station.

The invitational started this morning with the qualifying meet. Swimmers of all ages compete and fight for a qualifying time in order to advance to the finals later in the afternoon. The top eight swimmers with the fastest qualifying times will reconvene later for the Finals.

Area Spring Schools to offer Free Meals Children During Summer Break

Area Spring ISD schools will offer free breakfast and lunch all children 18 years of age and younger this summer. 9 elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school will operate the Seamless Summer Feeding Program. Children may simply show up at a program feeding site during the scheduled times to participate. Proper attire, including shoes, and good behavior are required.
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Spring ISD Classified Job Fair to be held June 26

The Spring ISD Transportation and Operations departments will hold a Classified Job Fair from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 26 at Westfield High School, 16713 Ella Blvd. There are immediate openings for custodial positions from 3:30 p.m. to midnight starting at $8.60 per hour. Positions for bus drivers ($12.02 per hour minimum) and bus attendants ($8.60 per hour) are available for the upcoming school year. Drivers will be hired immediately, so they may begin Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) training this summer. Classified applications are available online or at the Spring ISD Human Resources office, 16717 Ella Blvd. Applications will also be available on-site at the job fair.

classified applications

Spring TX WiFi Hot Spots

In today’s wireless economy, finding places you can do business on the interent away from home or the office is imperative. Here is a list of local WiFi Hot Spots in Spring, Texas.

Barbara Bush Branch Library	6817 Cypresswood Dr Harris County Public Library, Spring, 77379
Crepe Paris Cafe	16870 Stuebner Airline Rd Spring, 77379
Hooks Airport	20803 Stuebner Airline Road, Spring, 77379	Hotspot.bz
Knowledge Quest	1310 Rayford Rd, Spring, 77386	Independent
McDonald’s	25222 I-45, Spring 77386
Rao’s Bakery & Coffee Cafe	6915 Cypresswood Dr  Spring, 77379
Starbucks I45 and FM 242	3068 College Park Drive, Spring, 77381	T-Mobile Wireless Broadband
Starbucks, Louetta & I-45	7316 Louetta Rd, Spring, 77379
Starbucks, Pinecroft & Lake Woodlands	1440-g Lake Woodlands Drive, Spring, 77380	T-Mobile Wireless Broadband
Starbucks, Kuykendahl & Louetta (TC)	18565 Kuykendahl, Spring, 77379	T-Mobile Wireless Broadband
Starbucks, Panther Creek & Woodlands Pkwy	4775 W Panther Creek, Spring, 77381	T-Mobile Wireless Broadband
Starbucks, TC – Woodlands	25111 Grogans Mill Road, Spring, 77380	T-Mobile Wireless Broadband
Texan Wild Burgers & Wings	8905 Louetta Rd, Spring, 77379

Celebrate Christmas Early with Spring Klein Chamber of Commerce

The Chamber to hold their first event to promote Spring, Texas and introduce area residents to local businesses with a festive celebration

Spring, TX – June 16, 2008 – The Spring Klein Chamber of Commerce (SKCC) will hold their first annual Christmas in July banquet with a live auction on Friday, July 25, 2008 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.  All proceeds from the auction will be to support the startup of the Chamber, a not-for-profit organization (application pending) that operates to promote business development, a strong community and superior quality of life in Spring and Klein Texas .

To be held at the Augusta Pines Savannahs in Spring, Texas , the event will have all the ambience and air of Christmas complete with dinner, dancing, holiday decor and live music. In its first year the Chamber hopes to increase awareness about the Chamber, boost its current membership by 20%, and raise $5,000 for its startup year.

The live auction will feature a host of items ranging from household products and baked goods to sports memorabilia and event tickets. Running the auction will be Mark Moore with Cheray Auctioneers, License # 15019, who is volunteering his time in support of the chamber.  Special guests are expected throughout the evening to celebrate the season with Spring business owners and residents.

“We are so excited to be creating an organization dedicated to the well being of the Spring Klein area. We want to nurture it and preserve its beauty, while embracing the enormous growth we are experiencing,” said Elle Carnes, Chairman of the banquet.

