March 7, 1969

The Blanco High School Band, directed by Billy Harrell, received another honor when it was named Outstanding Class A Band in both Concert and Sight-Reading at the 21st- Annual Heart O’ Texas Band Festival in Brady. This was the fifth consecutive time that the Blanco band received honors at Brady. • The school menu for Wednesday of this week was hot dogs, chile, pork and beans, carrot sticks, Fritos, apple pie, and milk. • C.W. Hunter and Son showed their flock of Suffolk Sheep in Baton Rouge, LA. They had the Champion Ram, Champion Ewe, 1st Flock, 1st Get-of-Sire, and won eight 1st places out of nine. • Barnhart Ranch of Blanco showed the Grand Champion Angora Buck at the Houston Livestock Show. They also had two 1sts, four 2nds, four 3rds, and one 4th place in the judging.

March 9, 1979

Butch Crofts entered the Blanco mayoral race. The major races in the local elections would be in the city of Blanco and for the Johnson City Independent School Board. In Johnson City, Mayor Charles Matus would run for re-election unopposed. • The reward for the identity of the person or persons who killed the cow at the Chick Ranch in Twin Sisters rose to $300, announced Sheriff Willie Haas. Bill Chick informed the sheriff that neighbors had contributed an additional $200 to the $100 he had originally offered, and the total may go still higher before the week is out. The reward was for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of the animal, which was found shot about 100 yards from the road. • At Strickland Drugs, magnifying glasses were on sale. A 2” glass ran at $2.29, a 2” x 3” for $4.79, a 4” for $5.99, and a 4 ½” was $6.99. Strickland’s also had a sale on cactus: Large were on sale for $4.59, mediums for $4.19, and smalls were $1.99. • One victim- 80 year old Mrs. John Taylor of Blanco was taken to Hill Country Clinic, then to a San Antonio hospital by Blanco Volunteer Ambulance, with head and chest injuries, after wrecking her car on Highway 281, three miles south of Blanco.

March 8, 1989

A Spring Branch woman was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the ambush shooting death of her 44-year-old husband near their home last Thursday afternoon, according to the Comal County Sheriff’s Department. Virginia Specht remained in a Comal County detention facility without bond. Her husband, Larry, also of Spring Branch, died at 10:22 PM while in surgery at Medical Center Hospital in San Antonio, said a Comal County sheriff spokeswoman. Specht, a Civil Service worker at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio and a local rancher, drove onto his property located off Highway 281 at the Blanco County line, said Blanco County Chief Deputy Dugie Mobley. Not far from the property’s gate, Specht stopped his car and stepped out to move some brush piled up in the road. At that point, someone with a high power rifle shot him in the back, Mobley said. He lost consciousness for several minutes but revived and managed to drive himself home. Seeing no one home, he drove on to his mom’s house while honking the horn. His mom heard the horn and ran outside. He was immediately driven by his wife, Virginia, to an Emergency Medical Service building at Highways 281 and 46 where he was airlifted to San Antonio. • Blanco was scheduled to host its first-ever track meet for other school districts in the area. On Friday, March 10, 1989, middle school students from six other teams will travel to Blanco to compete in a middle school track meet for boys and girls.

March 10, 1999

A study to improve safety at the intersection of Blanco’s Main and Third streets, where two women were struck and killed by a car during holiday festivities the previous year, recommends better street lighting but found insufficient cause to install a traffic signal. • The Johnson City Volunteer Fire Department conducted training exercises to familiarize personnel with the fine art of “extrication”, or removing injured persons from vehicles which may be flipped, crushed, on fire, or all the above. During the training exercise, around 15 new recruits and seasoned firefighters practiced stabilizing a flipped car with air bags and cribbing and mocked an actual extrication with the Jaws of Life. • Lydia Bledsoe, a dispatcher with the Blanco County Sheriff’s Department, was one of more than 40 people who spoke about their careers with students at the Blanco Elementary School.

March 11, 2009

The official Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting day for the locally owned and operated Sears was 11:00-1:00 PM Saturday March 14, 2009. • Bindseil Park received a new tree. A Mexican Oak replaced a 100-year-old Live Oak that fell in 2007. • A Court affirmed the PEC class action settlement. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that appellant David Allen Hall did not clear the steep hurdle of showing that the trial judge abused his discretion. • The Blanco River has receded from the banks, allowing easier access for trash clean up. The rivers and lakes of the area provide recreation, drinking water, agricultural irrigation and beauty. Everything from cigarette butts to plastic bags and old tires contributes to substandard water quality and affects the beauty and appeal of Blanco’s waterways.