Category: Howe News Bulletin

Howe Mercantile celebrated as the newest business in Howe.  On-hand were County Commissioner Jeff Whitmire, Howe Mayor Jeff Stanley, Howe City Council Member Debbie Lowery, Howe Development Alliance Director Monte Walker and numerous board members from Keep Howe Beautiful and the Howe Area Chamber of Commerce.

Owner Georgia Caraway invited many friends from Denton, where she has been involved in so many organizations and foundations.

 

The 2015-16 Colorguard members are:

Ashlyn Ellis, Captain

Natalie Honore, Assistant Captain

Addy Pecina

Ashley Pelt

Erin Ansley

Abby Morrow

Natalie Sloan

Kaycie Taylor

At 11:30 tomorrow (Friday, May 15), the Howe Area Chamber of Commerce will cut a ribbon for someone other than themselves.  Howe Mercantile, located at 107 E. Haning Street opened their doors on Founders Day, April 25 and have been open each Thursday – Saturday since.  Owner Georgia Caraway has refurbished the building formerly known as Mrs. Stocktons and Mrs. Chisums into a classic retro classy antique and vintage clothing store.

If the weather holds, many of Caraway’s friends from Denton will be in town for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“I’m going to have 15-20 people from Denton and they’re really excited to come to Howe.” said Caraway.  “After the ribbon-cutting is over, they’re going over to eat at Abby’s and come back here where I’ll have deserts and candy and things here.”

All afternoon, Caraway will have tea, coffee and desert available.

“This has been such a delight.” said Caraway.  “This town has just embraced us. They come in the door and they say, ‘we’re so glad you’re here’ or ‘thank you for doing this for our town.’  For me, it’s like the town is doing it for me.  It’s such a wonderful place and reminds me of my hometown.”

May 13th – At approximately 9pm Howe Police Officer Robert Todd stopped a vehicle on US Hwy 75 in Howe for a defective headlamp. After getting conflicting stories about the occupants’ travel plans and noticing that the driver and passenger were nervous, Officer Todd obtained consent to search their pockets and their vehicle. Two Van Astyne PD officers arrived at the scene to assist. While searching the 28-year-old Van Alstyne man’s pockets, Officer Todd noticed a baggie of cocaine laying on the ground at the suspect’s feet. When Officer Todd attempted to handcuff him, the suspect tried to run. The officers took the suspect to the ground and eventually used pepper spray on him to get him to comply and get him handcuffed. Officer Todd found approximately one ounce of methamphetamine in one of the suspect’s shoes. The suspect and two of the officers suffered minor scrapes, contusions and abrasions. Medical personnel were called to the scene to check the suspect before he was taken to the Grayson County Jail and booked for Man/Deliver of a Controlled Substance in Penalty Group 1 > 4g, Possession of a Controlled Substance in Penalty Group 1 < 1g, Resisting Arrest, and an FTA warrant. The 33-year-old driver was arrested for Defective Equipment.  

An accident happened this morning north of FM 902 on the service road of southbound US 75.  The cause was reported to be a possible diabetic seizure.  Power lines are down and a tree caught on fire from the power lines.  No serious injuries were reported.

Howe Dash Cam shows high water in the city

Today paid off for the City of Howe’s investment into the CodeRED program.  Citizens who had signed up for the free service were alerted via text, email or by phone if they had signed up for the alert system.  With Howe not currently having a siren for storm activity such as today, the CodeRED system is crucial and the city has asked the citizens to sign up for the service.

Five years ago, Grayson County contacted all of the local mayors of each city and asked if they’d be interested in partnering as a group for emergency management by using CodeRED. At that time, Sherman, Denison and Howe were the only cities in the county using the system. With all of the cities councils passing the agreement, Grayon County took over the contract with CodeRed. Grayson County was able to negotiate a better rate for the entire county than what the three initial cities were paying individually.

Since that time, the county has even added the CodeRED Weather Warning as a bonus feature.  Mayor Jeff Stanley estimated that the city was paying $2,500 to $3,000 annually prior to the partnership with Grayson County.

Grayson County paid for the entire first year of service by using a Homeland Security Grant and have been able to use that grant annually to provide this service for cities. However, each city now had to start paying for the service starting October 1, 2014. The cost of the service is $1,193.86.

Changes were made in the September city council meeting  regarding the minutes that are available in the CodeRED program. Much like a cellphone plan, if the county exceeded the amount of alerts used, it would cost extra. Therefore, The City of Howe has not sent out any non-emergency alerts. These alerts are sent out if, in example, today’s tornado warnings or severe weather warnings or even in cases where the water supply is shutoff in a certain area.  Another alert would be sent out to update the citizens on the progress of the situations that might occur.

The council had the option for the city (and every other city in the county) to pay an additional $170 per month to have unlimited alerts. With the agreement from each city, Grayson County foot the bill for the first year. The total for this first year of service with the additional alerts is $8,000.

With this service also comes a user fee of $100 per user. With the size of Howe, one user fee is ample for the process.

Citizens are encouraged to sign up for CodeRED at the city website at cityofhowe.org. The city pays roughly $0.40 per citizen to be able to mass broadcast events such as weather alerts, drinking water contamination, utility outage, evacuation notice and route, missing person, fires or floods, bomb threat, hostage situation, chemical spill or gas leak, and other emergency incidents where rapid and accurate notification is essential for life safety.