Cruz, Clinton win Nolan County, Texas Primaries

Voting was brisk at the Community Center yesterday.

A total of 418 voters in Nolan County Precinct 6 cast their ballots for the candidates of their choice in the Roscoe Community Center yesterday. In the Presidential primary, the big winners were Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton. Jodey Arrington and Glen Robertson will face one another in a runoff for US Representative, District 19, and Stan Lambert won outright in the race for State Representative, District 71. David Warren was re-elected as Nolan County Sheriff, and Ricky Thompson trounced John Young in the race for District Attorney, 32nd District.

Here is a breakdown of the votes cast in Precinct 6 and Nolan County for each of the contested races (except for Railroad Commissioner, State Judges, and the various amendments)

                                          Precinct 6         Nolan County

U.S. President

Ted Cruz (R)                       199                        1351

Donald Trump (R)              72                          826

Marco Rubio (R)                 40                          412

Ben Carson (R)                     17                          166

John Kasich (R)                     7                            97

Hillary Clinton (D)               28                         270

Bernie Sanders (D)               18                         122

U.S. Representative, District 19 (All Republicans)

Jodey Arrington                   118                        653

Glen Robertson                      64                        578

Michael Bob Starr                 60                        563

Greg Garrett                           24                        260

Jason Conley                          13                          98

DeRenda Warren                   10                         91

John Key                                   6                          65

Don Parrish                              7                          58

State Representative, District 71

Stan Lambert                       152                       1218

Isaac Castro                          126                      1057

Chris Carnohan                     17                         185 

Stacy Scaief                            18                          114

Brian Scalf                              15                          113

District Attorney, 32nd District

Ricky Thompson                303                       2507
John Young                            55                         495

Nolan County Sheriff

David Warren                       172                       1610

Ray Cornutt                          165                       1244

Kevin Turner                         20                         162

A total of 418 voters cast ballots in Precinct 6 (369 Republicans, 49 Democrats), and 3523 voted in Nolan County (3105 Republicans, 418 Democrats).

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RCISD SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES BOND ELECTION FOR NEW EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER

The current early childhood center in the Elementary School at RCISD.

At its February meeting, the RCISD School Board approved a bond election on May 7 for a new Early Childhood Center. If approved, it will be located on current school property across from the Elementary School. The facility will come at a cost of $5 million on a 30-year payout, which works out to an annual tax increase of about $48 per year per $100,000 home valuation.

According to RCISD Superintendent Kim Alexander, the need for the new facility involves a proposed instructional change from the current program to the more successful Montessori system, which includes a move from a half to a full day program for Pre-K students. A study of current data indicates that as a group our primary students are not where they need to be, especially in reading, by grade 3. Since such a deficiency typically lasts through the following grades and beyond, it is important that it be rectified as early as possible. The Montessori Early Childhood Program is the established leader in doing just that, especially for economically disadvantaged children, of which Roscoe has many and is projected to have even more in the future.

Another reason for the proposed center is lack of space, which will only become more critical over time. Current facilities are already overcrowded and not conducive to the Montessori learning environment, which requires more space for storage of manipulatives and hands-on types of activities. RCISD is also growing and will most likely continue to grow. In 2007, it had a total of 315 EC-12 students for an average of 21 per grade. Today, there are 622 students for an average of 41 per grade, and growth projections for coming years are for up to 950, or about 60 per grade, as more students choose to benefit from RCISD’s educational advantages, especially now that a new housing development, Young Farm Estates, is available to families desiring to live in Roscoe.

Pending approval of the Board at the March meeting, an open meeting will be held on Monday, April 18, at 6pm in the E-On Center, prior to the April Board meeting. It will go into greater detail and allow the public to discuss and ask questions about the proposed project.

Our school is already recognized as a state and national leader in both college and career readiness, and improving the critical early levels will result in even greater success for our students as they gear up to compete in a global economy.

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ROGER CREAGER, CODY JINKS AT LUMBERYARD THIS WEEKEND

Two noted Texas Country artists will be at the Lumberyard this weekend, Roger Creager on Friday night and Cody Jinks on Saturday. It will be Creager’s first ever appearance in Roscoe, while Jinks is coming for the second time.

Roger Creager

Roger Creager, who holds a degree in business from Sam Houston State and a degree in agriculture from Texas A&M, is a native of Corpus Christi but got his start in music while at Texas A&M in the late nineties. To date he has released seven albums, including Long Way to Mexico (2003), Live Across Texas (2004), Here It Is (2008), Surrender (2012) and Road Show (2014). Popular singles include “The Everclear Song,” “For You I Do,” “Gulf Coast Time,” “Long Way to Mexico,” “Things Look Good Around Here,” and “I’m From the Beer Joint.” 

Cody Jinks

Cody Jinks is a popular country singer from Fort Worth. His album Adobe Sessions contains song such as “Cast No Stones” and “Loud and Heavy.” His appearance on Ray Benson’s Texas Music Scene is available here.

For reservations, call the Lumberyard at 325-766-2457.

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WEATHER REPORT: SUNNY AND DRY

Can Spring be far behind?

The weather continues to be sunny and dry without even a hint of rain and skies either completely or mostly clear, as they have been for almost all this year. We seem to be caught in a dry weather pattern that just won’t go away. Temperatures this past week were just about what you’d expect at this time of year with highs ranging from Thursday’s 53°F to Monday’s 79° and lows from Friday morning’s 31° to Sunday’s 51°. It’s typically windy this time of year, and the past week was no exception with breezes ranging from moderate to blustery.

Interestingly, the winds seemed to come from a different direction every day. Starting with last Wednesday the winds were from the west, Thursday from the northeast, Friday and Saturday the south, Sunday the east-southeast, and Monday the south-southeast. Then yesterday they started from the south, shifted to the north and then to the east. 

The coming week should be even windier starting today with 20-30mph winds from the south-southwest, shifting to 15-25 mph from the northeast tomorrow, 20-30 mph back to the south on Friday, 10-15 back to the northeast on Saturday, and then 20-30mph from the south-southwest again on Sunday.  

Temperatures will be warmer with highs in the seventies and eighties and lows in the upper forties to upper fifties. Today's high should be around 82°, tomorrow's 74°, and Friday's back up to 81°.

Unfortunately, there is still little chance of precipitation in the forecast, although we do have a 10%-20% chance from Friday through Monday. We definitely would prefer better chances than that.

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