< Previous“There’re more things to do at home with the pool. I just thought that we’re a little more restricted in what we’re do- ing. Having a pool here, there’s more fun to do at the house.” Since the pool’s installation in Febru- ary, Bartosh’s family has been in it every day, he said. With two kids and a dog, it’s a nice way to enjoy family time, he said. “Family starts to matter more,” Bartosh said. Gulf Coast Pools, which constructed Bartosh’s outdoor oasis, has had a wave of new clients requesting pools during the pandemic, Stuart Trahan, an owner, said. “People at home need something to do,” Trahan said. “People mentioned neighborhood pools getting closed.” The types of pools people are build- ing range from standard to custom and everything in between, he said. The building boom has had some set- backs. The cost of lumber and other materials shot through the roof last year, an expen- sive trend that has continued for months. Those costs slowed down Pevoto’s bathroom and closet projects, she said. “The price of lumber, I mean, ‘hello?’” Pevoto said. “It went through the roof. Everything was bought in stages, slowly.” Since April 2020, the rising price of lumber has added nearly $30,000 to the price of a single-family house, accord- ing to the National Association of Home Builders. Supply chain issues skyrocketed the price of lumber and made building ma- terials harder to find. The costs definite- ly slowed down the otherwise upward construction trend, Flores said. Paint also was hard to come by, he said. “They’re having trouble getting the raw materials to produce the paint,” Flores said. It’s also taking longer to build pools because shipping disruptions have made equipment hard to come by and many subcontractors are busy with so many projects going on, Trahan said. Before the pandemic, he told clients he could build them a pool in six to eight weeks. Now he’s telling people 10 to 12 weeks, he said. Just recently, prices have started to drop, Flores said. Eventually, the trend will slow down, he said. “It’s a good problem to have,” Flores said. 10 | The Daily News | Latitude 29 | 2021 From top: Amber and Randy Bartosh installed a serene swimming pool in the canal-side backyard of their Tiki Island home. There are more fun things to do at the house with a pool, Randy Bartosh said; Evan Feagin, clockwise from left, Allison Carter, Chase Carter and Amber Bartosh chat on the back patio of the family’s Tiki Island home.2021 | Latitude 29 | The Daily News | 11 OOOOO Five-Star “Superior” rating by BauerFinancial, Inc., awarded June, 2021 Galveston • Pearland • League City Friendswood • Alvin • www.HomeTown.Bank Contact a HomeTown Bank Loan Officer Soon: Galveston Main Bank: (409) 763-1271 Cesar Hernandez • Brandon Rogers Galveston Seawall: (409) 763-5252 (Closing temporarily after Friday, Oct. 29th, for reconstruction) Scott Kusnerik • Traci Shugart Garcia Friendswood Downtown: (281) 996-4900 Allan Rasmussen • Scott Asimakis Friendswood Bay Area: (281) 648-9000 Steve Owens Alvin: (281) 388-5000 Ray Rusk • Chad Dudley League City: (281) 554-3265 Bill Provenzano • Jim Goebel Pearland: (281) 412-8000 Sean Murphy • Donna Rizzo Dreaming of a swimming pool, a new addition or a remodeled kitchen? Maybe your home needs better insulation, a generator, solar panels or plumbing repairs? HomeTown Bank loan officers are available on the phone to walk you through the process, step by step. You’ll notice the difference at HomeTown Bank, the community bank where we take pride in personal service. HOME EQUITY LOANS12 | The Daily News | Latitude 29 | 2021 COMFORT FOOD LOCALS DISCOVER PASSION FOR BAKING, COOKING DURING PANDEMIC Story by ANGELA WILSON | Photos by STUART VILLANUEVA AS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HUN- KERED DOWN AT HOME DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC , they took up new hobbies. Some learned to make TikTok videos and millions of Americans, including Galveston County residents, got cooking and baking to pass the time, save money, stay safe and be cre- ative. In the peak of the first pandemic wave in July 2020, Hitchcock resident Ali Sosa, 63, retired af- ter 33 years of nursing to concentrate on taking care of her autistic grandson, who was doing virtual classes, she said. Sosa started baking various fruit breads with all the extra fruit she was receiving from the Galveston County Food Bank, she said.2021 | Latitude 29 | The Daily News | 13 “I’m not a sit-on-the-couch type of person and creating something yummy helped with my anxiety,” Sosa said. “I’ve always loved to cook, so with all the extra food items I decided to start baking as to not waste any of the food.” Sosa typically bakes 15 to 20 loaves a week in a variety of flavors, such as banana, pineapple coconut, peach, pumpkin, carrot raisin walnut, blackberry almond, blueberry and a chocolate bread she calls “Black Magic.” Sosa also makes fruit jams to go along with the breads, which she shares with family, friends, neighbors and her grandson’s teachers, she said. “Friends and neighbors are kind and contrib- ute to the cost of other ingredients that I need,” Sosa said. “It’s so much fun, and it keeps me busy. This has allowed me to be creative and helps with the loss of income from retiring.” Professionals such as Anna Barba-Poindexter, business director and community liaison and marketing executive for the family’s dental of- fice by day, took up cooking to help relieve stress, she said. Living on Galveston Island every weekend and most Wednesdays in the family’s second Above: Anna Barba-Poindexter and her husband, Dr. Zeb Poindexter III, have found a passion for cooking since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Creating dishes from scratch releases stress and brings the family together, said Barba- Poindexter, a first-generation Mexican American who has mastered arroz con pollo, paella and other Latin cuisine. Opposite: Hitchcock resident Ali Sosa recently retired from a 33-year nursing career and started baking so as not to waste food. It also keeps her busy and allows her to be creative, Sosa said.14 | The Daily News | Latitude 29 | 2021 home, the 62-year-old wife, mother of six and grandmother of eight, started creating dishes from scratch in an effort to bring her large fam- ily together during COVID, she said. “The stress and the reality of COVID was taking