Organizers of the 2008 Karnes County Youth Show report that this year’s show was a tremendous success despite the cold and rainy weather.

Amounts raised at the Saturday night sale and auction were tremendously generous, benefiting the young people who showed their projects this year.

Approximately $299,385 was raised this year at the sale, not including "bumps" which are additional amounts added after the auction. This is a huge increase over last year’s total amount of $179,704 and is more than double the amount raised at the 2005 sale, which was $143,619.

A case of rabies was reported in Runge Dec. 25 and Karnes County officials are urging area residents to keep an eye out for suspicious animals while vaccinating their own pets.

A skunk was shot to death by a property owner last Christmas after it entered a dog pen and attacked two puppies. The animal later tested positive for rabies and the two puppies, along with six other dogs on the property that had not been vaccinated, were put down.

"We have rabies in the county. Skunks seem to get it the easiest," Karnes County Agriculture Extension Agent Dennis Hale said. "That’s why people need to get (pets) vaccinated. In the country environment, we’re exposed to it a lot more."

Karnes City is contemplating the return of recycling services after receiving a large volume of feedback from citizens when the services disappeared October last year.

The city’s former trash collection contractor Waste Management also picked up recyclable materials from the city yard, but when they ended their contract with the city last October, the service disappeared.

Now city officials are in negotiations with the new contractor, IESI, and are seeking more feedback from citizens regarding what they’d like to see in terms of recycling and how much they’d be willing to pay for the service to be offered.

"Right now we are negotiating because I’ve had a lot of inquiries as to why we did away with recycling," City Administrator Larry Pippen said. "We’re supposed to come up with some type of program, I hope, within the next week or two weeks."