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Local Officials Respond to Growing H1N1 Flu Concerns

By LAURA KESTNER, Editor

With Texas Department of State Health Services (DHSH) announcing recently that flu is now classified as “widespread” across the state, Comanche County officials are carefully monitoring the situation.
Comanche County Emergency Management Coordinator Ray Helberg, and his assistant, Tricia Grimshaw, said that there are cases of flu in the county, including DeLeon, but officially confirming that they are the H1N1 (swine) flu are difficult.

“The labs are not testing all specimens due to the large numbers that they saw in the spring,” Grimshaw said. “The DSHS lab usually receives 1,500 specimens during the normal flu season (October thru May), but this last Spring they were receiving 1,000 to 1,500 specimens a day. The lab is just not set up to test this amount.” Grimshaw explained that the Texas DSHS is doing the testing on specimens that they are receiving from a surveillance program.

“This program receives specimens from predetermined clinics, hospitals, health labs, and health departments,” Grimshaw said. “We are not part of that here in Comanche County. Only a portion of the specimens are tested from the total amount received. But of those specimens that are being tested, over 90% of those are H1N1. The cases here in Comanche County are more than likely H1N1, due to the fact that the seasonal flu has not hit yet.”

Barbara Rhine, RN BSN for Comanche County Medical Center, issued a similar statement in response to Free Press questions.

“We have not sent any specimens off for PCR- DNA testing,” Rhine said. “The DNA testing for H1N1 is very expensive and will be confirmed for those patients admitted to the hospital for respiratory failure who have had a positive influenza A swab per DSHS request. DSHS helps with surveillance to determine if the virus is mutating, it is not a diagnostic lab. According to the CDC, 98 % of the positive influenza cases circulating among our population at this time is the novel H1N1 virus.”

While updating DeLeon City Council members on the situation recently, Helberg offered a few reminders to the general public on ways to avoid getting the flu. “One of the best ways is wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands,” Helberg said. “And of course (if your hands aren’t clean) don’t touch your nose, your mouth, or your eyes. Use hand sanitizers, and really pay attention to what you’re doing, and watch your kids.”

Helberg also noted that children with flu-like symptoms should be kept home from school and, when possible, sick adults should stay home from work.

According to Dr. Randy Mohundro, DeLeon ISD superintendent, the schools are already seeing a slightly higher number of illness related absences.

“There have been a limited number of reports of the flu, particularly at the high school,” Mohundro said. “The district is increasing its efforts to ensure that students and staff are exercising good health habits. The district encourages parents who have a student that is running a fever to keep them at home until the fever has passed and the student is able to return to school.”

Although H1N1 vaccinations might not be available in all areas until mid October, Helberg noted that health officials are recommending that everyone go ahead and get their seasonal flu shots.  …

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County Adopts Tax Rate, Haggles Over Fuel Suppliers

By JON AWBREY, Publisher

Comanche County Commissioners Court approved the adoption of a new tax rate of .644470 Monday, which will result in an additional $38.60 of tax revenue for a $100,000 dollar home.

The court approved the new tax rate with a vote of 4 to 1, with County Judge James Arthur and Commissioners Sherman Sides, Kenneth Feist, and Gary Underwood supporting the rate, and Commissioner Jimmy Johnson voting against.

The commissioners also unanimously adopted the budget for fiscal year 2010. The adopted budget raises total property taxes more than last year’s budget by $228,706, or 6.16 percent, and of that amount $32,116 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.

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Council Reverses Itself on DeLeon Police Cruiser Policy

By LAURA KESTNER, Editor

A recent decision to stop police officers from driving patrol cars home if they live outside the city limits was reversed by a 3 to 2 split decision (after a lengthy executive session) during the most recent DeLeon City Council meeting, Thursday, September 24, 2009.

All council members -- Lee Childers, Pauline Villarreal, Billie Lightfoot, Bobby Schuman, Gayle Stroud and Mayor Danny Owen -- were present for the meeting.

Also present were Lois Rockefeller, city attorney; Karen Wilkerson, city administrator-secretary; Rob Duncan, public works administrator; and all DeLeon police officers, Chief Ralph Dickey, Ben Rowell, Heather Hill, Tim Fanning and James Elliott.

“I move that we rescind the action that we took on the vehicles at the last meeting and that we return those vehicles to the officers immediately   …

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

DISD Board Approves New High School Design

By Dr. RANDY MOHUNDRO
DISD Superintendent

The result of months of hard work and much thought was realized on September 22, when the DeLeon I.S.D. Board of Trustees voted unanimous approval to the final presented plan at a called Board meeting for that specific purpose.

The building is to be built on property that has been acquired for that specific purpose and for which authorization to issue bonds for the project was given by the voters this past May.

The building will be located adjacent to the “new” gym located on Manchaca Ave. on the site currently known as Northside Baptist Church. The school will extend to Texas St. on the east, and West Carnes St. to the south. The school will occupy all of that city block, except for the portion owned and occupied by Dr. Johnny Smith, DDS.

The building as approved will be approximately 52,411.18 square feet in total size. It will contain 11 regular classrooms, each approximately 700 square feet in size and each containing their own storage closet for teacher use. Three science labs, each 1400 square feet in size, and a common prep room will also be included in the building.  …

For full article, subscribe to the DeLeon Free Press. E-mail edition is only $20/year.

Hodges is Best of 10 Perfect Pickers

By JILL SMITH, Reporter

This week Talmage Hodges turned in a perfect set of picks. He barely edged nine other perfect pickers, Cecelia Carruth, Lana Coker, Carolyn Frasier, Taylor Hodges, Terry Hodges, Ruby Park, Andy Quinn, Beth Riggs, and Joe Robledo - who all predicted more than 42 points to be scored in the tie breaker game. Talmage guessed the highest at 60 points.

Eastland’s big win over Jim Ned surprised 63% of the panel and was the only game stopping nine other entrys from being among the “perfect pickers.”

Hawley’s shut-out of Ranger, Cisco’s demolition of Colorado, and DeLeon’s big victory over Valley Mills were greatly predicted by over 98% of the panel this week.

To my surprise the second highest upset this week was Gustine’s 50-0 shut out over Zephyr followed by Bosqueville’s defeat of Gorman.

Overall this was a very close week for our pigskin predictors and there are some good contests still to come. Good luck and may the “best picker” win.

Coming Events

Call 893-6868 if you have an event to list

National Life Chain

On October 4, some DeLeon residents will participate in a Life Chain Sunday event at the intersection of Hwys 6 &16 from 2 to 3 p.m. Life Chain Sunday is a national pro-life movement, begun in California in 1987 and held the first Sunday of each October since then. Life Chain participants will line public roadways of 1,000 cities across the United States and Canada holding pro-life and anti-abortion signs. In addition to DeLeon, rallies will also be held in Dublin and Comanche. For more information, contact Ray Seckinger at 254-734-5146.

Danny Owen, the Mayor of De Leon, has a personal website.

Open Danny's website by Clicking Here

Scott Hall has creating an Internet website with history & photos of our town.

Click Here to visit his website

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