General Mills Recalls Five Pound Bags of Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose Flour
General Mills announced today a voluntary national recall of five-pound bags of its Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose Flour with a better if used by date of September 6, 2020. The recall is being issued for the potential presence of E. coli O26 which was discovered during sampling of the five-pound bag product. This recall is being issued out of an abundance of care as General Mills has not received any direct consumer reports of confirmed illnesses related to this product.
This recall only affects this one date code of Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose Flour five-pound bags. All other types of Gold Medal Flour are not affected by this recall.
Consumers are asked to check their pantries and dispose of the product affected by this recall. Consumers who have had to discard products covered by this recall may contact General Mills Consumer Relations at 1-800-230-8103 or visit www.generalmills.com/flour
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Guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) continues to warn that consumers should refrain from consuming any raw products made with flour. E. coli O26 is killed by heat through baking, frying, sautéing or boiling products made with flour. All surfaces, hands and utensils should be properly cleaned after contact with flour or dough.
Wildcats Defensive Coordinator Proud of Defensive Effort Against Wing-T Now Has Players Thinking About Royse City Offense
Wildcats Defensive Coordinator Alex Guerra said the Wildcats’ defense enjoyed their bottling up the Terrell Wing-T offense Friday night. But he said after they savored some moments, he told them to forget it and begin to concentrate on the Royse City Bulldogs’ offense coming to Gerald Prim Stadium Friday night on Homecoming. Coach Guerra said he was pleased with last Friday’s play by his defense and he added they worked hard all week to make it happen. He said they did their assignments, were patient, made great reads and played aggressive football. He added he was proud of their effort. Coach Guerra said defensive lineman D’Andre Peoples had a breakout game. He added he was excited by the play of outside linebacker Aidan Walker. He said outside linebacker Cameron Hargrave played well also and he said outside linebacker Kylan Wade played aggressively and caused a fumble with a big hit. Now the Wildcats’ defense is preparing for a much improved Royse City offense this year. Coach Guerra said they are solid, well coached and they move around a lot using lots of formations. He said they still prefer to run the football running 70% of the time. But Coach Guerra said they also throw the ball well when they try it. He said the Bulldogs use two quarterbacks adding that both are effective. They are good scramblers. They also have good receivers and running backs. The Bulldogs have benefited from two move ins from Lancaster. Coach’s son Peyton Petroff has been moved to slot receiver a lot. Coach Guerra said he is also impressed with running back Bryce Martinez who he said is getting better all the time. Again Coach Guerra liked the results last Friday but now he said the Wildcats’ defenders must do it again against Royse City.
Wildcats Offensive Coordinator Laments Mistakes as He Prepares For Good Royse City Defense This Week
Wildcats Offensive Coordinator Matt Young called Friday night’s 15-13 district loss to Terrell kinda heartbreaking and a tough one. He said the Wildcats’ offense played hard but did not make plays. Coach Young said the Wildcats offense had 11 penalties against 10 players. He said the focus in practice this week is attention to details. He said little mistakes can change an outcome on Friday night. Coach Young said the Wildcats gained about 400 yards and made 27 first downs but it was still not enough to get a win. He said he liked his team’s last drive until it did not produce a winning touchdown. Coach Young said coaches knew with a young team there would be roller coaster games but he said he hated that one had to happen in a district game. He said the offense has to move on. Coach Young said running backs Caden David and Choc Sims had good nights. They had 5 more receptions and as a pair they have 11 receptions, which would led the team. Coach Young also mentioned the play of receivers Bryson Lacy and Noe Ponce. He said quarterback Kaden Wallace had some growing pains. He said both of the Wildcats interceptions came on tipped balls. Coach Young said lineman Giovanni Pizano played very well. He said the Wildcats had a hard time overcoming at least one penalty on every drive in the game except one. Now the Wildcats face a very good Royse City defense. They are led by a nose guard, senior Jamie Cortez, who was the district’s Defensive MVP last year. Coach Young said he has gained 30 more pounds. He said the Royse City defense may be the best the Wildcats will face this season. They also have special returning players at inside linebacker, outside linebacker and at safety. Coach Young said the Wildcats offense needs to eliminate mistakes and make plays.
Lady Cats Home Volleyball and on the Road Wildcats Team Tennis on This Tuesday Game Day
The Lady Cats Volleyball Team will face quite a challenge as they play host to Wylie East on this Tuesday (September 17) game day. There will be JV and freshman contests beginning at 4:30 p.m. The Lady Cats varsity will take on the Lady Raiders at 5:30 p.m. in the main gym at Sulphur Springs High School. In recent history, tonight will mark the fourth time the two teams have meet starting with their bi-district contest at Royse City on Halloween night in 2017. The Lady Raiders have won the previous three matches coming into tonight. The two teams also met very early this season at the Garland ISD tournament and Wylie East won 2-0. Lady Cats Coach Bailey Dorner recalls that both sets were close ones and she is confident the Lady Cats can turn things around tonight. The Lady Cats have an 18-9 record. They have won two in a row including a 3-0 victory at Pleasant Grove last Friday.
