Dear editor,

We are the “two older citizens” that Mr. J. Ray Riley sued. We invite the public to review documents of Case Number 6018, District Court of Blanco County Texas, 33rd Judicial District. The documents are on file in the Blanco County Clerks Office. Mr. Riley’s actions have cost the family approximately $50,000. We could not afford to continue to seek relief from the court, even though we believe we are correct. We were financially forced to settle with Mr. Riley.

After we noticed people in our field late at night we put a lock on the gate, on our attorney’s advice. Mr. Riley was sent, by certified mail, a key to the lock so that he could have ingress and egress. We have in our possession a receipt for the certified mail.

It is true, Mr. Riley, a “rancher/farmer” (according to his newspaper ad), filed documents against us in the District Court of Blanco County Texas, 33rd Judicial District, because we had 1 (one) tractor bucket of manure in our hay field.

Mr. Riley also claims that he owns an approximately 1 foot wide strip of land between our property and Flat Creek Road. Mr. Riley lives on Flat Creek Road. There is a low water crossing and a seasonal creek at the south end of his property. We invite you to drive by and see the wooden fence, over 6 feet high, that Mr. Riley has constructed on the approximately 1 foot wide strip of property that he claims is his, and not the county’s.

For the Food Pantry Patrons, the next distribution date will be November 3rd from 9:00 until noon.

Jerry & Betty Charniak

Johnson City, TX

Dear editor,

$600,000 that’s right I said $600,000 to build a new tennis court at the high school, but only $100,000 for continued technology improvement. The majority of the board is willing to spend $600,000 on 30 students currently enrolled in tennis or 3% of the student population. What about the other 97% who will not receive any benefits from this expenditure. I’m told by the administration that it cost $18,000 every three years or $6,000 every year to fix the old tennis court. It would take 100 years to spend the $600,000.

According to the 2007 guide for school board candidates it states “The individual board member’s major responsibility is to study, evaluate, and deliberate the policy issues confronting his or her district, then to vote in the best interest of all students.” The key words are all students. We have currently 960 students enrolled.

Now what really brothers me other than the cost for 30 students ($20,000 per student) is that this expenditure never appears anywhere except on the web site of Blanco ISD. It is buried in the $2,180,420 other work budget. What are they trying to hide? I know that one board member wanted to put this on the ballot, but was voted down by the majority of the board saying it was not necessary because this is a general bond election. Looks like politics as usual which the country is trying to change this November in state and federal elections. Even the pamphlet sent by the school district says relocate community shared tennis courts. They are going to build a new tennis court for $600,000. I wish we would spend the money on a science lab, add on to the Ag building, more on the technology lab helping a majority of students year around. I’m a big believer in Career & Technology courses that would bring more funds from the federal and state sources to Blanco ISD. Also they say for 65 and older voters it would not affect our taxes. Yes, but if you have any improvements, out building such as a barn or rent house on your property your taxes will increase every year the evaluation goes up or the tax rates goes up. These are not protected by the law. What’s next a domed football stadium or indoor swimming pool?

As a retired auditor from the Texas Education Agency with over 25 years of experience I see a snow ball rolling down hill.

Bill Fojtasek

Blanco, TX

Dear editor,

I attended the Blanco City Council meeting on Tuesday, October 12 because I am interested in what is going on in our community. It's good to be informed. Anyway, one of the items on the agenda concerned the proposed sign for Blanco Luxury Suites. Mr. Patel, owner of Blanco Luxury Suites, presented a new and smaller sign proposal to the council members for approval. Dana LeBlanc, Chairperson of the Planning and Zoning Commission, strongly recommended accepting the proposal. In the ensuing discussion, I asked Dana if any of the other members of P&Z had seen this new proposal. She responded that they had not seen it. This doesn't make sense to me. I think all the members of P&Z need to be aware of all issues under consideration. The City Council approved the new sign. I am not a member of P&Z but I was dismayed that the council did not send the new design back to P&Z for review. If P&Z - the entire commission - is not kept in the loop, who will take care that Blanco can keep the small town look and feel that we all desire?

Karen Mangan

Blanco, TX

An open letter to the couple who were digging up my wild flowers:

I was very distressed finding you in my pasture, digging up my flowers. They are beautiful, and I can understand why you'd want them for your own yard.

I imagine you thought I was a grinch for confronting you about it. You said you saw the "No Trespassing" sign, but you thought it didn't apply to you.

I suppose you couldn't know that for 14 years I'd been battling drought and over-grazing from former occupants, trying to get the wild flowers re-established on my property.

I don't imagine you'd enjoy me coming into your yard and digging up your roses, and your response would probably be "That's different." But is it?

I can't imagine any adult thinking it's OK to go onto private property and remove items from that property without asking the owner first. If you were 8, that would be one thing, but you looked closer to 50, and you should know better.

And if you had gotten permission to dig, did you not think that digging up every purple spike in sight might mean there'd be no flowers there next year?

Did you even care?

Please, permission or no, take no more than 5 or 10% so that they at least have a chance to recover next year. It's certainly not guaranteed we'll get as much rain this winter as we did last, so it could actually be another 10 years before I have the flowers back to the stage they were this afternoon.

That is, the way they were before you arrived, and my field was robbed.

A disappointed and frustrated property owner,

Sherri Stockman