Nine years after the horrific attacks on U.S. soil, the memory of those who perished lives on. Keep Blanco Beautiful erected the Liberty Garden Bench Memorial in 2002 so that the citizens of Blanco would have a place to remember all of those lost that day.

“To the victims and heroes of September 11, 2001,” reads the plaque embedded in the bench. “Your valiant sacrifice will forever be an inspiration to our hearts.”

KBB invites you to visit the bench, which is permanently located in the garden area of Bindseil Park, next to City Hall. On this anniversary, spend some time remembering the victims and their families, and please leave a flag at the bench in their memory.

The first Design Guideline Public Meeting was held on Tuesday evening, July 27, 2010 at the Blanco Public library at 6 p.m. There were sixteen citizens present for the first meeting with architect Sue Ann Pemberton-Haugh of Mainstreet Architects of San Antonio. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce to Blanco citizens and business owners the steps involved in developing design guidelines for the city.

Ms. Pemberton presented a slide show that illustrated the work she has done in developing design guidelines for other Texas towns. She emphasized that her task would be to identify the architectural aspects of our town’s buildings that give Blanco its own unique character. She will then develop suggestions, or guidelines to help retain the flavor of our town as it continues to grow and develop.

There was a question and answer period after the presentation which helped to clarify what guidelines will and won’t do. Unless adopted by the council as design standards, the guidelines will simply provide a series of points that the Historical Preservation Commission and the Planning and Zoning Department can use to help them determine the appropriateness of changes that are proposed to the historic buildings in our town. Design guidelines will also provide recommendations for new construction to encourage growth that is compatible to existing buildings in terms of scale, proportion, height, etc. The intent is not to have new construction look like historic buildings, but to avoid new construction that ‘overpowers’ or ignores the unique character of our hill country town.

There will be several more public meetings as the design guidelines are developed throughout the remainder of this year and into the spring. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for September.

The design guidelines are funded through a matching grant from the Texas Historical Commission (THC) through the Certified Local Government (CLG) program. Blanco became a CLG town in 2007 and as such is eligible to apply for matching grants every year to help fund local preservation efforts. The selection of Ms. Pemberton to develop the guidelines was approved by the city council last winter.

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Ms. Rebecca Howerton got a big surprise recently when she was awarded the highest honor given to a non-Mason. The “Texas Masonic Grand Lodge Community Builder Award” for 2010 by Blanco Masonic Lodge 216. The presentation read:

“This lodge takes pleasure in nominating and selecting Rebecca Louise Howerton, this year’s winner of the Texas Masonic Grand Lodge Community Builder Award. Ms. Howerton is a native born Blanco resident who, for 44 years was a Texas educator. She has been “Teacher Of The Year” for the Houston Independent School District. After retirement, she continued public service belonging to civic organizations such as the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Eagles, Trinity Lutheran Women Of The Church, Blanco City Council, serving 12 years, Blanco Historical Commission, Keep Blanco Beautiful, the Lions Club and the Blanco County Historic Commission. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Blanco Pioneer Museum and the Heritage Trail Brochure. Her accomplishments go on and on…she has given over 400 books to the Lutheran New Life Center which is a home and shelter for abused girls. She is presently a part of Women Of The World and Women of the Lutheran Christian Mission Church, working to assist 3rd world countries struggling to survive.”

Presenting the award on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Texas A.F. and A.M. was longtime Blanco resident Dennis J. Moore and on behalf of Blanco Masonic Lodge 216 was Tom Williams.

The chairman of the Blanco Masonic Lodge publicity committee apologies to Ms. Howerton, the Blanco County News and the citizens of Blanco for the inexcusable delay in presenting the news of Ms. Howerton’s achievement and recognition.

The Blanco Streetscape project has taken a big leap forward! Last week, the full Committee agreed on the selection of an urban planning company to develop the Master Streetscape Plan for our city.

