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Candidate Profile: Jack Martin for Sheriff

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Jack Martin, current Sheriff of Morris County and now running for re-election as sheriff for the fifth time. Jack became the first black Morris County Sheriff, in the county’s history.  Martin began his career with the Sheriff’s Department in 1984, only two short years after graduating from Paul H. Pewitt High School, and has worked for Morris County ever since.

Jack Martin decided to run for election in 2003 when the current Sheriff Shane Blackburn decided to resign and take over the Narcotics Task Force.  Blackburn encouraged Jack, who was chief deputy at the time, to run for Sheriff. In 2004 Jack ran for Sheriff, won the election on July 1, 2004, and he was appointed inward Sheriff.

 As Sheriff, Martin generally has town meetings at the court house two or three times a month.  These meetings keep the public informed about their community, and help maintain a positive relationship between the citizens and their sheriff. Jack has not been able to establish town meetings for this year’s election due to the Covid-19 Pandemic currently going through the Morris County area. 

Covid-19 may have put a damper on Sheriff Martin’s town meetings, but certainly not on his genuine relationship with every community in Morris County. Not one single area of Jack Martin’s jurisdiction has had any issues with the Black Lives Matter movement. According to Jack, there are no such upheavals because the people of Morris County are small town folks. They are all like family, where everybody knows one another and they all share a common bond.

Martin’s guiding principles as a civil servant are honesty, fairness, and dependability.  Jack thrives to protect our schools, churches, and community’s. Jack executes fairness by being professional, respecting the rights and dignity of all persons. While striving to achieve a balance between enforcement and community needs which reflects both the spirit and the letter of the law. Martin uses dependability by recognizing the changing and diverse needs of the community and responding to meet those needs. Jack implements honesty by living with honor and doing what is noble, virtuous, and let no favor or prejudice bias influence yourself to take a dishonorable action.  He constantly establishes good communication with the local fire departments, EMS and fellow officers.

The early voting will start October 13 – October 30 at the Morris County Clerk’s office at 500 Broad max in Dangerfield Texas. The General election would begin on November 3, 2020, from 7am to 7pm.

Meet A&M Student, Tommie Ringo

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 Tommie Ringo, a junior here at Texas A&M University – Texarkana, is a Psychology major with a minor in Sociology. Originally from the small town of Pineland, Texas, he was encouraged by a friend who was looking into coming to A&M. Ringo was initially undecided on where to go to college, but his friend and the A&M campus life made it an easy pick. He mentioned in an interview that he admires our campus and appreciates how clean and well kept the buildings and the grounds are. Ringo has had a wonderful time since starting college at A&M. However, this semester has been particularly challenging for Ringo.

   Ringo looked forward to returning to campus for the Fall semester after working hard all summer. He anticipated getting back into the rhythm of day-to-day life before the COVID-19 outbreak, however, he is yet to see that happen. Due to Coronavirus, he says that the atmosphere is “A bit different than usual. A lot has changed in the UC.” The university looks vastly different without its many students heading to and from their classes. Like Ringo, most students are now taking online or hybrid classes this semester.

     For Ringo, he mentioned that online classes can be a bit difficult for him. He would rather have all face-to-face classes, but says, “I understand the necessity for it…” With Ringo not being much of a fan of online classes, he has had to accept the impact COVID has made on the university concerning how classes are being held this semester. He is currently taking four classes, three of those being online and one face-to-face. It is the one face-to-face class with Dr. Murray that has made all the difference for Ringo.

      Ringo is taking Intro to Sociology with Assistant Professor of Sociology, Dr. Murray. Ringo is enjoying the class very much. He mentioned that Dr. Murray has done a great job of handling the class amongst the challenges that the pandemic presents. He also says that she has helped to create “a sense of normalcy in the classroom” which he appreciates. He says that the interactions with his peers and the hands-on learning in the classroom are the highlights of going to class. Currently, Ringo is taking each day as it comes, which is probably the best way to handle a time such as this. Once classes return to normal he plans to get back to campus and enjoy being around other like-minded students.

City Councilmember of Ward 3, Betty Williams

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A member of the local City Council, Mrs. Betty Williams of Ward 3, has been determined elected for another term. Williams was unopposed for her seat on the council for the November 2020 election. She will be serving another three-year term on the council.

