Shelby County Today

November 19, 2025 - The Shelby County Commissioners canvassed the votes for the November 4, 2025 General Election and Nancy Adams, Elections Administrator, reported a low voter turnout of registered Shelby County voters.

“We have 16,212 registered voters, or on election day we did, and we had 2,025 people vote,” said Adams. “We received an FBCA application, ballot by mail on Monday, and that was the deadline so I added one to it this morning.”

Adams clarified that was about 12.5% of the registered voters, which is not uncharacteristic for a constitutional amendment election.

“We just don’t have people show up for those. I think a lot of the reason is because they don’t understand them and they don’t want to do research,” said Adams.

She said the election went smoothly and that there weren’t any problems.

Commissioner Tom Bellmyer moved to canvass the votes of the November 4th General Election and his motion was seconded by Commissioner Stevie Smith, the motion carried.

Dee Dee Green, Shelby County District Clerk, spoke with the commissioners about the jury selection plan for Shelby County. Green stated that nothing has changed about the plan since last year.

“I do want to let everyone know that I am in the process of, I’ve got irons in the fire to change this next year to make it a little more user friendly for the jurors that are called,” said Green. “I would like to put some things on our website where they can check in or send their excuses, stuff like that. I just think it makes it a lot easier for everyone, a lot more efficient.”

County Judge Allison Harbison said the court looks forward to seeing those changes in the future.

Commissioner Roscoe McSwain moved to accept the current plan and a second was heard from Commissioner Shannon Metcalf. The motion carried.

The commissioners approved bonds for Mary Beth Bearden and Judge Harbison during the meeting. Judge Harbison reminded the court that the bond for Bearden is approved every year and she elaborated further on what was before the court relating to her bond.

“I have an amendment or rider to my bond, because the latest legislation added another $400,000 to my bond through Senate Bill 387,” said Judge Harbison. “They did have it bracketed for population. Less than 125,000 was $100,000 and that’s what I currently have and then any population over that was $250,000, but they decided to do everybody.”

Judge Harbison explained that it doesn’t matter the size of the county, even Loving County with a population of 64 (2020 Census), a $500,000 bond is now required by law.

“I have got that rider to go through this year and next year and then of course that bond will have to be approved again in ’27,” said Judge Harbison.

Judge Harbison explained that the change has to do with probate and Senator Zaffirini has had some difficulties with small probate court, which has encouraged the change.

“She has been changing these laws every legislation, and the reason being is the bond was that the insurance that the clerk actually had was not sufficient to cover the damages on maybe a case, so that’s the reason the bond went up to $500,000,” said Judge Harbison.

Commissioner Bellmyer moved to approve the bonds and a second was heard from Commissioner Stevie Smith. The motion carried.

Wesley Traylor, Vice President of Traylor & Associates Incorporated, addressed the court about participation in the development of the 2028 Regional Flood Plan and methods to identify potential projects for consideration by the Regional Flood Planning Group. 

“The development of the regional flood plan is instrumental to have y’all’s feedback in it because it is going to not only be the regional flood plan, but now the state of Texas takes all of the regional flood plans and combines those to form a state flood plan,” said Traylor.

He encouraged the commissioners, and members of the community, to access the Regional Flood Planning maps online and pinpoint areas they know to be troublesome and describe what sort of impact flooding may have to those locations in Shelby County.

“What we are trying to do is just make sure y’all understand that plan is underway, so the development of that 2028 Regional Flood Plan is underway,” said Traylor.

Those maps can be accessed by clicking the following links:

• https://fni-txflood.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/reporter/index.html?appid=1d9b68601b3b41e29211750ffc6164c9
• https://fni-txflood.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/reporter/index.html?appid=e19c0f1abeba43c2aa49f75eaba5e1e0

During the Commissioner Court Reports portion of the meeting, Commissioner Bellmyer stated that he and Commissioner Smith had met with an individual Jim Dean about the gym project at the old elementary school campus where the AgriLife office is located.

He said that Dean is compiling their notes and his input to offer some structure to the idea of what the project would entail so that the county could participate in a review process of the project in the next couple of weeks.

Commissioner Bellmyer shared with the court that he had receive a letter in the postal mail from a company out of West Sacramento, California, called Conduit. The company is a third-party provider for businesses, and Bellmyer related that in the letter it indicated on October 21, 2024 - January 13, 2025 Conduit’s environment was accessed.

“I guess what got me is, they provide services to Blue Cross/Blue Shield,” said Commissioner Bellmyer.

The letter indicated that data accessed pertained specifically to Commissioner Bellmyer including name, address, birthdate, social security number, number of treatments, diagnostic information, treatment cost information, treatment date information, medical information, health insurance number and provider information. 

Commissioner Bellmyer asked if anyone else in the courtroom that was a county employee or official had received a similar letter, and several did raise their hand to the affirmative.

“I guess kind of what bothered me a little bit is that we had a third party and Blue Cross/Blue Shield didn’t let us know that their data had been breached, and this is from nine months ago,” said Bellmyer.

Nine months without any notification that the data was compromised was of great concern to Bellmyer, and he wondered how many people in the county have been effected by the breach.

Judge Harbison believed the breach to be widespread and stated she and her husband both received a similar letter.

