Central Baptist Church pastor, Joseph Barrett will have free guitar classes. Classes will be held on Monday nights at 7:00pm at The Cornerstone ( 205 E. Main Street, Italy).

TaMarcus Sheppard and Darol Mayberry will represent Italy in the 6th Annual Super Centex FCA Victory Bowl, as members of the Red Team, while Shad Newman and Zain Byers will be representing Italy during the 3rd Annual North Texas Bowl DFW East/West Classic All-Star game being played at Pennington Field as members of the West Squad.

Calling all Gladiator fans! The tournament championship will be Monday, March 10, between the Italy Gladiators and the Blooming Grove Lions starting at 5:00 p.m. at Davidson Field in Italy.

The Italy City Council will have their regular monthly meeting on Monday, March 10, 2014. Meeting time is slated for 6:00pm and will be held in the Council Chambers at 105 West Main Street, Italy.

^{Editors Note: Page 2 of Agenda added at 5:35pm 3/8/14}

The Italy Gladiator baseball team was on their way to Davidson Field when head coach Jon Cady announced their tournament championship duel against the Blooming Grove Lions has been cancelled due to weather concerns. The game has been moved to Monday.

The Shooting Sports 4-H Club of Ellis County hosted a successful youth archery tournament on February 22 at the Ellis County Expo in Waxahachie. A total of 109 archers from 17 counties competed to see who could result in the highest marking scores.

Joseph Sage and Lupita Rincon were participants this year at the Star-Telegram Stock Show Art Contest at Fort Worth. Lupita entered her 2-D pastel of an American Indian Chief with Joseph entering his 3-D sculpture of his Jean Cowboy hat.

Dean Carrell, Italy’s public works director, was convicted of felony theft while serving as City Manager of Sonora, Texas. Records obtained by the Italy Neotribune reveal that Carrell pled guilty on December 13, 2011 to a second degree felony of theft as a public servant. Carrell’s plea agreement was a ten year suspended sentence, eight years probation, $1000 fine, 240 hours community service, $249 court costs, and $20,000 in restitution.

The Italy High School junior class has the 2014 prom tickets for sale thru Friday, March 7th. Tickets are $35.00 each and are available for purchase in the Italy High School library.

Congratulations to the following students for making the Italy High School honor roll list for the fourth 6 weeks of the 2013-2014 school year.

The Gladiators entered the Blooming Grove tournament looking for their first win of the season. This week they were looking for a spot in the trophy case to display their team’s shiny new plaque.

The Italy Gladiators land 8 basketball players onto the all-district list including senior TaMarcus Sheppard who earned Defensive MVP honors and Trevon Robertson who was named to the 1st team.

Mary Doyle Bobo of Fort Worth, formerly of Austin, passed away February 25. She was a 1936 graduate of Italy High School.

The U.S. Army is promoting a free unique program, March 2 Success. The March 2 Success program is an on-line test preparation website. The program is to assist students, for free, for the SAT/ACT College Entrance Tests, Trade School Entrance Tests, Military Entrance Test, and Job Application preparation.

Head girls basketball coach Melissa Fullmer announces her all-district Lady Gladiators for the 2013-2014 season. And what a season it was!!!

The City of Italy Community Activities Committee launched its first official meeting Monday evening at the Boze Community Center to elect officers and plan upcoming events.

Six Italy ISD Students participated in the FCCLA Region III Star Event Competitions in Irving on February 28 and March 1.

During the three-day Hillsboro Invitational Softball Tournament, the Lady Gladiators won 4-out of-5 games and were the Consolation Winners!

The sixth grade band class from Stafford Elementary participated in the Riesel HS Solo and Ensemble Contest this past Friday, February 28. Of the twenty-six students who participated, twenty-one earned top honors (a superior “1” rating), and five earned an excellent (“2”) rating.

The twelve game, three-day 2014 Italy Baseball Invitational Tournament will begin Thursday, March 6, and conclude Saturday, March 8. The varsity Gladiators will compete along with six other area schools.

