The Open
Morning, Georgetown. 👋
Fall is trying. It is not here yet, but the mornings are hinting at it, and Friday night football has that back to school hum going. This week is a little gentler than the last few: a day of service worth your time, a long awaited YMCA inching forward, and a friendship that has outlasted most everything. Let's get into it.
The Big Thing: Georgetown is organizing for the 9/11 National Day of Service
This Thursday marks 25 years since September 11, 2001, and Georgetown is once again turning the anniversary into something constructive. Momentum is building toward this year's 9/11 National Day of Service, the nationwide tradition of honoring the day by giving time back to your own community.
Locally, the effort has a familiar anchor. The Georgetown Rotary Club runs its Field of Honor around this time each year, planting American flags in a public display, and volunteers gather to set it up and take part. Last year's National Day of Service saw local volunteers out at Christ Lutheran Church inspecting and preparing the Rotary Club's flags.
Why we are leading with it: a lot of what fills this newsletter is growth, budgets, and the occasional fight over a jail site. The Day of Service is the opposite of all that. It is the simplest possible answer to "what can I actually do for this town," and it asks for nothing but a couple of hours.
If you want in, the details on where and when to show up are still coming together. Watch the Georgetown Rotary Club and keep an eye on gtownbuzz.com, and we will point you to the specific volunteer sign-ups as they firm up. If you know of a Day of Service project that needs hands, hit reply and I will spread the word.
The Week Ahead
Fri 9/11 · 9/11 National Day of Service. 25th anniversary. Look for local volunteer projects and the Rotary Field of Honor. Details firming up.
Fri 9/11 · Music on the Square would normally be the first Friday, but that was last week. This Friday, check the Palace and downtown for live music and dining as usual.
Sat 9/12 · Second Saturday Market Days returns to the Square, the monthly open-air market around the courthouse. Confirm the hours, which shift into fall.
Sat 9/12 · Wolf Ranch Farmers Market, morning. The dependable Saturday staple.
Now open · The Junction, 210 Blue Springs Blvd. Nearly a month in and still busy on weekends.
Friday nights · high school football. Check gisdathletics.org for this week's Georgetown and East View matchups.
Something we missed? Hit reply. The tip line is always open.
Eat and Drink: A season of arrivals keeps rolling
The fall restaurant wave is real. A few worth having on your radar right now:
Texas Roadhouse has been building its first Georgetown location at 2209 North I-35, with a target around late September, so the countdown is on for anyone who has been driving to Round Rock for a chophouse fix. Schoepf's BBQ, the second location of the well known Belton pit, gives town a serious barbecue stop. And Sanctuary Holistic Kitchen continues its downtown expansion, having moved retail into Lark and Owl Booksellers while it permits the former Alouette Bistro space.
Last call, still: the Frozen Flamingo is closing this fall. If custard has been your summer ritual, the window is closing with the season.
Local Spotlight: 71 years, one birthday card
This is the story of the week and it is not close. Georgetown resident Les Sherman and his friend Louis Rumsey have been friends for 71 years, and since 1968, the two of them have been passing the same birthday card back and forth. Not a new card each year. The same card, mailed across the country and back, for well over half a century. Les lives here in Georgetown, Louis is up in the Dallas area, and the card just keeps going.
Think about what that requires: two people who each, for 58 years running, remembered where they put a piece of paper, remembered to mail it, and never once decided it was silly enough to stop. In an age where we cannot find a text from last Tuesday, there is something almost defiant about it.
If you needed a reminder to keep up with an old friend this week, let it be this one.
Know a Georgetown story worth telling? Hit reply. These are the best emails I get.
The Roundup
A YMCA is really happening: Georgetown City Council approved a construction and operating agreement with the YMCA, and the facility is now projected to open in early 2028. Long time coming for a growing city.
Your November ballot is filling in: Catherine Totty launched her campaign for Williamson County tax assessor-collector, the seat left open when Larry Gaddes resigned earlier this year. That race joins GISD's Proposition A on your November 3 ballot.
New road, done: the city cut the ribbon on completed improvements to Rockride Lane on Sept. 1, near Mitchell Elementary. One less construction headache on that side of town.
The jail fight continues: after the county's Aug. 22 and Aug. 27 engagement meetings on the Justice Complex, remember the real decision point is still ahead, when the site goes through the City of Georgetown's zoning process. Not scheduled yet. We are watching for it.
Dove season opened Sept. 1, for the many Georgetown families who mark early September by heading out to the fields before sunrise.
A Little Good News
We will just let the Spotlight carry the good news this week. Two guys, one birthday card, 58 years. Go call someone you have been meaning to call.
Your Turn
The Proposition A explainer I promised is coming together, and your replies over the last few weeks are shaping it. Keep them coming.
This week, in the spirit of the Day of Service: what is a Georgetown organization or cause you would tell a newcomer to get involved with? A charity, a volunteer group, a church program, a booster club, anything. Hit reply with your pick and why. I would like to run a reader-sourced list of ways to plug into this town, and you are the best source for it.
The Sign-off
That's the Buzz. If this was useful, forward it to one neighbor. That is genuinely how this thing grows. And if someone sent it to you, you can subscribe free at gtownbuzz.com.
See you on the Square, Armand Likrama
GTown Buzz, your weekly buzz on Georgetown, TX Got a tip? Just hit reply.