You loved them last year so we are bringing them back! Texas Crossroads band from 6-10 pm at the Wolf Creek Car Show!
Gates CLOSE AT 6 PM! If you want to see them, be there before 6 pm!!! The park will not budge no matter who you are. Sorry.
Where: TRA Wolf Creek Park
When: Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 7 a.m
Event by Coldspring Chamber of Commerce
As every good citizen in Texas knows, the Texas Legislature meets every odd-numbered year starting on the second Tuesday in January. This legislative body meets for 140 days during their regular session during which time the state’s budget gets set and the bulk of the state’s work is done.
Of special note to numerous agricultural and rural landowners, this past session the 88th Texas Legislature passed many bills with direct positive impacts on agriculture and rural Texas.
While I’ll name the bills passed below, a comprehensive discussion on each one will be held at the Angelina County Extension office on Tuesday, Oct 17. This meeting is co-hosted by the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA). The TSCRA’s Executive Director for Government Relations, Melissa Hamilton, will be the featured speaker.
Hamilton will first discuss landowner liability. House Bill 73, authored by Representative Andrew Murr in the Texas House of Representatives and sponsored by Senator Drew Springer in the Texas Senate, provides additional protections for landowners by exempting them from liability when damage is caused by sources outside of their control. Additional details about these new protections for landowners will be discussed at the meeting.
The most popular one for many local producers was House Bill 2308, the Right to Farm Bill. This was authored by our own Representative, Trent Ashby in the House of Representatives and sponsored by Senator Charles Perry in the Texas Senate. It’s a pretty extensive bill in that it added substantial new protections for ag operations across the state. Hamilton will discuss those new protections for agriculture during her presentation.
House Bill 1750, authored by Representative DeWayne Burns in the Texas House of Representatives and sponsored by Senator Charles Perry in the Texas Senate, compliments House Bill 2308. House Bill 1750 helps agricultural operations near urban areas by protecting them from unwarranted city and municipal regulations.
Senate Bill 664, authored by Senator Charles Perry in the Texas Senate and sponsored by Representative Brad Buckley in the Texas House of Representatives, creates some labeling requirements for alternative protein and cell-cultured products. If you are not aware of some of the new cell-cultured products and issues surrounding the alternative protein market, you will want to come to learn about them.
While that may cover the bills that were passed, I trust almost everyone has heard about the propositions that will be on the ballot on November 7. Three in particular impact Texas agriculture.
Proposition 1 on the ballot in November creates a constitutional right in the Texas Constitution to farm and ranch in Texas.
Proposition 6 creates a Texas water fund to repair and update our water infrastructure in the state.
Lastly, Proposition 8 creates a highspeed broadband fund to help ensure rural parts of the state, and the whole state, have access to highspeed broadband internet services.
Hamilton will discuss the three propositions affecting agriculture and rural Texas in greater detail on Tuesday.
Our guest speaker, Melissa Hamilton, previously served as public counsel for the Office of Public Insurance Counsel since being appointed by Governor Greg Abbott in 2017 and later confirmed by the Texas Senate. She also served as staff counsel for the Texas State Senator, now Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Glenn Hegar, and later as director of government relations for the Texas Department of Insurance. Melissa received her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and received her law degree from the University of Texas.
There is no fee to attend. This seminar will be at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Lufkin Texas at 2201 S Medford Drive. The meeting will start at 6 pm.
This week, I formally announced my intention to seek re-election as the State Representative for House District 9. As a lifelong East Texan, I have been proud to serve as a voice for the Deep East Texas region in the Texas House. Though we have achieved a great deal, I believe there is more work to be done to secure our southern border, support our teachers and students, cut property taxes, generate greater economic stability for local job creation, and preserve rural values and interests in a rapidly growing state. It is the honor of a lifetime to represent the folks of House District 9, and I am committed to continuing to provide effective conservative leadership to ensure our rural family values drive Texas forward.
With that, here’s this week’s Capitol Update. . .
Capitol Update
This week we’ll dive into propositions 10 and 11 as we continue our weekly examination of propositions that will be on the ballot in November.