Meanwhile Wildcats Team Tennis has a very challenging trip to Texas High on the schedule on this game day Tuesday. Matches begin in Texarkana at 3:30 p.m. Texas High is the gold standard for district tennis and they have won straight district championships for more than two decades. No matter what happens Tuesday, the Wildcats are heavy favorites to finish as the #3 seed in the district for the upcoming playoffs. The Wildcats are 1-1 in district play going into Tuesday’s competition after a big win at Greenville last Tuesday.
A Draw for Downtown, the 20th Annual Quilt Show
Amidst a busy week of final preparations for the annual Quilt Show, Billie Ruth Standbridge, a charter member of the Lone Star Heritage Quilt Guild, shared some interesting details on it’s growth and development. “It’s nothing short of amazing that we went from a small group of ladies who simply liked to sew to a club that produces beautiful works of art and is recognized by other groups across the state. From the ground up, by pooling our resources and knowledge, we learned how to organize and put on a successful 2-day quilt show that quilters want to come to, and will drive a long way to see”. The 20th annual Lone Star Heritage Quilt Show will be held in downtown Sulphur Springs at FBC The Roc, 115 Putman Street, on Friday September 20 and Saturday September 21, 2019. Admission is $5 per day for adults, and free for children under age 12.
Visitors can expect to see over 120 handmade quilts, displayed in rows you can browse as you walk past. By the time the show opens on Friday at 9am, judging will have been completed and the winning quilts will be easy to spot because ribbons and awards will be pinned on them. Look for this year’s Featured Quilter, Cecilia Anderson. A separate Special Exhibit has been arranged by the Sharon Feldt Family Foundation. Enjoy programs by Brenda Jechke, an author, teacher and quilt judge. Vendors will be selling quilting fabrics, notions and supplies, and even some quilts. There will also be some light concessions offered during the show. Local businessman Craig Johnson will offer a welcome to visitors at the 9am opening each day.
Billie Ruth and long time member Deanna Hasten enthusiastically agree that the Lone Star Heritage Quilt Show can compete quality-wise with other bigger shows, including the Houston’s ‘Quilt Festival’ and Paducah’s ‘American Quilt Society Festival’ and compares size-wise with the Tyler show. “Our September date was strategically selected to fit in well with the Texas circuit of quilt shows. This year’s fundraising showpiece is ‘Tessella’, a quilt designed, pieced and quilted by four of our members. All year long, most of us are personally putting in hours and hours of individual work on this hobby. We re-create vintage patterns we like and we design modern ones. New and unusual ways of combining geometric shapes and color have yielded stunning visual effects. Guild President Wilma Moss’ articles on this art have been published. We’ve each learned a lot since we began and some have become quite professional on the long-arm quilting machines! We each have our own projects going at home, we volunteer for group projects like making lap quilts we donate to babies and children in the hospital, and we help teach new members who are getting started with this art. Our annual Quilt Show has acquired a following, bringing people from all over the state, boosting tourism for Sulphur Springs. That’s gratifying for us!”.
I asked Billie Ruth how the successful quilt guild got started. “Elise Brewer was the one with the vision in 1998. She put an ad in the newspaper asking for interested persons to join her in a quilting club, and at first, she got no response. But tried again and membership slowly began to grow. That first year, we held monthly meetings and some of us didn’t even have experience quilting! But gradually we realized that we wanted to connect with other clubs and individuals, so we came up with the idea of putting on a show to attract other quilt lovers. Our first fundraising project involved each member being assigned a swatch of fabric by color, and making a block at home using the entire piece….with no particular rhyme of reason to the theme! Well, we got a lot of variety, and when I looked at the collection of blocks we had, I couldn’t picture it as ever being attractive. But Elise took the blocks home, made them uniform in size and formed an attractive handmade quilt top. After it was quilted and bound, we decided to raffle it off, and we did! An early member, Cecilia Anderson, won it and still owns it. That was the first of our fundraising quilt projects and we still raise money for the show in that way, plus assistance from our sponsoring donors”.
