News

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is reminding the hundreds of thousands of Texas hunters to keep safety in the crosshairs.

“Texas had an all-time low number of incidents last deer season and we want that trend to continue,” says Steve Hall, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s hunter education coordinator. “And the number one safety measure a deer hunter can take is to complete a hunter education training course.”

The Myrtle Springs Alumni Straw Hat Dinner Theater will host a Christmas concert featuring Michael Bridges at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9 at the old school building in Myrtle Springs.

Bridges presently serves as worship pastor/minister of music at First Baptist Church in Sunnyvale. He has appeared with the band, Living Proof, in many concerts, camps, revivals and retreats as well as other venues.

Desserts and drinks will be served with the concert to follow, members said.

The old school is located on VZCR 3447 just off Highway 64 in Myrtle Springs.

Reservations are not required.

There is a cover charge, $5 for students and adults are $15, children under 5 are free.

 For more information call Tresea Stringer at 972-365-4673.

Austin Layne works on a ranch that he calls home, just outside of Canton on 17, with his dog named Merle Waggard, when he’s not traveling to supporting his musical career.

 Austin is recognized for making music that is story driven, heartfelt and sincere. He is also known for a wide-brim, flat-topped cowboy hat that stands out in any crowd and for showing up to black tie events in pearl snaps and blue jeans. Just like his music, he won’t dress it up just to please an audience.

Most of his days are spent on the road getting from one venue to the next. Crossing state lines and eating at truck stops are just part of his life as a musician. 

It is holiday season around Van Zandt County and events have stacked up for the upcoming weeks.

Cities around the county have planned parades, gatherings, and carnivals to offer entertainment to residents of the county.

Canton

The Canton Texas Chamber of Commerce will host this year's Lighted Christmas Parade

from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8.

The Parade route will start at Canton Junior High and make its way to the VZC courthouse. Line-up starts at 5:30 p.m. and parade starts at 6:30 p.m.
For information on submitting a float in this year’s parade contact Laura Mendoza at the Canton Texas Chamber of Commerce, 903-567-2991.

Ison to hold seat 

Final results from a recount of ballots conducted Monday, Nov. 21 at the Van Zandt County Courthouse showed no changes in the final outcome as republican Jesse Ison remained the winner of the Nov. 8 Van Zandt County Pct. 2 Constable race over write-in candidate David Wiley.

The request for a recount came from Wiley, according to Van Zandt County Chief Election Deputy Elsa Smith.

Wiley was required to pay a recount fee of $500.00 to the county. The fee breakdown was $100 for each voting box. There was a total of five boxes that were recounted, including the early voting box, in the Pct. 2 Constable race.

According to Smith, a candidate can request a recount from six days after the election until six days after the votes are canvassed by the county commissioners court. The votes were canvassed Nov. 22.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, the Masonic Lodge of Canton provided a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal for over 100 people in Van Zandt County. 

With the help of about ten members of the Lodge, Senior Steward David Harmon III prepared a delicious dinner of turkey, dressing, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, hot rolls, salad and a variety of desserts.

One of the many philanthropic activities of the Masonic Lodge, the Thanksgiving meal was the most recent. Earlier this month, the Masonic Lodges of Van Zandt County sponsored a BBQ dinner at the Canton Civic Center to honor the First Responders of Van Zandt County. We were honored to feed and recognize over 800 people for their hard work and commitment to protecting the citizens of our county. 

After reviewing proposals from three different firms, the Van Zandt County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to hire Patillo, Brown & Hill of Waco as the new auditing firm for the county for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2016.

During their Nov. 22 regular meeting, the commissioners heard proposals from County Auditor Freddy Thomas concerning the proposals from the three auditing firms including the current firm for the county, Gollob Morgan Peddy of Tyler.

“I believe that the fees we are currently paying are out of line with what other counties, larger than our county, are paying for auditing fees right now,” pointed out Thomas. “The past two years, we have paid $95,000 and $90,000 respectively. I feel right now that we are paying too much money for an outside audit and we need to reconsider and re-evaluate this. The cost is getting out of control. I think we need to make a change.”

Monthly sales tax revenue figures proved to be a mixed bag for Van Zandt County cities, with Canton, Grand Saline and Van all posting gains and Edgewood, Edom and Wills Point all showing losses according to the office of Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

Canton, the county’s biggest gainer in the month of October, once again holds the title in November by showing a growth of $12,514.32 when comparing against the same month in 2015. The 4.19 percent positive dollar change for the month was the second largest of any city in the county.

Van bounced back from back-to-back months of the largest negative dollar change in the county by collecting $7,733.20 more than the $74,062.02 collected in November 2015. The city of Van also showed the largest percentage gain of any city in the county, showing gains of 10.44 percent. 

The Whitton Christmas Dinner will be held at 5 p.m. Dec 3 at the Whitton Community Center located at 10073 FM 1651, Canton.

“Everyone is invited to join friends and family for chicken spaghetti, salad, garlic toast, tea and dessert. Home baked goods will also be available. Your donations are greatly appreciated and support the upkeep of the Whitton Community Center building,” organizers of the event said. 

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

Hay quality best in five years

Van Zandt County hay growers met Nov. 3 for the 2016 Hay Clinic hosted by the Van Zandt County Livestock/Forage Committee. County hay producers can submit a hay sample to be tested and scored upon its crude protein content (dry matter basis) and acid detergent fiber (ADF).

There were 83 hay samples submitted. County Extension Agent, Tommy Phillips began the presentation by thanking the members of the County Hay Committee and recognizing Barbara Metch for her contributions this year and also spoke on the new changes to the judging format.

Phillips stated, “two advantages of the new format are that it removes the subjectivity of the visual observation as it relates to the overall score and that it rewards hay samples with higher crude protein contents by not limiting the amount of crude protein used in scoring to the 12 percent of the old judging system.”