Lifestyle

   Congressman Blake Farenthold discussed his proposed bill to require drug tests from welfare recipients at a town hall meeting attended by about 60 people last week.
   “We’re not dealing with poverty,” said the Corpus Christi U.S. Representative at the Civic Center gathering Thursday, Aug. 25. 
   The welfare system “hands out money to people” – something that happened since LBJ was President, said Farenthold.
   Those receiving those payments are not looking for work because they no longer would qualify for welfare, he added.
   He mentioned a Corpus Christi hotel housekeeper who avoided promotion by her employer because she’d miss out on welfare payments.
   Unemployment in this country tides over “from one job to another,” he told those at the Bay City Chamber of Commerce event.
   “A better way of having people out of poverty is jobs,” said Farenthold. And most jobs require drug tests, he stressed.

   WADSWORTH - STP’s Engineering department celebrated its 20th Annual Charitable Fun Raiser luncheon on Thursday, Aug. 25. The employee-led event was held to raise funds in support of the Matagorda County Women’s Crisis Center and Young Life.
   STP’s Frank Cox emceed the event and auctioned the opportunity to pie the participants. Those catching pie in the face were STP employees Brandon Jenewein, Steve Nance, Kyle Wallis, Clayton Bonnot, Roland Dunn and a “pie-fecta” of Michael, Micole and Robert Berg.
   The Berg trio brought in the largest contribution, collecting $2,100, and a cake auction totaled $570.
   Special guests from each non-profit were in attendance to share information about their work in the community. This year’s event raised a total of $11,700 to be split between the two charities represented.

   A $124 million bond election for renovations, additions and district-wide improvements for Nov. 8 was approved by the Bay City school board at a special meeting Monday night.
   “One of the responsibilities of the board of trustees is to ensure that the students and employees of this district have a safe and secure environment in which to learn and work,” said school board president Robert Klepac.
   “Having adequate facilities plays a very large role in this.
   “Upgrading our campuses has been on our radar for a long time,” he added.
   Trustees Frankie Cole, Crystal Allison, Bobby Kimball, Terry Farrar and Klepac voted unanimously for the bond election.
   School board members Eddie Nelson and Helen Knezek were absent from the meeting and did not vote.

   The Zika virus recently confirmed in Matagorda County was the first local case and the patient had just returned from an overseas trip, Matagorda Regional Medical Center officials said.
   “It has been confirmed that this was a traveling virus,” Colleen Labar, with Texas State Health Services, told commissioners court Monday, Aug. 22.
   An MRMC emergency room patient Aug. 12 had symptoms consistent with the Zika virus.
   After receiving test results from the Texas Department of State Health Services Aug. 18, Matagorda County Hospital District (MCHD) officials concluded this was the county’s first known confirmed case of Zika virus. 
   “There is no evidence Zika is carried by mosquitoes in Texas,” Labar said.

   Bay City is now a Film Friendly Texas Community.
   “We proudly welcome Bay City to our film friendly network,” said Ali Stintzi from the Governor’s Texas Film Commission. 
   Stintzi presented Mayor Mark Bricker and City Council with the film commission’s official certificate designating Bay City’s new status at a reception at City Hall Monday afternoon.
   Palacios was to receive the same Film Friendly certification during city council ceremonies Tuesday night, Aug. 23.
   Indeed, Matagorda CVB Executive Director Heidi Simmons noted the people and groups across Matagorda County, including Bay City and Palacios, which were instrumental in securing the Film Friendly status for both cities.
   She noted the “enormous impact” that a film crew brings to a community, starting with “comfortable places to stay and eat.”
   Bay City and Matagorda County offer “prime locations that are well suited for movie making,” Stintzi said.

   Commissioners court called for the Nov. 8 general election in Matagorda County and added a local issue for voters to decide on – whether or not the county needs a county surveyor – at the court’s regular meeting Monday, Aug. 22.
   In addition, commissioners court held their second public hearing on the tax rate of 41 cents per $100 valuation to support it at Monday’s meeting. No one commented on the proposed levy at the hearing.
   The hearing came just before the commissioners voted to set Aug. 29 to adopt the fiscal 2015-17 budget and the tax rate.
   Commissioners will deliberate on the proposed budget at 9:45 a.m. Monday, Aug. 29, and the tax rate at 9:55 a.m. that day.
   County Attorney Denise Fortenberry presented commissioners with the option of appointing a county surveyor to fill the long-standing vacancy or to provide a proposition Nov. 8 of “abolishing the office of county surveyor of this county.”

   DANEVANG – New DNA test results released Thursday, Aug. 18, show a positive identification on the human remains found Nov. 24, near Clemville, are those of 15-year-old Rosemary Diaz, the Wharton County Sheriff’s Office said. 
   Diaz went missing after finishing her shift at the Dane Country store Nov. 24, 1990. 
   Her body was found in Matagorda County – near the Wharton County line – north of Clemville.
   “Through the hard work of Wharton County Sheriff’s Office Investigators, who never gave up on the case the remains were found 25 years to the day she went missing,” Wharton County Sheriff Jess Howell said in a Facebook post last week.
   “Now it is time for us, the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office to pick-up the homicide investigation into Rosemary’s death. 
   The sheriff’s department here indicated last week it will indeed continue investigating the case.