MLK Parade set downtown 4 p.m. Sunday

QUICK LOOK Lula Mae Rivers will be grand marshal for Rock-dale’s annual MLK Day Parade, set for 4 p.m. Sunday, the day prior to the actual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. The parade forms at the corner of Ackerman and Milam Avenue.

The dawn of a new era

A lot has happened since a delighted crowd of Milam County leaders gathered in a cold November drizzle under a tent just south of the former Alcoa smelter to welcome Whinstone to town. It looks different now.

Overnight manhunt nets arrest

A 32-year-old Missouri man, wanted in connection with a robbery in that state, surrendered to the Milam County Sheriff’s department at a rural home near Rock-dale before dawn Thursday after an all-night manhunt. Nathaniel Terry of Vandalia, Missouri, was arrested about 4:45 a.m.

Ten years probation for ‘corpse tampering’

CAMERON—A Caldwell man accused of helping to dispose of the body in the Emily Hacker murder case received a 10-year probated prison sentence Thursday in 20th District Court, according to Prosecutor Bill Torrey.

Go Big Blue

Your eyes aren’t playing tricks. There have been a handful of blue street signs popping up around Rockdale in recent days.

City gets sales tax election request

A former Rockdale Hospital District director, and at least 200 others, want the City of Rockdale to let voters decide May 2 if they want a half-cent sales tax to continue going to the Municipal Development District or revert back to the hospital district, which used to collect it.

ROCKDALE INTERNATIONAL?

Not quite, but it’s something just about as impressive. This is a drone photo of the Whinstone project at the former Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations. Excavation work is now complete and pads for the first of 10 buildings on the spot are expected to be poured this week, weather permitting.

Filing starts for city, school, RHD

Filing is underway for the May 2 municipal and school board elections in Texas. First day to file was to have been Wednesday (Jan. 15) and the City of Rockdale and Rockdale ISD School Board will each elect two members.

NEWSBRIEFS

Trustees extend Supt. Monzingo’s contract Rockdale ISD Supt. Dr. Denise Monzingo had her contract extended through the 2022-2023 school year after trustees met in executive session Monday evening.

Child recovering after bike accident

A 10-year-old Rockdale boy is expected to fully recover after a car-bicycle accident in Rockdale Saturday afternoon. Lt. Stephen Goodrich said Joshua Avila remained in McLane Children’s/Scott & White, Temple, “for observation” on Tuesday.