• Square-facebook
  • X-twitter
  • Instagram

News

Few voters turn out for early voting in runoff election

The first week of early voting has concluded, and though voter turnout has been low, it has given the elections administrator and poll workers a glimpse at the future during COVID-19.

Young County Elections Administrator, Lauren Sullivan, said Wednesday morning that 48 voters have visited the polls during early voting. This is a runoff election with a United States Senator and Railroad Commissioner appearing on the Democratic ballot, while a 2nd Court of Appeals District, Place 7 Justice appears on the Republican ballot.

Young County Amateur Radio Club hosts exercise

The Young County Amateur Radio Club set up on the downtown square last Saturday as an exercise for communications in the event of an emergency outage.

The group, which totals 15-20 members, was on the square with the command and communication trailer used by the city of Graham which was loaned to them and set up with a large antenna. The group set up their operations with a solar-powered generator to show the communication services could run off the grid if needed.

Fourth of July events continue, pancake breakfast postponed

Editor’s Note: This story is current as of Tuesday afternoon, but with the ever-changing nature of cancellations due to COVID-19, the events may be subject to change. Check The Graham Leader social media for up to date event news.

Three of the four annual Independence Day events will be ongoing in Graham despite a rise in COVID-19 cases in Young County. The Kiwanis Club of Graham Pancake Breakfast was the sole event which was postponed to the Fall.

Gov. Abbott halts reopening economy, closes bars

One day after halting plans to continue the reopening of the Texas economy, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the closure of all bars as well as other measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Abbott released an executive order, GA-28, Friday morning, which ordered all bars to close by noon on Friday, June 26. Bars may still operate under a take out or delivery service, including alcohol to-go sales per Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

In addition to bars, all restaurants went go back to operating at 50% capacity on June 29.

TEA announces remote learning guidelines

On Tuesday, June 23, Commissioner of Education Mike Morath provided guidelines from the state regarding how remote instruction could work in the 2020-2021 school year. Graham ISD Sonny Cruse sent a message to GISD parents via ParentSquare to briefly explain what this could mean for the district in the new school year.

“The new guidelines include provisions for two types of remote instruction- Remote Synchronous Instruction and Remote Asynchronous Instruction,” said Cruse.