News

By Lisa Shapiro
Staff Writer
    The rain has not only put a damper on many people’s spring break plans, but also could affect the way we travel in Jackson County. Some roads are in bad shape or closed down in Jackson County due to a significant amount of rain.
    Jackson County Precinct 1 Commissioner Wayne Hunt said County Road 282 is closed down because it was washed out from the rain. Hunt said pipes that are six feet in diameter were recently ordered for the road. The pipes drain water in the ditch under the road. He said the pipes will cost about $20,000. When the pipes come in and the roads dry up it will take less than a day to fix the road.
    Until the road is fixed, drivers can drive around the washed out part of CR 282 by driving on CR 281 to Farm-to-Market 530 then get back on CR 282.
    Hunt said he isn’t aware of any other roads that were washed out in his precinct.

    The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received information of a new phone scam that uses a phone number from the sheriff’s office as the number on the caller ID.
    Gary Smejkal, investigator with the sheriff’s office, said a Ganado resident contacted him after receiving a suspicious call earlier Thursday.
    He said the resident said the call was on their cell phone and used the sheriff’s office’s Edna phone number on the caller ID. He said the caller claimed to be a Mr. Black from the United States Federal Government Bureau of Criminal Investigation out of Philadelphia. The caller said the resident had defaulted on a cash advance loan and needed to make a payment of more than $400. The individual said they had never taken out such a loan, but asked where to send a check. The caller said they did not accept checks so the resident asked for a phone number to call them back. The resident then got frustrated and hung up.

    More traffic stops took place in Jackson County last year than 2013, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office 2014 Racial Profiling report that was presented by Sheriff Andy Louderback during Jackson County Commissioners’ Court on March 9.
    In 2014, there were 1,102 motor vehicle stops, which is 109 more stops than 2013. Of those stops 1,077 were for citations (warning/tickets), 10 involved arrests and 15 were for both citations and arrests.
    The number of race or ethnicity of those stopped in 2014 were 576 Caucasian, 408 Hispanic, 88 African and 20 Asian. In 2013, there were 573 Caucasian, 302 Hispanic, 84 African, 23 Asian and 11 Middle Eastern people stopped. There were no Native American people stopped in both years.
    In 2014, 346 of the stops involved residents and 756 stops involved non-residents. During the previous year, 321 were resident stops and 672 were non-resident stops.

    Author Jan Barber has made a name for herself writing about an unsolved mystery that has not let her go for over 20 years. Cuero born and raised, Barber learned over time about a Jackson County murder case involving Henry "Monk" Gibson, Felix Powell, and the Conditt family. She grew up across the alley from the red brick jailhouse in DeWitt County, the same one where Gibson was hung without a confession, for the murders of four of the five Conditt children, and their mother, Lora.
    Her book, "Out of the Darkness, Into the Lightning: Monk Gibson's Story," was self-published in December, 2014 with amazon.com. "It's an ongoing project for me, I'm still adding to it," Barber said. "I'm not looking to make money off the book, so I put it out there with imperfections. There's still more story to be told and with Amazon you can go back in and revise anytime you want to."

    Edna City Council’s search for a new city manager came to an end March 5 when they approved hiring Don Doering after meeting in a short executive session.
    Doering comes to Edna from the City of Schulenberg where he was city manager for three years. He has a degree in Natural Resources Conservation and at one time worked as a Virginia State Park Ranger. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and went on to manage property owner’s associations in Virginia and Texas. He is a past president of the board of directors of the statewide Property Associations of Virginia, Inc.
    “My desire to become a city manager led me to Beaverton, Mich., then in Texas to Teague, Schulenburg and now happily to Edna,” Doering said. “I am looking forward to moving to Edna and being an active part of the community. I feel that my experience can help make improvements.”

    The Edna City Council canceled its May election at the March 5 council meeting. The last day to file for a position on the ballot was Feb. 27. Three positions were up for re-election, mayor, currently held by Joe D. Hermes and Dist. I and II council seats currently held by Richard Browning and William Selders, respectively.
    Hermes filed for his position, but Browning and Selders did not. However, Doug Kelley filed for the Dist. I seat and Wayne Callis filed for the Dist. II seat, thus eliminating the need to hold an election. All three positions become effective May 9, the day of the scheduled election.

    There is good news to be shared from Happy Tails Animal Shelter this week. The board members have been working toward erecting a building and kennels for some time now, and though there have been a few snags and setbacks, things are looking up. At a meeting on Feb. 25, the board of directors looked over and discussed blueprints, made changes, and returned the plans to Architect Danny Miller who will make the necessary alterations.
    “Blueprints have been resubmitted to the architect for final changes and after that, bids for construction will be sought,” said Happy Tails Treasurer Anne Farris, “We’ve run into so many road blocks up until now, but we’re hopeful we’ll be able to get construction going soon.”
    After changes are made to the prints, the shelter will submit the plans for bids and make financial decisions regarding construction.

    The Jackson County Hospital District directors approved a change to the district’s indigent care criteria by increasing the rate to qualify more patients. The board met on Feb. 26 in the hospital’s community meeting room.
    The change to the policy was recommended by the Indigent Care Committee, following advice by auditors to increase the eligibility criteria from 150 percent of poverty level to 200 percent of poverty level.
    “This will allow more citizens of the county to experience the benefits of the program while allowing the district to improve reimbursement rates for uncompensated care,” said Bill Jones, CEO and administrator.

    The filing deadline has passed and only one local entity will be holding an election in May.
    The three school districts and three cities in the county were set to hold a special election for council seats or board positions, but with the only contested races at Industrial ISD, the rest will get a reprieve for this year.
    According to IISD administrative secretary Lorie Paul, the three incumbents,  Dale Allen and Clay Van Pelt filed for their positions. Clay Kolle, who is filling an unexpired term, filed for a seat, as did newcomers Sara Kelly Perry, Brandon Karl and Matt Martin. One of the board positions is just for one year, and Missy Klimitchek and Karl filed for that seat. Allen, Van Pelt, Kolle, Martin and Perry will all vie for the three three-year-term board positions.

    Safety comes first at Sun Coast Resources, Inc. Recently, the company that is known for quality fuels and lubricants made a safety awareness video that will be distributed to 1,000 truck drivers’ homes.
    The story portrays a truck driver, played by Edna’s Cippi Palacios, who can’t get enough sleep because family members are disturbing him. He has a truck delivery late at night and slowly drifts asleep behind the steering wheel of his tanker truck. The screen goes black after the truck starts heading towards a car, implying there is a head-on collision. His wife, played by his real wife, Robin Palacios, hears her cell phone ringing. She answers and finds out her husband had just died in an accident.