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Society

Taking A Break From Gardening to Talk About Propane Relief Valves

My wife recently acquired some seed potatoes, which are almost impossible to find this time of year. And I was going to write about my plans to attempt a fall crop. But something unusual happened this week that may be of interest to those of us who live in the country.

ARTS Announces Emerging Artists Competition Winners

Arts for Rural Texas (ARTS) is delighted to announce the success of its annual Emerging Artists Competition and Exhibition, which happened on Saturday, Aug. 5, at the ARTS Ross Gallery in Fayetteville.

Local Kids Transport Audiences ‘Back to the 80s’ With Radical Play

More than 60 area kids combined for a three-night run of “Back to the 80s” last week, the annual Fayette County Community Theatre’s kids summer play. The show was directed by recent LHS grad Hayden Splawn with assistance from another LHS grad, Bryssa Rios and adult supervisor Melissa Weltner.

County EMS Employees Honored

Fayette County EMS received several accolades recently for exemplary service. Last Monday, Paramedic Christina Sandoval, EMT/ Paramedic Student Rebecca Spooner and Advanced EMT Melody McCoy received a written letter of commendation from the Texas EMS for Children State Partnership for the successful delivery of a very premature baby “We had a crew that recently delivered a baby in the back of an ambulance in Del Valle at 25 weeks gestation,” said EMS Director Josh Vandever.

CoBank’s Sharing Success Grant Winners Announced

Fayette Electric Cooperative, in partnership with Co-Bank, one of FEC’s lending partners, awarded grants to three area not-for-profit organizations at their annual meeting on July 19. These donations were made possible through CoBank’s Sharing Success charitable contribution program.

A STEINWAY COMES TO ST. JAMES

The year was 1855. Millard Fillmore was president. Walt Whitman published “Leaves of Grass.” Also, in 1855, Dr. William Hermes left Germany for a second time: destination both times, Texas. That year a small committee of La Grange citizens applied for parish status and received official acceptance from the Texas Episcopal Diocese and St. James’ Episcopal was born. In 1853, just two years before, German Heinrich Steinweg established a piano factory in Manhattan. One hundred and sixty-eight years later, a Hermes Steinway piano would leave its home in the Hermes mansion on North Main and wind its way across the city to its new home in the little red-on-yellow church across from the HE- B on Monroe Street.

The Battle Against Leafcutter Ants

Leafcutter ants are one of the most difficult pests to eliminate from the landscape. They can strip a mature fruit tree in a day. I have heard them described by my gardening friends as pure evil. But like all critters of the earth, they have a job to do, even if we can’t figure out the job’s value.