Category: Howe News Bulletin

May 18 – Howe Police Sgt. Mike Hill and Officers David Morris and Brandon Ozuna arrested a 41-year-old Howe resident on outstanding warrants for Child Pornography, Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child, and Indecency with a Child. Police say the charges did not originate from any offense in Howe. The suspect was booked into the Grayson County Jail.

May 19– HPD Officer Robert Todd arrested a 51-year-old Denison woman on outstanding warrants for Felony Bail Jumping, Failure to Appear, Motion to Revoke (Poss CS PG 2 > 1), Failure to Appear (Man/Del CS PG 1 > 1g) and 2 Capias warrants. The arrest was the result of a traffic stop on NB US Hwy 75 in which the Denison woman was a passenger. The woman initially lied about her identity. She had additional charges added for Failure to Identify and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. And yes, the stop was on Hwy 75. And for the few who believe our officers shouldn’t work the highway, our officers’ efforts there have resulted in the identification of bank robbers, the recovery of stolen vehicles, the arrests of countless wanted individuals, the arrests of numerous drunk drivers, and the seizure of large amounts of drugs (some even headed to Howe). They say they will continue working the highway.

 

 

Its nearly that time of year again as the Greart Days of Service workers serve the Howe

Community on various projects.  They are asking for help.  The organization is designed to

aid homeowners of our community who are either physically or financially unable to

provide needed maintenance to their homes and or properties.

All volunteers are welcome and they need workers of all ages. Be a part of our 10th year.

If you are in need, know of someone who is in need, or if you would like to volunteer, please

contact: Clyde Hepner 1-903-814-5753 or Bruce Evans 1-469-951-6042.

On Friday, the Howe Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed the newest business to town, Howe Mercantile, which is located at 107 E. Haning St. in downtown Howe. Owner Georgia Caraway brought several of her friends from Denton where she resides and has been active in the community for many years.

Howe Mercantile carries luxury antiques and vintage clothing in the two units 107 and 109. She will have several partners working the store with her during their operating days of Thursdays through Saturdays.

It was the first Howe Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony other than their own. With the growing community of Howe, it appears that more of these events are sure to be taking place.

On-hand were Howe Mayor Jeff Stanley, Howe City Council Member Debbie Lowery, Grayson County Commissioner Jeff Whitmire and Howe Development Alliance Director Monte Walker.  Walker said a few words before the ribbon cutting congratulating Caraway and the partners for their grand opening and thanking them for choosing Howe and renovating the downtown units.

Friends of Caraway enjoyed a bite to eat at Abby’s Restaurant before going back to the store for cake, coffee and tea.

Jessica Doty was named this past week as the 26th different drum major for the Howe High School Marching Band in the program’s history, which turned 40 this past year.

Doty is the daughter of Michael and Charissa Doty of Howe. She is also active in varsity cheering, FFA, powerlifting and is a member of the region II quarterfinal champion Lady Bulldogs softball team.

“It means a lot to me to have the privilege and honor to work alongside the directors to lead this band to a successful year.” said Doty.

The process for trying out for drum major involves doing a salute, conducting, and an interview process. Band Director Angie Liss hires an outside judge (or judges) to evaluate the students on their salutes and conducting and sometimes vocal commands. Liss says that the judges will grill the students with questions involving hypothetical scenarios, what they feel are the characteristics of a good leader.

1975-76 Jerry Taylor
1976-77 Terri Straw
1977-80 Robin Hawkins
1980-81 Valerie Whitfield
1981-82 Brent Wood
1982-83 Lex Breeding
1983-85 David Whitfield
1985-86 Danielle Mailloux
1986-87 Rodney Holcomb
1987-89 Paula Mullins
1989-92 Sharla Powell
1992-93 Kent Bearden
1993-94 Carrie Mullins
1994-97 April Taylor
1997-99 Mandy Summers
1999-01 Aaron Stringfellow
2001-03 Kyle Lowder
2003-04 Laura Stringfellow
2004-05 Andrew Shaffer
2005-06 Rhapsody Fearon
2006-07 Erica Wortham
2007-08 Kayla Cook
2008-10 Jesse Richard
2010-11 Ashley Krueger
2011-12 Travis Fulton
2012-13 Makenzie Duffee
2013-15 Madeline Ansley

The Howe High School Band had their banquet on Tuesday night and celebrated the 40th year of the band program in style by handing out numerous awards. On display were all of the band uniforms throughout the years along with some of the color guard uniforms. Scrapbooks and various photos of the history of the program were on display.

Band Director Angie Liss said that the banquet is a special time for her.  “We recognize each senior individually where we tell each of their accomplishments and special memories.” said Liss. “I talk specifically about what each each student has meant to our program and the the directors.”