its toll on us at our business,” she said. “Cooking helped to release the stress, tension and anger I was feeling. “Cooking with love and from scratch requires me to organize my thoughts and be creative to let go of the stress from the day.” As a first-generation Mexican American from Guadalajara, Mexico, Barba-Poindexter, who learned how to cook from her mother, has mastered dishes like arroz con pollo, paella, gumbo, blackened fish, shrimp with vegetables, oxtails, plantains and enchiladas, just to name a few, she said. “I now like to look up recipes and can create a dish when I eat it at a restaurant — if the dish is really good,” Barba-Poindexter said. “In my opinion, the best way to bring people of all cultures together is through food, and that’s certainly something I’ve learned during this pandemic. “Although it can be overwhelming, cooking brings me peace and joy.” Top: When Dr. Zeb Poindexter III and Anna Barba- Poindexter are not busy running the family’s dental office, they like to cook. Food is the best way to bring people together, Barba-Poindexter said. Above: Ali Sosa removes a loaf of bread from the oven. Sosa bakes about 15 to 20 loaves a week in a variety of flavors and shares them with family, friends and neighbors, she said. “The stress and the reality of COVID was taking its toll on us at our business. Cooking helped to release the stress, tension and anger I was feeling.” Anna Barba-Poindexter2021 | Latitude 29 | The Daily News | 15 working together It has been a tough year, but we are always tougher together. Thank you to the tremendous men and women of Galveston County Health District who work tirelessly to keep our communities healthy and safe. GCHD.ORG | 409.938.7221 Animal Resource Center Emergency Medical Ambulance Services Women Infants and Children (WIC) Services Tuberculosis Screening and Treatment Public Health Emergency Preparedness STD/HIV Screening Healthy Concepts Clinic Disease Surveillance Air and Water Pollution Services Community Outreach Immunizations Consumer Health Services Birth and Death Records16 | The Daily News | Latitude 29 | 2021 LONE STAR RISING PANDEMIC OR NOT, PEOPLE STILL ARE MOVING TO GALVESTON COUNTY Story by JOHN WAYNE FERGUSON | Photo by JENNIFER REYNOLDSTHE MUSIC SCENE DRIED UP IN NASH- VILLE, SO CHRIS GANTRY HEADED FOR THE TEXAS COAST. Gantry, a singer-songwriter who had lived in the Music City for 50 years, moved to Galveston last year, a move partly driven by the COVID-19 virus. “I was looking to get out of the music business in Nashville because it was dead,” he said. It hasn’t always been easy, Gantry said. Gal- veston has something of a musical legacy, but it doesn’t have near the number or quality of live music venues he was accustomed to. “It’s very difficult to get people to listen,” Gan- try said of Galveston audiences. They’re very busy eating and drinking and watching the Dal- las Cowboys, he said. “I’m struggling a little bit.” Still, he says he loves the attitude in Galveston. “They love each other and they stick together,” he said. POPULATION SHIFT? It has been widely reported that during the COVID-19 pandemic many people joined Gantry in moving away from large cities in favor of liv- ing in less-populated areas of the country. The moves have been described as peo- ple acting to protect themselves from the virus by leaving the close quarters of a city or as a choice to seek new, more comfortable spaces as white-collar jobs shifted to virtual offices under work-from-home policies during the pandemic. The scale of the migration might have been a little overstated. More than 80 percent of people who changed permanent residences in the first 12 months of the pandemic stayed in the same metro area, according to an analysis by Bloomberg news. 2021 | Latitude 29 | The Daily News | 17is taking to protect themselves against the virus. “We’ve been here six months now, and my wife doesn’t feel like she knows anything more about Houston than we did when we moved here,” Box said. “Without our kids being vaccinated, we’re trying to mitigate every risk we can. So she doesn’t feel like she can get out.” LOCAL BOOM Whether Gantry’s story is an outli- er or part of a pandemic-driven trend, there’s still no question about it: Peo- ple are moving to Galveston County in great numbers. Since 2010, Galveston County’s population has grown by 20 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county’s population in 2020 was more than 350,000. It remains one of the fastest growing counties in Texas, which is among the fastest-growing states in the country. Most of the growth in the county has been in League City — which grew by 37 percent and by more than 30,000 res- idents over 10 years. While League City led in growth, nearly every other city in the county grew by at least 10 percent. That growth often is attributed to an expansion of Houston and Harris Coun- ty into the suburbs surrounding the metro area. Indeed, there are people in Galves- ton County who moved here because of the work in the big city, rather than fleeing it. FOLLOWING JOBS James Box works for a Brazilian min- ing company and moved to Friends- wood with his wife and daughters, ages 4 and 6, in March after the company opened its first U.S.-based facility in Pasadena. “Like so many other people in the Houston area, I moved here because my company asked me to move here,” Box said. Box said his family chose Friends- wood because of its good schools, and its proximity to the city and the beaches of Galveston Island. “It feels like everybody is from some- where else,” he said. “Everybody I talk to has roots somewhere else.” But moving to Texas from Wisconsin during a pandemic has had its down- sides. Despite being here for the better part of a year, Box said it still feels like he hardly knows his new community because of the precautions his family Chris Gantry, a musician and songwriter, plays his guitar at his home in Galveston. Gantry moved to the island from Nashville last year. His decision partly was driven by the pandemic, he said. 18 | The Daily News | Latitude 29 | 2021 “It feels like everybody is from somewhere else. Everybody I talk to has roots somewhere else.” James Box2021 | Latitude 29 | The Daily News | 19 Thank you for believing in us and helping us get here. We can't wait for all that's to come. 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