January
Twisters ripped through south-central Missouri Dec. 31, killing four people and damaging Fort Leonard Wood.
Thanks to the combined efforts of eight agencies, some area criminals are facing consequences for a “monster” string of thefts.
The community’s new wastewater treatment plant is operational.
Zane Hunter LeRoy Atobello, born Jan. 4, was the first 2011 baby at Texas County Memorial Hospital.
Bell ringers in Texas County raised $17,927 through the Salvation Army Campaign.
Sweet Bonnie Carter who has blessed hundreds with her cards of encouragement and continued tutoring of Texas County children turned 80-years-old on Jan. 23.
Missouri’s loss of one congressional seat will give the state its smallest delegation since 1850.
Jessie R. Carr, home on leave from Afghanistan, received recognition for his heroic action in saving a choking man.
Twenty-four Durham Co. employees shared in a $10,000 Powerball win in the Missouri Lottery.
Since its reorganization in 2006, the TCMH Healthcare Foundation has raised over $500,880.
Firefighters representing seven departments participated in training.
The Texas County Food Pantry functions with the a staff of five employees and some 40 volunteers.
The Herald has a new updated app for the iPhone and iPad touch.
Lydia Dixon, 9, Houston, has been selected to study with the Bolshoi Ballet of Russia this summer.
Gas prices around $3 may seem like a bargain by this summer. Experts predict it to be between $3.20 and $4.75 by March and April.
For the fiscal year 2010, the cost of housing a prisoner in the Texas County jail is $45 per day.
February
Ice and snow fell on Texas County, closing schools and businesses.
In May, the government will no longer pay someone eligible for benefits with a mailed check. The money will be electronically deposited into a bank account.
Carl Honeycutt received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the chamber banquet. Harold Bruening was “Volunteer of the Year.”
The City of Houston started the year with a robust 15 percent increase in sales tax revenue.
For the past two years, the South-Central District of MoDOT has used beet juice with salt and gravel to combat slick roads.
The elk being held in Kentucky for Missouri’s elk-resotration program will pass a battery of veterinary tests to ensure that only healthy elk reach Missouri’s 346-square-mile elk-restoration zone in parts of Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties.
An automatic external defibrillator is now in the Hiett Gymnasium.
Junior Haylee Kell was crowned Houston High School hoop queen.
County sales tax is up about 11 percent from this time last year.
Volunteers unloaded 15,168 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to be distributed by 13 troops in the county. Thin Mints are the favorite.
Cash paid for silver dollars: $15.
The Community Betterment YOUTH gave carnations to all inpatients at TCMH on Valentine’s day.
John McCarty of McCarty Signs put the finishing touches on signage at Grand Avenue and U.S. 63 highlighting downtown Houston.
Houston City Police became involved in a high-speed pursuit of a woman on U.S. 63.
A new feature on the Houston Herald’s web site allows readers to comment on stories.
Beginning March 1, Missourians will be able to buy most hunting and fishing permits at home, using the Missouri Department of Conservation’s new e-Permits system.
Joe Gunter, “The Walnut King,” has felled walnut trees for more than five decades.
March
Texas County’s population grew by about 13 percent – half of that fueled by a new state prison in Licking – according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county’s population stands at 26,008. Houston’s population increased by 89 to 2,081.
Houston’s city council voted in a salary increase for new mayor, Don Tottingham; from $400 to $600 per month.
Twenty-eight teams raised more than $3,000 at the Houston Education Foundation’s Trivia night.
Sales tax revenue dropped 20 percent from the same period as last year.
Of the 76 meth lab incidents in 2010 in the nine-county region of Troop G of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, 11 were in Texas County. There were 31 incidents in the troop in 2009. Missouri ranks first in meth lab seizures.
More than 5,400 fisherman participated in the opening day of trout season at area parks.
The Community Foundation of the Ozarks recently awarded $12,000 to the Houston R-1 Education Foundation as a matching grant.
Wilbur Akers, city lineman, retired after 27 years of keeping the City of Houston connected.