Commissioner McSwain said that he is still considering their being a live auction for county property. He said that Precinct 1 has nine items that he plans on including in the auction including several vehicles and trailers. Commissioner McSwain encouraged anyone else on the court who would like to include items in the auction to be prepared for the next meeting to be able to add those items.

Commissioner Smith commented there was a 5-10 acre fire in Precinct 3 recently and encouraged people to continue to use care when burning. 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:08am.

Agenda Items Approved During the Meeting Include:
1. Approve the Minutes of the following meetings: 10/8/25 Regular Meeting, 10/15/25 Special Meeting, 10/22/25 Special Meeting, 10/22/25 Workshop Meeting, and 10/29/25 Special Meeting.

2. Weekly Expenses.

3. Officers Report. 

4. Canvass votes for the November 4th General Election.

5. Adoption of the Jury Selection Plan for Shelby County.

6. Bonds for Mary Beth Bearden and County Judge Allison Harbison. 

7. Adjourn 10:08am.

November 14, 2025 - U.S. Highway 59 just near CR 4653 was the scene of a single-vehicle crash Wednesday, November 13, 2025, involving a passenger car and a tree.

Tenaha Volunteer Fire Department personnel were part of the first emergency responders along with the Shelby County Sheriffs Department. Deputies established traffic control, as well as fire personnel who directed traffic and provided medical aid to the driver involved until EMS arrived.

According to Texas Department of Public Safety State Trooper Josh Gradberg, at approximately 12:55pm a silver 2015 Ford Fusion was southbound near CR 4653 and was driven by Joequaevion Howard, 28, of Nacogdoches.

As the vehicle was traveling southbound, Howard was attempting to hand some milk to an infant passenger, who was properly secured, and Howard veered off the roadway to the southbound shoulder subsequently colliding with a tree head on.

The child was determined to be uninjured at the scene, and Howard was transported by ambulance to Nacogdoches Medical Center in Nacogdoches for non-life-threatening injuries.

Howard was issued a citation for failure to maintain a single lane and he had an arrest warrant for a suspended license.

November 12, 2025 - State Loop 500 was the scene of a two-vehicle 18-wheeler crash which resulted in a large fuel spill on Monday, November 10, 2025, that required a HAZMAT team to address.

While the scene was being cleaned of hazardous materials, TxDOT had both ends of the roadway leading up to the crash scene blocked to traffic. Through the early morning hours Center Fire Department worked traffic control while Center Police Officers investigated the incident.

According to details released by the Center Police Department on Wednesday, November 12, sometime just before 12:51am a Peterbilt truck tractor owned by ES Express, LLC and driven by James Griffith, Jr., 65 of Pittsburgh was parked on the shoulder of SL 500 facing west. Griffith failed to yield right of way to oncoming traffic when entering the westbound traffic lane.

A Peterbilt truck tractor owned by Polk Oil Co. hauling fuel and driven by Samuel Rothfeld, 46, of Lufkin struck the rear of the trailer that the truck driven by Griffith was hauling and overcorrected left of center before leaving the eastbound lane and traveling onto the shoulder before turning over onto its right side facing west.

The tanker was hauling 7,000 gallons of fuel before the collision and Lone Star Hazmat Response was contacted to clean up the scene.

Rothfeld was transported by ambulance to Nacogdoches Medical Center for treatment and Griffith refused treatment at the scene.

Griffith was issued a citation for failure to yield right of way.

Center Police Department officers cleared the scene at 9:40am, Center Fire Department personnel cleared the scene at 10am and the HAZMAT crew remained at the location until the completed their clean up project.

November 10, 2025 - As of 2pm a Hazmat crew with Lone Star Hazmat Response continues to work at cleaning up the area and the roadway is down to one lane.

Drivers should continue to use caution when traveling through this area until cleanup has finished.

(7:18am) - State Loop 500 between US Highway 96 south and the Tyson Feedmill Road, around a quarter mile, is shut down due to a fuel spill November 10, 2025 as of 7:18am.

Drivers should consider using an alternate route until the scene is clear, as there is no access, and expect the roadway to remain closed until cleanup is finished.

November 11, 2025 - U.S. Highway 59 between Tenaha and Timpson was the scene of a two-vehicle crash on the evening of Monday, November 10, 2025.

Emergency personnel with the Tenaha Volunteer Fire Department, and Shelby County Sheriff's Deputies responded to the location near CR 4644 where vehicles involved had come to rest on both sides of the highway.

According to details from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the preliminary crash investigation indicates that at approximately 6:01p.m., a 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe driven by Shaneeta Rhodes, 43, of Tenaha and a 2018 Hyundai Elantra driven by John Ross, 18, of Tenaha were traveling east. It is reported that the driver of the Elantra failed to control his speed and struck the rear of the Santa Fe when it slowed to make a left turn onto County Road 4644.

Rhodes and one passenger, identified as a 14-year-old female, were transported to Nacogdoches Memorial Medical Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Ross and one passenger identified as a 16-year-old female, were not injured.

This is an ongoing investigation, and according to DPS, no further information is available at this time.

Details were not released on related charges.

The crash was investigated by DPS Trooper Matt Chandler.