Tyler County News - Breakout

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By Chris Edwards
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TYLER COUNTY – Reports of a foul odor came in to the county’s emergency management office last week, and turned out to be the result of a chemical leak.

The smell caught the noses of Tyler County residents throughout the county, and according to Emergency Management Coordinator Ken Jobe was from a truck carrying the chemical methyl mercaptan.

The truck, according to Jobe, had a valve leak that spread the chemical across the county, along US 69. The smell was reported on Wednesday, April 5, when citizens began reporting what they thought was a gas smell, from the north end of the county, Jobe said.

For a couple of hours, Emergency Management fielded calls of a bad smell, from the north end to the south end, of the county. In a post from Emergency Management published to the agency’s Facebook page, Jobe wrote that “A little goes a long way, literally.”

With methyl mercaptan, which is used as an odorant to give natural gas its smell, a tiny amount can produce a highly offensive odor. The example Jobe used was to imagine the Astrodome filled to its capacity with white golf balls, that if two of those balls were yellow, with the two yellow balls representing the chemical, then that is the concentration it takes to produce the odor.

The leak happened on a day with plentiful rainfall, countywide, and Jobe said that Emergency Management has no idea as to the quantity of the chemical spilled on the roadway.

According to information from the Centers for Disease Control, exposure to methyl mercaptan can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, as well as shortness of breath and coughing.

Exposure from a small dose, however, is not likely to cause any delayed or long-term effects, according to the CDC.

The CDC notes the common analogue to the chemical as “rotten cabbage,” and noted that it is also used in the production of pesticides, jet fuels and plastics.

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KAMRYN GRAMMER

By Chris Edwards
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“Everyone has a crown, but it’s your job to let it shine” is a mantra coined by 17-year-old Kamryn Grammer.

If Grammer’s talent for creating motivational statements that could put a seasoned advertising copywriter to shame weren’t enough, the Woodville High School junior also is a budding track and field star; National Honor Society member; serves in Interact and plays for the Lady Eagles’ basketball squad.

If you are wondering when Grammer finds time to hang out with her friends, or even sleep, she is also a beauty pageant competitor and the reigning Miss East Texas. She was crowned Junior Miss Tyler County in 2022 and has been heavily involved in pageants since then.

She said that Kristi Holmes, the director of the Miss Tyler County and Junior Miss Tyler County pageant pushed her to compete. Since then, she competed for Miss Texas Teen USA, an experience she said was “way out of what I’m used to.” She added that the opportunity was great “for a small-town girl like me.”

On her upcoming agenda is the Miss Beaumont pageant and in late June she will compete in the National American Miss Texas Teen, for which she was accepted to be a state finalist.

Grammer said she’d always been thought of as being mature for her age, as a young girl, and when one meets her, she comes across as articulate, thoughtful, well-spoken and with an intelligence that does not seem at all common to her generation.

With those attributes and her visible platform in the pageant world, she decided to use her abilities to create a platform for community service that she is calling “Crowns for Change.”

Grammer said she has adopted a mission statement that is all about “giving back to the community in any possible way that we can.”

“I have a passion for community service,” she said. “We should be able to give back to our community.”

The concept she based her platform around is to be able to give some help to whomever might need it.

“The people of Tyler County really helped me to compete in pageants. I feel that as much as they have helped me, it’s only right to give back,” she said. “Pageants allow you the opportunity to embrace what you want to do with the world.”

Grammer comes by her heart of service naturally. Her parents, Trey and Elizabeth Grammer, are both civic-minded people, whom she said have stressed the importance of community involvement and service throughout her upbringing. They also instilled in her an imperative to treat everyone with the same kindness and respect, she said.

Looking toward the future, Grammer said she hopes to attend Baylor University on a track and field scholarship, and eventually earn a degree in law. She said she recently visited the campus and was elated by the campus and its culture.

Grammer said that her pageant preparation schedule consists of practicing in her gowns, and warming up on fashion, interviewing or whatever she needs to hone, and in doing so, she uses her mother’s business, Venue on the Square. The process usually takes about a month to prep for a pageant appearance, she said.

Along with the practicing for the pageant itself, she said there is also logistics with sponsorships and deadlines, and she said she is grateful to all of the sponsors in the community who have supported her in her endeavors.

One aspect of the pageant culture Grammer has enjoyed is being able to meet and interact with younger girls whom she said she enjoys bonding with. “You meet all of these little girls and become close with them…and get to mentor them,” she said.

Grammer said that ultimately, one of the biggest takeaways from competing in local, regional and statewide pageants is that the world they inhabit is a mirror for the community at large, and the unity of the pageant scene gives a model to promote within the community outside of it.

“Everyone sees what happens onstage, but no one really sees what happens backstage. We’re doing our best to have a standard of giving back to the community and doing what we can to give back to that community. Everyone has a crown, but it’s your job to let it shine,” she said.

