This will be an on-going, ever-advancing post because Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDOT) sends new and refreshing information each weekend, sometimes even in between the ongoing projects.

Waco Street, aka SH 5, in Van Alstyne will be receiving TxDOT’s yearly crack seal from Redden Road to the Collin County line.  NEW: March 19 2025, beginning.  US Hwy 75,  from the Collin County Line to FM 902. Construction on this project is expected to begin on March 19, 2025.  This project will widen the US 75 mainlanes from the Collin County Line to FM 902 to six lanes; will also reconstruct the bridge at County Line Road and construct new u-turn bridges in Van Alstyne near Simmons Loop and in Howe south of Hall Cemetery Road; will convert the frontage roads from two-way operation to one-way operation. Two lanes on the US 75 main lanes will remain open in each direction during the daytime hours with occasional further lane closures during the nighttime period. Watch for lane closures on the frontage roads during construction.  SH 5, in Van Alstyne from Williams Way to Blassingame Avenue.  Watch for daytime lane closures on SH 5 as crews work to install a shared use bicycle and pedestrian trail.  The trail will follow along SH 5 from the existing trail at Williams Way to Blassingame Avenue, then along Tolson Avenue, then along Main Street where it will connect with Van Alstyne Parkway.  Motorists should expect delays during the daytime work hours as flaggers direct traffic through the work zone. Began in 2024:   FM 121, from Main Street in Van Alstyne eastward to SH 160.  TxDOT crews work to rehabilitate and widen the roadway to an overall width of 26 feet. Motorists should expect delays as signals and pilot cars direct traffic through the work zone.

By  Mary Jane Farmer for the Van Alstyne News

Van Alstyne Police arrested several people during the past week, beginning Saturday, March 29. Police Lt. Steven Hayslip reported on the following arrests.

March 29 — About 10:30 p.m. that Saturday, officers were sent to a motor vehicle accident. In the 1100 block of West Van Alstyne Parkway. There, officers spoke with all of the individuals involved in the accident. While talking with the driver of one of the vehicles, a Van Alstyne man, they heard him slurring his speech and saw that the suspect had bloodshot eyes, Hayslip said.

No one in the wreck were injured.

They placed the suspect under arrest on a charge of Driving While Intoxicated.  The suspect posted bail of $3,000 later the same day for his release.

April 2 — It was about 6:30 p.m when officers were sent to look into a suspicious person call in the 400 block of Martin Duke. Upon arrival, officers found that the suspects were still at the location. Following protocol, they found out that one of the two, a Van Alstyne woman, had two outstanding warrants for her arrest which had been issued by the Choctaw Nation. These warrants charged her with felony drug offenses. They placed her under arrest and took her to Grayson County Jail.

As of this Saturday, she was still incarcerated.

April 2 — Some time later that evening, about 11:45 pm, Van Alstyne police made a traffic stop on U.S. Hwy 75 at Farmington Road after they saw the vehicle travelling at 89-miles per hour in a 75-mph zone. The driver, a Mesquite woman was extremely nervous while they talked with her. The officers asked for consent to search her vehicle, but she denied permission.

So, the officers requested and received a K9 unit at the scene. The K9 conducted an open sniff and alerted. He led the officers to a clear bag containing about three grams of methamphetamine, a clear plastic bag containing one ounce of marijuana, and a firearm.

Police jailed her on all three offenses. Bail was set at $24,000, which the suspect paid with surety bonds and obtained her release.

Hayslip also reported there were four accidents in this time period No one was injured in three of those and one person suffered minor injuries and was transported to a nearby emergency room.

By MaryJane Farmer.  A pilot car is set to lead drivers through FM 121’s construction zone.

