Civility is the by-word of 2008 candidates for the Llano City Council.

Although they came into office with clear personal goals for serving the city, the three aldermen who did not run for re-election – Bryant Ratliff, Shane Gray and Bubba Bollier – often found themselves in the middle of acrimonious debate.

Whatever the issues may be, new candidates -- Mike Hazel, Ervin Light, Sarah Thompson, Mike Reagor and LaNell McKinney -- say want to smooth public waters.

All bring strong career backgrounds to their candidacy. The first three became more convinced through attending meetings on particular issues in the past two years that they might make a difference. Reagor and McKinney actually have served on previous councils and want to return.

McKinney was the last to file. A Llano native, she has been a cosmetologist for 48 years with businesses in Fredericksburg, Marble Falls and, for the past 26 years, Llano. She warms to the world of economic development and always has been willing to put her shoulder to the wheel to see it happen for the whole community.

In fact, she was named the 2004 Citizen of the Year by the Llano Chamber of Commerce for those efforts.

She helped found the Llano Merchants Association in 1980 and worked with the original Hill Country Christmas Courthouse Lighting Tour. She has worked with the Hill Country Railroad Association and since 2003 has served on the Main Street Advisory Board.

She presently is serving a second term on the Llano Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) Board of Directors and that has made her a part of the work toward a multi-events center for the city.

“I have a lot of confidence in the feasibility study for a multi-events center,” she said. “I have a lot of confidence in the board, too. We have bankers and business people on the board who want the best for Llano.

“It would be those sales tax dollars that come from people who shop here, giving us something more for people to come to, something that would create some jobs; growth in the community.”

The center is not a single issue that McKinney supports, however. It is the kind of planning that has gone in to that project that she sees as an example of the kind of planning that is needed on all kinds of projects.

“We need business recruitment and retention, preservation of our historic district, downtown parking for visitors and employees, improved communications and broadband service,” she says. “Even as we attend to the Main Street side of things we have to pay attention to our infrastructure.

“We need to pull together. No magic wand that makes us who we want to be.”

“You have to build a consensus in a small town,” said Reagor who aims at keeping the integrity of what keeps Llano intact.

Reagor retired recently from his post as a Rangeland Management Specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. All during his 33 years with the service, he also has been active in civic affair.

A former president of Llano Little League, he worked closely with the city during the years when the Moore Recreation Facility on SH 152 was developed to offer more practice and playing fields.

Reagor has served on the LEDC and he is now chair of the Main Street Advisory Board. He is an inveterate member of the Christmas Lighting Committee and its attendant fundraiser Rockin’ River Fest.

Long active in the preservation of the county’s historic jailhouse, Reagor has currently worked with the effort to establish the non-profit Friends of the Red Top Jail.

Going far back in city efforts to plan ahead, Reagor served with Taylor Virdell, Henry Buttery and others on the Llano Future Water Committee.

“I think we have more than twice the water resources that we had following the drought conditions of the 1950s,” he said.

Reagor is enthusiastic about work to bring broadband service to Llano.

“From an economic standpoint, the internet is going to be important to us,” said Reagor. “It costs millions of dollars to build a highway to Llano with gasoline headed toward $4 a gallon. A good way to bring them here to stay is computer service. They can telecommute.

“Improved communications are important to our hospital and schools, too.

Reagor is sensitive to infrastructure needs also.

“We’re an old city with old infrastructure, old streets,” he said. “Our utility transmission lines are good, but we have to keep services going without breaking people. Sewer is going to be expensive, no matter what the approach.

Light is another native of Llano County. In fact he was born in the county hospital when it occupied the space above Stonewall’s Pizza.

The United States Air Force took him away in 1962 and honed his skills in management and emergency service for 20 years. He was six and a half years in USAF Fire Departments around the world, including rescue of 137 crewmen from burning planes during service in Danang, Vietnam.

During 13 years as a non-commissioned officer in charge of munitions, Light was responsible for training and well-being of as many as 127 people at a time. In the case of his assignment to Incerlick Air Force Base in Adana, Turkey, he was in charge of $800 million-worth of munitions.

