By Sidney Bartee

Community Vacation Bible School will begin Sunday, July 25 and end on Wednesday, July 28.

Volunteers from several local churches are helping with the event, which is sponsored by the Albany Ministerial Alliance and hosted this year by First Baptist Albany.

“Destination Dig” will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the First Baptist Church with meals and activities provided.

Parents will be able to pick up students at 8:15 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, but everyone is invited to stay and watch a special program on Wednesday.

By Jillian Lucas

The 3rd annual County Line Clear Fork Cook-off and Music Festival  is set to take place Aug. 6-7 in Woodson, with several local grillers already planning to participate.

Proceeds of this event will benefit Shriners Children’s Hospital. 

“We are excited to be able to have the cook-off and festival again this year after missing it last year due to COVID,” said County Line owner Ron Sullivan.

According to Sullivan, about 30 teams are expected to enter the cook-off with roughly 500-plus people in attendance.  

By Assistant Fire Chief Eric Johnson

In preparation for storm season this year, the Albany Volunteer Fire Department, along with a few citizens, received storm spotter training a couple of months ago, and some have already utilized what they learned during recent spring and summer thunderstorms. 

Under the National Weather Service, the SKYWARN Storm Spotter Program is presented each spring in Albany to the local fire departments and first responders. 

By Sidney Bartee

New and ongoing recipients of the Albany ISD Education Foundation scholarships need to provide proof of enrollment in order to receive their awards for the fall 2021 semester. 

A total of 31 new 2021 graduate recipients need proof of enrollment and the letter that was in the scholarship envelope they received at graduation.

This is the 12th year for the Foundation scholarships, with an additional $31,000 in awards given this spring.

By Sidney Bartee

Albany band director William Vaughan has scheduled 2021-2022 summer band rehearsals for students starting July 19 for percussionists.

The band camp is for all eighth through 12th grade band members.

The band will practice marching and playing their UIL marching contest songs and begin work on stand tunes for football games.

Practices will begin on July 19 for percussion only.

Practice for members of the percussion section will begin at 3:00 p.m. and end at 5:00 p.m., continuing through Thursday, July 22.

By Sidney Bartee

After cancellation due to COVID last year, Abilene’s Garageband Woodstock will be held this year, with an Albany native participating.

The event will take place at on Saturday, July 24 at the Abilene Convention Center. 

At press time, organizers were still finalizing the list of bands that would be playing at the event.

Former Albany local David Priest, now of Nashville, will perform with his band Full House.

By Sandy Morris

The Albany High School Class of 2020 has a surplus of money in last year’s  class activity fund that is being divided between the 42 seniors from the class.

Class parent Susie Beard said the money can be picked up at the AHS office from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m..

“Students will have to sign that they received the money,” said Beard.
“All money must be picked up before Aug. 1, but the school would like these funds picked up as soon as possible.”

By Jillian Lucas

Albany water customers should have received a “2020 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report” this past week showing that locally treated water meets or exceeds all federal drinking water requirements.

“They were all good this go-around,” said Albany water superintendent David Bales.

Report Summary

By Donnie A. Lucas

Statewide data for the spring 2021 STAAR testing was recently released by the Texas Education Agency, with local scores exceeding state averages in all but one grade level.

Albany scores also exceeded results for Region 14 students in almost every case, However, overall results on every level were lower than the 2019 results due to the disruption in instruction in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Jillian Lucas

ResourceCare’s 23rd year of Summer Day Camp is scheduled to begin next Monday, July 12.

“Everything is set to go,” said one of the directors, Mindy Ary. “We are excited that it is finally time and can’t wait to have fun with all the kids.”

Limited Funding

Although camp begins Monday, donations and sponsors will still be needed.

“We received several donations at the end of last week,” Ary said, “and we are very grateful to all the individuals and businesses that have donated to this cause.”