Category: Events

Briana Balderrama and Angeliana Rendon- Zapata, Devine FCCLA members, are aiming to increase the number of people in our community and surrounding areas who read during their leisure time, because many people are unaware of the mental and physical benefits that come along with reading.
To get their project started, on November  1, 2025, they participated in Devine’s fall parade and festival by throwing over 500 pieces of candy with their information, an insert of a children’s book character, and a quote, “Help us lead the community with the power of pages!” Next, on November 10, 2025, they visited the elementary school library and read/performed Eric Litwin’s Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons as a puppet show to a first-grade and a kindergarten class. To let the 43 students have some fun with the activity, they had the children create their own brown paper bag puppet to take home.
You can follow the girls’ social media platform, the_powerofpages, which currently has 129 followers.

Devine Juniors, Rolando Garcia and Jaden Rodriguez, are on a mission this year to teach others about their STAR event, ‘5% Mentality’. The goal of this project is to introduce the concept at Devine High School to help students build discipline and stay motivated. Rodriguez stated, “Many people abandon their goals due to procrastination, a lack of discipline, or the belief that their dreams are impossible.” The 5% Mentality helps students overcome procrastination by focusing on small, achievable daily actions that contribute to long-term success.
To keep other high school students motivated, the team started to deliver weekly motivational announcements to reinforce consistency and daily improvement. They began these in November and will continue them throughout the year during the campus morning announcements. The duo created inspirational messages to attach to the candy they threw from the Devine FCCLA float during the fall parade. They created posters to post around the high school campus so that those participating in the 5% Mentality can be reminded to keep working toward their goals. In January, the boys presented to middle school classes to help younger students start setting goals now and create the mindset to achieve them at a younger age.
Garcia and Rodriguez plan to create post-surveys for the participants to measure their progress on their goals. They are also planning to create a digital resource hub for students to track their 5% progress to keep them motivated to keep going.

Devine High School FCCLA members Brooke Dubose and Camila Sierra are educating our community on proper personal hygiene practices, including handwashing, oral care, and skincare, to reduce illness and promote overall wellness.
On November 13 and 18, 2025, the duo visited Devine Middle School to present to the P.E. students and Coach Beaty’s Health and Wellness classes about the importance of social and personal hygiene. After the presentations, they played Jeopardy and handed out 50 goodie bags to students who answered their questions correctly. The team also created 300 QR codes and received 500 hand sanitizers to distribute at all the events held.
Their project ‘Stay Fresh, Stay Confident’ has 100 followers on Instagram and has reached nearly 250 people so far.

HARTS (Huajilla Area Retired Teachers and Staff) will meet Monday, January 26, at 10 am at Sammy’s Restaurant in Castroville. 2025 Volunteer Hours are due; Member Memorial and Special Program.
Please check Facebook or contact your caller for details on menu options.

By Anton Riecher
With a full quorum of five commissioners seated for the first time in many months, the Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 board of commissioners conferred on establishing goals for the coming year during its Jan. 14 meeting.
In the new board’s first major action, Brenda Butler, named as the new board secretary, was asked by board president Steve Smith to develop recommendations for an overall plan for better outreach to the public to communicate ESD4 activities.
“Each time, good or bad, something comes in from the field, we need to be able to get that out and communicate it right away and make sure (the public) understands what is going on,” Smith said. “If we screw something up, then we say ‘Hey, we messed this up, here is where we are at.’”
Butler, appointed to fill a temporary term last year, was named by the county commissioners to a full two-year term on the board. Joining her as new board members are Patrick Bourcier, a previous board member, and Debbie Randall, a former member of the Devine City Council.
Each board member was polled on what position they felt best suited to fill. Smith said he would like to continue for another term as board president.
“There are some things I’d like to get done over the next year that I don’t think I can do in another role,” Smith said.
In the end, each board member won appointment to the position they listed as their first choice. Bourcier said he felt he could contribute best in the vice president position.
“I’ve been involved in the ESD side of this since pretty much the beginning,” he said. “After reviewing the financial report I’ve got to tell you I was excited and happy. I’ve never seen a better set of financial reports.”
A financial report presented by board treasurer Patrick DuBose showed the ESD holding $1.027 million in funds, including $372,744 in money market accounts, $236,223 in operating funds, $126,280 in savings and $340,000 earned from property tax.
Sales tax…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinenewsmembers.com. You will get instant access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!