Students are given an opportunity to list words that describe each senior and those words are compiled and read at the banquet.  All of the medals were handed out for the solos and ensembles and recognized were each of the band booster officers, color guard, winter guard, and band council.

Band Booster Scholarship winners were Madeline Ansley, Justin Taylor, Caleb Hough, Jackson Dunavant and Tiffany Lallier. Band Beau and Band Sweetheart were named Colton Sanford and Madeline Ansley. Most Spirited Boy and Most Spirited Girl went to Jackson Dunavant and Regan Gonzalez. Outstanding Band Member Award was awarded to Regan Gonzalez, while Outstanding Woodwind Award went to Kaylee Dwyer. Airianna Smith took home the Outstanding Brass Award while Dustin Woody was named Outstanding Percussion Award. Rookie of the Year went to Greg Snider.

Beau/Sweetheart and Most Spirited are voted on by the students. Rookie of the year is a combination of student votes and director choice. Outstanding students are chosen by the directors for their direct impact on the band as a whole, as well as individual successes.

“We look at the students that we consider to be the tops of their sections, evaluate their musical accomplishments, their leadership roles, and their attitudes within the band setting.” said Liss.

Special recognition was given to Paul Seiler, the exchange student from Germany, for being voted so high in all three student voted things. He received the Most Spirited Band Beau Rookie of the Year. Bailey Tyler was awarded with “The Uhaul Award” for being the loading captain the last four years.

Local farmer Scott Renfro has thrown his cowboy hat into the ring for the seat of Grayson County Commissioner, Precinct 1. The county is currently being served in that role by Jeff Whitmire.
Renfro has served eight consecutive years on the Howe ISD Board of Trustees and is currently the vice president of the board.

“As a farmer, I pretty well cover most of the area that the precinct holds in store.” said Renfro. “I just felt the timing was right to get in there. I’ve had a lot of folks to push me in this direction and I feel like what is coming at us on the south end of the county, I want to have things in place for the growth that’s coming.”
Renfro says that US 75 is a main corridor for growth and he feels like it’s already pushing this way from the Collin County area.

The County Commissioner is responsible for the overseeing of the county roads and all of the maintenance issues for the precinct of the county. Precinct 1 is generally South Grayson  County and the east side of Sherman.

Renfro says that the County Commissioner’s role not only involves the maintenance, but also that the office works with the other precinct commissioners as well as the county judge to prepare for growth coming into the county.

When asked whether he was ready for all of the phone calls about the roads and streets, Renfro said, “Yeah, I’ve got pretty thick skin. This time next year, I’ll have nine years in on the school board, so I feel like the issues we’ve been down on that road, I can handle any of that.”
Renfro, who owns Renfro Farms, also has served on the board of Texas Farm Bureau for four years and is currently the vice president.

“That also has helped me along with the issues and guidelines of being a commissioner because they run pretty close together of issues of what happens within the county and state.” said Renfro.

Renfro is also serving his third year as president of the Texoma Vintage and Classic Car Club in which he says is a hobby of his.

Born in Merkel, Texas just outside of Abilene, Renfro and his family moved to Sherman as a kid and attended Sherman schools, where he graduated from Sherman High in 1982.

“I’ve always been interested in agriculture and had some kind of a job one way or the other that was related to ag.” said Renfro. “I worked for Case Equipment and then met my future father-inlaw Bobby Sollis and went to work for him on the farm. After a couple of years learning things that he’s done all of his life, I felt had a good teacher and mentor.”

With the grooming by Sollis, Renfro ventured off onto his own in the farming business and even married the farmer’s daughter, Wendy.

Renfro Farms covers roughly 2,000 acres that is all in precinct 1. Working with primarily wheat and corn, they usually do a rotation. He has two sons that work for him in the business.

“I like to stay involved in issues on city and county level as well as the state level.” said Renfro. “I just want to do what I can to help anyway I can.”

• Kathleen Todd had a dream and no one was going to stop her, not even the anti-growth city leaders in Howe of the 1980’s. Not only did she succeed when the odds were against her; she grew the operation and now owns one of the longest tenured businesses in Howe as The School Zone Academy celebrates 30 years in business today.

Todd, originally from upstate New York moved to Texas in the early 1980’s following her then husband who was in construction. Todd, was a pediatric nurse and couldn’t find adequate care for her children. Not wanting to place her kids in a bad situation, she decided to leave her nursing career and build a daycare center.

“It took five years to get resources and financing to get started and we started from the ground up.” said Todd.

Back in the 1980’s it wasn’t exactly easy to get a new business in Howe. According to Todd, the people running the city at the time were not in favor of new businessesand she was told by the city council that Howe didn’t need another daycare center because one had just went out of business due to the lack of customers. Todd would not accept no for an answer and kept pushing the council. They told her that she had to brick the entire four sides of the building.

