The Burton bank robbery trial of Shawn Patrick Childers ended in a hung jury and a mistrial last Wednesday, Oct. 12.

Fayette County Commissioners discussed building a new justice center at their meeting last Thursday. The facility would include a larger new jail, Sheriff’s Office and 911 dispatch center, district courtroom and offices for the district judge and district clerk. The price tag would almost certainly be in the tens of millions of dollars. Commissioners recently hired the firm Burns Architects to inspect the jail and provide recommendations for expansion. The County Jail routinely runs out of space for female prisoners. In addition, Burns inspected the jail’s electronic lock system for future improvements.

Readers of The Fayette County Record have enjoyed Elaine Thomas’s column “Stories I Have Been Told” since 2013 – so much that they encouraged her to publish the feature stories in a book. With more than 100 of these personality profiles to Elaine’s credit, one book wasn’t enough, so readers have a series of these stories to look forward to and collect.

The future of the Blinn College- Schulenburg branch seems safe – at least for the next few years. That was the big local news out of lastTuesday’s Blinn Board of Trustees workshop. After nearly two-hours of discussion about all the Blinn campuses, Blinn Chancellor Dr. Mary Hensley said in regards to the Schulenburg campus: “It would be my recommendation that we stay the course longer, we do conversations with the community, let this grant (from the Greater Texas Foundation, designed to increase high school dual credit completion) have a chance to grow. Last year completed year-one (of the four- year grant that partners with the Columbus, Fayetteville, Flatonia, Schulenburg, and Weimar ISDs). In four more years we’ll have a clearer picture on Schulenburg anyway.”

Fall is probably the best time to plant trees. It gives young trees time to grow a healthy root system before the stress of summer.

Two handmade quilts donated by the Fayetteville Quilting Bee at St. Paul Lutheran Church will be auctioned off at 1:30 on Sunday, October 16 for the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce 45th Annual Lickskillet day event. Again, this year a prize-winning quilt by Gay Dobbs and Gail Duncan made from vintage Lickskillet T-shirts will go on the auction block. An additional queen size quilt done in a stunning old house pattern is the top item. They can be viewed at Fayetteville Bank.

In this monthly series, local realtor Andrea Schutter Riebeling does a Q & A with local business leaders about what inspires them. This month’s spotlight is on Denver Courtney, a clothing and antiques dealer who will be in the middle of all the antiques festivities this month at Zapp Hall in Warrenton.

The Grow Wings 4-H Club will be hosting a special learning opportunity about snakes as part of their Health & Personal Safety project. Anyone interested is welcome to attend, especially Turtle Wing families.

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This is the 20th anniversary of the cooperative ministry known as the Tri-County Cooperative Ministries (TCCM) in which a group of five churches work together with shared staff. You are invited to the Annual Reformation Festival on Sunday, Oct. 30 sponsored by the Tri-County Cooperative Ministries serving communities and churches in Colorado, Lavaca and Fayette Counties. This year’s event is hosted by Faith Lutheran Church, 615 South Eagle Street, Weimar.