     Williams, a retired public school teacher, was selected by a previous council member to join Texarkana’s City Council. She has held the position since January of 2017. This is when the City Council term-limits were changed from two years to three. She says her time on the council has been, “a learning process. I’ve never done anything like this before.” Although her educational background has helped with her current position. She says, “Being a former educator has helped me to be a good listener to understand the needs of others.”

        In the interview, she emphasized what a pleasure it is to be a part of the City Council. She says,” I will say that I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. I’ve only missed one meeting in four years and that just shows you that I care about this position and it is a pleasure to serve my community.” She is excited to be serving another three years on the City Council. She especially emphasized how excited she is to be able to do more for her ward. 

     Williams works hard on the council taking calls from her constituents and determining anything regarding her ward and anything that is brought forth to the council. The City Council determines policies, plans, enacting local legislation, and the city’s budget. These topics are discussed at the local city council meetings. 

     According to The City of Texarkana’s website, “City council meetings are normally held the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of Texarkana, Texas City Hall, 220 Texas Boulevard, Texarkana, Texas.” 

     These meetings are open to the public so anyone is free to attend. Williams encourages citizens to get involved in the community in any way they can. She says, “It’s the only way to bring about change.” Anyone can get in contact with the local councilmembers. The contact information is available on the city’s website.   

     Williams is currently spearheading the removal of substandard housing in Ward 3. She mentioned, “This will encourage new development, help our tax base to grow, and help maintain property values.” Williams also mentioned what she would like to see for the city of Texarkana by saying, “My wish for our city is that everyone would take pride in their property by removing litter from their curbs and alleys.  We also need to have a push to discourage littering. Our schools and community organizations could certainly help raise awareness and educate people to be more environmentally responsible.”

     Soon the city council will begin discussing the budget for the next fiscal year. Williams mentioned, “It will soon be time to start the budgeting process for the next fiscal year. Every city has an unlimited number of needs and a limited amount of resources to meet those needs. Developing a budget is a process of ascertaining your needs, prioritizing your needs, and reaching a reasonable compromise with the resources available. Because of the impact the Coronavirus has on the local economy, it’s made it more challenging to project revenue from sales tax and etc. Every aspect of the budgeting process will be more challenging for the coming year. It should be noted that we also solicit the help of leading business people, in our community, with the budgeting process.”

   Additionally, Williams has dedicated much of her time to the community after her family relocated in 1980. Coming from a family of teachers, she has an impressive 34 years of experience working in the public education system as a teacher herself. Williams has spent 20 years working at Highland Park School. She soon began volunteering at Highland Park right after her retirement in 2000 and has continued to do so until this year due to COVID. She mentioned how the school feels like home to her. Adding, “I just love going to that school.” Additionally, she is a member of the Literacy Council. She says, “I’ve been involved with the literacy council for 20-25 years. I still have a student I read with every weekend.” 

Find out more about Mrs. Betty Williams here.

Learn more about the Literacy Council here.

Find out more about The Texarkana City Council here.

Get in contact with a Local Councilmember here.

See what’s going on in Texarkana here.

Meet the Candidates: Betty Williams

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Betty Williams was born on army base Elgin Field in Florida, her father fought in World

War II but they moved to east Texas in Athens where her father was from. Betty graduated

from Athens High School and went to Henderson County Junior College until she was

transferred to East Texas State University where she received a Master’s degree in School

Administration. Over the course of her life she became a school teacher in Dallas, Texas and this

lead her to Texarkana where she taught as a school teacher for 15 years. Eventually she joined

the Texarkana City council because former council woman Tina Bill health grew worse.

Williams was voted in on December 16th and was sworn in the next month January 17th.

Council Betty Williams believes that the downtown area of Texarkana, Texas is

becoming more successful over the years. With that being said, she does believe we need more

residential areas and that town down needs even more industry. S he also wants the Wards

such as her Ward, Ward 3 to be clean, have the property mowed and littering stopped. Mrs.

Williams offers residents to come to the City Council and offer ideas to make Texarkana a

better city. Another great aspect about Mrs. Williams is that if she was given a grant of one

million dollars to be used for the city she would fix neighborhood streets and drainage. Many

areas in Texarkana has cracked roads and some areas have light flooding so repairing the roads

and drainage pipes would be very beneficial to the residents of Texarkana.

