City honors Patriot Day

WOODVILLE – The Woodville City Council met on Monday evening for its regular monthly meeting, and before the regular agenda, Mayor Amy Bythewood read a proclamation honoring Patriot Day in Woodville.

Patriot Day, which occurs on Sept. 11 of each year to commemorate the victims killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, is marked as an annual day of service and remembrance.

It was federally designated as a day of mourning by way of a bill passed on Oct. 25, 2001, and the first Patriot Day took place the next year on Sept. 11, 2002, as proclaimed, nationally, by then president George W. Bush.

Bythewood read the proclamation, which noted the “good deeds and charitable acts” undertaken by Americans on that day.

Bythewood presented the proclamation to some of the first responders who were in attendance at the meeting, including Woodville police officers Jathan Borel and Lawreance Hicks and Woodville Fire Chief Alan Gartner, and she thanked them for all that they do.

Other Business

On the regular agenda of Monday’s meeting, the council approved a couple of items pertaining to city vehicles and equipment. The city voted to approve the transfer of ownership of a 2006 brush skid unit to the Chester Volunteer Fire Department as a gift, instead of going through the GovDeals platform to sell it.

Bythewood noted that since Chester VFD is another taxing entity, the city could just vote to give the piece of equipment to them, instead of going through the GovDeals platform. A brush truck, under the operation and care of the Woodville Volunteer Fire Department, was also approved to transfer to the City of Woodville for use in its public works department. This, again, was handled by way of a council vote, instead of going through the GovDeals platform.

Council also approved the following:

• The designation of the Tyler County Booster as the official newspaper of the City of Woodville for the 2026-27 fiscal year, for publication of all needed official postings.
• The appointment of a rating committee for the selection of grant administrative services and engineering services for the CDBG Mitigation Reallocation Program from the Texas General Land Office. That committee will consist of Bythewood; City Administrator Stephen Ramos and City Secretary Danita Skinner.
• Noise variances were approved for two upcoming events: first for a Woodville homecoming community pep rally and court parade along north Charlton Street from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 21. A street closure was also approved on this item. Another noise variance was approved for amplified music in the city park from 5 p.m .to 7 p.m. on Oct. 6 for the annual Woodville Night Out, which is sponsored by the Woodville Police Department.