Meet the Author: C.J. Garriott

Carol has lived in Texas since 1973, and retired from 30 years of typesetting in Kansas and Austin,Texas, and settled in Seadrift in 1998.

She works as Branch manager at the local public library, working there since March 2003. This library is truly a community center in a small town like Seadrift, with computer classes and many programs for children as well as adults.

Carol also publishes a monthly newsletter since May 2000, Livin' On The Bay, which is the only newspaper for Seadrift. It is a free tourism piece as well, offered at local restaurants and motels, and with information about the community and its businesses, and city and county meetings. There are some paid subscriptions as well, with a minimal fee requested to pay postage for those who do not live in Seadrift year round, but want to keep up with local events. Carol is the editor/publisher.
(Latest copy is attached)

Carol has been the Seadrift representative to Hurricane Conferences in Victoria and Corpus for the last 5 years and frequently writes about emergency preparations to educate the community in her newsletter. She attends water meetings in Victoria, Port Lavaca,and elsewhere several times per year.

She attended the Texas Water Summit in Austin in November 2003, and every environmental conference and presentation available in the CoastalBend area that she hears about, in order to write about them in her monthly newsletter. She has close contacts in the community with fishing, shrimping, oystering, and crabbing industries, as well as recreational fishing guides and fishermen, and motel and restaurant owners.

She is a member of the Seadrift Recreational Planning Committee of the Seadrift City Council, involved in planning, fundraising, seeking grants for skate parks and other kinds of park needs.

She is a member of the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture.

Carol was asked by Seadrift Mayor Ezell in 2002 to serve on a committee comprised of mayors, county judges, and local business leaders, to participate in a task force for the Texas Rural Development Council, a process of several weeks of meetings to consider major problems, challenges, strengths, and assets in the community, and coming to conclusions about long-range planning for the next 20 years.

Carol served on the Region L Water Planning Board representing her coastal region.