Texoma Home Educators, a team made up of homeschoolers in and around Grayson County, took top honors among 52 teams at last weekend’s BEST Robotics competition. The team garnered first place overall, third place robot, and top presentation, and will be competing in the state championship in early December.
BEST, which stands for Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology, began at TI in Sherman in 1993 and has spread nationwide to include over 20,000 public, private, and home school students. It is a six weeks robotics competition in which students are given a “kit” with materials such as plywood, PVC, a little plexiglass and sheet metal, four motors and servos, and have to construct a robot to accomplish a particular goal. The 2017 theme is fire and rescue, and teams had to create a robot which simulated rescuing a victim from an industrial explosion, retrieving barrels of chemicals, and putting out the fire by shooting ping-pong balls at plastic cups.
Teams portray themselves as startup companies at a trade show, giving a marketing presentation to a panel of investors, and constructing and staffing an exhibit booth. Teams also drive their robots in a series of head-to-head competitions.
The BEST award is a composite score based on a team’s robot performance, creating an engineering notebook documenting their design and production process, the presentation to judges, the exhibit information booth, and overall spirit and sportsmanship. Anabelle Graham, a second-year student, noted “Being on T.H.E.’s robotics team has taught me so much about not just engineering, but also about the marketing aspect of a company and about sportsmanship.”
Texoma Home Educators has been competing in BEST since 1998 when they debuted with a team of seven students. With twenty-seven members this year in fifth through eleventh grade, this is the fourth consecutive time the team has advanced to the state championship.
“Our production team worked smoothly this year, creating a robot that won us third place at the competition. The presentation team practiced hard, writing and memorizing their presentations so well that they won best presentation at the competition,” commented sophomore Jacob Williams, the team president. “The hard work from these teams along with our exhibit, engineering notebook, and spirit and sportsmanship teams really paid off, winning us 1st place overall at the competition over about 50 teams! I’m incredibly proud to lead this team of students who put so much effort into winning these awards.”
The state competition will be held December 7-9 at UTD and the Dr. Pepper stadium in Frisco.
The Howe Police Department arrested a Grayson County couple early Monday morning after a traffic stop on U.S. Highway 75 that netted nearly ten pounds of marijuana and more than $3,000 in retail merchandise that is presumed to have been stolen.
Ricardo Lara, 33, of Denison, and 25-year-old Karla Covarrubias-Huerta of Sherman were booked into the Grayson County Jail for Delivery of Marijuana (5 to 50 pounds) and Tampering with Physical Evidence.
The arrests resulted from a traffic stop during which the occupants of the vehicle driven by Lara attempted to discard the marijuana from their moving vehicle.
Howe officers are working with retail establishments to determine the origin of the merchandise found in the vehicle to determine if additional charges are warranted.
The officer was Howe officer Brando Ozuna. Van Alstyne Police Officer Colton Raper assisted.
. Van Alstyne Police Officer Colton Raper (left) and Howe officer Brando Ozuna (right)This week’s edition
After 12 years of discussions between Tomlin Investments and the City of Howe, an agreement was reached and a round of applause broke out at the city council meeting on Tuesday night after the council members voted unanimously of an annexation of approximately 469 acres located between State Highway 5 and US Highway 75 along Blythe Road.
The city put together a Chapter 380 Economic Development Program and Agreement that would allow for the developers to reinvest for future infrastructure development.
The development will take 36 to 48 months to be recognizable as a future site due to the process of constructing a wastewater treatment plant to serve the development and eventually the entire city.
Conceptual drawing of planned development
“This has been going on for quite some time,” Howe City Administrator Joe Shephard told the public. “There have been many many meetings between city representatives and Tomlin Investments. We’ve worked out an agreement that we think is both beneficial to the city as well as the investment company that will form a district to finance the infrastructure.”
Shephard said that the best part of the agreement is that there will be a sewer treatment plant at the southern tip of the city in which the city will be able to tie into it in the future.
