From The President

I’m now wrapping up my second year as SMGA board president. I must say, it’s been an event filled year. Your board has been really busy. Early in the year the Board decided that we needed to investigate obtaining more grant money in order to fund the expanding trail work we are doing. To support this goal, we must have our financial books in proper order. Therefore, we decided to hire a part-time bookkeeper to help our volunteer treasures. This will take some of the load from our treasures and move it to a professional.

We have also hired a part-time office administrator to manage the increasing paperwork that comes from grant writing and submitting, someone to keep us on track with grants and due dates as we reach out for more funds. Soon we will need to raise funds to build a garage for Kermit and Red*, and a place to store our trail tools.

This dovetails into our largest project this last year, our trail work on Limestone Link. Most of our trail time this last year has been dedicated to this new natural area that Hays County owns. It links Ringtail Ridge to River Recharge with a trail that connects these three natural areas. The County has agreed to lease SMGA a couple of acres on the property where the old house and barns were. Soon we hope to have a permanent garage and storage there. When this all comes together it will be very satisfying to see.

Over the last few years SMGA has experienced considerable growth. As more natural areas are protected, and greenbelts expand, new trails get built. The trails get longer and get more visitors, so the trail maintenance increases. We must have more tools and volunteers to use the tools. It’s a great cycle to be a part of. Our little trail building group is growing up. But the best part is how well everyone works as a team. The volunteers, be they on Team Flora landscaping our natural areas, or our outreach and education team reaching out to the community, or the dirt slingers putting in trail, it’s a great team. But especially it’s been a real pleasure working with a board that works so well together.

This organization has so many dedicated volunteers working in so many areas of interest.  I believe SMGA will be a significant part of this community and continue to grow for many more years.

Written by President Jon Cradit

* “Red” is our UTV, and “Kermit” is our truck.