Memorial Hospital Announces First Baby of the New Year
First baby of the new for Hopkins County Memorial Hospital was born at 3:07 a.m. Friday, January 1. Six (6) pound 15 ounce, 20 inches long, Hazelle Lee Ny’Kole Jeffery Grigsby joins her five (5) brothers and three (3) sisters. Her parents are Charmine Jeffery and Floyd Grigsby.
KSST Noon News and Information Hour Changes Weekday Schedule
KSST radio will be making a few changes in the noon hour schedule beginning Monday, January 4. The new schedule will better serve the listening audience by concluding the noon news at 1 p.m. We will continue with favored content, however it may be found in a different time slot. For instance, Obituaries and the Trading Post will remain at their regular times. Obituaries can be heard on KSST at 12:20 p.m. each day. Obituaries can also be found at ksstradio.com.
Day in History will move to 12:23 p.m. instead of the former 1 p.m. time slot. Community Calendar can be heard at 12:27 p.m. Local news will now begin at 12:40 p.m. Local weather will be heard as the local news concludes.
Schedule for the KSST Noon Information and News Hour:
12:00 Texas State Network News
12:16 TFB Midday Report
12:20 Obits intro-commercial-read-outtro
12:23 Day in History
12:27 Community Calendar
12:30 Trading Post
12:40 Local News & Commercials
12:56:30 Weather
12:57 WDITOT
12:59 Upwords
Students Return to Classes This Week
Hopkins County schools end the Christmas/New Year holiday break this week as students return to classes Monday and Tuesday.
Monday, classes begin in Cumby, Yantis, and Saltillo.
Tuesday, Miller Grove, North Hopkins, Sulphur Bluff, Como-Pickton, Sulphur Springs ISD and Bright Star Christian School return to class.
Teachers in the SSISD return to their classroom Monday for a teacher work day.
Wildcats Begin District Play With Loss; Lady Cats 2-1 in District
The Wildcats’ basketball team found the going tough as they opened district play at Texas High Saturday with a 71-35 loss to the Tigers. Keaston Willis led the Wildcats with 25 points. The Wildcats are 0-1 in district and 7-10 for the season. The Wildcats host Mt. Pleasant Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and then go the Greenville Friday at 7:30 p.m. this week.
The Lady Cats’ basketball team dives back into district play this week. Tuesday the Lady Cats, 2-1 in district play so far, travel to Mt. Pleasant for a 6:30 p.m. game. Then Friday at 7 p.m., the Lady Cats host Greenville at Wildcats Gym. The Lady Cats are 15-5 so far this season.
Express Care Open House Monday, Opens Tuesday
An Open House and Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting are set for Express Care, 1339 South Broadway, Sulphur Springs. The Open House is from 5 until 6 p.m. The Ribbon Cutting is at 5:15 p.m. The event offers the public the opportunity to meet the staff of the Memorial Hospital clinic. The Express Care Clinic will open for business on January 5th.
Express Care is owned and operated by Hopkins County Memorial Hospital. The urgent care clinic will treat everything ranging from the common cold to flu to minor injuries and allergies. The clinic will provide x-ray and an in-house lab to expedite diagnostic services and develop a care plan that will fit your schedule and need.
Dr. Darrel Pierce, Colbie Cross, PA-C, and Kalee Kirk, PA-C will rotate seeing patients on-site. Hours of operation will be Monday-Saturday 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Downtown Parking Facility, Tesla Supercharger, ZBA, on City Council Tuesday Agenda
A downtown parking facility with 74 stalls, an agreement with Tesla Motor Inc for a supercharger in the 300 block of Tomlinson, and contracts for a fuel farm and for a waterline on Bill Bradford Road are just some of the items on the agenda for the Sulphur Springs City Council Tuesday, January 5th at 7 p.m., in the Council Room at 201 North Davis Street.
Prior to the open session, an executive session will be conducted at 6 p.m. in accordance with the Texas Government Code, Title 5, chapter 551.074, personnel matters, specifically related to the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
During the open session, the following items will be discussed:
- Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag, Texas Flag, and invocation.