Kathleen Calame
Publisher, The Devine News
Crews for AEP Texas have been busy working around Devine the past few months upgrading infrastructure by replacing aging electric poles and wires, doing enhanced vegetation control by aggressive tree trimming and cleaning along power line right of ways, as well as adding new technologies. All to improve overall grid reliability for South and West Texas customers, aimed to shorten outages due to extreme weather, and reduce wildfire risks. They also aim to strengthen the grid for faster power restoration and greater resilience.
In Devine they are upgrading poles and the feeder wire between the substations. Devine is part of a very important corridor with large transmission lines to Pearsall which feeds a lot of power to West Texas and Laredo. Work can be seen on Colonial Parkway, Brown, and main streets Hwy 132 (Teel Drive), and West Hondo Ave (Hwy 173), to name a few.
The area has experienced a lot of population growth, and the $318 million dollar 3-year resiliency plan should help address that and as well as help crews bounce back quickly after a storm with the hardened infrastructure and new technology. The following press releases give additional details:
AEP Texas Advances Resiliency Plan for Stronger Electric Grid
September 22, 2025 AEP Texas continues to make progress on its three-year resiliency plan to strengthen the electric grid and improve its resiliency and reliability for customers across South and West Texas. Contractors have successfully replaced 765 poles and restrung miles of wire in the last few months, and continue focusing on vegetation management.
With engineering efforts nearing 90 percent completion for this year’s projects, the number of active crews will expand to 55 by the end of the year. This ramp-up supports AEP Texas’s 2025 goal of replacing 3,700 poles and 76 miles of wire to meet resiliency standards.
Another area of the resiliency plan focuses on vegetation management. AEP Texas continues its focus clearing vegetation in its rights-of-way to reduce outages caused by tree contact. “Over the next three years, more than…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinenewsmembers.com. You will get instant access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!

Tuesday, 01/13/26, The Current Events Club had their monthly meeting hosted by Sarah McAlpin, Judy Eaddy, Cathy Mechler, Miriam Lopez, Debbie Randall and Sessie Franceschini. The program for the day was an overview of events held by the Driscoll Public Library given by Stacy Pyron. Many events are open to the public and some are held for age specific. They have crafting after hours, Lego club, planner club, story time for children, and sit & stitch.
The meeting attendees also held discussion how Wreaths Across America went in December. The wreaths were removed on January 10th.
The next meeting will be February 10, 2026, if you are interested in attending, please contact Linda Kreinhop 713-562-7504.

By Anton Riecher
By a 4-0 vote, the Lytle City Council amended the drought fee utility rate schedule originally passed in August to discourage high usage during periods of mandatory water restrictions.
City Administrator Zachary Meadows told the council at its Jan. 12 meeting that the city staff grew concerned that the amounts charged in the lowest tiers of the drought fee schedule might have an adverse effect on customers.
“It really wasn’t fair across the board when you really look at the numbers,” Meadows said. “What I really think the main objective tonight should be is coming up with a more equitable charge across the board.”
A drought fee is an additional fee imposed by a city-owned water utility on customers during severe water shortages, designed to discourage high water usage and enforce conservation. Under Stage 4 restrictions, the fee for between 3,001-to10,000 gallons is $25, rising by tiers to $250 for over 100,000 gallons.
Under the amended structure proposed by Meadows the drought fee for 3,001-to-10,000 gallons of water used would drop from $25 to $5. From 10,001-to-25,000 gallons the fee will drop from $30 to $10. However, the additional charge for 25,000-to-50,000 would increase from $40 to $50 with further increases in the next four ascending tiers in the schedule.
Meadows said the drought fees are the result of mandatory pumping restrictions invoked on municipalities by the Edwards Aquifer Authority due to ongoing drought conditions.
“We are told we can’t use as much water and if residents and businesses continue to use more water we are going to go over (the restrictions) and we have to…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinenewsmembers.com. You will get instant access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!

to feature Medina River watershed project, restoring health of land and vegetation

The Texas Water Resources Institute, TWRI, invites stakeholders to a public meeting on implementation of the Medina River Below Diversion Lake Watershed Protection Plan, WPP, on Jan. 22 in Castroville.
The meeting will be from 1-3 p.m. at the Braden Keller Community Center, 1410 Amelia St.
Light refreshments will be provided.
“This meeting will highlight progress on the Riparian Restoration Demonstration Project in Castroville Regional Park, an important component of implementing the WPP,” said Mary Michael Zahed, TWRI program specialist, San Antonio. “Restoring degraded vegetated areas along the river, known as riparian zones, is one of our priorities.”
Meeting highlights-Local residents, landowners, city and county officials, nonprofit partners, and all interested individuals are encouraged to attend.
The agenda will feature a guest presentation by Clay Thompson, director of conservation and stewardship, Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas, on how the alliance supports the WPP through land conservation, community engagement and education.
Stakeholders will also be invited to participate in the design of a Medina River WPP logo.
“Our progress depends on collaboration,” Zahed said. “Every voice at the table helps strengthen the watershed protection plan and ensures we move forward with strategies that benefit both the river and the people who rely on it.”
Watershed basics-A common question is what a watershed is, Zahed said. A watershed is an area of land that drains or “sheds” water into a specific waterbody. All bodies of water have a watershed, and every person lives in a watershed.
Residents in the region can visit medina.twri.tamu.edu and use the watershed boundary map to find out if they live in the Medina River Below Diversion Lake Watershed. Even if they live outside the boundary, anyone interested in supporting the health and water quality of the Medina River is considered a stakeholder and is welcome to participate.
Funding for this effort is provided through a federal Clean Water Act Section 319(h) grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, administered by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board.
TWRI is a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife Research that brings together expertise from across The Texas A&M University System.
For more information, contact Zahed at mary.lipfordzahed@ag.tamu.edu or 979-314-8092.