Courtesy Photo/Gun Barrel FD
Gun Barrel City Fire Department’s Rescue 1 boat moves across the cold water of Cedar Creek Lake Jan. 10 in search of two duck hunters whose boat was reported by dispatchers as sinking. After an initial search north of the State Highway 334 bridges, two men were pulled from the reservoir by the Gun Barrel City firefighters on board, then taken to the hospital.

Monitor Photo/Blaine Clamon
Mabank High School senior boys’ basketball player Carter Sims (holding placard, with teammates) is honored during the Jan. 2 home game versus Canton for scoring 1,000 career points as a Panther. His team then went on to defeat district rival Canton by 13 points.

Courtesy Photo/UT Health
UT Health Athens welcomed its first baby of the new year when Carmen Isabelle Valenzuela was born to Cesilia Ramirez and Sebastian Valenzuela at 1:21 p.m. Jan. 1. She weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces and measured 20 inches long. “We’re excited to start the new year with our greatest blessing,” Ramirez said.
 

ATHENS–Henderson County Commissioners’ Court voted unanimously Jan. 6 to decline an offer by the Texas Department of Transportation to sell for nearly $400,000 a bridge over Cedar Creek and a portion of the Farm to Market road leading to it.
That route is considered part of an escape trail out of Trinidad during emergencies such as train derailments along the Union Pacific railroad track that bisects the town.
“We don’t have these funds accessible to us today,” County Judge Wade McKinney said.