“Then I found out that it was, ‘who you knew’ or ‘who you were’ in the city because the rules didn’t apply to everybody.” said Todd. “In fact, they built a metal building within a few feet of my property and it wasn’t brick and still isn’t brick and now I own it.”
Todd says that in 1985, a woman trying to open a business in Howe was nearly impossible. What makes her story even more improbable is that she did it all with only a dream.

“I had no money.” said Todd. “I went to Goodwill and bought a woman’s power suit and a
briefcase.”

With the Goodwill suit and briefcase, she went from bank to bank in North Texas trying to find someone who would finance her vision. Finally, she found a bank in McKinney called Texas American Bank.
“No local banks would touch it. I went to McKinney where they didn’t know me.” said Todd. “I wore that suit and acted like I knew what I was doing.” Armed with experience in working in childcare and a degree in early childcare development, Todd was able to secure the loan. She traded in her Pontiac Trans-Am for a school bus and the bus became
her personal vehicle along with the daycare transportation. Todd’s husband at the time who was in construction began to find materials that were leftover on other job-sites and saved a lot of money by piecing things together like the Johnny Cash song “One Piece At A Time.”
“When I told him five years before we opened the daycare, he started dragging stuff home.” said Todd. “Whatever they were going to throw in the dumpster came home. A lot of the supplies we got came because he was resourceful and new what he was doing. He’s my ex now, but I still respect the heck out of him for everything that he did.”
They began the construction of the building and even hired one of the family farm-hands from upstate New York named John Carr to come to Howe and help. A side note is that Carr never went back home and still resides in Howe.
On May 18, 1985, The School Zone  Academy opened it’s doors. It wasn’t at all what Todd was expecting. Todd had done a marketing survey and it showed that they would have 80 kids.  They actually opened with 26. “I was sick.” said Todd. “How am I going to pay all of these staff members?”
However, things changed quickly and four months later they were having to add on to the facilities because they were pulling from not just Howe, but Van Alstyne, Tom Bean, Dorchester and other surrounding areas.
Todd picked Howe because of the school district.
“I wanted to be in a town that cared about children.” said Todd. “I felt very early on that Howe was the perfect fit because kids were the priority. Howe was circled around their children.”
While owning The School Zone Academy, Todd had three more children, one of which, Haleen, is now the director of the school.
“I was delivering her and was actually on my cell phone calling the workers who were adding an addition on the building to tell them to get it done because I’m having a baby.” said Todd. “We built that addition because of Haleen and now she’s the director.”

Todd says that the best part now is that her grandchildren go there and she gets to be a part of their lives on a daily basis. She says that no grandmother could ever have it better than how she does.
“I never thought about being here at at 60.” said Todd. “I’ll be 60 in July. “Everything about our school, the farm, the greenhouse, the gardens, the bicycle trails, the gym, the dance studio, everything that we have now was in my head back in May of 1985. The building is now paid off and I’m able to put the money back into the business and everything is unfolding.”
Much has changed in the daycare business since 1985. Back then, the only people to answer to were Daycare Licensing and the Health Department. Now, Child Care Services, and the Federal Food Program have been put in place for standards. The big changes are having to have more staff due to ratios, educated staffs and a traceable food record.
It was a leap of faith by one strong woman who kicked down the doors of Howe. The School Zone Academy is now one of the longest standing businesses in Howe. Not bad for a city that said she’d fail.

 

Howe Postmaster LeAndra Beckemeyer is asking all Howe homeowners to inspect and repair their mailboxes during Mailbox Improvement Week, May 17–23.  “Repairing suburban and rural mailboxes improves the appearance of our community and makes delivering and receiving mail safer for our carriers and customers”, Beckemeyer says.

The Postal Service^TM makes this annual request because of the wear and tear that occurs to mailboxes every year. “This is especially important because of the effects of the summer and winter weather we had this past year,” she adds.

Some of the typical activities that need to be done include:

• Replacing loose hinges on a mailbox door,
• Repainting a mailbox that may have rusted or started peeling,
• Remounting a mailbox post if loosened,
• Replacing or adding house numbers.
• Clearing out spider/wasp nests or overhanging foliage that attracts bees.

“If a homeowner plans to install a new mailbox or replace a worn one, he/she must use Postal Service–approved traditional, contemporary or locking full/limited service mailboxes,” said Beckemeyer. “Customers should be careful when purchasing curbside mail receptacles because the use of unapproved boxes is prohibited”.

Customers may use a custom-built mailbox; however, it must conform to local, state, federal laws, and highway regulations.  Customers must consult with the Postmaster at 903.532.5431 to ensure the mailbox is consistent with guidelines applying to flag, size, strength, and quality of construction, and to ensure there are no violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).”