News

The Graham Hospital District adopted the effective tax rate and  a fiscal year 2020 budget in their Tuesday board meeting.

GRMC CEO Shane Kernell said the total tax base is set to rise from $824,747,159 last year to $851,949,768 with about $25 million of the increase being new property added. The increase allowed for the effective rate, the rate needed to raise similar tax dollars as the year before, to decrease to $0.395206 per $100 valuation from this year’s rate of $0.399567.

The Graham Area Crisis Center celebrated the 25-year working anniversary of their Executive Director, Don Oldfield, Thursday, Sept. 12.

As the Executive Director some of the things Oldfield does includes family counseling for those in the shelter, helping run and pick up food for the Graham Community Food Pantry and partners with churches on a utilities benevolence fund.

For a third straight year, Young County nonprofits raised over $100,000 in donations through the Texoma Gives fundraiser on Thursday in partnership with the Wichita Falls Area Community Foundation.

Texoma Gives is an area fundraiser where, for 16 hours, donations can be provided to nonprofits in a 24-county area. Young County joined 17 other North Texas counties and six Southern Oklahoma counties during the online giving day with over 200 registered non- profits.

From September through October, an exhibit will be hosted at the Old Post Office Museum and Art Center showcasing Graham High School’s history through objects, clothes and more.

OPOMAC Director Lynsey Browning said the idea to host the event came from one of the organization’s board members, who thought it would draw a crowd with how big homecoming and football are in Graham. The OPOMAC already had a number of older GHS items in their archive, but Browning reached out to the community to obtain more items for the show.

For a second year, 10-year-old Hadleigh Allen chose to celebrate her birthday by supporting the thing she cares about most, the animals of Young County.

Allen, who turned 10 on Sept. 8, invited family, friends and the public to donate to the Humane Society of Young County for her birthday. She hosted the party Saturday, Sept. 7 at the shelter from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and was able to make a difference for the animals currently housed at the shelter.

The Caleb Larson Foundation will host the 12th annual Cowboyin’ for the Kids which will include a dinner and dancing event Saturday, Sept. 21, to raise money and awareness for research into new treatments and cures for childhood cancer.

Palo Pinto County nonprofit organizations will be taking donations tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 19, during the 18 hour long fundraising event North Texas Giving Day.

North Texas Giving Day is an area fundraiser where for 18 hours donations can be provided to nonprofits in a 20-county area. Palo Pinto County joins 19 other North Texas counties during the online giving day with over 2,200 registered nonprofits.

Ronnie Dee Arrell, 62, of Graham, was traveling north on N. Hwy. 16, at mile marker 234, when he lost control and was thrown off of his three-wheeled motorcycle. He died from his injuries on the scene of the wreck Tuesday, Sept. 10

The city of Graham hosted their second and final public hearing for the proposed budget and tax rate Tuesday evening, with some public attendance and concerns.

The Graham ISD school board approved Brandon Bates to fill the board of trustees position held by ZT Burkett during their Wednesday meeting.

Last month, Burkett sent a notice to GISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse that he would be moving to a home outside the GISD boundary. This made Burkett ineligible to serve on the GISD school board.

Burkett joined the GISD board in 2015, after winning the May 2015 election for the Place 2 position held by outgoing chairman Win Graham.