2011-06-25

Dive team finds success with first mission

A recent Wise County Messenger news photo of Clint Summers bobbing up from Lake Bridgeport with a rifle clutched in each hand made the day, the week and quite possibly the month for one area woman when she saw it on WCMessenger.com. It was her family’s missing gun collection that the dive team of Summers, Beau Brady, Lt. Randy Joy […]

Transfer of school buildings hits some snags

Chico’s school district is finding breaking up is hard to do. The split between Chico ISD and its empty elementary-middle school campus on South Hovey Street was supposed to be simple. But the transfer of the buildings from the school district to the city of Chico – an act of giving that was well received – has developed some bugs. […]

School still facing nearly $4 million in cuts

As area schools wait to see what the state will do with school finance, they also try to move forward with shaping a budget for the next school year. At Thursday’s Decatur School Board meeting, Superintendent Rod Townsend said they are “pretty much at the same place as they were 90 days ago,” and current estimates have the district losing […]

Superintendent’s contract extended for another year

Bridgeport school board members voted 5-0 Monday to extend for another year the contract of Superintendent Eddie Bland. Bland, who was originally hired on a four-year contract in 2006, drew a salary of $123,200 for the 2010-2011 school year. Trustees evaluate him each summer and haven’t failed to keep his contract a rolling, four-year pact by voting to extend it […]

Council reinstates planning and zoning commission

Alvord City Council met for 90 minutes Thursday, voted on six resolutions – all favorably, tabled six other agenda items and decided it was meeting too often. Council members voted 4-1, with Paula Talley dissenting, to change city ordinances to allow just one meeting a month instead of the current two, beginning in August. Another structural change came when council […]

Southlake woman found dead near creek

A woman was found dead Tuesday off County Road 4421 near New Fairview, just a few miles east of U.S. 81/287. Sheriff David Walker said a vehicle was discovered about 15 or 20 yards off the road. The body of Monica Haskins Jorns, 50, of Southlake was found about 50 yards from the vehicle near a creek. A preliminary autopsy […]

Champion meets the chipper

The biggest hackberry tree in Wise County ended up in the wood chipper Wednesday, yet another victim of recent windstorms. The tree that provided backyard shade for Bettye Dodds’ South Trinity Street home in Decatur almost from the day she was born there 79 years ago was named “Wise County’s Biggest Hackberry Tree” in a 1998 Texas County Tree Program […]

Wise chosen for fracking study

A family that has seen their property values drastically reduced and experienced a range of environmental issues since drilling began in their front yard was chosen Thursday to be part of a nationwide study on hydraulic fracturing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled Thursday its plan to study the effects of hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the […]

TXI cleared in wreck that killed 4

A Wise County jury decided Wednesday afternoon that a trucking company was not responsible in a fatal wreck case that killed four family members nearly nine years ago. The 10-2 decision reversed a unanimous Wise County jury decision made in May 2004, that found TXI Transportation was culpable of more than $22 million in damages to the surviving family members. […]

Resourceful city weathers storm

The city of Alvord was ready when it suffered its second storm-related power outage in a week Monday night. “Power went out at 10:27 Monday night and was out for 16 hours,” Rick Wilson, the city’s director of public works, said at Thursday’s city council meeting. “We contacted Evans Electric to bring a big generator as a second source of […]