Boerne firm loses discrimination suit

A federal jury on Friday found that a Boerne recreational vehicle company discriminated against an African American man by not hiring him when he applied for a sales job in 2003.

Virgil Dismute Jr., a retired Air Force noncommissioned officer, was awarded more than $41,000 in lost wages from Ron Hoover RV in the suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Dismute, currently employed as a salesman for another RV company, said he never was contacted by Ron Hoover RV after submitting his application. He testified that he later was told by a former employee there that the hiring manager didn't want him for fear that a black salesman couldn't make inroads among a largely white clientele.

Michael J. Black, an attorney for the RV company, said in a written statement the company has never discriminated against any applicants or employees. The company disagrees with "the jury's verdict that race was a motivating factor" in not hiring Dismute, he stated.

The jury deliberated over two days before reaching its verdict, which did not include punitive damages.

Appletree Day School on Scenic Loop Road in Boerne held a ribbon cutting with the Boerne Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 9. Standing in the photo are City Councilman Jacques Dubose; owners Alan and Alita Apicella; Mayor Dan Heckler; architect Mike De Leeuw, owners Jennifer and Lloyd Voigt; banker Shana Hairgrove.

Bee Creek Communications Expands Service Area 

Bee Creek Communications – a provider of high-speed wireless Internet access – continues to expand its service in the Texas Hill Country with the addition of two new access points. The company launched service from a second site in Sisterdale to expand its coverage area, and signed a lease on a new access point in Bergheim. Construction of the new site is expected to begin immediately, with service commencing in mid-October. With the addition of the two new sites, Bee Creek will have 28 installations throughout the Texas Hill Country.

Mindy Flint, Bee Creek’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, explained, “The Sisterdale and Bergheim communities are experiencing tremendous growth. Bee Creek is committed to providing the same fast, reliable Internet service to local residents and businesses in these more rural areas as we do to businesses and homes in town and in the suburbs around the Hill Country.”

In business since 2001, locally owned and operated Bee Creek Communications provides high-speed wireless broadband Internet service to Fredericksburg, Boerne, Fair Oaks, Comfort, Kerrville, Sisterdale, Stonewall, Ingram and Harper.