News

Van Zandt County Commissioners voted last week to hold the county’s tax rate steady at $0.485847. County Judge Don Kirkpatrick said that there was no proposal to raise taxes.

The county will hold two public tax rate hearings in the Commissioners Courtroom in the Van Zandt County Courthouse at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, and at 6 p.m. Sept. 1.

Kirkpatrick also informed the court that no proposals were made to increase elected officials salaries.  The only change, however, would be a $3,000 supplement added to the pay of District Clerk Karen Wilson. Wilson will stand as chairperson of seizure funds.

Additional $1 needed to cover wastewater funding deficit

As rise temperatures keep climbing throughout the city of Canton, so do the proposals of fees and charges to be levied upon the residents of Canton.

Members of the Canton City Council met Aug. 10 to discuss the proposed budget of 2015-’16.

During the budget work session the council reviewed the proposed budgets of the Canton Economic Development Corporation, the Canton Visitors Bureau and Canton Main Street. The CEDC, CVB and the Canton Main Street budgets will be adopted Aug. 25.

The council spent the majority of the meeting discussing water and wastewater funds for the city.

Director of Finance Kim Kroha updated the city on the water/wastewater status.

Martins Mill ISD will be having a sealed auction to sell some items that are no longer of value to the district, Superintendent James Oliver has announced.

Older band instruments, some props, sewing machines, older model TVs and other equipment will be available, Oliver said.

The auction will take place behind the elementary school (parent drop-off area) from 2 to 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21.

Items can be picked up until 8 p.m. that evening. Remaining items will need to be picked up between 8 a.m. and noon Aug. 22. 

“All sales are final. We do not guarantee the operability of any sold items,” Oliver said.

For questions regarding the auction, call 903-479-3872.

The Canton ISD Museum is officially open.

About 75 people attended the museum’s open house Aug. 16. “We had several former teachers and a lot of community members stop in,” Superintendent Jay Tullos said.

Some of them said they wanted to come by and see what kind of things the museum had on display so they would know what kind of things to donate, he said.

The museum is located in the old high school building at 1045 S. Buffalo St. 

The Canton ISD trustees kept the district’s tax rate at $1.471 per $100 of property valuation and approved a total budget of $19,191,057 at the board meeting Aug. 17.

This is the ninth year the district tax rate has sat at $1.471, Board President Ken Pruitt said.

Maintenance and operations accounts for $1.04 of the tax rate and $0.431 is allocated to debt.

The taxable value of property in CISD is $658,807,053 with about 95 percent of that being residential and the other 5 percent coming from industrial and mineral.

According to information provided by the district, the cost to educate a student in CISD for one year is $7,454.69 which breaks down to $39.86 per day or $5.13 per hour.

CISD Business Director Denise Stone told trustees the budget showed a 3 percent increase over the 2014-’15 figures.

The annual meeting for Educate Van Zandt will be held from 8 to 9 a.m. Aug. 18in the Buchanan Room of the Van Zandt County Library.  

All interested persons are invited to attend, organizers said.

Educate Van Zandt is the adult education program. 

The Van Zandt County Library is located at 317 First Monday Ln. in Canton.

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A citizen’s tip led Van Zandt County law enforcement officials to a 10-acre marijuana grow operation located near FM 859 and Interstate 20 Aug. 3.

According to Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Sgt. Heath Burton, sheriff’s deputies, officers from the Van Zandt County jail, Canton Police Department, Wills Point Police Department and troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigation Division raided the location which was “concealed from the public.” “The owner of the property did not know of the marijuana operation,” Burton said.

A citizen saw some pumps moving water from a pond and reported the suspicious activity, he said.

More than 1,400 marijuana plants estimated to be worth more than $2 million were seized from the property and subsequently destroyed.

Alejandro Avrego, 27, of Canton, was arrested.

The Canton Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations for its board of directors to begin serving Jan. 1, 2016. Candidates must have an active chamber membership and agree to take an active role in chamber leadership.

Meetings are currently held the third Tuesday of each month at the Chamber office. Board members serve three-year terms.

Each board member is required to serve on at least one chairman-appointed special committee and at least one major- event committee per year.

If you are interested, contact Laura at the chamber office by phone 903-567-2991,) email (cantontxchamberofcommerce@yahoo.com) or in person (119 N. Buffalo St.) no later than Sept. 4 to be considered by the nominations committee. Recommendations from the committee will be sent to the general membership for approval.

One of the Canton Economic Development Corporation’s objectives for the coming year will be to bring added revenue to the city by promoting Canton to targeted industries.  

CEDC President Julie Seymore outlined the proposed 2015-’16 budget and objectives for CEDC board members at a meeting Aug. 6. Other goals include diversifying local industry and job markets along with continued development along the Interstate 20 corridor.

Seymore said the EDC would target medical facilities, transportation, warehousing, retirement services, hospitality, tourism, retail, plastic product manufacturing and agribusiness among their target industries to bring added revenue into the city.

Good news came to the CEDC as figures showed a healthy revenue for the upcoming fiscal year.

The CEDC plans to “hold steady,” on a revenue of $858,700, Seymore said.