The Smithville Area Chamber of Commerce held its 98th annual Chamber Awards Banquet on May 15. Though we had planned to hold our banquet outside in front of the new building, Mother Nature had other plans and we quickly moved from our outdoor set up to indoors at the Recreation Center in just over one hour. Many thanks to Smithville Recreation Center Director Ashley Garrison for accommodating our last-minute change of venue! Once set up and ready to go, we kicked off with live music by the Musikatz, a local four-piece jazz band. Dinner was served by Catering by Chabot, a delicious combination of steak kabobs and chicken cordon bleu, appetizers by Olde World Bakery and dessert by Courtney’s Cakes. Many thanks to Brown Distributing for the beverage donation. Many thanks also to Doug’s Plumbing, our banquet title sponsor. The live auction, with Stuart Burns as auctioneer, was made possible by donations from LCRA, Bruce and Sallie Blalock, Mayor Joanna and Mike Morgan, Jeannie Ra