Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 131, No. 69, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 29, 2013 Page: 1 of 16
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I
SPORTS
Season preview for
Livingston, Groveton
gridiron teams.
See Page 6 A
ENTL-
Polk County
jjnmnr!ir*i*'*****:*:*:,‘:T***:'t*tfo
E!Elft6E°FIlQHS ARCHIVES
■■■
VOI UMF. 131 NUMBER 69
The Dominant News and Advertising Source in Polk County for more than 100 years
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
DEBUT OF THE
COMMERCE
CENTER
Ogden's Jubilee
performs for crowd
eager to see Polk
County's newest
entertainment venue.
See Page IB
50 CENTS
USD changes drug policy, sets tax rate
BY BRIAN BESCH
Reporter
pcenewsroom@gmail.com
The Livingston ISD
Board of Trustees met in a
special meeting Monday to
approve amendments to its
drug testing policy.
The policy, already one of
the area’s toughest, expanded
in a unanimous vote from
75 tests to 100. Eighty high
school students and 20 junior
high students will be tested
per round. Tests are given
nine times throughout the
school year.
Nicotine will not be tested
igp: P
this year, as Livingston was
the only district to do so last
year. They are one of few
that tests for alcohol, in ad-
dition to banned substances.
Last year, there were 293
junior high and 520 high
school students eligible for
drug testing. Of those 328
were student drivers. Of
the 813 eligible, 699 were
drug tested. Thirty-six were
found to have drugs in their
system, 23 positive tests
and 13 with trace amounts.
Fifty high school students
and 25 at the junior high
level were randomly se-
lected per test.
Students testing positive
are subject to testing for the
next nine drug tests. Sus-
pension from activities for
a first offense is 10 days,
while a second offense car-
ries a 20-day suspension.
One year is the suspension
if a third test is failed.
The board approved the
new tax rate for 2013-2014,
which remain at $1.04 per
$100 in value for main-
tenance and operations
(M&0)and 35.5 cents for
debt service. The M&O
is the capped rate for the
district since the state’s tax
reform act of 2006.
The board also has voted
to approve the 2013-2014
budget, with general fund
revenue and expenses of
$31,558,696. Debt service
was $4,850,000.
All LISD staff got a 3 to
5 percent raise as part of the
budget approved Monday.
There will be another
special session held Friday
at 7:30 a.m. to finalize ap-
provals on a gymnasium
and locker rooms for the
new elementary on Church
Street.
Onalaska man killed
Friday in crash on 190
LIVINGSTON-An
Onalaska man died Friday
after the motorcycle he
was riding collided with a
pickup truck on U.S. 190
at Walding Road, approxi-
mately four miles west
of Livingston, according
to Texas Highway Patrol
reports.
The deceased, 71 -year-
old Donald Maurice Daray
of Onalaska, was driving a
2005 Yamaha motorcycle
westbound on U.S. 190.
A 1996 Ford Ranger
pickup truck driven by
Leon Lucian Harris of
Livingston was south-
bound on Walding Road
at a stop sign and failed to
yield right-of-way to the
motorcycle, according to
Trooper Robert Akers.
The motorcycle struck
the pickup truck. The acci-
dent occurred at 11:40 a.m.
Daray was taken to Me-
morial Medical Center in
Livingston, where he was
pronounced dead at 12:33
p.m. by Precinct 4 Jus-
tice of the Peace Steven
McEntyre. His body was
taken to Cochran Funeral
Home.
: %m
County OKs radio contract
extension of JP warrant plan
Holiday Lakes VFD given 60-day notice
to hand over county equipment
BAGKTO
SGHOOb
Above: Students at
Livingston Interme-
diate School are all
smiles as they wait for
the bus at the end of
their first day on the
new campus. At right:
Kindergarteners at
Timber Creek show off
their already polished
skills at walking in
line on the first day of
school Monday.
BY VALERIE REDDELL
Editor
polknews@gmail.com
LIVINGSTON - Polk
County Commissioners
approved a $72,000 contract
Tuesday to reprogram radios
for county road and bridge
department. Work will begin
to locate a transmitter on a
radio tower operated by Sam
Houston Electric Cooperative
in North Polk County to
make radio communication
possible for Road and Bridge
Precinct 3.
“We've been dead in the
water since the beginning
of the year,” Commissioner
Milt Purvis said.
The FCC mandated all
two-way radios users to go
to narrow band frequencies,
effective Jan. 1,2013.