The Italy Community Activities Committee will have their regular meeting on Monday, March 3rd, 2014. The meeting will be held at the Italy Boze Community Center at 161 W. Main Street, Italy and is slated to begin at 5:30pm.

The Italy Gladiator Regiment Band Boosters wants you to Save the Date! The boosters will host their annual Spaghetti Dinner on Saturday, March 8th at the Uptown Cafe from 5p-8p.

Italy Baseball has official fitted baseball hats available for our fans with the proceeds benefitting the Gladiator Hitmen.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014 is Primary Election day for Texas. Attached are the sample ballots for both the Democratic and Republican primaries. With several hot topic party referendums on the ballot, voters need to get out and vote.

The Lady Gladiators are off to a good start in Hillsboro tournament after winning both warmup games against Lake Worth and Jewitt-Leon on Thursday. Bracket play begins today.

The JV Gladiator baseball team made strides against Red Oak Life but the Mustangs won by a nose during a back-and-fourth race to the finish.

The Lady Gladiators are traveling to Hillsboro today to start a three day tournament at Hillsboro High School. Two warm up games will be held Thursday, with bracket play beginning Friday. Italy’s first bracket game will be Friday, February 28 at 12:45pm.

Jaime Velasco was officially named superintendent of the Italy Independent School District Wednesday evening at a special meeting.

During the December City Council Regular Meeting, the City Council unanimously approved the installation of additional traffic control signs to help reduce the possibility of traffic collisions at potentially dangerous intersections.

Epiphany Catholic Church received a $25,000 grant on Wednesday, November 20, 2013 from The Catholic Foundation. The funds were used for a just completed expansion of their parking lot. Thirty additional parking spaces, including two handicap spaces, were added.

The Gladiators will travel to Blooming Grove to participate in their annual baseball tournament scheduled this week. Italy’s first game will be Friday, February 28 at 10:00am against Kerens. The tournament bracket is attached.

The Italy City Council has a work session scheduled for Thursday, February 27th. The work session is slated for 6:00pm and will be held in the Council Chambers at 105 West Main Street, Italy.

Erskin Anavitarte will perform free on Saturday, March 1st, 5:00pm at Mt. Gilead Baptist Church, 106 Harris Street, Italy. Erskin’s sound blends soulful tunes with a little rap, a dash of hip-hop and whole lot of worship of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Come and enjoy his rich tone and thoughtful lyrics.

Impending rain has forced tonights JV baseball game between Italy and Wortham to be cancelled allowing the varsity game between Italy and Hubbard to start earlier at 4:00 p.m.

The Flying Dollar Ranch in Italy is proud to offer ART at the RANCH beginning Thursdays in March! Students will learn to draw and paint real animals, landscape scenery, and still life and learn to use different techniques with charcoal, pencil and watercolors.

It just seems like every time you turn around something good is happening at Avalon ISD. This time what is happening is really good, about $2,500.00 good. Avalon ISD was awarded the Monsanto Grant.

The Italy ISD Board of Trustees will have a special called meeting on Wednesday, February 26, 2014. The meeting is slated to begin at 5:30pm in the Italy High School Cafeteria at 300 S. College Street, Italy.

The Lady Gladiators took a road trip this past weekend to Woodsboro for the Tournament of Champions. Italy finished 2nd in the tournament after defeating Port Aransas, Goliad, Ben Bolt, and the host school, Woodsboro. The only set back of the tournament was a 5-4 loss to Riviera.

A tremendous start behind a 17-point first-period from senior Trevon Robertson gave the Italy Gladiators a shot but the favored Trenton Tigers survived Robertson’s early barrage of 3-pointers to outlast Italy for the Area championship.

The Italy ISD special olympic athletes received a heroes sendoff from the entire Italy High School student body and faculty early Wednesday morning as Team Italy prepared for their basketball competition at Cedar Hill High School.

The Italy Economic Development Corporation will have its regular monthly meeting on Monday, February 24, 2014 in the Italy Council Chambers at 105 West Main Street, Italy. Meeting time is slated for 6:00pm.