- Presentations, proclamations, and announcements.
- Manager’s report will include status report of capital improvements, waste-water treatment plant operations, accidents and claims for the month, and a review of expenditures and revenues.
- Discussion/action on Consent Agenda.
- Discussion/action on public hearing for second and final reading of Ordinance No. 2677, a request to rezone property located at 200 West Shannon Road, being further described as Lots 33, 35, and 36 of Block 212, from Heavy Commercial to Light Commercial and 1317 West Avenue, being further described as Lot 34 of Block 212, from Professional office to Light Commercial.
- Discussion/action on a motion to authorize construction of a 74 stall parking facility at the corner of Davis Street and Main Street
- Discussion/action on a motion to approve a proposed agreement with Tesla Motors Inc. to locate a supercharger in the 300 block of Tomlinson Street.
- Discussion/action on Resolution No. 1098, the annual adoption and review of the investment policy.
- Discussion/action on bids and award of contract for the fuel farm site work for concrete and earthwork.
10 Discussion/action on bids and award of contract for the fuel farm site work for electrical.
- Discussion/action on bids and award of contract for water line for Bill Bradford Road.
- Discussion/action on Executive Session item board appointments to the Zoning Board of Adjustments.
- Visitors and public forum.
- Adjourn.
KSST News’s Top 20 Stories for 2015
[Editor’s note: KSST thanks Don Julian for his diligence as News Director. We are happy that he will continue as Sports Director. He files the following report.]
Here is my list of the top twenty stories of 2015.
#20. The Sulphur Springs ISD Auditorium renovation project seems to be moving at a snail’s pace. It also proved to be more expensive than first thought.
#19. The city of Sulphur Springs begins a large pavilion project at the site of the old city swimming pool. Lots of people are helping to make it possible.
#18. The city of Sulphur Springs lands two grants worth $900,000 to construct walking paths that will tie Coleman Park to Buford Park and for sidewalks from Buford Park to downtown.
#17. A state and national group visit Sulphur Springs in April to see what the city has done downtown. Visiting are the state Main Street Association and the National Congress for New Urbanism.
#16. A popular football player and band member, Isaac Perez, drowns in a pond during an outing with some classmates in late April. Sulphur Springs High School and the community mourn the death.
#15. The stew must go on despite heavy rains. Many stew cooks insist on cooking and a good crowd shows up despite lots of mud.
#14. Longtime Hopkins County incumbents, Sheriff Butch Adams and Precinct 1 County Commissioner Beth Wisenbaker, say they won’t seek another term. Four hopefuls file in each race in the GOP Primary.
#13. Sulphur Springs singer and songwriter Hannah Kirby competes on NBC’s The Voice. She makes the final 8 before bowing out in late April.
#12. Hopkins County Memorial Hospital signs an affiliation agreement with UT Northeast in Tyler for a family practice residency program. The program may start here as soon as 2016.
#11. Murder. Justin Joe McQueen is arrested for the shooting death of Jesse Vasquez on October 11. Michael Anthony Garcia is also arrested for shooting at McQueen.
#10. Best selling author E.L. James, who penned the Shades of Gray trilogy, chooses Sulphur Springs along with New York, as cities where she offers signing events for her latest book in the series, Gray. People line up around the block to get into the Bookworm Box on June 20.
#9. The Roy Dean Duffey murder trial finally wraps up as Duffey gets 20 years in prison for the February 2011 stabbing death of David Harrison Cooper. Duffey is appealing the verdict.
#8. Former Hopkins County Sheriff’s investigator Daniel Winn is sentenced to 15 months in jail for tampering with evidence as drugs are taken from the Sheriff’s Office evidence room last year.
#7. CHRISTUS Health is selected as a prospect for partnership with Hopkins County Memorial Hospital. Both hope to have an agreement by the end of March.
