Flash Flood Watch Begins Late Thursday Night
A flash flood watch has been issued for Hopkins County effective late Thursday night, October 22, through 1 a.m. Sunday, October 25. An upper level storm system to the west will move across the southern Rockies while low level moisture deepens across the area. Rain may be continuous with rates exceeding two (2) inches an hour in some locations. Over time, totals of two to five inches, with some locations exceeding seven inches may occur.
Prolonged heavy rainfall will cause flash flooding of low lying areas, small creeks and streams and poor draining streets and roads. A flash flood watch means that conditions are favorable for heavy rain which may lead to flash flooding. Residents should monitor the latest forecasts from the National Weather Service, which you can do here on ksstradio.com.
Should severe weather occur, KSST radio will be following the and reporting the event.
Thursday Activities at Hopkins County Fall Festival
Thursday’s Hopkins County Fall Festival will host a number of events and begin preparation for the final and busiest weekend of the event. Exhibitors will set up commercial booths in the regional civic center from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Events on the grounds will begin at 10:30 am.
At 10:30 a.m., Lone Star Action Sports –BMX—will be in the Civic Center Driveway doing exhibitions for Sulphur Springs Elementary Schools. The students will also visit the All About Science Show in the Civic Center Arena. The program will be repeated for students at 1 p.m.
From 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. in the High School Conference Center, Creative Arts Contestants will register.
The Fall Festival Information booth will open at 5 p.m. and remain open in the Civic Center foyer until 9 p.m. On the Civic Center grounds, exhibits and food court will open. Wagner Carnival opens at 6 p.m. and the Cover Girl contest begins at 6 in the Horse Pavilion. The Cover Girl Contest will feature hay stacking, pattern sewing, and the ever popular cutting up a chicken.
At 7 p.m. Lone Star Action Sports will be at the Skate Park on the south side of Buford Park.
Rain or Shine, Stew is On
Rain is expected but that will not wash out the contest. The ground will soak up much of the rain quickly due to dry conditions according to event planners. Also, the sandy soil and sidewalks at Buford Park will benefit those cooking and attending the event. Lightning is the only thing that would stop Saturday’s Hopkins County Stew Contest.
A few stew cooks may not participate by choice should the weather be disagreeable. However, stew cooks who do participate will be asked to take 10 quarts of stew to the front of Kid’s Kingdom and those will be sold in a drive-thru type environment on Connally Street.
Meredith Caddell, Chamber Executive, said that when people come to Sulphur Springs expecting a great event, she does not want them disappointed by a little rain.
Other events Saturday include Fall Festival and the Corvette Show.
Black Oak Baptist Church Growth
At one of the oldest country church structures in Hopkins County, the Black Oak Baptist Church congregation is experiencing a growth spurt in 2015. Increased regular attendance is calling for the addition of Sunday School classrooms and expansion of the Fellowship Hall/Family Life Center. A Fish Fry Fundraiser is planned on Saturday October 24 at noon, with all-you-can-eat fish, trimmings, and homemade desserts served by donation.
The meal will be followed at 2pm by a puppet show and hayride for the children. In recent months, attendance has grown to over 100 persons for Sunday services and almost 40 children are enrolled in Sunday School. This growth is following a time, not too long ago, when the congregation slipped to an all-time low membership of 5 persons. Parts of the original 1909 church structure are still in use and the small Fellowship Hall that was constructed about 15 years ago is currently in regular use as classroom space. Proceeds from the fish fry will be used to enlarge the Fellowship Hall and add on classrooms.
Pastor Pastor Charlie Belliew, the Black Oak Band, Youth Pastor Ricky Self, and the congregation invite everyone to the fundraiser and to services held each Sunday at 11 a.m.
IRS Issues Scam Warning
The IRS continues to warn consumers to guard against scam phone calls from thieves intent on stealing their money or their identity. Criminals pose as the IRS to trick victims out of their money or personal information. Here are several tips to help you avoid being a victim of these scams:
- Scammers make unsolicited calls. Thieves call taxpayers claiming to be IRS officials. They demand that the victim pay a bogus tax bill. They con the victim into sending cash, usually through a prepaid debit card or wire transfer. They may also leave “urgent” callback requests through phone “robo-calls,” or via phishing email.
