Criminals struck again in Kenedy on Main Street last week, vandalizing the Kenedy Masonic Lodge building and setting a minor fire there March 2 and also destroying property inside Stimson Furniture March 4.

The two incidents happened during the early morning hours and both caused considerable amounts of damage to each building.

Inside Stimson Furniture, the vandals emptied out file cabinets, wrecked fax machines, computers, and other electronic devices in the office area of the building. They also stole food.

Inside the Masonic lodge, furniture was destroyed and parts of the building were damaged by smoke and, after the fire department arrived, water.

City council members in Karnes City authorized another $50,000 in funding for the city’s park project during their regular meeting February 27.

City Administrator Larry Pippen told council members the project was moving right along on schedule despite a few delays due to rain a couple weeks back. He did note that the park project’s actual costs were running around $31,400 higher than previously expected.

He recommended council authorize additional funding not to exceed $50,000 in order to ensure the park is finished on time. The actual amount spent may be less, though.

Six area fire departments were called to extinguish a six-mile long line of flame along State Highway 80 February 26.

The call came in at 4:30 p.m. and the Karnes City Volunteer Fire Department responded. Initially, the problem didn’t look very large, but volunteers soon caught wind of the scope of the problem.

"Initially they just reported two small grass fires just north of the river bridge on F.M. 80," Karnes City Fire Chief Charlie Malik said. "We got there and there were a bunch of people that stopped on the side of the road already and had stomped them out. We watered that one down a little bit, but we kept seeing smoke to the north. We didn’t know if it was a controlled burn or what."

A Falls City mom is asking for support for her future daughter-in-law as she competes in the "sweet 16" on the popular television show American Idol.

Falls City resident Bob Krudwig is set to marry American Idol contestant and San Antonio resident Haley Scarnato November 10 this year. His step-mother Susan Krudwig is asking Karnes County residents to call in and vote during the show March 7.

Scarnato will be competing against eight other girls during the show, which judges singers based on their vocal performances. The show starts tonight at 7 p.m. and voting begins at around 8:45 p.m. Scarnato will be given her own toll-free number and each call to that number will register as a vote.

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