The Madisonville Meteor

06/21/2026

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s! Hope you have an incredible day!! 💙

06/19/2026

Madison County's 41st Juneteenth celebration takes over this weekend, led by the 2026 court: Queen Elyse Jordan, Junior Princess Abree Brice and Little Miss Taelynn Dickey.

Bingo opens the celebration at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 19. The parade lines up at Lake Madison Park between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m. Saturday, June 20, and steps off at 10 a.m. A Juneteenth ceremony and free community meal follow the parade, and a children's carnival begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

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Parade, community meal and carnival fill two days of events The Madison County Juneteenth Organization will hold its 2026 Juneteenth Celebration Friday, June 19, and Saturday, June 20, with a parade, a community meal, bingo and a children’s carnival. Bingo night opens the celebration at 6:30 p.m.

06/19/2026

There's a new mural on the downtown square.

Austin artist Gabriel Portillo painted it on the brick wall at 101 W. Trinity Street over the past week. It's red, white and blue, full of cowboys, a Mustang and the Coca-Cola script. The wall is part of Paint the Nation, a Coca-Cola campaign for the country's 250th birthday.

The city plans to unveil it at 2 p.m. Monday, June 22. That date is still tentative, so watch for updates.

There's a lot more to it. A Madisonville family helped bring the project to town. A neighbor who works at Ace Hardware stepped in to save the paint job. And Portillo found out a Coca-Cola plant ran here back in 1929.

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Cowboys and a galloping horse now look out over downtown Madisonville from a fresh coat of red, white and blue paint.The city will unveil the new Coca-Cola mural at 2 p.m. Monday, June 22 on the side of Whitney Smith's law firm at 101 W. Trinity St. The date is tentative.The wall is part of Paint th...

06/18/2026

The county is paying hundreds more for some autopsies, and a justice of the peace told commissioners exactly why.

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Madison County commissioners worked through a stack of monthly department reports last week, hearing details on rising autopsy costs, an upcoming 4-H awards banquet and county statistics. Justice of the Peace Kevin Counsil, filling in for Justice of the Peace Steven Cole, told commissioners June 9 i...

06/18/2026

Madisonville crews opened up the school gym floor for a routine repaint and found a problem underneath that's putting off the bigger job.

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Madisonville Consolidated Independent School District trustees approved five business items June 15 and heard an update on summer campus work. The board certified the district’s compliance with Senate Bill 12, a state education law passed last legislative session, which administrators said Madison...

06/17/2026

A child po*******hy case the Meteor first covered back in 2024 reached its end this month in district court.

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A man arrested two years ago on a felony child po*******hy charge was sentenced to a decade behind bars after pleading guilty June 8. Pranai Chhagan Patel, 47, received his ten-year prison sentence last week from Judge Tracy Sorensen in the 278th District Court, records show.

06/13/2026

An endangered toad is deciding when Leon County landowners can run a dozer

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Most of Leon County sits inside the protected habitat of the Houston toad, an endangered species, and that limits when landowners there can clear brush or burn pasture. Amanda Lowey, the district conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, told the Bedias Creek Soil and Water Co...

06/12/2026

The Madison County extension office has a new ag and natural resources agent. Here's who he is and what he plans to do

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Madison County’s new extension agent introduced himself to commissioners May 26, capping a career path that has taken him from Louisiana to Mississippi, back to Louisiana, over to Houston, back to Louisiana again and now to Madisonville.

06/12/2026

The company behind the North Zulch battery site finally answers the questions residents have been asking.

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NORTH ZULCH — Energy Vault answered questions about its planned battery storage project near North Zulch last week, the first time the company has spoken at length about a site residents and county officials have debated for weeks. Company representatives recently walked through the SOSA Energy Ce...

06/11/2026

A traffic stop on Interstate 45 turns up about 65 handicap placards and lands a driver in jail

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A 24-year-old man faces a felony charge after Madisonville police found dozens of handicap placards in his vehicle during a traffic stop, according to reports. Officials said a Madisonville Police Department sergeant stopped Jonathan Finch about 6:42 p.m.