News

Beaming with pride: City leaders celebrate topping-off of new public safety facility

Bill Spinks wspinks@cherryroad.com A major project that has been a longtime goal of the city of Midlothian celebrated a milestone moment on Tuesday morning with the topping-off of a long-awaited new facility. Midlothian City Council members, appointed officials, first responders, and community leaders gathered to sign the pinnacle structural steel beam that will become a permanent fixture of the city’s new Public Safety and Municipal Court facility. Approved by voters in the 2021 bond election, the 77,000-square-foot facility will be the combined home of city police and fire administrations, as well as the Midlothian Police Department, city Emergency Management Services, and the city’s Municipal Court. Mayor Justin Coffman called the facility “a legacy of our community” that will serve Midlothian “for the next 50-plus years and serve the brightest and best men and women the city of Midlothian has to offer.” Coffman added that he is excited that the building is placed where it is, at the Ninth Street exit off of U.S. Highway 67 next to the existing MPD headquarters. “As people drive south from Dallas, the first thing they’ll recognize in the city of Midlothian is that we are a safe city, as our police station is right there at our gateway,” Coffman said. The mayor added that the new facility bears witness to the city’s standing as one of the 50 safest cities in Texas as well as the fire department’s recent attainment of the highest insurance fire rating, which impacts home insurance policies greatly. The new facility is set to come online in the spring of 2025. The new public safety facility was only one of four propositions approved in May 2021 by city voters. The first, a new City Hall and Library, will open in November. Two other propositions, a city recreation center and city […]

Read MoreBeaming with pride: City leaders celebrate topping-off of new public safety facility

Early voting open for Council runoff

Bill Spinks wspinks@cherryroad.com Early voting is underway for the June 15 Midlothian City Council Place 6 runoff between incumbent councilmember Hud Hartson and Wayne Shuffield. Early voting centers opened on Monday and continued throughout the week, with the polls open on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Early voting will conclude on Monday, June 10, and Tuesday, June 11, with locations open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In Midlothian, early voting is taking place at the Midlothian Conference Center at 1 Community Circle Drive. Other voting centers are open in Waxahachie, Red Oak, Ennis and Palmer. All registered voters in Ellis County may vote at any early voting center. Election Day voting next Saturday, June 15, will take place at six locations across Ellis County, including the Midlothian Conference Center. In the May 4 City Council Place 6 balloting, no candidate received a majority of votes. Shuffield led with 1,228 votes, followed by Hartson with 907, Dannion McLendon with 484 and Ronnie Morris with 429. Shuffield and Hartson advanced to a runoff as the top two vote-getters. Hartson, a veteran Dallas police officer, was voted into office in a 2020 special election to complete the term of the late Art Pierard. Hartson avoided a runoff in a three-way race for a full term in 2021 by a comfortable margin. Shuffield is a former Midlothian ISD board president and a trustee for 10 years (2005-2015), and former chairman of Midlothian Economic Development who is still serving as the MED treasurer. Questionnaires from both candidates are being published on Page A6 of this week’s issue of the Mirror. Other races decided on May 4 were the election of Ross Weaver to Place 5 on the Council; the re-election of incumbents Richard Peña and Gary Vineyard to Place 1 and Place […]

Read MoreEarly voting open for Council runoff