Senior Tanner Florus sets his sights on getting passed Danbury catcher Lane Moore in the fourth inning Saturday in Wharton. Florus went 4-for-4 with a walk, four runs scored, and three runs batted in to help the Shorthorns to a 12-7 win in game two. Schulenburg swept the Panthers in the area playoff series, winning 13-0 in game one, to advance to the regional quarterfinals against Jarrell. That best-of-three series will be played at Nelson Field in Austin with game one on Thursday, May 17 at 7:30 p.m., game two on Friday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m., and game three (if necessary) on Saturday, May 19 at 2 p.m. For more, see the full story.

Sticker Photo By Brandt Vyvjala

Two incidents during local voting at City Hall on Saturday, May 12 led to some questions of the validity of the results but, according to a press release from Schulenburg City Hall staff, neither should warrant the ordering of another election.

Two voters received ballots that were already marked after the marked ballots were accidentally placed on the wrong stack of ballots. The other incident involved results that were calculated without the inclusion of a ballot box of early votes.

In the first case, the two voters were provided with blank ballots and the two marked ballots were placed in the correct ballot box. In the second case, the first round of results were withdrawn and the additional ballot box of early voting ballots was included in a second count. The new results changed the totals for the candidates but did not change the winners in the election.

On Monday, May 14, City Hall staff contacted the city attorney and the Texas Municipal League’s legal division about the incidents. In both cases, the City of Schulenburg was advised that similar errors sometimes occur which do not affect the outcome of the election.

A new election will not be ordered unless a petition is filed in district court and the petitioner is able to prove that the errors were either so significant that they will change the outcome of the election or they caused the correct outcome to be difficult to determine.

La Grange Mayor Janet Moerbe faced questions about her county tourism plan at a meeting Monday, May 14 in La Grange.

Representatives from the county’s tourism industry and City of La Grange officials did agree, however, that the county needs a regional marketing strategy to attract tourism dollars.

Moerbe proposed, in writing, the creation of a county visitors’ bureau composed of an 11-member board appointed by the mayors and the county judge.

The paper’s action plan stated that the board was to promote the tourism industry through regional marketing and to “establish a Visitors Tourism Center in the City of La Grange which will showcase all of Fayette County’s diverse cultural resources and serve as the point of destination.”

The concept paper stated that funding would come from city hotel-motel tax dollars and public/private partnerships.

Schulenburg High athletes Ryan Havrda, Hollie Schrader, and Sarah Walker, compete at the University Interscholastic League State Track & Field Meet Friday night, May 11. The event was held at the University of Texas’ Mike A Myers Stadium in Austin.

Havrda, a senior, qualified in the 110-meter hurdles. He turned in a fourth-place finish with a time of 15.10 seconds, four-hundredths of a second from earning a bronze medal. Schrader, also a senior, finished eighth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 48.31 and Walker, a sophomore, finished eighth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.71.

Sticker Photos By Darrell Vyvjala

A tornado causing considerable damage tore through Weimar last Thursday, May 10 at around 5:25 p.m. The twister caused extensive damage to the Weimar ISD football stadium (above). The storm knocked over two light poles and ripped the press box off the home-side bleachers and left very little of the scoreboard. A Papa John’s fundraiser was going on at the high school parking lot at the time. The twister flipped the Papa John’s trailer on its side, trapping eight people inside. Most of the injuries were minor, but one woman was transported to the Columbus Hospital for surgery. Weimar ISD maintenance supervisor Ricky Ramirez said he was in the parking lot waiting to pick up his pizza when the tornado hit.