Shelby County Today

December 14, 2015 LUFKIN – An early morning storm with accompanying high winds sent empty railcars tumbling onto the roadway beneath a railroad overpass on Lufkin’s Loop 287 Sunday.

TxDOT officials are working to devise a traffic control plan that includes a road closure at the site of the incident on SL 287 between SH 103 West and US 69 North.

The railroad is owned by A&NR Railroad of Lufkin. Barricades are currently set to prevent traffic from entering the area. Two railcars, which are linked to dozens of others, fell to the roadway beneath the railroad bridge.

“Removing the railcars in the safest way possible will require certain things to happen,” said Rhonda Oaks, public information officer for the Lufkin District. “Our officials have devised a traffic control plan for motorists until the cars can be removed, and we are hoping that will be by Monday evening. We are waiting on equipment that is being sent from Houston before the cleanup can begin.”

Barricades will remain in place and motorists will be detoured until the roadway is cleared. Residents with direct access as well as businesses within the barricaded area will be accommodated to and from their locations.

TxDOT officials also anticipate necessary repairs on the roadway beneath the railcars and will be working to repair and open the section of roadway as soon as possible.

Motorists are advised to follow all detour signs and do not attempt to go around barricades.

December 11, 2015 - The Tenaha City Marshal's Office responded to an 18-wheeler rollover at the U.S. Highway 59 on ramp at 12:35pm on Friday, December 11, 2015.

According to Tenaha City Marshal Jimmy Wagstaff, a black 2000 Frightliner hauling bundles of birch plywood from the Sveza Company within a box trailer driven by Antonio Johnson, 28, was attempting to enter U.S. Highway 59 North from U.S. Highway 59 South by way of the on-ramp. As the Freightliner traversed the on-ramp the load within the box trailer shifted and caused the 18-wheeler to roll over onto the driver's side.

Johnson stated to Marshal Wagstaff, the load had shifted the night before in Houston and had been righted on Friday morning.

As of 6pm the wood was still being unloaded from the box trailer through the roof , which was cut open, so the 18-wheeler could be righted. Marshal Wagstaff was assisted with the investigation by Deputy Tenaha City Marshal Darren Gray.

 December 13, 2015 - Agenda items receiving approval include:

    Pay monthly expenses.
    Repair of the Duplexer used to dispatch/ page the (VFD) Local Volunteer Fire Departments at a cost of $2,500.
    Purchase contract for the old Municipal Judge’s building and lot from the City of Center on Nacogdoches Street at a bid of $30,000.
    No to paying a reduced membership fee of $2,875.00 for FY2015 membership in the Alliance for Interstate 69 Texas.
    Adjournment at 10am.

The Shelby County Commissioners approved, during their November 23, 2015 special meeting, the repair of an analog duplexer which is used in radio communication dispatching Shelby County Fire Departments for 9-1-1 calls.

"From what I understand, this is the duplexer that is at the Sheriff's Department where they dispatch the volunteer firemen and it is broken," said Allison Harbison, Shelby County Judge. "I asked (Chief Deputy) Shad [Sparks] if this one would be good to fix, or did we need to get a new one and he said the gentleman at DFW Communications said that this one, if we fixed it, would work."

There were questions on this subject; however, no representative of the Sheriff's Department was present to answer questions about the duplexer. Judge Harbison stated the cost of repair to the duplexer was quoted at $2,500 and she really wanted to know if the county wouldn't be better served by putting those funds toward a new duplexer.

There was discussion among the commissioners and Judge Harbison about coming up with grant funding or through some other means to provide digital radios for the fire department. Although narrow band radios have been mandated by the federal government, digital narrow band radios which the county and City of Center implemented haven't proven to be 100% reliable in the Pineywoods of Shelby County with its hill and pine tree laden countryside.

Shelby County Today reported on the radio issues in 2014 when they became a major concern for volunteer fire departments as they went silent on January 7, 2014. At that time the dispatch was on what is called a mixed mode system. The Sheriff's Department radios had been upgraded to digital narrow band, while volunteer fire departments remained on analog. As the radio system was upgraded to digital, the analog radio boosters (voters) were taken down, affecting communications in the outlying areas making it so volunteer fire departments could not always receive 9-1-1 dispatch from the Sheriff's Department, but could still communicate with one another on their analog radios.

