President Arnold brought us to order as he gonged the bell at NOON. David Hartman gave the invocation and Cara Sauceda led us in The Pledge of Allegiance and “Jingle Bells”. Carol Murray introduced her guest Lydia McWhorter and Alan Donaldson introduced Chris Phares as his guest. No birthdays were celebrated today.
The Brag Bucket was busy this week, as David Hartman, Shirley Craft, Jake Munholland, Greg Brownfield, and Tina Williams had things to crow about. The Member Spotlight shined on David Kelly this week.
David Hartman introduced Adele Lewis with TXDOT as our program this week. Adele has been with TXDOT for 28 years and has spoken to us several times in the past. She is also a former on air broadcaster and is deeply involved with Backdoor Theatre. Three TXDOT projects she talked about today were 1). “Things That Fall From the Sky, 2). Southwest Parkway and Taft bridge project, and 3) The Gap Project.
Her Things That Fall from the Sky was a reference to the extensive damage done to the I-44 overhead by a 120,000# wind turbine gear box that fell off of a trailer That did over $500,000. Damage. This repair project has been completed.
The Southwest Pkwy. at Taft bridge project has been completed and has added west bound turn lanes on both sides of the road, as well as repairs to the bridge structure itself.
The Gap project will widen US 82 from Wichita Falls to the Archer County line. This project is scheduled for 2028. It will widen the road and add a continuous center turn lane. Since funds have already been appropriated, if Right of Way purchasing can be completed early, this project could start ahead of schedule.
This week our book goes to McNeil Middle School. We closed with The Four Way Test.