By Mary Jane Farmer for the Van Alstyne News

Somebody or something is coming into Van Alstyne soon. No, it’s not Santa Claus, it’s not a well-known government official or TV star, and it’s certainly not the ghosts of Bonnie & Clyde. Give up? It’s the D.L. Lennon Inc. construction company, which has been working on FM 121 (aka Jefferson Street) for Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), completely resurfacing about 11 miles of this state-owned farm-to-market roadway between State Highway 160 and Main Drive on the west side of the railroad tracks.By May

TxDOT spokesperson Kristen Prater said the project is “slightly ahead of schedule.” D.L. Lennon has until January 2026, but Prater said they expect it will be completed “this coming summer.” She added that “The work is weather dependent and could be delayed.” That has been the only glitch in the work to date, Prater said, when heavy rain kept them from making any progress. The cost of the completed project is $10.77 million.

by Mary Jane Farmer
A contract construction company’s crew holds up a stop sign before drivers can be led through a work zone.

“The contractor plans to perform the milling and paving of the town section, from Main Drive eastward, this summer, in June or July,” Prater said. While this is going on, residents can count on traffic control. During working hours, pilot cars will direct traffic through the work zone. Residents will have access to and from their homes, but may have delays while work is occurring in front of their driveways.”

The work includes more than just resurfacing the road, as FM 121’s pavement is being completely removed and, as TxDOT calls it, redrilled and then repaved. The contractor is also adding one-foot of pavement on each side of the roadway. Prater explained, “A wider roadway provides the advantage of having a safer roadway, giving drivers more room. A wider roadway usually results in less broken pavement edges from vehicles running off the roadway.”

The portion of the roadway that has been being worked on from the beginning (August 2024) has pilot cars leading travelers safely through the work zone, one direction at a time. The contractor will continue to use these. It’s not certain yet if they will add the portable traffic lights to this area as well.

At this time, some of the contractor’s workers are preparing this area for the upcoming development. Most yards in the area now feature a yellow-paint stripe from the roadway to the houses.

By Mary Jane Farmer.  Yellow paint lines signify the location of underground gas lines in order to let the road construction crew know where they are, thus not creating a problem.

Prater explained, “The orange flags (and blue, green, yellow and red) are used to mark buried utilities so any contractor doing work in the area can be aware of what utilities are below them and to not damage them while digging.  Orange is for communication lines, red is for electric, blue is for water, green for sanitary sewer, and yellow for gas lines.” It is important to the contractor that these are left exactly as they are until the contractor either removes them or the project is complete.

Will this make downtown area harder for shoppers and business owners? Not at all, said Van Alstyne City Manager Lane Jones. While the city has begun its own downtown street-improvements program, Jones explained that the city cannot make any changes to Jefferson St., (FM 121)  in the downtown area, it being state-owned property. If they must move infrastructure, they will do that by drilling underneath Jefferson St. And those who want or need to go into a downtown business, both parking lots west of the railroad tracks will remain available.

By Mary Jane Farmer, with information provided by Van Alstyne Police Lt. Steven Hayslip, for the Van Alstyne News.

With a couple of left-over arrests from February reported first here, March has been a busy month so far for Van Alstyne Police. They have made more felony arrests, and in this period have arrested only three on charges of Driving While Intoxicated.

The Grayson County Grand Jury’s indictments of suspects on various drug charges during the past month are reported after the arrest reports. The reports are made from information given by Lt. Hayslip, the department’s Public Information Officer, and from the Grayson County Jail database and the G.C. District Attorney’s listing of indictments.

February 26 — About 10 pm, officers saw and made contact with a pedestrian walking the wrong way in. the roadway. The man was identified as a McKinney man. For reasons yet unknown, the police asked if he’d like a ride to Sherman and he said ‘yes’ he would.

Police conducted a pat-down for weapons, routine procedure when getting a non-officer in the patrol car. They asked for permission to search his person and he again said ‘yes.’

They found a methamphetamine pipe and some pills in his pocket.

Police then arrested the pedestrian on a charge of Possession of a Dangerous Drug.

Grayson County Jail records show that the suspect sat in the jail until March 6 and was then released on Personal Recognizance.

February 27 — About 9:30 pm, police on patrol made a traffic stop after seeing a vehicle traveling 93 miles per hour in a 75-mph zone. The driver, a Van Alstyne man, smelled of the odor of an intoxicating beverage. The police conducted Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs), after which they placed him under arrest. Then, following protocol, they searched his vehicle and found a firearm.