His career was marked with zero defects inspections and recognition by name by majors of Air Training Command and Headquarters Europe Command.

After 10 years of search and recovery assignments with the Civil Air Patrol, Light retired with the rank of Captain. It was partly in years that overlapped his CAP service, that Light became involved in the extermination business. Eleven of his 19 years in the trade were spent with USAA Insurance in San Antonio where he participated in an advanced in-house volunteer fire department.

Since returning to Llano he served four years as a relief 911 dispatcher for the Llano County Sheriff’s Department and two years with the Road and Bridge Department.

He founded and became pastor of the Llano Church of God of Prophecy and is active in Llano Ministerial Alliance, Llano Alcohol and Drub Interdiction, Inc. (LADI) and Hospice.

“I have attended most of the city council meetings for the last year and a half,” said Light. “My first priority is to stop the bickering.”

“I want to try to make sure everybody, whether they have a wad of money or are on a fixed income, are represented equally. That they have an adequate water supply and sewer service – back to basics, so to speak.”.

“Everything that comes before the city council I want to look at with an open mind, to look at what is best for the city.”

Sarah Boxell Thompson is a Llano native who attended Draughon School of Business and she batted around the country with employers that included KNOW Radio. In Austin, Texas she was one of three executives assigned to open the new Edison’s Jewelers store. She was in charge of public relations and human services for the store.

While in Austin, Thompson met her future life and business partner. She would spend 32 years as office manager for Fred L. Thompson Associates P.C. right back in Llano.

Outside of the work of their company and church, Thompson had few civic activities beyond those that related to the rearing of the Thompson’s blended family.

She did serve seven years on the Llano Central Appraisal District Board of Directors, including two years as chair of the board.

“I have a lot of experience on the county level,” Thompson said of her business experience. “ I have been to all of the city council meetings for the past year and I am working on that (level of government).”

“I believe we need strong leadership,” she continued. “We need to return to civility, responsibility, ethics and standards in city government.”

Since taking a more active interest in the work of the city council, Thompson was active in efforts to finalize plans for a new city sewer plant and she was one of the supporters of a conventional plant.

“I talked with people, made calls on the phone, put pressure on people in office,” she said. “A conventional plant will serve our needs long after we are gone.”

Maintenance of infrastructure and long-range planning are two priorities for Thompson. She was a girl when water lines were laid in 1952 and she remembers a spanking for running down a newly paved street, but she knows the services are aging.

“We need a plan for the city,” she said. “The city does not have a Comprehensive Plan; no plan toward improvements in infrastructure and paving.”

Thompson was a supporter of Hazel’s successful efforts last year to bring the council to a decision to reduce utility deposits for renters with a good credit history.

“We had a single mother who was getting ready to move here from Kingsland and wanted to rent one of our apartments,” said Hazel. I called the city and asked about the deposit for the 1,100-square-foot place and they said $800. The lady broke down in front of us.”

Hazel owns an electrical contracting business, Industrial Electric Service & Supply. He sold the business he had built in Dallas and moved out of the city in 1993 “because they were starting to put metal detectors in my kid’s school,” he said.

The family transplanted first to a ranch they owned in Cherokee then on to Llano. They remodeled an old Buttery home on Sandstone Street and here they stayed.

“My twins are journeymen electricians right here with Industrial, now,” he said. “This is a great city. We’ve been blessed with more business than we can possibly do and I want to give back. I want to help the city.”

In addition to rental property, Hazel owns Hazel Properties, Inc. a small, dense development of workforce housing at the end of College Street on Hog Pen Road.

“I know the inner workings of all the crews in the field (because of my work as an electrician),” Hazel said. “I have helped two city managers plan the electrical for city projects.”

The Athens native is a member of the Llano Lions Club and has been active for many years in Masonic organizations.

“I’m just a ‘Regular Joe,’” said Hazel. “But I love the quality of life here.

“Right now we have a county judge who is willing to work with every body. I believe we can have a city council and an LEDC working together,” he said.