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Covering the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest & the neighborhoods of North Houston Saturday, January 14, 2023 • Vol. 68 • No. 2
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By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
Man charge A man has been arrested and charged in connection to a fatal shooting in Acres Homes
Page 2 Contributed photo Arnold van Ek, 82, paints one of his sculptures. van Ek, currently a resident at Watermark of Houston Heights senior living community, is staying young by following his passion for sculpting.
Still strong The St. Thomas Eagles capped off a road trip through Washington last week. See how they did inside today.
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Kicking off Several area high school soccer squads started off the New Year with big victories
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Watermark Houston Heights resident staying vibrant by following passion By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
Almost 20 years ago, Heights resident Arnold van Ek’s family gave him a welding machine as a gag gift upon his retirement from the petrochemical business. Little did they and van Ek know that such a gift would pave the way for van Ek to stay forever young. It gave him the idea to follow his long-time dream of sculpting, he said, and his sculptures have since been featured around the area as he pursues his passion to create works of art that bring joy to those who see them. van Ek, 82 has since created dozens of sculptures as gifts, auction items, and to enlighten visitors to the Woodland Heights and the Sculpture Garden in the Heights, and many are on display at the Watermark at Houston Heights senior living community – where he and his wife Adriana are currently residents. According to van Ek, he worked more than 30 years in a large worldwide chemical company, working as a chemist for decades. And though it was fulfilling in a certain manner, van Ek said there was still something lacking. “(Being a chemist) was very satisfying work but (there was) absolutely no room for artistic behavior,” he said. “So when I retired, I decided it was time to give my interest a chance.” Earlier in his life, van Ek said he had lived in a small town near the Belgian capital of Brussels, where his neighbor created sculptures of people using thin copper plates, spurring his interest in the subject. So upon receiving the welding machine, he began taking art classes at the Glassell School of Art in the Houston Museum District for three semesters. And while many of his classmates were at least 20 years younger than he was at the time he took
Contributed photo Some of van Ek’s sculptures such as “Lazy Atlas,” pictured, have been inspired by mythology, while others are inspired by his personal impressions.
The race for the county’s highest elected position will have one last wrinkle to it before all the dust has settled. In an effort to overturn the results of November’s election, Republican candidate Alexandra del Moral Mealer announced Jan. 6 that she is planning to contest the results of the Nov. 22 election that saw her narrowly lose to incumbent Democrat Lina Hidalgo. In the initial election, del Moral Mealer lost to Hidalgo by about 2 percentage points, or about 18,000 votes. Mealer said she is choosing to contest the results after the county’s post-election assessment revealed issues she says could have contributed to voter suppression on Election Day. “I do not have the weight of government behind me to investigate the matters with the gravity and effort that reports of voter suppression justify but I do have the ability to exercise my legal rights as a candidate,” Mealer said in a statement Jan. 6. As part of its post-election assessment, the county has reported issues such as ballot paper shortages at its 782 polling locations throughout the county. Elections administrator Clifford Tatum has said the county’s internal investigation into those reported problems have been “inconclusive” to this juncture. “It is inexcusable that after two months, the public is no further along in knowing if, and to what extent, votes were suppressed,” Mealer said. “…There were serious operational issues that occurred throughout Election Day that call into question whether the county’s failures denied voters their right to vote.” Mealer is one of 12 losing candidates in Harris County races who are contesting their race results, according to a news release from the office of Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee. And Menefee said in a statement that the attempt to contest the results were “frivolous” attempts to overturn the will of the voters. “For them, it’s not about improving elections or making sure our elections are secure, it’s about
See van Ek P. 4A
Helping out A local art market will host Winter Street artists displaced by the studio fire.
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See Mealer P. 4A
New STEM learning program opening in Oak Forest By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
When Joy Jones thought about how to funnel her passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) into a way to help a younger generation have more access to the curriculum, she was thinking small. Now, it has manifested in a way she could not have imagined. On Saturday, Jones will host the grand
opening of Code Whiz – Oak Forest, coding and robotics school for children ages 7-17, at 2015 W. 34th St. Suite G. Jones, a longtime Houstonian for more than 20 years, has spent much of her professional career doing IT and training in the oil and gas industry. In her spare time, she has conducted outreach programs around Houston to get students interested in STEM projects and learning. She even went so far as to become
an FAA Part 107 Certified Drone Pilot. And she originally looked at franchising opportunities as a way to help fund STEM programs in schools after she said she noticed a lack of all-encompassing access But she soon found something even better. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Jones came across Code Wiz and had the opportunity to meet CEO Ruth AgSee STEM P. 2
Photo from Facebook Children ages 7-17, will have the chance to learn about coding and more at Code Whiz - Oak Forest.
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