Editors Note: This is Part 2 of the 2024 Top Stories Roundup. Part 1 covered the aftermath of the county cybertheft in January, the deaths of two prominent community leaders in February, and the shift in local leaders with the March Republican primaries.
Throughout the spring of 2024, DeWitt County donors stepped up to a special matching fund challenge to pay off the Friar Ag Center loan. The remaining $1.5 million balance was raised in a 90-day capital campaign that started with the Cuero Livestock Show auction.
In 2019, the Cuero Livestock Show determined it had outgrown the 35-year old building and started a $2.5 million renovation project. Work began in 2020, and the completed complex now serves as the go-to event center for the county.
Setting the stage for this year’s fund drive was the $750,000 matching-funds pledge by longtime ag supporter Harvey Mueller. Then on Cuero Livestock Show auction night, excitement built around the sale of one particular goat whose proceeds were to be donated.
In years past, the youth would often donate portions of their animal sales to the building fund, but this year DeWitt County 4-H member Briley Wieland donated her entire grand champion goat sale proceeds to the campaign. This act of selflessness set the tone for an anonymous $50,000 bid. Auctioneer Joe Adams kept the momentum going until the sale closed at $78,000.
Other young exhibitors stepped up as well, like Nathan Oakes ($5,000 from his steer), Kassidy Kemp ($1,600 from her broiler project), and Hayden Sanders ($1,000 from his pig) to make significant contributions to the building fund. With Briley’s goat sale, the total donated by area youth from the 2024 sale was $107,610.
The adults of De-Witt County followed suit and achieved the balance for matching $750,000 by May 31. The Cuero Livestock Show has been breaking records for many years, but auction night of 2024 will not soon be forgotten.
Also in the spring of 2024, one of Cuero’s most successful athletes, Arthur Whittington, passed away. He was a member of the 1972 State Championship Cuero Gobbler football team. He went on to play for SMU and the Oakland Raiders. In the same week that his uncle passed, Jordan Whittington, a member of the 2018 State Championship team and UT Austin player, was drafted to the Los Angeles Rams.
Also in May, an explosion at an Advantec saltwater dispos-al plant in Westhoff claimed the life of one of its workers, Larry Kevin Hendricks, 41, of Beeville. The explosion led to the evacuation of Westhoff residents as firefighters from Westhoff, Nixon, Yorktown, and Cuero labored for hours to put out the blaze and secure the area. A lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages on behalf of the widow and minor children of Hendricks has been filed in the 135th District Court of DeWitt County.
Things do slow down a bit in summer, but we’ll cover that next time.