The next step is to present the Committee’s recommendation to the City Council for their approval. That will happen at the next Council meeting in August. Once that is complete, and the Council approves, we’ll be able to officially ‘announce’ the selection and share examples of the superior work that the company has accomplished throughout Texas and other states. The Committee is excited about the selection and anxious to announce it and move forward in developing a master streetscape plan for our town. As you may remember from previous articles, our Vision is to: “Preserve and maintain the unique historical character of Blanco while encouraging and attracting economic development.” We’re confident that, once the Master Streetscape Plan is complete, we will be well on the road to realizing that Vision!

But what is the next step after the plan is complete? A very good question. The execution of the plan will be much more complex, and costly than the Plan itself. The Committee expects thattu once the Master Plan is accepted and approved by the City, we will begin the process of identifying the resource requirements, i.e., funding and other resources, seeking qualified contractors, and developing an executable plan to implement the Streetscape Master Plan’s recommendations.

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The Blanco Streetscape project has reached a new milestone! Of the 10 letters that were sent to prospective urban planning organizations requesting their ideas, concepts and plans for a Master Streetscape Project, 3 organizations submitted formal proposals. These are now being evaluated to determine which best ‘fits’ our Vision and Objectives, and which provides the ‘best value’ for Blanco.

The evaluation process should be complete within a month and we’ll announce the selected organization!

In each of the proposals, the organizations proposed a series of public meetings to obtain community input as to what makes Blanco unique, what would make it more unique, what could/would stimulate economic development while still maintaining our rural character, etc.

After this process, the urban planners would then begin to develop preliminary concept plans and sketches of what the Blanco Historical District and points beyond could look like in the future. In each of the proposals, the planners included examples of their past work in similar cities – all of which raised the ‘excitement’ level of the committee members reviewing the proposals.

As you may remember from our last article, the Streetscape Committee’s Vision for Blanco is to Preserve and maintain the unique historical character of Blanco while encouraging and attracting economic development. What many of the urban planning organizations have done to satisfy similar visions in other cites is nothing short of amazing! We want to capitalize on their experiences and capture the uniqueness and rural character of our town while revitalizing Blanco.

The final hurdle to contracting with the selected urban planning organization is to obtain funding for the Master Plan project. In that regard, the committee has been researching both public and private sources of funding. Once the committee has selected the planning organization and the City Council has approved it, we will have solid data with which to begin preparing our funding proposal(s) to those agencies and organizations most likely to support our Streetscape project.

In summary, the Streetscape Committee is enthused and excited over the proposals they have received. Each is unique and offers exciting possibilities for Blanco! Once the evaluation and approval process is complete, the excitement and enthusiasm level will build even higher! We look forward to the public meetings and input from the citizens of Blanco. Together, we can truly achieve our Vision!

Don’t forget about the Lions Club; we are out working hard for you!

It is always nice to live in a clean town and knowing that there are many people helping to make that possible is refreshing. We collect cans seven days a week, 24 hours a day to help keep Blanco clean.

This is one of our most resourceful actions we take in the community, because this fundraiser generates money that we put back into Blanco.

This is a win-win for us all. If you wish to help with this, all you have to do is drop your aluminum cans off at any one of our locations; by the high school football field, Dollar General, or on the square.

Currently, we are working on a location for the north end of town. We appreciate all of your support and for participating in Keep Blanco Beautiful.

Blanco in some ways is like Rip Van Winkle. We’re awakening in the early part of the 21st Century to a changed world.

The pressure of San Antonio and Austin’s growth is causing concern and questions: what do we want to become as these two urban giants continue to expand toward our town?

How do we maintain our unique, historical, and rural character? What can we do to stimulate economic development, yet still maintain that character?

While there is no single answer to these questions, there are activities and initiatives underway to address each – and more!

In fact, there are lots of exciting activities illustrating that Blanco is ‘on the move!’ Take, for example, the revitalization of the west side of the Historic Town Square. Led by Uptown Blanco, Ltd., the transformation being accomplished is amazing – from a wonderful restaurant serving high-class food in a period atmosphere to venues providing art and entertainment to our citizens.

They are making a lasting, positive impact on Blanco for both today and tomorrow. Another example is the Old Courthouse.

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