News

County election locations, judges set 

The Van Zandt County Commissioners met Aug. 18 in a special session to discuss the upcoming local elections and the 2015-’16 county budget.

A public hearing was held on the matter of the proposed budget for the fiscal year to end Sept. 30, 2016. No county residents spoke during the public hearing held for the proposed budget.

County Judge Don Kirkpatrick said he was “pleased that the proposed budget is balanced and that the revenue exceeds the expenditures by $144,924 without a tax rate increase.”

Kirkpatrick pointed out that the proposed tax rate of $0.485847 will raise the commissioner’s budget by 1 percent more in property taxes which will raise the road and bridge budget in VZC by $293,379.

Lt. Brad Allison, 45, has been selected to be the next chief of the Canton Police Department.

Allison will take over the CPD’s top spot when current Chief Mike Echols officially retires Aug. 31. Echols has been with the department since 1987. He has been chief since October 2007.

Allison has been with CPD 19 years and has worked his way through its ranks starting out as a patrolman before becoming a corporal, sergeant and then lieutenant. He has spent the last two and a half years as a narcotics officer.

Originally from West Monroe, La., Allison said he grew up and wanted to be a police officer. “From the time I was a little boy, I always wanted to be a policeman,” he said.

He moved to Texas at age 18 and while working for a trucking firm eventually putting himself through the police academy.

The Cross Brand Cowboy Church of Tyler will be hosting a benefit for Van tornado victims at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, and 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30.

R.J. Vandygriff will be presenting his award winning one-act play “The Cowboy Ain’t Dead Yet.” The show depicts the American cowboy from the early trail drive days of the 1800s to today’s modern rancher.

Vandygriff is a 2014 Country Music Association of Texas Hall of Famer and a2013 Western Male Vocalist of the year. He has appeared on stage with George Strait, Garth Brooks, Alabama, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Red Steagall. He also appeared or worked in more than 100 episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger.

Van ISD will be honored at the Saturday performance and food – hamburgers and fries – will be served before the matinee performance.

Admission for both performances and the cost of food will be a love offering with proceeds all going to those in the Van area affected by the May 10 tornado.

The Van Zandt County Veterans Memorial Annual Balloon Release usually held on Labor Day has been rescheduled for November.

The event will be held around Veterans Day, organizers said.

More information will be available as the event draws near.

For more stories like this one, subscribe to the Canton Herald or pick up a copy from one of our vendors. 

A retirement reception for Canton Police Chief Mike Echols will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, at the Canton Senior Citizens Center, 200 W. Groves St.

Echols last day with the department will be Aug. 31. He has been with CPD since 1987 and has been chief since October 2007.

For more stories like this one, subscribe to the Canton Herald or pick up a copy from one of our vendors. 

The Myrtle Springs Alumni Straw Hat dinner theater will host a concert starring Barbara Cooper Aug. 29. “Barbara lives in Van Zandt County and is about the most talented female singer in our area with the same smooth voices as Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee and other successful country female singers. It is almost impossible to distinguish the difference between the songs rendered by Barbara and those whom she fashions and presents in her concerts,” concert official LaRea Miller remarked,

A variety of music, including country, Brenda Lee hits, gospel and pop, will be rendered by Cooper during the performance. 

The concert and dinner will take place at the old school building in Myrtle Springs, located on VZCR 3447, just off Hwy, 64 in Myrtle Springs.

The alumni association will serve dinner beginning at 6 p.m.  The concert will follow. 

Advanced paid reservations are required. 

The East Texas Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist will meet Thursday, August 27th, for its regular monthly meeting.   

Spencer Dumont, Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries Region 2 director, will present the program, “A Dinosaur Among Us, the Life and Times of an Alligator Gar.” 

The meeting will be held in The Nature Center at 11942 FM 848 in Tyler. The meeting begins at 6:45 pm.  The program will start at 7 p.m.  The public is invited to attend.

The multimedia presentation will highlight the alligator gar’s unique life history from spawning through old, old age.  Dumont will also review the history of alligator gar management, as well as the status of and distribution of alligator gar in Texas and the U.S.  

Students return to classrooms across Texas Aug. 24 and that means motorists will be sharing the roads with school buses, pedestrians, bicycle riders and lots of new teen drivers taking their first car to school.

According to the National Safety Council, teen car crashes spike in September when they are driving to and from school.

The council also cautions drivers young and old to be vigilant because child pedestrians can be very unpredictable. “They’re easily distracted and can often run into traffic or out from behind parked cars. Looking out for children rather than expecting them to look out for us is our best defense as drivers,” the council said.

Van Zandt County Emergency Management Director Chuck Allen and VZC Senior Appraiser Scott Hyde were guest speakers at the Aug. 11 Community Visions meeting..

The meeting opened with President Lisa Morrison thanking former President Judy Rowton for her service to the Visions Club.

Allen and Hyde then both spoke to the gallery about the effects of the Van May 10 tornado both locally and county wide.

 “By the time they say the tornado was on the radar it was already on the ground,” Allen said.  “Until we got down there we didn’t have a true perspective on what we were dealing with.”

Allen talked about what he experienced after the tornado. 

Allen explained that as soon as he came to Van, which was 10 minutes after the tornado struck, he was alerted of people trapped under a house.