Friday, May 3, 2024
Members of Coryell Retired School Personnel (CRSP) met on Thursday, March 28, at Rancher’s Steakhouse.
The program, entitled “A Space-tacular Eclipse Program,” was presented by Cheri Shepherd, our City of Gatesville Eclipse Coordinator. Cheri is a graduate of Jonesboro High School and Tarleton University. She began her career as a teacher in Cranfills Gap. She continued teaching in Jonesboro ISD, China Spring, and then moved to management at a Waco private school. Next, Cheri had a lengthy career in the title insurance business. She finally ended up working for the City of Gatesville for seven years, promoting the community and the Civic Center and coordinating special events. She had planned to retire, but she was asked to stay on and help coordinate eclipse activities for 2024.
As eclipse coordinator, she has been very busy for the last year promoting eclipse information for the city. At the very beginning of preparations, she met with Police Chief Brad Hunt and others to set down a list of priorities, the first of which was public safety.
She explained, “Gatesville has never experienced something quite like this before. Larger cities and towns with universities or colleges may have experience with a greater influx of traffic on various occasions, but Gatesville has not.” She added, “The police department is doubling its patrol presence the week of the eclipse and is working with area partners and nearby cities to plan for any potential emergencies. These include the Coryell Sheriff’s Office, Fort Cavazos, Texas Department of Public Safety, and others. The Fire Department has also increased its workforce.” The biggest traffic concerns include congestion of U.S. Highway 84 and State Highway 36, two major highways that are utilized by emergency vehicles and that lead to larger cities like Waco and Temple. The Hospital, EMS, Ambulance Service, and medical clinics are also preparing for possible additional needs, small or large. Local businesses, restaurants, service stations, banks (ATM’s), grocers, motels, camping and RV Parks, and many others are working together to be prepared. “In short, the whole town is involved!”
Cheri has contacted cities in the path of the 2017 eclipse to gather facts that would help our planning for the 2024 eclipse. She explained, “No one knows exactly how many people to expect. It’s hard to imagine, because we’ve never had something that potentially will bring this many visitors into our community. However, estimates range anywhere between 5,000-20,000 visitors.” She continued, “Our motels have been booked for a while, and campers and R-V parks are full. Neighboring areas such as Mother Neff Park are full, and part of Faunt Leroy Park has been set aside for tents, campers, and parking.” Gatesville has heard from out-of-state groups who are planning to come to Gatesville (Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, and California, for example), as well as some groups or individuals from outside the U.S. (Canada, Ireland, Britain, Scotland, and Norway, etc.). Some of these are planning to stay overnight in other cities like Dallas on Sunday night, then drive into Gatesville early Monday morning. These people may not be staying here overnight or for several days, but this will definitely add to our traffic congestion on Monday.” Cheri’s other duties have involved informing residents, sharing educational information, helping visitors, and alerting first responders for the public’s safety.
“On Saturday, April 6th, many activities will be going on to help make this event fun, special, and memorable for our visitors as well as our community,” continued Cheri. “These will include (1) BLOCK (out the Sun) PARTY downtown festival running from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. There will be a petting zoo, kids’ games, painting with a twist, goat roping, cornhole, pickleball, disc golf, entertainment on main stage, and agricultural exhibit (free admission); (2) Signings by book authors at 1854 Mercantile; (3) “Syzygy” NASA presentation by Liam Finn at City Auditorium (sold out); (4) Pearl Bluegrass Festival at 1 p.m. at Old Pearl school auditorium; (5) “Art in the Shadow” Show at Leaird’s Furniture Store from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and (6) Museum Tour, 60 visitors at a time, starting at 10 a.m.” Evening activities have also been available at Junction on Route 36, Bare Bones Bar-B-Q, and Texas Station Events Center.
In addition to the extensive list of activities and plans that are being made by churches, businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, local organizations, and community leaders, on April 8, the day of the eclipse, several venues will be offering parking places for those wanting to view the eclipse. They are also offering opportunities to worship, games and activities for kids and adults, food or food trucks, and viewing of the eclipse. Some of these locations include McKamie Stadium, Gatesville Sports Complex, Coryell Community Church with “Eclipse at the Crosses,” Last Drive-In Picture Show, Hyles Field, Gatesville Public Library, Gatesville Civic Center, and Higginbotham Brothers. For those hoping to view the eclipse a little farther from town, several local ranches and parks have offered visitors a place to stay for the weekend and/or to come view the eclipse. They offer a wide range of entertainment and food for their visitors as well. These venues include 65 River Ranch on Old Georgetown Road, Dove Nest on CR 342, LandJRanch on King Ranch Road, Dragon Stone Ranch at 2501 CR 137, and Mother Neff Park.
In closing, Cheri offered and briefly explained a list of special things to watch for during the eclipse. Her list included the following: (1) sun’s corona, outer layer of sun’s atmosphere; (2) solar flares, intense burst of radiation coming from release of energy associated with sun spots; (3) Bailey’s beads, arc of bright spots shining through edges during eclipse; (4) Diamond Ring effect, occurring at beginning and end of eclipse when last bits of sunlight shine like a ring; (5) surroundings, darkness or colors; (6) shadow bands, thin wavy lines on plain ground surfaces; (7) wildlife behavior; (8) temperature changes; (9) visibility of larger stars or even planets during period of totality. For more information provided by the Gatesville Messenger and Cheri Shepherd, see website: gatesvilletxeclipse.com.
Again, Cheri stated the objective that our special events planners had in mind from the very start. “We wanted to give people something fun to do, we wanted them to be here, and we wanted them to leave here with a great impression of the little town we live in. We hope our townspeople will participate in activities during the weekend, get out and meet some of our visitors, have fun, and enjoy this unique experience.”
