Central Texas Tolbert Chili Group

````````     The new permanent sign has finally made it's debut!   Our heart-felt thanks to Terry Wright, Ron Faulstich, Matthew Sturn, Don Schneider, Richard "The Scorpion Wrangler," and Dwight Hamilton for braving the extreme late July temps to get this baby in the ground.  AD SPACE AVAILABLE!! The old sign will remain in place.  The little theatre group has moved down the road to Lajitas so we don’t have to worry about any billboard wars going on.  Measurements of the old sign will be taken this weekend, the space divided and a legend developed to make spaces available to our sponsors and you chiliheads out there that want to post a banner for your chili team or business over the cookoff weekend in November.  The spaces are 3 x 5 foot and there are a total of 20 available.  The initial cost is $175.  If you want to hang the same banner the following November the cost drops to $100.  CTTCG will have the banners made and will retain them for safekeeping.  If you are interested in a space, please contact Ron Faulstich at psolutions2000@yahoo.com .  But, you better hurry - the deadline is  OCT. 15th.     The new sign was printed and ready to hang well ahead of the scheduled festivities surrounding Behind the Store competition in November 2010, and the crew showed up to hang it just like they were supposed to too.   But, between the hundreds and hundreds of nail holes and the difficulties of trying to remove the Last Minute, Low Budget's advertising, the crew decided to get off the ladders and rethink the problem.   

     Ultimately it was decided that an entirely new billboard needed to be erected.   Sounded simple, but the task turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated.   Getting the poles donated, find a driller, getting the poles transported, find a driller anywhere in the state willing to dig through Wext Texas shale, assembling a crew to make the trip, find a driller with a diamond bit to set the poles and get 'er done.  Wow!  The logistics were pretty tricky but we're mighty happy with the end results and we'd tackle it all over again if we had to!

     See the progress of the project as captured by our Roving Photographer, Mr. Richard "The Scorpion Wrangler" Willis of the Greater Fitzhugh Metropolitan Area that hot July day.