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Tri-Canyon’s Only Weekly Newspaper!
Current Weekly News for Leakey, Camp Wood, Sabinal, Utopia and Surrounding Areas Vol. 6 No. 19
INSIDE
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Somewhere in the West
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www.hillcountryherald.net
editor@hillcountryherald.net
Garner State Park 75th Anniversary Celebration Event Garner State Park is celebrating its 75th anniversary on June 1st, 2016 at the park’s historic Pavilion. The official program will begin at 10:00am and will feature Texas State Senator Carlos Uresti along with Uvalde County Judge William Mitchell, Real County Judge Gary Merritt and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Executive Director Carter Smith. The program will be entertaining and educational with speeches, music and songs, the Buffalo Soldiers, historic accounts of Garner State Park over the years, cowboy poetry and much more! The classic jukebox will play dance songs from the 40’s, 50’s & 60’s before and after the program so feel free to bring your dancing shoes. Educational booths will be open from 9:00am to 2:00pm. Live acoustic guitar music will be played from noon to 2:00pm near the Garner Grill restaurant. continued on page 4
Real County Commissioner’s Court
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May 11, 2016
The Commissioner’s Court convened Monday May 9th, 2016 at 9am. Students and Principal from Leakey High School were introduced and led the pledges following prayer by a member of the Court. Minutes were approved just before an impressive financial report concerning the fiscal audit by the Ede Company. A few of the highpoints were, 68% of County revenue is from property taxes. Public Safety is largest expenditure and there is no bonded debt. The Commissioners Court was complimented on being good stewards of taxpayer’s monies. Bottom line there were favorable budget variance overall. The Ede Company representative told the Commissioners that, “Issues were
addressed and Department heads were easy to work with and compliant to his suggestions. The full accrual method of bookkeeping was used and the council thanked Ede for a concise and understandable report and the audit was approved. Commissioners discussed the Strohman Road Project, this in a remote area of the county. Commissioners found the project was “coming along” and should be finished in two weeks. This project was financed with a TX DOT Grant, detour problems had been resolved and there was no action taken. Commissioners were advised the Texas Water Development Board has received funds from the governor and a grant is
by Elaine Padgett Carnegie
available that could put an early warning system into productive use for the Frio and Nueces Rivers. The devices are akin to flood gauge warnings and are run from solar energy panels. As the river rises, the device would alert computers in the Sheriff’s office and then phone calls would alert people who have asked to be notified when the river is rising. It would be a completely closed technological system and there would be possible in kind funds assistance from two county water districts most likely because it would give them real time water levels for rivers and there is the possibility of a partner program with Uvalde for the lower portions of the rivers. Commis-
sioners approved a motion to apply for grant. A report from the Public Health Nurse in the counties of Real, Edwards, Kinney and a portion of Uvalde. She stated another person has been hired in a larger county district to inspect food locations, grocery restaurant etc…. Places in Rocksprings and Campwood are being inspected that have not been for up to 5 years. She continued with a report regarding a CEU meeting held and attended by JP’s, Law Enforcement, CPS and Schools addressing the issues that affect our counties and the only thing she saw is that these “bodies” do not communicate well with each other. continued page 3
Building You a Bigger Better Bear! Tennessee Jane in the Runaway Scrape ............................ Page 9
REAL COUNTY JUNIOR HORSE CLUB
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INDEX Legals/Jail Register ...... Page 3 Community News ......... Page 4-6 Feature Story ............... Page 8/9 Obituaries ...................... Page 10 Classifieds ..................... Page 14
Today’s Weather
High: 85° Low: 66°
After last years devestating fire the owners of Bear’s Market and Specialty Meats have started over. Owners, Robert Sullivan and Laurel Waters (husband and wife) currently live in Utopia and now own the former Buckstop in Leakey. Busy, Busy, Busy are not just words for the couple since Laurel is also Chef/Owner of The Laurel Tree restaurant and has Main St. Utopia, a French antique store – both in Utopia. Robert is also the manager of Utopia Golf, a 9 hole golf course. When asked “Why Leakey?” they responded “ We think that Leakey is a wonderful and thriving town that is centered right between Garner State Park and Lost Maple State park. It is a real hub for Hill Country tourism and has a great ‘buzz’ about it. The amount of yearly visitors between here and Concan is unbelievable! So many people have come out here all of their lives to float the Frio or spend time in the Fall/Winter hunting and camping, and it is forever part of some of their fondest memories! Now they are bringing their families out to experience all of the fun too! Everyone is always bringing everything that they need for the weekend, and
Water News and River Flows As I sit here to update the flow readings and check the forecast I see that we have a few chances for showers over the next week to ten days, I for one hope we get something out of these possible rainfall events, the last few have been rather disappointing. Everything is continuing to green up with the spring weather and as things get greener along the rivers the flows have begun to decrease. This spring trend will continue without any supplemental rainfall. The rain gauge here at the office in Camp Wood showed 4.35 inches of rainfall in April. Flows at all crossing were taken on May 9th. Fulgham’s Crossing just south of the Alto Frio Baptist Encampment had a flow of 26,611 gpm last measurement and now has a flow of 24,498 gpm; this is a decrease of about 8%. The culverts on the south end of this crossing are still flowing, hope it
we saw a real need for someone to have fresh goods, prepared foods, and all of the supplies that will make their family moments, river time, or hunting more enjoyable. We bought the Leakey Buckstop in August of 2014, and continued to run it as a convenient store while converting the other 2/3 of the building into our Bear’s Market and Specialty Meats. Many may not know that our stores burned down due to a construction fire last February, just 6 months later. It was devastating! But not one person got hurt, and for that we are thankful! We are also thankful to the Leakey community for their support through this ordeal. After a lot of soul searching, we decided not to let it run us over! We decided to move forward with a positive and creative attitude. We were already putting up a barn on the back of the property, and we got that up as fast as we could and converted it into a small version of the 2 stores combined. It has worked well, but to the passerby it always seemed a disjointed with the gas pumps way out on the highway and the store so far away. So, we are thrilled to be getting back up on the main highway. continued page 5
By: Joel Pigg, General Manager
lasts all spring and summer. The Leakey Springs crossing had a flow of 5,186 gpm last measurement and a flow of 4,491 gpm this reading; decreasing about 13% since the last measurement. This crossing still has a plugged culvert, but the water is a little too cold for me to worry about that just yet. The Mill Creek Crossing showed a 8% decrease in flow since the last measurement; there are culverts on the south end of this crossing that continue to have no flow. This crossing has a flow of 12,150 gpm this measurement down from the flow last measurement of 13,226 gpm. I also took the flow measurement at Frio River Place this time and it is very similar to the reading taken in August of last year that flow was 35, 095 gpm and the flow this week was 31,519 gpm or a reduction of about 10%. continued page 13