Milam County ‘honors its own’ at meeting

Last week Milam County Commissioners Court honored four of our own.

John Johnson was honored for a lifetime of work handcrafting a replica of old town Cameron, which is proudly displayed in Cameron.

The Cameron Herald, under the direction of Lindsey Vaculin, and The Rock-dale Reporter, under the direction of Kyle Cooke, were honored for years of excellent reporting of all the events of the county.

Both of these papers have been in business for over 150 years and are still going strong.

Retiring Pct. 4 Commissioner John Fisher was honored for his many years of volunteer auctioneering in the county. John has served as the auctioneer for many fund raisers and benefits throughout the county for hundreds of events.

MORE HONORS— Last week, Butler Weldments was honored by the Central Texas Workforce Solutions and was awarded the “Employer Excellence” award. Butler Weldments has operated in Cameron since 1977 and has a large welding fabrication business, primarily for our military.

Butler has over 60 employees and is expanding. Congratulations to Butler Weldments.

ANNEX—On Oct. 15, 2019, the Commissioners Court approved and signed a contract to buy the former Little River Hospital complex in Cameron for use as a Milam County annex.

This is an 8.5 acre facility with over 41,000 square feet of usable space.

The former hospital will be renovated and used by the county as a one stop shop for county services and for Bea’s Kitchen.

Renovation plans are being drafted by Stan Graves, and will be completed by May 1, at which time the plans will be sent out for public bids.

The cost of the renovation will be less than one-half the cost of new construction, which is estimated at $250 per square foot.

Construction is estimated to take about nine months and thus the county could be moved in the new complex within a year.

MEETING THE GOVERNOR—Last week at the Temple Chamber of Commerce banquet, I got the chance to meet and briefly visit with Gov. The governor was truly concerned about how the county was doing economically and wanted to know about our progress.

I explained that solar and high tech were coming to the county, and he seemed pleased and offered assistance.

CENSUS—Please complete the upcoming Federal Census. This is critical and has a direct impact on how much federal money the county gets.

Ten years ago, the county underreported and we did not get all the federal money we should have gotten.

Beginning March 1, one can go online to complete the short 10-question form.

If one does not go online and complete the form, the census will mail the form and if the completed form is not returned, a person will come to your house to ask for the information.

Please do your part and complete the census in a timely manner.