THE LIBERTY
GAZETTE
Liberty County’s Only Home-Owned Newspaper
Vol. 54, No. 50
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Brown resigns from
Dayton council,
replaced by Barton
Agenda
SHARE YOUR SPIRIT
NEW YEAR’S EVE
DANCE
LIBERTY - Put on
your dancing shoes and
dance the night away at
the Share Your Spirit New
Year’s Eve Dance, Wed.,
Dec. 31, from 8 p.m. to - 1
a.m. at Immaculate Conception Church’s Marion
Hall at 411 Milam. Zydeco in the New Year and
help fill the van for Spirit
of Sharing. For more information, please call
832-477-7314.
LIBERTY COUNTY
A&M CLUB
GIVE BACK NIGHT
LIBERTY - Visit
Chili’s restaurant anytime during regular business hours Tues., Dec. 30,
and Chili’s will donate 10
percent of your total meal
cost to the Liberty County
A&M Club. Please be
sure to write “Liberty
County A&M Club” on
your ticket for the club to
receive credit. Proceeds
will be used in part to
provide funds for scholarships for graduates from
Liberty County high
schools to attend Texas
A&M University.
SHRLRC TO CLOSE
TEMPORARILY FOR
RENOVATIONS
LIBERTY - The Sam
Houston Regional Library and Research Center will be closed for
renovations through January 1, 2015, as part of
the Texas State Library
and Archives Commission’s (TSLAC) multiyear plan to address
critical safety and security needs at the 127-acre
museum complex. The
Center is located at 650
FM 1011. For more information, please call (936)
336-8821
or
visit
www.tsl.texas.gov/shc/.
THE ROSE
DAYTON - The Rose
will bring its on-site mammography screening services to the Dayton
Community Center Fri.,
Jan. 30, 2015, between the
hours of 9 a.m. and 3:30
p.m. For more information, call The Rose at 281464-5174 or the Dayton
Community Center at
936-258-6630.
LOST ARTS CLUB
LIBERTY - Join the
Lost Art Club and enjoy
learning needlecraft skills
while you chat with new
friends. The Lost Arts
Club meets every Tuesday
at 10 a.m. at the Liberty
Municipal Library. Club
members enjoy embroidering, knitting, crocheting and other skills. New
members are always welcome and there is no cost
to join. For more information, call the Liberty
Municipal Library at
936-336-8901. The library
is located inside the
Geraldine D. Humphreys
Cultural Center at 1710
Sam Houston Avenue.
DOMINOES
KENEFICK - The
Kenefick Civic Center has
dominoes every Tuesday at
11:30 a.m. and anyone is
welcome to sit in on the
fun. For additional information, contact Mary Alice
Parker at 936-257-0328.
The Kenefick Civic Center
is located on FM 2797.
Historian, writer Kevin Ladd departs this life at 60
There’s just nothing like a couple of silly reindeer to put you in the Christmas mood at the Jingle Bell Ball, held at
the Liberty Elks Lodge, Sat., Dec. 13. At left is Tammy McManus with Greg Edwards.
Kevin Randall Ladd, age 60
of Hardin, went to be with the
Lord on December 15, 2014, in
Houston, with his loving family
by his side. Kevin was born August 16, 1954, in Liberty, son of
Louis Hal Ladd and Laverne
Walters Ladd. He graduated from
Hardin High School in 1972 and
then went on to attend college at
Lee College in Baytown and
Lamar University where he
earned a double major in English
and history. Kevin worked in
Liberty and Chambers Counties
where he was involved with the
historical commissions of both
counties. He also worked closely
with the Liberty Gazette as well
as other newspapers and local
radio across the area providing
articles and historical information for Liberty and Chamber
Counties. He served numerous
organizations which included Liberty and Thicket Magazines
Liberty County CPS, Family in 1988 and was the 2005 recipiOutreach president for over ten ent of the Liberty Citizen of the
years, Liberty
Year Award. He
and Chambers
last served as DiCounty Historirector of the Walcal Commislisville Heritage
sions for twenty
Park. His interest
years, Hardin
was in history
School Board,
and genealogy
CAD
Board,
and he had a gentrustee for Haruine care and
din Scholarship
concern more for
Fund and Presihis fellow man
dent of Friends
than himself.
of the Library.
Kevin was
Kevin was also
preceded in death
involved in the
by his father,
LADD
Liberty and AnaLouis Hal Ladd;
huac Cemetery Tours and wrote grandparents, John and Dorothy
stats and stories for Hardin foot- Ladd, Elmer Walters, Annie Walball games. Kevin was the win- ters Brooks and Jessie Brooks;
ner of the “People Who Make a uncles, J.C. Ladd, E.W. Walters,
Difference” award presented by Arthur Barrow; aunts, Wilma
LISD Education Foundation announces grant winners
LIBERTY - The Liberty ISD
Education Foundation is pleased
to announce the selection of this
year’s grant winners. Six applications were submitted to the
Foundation’s grant committee
and from those six, three were
chosen for funding. Selected as
grant recipients are Cindy Van
Etta from Liberty Elementary
School, Charlotte Tarbell from
Liberty High School and Melissa
Waller from Liberty Middle
School.
