News

   A Bay City man was arrested for evading arrest and ignoring traffic stops early Sunday morning, Oct. 11, Bay City police said. 
   Officer Aubree Navarro tried to make a traffic stop of a vehicle running a stop sign in the 2000 block of Sycamore at about 12:20 a.m. Oct. 11, reports show. 
   Shortly after activating the red and blue lights on the patrol car, the other vehicle disregarded the traffic stop and continued driving.  
   The vehicle was going between 20 and 35 miles per hour, police said.  
   After making several turns, the suspect vehicle took a right onto the 3100 block of 15th Street and headed east.  
   At this point the vehicle then picked up the speed to about 45 miles per hour and disregarded all traffic signs.  
   The vehicle continued until it ran through the ditch in the 1500 block of Nichols and hit a utility pole.   
   The crash caused electrical lines to spark and several lines to fall, reports show.  

   Six polled (without horns) Brangus, heavy-bred cattle, black in color were stolen from pasture in the area of Blessing Midfield Road and Junetta Street in Midfield, Friday night, Oct. 16, the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Department reported in a recent Facebook post. 
   These cattle - due within a few weeks - are gentle and have a “2” branded on the left shoulder and “NT” branded on the left hip. 
   The N is rounded on the top and bottom and is not squared. 
   These cattle have a light blue ear tag in the left ear with the owners information. 
   The right ear has slashes/cuts on the bottom.
   If you have any information on the location of these cattle or might have seen a truck and trailer in the early morning hours on Oct. 16 near the area of the missing cattle, contact Sgt. Mike Ferrel at the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office (979-245-5526).

   Bay City lost its first District 12-4A-1 game against run-driven Columbia 63-42 Friday and will face another team that lives by the run this Friday – the El Campo Ricebirds.
   “It was a tough one but I will take the blame for not having the kids ready to stop the run,” Blackcat Head Football Coach Robert Jones said of Bay City’s loss to Columbia.
   “But it is a mentality that I want to build in this program that ‘Tough People Win.’”
   Despite decent passing and rushing attacks that produced an offensive total of 459 yards, Bay City didn’t have an answer for stopping Columbia’s rushing duo of Jamaurion and Jordan Woodard.

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   VAN VLECK – The Tidehaven Tigers and Van Vleck Leopards each had bye weeks before their big cross-county showdown last Friday night. 
   It was the Tigers who took advantage of that extra prep time, as Tidehaven had every answer to any Van Vleck threat in a convincing 24-0 shutout.
   With the victory, Tidehaven and Van Vleck move to 2-1 in District play with two games remaining for each team.
   Tidehaven used a methodical, ball-controlling offense to open things up in the first quarter. 
   After a fumble on their first series, the Tigers would find the end zone on their second possession. 
   Tidehaven took the ball over at their own 44-yard line and slowly moved down the field.  
   Quarterback Logan Crow, along with running backs Kylan Sardinea and Jose Martinez, led the ground game. 
   Crow capped off the 13-play, 56-yard drive with a 3-yard run for the touchdown. 

   Hello Matagorda County! Hope everyone is doing alright and has their costumes picked out for Halloween (even if you’re just doing virtual Trick-o-Treating… if that’s a thing)!  
   Have y’all been making some meals with local seafood for National Seafood Month? 
   I sure hope so!  
   I know I have had a seafood-based meal at least once a week this month and it’s been great. 
   It’s given me the opportunity to go to local seafood & bait shops that I haven’t gone into before and try out new recipes with the local products.  
   I have also learned quite a bit this month about buying seafood. 
   If you are unfamiliar with local fish shops and they seem a little overwhelming to you, it’s okay.  
   They can be a bit intimidating at first with their ice stands of whole fish, shrimp, and frozen products.  

   Matagorda County commissioners voted unanimously to allow county bars to open Wednesday, Oct. 14 during their regular court meeting Monday, Oct. 12.
   This decision comes on the heels of Governor Greg Abbott’s announcement Oct. 7 that gave county judges the authority to reopen the bars that were part of COVID-19 closures.
   “I hope that our bar owners will be good citizens and exercise good common sense,” said McDonald.
   “We all want the same thing. We want our businesses up and running again. We want to stimulate the economy and open back up again.”

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   Commissioners Court unanimously approved a Community Development Block Grant Mitigation grant for drainage and sewer lines in Blessing during their regular meeting Monday, Oct. 12.
   “As far as I know this is a 1% match project,” said County Judge Nate McDonald.
   “That’s not a huge match for a project that’s roughly $3 million. That makes the county’s match $30,000, which isn’t bad.”
   The mitigation grant project is proposed to start Thursday, Oct. 29 with grant funds through the Texas General Land Office approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
   “After visiting with the judge and engineer, I think this is a good thing for the town of Blessing,” said Precinct 4 Commissioner Bubba Frick.
   Frick added that the majority of the work was for drainage and sewer lines in Blessing.
   “Anything we can do to help drainage and the sewer for this little town is a good thing,” he said.

   Over 1,000 Matagorda County voters cast ballots on the first day of early voting in the Nov. 3 general election, County Clerk Stephanie Wurtz said Tuesday, Oct. 13.
   Tuesday’s 1,048 early votes compares to the 844 first-day early votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.
   “It is a big number,” Wurtz said of Tuesday’s early voting total that includes both Bay City and Palacios early voters.
   “It went really well,” she added about the voting at the Bay City Service Center. 
   There were some lines, she said, but adding two voter check-in stations “moved the lines very quickly,” she noted.
   In addition, there were double the number of voting machines and that also sped up the voting, Wurtz added.
   Gov. Greg Abbott extended the state’s early voting period to Oct. 30 – weekdays only.
   And Friday, Oct. 23, is the last day to apply for a ballot by mail.