Couple shares collection at Octavia Fields Branch Library in Humble

Page 2A, Wednesday, August 24, 2016 Z1 Humble Observer • Kingwood Observer • Atascocita Observer • East Montgomery County Observer • Lake Houston Observer ф Your Community 'From Humble residents to Humble residents' Couple shares collection at Octavia Fields Branch Library in Humble By Jennifer Summer „ jsummer@hcnonline.com _ In their 46 years of marriage, Humble residents Alex and Mary Poliak have traveled and lived all over the world. Celebrating their anniversary this December, Alex and Mary wanted to find a way to share their adventures and collectibles they have picked up along the way with others. Since the Poliak's live in Humble, they chose to share their collection with the Octavia Fields Library in Humble, "The Pol¬ iak's Collection: From Humble Residents to Humble Resi- л dents." According to information shared by Mary, "Since (their wed¬ ding ceremony at Caxton Hall in London) life has been one adventure after another, due to Alex's work as a chemical en¬ gineer, living in Spain, New Jersey and for the last 30+ years in Humble, where the original assignment was for six months at the Channelview petrochemical complex. During this time due to overseas assignments we have lived in Spain (Madrid and Puertollano), Costa Rica, Panama and Japan." Though their upbringings were very different — Mary grew up in a small village in the Cotswolds area of England and had a normal childhood there with parents, three sisters and a younger brother while Alex was bom in Croatia which was part of Yugoslavia. He had a tumultuous and challenging life be¬ cause of World War II. As a Holocaust survivor, he lost his par¬ ents, his home, his belongings and his dog in quick succession by the age of 10. The couple's love and support for each other have kept them traveling and seeing different parts of the world. During Alex and Mary's travels, they acquired most of the items on display and wanted to share some of them with the community. The Poliak's met with Octavia Fields Branch Library Manag¬ er Janna Hoglund to inquire about featuring their collection at the library. Octavia Fields Library will display a variety of the collectibles starting with the "Boats Collection." To further share information on their collection and their life story, there will be a special event, “Meet Alex and Mary Pol¬ iak," set for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29. The Poliaks will tell their story, talk about the collection and answer questions. "The Poliak's collection is amazing,” Hoglund said. “Alex and Mary visit the library almost daily to see their collection and how people are responding to it. It was collected during many years of traveling around the world. I would like to thank Alex and Mary for their support of our library, their community involvement and their willingness to share their collection with ^ the library visitors and with the Humble residents. I would like о to invite everyone to take this opportunity to see the collection ^ and to attend the meeting with the Poliak’s Sept. 29." ® The Octavia Fields Branch Library is located at 1503 S. Hous¬ ton Avenue, Humble, 77338. For more information, call 281-446-3377 or visit http://www.hcpl.net/location/octavia-fields-branch-li- brary Alex and Mary Poliak stand in front of the display case at the Octavia Fields Branch Library in Humble. Submitted The Poliak's met with Octavia Fields Branch Library Manager Janna Hoglund to inquire about featuring their collection at the library as a way to share their adventures with Humble residents. Octavia Fields Library is displaying a variety of the collectibles starting with the "Boats Collection" items. Submitted Alex and Mary Poliak in front of one of their paintings they have collected through their travels at the Octavia Fields Branch Library in Humble. Tax assessor joins sheriff to uncover fraud, help victim Staff Report observernews@hcnonline.com Harris County Tax Asses¬ sor-Collector Mike Sulli¬ van joined Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman and Billy Frank of Clear Lake Infiniti to help stop a Craigslist scam and help a crime victim. Socorro Hernandez, a single mother of three, purchased a vehicle from Craigslist for $6,000. She went to the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office to transfer the title, only to find out the vehicle was stolen. "My office has a Special Investigations Unit to un¬ cover fraud. Chief Bill Smith leads a team by ana¬ lyzing titles that have been altered or are counterfeit," said Sullivan. “Upon learning of the stolen ve¬ hicle, my team discovered it was resold fraudulently to Ms. Hernandez. We im¬ mediately contacted the sheriff's office to proceed with prosecution." The sheriff's office con¬ tacted Clear Lake Infiniti informing them that the vehicle was recovered. General manager Billy Frank decided to gener¬ ously donate the vehicle to Hernandez. "We've been blessed by the com¬ munity to be able to do things like this and try to make a right out of this wrong,” Frank said. He presented Hernandez with the title and keys to the donated vehicle. "I'm proud to have worked with the sheriff's office to help uncover this fraudulent activity and for the outstanding generosi¬ ty of Clear Lake Infiniti,” said Sullivan. Sullivan also reminded residents to purchase a ti¬ tle check from the TxDMV when purchasing a used vehicle. Learn more about the service at www .TxD¬ MV. gov. The Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Of¬ fice Automobile Division performs more than 4.5 million automobile trans¬ actions in Harris County each year. It also works closely with the Texas De¬ partment of Motor Vehi¬ cles to register motor ve¬ hicles, collect registration and title fees and dis¬ tributes them to the prop¬ er entities. Learn more about the Automobile Ser¬ vices Division by visiting www.hctax.net. Submitted Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan, center, joined Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman, left, and Billy Frank of Clear Lake Infiniti, right, to help stop a Craigslist scam and help a crime victim.