August 16, 2017 Issue

KINGSLAND—I walked to the First Baptist Church from the Community Center, Saturday morning, August 5, just to kill some time. I was there to cover a soccer team from Haiti. I entered the church and saw the young players eating breakfast. They all looked normal to me, a bit on the handsome side and lean.

The Llano County Commissioners set a proposed tax rate and budget at Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting. They also called off the county-wide burn ban. The commissioners unanimously approved a $0.30212 proposed tax rate per $100 valuation for Fiscal Year 2018 with a proposed budget of $15.3 million. The tax rate and budget are not final at this time.

Briley Mitchell has 104 pairs of solar sunglasses, and he hopes you’ll help use them. Mitchell, executive director at the Llano Chamber of Commerce, welcomes the public to a solar eclipse party from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 21, at the chamber and visitors center. The party includes a viewing of the solar eclipse, which is expected to peak about 1 p.m.

It is hard to believe but it is already time for school bells to ring in Llano, with first day jitters for students and instructors alike. On Friday, the Llano Chamber of Commerce welcomed over 30 new employees to Llano ISD with goodie bags that were filled with information around the area, and with gifts from businesses throughout the town.

Llano ISD and its four schools met the accountability standards as set forth by the Texas Education Agency, it was announced Tuesday. The agency released that Llano ISD met standards on student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness. District-wide, Llano ISD scored 74 with a target score of 60 in student achievement; 33 with a target score of 22 in student progress; 39 with a target score of 28 in closing performance gaps; and 80 with a target ...

Harold and Rhoda performed at Fuel Coffee House on Thursday night, entertaining the audience with country, gospel and patriotic music.

This is an era where younger and younger kids are being recruited by college athletic teams. It’s not all bad, and it’s quite understandable: if you wait for the senior to become a USA Today All-American, you may be late by a semester or two. Why that prologue is necessary is because Llano High’s Kimble Schuessler, who officially became a 10th grader, August 16, has committed to go to Texas A&M for an education and to play baseball.

I know one thing we learned from the Llano High football intrasquad game, August 12: if you want to hear positive thoughts about the Jackets, go talk to the coaches. “Always pleased when I see our kids play with aggressiveness,” said head coach Matt Green. “Great effort, {too}. This game is built on aggressiveness and intensity.” All three teams: varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen took turns finding their position on the Stadium gridiron, ran a bunch of plays, slugged it out, a ...

You won’t be able to call this Llano High volleyball team inexperienced too much longer. As of Tuesday, August 15, they had played 11 varsity games in nine days. Backto-backs? Ha. How about three in one day—twice. The tour began at home, August 7, with a loss to Gateway (The Llano News, August 9) and resumed with a doubleheader less than 24 hours later. “There were high and low spots,” said head coach John Black, concerning a 3-1 win over Sonora, August 8. “We have to push har ...

Kliff Kingsbury may not be on the hot seat, but it is indeed a warm one. He enters his fifth year as Texas Tech head coach, and the team continues to give up a near-crazy amount of points while not really threatening the top-tier teams for a leadership role in the Big 12. “I think that everybody but the four that make the {Final Four} playoff are basically on the hot seat in college football,"

Jeramy Lee Russell, 40, passed away Aug. 2, 2017 in Tekamah, Nebraska, of a brain aneurysm. Jeramy was born Oct. 31, 1976 in Levelland. Jeramy graduated from Llano High School in May 1996. After graduating he became a bartender. He worked at Horseshoe Bay Resort from 1996 until May 2001. From there he went to Yellowstone National Park in June of 2001 and worked through the summer.

I would like to address the article in last week’s paper concerning the “depopulation” of the Llano county jail. First, only in the last two weeks did I know the term “depopulation” existed. As to my current understanding of the term it would mean shutting down jail operation, firing all jail personnel, transfer all prisoners to Burnet County Jail, transport people arrested in Llano county to Burnet for incarceration, which includes all arrest made by the City of Llano, Sunrise Beac ...