Index

Calendar of Events

Jacket Backers meet

Meridian

Thursday, May 29

The Meridian Jacket Backers will meet Thursday, May 29 at 6 p.m. in the high school library. This is the year-end business meeting. For more information contact Mike Bowers at 254-675-3703.

Pool opening

Meridian

Satuday, May 31

The Meridian City Swimming Pool will open for its first day of the summer season at noon on Saturday, May 31. City Manager Marie Garland said on Monday, May 19, that she was still in the process of hiring life guards for the facility but had hired Nicky Poole of Meridian as the manager of the facility.

Free Fishing Day

All State Public Waters

Saturday, June 7

A “Free Sportfishing Day” will highlight National Fishing and Boating Week, allowing anglers to fish any public waters in Texas without a fishing license on Saturday, June 7. Both resident and nonresident recreational anglers will be allowed to fish without a license and will not be required to have special stamps such as the saltwater or freshwater fishing stamps.

AARP meeting

Clifton

Tuesday, June 10

The Bosque County AARP will meet in the Clifotn Civic Center at noon on Tuesday, June 10. The guest speaker will be Clifton School Superintendent Rhoda White.

Area-Wide Clean-Up

Lakeside Village

Saturday, June 7

On Saturday, June 7, residents of Kopperl, Morgan, Steele Creek Acres, The Canyons, and the Lakeside Village Area are invited to participate in an area-wide clean-up campaign. The campaign is sponsored by the Lakeside Village Area Volunteer Fire Fighter’s Association. Dumpsters will be located outside the Lakeside VFD Fire Hall from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.(or until dumpsters are full) to accept non-regular trash items that will include house-hold items, furniture, appliances, TV’s, microwaves, computers, metal waste, batteries, and for $2 each, tires with no rims and no greater than 18 inches in diameter. The Fire Hall is located on CR 1275, just east of the intersection of FM 56 and FM 927, next to the water. For additional information, call Jackie at 254-775-4425.

Relay for Life

Clifton

June 13-14

The Bosque County Relay For Life fwill be held in downtown Clifton this year rather than in Cub Stadium as in the past. The event will be held June 13-14, and will kick off at 8 p.m. on Friday. For more information, contact Kay Kidd at (254)855-1182.

Photography Models Sought

Clifton

Now- July 1

The Bosque Conservatory Photography Guild is seeking volunteers to have their pictures taken. The end result will be an exhibit of portraits taken during the project. Forty models are bein sought. For more information or to apply, contact Jean Ann Smith at 254-675-3561 or Bosque Conservatory at 254-675-3724.

List your community event here

Call 435-6333

or email

calendar@bosquecountynews.com

By Evan Moore

Bosque County News

Michael Wayne Johnson, the elusive con man who has bilked his way across Texas, shuffled back into Bosque County on Tuesday, May 20.

This time, he was in leg-irons.

Johnson, a two-time fugitive who was finally arrested last September in Palestine, returned to Bosque County a different man. Pale and thin, the formerly robust Johnson hobbled into 220th State District Judge James Morgan’s court on the second floor of the Bosque County Courthouse – a building Johnson helped restore in 2004 and 2005 as a Bosque County Jail trusty and part of an inmate work crew.

This time he was there to plead guilty

By Sandy Bogovich

Bosque County News

CLIFTON - Parents of three elementary school aged girls have lodged a complaint with the Bosque County Sheriff’s Office that a 7- year-old Clifton elementary student has repeatedly terrorized and molested other young children on his school bus.

The parents said they took their concerns to the sheriff’s office because they received little response from school officials.

The parents said their daughters ride a school bus with about 30 to 40 other students from Clifton ISD to Laguna Park.

The situation began about a month ago, said the parents. At that point, they said, they approached Clifton Elementary School Assistant Principal Terina Heintz with their concerns about the boy. They said they told Heinz that the child had been acting out in a sexually aggressive manner toward their daughters and other girls. On several occasions, they said, the boy had grabbed their daughters’ breasts, put his hands up their skirts, forcefully kissed them, and lay on the floor of the bus to peer up their skirts.

According to the girl’s parents, the most recent events took place on Monday afternoon, May 19. On that day, they said, during the bus ride home, the 7-year-old boy was seated behind two of their daughters, aged 6 and 10 years old, when the boy yelled out, “hey y’all, turn around and look at this!”

The two girls told their parents that, when they turned, the boy had undone his pants and was fully exposing himself.

By Evan Moore

Bosque County News

MERIDIAN – The Meridian Economic Development Corporation, meeting on Monday, May 20, has agreed to loan Double B Foods $100,000 to be used as part of a planned, $1.2 million improvement and expansion project at the facility.

The move is part of an effort by the company, The Heart of Texas Council of Governments, Bosque County and the City of Meridian to have a planned retrofitting of the plant designated as a Texas “enterprise zone” project to obtain state tax abatements for Double B.

Under the agreement approved by the EDC, the corporation will loan the company $100,000 at one point below prime rate for one year as a show of good faith to help boost the application for enterprise zone abatement.

Those abatements, which come from state sales and inventory taxes, are approved by a division of the Texas Governor’s office and are set at 6.75 cents per $100 of the cost