Proposition 10 would provide medical and biomedical manufacturers with an exemption from certain property taxes. As our state continues to grow, state leaders and lawmakers have made it a priority to reduce our reliance on foreign countries for essential goods. Proposition 10 seeks to advance this effort by creating an incentive for medical and biomedical manufacturing companies to operate here in Texas. You might be interested to know that most medical and biomedical manufacturing is located abroad, and the cost of shipping medical supplies to the United States has increased by over 50 percent since 2021. By reducing the tax burden on medical manufacturers located in Texas, we create an incentive for companies to relocate to Texas while also reducing the cost for consumers and creating thousands of Texas jobs.
Simply put, Proposition 11 does not impact our local communities in any way. This proposition adds El Paso County to the list of existing counties in the Texas Constitution that the Legislature may authorize as a conservation and reclamation district for the purpose of developing and financing parks and other recreational facilities with certain tax revenue. Ultimately, this amendment provides for the issuance of bonds funded by taxes in districts located wholly, or partly, in El Paso County. To be clear, should this amendment pass, local voters in El Paso County would still have to vote to approve any proposed bond package, but this would in no way affect East Texas or any other Texas county.
Reminders
The mobile office is on the road again and our District Director will look forward to seeing you on the following date, in the following locations: October 11 at the Polk County Commissioner’s Courtroom in Livingston from 9:00-11:00 am, or the Tyler County Commissioner’s Courtroom in Woodville from 1:30-3:30 pm. October 18 at the Houston County Courthouse Annex in Crockett from 9:00 -11:00 a.m., or the Trinity County Courthouse in Groveton from 1:30-3:30 p.m.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact my office if we can help you in any way. My district office may be reached at (936) 634-2762 and our Capitol office at (512) 463-0508. Additionally, I welcome you to follow along on my Official Facebook Page, where I will post regular updates on what’s happening in your State Capitol and share information that could be useful to you and your family: https://www.facebook.com/RepTrentAshby/.
The AHA’s BLS course trains participants to promptly recognize several life-threatening emergencies, give high-quality chest compressions, deliver appropriate ventilations and provide early use of an AED. Reflects science and education from the American Heart Association Guidelines Update for CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC).
Students Learn:
• High-quality CPR for adults, children, and infants
• The AHA Chain of Survival, specifically the BLS components
• Important early use of an AED
• Effective ventilations using a barrier device
• Importance of teams in multi rescuer resuscitation and performance as an effective team member during multi rescuer CPR Relief of foreign-body airway obstruction (choking) for adults and infants Course length: Approximately 3 hours. 2-year certifications on all topics
Lady Roadrunners, Roadrunners Picked Third in Respective Zones
Basketball media days can be a mixed bag of coaches simultaneously praising opponents while downplaying their own teams’ overall potential. It’s part of the game: Keep the other guys guessing.
Wednesday was no different, as Region XIV basketball held its annual Media Day at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens. There, Angelina College Lady Roadrunner head coach Byron Coleman and Roadrunner head coach J.J. Montgomery offered their usual tips of the caps while discussing their teams.
In the coaches’ pre-season poll, the Lady ‘Runners are picked to finish third behind Trinity Valley and Tyler. The Roadrunner men are picked to finish in the third spot in the South Zone behind Lee College and Blinn College. AC’s men received one first-place vote in the polls.
Coleman, up to the podium first, described last season’s finish as a little disappointing. AC’s ladies finished fourth in the conference and fell in the first round to a strong Panola College team.
“We definitely didn’t finish the way we wanted to,” Coleman told the crowd. “We lost to Panola in the first round, and they did a great job against us defensively.
“We needed to get better offensively,” Coleman added. “We just couldn’t score last year. We were third in the country in rebounding, and first in offensive rebounding, but we just could not put the ball in the basket. We feel we’ve changed some of that in our recruiting.”
Coleman has just two players returning from the 2022-2023 campaign: Marie Kenembeni, who earned two-way All-American status and was a JUCO All-Star selection; and Makenzi Paul, an “athletic guard who is shooting the ball extremely well.”
