PH to ink city hall deal

Mohon will fill council seat

Although there are a lot of “too early to tells,” Pinehurst City Council agreed Tuesday to carry forward with a deal to buy the Technical Resource building on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to replace the city’s more than 50-year old city hall.

Council also approved the appointment of Dan Mohon, 70, insurance businessman and mayor of Orange from 1988-92, to fill the position left by the resignation of Bessie Huckaby.

Huckaby had served on council since 1997 and is battling cancer. She is under the care of M.D. Anderson staff in Houston; and her husband C.J., who also served in various city positions over the years.

She and her family have the prayers and best wishes of many longtime friends in Southeast Texas.

Mohon will not be sworn in until the next council meeting.

Councilman Dan Barclay made the motion to purchase the Technical Resource building at a previously-appraised value of $747,000; plus $15,000 for the furniture.

Under the agreement, he said the present owners could use a back shop in the building for two years.

“We don’t plan to use it for awhile,” Barclay said. “We’re going to let them continue to use that shop at no cost to the city.”

When to move in and what to do with the old city hall will be future issues for consideration, he said.

Mohon and his wife Manon, who have two children, recently moved from Orange to Pinehurst, nicknamed by many there as “the best little city in the world.”

Mohon graduated from Texas Tech with an insurance/real estate degree, and has been active in the Orange Lions Club, the Lutcher Theater board, the Orange Economic Development Corp. and the Planning and Zoning Commission.

He said he looks forward to returning to government service.

“I enjoy trying to make things somewhat better and making the quality of life wherever I live better,” he said.

Mayor Pro-Tem Robert “Bob” Williams made the recommendation to appoint Mohon, saying his longtime community involvement makes him extremely qualified.

Williams said he erred in the last council meeting by suggesting that former Pinehurst Mayor Billy Permenter sign on for Huckaby’s term, which ends in May, 2011.

Permenter cannot be appointed by the present mayor, T.W. Permenter, Billy’s brother.

However, Williams added, Billy Permenter can be elected under T.W.’s administration.

“I hope he will consider running for council again someday,” Williams said.