A changing of the guard was felt as voters had their say in the City of Snyder and Snyder ISD elections in May.
In the city election, Anthony Wofford defeated incumbent Snyder Mayor Terry Martin. Wofford received 521 votes (66 percent) while Martin received 258 votes (34 percent).
In the race for the two at-large seats on the city council, incumbent Luann Burleson received the most votes with 480 (33 percent). Rodney Dupree was also elected after receiving 316 votes (22 percent). Incumbent Bill Harris finished third with 297 votes (20 percent), followed by Abel DeLoera with 215 votes (15 percent) and Ron Shaw with 138 votes (10 percent).
Two new people were elected to the Snyder ISD board of trustees. Brad Hinton defeated Place 2 incumbent Mike Levens and Ron Hester defeated incumbent Billy Brock for the at-large seat.
Hinton received 236 votes (73 percent) while Levens received 86 votes (27 percent). Hester finished with 592 votes (68 percent) while Brock had 277 votes (32 percent).
Ralph Ramon, who ran unopposed for the Place 3 seat as the incumbent, finished with 76 votes.
On May 5, the Scurry County Commissioners’ Court, on a split vote, accepted CR 1116 into the road system. The road had been the center of controversy because road crews worked on it prior to its official acceptance by the court.
Pct. 3 Commissioner David Harrell said that the court should accept the blame for not having a set of specifications for property owner John Hamlett to follow while building the new road. However, when the initial request was made by Hamlett to move the road, he said, and the court agreed, that it would be “comparable” to the one it would be replacing.
The court voted 3-1 to accept the property from Hamlett with Harrell, Marianne Randals and Scurry County Judge Ricky Fritz voting in favor and Jim Robinson voting against accepting it. Citing a business relationship with Hamlett, Pct. 1 Commissioner Terry Williams abstained from the vote.
On May 19, a piece of Snyder history was demolished. The 109-year old Brownfield Building drew a crowd on its final day, as a crew from Matthews Backhoe, Inc., used a wrecking ball to begin the building’s demolition.
The reaction from the crowd gathered at the site was mixed. Some said that while the demolition was regrettable, it was a situation 10 years in the making and the building’s owner had allowed the building to deteriorate to the point that there were no other options.
Others held up cell phone cameras to record the wrecking ball as it began its work on the top floor of the building’s north side.
The sale of five acres approved by the Scurry County Hospital District board of directors in May was illegal, according to state law, and was voided.
Cogdell Memorial Hospital Chief Executive Officer Ella Helms responded to an inquiry about the no-bid sale from the Snyder Daily News by saying that the hospital would void the sale and go through the bid process before selling the land. The hospital district did not advertise that the land was being sold and did not seek bids prior to approving a sale contract with Billy Ray Browning.
The water level at Lake J.B. Thomas was at its highest level in more than 50 years after heavy rains on May 5-6. Local residents went to the lake on May 7 to take pictures of the water level, which had not been seen since April 1964. At the time, the lake was 69.84 percent full and 9.8 feet below the spillway. The lake gained 51,810 acre-feet of new water supplies and had 45.6 billion gallons of water.
Nicole Marie Mann received 10 years’ probation for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a 10-woman, two-man jury deliberated about her sentence for more than seven hours on May 1.
Mann was originally charged with murder for her role in the shooting death of Robert Silva in June 2014. She faced up to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault.
After a nearly one-year investigation, 12 people were arrested on felony drug charges on May 28. At least 60 law enforcement officers executed two search warrants in Snyder and 13 people were taken into custody at different locations. Twelve were charged with delivery/manufacturing of a controlled substance.
The City of Snyder received $315,705 in sales tax allocations for sales made in March, as well as January, February and March sales by businesses that report quarterly. The city’s May allocation total was 13.3 percent lower than the May 2014 total of $363,122.
The county received $140,713 in allocations, which was a 34.7 percent decrease compared to the May 2014 total of $215,378.
Scurry County’s unemployment rate fell by one-half of a percentage point in April according to figures released by the Texas Workforce Commission. The April rate was 3.4 percent, down from 3.9 percent in March. However, the rate is higher than the April 2014 rate of 2.7 percent.
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