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Tri-Canyon’s Only Weekly Newspaper!
Current Weekly News for Leakey, Camp Wood, Sabinal, Utopia and Surrounding Areas Vol. 7 No. 32
INSIDE
1990’s AMERICA! ............................ Page 7
Save The Alamo
www.hillcountryherald.net
LOST MAPLES HARVEST SUCCESS!! Volunteers harvested more than 20,000 lbs. of Black Spanish Lenoir Grapes in the Polvadeau Vineyard at the Lost Maples Winery in Vanderpool, TX, Saturday. More than a hundred volunteer pickers from throughout the region gathered to help vineyard owners Tom and Glenda Slaughter harvest this year’s crop at the 11-year-old vineyard, which is the first commercial grape growing operation in Bandera County. “Our vineyard continues to mature and produce high yields of quality Black Spanish Lenior grapes that we use to make our wines on site. This year’s crop was challenged by a wet weather, and we dodged the bullet with a violent hail storm that hit the area in April. Fortunately, the vines were not bearing fruit at that time,” said Tom Slaughter. In order to preserve the grape’s robust flavor, they must be processed right away. The first step in the winemaking process is to remove the stems and crush the grapes to begin fermentation. That process will begin early next week. “We love the reputation and following
August 9, 2017
editor@hillcountryherald.net
we’ve gained for our wines. We’ve had people visit from throughout the region, and literally from around the world,” said Glenda Slaughter. “Many of them come back each year to help harvest the grapes and spend time celebrating a successful crop. It’s truly a labor of love for everyone. The Texas Wine industry is really taking off, and we are pleased to be a part of it.” Over the next few days we will be testing the sugar content and evaluating the other aspects of this year’s crop to determine the quality of the juice that will be used to make our wines,” said Glenda Slaughter. “We’re excited because the initial tests we’ve done show that things look good.” A little more about Lost Maples Winery at Polvadeau Vineyard: The first phase of the vineyard was planted in 2006 and the Winery and Tasting Room opened in 2015. Last year the facilities were expanded with an outdoor serv-
SAYING GOODBYE
by Jeff Braun
ing kitchen, and indoor/outdoor event center for weddings and special events. Earlier this year a luxury overnight accommodation opened for guests, The Villa at Polvadeau Vineyards. Additionally, an outdoor pavilion was added in the last few months to expand the size of the tasting room facilities.
Tasting Room is open afternoons from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday each week. More information on the wines and facility is available at www.lostmapleswinery.com and on their Facebook page at: h\ps:// www.facebook.com/ Lostmapleswinery.
Fire in the Sabinal River Bed by Billie Franklin
On Sunday afternoon at about 1:30 p.m., Ricky Torres noticed smoke in the river bed behind his mobile home. A family member called 911 to report the fire. Leaving from a late lunch at the Dairy Queen, I noticed the smoke and decided to follow it. It led me to the Torres home. However, I could not get close to the fire in the riverbed. When the fire trucks responded, it was difficult for them to find a place to enter to fight the fire. Finally the City of Sabinal was called, opened their locked gate and the fire fighting began. In the meantime, the fire had grown fast. The fire in the riverbed ranged from at the end of Kennedy to Dunlap Avenues, aka Rylander Road, a total area equal to five city blocks. The ambulance was called in connection to the fire fighting. Temperatures were in the high 90’s during that time. Combine that with the temperatures made by the fire, it was quite hot. Six different vehicles of the Sabinal Volunteer Fire Department were used to combat the fast growing fire. By 5:30 p.m., the firemen and women were able to leave the area, but had their fire trucks all filled with water in case a fire broke out from the hot spots. The Sabinal EMS staff were on hand to pass out cold water to those fighting the fire. It was appreciated. Thank you to the Volunteer Fire persons for a difficult job well done. At 7:30 p.m., smoldering hot spots could still be seen from the area. Sabinal woke up to a good rain Monday morning. We are grateful to see the area wet, and know for sure the hot spots are all out and the fire is now history.
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REAL COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE WANTED PERSONS AND FUGITIVES ............................. Page 3
REMINDERS FROM LISD ............................. Page 4
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INDEX Legals/Jail Register ... . Page 3Community News ......... Page 4-7 Feature Story ............... Page 8-9 Obituaries ...................... Page 10 Classifieds ..................... Page 14
Today’s Weather
High: 90° Low: 70°
An open letter from Gary and Linda Overbay (Owners of the Hot Dog Stand) to the People of Real County: Linda and I are closing the stand at the end of August. We wanted to publicly thank the EMS for letting us lease the land for the last eight years. We could not have had a more perfect location. Thank you. To the people of Real County, we owe you a debt of gratitude that will be hard for us to repay. You gave us a reason to get up in the morning,
you accepted us as your own, you shared your lives with us, we fell in love with your children and they have been a great joy in our life, you have raised great kids. You should be very proud of yourselves. Linda and I have owned several businesses and I think this is the most fun we have had. You have all come to be such a large part of our lives…. I don’t know how to put it in words. You all are our family, you are always in our prayers and we love you. Thank you!
Water News and River Flows
by: Joel Pigg, General Manager, RECRD
Flows at all crossings on the Frio River were taken on August 3rd, 2017. I poured about 0.2” of rain from the rain gage at the house before taking these measurements. Fulgham’s Crossing just south of the Alto Frio Baptist Encampment had a flow of 14,640 gpm last month and now has a flow of 12,626 gpm; this is a reduction in flow of about 14%. The Leakey Springs crossing had a flow of 4,662 gpm last measurement, and a flow of 4,020 gpm this reading; also a 14% decrease in flow since the last measurement. This crossing has remained very constant since last summer with only slight variations from one measurement to the next. The Mill Creek Crossing showed an increase in flow this measurement of about 7%; there are culverts on the south end of this crossing that continue to have no flow. This crossing has a flow of 10,898 gpm this
measurement which is up from the last measurement of 10,109 gpm last month. On the west prong of the Frio River, a rainfall event that dropped about 1.2” of precipitation on Wednesday evening got the flows up. The Rancho Real crossing had a flow of 6,163 gpm last month compared to a flow of 11,413 gpm this measurement nearly doubling the flow. The Kent Creek crossing showed an approximately 16% increase in flow since the last measurement; to a flow of 1,595 gpm this month up from a flow of 1,344 gpm last measurement. The Nueces River flows were taken on July 3-4, 2017. McDonalds Crossing was flowing at 16,687 gpm last measurement and increased to a flow of 16,981 gpm this measurement or approximately a 2% increase. continued page 6