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Vendor sign ups underway for locals first for Fall Festival

Sign up… deadline Aug. 23 for first dibs at fall festival

The Devine Chamber of Commerce will host its annual 2024 Fall Cactus Festival on the first Saturday of November as usual, set for November 2 in downtown Devine with a festival, street dance and carnival.
Sign up as a vendor
August 23 is the deadline for locals to get first dibs on vendor spots….This year preference will be given to chamber members to keep with the local first theme who sign up to be a vendor first. Then it will be opened to outside vendors. Only 3 of every kind of vendor will be allowed to provide a nice variety of vendors. The Devine Market Association has accepted the job of organizing the vendors and taking care of that part of the festival for the chamber. An August 23 deadline has been set for chamber members to apply to get dibs on a vendor spot. Chamber members will be given priority then local and then open to others. To give as much opportunity as possible to local people first. Think, Shop, Dine Devine!
Charley Richardt, DMA Market Coordinator is handing the vendors for the chamber with the help of Steve Smith. Charley can be reached at 210.790.2212 or by email at charley.katona@gmail.com Feel free to text with questions about vendors. The link to sign up is https://forms.gle/r3JW89SRLwsCb1C9A
Carnival
The carnival will be in town Thursday through Saturday as usual.

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Natalia Police DeptBlotter

08/19- Theft
Officers were dispatched to the 2200 block of Tx-132 for a theft report.  Officer found that a suspect had stolen parts off a pickup truck, and other tools in the vehicle’s tool box, a suspect was identified and an arrest is imminent. 

08/19 Dog at-large
Officers responded to the 700 block of Miller St. for a report of a large black lab-mix dog on the reporting persons property.  Officers picked up the dog and later the owner was found and the dog was returned to its owner.

08/20 Phone harassment
Officers were dispatched to the 100 block of 8th street for a phone harassment report.  The complainant claimed that his ex-girlfriend was using computer generated phone numbers to send harassing text messages to the complainant.  Officers investigated the crime but were not able to specifically determine the origin of the harassing calls.  

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Devine PD Blotter

August 16-Caller reported a lost wallet, and someone was using it at a gas station on Oak Hill Drive.
August 16-Caller reported a Mustang driving erradically on Hondo Avenue.
August 17-Suspects reportedly stole a white Volkswagen from Adams Avenue on August 17. Caller reported seeing three unknown suspects in the vehicle as it drove it away. It was found by SAPD who had the wrecked vehicle towed. If you have any info please reach out to Devine PD.
August 22-A juvenile was found in possession of a vape at Devine High School.
August 18-A vehicle being pushed into the parkinglot lost control and struck a water pipe and a trashcan.
Aug 18- Caller reported driver in White Mustang flipping off another driver. Officer made contact with the driver.

EMS tax hike proposal draws concerned citizens to contentious meeting

MCESD4 District provides EMS service to Devine and Natalia and the surrounding area. It has been planning to switch over on October 1 from hiring a third party amublance service to starting their own EMS business with the thought the taxpayers would get more service. Apprarently not all board members were on the same page, as Board Members Juan Zamora and George Moralez tabled the actions when he learned that Allegiance was already providing TWO 24 HR Ambulances. He was under the impression the ESD was only getting 1.5 ambulances, and the new business would bring that up to 2 ambulances. He questioned why that was misrepresented to the him and Moralez the two newest board members.
As of press time Tuesday, August 27 a new public hearing was happening to see what the board plans to do with tax rate and if Allegiance will be asked to keep providing the service instead of it stopping on Sept 30 since as the board has already cancelled their service as of that date.

By Anton Riecher
With anger and frustration boiling over during an August 20 public hearing, the Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 Board of Commissioners voted to postpone action on a proposed 57 percent tax rate increase to support its transition to operating its own ambulances rather than contracting with an outside provider. The new tax rate would cause a 73% increase in the actual tax bill of the average homestead will pay.
Former Devine mayor and county commissioner Jerry Beck and Natalia ISD board president Eric Smith among a room full of others were very concerned in the often heated opposition to both the tax increase and the revamp of ambulance service.
“We didn’t know you were going to raise our taxes until it came out in the newspaper the other day,” Beck said. “We wanted to ask, number one, why, but it’s already been decided. You’ve already fired the contract company. You’ve already hired new people.”
Video coverage of the ESD4 public hearing is posted on the Devine News YouTube channel.
Friction was also apparent between board president Anthony Martin and board treasurer Juan Zamora over the issue of whether…

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Cruz control!

Devine Arabian setter Kyndie Cruz was honored for having reached 1,000 career assists. Quick on her feet, she sets up one kill after another for her team.

