The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) is now accepting nominations for county committee members. Elections will occur in certain Local Administrative Areas (LAA) for members. LAAs are elective areas for FSA committees in a single county or multi-county jurisdiction.

County committee members make important decisions about how Federal farm programs are administered locally. All nomination forms for the 2022 election must be postmarked or received in the local FSA office by Aug. 1, 2022.

By Sam Waller

Albany’s Connor Smith spent a week earlier this month attending the Bass Brigade camp, one of eight summer camps conducted by Texas Brigades.

Smith, who will be an eighth grader at Albany Junior High this fall, spent the week learning conservation methods in addition to honing his angling skills.

“A lot of people think it’s a fishing camp, but it’s really not,” Smith said. “It’s more about learning about the habitat and environment and what you can do to preserve all the fish in the habitat.”

By Donnie A. Lucas

Scores on the spring 2022 STAAR testing for grades 3-8 were recently released by the Texas Education Agency, with local scores exceeding state or matching statewide scores in almost all areas.

The results were also higher compared to last year’s numbers for local students in most areas.

“We did well on the testing,” director of student services Leigh Lowe said. “There were just a couple of areas where we scored below the state average, and those were at the same grade level.”

By Sam Waller

ResourceCare’s 24th year of Summer Day Camp is nearing the midpoint of its two-week run.

Day Camp is free to all registered children from age 3 and potty trained to sixth grade.

ResourceCare’s Ragan Riley said numbers are up this year with 168 students registered. About 30 high school workers and 12 volunteers are working this year’s camp.

“Our staff is about a quarter of what we usually have, but they are all great kids who are doing a fantastic job leading the elementary kids,” Riley said.

By Melinda L. Lucas

A local citizen asked for a special session of the Shackelford County commissioners during Monday’s meeting, and another point of discussion was repair or replacement of the Courthouse’s “chiller,” as the air conditioning of offices had not been working correctly for several days.

Following the regular agenda items, the court spent about 30 minutes in an initial budget workshop. They plan to continue budget talks after the next session on July 25.

Citizen Request

By Donnie A. Lucas

Three FCCLA teams advanced to the National Leadership Conference in San Diego at the end of June, with one group taking the top honor in the country and the other two both placing well.

The Level 1 parliamentary procedure team, made up of seven eighth graders, took top honors in the nation.

The Level 2 Digital Stories for change team won second place for their video on mental health among students, and the other Level 2 group of three placed in the top 10 in the nation for a how-to instructional video on car maintenance and safety.

By Donnie A. Lucas

Shackelford County residents have been fortunate not to have experienced any grass fires in the last couple of weeks, but officials say conditions will be favorable through this weekend and probably into next week for that to change.

“Conditions are there for fires to break out; we have just been fortunate,” Brad Henry, resource specialist for the Texas A&M Forest Service, said. “We have just been waiting for that spark.”

Henry also serves as the chief of the Shackelford County Fire Department that covers rural portions of the county.

By Melinda L. Lucas

Six of the seven members of the Shackelford County Hospital District’s board of directors met for a brief special session on Friday, July 1, with all but a couple of minutes held behind closed doors.

The meeting was called to order by the board president, Jo Ann Estridge, at 11:30 a.m., and it was immediately closed to discuss a possible pay raise for nurse practitioner Travis Wilburn, who has been at the local clinic for almost 20 years, starting in 2003.

By Melinda L. Lucas

A new ordinance governing occupancy of recreational vehicles (RVs) inside the Albany city limits was approved during the July 11 meeting of the Albany city council.

Council members also increased water and sewer tap rates.

Mayor pro tem Lester Galbreath conducted the meeting in the absence of Susan Montgomery.

RV Ordinance

By Sam Waller

Shackelford County 4-H elected to scrap the first session of its STEM camps this week, but Shackelford County extension agent Kelsey Bell said two other sessions are still scheduled.

Bell said low registration and staffing issues led to the decision to cancel this week’s session, which was to be held Tuesday, July 12.