News

First Presbyterian Church pastor Carl McCormack is preparing his final sermon as he is set to retire June 30.

McCormack came to Graham from Rogers, Ark. June 1, 2015 to serve as interim pastor replacing the retiring Randy Branson.

“The church had put together a search committee for an interim minister, they interviewed several including me,” McCormack said. “It was sort of like a blind date, but I was impressed with the members of the committee and apparently they were impressed enough to bring me here and get to know Graham. So, they hired me.”

The Graham Desk and Derrick Club was recognized for multiple awards during the organization’s Oklahoma City regional meeting in April. On Tuesday, June 11, the club presented the awards to club and community members.

The 2018 Graham Club President, Sonya Edwards, received a third place award for her president’s newsletter. Club member Monica Buchanan received a second place award for best photograph.

Young County Rural Fire Department Chief Wayne Peters received a second place award for his seminar on oilfield fires and how to extinguish them.

The deadline for the third annual Graham Public Education Foundation Hall of Honor,  which recognizes alumni, staff and community members who have provided meritorious service to the district and/or their profession is two weeks away.

Young County and the city of Graham, Olney and Newcastle will be accruing higher sales tax rebates from April and higher year-to-date payments overall.

Since 2018, the city of Graham has seen increases which exceeded their year-to-date budget, starting with 0.49% increase in January 2018 and continuing with a 17.17% increase in April 2019.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $782.1 million in local sales tax allocations in June, 10.1% more than in June 2018.

Lions from across the state gathered at the Old Post Office Museum Art Center on Wednesday evening to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the Graham Evening Lions Club.

The club will have a display at the front of the OPOMAC for the month of June and more items are being displayed in the show room for a week.

“We began just celebrating our anniversary and then somebody said ‘well why don’t we put a display at the OPOMAC and celebrate what we do.’” Evening Lions member Carolyn Stroud said. “Then we decided why not promote all of lionism.”

With House Bill 1631 recently being signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott many cities across the state are having to remove their red light cameras, but Young County cities will not be one of them as there are no such cameras up.

According to Texas Department of Transportation Wichita Falls District Public Information Officer Adèle Lewis, the Wichita Falls District consisting of Archer, Baylor, Clay, Cooke, Montague, Throckmorton, Wichita, Wilbarger and Young Counties do not have any red light cameras up as no cities passed ordinances to do so.

Graham’s annual 4th of July Independence Day Parade is three and a half weeks away and the deadline for applications to be a part of the parade is coming up on Wednesday, June 26.

The parade, with the theme “America the Beautiful,” will be managed this year by four local non-profit veteran service organizations: The American Volunteer Reserve, The Young County Warrior Ranch, American Legion Post 34 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8567 and supported by the Graham Chamber of Commerce and Graham Conventions and Visitors Bureau.

The fifth annual Food Truck Championship of Texas hit the square Saturday, and despite a possibility of rainy weather, had crowds pour out to the Graham downtown square for a taste of delicacies from near and far.

For four years, the Graham Regional Theatre Summer Youth Camp has lit up the stage with performances from area youth and this year’s performance aims to do the same with Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

The performance will be on Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8, at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Auditorium in Graham. GRT Director Christian Sanders said the program was started due to popular demand and was instantly a success.