The small Texas town of Blanket, first settled in 1874 (west of the present site) and incorporated in 1912 has seen a lot of changes since that time, but the ushering in of a woman mayor may be one of the biggest changes this little town has seen in a while.
After 18 years as mayor, John “Jack” Jones is passing the torch to Judy Eoff who ran unopposed and will be sworn in as the new mayor of Blanket at 7:30pm on May 24th at the special called city council meeting. Votes will be canvassed and newly elected officials sworn in, including Jerry Bingham and B.J. McGinnis as city councilmen.
“We are experiencing new & exciting changes for the City of Blanket,” stated City Secretary Rose Wigham.
During the election, also passed was a special election to re-authorize Blanket to designate one quarter percent of the local sales and use tax to continue providing revenue for maintenance and repair of city streets.
Moving forward on city improvements, Blanket will soon be closing on a loan with the USDA- Rural Development to start the construction on the Wastewater Expansion Project.
About Blanket, Texas: During the early years, Blanket had several doctors, 2 hotels, 5 cotton gins in the area (one of which operated under three different business names), mercantile stores (Higginbotham Mercantile being the largest), grocery stores, an ice house, feed mills, livery stable, a large lumber yard, hardware stores, drug stores, banks, 5 churches, buggy and wagon dealerships and a school. The buggy and wagon dealers went out of business and later came automobile dealers. Blanket was very prosperous during the cotton boom. Most of these businesses are gone now.
Currently Blanket has a population of 390 and operates under the general law government since incorporation. The governing body consists of a mayor, a five member council and a city secretary.
