On Friday, March 20th, at 11:00 a.m., several teams that held the same interest met at the San Saba County Courthouse. That interest was the creation of a temporary grocery store for San Saba due to the loss seven days earlier of its only grocery market - Lowe’s Market.
Meeting attendees included: (1) Lowe’s Management Team - Roger Lowe, Owner; Alan Buxkemper, Regional Manager; Cindy Binning, Area Manager; Shawn Pickrell, Plant Operational Construction Manager; Martin Sanchez, Local Manager; and Ricky (last name unknown to this Editor), electrician; (2) City of San Saba - Ken Jordan, Mayor; Stan Weik, City Manager; and Sabrina Maultsby, City Secretary; (3) San Saba County - Byron Theodosis, San Saba County Judge; Randall Robinson,, San Saba County Attorney; and David Jenkins, San Saba County Sheriff; (4) Department of Public Safety Officers - Stephen Bynum, Texas DPS Sergeant; and Lorenzo Arroyo, Jr., Texas DPS Trooper; and (5) Hill Country Community Action Association - Tama Shaw, CEO; and Ashley Johnson, COO. When Lowe’s owners were able to reach an agreement with Albert and Kay Stowell of San Saba to lease their building at 122 S. Cherokee, the Management team met with the other teams to put the motions into place to “create” a temporary grocery market for San Saba.
During a tour of the building, Mayor Jordan told this writer that the City had to add three transformers to the building. Then, he showed a huge walk-in refrigerator at the back of the building behind the meat section. About that time, Mr. Lowe took me to the Meat Market trailer outside along Commerce Street. Mr. Lowe also stated he expected to have about 1,500 items in the store and ended up having about 3,000 items altogether!
So, the saying goes. . . it takes a village to raise a baby. . . it took a village of teams to raise a new Lowe’s Market in seven days in San Saba – no small feat!!