Williams believes in protecting our students and teachers, she says we

should spread them out in the classrooms and wearing masks. She even goes as far as to say

working online and perhaps not even attending school but instead using long distance learning.

As for the elderly in nursing homes she believes in zero contact, the best option would be

online such as phone calls or zoom sense in her words “they are the most vulnerable.” It’s quite

apparent that she wants to keep Texarkana-ians safe whether old or young when it comes to

Covid-19. She wants Texarkana to grow and any unkempt areas to be repaired and cleaned.

She is an over-all hard worker from teaching our young and the next generation of Americans,

to thinking of the people and our needs.

Tired of Being Inside During Quarantine?

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During this pandemic the city of Texarkana has chosen to only shelter in place in Bowie county until April 13th. While the shelter in place is in order in our city, many businesses in our city are still in operation or have been deemed as essential to the community.

Some places in town I feel are very important and need to remain open during this time of the pandemic are our parks and recreation areas and country clubs. I feel all of these places need to remain as essential businesses in our city. Both Northridge and Texarkana Country Clubs are remaining open during this pandemic. But during this time they are strongly enforcing social distancing regulations.

It is essential for people to be able to be outdoors during this pandemic. Not very many people can spend days on being forced inside. People in our city still need to be able to get exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our parks in Texarkana are remaining open, but it is encouraged to not use the playgrounds due to their not being disinfected as often as they may need to be during this time. Places such as these are staying open to help encourage our city to be outdoors during this pandemic. 

What can I do outdoors during this pandemic?

  • Go for a walk
  • Have a picnic
  • Do outdoors activities (golf, soccer, football etc.)
  • Plant a garden

Gaming Tournaments Change TAMUT

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The Competitive Gaming Association (CGA) at Texas A&M University-Texarkana (TAMUT) is having its largest tournament. On April 4-5th, gamers from all over Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas will gather to face off in tournament style combat. 

CGA members train relentlessly to make sure their skills put TAMUT on the gaming map and draw gamers and students from near and far. Founded by Gerven Pennington late of 2019, CGA has been at TAMUT not even a year yet and they have already hosted a successful tournament drawing in a crowd of over 60 not including nearly 30 players. 

Tournaments are a new concept to the university that should add more productive activities to student life on and off campus.Tournaments include games such as Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Tekken 7, Rocket League, Apex Legends, and many more. These games are just the tip of the gaming iceberg that this organization is working towards to get rolling into this tournament. The near future holds games that are played in the largest tournaments in the world, such as, League of Legends, CS:GO, and Modern Warfare. We hope to see all gamers alike to gather April 4-5th at TAMUT for an epic gaming tournament.

Astro(oid)s crashing down

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More fire keeps coming down on the Houston Astros. Their cheating scandal has been the hot take of the fall, but with spring training getting started, people don’t intend on slowing down the onslaught of comments towards coaches and players.

Other players around the league have made their comments known, saying the players deserve “beatdowns” and for their 2017 title to be stripped away. Of the scandal information known, the banging of the trash can is especially popular now with fans who wish to troll the team. Last week during an Astros batting practice, a fan drug a large trash bin behind the home plate fence and banged on it during every pitch thrown. The team used a trash can in the dugout to signal to hitters what pitch was coming. The number of hits on the can would tell the hitter what pitch was coming.

With opening day coming on March 26th, the Astros will see if they can focus on the year to come or if their past will continue to run with them.

Eagles Baseball Takes Off

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Eagles Baseball opened up its season two weekends ago against Evangel. Winning the series 3-1, Jaylen Prince was named Red River Conference Player of the week. He hit an outstanding .455 batting average with a double and five RBIs.

The following weekend, our Eagles hosted Friends University for another four-game series. Again winning this series 3-1, Kealen Martin came up big with a grand slam home run to set up a 6-3 win. “They brought in a new pitcher during my at bat, so with him coming in, I went in looking for a fastball and didn’t miss.” said Kealen. 

This Tuesday, our men traveled up to Lyon College, ranked 21st in the nation in NAIA, for a midweek exhibition. Using an array of players to get work in, our Eagles fell in a nail biter 8-6.

This weekend, our baseball team travels up to Point Lookout, MO to face off against College of the Ozarks. With baseball all over the place, feel free to come out to support or college athletes. The schedule is posted on the TAMUT website under Athletics. You will not be disappointed.