News

Woke up this morning to the most glorious cool weather... It makes me smile so much to have such a significant change in the weather and it gives me great hope for the coming days. Yes, I know it will get warm again. But now I have great HOPE that our cooler temperatures are getting ever closer.

HOPE is what gives every one of us the energy to get out of bed every day and go do that thing we do... If you need a little pep talk, come by my office and we will discuss all the great things we have to be grateful for in Lee County Texas.

Say a prayer for all of our DPS Troopers who are at the border or being deployed there. 

We have a lot of upcoming events that you will want to participate in and we are happy to add it to the calendar if it is not too late.

Our office does have some of the Giddings Breakfast Lions Club tickets for their Annual Fried Fish on the Friday night before the Giddings Buffaloes Football Game. $10 for a ticket, plates to eat there or to go available in the Giddings High School Cafeteria.

We are also excited to welcome the newest member to our Chamber family - Lee County Amateur Radio Emergency Services! Lee County ARES provide supplemental radio communications for the public, government, and non-government organizations in case regular communications are no longer adequate in case of emergencies, disasters, or events. Watch for their upcoming ribbon cutting soon.

Also join us in welcoming Giddings NewYou Body Sculpting and Jazmin Salazar to the Chamber! We'll be celebrating with a ribbon cutting at her shop at 1063 N. Orange St. on Monday, September 27th at 10am. Please join us!

Hope you have a great week and look forward to seeing you out and about. We are getting busy planning all of the wonderful fall events. Send us your information as soon as possible so we can include it in upcoming announcements

The heat and humidity are really starting to get old. The DOG DAYS as we call them are beginning to wear on the nerves. Standing outside for more than a few minutes will make the sweat start rolling...

But I see some random raindrops and that gives me hope. 

This week was full of great excitement because we were able to finally start giving out our Chamber Awards that had not been delivered in time for the banquet. It was actually more fun to be able to go visit award recipients and remind them of their wonderful accomplishments.

It was so fun to deliver the Lifetime Achievement Award to Buddy Preuss at his office with Louise, Sam, and Sloan by his side. It makes me smile to be able to deliver such a memorable gift. Thanks to Frank Smith for coming by and taking this wonderful picture for us. 

Yesterday the Lee County Amateur Radio Emergency Services team came to speak at the Rotary Club about their emergency radio volunteer organization. Marida del Favia Core Borromeo was the speaker for their new 501C group. This is a great organization and they would love to come to do a program for you at your civic group, church, or youth organization. The ham radio has been around for a long time and it has been in the hobby industry for many years. It has recently become an Emergency Management tool and is very interesting to learn about the different levels of amateur radio communications that are out there... breaker breaker 19! Do you copy? 

LC-ARES.org or 979-540-9630

September is going to be super busy. It is going to be exciting to see what the next few months will be since we are seeing this huge uptick in activities... Stay tuned.

We are sad to see the end of July so soon and these really warm days.
Not really, this heat is no joke! My tan is really starting to get dark which means more wrinkles... oh well! I'll take the wrinkles. 

We hope you had a wonderful week, and if you just got back from vacation, we feel your pain. It is hard to come back to an email box full and a stack of work. But if you unplugged completely like all the experts tell us, you will be re-energized and ready to tackle whatever the world or office throws at you. 

As we have been preparing for all the fun events that are coming up in August we realize that it is the end of summer. School starts soon and of course our 'normal' routines return. AHHHH, the sound of the school bell helps many parents enjoy that ROUTINE. So we can get excited about the SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVES and STUFF THE BUS type events that are coming up. We can find new backpacks, school clothes, and lunch bags everywhere we look. If you are a retired teacher, you are realizing that you don't have to go get ready for the school year... It is amazing!

Don't stress about it, we all go through it, and if you are having a hard time getting excited about school starting, just go stand in the store close to the school supply aisle. Little children see the wonderment of all the stuff and dream about starting school. We should all have the eyes and hearts of 6 or 7 year olds.
 

Lots of stuff going on in August! But tonight the Sheriff's office and the Lions of Lee County are hosting a wonderful movie night on the county courthouse lawn. Bring your lawn chairs! Fans and cool drinks. Family fun for all!

We will kick off August with some fun back to school activities and then celebrate all of our Community Awards recipients. That same week the Rotary Club of Giddings will have their annual Fun Night Fundraiser that helps to provide funding for the Early Act First Knight Character Program at the Giddings Elementary School and other Rotary charities. And then the next week the New Horizons Lions Club will host the Community Blood Mobile at the Giddings Public Library from noon until 6pm on Tuesday, August 17th. Give blood, save lives, lose a pound!

That's enough for today. Go out and have a great weekend! Know that we are a great community of givers and that we are better together!

Last week was the week of Happy's

We were happy to see the official beginning of summer, we wished all the graduates K-12 many moments of happiness and success, and we wished our very own Ricky Jorgensen, Giddings City Manager, very much happiness as he enters his RETIREMENT! He has been here for nine years and all he talks about are his grandchildren or golf, so now he will be forever able to spend time with his grandchildren and maybe play a little golf. Blessings for he and Bernadette in their new life!

You might have heard about the upcoming Grimes Street Music Fest and Giddings Sesquicentennial Celebration that will be held on July 4th weekend. You are invited to come celebrate with us starting on Friday evening with a street dance and ending Sunday with the Giddings Volunteer Fire Department Annual Fireworks Extravaganza! 

We are so excited to share the information with you and hope you will let us know about anything you or your organization is planning that weekend. We will add it to our ever growing Calendar of Events on the Visit Giddings webpage. You will get to see your favorite home town musicians on Friday night with the Lost Cause Band(Spencer Schneider aka New City Manager) and Texas Unlimited Band. This is a throwback to the good old days when we brought our lawn chairs and picnic baskets down to the Courthouse Square for evening entertainment. There is plenty of room, we will have vendors with food, drinks, stuff for kids, and adults. We are looking for fun stuff for July 2-4th. 

Bring your favorite dancing partner, or find one on Friday at the Street Dance. We are dressing up for July 4th and hope you will too!

The rain is turning everything green, in a good way! We are so excited about the green grass in the yards, the beautiful flowers blooming, and the promise of lots of vegetables in the gardens. 

Did you hear the big C5 Transport Plane that flew over the Lee County Veterans Honor Park Dedication on Saturday morning? It was huge and loud and amazing. I have videos on my facebook page of the two passes it made while speeches were being made. The attendance at the event was much larger than was expected but very welcome! The Honor Park is the culmination of many volunteer hours, many volunteer contributions, and many patriotic thoughts and memories. Tears flowed as visitors walked by the completed walls and touched the names of people they love. There is no way to describe how nice it was to see and hug so many of our friends and neighbors!

Take time to go by and visit the Honor Park. You will be glad you did!

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It is hard to believe but we are only six weeks away from the July 4th holiday weekend. We have a lot of fun things for you to see and do that weekend. Our plan is to publish a calendar of events that will include everything fun to do from Friday evening at the Courthouse Lawn with the Grimes Street Music Fest, until Sunday when the Giddings Volunteer Fire Department presents the annual Fireworks Display.

You will want to make plans to attend all of these events and maybe even a few more. 

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We are also already working on a plan for Christmas this year. Our plan is to create a Christmas Committee to help plan and execute events and activities. Everyone loves food, shopping, and seeing Christmas lights and decorations, so that is the first order of business. Let's Light It UP! 

We are also looking to replace the Christmas Angels that hang from the street lights throughout town. Our Christmas Angels have lived a good life and need to retire. We will be discussing what is next for Giddings and their Street Light decor! Come to our meeting, make suggestions, volunteer to participate...  Our community is ready!

April showers bring May flowers…

As you drive around out in the county you will see lots of water running into the stock tanks and ditches, We are thankful for all the wonderful, life giving rain. We will see the flowers bloom, grass grow, and mosquitoes become a nuisance again, yet we are thankful. We are so happy to have rain in the spring so that later in the summer our yards will be okay. It is a blessing.

We are also blessed to be able to have the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 6th on the Lee County Courthouse Square. Bring your lawn chair and come, be part of the Ministerial Alliance’s prayer service. Everyone is welcome to come pray together for our city, county, state, and country. It will be awesome!

In other news around town, you may have seen something going on around the Wolf’s Grocery Store. Lots of people have great memories of Wolf’s Grocery Store and many were sad when they closed. This week the site was being used for filming.

The City of Giddings received the Film Friendly designation in January of 2008. We became the second city to receive this designation after Smithville, Texas. Over the years there have been many films here in Giddings. Our office has been working with location scouts for this most recent project for about three years. It takes time to find the right location and then to make it all happen. The Texas Film Commission in the Office of the Governor’s Economic Development and Tourism Division has attracted $1.66 billion in local spending and created more than 157,000 production jobs across the state from 2007 to 2020.

Last year we were very excited to be able to work with The Chef’s Table on their barbeque story featuring Tootsie Tomanetz. It is always a thrill to see the finished product!

EVENTS

National Day of Prayer
May 6, 12noon at the Courthouse

Ribbon Cutting at Busted Oak Cellars
May 6 at 5pm on Round Top Road

Lincoln VFD Crawfish Boil
May 7 at 5:30pm at Lincoln Community Hall

BBQ on Bun Fundraiser Drive thru
at the First United Methodist Church
May 11 from 11am-1pm

Welcome Back to the Community
May 11 at 5:30pm, St. Mark's Medical Center Campus

Job Fair at Giddings Library - Primoris
May 12

Job Fair at the Giddings Library
Texas Juvenile Justice Department
May 15

Dedication for Veterans Honor Park
May 15 at Veteran's Park 10am

Serbin Picnic
May 30

Grimes Street Music Fest - July 2nd
at the Courthouse Square

Giddings Sesquicentennial Celebration
July 2-July 4

Thankful for the rain and other blessings

This has been an interesting week so far! We have completed the first four months of 2021 and seen lots of progress. We are so happy to see all this beneficial rain and thrilled to see what has survived the "great freeze"!