The Seventh Day Adventists, a Houston church congregation will construct a 5,500 square-foot building on Airport Road.
First and second-graders at Houston Elementary School traveled to the Shrine Circus in Springfield.
A truck carrying a load of logs lost control and fell on its side alongside Highway 17, seriously injuring the driver.
The city’s correctional workforce is about to tackle the job of painting the fireplugs.
Darrell Vandivort was recently honored for his 40 years of employment with the City of Houston.
According to data complied by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, 149 crashes involving either fatality or personal injury occurred on Texas County highways during 2010.
The Census Bureau has announced that Plato’s the center of the U.S. population. The Herald office has been flooded with media inquiries – as everyone from the St. Louis Dispatch to the New York Times covered the story.
TCMH board members voted unanimously to approve $88,063 for a software and hardware upgrade for the electronic medical records system in the TCMH clinics.
The 44-cent price for a postage stamp will stay the same but other postal rates are going up.
TCMH nurses and aides are now outfitted with an iPod Touch that allows them to communicate with the nurse’s station, each other and physicians.
Raymondville School played host to a mobile planetarium last week. Several shows, ranging from the moon to rockets, were shown.
Yep, DNA confirmed a tuft of hair left on a barb wire fence belonged to a mountain lion in Oregon County.
April
Texas County ranked 103 out of 114 counties in the state for health of its residents.
The U.S. cattle herd stands at a more-than-five-decades low.
Zeus, the Animal Shelter of Texas County resident and deaf dachshund who was enrolled in the “Healing Paws” program and adopted by the Fulton School for the Deaf, will be featured in the popular “People” magazine.
A move is underway to bring an Ozarks Technical Community College campus to Texas County. OTC leaders recently outlined their plans during a meeting in Houston.
Houston sales tax revenues shot up about 19 percent from this time last year.
The Community Betterment Y.O.U.T.H. hosted the annual Easter egg hunt at the Chamber and Charter fields in Houston.
Youth turkey hunters bagged 58 birds during the weekend season.
As the City of Houston welcomed a new mayor and aldermen Monday night, it said goodbye to three men who served a combined 52 years. Steve Hutcheson was elected as an alderman in 1983 and served until 1991. He became mayor in 1999 and served 12 years, the longest serving mayor in Houston history. Aldermen Bruce Wilson and Bill Maxwell both served 16 years.
Heavy rains resulted in nearly 11 inches of rain with more than $1 million in damages.
Jimmy Shelton found a mammoth morel mushroom measuring 20 inches in circumference and weighing more than 5 pounds.
Rain was blamed for a 10 percent drop in turkeys harvested the first week of hunting.
With silver shovels and white hard hats, Texas County Memorial Hospital representatives broke ground on the largest expansion in the hospital’s 53-year history. More than 100 people attended the public ceremony that marked the beginning of a 59,000 square foot project.
May
Houston Area Chamber of Commerce will kick off a “Spring Fest” that includes a health fair and a demolition derby.
Plato’s distinction as the population center of the United States will be recognized with a ceremony that commemorates Plato as the population center of the United States.
U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden, the 9-11 mastermind terrorist.
The last reading of electric and water meters was done by hand rather than electronic wireless technology. Few problems with accuracy were uncovered.
Created in 1939, the Mark Twain National Forest is Missouri’s only national forest. Preserving 1,500,000 acres in the southern part of the Show-Me State, the MTNF occupies parts of more counties than any other national forest, with acreage in 29 counties. Texas County has 50,000 of those acres.
Bear sighting reports have resulted in recent trapping and study of Missouri black bears. Unregulated hunting and habitat destruction drastically reduced Missouri’s bear population to the point of being considered extirpated from Missouri by the 1950s.
Residents of Houston Housing Authority apartments have the option of doing some gardening, as a group of raised gardens have been added to the grounds.
Keagan Hatton, son of Barry Hatton, killed a 21-pound turkey with four beards.
Missouri’s transportation director proposed closing its district office in Willow Springs, cutting 19 percent of the department’s statewide positions.
