TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2018
THE FAYETTE COUNTY La Grange, Texas 78945
INSIDE Fayette County Football 2018
Volume 96, Number 85
Texas Tech Commit Alan Orona Kicks LG into High Gear
Netro, Willis Power Flatonia
Fayette County Six-Man Team Back for Fourth Year
2018 Football Preview Section Free in today’s newspaper!
For The Record ESL Classes
English as a Second Language Classes for adults will begin at First United Methodist Church on Wednesday, Sept. 5. The evening classes will be held 6-8 p.m. Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/ Thursday, 12 weeks for $5. All are welcome to registrations Thursday Aug. 30 and Tuesday, Sept. 4, 6-8 p.m. at First United Methodist, 1214 N. Von Minden, La Grange. Call Julie Ardery for more information at (512) 636-9057.
$13.9 Million Flatonia ISD Bond Proposal
The Fayette County Record
The quick work of eight Muldoon firefighters with four trucks kept a tragic fire early Friday morning from being worse. A mobile home burned on Davis Rd. off West Old Lockhart Road, while another mobile home just 10 feet away was saved from damage. The call came in at 1:30 a.m. Friday and by the time firefighters arrived the home was fully engulfed. The occupants of the home were not injured but five dogs died in the fire, which was believed to have been started from an electric clothes dryer. Deputy Joe Gonzales and Fayette County EMS Medic 1 also responded to the scene. The scene was cleared by about 4:30 a.m.
By ANDY BEHLEN The Fayette County Record
This photo, courtesy of the Muldoon Fire Department, shows the aftermath of the Friday morning fire.
County Fair Starts Thursday
Appreciation Meal
An appreciation breakfast in honor of those who helped during hurricane Harvey will be Tuesday, Aug. 28 from 7:30-9 a.m. at Care Inn of La Grange, 457 N. Main St. All first responders, church members and community volunteers are invited.
One Dollar per Copy
Five Pets Die in Mobile Home Fire Safety is the Focus of By JEFF WICK
Powerful Line Returns for Schulenburg
RECORD
After all of the Fayette County Fair Queen’s Contest Candidates introduced themselves (along with a few of the Little Miss and Little Mister contestants, and last year’s Fair Queen Connor Menefee, in white) Fayette County Fair President Lee Fritsch talks to the crowd gathered at a volunteer appreciation meal Sunday at the fairgrounds. This year’s fair begins Thursday, when the new queen will be crowned. Photo by Jeff Wick
Flatonia ISD board of trustees called for a $13.9 bond election at a special meeting on Monday, Aug. 20. The election will take place Nov. 6. If voters approve it, the bond would pay for approximately 34,350 sq. ft. of new construction and 57,906 sq. ft. of renovations. The project would connect most of the buildings on campus, providing greater security for students and staff. “The underlying theme of all this is safety for our kids,” said FISD operations director Chris Sodek Once construction completes, students and staff will be able to walk from one end of campus to the other without going outside. A committee of staff and community members over the course of several months drew up a list of needs for the school. The district hired architect Jim Singleton of Bryan-based SZH Architecture to design the initial plans. “This is all student-centered,” said FISD interm superintendent Mike Lanier. “All of this construction will impact every student and every program in the school. It’s not just for one area.”
Sodek reported the elementary school added 46 students during the first week of this school year over last year’s enrollment. He said that figure may grow over the next week as late arrivals enrol. “The reality is that the city is moving out to the country,” Lanier said. “We have built growth into this plan.” “We’re trying to plan for three classrooms per grade level,” Sodek said. “Right now we only have about two per grade level. “We want to be smart with taxpayer money,” Sodek added. “So if there was anything that could be salvaged or remodeled, we definitely wanted to do that. Through a facilities assessment, we found out that most of our building have good bones.” Here’s a summary of the project:
New High School – at 14,467 sq. ft., this part of the project constitutes most of the new construction in the bond • State-of-the-art classrooms equipped with audio-video technology to connect students with expert teachers at other schools and colleges across the country • One room will be set up as a college classroom with auditorium-style seating; to be used for speech classes and dual credit
See Flatonia, back page
Hay Show
The Schulenburg Young Farmers will hold their monthly meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 29 at the Schulenburg Expo Building at 7 p.m. Program chairman Mark Vecera will give the results of the 2018 Hay Show. The Hay Show judging will be on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 1 p.m. in La Grange at the fairgrounds. The Hay Show auction will be held in La Grange on Thursday evening at 8 p.m. at the fairgrounds in the Emily Fritsch Livestock Pavilion.
Second Chance
Second Chance will be open for a one-day sale from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 31. The store is located at 851 S. Reynolds St. in La Grange. Second Chance will be closed on Saturday, Sept. 1 and Monday, Sept. 3 for Labor Day. There’s more For the Record on Page A2
WEATHER WATCH This Week’s Forecast High Low Tuesday: 97 76 Partly cloudy Wednesday: 94 75 50% chance of rain Thursday: 96 75 Partly cloudy Friday: 96 75 Partly cloudy
Father Eric Hungerford leads a prayer service and blessing Sunday at the future home of Second Chance Emporium, one of the iconic La Grange institutions that was flooded by Hurricane Harvey a year ago. Photo by Jeff Wick
Hurricane Harvey: One Year Later
So Much Done, So Much Left to Do By JEFF WICK The Fayette County Record
Tuesday, August 28, marks the official one year anniversary of the high water mark of Hurricane Harvey’s impact on La Grange. That day, 12 months ago, the Colorado River crested at 54.22 feet, its third highest mark in recorded history and highest level since 1913. The river took with it entire neighborhoods – hundreds of homes and businesses in La Grange alone, some of which have not returned. “It’s been a long year, it really has,”
said La Grange fire Chief Frank Menefee. “It will be years before we get everyone that was devastated by the flood whole again,” said La Grange mayor Janet Moerbe. Sunday provided two unique public events that allowed folks to gather to think about the past year, and look forward to the next stage of recovery. At the La Grange fire station, firefighters, boy scouts, Rotary Club members and other volunteers served hamburgers Sunday at an event to commemorate the one-year anniversary of
Hurricane Harvey’s Impact here. “When the Hurricane first happened, the community responded in such a positive way,” said Stacy Norris, La Grange Director of Community Development, as she took a break from passing out disaster preparedness packets at Sunday’s event. “We just want to keep that positive momentum going. “The past year has been a recoveryin-the-making.” Adjacent to Norris was an information table set up by the Fayette County Disaster Recovery Team, which has coordinated the renovation and rebuilding of
so many homes already, with ambitious plans for a new 70-home development in the works. Wearing an apron near the barbecue pits at Sunday’s event, La Grange city manager Shawn Raborn echoed a line he has said often over the last 12 months. “The event was a sprint, but recovery is a marathon and we’re still running that marathon,” he said. Specifically, Raborn said, getting federal aid money that has been earmarked for recovery efforts and land buyouts will take years. See Harvey, back page
Burn Ban In Effect
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In an area that used to be filled with homes, small piles of debris are all that remain in one portion of Country Way Village mobile home park, one of the hardest hit areas by Photo by Kara Koether Hurricane Harvey floodwaters in La Grange.