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Members of the county’s Child Welfare Board were on hand at the Woodville City Council meeting for the issuing of a proclamation to designate April as Child Abuse Awareness Month. Pictured left-to-right: Mike McCulley; Tina Self; Alicia Jinkerson; Woodville Mayor Amy Bythewood; Tiffani McGallion and Kristie Veillon. MOLLIE LASALLE | TCB

By Mollie LaSalle
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WOODVILLE – Woodville mayor Amy Bythewood, who has long served the area as an advocate for child welfare, read from a proclamation issued by the city on Monday evening at the regular meeting of the city council.

The proclamation addressed the “significant public health issue” of child abuse and neglect. “As you all know, this is something that’s near and dear to my heart, children thrive in safe, stable, nurturing families,” Bythewood said.

April is designated as Child Abuse Prevention Month, nationwide, and Bythewood said that everyone in the community should become more aware of child abuse prevention.

“We will continue to identify the risk factors that lead to child abuse and all citizens should be more involved in supporting families to provide a safe, nurturing environment for your children, giving them the opportunity to grow up to be caring, contributing members of this community, emphasis on ‘growing up’,” Bythewood read from the proclamation.

She cited statistics from 2022, stating that 182 children in Texas died as the result of abuse and/or neglect. One of those deaths, she said, was in Tyler County.

Members of the Child Welfare Board were present to receive the proclamation, including Mike McCulley, Tina Self, and members of CASA of the Sabine Neches Region, Alicia Jinkerson, Tiffani McGallion, and Krisite Veillon.

On Friday, April 14, there will be a vigil at City Hall for Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention, with CASA of the Sabine Neches Region participating, and a proclamation will be issued at the vigil.

Other Business

In other news of community interest and happenings, City Administrator Mandy Risinger reported that on Saturday, April 15, the annual Volunteer Fire Department Boot Drive will take place. At least five VFDs will participate, including Woodville, Shady Grove, Ivanhoe, Warren, and Dam B. Woodville will posted up at the red light at the intersection of 69 and 190, from 8 a.m- 2 p.m.

• Council members approved the TXCDBG Contract No. CDV21-0334 per engineering recommendation from Jacob Tiemann of Goodwin-Lasiter-Strong dated February 22, 2023 for the amount of $345,246.50 described on the recommendation to Crockett Construction Inc.

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By Chris Edwards
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Trey AllisonWOODVILLE – Trey Allison isn’t much for talking about himself.

When one meets up with the soft-spoken Woodville banker, the conversation is likely to turn toward his granddaughter, who is the apple of his eye, or his two sons or his wife, Sharice.

Allison has reason to give himself a pat on the back, as of late, though. The longtime Citizens State Bank president was recently appointed to a seat on the Graham JB6 Company’s board of directors. The company is Citizens’ holding company and includes a distinguished group of members, which includes Citizens’ new president Harry J. “Johnny” Brooks.

Allison said he was honored to be included when he received the news of his appointment. Kimen Johnson, who serves as Citizens’ Chief Experience Officer, said the appointment is exciting for the 103-year-old banking institution, and called Allison a longtime fixture in the bank and in the community.

Allison said that, initially, the job with Citizens just presented itself at the right time. That opportunity made itself known in August of 1996, when Allison, who had been working for the family business, in timber, was informed by his father, Harold Allison II, that he would have to find a job soon; that the business was about to be sold.

Since that time, when he stepped onboard as vice president, with the responsibilities of branch manager for the Woodville downtown location and retail loan officer, he was promoted to senior VP in 2000, with added responsibilities, and in 2011, was promoted to president of CSB. Allison now serves as the President for the East Texas Region for CSB, following the acquisition in 2021 by Graham JB6.

When Citizens was sold in 2021 to Brooks in August of 2021, he saw the importance of the bank within the Tyler County community, and a lot of that due to Allison’s leadership, and the importance he places on community involvement.

When Brooks bought the bank, he saw opportunity due to the bank’s strong business acumen, but most importantly, he said at the time, the bank had “some good folks.”

Allison was kept on the CSB board and said his appointment to the holding company board likely came about when the new owners saw his commitment to the bank and community.

“I still like it,” Allison said of his career. “I still say that we are the local bank, we are the community bank.”

Keeping relationships is a key factor of CSB’s longevity and success, and one of the driving factors in Allison’s life, as well.

“With my presence on both [the CSB board and Graham JB6’s board] we won’t get left out,” Allison said. “This bank was under its prior ownership structure, primarily Tyler County, but with the new ownership, this bank will grow and bring on new market. With my presence, it gives me a little more authority at the CSB board level that we don’t get left out,” he said.

Allison said that at present, CSB has purchased property in the Valley Ranch area on SH 99 and US 59 and plans are to break ground on a new branch there this summer. Along with the Woodville location, CSB also hs branches in Warren, Kingwood and Marlin.

Allison credits his success in life and in his work to certain personal principles, such as always having a plan and that drive that tells him “you gotta make things happen,” but above all, he speaks of his faith. “Life without God has no meaning,” he said.

Allison also is eager to speak about his father’s huge influence on his life and work ethic, and the importance he learned early on of faith, family, community, relationships, planning and determination.

“You have to have a purpose, internally, to drive your life,” Allison said.