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With the recent developments in the spread of COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, many businesses, schools, public entities and the hospital have announced cancellations and restrictions.

Investigators with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Criminal Investigation Division, were assisted by the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office to conduct Amusement Machine Tax Compliance Inspections, according to Texas Occupation Code Section on all gaming rooms in Stephens County on Thursday, March 5.

The Breckenridge Police Chief Bacel Cantrell provided information that he deemed important for the community to know to keep construction workers and drivers safe during road construction.

“The road construction on U.S. Highway 183 North and Breckenridge Ave. will be there for quite some time,” Chief Cantrell said. “There is no speed reduction on the street or any signs up, but the ‘Move Over/Slow Down’ law still applies. If a driver sees those flashing lights, they need to slow down and be aware that we have guys out there working on the road.”

With the expanse of COVID-19 around the United States, local entities have taken precautionary measures to assess the impact on the area.

Earl Jarrett, Interim Superintendent of Breckenridge ISD sent out a letter on March 13 to BISD staff, families, and the community informing them BISD was closed for students and staff on Monday, March 16. Campus and district administration, directors, and central office employees were expected to report to work.

With the votes from the Super Tuesday election mostly counted, the results are pivotal to understand who will represent various parties in the November General Election.

The race for U.S. Senator will be a contest between incumbent John Cornyn, who received 76.25% of the total Stephens County vote, Cedric Jefferson (People Over Politics Party), James Brumley (The Human Rights Party), Tim Smith (Independent), Arjun Srinivasan (Independent), Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla (Independent), and a Democratic candidate.

The Stephens County commissioners voted for public officials to properly enforce the guidelines of the Public Information Act (PIA). The vote came during the regularly scheduled meeting on March 9, inside the county courthouse.

The purpose of the item was to standardize the requesting process for all citizens and provide fairness to all parties requesting records.

For the full story, click here to subscribe or log in to read the Wednesday, March 18 edition of the Breckenridge American.

Stephens County and Breckenridge officials have decided to declare a local disaster due to a public health emergency on Monday, March 16 at the County Courthouse. The declaration comes as officials believe the community may have active cases of COVID-19.

“Locally we have been trying to get our arms around the impact this virus will have on our community,” County Judge Michael Roach said. “The trigger was the moment we felt the community had local transmission of COVID-19. It’s a very strong belief that we have active cases of COVID-19 in Stephens County/Breckenridge.”

March 16 – These steps are recommended until April 20, 2020 or until otherwise noted.

Event and Large Gatherings Recommendations
Stephens County recommends any events over 50 people be canceled. Additionally, we strongly recommend organizers of events of any size in which people will be in close contact to cancel or postpone such events, if possible.

After an exhausting election season for Stephens County, matters will get interesting in the coming weeks. The battle for County Commissioner, Precinct 1 will head into a runoff election.

In the race for the seat, if no two candidates received 50% and one additional vote during the primary election, then the top two candidates would have moved to a primary runoff election Tuesday, May 26. David Fambro received 162, or 30.11%, of the precinct 1 votes, while Chad Ezell received 105 votes, or 19.52%, causing the need for a runoff election.

Breckenridge City Commissioners put a spotlight on the multiple completed road projects under Andy McCuistion during his time as city manager. McCuistion announced his resignation at the previous city commissioner meeting on Feb. 4.

The highlighting of work occurred during the regular city commissioners meeting on Tuesday, March 3, inside the Breckenridge City Offices Commission Chambers.