Community... I’m telling you again
Several weeks ago, as a new comer to the Cass County Community, I attended a “FREE” seminar that YOU should have attended if you are a resident of Cass County and or East Texas. As I said, it was FREE. Texas A&M Forest Service and the Cass County Farm Bureau sponsored a FREE lunch from the best BBQ place in Jefferson (Riverport BBQ) and loaded us up on some excellent information from 12 speakers who only talked about 10 minutes each. You couldn’t snooze because the speakers didn’t have time to get boring, but to just impart some information about our community and the various offices and bureaus located here in Cass County.
There are many organizations designed to assist home owners, farm owners, timber growers, hay growers, cattle raisers, pond owners and working on solutions for wild hog infestations…just to mention a few. We talked about requirements for growing wild turkeys, quarantine on firewood, financial assistance on farms, cross fencing, problems with broadband, appraisal district relative to reapplying, litter on our county roads and wild life exemption. It was a taste of all of the above in a very short period of time.
One very amazing tidbit of info that came through was most of these organizations in some way help our kids. You, as part of this community, can be a part of any or all of the organizations for extremely inexpensive (cheap) annual dues.
My favorite best kept secret was that if you belong to the Farm Bureau ($40 annual dues) and you purchase 100 gallons of propane per year from Ferrell Gas, your annual propane tank rental is only $1.00. But you say, I don’t need the Farm Bureau for insurance so why should I be part of this? These guys help with not only insurance but business plans, retirement, plus, plus, plus and give scholarships to kids.
It’s time to work on your personal budget for 2020. Here are important numbers and info. Some have annual memberships. Remember we are helping the kids and growing our community together.
Farm Bureau
Brent Primrose 903-799-5480
Annual $40 (scholarships)
Texas A&M Forest Service
Michael Weertz/Russell Lykins
TFSweb.TAMU.edu or Texasforestinfo.tamu.edu
903-756-5571
(Fire and forestry management; before cutting trees or anything forestry related, call them!) Sponsor various programs.
Texas Parks & Wildlife
Penny Wilkerson 409-383-7980
East Texas Timberland Assoc
Fred Winters 903-639-1267
Annual $15 (scholarships) fwinters@hughes.net
Tx Soil & Water Conservation Brd
Kim Gamez 903-572-4471
(free Technical assistance – and mgmt plans; coordinate soil & water conservation)
Natural Resources Conservation Resources
EQIP & CSP (Cost sharing programs)
Amanda Lowery 903-756-5491 Ext 3
Marion-Cass Soil & Water Conservation Dist
(Litter Abatement programs)
Pearlee Wells 903-756-5491 Ext 5
Wild Turkey Federation
Jamie Hooker 936-234-0550
I left the meeting with lots of new acquaintances, a stomach full of BBQ, a new understanding of various aspects of our community and saved some money on an annual basis concerning my propane usage all for FREE. And, helped the kids as I joined several organizations!
You have to be on someone’s list to get notification of seminars and events. I’m telling you again…if you haven’t, please contact the Texas A&M Extension office (below). How can you stay informed if you don’t receive a notice; and how many FREE events, information and lunches are you going to miss if you don’t get on the list?
PS. I just attended the Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative Annual Meeting. Again, very informative, FREE lunch and lots of door prizes, including two nice gift certificates for free electricity. Hope you will attend next year. GET INVOLVED!
Important numbers and contacts:
Jessica Rymel can be reached at Jessica.Rymel@ag.tamu.edu Office: 903-756-5391
Please contact her via email to be added to her program and mailout lists.
If she doesn’t know, she knows where to send you!