News

Students and coaches at J.K. Hileman Elementary were elated with the results of the recent district UIL Meet at Daingerfield on Dec. 1.
After the meet concluded Queen City had sealed up the District 14-3A championship with 458 total points.
“I want to say congratulations and job well done to our students and coaches who worked extremely hard for another district title in UIL. I am proud of each and every one of them,” J.K. Hileman principal Dave Estes said.
These were the results: Oral Reading-Mrs. Henderson - Brenna Turbeville first place; Antonianna Gamble second place; Luke Porterfield - Participant and Cade Warren - alternant. 
Storytelling - Mrs. Moore second grade - Jason Groce seventh place; Mallory Hamilton-participant and Ryland Durmon-participant.
Storytelling - Mrs. Caver third grade - Ryan Raines-first place; Adalyn Tyson-second place; Aden Bolt-third place; MaKenna Hamilton-alternant and Sallie McCreery-alternant.

McLeod Middle School was awarded First Place at the University Interscholastic League District 15-AA One Act Play Contest Wednesday, Dec. 7, for their performance of “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” directed by Sarah Feimster. 
 Several of the students were honored for their work on the show:  McKenzie Bishop, Best Actress; Emma Burton, All-Star Cast; Blake Johnson, All-Star Cast; Ethan Armstrong, Honorable Mention All-Star Cast; Angel Hale, Honorable mention All-Star Cast; Silas Murdock, Honorable mention All-Star Cast; Hunter Prince, Honorable mention All-Star Crew; and Harley Reed, Honorable mention All-Star Cast.

By Randy Grider
randy@casscountynow.com

ATLANTA — With winter precipitation being predicted for Friday, TxDOT’s Atlanta District have trucks out Wednesday and Thursday spraying local major highways, bridges and overpasses with a brine solution. The solution is a mixture of salt and water that binds to the pavement and helps prevent any precipitation from freezing on the pavement and structures.

Pretreating roadways and bridges with brine has proven to be an effective way to prevent early icing on these facilities. The brine mixes with the precipitation creating a solution that requires much lower temperatures to freeze. The brine solution is also much more environmentally friendly that using rock salt on roadways.

From Staff Reports

CASS COUNTY—With highway travel expect­ed to pick up within the next few weeks, local law enforcement officials say that the best way to avoid a collision is to take a pro­active approach.

Sylvia Jennings, Se­nior Trooper with the Texas Highway Patrol, said the first step is sim­ply obeying posted speed limits and be mindful of special circumstances which might require low­er speed. “Slow down in construction zones, in inclement weather and in heavy traffic,” she said.

Cass County Sheriff Dept. Chief Roy Barker said the number one key is “be attentive.” “Be es­pecially attentive to your speed, children in the ve­hicle and your phone. Any of these can create a bad situation,” he said.

Barker said that the best plan is to drive defensive­ly and pay attention to ve­hicles around you.

The Cass County District Clerk’s Office turned into a magical train station last week as the community was invited to attend the 8th Annual Christmas Open House to benefit the “Rainbow Room.” The reception was held Dec. 7 and featured a “Polar Express” theme” complete with railroad tracks, an engine and District Clerk Jamie Albertson dressed as the engineer.
The Rainbow Room provides basic emergency needs of children served by Child Protective Services of Cass County.
The Rainbow Room is located at the Children’s Protective Services office in Atlanta. Oftentimes the donations are provided to help battered women and children who have to escape a situation with little more than the clothes on their backs.
The tradition of the district clerk’s office hosting the open house began when current County Judge Becky Wilbanks served as clerk. Albertson continued the tradition when she took office in 2015.

Mrs. Bickhams’s seventh grade math classes at Atlanta Middle School spent the last few weeks creating paper roller coasters.  
The project began by the students being “hired” by a failing amusement park. Using equations and expressions, students looked at the data from the amusement park to see where the problems were.  
They decided that the key to saving the park was to create a new roller coaster.  
From this, they designed their coasters and built them using card stock and tape. 
Each group had to name their roller coaster and then present it to the class.  Marbles were used to simulate the cars on the coaster. 
The marbles were timed as they went through the ride in order to gather data to assess how fun each group’s coaster was. 

Hormel Foods Corporation and Brookshire Grocery Co. are donating $100,000 in Hormel Cure 81 hams to food banks throughout Brookshire Grocery Company’s market area to help feed people in need this holiday season. 
The donation equals more than 5,300 hams, with 90 to be distributed in the Atlanta area through Mission Atlanta.
“Hormel Cure 81 Hams for Hunger is an amazing program that allows us to partner with Brookshire’s in support of hunger relief locally,” said Megan M. Elliott, brand manager at Hormel Foods.
“Hormel Cure 81 ham is a premium brand and product, and we’re happy to help bring it to the table of people in need within our market areas,” said Tom Bridges, store director at the Brookshire’s Food Store located at 402 E. Main Pine Acres