H High school h hoops action Sports, 8 S
Remember to thank a Veteran and Serviceman every day!
$1.00 Vol. 162, No. 1 COLORADO RIVER at Columbus
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coloradocountycitizen.com
Challenge academy will see more students in ’19 West campus consolidating to Eagle Lake BY MARK HEITMAN
STAGE
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FLOW
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Levels are as of 10:40 Monday, Dec. 30, 2018.
AROUND WEIMAR
St. Nick makes rounds
24 pages, 2 inserts
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
reporter@coloradocountycitizen.com
EAGLE LAKE – The Texas Challenge Academy, a Texas Military Department program that helps at-risk teens earn their high school diplomas, has announced it will close its
TCA-West campus in Sheffield and consolidate that location with TCA-East in Eagle Lake, a move expected a significant increase in the number of students enrolled at the east campus, which is affiliated with Rice Consolidated Independent School District.
Enrollment at the Texas Challenge Academy-East campus in Eagle Lake could increase by as many as 150 to 200 students at the TCA facility, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Military Department in Austin. “Closing the Texas Challenge Academy-West campus at Sheffield and expanding the capacity at our Eagle Lake campus
will ensure Texans have access to this vital and successful program, which has graduated more than 3,000 students since 1999,” a spokesperson at the Texas Military Department of Public Affairs Office in Austin said in a statement to The Citizen.
■ ACADEMY, 7
NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR
2018
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St. Nicholas made the holiday round in Weimar with the St. Nicholas Ministry, 17.
AROUND COLUMBUS
Hospital has no plans for land
Columbus Community Hospital recently made a land acquisition, 18.
APPLAUSE
ISB Gives bears, books
Industry State Bank recently gave customers books and bears for the holiday, 5.
A LOOK BACK
I
Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a two-part series wrapping up 2018 in The Colorado County Citizen. Last week, we brought you the top 20 stories of 2018. This year, we bring you our 2018 Newsmakers of the Year.
n 2018, men and women from across Colorado County made news in a variety of ways. Some gave of their time and talents to volunteer for a cause, some assumed new positions of leadership, and some
took on large projects. Others made news when their actions gave us hope, or because their planning for the future inspired us. For the first time, The Colorado County Citizen has elected to recognize those in-
dividuals who made the news in Colorado County for making a positive impact on their communities, by naming those individuals, “Newsmakers of the Year.”
■ NEWSMAKERS, 2
JERRY MIKESKA
County’s barbecue king fed troops during WWII BY BOB LOWE Special To The Citizen
Electric co-ops and more top the headlines at our last look back at 1968, 1918, 1943 before we begin our look at a new set of years, 3.
ALSO INSIDE A Look Back ...............................................3 Amusements ...........................................16 Applause ...................................................5 Around The County ....................................6 Church Page ............................................15 Classifieds ...............................................22 Sports ................................................. 8-10 Police & Courts ........................................19 Recipes....................................................20 Viewpoints ...............................................4
Jerry Mikeska was one of nine children born on his family’s farm, a few miles outside of Taylor in 1923. He was the fifth child of six sons and three daughters. He and all of his siblings helped their parents farm cotton and corn and raise cattle. They owned no tractors and used a plow pulled by a mule to work the fields and picked cotton by hand. Jerry and his brothers and sisters went to Taylor’s only school, and completed grades one through seven. After the seventh grade, at age 14, Jerry found a job at a
Jerry greeting Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson at a political function he catered in Washington DC. meat market in Taylor. Jerry managed to scrape up
$50 to buy a used four-door Terraplane automobile to get back and forth to work. He began learning the skill he would use for the rest of his life. His boss was pleased with his work as a butcher. One day while at work, Jerry watched a man come into the meat market who approached his boss and said, “I have a wife and two kids, and I desperately need a job. You should let that young boy go and hire me!” To Jerry’s surprise, his boss responded, “Sorry I can’t help you, I have no reason to fire the young man, he is a hard worker. Besides, I only pay him $1 a day and that would not support you and your family.”
By the time he was 19 in 1942, World War II had begun, and Jerry anticipated receiving a draft notice. He decided enlisting would give him a better chance to enter the U. S. Army Air Corps, so he went to Houston and enlisted. He reported to Ellington Air Force Base, just outside of Houston. From there he was sent to Coffeeville, Kan. and assigned to the mess hall, working as a meat cutter, because of his experience as a butcher. Soon, he volunteered to serve overseas. Working as a cook, Jerry was promoted to
■ MIKESKA, 7
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