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The McKinney Fire Department (MFD) responded to a call for a structure fire just after midnight Monday. Fire crews arrived to find fire at the rear of the New Outreach Church of God in Christ located at 506 Wilcox St.

A resident was safely evacuated from a residential structure that also caught fire. As a precaution, nearby homes were evacuated.

As firefighters attacked the flames, another fire was reported a short distance away at Chicken Express, located at 411 S. McDonald St. All three structures were destroyed.

Fire investigators are on the scene to determine where and how the fire started – and whether the two fire scenes are connected. ATF has been called in to assist with the investigation.

“This was a very intense fire that took a huge number of resources and hours of hard work to extinguish,” said McKinney Fire Chief Danny Kistner. “As always, the most important thing is the safety of the residents and our firefighters.”

Anna, Melissa, Plano, Fairview, Princeton, Frisco, Lowry Crossing, Weston and Allen all provided assistance.

Reports from social media on the incident:

Update: Fire investigators remain on the scene of an overnight fire that burned down a church, a home and a fast food restaurant along N. McDonald. They will determine what started the fire and where the fire started. No one was hurt. Firefighters are watching out for hot spots. pic.twitter.com/VEpeD8mykI

— mckinneyfire (@mckinneytxfire) October 24, 2022

McKinney firefighters working a big fire near downtown overnight. It destroyed a church on Wilcox, and a home and a restaurant on N McDonald. More information coming. We appreciate the assistance from Allen, Fairview and Plano, Anna, Lowry Crossing and Westminster. pic.twitter.com/GRyVjjeRcT

— mckinneyfire (@mckinneytxfire) October 24, 2022

McKinney firefighters are investigating a fire that destroyed multiple buildings near downtown early Monday morning. https://t.co/d7Mfr17eQO

— FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) October 24, 2022

MCKINNEY FIRE— a church, a home and a Chicken Express were destroyed in the fire https://t.co/7SyLQihjpl

— Shannon Murray (@ShannonMFox4) October 24, 2022

Janay Tieken remembers when McKinney was still following the traditional path to public transit.

Under a previous partnership, the city’s streets used to be a part of a fixed bus route network.

But the issue of low ridership, added to McKinney’s more expansive geography, meant the service was financially unfeasible, said Tieken, the city’s housing and community development director.

Since then, the city has switched to an on-demand model that aims to help the elderly, those with disabilities and those with low income get to doctor’s visits or grocery stores. Now, a recent change to the system is aiming to make that program even more expansive.

In January, DART became the Collin County Transit program provider. The transition is a switch from when the Denton County Transportation Authority was providing a taxi voucher program to the McKinney Urban Transit District, which includes Celina, Prosper, Lowry Crossing, Melissa and Princeton.

The agreement with DCTA expired on Dec. 31, and the city of McKinney, on behalf of the district, put out a request for presentations. Around that time, the DCTA and Dallas Area Rapid Transit were expected to provide a joint proposal, Tieken said.

“But DCTA decided for a number of reasons that they didn’t have the bandwidth and were not going to be part of the joint proposal,” Tieken said. “So DART graciously and very luckily pivoted and was able to be the lead and provide the pieces that DCTA was going to provide.”

Ryan McCutchan, program manager with DART, said the shift will bring changes for riders that aim to expand services and make the fare system more concise.

For one, he said, DART is providing expanded service hours under the new program: weekdays, the program will run from 6 a.m. through 8 p.m. In addition, the program expanded weekend services to include Sundays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (The service runs at the same times for Saturday).

Previously, services ended at 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the program did not run on Sundays. That change comes as DART saw a high demand of requests who may want to go to church on Sunday, McCutchan said.

In addition, the program will include a mix of “dedicated” vehicles that are used by DART as well as “non-dedicated” vehicles through Lyft services.

“The Lyft fleet, we feel, will be very dynamic and be able to help the program grow as more prospective riders join the Collin County Transit program,” McCutchan said.

In March, McCutchan said DART was currently testing the Lyft component, with hopes to add it to operations in mid-April.

Changes also include making the fare system more simplistic: members who need rides within the McKinney Urban Transit District will pay a flat $3 fee for a one-way trip, while a trip to anywhere else in Collin County is a $5 flat fee for a one-way trip.

Previously, the fare system was dependent on how long someone’s trip was.

“So every time somebody booked a trip, they might have a little bit different fare,” McCutchan said. “But with this new program, with there only being two fares, we really wanted to make a really clear and concise way of paying for the system under the two-fare system.”