Coleman said several transfers will make an impact, including three-point shooter Amyria Walker; “spark plug” Janay Quinn; and Jade Fry, a physical presence in the paint and on the boards.
Freshmen Coleman mentioned include the 6’1” Maria Escobar from Colombia, whose rebounding and ball-handling skills make her a solid addition to Coleman’s transition game.
Coleman said the bottom line for his team will be how well – and how quickly – all the new faces mesh in learning his system.
“I’m really excited about our group, but we’re waiting on another freshman or two to step up and fill some roles,” Coleman said. “We’re trying to step up our transition game so we can play fast, but right at the moment, we’re not all running the same type of transition game. Once we get this down, we’re going to be OK.”
“We’ll definitely see how this thing looks in March.”
Montgomery’s Roadrunners enter the new season with a considerably bigger advantage: The team is returning eight players, including all five starters from 2022-2023.
“I’m excited about our group this year,” Montgomery said. “The experience is there. We also added four transfers, so we got a little bit older, and we’ve got some good freshmen coming in from the high school level.”
Three of those returners include last season’s All-Conference selections: Patrick Johnson, Kanaan Holder and Xavier Owens. In addition, board presence Nehikare Igiehon returns after missing much of last season.
New faces include the 7’1” Damjan Vukcevic from Serbia – “He’ll bring some size and rebounding we didn’t have last season” – along with combo guards E.J. Evans and Aaron Carter.
“He [Evans] is just a guy who can put the ball in the basket,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t have that last year. We had a good defense, but we just didn’t have the guys we could go to when we needed a basket.”
Most of all, Montgomery said, he’s liking what he’s seeing in his squad’s competitive nature. The team went 3-0 a series of scrimmages this past weekend in the Fort Worth Blowout, including a win over last season’s fourth-ranked team in the nation.
“Overall, we’ve got a very experienced team, and we also have a couple of dogs, and we all know what that can bring to the table,” Montgomery said. “We’re looking forward to this year.”
The Roadrunner men will host a home scrimmage against Jarvis College at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 18 at Shands Gymnasium. The ‘Runners host their home opener against Strength and Motion at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The Lady Roadrunners open the regular season at Hill College on Nov. 1; AC’s ladies will host their first home game at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
To view full schedules, visit the AC Athletics website at angelinaathletics.com.
The email address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.
Location:
800 N. Medord Dr., Lufkin
Join us TODAY, Thursday, October 12 @ 10 AM as we celebrate Jane Byrd Properties International LLC with a ribbon cutting.
4100 S. Medford, Ste. 200 | Lufkin
We hope to see you there!
Tuesday, October 17th
5:30 pm – Networking
6:00 pm – Program
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Within six months, two eclipse events will crisscross the heart of Texas. The first is an annular solar eclipse occurring Oct. 14 and featuring a “ring of fire” created by the sun’s shadow around the moon while parts of Texas will be in the path of totality.
The second eclipse is a total eclipse, occurring on April 8, 2024, that will traverse across the path of the annular eclipse.
To have a safe and enjoyable eclipse viewing experience, Texas A&M Forest Service encourages everyone to recreate responsibly and prevent wildfires.
“With the first of two eclipse events approaching, we expect Texans and visitors alike to travel across the state and gather on public lands to get a great view,” said Emily Wall, Texas A&M Forest Service Chief Operating Officer Forest Resource Protection. “We encourage everyone to get outside and appreciate this rare occurrence. However, it is important that all eclipse-watchers leave no trace and take care of the lands that we all enjoy.”
Consider the following tips for a fun and safe eclipse viewing experience:
Learn more and download resources to help enjoy a safe Texas Two-Step Eclipse experience: https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/TexasEclipse/
Texas Forest Country Living is a digital online magazine featuring the lifestyle and community of the Texas Forest Country region. The Counties include Angelina County, Nacogdoches County, Sabine County, Tyler County, Newton County, San Jacinto County, San Augustine County, Jasper County, Houston County, Shelby County, Trinity County and Polk County
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