HENDERSON, KAUFMAN and VAN ZANDT COUNTIES—Voters turned out in Tool, Eustace, Mabank, Trinidad and elsewhere around the Cedar Creek Lake area for the Nov. 4 constitutional amendment/joint election to make their choice on state and local propositions, as well as selecting their municipal representatives.
In Henderson, Kaufman and Van Zandt counties, all 17 state constitutional amendments passed. In Tool, Vera Bennett was elected mayor over Greg Figueroa, 53% to 47%. Also in Tool, Tommy Salvato and Mike Dumont (an incumbent) won two seats on Tool City Council with 24% and 23% of the vote, respectively. Incumbent council member Michael Fladmark finished third at 20%, meaning he exits the council after serving five terms.
“I just want to thank the voters in Tool for electing me, and also I want to thank all the people who participated in my campaign, they were wonderful,” Bennett told The Monitor. “I’m here to serve the citizens of Tool and work with the new council to move Tool in a forward direction.”
In Eustace ISD, its voters chose to defeat a proposition that would have moved a portion of its interest and sinking tax rate to its maintenance and operations (M&O) portion of the tax, while keeping the overall rate the same. This move triggered a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election (VATRE), which is a special election seeking voter approval to increase the M&O above the state-mandated threshold. The M&O tax rate is part of the overall property tax rate and is used primarily for the day-to-day operations of schools, including salaries, utilities and supplies. That proposition lost 59% to 41% in Henderson County, while the small portion of the school district in Van Zandt County defeated it by a vote of 6-5.
For Henderson County Emergency Services District (ESD) No. 1, which is based in Trinidad and covers the area west of Cedar Creek Lake to its spillway, its proposition to institute a 2% sales and use tax to fund firefighting and medical calls failed 51% to 49%.
Another issue that was before voters in the Kemp and Mabank school districts, as well as a portion of Eustace ISD, was the dissolution of the Cedar Creek Hospital District, which was created in 1973 but never used funding gathered by the late Andrew Gibbs, of Mabank, to build a local hospital.
Henderson County voters in those school districts that were part of the hospital district approved doing so by 64%-36%, while voters in the Kaufman County portions of Mabank ISD that were part of the hospital district did so by 75%-25%. The portion of Eustace ISD that’s in Van Zandt County approved the dissolution by  211-85, or 71% to 29%.
That means besides the dissolution of the district, the county judges of Kaufman, Henderson and Van Zandt counties can access the district’s funds for the purpose of establishing and administering the “Andrew Gibbs Memorial Nursing Scholarship.” Gibbs was the longtime board of trustees’ president of Henderson County Junior College (later Trinity Valley Community College).
In addition, Marie Bannister (an incumbent) was re-elected to Trinidad City Council, while Leah Melton outpolled incumbent Velma Womack by 2 percentage points to take the second open seat. In Enchanted Oaks, Judy King beat Kim Cochran for mayor, 59%-41%.