- Callers try to scare their victims. Many phone scams use threats to intimidate and bully a victim into paying. They may even threaten to arrest, deport or revoke the license of their victim if they don’t get the money.
- Scams use caller ID spoofing. Scammers often alter caller ID to make it look like the IRS or another agency is calling. The callers use IRS titles and fake badge numbers to appear legitimate. They may use the victim’s name, address and other personal information to make the call sound official.
- Cons try new tricks all the time. Some schemes provide an actual IRS address where they tell the victim to mail a receipt for the payment they make. Others use emails that contain a fake IRS document with a phone number or an email address for a reply. These scams often use official IRS letterhead in emails or regular mail that they send to their victims. They try these ploys to make the ruse look official.
- Scams cost victims over $23 million. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, has received reports of about 736,000 scam contacts since October 2013. Nearly 4,550 victims have collectively paid over $23 million as a result of the scam.
The IRS will not:
- Call you to demand immediate payment. The IRS will not call you if you owe taxes without first sending you a bill in the mail.
- Demand that you pay taxes and not allow you to question or appeal the amount you owe.
- Require that you pay your taxes a certain way. For instance, require that you pay with a prepaid debit card.
- Ask for your credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
- Threaten to bring in police or other agencies to arrest you for not paying.
If you don’t owe taxes, or have no reason to think that you do:
- Do not give out any information. Hang up immediately.
- Contact TIGTA to report the call. Use their “IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting” web page. You can also call 800-366-4484.
- Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Use the “FTC Complaint Assistant” on FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.
If you know you owe, or think you may owe tax:
- Call the IRS at 800-829-1040. IRS workers can help you.
Phone scams first tried to sting older people, new immigrants to the U.S. and those who speak English as a second language. Now the crooks try to swindle just about anyone. And they’ve ripped-off people in every state in the nation.
Stay alert to scams that use the IRS as a lure. Tax scams can happen any time of year, not just at tax time. For more, visit “Tax Scams and Consumer Alerts” on IRS.gov.
Each and every taxpayer has a set of fundamental rights they should be aware of when dealing with the IRS. These are your Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Explore your rights and our obligations to protect them on IRS.gov.
Food, Music, Bingo, and Prizes at Senior Citizen Night at Fall Festival
Hopkins County Fall Festival 2015 Senior Night at the Regional Civic Center was sponsored by the Hopkins County Marketers Association. The Marketers Association supplied prizes for Bingo at 4:00 PM. At 5:00 a dinner of Salads was served. The salad meal was prepared by Karon Weatherman, Joni Hughes and Pamela Johnson.
Monty Tipps and Main Street started performing at 6:00 PM. During the performance The Hopkins CountyMarketers 
Association gave out 4 door prizes worth $ 500.00.
Winners of the door prizes were: Betty Stewart $ 50.00; Beth Barrett $ 100.00; Wyvonne Brewer $ 100.00; Mark Miller $ 250.00
10 Year Drought Broken as Lady Cats Earn Playoff Spot on Senior Night
The Lady Cats’ volleyball team earned a playoff spot with a 3-1 district win over Texas High Tuesday night in Wildcats Gym. The loss eliminated the Lady Tigers. The Lady Cats won 25-21, 23-25, 25-18 and 25-16. The Lady Cats last qualified for the playoffs in 2005. Senior Sarah Womack had 21 kills. The Lady Cats, 8-4 in district play and in third place, host Pine Tree Friday at 4:30 p.m. in the Middle School Gym.
The Sulphur Springs High School gymnasium erupted in cheers and applause after Senior Sarah Womack scored the winning point. Fans and family of the Varsity Lady Cats ran out onto the court to celebrate the win. Friends, family, as well as freshman and JV Lady Cats met the Varsity team for a massive group hug on the court. The Senior Varsity Lady Cats were emotional during the celebration.
