July 1, 2009

Llano County is preparing for an exuberant Fourth of July celebration this weekend, with lots of food, flags, patriotic music and fireworks at parties large and small. around the county. The main events are the Rock'n Riverfest in Llano ant the 40th annual Aqua Boom in Kingsland. For a schedule of events, check out our special Fourth of July Section in this week's edition of The Llano News.

In the last three weeks, the flow of the Llano River has dropped from 100 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 44 cfs. A cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons. This rapid decline has prompted the City of Llano to remind customers that the voluntary water restrictions now in place will become mandatory if the flow of river gets much lower. “When the river flows at 40 cfs or less, residents are required to follow the City’s watering schedule”, said Llano City Manager Finley deGraffenried.

After years of planning and unsuccessful attempts, the City of Llano has signed an agreement to bring fiber based broadband into the City. The City collaborated with various institutions, interested citizens and technical experts that resulted in a model public/private partnership. “This was truly a unique project and process,” said Finley deGraffenried, Llano City Manager.

Cockaroo, Randy Leifeste’s world-famous rooster from Castell, was found unresponsive in his cage Friday morning, June 26, 2009. He was rushed to the taxidermist, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. When Cockaroo was hatched in February 2004, Randy and Karen nurtured the cute little chick and taught him the thing he needed to know in order to succeed in life.

Please join us for an Old Time Gospel Singing Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 6:30 PM in the Llano church of Christ Auditorium. Congregational singing will be enjoyed with a variety of song leaders. Admission is free at this great family event. This singing will begin 5 days of spiritual food for the soul for all ages.

When you read about 7-on-7, some of you—not all, of course—may be asking, “Why are tough high school players taking part in such a timid game as touch football?” Lineman and linebacker Kayden Gass and quarterback Connor Chauncy are not asking that question, but they’d love to give you some details in their answer. On June 23, in Marble Falls, against Westlake, the two Llano boys collided with each other while on defense in the end zone.

The long and difficult journey has begun again. Llano boys and their coach are trying once more to right a basketball ship that has faced water so tortuous the great whites would have declared the current, “Unsafe at any Teeth.” There’s progress. The Jackets took on such foes as Ingram, Lampasas, and Fredericksburg in a league at Harper and won seven out of ten.

COLLEGE STATION--The super filly, Rachel Alexandra, may be the greatest female athlete since Candace Parker or Babe Zaharias, but if she can’t run in the Belmont on three weeks rest, she should get into the training program practiced by the Llano Lady basketball players. They played 12 games in a sub-72 hour stretch, June 25-28, and won all but one.

FOR ALL YOUR LEGAL AND PUBLIC NOTICES PLEASE CONTACT CAROL AT THE LLANO NEWS. YOU MAY EMAIL TO: llanoclassified@yahoo.com FAX: (325) 247-3338 or PHONE: (325) 247-4433 # 1 PUBLIC NOTICE Llano County Road And Bridge will be improving County Road 307 by working approximately 2.5 miles of roadway for paving in early July. Residents on CR 307 will be able to access their property, but CR 307 will be closed to thru traffic July 6 – 20, 2009 during construction and paving. Please contact ...

– The Llano Community is hosting a blood drive Thursday, July 2 from 2 pm – 6 pm in front of City Hall. The drive is open to the public and walk-ins are always welcome! Though summer is a time for vacations – local patients’ need for blood never takes a vacation.

Beginning District 26 play in Fredericksburg, Llano Minors faced Wimberley #1 team on June 27th. Even in Little League play you could feel the tense rivalry between Llano and Wimberley. Joey Albor got the nod as starting pitcher for Llano. The rest of the starting line up included: Brady Liesmann as catcher, Kris Watson at first, Jaden Napolez at second, Drew Baker at short, Wyatt Bauman at third, Blake Dillard in left, Cole Reneau in center, and Hunter Roemer in right field.

On July 6 at 10:00 Llano Fine Arts Guild will present new gallery owner, Heike Jost, of Burnet Art Haus Arts and Crafts Gallery who will show her expertise in creating pottery and ceramic pieces. This will be a hands on demonstration at the gallery on 503 Bessemer in Llano.

Jenny Taylor has always loved singing; it just took her a while to realize that she was very good at it. As a child, her audience was usually just a bunch of farm animals, as she sang country songs by Dolly Parton and others, as well as “songs I made up.” “I’ve been singing since I could talk,” she says.

Fifty-six years after Sarah Smith first felt called to be a missionary in Africa, she made her first mission trip to Tanzania. On Sunday evening, the 74-year-old Llano resident gave a presentation on her fourth trip to Africa (this time to Kenya) with the idea in the back of her mind that it may be time to “pass the torch” to someone else who feels the same call. Sarah Smith grew up in Amarillo, and began preparing for the mission field when she was just 14.

Please join us for an Old Time Gospel Singing Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 6:30 PM in the Llano church of Christ Auditorium. Congregational singing will be enjoyed with a variety of song leaders. Admission is free at this great family event. This singing will begin 5 days of spiritual food for the soul for all ages.

Thanks to John Hallowell for an excellent article about our beloved Red Top Jail. The community of Llano has really snowballed into a force of action for the restoration of this old building. The Red Top has a new RED roof. Now you can come visit the jail without the rain or hail seeping down to the first floor.

It does not seem possible that we could live in a world still capable of forgetting innocent children. Sadly, we do live in a world where barefoot and hungry, orphans have slipped away into the nothingness of 'our' time. Bette Sue and Lynn Hoy found these orphans holding on to each day with an incredible amount of courage.