At the jail, the suspect was incarcerated on charges of Driving While Intoxicated and of Unlawfully Carrying a Weapon. Bail was set a total of $4,500 and the suspect paid that with surety bonds for his release later the same day, according to jail records.

March 1 — A traffic stop made about 10 p.m. resulted in one person being arrested. Hayslip said the stop was on U.S. Hwy 75 and Van Alstyne Parkway and was made because the vehicle was on the wrong side of the two-way service road. They got the occupants out and watched as the passenger seemed nervous, continually moving around and reaching into his pockets. They conducted a pat-down for weapons, and found, in plain view, a clear bag containing a white crystalline substance which, when field tested, confirmed the substance to be methamphetamine.

They jailed the suspect on a charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance Penalty Group 1, between 1-4 grams.

The GC Jail database doesn’t list this suspect, and so there is no follow-up.

March 3 — About 9:30 a.m., police were dispatched to an area on East Fulton regarding a suspicious vehicle. They located the described vehicle parked in front of a residence. Two people were standing outside the vehicle and one was sitting in the back seat. Police determined that none of the people lived in that house nor did they know who did live there. But their nervous behavior seemed nervous and so they asked for and received verbal consent to search the vehicle. Inside it, they found a Meth pipe and two small baggies of a white crystalline substance which field-tested to be Meth. The woman in the back seat quickly admitted the drug belonged to her.

Police took the suspect, a Mesquite woman, to jail on a charge of Possession of Controlled Substance less than one gram.

A jail magistrate set bail at $10,000, which is payable in a surety bond. However, the woman remains incarcerated as of March 12 in lieu of bail.

March 5 — It was defective equipment, or more specifically a license plate light that wasn’t working, that got police to notice a northbound US 75 vehicle about 5 a.m. that morning. They made a traffic stop and identified the driver as an Anna man. When checking his driver’s license, following protocol, they found an outstanding warrant issued in another county and placed him under arrest for Warrant Service.

March 11 — At about 10:30 a.m., Van Alstyne PD officers made a traffic stop on SH 5 (Waco St) and Van Alstyne Parkway after see the driver gave no signal for a lane change he made. The driver, a Sherman man, emitted the distinct odor of marijuana. While conducting a probable-cause search of the vehicle, they found two containers of synthetic urine in a container use for providing urine for a drug test. Police jailed him on a charge of Possession of Drug Test Falsification Device.

Jail records show that bail was set at $1,000, which the suspect paid with a surety bond for his next-day release.

March 11 — At about 3:25 a.m., police officers initiated a traffic stop on Henry Hynds and Blassingame after seeing it operating on a public roadway with insurance as required by the Texas Traffic Code, Hayslip reported.

Upon making contact with the driver, a Sherman man, they said in plain view a syringe in the driver-side floorboard. They then made a probable-cause search and located more syringes and a clear bag containing a white crystalline substance believed to be methamphetamine. A field test confirmed the substance was methamphetamine. They jailed the suspect on a Charge of Possession of a Controlled substance =>1G <4G.

Grayson County Jail records show this suspect to remain incarcerated in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Indictments for drug offenses

NOTE;  An indictment is not an indication of guilt, only that there is enough evidence for the Grand Jury to determine these people should go on to trial.

During the last Grayson County Grand Jury Session, the grand jury indicted numerous people from all around and outside of Grayson County on a variety of illegal drug charges.

One of those, Jonathan Celis‐Guzman, age 30, was the only person showing to be from Van Alstyne. The grand jury indicted him on a June 11, 2024, charge of Possession of Controlled Substance, Cocaine. The jail’s database doesn’t show which law enforcement agency made the initial arrest.

The total count of drug indictments shows that Methamphetamine to still being in high use, with 52 people indicated on that felony possession. Both Fentanyl and Cocaine follow behind as allegedly having the second highest users with both have 7 people indicted for that Possession of  Controlled substance.

Behind those are THC with 5 indictments, Marijuana with 2 people indicted for possession of that drug, and 1 person, a suspect user of Psilocin, was indicted.