Wild elk have returned to Missouri after an absence of 150 years with the release of six bulls and 28 cows and calves by the MDC in Winona.
TCMH had $576,086 in the black at the end of 2010, a better than expected financial year.
An extension of the Village Trail is underway, running north to Christie Drive and connecting to Brushy Creek Trail.
A first for the Houston Herald web site last week: Live video of the proposed closure of MoDOT’s proposed closure of its district office at Willow Springs.
On the print side of the newspaper, this year marks the Herald’s 134th year of publishing.
There was a lot of shearing going on at the Rootin’ Tootin’ Alpaca ranch.
The lions roared, the seals performed and the crowd was entertained as the annual kindergarten circus was held at the Houston Elementary School.
About 770 bicycle helmets were distributed last week to Houston Elementary Schools.
A 29-year-old soldier, Bradley Melton, with ties to Raymondville, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
First-graders from Houston Elementary School rode a fire truck on the final day of school.
Texas County’s median age is 42.1. That is higher than the state average of 37.9.
Texas County jail implements use of iris ID technology. The new system works through existing Live Scan fingerprint identification equipment and interfaces with a mug shot camera to quickly provide a facial image and enter it into the database.
The rural post offices that dot the landscape of Texas County are at risk with cuts coming to the U.S. Postal Service.
Joplin suffers a massive tornado, destroying much of the community.
June
A group of 67 Houston citizens traveled to Joplin to assist the tornado-torn community. For eight hours, the Houston crew helped clear debris in yards and avenues.
Community leaders from across south-central Missouri told members of the state highway commission that a plan to close the District 9 MoDOT headquarters in Willow Springs will create economic havoc, a reduction in services and threaten the region when disasters strike.
Sign on a church marquee in Licking: “If you’ve been praying for rain – stop.”
Texas County’s unemployment rate plunged 1.2 percentage points to 7.9 percent in April. In the region, the average rate was 8.3 percent.
Television’s Animal Planet plans to include The Animal Shelter of Texas County in a segment.
Some estimates indicate that in wooded areas, there may be more than a million cicadas per acre.
Spring turkey harvest is down 9.3 percent with a total of 699 killed. The number in 2010 was 755.
The children of First Baptist Church WeeCare Daycare recently held their annual trike-a-thone for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and they raised nearly $800.
As part of a job shadowing day for Plato eighth graders, Houston Police Chief Jim McNiell swore in two students as honorary officers.
The Texas County Relay for Life event was shortened by rain and lightening and will conclude its activities at a later date.
Dogs Bluff Access on the Big Piney has been a popular swimming spot for those trying to beat the heat.
The Raymondville Picnic celebrated 60 years with midway attractions and activities.
Members of the Houston City Council approved a new ordinance that calls for stricter standards related to tall grass, weeds and other nuisances. The new law reduces the height of grass allowed from 24 inches to 18 inches.
The TCMH Healthcare Foundation raised nearly $16,000 at the organization’s sixth annual charitable golf tournament.
Spirit Horse, and equine therapy center began operation in Texas County.
Drs. Shan and Kalenna Wilson returned to the area to provide dental and chiropractic care to Texas County residents.
Houston school board approved a $9.67 million budget that calls for no increases in spending and dips slightly into reserves to balance it.
Local Girl Scout Morgan Rosemann sold over 1,000 boxes of cookies in 2011, with 105 county girls selling a total of 16,288.
Chris Ely, a 1993 Houston graduate, began duties as a new conservation agent in Texas County.
An abundance of fescue seed is bringing out the combines.
TCMH employees donated $10,000 to assist disaster relief in Missouri.
Organizers of a cleanup of the Big Piney River found more than 20 tires in the 5.5 mile stretch from Mineral Springs to Sand Shoals.
A landmark will be moved this month as TCMH begins its expansion and renovation project. The monument describing Texas County will be moved to the Justice Center.
City Hall windows are getting an energy efficient update.
Next week’s Herald will review the top stories from July throughDecember.