Tickets are on sale now at $50 for chamber members and $55 for non-members. SKCC is soliciting donations for door prizes and auction items, as well as underwriters and advertisers for the event program.  If you would like to contribute or attend the auction, please visit us online at www.springkleinchamber.org or contact Elle Carnes, Banquet Chair, via email info@springkleinchamber.org or phone at (281) 912-1107.

Still Time to Enter your Favorite Photo and Win!!!

Whether photography is your hobby, or just an occasional pastime, we invite you to participate in ExploreSpring.com’s photo contest. To enter visit ExploreSpring.com at http://www.explorespring.com/pages/Photo_Contest click [Submit a Photo] at the bottom of the page and upload your photo and description. That’s it, it is that simple. The $10 Visa Gift Card and a custom T-Shirt with your winning photo on it will be awarded to the photo with the most votes at midnight on July 31, 2008. This month’s contest is wide open with only 1 entry thus far, so come make it interesting and join us online. The winner will be featured on our homepage, in our newsletter, and contest winner page.

 

Rep. Riddle on Margin’s Tax

While browsing the blogs today (Thursday, June 05), I found myself lingering over Jason Embry’s “Postcards from the Lege” regarding the state’s margins tax.  His overall assessment of the attitudes regarding the margins tax were generally right on.  He did, however, breeze straight through a point I think could use a little more discussion.  He wrote “in the end, the plan was a net tax cut, because it cut more money in property taxes than it was projected to raise.”

True, the Texas Tax Reform Commission made all kinds of claims about the vast savings  both businesses and citizens would realize under this new, magical margins tax when it was pressed upon legislators in 2007.  But even in the midst of the campaign to earn votes for the plan, legislators like myself, who opposed the tax from its inception, knew the estimates were inaccurate and the rhetoric was skewed. 

The state never had in mind a goal of achieving a net tax cut, because that would mean that the state would have less to spend.  In fact, lawmakers created two other taxes, the cigarette tax and the motor-vehicle tax, just to make sure we didn’t create a deficit.  Despite repeated promises from the Commission that most businesses would somehow end up paying less while the state would end up reaping more, the math never made sense.  All the while, we were sitting on top of an $8 billion surplus with only $6 billion needed to pay for property tax reductions. Yet the legislature chose to create new taxes rather than giving back what the state had overcharged. 

Now, with ten days left before businesses have to write a check for their new taxes, it’s obvious that someone in the state has to be seeing a huge net tax increase.  The comptroller estimates that this new margins tax is going to generate $11.9 billion dollars, more than twice what the old franchise tax would have generated. 

So whose footing the bill?  Not the big corporations who were exploiting the loopholes in the old franchise tax.  This time around, it’s small business owners, who make up 97 percent of the all the businesses in Texas.  Recent surveys by the National Federation of Independent Business indicate that as much as 84 percent  of small business owners are going to see their tax burden increase by more than 100 percent, and more than 40 percent of those who saw an increase in their state tax liability will now face an increase of more than 500 percent over their previous bill.   

But businesses will see a huge reduction in property taxes, right?  Doesn’t look like it.  In Harris County alone last year, commercial appraisals were up more than 30 percent, already wiping out any supposed savings from the tax-swap.  Dallas County reports increases of more than 20 percent.  In Travis County, as reported by the Statesman, commercial appraisals are up almost 10 percent.  No net reductions to be found there.  Just more fuel added to a Texas-size tax-and-spend machine.

With an overall budget of more than $160 billion and surpluses that constantly hover in the tens of billions of dollars, Texas has had every opportunity to create real net tax cuts for both our small  businesses and our private citizens by identifying government waste and reducing how much the state spends.  Instead, the legislature has chosen to single out the very backbone of our economy, the small businessperson, and ask them to give 500 percent more than they are already contributing to state coffers.  If we don’t see the error of this new tax and take steps to fix it, or better yet, repeal it altogether, there won’t be any small businesses left to tax. 

 

Debbie Riddle

State Representative

District 150

ExploreSpring.com May Photo Contest Winner Announced.

Spring, Texas. Registered ExploresSpring.com User jwitcher 99 is the May Photo Contest Winner with ttheir beautiful girl. Photo caption read “I spy… a pink flower and blue eyes”. The winner of the contest wins a $10 Visa Gift Card, and a custom ExploreSpring.com T-Shirt with the winning photo on it. Go online now to enter your photo for a chance to win and/or to vote for your favorite photo.