LG Council Talks Leadership, Burgers, Grant

The La Grange City Council met in closed session Monday night to conduct an annual review of City Manager Jack Thompson.

Thompson has now been with the City for two years. The Council’s evaluation was not open to the public, since employment matters are one of the exceptions to the Texas Open Meetings Act. Afterwards, the Council took no action. The Record asked Thompson after the meeting if the Council gave him any direction.

“No, we’re going to keep moving forward,” he said.

Earlier in the evening the council approved street closures for the Texas Burger Bash Festival on April 18. The inner areas of the north, east and west sides of the Square will be closed from 5 p.m. on Friday, April 17, to 9 p.m. on Saturday, April 18.

In other business, Council approved the appointment of Scott McManus to a vacant position on the Main Street Advisory Board. Council also authorized the submission of an application for a community development block grant through the Texas Department of Agriculture. The grant, if awarded, could provide up to $1 million for downtown revitalization projects.

Three people spoke during the public comment period at Monday’s meeting.

Karen Dokos Roof, daughter of the late Nick and Clara (Hermes) Dokos, informed the Council that she and her husband recently donated a large number of items from the Hermes family to the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives. These items will be on display at the museum, with a reception set for April 11 from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

The display will include many items from the Hermes Drug Store. Many important documents are part of the collection, including records from the La Grange Yellow Fever Epidemic in 1867 that were kept by Roof’s greatgreat- grandfather, Dr. William Hermes.

Theresa Von Rosenberg, a long-time advocate of drainage improvements in town, spoke next. She congratulated the Council and City Manager Jack Thompson for recently signing construction contracts to begin the first phases of major drainage improvements in town.

The last speaker was Dylan Schlotterbeck, who will be joining the Council in May. Schlotterbeck questioned the City’s plan to demolish the old Fayette Electric Cooperative (FEC) headquarters building. The City purchased the old FEC property north of the Square in 2024 with plans to convert it into a downtown plaza. The sale price was $665,000. The FEC headquarters building, which opened in 1964, was designed by noted architect Edward Mattingly, the same architect who designed La Grange City Hall.

“Why are we going to spend $600,000-plus on the building and bulldoze it?” Schlotterbeck asked. “Could we use it to utilize maybe a utility office, maybe move (the City) warehouse?

“If you ask me, if you’re going to sit there and bulldoze it, you might as well take that $600,000 and make a pile and burn it, because you’re just wasting money,” he added. “That’s all I have and I hope y’all think about that.”