Dear editor:

In the Aug. 4, 2022 edition of the Wood County Monitor, I read with local pride that the Monitor had received four awards from the Texas Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, congratulations! The one award in particular that stood out the most for me was the first place award for Public Notices. This award was exemplary because the competition was statewide, except for the large metro daily papers.  

Specifically, the Public Notice Award was given for the public notice of a concrete batch plant application that was proposed to be built near the entrance to the Mineola Nature Preserve. Because of that notice, a citizens’ protest of the location helped to cause the applicant to withdraw the application and save the entrance to the Mineola Nature Preserve from an unsightly and quality of life impact scar.

Public notices are posted in “newspapers of record” within governmental jurisdictions.

Any state proceeding (such as the concrete batch plant application), tax notices, elections, estate settlements, zoning and rezoning public hearings and other notices are required by law to be published in the “newspaper of record.” Newspapers publish these notices as a form of communication between governmental agencies and citizens of the region.  

So the next time you are reading through the Wood County Monitor, take a look at the public notices, a disposal well application, tax notice, a will probate or even a concrete batch plant application may be listed. Unless we were to attend all the city/county public meetings, reading the public notices in our local papers is the only communication we have of learning about what governmental agencies are or are wanting to do.

It should be our civic duty to stay informed and educated on what could impact us or our quality of life (such as a 281’ antenna at the Mineola Nature Preserve).

So I encourage us all to do our civic duty and stay informed by reading the public notices section in the Monitor, then speak out if something is concerning or beneficial.  

Thank you Wood County Monitor for publishing these public notices and congratulations on your awards!

Joe Moore

Mineola