Young County Commissioners are set to grant another five percent across-the-board raise to County departments struggling with rising prices and retention problems and are still discussing whether to raise Sheriff Travis Babcock’s salary by 20 percent to access up to $350,000 in state law enforcement funds, Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers said.
The Refuge Christian Community Center in Olney upped the number of meals served to children during its Summer Feeding Program this year and added an ESL [English as a Second Language] program to help Spanish- speaking children whose parents recently moved to town for work, Refuge director Rodney Nantz said.
Midwestern State University (MSU Texas) will soon be offering a degree in electrical engineering as well as improving its infrastructure for teaching such hot disciplines as programming, cybersecurity and gaming as a result of a $2.4 million state grant to establish a Center for STEM Excellence.
Olney High School freshman Colby Johnson just completed his second year as a beekeeper, a hobby he started while home from school in the depths of the COVID pandemic in 2001. The 14-year-old started researching beekeeping as something to do when the world returned to normal, and last year he harvested his first honey – 25 pounds of it – and started a business selling honey.
A collection of heavy road construction equipment and big piles of road material that sprang up recently beside State Highway 114 a few miles west of Olney will probably be there for several years as the state moves forward on its long-range transportation program, Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers said.
213 E. Main St.
PO Box 577
Olney, Texas 76374
Phone: (940) 564-5558
Fax: (940) 564-3992