News

Week Ending Sept. 30 Week’shighSept.25................................................................101Degrees Week’s min.

The Fayette County Firefighter’s Association reports the following calls for the week of Sept. 25 through Oct. 1: Grass Fires - 8 Illegal Burns - 4 Vehicle Fires - 2 Accidents - 2 Electrical Fire - 1 Fire Alarm - 3 Medical - 4 Smoke Report - 1

Summer is traditionally grilling season, though for many of those who live in Texas grilling season is year-round! This summer the Navidad Valley CattleWomen celebrated grilling season by donating 220 pounds of ground beef to area food pantries. As the economy makes grocery shopping more challenging each week, ground beef can still be incorporated as a healthy and affordable protein source that will always bring a smile to the family members who get to enjoy it.

TexasA&MAgriLife Extension Service of Fayette County is conducting a soil, water, and hay testing campaign from Oct. 3-26. This program is being held in conjunction with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service of Fayette County, Fayette County Commissioner’s Court, and the Fayette County Groundwater Conservation District.

The Rural Non-Profit Networking Group (RNNG) is an opportunity for the organizations that do so much good in our rural communities to share their missions and visions, discuss community needs and partnership opportunities, bring in experts to facilitate growth and professionalism, and simply connect to maximize the efficiency and impact that participants can bring to Fayette, Colorado, Lavaca, and surrounding counties. Since reactivating post-pandemic shutdown, the group is more energized than ever, back to meeting monthly, and incorporating an educational aspect into each gathering. This month Alliance for College & Career Student Success in South CentralTexas (ACCSS) will be hosting the RNNG gathering on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 10 a.m.. The gathering will be held at the Blinn College Schulenburg Campus Student Center (100 Ranger Dr., Schulenburg). ACCSS is housed at Blinn College Schulenburg Campus as the Blinn College District is their fiscal agent. Susie Shank, ACCSS Director, will be facilitating the discussion regarding workforce training opportunities. The ACCSS initiative planning incorporated data from Texas Workforce Solutions that helped direct pathway development towards regional employment needs that were both high demand and high wage. Along with providing local access to college classes, Blinn College Schulenburg Campus provides a wide variety of community education courses along with workforce training. Loraine Orellana, Coordinator of Distance and Community Education at the Schulenburg Campus, will share recent opportunities provided by Blinn while attendees will be asked to workshop immediate needs for their non-profit workforce training. This includes the potential for local “experts” being identified and recruited to provide this very necessary training.

The Blinn College District is encouraging eligible Applied Sciences majors taking spring 2023 courses to apply for funds made available through the Carl D. Perkins Basic Grant. Online application for textbook assistance is open through 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 10.

The La Grange High School Mighty Leopard Band performed Wednesday at the Troy Marching Festival at Troy High School. They earned a Division One rating. This is their first superior rating of the season.

If you were a previous member of Senior Connections, come give it another chance. You will be assured there is a different climate at the center and it is a whole lot more wholesome.

The Ledbetter Volunteer Fire Department will celebrate its 75th anniversary at the department’s annual Firemen’s Feast this Saturday, Oct. 8. Back in 1997, when the department celebrated its 50th anniversary, several members compiled a history of the local fire department. The following was researched and compiled in 1997 by the late Rodger Matthijetz in collaboration with Kermit Blume. Edited by H. Margaret Eaves and Jan Matthijetz.

Kreische Brewery & Monument Hill State Historic Sites will host their second annual Archeology Day on Saturday, Oct. 8 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This year, staff and volunteers are excited to share even more family activities and behind the scenes information to community members curious about the field of Texas archeology. During Archeology Day, a special $1 admission fee will apply to local students. Regular admission fees apply to parents, guardians, and other visitors. This year’s activities will include mock excavations, pottery making and mending, lessons on the archeology of trash, and more. Archeological tours and partner-led bioprospecting walks (guided expeditions to collect yeast samples from the brewery grounds) will also be offered for curious visitors, young and old alike. “We are excited to host these hands-on activities and tours not only to share the history of our sites, but also to highlight the science involved in investigating the past,” sites educator Jenny Townzen says. “Archeology starts with a research question and involves field methods to lead to a better understanding of the people before us, from 50 years to thousands of years ago. It follows the scientific process and concludes with informed guesses based on the data you collect.” To mimic the methods of an archeologist, young community members will receive a special Field Notebook to guide them through the various activity stations. Each station will encourage visitors to think outside of the box about how the material culture of the past, as well as the present, define them. Once visitors complete these stations, they’ll receive a “Junior Archeologist” badge as a reward for their investigatory and critical thinking skills. In addition to these activities, visitors will have a chance to speak with THC Archeological Stewards who can provide more information about the archeology of Fayette County and beyond. If community members have an unknown artifact at home, they are welcome to bring it to archeology day where stewards can attempt to identify it and provide information about the object’s history. “Kreische Brewery is one of the premier archeological sites of the Texas Historical Commission,” says Townzen. “The material culture found from the excavations by Texas Parks and Wildlife in the 1970s and 1980s provides a voice to the Kreische family that would have been lost without the careful recording of the information. Now that we have these reports, it’s our job to continue to share the Kreische story and teach others about the importance of preserving the past too.”