News

   Coughing, sneezing, and runny noses are common sights and sounds in school halls and playgrounds this time of year. 
   In addition to washing your hands as I mentioned in a previous article, it’s equally important to cover your cough to stop the spread of germs. 
   Respiratory illnesses such as the common cold and influenza can be spread by simply coughing. So follow these simple steps to reduce your risk!  
   To help stop the spread of germs, the CDC recommends the following:  
   Avoid close contact with people who are sick,  
   Get plenty of sleep, drink plenty of fluids, eat a healthy balanced diet, be physically active and manage your stress,  
   Stay home when you are sick,  
   Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze,  

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Stranded, Twice  
   A Matagorda County game warden received a request for assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard involving a boat that had run aground in West Matagorda Bay.   
   According to statements made by two of the occupants of the vessel, they, along with a third individual, had been riding near the Port O’Connor Jetties the evening before and had run aground on Bird Island.   
   The couple told officers that they had decided to just build a fire and spend the night on the island.   
   The next morning the third individual was missing and they could not locate him on the island, which is about the size of a football field and covered in brush. 
   Coast Guard boats and a helicopter began searching the waters around the island while the warden conducted a foot search of the island.   

   The second annual Wounded Warrior Classic will be at Matagorda Harbor and Pavilion Saturday Oct. 8.   
   “Come out and cheer the boys on as they bring their day’s catch in,” said Nathan Lubbers with Texas Trio Classic Team.  
   Weigh in will be from 1-3 p.m. under the Harbor pavilion.   
   The Trio Classic Team will meet all of the veterans at LeTulle Park at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7.  
   The veterans will be escorted to Matagorda by The Matagorda County Calvary and the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Department.   
   If you would like we ask the public to hang out around the square in Bay City as the guys will be driven around the square before heading down to Matagorda.  
   “We had the honor of hosting 15 of our nation’s finest vets last year. This year we will once again be hooking up with The Wounded Warrior Project along with Run N Gun Adventures to host 20 veterans, Lubber said.  

   Bay City veterinarian Melani Freeman was remembered by several people for her dedication to animals this week.
   Freeman was killed Saturday afternoon, Sept. 17, from multiple gun-shot wounds, and her brother, Judson F. Marsters Jr., 60, of Corpus Christi, was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Bay City police said.
   Officers were summoned to the Legacy Campus at 700 Twelfth Street at about 4 p.m. Saturday, where witnesses said they heard gun shots and found the man lying on the ground south of the Matagorda House skilled-care building, between it and the Legacy Campus’ assisted-living units.
   After BCPD detectives arrived and began processing the scene, police dispatch notified them in reference to a call about a female lying in the grass near the Matagorda House parking lot on the east side of the building.
   Officers searched the area and found the female who was dead from several gun-shot wounds.   

   Celanese volunteers took on several jobs at the Bay City and Matagorda County Boys & Girls Club as part of Global Impact 2016.
   Between 35-40 volunteers from the Bay City plant showed up early Tuesday morning and began tackling projects in the classrooms and on the grounds, said Bebee Manrique, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club.
   “The people keep showing up,” she said early on Tuesday. “I believe we lost count.”
   An early Celanese project was laying 16 pallets of grass donated by Triangle Farms around the pavilion.
   Celanese volunteers then began putting up basketball goals for the pavilion, while others were trimming trees over the club’s playground.
   “They did some very important plumbing and electrical work,” Manrique noted.
   A nice green-thumb touch came when team members built two new planting boxes for the garden between the classroom wings.

   City council member Bill Cornman asked Matagorda County Tax Assessor-Collector Cristyn Hallmark why she asked commissioners court to terminate the county’s tax billing contract with the City of Bay City without trying to negotiate a new one.
   Cornman asked that question at a commissioners court workshop meeting Monday, Sept. 19, on the assessor-collector’s office performing a separate billing in October for the city.
   Last week, Hallmark told the court the county’s contract with the city expired Aug. 31, and city officials will miss her office’s Sept. 20 deadline to post public notices and for tax rate approval to be included with the county’s mass tax statement billing that will be mailed Friday, Oct. 7.
   Because the city won’t be in that billing, along with Drainage District 2, Hallmark said a separate billing – with charges to the city for labor, supplies and mail costs – will go out about mid-October.

   The BCISD board of trustees approved a fiscal 2016-17 tax rate of $1.3312 per $100 valuation Monday night.
   The new levy includes a $1.14730 maintenance tax rate and a debt-service rate of 18.390 cents.
   “This is not an increase from last year,” said Richard Johnson, BCISD Finance Director.
   “It’s actually about a penny less than last year,” said Johnson.
   Johnson said the district’s total taxable value of all property for 2015 was $1,175,190,000.
   “This year it’s $1,173,636,000,” added Johnson.
   “That’s about a $2 million drop of taxable value from one year to the next.”
   Curriculum director Lisa Moya presented a summary of campus needs assessments to the board for approval.
   “These assessments were started in spring, continued through summer and ended finally this fall,” said Moya.

   About 5,900 people voted in the March primaries in Matagorda County.
   That number is less than half of the total 12,250 voters of 2012 presidential election.
   “My office is working to make sure all the voters in Matagorda County are ready to cast a ballot,” said Janet Hickl, Matagorda County Clerk, in a recent press release.
   “These new options for voters who cannot obtain photo ID are currently in place and will be used in the November 8 election.”
   To vote the ID must be current, or be expired for less than 4 years: