Coleman was treated to a wealth of entertainment this last Saturday, October 22, 2016 as the annual Prickly Pear Festival came to life.

 
 
 
With some of the finest food and wine paired together anywhere, locals and visitors alike were treated to an amazing line up of musical talent. One of the artists; Coffey Anderson, stole the show for many as he is indeed the small town boy who made it big.

Coffey is a local, raised only a few miles east of Coleman in Bangs Texas and a graduate of Howard Payne university in Brownwood, Texas with a ministry degree. Coffey has not forgotten his roots.

Many there were inspired to find out that Coffey and his band have raised over $300,000 to refurbish and give, mortgage free housing to our vets in need. In doing this, he inspired other bands and record labels to get on board, resulting in more than 200 houses in total being built or refurbished for our wounded veterans.

Coffey, with a deep passion to create a bridge in racial and social differences made internet history by creating the first video on Facebook to have more than 30,000,000 (million) views.  This video has now been duplicated multiple times being both praised and criticized. Having this large internet audience, Coffey was invited to speak with President Obama at the POTUS town hall meeting filmed by ABC. 

Coleman is certainly honored to have been a part of Coffey's early environment where he participated in many small town youth activities that brought him to Coleman. Coffey's spiritual foundation is seen clearly now in his life as an entertainer as well as an inspirational speaker. Small town pride and small town values cannot be duplicated, depreciated or ignored!

ColemanConnected.com is proud to post this video that features a few minutes of music, a great ensemble of Sweet Home Alabama Texas, finishing up with few words from Coffey directly to Coleman and youth everywhere on his thoughts about  coming from a small town.

Click here to view the video in the forum.

 

 

We had a chance to talk with Calina Mishay Johnson, the artist who is doing the mural downtown on College. As promised, she has returned today during the Prickly Pear Festival to add the finishing touches and it is simply vibrant.
 
It is easy to argue that this work of art adds much life to College street, yet even more, it will surely delight visitors and locals for years to come. Thank you Calina and to all who have contributed! Click read more to view the video.

Click Video Interview with Calina Mishay Johnson to read the post.

The City council meeting this last Thursday covered an array of hot button topics which most all citizens would surely like to to see some resolution and action.

Included in the evening's discussions was a "Presentation" by Mr. Jackie Hammonds, who was a former city employee for nearly 30 years. Mr. Hammonds spoke for several minutes with most of his oratory concentrating on the condition of the streets. Coleman Connected will be releasing another video that covers the "streets" portion, as Mr. Hammonds does make some very interesting points. The video below; however, is possibly more dear to many, as it centers around the utility rates here in Coleman and the fact, according to Mr. Catoe, that to the best of his knowledge, the only utility rate that has gone up since he has been city manager, is ..

Click Good news, your electrical rate has not gone up! to read the post.

Video of the Coleman City Council meeting held May 21st, 2015. This video portion is for the "discussions" by the city council, city attorney, and Mr. Roy Poage on the subject of the two electrical

Click Video of Petitions Being Denied to read the post.

Coleman Connected went behind the scenes and followed some truly beautiful dogs through the high energy process of grooming and showing.

Click AKC Dog Show Abilene, Texas May 17, 2015 to read the post.

 

Video of Coleman city council meeting, May 14th, 2015. Highlights include installation of new members of the council, reconfirmation of Pat Chesser as city attorney for two more years and appointment of Robert Nash as city judge and Karen Langley as alternative. Several people spoke during the 5 minute period reserved for comments by citizens. This item is for comments NOT on the agenda.  Mr. Jody Payne and Mr. Ross Jones, spoke in favor of the resolution that was on the agenda and asked the council members to pass this resolution so that there would be a clear set of rules that could be followed.

Entire article and video at:

http://colemanconnected.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=550&title=agenda-city-council-5-14-15

Nancy Emmert read a very well crafted later from Eric Joffrion on transparency and the progress that Mayor Kay Joffrion had brought to Coleman.  Jeannie Moss also took the podium to remind newly installed members, particularly councilwoman...

http://colemanconnected.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=550&title=agenda-city-council-5-14-15

May 3rd, 2015 - Day trip to Dyess Air Force Base, Abilene Texas to watch the amazing Thunderbirds.

 

We attended the Big Country AirFest at Dyess Air Force Base the first Sunday in May. What a wonderful day. Both the B1 and the C-130 were celebrating anniversaries of being at Dyess and they put on a particularly great show. Many aircraft were on display with guided tours being offered on many of them. Thanks to Jeff for my personal tour of the C-130J!

The airshow featured some really great acts. The ones that captured my fancy were the Air Force Thunderbirds, The Harrier Jet and the Russian MIG. There was also a bi-plane that was wonderful. The A/F and the Army had parachute jumping teams that were very interesting to watch.

The Air Force Thunderbirds closed the show. They were very interesting even before they took off. They have a precision routine set to music, which they perform as the airplanes are prepared for takeoff. They really are amazing to see.

The Harrier Jet is a joint effort between the US and Britain. It can take off vertically, like a helicopter. It can hover in the air and even back up. Amazing!

Thanks to all the wonderful people at Dyess and their guest performers for sharing such a special day with the community!

Click on the video to watch a mosaic of the show.

Bernadette

Yesterday(5/7/15), the two electrical petitions where certified and found to be sufficient, which means they
contained enough signatures and were of correct format.

Following the certification a very passionate discussion followed where citizens and council members alike expressed there view points.

This is the RAW footage of the meeting for those interested.

We will post an edited and shorter version soon, but wanted to let those who wish to view the whole discussion have access to this feed.

Thank you everyone that showed up and expressed your views.

On April 20^th, eight (8) city leaders and citizens from Coleman traveled to Austin, without authorization from any board or council, to convince our congressman not to support two house bills that sought to make the electrical contract open to the public.

1. City Manager, Paul Catoe,                                      -- paul@web-access.net
2. Mayor Pro-tem Gary Payne,                          -- glpayne1@verizon.net
3. Mayor-Elect Nick Poldrack                                  -- 625-3370
4. City Attorney, Pat Chesser,                                  -- patchesserlaw@yahoo.com
5. EDC Executive Director, Kim Little                 -- edcolemanedc@outlook.com
6. EDC Secretary, Roy Poage                           -- porkhide@aol.com
7. County citizen Kay Poage, wife of Roy Poage
8. Citizen Rodney Cole Jr, as chauffeur.

We spoke with Mayor Kay Joffrion on this matter.  Here is a video of Mayor Kay on this subject.




Read the full article here on the forum
http://colemanconnected.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=535&PID=882