Vol. 46 No. 19 GEORGETOWN, TEXAS n OCTOBER 4, 2020 One Dollar

©2020 Sunday Sun

Three vie to become mayor Growth is Georgetown’s elephant in the room

Wilco plans Expo Center expansion

Wilco churches open for in-person worship

By BRAD STUTZMAN

Williamson County is moving forward with plans to expand its Expo Center in Taylor, following Tues-day’s Commissioners Court approval of applying for a $750,000 Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife grant.

The expansion will com-plement existing arena space at the center. Plans call for construction of a 56,000-square-foot arena for horse or livestock shows and other related events, plus festivals and trade shows.

The total project will cost an estimated $3.5 million.

Funding comes from the $35 million parks and recre-ation bond package county voters approved in Novem-ber 2019.

County Parks Director Russell Fishbeck said the new structure, to be called the West Arena, will also have restrooms and show-ers. If Wilco’s grant appli-cation is denied, work will still proceed, but in phases.

“We’ve already started planning for the project,” he said.

Mr. Fishbeck said Wilco’s grant application is due by December, with Parks and

Georgetown church of Christ Church services with social distancing.

By CHARLOTTE KOVALCHUK

Booming growth, pre-serving Georgetown’s small-town charm, reper-cussions from an econom-ically bruising long-term electric utility deal, water and mobility concerns — all on top of a pandemic — are the issues three may-oral candidates hope to lead the city through over the next three years.

A retired construction company owner, a minis-ter/rabbi and a real estate

By RAMONA ANN THOMPSON

Churches in Texas have been able to reopen with certain social distancing restrictions since May 1, according to regulations issued by Gov. Greg Abbott. Some in Williamson Coun-ty chose to open right away; some decided to wait; and some still haven’t opened. Whatever the decision, most continue online op-tions.

Here’s what three area churches are doing.

Church leaders at George-town Nazarene decided to wait until after school opened to make a decision. They decided to reopen on Sunday, Sept. 20. Dustin Dimitri, associate pastor of Georgetown Nazarene, said the board members on the reassembly committee con-sidered how other churches were reopening and also fig-ured out the best practices for the uses of their space.

“The first service went really well,” he said. “Pa-rishioners were excited and ready to come back, and we were grateful to be able to see each other again.”

Seating was rearranged for social distancing, and masks were required.

“We did find joy in the ability to be back together, even at a social distance,” he said. Children’s and teen Bible classes are held on-line.

The First United Method-ist Church in Georgetown is still closed for in-person services, with no decision about reopening. Senior Minister Yvonne Coon said the church council is fol-

lowing the Travis County Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

They are considering be-ginning with some small, outdoor gatherings in Octo-ber. Right now, online gath-erings are going very well, she said.

“I’m pretty impressed with our congregation and how everyone — low tech and high tech of all differ-

order to stay within social distancing guidelines, they scheduled two services, at 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., with volunteers staying in be-tween to clean and disinfect the building.

By Sept. 7, they decided they could handle the group with one service, and lead-ers were surprised how many members came. Ty-ler Wiggains, worship min-ister, said the other surprise was the number of visitors who had not attended be-fore the pandemic.

“We had seven new fam-ilies show up who recently moved to town or just be-came interested watching our online services. We were very encouraged and happy about that,” he said.

Beginning in September, children’s classes for fifth grade and younger were being offered online and in person during the service.

Mr. Wiggains said, “Noth-ing going on is easy for any of us, and it’s not like we have experienced this be-fore, so we are just doing the best we can to help ev-eryone have a wonderful, inspiring worship experi-ence either in person or at home.”

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Invite all ages and skill sets to join us in making items to be offered for dona-tions in our Artisans Boutique. Call for available times and an appointment to participate. Supplies and instruction provided by us, and all proceeds go to a local breast cancer warrior.

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attorney are vying for the mayoral seat. In separate interviews, they spoke with the Sun, addressing their philosophies and plans to deal with what could be-come a historic hinge point for Georgetown.

Early voting starts Octo-ber 13 and Election Day is November 3.

Slow growth candidateLarry Brundidge owned

the Excelsior Construction Company in Coronado, Cal-ifornia, and Plano, and was

a member of the Coronado Architectural Review Com-mission. He attends Cele-bration Church. He said he plans to bring transparen-cy and honesty to the table, starting by accepting no campaign contributions.

“I intended my candida-cy to be a grassroots effort from the citizens,” he said. “I want to run an honest campaign by accepting no contributions and putting up no signs, but by telling

JOSH SHROEDER JONATHAN DADE LARRY BRUNDIDGE

League of Women Voters, Sun sponsor forumsBy KATHERINE ANTHONY

Get ready for the up-coming candidate forums, sponsored by the League of Women Voters–Wilco and the Sun. The Zoom forums will be conducted as webi-nars, so plan to connect five minutes before each forum. Attendees are limited to 100, so log in early. Webinar address:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84025300558

If you are unable to at-tend the webinar forums, you can watch them on the Sun’s Facebook page, and they will be available there after the forums conclude.

First Forum: Georgetown city elections: Sat., Oct. 3.

• 1-2:15 p.m. City Council District 2.• 2:30-3:45 p.m. City Council District 6.• 4-5:30 p.m. Mayoral.

City of Georgetown candidates:

District 2 Shawn Hood, Lisa King, and Jason Wirth District 6 Rachael Jonrowe and Michael Walton Mayor Larry Brundridge, Jonathan Dade, and Josh Schroeder

Second Forum: Georgetown ISD: Thurs., Oct. 8

• One session at 6:30 p.m.

Trustee candidates:

Place 4 Dave Phillips, Stephanie Blanck and Francis Jackson Place 5 Melanie Dunham and Eric Robinson

Important election dates:• Voter registration deadline

— Monday, Oct. 5.• Early in-person voting —

Tuesday, Oct. 13 – Friday, Oct. 30.Voters may cast ballots at

any early voting location in Williamson County.• Deadline to request vote by

mail ballot — Friday, Oct. 23.

• Vote by mail ballot due — Tuesday, Nov. 3.

• Election Day — Tuesday, Nov. 3.Voters may cast ballots at

any voting location in Wil-liamson County.

Information about voting locations, dates and times can be found at www.wilco.org/elections.

Q & AIn preparation for the up-

coming candidate forums for the city and school elections, the League of Women Voters asked candidates a preliminary set of questions. See page 6-8 for questions and answers for the GISD school board races.

Check frequentcoronavirus

updatesFind latest local

information on pandemic

wilcosun.com

COVID-19 in Wilco

See more on Page 3

StatusConfirmed 8,672Deaths 143CurrentlyHospitalized 12Availablehospitalbeds* 27%CurrentlyinICU 4AvailableICUbeds* 32%Currentlyonventilator 6Availableventilators* 87%

Cases by CityGeorgetown 1,574RoundRock 2,670Hutto 564CedarPark 861Leander 491Austin(inWilco) 579Othertowns 1,110

Cases by AgeUnder5 1205to10 14111to13 11314to17 32818to30 2,44631to40 1,62241to50 1,51051to60 1,16161to70 56971to80 36581andover 254Source: Williamson County Health Dept.

*AvailableHospitalbeds,ICUbedsandventilatorsincludesallunitsinWilliamsonCounty.

ent ages — figured out how to participate in online ser-vices and Zoom so we can all talk to each other. We have connection groups where we just drink coffee and have good conversa-tions as well.”

The Georgetown Church of Christ started in-person services on Aug. 2. They didn’t know how many people would attend so, in

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