Prior to Jan. I, Purvis’s
work crews could
communicate radio in some
parts of their precinct, but
often depended on cell
phones to stay in touch
with the precinct bam. That
situation would not allow
activation of an emergency
management plan if called
on to clear roadways or other
disaster relief tasks in case
blocked roads.
The court approved a plan
by DFW Communications
that will address the
equipment issues.
Commissioners then voted
to extend the pilot program
for constables in Precincts
1 and 4 to collect a large
amount of outstanding
fines. At an earlier meeting,
commissioners were under
the impression that the
project had not collected
enough of the unpaid
revenue to justify continuing.
Precinct 1 Justice of the
Peace Darrell Longino
reminded the court that the
data reviewed includes a
period of time that prior
officeholder, Charlie
Clack, was a “lame duck”
and had no incentive to
continue aggressively pursue
collecting warrants.
“Originally the constable
actively pursued the
outstanding fines and agreed
to stop working extra jobs
in Houston and he did that,”
Longino said. “Then after he
was defeated he went back to
his other interests.”
Longino said when Scott
Hughes took office he
“started off with a bang,”
then he was inundated with
truancy cases.
Since there is no criminal
penalty for evading a civil
summons, these “seasoned
evaders” as Longino and
Hughes described them,
often take multiple attempts
to serve.
School districts have the
option of filing truancy cases
in any municipal, Justice of
the Peace or county court
that the family resides; but
most Polk County schools
have chosen to file cases in
Longino’s court, because
Hughes spends a great deal
of time serving summons
throughout the county.
“I spend a lot of time in
Indian Springs, Big Thicket
Lake Estates, Leggett, even
in the City of Corrigan,”
Hughes said. “1 would rather
serve a felony warrant than a
truancy summons.”
Longino said he and his
staff specifically study case
law on Compulsory School
Attendance.
“It’s changed a lot since
1999. We’ve constantly
got to evolve so we can get
these kids back in school,”
Longino said. “There were
672 cases handled in the Pet.
1 court last year. Of those,
672 to 100 had to be served
by a constable.
Ultimately, the court and
the sheriff’s department
agreed to work with Precinct
1 Constable to get him in the
Sheriff’s Office system.
Overstreet asked Longino
how the court kept records of
violators paying because of
contact with the constable or
some other reason.
“The previous constable
would let us know that he
■ See COUNTY Page 3A
Man jailed after tips lead
to stolen gun, drugs
LIVINGSTON - On
Aug. 21, detectives and
deputies with the Polk
County Sheriff’s Office
searched a
residence off
of Pea Ridge
Road acting
on tips re-
ceived about
possible sto-
len property
being at the
residence.
During a subsequent
search, detectives and dep-
George
Ketchens
uties found a stolen firearm
and methamphetamine.
Arrested and charged with
theft of a firearm and pos-
session of
controlled
substance
(meth-
amphet-
amine) was
George
Franklin
Ketchens
Jr., 24, of
Matthew
Lester
■ See FIREARM Page 3A
2 more suspects arrested for burglary
rTlhe continuing
investigation
JL of residential
burglaries in the Indian
Springs subdivision has
resulted in the arrest of
two suspects.
On Sunday night,
detectives with the Polk
County Sheriff’s Office
received information a
home was going to be
burglarized somewhere
on Adams Road in Indian
Springs.
The Sheriff’s Office
responded by establishing
surveillance on Adams
Road. At around 2 a.m..
Cody White
the detective observed
a vehicle drop off two
subjects on Adams Road.
The suspects imme-
diately kicked open the
front door of a house
and made entry. As the
detectives responded to the
house they observed the
subjects exit the front door
carrying a television.
Cody White of Indian
Springs was arrested and
charged with burglary
of a habitation. During
a search of the suspect,
a small bag of suspected
methamphetamine and a
glass pipe was found in
his pocket. White was also
charged with possession of
■ Sm BURGLARY Pag* 2A
Clarification
In Sunday’s edition, the story
on the sexual assault trial of
Keith Ladale Wilson described
testimony involving a Josh
Hooper of Livingston. That
individual is not Josh Samuel
Hooper, the son of Mary
Hooper, who attended school in
Leggett and currently works at
Lowe’s.
Family members say the two
young men are roughly the
same age, and it has caused
confusion in business dealing at
local banks and other situations
in the past. Josh Samuel
Hooper was not involved in
the incident described at last
week’s trial.
Inside
Your Local Weather
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Reddell, Valerie. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 131, No. 69, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 29, 2013, newspaper, August 29, 2013; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth657087/m1/1/?q=Homecoming+queen+1966+North+Texas+State+University: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.