Polk County News

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Corrigan was named as one of the 21 cities in Texas where officers stopped an average of over 500 drivers each. (File Photo)

Corrigan has made the news in a Houston newspaper for being a place where one might be stopped by flashing lights.

The north Polk County town was named as one of the 21 cities in Texas where officers stopped an average of over 500 drivers each.

The article tells of a man who is stopped on Highway 59, on his way to Houston from his parents house. He complains that the speed limit drops from 75 to 40 miles per hour “in a matter of seconds.”

He said an officer was waiting at the point where the limit changed, and the driver left with a parting gift that would cost $200.

After an analysis of traffic-stop data from more than 2,500 police departments, the newspaper determined Corrigan officers among the most aggressive in the state. It stated that Corrigan’s 12 police officers stopped 8,100 drivers — nearly 700 per officer.

Corrigan Police Chief Darrell Gibson said people drive through his area fast, and has a reminder in the department headquarters of the town’s fatality rate that ranks with the highest in Texas. That article was from the Corrigan Times.

Gibson is quoted in the recent article, saying every time there was a traffic death, there was someone driving very fast.

Shared traits amongst the state’s most frequent enforcers of the speed limit are said to include small towns situated on busy high-speed thoroughfares where the limit plummets from highway to local-street speeds. Most of the departments have fewer than a dozen officers.

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Twenty-two cypress logs from some acreage along the Trinity River bottom were recently donated to the Polk County Heritage Society in conjunction with the restoration of the Jonas Davis log cabin at Heritage Park.

David Parker, a longtime resident of Dayton, generously made the donation from his property on the edge Dayton.
“He has been tremendous. He’s just an amazing man. He does so much for Dayton for the betterment of the community. He loves log cabins,” Patrick Swilley, a member of the Polk County Heritage Society, said of Parker.

Swilley and Gary Davis, a member of the Polk County Historical Commission, made several trips to Parker’s property along the Trinity River bottom to retrieve the cypress logs and haul them to Livingston.

Tree-trimming and limb removal earlier this summer kicked off the multi-step project at Heritage Park. Located in the 500 block of West Church Street, Heritage Park is home to the W.T. Carter and Bro. Locomotive No. 5, the Jonas Davis log cabin and the Heritage House.

Resurrection fern had taken over the roof of the cabin, deteriorating it, and the heritage society had been raising funds for its replacement and repair. A recent gift of $35,000 from The Smith Family Foundation enabled the project to commence. Heritage Park is maintained by the Polk County Heritage Society.

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The much-needed repairs are finally underway at the Jonas Davis Log Cabin in Livingston’s Heritage Park. Located in the 500 block of West Church Street, Heritage Park is home to the W.T. Carter and Bro. Locomotive No. 5, the Jonas Davis Log Cabin and the Heritage House. A multi-step project is underway at the park in which the roof of the cabin—which had been taken over by resurrection fern—will be replaced and other repairs made. Heritage Park is maintained by the Polk County Heritage Society. Photo by Emily Banks Wooten

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HOME BURGLARIZED - Numerous units from the Livingston Police Department responded to a home in the 1200 block of Brinwood Place that was burglarized Monday afternoon. The homeowners returned home to discover a suspect taking weapons from the residence. The suspect fled on foot and has not been apprehended. All of the weapons were recovered near the scene. Photo by Emily Banks Wooten