Junior Kynedie Cruz dished up her 1,000th career assist in Devine’s match versus Ingram August 20.
There is still a lot of playing time left over the next two seasons, so watch for this number to possibly double by the time it is all said and done.

First auto in Devine-1905- created quite a “stir”

This was the first reported automobile to have been driven through Devine, and it surely created quite a “stir”!

By Nancy Saathoff
Just imagine the excitement, curiosity, and maybe a little fear that this Packard Touring Car might have brought to the dusty streets of Devine in 1905.
Can you imagine the curious looks when seeing an automobile for the very first time? On July 3rd, 1905, perhaps the first automobile that ever ran on the streets of Devine was viewed by a number of citizens who had never seen an automobile before! This early Packard Touring Car must have been a wild spectacle, not just for them, but probably for the horses too! Those were still horse and buggy days in Devine at that time and even though the horses were accustomed to the trains, this was something different! The trains stayed on their own tracks, but for the horses, this vehicle roamed on “their” streets!
Editor R. Peterson and E.B. Baker, a prominent cotton buyer, drove their auto all the way from Paris, Texas with their sights set on heading to Mexico City! Paris was in Lamar, County, in northeast Texas on the Red River, so that was quite a trip planned for them. They were out…

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Last holiday of summer 

Last holiday of summer 

 My weekend was pretty quiet. My sister ad I spent part of Friday in Cuero, checking out a little boutique that we had gift certificates to. It was nice and had plenty of sizes for everyone. Looking at their stock, I came to the conclusion that cute little dresses were back in style. They are perfect for the 20 to 30 age brackets, but not for this granny! The hem lines are mostly just above the knees, and they are floaty and perfect for this time of the year.  

This coming Monday is Labor Day. This is the only holiday that has always been on Monday, so therefore it has not fallen to the changes that some of our other holidays have. It is still celebrated on the first Monday of September, just as it has been for many years.

The Knights of Labor in New York City first celebrated Labor Day in 1882 and 1884. Labor Day is now a legal holiday throughout the United States and Canada. It is just about midway between July 4th and Thanksgiving, which is why the first Monday of September, was chosen as this holiday.

Labor Day has always signaled the official end of summer fun. In the past, school always began the Tuesday following Labor Day. This no longer holds true in most school districts, with some having begun classes a couple of weeks ago, with teachers having to go in for workshops and such a week earlier.  Many families plan their last get-together of the summer, their last trip to the lake or coast, or their last camp out for Labor Day weekend.

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Things & Stuff

On Friday, we got rain…sprinkled for about 45 seconds but, it sounded good and smelled good…hit the concrete driveway and evaporated. Evidently, there is a few more praying for rain but, not enough.

I went to the EMS meeting on the 20th, along with about 18 or 15 others and was witness to an unorganized, sham of a meeting that had several folks wondering if it was even legal. I’m gonna leave this alone because the newspaper was there and will expound on it in depth. According to one of the posted notices on the window of the meeting room was the phrase “the people of MCESD #4 have spoken”. I don’t think that this is an accurate statement.

Also went to the Commissioners Court meeting on Monday and attempted to address my concerns with the increase in the Tax Rate using my own math calculations. Using numbers from Tax Central (told Melissa Lutz that I wouldn’t use her name) I came up with a $79,055 net gain for Medina County using the new rate of 0.4511 per $100 valuation instead of the current rate of $.4356. My thoughts were leave it the same. Don’t know if they will or not but, I went and spoke up.

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Weekly Crime report, and upcoming Lytle events…Mark your calendars for the Homecoming Night Parade Sept 21st

 Throughout Lytle P.D. last week … Officers handled 48 calls for service and conducted 48 traffic stops. Of those 48 stops, 29 resulted in citations and 19 were warnings.
We did not have any property crimes reported last week! No thefts, no burglaries, and no criminal mischief.
        Officers made five arrests last week. #1– Officers responded to the Pecan Grove Apts. (14900 Main St.) for a report of a disturbance. A 19-year-old male was arrested for Assault Causing Bodily Injury (family member). #2 – A report of suspicious activity near the intersection of Wisdom Rd. and Norvell St., resulted in the arrest of a 30-year-old male who provided false identifying information to the officer. #3 – A traffic stop on Main St. resulted in the arrest of a 37-year-old male for an active felony narcotics warrant out of Bexar Co. #4 – Bexar Co. S.O. met one of our officers and turned over a 22-year-old male who had an active warrant out of our department (he fled on foot a couple of months back.) #5 – A traffic stop on Main St. resulted in the arrest of a 21-year-old male for possession of marijuana and unlawfully carrying a weapon. All the arrestees were booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail in Jourdanton.

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