With decades of experience, Bluebonnet’s senior linemen — James Jordan (alternate), Gary Barabas, Kenny Roland and Jeff Hohlt — achieved a competitive feat that earned them the title of best in Texas. Their paths to life on the lines, and the heartbreaking events before and after their championship win, give new meaning to a line worker’s creed: One for all and all for one.

By Janet Wilson

For a sliver of a second, there was silence. Then the words from the loudspeakers rang out.
                
Three new champions leapt to their feet. High-fives and hearty cheers gave way to shrieks of joy and raucous shouts that rippled like a wave through the crowd of several hundred. Despite aching muscles, the men bounded up the stage, their own joyous hollering adding to the din.

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The Brotherhood

Brittany Hardy, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative member service representative (left), Bluebonnet member Pandiyan Kaliyamoorthy of Austin (center), and Wesley Brinkmeyer, Bluebonnet's manager of energy services. (Sarah Beal photo)

Bluebonnet celebrated several milestones in 2019. In addition to its 80th anniversary and surpassing 100,000 meters and 10,000 followers on Facebook, the cooperative added its 1,000th renewable energy member in November. 

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Bluebonnet hits renewable energy milestone

Brianne Corn doing what she loves: skidding around the dirt of her private racetrack. ‘Racing was the one thing I felt compelled to do,’ she said. (Sarah Beal photo)

Story by Pam LeBlanc
I start slowly, easing my foot onto the accelerator of a nimble white Miata at the first bend of a half-mile dirt track surrounded by sunflowers in rural Caldwell County.

Brianne Corn, buckled into the passenger seat, asked me what makes me nervous about driving a rally race car. I think about that for a second. I’m still panting slightly, after the high voltage, 3-minute ride I just took around the track as a passenger with Corn, a champion rally car driver and coach, at the wheel. 

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Stay calm, drive fast

A Tesla charges at one of a dozen Tesla Supercharger stations at the San Marcos Premium Outlet mall along Interstate 35. The area also has EVgo and ChargePoint stations, which are both DC fast chargers for other types of electric vehicles. (Laura Skelding photo)
Story by Alyssa Dussetschleger 

If you think you're seeing more electric vehicles on the roads of Central Texas, your eyes aren’t lying. By mid-June this year, more than 52,000 electric vehicles — or EVs — were registered in Texas, and 63% of them are model years 2020 or newer, according to data from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.

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The charge of the EV Brigade

 Dana Frank charges her 2019 Chevy Bolt electric vehicle at a charging station in San Marcos. Now that she can't charge her vehicle at home overnight, she tries to find places where she can go about her daily routine while charging her car. Sometimes that takes planning. (Laura Skelding photo)

By Dana Frank 

Not so long ago, I drove regular gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. When I needed to fuel up, I could feel it in my bones and, of course, see it on the fuel gauge. I filled the tank when, and not before, the gauge neared E.

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Miles to go before a charge

Printing supervisor Clifton Green, who has been at the Brenham Banner Press for more than 30 year, checks the calibration of the printing press.

By Ed Crowell

Each issue of a local newspaper offers a time capsule of contemporary life, capturing the ups and downs of any town, big or small.

Community newspapers across the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative service area are by, for and about local residents. Their unique blend of hyper-local news, school sports stories, community events coverage and personality-driven columns by local residents keeps readers paying attention — and paying to read.

Many of them have been publishing for well over 100 years, too.

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Spreading the news

From far left: Viviann in an Easter dress in 2020; a touching portrait of Viviann with mother, Kelsey Snow, taken in April 2021, and Viviann in her purple princess T-shirt at a doctor’s appointment in May. The statement T-shirts were sold as part of a fundraiser to cover costs of her treatment. (Portrait of mother and daughter by Brittany O’Brien of Wild Lovers Photography)

By Melissa Segrest

It started with a stomach bug that most everyone in the family got, around Christmas last year. Everyone got better, but 7-year-old Viviann Snow's stomach pain kept getting worse. 

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Cancer picked the wrong princess

Move over for lineworkers — it’s the law!

Most motorists know to move over a lane or slow down to 20 mph below the posted speed limit if a law enforcement vehicle has stopped another motorist on the side of a road or highway. But did you know that Texas lawmakers passed a bill in 2019 requiring the same protection for utility workers?

The state's Move Over/Slow Down law was expanded from police, fire, medical emergency, Texas Department of Transportation vehicles and tow trucks to include utility vehicles that are stationary with flashing amber or blue lights.

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Move over for lineworkers — it’s the law!

The power of giving back

Story by Clayton Stromberger
Photos by Sarah Beal 


Travel to communities and picturesque parts of the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative service area, and you will likely pass dozens of locations — a volunteer fire station, a community center, a small nonprofit — with equipment, a new or renovated building, a park or a program made possible with help from the Lower Colorado River Authority and Bluebonnet.  

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The power of giving back