We received word this morning that our dear friend and supporter, Kenneth Pace, owner of Oso's Mexican Cantina and Restaurant lost his life from injuries in a fatal automobile accident Monday night. Kenneth was such an important part of Keep Blanco Beautiful and we loved him. We will miss him so much. We will miss his sense of humor and playing like he was giving us a hard time when we would walk in. We had many of our
meetings at Oso's and when it came time for our food planning for our Treetops fundraiser last fall, Kenneth immediately, without hesitation said "I'll help you put your menu together, buy the food and will prepare everything at the restaurant." This was for 235 people!
This was done because of the his big heart and always wanting to help. He was so excited about our plans for a Christmas Trail of Lights when we asked him to help plan it. He walked with us in the Bindseil Park and pointed out where to put red ribbon and mark the place for an electrical outlet for a scene.
Kenneth stopped by my house a few days ago, sat on my tree bench and wanted to know how everyone was doing. He was concerned about Judy's recovery from her knee surgery.
And of course we did discuss some downtown politics!
Every once in awhile Blanco is blessed to have a couple like Kenneth and Charlene move in and give so much of themselves to our town. We want to express our sympathy, love and prayers to the Pace family.
Our Keep Blanco Beautiful directors and volunteers are very busy working on the plans for 8th annual Trash of Day and 1st annual River Cleanup, to be held on April 14th. We are putting together groups ahead of time so that we can have the sign up sheets turned in by March 31st. That way we will be able to wear the free tee shirts on April 14.
Don't forget that the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day will be March 31 at the Blanco County Sheriff's substation in Johnson City. KBB will have volunteers working with LCRA and will Adopt A Barrell.
Please call us if you would like to be one of our volunteers. Call Retta Martin at 830-833-4720. Paul Granberg is our Recycling Chairman and will be leading this group.
I will meet with Dr. Ford, principal of the BISD Middle School, and Scott Kvapil, elementary principal, and the Campus Committees to present the Keep America Beautiful "Waste In Place" Curriculum in the next week.
We hope that this will help implement the curriculum into our elementary and middle school beginning with the 2007-2008 school year. The fact is that environmental education in the lower grades is what will help stop littering.
The Arbor is beautiful in Bindseil Park. Our beautification committee, Glenn Page and Tom Philips, were down there Tuesday beginning the cleanup to start our spring planting soon. Thank goodness Judy is back and able to walk. Our parks, city hall and downtown did not get as much attention in January and February as usual because no one can take her place!!!
The VIP meeting is Thursday 6 P. M. at Gem of The Hills. Tom Philips, Judy Dorsett and I will be working with the Downtown Revitalization Focus group. We are looking forward to working on the plan for Historic Downtown Blanco so that we can use the funds raised at the "Treetops Ranch" fundraiser for the beautification of this area.
We expect to see our host of the fundraiser, David Key. at the meeting. He has already put so effort into seeing that downtown Blanco can be a place that everyone will be proud of.
