Houston County News 2

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Jonathan Paul Sensat By Chris Edwards
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CROCKETT – An investigation of sexual misconduct at a Crockett massage parlor led to an arrest on Monday.

According to Crockett Police Chief Clayton Smith, investigators with CPD, along with Houston County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested 48-year-old Jonathan Paul Sensat at his home in Belott.

Smith said that the arrest was the conclusion of a month-long investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, some of which occurred while Sensat was giving massages at the Crockett business. 

It was also discovered that Sensat’s license to practice massage therapy has been expired. A search of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation database shows his license as having expired on August 31, 2020. 

Smith added that Sensat is also a licensed Texas Peace Officer but is not currently employed by any law enforcement agency.

In their investigation, Crockett Police investigators interviewed multiple victims who gave statements detailing sexual misconduct during massage sessions, and more than one victim reported that they were sexually abused by Sensat as a child.

Sensat was taken into custody and booked into the Houston County Jail. He is being held on a variety of charges, ranging from second-degree felony sexual assault and indecency with a child to a misdemeanor license violation.

His bonds were set at a combined $100K for the two second-degree felony charges.

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By Alton Porter
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CROCKETT – Members of the Houston County Hospital District board held a hearing and special meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 31, adopting a lower ad valorem tax rate for the district.

The new rate will be levied later this year, and the directors also approved the district’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021-22.

The board members, who held the hearing and meeting, at First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall in Crockett, unanimously voted to pass a motion made by Place 5 Director Roy Langford and seconded by Place 6 Director Rhonda Brown, adopting the proposed 2021 property tax rate, which is 13 cents per $100 of appraised property value.

The 2021 adopted rate is 1.315 cents, or 9.18%, lower than the 2020 adopted rate, which was 14.315 cents per $100 of appraised property value.

The action to approve this year’s tax rate was taken after members of the HCHD board discussed the matter and heard a presentation given by county Tax Assessor-Collection Laronica Wooten Smith and comments by three district residents.

The three residents who addressed the directors are former HCHD Board President Bob Grier; former US Congressman Jim Turner; and Michael Brown, board member Rhonda Brown’s husband.

Current Board President and Place 1 Director Barbara Crowson had suggested that an effective, or no-new-revenue, tax rate of 14.052 cents per $100 of appraised property value, which is also lower than the 2020 rate, be adopted. Grier and Turner spoke of the in favor of the directors adopting that rate or keeping last year’s rate.

Michael Brown spoke in favor of the proposed 13 cents per $100 of appraised property value rate which was adopted.

Smith was asked by Crowson to make the presentation she gave in order to answer questions relating to an email message she sent to the directors. According to Crowson the message regarded “what would be required if this board—based on what you (Smith) published in the Courier, where you said that the rate would be 13 cents.”

What would be the repercussions if we went with the effective tax rate?” Crowson asked in addition to asking Smith to explain the matter.

Smith had placed a notice in the Aug. 26 edition of the Courier for the hospital district directors, reporting that the 13-cents rate was proposed by them and including other related information.

“With the Information that was provided to me, there was a proposed rate of 13 cents,” Smith said. “So, that’s what I’m required to publish in the paper, and I did so.

“And there’s a form that’s required to be published in the paper. You have a notice of a meeting to vote on the rate, which is what I published in the paper. You also have a notice of public hearing of tax increase, which I did not (publish) because you’re not doing tax increases.”

Smith added, “And when you did the notice of a meeting to vote on the tax rate of 13 cents, you can go below that 13 cents, but you cannot go above it. And so, that’s why I brought two different notices so you can see why you can’t do so (go beyond a rate of 13 cents).”

In answer to another question from Crowson, asking if the directors could not go beyond that rate at all or if they just could not do so without holding another hearing, Smith said she was informed by a previous Anderson County tax collector that in such situations, governing bodies may not vote on a higher rate than what was published, but it may vote on a lower rate than what was published, such as the proposed rate that she included in the notice that she had published in the Aug. 26 issue of the Courier.

HCHD directors had discussed the two suggested 2021 rates at a hospital district board meeting held on Aug. 17 and the district’s external accountant Dick Murchison had informed Smith that the 13-cents rate received a majority vote and therefore was approved as the proposed rate by the directors present at that meeting.

In other business, a motion offered by Brown and seconded by Place 8 Director Dina Pipes to approve the district’s 2021-2022 budget also carried on a unanimous vote taken by the directors. 

Part of the projected income in the approved budget will be generated by the levy of the adopted property tax rate.

The budget’s projected tax district revenue is expected to amount to $1,593,942, assuming that 95% of a possible $1,677,834 is collected, based on the district levying of the 13-cents rate. The $1,677, 834 is the total amount of tax revenue that would be generated if all district property owners paid their taxes and 100% of revenue is collected based on the overall total of $1,290,641,422 of appraised property value in the district.

Other revenue, including $1,543,632 in rental income the district is to receive from Crockett Medical Center, will bring the district’s proposed budgeted income to a total of $3,172,359.

Total expenses requested in the budget are projected to amount to $3,356,186, which is $183,827 more than projected income.