Sulphur Springs City Council Special Workshop Update
About 60 concerned citizens gathered in the City Council Chambers on Monday evening, September 16th, to hear council members discuss the “vision” of Sulphur Springs. The special workshop meeting was called by Mayor Norman Sanders, to discuss ideas and hear about past projects and long range plans for the city. Mr. Sanders tells KSST News that he is thrilled of the progress that the city has made with downtown, Coleman Park, and other projects, but wants to plan ahead for the next 20 years. He stated that he would like to build on the past successes, and plan for expansion of industry and the subsequent infrastructure needs that expansion would bring. One topic of concern raised by council member, Jimmy Lucas, was the ability to maintain future proposed projects with the current staff that the city already has in place. Mr. Lucas wants to seek out options of using free labor in the future to help out those departments he believes are underserved. Erica Armstrong also noted the need for “volunteerism” to help beautify the city. Armstrong said that encouraging local service clubs to donate their time in different areas could benefit the city and help foster civic pride.
Many citizens spoke during the public forum portion of the meeting, all in support of the job that the city has done in completing past projects and the ability to do so within strict budget requirements. A consistent theme from those citizens that spoke was the fact that Sulphur Springs is unique in the public spaces that the city enjoys for a city of our size. Some citizens spoke of the need for more housing in general, as well as more affordable housing. Although no quick solutions for encouraging more building inside the city limits were offered, the council as a whole seemed interested in that topic.
Mayor Sanders told KSST he was pleased with this first meeting and looked forward to having more of these “strategic planning” sessions for the future.
City To Hold Sept. 24 Hearing Regarding Special Election Called For Proposition A
If you have comments, questions or thoughts regarding the upcoming special election for Proposition A, then be sure to mark Sept. 24 on your calendar. A public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. that Tuesday at City Hall, 201 North Davis St., to notify Sulphur Springs residents of the scope and budget impact of the proposition.
Sulphur Springs City County at their regular July meeting called for the Nov. 5 election this summer in order to create funding for city parks improvements as well as a new activities center for senior citizens.
Proposition A would allow $200,000 per year of the funds generated from the 1/2 of 1 percent sales and use tax dedicated to Sulphur Springs-Hopkins County Economic Development Corporation. Instead of economic development by the EDC the funds would go to the city for use by Sulphur Springs Parks Department at Pacific Park and the Senior Activities Center.
In order to redistribute the funds the matter must be approve in an election. For the last 20 years, the city has received $150,000 in funds for the EDC to help pay for park improvements which included Coleman Park. The funds would be borrowed, and the $200,000 per year would pay off that debt, if passed.
That will fund $3 million worth of bonds: $1 1/2 million to go to Pacific Park and $1 1/2 million for a senior center. We will also add to that another half-million dollars in grant funding from Texas Department of Parks and Recreation to go with the Pacific Park money. So that’d be a total of $2 million to go towards Pacific Park,” Sulphur Springs City Manager Marc Maxwell told the council when presenting the election proposal at the July City Council meeting.
Pavilion proposed for Pacific Park 
Proposal for a new Grays Building
While the two funding sources are not dependent on the other, both would go a long way toward funding the improvements the community asked for at community park planning meetings.
The funding may be used for construction and maintenance of specific categories of projects including buildings, equipment, facilities and improvements, according to Texas Local Government Code Annotated Section 505.152.
Major improvements have been proposed for Pacific Park, including a new, expanded Grays building to serve as a community center. On the other end of the park would be a sports pavilion that would include a basketball court and volleyball court, or provide space where chairs could be set up. These improvements would also mean a new playground and multipurpose area with backstop where baseball or other activities could be played and carried out.
Also proposed, if all of the other taxing entities relinquish an Oak Avenue property north of the railroad tracks to the city, is using the site to construct a new center better equipped to handle the multiple activities held for senior citizens.
Sulphur Springs Independent School District Board of Trustees agreed to “strike off” the property to the city during their August meeting. Hopkins County Commissioners Court on July 1 agreed to sign over their ownership to the city. Hopkins County Hospital District Board of Directors as of their August meeting had yet to vote on the matter.
Asbestos at the current site would be address as the abandoned nursing home facility is removed. A parking lot would be located on one end of the property and a new senior citizens activity center would be constructed on the other end.
Fall Festival Creative Arts Contest By Johanna Hicks
Interest is building for the Creative Arts Contest! Last month, I gave information about the Arts and Crafts Show, in which vendors sell their hand-crafted items. This week, I’m focusing on the Creative Arts Contest, which is just as it says – a contest.
All Hopkins County residents are invited to enter this event. There are numerous categories (outlined below), and there is an age division to suit everyone. Entries must not have been entered previously, and must have been made within the past year (September 2018 through October 2019). Individuals may enter as many categories as they wish. The entry fee is just $1 per person, which helps defray the cost of expenses. Students entering as a class and 4-H members do not have to pay.
