News

Students across the county returned to school on Aug. 25. These kindergarten students at Edna Elementary showed their patriotism on the first day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. From left are Kyleigh Sanchez, Justice Mathis, and Nicholas Rodriguez.

The city of Edna will have another specialty venue with the Edna City Council’s passing of a specific use permit for Joe Hermes and Harrison Stafford.
    The Edna mayor and former county judge have purchased the old Presbyterian church building located on the corner of Hanover and Church St. and are in the process of restoring it for use as a wedding chapel and reception hall.
    Since they purchased the building, they have cleared brush, removed fallen tree branches, and mowed the property. The efforts have not gone unnoticed by the neighbors, for when the city mailed letters to property owners in the area informing them of the proposed chapel, 10 letters of approval were received and no protests.

Edna Merchants and businesses - there is an Edna Merchants meeting at 5:30 this evening at the newspaper office. Please try to attend - the holidays are closer than you think and to make this year's event a success we need input and help from everyone. Call Chris at 782-3547 if you have any questions.

    Parents dropping off or picking up their children at Edna Elementary School will have to get used to driving to the back of the school to do so.
    “We are flipping car riders to the back and buses to the front of EES for several reasons,” Edna Independent School District Superintendent Robert O’Connor said. “There have been a lot of parent complaints about the process now whether this solves all the issues is yet to be seen.”
    Safety is one of the reasons why the district chose to have parents drive to the back and buses go to the front. It will allow the school to serpentine the cars around and help get them away from railroad tracks, refrain from parking on the highway and walking in to get students, O’Connor

    Wharton County Sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers are investigating a murder/suicide that occurred at Mustang Creek BBQ near Louise on Sunday.
    According to Mustang Creek BBQ owner Cecil Sanchez, he and his employees were at the restaurant at around 4 p.m. on Aug. 10 when the husband of one of his workers came in the back door. The man shot his estranged wife in the chest and then turned the gun on himself.
    “I’ve known him for about 15 years,” Sanchez said. “She worked for me for about a year.”
    Sanchez said no one else was hurt in the incident. He said he was within 10 feet of the couple at the time.

    Edna City Council members got a look at a more optimistic budget when they met in regular session on Aug. 7.
    Council was presented a bleak financial outlook for the upcoming year when former city manager Ken Knight gave his proposed budget to council on July 24. Mayor and acting city manager Joe Hermes said he was able to tweak the numbers and come up with a much better picture for the city.
    Hermes said part of the financial turnaround came from a large tax payment from Best Western Lone Star Inn who had come out of bankruptcy protection and paid back taxes of more than $100,000.
    As a result of that payment, Hermes said the city’s tax rate will drop dramatically.
    Last year the effective tax rate was 20.8 cents per hundred valuation. This year Hermes predicts an effective tax rate of .0756 per hundred valuation.

    Firefighters around the area responded to a large grass fire on FM 822 and Hwy. 111 in Jackson County around 3:10 Friday afternoon.
    According to Edna Fire Marshal Buster Chase, the Texas Forestry Service estimated that 98.6 acres burned in the fire that also destroyed a vacant mobile home and two storage buildings.
    “Most of what burned was heavy brush that was too hard to get a fire truck to,” Chase said.
    The mobile home, belonging to Elisha and Jesse James, sat on 54 acres that they owned and leased to others. A shed on the property was also destroyed.
    “I came out of the house and saw white smoke about two pastures down,” said Tina Hadley, who lived nearby. “I went back in the house and came out a little bit later and the smoke was now dark. It was by a big cell tower and I could hear the fire crackling and see flames over the tops of the trees.”

    It was a stroke of luck when Edna’s Charles Tipton came across a priceless work of art in an old abandoned room above a beauty salon located downtown Edna. Tipton found pieces of an old grandfather clock that belonged to the Brackenridge family dating back to the early 1800s.
    The grandfather clock fell into the right hands because Tipton is an avid clock restorer and a member of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors since 1972.
    On the grandfather clock, one will find J. Breakenrigs and Edinburgh (Scotland) painted on the dial. Tipton believes the historical clock belonged to John Adams Brackenridge’s father because Brackenridge was younger than the clock.

The Bay Area Recreational Flyers, a group of powered parachute pilots, met at the Brackenridge Campsite for a meeting this past weekend. Meeting every third Saturday of the month, they met at Brackenridge because of the open spaces. About 26 members are in the club, and are located in different areas in and around Texas.
    Lowell Henderson, a veterinarian and president of the club, said powered parachutes work better in a squarefield rather than an airstrip.
    “You have to face into the wind so we need to have a large enough area, a square area, to turn around the plane so the parachute will come up with the wind,” Henderson said. “You need about 200 feet of distance to take off, and grass is perfect. Low and slow is what we do,” he smiled.