mysql Communications link failure from scheduled code

I'm continually getting mysql errors from a scheduled method in my code. I'm using the basic jdbc connection to a local mysql server. The code always closes connections when done and always checks for null or closed connections and then opens a new connection when it needs to run queries.

Code that opens the db connection:
https://github.com/botskonet/dhmcStats/blob/master/src/me/botsko/dhmcstats/Dhmcstats.java#L66

Code that the following error refers to:
https://github.com/botskonet/dhmcSt...stats/announcements/AnnouncementUtil.java#L21

However, I still always see this:

Code:

21:50:40 [SEVERE] com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.CommunicationsException: Communications link failure
 
The last packet successfully received from the server was 1 milliseconds ago.  The last packet sent successfully to the server was 1 milliseconds ago.
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:407)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createCommunicationsException(SQLError.java:1116)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.reuseAndReadPacket(MysqlIO.java:3082)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.reuseAndReadPacket(MysqlIO.java:2968)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:3516)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.sendCommand(MysqlIO.java:1986)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.sqlQueryDirect(MysqlIO.java:2140)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.execSQL(ConnectionImpl.java:2626)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeInternal(PreparedStatement.java:2111)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeQuery(PreparedStatement.java:2273)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at me.botsko.dhmcstats.announcements.AnnouncementUtil.getActiveAnnouncements(AnnouncementUtil.java:28)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at me.botsko.dhmcstats.Dhmcstats$2.run(Dhmcstats.java:200)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.scheduler.CraftWorker.run(CraftWorker.java:34)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
21:50:40 [SEVERE] Caused by: java.io.EOFException: Can not read response from server. Expected to read 1 bytes, read 0 bytes before connection was unexpectedly lost.
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.readFully(MysqlIO.java:2529)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.reuseAndReadPacket(MysqlIO.java:3035)
21:50:40 [SEVERE]  ... 11 more
21:55:40 [SEVERE] com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.MySQLNonTransientConnectionException: No operations allowed after connection closed.
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:407)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.getInstance(Util.java:382)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:1013)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:987)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:982)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:927)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.throwConnectionClosedException(ConnectionImpl.java:1213)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.checkClosed(ConnectionImpl.java:1200)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.getMetaData(ConnectionImpl.java:3070)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.getMetaData(ConnectionImpl.java:3065)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.<init>(PreparedStatement.java:942)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.JDBC4PreparedStatement.<init>(JDBC4PreparedStatement.java:48)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.GeneratedConstructorAccessor13.newInstance(Unknown Source)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:407)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.getInstance(PreparedStatement.java:872)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.clientPrepareStatement(ConnectionImpl.java:1498)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.prepareStatement(ConnectionImpl.java:4270)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.prepareStatement(ConnectionImpl.java:4169)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at me.botsko.dhmcstats.announcements.AnnouncementUtil.getActiveAnnouncements(AnnouncementUtil.java:38)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at me.botsko.dhmcstats.Dhmcstats$2.run(Dhmcstats.java:200)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.scheduler.CraftWorker.run(CraftWorker.java:34)
21:55:40 [SEVERE]  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)ker.run(CraftWorker.java:34)
21:27:25 [SEVERE]      at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Any ideas?