News

After several years of planning, Leadership Van Zandt County is officially underway. The maiden class of nine students kicked off the year with an overnight stay at Peninsula Ranch in Quinlan followed by a full day of teambuilding exercises at Texas A&M Commerce Outdoor Adventure last weekend.

The overnight stay included guest speaker Executive Director Leadership Tyler Smittee Root. Leadership Tyler has been in place for over 30 years and Root offered many great points for the LVZC class as they entered into unfamiliar territory. Her experience with leadership provided classmates with a greater understanding of the value of the program as they headed towards their goal of learning more about Van Zandt County and becoming future leaders.

Housed in the vaults of Van Zandt County lie numerous record books containing meeting minutes from the 1800s. The records are meticulously handwritten and full of valuable history of Van Zandt County, but are deteriorating fast, according to District Clerk Karen Wilson.

Wilson came to the commissioners court meeting Sept. 13 asking for approval for a written plan for funding the preservation and restoration of clerk’s record archive. Wilson said that the plan would continue to allow an archive fee to be charged in all civil cases and motions that were prescribed by law.

“The fee is $10, and it is essential for archiving and restoring all the records. The fee was originally established in 2009. My plan is to continue to restore old record books from the 1800s. The records contain handwritten meeting minutes from court,” said Wilson.

Wilson pointed out to the court that the records were deteriorating and that some of the record books had pages falling out.

 The generous donations of a Yeti Hooper 20 cooler from Texas Bank and Trust and a Bison cooler from Higginbotham Brothers Ace Hardware will help the Canton Main Street organization to raise funds for downtown improvements. 
Ticket holders can win one of the coolers during a drawing to be held during the 16th annual Canton Main Street Autumn Festival Oct. 8.  The coolers can be seen at the Main Street office in the old Plaza Theater Building at 119 N. Buffalo in Canton.
Tickets can be purchased from any Canton Main Street board member or at the Old Plaza Theater Building and are $5 each or five tickets for $20.   Tickets can also be purchased at the Autumn Festival until the 8 p.m. drawing.  Winners do not need to be present to win.    
For more information on the Autumn Festival or the Canton Main Street Program, call 903-567-1849 or visit the office in the old Plaza Theater Building at 119 N. Buffalo.

Housed in the vaults of Van Zandt County lie numerous record books containing meeting minutes from the 1800s. The records are meticulously handwritten and full of valuable history of Van Zandt County, but are deteriorating fast, according to District Clerk Karen Wilson.

Wilson came to the commissioners court meeting Sept. 13 asking for approval for a written plan for funding the preservation and restoration of clerk’s record archive. Wilson said that the plan would continue to allow an archive fee to be charged in all civil cases and motions that were prescribed by law.

“The fee is $10, and it is essential for archiving and restoring all the records. The fee was originally established in 2009. My plan is to continue to restore old record books from the 1800s. The records contain handwritten meeting minutes from court,” said Wilson.

Wilson pointed out to the court that the records were deteriorating and that some of the record books had pages falling out.

The Van Zandt County Humane Society is hosting the annual Blessing of the Animals Oct. 1 at St. Justin the Martyr Episcopal Church in Canton. 

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m.

"We have such a good time doing this, and we hope everyone will bring their chickens, ducks, horses, rabbits, dogs, cats, and yes, even rodents, to be blessed,” said Carol Whatley, president of the VZCHS. “Of course, we would appreciate their all being on leashes or in cages. Even if you are not of the faith, I believe we could all use a little blessing from time to time.  We will have treats for them and a chance to win a St. Francis statue for your garden.  Everyone is welcome." 

St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of all animals, and this is a free event to celebrate your animal friends in his honor. 

St. Justin Episcopal Church is located on Hwy. 243, just west of Hwy. 19.  

Flatwood Community Foodbank, located at PR 8719 off FM 279 three miles west of Edom, will be having a benefit garage sale Sept. 29 through Oct. 1.  Sale starts at 9 a.m. each day. 

All proceeds will go to the Food Bank to purchase food for needy families, organizers said.

The Food Bank serves all Van Zandt County and is open Tuesday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

For information call 903-833-5897.

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

Canton’s annual Fall Festival will see some changes this year but some old favorites will be returning.  The Fall Festival is a project of the Canton Main Street advisory board.

This year’s festival will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, with Dinner on Main Street plus a host of activities for children and a silent auction.  The children’s area will open at 5 p.m.

The $10 per child admission fee will allow participation in all games and crafts with a dinner of hot dog, chips, drink and cookie served.

Games featured will include the chance to paint a fall canvas to take home, a coloring station with an assortment of fall pictures, painting an old car as well as corn hole, giant Jenga, life-size checkers, bobbing for apples, a scarecrow dress-up race, face painting and two bounce houses.  Children may take part in activities from 5 p.m. until the close of the festival. 

With the fall season almost upon us, it is important to remember that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Today, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death among North American women. Unfortunately, many women with breast cancer do not even know that they have cancer until it is in its advanced stages.

It is estimated that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, and one in 30 women will die of the disease, Rhodes says.

So what can we do to decrease our risk of dying of breast cancer? Early detection via health screenings, such as mammography, is an important step. Screening examinations can detect breast cancers early, before symptoms occur, which may make it easier to treat the disease.

The office of Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar released its monthly sales tax revenue figures for the month Sept. 8, indicating that four out of six county cities had collected more revenues when comparing September 2016 figures with those posted for the same calendar month in 2015.

The news was welcome relief, as only Canton was able to pull off the trick during the month of October.

Grand Saline was the county’s biggest gainer in both dollar figure and percentage change for the month, receiving a payment of $62,753.38. That total was $18,178.98 or 40.78 percent higher than the $44,574.40 received in September 2015.

Edgewood also found itself firmly in the gains column, watching their sales tax revenue figures climb 10.63 percent higher than the $16,334.18 collected last year up to $18,070.17.

The county commissioners have adopted a balanced budget and tax rate for fiscal year 2016-’17.

The commissioners met Sept. 13 to adopt a budget and set the tax rate at $.485847 per $100 valuation which is the same as last year’s tax rate.

County Judge Don Kirkpatrick said that the commissioners and county officials had spent “over 2.5 months working on the budget.”

“This budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget by an amount of $327,840.53 which is a 3.4274 percent increase from last year’s budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is $209,115.64,” Kirkpatrick said.