Lifestyle

   Community Actors of South Texas (CAST) recently held their annual season premiere at the Matagorda County Museum and featured a few snippets of this year’s performances, Aug. 8.
   The 2019-2020 performance season is themed “A Season with Style” and features four main productions and one extra add-on by an original writer.
   The season opens with H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” mimicking the original radio broadcast from 1938.
   CAST board President Richard Knapik is on tap to direct the production at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25-26, 31 and Nov. 1-2 at the First United Methodist Church Chapel with tickets costing $20 per person.
   An audition schedule is yet to be determined.
   CAST partners with Bay City High School theater department again for a joint rendition of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
   BCHS theater director Magda Mirelez directs the play starting at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12-14 and at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 15 at the BCHS Theater.

   City Council directed Mayor Robert Nelson to continue negotiations with the two candidates for the interim city manager position.
   After a 45-minute closed session Tuesday night, Aug. 13, council reconvened and Mayor Pro Tem Jason Childers moved for the mayor to continue employment talks with the two finalists for the post.
   They are former Odessa City Manager Richard Morton Jr. and former El Campo City Manager Mindi Snyder. 

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  High bacteria counts at Matagorda County beaches at Palacios, Matagorda and Sargent have continued throughout the summer and Precinct 2 Commissioner Kent Pollard said Monday the county is working with the TCEQ and the General Land Office to address the problem.
   On Tuesday, July 13, GLO’s Texas Beach Watch.com app showed high-level bacteria counts on all but one Matagorda County beaches.
   At three Jetty Park testing sites at the mouth of the Colorado River the fecal bacteria count level was high (red) Tuesday afternoon, with one test showing medium, or yellow, reading. 
   Palacios and Sargent test site all were red level.
   The website’s notation indicates the red-level counts are greater than “104 CFU (colony forming units) /100 ML (milliliters).” 
   When the counts are greater than 100 CFU, the GLO said “swimming is not recommended.”

   Nicole Pilson was hired as Matagorda County’s new Marine extension agent by commissioners court at its regular meeting Monday, Aug. 12.
   Pilson, a Sugar Land native, succeeds Bill Balboa as marine agent and was encouraged by County Judge Nate McDonald to begin work soon.
   County Agent-Agriculture Dr. Aaron Sumrall introduced Pilson to the court, who said she has lived in Palacios for two years and previously worked for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.
   “She did an impressive job in her interviews,” Sumrall said, adding she holds a marine biology degree from Texas A&M at Galveston and a master’s degree from Texas State University.
   Sumrall said Balboa “has spent a lot of time for a good one to push in our direction.” 

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   An 11th hour attempt to raise Bay City Police Department salaries at city council’s final budget workshop Wednesday, Aug. 7,  drew an intensive hour-long discussion that in the end didn’t move the needle to raise taxes to pay for higher BCPD salaries.
   At council’s regular meeting later that day, Councilman Bill Cornman moved to raise the city’s proposed tax rate of 65.55 cents per $100 valuation to 67.55 cents, but there was no second.
   That was surprising since at least two other council members, Becca Sitz and Julie Estlinbaum, expressed support at the budget workshop for additional city funding for BCPD salaries.
   Mayor Robert Nelson did not cast a vote.
   He did say on Friday there would be more salary discussions within a couple of weeks 
 

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 After 30 minutes in executive session, Bay City ISD trustees approved a 313 appraised value limitation with Peyton Creek Wind Farms, LLC, during a special meeting Aug. 7.
   A 313 agreement is a limitation of appraised value property for school district maintenance and operations taxes by BCISD that lasts for 10 years.
   The property remains fully taxable for the purposes of any school district debt.
   Peyton Creek Wind Farms, LLC is part of E.ON Climate and Renewables, one of the world’s largest owners and operators of onshore and offshore wind farms.
   “I’d like to thank you very much for your support,” said E.ON Climate & Renewables Senior Development Manager Richard Saunders.
   “I think without knowing that the school district was behind us, we faced a little local challenge from the county. 

   Tidehaven ISD trustees unanimously approved hiring current Tidehaven High School principal Dr. Patrick Talbert as the new assistant superintendent during their regular board meeting, Aug. 12.
   Talbert will continue as high school principal for the 2019-2020 school year. 
   “I’m really looking forward to working closely with Dr. Seigrist,” he said.
   “We’ve got a lot of upward momentum and student success and I don’t want to lose it. “We’re striving to be No. 1 in the county and our goal is to keep moving forward and not to just sustain our progress and performance.”
   Tidehaven ISD Superintendent Dr. Andrew Seigrist commented that Talbert was one of several applicants he reviewed.
   “He had all the qualifications we were looking for when we advertised the position and he’s already here and knows our district,” said Seigrist.

   After four years of coordinating Bay City Police Department’s Social Wellness Health Fair, Lettie Ramos had one of her longtime dreams for event become reality last week.
   That dream for Ramos was providing free school-appropriate haircuts and five local stylists volunteered their time and talents to cut hair for more than 50 children at the fair last Thursday, Aug. 8.
   It was the first year since the event start that free haircuts were offered – a help to many families who haven’t recovered from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and can’t afford to get their hair cut - said Ramos, BCPD’s Crime Victim Liaison.
   “We all want to look good and the haircuts help some people’s self-esteem,” Ramos said.
   An estimated 400 people were at this year’s health fair, where 150 children get backpacks for school thanks to a donation from Humphries Dental and Bay City Imaging.

   “The Kitchen” is a crime drama film written and directed by Andrea Berloff, in her directorial debut. 
   The film is based on the Vertigo comic book miniseries of the same name by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle. 
   The film stars an ensemble cast, featuring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as the wives of Irish mobsters who take over organized crime operations in the 1970s in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood after the FBI arrests their husbands. 
   The film also features Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian d’Arcy James, with Margo Martindale, Common, E.J. Bonilla, Myk Watford, John Sharian, Brian Tarantina, and Bill Camp in supporting roles.
   In 1978 in Hell’s Kitchen, three women are married to members of the Irish mob: Kathy Brennan (McCarthy) and her husband, Jimmy (James), have two kids.