The Magnolia Standard in 5 Minutes
Issue 42: The National Night Out Edition

This is The Magnolia Standard in five minutes. It's Tuesday, October sixth.

Three stories today. A night at the park with the people who answer nine one one. Two young people from this county who finished first in the state. And a salon that started in a tiny shop in Tomball and has filed to build something much bigger in Magnolia.

Start with National Night Out. In most of the country, it happens on the first Tuesday in August. Texas moves it to the first Tuesday in October, because August here is no time to stand around in a park. So the statewide date is today.

Magnolia's is two days later. The Magnolia Police Department has it set for this Thursday, October eighth, from six to eight in the evening, at Unity Park. It's free, and it's open to everybody.

The lineup keeps growing. Free hot dogs, cookies and drinks, food trucks, bounce houses and face painting.

There's a Touch a Truck line, so kids can climb into police cars and fire trucks and look at ambulance gear up close. There's a tug of war, police against fire. And farm animals. The department lists donkeys, cattle, and kangaroos.

Five agencies are coming besides the city police. The Precinct Five Constable's Office. The fire district that runs the Magnolia Fire Department. The P H I Air Medical base in Conroe, an air ambulance service. The county sheriff's office. And the Texas Department of Public Safety.

That mix matters here. Outside city limits, it's the sheriff and the constable who patrol, not the city. Plenty of new families don't know which badge answers which call. Thursday is an easy way to find out.

And mark the same park for later. The City of Magnolia is holding its first ever Fall Festival at Unity Park on Saturday, November seventh, ten to four. More than sixty vendors, games, food, and a dunk tank where you can send a City Council member into the water. Also free.

Next, 4-H.

Azalee Porter and J D Haines each finished first in their categories at the Texas 4-H State Record Book contest. Five more Montgomery County members placed too. Connor Haines, Casey Ward and Lani Duncan in second. Bryce Maddux in fourth. Kara Whitmire in sixth.

A record book has no animal and no stage. A member writes up a year of work in one project, and judges read it. Seven from this county placed at state.

If your family has been thinking about joining, there's a date to know. The county program's enrollment fee is twenty five dollars per member through October thirty first. On November first it goes to thirty. Clover Kids, ages five to eight, are ten dollars.

One change from last year. The state moved to a new sign up system, and every family makes a new profile, even returning members. Last year's account doesn't carry over.

Four clubs meet close to home. Magnolia 4-H, at Lyons Elementary, the second Tuesday of the month at seven. That's next Tuesday, the thirteenth. Shining Star 4-H, at the Magnolia Community Center, the third Sunday at four. Montgomery Dobbin 4-H, at the Lone Star Community Center in Montgomery, the second Monday at six. And Evening Star 4-H, same building, the second Tuesday at six thirty.

One rule before you pick. The county only lets members switch clubs between June first and October first. That window just closed. So a family joining now is choosing its club through next summer. Visit a few first.

Also this month, a horse clinic and costume contest at the Magnolia Horse Arena, Sunday, October twenty fifth, at two.

Last story. A salon.

In two thousand seven, Tracey Phan bought a nail shop in Tomball called Aloha Nails. It was about eight hundred square feet, and she ran it by herself.

She grew it into a beauty lounge with twelve employees, and in twenty twenty one moved it to Sycamore Street in downtown Tomball.

Now Aloha Beauty Lounge has filed with the state to build in Magnolia. Eight thirty five Honea Egypt Road. The filing lists a building of twelve thousand, three hundred sixty six square feet, at an estimated two and a half million dollars.

Construction is listed to start December first, and finish December first of next year. Those dates come from an early filing, and they often move. The salon hasn't said yet what all that extra room will hold. We'll be watching.

One reminder before we go. Early voting for November opens Monday, October nineteenth.

The full stories, with every source, are at the magnolia standard dot news. That's the Magnolia Standard in five minutes.

See you Friday.

Written by our newsroom, voiced by computer.