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Chamber Board Chairman John Frank Clifton, above left, presented Francisco Lopez of Corrigan, above right, with a Community Service Award from the Livingston-Polk County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. Photo by Emily Banks Wooten | PCE

Emily Banks Wooten
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Francisco Lopez of Corrigan received a Community Service Award from the Livingston-Polk County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday during the chamber’s quarterly membership luncheon held at the Sechrest Webster Community Center in Corrigan. Chamber Board Chairman John Frank Clifton presented the award.

Beginning this year, the chamber is presenting community service awards quarterly during its membership luncheons, recognizing citizens from various communities within the county rather than just one at the annual banquet. All four award recipients this year will be recognized at the 2022 awards banquet.

“This year, the Livingston-Polk County Chamber of Commerce has elected to present a Community Service Award to individuals in respective counties instead of choosing one for the entire county. The chamber reached out to the City of Corrigan for a nomination. In deciding who would be selected, there are a lot of factors that must be considered,” Clifton said.

“The person chosen usually has no idea that anyone would consider them for such an honor and lives out their life never seeking the spotlight. Whoever he or she is always shows up with no expectations for a return of services rendered,” he said.

“This year, the City of Corrigan’s mayor and city council chose a person who has been a lifelong member of the community. He was born in Huntsville on Aug. 31, 1989. His parents moved to Corrigan shortly after for work at the Georgia Pacific Plywood Mill,” Clifton said.

He had the privilege of growing up in this tight-knit community, attending school and graduating from Corrigan-Camden High School in 2008. He started a career in law enforcement with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, but he decided to start a business to supplement his income. It was simple. He started out power-washing big trucks for Hughes and any other who would oblige. One day, a person stopped and asked if he would power-wash a house. It was at that time that his business took off and the power-washing business became a career,” Clifton said.

“Then came COVID-19. Without ever asking for praise or recognition, he asked the school if he could power-wash the playground equipment to sanitize for the safety of the children to reduce the spread of COVID-19. He then thought about the city parks and volunteered his time to power-wash the playground equipment at the Corrigan West Park and Corrigan Central Park,” he said.

“In addition to the school and city, he volunteered to power-wash the Naranjo Museum in Lufkin. He has been awarded ‘Best of Lufkin’ three years running and Lufkin Small Business of the Year for 2020. He demonstrates what it means to make a difference in giving back to the community. We appreciate his selfless acts,” Clifton said.

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From Enterprise Staff

The Livingston school board heard a quarterly investment report and voted against a stipend in September’s regular school board meeting Monday.

LISD Chief Financial Officer Ben Davidson presented the quarterly investment report and annual investment policy. The beginning balance on May 31 was $34,272,448, and the ending balance on Aug. 31 was $28,861,805. The interest earned in June was $6,668, July was $6,754 and August was $6,015.

The Livingston ISD Investment Schedule reflected a beginning balance on Sept. 1, 2020, of $24,546,206 and an ending balance on Aug. 31, 2021, of $28,861,805. The interest earned over the year was $76,257 in investments. The board approved the quarterly investment report and investment schedule as presented.

Upon returning from closed session, the board voted 4-3 against a resolution to provide a one-time Covid-19 vaccination stipend for all LISD employees. The stipend would have been a $500 addition for those who received the vaccine.

The board also voted unanimously to request the State Board of Educator Certification to pursue sanctions against Rosemary Allen in accordance with law and policy. 

Dr. Marcia McMahon, Texas Education Agency Lone Star Governance facilitator, discussed how she has encouraged school boards to look at basic goals and target goals to see if they are realistic, based on what has transpired over the previous 18 months. She encourages a future workshop to review and set target goals that outline the priorities of the district, as well as student outcome targets. McMahon is available to help with a survey or lead workshops virtually that would involve members of the community.

The board approved the consent agenda, which included approval of minutes from previous board meetings, the financial statement and payment of bills, overnight trips, and purchasing additional reading materials from Heinemann, Carnegie Learning, Saddleback. The reading materials would be used at all campuses grades Kindergarten through 12th for the Intervention program in the amount of $125,000.

