For the first time in 21 years, Van Zandt County employees will have a new employee handbook following approval July 25 by the VZC Commissioners Court.
VZC Human Resource Director Dan Maucieri highlighted the new 71-page handbook in a presentation to the commissioners.
“This handbook is very much changed from what we have had,” emphasized Maucieri. “The employee handbook that we are working under now was originally published in 1996. Updates were added as they were required by the commissioners’ court. When an update was approved, it was sent out to all department heads and then the page was swapped out in the handbook. We did a great job keeping up with that but the time had come for our employee handbook to go under a complete revision.”
The Canton City Council converged for the first budget meeting of 2017, discussing city property, improvements and future projects for the city in the upcoming budget cycle.
The council discussed the future use of the building at 290 E. Tyler St., which was the old city hall building. The council discussed the use and value of the old city hall property. Monthly expenses of the building total to $204.77. Councilwoman Connie Odic proposed that the city sell the property saying that it would be an “advantageous” move.
The decision to list/sell the property was on the Aug. 1 meeting agenda of the council. In a similar matter, the council also voted to stop pursuing the acquisition of the Groves property on Groves Street.
Topics discussed during the budget meeting consisted on capital projects, water/wastewater rates, garbage rates and projects/tradeoffs.
U.S. Congressman Jeb Hensarling (TX-05) will host a town hall meeting in Canton to give an update on recent actions taken by the House of Representatives and hear from the residents of Van Zandt County about the issues that are important to them.
The discussion will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, at the Farm Bureau Building, 281 East Highway 243, Canton, TX 75103
The VZC Long Term Recovery Group met July 24. Committee members reported that volunteer management has ceased physically operating out of the VZC Fairgrounds. Volunteer management will be handled through telephone calls, for those who want to volunteer, help or to offer resources. Call 903-502-0151 to volunteer.
The following are the details of the July 24 meeting of the VZ County Long Term Recovery Group and were reported by committee members.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is warning Texas residents to be prepared for summertime temperatures, and to take precautions to stay safe as temperatures and heat indices hit 100 degrees and above in many parts of the state this time of year. Extreme temperatures increase the risk of heat-related injuries or deaths.
“Summertime heat is a fact of life in Texas, but the dangers from high temperatures are real and should not be taken lightly,” said DPS Director Steven McCraw. “Heat-related deaths and injuries are often preventable if residents take the necessary steps to educate and protect themselves – and their loved ones.”
Van Zandt County cities came close to making it a clean sweep in sales tax revenue collection gains in the month of July with the office of Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar announcing last week that Canton, Edgewood, Grand Saline, Van and Wills Point all outpaced collection totals from the same calendar month in 2016.
Edom, which has enjoyed a solid year overall in sales tax revenue growth after a rocky 2016, proved to be the county’s outlier by seeing sales tax revenue collections drop from $1,599.52 down to $1,302.75. The drop of $296.77 when comparing July 2016 totals to those posted July 2017 amounts to a negative dollar change of 18.55 percent.
The City of Grand Saline and the Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA) have reached agreement to bring in a third-party attorney to investigate allegations against Grand Saline Police Chief Justin Collins.
Attorney Justin Beckham of Wynne & Wynne in Wills Point was named July 20 as the third-party attorney.
Joel Elliott of the Elliott Law Firm in Canton and attorney for the City of Grand Saline informed the News July 20 about the details of the arrangement.
AUSTIN — The 85th Texas Legislature convened at the Capitol on July 18 for its first called session, the main purpose being for lawmakers to extend the life of certain state agencies scheduled for termination, and then to proceed to other matters.
At the urging of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate moved quickly to pass legislation continuing the function of the Texas Medical Board and several other health-care related state oversight boards through 2019. The House, led by Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, tentatively passed similar legislation (House Bill 1) through its State Affairs committee, but 10 amendments to the bill have been pre-filed, and those, plus the main bill, will be subject to a full-House floor debate scheduled for July 24. The 150-member House and 31-member Senate must agree on any legislation before it can be forwarded to the governor’s desk for his consideration.
County residents enjoyed a relatively uneventful year in 2016, dodging the brunt of most new and emerging illnesses that have made waves across much of the county in previous years. A case of West Nile Virus, among the most notorious of these illnesses, was not confirmed in Van Zandt County until a Sept. 17, 2016 report by the Texas Department of State Health Services last year.
Hopes that the county might best that outcome this year with no reported cases officially came to a close July 11 with the DSHS publishing a report confirming someone had tested positive for having the West Nile Virus. The local case is among eight confirmed cases statewide through the week ending July 7.
The Van Zandt County Veterans Memorial has events planned for the rest of the year, so mark your calendars and watch the newspaper for more exact dates as each event approaches.
Labor Day will be the annual Balloon Release, and the visitors center and board members have tickets for sell now, so buy anytime. The balloons are $3 each, and the balloons will be color coded to match the information provided as to active, deceased, POW/MIA or KIA(killed in action) or a veteran who has served.
The VZC Veterans Memorial Golf Tournament will be held in September at the Van Zandt County Country Club. There will be a gun raffle held at the winning ticket chosen during the golf tournament.
