By Melinda L. Lucas

Three artists will be featured in the Old Jail Art Center’s fall exhibitions, scheduled to open at the local museum with a members’ reception and dinner on Saturday, Sept. 17.

The evening is free to all OJAC members, who are asked to RSVP by next Monday, Sept. 12.

Memberships range from $25 to $1,500. To obtain a membership, call the Old Jail Art Center at 325-762-2269, email­ ­kbellah @theojac.org, or visit the museum’s website, www.theojac.org.

Fall Features

The Ben Richey Boys Ranch 75th anniversary reception will be held Saturday, Sept. 24 at Perini Ranch Steakhouse in Buffalo Gap rather than at the Abilene BRBR campus, as was reported last week.

Anyone planning to attend should RSVP by calling 325-692-2500 by Monday, Sept. 12.

By Sam Waller

The Moran Lady Bulldog volleyball team dropped its two matches last week and now faces its longest homestand of the season.

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, Moran (4-10) hosted Woodson. Results will be reported next week.

The Lady Bulldogs play their third consecutive home match at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10 against Trent.

In last week’s matches, Moran lost in four sets at Gustine on Tuesday, Aug. 30 before being swept Saturday, Sept. 3 at home by Rotan.

By Sam Waller

Moran ISD students have two upcoming field trips that will focus on college and career opportunities.

On Friday, Sept. 9, eighth and ninth grade students will attend Tarleton State University’s Ag Discovery Day, one of several Academic Discovery Days hosted by the university.

By Melinda L. Lucas

After working through line items for all four divisions of the Shackelford County Hospital District in a special session on Wednesday, Aug. 24, board members ended up with a proposed budget based on the “no-new-revenue” (NNR) rate of 19.24 cents.

A $3,993,192 budget proposal, combining expenditures for the district administration, EMS, health clinic, and pharmacy, was approved on a motion by Myra Hise, seconded by Mary Beth Jones, with the stipulation that the number could possibly change before adoption.

By Melinda L. Lucas

Shackelford County commissioners topped off a month of budget workshops and regular sessions by meeting for the fourth Monday in a row on Aug. 29, working through about 30 minutes of agenda items before tackling an unexpected budget complication that just came to light in the last week.

By Donnie A. Lucas

What is believed to be a record crowd of music festival fans was on hand last Saturday for the fifth annual CareFest benefitting the ResourceCare centers, which serve six area communities.

The event was hosted at Happy Wife, Happy Life Event Center located about four miles west of Albany.

At press time, organizers were still cleaning up following the event and had not crunched the numbers to determine the number of tickets sold or money raised.

By Sam Waller

Registration for the Albany Chamber of Commerce’s Community Garage Sale continued this week with Chamber manager Mary Beth Jones reporting the event has reached 10 participants signed up.

“We’ve got a few more who have called or come in when they’ve had a chance,” Jones said. “People are working around my schedule, and I’m working around their work schedules. I know more people are still talking about coming in and signing up.”

The garage sale is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 10. Registration will close on Wednesday, Sept. 7.

By Sam Waller

A hot, dry summer is shaping up to force another below-average dove season in Shackelford County.

Game warden Jacob Mort said conditions have led to a low bird count in the area.

“Driving around the county right now, there’s not a lot of birds,” Mort said. “There are some localized groups in some areas, but across the county, I’m afraid it’s going to be bad.”

By Donnie A. Lucas

Directors of the Shackelford County Appraisal District (SCAD) have set a public hearing for the proposed 2023 budget on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 7:30 a.m.

Following the hearing, the board of directors is expected to adopt the budget, which tallies $425,791 in expenditures. The proposed figure re­presents a 6.73 percent increase over 2022 budgeted expenses of $398,937.

The public is invited to attend the hearing and the meeting to adopt the measure that will follow.