The Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed Charlies Appliance as one of its newest members with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, August 18th.

Owner Charlie Marr has over 36 years experience in the appliance business.  Charlie and his son Daniel will help repair or service all appliance brands and models.

Visit their location at 509 W. Baker in Brownwood.  Their hours of operation are Monday - Friday 8:00AM to 5:30PM and Saturday 8:00AM to 12:00PM.  Give them a call at (325) 646-8580.

Thursday afternoon, P.F. & E. Oil Company defended protests by the City of Brownwood and the Brownwood ISD regarding the renewal of an alcoholic beverage permit at the company’s Food Plaza Store at 2800 Southside Drive in Brownwood.

County Commissioner Larry Traweek was appointed Administrative Hearings Officer after conflicts of interest caused County Judge Ray West and later Justice of the Peace Jim Cavanaugh to recuse themselves from the case.

“Rules by the TABC allow judges to sit like Traweek and to have outside counsel to assist in legal procedural aspects,” stated Shane Britton.  “I don’t think anyone who runs for commissioner ever envisions that they would ever serve as a judge.”

The Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting ceremony for Tom Jones Tire and Alignment, one if its newest members, on Tuesday, August 17th.

With over 20 year experience in selling and servicing tires and vehicles, Tom and his crew can meet a wide range of auto repair and tire needs.   They are located at 415 Early Blvd. in Early and can be contacted at (325) 641-0535.  Their hours are Monday - Friday 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday 7:30 AM to noon.

Mary Stanley and The Turtle Restaurant have been chosen as one of the top entries for Chefs Under Fire 2010 Austin-San Antonio Regional Competition.

The competition starts out with an online poll where votes are cast for the public’s favorite chefs.  The poll opened on Wednesday and will last through August 30 at 11:59pm.  Click here to give Mary and the Turtle your support each day until the deadline.

The top four contestants then have a live competition against other in the finals where he or she could be named Chef Under Fire 2010 by Celebrity Chefs and Iron Chef America contenders.

Girling Health Care, a Texas-based company that provides home health and personal care services in twelve states, announced today that it is expanding operations in Brownwood. The company previously offered only limited services in the area, but opened a full-service home health office in Brownwood on August 12, 2010 located at 2222 Hwy 377 at Centennial Point. Once fully staffed, the Brownwood office will have 12 employees.

Although Brownwood and Early each saw positive numbers for last month’s sales tax allocations, August tax numbers were down once again.

Brownwood’s August sales tax allocations were down almost 4% compared to August of last year.  Early’s allocation for this month was down over 10% compared to the same month last year which is their largest decline in 2010.   This decline also brought Early’s year-to-date sales tax collections down by just over 1% which had been positive for the last few months.

Brownwood saw their first increase in sales tax revenue in more than a year last month.  Although August showed a decline, it is much less of a drop in sales tax revenue when compared to the beginning of the year.