Freeze Off Winners
For the umpteenth time Billy Jack Allen captured the Texas State Champion Homemade Ice Cream Freeze Off title with a banana nut ice cream. Youngster Mandy Eckhardt took second with a raspberry ice cream. In Little Dips, winners were Mayara Mann in the plain category with a vanilla ice cream, Addison Bowers in the fruit category with a banana ice cream and Machelle Allen in the novelty category with a peanut butter nut bar ice cream....
Dairy Festival Kicks Off
The 55th annual Hopkins County Dairy Festival officially kicked off with a ribbon cutting on Celebration Plaza in downtown Sulphur Springs at noon on Friday. Dairy Festival Parade Chairman David Watson says this year’s Parade starting at 10 a.m. Saturday will be the best one we’ve ever had. Featured will be the Budweiser Clydesdales. Watson says there will over 100 entries including little kids in golf carts, Queen Kennedy Potts, six...
Hot Air Ballons Grounded Friday
At first it seemed some hot air balloons might take to the skies for media flights Friday morning in Sulphur Springs but later all balloon pilots decided against it. Dairy Festival Balloon Chairman David Black cited wet, muddy conditions at potential landing sites as the reason. The balloons most likely landing spots would have been southwest of town where some of the heaviest rainfall totals were recorded overnight. Five balloon...
Demolition Started Again
A demolition crew began to dismantle the damaged façade of the old Knight’s Head Inn building at 219 Main Street Friday morning. They will remove the façade from top to bottom over the next day or so. Cracks and bulges developed in the façade and it appeared near collapse during façade renovation work taking place Tuesday afternoon. The next day the building was evaluated by a structural engineer. Then the building was braced inside...
Patrol Captain Announced
New Sulphur Springs Police Chief-to-be Jay Sanders has selected his replacement as Patrol Captain. Capt. Sanders has chosen Lt. Jason Ricketson, the police department Interdiction Officer, to be Patrol Captain on August 1. On that date current chief Jim Bayuk will be moving to the Sulphur Springs ISD to be a primary school police officer. Current Patrol Captain Jay Sanders will become chief. The police department has posted an opening...
Linda Hager a Dairy Festival Mainstay
Over the years through all the years of the Dairy Festival there has been one constant. Linda Hager. Ms. Hager was actually dairy royalty before there even was a Dairy Festival. In 1954 she was selected as the Dairy Show Queen, an honor that went to the daughter of a dairyman. Although she had been involved in Dairy Festival every year, Ms. Hager joined the board in either 1965 or 1966. The board chose to increase their membership by...
Budweiser Clydesdales Handler Rudy Helmuth
Rudy Helmuth is one of seven people traveling with the Budweiser Clydesdales that are being stabled at the Civic Center awaiting their appearance in Saturday’s Dairy Festival Parade. Helmuth, an Iowa native, has been a handler for the large draft horses for about two years now. This hitch of ten horses is based in St. Louis, Missouri. Other hitches are based in New Hampshire and Colorado. Helmuth says the Clydesdales are massive but...
Structural Engineer Hired
Wednesday a structural engineer hired by the city of Sulphur Springs delivered reports to City Manager Marc Maxwell on 11 suspect walls that were inspected at request of the city. Maxwell said all eleven were deserving of suspicion to one degree or another. Maxwell said a couple of the most suspicious were the building at 222 Main and the building across the street. He did add four or five of the walls had very minor problems. Maxwell...
New Wildcats Tennis Coach
Departing Wildcats Tennis Coach Randy Namanny says Wildcats Athletic Director Greg Owens has replaced him with a real good tennis coach who will be very good for the program. The Sulphur Springs School Board approved the hiring of Tony Martinez as Wildcats Tennis Coach Monday night. Martinez comes to Sulphur Springs from Corpus Christi Calallen High School. He was also been an assistant men’s coach at the University of Texas and has...
Dairy Festival Dairy Foods Contest
The annual Dairy Festival Dairy Foods Contest will take place Saturday, June 21 at the AgriLife Extension Office. Food items will be received that day beginning at 2 p.m. Judging will take place at 2:30 p.m. Winners will be announced at around 3:45 p.m. Entrants must be Hopkins County residents. There is no charge to enter. Each entry must contain two dairy products. Recipes are due for judging on Monday at 5 p.m. at the Extension...
