News

Hemphill County Underground Water District board members voted unanimously last week to raise the tax rate to 3.5-cents per $100 valuation for Fiscal Year 2020-21—a 25 percent increase over last year’s rate.

Sept. 9-13 marks the anniversary of arguably this area’s most important historical event—and sadly, its least known one. The Texas Historical Commission refers to Lyman’s Wagon Train Battle as the beginning of “America’s most important war, which you know nothing about.”

The end of a seemingly endless political season is in sight. The last day to register in the Nov.

About 1.3 million rural Americans who had jobs in July 2019 were unemployed one year later, according to the recent county-level employment data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. As tough as that sounds, the central areas of the nation’s largest cities had it worse.

In the last week, Hemphill County Hospital officials have reported seven new coronavirus cases in Hemphill County residents, and three new cases involving out-of-county residents. Of those seven local positive cases, three are students at Canadian ISD, and one is a staff member—doubling the number of COVID cases on local campuses reported in the first two weeks of school.

In the last week, Hemphill County Hospital District officials have reported 11 new coronavirus tests of county residents. Two factors have affected the sudden spike: the spread of COVID-19 cases in residents and staff at the Edward Abraham Nursing Home, since the first two cases were reported there three weeks ago; and the start of classes at Canadian ISD, which began last Wednesday.

City of Canadian officials and staff held a pre-construction meeting with Project Engineer Adolfo Garcia of Brandt Engineers, and representatives of Amarillo Utility Contractors last Thursday afternoon to prepare for the start of municipal utility line relocation on US 60/83 in the city limits.

Canadian ISD Superintendent Lynn Pulliam advised on Friday, Aug. 28, that the school district had received its first lab confirmation that a student at Canadian Elementary School had tested positive for COVID-19.

In their meeting Wednesday, Sept. 1, the Hemphill County Hospital Board unanimously approved the tax rate proposal of 0.613007, the effective tax rate for fiscal year 2021. The ETR represents an I&S rate of 0.086088 and an M&O rate of 0.526919. HCH Administrator Christy Francis explained to the board that the ETR will raise $6,025,060 for the M&O, $216,000 less that in 2019. “This year, not only did the tax base go down, some things came off, and we had some refunds—which jacked up the ETR.”