ALSO TODAY:

• SPJST Foundation raises money to help Czech village rebuild.

• Holy Trinity Catholic High School’s speech team is tops at UIL tourney

WEDNESDAY | JANUARY 12, 2022 | OUR BIGGEST ISSUE YET

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

Do you like a liberal sprinkling of punk with your Texas Red Dirt country music? And maybe just a splash of Tejano?

If so, you're in luck. The Vandoliers are coming to Temple’s Cultural Activities Center on Feb. 12 to kickoff the 2022 Texas Music Series.

Brock Boone, executive director of the Cultural Activities Center, said The Vandoliers have been on CAC’s radar for a while.

“We have had our eye on this band for a couple years now, and are really excited to be able to include them in our season,” Boone said. “Their approach to music is exactly what our Texas Music Series is about — having fun.”

“We feel their style will reach a broad scope of the community,” he said. “If you haven't heard them, we strongly encourage you to come see this show. The Vandoliers play top-shelf music and put on memorable performances.”

The Vandoliers are known throughout the Texas music world as the top “cowpunk” band in America. They were formed in 2015 by lead singer and songwriter Joshua Fleming.

Following the breakup of Fort Worth-based punk trio The Phuss, and an eye infection that blinded him for eight weeks, Fleming began experimenting with a blend of punk and country.

“It’s Texas music, but not what you might call Western dancehall,” Fleming said Tuesday night. “I grew up playing punk — my favorite bands are The Clash and Green Day — but, hey, I’m from Texas. You can’t live here and not be familiar with country music. It’s everywhere.”

“We’re a Red Dirt band with a strong odor of punk rock,” he said. “And, with our fiddle and trumpets, we also favor Tejano in many of our songs.”

“Somewhere during my music career I started leaning a little toward country,” he said with a grin. “You might say I started focusing more on songwriting rather than punk aggression.”

The six-piece band from the Dallas area recently released their third album, Forever, and Temple music lovers will be treated to a heavy dose of The Vandoliers latest tunes.

“We put our full sound into this album,” Fleming said. “It’s a mix of youthful punk, edgy Red Dirt country and vibrant Tejano. I wrote a series of songs about my life — mostly on a tour bus going through the Rocky Mountains — and gave it to the best musicians I know to flesh it out.”

The Vandoliers include bassist Mark Moncrieff, drummer Guyton Sanders, fiddler Travis Curry, electric guitarist Dustin Fleming and multi-instrumentalist Cory Graves.

“We’ve played a lot of places,” Fleming said. “But this will be our first show in Temple. To be honest, I’m excited. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Tickets are available for $20-25 at cacarts.org.

LISTEN TO THE BAND!

SPJST RAISES FUNDS FOR RAVAGED CZECH VILLAGE

Honorary Consul to Atlanta Monika Vintrlikova, left, presents Hrušky Mayor Jana Filipovicova with a $40,000 donation in the Czech Republic while SPJST Foundation President Brian Vanicek looks on via ZOOM from his Temple office. Hrušky was one of several Czech villages ravaged by a series of June tornadoes.

SPJST Foundation donations will help restore Czech town’s cultural life

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

The Temple-based SPJST Foundation presented $40,000 in donations last week to a town in the Czech Republic that was devastated by a multiple-vortex tornado last summer.

The Czech town of Hrušky was one of the hardest hit by a June 24 mega-twister that struck the Hodonin and Breclay districts of the country’s Southern Moravian region.

At least six people were killed and more than 200 other were injured.

The tornado struck seven villages and the worst damage was reported in Hrušky, Moravská Nová Ves, Mikulčice, and Lužice.

A check presentation was made via a trans-Atlantic ZOOM connection on Jan. 6 to Jana Filipovicova, mayor of Hrušky.

Filipovicova said the funds would be used to help restore cultural life in the community by making repairs to city facilities where the traditional Bartholomew Feast, Christmas and other social gatherings are held.

The money was sent to provide humanitarian assistance in areas hardest hit by the savage storm.

“We set a goal of raising $25,000,” said SPJST Foundation President Brian Vanicek. “Thanks to the generosity of many individuals and businesses, Texas Czech heritage and fraternal societies, that goal was thoroughly eclipsed.”

Vanicek serves as honorary consul of the Czech Republic in Texas, and after establishing the fund, he reached out to Monika Vintrlikova, honorary consul of the Czech Republic in Atlanta, to help identify an appropriate recipient of the money.

“Monika is from the area that was hardest hit and was positioned to provide some direction for the distribution of funds,” Vanicek said. “We are happy the people of Hrušky will benefit from our efforts.”

“It was not so long ago that the Czech Republic showed compassion and support for the people of Texas when disaster struck,” Vanicek added.

In 2013, the Czech Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided financial assistance to the city of West for rebuilding following the massive explosion of a fertilizer warehouse. In 2017, the Czechs provided humanitarian assistance to displaced families in La Grange in response to Hurricane Harvey.

“The gifts demonstrated the Czech Republic’s dedication and solidarity with the United States and especially Texas, where Texans of Czech Moravian ancestry represent a large part of the population,” he said.

Donations for the hard-hit Czech region still may be made at the SPJST Home Office in Temple. 

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NEWS FROM EVERYWHERE

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

The key ingredient to a successful neighborhood is people, and in Downtown Temple, apartment dwellers will arrive in less than two years.

When folks move into new digs at Central Plaza, the Hawn and the Sears building (hopefully, it won’t be called that), their neighborhood will feature all the necessary amenities — a dozen high-quality restaurants, plenty of nightlife, three museums, a library and a bookstore, retail shops, two gyms, a great music hall, hair stylists and barbers, a grocery market and a couple of dog groomers.