#6. Concerns by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ surveyors threaten Hopkins County Memorial Hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid status. The hospital hires a consultant to see them through a Systems Improvement Agreement to correct problems.
#5. Murder and a manhunt. 20-year old Tilton Joshua Isaiah Mapps of Greenville is arrested in Fort Smith, Arkansas in late September for the June 8 shooting death of 26-year old Johnathan Young in Pacific Park. Mapps girlfriend is also arrested in Arkansas.
#4. Capital murder suspects 27-year old Cody Scott Shaw of Emory and 31-year old Patrick Wayne McMahan both agree to plea bargains that allow Hopkins County to avoid expensive capital murder and death penalty trials in 2016. Shaw was sentenced to life in prison without parole and McMahan to life in prison.
#3. 34-year old Tony Chance Ross of Sulphur Springs dies in a Tyler hospital on March 8 after being arrested and incarcerated in the Hopkins County Jail. He was tased numerous times. Police Chief Jay Sanders says no department policy was violated. Ross’ autopsy report is made public. A grand jury exonerates policemen and jailers involved. The family has filed a liability claim against the city.
#2. Rain, rain, rain, rain. One of the wettest years on record. This year’s drought breaker was the first wet year since 2009. Cooper Lake filled up April 24. The rain total would have higher except for subpar rain months from June through September.
#1. The new state of the art Hopkins County Jail is completed and inmates move in December 7. Administrative staff, using old desks and chairs, began moving Thanksgiving day. An open house on December 1 offers guided tours and draws a large crowd.
And that’s my list of top stories for 2015. I’m Don Julian.
Step-mother Arrested in Murder of Six Year Old in Franklin County
December 31, 2015 – The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Mount Vernon Police Department assisted by the Texas Rangers are investigating the murder of a six year old male child, Wesley Benjamin “Ben” Roycroft, at the Logan’s Pointe Apartments on Whitten Drive in Mount Vernon, Texas. Suspect Christie Lynn Roycroft, a 30 year old female and step-mother to Benjamin, was taken into custody at the scene by responding officers and placed in the Franklin County Jail for the charge of Capital Murder and is being held on a $2.5 million bond. At approximately 11:40AM the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office received a 9-11 call from a female subject, at the residence, claiming to be Benjamin’s mother.
Christie Lynn Roycroft
Officers arriving on scene were met by Suspect Roycroft in front walkway of the apartment where she was immediately detained in connection with the homicide. Officers then secured the residence where they found the victim inside. No other persons were home at the time.
Child Protective Services was contacted and are cooperating in the investigation, as well. CPS, upon examination of their records, advised that they have no prior history of abuse or neglect involving this family.
The victim has been taken Southwest Institute of Forensic Science (SWIFTS), in Dallas, TX. Means and manner of death are being withheld at this time and will be released following the official report from the SWIFTS autopsy results.
Benjamin Roycroft was a student at Mount Vernon Elementary School, which has been apprised of the situation. Counselors will be made available when students return on Tuesday, January 5th . Franklin County Sheriff Ricky Jones expressed his deepest condolences to the family and friends of young Benjamin and would like them to know that his prayers will be with them through these trying times.
Murder in Franklin County
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Mount Vernon Police Department assisted by the Texas Rangers is currently investigating a murder that took place just before noon today, 12-31-2015, at the Logans Point apartments in Mount Vernon, Texas. A female suspect has arrested and charged with Capital Murder. Suspect is in custody at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
Suspect information and victim information is being withheld at this time. KSST will announce the information as oon as it becomes available for release.
Four Arrested in Drug Bust
A drug bust for the Sulphur Springs Special Crimes Unit Wednesday night resulted in the recovery of a weapon and the arrest of four individuals. All four are in Hopkins County Jail where Justice of the Peace B J Teer set bond at $30,000 each. Other information regarding the arrest is unavailable due to holiday.
Arrested were:
Jennifer Leigh Jesters Cain, 32,
Blake Adam Friddle 21,
Brandon Ray Timmons, 22
Jeremy Laverne Harris, 24
