News

The latest from the Texas Tribune (www.texastribune.org) While new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths remain low, the number of vaccines administered each day has declined. More than 40 percent of Texans are fully vaccinated, and a University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll found nearly half of Texas voters have returned to their pre-pandemic lives.

Council members nixed any possibility of raising the city’s property tax rate Monday evening, agreeing instead to monitor the impact of installing new electronic water meters and water- and sewer-rate restructuring on the city’s revenues.

Kimberly Sloat is the recipient of the Texas Municipal Clerk’s Office Achievement of Excellence Award, which was presented to her by Gretchen Mercer, Canyon city secretary, at Monday’s city council meeting. Out of 595 TMCS member cities, Sloat is one of only 43 recipients of the award.

The Hemphill County Library received a bequest of $125,000 last week from the Renick Trust. The gift was made in honor of B. Coleman Renick Jr., and follows the death, last November, of his wife, Judy Walker Renick.

Heat wave prompts conservation call The Electric Reliability Council of Texas urged Texans to cut back on power usage last week when an unusually large number of power plants shut down for unexpected repairs as temperatures soared. ERCOT officials announced Friday that Texans could resume normal levels of electricity use, however.

In a nearly four-hour meeting last Thursday evening, Canadian ISD trustees covered the full gamut of schoolrelated business, from budget preparation and speculation over the newest, but as-yet unveiled school funding template, to a laundry list of capital improvement projects; from the annual Health Advisory Report by School Nurse Molly Kerrigan, to an update on the Hemphill County Appraisal District’s growing legal expenses in ongoing pipeline litigation.

Emergency responders and law enforcement officers were called to two accidents in two days at the start of the week—the first a one-vehicle rollover Monday on CR 6, south of Canadian, and the second a two-vehicle collision on US 33 near CR 21 southeast of town.