Grisham, Griffin sign to play college football

Two young men that played 48 games each as varsity football players are now signing up to keep playing

On Wednesday, Howe's alltime leading rusher and scorer Tyler Grisham, signed a letter-of-intent to play football for Hardin- Simmons University in Abilene, Texas while one of the big reasons for his success, offensive lineman Matt Griffin, signed a full scholarship offer from Missouri Southern

University in Joplin, Missouri

"Just from the moment I stepped on the campus (Hardin-Simmons) it was beautiful " said Grisham "Not just on the field, but in the classroom They have the nursing programs that I want to pursue It's like God sent me there for a reason so that's where I chose to go "

Griffin, who possibly helped continued on page 2

MPO approves scenario of $253.4 million upgrades to Grayson County transportation

The Sherman-Denison Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) met Wednesday morning at the Grayson County Courthouse to discuss future transportation planning and the result was an approval to move forward with a proposal to maximize efforts to improve transportation in the county over a 10 year period Clay Barnett, Executive Director of the MPO presented two scenarios to the board One of which “Scenario 1” was a request from the state of significantly less money that “Scenario 2 ”

All of the previously passed MTP projects that were passed previously due to the passing of Prop 1 in 2014 are included in the projects Under the Prop 1 amendment, a portion of oil and gas tax revenues that typically go into the Economic Stabilization Fund are to be deposited to the State Highway Fund continued on page 3

Several nominations have been made for the 3rd Annual Howe Hall of Honor The honor is a way of highlighting and maintaining Howe's rich heritage by recognizing, preserving, and honoring the individuals who made significant contributions to the Howe community

The Howe Chamber of Commerce will induct four individuals in 2017 The nomination period ends at midnight, February 28, 2017 At that time, the public will vote on the top 10 nominees for the selection of two living inductees and two deceased inductees

To this point nominations for this year's class have been submitted for Jean Norman, Donal Gilstrap, J J Chisum, Bob Walker, Ricky Ake, Gayle Skipworth, Leon Thornhill, Harold Taylor, and Norman Bennett

The following members have already been inducted into the Howe Hall of continued on page 8

Signings

continued from page 1 clear the path for Grisham's future nursing career, also was all smiles The soft-spoken giant told the Howe Enterprise that he loved the campus at Missouri Southern and was impressed with the academic program Griffin, known widely by his peers as one of the smartest students at Howe High School, had many options from universities

"The coaches there are a lot like the coaches here so I feel like I'm just at home " said Griffin

Speaking of coaches, Howe Head Coach Zack Hudson likes that these college signing are becoming more and more frequent "It's kind of nice We've had a lot of kids put a lot of work into this and they're seeing the payoff It's exciting and it makes the parents happy"

Hudson said that these two signings are in particular special to him due to they were freshmen when he arrived and saw them through from the beginning to the end

"My first game was their first game and it's a little bit more meaningful in that situation " said

Hudson "I'm glad that what we were selling sold and I'm glad that they're getting to see the fruits of their labor"

Grisham's father Jason Grisham, a Howe graduate and former Bulldog football player, was emotional and said that his son had four offers, but said that he really felt at home in the family atmosphere of HardinSimmons Crystal Grisham said it was going to be hard having her son away from home

"I was disappointed after the final game thinking it could be over But it's not over" said Jason Grisham

The Griffin family was equally excited and emotional and jokingly requested to not even bring up the emotional subject

"We are so proud of him " said father J D Griffin and echoed by Tammy Griffin

Griffin had six official visits to different universities and attended 11 football camps last summer The 6' 3, 290 pound offensive lineman says that his tight end days are over and will be strictly an offensive lineman at Missouri Southnern University

MPO continued from page 1

The City of Howe, unfortunately, were not awarded any MTP projects during that time, therefore any updates to the state transportation system in regards to Howe will have to come from funds designated outside of Prop 1 funding More funding sources of revenue comes from Prop 7, which was passed in November of 2015 by voter election Beginning in September 2017, Prop 7 proclaims that if state sales tax revenue exceeds $28 billion in a fiscal year, the next $2 5 billion of revenue will be directed to the State Highway Fund Beginning in September 2019, if state motor vehicle sales and rental tax revenue exceeds $5 billion in a fiscal year, 35 percent of the amount in excess of $5 billion will be directed to the State Highway Fund