The program eligibility still includes seniors, riders with disabilities and low-income riders, making the service a targeted effort to help people who meet those eligibility requirements. McCutchan said DART’s plans included specific marketing in order to grow the transit program for those riders.

In January, McCutchan said there was a good amount of demand for such a program. By Jan. 28, the program had already provided 865 rides, with about 32 riders per day. Trips averaged about 18 minutes and 6.6 miles, he said.

“I think we will continue to see ridership go up as we add new eligible riders to the system,” he said at the time.

By early March, ridership had totaled to 2,335. Average daily ridership was 35, and average travel duration was 19 minutes. The average travel distance was seven miles.

Today’s on-demand services in the MUTD is a long way down the road from where the city was a few years ago, when fixed-route buses were still traversing McKinney’s streets.

“Rather than running empty buses around the city all day, this has been a much better and more focused approach to providing transit services,” Tieken said.

Of course, it’s not as visible, she added, and a lot of folks will probably be inclined to say “We don’t have transit in McKinney.”

“Yes, we do,” she said.

If Mount Vernon voters approve either of two alcohol-sales ballot initiatives on May 11 - and voters in the Piney Woods town of Tatum do the same - that would leave Delta County the last dry county in East Texas.

When Northeast Texas voters go to the polls on Saturday, citizens in four communities will be casting their lots for or against measures that would allow, in some fashion, alcohol sales where such sales are not currently legal.

The cities of Campbell, Josephine, Lowry Crossing and Mount Vernon all have alcohol-related items on municipal ballots in the May 11 elections.

Dry counties dropping off East Texas map?

The Mount Vernon ballot has two proposals - one to allow beer and wine sales for off-premise consumption and one to allow the sale of mixed beverages at restaurants.

If either of those pass, that would make Franklin County, of which Mount Vernon is the county seat, a "partially wet" county, like all but three counties in East Texas.

Among counties in East Texas, only Delta, Franklin and Panola counties remain dry. The rest have mixed, or "partially wet" regulations regarding the public sale of alcoholic beverages.

Deep in "The Woods," the small city of Tatum, which straddles the Rusk-Panola County line, will vote on May 11 on whether to allow the sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption.

If both voters in both Panola and Franklin counties decide to allow alcohol sales, that would leave Delta the lone county west of Interstate 35 with dry status. Of the 256 counties in Texas, only 19 remain dry. Of those 19, all but the aformentioned three are in West Texas.

Campbell, Josephine, Lowry Crossing also deciding

The ballot initiatives in Campbell, Lowry Crossing and Josephine won't change the wet/dry status of Hunt and Collin counties, where public alcohol sales are legal, but they would obviously impact the towns in question.

The measures in Campbell and Lowry Crossing would allow sales of all alcoholic beverages for off-premise consumption. Josephine's proposition would allow the sales of beer and wine for off-premise consumption.

Campbell is in Hunt County, while Lowry Crossing is in Collin County. Josephine is mostly in Collin County, but extends over the Hunt County line.

It has not been confirmed if the fires are related

A church, home and restaurant were destroyed after two fires last night in McKinney, Texas. There have not been any reports of injuries, and an investigation is underway into the origin of both fires.

Just after midnight on October 24, the McKinney Fire Department responded to a report of a fire on North McDonald Street. NBCDFW said that firefighters first began attempting to extinguish the fire at a church on Wilcox, but did not release the name at the time. Several surrounding houses were evacuated before the fire spread to a nearby home.

“We appreciate the assistance from Allen, Fairview and Plano, Anna, Lowry Crossing and Westminster,” a McKinney Fire Department tweet read.

McKinney Fire Department Public Information Officer and Education Coordinator Merit Ossian confirmed to Local Profile that the church was New Outreach Church of God in Christ at 506 Wilcox Street.

That same night, another fire broke out at a nearby Chicken Express at 411 S. McDonald Street. According to the McKinney Fire Department, as of 3:22 a.m., firefighters were working a big fire near the downtown area. During that time it was also confirmed that the church on Wilcox had been destroyed.

At 6:34 a.m., McKinney firefighters remained on the scene. As of writing, they are currently working to determine what started the fire and where the fire started. They also released that no one was harmed during the fire, and residents were evacuated in a timely matter.

“This was a very intense fire that took a huge number of resources and hours of hard work to extinguish,” said McKinney Fire Chief Danny Kistner in a press release. “As always, the most important thing is the safety of the residents and our firefighters.”

Ossian told Local Profile that the fires are no longer active, but the fire department is still at both locations. Firefighters will continue to search for hot spots that could cause the fire to ignite again.

