News Article

The Kilgore College Small Business Development Center will host the first of a new series of “coffee connections” workshops for small business owners, managers and entrepreneurs called “Payroll Law 2012.”

The seminar is set for 9 to 10:30 a.m., Thursday, March 1, in the KCSBDC Boardroom, located at 911 NW Loop 281, Suite 209 (Austin Bank Building).  Fee to attend is $49 and includes all materials.

To register and to receive more information on this and all SBDC training programs, call the SBDC at (903) 757-5857 or (800) 338-7232.

For the second year in a row, student representatives of Kilgore High School have participated in the region’s Model United Nation seminars. MUN sessions took place over the week at the local Region 7 Service Center. Schools from all across East Texas sent students to participate in the event.

With about 325 in attendance, the Two-Step's live and silent auctions alone brought in $20,000 – the high-ticket item of the night, a chartered jet to New Orleans including the bidders' choice of dinner, sold for $5,000. Donor Dean Carter of Fortune Resources on the spot relisted the item, and the second competing also won a trip for an additional $5,000.

(SWEPCO) has signed long-term power purchase agreements for a total of 358.65 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy from wind projects in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Together with a 49.2-MW agreement signed by the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, SWEPCO and its affiliates have exceeded the 400-MW renewable energy commitment. The agreements will more than quadruple SWEPCO's wind energy portfolio.

"Through the Louisiana Public Service Commission's recent Renewable Energy Pilot Program and our ongoing efforts to expand our renewable energy portfolio, we were in a good position to pursue additional renewable resources at a good price for customers. I'm pleased that we could secure these agreements in a fairly short time frame to put more wind power to work for our customers," said Venita McCellon-Allen, SWEPCO president and chief operating officer.

Kilgore Economic Development Corporation accomplished its goals in 2011, Executive Director Amanda Nobles says, and 2012 is on track for continued growth, retention and expansion of existing companies and ongoing diversification of local industry.

In its year-end report, KEDC reported working with companies with a combined job base of 1,031. That base grew by 150 jobs as those companies' combined private investment for the year exceeded $29 million. In order to entice that $29 million, KEDC spent slightly over $1.5 million in incentives.

The Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone project took significant strides forward in 2011, and early in the New Year the Kilgore City Council is poised to make a pivotal decision on the future of the development.

Bill Woodall, Kilgore News Herald publisher and chairman of the TIRZ board, said he is optimistic about the project's future. "It's taking property that was unproductive and making it productive," he said. "We're taking unproductive property and with the help of the Merritt-Wilcox companies we're creating jobs, adding a taxable asset to the tax roll."

“The city as a whole, we want to set and maintain an example of volunteerism and ensure that the spirit of volunteering permeates into the community,” (Kilgore City Manager Scott) Sellers said. “In order to facilitate that, we are working on creating a volunteer database that we’ll put online that will provide opportunities for the public to serve and volunteer, not only with projects that directly benefit the city, but any volunteer opportunity. We hope that people would utilize that service and add opportunities or monitor that to see if there’s an opportunity that will work for them as an individual, as a family or even a large service.”

A team of researchers, trained and in training, will likely descend on Kilgore next year as Stephen F. Austin State University implements a pilot program designed to gather a multifaceted picture of the city's quality of life. According to Brian Murphy, dean of SFA's College of Liberal and Applied Arts, the trend in small town America is to embrace quality of life to make communities more appealing to a wider array of outsiders.

"I was so impressed when I came here to visit," Murphy told the city council Tuesday night. "One of the reasons we approached Kilgore is because you are well on your way. What we hope to do is put those last pieces together."

My Granddad, who was born in 1903 was raised by an aunt who used to make these cookies for him. She was born in 1878 and got the recipe from her mom. It was passed down to my Grandmother Sis Spradlin who made them for us all of my life.

Amanda Nobles (Kilgore Economic Development Corporation Executive Director) took up making them for me after my grandmother passed in 1994 and to this day I have a tear or two each holiday when I taste my first Tea Cake and think about Mamaw.