You all have seen the beautiful roses all over town this spring and we may see more beautiful flowers after this lovely rain. 

We have a lot of great things happening in May and want you to have all the information today. This weekend is the Lexington Homecoming with Food, Arts & Crafts, Rodeo, Street Dance, BBQ Cookoff, Car Show, Parade, and more. The rain may cause some delays or changes, but it is always fun! 

Saturday is the City of Giddings Election for Council members. You can vote at City Hall from 7am to 7pm on Saturday, May 1st. 

Other exciting things going on in and around Giddings...

May 6 - National Day of Prayer on the Courthouse Lawn

May 6 - Ribbon Cutting at Busted Oak Cellars on Round Top Road at 5pm 

May 11 - First United Methodist Church BBQ on Bun Fundraiser drive thru from 11-1 

May 11 - Welcome Back to the Community - St. Mark's Medical Center Campus at 5:30pm

May 12 - Job Fair at Giddings Public Library - Primoris

May 15 - Job Fair at Giddings Public Library - Texas Juvenile Justice Department

May 15 - Lee County Veterans Honor Park Dedication Ceremony 

May 30 - Serbin Picnic

AND, don't forget that Mother's Day is May 9th! Do you need gift ideas??? I know several people in town who can help you with that...

God Bless all of our Mothers!

Talking about traffic seems to be a more and more regular occurrence. Lot's of days I don't even get on Hwy 290 or 77 because I can stay on the side streets to go to work and back. We can see the road from our office and recognize that the traffic is slowed down to a crawl as it passes by. We know that some of it is the fact that there are more people on the roads today than ever before. Compound the amount of drivers with the length of red lights, and green lights, and then add in intermittent trains running through town on average of 10-20 times per day. 

Sometimes there are more, and sometimes there are less, but you can be sure that if you are in a hurry or late, there will be a train. For those of us who travel to and from work on the side streets, the train is of no concern. But for the student late for school, or the employee late for work, or the person who is trying to reach the appointment on time, a train is just a nuisance. This too shall pass. It is a lesson in patience. 

Many of us are challenged in the patience department. I, for one, have learned to be patient after many years of being extremely impatient. I learned that it doesn't pay to get upset or to scream at the train. I learned to leave earlier... If I plan on being somewhere on time... haha! I have to leave early so that I can get there in time. I am courteous and do not arrive too early because that is rude, but I am on time for sure now. And I have a lot less stress. That is my goal for this week. Less Stress!

Reminder to you -

On April 30-May 1st is the Lexington Homecoming! Fun stuff to do all over Lee County.

We are loving all of our beautiful plants around the office from Altman. Thanks to Deb's Flowerbeds and Landscaping for keeping it looking pretty!

We look forward to rain this week!

Hope you had a wonderful, love filled weekend celebrating Easter! Thank you to all who post sweet photos on their social media pages. I love to look at them so much. 

I am also loving all the blooming flowers and trees, well except for the pollen that is turning my car yellow(red & yellow make orange). Not my favorite... That and the sneezing of seasonal allergies, which a bunch of us have this week. 

I did visit Round Top during their spring show this year, and I can honestly say that place is blowing up. We had a great visit with Kelli Sanford at the Round Top Chamber of Commerce, and with the wonderful folks over at Round Top Festival Hill. 

Went shopping one day, but didn't find anything that I couldn't live without. I am truly trying to downsize at my house, so no more gee gaws, or nik naks. My kids will thank me later. 

Lots of fun stuff coming up. Visit our Community Calendar to learn more. And the tickets for the rodeo are at the gate only. And yes, there is Muttin Bustin and a Calf Scramble this year for kids 4-7 years old, and less than 50 pounds.     

Watch for more details about the upcoming Giddings Sesquicentennial Celebration and Grimes Street Music Fest. We are looking for volunteers, committee chairmen, and some one to head up a parade for Saturday, July 3rd that will end up at the Courthouse. Call for more details.

EVENTS

Lee County Clean Up Day on April 10

Free Educational Program on
Type 2 Diabetes
April 8, 9, 15, 22, 23 from 11am-1pm
RVSP by April 12 noon. 979-542-2753

Rodeo Giddings is coming up on April 16-17th at the Lee County Rodeo Arena. This includes Muttin Bustin, Kenny Orts Band, Royalty Coronation, and Calf Scramble. The CPRA Team Roping sign up is Friday, April 16th. Rodeo Giddings is fun for the whole family! Tickets are $15 at the gate. Kids 7-12 years are $5. Kids 6 and  under are free.

BBQ on Bun at the Methodist Church
May 11 from 11am-1pm

Grimes Street Music Fest - July 2nd
around the Courthouse Square