The city and Tomlin Investments agreed to a five-year period where Tomlin must meet certain criteria in order to qualify for the agreed upon reinvestments. Current and future Howe taxpayers that are not located in the newly created district will not be affected on any reinvestments provided to Tomlin Investments – only those within the new development.
Shephard commended City Attorney James Tidwell and City Engineer Bob Helmberger on their efforts to move this deal forward with Tomlin.
“We just asked that the city be treated fairly and these guys did a great job,” said Shephard, who then personally thanked Tidwell.
Scott Norris, representing Tomlin Investments told the council that the sewer treatment plant should be in operation in 36 to 48 months and that the paperwork is ready to be submitted to the State of Texas.
Scott Norris of Tomlin Investments discusses plan to city council.
“We are going to spend an exorbitant amount of money and we’re going to get a portion of that money back,” said Norris. “Our reimbursement comes from our future residents and they’re treated just like your current residents with police and fire protection that are already in place for Howe citizens.”
The development will include commercial property designations on both US 75 and Highway 5 that is in the Howe sales tax base. The home values in the new development are expected to be in the $250,000 range to begin and migrate upward.
The city says that the agreement will retain a portion of the taxable amount within the district. The eventual wastewater treatment plant would allow for the separation of the current sewer contract through the City of Sherman that sees the City of Howe paying the rate of a commercial business. It has yet to be determined who will own and operate the treatment facility upon completion, but the cost of sewer for citizens should be well reduced due to the eventual extinction of the current contract.
The district will also make water improvements to the development and construct a storage container for water. The addition of homes will be able to reduce the water cost to Howe citizens due to the addition of homes sharing the cost.
The benefits to Howe and Howe citizens are not only the reduction of utility costs but the new opportunities that come with new developments.
In a recent citizens survey, the number one want and need was indicated to be a grocery store.
“In order to attract a grocer or other retail centers to improve the quality of life and bring jobs, those companies have to have a certain population criteria in order to qualify,” said Howe’s Economic Development Director Monte Walker. “With the addition of Summit Hill and this future development, the city is getting closer to reality for those opportunities.”
The residential growth that inspires the commercial growth will feed the local city’s economy which will result in better streets, parks, and overall infrastructure. Currently, Howe has the least amount of sales tax revenue for any city along Highway 75 or Interstate 45 from the Red River to Palmer, Texas – which is 28 miles north of Corsicana.
The round of applause after the motion was passed was in part due to the finalization of hard work by many involved for many years. But it also may have also been for the sudden realization that the financial opportunities that will soon begin for Howe have finally come to fruition.
On October 11, 2017 at approximately 1:24 pm, Howe Police Officers responded to a hit-and-run accident that occurred on US Highway 75 near FM 902.
The victim followed the suspect vehicle while calling 911. The suspect vehicle came to a stop at the intersection of West Farmington Road and Fielder Road. During the investigation, officers located several prescription pills that the driver did not have a prescription for. The driver 29-year-old Garrett Owen from Sherman was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance Penalty Group 1, and Possession of a Controlled Substance Penalty Group 3 <28g. He was booked in to Grayson County Jail.
Those Williams boys on Duke Street are at it again. This time the team leaders of a team of 20 plus home school kids have formed a team named Texoma Home Educators (THE) to compete in the robot program again in 2017. A full story will be in this coming Monday’s edition of the Howe Enterprise.
Below is a video of the unfinished robot in action.
On Thursday, October 5, 2017, Howe Police Lieutenant Michael Hill and Officers Morris and Stone arrested 21-year-old Melissa resident Bryce Woodall for Burglary of a habitation, Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and Public Intoxication.
Woodall broke into a home on Tutt Street at approximately 5:00 am Thursday morning. The homeowner heard the commotion and confronted Woodall. He assaulted the homeowner with a baseball bat, then ran from the scene. He was later located walking down State Hwy 5. Inside the backpack, he was carrying contained items taken from the home on Tutt Street. He was found to be intoxicated. Woodall was arrested and into the Grayson County Jail.
Woodall was arrested with a stolen bicycle and the police are trying to get it to its rightful owner.
