September 28, 2016 Issue

   On Friday, TxDOT decided they were finished with the new bridge over Comanche Creek and turned it over to the City. There is still some amount of “clean up” of the site and the vegetation that we will be taking care of (we anticipated a couple of more weeks before it was opened).    It is now open to traffic, and I have gone over it a couple of times and it has yet to collapse!!    Also, in relation to that project, on Thursday this week the Broad Street bri ...

   Sarah Kidd    Sarah Kidd, of Mason, passed away on September 2, at the age of 91.    Sarah was born in Dallas on February 24, 1925, to Ernest Coffman and Bertha Ansted.    Sarah was a long-time resident of Mason and worked in administration with the Mason ISD for many years before her retirement.    She married Amos Kidd and he preceded her in death.

   The Punchers traveled up to Hawley last Friday to meet up with the 4-0 Bearcats. At the end of the night, Hawley had added a loss to their record, and the Punchers showed that they are moving forward and improving every week.    Early in the first quarter, Haddon Hudson put the first score on the board with a 9-yard run.

   Mason Elementary/Jr. High PTO held their scheduled meeting on 9/20/2016. The following officers were voted into office:    President – Nikki Watson    Vice President – Rebecca Burns    Treasurer – Melissa Grimes    Secretary – Kelly McCrea    Public Relations – Brandy Todd    Volunteer Coordinator – Diane Aguero    Fundraising Coordinator – Kandace Smith    REMINDERS: &nbs ...

   CTEC Openness    On July 28 Heinrich Boenig and I met with Mr. Loth, CEO of CTEC, Kothmann, president of the board and Low, Vice President of the board, trying to convince them to have more transparency and accountability by having open board meetings.    We emphasized that we did not accuse the management and board members of mismanagement.

   Positive Change    I have been reading with dismay about the dispute between the recently elected city commissioner, Sue Pledger, and the city commission.    Since joining Mason’s city commission Ms. Pledger has called into question the integrity and ability of commission members, mayor, city attorney and city staff – who are experienced in the procedures and legalities of municipal government.    The proof is that Mason is an exce ...

   Just 5 short years ago there was a need that needed filling in the south end of Mason County and John T. Byerley was determined to fill it. It is through John’s hard work, perseverence and horse trading that has resulted in the Loyal Valley Volunteer Fire Department covering 317.7 square miles of Mason County.

   Picture caption at the groundbreaking ceremony: Kneeling in front are from left: Stephanie Lyles, Sally Victor, and Judy Schmidt. Others from left are Anne Schulze, Jane Hoerster, County Judge Fritz Landers, Mary Maude McMillan, City Mayor Clinton Schulze, Tommie Lou Luckenbach, Arlis Zesch, Mona Hoerster, Librarian Mary Jo Cockrell, Jan Jordan, County Commissioner Carl Martin, Gloria Nebgen, Mabel Reeves, County Commissioner Mike Jordan, Olivia Zesch, William Arlt, and Heartsill Y ...

   The JV White team traveled to Abilene to take on the Wylie Bulldogs.    The kids played extremely well winning the game a score of 20-0. The offense was firing on all cylinders. Everything was going right for the Punchers.    The defense played well too as they got their first shutout of the year.

   This past week, the JV Purple took on the Hawley Bearcats JV at the Puncher Dome.    On Hawley’s first possession from scrimmage, Oscar Ortiz was able to recover a missed snap by the Bearcats. The fist touchdown of the game came from a 3 yard run by Chandler Buntyn.    The Punchers were able to come up with another turnover when Sloan Stultz jumped on a missed snap on the Hawley 8 yard line.

   7th vs. Hawley    The 7th graders had a good competitive game Thursday against Hawley. We’ve made some improvements since last week and game away with a 16-8 win. Scoring for the 7th grade Punchers were Blake Lewis and Gabriel Ortiz with touchdowns and Kaleab Fisher with a 2 point conversion.    8th vs.

