HometownGeorgetown.com

Main Street Manager Shelly Hargrove announced today that Austin Avenue will be blocked off on Sunday, and will remain that way possibly until Thursday to accommodate construction on the new Monument Cafe and Tamiro Plaza. Check back here for updates. As soon as I know more, I’ll edit this post.

UPDATE 10/17/08: I spoke with Ms. Hargrove earlier today, and she gave me a few more details to share with you. From Sunday evening through Thursday morning, northbound traffic on Austin Avenue will be detoured between 6th and 4th Streets. Southbound traffic will be detoured between 3rd and 6th Streets. All lanes will be blocked so that street improvements and construction of crosswalks can be completed near Tamiro Plaza and the new Monument Cafe. If you have any questions or concerns, you can call the Georgetown Utility System’s 24-hour line at 930-3555.

I don’t know how I missed this one, but I just discovered that Georgetown was named one of the 10 best places for golf nuts by US News and World Reports back in July. We just keep racking up the accolades! Georgetown is the place to be. According to the article, we have 20 courses nearby.

My husband would like everyone to know that he beat his brother at golf recently… twice. He would not like everyone to know how many times his brother has beat him. They play at the Georgetown Country Club, where my brother-in-law is a member. They like it because there are very few sand traps, and because the membership dues are not astronomical.

Golfers out there, which course is your favorite, and why? Please post a comment to share your experience with others.

On Tuesday, I went with a couple of friends to the monthly foreclosure sale and tax sale on the steps of the Williamson county courthouse at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and 4th Street in Georgetown. I had never been to one of these sales, so I wanted to see what it was all about. There were a far greater number of bank foreclosures than there were properties on the tax sale list, and all but three or four of the tax sales had been withdrawn by the time of the sale. Only one of the tax sale properties was bid upon, and there were three bidders vying for it. It was a property in Taylor, which I assume was a small house. The minimum bid was $2,500; it sold for $10,800. Everyone who planned to bid had to pre-register, and the winning bidder was required to bring cash or a cashier’s check within an hour or so. This is not something you can do spur-of-the-moment. For more information on Williamson County tax sales, click here and scroll down to Delinquent Tax Sales.

 The bank foreclosure sale ran concurrently, so it was impossible to follow all the sales of the day. When you get to the courthouse steps, you can pick up a list of all of the properties that could potentially be on the block. (Property owners often manage to delay or stop foreclosure prior to the sale on the courthouse steps, so many of the properties are no longer available for sale.) There are people there who work as trustees on the loans, and each of them had a number of properties offered for sale. For each property, they read statutory language, and then opened bidding. Unfortunately, I was only able to follow the sale of one of these properties. It was a house in Leander with an appraised value of about $108,000. Bidding from “the government” started at just over $84,000. I don’t know what branch of the government bid on this. I wonder if this had something to do with the bailout package recently announced. No one else bid, so the government got the property for 80% of its assessed value. Not too shabby. Anyone who bids in this sale must also have cash or cashier’s check at the ready.

I still don’t know a lot about the foreclosure process, but it does seem like someone with cash to invest could do very well in today’s market, building an empire for the future. Of course, there are a lot of pre-foreclosure properties on the market now, too, and you can get a great deal on them without having to bring $100,000 cash to the courthouse.

Now’s your chance! A production company will come to Georgetown next Monday and Tuesday to film scenes at Southwestern University for an HBO movie starring Clare Danes. According to Main Street Manager Shelly Hargrove, “It’s a movie about an real-life autistic woman named Temple Brandon who transformed the cattle industry.” They’re looking for extras in their late 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. If you’re interested, complete this registration form and email it to tgcasting@yahoo.com along with a photo.

On October 18, the city of Georgetown will auction off all their surplus materials and equipment at 1107 N. College Street, the Parks Administration building. Sounds like they have a lot of interesting things to sell. My interest was piqued by the commercial blender. I’ve been making margaritas using the crushed ice from my refrigerator, and it’s just not right. The preview starts at 8 a.m., and the auction starts at 9. They will accept checks as long as they’re accompanied by a letter from your bank, but it might be simpler to pay with credit cards or cash. For more information on what’s being sold, click here.

That’s not the only auction on October 18. That’s also the date of the Bar-Bid-Cue auction from the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, a terrific event that’s celebrating its 27th anniversary this year. There are both a silent auction portion and a live auction portion, bidding on donations from local businesses. Last year, there were about 150 items up for bid in the silent auction alone. Barbecue dinner will be provided by Duke’s Smokehouse. Doors open to the Chamber auction at 5 p.m., so don’t feel you need to go to either one or the other auction. Make a day of it!