The Hub voting location in downtown Tyler. (Raquel Villatoro/Tyler Morning Telegraph File)

From Staff Reports

The year 2024 was one of development and change for Tyler, from major demolition in the heart of the Rose City to changes in local government, education, and the economic landscape.

In addition to the headlines focused on change, there were several other notable stories in 2024. Here are the top stories of the year from Tyler Morning Telegraph and tylerpaper.com:

In January, Smith County broke ground on its first new county road to be built since the 1950s. County Road 3344 will serve the Tyler Economic Development Council’s new 412-acre Tyler Interstate Commerce Park, which is attracting large businesses to the county.

Local education institutions continue to expand their footprint, including in the growing town of Bullard where Bullard ISD opened its state-of-the-art athletic facility in January. The project was made possible thanks to a voter-approved bond.

In higher education, longtime UT Tyler President Kirk Calhoun in February announced his retirement after serving a combined 22 years as president of UT Tyler and the UT Health Science Center at Tyler. After an extensive process, Dr. Julie Philley was named to the role in May.

2024 was the year of the total solar eclipse, and Tyler was among the small number of places in the path of totality – boosting tourism along the way.

In May, an EF-1 tornado hit the Lake Palestine Resort area of Smith and Henderson counties. Residents relived the moment of bracing for the storm: “… Thank God we were able to ride it out.”

In one of Texas’ most notable murder cases, Kerry Max Cook – who spent two decades on death row for a 1977 murder he didn’t commit – was formally exonerated in June.

The Robert Roberson saga will continue into 2025 after a legal battle spared the Palestine death row inmate’s life just hours before his scheduled execution in October. Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. Some argue new scientific evidence discredits Nikki’s diagnosis and shows she died of natural and accidental causes, urging a new trial for the East Texan with the goal to ultimately overturn his capital murder conviction.

In July, now president-elect Donald Trump was the target of an attempted assassination. Locally, political leaders and a local professor said they were seeking unity in the wake of the rally shooting.

The East Texas State Fair opened at a new fairground in September after over 100 years at its former home. Earlier in May, the Red Dirt BBQ & Music Festival had yet another big year in downtown, where construction is well underway as demolition made room for a new county courthouse.

When it comes to other mainstay events, you could find our team at all the biggest ones, such as the 91st Texas Rose Festival event. We covered every single event, from the kickoff in January to the main event itself in October.

Our team thoroughly covered local elections throughout the year, from the March primary to May city/school elections to summer runoffs and ultimately the November general election.

As progress continues, our team of journalists continued to report news of the Tyler School of Medicine, which recently named a new dean and will see its state-of-the-art campus completed in 2025.

We dug deep into stories that would otherwise go untold, like how Bullard veteran’s suicide sparked criticism over care at the Tyler Veteran Affairs Clinic, how a Tyler man came within inches of spending the rest of his life in prison for a crime with little to no substantial evidence against him, and how severe overcrowding at local animal shelters is impacting the community.

In the middle of all the heavy news, our team was intentional about sharing the good stuff, too, like a 16-year-old opening up his own barbershop and how a Tyler nonprofit is celebrating Mexican culture.

And what better way to end the year than to learn South Broadway Avenue is a little bit less congested than it was the year before? Last year, the highly-traveled roadway was No. 82 on the Top 100 Congested Roadways in Texas and this year it just edged off the list, coming in at No. 102. The city says improving traffic flow is an ongoing endeavor officials feel they’ve made strides in so far.