San Marcos Record

It was a typical hot and humid afternoon with clear skies at 7:35 p.m. Thursday when phones across town began buzzing with an emergency alert from the National Weather Service that stated “Severe Thunderstorm Warning in effect for this area until 8:30 p.m. for destructive baseball size hail. Take shelter in a sturdy building, away from windows. People and animals outdoors will be severely injured.” Within ten minutes, the violent storm tore through the city. To add to the panic, a Tornado Warning was issued at 8:22 p.m., and residents across town – at least those willing to heed the warning – hunkered down in the innermost room of their homes and awaited an uncertain future.

Any local can tell you that grocery shopping seems to take longer than it used to. As has been reported in regional media outlets, residents say that there are just not enough grocery stores for the rapidly growing population in San Marcos. It seems the San Marcos City Council agrees. At the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, the council created an incentive package for grocery stores to entice that type of development.

I am alarmed to learn that the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee is conducting a hearing May 29 to consider eliminating county-wide vote centers. What is the reason? It seems to me that providing individual precinct vote sites would cost more than county-wide centers and more difficult for voters who don’t readily know their precinct number.

My mother would have been considered eccentric had she been financially wealthy.