   Mason JH Punchers and Cowgirls Cross Country    Hamilton Invitational Junior High Cross Country Meet    1st Place 7th Grade Girls Team & 1st Place 8th Grade Boys Team    7th Girls     9 Place- Tori Perlicheck 17:23    10 Place- Alex Row 17:27    13 Place- IsIs Martinez 17:33    14 Place- Blixen Hoffmann 17:54    15 Place- Madi Carter 18:16    16 Place- Mariah Avalos 18:24 ...

   The Hilda Cemetery Association will meet on Sunday, October 9th in the Hilda Fellowship Hall at 3:00 p.m.    For more information you can contact Stephen Stengel at 830-669-2496 or [email protected] .

   The high school cross country teams competed in Hamilton this past Wednesday. Both the Varsity Punchers and the JV Cowgirl teams placed fourth as a team while the Varsity Cowgirls placed third. The high school teams will be running in Round Rock next Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m. to round out the first half of the season.    The Hamilton Invitational Results are below:    Varsity Girls    4th- Angelica Ramirez (12:5 ...

   The Grace Christian School Warriors started up the Fall 2016 semester on August 17 this year. We have welcomed some new students, as well as home schoolers, and see God’s plan unfolding before our eyes for these new lives in our school community. We have been blessed with a musical parent who has added worship to our Bible time in the morning and that has been tremendous!    Our Fall Fundraising efforts started this past weekend with a booth at the Old Yeller Days on th ...

   The fall version of the Mason County Farmers Market returns this Saturday, October 1st. We will be on the west side of the courthouse lawn, 10:00 - 12:00, every Saturday until mid-November.    This Saturday you will find: Streeter Longhorn ground beef, pumpkin bread, assorted peppers and Roma tomatoes from Leigh Ann and Travis Hyatt; pumpkin carrot bread, banana nut bread, snickerdoodles, pistachio loaf and squash pickles from Kathy Lacky; grass fed beef, lamb, pork and c ...

   Missing Loma Already    Last week, I bowed out from my column. It's not something I take lightly, as it can cause me no end of headaches when my columnists fail to turn in an expected submission - space has to be adjusted, other content has to be located. In the case of my column, a late ad arrival took care of all that space!    I had fully intended to write something last week; but, we had a Tuesday that really decided to go off the rails.

   The 2016 Roundup Queens Court has done it again! Hot is the word that comes to mind for the Harper Frontier Days. Willow Creek Cafe owners Jody and Angela Eckert sponsored the event and pulled the float, all the while taking wonderful care of the girls. The judging was a nail biter for sure, but the girls were relieved when the judges pulled up at the last second to award them the Sweepstakes Award, a blue ribbon, and a hundred dollars to take home to the Mason Chamber of Commerce. ...

   Only 16 players showed up at last week’s Scramble, but they were all eager to get out and swat those golf balls!    The weather was just about perfect, and the course was in excellent shape as the four teams made their way onto the course. At the end of about 2 hours, the teams began returning to the club house to post their scores.    Derrick’s team made up of Willie, Chuck and Mike was first in with a very nice score of -5.

   It’s wonderful to be able to continue the tradition of hometown festivals such as Old Yeller Day! Like any other event, Old Yeller Day takes planning, a lot of leg work, and good people willing to help. I want to thank them one and all! A special “thank you” goes to the Eckert Trust.

   “District 53 is larger than the State of Maryland, but a State Representative is supposed to represent the people of the district,” says Stephanie Lochte Ertel, candidate, about her efforts to meet voters in a large rural area that encompasses most of the Texas Hill Country.    Ertel plans to spend the day in Mason on Wednesday, September 28, 2016.

   For the third year running, the Mason Study Club participated in the fun of Old Yeller Days. Our booth featured a craft for children titled “Painted Rocks Rock” and was our service project to the Mason Community.    This year we offered tic-tac-toe bags which were a big hit. The children had a good time painting X’s and O’s on their Mason County rocks.