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By Emily Banks Wooten
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The “devious lick,” a challenge on the social media application TikTok, has come to the Livingston Independent School District and LISD officials are not going to tolerate it.

In fact, any student involved in these actions could face the consequences of in-school suspension, school suspension, disciplinary alternative school placement or even criminal charges.

Through this challenge—which seems to have become something of a national phenomenon—students video themselves stealing property from their school or faculty and see what attention they can get from vandalizing school facilities.

“At this point, the vandalism of school property has been mild, but the theft of property from both the school and staff has been both monetary value and sentimental as well. Our dedicated custodial staff has gone above and beyond expectations to clean up after these poor decisions have been made by some of our students. Either way, these decisions by our students are wrong, and some students face the consequences of these poor decisions,” LISD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brent E. Hawkins said in an email that was sent to parents Wednesday, seeking help.

“We reach out for your help in talking with your Lion or Lady Lion. In public schools, we must partner with our families to ensure that our values are taught and reinforced at home and school. We want our students to have great pride and ownership of their school and respect for all others in Lion Country,” Hawkins said.

The superintendent emphasized that the school district sees this as theft and vandalism, not as a joke or students “just playing around.

“I ask that you visit with your student about the seriousness of these types of behaviors. We need to send the united message to our students that theft and vandalism are wrong no matter how glorified it is on social media or the gratification that comes with this ‘challenge’ on social media. Our custodial staff deserves more respect than this, and our facilities belong to all of us. Regardless of what you see or hear on social media, please have these conversations with your student,” Hawkins said.

“This pandemic has been hard on everyone involved and we do not need social media to make life harder on anyone. We hope this can be turned into a positive in our community moving forward as a teachable moment for our young people,” he concluded.

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Dr. Nagakrishnal NachimuthuBy Emily Banks Wooten
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“The best strategy is prevention which is through vaccination. In addition, continue to do masking and physical distancing.”

These are the words of Dr. Nagakrishnal Nachimuthu, an infectious disease physician at CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial-Livingston.

Nachimuthu addressed the media during a press conference Monday to announce the opening of the state-supported Polk County Regional Infusion Center to help treat COVID-19 patients in East Texas.

“I would like to start off by mentioning that I am very appreciative of the initiative taken up by State of Texas in partnership with Polk County administration, hospital administration during this unprecedented time to set up this monoclonal antibody infusion for our community,” Nachimuthu said.

“Monoclonal antibody therapy is an outpatient therapy. It is indicated for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at risk of progression to severe disease. This should be given early in the disease within 10 days of start of symptoms. If a patient has COVID-19, they should approach their primary care physician/provider to see if they qualify for this treatment,” Nachimuthu said.

“The mechanism of action is that it reduces viral load by binding to the viral spikes thus preventing virus from attaching to the host cell and entering the host cell. Monoclonal antibody therapy thus helps reduce symptom severity and prevent hospitalization,” she said.

“Indications for monoclonal antibody therapy—based on criteria—most of the people will qualify. It includes age, high risk ethnicity groups, body mass index, chronic kidney disease, diabetes and other chronic health conditions. Exclusion criteria are new requirement of oxygen or increase in oxygen requirement from baseline, hospitalization and more than 10 days from symptom onset,” Nachimuthu said.

“Post exposure prophylaxis criteria also added as an indication for monoclonal antibody therapy. If a patient receives monoclonal antibody therapy they are advised to defer vaccination for 90 days as it hinders vaccine immune response,” she said.

“Adverse reactions such as rash, diarrhea or dizziness are mainly related to infusion and generally given as intravenous. Subcutaneous injections also available,” she said.

“This monoclonal antibody therapy strategy is good to prevent inpatient hospitalization and helps reduce some of the burden to our health care system but monoclonal antibody therapy does not replace and is not a substitute for vaccination,” Nachimuthu said.