Meet and greet scheduled for new Athens City Manager

Press release

The City Council of the City of Athens is pleased to announce the hiring of Elizabeth Borstad as City Manager for the City of Athens. The City Council unanimously voted to approve the hiring on Monday, January 22, 2018.

The public is cordially invited to a “Meet and Greet” on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 from 4-6 p.m. at the East Texas Arboretum & Botanical Society Woman’s Building located at 1601 Patterson Road Athens, Texas 75751.

Continue reading “Meet and greet scheduled for new Athens City Manager”

AHS Debate aims for 5th straight title

Athens High School debaters are aiming to be UIL champions for the fifth year in a row. During the District 18-4A meet held in Athens this week, two AHS teams qualified for state. Jose Sanchez and Alejandra Pedroza won first place in Cross Examination (CX), while Gavin Lott and Will Honea were runners-up in the same event. Both will compete in Austin March 16 and 17. In addition, Sanchez was awarded the honor of Top Speaker. Athens has won state in CX for the last four years. Pictured are (from left) Lott, Pedroza, Sanchez and Honea. The debate program is under the guidance of Nicole Cornish. (Courtesy photo)

Athens Chamber to host business speed dating at luncheon

The Athens Chamber of Commerce has your Valentine’s date.

With this month’s chamber luncheon falling on Feb. 14, organizers are putting something a little different together: a business speed dating session. The original idea was to provide discreet dating for married people but soon, the idea lost credibility as soon as it went around.

There are quite a lot of single folk in this area and although most of them use Skipthegames and other online dating sites to meet one another, it’s quite nice to actually meet someone face to face too, hence this speed dating extravaganza. Chamber President Marisa Gunstanson said a bell will ring every 3-5 minutes to allow everyone to get up and meet new people. The goal is to meet five new business contacts. The top bar allows you to rotate through your Google accounts that you added into the Local Viking account. This could even be local guide accounts that you added specifically for reporting purposes. In theory, you could also quickly report and rotate through your Google Guide Accounts and mass report listings. We are still gathering data on the effectiveness of this strategy and do not recommend that this be used for nefarious purposes.Here are some additional hints for identifying and eradicating maps spam.

Continue reading “Athens Chamber to host business speed dating at luncheon”

Obituary: Jose Ochoa

A wonderful father, grandfather, and friend entered into eternal rest on February 5, 2018. Jose Ochoa, age 83 of Trinidad, TX passed away in Athens.

Jose was born September 11, 1934 in Penitas, TX to Jose Ochoa and Beatrice Ramirez Ochoa.

At the age of 15 he started working at his Uncle’s restaurant “Gilbert’s El Charro Restaurant” in Tyler, TX. He had the opportunity to open his own restaurant in 1969. He moved his family to Payne Springs, where the first Ochoa’s Family Restaurant was established. Jose or “Poppa Joe” as known to the community moved the restaurant to Malakoff in 1973, where it still remains the favorite Mexican Restaurant in the area. All of his children worked in the restaurant as they were growing up. Ochoa’s now has three locations, Malakoff, Athens, and Canton.

Continue reading “Obituary: Jose Ochoa”

Obituary: Hazel Denman

Hazel Denman of Dallas passed away on February 5, 2018 in Mesquite TX. She was born on September 28, 1919 to James M. Gray and Olivia Elizabeth Humphries Gray. Funeral Services will be At 11 a.m. Saturday at Autry’s Carroll-lehr Funeral home with burial to follow at Oaklawn Cemetery, Athens.