It was confirmed that the investigation is still ongoing, and the only damages that occurred were to the church, home and restaurant. McKinney Fire Department will also examine whether the fires are connected.

Cemeteries in Farmersville, Blue Ridge, Lowry Crossing, McKinney, Merit, Van Alstyne — and throughout Texas and the U.S. — will remember, honor and teach at wreath laying ceremonies Saturday, Dec. 17, as part of National Wreaths Across America Day.

The ceremonies, which start promptly at 11 a.m. nationwide, honors veterans for their service in a final end-of-year tribute by placing fresh evergreen wreaths with red bows —delivered from Maine —in remembrance.

For the past 31 years, the nonprofit, Wreaths Across America, has sent more than 14.4 million wreaths to various locations, including national cemeteries and veterans’ memorials in all 50 states and overseas. In 2021, approximately 2.4 million veterans’ remembrance wreaths were delivered to 3,137 locations across the United States.

In Lowry Crossing, for the fifth year in a row, the Wilson Chapel Cemetery will honor veterans in a special ceremony in its historic chapel before moving outside for the placing of wreaths on the graves of veterans.

Linda Dillard, a resident of Lowry Crossing is also in her fifth year as the location coordinator for the Wreaths Across America Ceremony at Wilson Chapel Cemetery. Pamela Gillard will serve as the backup location coordinator, said Dillard, because “she has family members buried at the cemetery that are veterans and she is also a member of my John F. Greer Chapter.”

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) John F. Greer Chapter has been involved as the fundraiser for the group since the beginning.

“This is the fourth year to be fully funded so that every veteran buried at Wilson Chapel Cemetery will receive a live evergreen wreath,” Dillard said. “Initially, when we began hosting in 2018, we had identified 145 veterans in the cemetery.”

Dillard said their list of veterans has now grown to 229, “with more veterans identified who were buried but never properly identified, along with the deaths of veterans who have been buried since 2018.”

The wreath count for the Wilson Chapel Cemetery WAA ceremony was planned for 230, she said, “in the event the death of a veteran occurs after the cutoff date to order wreaths for the ceremony.”

Dillard said she is always nervous the week before the ceremony as she “never knows when the truck will arrive with our wreaths until the day before or the day of their arrival.”

“I always have our pickup truck empty with the sideboards on it — and plenty of gas — so that I can immediately drop everything and meet our truck driver,” she said. “I have a group text ready to send out to my volunteers who have offered to help me unload/load the boxes of wreaths to our pickup truck.”

The 27 boxes of wreaths will remain in Dillard’s truck in her garage until Saturday’s ceremony which will start promptly at 11 a.m., inside the historic Wilson Chapel, located in Wilson Chapel Cemetery at 100 Chapel Lane.

“I am asking veterans who attend to place the ceremonial wreaths on the easels at the front of the chapel during the ceremony,” she said. “This is the most emotional part of the service in my opinion as they salute the wreath after it is placed on the easel.”

After the ceremony, families of veterans buried at the cemetery will be dismissed first to place their wreaths on their family veterans’ grave. Then the remaining guests will be dismissed.

The idea for Christmas wreaths honoring veterans at Arlington National Cemetery was spearheaded 31 years ago by Morrill Worcester, the owner of a Maine wreath company. His vision, along with the support of a Maine senator, veteran groups, a trucking company, and other organizations, quickly developed into an annual tribute.

Last week, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution introduced by Maine’s U.S. Senators, Susan Collins and Angus King, designating Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, as “Wreaths Across America Day.”

“From Arlington National Cemetery that overlooks our nation’s capital, to Normandy American Cemetery above the beaches that Allied troops stormed on D-Day, the wreath laying ceremonies on Dec. 17 are a powerful demonstration of respect and appreciation for our veterans,” said Senators Collins and King in a Dec. 7 news release. “This resolution remembers and honors America’s veterans this holiday season, while also teaching younger generations of the sacrifices that have been made to secure our freedoms and to defend our liberty.”

Dillard said, for her, this is now a Christmas tradition for the holiday season to pay tribute to veterans — some whose graves are not visited all year — who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

“Thankfully, they will be remembered this Christmas, as we say their name, thank them for their service, and salute them either with our hand over our heart, or if the wreath layer is past or current military/first responder, properly saluting the veteran’s grave,” she said.

Dillard said anyone is welcome to attend this “very patriotic, emotional ceremony.”

“Adults and children alike are invited to attend,” she said, “as this is a perfect time to Honor, Remember and Teach.”

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