   Guns Up!    Michael Grant, bless his heart, is upset. There seems to be a lot of that going around lately. Unless you’ve been marooned on a deserted South Pacific island like Tom Hanks for the past several years, you may have noticed this trend. People are unhappy. Michael, bless his heart, is one of them.    Michael has a Ph.D.

   Oh, my goodness, it’s raining and raining and raining. What a good sound that is. To the farmers and ranchers, it’s the sound of money in the bank and to the rest it’s lower electricity bills. It’s to my puppies, I can hold it, don’t make make me go out in it!

   "Attention Men: Guinness Record in Reach..."    Samsung scientists who packed too much charge into the latest smartphones may be graduates of the “Duracell School of Battery-Making.” Who knows what happened, but my Uncle Mort--reaching into the deepest crevice of his unbounded wisdom--believes some of ‘em want to both “burn something as well as start something.”    The 104-year-old denizen of the thicket in East Texas continues to be a ...

   The rain and cooler temperatures make it really feel like fall, at least for a few days. The Puncher’s football last Friday also made it into an exciting fall, and no doubt with the Presidential campaign and debates no one can doubt that we really are in the fall season for this year.

   Fall is here. I bet you didn’t notice much change. Countdown to Thanksgiving is on. I pulled the summer decorations about a week ago and put up a fall wreath and fall flowers on the mantle. The pumpkins and turkeys are on the dining room table. I am ready.

   Thread.    Think about it.    (Thounds like Thylvester the Cat...    Thuffering Thuccotash).    We thread our way through the crowd.    Which can be like threading a needle.    Except that’s harder.    Or maybe things have been hanging by a thread.    And we wait.    And wonder.    Or the thread snaps.    All of a sudden, we break it off.    It’s over.   ...

   The 1969 Mason High School Graduating Class will be having a reunion on October 15, 2016. We would like for the Classes of 1968 and 1970 to join us as well.    We will meet at the Willow Creek Café on the square in Mason around 5:00 P.M. for a meet and greet, followed by a Fajita meal at 6:30.

   After recessing their meeting of September 19, the Mason City Commission resumed their meeting on Tuesday evening, September 20, picking up where they had left off the previous night.    There had been an unsuccessful motion to approve the engineering-related portion of the budget; but, the motion failed for lack of a second.

   The Grace Christian School Warriors started up the Fall 2016 semester on August 17 this year. We have welcomed some new students, as well as home schoolers, and see God’s plan unfolding before our eyes for these new lives in our school community. We have been blessed with a musical parent who has added worship to our Bible time in the morning and that has been tremendous!    Our Fall Fundraising efforts started this past weekend with a booth at the Old Yeller Days on th ...

   The high school cross country teams competed in Hamilton this past Wednesday. Both the Varsity Punchers and the JV Cowgirl teams placed fourth as a team while the Varsity Cowgirls placed third. The high school teams will be running in Round Rock next Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m. to round out the first half of the season.    The Hamilton Invitational Results are below:    Varsity Girls    4th- Angelica Ramirez (12:5 ...

   Mason JH Punchers and Cowgirls Cross Country    Hamilton Invitational Junior High Cross Country Meet    1st Place 7th Grade Girls Team & 1st Place 8th Grade Boys Team    7th Girls     9 Place- Tori Perlicheck 17:23    10 Place- Alex Row 17:27    13 Place- IsIs Martinez 17:33    14 Place- Blixen Hoffmann 17:54    15 Place- Madi Carter 18:16    16 Place- Mariah Avalos 18:24 ...

   7th vs. Hawley    The 7th graders had a good competitive game Thursday against Hawley. We’ve made some improvements since last week and game away with a 16-8 win. Scoring for the 7th grade Punchers were Blake Lewis and Gabriel Ortiz with touchdowns and Kaleab Fisher with a 2 point conversion.    8th vs.

   This past week, the JV Purple took on the Hawley Bearcats JV at the Puncher Dome.    On Hawley’s first possession from scrimmage, Oscar Ortiz was able to recover a missed snap by the Bearcats. The fist touchdown of the game came from a 3 yard run by Chandler Buntyn.    The Punchers were able to come up with another turnover when Sloan Stultz jumped on a missed snap on the Hawley 8 yard line.