By request of Sheriff Willis Blackwell, the analog equipment was shutdown by DFW Communications with the reason being, when someone would attempt to communicate on the analog side of the mixed mode system, it would cut off someone on the digital side and leave officers with no means of communication during that time. Although this action helped law enforcement communications, shutting down the analog system left the fire departments without radio communication.

When a 9-1-1 call for a fire department would come in to the Sheriff's Department dispatch during that time, dispatchers would then call the department's fire chief on the telephone to let them know of the call. A meeting was held at the Shelby County Courthouse with all of the volunteer fire departments in the county, Sheriff Willis Blackwell; then County Judge Rick Campbell; Van Bush with DETCOG 9-1-1; John McDowell Security Director at DETCOG; Bryan Loudenslager and Archie Cooper with DFW Communications. It was decided the analog system would once again be turned on and the volunteer fire departments would receive dispatch on a shared frequency for dispatch, unless their department had a frequency of their own from which the Sheriff's Department could dispatch.

When DFW Communications replaced the digital antenna on Saturday, January 11, 2013 and moved the antenna to a higher position on the radio tower, it improved the digital signal. Adding a digital narrow band voter to the Shelbyville water tower and another location in the county, facilitated improved communication countywide for all involved.

Communication was returned to the fire departments, and the departments all sought the use of 9-1-1 cellular phone dispatch service, giving the Sheriff's Department the ability to simultaneously dispatch the firemen by radio and cellular phone. For almost two years now the fire departments have struggled with a system which is unreliable. Departments have reported to Shelby County Today that at times they will receive a dispatch by cellular phone, but not by radio and at other times the reverse. Firemen are at times not always able to reach dispatchers on the radio when they are out on a call.

"I just wanted to bring it to the forefront and see, I could have just put it on to be paid, but I want everybody to know where we are on this and I do realize that communication to the volunteer fire departments is not good at this point. We need to figure that out and I guess we need to start with the Sheriff's Department figuring out what kind of communications we need for the volunteer fire departments," said Judge Harbison.

A motion was carried by the commissioners to approve the repair of the current duplexer for $2,500 out of the contingency fund.

December 10, 2015 -  A family in Corinth, north of Timpson, lost a home to fire on December 6, 2015. According to a report from the Timpson Volunteer Fire Department (TVFD), firemen were dispatched at 10:34am to the residence of Robbie and Jessica Holloway and upon arrival the majority of the brick house was engulfed in flames.

Garrison Volunteer Fire Department and Gary Volunteer Fire Department assisted at the scene, and firemen worked to extinguish the flames as well as preventing further spread.

It is believed the origin of the fire was the garage. Robbie Holloway was outside in the yard at the time and witnessed flames emitting from the garage. He went inside and got his family out of the house, and by that time the house was becoming fully involved. The firemen could see black smoke as they approached the house 12 miles away on U.S. Highway 84 and turning onto FM 1970 where the house was located.

Fire destroyed the home and what two rooms even remained burned during the night and the TVFD returned to the scene at 11:30 to extinguish those flames.

The Holloways, including three children, have lost everything in their home due to the fire and a gofundme account has been established in their name to help raise funds for the family. Anyone wishing to make a donation can go to the following address: https://www.gofundme.com/2qdr792c

Although the tragedy has had a great effect on this family, Robbie Holloway posted the following on his Facebook page showing just how much the human spirit can prevail when faced with such a struggle: "As u may no me and my family's house has burned with everything we own. With that being said I've been throwed a few curve balls in my life but never one like this. I set back and try to take it all in and wonder what to do next. And then I look at all the help people are doing like money, clothes etc and people just taking the time to say I'm sorry. And it brings back hope to me. And it makes me think so what if we don't have present or a big tree. We have all these people taking just a few seconds minutes or even hours to come our way just to see if we need something that's the best Christmas present ever. Unbelievable how all these people have impacted my life in such a way I cannot describe. Just want to say thanks to everyone for just being good people and thinking of me and my family. I hope u all have a great Christmas because in a weird way I've already had one. Thanks again."