The directors anticipate the district will have projected cash totaling $503,957 on Oct. 1, the first day of fiscal year 2021-2022. They expect to have $320,130 in projected cash on Sept. 30, 2022, the last day of the upcoming fiscal year.

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CROCKETT – A housefire that occurred last Tuesday in Crockett resulted in the deaths of a mother and son.

According to Crockett Fire Chief Jason Frizzell, firemen responded to a call of a structure fire at 105 McLean Drive at 5:31 a.m. When they arrived, the residence was “heavily involved in fire,” Frizzell said.

“We rapidly began a search of the interior, as well as an offensive attack, to extinguish the fire,” he added.

They discovered 44-year-old Shelly McDaniel and her son dead inside the residence. 

Crockett Fire Department was assisted on the blaze by the volunteer fire departments of Latexo, Lovelady as well as personnel from the Houston County Fire Marshal’s Office, Crockett Police Department and Houston County EMS.

There is no word on a possible cause for the blaze at present. The fire department has turned over the investigation to the State Fire Marshal’s Office due to the city fire marshal being out on medical leave.

Frizzell, on behalf of the fire department and the city offered condolences to the family. “Our prayers are with those affected by this tragic loss,” he said.

McDaniel, who was employed with Crockett Eye Clinic, was paid tribute to on Facebook by the clinic on its page. “Please keep their family and friends in your thoughts and prayers as they go through this difficult time,” a post read, and added that the staff is deeply saddened by her loss.

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Latexo ISD officials and administrators, along with representatives of one of their contractors, the Berry and Clay commercial construction company, broke ground for the school district’s $5 million bond project last Thursday. (ALTON PORTER | HCC)

By Alton Porter

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LATEXO – Latexo ISD officials and staffers are set for contractors to begin constructing facilities planned for the district’s $5 million bond project.

The Latexo Independent School District Board of Directors, Superintendent Michael Woodard and others held a ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday morning, Aug. 19, to kick off initial aspects of the bond project. 

The project will include construction of a multi-purpose facility, which will be used as a gymnasium and a community events venue; a cafeteria/dining room for elementary school students; and a career and technical education (CTE) classrooms unit for high school students.

“We’re excited to get started—to finally get the fence up and start some building around here on both the elementary and high school (campuses),” Woodard told news reporters following the groundbreaking.

In answer to a question asking when construction will begin, Woodard said, it “probably starts next week (with) putting the fence (that will surround the construction site) up and (contractors will) get after it from there.”

Woodard said it is expected to take “probably a year or a year and a half” to complete the building of facilities in the bond construction project; “that depends on weather and, of course, materials.”

 The timeline includes construction of everything, hopefully, Woodard said, including the multi-purpose facility, the elementary cafeteria and CTE classrooms. “That’s the game plan,” he said.

Woodard added, the construction project is the result of an effort “in the community to bring this and it’s been a long time coming, for sure.”

Board President and Position 5 Trustee Kelly Nicol said “I’d like to just thank the community for having the trust in us to take on this project and we’re going to do a good job for them and have something that everybody can be really proud of.”

Nicol commented on the bond’s passage and called it “an overwhelming turn-out and win for us.”

“We had a two-to-one margin in the victory. It was obvious that the community wanted this,” he added.

The officials did not have documents with them at the groundbreaking showing the price the Berry and Clay commercial construction company submitted to them to oversee and carry out the project, but Nicol said “We started this whole process with the bond being passed.”

He explained that COVID pushed the election, which was initially slated for May 2020 back to November.

“And then, after Covid, everybody knows everything went skyrocketing—the price of steel, the price of fuel, concrete, all the building materials. No one passed a bond in this area (during that period) except us. The other people around the state are all over budget. All the contractors I’ve talked to—they’re like, ‘Man, we don’t know if a lot of these jobs are going to even happen because they’re so high over budget.’,” he said.

“(However,) we’re under budget. All of our projects are (included in the district’s construction project plan). It was just an unbelievable effort by our contractors to get this thing done and under budget. And we’re just proud to be part of it and we’ve got the right people behind us,” Nicol added.

About Vulcraft, one of the projects subcontractors, Nicol said, “Vulcraft has been a great partner for us, and we feel they’ll be a great partner in the future, not only in this building project but inside the walls of our school. They’re a great community partner, and we look forward to working with Vulcraft for many years.”

In concluding his and Nicol’s interview with news reporters, Woodard said, “We’re ready to get started—everybody is.”

Joe Sumner, of Berry and Clay, who attended the groundbreaking, along with the company’s vice president and project manager, Stephen Berry, will serve as the site superintendent for the bond construction project on behalf of the construction company.

He told the Courier his responsibility will be to oversee “overall site construction—to ensure the trades are performing their work, scheduling all the trades…, as well as meeting the different administrators or whatever may be taking place on the job; just overall site.

“That’s basically what my job is—ensure that the (facilities) are being built correctly. It’s a little bit of everything: everything from scheduling; (ensuring) it’s built correctly; meeting with the owners from the school district—stuff like that—quality control. Everything that goes into it is kind of what my job is.”