News

Jack County seniors crossed stages at each school Friday evening to collect their hard-earned diplomas.

Bryson had 23 graduate with seven honor graduates, Perrin 21 with eight honor grads and Jacksboro 56.

Bryson

Bryson saw 23 students graduate with seven honor students.

“To my fellow graduates I say, how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard,” said Bryson Salutatorian Jacob Jonas during his speech.

With the decline in oil and gas prices, Jack County is looking at a drop in property values, but preliminary values show, Jack County has fared better than others.

Early predictions show a decrease in values for all but one of the taxing entities in the county. 

For county government, the prediction is a 6 percent drop.

“The key word is preliminary,” said County Judge Mitchell Davenport. “They could go up or down by the time the end of July comes around and they are certified.”

After nearly a year of planning and preparation, Jacksboro FFA executed a successful Operation Restoration.

The students came up with the project to give back to the community through service. With the first run of Operation Restoration, there were 17 property owners who signed up for participants to mow, weed eat, trim trees and more. 

There were 88 volunteers from FFA, Leo Club, FCCLA, FBLA, AVID, Lion’s Club and more who showed up at the high school ag building 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

At Monday’s meeting, the Jacksboro City Council called for an election to determine whether or not voters in the city want to legalize the sale of alcohol.

The council was presented with a petition filed with the city April 22.

The number of valid signatures of registered city voters required on the petition was 383 which is 35 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial election.

City Manager Mike Smith reported to the council that the petitioner, Wayne Morris, presented 401 valid signatures.

The Bryson One-Act Play cast and crew competed at the UIL 1A State Meet Monday afternoon at the Austin Performing Arts Center. The students were rewarded for their countless hours of rehearsal and preparation with winning the state title. It is the first state title for the school in One-Act Play.

The play they performed, "The Balkan" women by Jules Tasca set in 1990 focuses on the horrors of war in a Serbian detention camp for Muslim women. 

A woman was arrested Tuesday afternoon for taking money from the Jacksboro Parent Teacher Association.

Brandi Nichole Donnelly is charged with theft of $20,000 or more.

Jacksboro School Resource Officer Matt Windham investigated the theft beginning in March, according to the probable cause affidavit, after Principal Angie Myrick reported that she had been made aware of discrepancies in the PTA account.

Windham was provided with bank records, carbon copies of checks, PTA records and information concerning the discrepancies.

A Jacksboro legend passed away in the early morning hours Monday. Chuck Curtis, who led Jacksboro to its first state championship win in 1962, died in Weatherford Monday after an illness. He was 80 years old.

Following Jacksboro’s state title, Curtis won two more in as many years for Garland.

Jacksboro City Council approved two zoning changes at its regular meeting Monday.

The first was to allow microblading at a business at 112 E. Belknap St. Microblading is a semi-permanent cosmetic procedure similar to tattooing that enhances eyebrows.

City Manager Mike Smith reported that the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the conditional use permit required because of the location within the Central Business District and also because there is no zoning type that allows for such a business.

Results are in for three of the four elections held today in Jack County.

In the Jacksboro ISD race for trustees, the Place 6 winner was James Taylor receiving 259 votes over incumbent Travis Thompson who received 173 votes.

The JISD Place 7 spot goes to incumbent Lisa Perry with 279 votes over Kelly Mower with 166 votes.

Unopposed for places 1 and 5 were Jeff Lewis and David Spiller who received 356 and 369 votes respectively.

For Bryson ISD, incumbent Frank Hefner beat out challenger Latash Valliant 95 to 24 votes for Place 1.