News

Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative offers several ways for members to seek help paying their bill. These self-service options are available 24/7 online, on the MyBluebonnet mobile app and through our automated phone system.

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Get payment assistance through self-service options

Hayley Hudnall, Austin Wildlife Rescue’s executive director, holds a 1-month-old raccoon after feeding time.

Story by Denise Gamino
Photos by Sarah Beal


Less than two weeks after an area-wide wildlife rehabilitation center opened a new state-of-the-art headquarters in Bastrop County, someone brought in a majestic symbol of America: a bald eagle. It was injured and underweight.

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Where the wild things are

Carla Bates when she was a meter reader, at left, and today, above. She became a Bluebonnet employee in 1999 and recalled a few encounters with wasps, bees and spiders, including one black widow spider that gave her a nasty bite. Now she works to design the location of power lines, poles, equipment and meters for members receiving new service.

By Mary Ann Roser and Melissa Segrest

Do you remember the friendly person dressed in a tan shirt who walked up your drive to your house every month? He or she peered at your electric meter, decoding its dials, numbers and circling arrows. The person quickly typed numbers into a curious black device and then left, only to return the next month.

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All about meters

From left are a 1933 photo of Mary Dach with her children (Goose Creek Daily Sun photo, courtesy Sterling Municipal Library, via The Portal to Texas History); the June 1935 issue of ‘Famous Detective Cases’ magazine, which featured Dach (courtesy Fayette Heritage Museum & Archives); a 1933 photo of Dach (Acme Newspictures photo, courtesy Fayette Heritage Museum & Archives); and Cathy Chaloupka, former tourism director for La Grange’s Chamber of Commerce, in front of the old Fayette County Jail in La Grange

By Denise Gamino

Nearly 90 years ago, a widowed mother chose to starve to death in a Fayette County jail cell rather than die in the electric chair for the killing of a farmhand. She lost 150 fatal pounds. Before she died, Mary Dach wished aloud to someday be free, and to get a job in the jail that confined her. Perhaps she did.

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The tale of Mary Dach

Bluebonnet crews traveled to Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative near the Louisiana border to help restore power to about 25,000 of its members after being hit by Hurricane Laura in late August. Above, from left, just before heading to East Texas, are Daniel Fritsche, Troy Moore, Eric Cobb, Chris Rivera, Michael Guajardo, John Horton, Nick Baker, Heath Walden, Joshua Gonzales and Derek Morgan. Below, from left: Bluebonnet crews use two bucket trucks and a digger truck to make repairs; Troy Moore, left, and

When Hurricane Laura made landfall in the early hours of Aug. 27, 2020, its devastating winds, rain and storm surge left hundreds of thousands of people without power across Louisiana and East Texas. Central Texans dodged damage from this storm, which enabled Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative to help out hard-hit utilities.

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Helping after Hurricane Laura

The sun rises over the Pecore Farm conservation easement in Fayette County, which includes 24 acres of never-plowed blackland prairie. (Leigh Ann Moran photo)

Story by Ed Crowell

When Melanie Pavlas can get away from paperwork at her small upstairs office on Main Street in Bastrop, she heads for the green part of her job amid rolling hills, prairies and riverfront trails.

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Preserving pieces of Texas

Bluebonnet opens new field operations facility near San Marcos

To better serve members in the fast-growing western portion of its service area, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative has opened a new service center for field operations personnel in Caldwell County.

Employees began working out of the facility located between San Marcos and Lockhart in Maxwell this summer. The facility will give line workers and other field employees access to needed material, tools, equipment and fuel, and ultimately reduce outage response times in Hays, Caldwell, Gonzales, Guadalupe and surrounding counties.

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Bluebonnet opens new field operations facility near San Marcos

Kicker
The waterways in the Bluebonnet region are ideal for both beginners and seasoned veterans.
Pam LeBlanc and Jimmy Harvey paddle their boats on the Colorado River at Fisherman’s Park in Bastrop. (Sarah Beal photo)

GET GOING - With Pam Leblanc 

One in a series of stories on fitness, recreation and outdoor adventure in the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative region.

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A passion for paddling