Shlachter & Co.: Ross store will be named in honor of Allan Saxe

Arlington’s Allan Saxe has a park, dental clinic and art gallery named in his honor, so why not a store?

A store?

Yep. Saxe, a popular political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and a community activist and volunteer, will have the new Ross Dress for Less in Lincoln Square dedicated in his honor Saturday to recognize his contributions to the Arlington community. The ceremony starts at 9:15 a.m.

"Dr. Saxe’s support of education and the local community is truly commendable and something we value at Ross," Gary Cribb, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Ross, a discount retailer, said in a statement. "We honor one of [Arlington’s] most dedicated residents."

Saxe was selected by Ross’ regional and local field staff, the retailer said.

"I love it," Saxe said of having the store named for him. "I’m a capitalist. I think it’s wonderful what they’re doing."

Ross will present Saxe with a commemorative plaque, which will hang in the store. Ross is also making an undisclosed donation to Arlington Memorial Hospital on Saxe’s behalf.

Among his activities, Saxe is a co-founder of the Arlington Life Shelter and has supported the JPS Health Network, Arlington Public Library Foundation, Arlington Memorial Hospital and Arlington River Legacy Foundation.

This is Ross’ 900th store. A company spokeswoman said Ross has dedicated other stores.

Ross will have 43 locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. The Lincoln Square store is offering shoppers a chance to win a $500 shopping spree or one of five $100 shopping sprees between Saturday and Oct. 19.

— Sandra Baker

Mystery gift

Fort Worth oilman Richard W. Moncrief has definitely given the University of Texas at Austin a share of his disputed stake in a huge Russian natural gas field. Determining its worth is not as definite.

Call it somewhere between zero and $500 million.

In 1997, Moncrief International Oil struck what it thought was a $1 billion deal with Gazprom, the Russian natural gas company, to develop the Yuzhno-Russkoye field. But barely a year later, Richard Moncrief lost contact with his partners in Russia, and a year after that he learned that Gazprom, which had been privatized amid charges of corruption and misappropriation, had lost ownership of the field.

After years of unsuccessful attempts to revive the deal, Moncrief could only watch in 2005 as German chemical giant BASF was awarded a contract to develop the field. He has filed several lawsuits, including one in Germany and most recently in April in a Fort Worth state district court. U.S. federal courts have said they lack jurisdiction to hear the case.

UT-Austin said Moncrief’s interest in the gas field is estimated at more than $16 billion, which a company spokesman said is based on estimates of the field’s reserves. The school would receive a share of any net proceeds from the claim, up to $500 million, it said.

Moncrief told the school that he wants the gift to honor his father, William A. "Tex" Moncrief. It would endow "a program to speed up the development of alternative energy and reduce the impact of higher energy prices on American consumers," he said.

Ford’s fight

Grady Ford is already getting results.

He’s the one-man army complaining about how EOG Resources, formerly Enron Oil & Gas, was securing mineral leases around Joshua in Johnson County.

When a column item ran Wednesday in the Star-Telegram with a photo of the 6-foot-6, 385-pound Ford protesting outside the firm’s downtown Fort Worth office, he got a call from an EOG employee who castigated him for "making us look bad" but then promised to right the situation, Ford told us.

An EOG publicist would say only that the company is working with Ford.

An independent landman purportedly working on EOG’s behalf offered Ford, 65, of Joshua, a $65-an-acre signing bonus three years ago on his 2-acre homestead but wouldn’t allow Ford to show the contract to anyone, Ford says. Direct appeals to EOG bore no fruit, and Ford was told that he was in a "no-pool" area, with nearby landowners refusing to let him join. Moreover, attempts to protest drilling in his area would prove useless, Ford said he was told.

Now he is optimistic.

"I’ve got a whole bunch of people praying for me at my church," Ford said of the response to the newspaper item. "My phone’s ringing off the hook."

Many from Joshua’s Open Door Ministries offered to join any future street protest on Throckmorton Street in downtown Fort Worth. Mobilizing 200 people would be no problem, he told us.

"I don’t want to start World War III," he said. "I just want a fair deal, and I can’t stand to be bullied."

RadioShhh

RadioShack is quietly testing a new mobile store concept.

The company is building a small wireless store, to be called Point Mobile, in the Park Cities area of Dallas.

"Similar to the RadioShack kiosk program, Point Mobile will be independently branded and will not carry the RadioShack brand name," company spokeswoman Wendy Dominguez said.

RadioShack plans only one store. The company already has 700 wireless kiosks at Sam’s Clubs and malls.

Southpaws

Playing catch with former Texas Rangers pitcher Jose Guzman and getting autographs from the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders were the highlights of several Mexican travel writers’ visit to Arlington on Wednesday.

The writers, from Mexico City, were on a trade mission in North Texas that took them to Grapevine, Fort Worth, Dallas, Irving and Arlington.

They spent three hours at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, where they toured the clubhouse and played on the field before taking a trip to the construction site of the Cowboys stadium. The group then stayed the night at the Holiday Inn on Interstate 30 that opened this summer.

"It’s very important to the city of Arlington that we increase our visibility in international markets," said Diane Brandon, vice president of communications for the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau. "These journalists will go home and write about how much fun they had here, and hopefully we will have some travelers come our way from Mexico."