People, Places & Events

People, Places & Events

Lake Area
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East Cedar Creek Freshwater Supply District meets at 12:30 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month at the ECCFSD office on Hammer Road just off Welch Lane in Gun Barrel City.
Eustace City Council meets at 7 p.m. in the Eustace City Hall the first Thursday of each month. For more information, please call 425-4702. The public is invited to attend.
Eustace Independent School District meets at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at the Eustace High School Library. For more information, please call 425-7131. The public is invited to attend.
Gun Barrel City Council meets in Brawner Hall at 6 p.m. the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. For more information, please call 887-1087. The public is invited to attend.
Gun Barrel City Economic Development Corporation meets at 1831 W. Main, GBC, at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month. For more information, please call 887-1899.
Henderson County Commissioner’s Court meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 9 a.m. in the Henderson County Courthouse in Athens. The public is invited to attend.
Henderson County Emergency Services District #4 meets at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at 525 S. Tool Dr. in Tool.
Henderson County Historical Commission meets the first Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m. in the HC Historical Museum.
Kaufman County Commissioner’s Court meets the first, second, third and fourth Monday of each month at 9:45 a.m. in the Kaufman County Courthouse in Kaufman. The public is invited to attend.
Kemp City Council meets at Kemp City Hall at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month. For more information, please call 498-3191. The public is invited to attend.
Kemp Independent School District meets the third Tuesday of each month in the Board Room in the Administration Building. For more information, please call 498-1314. The public is invited to attend.
Log Cabin City Council meets the third Thursday of the month in city hall. For more information, please call 489-2195. The public is invited to attend.
Mabank City Council meets at 7 p.m. in Mabank City Hall the first Tuesday of each month. For more information, please call 887-3241. The public is invited to attend.
Mabank Independent School District meets at 7:30 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month. For more information, please call 887-9310. The public is invited to attend.
Payne Springs City Council meets at city hall at 7:30 p.m. every third Tuesday of each month. For more information, please call 451-9229. The public is invited to attend.
Payne Springs Water Supply Corp. meets the third Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m. at the Payne Springs Community Center, located at 9690 Hwy. 198.
Seven Points City Council meets at 7 p.m. in Seven Points city hall the second Tuesday of each month. For more information, please call 432-3176. The public is invited to attend.
Tool City Council meets at 6 p.m. in the OranWhite Civic Center the third Thursday of each month. For more information, please call 432-3522. The public is invited to attend.
West Cedar Creek Municipal Utility District is held at 5 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month. For more information, please call 432-3704. The public is invited.

Texas Health Kaufman achieves top performance
Special to The Monitor
KAUFMAN–Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Kaufman has demonstrated that improving the quality of care can lead to lower costs.
According to the first year of a three-year national hospital improvement collaborative, Texas Health Presbyterians among 25 percent of participating hospitals to achieve top performance thresholds.
The hospital improvement collaborative, QUEST, is overseen by Premier Inc. healthcare alliance, a voluntary, three-year project made up of 157 not-for-profit hospitals across 31 states.
The goal is threefold: save lives, safely reduce the cost of care, and deliver the most reliable, effective care, using evidence-based medicine.
Participating hospitals work to improve quality, measure progress and share data to create best practices.
Based on first-year results from the project, Texas Health Kaufman received awards for top performance on the following goals:
• Save lives: Eliminate avoidable hospital mortalities.
• Safely reduce the cost of care: Reduce the costs for each patient’s hospitalization.
• Deliver the most reliable and effective care: Ensure that patients receive every recommended evidence-based care measure.
Texas Health Kaufman achieved high marks in all three areas.
“Texas Health Kaufman has reached new levels of excellence in the delivery of evidence-based care, and our patients are the beneficiaries,” hospital president Patsy Youngs said.
“This distinction represents a lot of hard work and an unrelenting commitment to quality improvement on the part of the physicians on the medical staff, our nurses, and other clinical personnel throughout the hospital,” she added.
Since setting the three-year goals at the baseline, QUEST hospitals have saved an estimated 8,043 lives and $577 million, according to first-year results.
Of the approximately 2.3 million patients treated annually in hospitals, 24,818 received treatments that met the highest-quality patient care standards when compared to baseline performance at the outset of the project.
Cost of care was reduced by an average of $343 per patient and the delivery of every recommended patient care measure increased by 8.74 percentage points to an average of 86.3 percent.
At the same time, QUEST hospitals achieved a 14 percent reduction in observed mortality when compared to what was expected.
According to an analysis of these Year One results, if all hospitals not participating in QUEST were to achieve the improvements found among the participants, they could save an estimated 52,760 lives and $1.16 billion in costs. In addition, 27,771 more patients could receive all recommended care.
“These remarkable results highlight what can be achieved when hospitals set high goals and focus on continuous improvement,” Premier president and CEO Susan DeVore said.
“QUEST hospitals are outpacing the performance of others, proving that when hospitals work together in a collaborative forum, they bring the depth of their shared knowledge to the table. Such collaboration helps participants to reliably deliver the most efficient, effective and caring hospital experience for each and every patient, every single time,” she added.