Since the inception of the
Foundation in 2007, 55 grants
totaling $164,575 have been
awarded to teachers and students
at Liberty ISD campuses. This
grant cycle, $10,861.34 was
awarded through the Liberty ISD
Education Foundation for various projects that are listed below
by campus:
KWL strategy and advanced
technology to plan, edit and produce their own designs.
Liberty High School,
Grades 9-12
Charlotte Tarbell, teacher
LHS Art Bike Club – This
$2,942.37 grant will help create
opportunities for students to design and build art bikes combining art (kinetic sculpture) and
fabrication. Students will work
individually and as teams to support their curriculum goals.
These grants are funded
through contributions to the Liberty ISD Education Foundation
by individual donors, businesses,
corporations and community
service organizations as well as
through profits from fundraising
concerts. This specific round of
STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math) grants
was made possible by the Miles
Foundation, along with many
private individuals.
See FOUNDATION, Page A-3
Barrow, Lucille King and cousin
Wayne Barrow. He leaves behind
to cherish his memory, wife,
Christi Gruver Ladd; mother,
Laverne Ladd; sister, Terri Andreason and husband Mark;
nephews, Adam and Stephen Andreason; aunts, Karol Walters
and Nora Lee Ladd; great aunt
Marie Vavrusa; in-laws, Lee and
Linda Gruver and brother-in-law
Lee Gruver Jr.
Services for Kevin Randall
Ladd were Friday, December
19, 2014, at First Baptist
Church in Liberty at 2 p.m.
with burial following at Hardin
Chapel Cemetery. In lieu of
flowers, the family requests donations be made in Kevin’s
memory to the Kevin Ladd Memorial Fund at Security State
Bank. Condolences can be
made online to www.allisonfuneralservice.com.
If you would like to assist with Kevin’s medical
and funeral expenses, contributions may be made to
the Kevin Ladd Memorial
Fund at any of the three Security State Bank locations:
• In Liberty; 1302 N.
Main, Liberty, TX 77575.
• In Dayton: 501 N. Cleveland, Dayton, TX 77575.
• In Anahuac: P.O. Box
429, Anahuac, TX 77514.
If you are making a
cash donation, please give
your name and address.
DAYTON - At the regular
council meeting last week the
Dayton City Council accepted
the resignation of Councilman Dale Brown effective
Dec. 10. Troy Barton was
proposed and accepted as a
replacement for the remainder
of Brown’s term; Barton was
sworn in the following day.
Appointments to the Dayton Community Development
Corporation (DCDC) board
were considered with Lana
McCarty, Frosty Pruitt and
Glen Hajovsky being appointed to the board. Terri
Beene will be an advisory
member.
With the recent approval
of liquor sales in the city of
Dayton,
councilmembers
considered permit fees for the
sale of alcohol. City Manager
David Douglas noted that
nearby cities such as Humble
and Baytown charged onehalf of the Texas Alcoholic
Beverage Commission fee
and councilmembers agreed
that that seemed like a good
plan.
Next up was a discussion of
the one-way traffic during certain hours on Entzminger
Street. City Manager David
Douglas mentioned that there
had been interest in the tract of
land at the corner of FM 1409
and Entzminger for a possible
retirement center, but the oneway traffic situation would be a
problem for them. He said that
he had spoken to Dayton ISD
about making the street twoway again and they were agreeable. City council members
were also agreeable with this
and plans were made to switch
out pertinent street signs.
Council then moved on to
a discussion concerning the
construction of a Public
Safety facility which would
house both the fire department and police departments.
Several options were mentioned involving the 12-acre
tract that the city currently
owns on Hwy. 321. A budget
of $7 million was approved
with no tax increase needed
to service this debt. City
Manager David Douglas will
head a committee that will
explore different options and
would seek to be as economical as possible.
Liberty Elementary School,
Grades 2-5
Cindy Van Etta, teacher
We Learn with WeDo Lego
Construction Sets – This
$3,266.35 grant creates an opportunity to challenge students
in grades 2-5, to use higher-order
thinking skills to engineer and
construct projects using Lego
construction materials including
motors, sensors, laptops and
software.
Liberty Middle School,
Grades 6-8
Melissa Waller, teacher
Printing a New Dimension to
the Student Experience – This
$4,652.62 grant will help create
opportunities for students to design and build items using a 3D
printer. Students will use the
LIBERTY ISD EDUCATION FOUNDATION MAKES SURPRISE PRESENTATIONS
Grant recipient Cindy Van Etta is pictured with some of her students who will be receiving a grant for the WeDo
Lego Construction. Members of the Liberty ISD Education Foundation made the surprise presentation on December
15. Additional photos on Page A-3.
– Photo courtesy Bruce Wright