   The JV White team traveled to Abilene to take on the Wylie Bulldogs.    The kids played extremely well winning the game a score of 20-0. The offense was firing on all cylinders. Everything was going right for the Punchers.    The defense played well too as they got their first shutout of the year.

   Mason Elementary/Jr. High PTO held their scheduled meeting on 9/20/2016. The following officers were voted into office:    President – Nikki Watson    Vice President – Rebecca Burns    Treasurer – Melissa Grimes    Secretary – Kelly McCrea    Public Relations – Brandy Todd    Volunteer Coordinator – Diane Aguero    Fundraising Coordinator – Kandace Smith    REMINDERS: &nbs ...

   The Punchers traveled up to Hawley last Friday to meet up with the 4-0 Bearcats. At the end of the night, Hawley had added a loss to their record, and the Punchers showed that they are moving forward and improving every week.    Early in the first quarter, Haddon Hudson put the first score on the board with a 9-yard run.

   The 1969 Mason High School Graduating Class will be having a reunion on October 15, 2016. We would like for the Classes of 1968 and 1970 to join us as well.    We will meet at the Willow Creek Café on the square in Mason around 5:00 P.M. for a meet and greet, followed by a Fajita meal at 6:30.

   “District 53 is larger than the State of Maryland, but a State Representative is supposed to represent the people of the district,” says Stephanie Lochte Ertel, candidate, about her efforts to meet voters in a large rural area that encompasses most of the Texas Hill Country.    Ertel plans to spend the day in Mason on Wednesday, September 28, 2016.

   On Friday, TxDOT decided they were finished with the new bridge over Comanche Creek and turned it over to the City. There is still some amount of “clean up” of the site and the vegetation that we will be taking care of (we anticipated a couple of more weeks before it was opened).    It is now open to traffic, and I have gone over it a couple of times and it has yet to collapse!!    Also, in relation to that project, on Thursday this week the Broad Street bri ...

   The fall version of the Mason County Farmers Market returns this Saturday, October 1st. We will be on the west side of the courthouse lawn, 10:00 - 12:00, every Saturday until mid-November.    This Saturday you will find: Streeter Longhorn ground beef, pumpkin bread, assorted peppers and Roma tomatoes from Leigh Ann and Travis Hyatt; pumpkin carrot bread, banana nut bread, snickerdoodles, pistachio loaf and squash pickles from Kathy Lacky; grass fed beef, lamb, pork and c ...

   The Hilda Cemetery Association will meet on Sunday, October 9th in the Hilda Fellowship Hall at 3:00 p.m.    For more information you can contact Stephen Stengel at 830-669-2496 or [email protected] .

   Picture caption at the groundbreaking ceremony: Kneeling in front are from left: Stephanie Lyles, Sally Victor, and Judy Schmidt. Others from left are Anne Schulze, Jane Hoerster, County Judge Fritz Landers, Mary Maude McMillan, City Mayor Clinton Schulze, Tommie Lou Luckenbach, Arlis Zesch, Mona Hoerster, Librarian Mary Jo Cockrell, Jan Jordan, County Commissioner Carl Martin, Gloria Nebgen, Mabel Reeves, County Commissioner Mike Jordan, Olivia Zesch, William Arlt, and Heartsill Y ...

   Just 5 short years ago there was a need that needed filling in the south end of Mason County and John T. Byerley was determined to fill it. It is through John’s hard work, perseverence and horse trading that has resulted in the Loyal Valley Volunteer Fire Department covering 317.7 square miles of Mason County.

   Mason Elementary/Jr. High PTO held their scheduled meeting on 9/20/2016. The following officers were voted into office:    President – Nikki Watson    Vice President – Rebecca Burns    Treasurer – Melissa Grimes    Secretary – Kelly McCrea    Public Relations – Brandy Todd    Volunteer Coordinator – Diane Aguero    Fundraising Coordinator – Kandace Smith    REMINDERS: &nbs ...

