Shelby County Today

January 6, 2015 - Janet Hughes, a former resident of Center, has had 2 of her photographs selected for the “Focus on Photography – Perspectives” show that will debut on January 10, 2015. The exhibit will include photographers from the Mid-South Region. The judge will be O.Rufus Lovett, head of the Kilgore College photography department as well as a well published photographer. The Longview Museum of Fine Arts is providing a venue for photographic artists to exhibit their work in a museum setting. The scope of work is intended to show varied aspects of the photographic art form. From traditional to digital, all photographic techniques, subject matter, and styles are welcome.

The pieces accepted for the show were from a trip last fall to Ridgeway, Colorado. They are classic landscapes taken in the same area where the 1969 movie “True Grit” was shot.

Janet is very excited to have been accepted into this show. While she has won several awards, including Best of Show in the Adult category at the East Texas Poultry Festival last year, this is the first time her work has hung in a museum. The show will run January 10-February 21. The museum has free admission on Fridays (http://www.lmfa.org/)

Janet is currently President of the Piney Woods Photographic Society in Center. The club meets once a month to critique each other’s work as well as learn new shooting and editing techniques. For more information about the club visit the website at www.pineywoodsphoto.com

December 29, 2014 - City of Center and Drewery Construction workers have been making repairs on Monday, December 29, 2014 to the end of Riggs Street at the intersection with Shelbyville Street and separately to the end of Runnels Street at the intersection with Austin Street just off the Center square.

Chad Nehring, City Manager, explained the work is being done in these areas on valley gutters where rainwater historically has ponded since TxDOT did some work on these streets. The workers are attempted to remedy this ponding situation and are planning to pour concrete tomorrow on Tuesday, December 30, 2014.

Riggs Street will remain closed until sometime Tuesday, December 30, 2014 for gas line work before reopening. The street is expected to also be closed for several days on the following week.

December 22, 2014 - The United Pentecostal Church of Center and the Shelby County Attorney’s office jointly held a party for deserving children in connection with the annual Shelby County Attorney’s toy drive.

We are pleased to announce that the party was a huge success. This year we were able to give gifts to over 400 very deserving children at the party and our office. The United Pentecostal church members once again did a fantastic job providing decorations, food, entertainment and tee shirts for the children. The County Attorney and staff would like to thank the Community for all the generous donations. Thanks to you these children will have a very Merry Christmas!

Pictured are some of the wrapped toys that were given out at the party and some of the kids and their parents who attended the party.

December 19, 2014 - JC Lewis Contractors/Managers held a Christmas Open House and relocation ribbon cutting on Thursday, December 18, 2014. Members of the community and the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce (SCCOC) Ambassadors were present to share in this event.

Pam Phelps, SCCOC Executive Director, welcomed all present and introduced Jerry Lewis, owner of the company. She remarked on his and his wife Brandy Lewis' involvement in the community and on their volunteer work.

Different members of the company were introduced by Lewis as well as his wife, who he explained handles a great deal of the unassigned duties at the company. The employees introduced included: Tracy Murph, accounts payable; Jerrod Fleming, estimator/IT/project management; Bambi Wilburn, accounts receivable/project clerk. Lewis stated there are a host of people working for the company in the field handling projects all over the state into Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Lewis spoke some about the company, what kind of work they do and where they are currently working, "Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas are the four states that we currently work in and center all our activities in. That's kind of what we do, we build multi-family housing and custom residential homes along with sub-divisions. So we come in and plat the entire development, build all of the infrastructure, put in the streets, build the homes and either turn the homes over to our clients or sell the homes to our clients, depending on the delivery."

City, state and local governments make up some of the clientelle of JC Lewis and an example of this is working in Tilden which is south of San Antonio, "We're building a sub-division for the school district there. So it's very unique our approach of a lot of things, something you wouldn't see very often, but it's been very effective for us and we've kind of filled a niche that our clients couldn't find to be filled," said Lewis.

Light commercial is another construction category which the company handles and Lewis described the Timpson Library project and various other commercial projects in the surrounding states. He also stated a hospital project in Logansport, La. which JC Lewis will be a part is in the planning stage at this time. The School of Architecture at LSU was also a renovation project which the company has completed.

Followin the introduction, a ribbon cutting was held at the front of the facility and those present took a tour of the facility while enjoying refreshments.