People, Places & Events

Pursuing a dream to be nurses after helping others
Special to The Monitor
KAUFMAN–Dianna Roberts’ father was in hospice in 1997.
She was so impressed with the care he received that Dianna went to work for the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of Kaufman County.
She has been a home health aide there for nearly five years, providing in-home care to the frail elderly and disabled in a three-county area.
She enjoys working with patients so much that she thought about going to college to become a nurse.
She hadn’t been in a classroom since 1997, when she graduated from Scurry-Rosser High School.
It was a big step entering college 10 years later. A lot had happened in her life since then, including raising two sons.
Coincidently, two of her co-workers at VNA of Kaufman County were having similar thoughts about enrolling in college to become nurses.
LeAnn Perkins had grown up in Kaufman. As a high school senior preparing to graduate in 1979, LeAnn began looking for a job and found one as a file clerk with VNA of Kaufman County.
During her nearly 29 years there, she’s been a home health aide scheduler, medical records secretary, professional service clerk, office manager, junior secretary, and medical records coordinator.
Another one of Roberts co-workers, Lynn Warren, has been a home health aide since 2000.
Most of her patients live in Ellis County. Lynn grew up in Rosser and following graduation from high school in 1984, she went to work in a nursing home. Lynn came to VNA of Kaufman County after calling to enquire if there were any job openings there.
Although the three women find their present work fulfilling, they decided that nursing was the next step in their careers and for personal fulfillment, as well.
With some trepidation, they took the plunge in fall 2007 and enrolled in their first class – Microcomputer Applications – at the Trinity Valley Community College (TVCC) campus in Terrell.
One of their worries was that they would feel out of place among younger students.
That concern was quickly put to rest the first day of class when they discovered that the ages of their classmates were quite diverse.
“I pictured college to be like high school, where everybody was pretty much the same young age,” Roberts recalls.
“College, though, is a lot different,” she notes. “There are many like us, who went to work right after high school, started families, and then years later decided to pursue a college degree.”
Stepping into a college classroom for the first time was a little daunting for the three co-workers, but they felt good about completing their first class and are happy with their decision to pursue a nursing degree.
They believe that the extra work is worth it for their future and feel that nursing is the right profession for them.
Roberts, Perkins and Warren have enrolled in Human Anatomy and Physiology I, and General Psychology for the spring 2008 semester at TVCC.
They plan to graduate with associate degrees in nursing in 2011 and take the state examination to become registered nurses.
“Graduation may seem like a long way off, but realizing a dream starts with taking that first step,” Dianna states. Her co-workers couldn’t agree more.

Grand Saline Volunteer Fire Department back on county stipend
By Terry Britt
Monitor Staff Writer
The Grand Saline Volunteer Fire Department is back on the county’s stipend payment roll – for now.
Van Zandt County Commissioners agreed Tuesday to resume the $400 payments for coverage of unincorporated areas, which the county had stopped after the creation of the Van Zandt County Emergency Services District No. 2 – a taxing entity.
Commissioners unanimously agreed they did not want to leave the fire department stranded for funding, while the dissolution drama surrounding the ESD plays out.
“Whatever the situation is, we need to help our fire departments,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Kelles Miller said.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Ron Carroll agreed, adding, “I’m a big supporter of our volunteer fire departments. They do something most of us don’t want to do.”
The payments are retroactive to October, the start of the county’s fiscal year, and the money was budgeted, although Van Zandt County Judge Rhita Koches said she was unsure if that was “by mistake.”
Meanwhile, there is no mistaking the multisided battle surrounding the ESD, with three of its five board members actively wanting to dissolve the year-old entity and now named as defendants in a lawsuit demanding their removal from the board.
The testiness of the conflict may have been ramped up a notch on Tuesday, when Koches revealed a letter she received Monday which she labeled as a “threat” by the Grand Saline Volunteer Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services to stop answering calls in the unincorporated areas.
“This letter was pretty much offensive, degrading and an accusation against the county that is not true. It was not a pleasant matter,” Koches said.
After the commissioners’ decision to reinstate stipend payments, it was later revealed Dr. James B. Lea wrote the letter. He and his wife Jeanne Ann Lea are among the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit to seek removal of ESD No. 2 board members Doyle Milliorn, Joe Sutton and Mary Ann Ritchie Fisher.
Mrs. Lea apologized for any offense taken at the letter. “He (Dr. Lea) was very upset when he wrote the letter. This has been a completely stopped-dead-in-the-tracks situation for the entire community,” she said.
Koches said the ESD is required to file an annual report by Feb. 1 and added that a workshop session with ESD board members could be scheduled after that date.
In a related matter, commissioners reappointed John Teague to the ESD board and appointed Harry Clifford as a new board member. Clifford, James Lea and J.M. Bolin had all applied for the open position.