Highlights of the night in slideshows below:
Wendy’s Now Open
The Wendy’s restaurant in Sulphur Springs opened on Tuesday, October 20. The chain restaurant establishment saw success for its first day from both its employees and its customer turnout.
“We’ve been very pleased with today’s success,” Co-Owner Mike Cox said,” What counts, of course, is a year from now. We’ve been in our ‘honeymoon’ phase, so in a year from now we’ll know more. So far it’s been very good.”
Wendy’s began hiring for its Sulphur Springs location 2 months before opening. People hired, primarily for the management positions were trained at the Wendy’s location in Texarkana.
“We just wanted a clean cut crew that’s energetic and friendly,” Co-Owner Mark Townsen said. “We believe we’ve got a really good
Claudia Wendel as “Wendy”
crew, a lot of great people.”
The Wendy’s company chose the Sulphur Springs location after analyzing the success of other chain restaurants in the Interstate 30 area, according to Co-Owner Cox. Its position off of I-30 also played a factor in it’s construction.
“We like being on this side of the Interstate because it’s easier to get to if you’re on the north side of town,” Townsen said. “You don’t have to fight in traffic and we’re really one of the only fast food places on this side. We’re the first one that you get to for people that are westbound, so that’s why we chose this location.”
Wagner’s Carnival Back for Fall Festival
The Wagner’s Carnival is returning to Sulphur Springs for the 2015 Fall Festival. This will be the Wagner’s Carnival’s second year working with the Fall Festival Committee.
“There’s a Fall Festival Committee that contacted us,” Wagner’s Carnival Co-Owner Jason Wagner said. “The previous carnival could no longer accomodate them the way they wanted to be accomodated, so they contacted us and we started to negotiate a deal and it worked out well for both sides last year so we decided to come back again this year.”
The Wagner Carnival is owned by father Albert and son Jason Wagner. The carnival went throught several variations when it was founded and run by Wagner’s grandfather shortly after the Great Depression. It officially became the Wagner’s Carnival during 1978. Wagner’s Carnival features a number of classic attractions as well as rides for children and even teen thriller rides.
“We’ve got some classis favorites,” Wagner said. “We’ve got a 70 foot tall giant ferris wheel, a carrossel, a big fun slide that’s pretty popular for the little kids. We’ve got some teenage thrill rides, like the classic favorite ‘The Zipper’, we have a ride that takes you upside down called ‘The Kamikaze’ and one called ‘The Wipeout’. Then we have a brand new attraction this year that comes from Europe, it’s the third one in the United States, it’s a ride called The ‘Shockwave’ and it’s been very popular and done very well and been well received everywhere we went.”
The Wagner’s Carnival will be open from Thursday, October 22 throught to Sunday, October 25.
Dino Math Measurement Workshop at Children’s Museum
What is the length of your dinosaur in inches and centimeters? What is the mass of a baseball in grams and ounces? How does a thermometer reflect a change in temperature? Third graders answer these and other questions during the Dino Math Measurement Workshop at the Children’s Museum.
The workshop focuses on measurement skills because this is generally an area of weakness on the state tests. The students rotate through three stations. One station will give students an opportunity to compare and predict the weight of objects in grams and ounces using rocker balances. Students will relate these measurements to weight and mass. A second station will acquaint students with ounces, cups, pints, quarts, and gallons. Another station will include measurement of length and width using inches, centimeters and non-standard methods. They will also measure the temperature of water using a thermometer.
“Offering a curriculum to support classroom teachers gives the Museum an additional function in meeting the needs of children,” said Sharline Freeman, Museum Executive Director. “Although teachers go to workshops, having workshops for students is more unusual. We are so glad that the Museum can offer this program.”
The program gives teachers a point of reference for measurement as they teach math concepts throughout the year in the classroom. Teachers and students experience hands-on activities that are already set up and organized.
“The Dino Math Workshop covers the measurement concepts that I will be teaching during the year.” one teacher said.
“I’m not able to provide this type of hands-on activity in the classroom and the kids have so much fun with the activities,” another reported.
The program continues for three weeks ending on November 18. Teachers may call the Museum at 903-886-6055 for additional information.
