News

Special guest speaker Royce Hickman educated the 20 plus in attendance at last Monday's Calvert Chamber of Commerce meeting in the new VFD meeting room. Hickman is the President / CEO of the Bryan / College Station Chamber of Commerce and was invited to speak by Calvert Chamber President Carla Barker.

Primarily focused on the impact of B/CS directly related to Calvert.

The Home Tour portion of Calvert’s marvelous May weekend featured more homes and other historic structures than any similar event in recent history.  On Saturday, visitors packed Calvert’s downtown and east side, getting looks at Victorian and Edwardian homes that are completely renovated, in the midst of renovation, or a gleam in its owner/renovator’s eyes.

Bronwyn McGlothlin’s Queen Anne style cottage is a Calvert classic—poster perfect and unique.  From its gracious and comfy front porches, unique chimney—a brick masterpiece that defines the façade—McGlothlin’s Queen Anne has been featured in several publications (including MIT’s coverage of historic structures) as THE example of a Queen Anne cottage.  Though it achieves over twice the height of what one would think of as a “cottage” and has a cellar to boot, it was probably a little too narrow (only 3 bedrooms and a sitting room on the second floor) to put it in the “house” or “mansion” category.

During his routine patrols on Thursday, May 16, Constable for Precinct 2, Benny McRae noticed a vehicle driving well below the posted speed limit on Highway 6 south, and causing traffic problems. After pulling over the vehicle and approaching the passenger side door, Officer McRae said that when the window rolled down he could smell, “the distinct odor of burned marijuana.” Proceeding with the stop, McRae noticed a rifle in the back seat of the vehicle in plain view and called for assistance.

When assistance from the State Troopers arrived, Officer McRae proceeded to arrest the driver, Kyle Harrison Yoder, from Arvada, TX for driving while intoxicated. During the search of Yoder’s vehicle, McRae discovered under two ounces of marijuana, five rifles, four handguns, several magazines loaded with ammunition, scopes, ammunition and thousands of dollars in cash.

Pilots in the central Texas skies can now log-on to airnav.com to see that Hearne Municipal Airport is selling AvGAS fuel for $4.79 a gallon which is one of the lowest aviation fuel prices in this area. A 75/25 TxDOT Aviation grant, together with matching funds provided by Robertson County along with Hearne’s 4A Sales Tax Board, made Hearne’s brand new, years-in-the-making, fuel farm possible without the expenditure of budgeted city funds.

Hearne formerly sold AvGAS.  But, outdated tanks and an old pump coupled with an unreliable credit card reader required a city staffer to do the pumping and pilots to hitch rides into town to pay for their fuel.  Today’s glistening new state-of-the-art, self-service, fuel farm is open 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days a year.

The Calvert City Council opened its May meeting to a packed, standing-room-only council chamber as citizens and first responders came to express their frustration over recent incidents involving the Calvert Police Department.

Following the invocation and pledge, City Superintendent Kevin O’Carroll opened the meeting by reporting that Dollar General was about to begin construction and that the problems that had caused some recent power outages—booster pumps that had caught on fire--had been temporarily fixed. Replacing the booster pumps, however, would be expensive. A Brazos Valley Council of Governments sewer grant totaling $233,000 had been awarded to Calvert, and a problem with a lift station had been resolved.

Calvert Police Chief Nancy Juvrud reported that a recent drug bust had netted 20 grams of cocaine and an assortment of pills—all controlled substances—hidden in a child safety seat with the child in the seat.

Of the over 9,000 registered voters in Robertson County, only 776 voted in recent local elections. These elections decided on city council places, school board members and a large bond for Franklin schools.

In Bremond, Ricky Swick will return for another term as Mayor and she will be joined in the council chambers by Melissa Wilganowski, Lee Roy McMahon and Leah Allen.

In Franklin, Charles Ellison returns as Mayor of Franklin and Wayne Bush and Raymond Hawkins will be joining him in the counsel chambers. The 12 million dollar bond passed with 79% voting for the measure. Franklin ISD will be seeing construction start in a few months.

Hearne ISD welcomes LaTonya Marie Darnell to the board and Sylvia Montelongo retains her seat on the school board. Darnell attended the most recent school board meeting and is excited to get to work. “I’m going to study and learn as much as I can to help my city,” said Darnell.

With 20 plus homes in the tour this year, the 45th annual Calvert Y+Tour of Homes is being billed as the Historical Pilgramage. The Calvert Historical Foundation (CHF) has been working overtime this year to pull off one of the most exciting Calvert events of the year and it starts this Saturday, May 18. The festivities begin with the actual tour of homes. On Saturday the tours run from 10:00 am-12:00 pm & 1:00-4:00 pm and on Sunday from 1:00-4:00 pm. Old favorites from past tours are back again and maybe a few that haven’t been toured at all will be viewable. But the homes tour is just the tip of the iceburg as far as activities in Calvert for this weekend. Virginia Field Park (circa 1868) is the perfect place to celebrate Armed Forces Day as well as the Sesquicentennial Memorial Celebration of the Civil War. The CHF welcomes the 3rd Texas Cavalry of Civil War reenactors to help recreate those times with a complete living history event.

Municipal elections are coming this May in Robertson County. School Board, city council, Mayor and even bond measures will be on ballots in the May 11 elections.

In Hearne, two School Board chairs are up for grabs. Sylvia Montelongo, currently Secretary of the Hearne School Board, is running against Jannifer Ann Taylor for her seat. Julian Flores and LaTonya Marie Darnell will be running for another open seat on the School board in Hearne. If you want to place your vote, come by Hearne City Hall on May 11.

What started four years ago as a small car show and street festival has grown into full-fledged downtown event. The car show grew with record number of participants. Three races where run to promote PopWarner football. Miss Heather’s students wowed with their dance skills learned at “The Dance Room”. Food was plentiful, vendors were happy to be selling and the bouncy houses were constantly bouncing with children. Overall, the Franklin Downtown Lion’s Club did an excellent job with this year’s event.

At approximately 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, December 30, officers of the Hearne Police Department responded to a disturbance call at the Columbus Village Apartments on Riley St. in Hearne. Dispatch advised officers of reports that three subjects were allegedly seen in a white colored vehicle firing a gun. Officers arrived on the scene and located the vehicle and subjects matching the description given by dispatch. Officer Stephen Stem was involved in a shooting that resulted in the death of one subject. Family members have identified the deceased as 28-year-old Tederalle Satchell. A gun was recovered from the scene that did not belong to law enforcement.