News

The Transportation Planning and Programming (TPP) Division of Tx-DOT will be collecting short-term traffic counts at 6,000 locations in the Tyler District beginning March 13 and continuing until April 6. These 24-hour traffic counts will be collected by contract personnel for all system roadways, including state highways, city streets and county roads.

Precinct 3 and City of Wills Point residents will be able to jumpstart their annual spring cleanup efforts before the close fo the month, ridding themselves of unwanted trash and appliances as part of the annual Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-“The Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off is the single largest one-day cleanup event in the state and serves as Texas’ signature event for the Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program. The Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off is part of TxDOT’s litter prevention program, which includes Don’t Mess With Texas, Adopt-a-Highway and a grassroots partnership with Keep Texas Beautiful.”

The University of Texas at Tyler announced the names of high school seniors who are 2023 UT Tyler Honors Scholars. Each student has been awarded a $40,000 scholarship and accepted into the UT Tyler Honors College.

Elwood Baptist Church, located at 3713 VZ CR 3504 in Wills Point, will be having their homecoming to mark 125 years since it’s organization in 1898 on April 2. Church officials stated, “We will be having brother Billy Smith to bring the morning message and Ransomed will bring the music.

Jeff Austin III, Chairman of the Board, recently announced the promotion of Austin Bank employee Paul Bullington to Assistant Vice President. The promotion was approved at the March 2023 Board of Directors meeting at the Austin Bank corporate office in Jacksonville.

The Upper Sabine Cattleman’s conference is scheduled for Friday, April 14 at Gabriel Ranch located at 8575 FM 1255 in Grand Saline. Registration will begin at 8 a.m.

At the end of their regular meeting March 15, the Van Zandt County Commissioners Court heard a presentation from VZC Sheriff Joe Carter regarding a request for increased salaries in his department. No action was taken by the court following Carter’s prepared statement that he read to the commissioners.

DAVID KAPITAN sports@vanzandtnews.com The Texas State Comptroller’s Office delivered mostly positive results to Van Zandt County cities last week, announcing that five out of seven local entities had posted sales tax revenue gains when comparing against collection totals against the same month from the previous year. The cities of Edom and Edgewood would be the county’s lone outliers for the month with each entity receiving a payment that was less than the funds they received from the comptroller’s office at the same time last year.

The City of Ben Wheeler, in partnership with The Friends of Ben Wheeler, hosted the annual Motorized Barstool Races this past Saturday throughout downtown. The event featured a large collection of vendors, as well as continuous live music, in addition to the main event race.

Following a closed executive session at the end of their special called meeting March 21, the Van Zandt County Commissioners Court named Chris Burnett as the new VZC Courthouse Facilities Maintenance Supervisor.