The contest will take place in the Sulphur Springs High School Conference center. Entries may be taken directly to the high school on Thursday, Oct. 24, between 4:30 and 6 p.m., or Friday, Oct. 25 from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. No entries will be taken after this time unless approved by the registration committee. You may also take entries to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Hopkins County Office, 1200 West Houston St., Monday, Oct. 21, through Wednesday, Oct. 23, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Judging will take place on Friday, October 25 starting at 10:00 a.m. Best of Show and Reserve Best of Show winners will be selected from blue ribbon winners in each category and age division, for a potential of 8 winners in each of the 12 categories. All entries will be on display to the public on the conclusion of the judging – approximately 1:30 p.m. till 5:00 p.m. on Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Please note: pictures of Best of Show and Reserve Best of Show recipients will be made at 1:30 p.m. Winners will not be notified, so please be aware of the time. Following pictures, all entries may be picked up.
Below is a list of categories and classes:
- Art – entries must be suitable for hanging, except children’s entries: oil, water color, pen and ink, rub out, pencil, acrylic, paper tole, crayon, spray paint, and chalk
- Bake Show – please bring items in disposable containers. Entries requiring refrigeration will not be accepted for food safety purposes. All entries will be sampled by judges, so food safety is of utmost importance. Baked items will be discarded at the conclusion of the exhibits hours unless picked up. Items will be judges on flavor, appearance, color, and texture. Classes include: breads (six if entering sweet rolls, muffins, biscuits or dinner rolls); cakes; pies; cookies (6); candy (6 pieces)
- Clothing – Soiled items will not be accepted. Please bring on hangers, if applicable. Classes include: after-five; children’s wear; everyday living; wearable art (must have made or decorated the item) – shirt/t-shirt, jacket, vest, miscellaneous
- Creative Crafts – no kits allowed except in youth and children’s divisions. Classes include: crafts (plastics, candles, leather, metal, misc.); ceramics; stained glass; painted household accessories; Miscellaneous (collage, glass, mosaic, paper mâché, scrap art, other)
- Decorated Cakes – will not be cut! Judged on appearance, difficulty, originality, and workmanship. All entries not picked up at end of the public viewing will be discarded.
- Food Preservation – all containers must be official canning jars. Foods processed in mayonnaise jars, pickle jars, etc., will not be judged. All exhibits must be clean, rust-free, and in unbroken jars. Two-piece canning lids must be used. Items must have been canned within the last 12 months and will be judged on quality of product, pack uniformity, container, consistency, and general appearance. Jars will not be opened and tasted. Classes include: canned vegetables, canned fruit, jams, preserves, fruit butters, jellies, pickles, relish, pickled vegetables, dehydrated foods, and miscellaneous (honey, vinegars, juices, etc.)
- Handiwork – classes include: knitting, crochet, embroidery, needlepoint, sewn items (other than clothing), beadwork, beaded jewelry, other fabric/fiber work (weaving, macramé, string art)
- Holiday/seasonal – classes include: Christmas (card holders, stockings, aprons, tree ornaments, tree skirt, wall hanging, centerpiece, misc.), tablecloths (any holiday/season), decorations (other then Christmas), wreath/door hanging, nativity scenes
- Horticulture – entry must have been possession of exhibitor for the 3 months prior to the fair. Each entry must be grown in Hopkins County. Exhibitor will be responsible for upkeep of their entry during the fair. No artificial plants accepted. Classes include: agriculture (vegetables, fruits, other (nuts, acorns, etc.); cut flowers; potted plants; hanging baskets; succulents; dried; gourds, herbs
- Photography – All photos should be appropriately mounted, matted or framed. Size must be 5 X 7 or larger. No professional entries accepted. Easels may be brought for display purposes or be ready for hanging with wire, string or hook. Categories include: portrait, scenic, still life, animals, people, special effects, floral, architectural, or grouping (two or more photos in a multi-photo frame). All classes are available in black and white and color.
- Quilts – classes include: hand-quilted; machine-quilted; multi-stitch (combination of hand and machine quilting); baby quilts; quilted items (wall hangings, table runners, pillows)
- Woodworking – Classes include: kits; inlaid wood (inlays of metal, pearl, etc.); Mosaic wood art; furniture; wall hangings; wood carving; yard art; rustic art (items made from barn wood, tree limbs, etc.); birdhouses; toys
We also have a separate division for residents in assisted living and nursing home facilities, with 12 categories.
Age divisions are: children (ages 10 and under); youth (ages 11-19); adult (ages 20-69); and older Texans (70 and above). We hope to beat last year’s 279 entries! We are Hopkins County strong!
Diabetes Support Group
This group meets the 4th Tuesday of each month at noon, at the Extension Office. Sue Potts, RN and diabetes educator, facilitates the meeting and encourages anyone with diabetes (and their loved ones, friends and neighbors) to attend. There is no charge, but the information and encouragement you receive is priceless. If you have questions, contact our office at 903-885-3443.
Closing Thought
Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who put them into action are priceless. – unknown
