Shelby County Today

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November 10, 2016 - Texas Quick Care, PLLC. received a warm welcome in Joaquin on Haslam Strip Wednesday, November 9, 2016 as they celebrated their grand opening with a ribbon cutting event.

Members of the community from both sides of the river including Joaquin's City Councilmembers and Mayor and Logansport's Mayor and Mayor Elect were part of the crowd of excited attendees of the celebration as well as Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.

Jessica Hopkins, Practice Manager, LVN thanked everyone for attending the grand opening.

"This has been a long time coming and I know everybody has waited and waited and waited for this grand opening and here it is. We're just so grateful that you guys are out and we can't wait to take care of you and take care of the community," said Hopkins.

She introduced Christine Owens, FNP, provider for the facility and Dr. Mark Mettauer, Cardiologist and owner.

Dr. Mettauer extended his appreciation to Bill Baker, Joaquin Mayor, for the invitation to be in Joaquin and working with their schedule. He said when he spoke with the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce last year, he did so with the expectation of opening multiple clinics in East Texas, mainly in Shelby County where he is from.

"What I do for a living, being a heart surgeon, you really kind of have to be in a big area, big city to be supported and also to be good at what you do," said Dr. Mettauer.

Taking care of patients in the Shelby County area, friends and his family is part of what Dr. Mettauer says is an added motivation to being a business owner in Shelby County.

"That's really what I love doing and when I'm at St. Luke's in the Woodlands, which is really their second biggest hospital in Texas now, they always talk about how really great the people are from East Texas," said Dr. Mettauer.

He spoke of when he was a child living in Shelby County and how far away health providers were, being over an hour and 15 minutes away.

"I just want to do my little part to help take care of the folks back here, because rural East Texas is in sore need of some good care and we just thank Christine for being a good product to this community and giving back to the community, and that's what I would like to do here as well," said Dr. Mettauer.

Mayor Baker shared his appreciation of Texas Quick Care for having established itself in Joaquin, "On behalf of the city of Joaquin we welcome you, we are so happy you're here. It did have a few bumps, but it's finally here and we've got Christine a local P.A. that's going to help a lot. Somebody told me it was 1950s since we've had a doctor in Joaquin. Hopefully we can grow from here. This is our first step in trying to provide healthcare, make people want to stay in Joaquin, make people want to retire in Joaquin."

"I'm beyond excited, it's where I've always wanted to be, it's what I've always wanted to do. So, I knew going off to Shreveport and Natchitoches to study for the last seven years at Pineland finally paid off. So, I'm just excited to be able to help out my community," said Owens.

Frances J. Freeman, Ph.D., spoke on behalf of the Logansport Chamber of Commerce in recognition of the business opening.

"We've got three mayors here today to help you cut. We've got our outgoing mayor from Logansport and our newly elected mayor of Logansport and of course the mayor of Joaquin, all three of them here. We are representing coalition between Joaquin and Logansport, we are two towns separated by a lot of good rivalry and a river and two states, but economically and in terms of getting married, knowing people, we are very closely related. The more we work together I think the more we can both accomplish for our people, and we've been really pleased at all we've been doing this last year," said Freeman.

Texas Quick Care, PLLC. is located at 12815 U.S. Highway 84 East in Joaquin. Their phone number is 936-269-3210 and their office hours are Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm.

November 10, 2016 - CASA representative, Lindsey Welch, gave an informative program to the Delta Gamma members for their October meeting at Lynne Locke's, in Center.  

These key women educators will make donations to CASA for their project in November.

November 9, 2016 - Recently, Center Garden Club members met at the home of Carolyn Bounds to participate in a hands-on hypertufa workshop.

Members mixed Portland cement, peat moss, perlite, sand, and water to create the hypertufa which they ultimately molded into various garden pots, troughs, stones, and ornaments. Everyone enjoyed this outdoor activity and will continue to enjoy their hypertufa creations for many years.

Those who participated in the hypertufa workshop  are Robbie Kerr, Cherry Jones, Alison Scull, Carolyn Bounds, Jackie Hancock, Judy Matthews, and Lisa Albers.  Also participating but not pictured were Peggie Williams and Rachel Campbell.

November 4, 2016 (More Photos) - The Shelby County Cruisers hosted their annual Trunk or Treat in the parking lot of First Baptist Church of Center Halloween day. A large crowd of Halloween trick-or-treaters visited the decorated vehicles of the Cruisers which included a pirate's treasure trove, a 50s rock cafe, 'Beware Cove', a giant spider's lair with a rat's skeleton visible, a good witches cauldron, a friendly fall pumpkin patch, a cheetah enchantress and the lone skeleton island.

During the event, a pirate left his treasure trove and was taunting wayfarers until a mighty ninja turtle stood his ground bringing about a standoff between the two. Neither gave up their stance but both decided to part ways without the clashing of weapons and the pirate returned to his cruiser and the ninja turtle continued his quest for treats.