From Enterprise Staff The nomination process for the Polk County Enterprise’s 2023 Best of Polk County Reader’s Choice Awards will end on Sept. 30. The nomination period began Sept. 1 and since that time, over 42,000 nominations have been received. The annual awards process provides an opportunity to recognize local businesses, professionals and non-profits. This fourth year of the annual contest has seen changes. All nominations and voting are being conducted online and no paper ballots are being accepted. To participate, go to the website easttexasnews.com and click on the Contests tab. To register only involves using an email address. If a specific category is not listed, please email the information to ashley@polkcountypublishing.com. If a person or business does not belong in the category in which it has been nominated, it will be weeded out before going into the voting phase. The 2023 Best of Polk County Readers’ Choice Awards is occurring in three distinct phases this year. The…

By Emily Banks Wooteneditor@polkenterprise.com Senator Robert Nichols was one of only two Republican senators to vote for articles of impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton. The other was Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills. “I voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton because of the credible testimony I heard, and the many thousands of pages of evidence presented during trial,” Nichols said. Paxton was acquitted by the state Senate of 16 charges in his recent impeachment trial, allowing him to keep his job as the top lawyer in the state. He was impeached earlier this year by the Texas House of Representatives based on allegations that he misused his office. “The evidence included testimony from many of his top staff, including First Assistant AG Jeff Mateer, Deputy First Assistant AG Ryan Bangert, Deputy AG for Legal Counsel Ryan Vassar, Director of Law Enforcement Texas Ranger David Maxwell, Deputy AG for Criminal Justice Mark Penley, Deputy AG for Civil Litigation…

TCNS staff GROVETON — The city of Groveton remains under a Stage 4 water conservation measure, although work on repairing the city water supply has progressed. Mayor Ralph Bennett said Monday that Weisinger Well Co. has cleaned the well pipe down to 266 feet, where a hole in well pipe is located. Next, they will remove the sand out of the well pipe to the bottom of the well with air; the depth of the well is 497 feet. By replacing the well pump and cleaning the well pipe, it will increase the gallons pumped per minute from our well, he said. Bennett said he is in communication with the city’s engineer and Texas Water Development Board to begin drilling a new well by October. The implementation became effective Sept. 8 following the failure of city’s water well pump. The city does have a water supply through the Pennington Water system; however, residents must conserve water as much as possible during the emergency shortage. Stage 4 restrictions include: •no irrigation of landscaped…

By Tony Farkassjntnews@gmail.com SHEPHERD — The Shepherd City Council passed a business-as-usual budget that lowers the tax rate but raises fees for city services. City Secretary Debra Hagler said the council approved a tax rate 0.16442 per $100 of property valuation, which will bring in no new revenue, at its regular meeting on Sept. 11. That rate is lower than last year’s rate of 0.17674 per $100. Hagler said the city did approve, as part of the budget, an increase in water and sewer rates to take effect in November. An increase of $3.50 will be on base rates for sewer and water bills; also, tap fees have been raised from $600 per tap to $700 for water service and $750 for sewer service. The council said customers will be notified of the increases as well. The council approved the FY 2023-24 budget with expected general fund revenues and expenditures at $640,000. Also, the utility fund budget was approved, with projected revenues at $1,033,300 and expenditures at $998,736; and the…