TxDOT approves lower price for ‘My Plates’
Special to The Monitor
FORT WORTH–Increase the fun of your car at a decreased price.
Texas’ popular line of colorful custom license plates is back on the market, at prices adjusted for the current economy.
Sales begin Nov. 19 at www.myplates.com.
The Texas Department of Transportation Commission approved pricing for the re-launch of the My Plates program.
My Plates is a public/private program created by the state legislature to offer Texans more choices in the color and design of their license plates, while at the same time raising money for state services.
My Plates are like nothing you’ve seen on Texas roads.
There are colors and designs to reflect every personality.
From hot pink and burnt orange to western and vintage themes, the plates range from $55 to $195 for a one-year plate.
Prices depend on how many letters and numbers you need to spell out the combination you want on your plate.
If you purchase a five- or ten-year plate, the per-year price goes down.
Every one of the original My Plate categories will cost less under the new pricing, dropping from $10 to $200 from last year.
There are even a few new designs that will be offered for the first time Nov. 19. The State of Texas receives revenues from the sale of every plate with a guaranteed minimum return of $25 million dollars over five years.
Create your plate at www.myplates.com.
Just choose the plate color and design you like and check the combination.
As of Nov. 19, you can purchase the plate online then pick it up at your county tax office a few weeks later.
You can also call from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, My Plates at 1-888-7MY-PLAT(ES),
The Texas state legislature is the first in the U.S. to create a public/private program to get creative with license plates to raise money for the state.
The program has been popular because it costs taxpayers nothing and offers all Texans a fun choice in customizing their car.
In just a few weeks of sales in 2008, about 1,300 Texans bought My Plates for their cars, helping the program raise about $170,000 for state programs and services.
The first company that was awarded the contract to run My Plates ceased operations last fall, citing the U.S. economic crisis.
In August, TxDOT awarded a new contract to a joint venture between Pinnacle Technical Resources of Dallas www.pinnacle1.com. and Etech, Inc. of Nacogdoches www.etech inc.com.
When plate sales resume Nov. 19, My Plates will be under the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV).
TxDMV is a new state agency that will oversee the state’s motor vehicle services, including the registration of passenger vehicles and the sale of license plates.

Come Adopt Us At The Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake
The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on. My name is Domino, and I got my name not only because I’m black and white like a domino tile, but also because my outgoing, cheerful personality causes my doggie roommates to smile. This also causes our human friends to smile, which even causes the kitties in the cat room to smile. I am an 8-month-old male Pointer/Terrier mix. I love children, other dogs, and even get along great with kitties. I’ve had all my shots and am ready to be adopted. If you’d like to experience the domino effect, I am sure to put a forever smile on your face when you take me to my forever home. I currently live with a foster family, so if you would like to meet me, call my friends at the Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake at (903) 432-3422 to make an appointment. You can also email them at dogshsccl@yahoo.com.
	We have many animals at the Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake in Seven Points in dire need of a good home. Please call or stop by the Humane Society today and rescue one of these forgotten animals. The Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake is located on 10220 County Road 2403 in Seven Points. For more information, please call (903) 432-3422 after 11 a.m. We are closed on Wednesday and Sunday.
For further information visit our website at petfinder.com