Editorials see more »

I have to confess; despite my mild-mannered exterior, I’m really quite a trouble-maker. At least that’s the opinion of seven or eight impatient ladies at the U.S. Census Bureau who couldn’t answer my question Monday morning. As their blood pressures rose, each one would pass me along to the next, who would profess ignorance just as sincerely as the one before.

My question was really quite a simple one, but I could tell it made them uncomfortable. I worded it several different ways, but the main point was the same: How come census workers on the east side of Lake Buchanan get paid 49 percent more than census workers on the west side? Somebody must know, but so far, those with inside information have managed to avoid me. The one lady who actually called me back was Paula Wright, from the regional center in Dallas. She told me that districts are built around the need to represent each congressional district, and around “the operational needs of the census bureau.” Each district sets its own pay scale. “There are so many parts to this puzzle,” she explained. “I’ll have someone get back to you in a couple of days with a more detailed answer.”

It all started because I was scrounging for “news” to fill this week’s paper. I’m not quite ready to publish a story on the new Park Ridge apartments on CR 152; the Dollar General store hasn’t opened yet, and the livestock show doesn’t start until Thursday. The Country Opry, featuring the Bellamy Brothers, won’t happen until this Saturday.

But this new year is 2010, and the constitutionally-mandated census must be conducted. I thought I’d do a little story on the history of the census, and on the availability of temporary jobs. I looked on the website to find out how to apply.

There was a long list of “local” offices, but none in Llano. Each office had its own pay rate, so I thought I’dcheck with the Austin office; it advertised wages of $17.00 an hour. I figured that if there weren’t any jobs left in Austin, I’d try the Georgetown office, which pays $16.00 per hour (pretty good pay, I thought, and actually a little closer to home).

It doesn’t work that way. The state is divided into districts, and when I punched in my zip code (as requested), I found that Llano’s “local” office just happens to be in San Angelo, where the pay is $10.75 per hour That didn’t seem right to me, so I tried again, this time punching in Burnet’s zip code. I was given the number for the Georgetown office that time. I scoured the list, and found five offices that were closer to Llano than the “local” office in San Angelo; all five paid more per hour!

I started calling around, but no one could give me an explanation. The receptionist at the recruiting office transferred me to the Equal Opportunity Employment office; the third lady there told me to call my congressman. Nancy Watson (at Congressman Conaway’s office) told me that it must be a state thing, so I called Mel Ferguson at Troy Fraser’s office. He wasn’t there, but a recording told me to call Senator Fraser’s Austin office, where a very nice lady (whose name I forgot to write down) told me that she agreed with me, but it was definitely a federal matter. She gave me the number for the regional center at Dallas, where I eventually was transferred to Paula Wright. She said that she would get back to me with an answer.

That’s what happens sometimes when we have to make up for slacking off a little; I’m sorry the census workers have to suffer for my laziness. This past week was really quite calm, but it was also the first time my four kids had all been together in quite a while, and I wasn’t exactly beating the bushes to find news stories. Robby (my oldest) just got back from Kuwait a day before Abby had to get back to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo. Danny was home from Texas Tech at the same time; I had a very good New Year’s Day visiting with them!

Speaking of families, I was very pleased to meet the family of Tom Deviney last Saturday night after the Epiphany Concert. He was the pastor of the Lutie Watkins Memorial United Methodist church during the early ‘90’s his wife, Cindi, was the one who got the Epiphany Concert started in 1994, and his daughter Aislinn (a recent honors graduate of Oklahoma City University with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Education) was the featured guest artist this year. Her brother, Forrest, was there, too (but he didn’t sing).

And speaking of New Year’s I wandered around town at 11:30 on New Year’s Eve to see if I could get a “New Year” picture. I found one big party, but it was Jimmy Stephenson’s wedding at the Dabbs Hotel, I decided not to crash it.

One other “event” that I attended last week was the weekly “free hamburgers” evening at Mission U-Too in Kingsland. A small group of Christians there has decided that they can glorify God by feeding people. Each Wednesday evening, they hold up signs in front of their little building on Hwy 1431, inviting people to stop in for free hamburgers and lemonade or hot chocolate. Their guests number in the hundreds. Mission U-Too also has a free clothing “store” called King’s Closet; if you’d like to help support that effort, you can leave donations at the Fuel Coffee House here in Llano.

From the length of this column, you’d think I’d been overworked this week; the truth is that I feel well-rested and healthy after a couple of easy weeks. I should be able to handle the workload as it gets back to normal in coming weeks. Be sure to keep reading The Llano News!