DAM B – Glen Kenney, who has served as the longtime public relations officer for the Dam B Community Watch (DBCW), recently announced his retirement from the position. In Kenney’s place, the community watch group elected Capt. Tom Tray to take the reins as the new public relations officer.
“I’ve been an officer in the Community Watch for the last seven years, either as public relations officer or president,” Kenney said. “It’s time for me to slow down, and for new leadership to take over.”
Kenney addressed the group at a recent meeting, and the DBCW current president Sallie Odom thanked him for his many years of service. “Glen Kenney has been an amazing public relations officer because of his willingness to go out and meet with our elected officials and become their friend,” she said.
She added that Kenney’s sense of humor and his willingness to promote the group as a positive outreach effort has contributed to its success. The DBCW was formed in 2017 and is one of the longest tenured community watch groups in the state, and the only one in Tyler County.
It began with a group of concerned Dam B residents, in order to raise awareness of the problems caused by crime and drug use in the area.
The group’s mission statement includes the text that it aims to “help make Dam B a safer and more attractive community in which to live.”
Kenney said that he is still going to be an active member within the group’s ranks. Odom said “I told him I would be keeping him on ‘speed dial’,” and added that she is not only thankful to have Kenney as a member of the watch group, but also as a friend.
Kenney said his initial involvement with the group came about out of curiosity – he saw many cars parked at a church where the meetings were held and decided to attend a meeting and join. “Our original president had decided to write a letter to the editor of the Booster and passed it around for us to read. It was a grammatical nightmare. I asked if I could perhaps tidy it up, and he reluctantly agreed.”
Kenney said his expert editorial eye got him a shooin job within the organization as its public relations officer, which he had been doing since he announced his retirement.
He said that some of the accomplishments that the watch group has fought for in the Dam B community were the stop sign at the US 190 and FM 92 intersection. “We were the only ones fighting for a stop sign and caution light,” after several fatal accidents at the intersection, he said.
“I am very pleased that we haven’t had a single fatality accident since the sign went up,” he said.
The group has also supported several service-based efforts in the county and has provided scholarships for graduating high school seniors.
Kenney added that it also fought hard against a potential meat packing plant coming to the county in 2018, as well as a halfway house at an old motel in Dam B.
The DBCW meets at 6 p.m. each Thursday, normally at the Hilltop Baptist Church, and once every other month at Fairview Baptist Church. Meeting dates, locations and speakers are listed on the group’s Facebook page. Members of the public are encouraged to attend.
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