“This is a huge thing for us,” said Katie Sauceda, co-owner of Tip-Top Grooming along with her partner, Brittany. “We’ve been here since 2019, but a lot of people don’t know we are Downtown. We love it here, and we’re so excited that it’s going to be a neighborhood.”

Katie said the couple spends a lot of time Downtown, and not just during work hours.

“We get our hair done here, our kids take Jiu-Jitsu at Legends…it’s very convenient for us,” she said.

“We’re centrally located, and the Downtown residential areas will be awesome. A big part of our business is from people who work, shop and eat Downtown. They drop off their dog, do their business, then come back.”

Business has boomed at Tip-Top, and the Saucedas are thinking about a bigger building once their lease expires.

“We want to do more,” Katie said. “We have a lot of customers who work Downtown and drop their dogs off for grooming. It would be great if they could just leave the dogs here until they get off work, but our building is so small. So, at some point we would like to get into doggie day care.”

But for now, the Saucedas keep busy bathing, grooming and styling their cherished customers. And, they have a few treats for sale as well.

“We started out with a barkery,” she said. “We made our own treats. But, we didn’t have a dehydrator, so our treats only were good for like a week. Now, we have someone who is baking treats for us, and it’s going well.”

So what kinds of treats are available?

“We have yogurt-based Go Wildcats bones,” she said. “And dog cookies. Frosted dog cookies, unfrosted dog cookies. All kinds. And we have jerkys — duck, beef, pork — and they are all natural.”

One of the biggest sellers has fallen victim to the ongoing supply-chain issue that is wreaking havoc on all segments of the American and global economies.

“Doggie beer,” Brittany said with a grin. “It contains glucosamine so it’s perfect for older dogs with mobility issues.”

Back in 2019, Tip-Top opened its door at 5 W. Central Avenue with the bare essentials.

“We had a tiny bathtub, a desk and our grooming tables,” she said. “We’ve really grown since then.”

Katie has been a licensed dog groomer for about 10 years, and Brittany has been grooming for three.

“I started out as a bather,” she said. “We are definitely growing — last week we hired an employee to work the front of the store.”

When those apartments become available, fear not pet people. Your groomers are just a block or so away.

Holy Trinity Catholic High School’s speech team is tops at UIL tourney

Holy Trinity Catholic High School was named top speech team at the Princeton Spring UIL Academic Tournament and earned 17 individual awards. The school placed third overall out of 15 schools.  

The Temple school also was the second-place team in Literary Criticism and third-place team in Current Events.

Placing for the Celtics are the following:

• Valerie Schwartz, first, Persuasive Extemp Speaking

• Theresa Lindberg, first, Dramatic Interpretation

• Zach Boor, first, Humorous Interp

• Therese Mosmeyer, first, Oratory

• Therese Mosmeyer and Isabelle Kuriger, first, Duo Interp

• Theresa Lindberg, first, Program of Oral Interp (POI)

• Theresa Lindberg, second, Poetry

• Isabelle Kuriger, second, POI

• Folake Fregene-Olabisi, second, Prose

• Theresa Lindberg, third, Prose

• Isabelle Kuriger, fourth, Poetry

• Isabelle Kuriger, fifth, Prose

• Therese Mosmeyer, fifth, Literary Criticism

• Zach Boor, fifth (quarterfinalist), Lincoln-Douglas Debate

• Brisa Gonzalez-Fernandez, fifth, Informative Extemp

• Sam Kwan, sixth, Informative Extemp

• Valerie Schwartz, sixth, Prose

EARLY MORNING BLAZE

A vacant house in Temple’s Historic District caught fire early this morning but Temple Fire & Rescue quickly extinguished the flames. Firefighters were dispatched to the two-alarm fire at 919 N. 7th Street at 4:37 a.m.  The fire reportedly was under control shortly after 5 a.m. and no injuries were reported.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Garden District event postponed

Our Town Temple

The city of Temple’s “Imagine Garden District” event scheduled for Jan. 11 at the Mayborn Civic & Convention Center has been cancelled.

The event will be rescheduled as a virtual experience in the future.

Visit templetx.gov/lovegardendistrict for updated event information and to take an online survey that will provide city officials with essential information for the Neighborhood Planning team as it begins to develop a neighborhood plan in the Garden District. 

The Garden District is a Temple neighborhood just north of the Historic District. It is bounded by Nugent Avenue, 3rd Street, the railroad tracks and Industrial Boulevard.

The plan will be part of the city’s Love Where You Live initiative, where the city develops long-range plans for 18 individual neighborhoods to focus on economic development, city projects and private investment.

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POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST

Built on the south corner of 3rd Street and Avenue A in the late 1800s, a building known as Central House was later remodeled and opened as the New Central Hotel. The turrets were removed and a new facade was added. Just a block from Santa Fe Depot and the Harvey House, the hotel primarily catered to rail passengers. It was torn down in the 1950s to make way for a city parking lot.

UPDATE: City to host COVID-19 testing, vaccination site at Wilson Park

Temple Fire & Rescue and the Texas Army National Guard will host a COVID-19 testing and vaccination site starting today at Wilson Park’s south parking lot.

The Texas Army National Guard will provide COVID-19 rapid tests as well as Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

The tests will only be available for individuals 14 years or older to be compliant with the Food and Drug Administration requirements. Individuals 12 or older can receive a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine in the series or the booster for either brand with permission from a guardian.

The testing and vaccination site will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday until Jan. 29.

Anyone interested in getting a COVID-19 test is encouraged to bring an ID. No registration is required.