In “Scenario 1”, there were no local matching funds required and the MPO would not ask for certain funding categories The total requested amount from the MPO to the state in that plan would be $140 million In that scenario, Howe is proposed an interchange at what would be Cavender Road/Dicken Road south of Hall Cemetery Rd and L B Kirby Ave The estimated cost of the new Howe interchange came to $4 4 million (3 percent of the total Grayson County allotment) and would be constructed in 2025

Under “Scenario 2”, the focus is on improving US Highway 75 from FM 1417 to State Highway 91 to meet interstate standards All of the projects combine for a total of $253 million which does require a $14 million local match from communities broken down between percentages of projects granted Under this scenario, Howe would have ramp reversals all along the US Highway 75 corridor in the city which would total $5 8 million The reconstruction of FM 902 interchange would tally $8 1 million and widening the lanes from four to six through Howe would total $5 7 million Howe’s total under that scenario would come to roughly $19.6 million of the allotted $253 million for Grayson County (8 percent)

Although Howe’s list of projects are defined under the two different scenarios, they could very well change until finalization later in the year based upon funding

There is a 10 percent match request from cities that requested a project that was not required to build main lanes which examples would be ramp reversals

“We have to have the local match ” said Barnett “The commission is going to look heavy at that It needs to be around 7 or 8 percent What we have right now is 7 percent We had to find a way to distribute that fairly and that seemed like the most fair way to do it Somewhere in this process, we have to come up with $14 million ”

Barnett said that in “Scenario 2”, in order to make up the difference that contained a county project that needed to be done in order to widen the main lanes, 5 percent was charged to the county

“These were projects that TxDOT said they were going to have to do ” said Grayson County Judge Bill Magers in clarifying the county’s involvement in the matching funds

“These were things that the city themselves didn’t ask for and obviously we’re not going to spend county money without having a meeting and talking about it Grayson County is going to have to take a role This project is illustrates the necessity for all stakeholders of Grayson County to put skin in the game This is truly a regional project We’re all in it or we’re all not in it It’s not going to work otherwise. There’s no free lunch on this deal ”

Magers said that if everyone didn’t cooperate, they should just take “Scenario 1” and take the $140 million and leave $75 million on the table

Barnett said that the next step is to submit a plan to TxDOT by Feb 10 which stipulates a local resolution with the local match plan to help push the program through

“At some point in March, we’ll receive feedback on funding levels from the commission ” said Barnett “They will tell us how much Cap 12 (funding) we’re going to get We may get $90 million or we may get zero If we get zero, then we’re back to “Scenario 1”, if we get $90 million, we’ll go with “Scenario 2”. Chances are, we’ll be somewhere in between ”

Barnett said that if that is the case, the MPO will have to come back and revise tenure list of projects based upon how much money is given from the commission A final decision could come in August

Magers made the motion to approve the “Scenario 2” option and move forward trying to capture more money for Grayson County The motion carried unopposed

HHS Winterguard kicks off season

by Gay Brennan

Howe High School Winterguard kick off their 2017 season on Saturday by unveiling two teams at the North Texas Colorguard Association competition at Flower Mound High School

The boys routine depicted scenes from the movie, "Dead Poet's Society "The girls danced to the song, "He's a Sweet Talkin' Guy, " while dressed in poodle skirts

Set in the novice division, the girls came in fifth place, while the boys finished in fourth place, respectively

Consultant Celestino Sosa, Assistant Jordan Marbry, and Carolyn Cherry helped with the boys attire while Sharla Jones was instrumental in the girls costumes

Special recognition goes to Ron and Audra Mitchell for transporting the desks and chairs

The next competition will take place on Saturday, Feb 25 at Frisco Wakeland High School

Howe FFA was well represented at the Fort Worth Livestock Show. All combined, the Howe students' steers sold for $42,700

Howe eighth grader, Gracie Lankford, won her class of Exotic Middle Weight Steers while her young brother Garren (10) placed fourth in the same class

Reagan Troxtell placed tenth in Class 3 Lighweight Exotic while Kindle Catching finished eighth in the same class Presley Shockey finished seventh in Lightweight Herefords

Of the 1,480 steers in the show, only 270 made sale Of the 270, five of them came from Howe