KSTV News

As for coronavirus in Erath County, Campos said active cases dropped by two in the past day, to 62. In the past day, nine new positive coronavirus tests were received in the county. Two patients live in Stephenville, while three are in Dublin and four reside in rural Erath County. The number of hospitalizations remains the same, at 19. Since the outbreak began, Erath County has had 412 total coronavirus cases.

The Erath County Commissioner’s court met four times in July. The Court meets on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month, and as needed in between. In his monthly update, County Judge Alfonso Campos said that July was a productive month for Erath County, in that commissioners approved a county investment policy, appointed a county investment committee to oversee the investment of counry funds, negotiated and apporoved a contract to partially remodel the Donald Jones Justice Center, and approved a move-ahead and make preparations for construction of an office facility for the county clerk’s office and county tax office at a vacant lot at 235 South Virginia Street. Commissioners also approved the selection of an architect to design the planned county office building. Demolition of the county-owned building previously known as the Rick Hale Building (On Virginia Street) is now complete. An architect has been selected and the design process for a new county office building is ready to begin.

Tarleton State University is moving forward with honoring summer and spring 2020 graduates in an in-person commencement ceremony that will be held this weekend at Memorial Stadium in Stephenville. Tarleton President James Hurley decided to spread the graduation festivities out over five ceremonies in order to honor all 2-thousand spring and summer grads. Ceremonies usually take place in May, but were postponed because of coronavirus. Attendance will be limited to eight guests per graduate.

Total coronavirus cases in Erath County have now surpassed the 400 mark. The latest daily update posted on the county’s website Monday showed 403 total cases since the outbreak began. The total number of active cases now stands at 64, which does continue to show a nice downward trend in the past week. A week ago, the county was at 94 active cases. Five new cases were identified in the past 24 hours, with one of those patients living in Stephenville, one in Dublin and the other three in rural Erath County. At this point, the number of people hospitalized in Erath County remains at 19.

In business news, there is a new store open in Stephenville. Harbor Freight is located in University Plaza at 2125 West Washington Street. Stephenville Store Manager Adriana Blizzard told the Empire Tribune that the store is about 15-thousand square feet. It officially opened Saturday at 8am. The Stephenville store hours will be 8am to 7pm Monday through Saturday and 9am to 6pm on Sundays. Harbor Freight offers a full selection of tools and accessories for a wide range of uses, including automative, air and power tools, welding supplies, shop equipment, and much more.

Six new coronavirus cases were reported in Erath County on Thursday. As expected, most of these cases are coming from Stephenville resiodents. Four of the latest cases are in Stephenville, while the other two patients resident in rural Erath County. The total number of hospitalizations continues to hold steady, at 19, while the total number of active cases also appears to be holding steady at 83. The 20-to-29 age group and the 40-64 age group are now tied with the largest amount of positive coronavirus test results. Each of those groups now has 115 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began in mid-March. Four people have died in the county from complications of COVID-19.

Tarleton State University’s Dr. Marcy Tanter captured second-place honors in a sijo writing competition sponsored by the Los Angeles Korean Cultural Center in California.
Sijo, a style of traditional Korean poetry, are composed in three lines averaging 14-16 syllables, for a total of 44-46 syllables. A pause occurs in each of the three lines approximately in the middle. Each half-line contains six to nine syllables. The contest’s theme was “Anything inspiring to get through COVID-19.” Awards were announced in a virtual ceremony.

The 40-64 age group in Erath County has now surpassed the 20-to-29 age group in the number of total coronavirus cases since the pandemic began in mid-March. On Wednesday, county health officials updated the daily COVID-19 tracker for Erath County, listing a total of 114 people who have tested positive in the 40-to-64 age group, while 112 people have tested posotive who are in their 20’s. Also, nine new cases were identified in the past 24 hours. Six of those people live in Stephenville, one person is in Dublin and the other two reside in rural Erath County. The number of people hospitalized in Erath County also continues to go up slightly. That number is now at 19, although the county does not specify how many of those are in ICU or requiring ventilators. The county has now seen a total of 388 people test positive for coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak. 83 of those are considered active.

Eight new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Erathj County since the last report a few days ago. The county is now only providing updates to its case count twice per week. Six of the latest patients reside in Stephenville, while the other two patients live in rural Erath County. Four people have died as a result of complications of the virus since the outbreak began in mid-March. The age group with the most cases continues to be the 20-to-29 group, with 111 confirmed positive tests. However, the 40-64 age group is close behind, with 110 confirmed cases as of Tuesday. The county says a total of 379 people have now tested positive in Erath County since the outbreak began. However, out of those 379, onnly 286 are considered active.

Erath COunty is temporarily lifting it’s burn ban for 72 hours. A statement from County Judge Alfonso Campos says the burn ban will resume on July 31st at noon. This means that you can burn if you have a permnit from the county, from now until July 31st at noon. After thaty, the burn ban will go back into effect. If you have any questions, you can call 254-965-1452.