People, Places & Events

Thursday, November 25, 2010

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.

Monitor Photo/
Kerry Yancey
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4376 Post Cmdr. Jim Prisock, accompanied by VFW Auxiliary president Lynn Hill, speaks to Cedar Creek Lake Kiwanis members about the activities the Post hosts for area veterans during the club's weekly luncheon Nov. 17.

At that time, he said, U.S. soldiers were still acting as “advisors” to the South Vietnamese military, even though they were also targeted by North Vietnamese forces.
As a one of the four-man helicopter crew, Johnstone said it was his job to make certain all of the chopper’s guns were in excellent working order, and that there was plenty of ammunition aboard for each weapon.
“We hauled everything,” he said, from ammunition to food to troops.
“We had gunships covering us, but there was a point while we were on the ground, where we were vulnerable,” he recalled.
His first rotation lasted 120 days, he recalled.
In his second tour, as a combat engineer, crews worked 12-hour shifts (either day or night) seven days a week, building airstrips, barracks, bunkers, roads and anything else deemed necessary.
“We got one day off a month,” he said.
“I never got a scratch,” he added. “We were just young kids – 19, 20 years old – but the Lord above just took care of me. I was lucky.”
Johnstone admitted he rarely talks about his Vietnam experiences.
Prisock, who was injured during his time in Vietnam (1966-67), is now 100 percent disabled, thanks to injuries to his back and shoulder (which has a titanium socket).
“Most of (the veterans) who come to our (VFW) meetings are disabled,” he told Kiwanis members.
There aren’t many homeless veterans locally, but there are a number of homeless in the Dallas area, Prisock said.
“We have a number of programs to help folks,” he said. “The way the economy is right now, there are a lot of guys who can’t find jobs.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides medical care, counseling and help finding work to those men and women who seek help, Prisock said.
Disabled veterans can take advantage of many programs offering tax breaks, both for federal and local property taxes, he added.
“The VA hospital has a program where they try to rehabilitate homeless veterans,” Hill said. “We do a lot of work with the VA hospital and the Post here.”
Currently, there are 297 women in the Auxiliary, Hill said. “A lot of them are in their 90s, so we’re trying to get younger women to participate,” she added.
In addition to veterans’ services, the Auxiliary also provides scholarships for high school graduates through its Voice of Democracy essay program, Hill said.
The Post and Auxiliary also provide Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for needy area children, hosting 329 children at last year’s Christmas event, she said, as well as providing food baskets for needy families.
“One of our goals is that we want the community to be more aware of what we offer,” Hill said.
“We provide a lot of activities for the community,” she added. “One of our mottos is ‘we honor our dead by helping the living.’”
In club news, Kiwanis members:
• heard the recent School Bell clothing program was very successful.
• discussed the upcoming project to prepare 400 gift bags for area Head Start students, with plans to put those gift bags together at the club’s Wednesday, Dec. 2, meeting.
• heard The Library at Cedar Creek Lake will be hosting the annual reading with Santa program from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 4.
• discussed plans to ring bells for the Salvation Army kettles Saturday, Dec. 11, and heard past president Dr. Jeanne Caillet report she needed bell-ringers for the Saturday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 27).
• discussed plans to complete Christmas food boxes, probably at the club’s Dec. 8 meeting.

Rotarians hear personal stories of local veterans
By Barbara Gartman
Monitor Staff Writer
GUN BARREL CITY–More than a dozen local veterans were guests of the Rotary Club of Cedar Creek Lake Friday.
Instead of a regular program, Debra Davis, program chair, passed the microphone around to the veterans attending the weekly luncheon at Vetoni’s Italian Food Restaurant.

Monitor Photo/
Barbara Gartman
Veterans attending the Rotary Club of Cedar Creek Lake were treated to lunch in exchange for stories of their adventures in days gone by. Pictured are some of the veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Members were treated to the memories of those who served from World War II, through Korea and Vietnam and the cold war.
Some stories were dramatic and some were humorous.
Mike Moore recalled his days of training to become a U.S. Navy pilot.
He said for weeks he was warned how small the aircraft carrier would look from the air.
The day finally came when he was to make his first landing on the carrier.
Sure enough, he said he looked down and there was this “postage stamp sized” craft in the water and all he could think about was how he was going to put his plane down on that small thing.
Then he found out he was looking at a very small barge.
The aircraft carrier didn’t look quite so small to him when he found out he wasn’t going to have to land on the first craft.
“It was very gracious of the veterans to look back at the more humorous events in their careers,” Davis said.
In other business, members heard:
• Davis read two poems honoring and thanking veterans for their contributions, written by a school boy in Montana.
• the Gold Card luncheon, honoring students who made all A’s, is Friday, Nov. 19.
• the annual Christmas party is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, at Kings Creek Country Club and there will be a regular meeting that Friday.

Victim helps officers recover stolen tools
Special to The Monitor
CANTON–Nov. 19, a complainant reported the theft of 12 different types of construction air-nail guns to the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office.
Shortly afterward, a Sheriff’s Office investigator received a call from a complainant, who said he had made a report earlier in the morning where he had his tools taken without consent from the tool box of his truck.
He said he was at the Cash Relief Pawn Shop, and noticed three items that he knew to be his, and described the items as three nail guns.
He said he spoke with the owner of the Cash Relief Pawn Shop and the owner told him a man by the name of Gary Grantham, a previous employee, traded the items for a guitar.
The complainant called Grantham and Grantham admitted to taking $3,800 worth of tools and having traded three of the items for the guitar.
Grantham said he would meet him and give him the guitar, along with the other listed items, so the complainant could get his tools back from the pawn shop.
While in route to locate the suspect, investigators received another call from the complainant, who said he was in the Mr. D’s convenience store at the corner of State Highways 64 and 19 in downtown Canton with Grantham’s girlfriend, who had his stolen items.
Investigators went to the location and met with the complainant, along with Grantham’s girlfriend.
The complainant recovered most of his tools, and investigators were told that Grantham was dropped off at the Exxon station in Ben Wheeler.
Grantham was taken into custody by investigators for public intoxication, pending a felony theft charge.
Investigators have recovered 10 nail guns.
Investigators interviewed the suspect and was told the remaining two nail guns are at a Terrell pawn shop.
Using leads on-line, investigators verified the suspect’s information and recovered the last two nail guns.
There were also unclaimed tools recovered from the suspect, and there is still an ongoing investigation with the Terrell Police Department and other agencies attempting to find the owner of those tools.
Suspect Gary Wayne Grantham, white male, born June 6, 1977, is currently being held at the Van Zandt County Justice Center on felony theft charge with $10,000 bond.

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