   Billie Jack Smith    Billie Jack Smith, 76, of Natalia, passed away on Saturday, September 17, 2016.    Born in Mason, Texas, on September 2, 1940, he was the son of Jack Smith and Eloise Bickenbach Smith Hoerster. He lived most of his life in the Mason and Junction area.    A beloved dad, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, Billie knew no stranger and had a heart of gold.

   Jerrad Wesley Trevino, Sr    Born: October 6, 1978 – Died: September 18, 2016.    Jerrad Trevino was killed in Mason, Tx. on September 18, 2016, and pronounced dead at 4:20 p.m. Witnesses stated he was riding in the back of his pickup truck and the wind blew his cowboy hat off and he fell out onto the road as he reached to retrieve his hat.    He is survived by his son Jerrad Wesley Trevino, Jr.

   Loma Schooley    Loma McWilliams Schooley was born March 11, 1944, to Tom and Nettie Morris McWilliams. She grew up in the Ranch Branch community.    Loma attended Mason schools and graduated from Mason High School. She married Jimmy Schooley on March 20, 1965. They made their home in Fredonia, Texas, where they farmed peanuts and ranched together for many, many years.    They were blessed with three children: Laurie, Steve and Pattie.

   Sarah Kidd    Sarah Kidd, of Mason, passed away on September 2, at the age of 91.    Sarah was born in Dallas on February 24, 1925, to Ernest Coffman and Bertha Ansted.    Sarah was a long-time resident of Mason and worked in administration with the Mason ISD for many years before her retirement.    She married Amos Kidd and he preceded her in death.

   Thread.    Think about it.    (Thounds like Thylvester the Cat...    Thuffering Thuccotash).    We thread our way through the crowd.    Which can be like threading a needle.    Except that’s harder.    Or maybe things have been hanging by a thread.    And we wait.    And wonder.    Or the thread snaps.    All of a sudden, we break it off.    It’s over.   ...

   Fall is here. I bet you didn’t notice much change. Countdown to Thanksgiving is on. I pulled the summer decorations about a week ago and put up a fall wreath and fall flowers on the mantle. The pumpkins and turkeys are on the dining room table. I am ready.

   "Attention Men: Guinness Record in Reach..."    Samsung scientists who packed too much charge into the latest smartphones may be graduates of the “Duracell School of Battery-Making.” Who knows what happened, but my Uncle Mort--reaching into the deepest crevice of his unbounded wisdom--believes some of ‘em want to both “burn something as well as start something.”    The 104-year-old denizen of the thicket in East Texas continues to be a ...

   Oh, my goodness, it’s raining and raining and raining. What a good sound that is. To the farmers and ranchers, it’s the sound of money in the bank and to the rest it’s lower electricity bills. It’s to my puppies, I can hold it, don’t make make me go out in it!

   Guns Up!    Michael Grant, bless his heart, is upset. There seems to be a lot of that going around lately. Unless you’ve been marooned on a deserted South Pacific island like Tom Hanks for the past several years, you may have noticed this trend. People are unhappy. Michael, bless his heart, is one of them.    Michael has a Ph.D.

   It’s wonderful to be able to continue the tradition of hometown festivals such as Old Yeller Day! Like any other event, Old Yeller Day takes planning, a lot of leg work, and good people willing to help. I want to thank them one and all! A special “thank you” goes to the Eckert Trust.

   Positive Change    I have been reading with dismay about the dispute between the recently elected city commissioner, Sue Pledger, and the city commission.    Since joining Mason’s city commission Ms. Pledger has called into question the integrity and ability of commission members, mayor, city attorney and city staff – who are experienced in the procedures and legalities of municipal government.    The proof is that Mason is an exce ...

   CTEC Openness    On July 28 Heinrich Boenig and I met with Mr. Loth, CEO of CTEC, Kothmann, president of the board and Low, Vice President of the board, trying to convince them to have more transparency and accountability by having open board meetings.    We emphasized that we did not accuse the management and board members of mismanagement.